Page 60 of Infatuated
“Yes.” She doesn’t look at me as she continues to rub at the cramp. I grab her right leg and straighten it out, my fingers kneading into the tight muscles. She winces and pulls her leg from my grasp before standing and storming off.
“Stay away from me, Tristan. Go back to Kasey,” she yells out.
I jump up but stand my ground. “I guess I could say the same to you. Have fun with Russ!”
When she turns back to face me, I see the unbridled hate in her features. She narrows her darkened eyes and points her index finger at me. I fully expect her to storm back over and jab her finger in my chest. I’m surprised when she stands in her spot and lowers her hands to her hips. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The boat. I saw the two of you kissing.” I don’t want to be mad at her. I don’t want her last few nights here to be miserable.
She snorts and shakes her head in disbelief. “You mean today, after I reminded him that I’m withyouand don’t see him that way? After I turned down his advances because I’m head over heels foryou? That boat ride?”
I grind my teeth, knowing what I saw. “You kissed him.”
She throws her hands up and groans. “I kissed his cheek after he told me what a lucky guy you are, asshole.”
Fuck.I replay what I saw over and over. She leaned forward and brushed her lips against him, but the more I think about it, the more I realize he had his head turned and she was indeed kissing his cheek.
Every emotion displays over my features—anger, disgust, fear, and finally apologetic. And she catches them all the moment I realize my error. “Yeah, asshole. Unlike you, I didn’t forget about you the moment you were out of my sight.”
I wince. Her words hurt, and I know she chose them specifically to dig the dagger in a little deeper. It’s what I told her when she was upset over that scumbag Joe.
“She kissedme,” I blurt out, trying to regain my footing in this argument.
“Yes, and you kissed herback,” she spits. She wipes her fingers over her cheeks and flings her tears to the earth below us. “Leave me alone, Tristan.” She turns and walks into the woods back to the house.
“She was kissing me goodbye. It meant nothing!” I call out after her, but she either doesn’t hear me or doesn’t care. I want to chase after her. I want to make her see that she’s wrong, but first, I need to get the horses back in the barn and give her a chance to cool off.
Chapter 29
Lana
My legs still hurt as I walk my sorry ass back to the dance. At least, the walk is helping to ease the tension there, although it does nothing to quell the ache in my heart. My vision is bleary, and I keep wiping my hands under my tear-soaked eyes so I can make my way back. Tristan hasn’t come out to follow me, and I can’t decide if I’m happy about that or upset.
Bullshit, you’re pissed off he hasn’t run after you!Yeah, I guess I am. I thought he might have been mad at me for missing the dance lesson and maybe would have given me a few spanks for being naughty. Don’t judge me; it happens in the books I read and seems fun. Instead, I find him sucking face with his ex-girlfriend.
Okay, so sucking face isn’t accurate. He did kiss her back though. I know they dated for a long time and those feelings are hard to ignore, butcome on!He gave me that whole spiel about liking me and wanting to make things work with me, and then he’s kissing her behind my back. The only reason I caught his cheating ass is because Holden told me where he was.
I’d put on a cute pair of shorts, a flowy shirt, and my cowboy boots for the night. I even put my hair in braided pigtails because I know it drives him crazy. My thought was to dance with him for a few minutes, and then come clean about being in the boat all day with Russ.
Except for him admitting he wanted to kiss me, the day with Russ was fine. He didn’t try anything, and when I explained again how this thing with Tristan wasn’t a fling and I wanted to make it work, he backed down and agreed to being friends. We had a great rest of the day, and we learned a lot about each other. I’m hoping I can remain friends with him and figure we can stay in touch with social media.
It’s almost completely dark when I make it back to the barn, and I run as fast as my sore, tired feet will take me so I can get back to the dance. I don’t want anyone to come looking for me. The first person I see is Holden, and he looks pissed.
“What the fuck happened? Where’s Tristan?” He grabs my upper arm when I try to ignore his questions and squeezes tighter. I wince but glare at him and yank my arm from his grasp.
“Don’t know, don’t care. We had a fight. He kissed his ex and I saw it. At least, he admitted doing it.” I try to walk away, but he reaches out for me again.
“Hold on. What? He said he caught you kissing Russ.”
I snort. “No. Hethoughthe saw me kissing Russ, but it was just on the cheek. Get out of my way, Holden,” I say through clenched teeth.
I lock eyes with Russ, and he notices my distress. He makes his way over to us as Tristan comes into view. I step away from him and take Russ’s hand, the two of us walking into the crowd of people dancing and laughing.
I explain why I don’t want to see Tristan, and every time Tristan tries to approach us, Russ shields me with his body and shakes his head in warning. I’m thankful I don’t have to do it. If I did, I’m sure I would buckle under the pressure and I just want to be mad for awhile. I’m hurt.
“I just want to talk to her for a few minutes,” Tristan says for the tenth time tonight. Russ looks at me, and I shake my head.
“Sorry, man, she doesn’t want to talk to you. Why don’t you give her some space?” I place my hand on Russ’s back as a way of saying thank you, and he pulls me onto the dance floor into the middle of the line dance. “You’re going to dance with me, and you’re going to have a good time.”