Something Fierce [The Underground 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (5 page)

“I’m so stupid.” She covered her face and cried. She couldn’t help it. The tears flowed and her body shook. She cried because she was a moron for getting in that situation, she cried because she should have known better than to drink an open container, and she cried because she was embarrassed Kash had seen it all and had to clean up her mess.

Her shoulders fell forward as the sobs overtook her. “I’m so sorry I got you in the middle of that. Thank you, though. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” If Kash hadn’t been there she didn’t want to think about what would have happened. In the next instant she was in his arms, crying harder than she had ever cried.

“You have nothing to apologize for. If you hadn’t been there, watching the whole thing, sick from whatever that motherfucker gave you, I would have killed him, easily.”

Tristan pulled away from him and sniffed. His words were matter-of-fact and dead serious. The look on his face confirmed he meant every word. He lifted her chin with his finger and stared into her eyes. She got lost in those green depths.

“You were my guardian angel last night.”

He smiled but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Nah, I just was at the right place at the right time.” He smoothed a lock of hair off her forehead. “I promise he won’t bother you again. No one will.” His declaration startled her. He was so firm with it, yet he hardly knew her.

After a suspended moment of them just staring at each other, he finally pulled away and stood. “Kylie wants you to call her when you get up.” He walked toward the door and stopped before he left. “I’ll bring you up some aspirin and something to eat.”

The idea of food turned her stomach, but she knew she had to eat something. She reached for her phone, saw Kylie had called a dozen times, and knew she would soon get an earful.

When she brought the phone to her ear, she had to grit her teeth in pain as the earsplitting ringtone came through the receiver.

“Oh my God, Tristan. Are you okay?”

Kylie’s screech came through too loud, and Tristan pulled the phone away, wincing in the process. “I’m okay, but don’t talk so loud. I have the mother of all headaches.” She could hear Kylie crying in the background. “Hey, why are you crying? Is everything okay with
you
?”

“You are such a bitch to worry me like that.” She sniffed once and Tristan could hear tissue being pulled out of a box. “When I couldn’t find you last night I started to freak out, but then I saw your car still in the driveway so I assumed you were just talking with that guy you met in the kitchen.”

His face came back to mind and her stomach turned once again. “Who was he anyway? The only thing he told me was his first name, Max.”

“The crazy thing is we have no clue, no one does that we asked. By the time he showed up, everyone was either too drunk to question who the hell he was, or they assumed someone else from the party brought him.” She sniffed again. “Jayson and I can’t help but feel like this is all our fault, Tristan.”

“It isn’t you guys’ fault.” Kylie didn’t respond, but Tristan could hear her friend gently sniffing. “Don’t cry. I’m just glad Kash was there, Kylie.” Tristan shivered at the memory. “I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if he hadn’t been there.” Tristan debated whether or not to tell Kylie how Kash had beat the shit out of Max. In the end, she had to tell her because she couldn’t believe it.

“He almost killed him, Kylie,” she whispered, not wanting Kash to hear.

“Good. It’s a fucking shame he didn’t. I swear to everything that is holy, Tristan, if I saw him walking down the street I would kick his ass, too.”

Tristan couldn’t help but smile at the image that conjured. Kylie was all of five foot two inches. To see her kick anyone’s ass would have been comical.

“He was frightening, Kylie. The way he hit him, it was like nothing I have ever seen.” Despite the haze of whatever drug Max had given her clouding her mind and body, Tristan remembered how Kash looked under the moonlight. His muscles straining, his body arching as he repeatedly hit Max. He had been a machine.

“You should have seen him recounting last night’s events to Jayson. He was so…intense about it.” Kylie cleared her throat. “Listen, I’m going to come over later.”

“You don’t have to, really. I think I just want to sleep the rest of the day.” There was a beat of silence and Tristan knew what was about to come.

“No, I will come over and make sure my best friend is okay.”

Tristan breathed out, but before she could respond, Kash came in with a tray in hand. He set it on her bed and she looked at the bottle of aspirin, the tall glass of water, and the two pieces of unbuttered toast that sat atop it. She couldn’t help the way her heart skipped a beat. Here was this incredibly frightening man that towered over her and filled the entire room, bringing her food and trying to make her feel better.

“Tristan? Did you hear me? I’m going to come over later.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then.” She ended the call and smiled. “Thank you so much, for everything.”

He ran his hand over the back of his neck, and she wondered if she had embarrassed him. It seemed hard to believe that a man like Kash could be embarrassed. He turned to leave and her heart pounded.

“Wait.” He turned and looked at her. “Will you sit with me for a little while?” He didn’t respond and she felt herself grow nervous. “Please.” The idea of being alone, even though it was daylight and she was in her own home, scared her. She didn’t know why, but the thought of having him near calmed her immeasurably.

He didn’t say anything, just turned and walked back toward her. When he sat on the bed it dipped and she leaned forward slightly. She ate her toast and drank her water in silence, but the fact that he was there was all she needed. It was like whatever had happened last night sealed something in her. She couldn’t speak for him, but she was thankful he had come into her life.

“Are you feeling any better?”

She finished her water and nodded. “A little. When the painkillers kick in I’m sure I’ll feel a lot better.” He nodded in affirmation and turned to look out the window. She studied his profile. His facial hair was starting to grow in, nothing much, just a dark shadow that told her he hadn’t shaved today. He was completely masculine in every way, so much so that Tristan felt heat rise inside of her just from staring at him. Did he have this effect on every woman he came across? She wouldn’t doubt it. When he faced her again she couldn’t help but be taken aback by the color of his eyes. They were so green and bright they seemed to pierce the very depth of her body.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you for what you did last night. You saving me from—” She shook her head and looked down at her comforter. “Thank you again.” When he didn’t say anything she glanced up at him.

