Chapter 22. The scent of red cedars and fire embers stirred Tess to consciousness.

The scent of red cedars and fire embers stirred Tess to consciousness.

She mushed her face further into the pillow and smiled.

Adonis’s scent.

Her arm snaked between the sheets. She frowned when her hand reached the cold patch of space. She couldn’t even feel a recently vacated indention. Did he even sleep in the bed last night?

God, she couldn’t remember. She did, however, recall trying to outdrink Riley. Even after a full night of drinking, the Irishman had drunk her under the table. A mistake she wasn’t liable to make again.

Tess tentatively sat up and waited with resigned acceptance for the hangover’s heavy backhand.

It never came.

Her breath smelled like the wrong end of a skunk, yes. But other than that, and a mild, almost forgettable, headache, she didn’t feel too bad. It was either the miracle of miracles or she drew staggeringly close to crossing the threshold of alcoholism.

She applied soothing pressure to her temples.

One problem at a time.

Tess scooted off the bed and dug through her bag for a change of clothes.

Fifteen minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom freshly washed and mouth successfully decontaminated. The smell of coffee beckoned.

She bounced down the stairs, her steps lights and her heart lighter.

Her smile faltered when she saw Riley spooning sugar into his mug at the counter.

“How’re you still alive?” She swung up to him and planted a fat, juicy kiss on his stubble-roughened cheek.

“It’s in the genes,” he said cheekily.

“Mm, I’m sure. Have you seen Adonis?” He didn’t have class on Thursdays.

“Aye, he was down here earlier and had to go out for a bit. Made me promise to keep an eye out for you.” He slanted her a sideways glance. “You all right?”

“Right as rain.” She covered disappointment with a beaming grin. “What’s for breakfast?”

“We’ve got a half-eaten Pop Tart and a dehydrated taco.”

“You know what? I could stand to lose a pound or two.” She checked the time. “Actually I should go. I have class in a few.”

“I’d say don’t be a stranger, but you’ve practically moved in,” he teased.

“I know, but my room’s so quiet without…” Tess trailed off awkwardly.

“Jade’ll come ‘round eventually,” he said gruffly.

“I hope so. But I’ve made my bed and now I’ll have to lie in it.” She wrapped her arms around his middle. “Catch you later.”

“Oh, before you go Lance wanted me to pass on the word about a theme party his frat’s hosting Saturday.”

“What theme?”

“Seven deadly sins.”

Tess rolled her eyes. “There goes the death of originality.”

Riley watched her carefully. “Cam will be there.”

She felt one of her organs loop into a hard knot. “It’s ok. We’re good.” If not speaking or making eye contact qualified as good.

“Either way, I’ve always got you’re back.” He ruffled her hair. “And so does Adonis.”

Butterflies spun in double helixes within her.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “He does.”

____________________

By the time Tess reached her dorm she’d already formulated a plan of action. Adonis was right. She needed to stop taking a backseat to her guilt. Hoping her best friend would come around and eventually forgive her wasn’t going to work. Not in this case.

It was time to step her game.

According to Lance, Jade would be studying in the library after her three o’clock class. It was the perfect place to stage an ambush. Jade would be too polite to cause a scene, not that it would be a major issue considering it wouldn’t be too packed. It was still earlier enough in the semester that studying came as an afterthought.

Tess only had half of her attention to spare her English class, her eyes pasted to the ancient black hands of the analog clock above the whiteboard. When class dismissed, Tess slung her messenger back over her shoulder and made a break for the door.

It didn’t take long for her to track the Jade down.

Like any caffeine addict, she’d taken refuge at a table near the library’s snack bar.

Tess settled down across from her and dropped her bag on the table with a clamorous thunk.

Jade jolted up, her surprise rapidly seguing into guarded remoteness. “What’re you doing?”

“Trying to study, obviously.” Tess pulled out her notebook, most of its pages woefully blank. “You don’t mind if I sit here, right?”

“Yes, I mind.”

“I didn’t think so.”

Tess hunched over the poetry assignment she’d sloppily copied before hauling ass out the class. The edge of her mouth picked up. Hauling ass out of class. A stroke of fucking genius. She uncapped her pen and hastily scribbled the words down before she forgot.

“What rhymes with cat?”

“Scat,” Jade deadpanned. “Can’t you do this somewhere else? There are a thousand other tables.”

“Yeah, but I like the sun to shade ratio here. And the snack bar is like right there. Speaking of…” She fished her wallet out of the bag’s side compartment. “I want a cappuccino. You want the usual?”

“Sure,” she said noncommittally.

“Be right back.” Tess got up to place their orders. When the barista apologetically imparted that they were all out of hazelnut lattes, she turned to tell Jade.

