Tangled (36 page)

Her
belly dropped as his lips lazily trailed the arch of her neck. The contrast of
his cool, minted breath and gentle nipping of his teeth produced frissons that jolted
to her extremities. Tess fisted his shirt, trying to send him a desperate
message to bestow her mouth with the same kind of attention. Her heart raced as
he neared her chin. Her lips throbbed with anticipation. Frustration caught in her
throat when he bypassed them for her earlobe.

“You’re
such a tease,” she said breathily.

“And
you aren’t?” He moved without warning and branded her mouth with a rough,
bruising kiss. “Everything about you is provocative.” He guided her hand to the
erection straining his pants. Need wired through her midsection. “Just thinking
about you does this to me.” His hand maneuvered under her shirt to trace the
ridges of her spine. “Now who’s the tease?”

Tess
couldn’t recall how many times they’d gone at it, but it was never enough. He’d
turned her into a junkie. An addict.

Unable
to stand the craving, she attacked his mouth. They fell into the adjacent wall.
In one smooth motion, he hitched her up. Her legs locked around his waist.
 

A
cry tore from her lungs as the rough pad of this thumb brushed over her
hardened nipple. She felt as if her body was slowly inching toward heaven with
every demanding tug of his teeth and stroke of his tongue and swivel of his dexterous
hips, grinding so deep into her Tess didn’t know where she stopped and he
began.

A
throat cleared.

They
froze mid-movement.

“Don’t
mind me,” Jade said dryly.

Adonis
eased her back onto her feet. “I’ll catch you later,” he said, voice rumbling
with equal parts resistance and annoyance. He planted a possessive kiss on her forehead.

Tess
waited until the door closed after him before blurting, “I can explain.”

“I’m
sure you can.” Jade placed her purse on her desk.

Tess
frowned at her offhand attitude. “Look, I’m not cheating on Cameron, if that’s
what you’re worried about. We broke up.”
Sort of.

“Did
you now?” she returned, sarcasm dripping.

“What
the hell your problem?”

“What
do you want me to say, Tess?” Jade said angrily. “I don’t know what know to
think. And do you know why? Because my supposed best friend always springs shit
on me. She doesn’t tell me anything anymore. And now that I think about it,
she’s never told me anything: not about her past or her family or anything of
importance. I feel like I don’t even know her, which is pretty sad since I
consider a best friend.”

The
color drained from her face. “J, I-”

Jade
silenced her with a hand. “She bails on me over break when she was supposed to
come down for a visit. She’s so wrapped up in her own little world that she never
responded to my calls. My grandfather passed a few weeks ago and my best friend
didn’t bother to give a damn.”

Shock
capsized her. “Jade, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I
know you didn’t. But I see what was keeping you busy. Best of luck to you with
that one.”

“Jade-”
 

“Don’t
worry about it. You know my mother always told me girls don’t really have
friends. They have other girls they hang out with until they get boyfriends.”
An embittered smile stole across her face. “Now do you see why I didn’t want to
fall into a relationship too quickly with Lance? I didn’t want to buy into that.
So much for girl power, huh.”

Tess
squeezed her eyes shut. “Jade.”

“It’s
fine, really. I hope Adonis is worth everything.” She slid the strap to her
purse over her shoulder. “I spoke to housing. They’re letting me move into a
single. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I just need my space this
semester.”

Powerless,
Tess stood by mutely as Jade gathered her things. She knew there would be no
talking her out of it.

Her
first instinct was to call Cameron. But his counsel wasn’t at her disposal
anymore. There was always Adonis, but he barely knew Jade. He didn’t understand
the significance of her friendship. How much she valued it.
 

The
world was falling out from under her feet. Doubt roiled through her.

Was
Jade right? Was Adonis worth the dissolution of every other relationship she
had?

____________________

Adonis
would need to find a new place soon.

He
didn’t want to think about how awkward it’d be hooking up with Tess under the
same roof as Cameron, not that he cared. But he knew she would feel
uncomfortable.

