Tangled (10 page)

Tess
huddled deeper under the covers and feigned sleep as she heard her roommate get
up. More than two hours had passed since Jade had opened the door with
bleary-eyed annoyance. One look at Tess’s tear-stained face and she’d
immediately ushered her inside. Instead of bombarding her with a hundred
million questions, Jade told her they’d discuss it after she got some rest.

As
if she needed sleep. What she needed was a case of amnesia.

“You
want to talk now or later?” Jade’s voice drifted from the furthest side of the
room.

Tess
burrowed deeper beneath the sheets. “Preferably never.” There was a silent
pause. Her bed dipped with added weight.

“Come
on. You’ll feel better afterwards.”

“I
did something stupid.”

“I’m
assuming it involved not doing Cam?”

Fear
of judgment and recrimination made her hold off on the truth. Though she loved
Jade dearly, Tess didn’t trust her with the uncut edition. She lowered the
sheets. “I kind of slept with someone else.”

Jade’s
eyes bulged. “I’m sorry, I must have heard you wrong. Did you just say you had
sex with someone other than Cameron? Your one and only?”

It
sounded even worse when she said it like that. “It was a spur of the moment
thing. With a guy from my sociology class,” she lied unconvincingly.

“Bullshit,”
Jade said, her expression still caught between downright shock and utter
disbelief.

“It
wasn’t a big deal, especially since I saw Cameron with someone else after I
waited three hours for him to come home.” Tess didn’t bother weeding the
bitterness from her voice. “I ended up throwing out the entire dinner.”

Her
features softened. “Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry.”

Tess
groaned and dragged the covers over her head. “I feel such a whore.”

“The
hell you are.” Jade snatched away the duvet. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Not
when Cam’s plowing his dick into every chick within a ten mile radius.”

“Thank
you for that stunning visual.”

The
tinkling of wind chimes cut Jade’s next response short. “Now what.” She
recovered her phone from the nightstand and grimaced at the picture splayed on
the screen. “It’s Cam.”

Tess
shot up. “Don’t answer it.”

“I
can’t not answer it or else he’ll know something’s up. I may have texted him to
tuck you in and give you a good night kiss for me last night,” she said with a
wince.

Blood
leeched from her face. “Jade!”

“What?
I thought everything was going according to the plan. And when he responded
this morning having no idea what I was talking about, I freaked. I thought you
died!”

“No,
no, just hanging out in another guy’s bed,” she muttered.

“Hush.”
Jade accepted the call. “Hey Cam, what’s up? Don’t worry, she's here.” Tess
mimed vicious throat slashing motions. “I mean was here. She left. For class.”

Tess
slapped her forehead.

“It’s
Saturday?
Haha
, seriously?
The days are starting to blend together.” Jade
floundered helplessly. “I don’t know when she’ll be back in a few. Oh, did she?
You’re going to bring her purse over? Um, ok, well see you in a few.” She hung
up. “He’s dropping by in ten minutes.”

“Fuck.”
Tess flung off the covers, ignored the soreness between her legs, and flew into
their walk-in closet.

“Is
running away really the best idea? You’re going to have to face him sometime.”
Jade flopped on her bed as Tess flitted from the closet to the dresser.

Winding
her hair into a bun, Tess shimmied into a pair of sweat pants, sports bra, and
a tank. “This isn’t running away. This is self-preservation.” Tess slid on a
pair of low-cut socks and stuffed her feet into her tennis shoes. She unscrewed
the cap to a bottle of aspirin and dry-swallowed two capsules. “I’m not in the
right state of mind at the moment.”

“Are
you ever in the right state of mind when it comes to him?”

Tess
glared at her as she pocketed her ID and IPod. “Can I borrow your checkpoint?
I’ll be at the gym. Don’t tell him I’m there.”

“My
lips are sealed.” Jade swiped hers from the nightstand and tossed it at
her.
 
“Wait, what am I supposed to
tell Cam?”

“I
don’t know. Be creative. And more creative than that last lie.” Tess slipped
out before the other girl could reply. Usually she had no problem grabbing life
by the balls and taking shit as it came. Now one thing went wrong and she
hauled ass. Luckily, a good exercise regime always provided the perfect remedy
for clearing a cloudy mind
.

Besides
diehard workout
freaks, the gym was
relatively empty.
Intending to use this rare opportunity of having the entire indoor track to
herself, she stretched and bumped out several laps. Two miles later, she still
had excess energy to burn. Figuring a cardio machine would knock out the rest,
she walked to the aerobics center.

She
froze in the entryway. Her luck couldn’t be this bad. It was inconceivable. She
stifled the automatic response to abandon ship. Tess had never yielded to him.
Why should now be any different? So what if they had screwed each other’s
brains out no less than three times?

Tess
strode purposefully toward Adonis, who pumped gray, cast iron barbells.

No,
pumping wouldn’t quite describe the way he effortlessly catapulted the bar into
the air. It descended, metal rattling as he caught the weights a hair’s breadth
from his chest before hauling it up again. His pace was unbroken, relentless.