The girl was gone. So were her things.

“That sneaky bitch. No, not you,” she clarified exasperatedly at the barista’s wounded expression. “I was talking to—never mind.”

Tess swooped up her things and flew out of the library, ignoring the disapproving stares of the academically inclined.

Her eyes darted across the quad until she spotted Jade crossing westernmost side street. Hitching the messenger bag over head, she gave chase. “J, wait!”

Jade ignored her and added a few knots to her breakneck stride.

Tess seized her arm. “Can you just hear me out for two seconds.”

“Fine. Two seconds,” she said briskly.

“I grew up poor,” she blurted, uncaring that having this conversation out in the street was probably less than ideal. “I never met my father. He abandoned my mother when she was pregnant with my little brother. We lived on welfare for years until my mom got a job as a janitor. She married into money when I was sixteen and moved my brother, Tony, and I to Manhattan. I don’t talk about it because I was ashamed. I spent my junior and senior years of high school known as the charity case. I wanted a fresh start here.

“I’m sorry. I know I’ve been a shit friend. I shouldn’t have kept you in the dark. You’re my friend and I should’ve trusted you. And I’m especially sorry about your grandfather. I should’ve been there and I wasn’t. There’s no excuse for it. I love you. You’re my best friend. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

Jade blinked as she made sense of the data dump of information. Finally, she sighed and glanced away, her features wan. “Tess-”

“No,” Tess interrupted, afraid of losing her, “and if it makes you feel better you can punch me.”

“What?”

She widened her stance. “Hit me with your best shot.”

“What is this, Fight Club?”

“Just do it.”

She huffed her exasperation. “Shut up. I’m not punching you in the face. Although I might trip you when you’re not looking.”

Tess tendered a weak smile. “So, are we ok?”

Jade chewed her lip. “Yeah, I guess. Just—no more secrets, ok? You don’t have to hide anything from me. I’m your friend. It doesn’t matter where you came from. What matters is that you’re here. Got me.”

“Gotten. Now want to get coffee? For real this time?”

The corner of her mouth drew up. “Sounds good.”

_________________

Excitement vibrated in her bones as Tess sped-walked to the boys’ house.

Hanging out for the first time since their falling out had been slow going at first. But she’d known exactly how to coax a response out of her stiff-lipped friend. When she brought up the theme party, a bulb lit behind her eyes. In no time, ideas began spilling from her mouth faster than Tess could keep up.

When all else failed, fashion was always a safe topic.

Grinning, she kicked up her pace a notch.

She found Adonis perched on the ugly, overstuffed couch writing in a spiral-bound notebook. In front of him, textbooks and notes cluttered the coffee table. The room seemed smaller without giant television looming on the opposite wall. Cameron had made sure to remove all of his personal effects before absconding to the dark side.

Tess dropped next to him. “Are you actually doing homework?”

He didn’t look up. “Contrary to what people think, I do take classes here.”

“I didn’t know art majors had written homework,” she nudged him with her knee.

“I’m not an art major.”

Frowning, she picked up one of the texts and read the front cover. “Business administration?” She supposed it made sense if he chose to become an active participant in his grandfather’s company. It was his birthright. “Are you going for your MBA after you graduate?”

“Probably.”

Used to his capricious moods, Tess tried to keep her spirits buoyed. “Guess what? I took your advice and straightened things out with Jade. We’re good now. She wants us to go on a double date tonight with her and Lance. You up for it?”

The pen paused for a second before resuming course. “Can’t. I’ve got a shit ton of homework to do.”

Feminine instinct told her this had nothing to do with cyclothymia. “What’s wrong?”

He made an impatient sound. “Nothing. Am I not allowed to be busy?”

Her eyes fell to the notebook. “Is that why you’ve written the same word six times?”

The muscle in his jaw flexed. “Well, if my girlfriend would stop talking my fucking ear off maybe I could get something accomplished.” He paled as the statement caught up with him.

A creeping chill negated the tide of heat her newly dubbed moniker usually bequeathed. “Adonis-”

“I need a smoke.” He leapt up as if the flames of hell were licking his ass.

She struggled to ward off fear’s frigid grip. He wouldn’t have dropped the girlfriend bomb if he wanted to break up. An uncomfortable thought occurred to her. Was he still upset about her prickly demeanor yesterday?

Stomach in knots, she followed him to the deck. The sun idled over the lip of the horizon, swathing the sky in soft peaches and warm lavenders.

Tess wrapped her arms around herself. The temperature was a few degrees below nippy, but nothing she couldn’t tolerate for a short time. At least while the sun still had a few rays to throw her way.

“Is this about last night?” The question lingered in a pellucid cloud of frozen air before dissipating.

