Chapter Fifty Six - Feeling Threatened

"Oh my God!" I gasped.

I ran up to my brother and gave him the longest hug ever with a foolish grin plastered on my face. I couldn't believe he was actually standing in front of me.

"I've missed you too, Becks." He chuckled, ruffling my hair.

"Are you really here? I can't believe—"

"Hey what the hell? Where's my hug?"

I froze at the voice.

No! No way!

I slowly pulled away from my brother and looked over his shoulder to find his best friend Nick smiling at me. "Hey, Becks! You look different from the last time I saw you. When did you get this hot?"

"Nick?" Blake turned around with a scowl. "What the hell, man?"

He raised his hands and shrugged. "I just meant she looks like a grown up now." And then he sauntered back to the living room, sprawled on the couch like it was his taken spot and changed the TV channel.

"What is he doing here?" I asked. "No wait! What are you both doing here in the middle of the semester? Oh my God! Don't tell me you got kicked out, Blake. He did something, didn't he?" I pointed a finger towards Nick but he was too busy watching TV to notice.

"Relax." Blake chuckled. "Some idiot's experiment in the chem lab went sideways and one of the vents caught fire. So now they're checking out the whole system and doing some maintenance, thanks to which we're going online for the next few weeks, possibly for the rest of the semester. So, we thought why not head home."

"Oh." I smiled. "That's nice but why isn't he heading to his home?"

"His family is on a vacation for a few more days so he's gonna stay with us until they're back."

I blinked in disbelief. "You're telling me he's gonna stay in this house? Under the same roof with me? Blake, you know how annoying he is. I cannot stand him."

"Come on, Becks. He's a grown man now. I promise he's not gonna bother you."

"I swear to God, Blake Andrews, if I wake up with my hair dyed red again, I'm coming after you."

He let out a laugh. "I think we've grown enough for me to admit that I'm the one who gave him that dare."

My jaw dropped in disbelief. "What?"

"Or not." He deadpanned.

I took in a deep breath. "You just came back home after months. I shouldn't try to kill you. It's okay. It happened a long time ago. I'm gonna let it go. Deep breaths, Rebekah."

He offered me a smile. "See? We can do that."

I frowned towards Nick and asked my brother, "by the way, he's the idiot from the chem lab, isn't he?"

"Nope."

"You?"

"No, Becks."

I nodded, narrowing my eyes at Nick. "He better not steal my chocolates. God! I'm gonna have to move my entire stock up to my room. I'm gonna have to eat melted chocolates, Blake."

"Now you're just overreacting. It's only a couple of days, okay? He'll behave."

"You guys know that I can hear you, right?" Nick called from the living room, not seeming bothered in the slightest as he popped a Cheeto in his mouth.

"Oh yeah? Maybe find a hotel then or go back to your house? Don't you have a buttload of staff to take care of you?" I smiled sarcastically.

"Becks." Blake gave me the older brother 'behave' look.

"It's okay, Blakey," Nick replied indifferently while connecting his phone to the surround sound system. "She's probably still mad about that hair prank. She never thanked me for giving her such an awesome makeover but yeah, whatever. This time, I'll pick blonde. She won't even notice."

"Oh, you touch my hair again and I swear I'm gonna kill you," I warned.

"I believe you." He winked at me just as Mrs. Brooke stepped out of the kitchen with snacks. He rubbed his hands together and grinned at her. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Brooke. You're the best."

"You're welcome, Nick. Let me know if you need anything else, okay?"

"Of course."

"By the way, where were you, Becks? Even Mrs. Brooke didn't know your whereabouts. And why are your clothes wet?" Blake asked as we made our way to the living room. I cut a glance at Mrs. Brooke and smiled, making a note to thank her later for covering for me.

"I was hanging out with my friends at the pool."

"The pool? In this weath—"

"Friends? Do you have a boyfriend yet?" Nick wiggled his brows at me.

I was about to say none of your business when Blake shook his head. "No, she doesn't. If she did, I'd know about it. Hey, I completely forgot to ask you, Becks. How are things with you and Sean? Did you get somewhere with him?"

"Um no... not really."

