Page 74 of The MC's Little Brother

“How in the hell is it still so silky after all that? Do you have magic shampoo?”

His shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, and when he shifted onto his elbows at me, he gave me that once rare Mattias smile that still took my breath away.

“God, I love you,” he murmured.

I froze in the middle of leaning into his palm. Eyes wide, I slowly turned to look at him. “What did you say?”

I knew plenty of guys who would backpedal and act nonchalant like it was no big deal. That wasn’t Mattias. He didn’t look away or pretend he didn’t say anything. He locked eyes with me, kissed me gently, and said it again, louder this time, so I couldn’t mistake what I’d heard.

“I love you, Mel. I always have.”

Of all the reactions I thought I’d have to someone telling me they loved me, I never expected to cry. It was everything I wanted since I was a kid, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Mattias didn’t freak out. He never did anything a normal guy would. He brushed the tears away with his thumbs, his hands cradling my head, and kissed me until I stopped trembling and could finally use words.

“I love you too. So much.”

There it was again. That smile that felt a little like it was just for me. It wasn’t the same exasperated smile he gave his friends, it wasn’t the proud smile he gave his little brother. This one was mine, full of decades of love and tender affection. I wanted to take a dozen pictures so I could carry it with me even when we were apart, but I doubted a picture could do it justice.

I seriously needed to stop, or I’d end up proposing to the man.

“Oh, god, you destroyed me. Why can’t I stop crying?” I demanded.

He chuckled, running his nose along mine between intermittent kisses. Not long passionate ones. Little ones that made my heart skipand elation fill my chest, bleeding through my whole body until I felt like I couldn’t keep it all in.

I was a little grateful when Mattias’s phone rang. I was waxing poetic in my head and I didn’t want to embarrass the hell out of myself by throwing myself at him and telling him I wanted to have his babies. We were already raising his little brother. What were a few more in the mix?

He had to lean over the edge of the bed to find his jeans to get to his phone, but he refused to move away from me. He nearly dragged me off the bed with him and I couldn’t stop laughing when I had to roll to save us both from injury. He was grinning as he dropped back onto the bed, tossing his jeans aside and putting his phone to his ear as he pulled me against his chest.

“Yeah?”

“School is stupid,” Xander grumbled.

We both paused with a frown before Mattias sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know anyone and it's awkward and I hate it. Can’t I just come home for lunch?”

Ah. Lunch in a new school where he probably hadn’t had the opportunity to make any new friends yet, since he was testing all day yesterday. I wanted to snatch the phone away and reassure him, but he called Mattias for a reason. He needed his brother’s support, not my coddling.

“No, you can’t,” Mattias began. I poked him in the side and glared at him, and his tone softened a little. “You don’t need to anyway. You’re going to make friends. Just give it time.”

“I’m gonna end up eating in the bathroom every day,” he replied petulantly.

I couldn’t help it, and I laughed out loud at that one.

“Is Mel listening? Put her on. She’s nicer to me. She’ll let me come home.”

Mattias smirked, shaking his head, and purposely leaned out of my reach when I tried to grab the phone. “You’re not stealing my girlfriend. Get your own.”

My stomach sank and Xander went quiet. In a quick move to rescue him, I poked Mattias again. “He’s too young to date. Don’t tell him that.”

That made him frown, and he retracted his statement. “She’s right. No dating. Make friends. I was friends with Mel for over twenty years. You can start dating when you’ve had a friend that long.”

His teasing eased the tension, and Xander huffed out a laugh. “You suck.”

Nipping at Mattias’s nipple distracted him enough for me to snatch the phone away. I rolled over to trap it between my face and the bed, making it that much harder for him to take it from me.

“Sweetie, it takes more than a day to make a friend, but you won’t make any if you run every time there’s a free period. Go to lunch, ask someone if you can join them, and don’t make the Wraith face.”

“What’s that?”

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