“What makes you think it has anything to do with that?” He didn’t face her.

“At least look at me when you ask me a question,” she snapped, tired of this awkward shuffle of an exchange.

He drew a heavy lungful of smoke before turning to her. She couldn’t place his expression. Far from angry and yet a stone’s throw from anxious.

Unsettled would be a better term for it.

But why?

Dread lapped her belly. “Talk to me,” she said, unable to completely iron out the wrinkle of uncertainty from her voice.

Resolution solidified his features. He chucked the butt into an empty flowerpot and swept toward her, his gait quick, purposeful. Her knees almost gave out as he dragged her into warm, strong arms. Tess sagged into his embrace, drinking in his scent as if she’d gone weeks without it.

“No you didn’t do anything wrong,” he said roughly.

“Then, what is it?” She drew back just enough to look up.

Something flickered behind his eyes. “It’s nothing. Having an off day.”

He was lying. But snug as she was huddled against him, she let it slide. “You didn’t have to take it out on me.” She puffed out her cheeks.

A small smile tilted his mouth. “Sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. For being a grump last night.”

“And then coming to bed smashed, alkie.” He tugged her hair.

Tess groaned. “Remind me never to try and out-drink Riley again.”

“That makes two of us.” Adonis hesitated and seemed to have difficulty getting his next statement. “Do you remember everything? From last night?”

She frowned. “No, why? Did I do something stupid?”

His face colored. “It was nothing. Forget about it. You were just half-passed out.”

Tess wracked her brain but nothing offered itself. Had she tried to seduce him? It wouldn’t be the first time. She had a bad habit of attempted seduction when drunk, mostly because that was the only time she felt bold enough to initiate the process.

“If you would like to make a complaint for services not rendered, you’re going to have to see my manager on the top floor,” Tess said brightly, affecting her best customer representative voice and tried to extract herself to prep for the managerial role.

Confusion wrinkled his brow. “What?”

Maintaining a chokehold on her bravado, she repeated the refrain.

Something lurked on the periphery of his expression, a shadow of an emotion. It was gone before she could get a fix, driven off by a familiar smirk. Adonis spun her around, secured her back against his front, and planted a hand on her lower stomach. “Yes, I would like to submit a complaint on a piece of faulty merchandise that recently came into my possession,” he drawled silkily.

“Is that so?” Adrenaline spurted into her veins as he unbuttoned her jeans. Despite her growing awareness that the sun hadn’t yet set, that someone could cut through the backyard at any moment and see them, she couldn’t stop. The thrill of getting caught, of being seen, did something to her. Heightened her senses. He’d done this to her. Loosened her inhibitions. Made her into this wild, wanton woman. “I’m sure there’s something we can do about that.”

“You’d better. I’d hate to take my frustrations out on it again.” Teeth nibbled the juncture of her shoulder as his fingers parted her, his thumb pinpointing her clit with unerring precision. “I don’t want it to break.”

“Don’t worry, s-sir. A-all of our products h-have thirty day, money back g-guarantee.” A soft keening noise sounded in the back of her throat as he rolled his thumb.

“It’s not about the money.” She squirmed as he inserted a finger and stroked her satiny walls. “I’ve actually grown rather fond of it. I just want it returned to me in perfect working condition.”

Tess opened her mouth. Speech failed her as a second finger joined its companion.

To hell with this.

She whirled around and attacked him. He crushed her to his chest. The smoked flavor of him buzzed in her head. His mouth was hot and wet and relentless.

This wasn’t a lie. Whatever had been bothering him earlier, it wasn’t this. It could never be this. His body spoke only truth.

And the truth was she’d never felt this way before. Not with the guy she lost her virginity to. Not with the string of anonymous faces or names that followed thereafter.

Not Cameron.

It frightened her.

It invigorated her.

She felt small and helpless.

She felt invincible.

Tess hoped her hunger for him never slaked. Her hands slid beneath his shirt, danced along the cascade of rigid abdominals. He grabbed her ass and lifted her up, groaning into the cavern of her mouth as her hips rotated against him.

With no small amount of effort, Tess pried herself out of his grasp and dropped to a crouch. Leaving his button snapped, she unzipped his jeans before he could stop her.

Adonis hissed her name as she gently freed his erection. Searing and heavy as a steel pipe, she squeezed and watched with no small amount of satisfaction as his eyes rolled back. “Shouldn’t we continue this upstairs?” he ground out.

She took a second to reflect on the irony before challenging him with a sly smile. “Then I guess I better make this quick.”

Saffron-hued eyes glowed with a febrile light, one that promised all kinds of retribution.

She clamped her thighs together to unsuccessfully staunch her aching sex. This wasn’t about her.

“That’s what I thought.”

