Don't Say You're Sorry (Hawthorne University #2)

by Bethany Winters

He peels his shirt open, and I stare at his chest, a breath puffing through my lips when I see the single word tattooed on his chest, right above his heart. The word that I wrote on him. Sunshine

It’s not Adam I should be blaming. I’m the one who pushed. If I had left it alone, maybe I wouldn’t have lost my best friend, my stepbrother, and the only person I’ve ever let myself love. I ruined us long before he did.

“Every time I see you with someone else, I die a little on the inside,” he rushes out, panting against my ear. “Fuck. I⁠—” I don’t hesitate. “Then I’ll stop.” “What?” “If it hurts you, I’ll stop.” I run my lips over his cheek. “Nothing’s worth hurting you, Adam.”

“I love the way you are when you’re with me,” he whispers. “The way you let me see you, inside and out. The way you trust me completely. You’re so…pure,” he says after searching for the right word. “You’re too good for me, Adam.”

“Because when you kiss me, it feels like I can breathe again.” His mouth never leaves mine, our tongues swirling together, but I know he’s listening intently. “My thoughts just…run away from me. Nothing and nobody else matters. They don’t even exist. It’s just you and me.”

“Not a day went by when my heart didn’t ache for you as much as yours did me,” I tell him. “It still aches for you now, even when you’re right here in front of me.”

“Just you and me,” I whisper. He nods. “Just you and me, baby.”

“Did you know we’d end up here?” “Yes,” he admits. “The second I saw you standing next to your mom at the party, I knew you’d be mine again.”

There he is. My sunshine.

“I’m serious, Adam. Why do you refuse to see how perfect you are?” I swallow. “Why do you care so much about this?” “Because I want you to love yourself as much as I love you. I want you to see what I see when I look at you.”

Maybe it wasn’t fate, or destiny, or dumb luck that won me this sweet, perfect guy. Maybe it was Easton who looked at me one day and thought, Him. I want that one. And the universe said, Not sure why, but whatever.