"You hesitated." Nick narrowed his eyes playfully.

"Oh my God, Nick!" I threw a popcorn at him. "Shut up. I'm fine. I-I mean it's all good. Me and Sean...we're not together but I'm good. Hey, do you guys mind if I head up to my room real quick and change before dinner?"

"Not at all. Take your time," Blake said while pulling his phone out of his pocket. Nodding, I got up and sprinted up to my room, shut the door after myself and just leaned against it for a second before heading to my closet.

I had so much to process, it all seemed impossible at the moment. I was beyond happy. I was overjoyed for two reasons. First, I'd seen my brother after so long and second, Matt and I had slept together.

We'd slept together!

I was in the middle of changing my clothes when that realization had struck and I'd just stopped to sigh dreamily with an idiotic grin on my face before I'd gone back to putting on some dry clothes.

Suddenly, there was this fear in the back of my mind about my brother finding out about us. He was going to eventually but I was scared of his reaction. There was a dreadful chance he was going to be very upset about it.

But I didn't have to fret over it at the moment.

One thing at a time, Becks.

*****

"Orange peel?" Meera offered.

I raised a brow. "You mean orange slices?"

She pushed her raven hair out of her face, causing the sunlight to hit her directly in the eyes and she quickly shielded her face with her hand, offering me a foxy grin. "No, I meant the peel."

"Why would I want orange peel?"

"Because it's a weapon. Have you ever squeezed it into somebody's eyes?"

I frowned. "No."

"Wanna know how it feels?"

"Meera, no."

She'd already started to bring the peel close to my face and stopped with a pout. Then she leaned back on her elbows and shut her eyes. We were currently sunbathing on the bleachers while eating oranges.

I stretched my arms up above my head and bent sideways, ready to tell Meera we should be heading to class when someone walking down the field towards the bleachers caught my attention. Just the sight of his face caused an onset of the butterflies in my stomach. And something told me I'd probably have to get used to it every time I'd be seeing him now after last night.

"I'll be right back." I jumped to my feet and started climbing down the bleachers with a smile. He was wearing a dark blue sweatshirt with black denims and his hair was up in messy spikes like he'd run his fingers through it several times.

"Hey," I greeted.

I was too happy to see him to immediately notice that something was wrong. His face displayed anything but calm. His eyes held a panic but it was greatly overshadowed by the anger in them.

"Is everything okay?" I frowned.

He set his jaw. "No. We need to talk."

My heart started hammering against my chest as my mind created a web of possibilities.

I looked back at Meera. "I'll see you in class."

Without opening her eyes, she waved her hand dismissively just as I felt a hand curl around my wrist. The urgency of his grip was highly contradicting his calm and calculated steps as he directed me towards the building in silence. I was baffled. What had happened?

He found an empty classroom, pushed the door open rather roughly, walked us inside, then let it shut behind as he backed me up against it. And as his accusing eyes locked with mine, I could feel the rising tension between us.

"What's wrong, Matt?" I asked, worried.

His eyes narrowed for a moment.

"I don't know, Becks. You tell me. I texted you several times last night, you never replied. Then this morning you hit me up with 'go ahead. I'm riding with Meera today. Don't stop by at my house. Please.' No explanation whatsoever. What's going on?"

My eyes widened with realization and as taken aback as I was, I couldn't help but feel relief that it wasn't as bad as I had been expecting.

"Dammit," I said under my breath.

"Hey," he called in almost a whisper, stepping closer and lifting my chin so I would look him square in the eyes. His eyes desperately searched mine as he swallowed hard before asking in a firm voice, "do you regret it?"

"What? No!" I gasped. "Matt, no. Last night was the best night of my life. Even thinking about it gives me these butterflies in my stomach. Regret is not even close to making it to the list of words I would use to describe it, okay?"

The instant relief in his eyes did not go unnoticed by me. "Then what is it, Rebekah? Why are you acting this way? I'm losing my mind here."

God! I'd just realized how many thoughts must have crossed his mind since last night. I got so busy hanging out with my family, I didn't check my phone until morning and I was worried Matt was going to show up so I quickly sent him that text.

"Blake's back home for a couple of days."