Just
like last night.
 

An
ache blossomed in the pit of her stomach.

Against
her better judgment, her gaze dropped. Perspiration dampened the flexing sinew
of his biceps. Drenched, his white wife beater molded so tightly to his torso
she could make out each individual ridge of his abdominal muscles.

The
clank of barbells settling in the rack rattled Tess from stupor. “Can’t get
enough of me? If you’re looking for a replay, there’s no need for stalking. All
you have to do is ask.”

“Don’t
flatter yourself. I always work out Saturday mornings,” she bristled. Well,
Saturday mornings when she wasn’t too
hungover
. “And
trust me, the only replay you’ll be getting is in your dreams.”

“I’m
not so sure about that.” He sprang to his feet and reached for her. Her skin
tightened. But his hand slid past her for the towel hanging from the bracket of
weights. And by his knowing smirk, her reaction hadn’t been missed.

“Fuck
you.”

“We
already did that. Several times.” Adonis toweled dried his damp hair. “I find
it hard to believe that you didn’t follow me here for round two.”

“Round
two? Please. Round one barely passed as adequate.”

His
eyes flashed. “Adequate?” Without warning, he snagged her elbow and all but
manhandled Tess into one of the few, secluded areas of the fitness center’s
rotund assembly. “That’s funny coming from the girl who passed out from
multiple orgasms,” he murmured.

Tess
adhered to the wall, her heart racing. “I hadn’t had sex in three years. What
did you expect?”

His
mouth sloped into a half-smile. “So that’s what you’re fishing for; you want
acknowledgement of your so-called celibacy. Fine, but if you think it changes
anything, you’re mistaken.”

With
consummate efficiency, his thigh nudged her legs apart and hiked Tess up so
that she straddled him. He claimed her mouth before she could react. There was
no finesse or easing into the kiss, only the insistent catch and release of
lips, teeth, and tongue.

And
it was all she could do not to respond. Her fingers twitched, aching to curl in
the shaggy length of his hair. The familiarity of his smell, his taste, his
touch, drove a hard spike of need through her resistance. God help her, her
treasonous body actually wanted him again.

Clinging
to her tenuous hold on sanity, Tess did the only thing that could break the
spell.

She
head-butted him.

He
staggered back in surprise, allowing Tess to unsaddle herself from his thigh.
“What part of there will be no round two didn’t you understand?”

Adonis
stared at her, outrage slowly taking the place of shock. “Did you just fucking
head-butt me?”

“Get
over it. And get over what happened between us. The only reason I slept with
you was because of emotional duress and too much wine. If anything, you took
advantage of me.” Emboldened
by his
silence, she drilled an index finger into his sweat-soaked
pec
.
“And I suggest you keep it to yourself because as far as I’m concerned, it
never happened.”

Any
confidence telling him off had garnered was quickly dispelled when he seized
her hand. “How about you keep your suggestions to yourself, because I have a
better solution.” He bent close, his breath warm and feather light. “I won’t
tell Cameron on one condition.”

“Which
would be? Stay away from him?” If she had a nickel for every time she heard
that one.

“Not
at all.” His thumb ghosted her forearm. “You two should remain friends.
But just friends.
If he wants anything more, you’re going to
turn him down.”

“He’s
not going to buy that,” she said weakly.

“Oh,
he will. Especially when you mention that you’re seeing someone else.”

“Get
the hell out of here.”

He
grabbed the waistband of her shorts and yanked her into him. Heat torched her
at the feel of his semi-hardness. “I wonder what our friend would say after I
told him what a scheming, whoring little bitch you are and how you jumped at
the first chance to fuck me. In fact…” his hand slid up her thigh, “we’ve been
fucking on and off for a few years.”

Emotion
roped around her neck. “He won’t believe you.”

“Won’t
he? Who’s story do you think he’ll buy? The guy he’s been
friends
with since birth or some lonely urchin he picked up off the street? My money’s
on the former.”

Why
did he seem bound and determined to rip her self-respect to shreds at every turn?
“So, you want me to tell the guy I love that I’m in a relationship with someone
who doesn’t exist. Should I put in an application to a convent?”

“I’m
not a complete monster.” He brushed a taunting finger along her collarbone. “Maybe
there’ll be something in it for you.”

“I’m
not sure what keeps your sluts coming back, but it definitely has nothing to do
with your bedside manner,” she said acidly and shrugged him off.

Growling,
Adonis nabbed her arm before she could walk off. “Don’t disappoint me, wildcat.
Who knows what could slip out by accident.
”
He
returned to his workout as if he hadn’t just issued her an ultimatum of a most
insidious nature.

_________________

Cameron
was in the middle of a heated debate with Jade on the ethics of big businesses for
their Econ course when Tess burst into the room. He trailed off mid-sentence.
Fresh from her work out, color rode high on her cheeks. Sweet sheened the
defined lines of her arms and calves and misted the voluptuous spill of
cleavage, rising and falling above the top of her tank.

Cameron
guiltily shifted his eyes back to her face. “Hey.”