little brother before herself. I’d watched firsthand as he’d stolen the light out of her eyes. He’d been a possessive asshole for no fucking reason at all, and she’d folded for the good of everyone around her. She’d put me, Keaton, and Nathan before herself without even blinking. None of us deserved her, not a single person in her life deserved the devotion she gave so fucking freely. How had her parents, my mom…how had they let this happen? How had they allowed this to be her life? Were they blind, or simply that damn selfish?
“Snap out of it.” Max slapped me on the back of the head as he sat down, handing me another cup of beer. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting in a lounge chair, staring at the pool and contemplating my next move, but the beer was needed, as was the distraction.
“Thanks, man.” Nathan had taken Savy back to her house a while ago, and he hadn’t returned to the party. Not that I expected him to.
I wasn’t worried about Savy’s safety. Nathan would never hurt her. Never in a million fucking years. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. While he wouldn’t hurt her physically, he’d crushed her emotionally. She was a prisoner in her own room right now. I could look up from where I was sitting and see into her bedroom window. I didn’t, though. I didn’t want to see her staring back at me, looking lost and sad. I was chicken-shit and there was nothing I could do to save her right now, no matter how badly I wanted to.
“You shouldn’t have gone there with her, and you know it.” Max had recognized immediately that things had turned physical when he saw us together earlier tonight. He’d noticed my fingers rubbing her wrist.
I’d steered him outside earlier, when he commented on us holding hands in the middle of the party, and he’d given me a stern five minute lecture.
Apparently our conversation wasn’t over yet.
“I thought the plan was simple? Show her a good time, let her party a little, and then send her off to Emerson with a tan and little more knowledge about the real world. What the hell happened?”
I sighed, done with pretending, Max wouldn’t share our secret with anyone. “I didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter—”
“I find that unlikely.”
I ignored his sarcastic interruption. “Savy decided she wanted a hook up, she wanted a friend with all the benefits. She wanted to know what it felt like to be kissed.” I took a deep pull off the beer in my cup. “What else could I do?”
“Tell her no.”
I scoffed. “What would’ve happened if she’d found someone else? What if she got hurt? What if Nathan found out? He’d kill anyone who touched her. You saw him tonight, and that was nothing. The way I’ve touched her…the way I want to touch her.” I shook my head. “He’d lose his mind, man. He’d end up in handcuffs.”
Savy could bring him back from the brink, I’d seen her do since we were kids. I wasn’t naïve. There was a point when there was no reaching him. A point where he’d snap and no amount of begging from his savior would make a difference.
“So you’re sacrificing yourself? Helping Savy, just to help her? Putting your life on the line? How selfless of you.” He was being an asshole, and I sort of wanted to punch him in his smug face.
“Nathan won’t hurt me. I’m his big brother.” I looked down in my cup, it was empty again. “I owe this to Savy.”
He tilted his head back, laughing loudly. “You owe her this? Are you serious right now? You want this as much as she does, and we both know it. She’s gorgeous, pure and forbidden as hell. She’s every guys’ fucking wet dream.”
I clenched my teeth, I didn’t like hearing him talk about her like that. “She’s more than that. It was either she do this with me, or she finds some random asshole.” I stared at Max. “Like you, for example.”
He shook his head.
If it wasn’t me, it’d be someone else, and as much as I tried to rationalize what I was doing, I knew better. I wanted her fiercely. If someone acted on the same feeling, Nathan would kill them if he ever found out. At least with me, I knew I’d live through it, no matter what. Plus, Savy needed me. She needed me to help her,