Senseless Attraction (24 page)

      “Alexandra?” Tristan said.

      “Hmm?”

      He chuckled. “We’re here.” He unbuckled his seat belt and climbed out of the car. Before he had a chance to come around my side, I quickly got out.

      I walked up to the front door, unlocked it, and then turned on the lounge light. Without stopping, I made my way into the kitchen. To do what, I wasn’t sure.

      I stopped at the kitchen bench and gripped it.

      My dad was going to be okay.

      That was good.

      No, that was more than good.

      I felt that I should have been crying, but I’d done enough on the way to the hospital, and now the relief of knowing that he was going to be fine overrode anything.

      I felt happy.

      Exhausted, but content.

      “Alexandra?”

      “Hmm?”

      This felt familiar.

      Another chuckle. “I think it’d be good if you got some sleep.”

      “Hmm.”

      His heat hit my back. I felt his hands at my shoulders, turning me and gently ushering me out of the kitchen, down the hall, and up the stairs to my room. We stopped at the threshold.

      “Tristan,” I said.

      “Yeah, baby?”

      Oh, my. That sounded good.

      “T—thank you,” I stuttered. He wrapped his arms around my chest and brought my back flush with his front. “I—I want to thank you for
everything
you’ve done for me tonight.”

      “You don’t need to. I’m glad I was there.”

       I nodded.

      “Baby, go and get ready for bed. You must be tired.”

      “Yes.”

      His lips touched my neck, right near my shoulder. Before I could react, he gently shoved me forward.

      “I’ll go turn everything off.”

      Turning, I called, “Tristan.”

      He poked his head around the corner. “Yeah?”

      “A—are you going? I mean, is Sarah waiting for you? Or Aaron, for his car?”

      “Nah, none of the above. I’ll be back in a second,” he said and disappeared.

      I quickly got out of my clothes and into my pyjamas, which consisted of guy boxers and tee. My heart was in overdrive.

      He was coming back.

      Here in my room?

      With me?

      Pulling back my covers of my queen bed, I climbed in and brought the covers up to my chin.

       Tristan walked in seconds later, and without looking at me, he pulled his tee over his head in one smooth move. He had his jeans off in the next second, and I had another moment to admire his body before he flung back the covers and climbed in.

      He rolled to his side facing me, and said, “The house is all locked up and everything is turned off. Time for some sleep, babe.”

      As I lay on my back with my head turned towards him, I thought how lucky I was to have him as a friend. What also crossed my mind was how the temperature in the room seemed to be at a boiling point. Or it could have had something to do with the fact that Tristan was in my bed.

      With me.

      “You all right?” Tristan asked.

      “Mm-hm.”

      I was all right. I was more than all right. My dad was healing; he was going to get better.

      The covers were moving. They were tugged from my tight grip and Tristan lifted them and moved closer to me. His arm wrapped around my waist, and he moved me so I was facing the window and he was at my back, hugging me to him.

       It was so sweet that it made me want to cry.

       I think my stupid crush just escalated to a full-blown one.

      Deep, heart-wrenching feelings flew through my veins.

      “Alexandra?”

      “Hmm?”

      He chuckled. “Babe, do you usually sleep with your glasses on?”

      I was such a nerd.

      “No,” I said, but made no move to remove them. I was way too warm, comfortable, and content.

      “I can see in these types of situations you turn into a zombie.” He laughed. His breath fanned the back of my neck. He reached over and slowly took my glasses from my face. I felt him roll onto his back and heard him place them onto my bedside table. The bed dipped as he rolled back and brought me tightly against him once again with his arm around my waist.

      “Tristan?” I whispered to the room.

      “Yeah?”

      “Thank you for staying. You can be really sweet…um, I mean, ah…nice.”

      He said nothing, but I didn’t miss that he tensed at my words. Had I said the wrong thing? I was only telling him what I felt…so maybe that was wrong.

    
 I was near sleep-land when I heard his reply, “No, I’m anything but nice.”

W
armth from another body was something that had never woken me before. I opened my eyes and had a semi-freak out. I knew it was Kane, but having him there, in my bed with me, and everything he’d seen last night made my already wild emotions go crazier.  I wanted to roll over and attack him. I wanted to kiss, lick, hug, and touch him in every way. I wanted to cry, smile, sing, and scream how happy he made my heart feel.

      He wasn’t like all the others…he was different; he was special.

      But he also wasn’t for me.

      And he never would be.

      We were too different. His mother would never accept someone like me in his life, and I would never want to come between Kane and his family.

       Even if she was a bitch with a capital B.

      That was his life. He was used to money. He’d never have to struggle in life, and I knew that being with me, his life would be full of struggle, full of regret, and I could never do that to him.

       He needed to go back to Donna…that was, if they were actually still broken up.

      He shifted behind me and rubbed the front of his body to my back.

      Did he think I was Donna?

      I needed to get up, but I knew this was the only chance I would get having Kane this close to me again, and I wanted to cherish it a little longer.

      “Morning,” he whispered behind me, and then got up on his elbow to look at me over my shoulder. His smile was pure magic.

