Page 23

CHAPTER 22

“Y ou and I need to talk,” Tristan said quietly as he threw his bathroom door one last look of longing. He wanted to take Marty back into his bed and hold her, but they had to move their asses if they were going to make it to the therapy session early enough for him to explain to the therapist that it would be in his best interest to sign his paper and forget all about Hank’s request.

“Ye don’t have to thank me, lad,” Shayne said, grinning hugely. “I was happy to help.”

For a moment, Tristan could only stare at him, sure that he’d misheard him. “You call that help?” he demanded in a harsh whisper.

Shayne nodded firmly, still grinning as he released a satisfied sigh. “Ye finally got the lass right where ye want her.”

“And you really think that you had something to do with that?” Tristan asked in a low whisper as he kept an eye on the door.

“Of course I did, lad,” Shayne said, gesturing to the rumpled sheets. “Ye really didn’t think that ye managed to get her in yer bed with yer skills, now, did ye?”

When Tristan only glared, Shayne gave Tristan a pitying look. “That really is sad, lad. Just sad.”

“Say goodbye to your porn, you betraying bastard,” Tristan hissed, unable to help but smile when Shayne’s jaw dropped.

“But it entertains me!”

Tristan merely shrugged as he adjusted his tie.

“It’s educational!” Shayne protested.

Tristan chuckled as he grabbed his weapon off the bureau and attached it to his belt, wincing when a muscle in his arm protested, but he ignored it. He had too much shit to do and he wasn’t about to let Hank put him back on full medical.

“Consider it gone,” Tristan said as he checked his hair in the mirror.

Shayne let out a heartfelt sigh. “I didn’t want to have to tell ye this, lad, but ye’ve left me with no choice. I’m afraid that I need to watch porn at least eight hours a day or I’ll die.”

“Uh-huh,” Tristan said absently as he attached a holster to his ankle.

“It’s true, lad. I have a medical condition. I didn’t tell ye because I didn’t want to worry ye, lad,” Shayne said with a nod as though he truly thought this bullshit was believable.

“Do you know what you left me with yesterday when you pulled your disappearing act?” Tristan asked, nervously glancing around the room when he suddenly remembered the bimbo twins.

“I already took care of the lasses, lad,” Shayne said, reading his mind. After all these years together, it wasn’t difficult to figure out what the other one was thinking.

“Not soon enough,” Tristan said, glancing at his watch. They needed to move their asses now if Marty was going to have a chance to go home and change into some clean clothes.

“Well, ye were being a bit of an ass yesterday, lad. So really, ye can’t blame me for leaving,” Shayne explained sheepishly.

“And I bet you were so upset that you just had to rush home and get a dose of porn to help settle your nerves,” Tristan drawled as he turned around and leaned back, resting his hip against the bureau while he waited for Marty.

“That’s it exactly, lad,” Shayne readily agreed.

Tristan couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re pathetic.”

“I really am and if ye get rid of my porn, I’ll be too weak to help keep the lifeless lasses away from ye,” Shayne rushed to explain when they both knew that Tristan would never get rid of his best friend’s porn.

“Just make sure to keep that shit off the television when Marty’s around,” Tristan said when the bathroom door suddenly opened.

Marty paused in the doorway as she wrapped a large, baby blue towel around herself. “Who are you talking to?” she asked, frowning as she looked around the room.

“No one,” Tristan said quickly, inwardly groaning when she cocked a disbelieving brow in his direction.

“Real smooth, lad,” Shayne drawled as he rolled his eyes.

He barely stopped himself from flipping Shayne off as he walked over to Marty, who he might add, looked incredibly sexy wrapped in one of his towels.

“Good morning,” Tristan said softly as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, hoping she’d forget that she’d heard him talking to himself. If this was going to work, and he was going to damn well make sure that it did, he was going to have to be a hell of a lot more careful when he was around her.

Thankfully, she took pity on him and dropped it. “I have to go home and change,” Marty said, moving to grab her discarded clothes from the night before, but not before she gave him a proper good morning kiss that left him hard and more than ready to continue what they started last night.

“We have to go to work,” she said around a yawn as she stepped away from him and quickly got dressed.

He forced himself to stay right where he was, but it was damn difficult, especially when she dropped her towel. There was no rush, after all. They’d go to work, and then tonight, he would take her out for dinner. Then, they would spend the rest of the night making up for all the years he’d stupidly wasted.

“We have to get going or we’ll be late for your meeting,” Marty said as she pulled her shoes on.

“There’s no rush, sweetheart. They’ll probably just sign me off when they realize that I don’t really have an anger management problem,” Tristan said, grabbing his keys and noting twin looks of disbelief.

“I don’t!” he snapped, feeling insulted.

When Shayne and Marty both rolled their eyes at that announcement, he decided that a little clarification was obviously in order. “I don’t have a fucking anger management problem!”

