Page 116 of Make Me Mean It

Connor stiffens.

It’s subtle, just his shoulders pulling a fraction higher and his mouth pressing into a hard line, but I know how much he hates when Marcus talks to him like that.

The urge to tell Marcus to knock it off rises so quickly I nearly do.

But I bite it back. Connor doesn’t need me jumping in to fight with his brother for him, and after the other night I’m probably the last person he wants doing it anyway.

Still, I find myself moving closer, stopping behind him, leaving enough space that Marcus won’t think twice about it, but close enough to catch the faint flush spreading over the back of Connor’s neck.

“Take the ride, princess,” I murmur, keeping my voice low enough that the words stay between us.

Connor goes still beneath them, and the nickname catches me almost as hard as it does him. Fuck. I haven’t called him that since before everything went to shit, but standing this close to him, it slipped out as easily as it always used to. For a long moment he says nothing, his shoulders held tight while it hangs between us with everything that’s happened since the last time I used it. Then he lets out a slow breath, some of the tension finally easing from his body.

“Fine,” he says, quiet enough that Marcus probably thinks he won.

I know better, the agreement settling dangerously warm in my chest, and my hand twitches with the urge to press against the small of Connor’s back and guide him towards the door.

I curl my fingers into my palm and make myself step away.

He doesn’t get to call me a mistake and still have all the little pieces of me that came with whatever the fuck we were doing before.

“Come on,” I mutter, turning for the door before I can make this any more complicated than it already is.

I don’t look back to see whether Connor follows, but a few seconds later his footsteps fall into place behind mine.