Tessa laughs and her cheeks blush, her eyes glued to the floor, but she could still feel Tristan’s heated gaze on her skin. They hadn’t said a word to each other about wanting kids, but Tristan refused to finish anywhere but inside of Tessa, and there was a primal look in his eyes whenever he did it that made her feel like she could melt into a puddle at his feet.
Tessa shook the thought away, really not needing to get turned on at the thought of Tristan getting her pregnant, especially in front of his brother, who surely was noticing the intense blush of her cheeks.
When she did finally look up at Tristan that primitive look was in his eyes that she was just thinking about, and she blushed even harder.
I must be ovulating, she thought.
“Anyway, we wanted to come and give Tristan some love,” Jordan said, sitting on the couch, which everyone else followed. “Something like this is never easy.”
Tessa’s heart sped up again at the reminder of the positive PED test, and she took a heavy seat next to Tristan.
“Actually, I have something to tell you.”
Tristan immediately looked at Tessa, worry and concern pouring out of his green eyes. He placed his long arm along the back of the couch as she sat perched on the edge, turning her body to face his. He noticed that her fingers were clutchinganxiously at the hem of her shirt, and he reached out one of his hands to cover both of hers, urging her nerves to calm.
“What is it, baby?” he asked gently.
Tessa looked over her shoulder at Jordan and Katie who were sitting just as anxiously, and Tessa gave them a smile.
“I want you guys to hear this too. Maybe you can help me figure out what our next move is.”
“Tessa, spit it out honey, you’re making me nervous,” Tristan said.
Tessa nodded and took a deep breath before bringing her eyes up to Tristan’s.
“When I was at the facility early this morning, it was dead quiet, no one else was there yet. I walked past Dr. Hines’ office and overheard him on the phone. Tristan, he was talking to someone on the phone about tampering with a drug test.”
Tristan immediately straightened up and looked over at his brother who scooted to the edge of his seat.
“You’re shitting me,” Tristan said, and Tessa shook her head no.
“No, I stood there and listened to the whole conversation. He was talking to someone about only agree to tamper with one test and not doing another unless the other person upheld their end of the deal.”
“What deal?” Jordan said.
“It’s two people fucking with me?” Tristan asked, his mind immediately racing with possibilities.
“Tristan…” Tessa said gently, placing her warm hand on his forearm. “I heard him say Kiana’s name multiple times.”
The room went deadly silent and Tessa shifted in her seat uncomfortably.
“That crazy bitch,” Katie’s deep voice was the one to break the silence.
“I overheard everything, baby,” Tessa said softly. “He agreed to tamper with your test if she had sex with him.”
“Ugh! Gross!” Katie exclaimed and Jordan chuckled.
“Holy shit, she fucked the old man? Just to get back at Tristan? Sheisinsane,” Jordan says. “How you didn’t end up baby trapped by that crazy woman is a miracle, Trist.”
“I never fucked her without a condom,” he said quickly. “I knew she was crazy from day one. I thought it was just typical cleat chaser craziness, you know? But she’s certifiably unhinged. I fucking knew she would do some shit like this,” Tristan sighs heavily and hangs his head low. “I just never had much motivation to actually break things off with her. I figured it wasn’t a big deal to stay with her if she was threatening me because all I cared about was football. But then the universe put you right in front of me,” Tristan picks his head up and looks at Tessa who has an apprehensive but empathetic look on her face. “And that was what I needed to make the clean break.”
“Gotta give it to her, at least she follows through on the crazy,” Jordan said with a laugh. “So that’s it then? We can tell Rice and Brett that the test was tampered with and he’ll get reinstated.”
“I can’t just walk in there with my word,” Tessa says firmly. “They can’t do anything about it if I just say I heard something. We need to figure out how to get definitive proof.”
“Okay,” Tristan said with a nod, deep in contemplation.
“She’s flying in on Saturday,” Tessa said, causing everyone to look at her. “She wants another test to pop positive and Hines said she would have to put out again. So she’s flying out on Saturday to meet with him. There’s got to be a way for us to get some physical evidence.”