The
bullshit didn’t matter. She was worth it.

Every
time he closed his eyes, he envisioned her. Laughing, cursing, melting under
his touch, her kisses hitting him like brass-knuckled blow every time.
 

She
monopolized his thoughts. She was more potent than heroin. More than coke. She
was in his blood, running hot in his veins.

He relived
the memories. The mornings where his sheets draped her body in satin pools of
cocoa, like a delicate morsel of candy varnished in chocolate. Her excitement
when she finally differentiated port from starboard, aft from forward.
How she looked commandeering the helm.
The way
her tri-colored
mane undulated in the wind like his very own pennant.

Emotion snagged in his chest.

She
was the only girl he allowed to know him inside and out. And he only one who
he’d placed his absolute trust in.

How
could he explain that to Cameron? How could he explain what she meant without
rubbing it in his face?

Lucky
for him, the Audi was nowhere in sight as he parked outside the house. Adonis
grimaced as the loud concoction of Irish folk and hard rock blaring from the
second story window.

Great.

Mood
already in a downward spiral, he headed inside. Adonis had planned on ignoring
the second level when a thought occurred to him.

He
knew Riley was one of her best friends. And to make this transition as seamless
as possible, he supposed he needed to make amends.

Sighing,
Adonis redirected his steps towards the Irishman’s door.

If
Riley sensed his presence, he said nothing and continued stacking folded
clothes into the drawer. Patience dwindling, it took every ounce of
perseverance he owned to say fuck it and walk away.

It
paid off several minutes later. Riley lowered the volume. “Something I can help
you with?” he asked, his tone lagging in its boredom.
 

Fucker
wasn’t going to make this easy. “Look, I know I haven’t been the easiest to get
along with.” He gritted his teeth. “And I wanted to apologize.”

Riley
turned around, suspicion keened in his gaze. “Where’s all this coming from?”

“A
guy can’t apologize without having an agenda?”

“No,”
Riley said flatly.

“Fine.
I’m doing this as a favor to Tess. She wants all of us to get along.”

He
snorted. “Since when do you care about Tess?”

Adonis
braced for shock. “Since we got together over break.”

A
noticeable chill thinned the air.

“Does
Cameron know about this?” Riley inquired slowly, as if afraid to hear the
answer.

“He
knows enough.”

Somehow
Riley didn’t seem too surprised.

“Look,
I’m not saying what we did was right. But it is what it is. I care about Tess.
I don’t want to see her hurt, especially by people she considers friends.”

Cool
blue-green eyes measured the weight of his words. After a second, he nodded.
 
“Fair enough, as long as she’s happy.”
 

Adonis
supposed that was as close to an acceptance as he was going to get. “Have you
seen him yet?”

“He
had some stuff to take care of.”

“Like
sharpening the guillotine.” He hadn’t meant to say the words aloud, but it drew
a guffaw from the other man.

“Serves
you right for stealing his woman out from under his nose.” Riley squatted and
rooted under his bed. He came back up with a bottle of Jameson. “I suggest we
get well and truly pissed while you still have your head.”

“I’ll
drink to that.”

Chapter 21

After
attending her first round of morning classes, Tess felt confident about the
upcoming semester.

Her
schedule was perfect.

She
hadn’t needed days ahead of time to build her dream sheet. There had been no
last minute tinkering. No
second guessing
.

Even
before she’d opened up the course master list, she already knew what she
wanted.
Some throwaway poetry class, astronomy, statistics,
and her new favorite, intro to psych.

She’d
wanted a new direction and she’d found it.

Psychologist
fit.

It
rolled off the tongue and didn’t leave her mouth with acrid aftertaste of trepidation
like her other would-be majors.

It
made her excited for the future, excited to help those the world didn’t fully
understand. It didn’t hurt that it made her feel closer to Adonis and
understanding what made him tick, not that he would appreciate the sentiment.

Tess
stepped out of the psych building, the brilliant splash of sunlight temporarily
blinding her. She slid on her shades and set off for her dorm.