"Your brother." His brows pulled together. "And you haven't told him about us?"

I shook my head. "I don't know how to. I don't know how he's gonna take it."

A moment of silence passed in contemplation. "But you will tell him, right?"

"Of course. He's my brother, Matt. He's got to know but until he does, I... we...he can't see us together so we need to stay away from each other. Just until I figure out a way to tell him."

"What?" he spat. "That's ridiculous. What are you gonna do? Not train for the challenge? Not ride with me?"

"It's just a couple of days."

A deep scowl formed on his lips as his eyes scrutinized my face closely and I could tell he wanted to say so much but he chose to stay quiet and just nodded at me while pulling the door open. "Sure. Whatever you want."

"Wait!" I pressed my back against the door, shutting it. "Where are you going?"

"To class."

"Let me walk with you."

"Really? You sure about that? I thought you wanted to stay away from me."

I exhaled in frustration. "You know that's not what I meant."

"I can never be too sure about what you mean, Becks." With that, he gently pulled me to the side, opened the door and walked out.

"Can you just stop for a second?" It was a rhetorical question because I'd already grabbed his arm and dragged him to the side of the hallway.

"You're mad at me. I get it," I said.

He finally let me see how angry he was over my decision as his eyes became furious, blazing down at me. "Damn right I'm mad at you."

"Okay then. You tell me what I'm supposed to do."

He pressed his lips together for a moment before starting calmly, "if someone who mattered to me objected to us, I'd look them in the eye and tell them we're together and that they just have to deal with it if I'm important to them."

"I never said I'm not gonna do that. I just need some time. I mean, he just came home last night. You're rushing me."

He looked away for a moment, staring into the distance pensively before he turned back to me with a nod. "Fine. No pressure. Deal with it at your own pace but don't take too long. I've grown used to seeing you every day and I can't stop now."

A smile broke out on my lips. "We'll see each other at school every day."

"When? During lunch? Between classes to exchange a hi? I don't know about you but that's not enough for me."

His honesty gave me butterflies in the stomach and I took his hand in mine and ran my thumb over his knuckles, right over the bruise from punching Sean.

"It's not enough for me either but it's only—"

"A couple of days," he completed for me with another nod, withdrawing his hand reluctantly. "Yeah, I got it."

"Matt, please don't—"

"Becks," he cut me off and just stared at my face for a moment before he exhaled and took a step back. "I need to get to class."

"Okay." I nodded in understanding. I couldn't just spring something on him like that and expect him to be okay with it immediately. If he needed some time, I had to give him that. It was the least I could do.

He turned around and walked away.

I knew he was mad and to some extent, it was justified. But he had to put himself in my shoes too. Things weren't easy for me either.

He had to understand that.

*****

"Honestly, your life is like a movie." Meera shook her head at me through the bathroom mirror as I washed my hands. "You finally get the guy you truly like and then your brother, who hates him with a passion, shows up."

I sighed. "I know Matt and I can get through this. I just wish he was a little more understanding."

"Maybe he feels threatened."

I frowned. "Threatened?"

"Maybe he thinks you're gonna have to choose between him and your brother eventually. Knowing how good of a bond you have with Blake, he just assumes you'll choose him. To be honest, even I think you'll choose your brother."

My jaw dropped. "Meera, what? I don't think that is what's bothering Matt. Both of them are really important to me. I could never choose between them."

"Well, that's just what you believe. The way I see it, you've already made that choice by deciding to stay away from Matt for your brother's sake. Can you really blame the guy here?"

"Oh my God!" I blinked. "You're right."

"As I am always." She bowed dramatically.

"I have to talk to Matt." I turned to the door.

"Good luck, Becks."

Before walking out, I sprinted back inside the bathroom and threw my arms around her. "Thank you, Mee. I don't know what I would do without you."

She chuckled, patting my back. "Aw, Becks. But I know. You'd be a total mess without me."

I rolled my eyes and punched her shoulder playfully before walking out. Instead of heading to the parking lot, I made my way to his locker first just in case he was there. I was right.

