Hours later, I found myself pulling my suitcase along the path to Tristan's back door. His broad shoulders led the way before he unlocked the backdoor and turned off the alarm. When we got off the plane a little less than an hour before, the clock showed that our flight landed a few minutes shy of midnight, so by then it was close to one. I walked in after him, adjusting my eyes against the bright light of the kitchen while I followed him through the house and up the stairs.
"The house seems so empty without Yoda," I told him, walking into his room where he was standing with his back to me. I'd become so used to having the big monster following me around and darting between my legs that I missed his absence. Even the bed looked empty without his meaty body draped across it. My nerves suddenly made my stomach hurt. We'd slept together a few times already but this felt different. Intimate.
"I know, it isn't the same without him here," Tristan agreed, looking right at me.
I knew we both needed to wake up early, so I opened up my suitcase to grab my toiletry bag and makeshift pajamas. I felt really strange standing inside his bathroom, brushing my teeth in his sink while he did things in his bedroom. I felt weird but not in a bad way. I think it was just difficult for me to wrap my head around him inviting me to spend the night with him after we'd already spent two other nights together. Most guys would have wanted to get life back to normal, right?
"You don't mind if I use your shower? I feel gross," I called out to him, already pulling my tank top over my head as carefully as possible so the material didn't scratch my heated skin.
"You don't have to ask, goldie!" he hollered back from his bedroom.
Not knowing whether to leave the door open or not, I kicked it partially closed before turning on the water to his shower and peeling off the rest of my clothes. I hopped in and let the lukewarm water run over me, wincing at the feel of it on my sunburned skin. Using his soap I lathered up and chanced a glance, while I was shaving my legs again, to look up through the foggy stall door. Tristan was standing on the other side of the glass, resting his behind against the sink counter with one arm gripping the edge of the sink while he brushed his teeth. Those green eyes were locked on me.
I didn't say anything as I rinsed off, and by the time I looked up again he was out of the bathroom.
Once I was dressed in the first t-shirt he'd let me borrow back in L.A. and a clean pair of underwear, I found him on top of the sheets in sleep pants and a t-shirt with his long legs crossed at the ankles. He had a book open on his lap before he saw me and set it on his nightstand while grabbing something off of it in exchange.
"You aren't going to shower?" I asked, climbing onto the other side of the bed slowly but keeping an eye on him while he drank in my chest through the nearly translucent white of his shirt.
He shook his head as he licked his bottom lip. "No." He patted the bed in front of him. "Come here so I can put more aloe gel on you."
Well, okay then.
I crawled over as quickly as I could and plopped down just to left. He surprised me by swinging his lower body around so that I sat between his legs. Warm hands snuck underneath my shirt to squeeze my waist, before he grabbed the bottom hem of the shirt I had on and pulled it up and over my head completely. "Umm..." I managed to stutter out, bringing my hands up to cover my exposed boobs.
"The shirt was in the way," he said in a hoarse breath like it was a logical explanation.
Two hands swept over my shoulders and arms. They brushed the back of my neck gently, and then made another pass over me again. It was when his tongue lapped at my earlobe and the skin right underneath it that I tensed up like a virgin would if they'd encountered Calum's abnormality in the flesh.
"Did you know," he breathed on my neck before kissing it with a wet, open mouth. "That I want you more," he bit me gently on the throat, "Than I've ever wanted anyone before?" He nipped at my neck one more time, holding each side of my ribs in his hands. "So much more, Kat. So fucking much more."
I arched and then curved my spine the opposite way, feeling like I was going to explode inside my skin from his lips and hands. Fuck. How would it feel when it wasn't just his hands on me? "Oh."
His big hands went around me, cupping my own, which were holding my breasts together. "Why do you feel so good?" His voice was thick against my skin. I leaned back to feel his cotton clad chest against my back.
I dropped my hands and pulled them down so his palms could cup my chest. His rough hands squeezed and kneaded my flesh lightly. "Tristan, please," I begged, for what I didn't know.
He groaned and brushed his thumbs over each of my nipples once. I saw him grab for the shirt he'd just peeled off and tugged it down over my head, leading my arms through the sleeve openings. "Not tonight, you have that burn and we both need to wake up early," he said, but I could sense a tinge of disappointment in his voice.
I grunted and snapped my head around to look at his face. "Seriously?"
He just grinned and pulled the covers over to slide underneath them. "Dead. Come on." He held up the covers right next to him so that I could slip underneath them too. “It’s only because I care about you that I don’t have you pinned underneath me.”
I scowled at him and slid deeper into the sheets. I knew I probably wouldn't enjoy getting down and dirty with him since my shoulders ached, but I thought that was beyond the point. The fucking tease. "You suck."
He flicked the lights off before settling in close enough to brush his fingertips against mine. I had just started dozing off when I felt his fingers tighten in mine. "Thank you," he whispered.
I wondered what exactly he was thankful for.
Chapter 52
One night turned into three, then five, and ended with seven.
My sunburn went from a seven on the pain scale down to a two during that time period. My quick recovery was mostly in thanks to Tristan and Zoey dousing me in aloe vera gel each chance they got. By the end of the week, I'd started peeling and had to whack Tristan's hands away from my shoulders when he tried to peel off the dry skin.
I stayed over at his house one other time during week at his insistence. I woke up after he went to exercise and before he made it back into the shower. It wasn't a coincidence that I woke up in time to see him peeling off his sweaty workout clothes before getting into the shower. I learned after my first morning that he made it back home right at six-thirty in the morning. My alarm was set to five minutes before that time, which allowed me a chance to hit the snooze button once, before I got to witness the best strip show on Earth. I had to fight the urge to throw dollar bills at his smoking hot body the first morning I saw him all wet, sweaty, and perfect.
I wanted to be wet and sweaty with him, but he somehow managed to keep us fully clothed and only engaging in mouth-to-mouth activities. After a particularly fun evening on his couch, where my shirt ended up on the floor while I straddled his lap and his hands rested on my ass, I had to go home and pull out one of my favorite Andrew Wood DVDs. My beloved hummingbird came out to play as well. Half of me was beyond disappointed that he had such a tight rein on his control, somehow managing to stop us when we started getting a little too intense.