      I wanted to cry.

      “H—hey.” My voice broke.

      “You okay?”

      I shrugged. He moved my hair gently over my shoulder, sending tingles down my back.

      “I need to get up,” I said, and flung the cover from my body. I went to get out of bed, until his arm wound around my waist and pulled me back against him. But apparently, that wasn’t enough; he moved me so I was lying on my back and he was looking down at me with a concerned expression upon his face, his brows drawn together.

      “Skylar…”

      “I—I have to get to the hospital.”

      “I’ll take you in a minute.”

      “No. I’ll take a bus; you should get home.”
To Donna.

      He closed his eyes and when he opened them, all I saw was warmth and humour. “Don’t close me out,” he whispered. “I know you’re probably freaked about a lot of things…but don’t close me out, please.”

      It was my turn to close my eyes, so I could block out his kind words and the tears that threatened to break free; only to open them wide in shock when I felt his lips upon mine.

      Holy heck.

      I wasn’t strong enough for this. I wasn’t strong enough to push him away.

      One time wouldn’t hurt…right?

      I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought him closer. He took the hint and deepened the kiss; our tongues fought for control.

     His hand threaded through my hair, tightly gripping it, causing me to moan against his mouth. That must have urged him on because his hand left my hair and went down to my waist to slip up the tee I was wearing. I’d put it on during the night because I was no longer comfortable in the dress I had been wearing.

     His finger gently stroked my stomach, causing butterflies to take flight. My own hands left his neck and made their way down his back to slip under his shirt.

      I woke out of my kissing slumber when I felt his finger trace under my boob. I broke free from the kiss and pushed against his chest.

       “No.”

      “Shit. Sorry. God, I’m sorry.” He rested his forehead against mine. “I seem to get carried away where you’re concerned.” He smiled.

      I pushed against his chest again and he moved back to look down at me. “I…” Hell, this was going to hurt me, but it had to be done. I glared up at him. “Just because you didn’t get what you wanted from Donna last night, doesn’t mean I’m the easy target, just ‘cause I’m all messed up right now.”

      “Sky, I would never—”   

      “Save it for your girlfriend. Move. I need to get showered and changed.”

      He smiled, and then he started chuckling. Which pissed me off.

      “Move,” I snapped.

      “No. I see what you’re doing. Giving me your attitude when things start getting too much for you. But it won’t work. Yes, I shouldn’t have…well, you know. Still, it had nothing to do with Donna and what she offered me last night. Because honestly, she was far from my mind, and has been since I sat down at our history desk. You are the one who consumes my thoughts these days.” He ran his finger gently over my cheek.

      “Don’t. Don’t do this; you’re not thinking straight. Things got carried away and now you’re thinking with what’s down there.” I gestured with my eyes to his lower half. “When things settle down, you’ll regret everything you’ve just said. This…us, won’t work. I don’t want it to. I never think of you. I don’t want you.”

      He laughed. I punched his chest.

      “All right, babe. I see this was too soon and too much for you to handle right now. But let me tell you, before I let you crawl back into your hard shell, that I know when you’re lying. You want this.
You
want
me
, and no matter how much you fight, I’ll keep coming back for more until I wear you down.”

      My heart exploded. That was the only excuse I had for staring at him, flabbergasted. I had never known Kane to be this…sure of himself before.

      He chuckled. “I can see I’ve shocked you, so we’ll leave things…for now.” He pecked me on the lips and rolled away, placing his hand behind his head and smiling like he just won the lottery.

      “Get a move on, Sky. I’ve got to drop you off, go home, shower, and come pick you up again.”

      I shook my head to clear it. Did he really say everything he just said?

      “Um, no. I mean, you can’t pick me up. Um, Jessie said she was.” I needed time away from him to gain back my sanity.

      “Really? And when did you organise this?” He smiled.

      Damn.

      “Ah…” I sat up and placed my feet on the floor. Taking a deep breath, I said, “Kane, I—I just…please, let me just have some time.”

      “So you can convince with yourself that this isn’t right? No.”

     I stood, turned, and glared down at him with my hands on my hips. “Kane. I don’t need this right now. My momma was shot last night; all my thoughts are wrapped tightly around her, and then you just dump all this shit on me right now? When all I want is to hurry and go to the hospital to see her. Do you think this is fair? You need to get it through your thick head that we are never going to happen. You still have a girlfriend for God’s sake,” I shouted.

      He was in front of me in a second, his hands at my waist, and pulled me forward so we were toe-to-toe. “My timing does suck; I’ll give you that. But I want you to understand that I do
not
have a girlfriend. And no, this wasn’t fair to drop all this on you right now…so I’ll wait. I know you’ll have more defences up, but I’ll knock them down, and any excuse you give me won’t be enough. This…us…is happening. Now, go shower, babe.” With that, he kissed me on my nose, turned me, and gently shoved me forward. My body did the rest; it grabbed clothes and went off to the bathroom for a shower.

      My mind was still spinning from this new Kane and the way he was making me feel.