I found him roughly shoving his books into it and pitied the poor locker. His face was devoid of any emotion, hence I couldn't judge his mood. But if all that shoving was anything to go by, he wasn't in a good one. And maybe, just maybe our conversation from earlier was the reason for that.

I slowly walked up to him.

He must've sensed someone nearing because he turned his head, saw me and stared for a moment before he shut his locker.

"Hey," he greeted, not pissed to my surprise.

"Hi."

"I was coming to see you."

"Me too," I said, then blinked. "I-I mean I'm here already. Why did you wanna see me?"

"I thought about what we talked about earlier."

"And?"

"I realized I've been going a bit too hard on you. You're not wrong for considering your brother's feelings."

I smiled gratefully. "Thank you for understanding that."

He nodded, then crossed his arms over his chest. "So, I guess I'm not driving you home anymore?"

Why did he have to remind of that? I was already dreading the idea of not seeing him in the evening.

I shook my head reluctantly. "It's too risky. If he sees me riding back with you...I don't know what's gonna happen. When he left for college, I hated your guts. He doesn't know how much has changed."

He nodded again and pointed down the corridor with his chin. "Then I'll head home. See you tomorrow. At school."

He started to walk away but I was quick to grab his arm and pull him back. "Not so soon. You never asked me why I was coming to see you."

His brows pulled together in confusion. "I just assumed you wanted to talk about earlier. What is it?"

"Matt..." I took in a deep breath. "I want you to know that you and my brother, you're both equally important to me. And I could never choose one over the other."

It was like hitting the nail exactly on the head. His body instantly relaxed, the tension visibly leaving his shoulders as a look of surprise crossed his face and that's when I knew that Meera was right.

"I'm sorry if I made you feel like you're any less important to me than Blake," I continued. "I just can't think of a better way to deal with all this right now."

The corners of his mouth twitched into what could have possibly turned into a smile. "That's okay."

I'd been so worried all day for letting him down and it didn't take more than one second for his smile to make it all disappear.

I cupped his face and leaned up on my tip toes to kiss the corner of his mouth. "Thank you."

As I started to pull away, his arm snaked around my waist and he shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. "Not so soon."

With that, he pressed his lips against mine.

Like an instinct, my fingers buried in his hair and I pulled him closer, pressing up against him.

His kiss was manifesting everything he'd been through since last night. The confusion, the hurt, the anger and most importantly, the desperation. He nibbled on my lower lip and I arched into him, pulling at his jacket.

"You better sort this out quick, Andrews," he said, breathing heavily as we rested our foreheads together. His hands were now at my waist, rubbing small circles.

"That's the plan." With a smile, I laid one final peck on his mouth before pulling back. "Can you do something for me?"

He nodded. "What?"

"Next time something bothers you like that, you tell me, okay? I'm a little slow to be figuring it all out. You know it."

"Okay." He still had his arms caging me and when his eyes darted down to my lips one more time, I saw his inner struggle. He was on the fence about letting me go or kissing me again. Honestly, so was I. I didn't wanna leave. If school was the only place where I was could see him from now, I think I would've preferred moving to it.

He swallowed hard and released me, taking a step back. "I'm walking you to Meera's car."

I nodded, stifling a smile. "Sure. But I think she's still in the bathroom."

"No, she walked down here a while ago, saw us and started backing away like some ninja. Maybe she didn't wanna be noticed."

I laughed. "Come on. Let's go."

He grabbed my hand as we made our way outside to Meera's car but the sight of another familiar car parked up ahead made me stop abruptly and let go of Matt's hand, taking a few steps away from him.

He frowned between us. "What are you—"

"That's Blake's car. What the hell is he doing here?" I stood up on my tip toes, then froze a moment later when I realized what I'd just done and turned to Matt. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." He rolled his eyes, surprisingly not taking it as bad as I had imagined. "Go."

"Okay. See you in the even—" I stopped, remembering I couldn't do that. "Dammit!"

"I'll see you tomorrow, Becks."

Nodding, I made my way to my brother's car and knocked on the window. Nick was sleeping in the passenger seat while Blake was just waiting for me while listening to music and scrolling on his phone. He rolled the window down. "Hey, Becks. How was your day?"

