Page 14

CHAPTER 13

M arty glared at him as she angrily fixed her skirt. He’d just given her the most erotic experience of her life only to ruin it when it was over.

Holding her glare, Tristan slowly brought the fingers that he’d just used to pleasure her to his mouth and sucked them clean, groaning loudly as he did it.

“You’re an asshole!”

He smiled charmingly up at her from his lazy position in his chair. “Yes, but an asshole that you want.”

She crossed her arms defiantly over her chest. “It was a moment of weakness, nothing more.”

Tristan scoffed. “That moment of weakness damn near broke my fingers off.”

Heat burned her cheeks as she thought about what just happened. She was never going to live this down and, judging by the expression on his face, he had no intentions of ever letting her forget.

“Asshole,” Marty muttered.

He sighed as he got more comfortable. “That’s really getting old, baby.”

“Don’t call me that!”

He shrugged it off. “So, what am I ordering out for tonight? Chinese, pizza, or subs?”

“Ordering out for what?” Marty asked, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

“If we’re going to spend all night in my bed, then, I’m going to need to feed you,” Tristan said, shrugging it off like he didn’t just say something to piss her off even more.

Startled, her mouth dropped open. “You really are an arrogant asshole, aren’t you?”

“Only when it comes to you,” Tristan said, shooting her a wink.

“This,” Marty said, gesturing wildly between them, “was a mistake. A momentary lapse of judgment. Nothing more. I have a date tonight with a really nice guy and I intend to forget this ever happened!”

Tristan rubbed the back of his neck, looking bored as he ignored everything she just said. “Should I just order something or do you want me to wait until you come over?”

She laughed.

She really couldn’t help it. The man was beyond conceited. “What makes you think that I’m coming over to your house tonight? I just told you that I have a date.”

“What time is this date of yours supposed to pick you up?” Tristan asked, sighing heavily as he looked at the clock.

“Why?” Marty asked, narrowing her eyes on him. “Are you planning on waiting around for him?”

“I’m heading home now, but I just wanted to have a rough idea of what time I should expect you,” Tristan said as he grabbed the files and placed them in his briefcase before he stood up.

“I told you,” Marty said as she reached up and began rubbing her temples, hoping that it would be enough to fight off the headache that she knew was coming, “I’m going out with Roger tonight. He’ll be here in an hour to pick me up.”

“So, I’ll see you around, what…six?” Tristan murmured absently as he shut down his computer.

“It’s never going to happen,” Marty said, dropping her hands away.

Tristan smiled knowingly at her. “You’ll be there and as far as your date is concerned, I can guarantee you right now that isn’t going to happen tonight,” he promised her.

“What are you planning on doing?” Marty demanded, narrowing her eyes on the devious bastard.

“Nothing. I just know that your date isn’t going to take you out tonight, not when he finds out that you belong to me,” Tristan drawled.

“Belong to you?” Marty repeated back, sure that she’d misheard him. “I don’t belong to you,” she said even as she couldn’t help but wonder why it felt like a lie. She couldn’t explain it, but she’d always felt whole when he was near her and she had no idea why.

“What we did was a mistake. It will never ever happen again and I can promise you that I won’t be coming to your house tonight.”

Tristan ignored her as he grabbed his briefcase and headed for the door only to pause in front of her. For a moment, she thought that he was going to kiss her, which she was almost forty percent sure that she’d be able to resist. Instead, and much to her surprise, he leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss against her neck.

“I’ll be counting the minutes,” Tristan said with the sexiest grin that she’d ever seen as he left, leaving her…confused.

No matter what Marty said, she wanted to go home with him and live out every fantasy that she’d had over the past fourteen years, but she refused to let the arrogant bastard win. It didn’t help that she really didn’t want to go on this date to begin with, but she’d let her friends talk her into it.

It was only dinner, Marty reminded herself, already knowing that nothing would ever come from it. She’d never been attracted to any of the men she’d dated and had no real interest in dating anyone. She’d had a few “boyfriends” over the years, but they’d never been anything more than friends that she’d hung out with a few times. She’d never wanted any of them the way that she wanted Tristan.

Deciding to get this over with, Marty pulled out her handheld compact and fixed her makeup. When she was finished, she sat down and debated the best way to cancel this date only to realize that it was too late. Resigning herself the awkward night ahead, she decided to get some work done while she waited and before she knew it, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Marty said as she shut down her computer.

“Hi, I hope I’m not too early,” Roger said with a warm smile as he walked in.

“No, I just finished,” Marty said, returning his smile as she grabbed her purse and stood up.

He was cute in a boy next-door kind of way while Tristan was incredibly hot in that boy bad kind of way. Roger was tall, but not as tall as Tristan. He-

Was looking at her funny.