“You don’t have to thank me, Tristan.”

Hearing him say her name was like a punch in the stomach. Her heart thundered and her blood raced. He watched her closely, like he knew what she was thinking even before she said it.

“You shouldn’t put yourself in a situation like that. There are a lot of guys out there that won’t stop when you say no.” He took her hand in his and she could feel the heat right to her bones. “They will see how beautiful you are and won’t stop until they get what they want.”

Beautiful? He thinks I’m beautiful?

Her cheeks had to be on fire, because they sure as hell felt like it. She cleared her throat and looked down again, not able to hold his stare. She had never been good with compliments. He squeezed her hand and she forced herself to bring her head up.

“I guess I was lucky you didn’t have to work last night.” She laughed, trying to change the subject because she suddenly felt uncomfortable. She didn’t mention that Kylie had said he would be at the party but she hadn’t seen him. It was a good thing anyway, because if he had been at the party he wouldn’t have been at her house saving her.

“What do you do anyway, if you don’t mind me asking?”

He let go of her hand and cleared his throat. “I—” He stopped talking and brought his eyes back to hers. “I don’t want to lie to you, so I’m just not going to answer that right now.”

Okay.

He stood and made his way to the door, stopping only to glance over his shoulder and smile at her. “Get some rest.” He turned and was gone and Tristan was left sitting on her bed, pondering what the hell just happened.

Chapter Six

A few weeks after “the incident,” Tristan was starting to feel better about everything that had happened. She wouldn’t say she was completely healed, but she knew she was slowly getting there. When she wasn’t at work and Kash wasn’t MIA, doing whatever his secret job was in the middle of the night, they would watch TV together. It wasn’t the most spectacular thing to do, but Tristan found herself looking forward to it every week. It had become a weekly tradition. She found, through that one day a week of watching movies with him, that she had labeled Kash before she had truly known him. Yes, he was a badass, and yes, he could probably kill someone with just his bare hands, but he was also insightful, kind, generous, and had the same raunchy sense of humor as she did.

There was a connection between them. At least
she
felt a connection. Kash was too independent, too silent, and too hard to have to rely on anyone, like she did. Aside from Kylie and Jayson, Tristan didn’t hang out or talk to other people. So the fact that Kash was here, willing to spend time with her, even if he was silent a lot of it, made her grateful.

“You want a beer?” Tristan called out to the living room as she opened the fridge.

“Yeah, please,” Kash called back from the living room.

Tonight was their weekly movie night. Tristan had the beer and the snacks in hand as she made her way back out to the living room.

“Scary or funny?”

She didn’t have to think about it long. “Scary, definitely.” Horror movies were always her favorite, and although she freaked out every time, was afraid of the dark, and swore she heard something in her closet after watching them, she couldn’t stop. She was a glutton for fear.

Kash put the DVD in and turned around with a big smile on his face. “Good, because I just got this new one and it is gonna be good.” He sat beside her on the couch, grabbed a beer, and popped the cap.

Tristan grabbed the blanket that was over the back of the couch and covered herself with it. When she saw the opening scene she rolled her eyes and looked at Kash who wore a big grin. “Really?” The soft porn scene before her was poorly shot. The two unsuspecting soon-to-be victims rubbed on each other in the middle of the woods.

“What?” His eyebrows were raised in mock disbelief.

“I should have known you would pick something cheesy like this.” The murderer came charging through the woods just as the couple reached climax. He brought his knife down, killed both of them gruesomely, and disappeared in the woods again.

“What a way to go. Killed right as you come.”

Tristan choked on her drink and Kash reached behind her to pat her on the back. “You have such a way with words.” She wheezed the sentence out as she tried and failed to hold in her laughter.

He put his arm over the couch, right behind her, which made her acutely aware of how close he really was. They sat in silence for the rest of the god-awful movie, and when the last scene played, Tristan rolled her eyes again. Of course the two lone survivors felt the need to have sex to celebrate the fact they hadn’t been killed. Instead of getting as far away from the murderer and the woods as they could, they thought fucking in an abandoned cabin was safe enough.

As their clothes started to slowly come off, Tristan became more aware of Kash sitting beside her. She could see him out of her peripheral vision, and she wondered if the scene, cheesy as it may be, was having the same effect on him as it was on her. First there was kissing, then there was panting, and soon their sweaty bodies were rocking together. These types of movies had never had a sexual effect on her before, but being this close to Kash, smelling his incredible cologne, feeling his body heat surround her, she found herself turned on beyond belief.

Just one look, that was all she wanted. She turned her head just slightly, just enough to see if that stoic, hard mask on his face had faltered. He wasn’t watching the screen. No, he was staring right at her. He seemed unaffected, as usual. While she was breathing heavier, and her pulse was beating harder, he just sat there looking at her.

Her lips felt too dry and she licked them as the sound of the couple having sex seemed to be amplified in the room. Kash’s gaze dipped down to her mouth and her breathing stalled. Was this really happening? Were they having a
moment
? This was wrong, wrong on so many levels. She would not,
could
not do this again. He was her roommate, for fuck’s sake.
Look at how that turned out last time.
Kash was so much different than Zac, though. For one thing he wasn’t a douche bag. For another, Tristan felt this pull toward him. With Zac it had been all about sex. They didn’t have movie night once a week and they certainly didn’t joke around. Kash and she were able to talk, or they could sit next to each other and say nothing at all, but it was comfortable, not forced.