Lingus (30 page)

Kieran didn't make a move throughout the entire movie besides patting my leg when I came back from the restroom. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed that he didn't make an effort to at least try to put his arm around my shoulder or something. Even my middle school boyfriend did the whole yawn, raise an arm and flop it across my shoulders in the least slick way possible. I smirked obnoxiously every five minutes because I thought the movie was pretty hilarious, and a lot of things reminded me of Tristan. I noticed that Kieran just kind of chuckled quietly when I had tears in my eyes.

"That was the funniest movie I've seen this year," I snorted on our walk out.

He smiled sweetly and nodded. "I thought it was pretty funny, too."

It didn't escape me that he didn't agree with me completely and not that he should have to, I mean, life is all about difference in opinion so I just grinned back at him.

"I'll walk you to your car," he said.

"I'm parked over here," I said pointing in the direction of my car when we made it to the parking lot. "Do you have to work tomorrow?" I asked him, trying to make conversation.

"I do. When do you go back to school?"

I was parked pretty close to the front of the lot and by the time I opened up my mouth to respond, we were already within ten feet of my car. "I have to go back in two weeks, and then school starts again two weeks after that."

We were standing by the driver seat while I shifted from foot to foot as he tugged on the belt loops of his jeans some more. "I guess this is goodnight then," he said with a shy smile.

He took a step forward at the same time I did, each putting up our arms in opposite directions for a hug. Then I switched my arm positions at the same time he did, so we mirrored each other again. I giggled a little at the awkwardness before we finally met in the middle for a tight hug. He was warm and hard against me just the way I liked. "Thanks again," I said against his shirt.

"I had a good time." Kieran pulled back a fraction of an inch before leaning down to plant a kiss on the side of my cheek. "I'll call you," he said.

"Okay. Goodnight," I responded before unlocking my door and slipping into the seat. By the time I had my seat belt and the car on, he was already walking in another direction.

To say I was a little confused about our date would be an understatement. I figured Kieran was a little shy and that might be the reason why he wasn't more forward, not that it was a bad thing at all but it wasn't what I was expecting. With the exception of Ryan, every other guy I'd been out with had been pretty passive. I wasn't exactly sure how Kieran felt about our date, but I sure as hell wasn't about to stress about it. I pulled over at Taco Bell on the way home for dinner to go before I pulled into the same spot I always parked in at my apartment complex. Jogging up the stairs, I caught sight of a long figure wearing a black hoodie sitting up against my door.

I froze, clenching the plastic bag in one hand and my purse in the other. I was debating whether or not to grab my pepper spray from my purse when the figure moved and turned to look in my direction. I recognized Tristan's face beneath the black hood as he hopped up onto his feet a lot more gracefully than a man of his size should be capable of.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, taking the remaining steps toward my door.

He didn't say anything as I approached, keeping his steady green gaze on me. I stopped in front of him and looked up to try and read his facial expressions, which I'd like to think I had gotten pretty good at. He exhaled a long breath, continuing his intense glare. My heart thumped wildly against my chest in an off-tempo beat that was impossible to follow. The muscles in his face looked flexed and his jaw more defined.

"What?"

Tristan's hands reached for the bags in my hands to set on the floor. Unwinding himself back to up to his full height, he pulled the hood of his sweatshirt down before sighing deeply. I'd like to think that if I would have been warned beforehand of what his following words were going to be, I'd make sure not to have a bag of chalupas between us. His words floated through the air like a delicate memory that severed any thought from my brain, "You're all I can think about anymore."

Chapter 43

I died a hundred times right then.

There would be an obituary in the paper that would say: Katherine Alba Berger, dead at the tender age of twenty-five from the result of a massive heart attack.

Obviously, I didn't die, but my heart did stop beating for all of three seconds. I didn't move. My body, my mouth, and my blood cells ceased to function. I didn't even think any wind blew in those long moments that changed my life forever. At least it seemed like it was one of those moments that I'd remember the rest of my life. I had a few of those: the day I found out my mom died, when I realized I was never going to be an astronaut, and the day I graduated from college. My mind made an etch into the fiber of my tissues of the longing and pained expression on Tristan's beautiful face after he spoke those words.

His eyes darkened at the same time his brows furrowed. "I don't know what to do." Those emerald orbs searched the surface of my face for something as I stood there mute. He brought up his left hand to press the back of it against my face. "I miss you all the fucking time," he admitted softly.

I sucked in a breath and let my brain run away with ideas and emotions. Little pieces of reality seemed to settle into the aftermath that his words left, the fragments cemented together, piecing a puzzle that had done nothing but confuse me for long weeks. The reality of Zoey's words just earlier in the day seemed like such a possibility all of a sudden.

My hands went up aimed for the back of his neck. There they met with soft, thick hair. I used my palms to pull his head down to me without allowing myself to think. Down, down... I pressed my lips against both of his, my cold ones onto his warmer ones. A warm, electric shock zipped up the length of my spine in response. I kissed his full, upper lip with a peck next. Without a second thought, I kissed that pouty bottom lip with both of mine and pulled away to enjoy the current that was still running through my back at our touch.

Tristan stood there with his lips slightly parted and his face pale. "Kat," he said breathlessly after a second without moving his mouth.

My pulse raced in my veins as I took in the look on his face, which resembled more of a mask than anything else. He didn't move an inch for a few moments, making me start to doubt the interpretation I'd taken from his words. Of course, he could have been thinking of me all the time, but maybe because he felt guilty? Or, maybe he missed me for some other reason? Oh my god, I was such an asshole. "Tristan, I'm so sorry—," I started to say, taking a step backward.

Before I could take another step he smashed his lips against mine. Smooth, warm, full flesh pressed against me so abruptly I couldn't think straight. I couldn't get passed the idea that Tristan, my Magellan, was using the perfect lips I'd been eyeing for weeks against mine.

