“Can I kiss you now?” he asks.
“No.”
He chuckles at her and pulls her up by her hands, helping resituate her panties before finding her heels and slipping them back on for her.
“You gonna clean that up?” she asks teasingly, pointing to the very healthy amount of his release on the floor.
“There’s D1 athletes in there,” he says with a smile. “Would be a shame for it to go to waste.”
“Clean it up, football man.”
He smiles widely before finding an already opened roll of paper towels tucked in the corner along with the other cleaning supplies, and he bends down to clean up the evidence of just how much she turned him on, before tossing it into the trash.
He takes her hands in his, helping her down from the table, before smoothing out her dress and placing a lingering kiss to her forehead.
“I’m going to make this right,” he says. “I’m not going to lose you again.”
“You didn’t lose me,” Tessa whispers. “I’m the one who walked away.”
“Well, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
“Tristan?!”
Phillip’s voice comes from down the hallway, and they both look at each other in a panic.
Tristan quickly opens the door and pulls Phillip inside. His eyes adjust to his surroundings before looking awkwardly between Tessa and Tristan.
“It smells like sex in here.”
Tessa groans and covers her face while Tristan smiles like a kid on Christmas.
“It smells likealmostsex in here,” he answers, and Phillip rolls his eyes.
“Okay well I’m two seconds away from kicking Kiana out of this party. Would you go handle that shit, please?”
Tessa stiffens beside Tristan, and he sighs before nodding regretfully at Phillip.
“I’ll take care of it.”
Phillip leaves the room and Tristan turns towards Tessa.
“You go out first,” she says shyly, unable to make eye contact.
He grabs her by the waist before placing another kiss to the top of her head and walking out the door, closing it behind him.
Tessa leans against the door and takes a deep breath, letting everything that just happened process, until she decides she’s ready to go out and face whatever the aftermath of this encounter will be.
CHAPTER 15
“Tristan!” Kiana’s shrill voice echoes through the house. “Where the fuck are you!”
Her heels click on the tile floor as she walks into the main living space, and she stops in her tracks at the scene before her.
Tristan stands surrounded by Kiana’s luggage, arms crossed across his chest, expression stern and unamused. He left the birthday dinner without telling anyone immediately after leaving Tessa in the maintenance closet; drove straight home and promptly packed all of Kiana’s bags. He continued to make himself busy while waiting for her to realize that he was gone, and purchased her a one-way ticket back to LA.
“What the hell is this?” she asks, popping a hand on her hip. “And where the hell did you go during the party?”
“I came here,” he replied, only offering a half truth. “To pack your bags.”
