I nod my head, that makes sense. Nate is always looking out for his brother. Taking the blame for things when he had nothing to do with it. He wants Jesse to go far in life, but Jesse’s all about having fun and living life to the fullest, not caring about the consequences. He doesn’t care about his future, though, I’m sure that will change eventually.
“I don’t blame him,” I grin. “Though, orange will look good on you. It would really bring out your eyes.”
“Shut up,” he laughs.
I push my way further into his room and drop down into his desk chair and get stuck into my dinner. “What do you think about the whole rivalry thing?”
“Doesn’t bother me,” he says. “They’re smart about it. They’ve never been caught.”
I shake my head. Not sure how I feel about this. I mean, I always knew Nate was capable of doing stuff like this. Hell, I’ve seen the kind of shit he does at parties. He and Jesse are usually the life of the party, but going out to spitefully get payback for something reminds me that under the sweet little nothings he whispers in my ear, he’s still the dangerous bad boy he’s always been. I just hope he’s not doing anything that he’ll regret later in life. I don’t want to be visiting him behind bars.
I finish off my dinner as I contemplate what’s going on and eventually the tiredness gets the best of me, so I make my way back to my room. I pull off my clothes and crash down into my bed before reaching over to plug my phone into the charger.
I instantly fall asleep but am woken a little while later to the feel of Nate slipping into bed beside me. “Shh,” he whispers. “Go back to sleep.”
Too late.
I roll in his arms and curl into his chest. “Where were you?” I question on a yawn.
“Nowhere, babe,” he says. “Just settling a score.”
“Your rivalry against Haven Falls?” I murmur as my eyes close once again. “Jesse said it wasn’t your turn to settle the score.”
His body stiffens for the slightest moment before he relaxes again. “Believe me. The second Jackson looked at you and got up in your face tonight, the ball was in my court. The fucker sealed his fate with that move.”
“Jackson?” I question. “How do you know about that?”
“I know everything when it comes to you,” he says as he pulls me a little closer and presses a kiss to my temple.
“What did you do?”
His chest shakes with silent laughter and I feel his lips pull into a smile against my skin. “You don’t want to know,” he murmurs before his hands start running through my hair. “Go back to sleep. I’ll tell you about it in the morning.”
“Ok,” I murmur as another yawn sneaks up on me. “I love you,” I whisper into the night before realizing that I’ve just said it out loud for the first time.
“I love you too, Tora,” Nate says as the darkness claims me, allowing me to fall back into a deep and very welcomed sleep.
Chapter 6
“Fuck yeah,” I hear yelled excitedly through the house at what feels like earlier than dusk.
“Shit,” Nate groans beside me as he pulls me in closer and nuzzles his face deeper into the pillow.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask with a groan of my own.
Nate brings a hand up and rubs it over his eyes. “It’s his birthday,” he explains on a yawn. “The fucker never sleeps in on his birthday. He gets too excited.”
“Damn it,” I moan.
“Just wait until Christmas,” he warns me before we hear a loud bang. “Shit,” Nate groans again as he reaches for the blanket and pulls it up to cover my chest. “In three. Two. One.”
The door is busted open with such force that it slams against the wall as Jesse barges his way through in. “Get up, fuckers. It’s my birthday,” he announces with a cheesy grin across his face before he flies over the top of me and squishes himself in between me and Nate.
Jesse puts his arm around me and I do my best to keep the blanket up. “So,” Jesse says to me in a tone that he reserves for messing with his older brother. “I’m seventeen now. You can officially dump this dick and start climbing in my bed.”
“Fuck off,” Nate laughs as he grabs his brother and hoists him away from me before tackling him off the side of the bed. The brothers laugh and end up ripping the blanket right off the bed. I let out a squeal, slap my hands over my tits, and run across the room to my closet hoping Jesse didn’t get an eyeful of my ass.
Nate and Jesse laugh but I don’t find it quite so funny. I grab my robe and pull it over me before walking back out and realizing that Nate has Jesse face down in the carpet so they must have been laughing at that as Jesse’s far too preoccupied to have seen my nudie run.