"It was good. What are you guys doing here?"

"I thought we could hang out after school. You don't have any plans, do you?"

"Not really."

"Great! Then hop in."

"Let me go and tell Meera first. She must be waiting for me. I usually ride with her."

"Sure." He nodded and I scanned the entire parking lot for Matt on my short walk to Meera's car and back to Blake's car. He was nowhere to be seen and neither was his car. He must've left.

I got into the backseat of my brother's car, noticing that Nick was still sleeping. With a smirk, I pulled my water bottle out of my bag and removed its lid.

"Rebekah," Blake warned but I'd already spilled half of it right on top of Nick's head. He shuffled, then his eyes flew open and he sat up with a scowl.

"Rise and shine, princess," I sang.

"Becks," he groaned, wiping the water away with his hands. "I'm gonna get back at you for this."

"Ha! We'll see." I leaned back in my seat with satisfaction as Blake started the engine and drove out of the parking lot.

"So where are we headed?" I asked.

"You'll find out," my brother replied.

Nick reached forward and grabbed a few tissues from the box, drying his face and hair while cutting back glances at me. I could only smirk at him and shrug innocently.

After a few minutes, the car came to a stop in front of our house. I blinked at both of them. "Are you guys kidding me? I thought we were getting pizza or something. Hyped me up for no reason."

I got out of the car with a scoff.

Nick burst out laughing behind me. "I've missed that face she makes when she's annoyed."

"Such a charmer, Nick," I called over my shoulder sarcastically. "You both suck."

I heard them wheezing with laughter and just wanted to smack them in the head for doing that. Blake caught up with me, threw his arm across my shoulders and started dragging me towards the garden, still laughing.

"Don't test me, Blake Andrews."

But I realized that we were actually headed towards the garage. We stopped at the entrance and my jaw dropped at the shiny new car parked in there.

"Oh my God! We got a new car?" I grinned at them.

"No, Becks," Nick answered. "You got a new car."

My smile vanished and I turned to the matte gray beauty parked in front of me. "This is mine?"

"Yep."

"If this is another joke, I swear I'm gonna kill—"

"Not a joke, Becks."

I flipped around at dad's voice. He was standing a foot away, looking way more excited than me with a huge grin plastered on his face.

"What?" My hands flew up to my mouth but they couldn't hold back my scream as I jumped towards my father, probably looking like some bunny on crack.

"Dad? Is this really mine?" My voice broke in the end and I swore if either Blake or Nick laughed at my ugly, happy tears, I would actually smack them in the face this time.

"You like it?"

"Oh my God!" I threw my arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder like a child who'd just found out they were going to Disneyland.

"Aw it's okay, Becks." Dad patted my back.

"Thank you so much. I love it." I pulled back, sniffling and wiping my tears.

"You're welcome." He kissed my temple. "You wanna take it for a ride?"

"No. It's so precious. I'm gonna practice on Blake's car first."

"Hey!" Blake complained behind me.

"What?" I flipped around. "It's old. Would you rather I lay a scratch on this one? Hell no! You already have a few scratches on yours."

"But—"

"Blake," Dad cut in. "She's right. And while you're here, you can give her some driving lessons."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Thank you, brother." I grinned and turned to dad. "You didn't go to work today?"

"Please," he scoffed. "I wasn't gonna miss this for the world."

I chuckled. "Where's mom?"

"Well, somebody had to go to work, right?"

"Right!" I nodded and walked up to my car, stretched out my arms and gave it a hug. "I love you already."

"Smile," Blake said but he didn't give me the time to do that and just clicked a picture. "Nice. I'll send it to you."

I spent the next one hour sitting in the driver's seat with my dad in the passenger seat, discovering all the features of my new car. Then, I gave it one final pat before we headed inside the house.

After lunch, I went up to my room to change into my pajamas and finally decided to read all the messages Matt had left me last night.

The first one had come around 9 p.m.

Matt: Have you had dinner yet? I wanna take you out for ice cream.

Oh man! I shook my head at myself. Then he'd texted me an hour after that.

Matt: Or we can go after school tomorrow.

Then, another half an hour later.

Matt: Becks? Are you okay?