An
unseasonable warm spell masked the lingering winter chill under the guise of
spring. All around campus people had begun dusting off khakis and boy shorts,
more than happy to bask in the illusion.

Her
steps faltered when she caught sight of him.

Her
high spirits calcified and sunk beneath her navel.

He
stood near the center of the quad, ensconced by polo-wearing frat boys and a flock
of miniskirts. One of which, a blonde-haired sorority type, was glued to his
side like
spackle
on drywall.
 

Tess
didn’t have the right to feel jealous. That ship had long sailed.

Still,
it chipped at her.

Self-preservation
advocated an alternate route.

She
ignored it. Tess knew he wouldn’t risk a nasty confrontation out in the open,
not with propriety wedged firmly between Cameron and Reynolds.

She
needed to make things right with him. If not for the sole purpose that she owed
him an explanation, an apology. In spite of their falling out, she still
considered him her best friend.

Steely
determination infusing her backbone, she marched toward the group.

His
gaze gravitated to her even before she violated his inner circle.

The
smile on his face didn’t drop automatically. It ebbed by degrees until an
equable expression took its place.

His
eyes, however, gave him away. Icy with unwelcome, they robbed her of the sun’s
cheery warmth. Aware of the others staring, she kept her attention on him,
regardless of how unwanted it might be. “Cam, can we talk?”

He
didn’t move. Didn’t speak. And for one humiliating moment she feared he’d
return to his conversation and pretend she hadn’t spoken at all. “Excuse me.”

He
didn’t touch her as he directed her away from his new clique, one in which she
clearly was not invited. They weren’t completely out of earshot but the hustle
and bustle teeming around them would swallow most of their conversation.

Tess
shifted her weight. Now that she had him alone, she didn’t know how to begin.

“What
is it?” Smooth and evenly modulated, his voice divulged nothing.

“I
just wanted to apologize for the way things went down between us,” she started
off awkwardly.

His
stare drilled into her. “Ok.”

Ok?
What the hell was ok supposed to mean? “Ok, you’re a cheating, whoring slut and
stay away from me or ok, give me some time to think of more names to call you
before I accept your apology,” she joked lamely.

His
gaze flicked over her head, as if debating how much longer he had to tolerate
her presence. “Whatever makes you feel better about yourself.
”

Exasperation
trumped the sting of his bite. “Either way, you could’ve at least shown up at
his mother’s funeral.”

“What
I did or didn’t do doesn’t concern you,” he shut her down evenly. “And you can
tell Adonis he can stay at the house. I’m staying with a buddy before moving
into the frat house.”

“You’re
becoming a brother? Why? I thought they were full of nothing but Kappa clap infected
assholes and potential rapists?”

His
gaze cooled. “I’ve been wrong about a lot of things recently.”

She
winced, deserving of that. “You started this ball rolling, Cam. Telling him to stay
away from me. Being insecure and not trusting me-”

“Trust
you?” he hissed and forced his voice lower as bystanders glanced their way. “Trust
you not to jump into bed with Adonis? Trust you not to piss everything we had away
for some junkie?”

Her
eyes flashed with warning. “Don’t call him that.”

Cameron
ignored her. “You should’ve told me that you wanted to be with to him instead
of leading me along. Do you know how that felt Tess? Finding you and him
together like that? Having your mother witness the whole charade.”

Ok,
so maybe she did serve him a raw deal.

She
grabbed his elbow before he could walk off. “Please, Cam. I’m sorry. I never
meant for any of this happen. I love you, I truly do.” Warmth swam behind her
eyes. “I still want you as a friend. We both do.”

He
stared at her, seemingly caught between emotions. Something relented in his
face. “I’ll accept your apology.” He sighed. “But I can’t forgive you. Not
right now. I need time.”

It
was more than she could ask for. “Thank you,” she said, sagging with relief.

He
hesitated before tacking on, “I wouldn’t get any deeper involved with him if I
were you.”

Her
guard slammed up. “Why’s that?”

