Something Fierce [The Underground 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (2 page)

* * * *

“What a damn douche bag.”

Tristan grabbed her beer from the worn, wooden table and brought it to her lips. She couldn’t help but smile at the irate tone in Kylie’s voice. “Yeah, but I know it was for the best.” It had taken Tristan a week to finally realize that, and when it had hit her a wave of relief had settled within her. She took a long pull from her beer. “Besides, Zac leaving was a long time coming. I’m just glad it was sooner than later.” She should have seen all the signs. His continued absence, his aloofness toward her, the phone calls that he was so secretive about. True, they had not technically been in a relationship, but they had been sleeping together and in Tristan’s eyes they had been close. It was clear Zac had not felt the same way.

Kylie huffed and took a sip of her own beer. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the bastard is gone, but damn, Tristan, the way he did it is like a kick to the balls.”

Tristan chocked on her beer as she listened to her best friend slam Zac. “You don’t have balls, Kylie.”

Kylie rolled her eyes. “I don’t see how you can stay calm over this.” She held her stare for a suspended moment. “You should have listened to me from the beginning.”

Tristan smiled and patted Kylie’s hand. “Listen, Zac was never a permanent thing. I knew that from the beginning. I can admit that getting involved in a sexual relationship with him had been a horrible mistake, but it is done and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“What did you see in him anyway?” Kylie picked up a stale pretzel from the bowl in the center of the table and popped it in her mouth.

“He was good in bed and paid half the rent on time.” She left out the part that she had enjoyed the company of another human being. She didn’t need to look that pathetic.

Kylie screwed up her nose. “You’re a liar.”

Tristan smiled. “You’re right. He wasn’t that good in bed.” They both laughed out loud. “Seriously though, I need to find a new roommate ASAP.”

“It’ll be okay.” Kylie patted her hand in the same way Tristan’s mother used to when she was trying to make her feel better. It didn’t work. “You know I’d move in if I hadn’t already signed a new lease with Jayson.”

“I know. I just can’t afford the house on my own.” Tristan set the empty bottle on the table. Zac had really screwed her over, that was for sure.

* * * *

Tristan sat at her kitchen table and picked at the corner of it. It had been three weeks since Zac had left, and she still wasn’t any closer to finding a new roommate. Oh, the ad in the paper had certainly produced some prospects, but they were either too creepy, too immature, or she just had a bad feeling about them. She knew she needed to push her reservations to the back of her mind if she was ever going to find someone. Rent was due next week and she sure as hell didn’t have enough money to cover it all.

“Fuck you, Zac.” She cursed at the table and grimaced when a splinter slid into her thumb. The fact that he was out of her life wasn’t the issue. Hell, Tristan had seen the signs a mile away. She even welcomed him getting the fuck out, but the fact that he skipped out on her without so much as a word about his intentions, or the fact that he hadn’t given her any time to find a replacement, pissed her the hell off.

The first year of rooming with him had been fine, strictly platonic, but then she had screwed it all up by getting drunk with him one night and letting things escalate. Fucking her roommate hadn’t been the biggest mistake she had ever made. Fucking
Zac
had been the biggest mistake. Even intoxicated she knew he was no good for her, yet the charming persona he played had wooed her panties right off.

Her cell ringing on the table drew her out of her dark thoughts. The small electronic device bounced and vibrated across the table and she picked it up, seeing Kylie’s smiling face on the screen.

“Hey, girl.” Tristan blew out a breath.

“Find a roommate yet?” Kylie sounded overexcited and Tristan wondered what was up.

“No, and my time is running out. I just can’t pick anyone. Hell, look at how that worked out for me last time.”

“Well, I have some news that might make you feel better.”

Tristan’s interest was instantly piqued. “Oh yeah?”

“Jayson’s old frat buddy is moving up from New York this weekend. Originally he was going to crash at our place until he found something, but then I had the brilliant idea to have him move in with you.”

“I don’t know, Kylie.” Tristan bit her lip, hesitant to take Kylie up on her offer to let her boyfriend’s buddy stay with her. She had already screwed up once, and made a bad decision that cost her a lot of grief, but this was Jayson’s friend.

“I know what you’re thinking, but it won’t be weird. I actually think this will be perfect. You can trust Kash. I met him a few times and he seems like a decent guy, very responsible. He works nights so it isn’t like you will see him all that much.”

“Kash? His name is Kash?” She could hear Kylie laugh in the background. Tristan knew she couldn’t be picky, especially since she needed a roommate like, yesterday.

“It is fate, Tristan. His name is Kash and that is just what you need.” Kylie laughed in the background.

Tristan rolled her eyes, still hesitant. “Well, I’d like to meet him first, go over everything, and then if he is still interested we can go from there.”

“Great. He is driving in tonight. Are you free tomorrow?”

They set up a time and Tristan set down the phone. She should have been happy that things were working out. Even though Kash hadn’t agreed to move in with her yet, she felt a twinge of hope that everything would work out.

Chapter Two

Tristan gripped her glass in her hand so tight she was afraid it would shatter. Kash, the man sitting right in front of her, had every head in the café turned toward him. When she thought they would meet to go over everything, Tristan assumed Jayson and Kylie would be there, too. Not the case.

Kash brought his beer to his mouth and swallowed. Tristan couldn’t help but watch his throat work as the liquid went down. The man in front of her was quite possibly the scariest person she had ever seen. With hair so black it looked like coal and eyes so green they looked unreal, Kash Alexander was menacing sitting before her. His body, tall and packed with muscle, barely fit in the seat. The shirt he wore was stretched taut over his powerful frame, with each muscle stretching and flexing with the smallest of movements he made. Tristan swallowed roughly for the hundredth time since she had first met him an hour ago.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I was when Jay told me you needed a roommate.” He took another swig of his beer. “I dreaded staying with Jay and Kylie. I would have been the third wheel.” He smiled, just a tilt of his lips that for some reason had Tristan’s heart pounding.