And fifteen minutes later.

Matt: I guess you went right to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow morning.

That was his last text, after which I'd told him to go ahead and not show up at my house in the morning. No wonder he got the wrong idea.

I typed a new text.

Rebekah: Hey!

A minute later, his reply popped up.

Matt: Hey! Your brother didn't suspect anything, did he? All good?

I smiled at the screen.

Rebekah: I'm okay. I got some awesome news to share with you. Wanna take a guess?

Matt: Your brother's back at college?

I chuckled, shaking my head.

Rebekah: Sorry to disappoint you but no. I'm talking about something that's awesome for me, too. That's not.

Matt: Sorry

"Aw. It's alright, baby," I said under my breath while typing a message, and attached the picture of me with my new car before hitting send.

Rebekah: Meet my new ride.

Matt: Becks, that's a beautiful car. Congratulations. Any other day, I'd be taking you out to celebrate. Pizza or ice cream or whatever you'd want.

I resisted the urge to groan into my pillow. I really wanted to see him now.

Rebekah: I'd be the one taking you out, Matty. My car, my treat. And I just read your messages from yesterday. I'm sorry about that :(

Matt: You can make it up to me ;)

I narrowed my eyes at the screen playfully.

Rebekah: How?

He went offline and I frowned.

Rebekah: ?

He came back online after about two minutes.

Matt: Are you in your room?

Rebekah: Yes.

Matt: Alone?

Rebekah: Yes. Why?

Matt: Lock your door from the inside.

Rebekah: Why?

He went offline again and I blinked at the screen. Was he coming over?

I began to type 'oh my God! Are you coming—' when he answered my question with a tap on my window.

I jumped to my feet and sprinted across the room to open it. There he was, staring up at me with that ridiculously charming smile on his ridiculously handsome face. His arms were crossed over the ledge and there was a big ice cream tub next to them.

"Oh my God, Matt! Are you kidding me?"

"It's nice to see you, too, Becks." He handed me the tub first and I was quick to put it on my study table and grab his arm. I knew he wasn't gonna fall but it still stressed me out each time.

"You had one job." He clicked his tongue and walked towards the door to lock it.

"Sorry I got a little distracted." I pointed a thumb at the window behind me.

"Would you rather I barged in through the front door?" He raised a brow.

"No." I pouted and flopped down on my bed with the ice cream, chuckling once I noticed something. "You even got spoons. And they're taped to the tub," I pointed out while peeling them off.

"Of course. I didn't wanna lose them on my little climbing adventure." He kicked his shoes away and climbed next to me. "I got a peek at your car by the way. It looks amazing. I hope you treat it better than you treated mine."

"Hey! That was your fault too," I argued.

"Oh totally!" He opened the lid and we both scooped out some ice cream before clinking our spoons together and saying, "cheers."

"One more thing!" He shuffled and pulled something from his pocket and extended it to me. It was a chocolate bar. "Don't ask me why I'm giving you this. I found it in the fridge while grabbing the ice cream and I thought why the hell not? The more, the better."

I took it from him, eyeing it with wonder. "Oh...my God. You got me chocolate."

"Yeah, Becks. And ice cream." He seemed weirded out as he tapped his spoon on the tub for me to see.

"I mean...I thought you weren't the simp who brought a girl flowers or chocolates." I raised a brow.

He seemed to have recalled that conversation as a serene look crossed his face, followed by a soft smile. "And you told me I'll do it for the right person. Well, you were right."

I completely swooned over his words, feeling a deep blush forming on my cheeks and neck. He noticed that and stroked my face with the back of his hand.

"Besides, I think we've established at this point that you're not just any girl to me. You're the one I'm willing to do just anything for."

I bit down on my lower lip to stifle a smile. "Really? Anything, you say?"

"What do you want me to do? Swim across a river? Climb a mountain?"

I raised a brow, impressed. Now he was talking cliché too. I loved it.

"Break a rock with my fist? Jump off a cliff?" he continued, humoured. "You name it, baby."

"That!" I blurted out, then felt embarrassed a moment later and brought my hands together on my lap shyly. "I absolutely love it when you call me that."