He pulled back just an inch with his peppermint breath heavy on my skin as he head shifted, so that his lips brushed my ear in the most erotic action of my life. "You need to open that sweet mouth for me."

He'd barely completed his sentence before my lips fell apart, and then Tristan was there. His velvet tongue dipped into me, caressing my own so sensually I would've cum in my pants if I were a guy. One mouth slanted against the other, and there was no way I could've known whose did what. I only knew that his tongue stroked mine deeply, and that for the lack of a better explanation, it could only be described as fucking awesome. Tristan's hands gripped my waist tightly, fingers digging into the meaty flesh over my hips. I could feel the pressure on my lower back as he pulled me to him.

It was when he started sucking my bottom lip between his that I reached up to grab two handfuls of auburn hair, thinking to myself that his taste was as addictive as caffeine. I moaned against the heat of his mouth when he crushed my breasts against his chest so tightly it kind of hurt. "Kat," he groaned after he stroked his tongue across the corner of my mouth.

"Dang, Kat! Get! That!" a squeaky voice whooped from down the hall.

If Tristan's lips, tongue, and even his saliva weren't practically miraculous, I may have given a shit at being caught by my neighbor. I didn't even bother to step away from him, instead I just turned my head to look at Christy, my thirty-something neighbor who claimed to have slept with half of the professional athletes in the city. "I would have if you wouldn't have killed the moment," I laughed, feeling the fingers on my hips loosen their grip.

Christy laughed loudly before unlocking the door to her apartment with a wink. "You get some of that for the both of us, girl!" Fortunately, her dark mop of hair disappeared into the apartment a second later.

I looked up at Tristan, who was still standing so closely our chests were pressed together. His cheeks were pulled back into a lazy smirk, but it was his eyes that showed blazing, pure intensity beneath the green. "That wasn't exactly the way I envisioned things happening," he said in a husky voice that managed to affect my uterus.

I blushed and tried to will my brain to think of what to do next since standing in the hallway making out didn't seem like the best idea. "Come inside," I told him, pulling away from his hands to reach for my purse and bag of food.

He grabbed my bags before I did and nodded, smiling and silent. The door was unlocked faster than ever — even the times when I was at the brink of peeing my pants — and we were in my home and on the couch a moment later, sitting next to each other. I was nervous and my lips felt a little chafed from brushing against the scruff of his facial hair. Tristan shifted a few inches over so his muscular thigh pressed against the side of mine, his eyes focused on my face. Rummaging through the bag, I handed him one of the two chalupas waiting to be devoured while I opened mine up. "So, Mag, about that out there..."

A breath of air was sucked in harshly. "Please tell me you don't regret it," he whispered at the end of the inhale.

Was he freaking serious? It would have been easy to play it cool and try to make it seem like our game of tonsil hockey a second ago was perfectly normal but it wasn't. It definitely wasn't normal, and after my up-close and personal encounter with that mouth, it would be pointless and too hard to pretend like there wasn't something there. Something massive, electric, and heavy. This was exactly what Zoey had been trying to tell me to do: make my move.

I leaned into his warm frame and looked up at him from under my eyelashes. "I don't regret it."

Tristan sucked in a ragged breath, shifting his body so that his back nestled into the corner of the couch. His glowing green gaze was steady and wide on me, making my heart rate speed up tenfold. "Would you regret it if I kissed you again?"

I should have told him that we needed to talk about what had just happened; that I deserved to know when he started feeling something for me, when he started missing me the way that he had but I didn't though. Those perfect lips that millions of women paid to recreate were just inches away from my face. I'd tasted those lips, that mouth, that tongue, and I hoped to God I'd be lucid enough to remember to talk to him about everything later. Right then was not the time, and he must have sensed my decision because we both leaned into each other like two impossible magnets meeting out of necessity in the middle.

His lips were on mine. Hot, velvet, and sweet lapped at me with more passion than I could ever comprehend. Tristan sucked my tongue into his mouth, and I moaned in a way that would make Zoey blush. My skin was covered in a feverish rush of blood and the sugary, clean scent that was Tristan. His hands were on my hips, and my hands were trying to pull chalupas off our laps because all I wanted right then was to sit on his face. But I'd settle for his lap.

"Fuck," I groaned into the air when he peeled his mouth off me to trail wet kisses across my jawline then neck. "Oh my...." I stuttered out when his tongue moved to lap against my throat before his lips sucked gently on the sensitive skin there.
Fucking shit. Fucking shit. Fucking shit
. I didn't know what the hell I was doing with my hands at my sides, maybe just opening and closing my fists with each kiss because I was so caught up in him.

Tristan's hands gripped my hips tightly as he pulled me toward him. I wanted to look at the muscles bunching in his forearms, but it was hard enough to remember to breathe when his mouth latched onto various pulse points on my throat. "So good," he mumbled against my skin, so low that I could barely hear him through the rush of blood in my ears.

"Holy..." I whimpered some other unintelligible words as he switched sides to kiss the other side of my neck. His big hands tugged at my waist again, trying to get me over and closer to his lap. I let him roll me so I shifted onto my knees, leaning over him slightly.

One of his hands brushed over my lower back while the other one kept its steady grip on my waist. He was groaning words onto my skin, words I couldn't understand and only partially wanted to. He could've been reciting the alphabet backward for all I knew, or calling me a whore in ten different languages, but when his mouth kept up a trail of open-mouthed kisses across the span of my throat, I heard him groan out my name. My hands had a mind of their own finally and placed themselves on his broad chest for support as he pecked slow kisses on the corners of my mouth like I had done to him just moments before. Warm breath clouded over my flesh as he pulled away with his fingers kneading my hips.