Although he seemed like he could snap her in half like a twig, his personality was easygoing and almost lighthearted. It certainly wasn’t what she expected out of him when she had seen him walk through the door.

His voice was deep and husky, and if the sheer size of him wasn’t intimidating enough, the tattoos that covered both of his arms and disappeared beneath the sleeves of his shirt would have sealed the deal.

She licked her lips and brought her drink to her mouth. The liquid was cool and should have quenched her thirst, but Tristan couldn’t get rid of the dryness in her throat. When she had found out Kash worked nights, she found a small twinge of disappointment settling inside of her. For the past two years she had been so used to having someone in the house with her at night. When Zac had left, there had been a huge silence that weighed heavy on her every time she laid her head on the pillow to go to sleep. She was glad he was gone, but she had grown used to having another body in the house, alleviating the loneliness. She inwardly shrugged. She would have to deal with it.

It was settled. Kash would move in that weekend and everything would be fine, although she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to happen. She couldn’t place if it was bad or good. She just knew that whatever it was would be monumental.

* * * *

Tristan was certainly lovely, that much was true, but beneath her beauty Kash could sense a sadness and desperation that filled her. He would know that kind of sadness and desperation because it mirrored his own. The pain that she tried so hard to mask could not be hid from someone like him, someone who knew firsthand what it felt like. Maybe that was why he knew the instant he saw her that things might get hairy between them. Maybe that hardness she tried to portray, that façade, was what had his heart beating fast and his palms sweating. He hadn’t been this affected by anything in a long time, not even in his line of work.

It was pure luck that Jayson had informed him that Kylie’s friend needed a roommate. Although he didn’t believe in things just falling into a person’s lap out of sheer luck, he couldn’t deny that the timing had been perfect. Maybe too perfect. He had always been leery of things falling into place.

He didn’t know much about her and that was exactly how he would like to keep it. Sure, she was beautiful, but he wasn’t here looking for a woman. He was here to make his money and then when the time arose he would move on to the next thing. That was his life now and he was content. As long as they both knew that this arrangement was exactly how it appeared. He didn’t need the extra drama nor want it. He needed a place to sleep, that was all. Although as he thought this he couldn’t help but watch her lick her bottom lip. Her little pink tongue peeked out from her lush lips, sliding along her slightly fuller bottom lip, and causing a spike of lust to shoot straight to his crotch. His pants started to become increasingly tight and uncomfortable and he shifted in his seat. He might want to keep some distance but he wasn’t blind to how attracted to her he was. This might be harder than he thought.

* * * *

Jayson held one end of the mattress while Kash held the other. Tristan couldn’t help smiling as she watched the two of them try and maneuver it up the stairs. They all had worked diligently that day moving Kash in, and as the sun was starting to set the exhaustion started to settle in.

“Want to order in or something?” Kylie sat beside her at the kitchen table and nudged her with her shoulder.

“No thanks, I’m beat.” Tristan kept her eyes on the boys, and couldn’t help but stare at the way Kash’s muscles flexed and bunched under the white tee that stretched across his chest. “I think I’m just going to take a shower and head to bed.”

Kylie sighed. “He’s gotten bigger since the last time I saw him.”

Tristan looked over at Kylie and then back at Kash. Tristan smiled. “Did you forget Jayson is right there?” Tristan teased Kylie and leaned her shoulder into hers.

“I love Jayson, don’t get me wrong, but holy damn, Tristan. You can’t tell me that isn’t one fine piece of ass right there.”

Tristan felt Kylie’s eyes on her and turned her gaze away from the boys. “What?”

“Don’t act like you don’t like what you see, especially since I’ve seen you watching the way his muscles move under his shirt.”

Tristan wasn’t about to lie to Kylie. Kash was gorgeous. That was for sure. With his olive-toned skin a stark contrast to the white T-shirt he wore, the sweat glistening on his exposed flesh, and the muscle upon muscle straining with every move he made, Kash was handsome as much as he was mysterious.

“What did you say he did again for work?”

Kylie shrugged. “I’m not really sure. I thought it had to do with security or something like that, but when I asked Jayson he was very evasive.” Kylie’s eyes lit up and she spoke in a hushed whisper. “Tristan, maybe he is like, Secret Service or something.”

Tristan rolled her eyes. “I doubt if he was Secret Service he would be living with a roommate in a cramped house in this rinky-dink town.”

“I don’t mean
the
Secret Service. I mean like, a personal bodyguard or something.”

Tristan mulled that over. It was feasible, especially with a build like that. “Oh well, I guess it’ll just be another mystery.”

Once everything of Kash’s was where it should be and Jayson and Kylie left, Tristan flopped on the couch and laid her head against the back of it. She closed her eyes and heard the shower upstairs turn on. Despite the fact she needed to keep her thoughts out of the gutter, a lone one strayed forward. He was naked right above her, in her house. She shook her head and opened her eyes, staring at the white stucco ceiling above her. The floorboards creaked with each step he took. She closed her eyes again and felt the heavy weight of sleep trying to drag her into oblivion. She didn’t fight it.

“Tristan?”

She felt herself getting pulled from sleep and opened her eyes, blinking a few times. The TV was on and nothing else. She didn’t remember turning it on. The glow from the screen cast a blue haze in the living room.

“Tristan?”

She turned her head and blinked a few more times, trying to decipher if what she was seeing was correct. Kash stood at the end of the couch in nothing but a pair of low-hanging sweats. Despite the lack of light in the room, she could see every dip, hollow, and bulge of muscle in his chest.