"Baby?"

I shrugged, giving a little nod.

"I know." He gave me a sly smile, then leaned over to whisper in my ear huskily, "I knew it the very first time I called you that."

My breath hitched. He'd called me that for the first time the night before when we'd slept together.

Dreamy sighs and Matthew Williams were becoming my thing. I flopped down on my front and lifted my chin up to look at him while scooping out another spoonful of ice cream.

"This is nice," I muttered.

"The ice cream?"

"No—I mean yes, the ice cream too. But I meant you being here. I was already dreading not being in your room right now. It's our training time."

"It is. But this isn't so bad either. Since we obviously can't train in your room, we have all this time to ourselves and we can do other things."

"Really? What other things?" I asked huskily while licking my spoon.

His eyes darted down to my lips before a little smirk formed on his face. "I was thinking about watching a movie."

"What movie?"

"Maybe one of those Disney movies you're always talking about." He laid down on his back next to me and smiled up at me.

I burst out laughing. "You don't mean that."

He laced his fingers with mine and brought my hand to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. "I don't. They're really lame."

I gasped dramatically and leaned down so there was barely an inch between our faces when I whispered, "take that back, Williams."

"Make me, Andrews."

He brought his other hand up and swept his thumb across my lower lip in a sensual move that made my toes curl. When I looked into his eyes, I felt a spark light up my entire body and I wanted nothing more than to share that feeling with him, passing on to him like an electric current. Without wasting another second, I pressed my lips against his.

His arms circled around my waist and in one swift move, I climbed on top of him and straddled his stomach, sucking in a breath when his hands moved across my back. They slowly travelled down to my lower back and slipped under my t-shirt.

I groaned against his mouth when he squeezed my waist and I broke the kiss for just a tiny moment to reach for the hem of his t-shirt to take it off of him.

Then, his phone rang.

"For fuck's sake!" He groaned. Both of us just laid there, forehead against forehead, hands on one another and our heavy breaths mingled, with the ringing of his phone in the background.

He shuffled under me to get it from his pocket and I started to get off him until he brought a hand to my thigh, asking me to stay like that. I blushed and brought my hands to his chest as he answered his phone without looking at the contact.

"What?" he snapped, annoyed. Then, he listened to the other person for a moment and blinked. "Oh! Yeah...yeah of course I remember. I'll be there, coach."

He hung up and exhaled loudly, shutting his eyes. "I have to go."

"Is everything okay?" I finally got off him so he could sit up.

"Yeah. It's the football meet at Chris's place. Coach is showing up too so it's probably really important. The big game's coming up."

"Oh. It's okay." I nodded, then asked hesitantly, "Sean's gonna be there?"

The humour drained from his face at his name. "Yes."

"I've been wondering how things are going after yesterday since you punched him."

"We haven't talked, unless it's about football. So, we're good."

"Okay."

His hair was a mess and I realized that was my doing so I started fixing it while he just sat there smiling like a little child, letting me.

"All done."

He put on his shoes and got up. "I hate leaving things in the middle."

"Yeah, me too. Come back later."

He threw me a look over his shoulder and his eyes held a spark of wonder like he was amazed by the invitation. Like he needed a damn invitation to climb up to my room.

He grabbed my chin and ran his thumb across my cheek just once before letting go. "You bet."

He neared the window and swung one leg to the other side but instead of completely climbing out, he jumped back in and shifted sideways to get out of the view from outside. "Shit! Your brother's down there."

"What?" I scurried over and found Blake down in the garden doing God knows what. Upon noticing, he just seemed to be taking a walk.

"Can't he just stay in the goddamn house?" Matt muttered under his breath and stared down at his watch. "I'm gonna be late, Becks."

"Relax. My father must be in his study so I just have to sneak you past Nick. It isn't gonna be that hard."

"Nick?" he spat, brows furrowing. "Nick Sinclair?"

I nodded.

"What the hell is he doing here?"

"He's gonna be staying with us for a few days because his family is on a vacation. Believe me, I'm not thrilled either."

Matt was still processing that. "So, he's staying with you guys."

"That's what I just told you, Matt. Aren't you getting late?"