* * *

“Hello, Detective Black, my name is Elizabeth. I’m so happy that you were able to make it today,” a woman a few inches taller than Marty, rail thin with glasses and a pixie cut, said in a syrupy sweet tone better used on small children than on a six-foot-two man packed with muscle, who was carrying a gun, and was here for help with his anger issues.

A muscle in Tristan’s jaw did a little bounce as he did his best to rein in his temper. Well, Marty assumed that’s what he was doing since he looked furious and hadn’t yelled at the woman, yet. A few seconds later, his scowl disappeared and was replaced with a charming smile that actually frightened her. He was up to something and she was very much afraid that he was going to bring her down with him.

“Elizabeth, it’s very nice to meet you,” Tristan said charmingly as he shook her hand.

“I’m happy to have you join our group, Detective,” Elizabeth said in that same annoying tone that should have set Tristan off already.

“Elizabeth, I was actually hoping that you could do me a favor and sign this release form,” Tristan said smoothly as he handed her a piece of paper.

“I’m sorry, Detective, but I’m under strict orders not to do that,” Elizabeth said with a warm smile as she handed the paper back to Tristan.

“I see,” Tristan murmured, sounding thoughtful as he folded the paper and placed it in his jacket pocket. “And you’re positive that you can’t sign this?”

“Yes!” Elizabeth said, adding an upbeat tone to her answer.

“Very well,” Tristan said, smiling as he gestured for her to lead the way. Elizabeth looked pleased as she did just that.

“I’ll be ten minutes,” Tristan said, pausing by the door.

“The meeting lasts for an hour,” Marty pointed out, frowning as she looked down at the flier in her hand to make sure that she didn’t mess up the time. Nope, the meetings were an hour long, which was probably a good thing since it would give her time to figure out what the hell happened between yesterday morning when she was ready to kill the jerk and this morning when she was screaming his name at the top of her lungs while he took her from behind.

“Ten minutes,” Tristan said firmly before he closed the door behind him and left her sitting on one of the hard-plastic chairs lining the wall of the community center and wondering what she should do.

He told her that he loved her, and heaven help her, but she believed him. That didn’t explain why he’d kept her out of his life for all those years or why he tried pushing her away. Until he was able to explain a few things, they were going to take things slow. Well, slow but with sex since there was no way that she was going to deny herself that pleasure.

She still couldn’t believe that he’d been a virgin. That was definitely another thing that he was going to have to explain. She knew why she’d held off for so long. She didn’t want to make a mistake or end up with a kid before she was ready. Her friends couldn’t understand and, honestly, she didn’t care. This was her life, her choice, and she’d never been interested in sleeping with any of the guys she’d dated.

If she was going to be honest, she’d admit that the real reason that she’d held off for so long was Tristan. She’d been in love with him her whole life and anytime she even thought about another man, she felt like she was cheating on him. No matter how many times she’d reminded herself that they weren’t together, she couldn’t shake the feeling that being with another man was wrong.

That brought up an interesting question, how long was Tristan going to be able to do this before he changed his mind? She already knew that if he tried to push her away again that she would let him.

This was it.

He would never get another chance, not when she knew without a doubt that it would absolutely destroy her to lose him after last night. She-

“Ready?” Tristan suddenly asked, startling her.

“You’ve only been in there for five minutes,” Marty said, frowning as she looked past him at the closed double doors and-

Was someone crying?

“Elizabeth realized that I really didn’t need therapy and decided to sign off on my sheet, after all,” Tristan said with a heartfelt sigh as he took her hand in his and gave it a gentle tug, pulling her to her feet.

“She signed off? I thought she said that she couldn’t do that,” Marty murmured absently when she heard the unmistakable sounds of someone sobbing.

“I guess she changed her mind,” Tristan said, shrugging it off as they made their way to the front door.

She heard a door slam open behind her, drawing her attention in time to watch Elizabeth quickly make her way past them, wiping frantically at the tears that were streaming down her face and-

“You’re a bad man, Detective Black!” Elizabeth yelled around a hysterical sob as she shoved the front door open and fled from the building.

Marty opened her mouth and-

“Mommy!” a large man covered in tattoos yelled as he raced past them, burying his face in his hands as he sobbed hysterically. She looked up at Tristan, who simply smiled at her, acting as though a man built like a linebacker hadn’t just run past him, crying hysterically.

“What was that about?” Marty asked as another man ran past them, this time sobbing into his phone. When he spotted Tristan, he stumbled to a halt and just as suddenly turned around and ran the other way.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Tristan said with a straight face and heaven help her, but it took everything she had not to smile.

“Why don’t we stop by the coffee shop and grab breakfast?” Tristan suggested as he held the door open for her.

“You’re not going to tell me what just happened, are you?” Marty asked with a sigh.

“I really think it would be for the best if we pretended that this never happened.”

“Probably,” Marty murmured in agreement.

There were some things that she really didn’t want to know and how Tristan managed to scare the hell out of a room full of people with anger management problems was definitely one of them.