“There
will only be one true love for Adonis in this life. And when he’s done with
you, he’ll go back to her, like he always does.”

There
was no need to infer who she
was
. “He’s
been clean for months.” Not that you would know anything about it, she wanted
to say. “Some things are more important.”

“And
you think you are?” His mouth twitched, betraying amusement. “His last
girlfriend thought the same. But then he got hooked on heroin and she got
herself a new boyfriend that Adonis beat half to death.”
 

A
tendril of fear tapped into her bloodstream. “He won’t go back to that. He’s
trying to turn his life around.”

Cameron
shrugged and began walking away. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

______________

She was unhappy and he was at a loss.

When Adonis asked her about it, she tried
to play it off, the abandonment of her best girl friend and Cameron’s radio
silence.

Used to gaining and losing acquaintances,
he tried telling her it wasn’t worth her sanity. If their bonds weren’t strong
enough to withstand a little turbulence then fuck ‘
em
.

Adonis was fast learning that he and Tess
held divergent opinions regarding the importance of friendships. Come hell or
high water, she was willing to stick it out for the people that’d grown close
to her heart.

It was why she couldn’t understand why he
and Cameron hadn’t spoken in months. If the bastard wanted to be a prick, he
could do it on his own time. Adonis couldn’t be bothered.

Even though he’d told her they weren’t
worth her sanity, she continued to stress. As the days passed without word from
either party, the more she withdrew. Her smiles became distant. Her laughs
echoed in flat monotones.
 

Adonis was clueless on how to help her. Confining
her to his bed was a temporary, albeit enjoyable fix.

He needed a more concrete solution. Short
of kidnapping and holding them at gunpoint until they agreed to make amends, he
was out of ideas.

He hated feeling useless. It plucked his
nerves in dissonant chords. It made him wish he had something to take off the
edge.

The urge slithered deep beneath his skin,
skulking through cartilage and marrow, biding its time. Like a tapeworm, it gorged
on his paranoia, his fears,
his
insecurities.
 

Adonis had made a pledge to Tess that he
was done with drugs.

And he meant it. He cut ties with his
former crew, deleted the numbers to his dealers, not that he didn’t know where
they lived.

But he was done with that shit.

No more pills, no more acid, no nothing.

He wondered if that included weed. He
didn’t know how she felt about the deviation and it was too early in their
relationship to test the waters by shitting over his promises.
 

Fuck what he would give for one hit. Hell,
half a hit.

Adonis glanced at his phone.
A quarter after midnight.
Tess was supposed to text him an
hour ago with a time she needed to be picked up.

He figured she stayed past to pull
overtime. It pissed him off that she worked herself half to death. He made the
mistake of offering to pay her tuition once and only once. It wasn’t like he
was hurting for money. And ever since he quit the hard shit, his allowance
didn’t seem quite so meager.

Tess had given him a scathing look that’d
almost left him with third degree burns. “Why? So you can prove I’m the gold-digging
whore you said I was?” The comeback was a conditioned response, programmed and
ingrained because of years of his abuse.

Nevertheless, it stung.

When she saw his expression, she’d
apologized profusely, swearing up and down she didn’t know where that had come
from.

They left the lie alone.

Were they fooling themselves? How could a
relationship founded on vitriol and hate hope to have any stability?

What
if she regretted getting together? What if she went back to Cameron?

Smothering
a spate of bile, he redialed her cell and scowled when the call dropped off
into voicemail.

Fuck it. He might as well drive down and
wait for her shift to end.

Just as he’d tucked his phone into his
back pocket, the door creaked open.

A nameless weight uplifted from his
shoulders when she came in. His mind had a bad habit of jumping to paranoid
conclusions. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she reiterated, drained.
 

He frowned as she dropped her things on
the floor and slumped into the leather couch without so much as a hug. “Why
didn’t you call me for a ride?”

“Sorry,” she said without an ounce of
remorse. “I had to close. My supervisor had an emergency. I thought you’d be
asleep.”