He nodded slowly as I dragged him out of my room and carefully climbed down the stairs, looking around.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked from behind me.

"It never came up but relax, okay? I've got him under control."

"Under control? What is that—"

I clamped my hand over his mouth and shoved us both behind a wall at the sight of Nick in the living room, reading something.

"Look. He's busy reading. We can get to the front door easily. Just walk next to me quietly."

"What do you mean by under control?"

I sighed. Really? This was the time to discuss that?

"We used to fight a lot but I'm not letting him pull any of his crazy pranks on me anymore."

He pursed his lips, looking a bit on edge.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"I don't like it when you fight with someone else."

I chuckled lowly, squishing his cheeks. "You're adorable. But we can talk about Nick later. You're late, remember?"

He nodded with a frown and followed me. The entrance to the living room was between two large walls and all we had to do was make it through that entrance without getting noticed to get to the front door.

"On 3," I whispered and Matt rolled his eyes. "1...2...3!" I took his hand and we made it right past that entrance in one long stride.

"Becks, is that you?" Nick called.

"Oh my God!" I said under my breath and motioned for Matt to hurry up and leave. For some reason, he was rigid.

I appeared at the entrance with a big, nervous smile. "Hey, Nick."

"Were you just sneaking around in your own house?"

"Sneaking around?" I let out a laugh. "Why would I do that? I'm always running like that. You wouldn't know, obviously. You don't live here."

"Of course." He shut whatever he was reading, eyes falling down to my hands and lighting up. "Is that for me?"

How the hell did I end up bringing that chocolate down with me?

I clutched the chocolate tightly, resisting the urge to turn sideways and scream at Matt to leave. Was he waiting for my brother to walk in through that door any second and find him?

"N-no! This chocolate is mine."

"Come on, Becks." Nick smirked at me. "You don't just step in front of me with a chocolate that isn't meant for me."

He got up and I suddenly jerked forward, catching him off guard. "I'll come to you. Sit back down. We'll sit and talk."

"You wanna sit and talk with me?"

"Why the hell not, Nick?" I sat down on the adjacent couch, not having a sight of Matt anymore, that is, if he was still there. I really hoped he wasn't.

"Okay then tell me. How are things at school? What are you hiding about Sean?" He leaned forward with interest.

"Wow! You don't waste any time, do you?" I laughed nervously. "I'm good, Nick. That's all you need to know."

"That's all Blake needs to know. When we first left for college, he was really worried about leaving you alone, you know? With everything that's happened before. But I assured him you could take care of yourself. You've done it before."

Oh God! Please don't go there.

"Damn right I have!"

"But seriously. Matt didn't try anything after we left when you were all alone, did he? That would've been really low of him but I know he's an asshole and you both often locked horns. So, he didn't give you any trouble, right?"

Kill. Me. Now.

"No, Nick. We're good."

"Good?" He raised a brow. "You guys are good? Are you friends with him, Becks?"

I swallowed. "Of course not. I mean we stay out of each other's way."

"Oh good. You wouldn't be stupid enough to befriend him."

"Of course not."

Only, I fucked him. And I don't regret a second of it.

Nick let out a sigh and stretched back on the couch. "Are you gonna give me that chocolate now or what?"

"I told you it's mine. And if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go out and breathe some fresh air."

"I'll come with you. Blake's outside too."

"Why don't you finish your reading first?" I got up and started making my way towards the front door before him, thankful to not find Matt there anymore. I wondered how much he'd heard before leaving.

The front door started to open and still on the edge from that narrow escape, I let out a little scream.

Blake froze in the doorway, then entered with caution.

"What the hell happened?" Both him and Nick shouted at the same time as they neared me.

"Oh nothing. The door suddenly opened and I thought it was gonna hit me in the face. That's it. I'll go back to my room."

"What about fresh air?" Nick called just as I'd started to climb the stairs.

"I'll put my head out of my window."

"Becks, are you okay?" Blake asked.

"Yes. And you stay the fuck out of the side garden."

"Whoa! What's wrong with the side garden?"

"It's-it's closest to my window and you take up all the fresh air. Use the front lawn for God's sake."