Her muffled words against my chest coupled with the natural way she says my first name has my heart twisting painfully. It makes me want to keep her locked in my arms, safe from all the people who’ve hurt her or plan to hurt her.

“I’m sorry.” I kiss her head again. “I really am so sorry.”

I refuse to lie to her—to tell her it will get better or that her mom is going through a hard time. She just needs to know that someone is here for her. Even if that someone is old enough to be her father and who’s in charge of teaching her statistics.

“I’m late for class,” she murmurs after a long beat. “I missed yesterday and now today.”

“I’ll write you a note.” Reluctantly, I pull away from her, ignoring the way my cock twitches, unhappy with no longer being pressed against her. “Are you going to be okay?”

She nods and offers me a brief smile. “I will be. This helped.” Her cheeks blaze bright red again. It makes me want to see where else I can make her turn colors. “Can I, uh, call you later?”

No. Absolutely not. Texting was crossing the line.

“Of course,” I say instead, offering her a comforting smile. “I need to catch you up on what you missed during my lecture.”

Fuck, her smile is beautiful.

I want to kiss her so bad it hurts.

She licks her lips, as though she’s thinking the same thing, but neither of us moves. Thank God. I do not need to start down that path. If I kiss her, it won’t be enough. I’ll cross many more lines before we ever step foot out of this stall.

“Were you mad at me?” she asks, her voice hoarse. “Earlier, I mean.”

“What could possibly make you think I’d be mad at you?”

She narrows her eyes, like she can see right into my mind. “Dempsey.”

Ahhh, that.

Yes, I do remember now.

Levi pissed me off so badly when I’d overheard him shit talking to Willa that I’d nearly forgotten what I’d seen in the hallway. I admit, when I saw my fucking brother with his arm around Willa, I was confused. Momentarily outraged. Not at her, but at the unfairness of it all. The fact that I’ve got my dick in a knot over a girl who’s around the same age as Dempsey. That I couldn’t do what he was doing with her because of my position of power over her.

“I didn’t realize you two were friends,” I admit. “You told me you don’t have any.”

“I don’t. Well, didn’t.” She shifts on her feet. “We just started talking in class today and then I think he wanted to piss off Levi, so he put his arm around me, pretending to be my boyfriend. It’s stupid.”