“What’s wrong?” Marty asked, unable to help but frown when he shook his head in disgust.

“Unbelievable,” Roger muttered as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face.

“What’s going on?” she asked, watching as he dropped his hands with a heavy sigh.

“Just a bit of advice, don’t screw around with another guy the same night that you have a date.”

They could tell those things?

Was she wearing a sign or something? Marty couldn’t help but wonder as he gestured to her neck. “Looks like whoever it was wanted to make sure that everyone knew that you were spoken for.” He put his hands up in surrender and stepped back. “My loss,” he said, sighing heavily. “Have a good night.” With that, he left her standing there as dread slowly crept up her spine.

Swallowing hard, Marty grabbed her compact, held it up so that she could see her neck and-

“Oh, that sneaky son of a bitch.”

* * *

“Why are ye grinning like an idiot?” Shayne asked, never looking away from the television where a low-budget seventies porn was playing.

Because Marty was coming over, Tristan thought with a satisfied sigh as he finished drying off his chest and tossed the towel aside.

“No reason,” Tristan said as he made his way downstairs and headed towards the kitchen.

Shayne took him by surprise and turned off his porn, which he only did under dire emergencies or because Tristan’s mother was visiting. He followed Tristan into the kitchen, saying nothing as Tristan looked through the drawer full of takeout menus.

“Are we ordering out tonight?” Shayne asked, leaning back against the wall as he watched him.

“Marty’s coming over,” Tristan said as he focused on a pizza menu.

“Ye have a date with Marty?” Shayne asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Not a date so much as her coming over here to kill me,” Tristan admitted.

“What?”

“I, uh,” Tristan cleared his throat, “might have done something to, um, piss her off enough to come here and kick my ass.”

“I think I should sit down for this,” Shayne said as he pushed away from the wall and made his way over to the kitchen table and dropped down in a chair before gesturing for Tristan to continue.

“Do you think she’ll want Chinese?” Tristan asked, dropping the pizza menu and-

“Lad,” that one word was laced with warning, a tone that always worked on Tristan. Where his natural father hadn’t given a flying fuck about him, he had three men who’d eagerly taken over the job.

Tom, his real dad as far as he was concerned, was protective. He was the first man to earn his trust. He’d taught him how to fish, ride a bike, and everything and anything about the medical field while teaching him how to be a good man.

Hank had immediately taken Tristan under his wing and quickly became one of his best friends. He’d taught Tristan how to protect himself and when it was appropriate to throw a punch and when to walk away. He’d always introduced Tristan as his boy and when Tom was around, he referred to him as “our” boy, earning a few curious looks.

Shayne was the overprotective one.

When Tristan broke his arm during a football game, Shayne ran around the field screaming like a banshee while Tristan was loaded into an ambulance. It was also Shayne, who, for the next two weeks, haunted the linebacker who’d broken his arm. He was fiercely protective, but he also called Tristan out on his bullshit, like now.

“What. Did. Ye. Do?”

Shayne believed in treating a woman with respect even if she was a whore. Considering how much Shayne liked Marty, Tristan was going to be in deep shit when he found out what happened.

“I, uh, that is, we may have fooled around a bit after you left,” Tristan said quickly.

Shayne’s scowl swiftly turned into a grin. “Finally. It’s about time the two of ye stopped acting like idiots.”

After a moment, his happiness turned into confusion. “I don’t see how messing around would upset her…ye didn’t hurt her, did ye, lad?”

“No, but I may have inadvertently guaranteed that her date wasn’t going to, um,” Tristan cleared his throat, “want to take her out.”

“She had a date?” Shayne asked, sounding even more confused.

Tristan returned his gaze to a menu and nodded.

“I don’t understand. What did ye do? Did ye wait around and explain to the other lad that ye were in love with Marty?” Shayne asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Not exactly.”

“Well, what the hell did ye do, then?” Shayne demanded.

Tristan mumbled his response.

“I didn’t quite catch that, lad.”

“I marked her,” Tristan admitted.

For a moment, Shayne was too stunned to respond. “Ye marked her, lad? Like with a pen?”

“You could say that I laid my claim with a kiss,” Tristan admitted as he thought about just how good it felt to finally have Marty in his arms.

“Oh, ye sly bastard,” Shayne said, grinning. “I’d love to see the face of the poor bastard when he spotted that.”

“It would be pretty hard to miss,” Tristan said, chuckling when the doorbell echoed through the house.

“Showtime,” Tristan said with a satisfied sigh as he dropped the menu back in the drawer. That was followed by the sound of the doorbell being held down seconds before the pounding started, which, of course, was followed by…

“Open the goddamn door before I break it down!”