_______________

“Are you actually going to call me this time?”

Cameron cupped her face, his fingers feathering her cheekbones. “I said I would, didn’t I?”

He felt the fight visibly melt from her. The girl (Monica/Marissa?) sighed. “You said that last time.”

He smiled. “Second time’s a charm.”

She blinked out the trance, her smoky eyes solidifying into flint. “It’s our third time,” Monica/Marissa said flatly.

He feigned a wince. “Right, third.” He drew her to him and kissed her until her lips became malleable, soft again. “Forgive me?”

“I suppose I don’t have a choice,” the platinum blonde sighed and with one last parting kiss, sashayed out of his room, bypassing Lance on the way.

He whistled low. “Nice bro. Marissa?”

“Something like that.” Cameron rolled off the bed and exhumed a 24-pack from under his bed. “Beer?”

“Who can say no to free booze?”

“Wait, shit. It’s empty.” He tossed the deflated cardboard aside and went to his closet.

Lance tactfully disregarded the clink of empty bottles as he delved through his things. “So what happened to Ashley?”

“The cold fish? I let that one go. I have more fun jacking off with rock salt.”

“Good, asshole. You deserve a bad lay every once in a while.”

“Hater.” There was more rattling of bottles. “Found it.” Lance glanced up in time to see a can hurtling at him.

He caught it midair and took a seat at the desk. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem.” Cameron emerged with an armload of beer and tossed them on the unmade bed. He popped the tab and guzzled its contents for a solid ten seconds.

“Slow down man. It’s not a fucking keg stand.”

“Life is a fucking keg stand. It’s all about how much you can take without choking under pressure.”

“That’s what she said.” They shared a grin.

“How’d the date with Jade go?”

“Not bad.” Their relationship had reached a plateau since last semester. She was the one who proposed they spend more time together, just being, instead of fighting and fucking. He loved her. He would always love her, but he was starting to wonder if they’d be better off as friends than lovers.

Lance took a swig before saying, “She made it a double.”

“Oh? With who?”

He circled the can’s rim with his thumb and forefinger. “Tess and Adonis.”

Cameron didn’t blink. But then he’d always had a first-rate poker face. “Really? How was that?”

“It was chill. I invited them to the party Saturday.” Lance glanced up. “You guys are cool, right? Considering you’ve gotten laid more times in the past three weeks than I have my entire freshman year.”

Cameron’s mouth angled upward. “You mad bro?”

“Fuck you.” He hesitated. “But, Tess and Adonis-”

“They can do what they want. I don’t care,” he said dismissively.

Relief freed the tension from his shoulders. Lance eased back in the chair. “Sweet. Besides this place will be packed. I doubt you’ll run into either of them. And we’ll be so smashed, you won’t give a shit anyway.”

“That’s the plan.” Cameron raised the beer to his lips. “How is she?”

“She’s…good,” Lance said, omitting the bulk of his findings. He was surprised as anybody when he found the two had gotten together over break.

Loyalties split, he’d gone into the date with mixed emotions.

On the one hand, he thought it was fucked up that Tess ditched Cameron, the guy she had supposedly been in love with for years, for his pothead best friend.

But Lance wasn’t one for judging.

Far from the perfect couple, they spent most of the evening taking subtle jabs at one another. Without rancor or animosity, Lance grew to understand that it was merely their form of foreplay. Although they hadn’t been all over one another, their eyes burned for one another.

By the end of dinner, it felt like they’d been together for years. They were both funny as hell and kept him and Jade in stitches. He actually suggested they go out again.

But Lance doubted Cameron wanted to the gory details.

“I’m happy for her. For them both.” He sounded sincere.

Lance grinned. “Saint fucking Cameron. Most guys would’ve decorated their room with fist-sized holes.”

“I’m not most guys.”

“Thank God for that.” Suitably appeased, Lance chugged the rest of the beer and tossed the can into the wastebasket. “Alright man. I’ve gotta shower and finish up this anthropology paper.”

“You sure you don’t want to help me finish these off?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Lance cuffed his shoulder. “Deuces bro.”

Cameron waited until he was out of sight to drop the affable front.

So the happy couple was still together. He was surprised Adonis had kept his act together this long.

It wouldn’t last forever.

Cameron knew exactly how that farce of relationship began and inevitably how it would end. History had a habit of folding over on itself.

After all he’d done for the ungrateful fuck, this was what he got in return. He finished off the rest of the beer angrily and crushed the can before digging out another.

Cleaning up after his clusterfucks, ensuring his dumb ass didn’t flunk out, making excuses for his foul mouth.

He’d put up with a lot of his shit over the years, and for what? To have what was his snatched out from under his nose?

Not fucking likely.

Eventually, he would drop the ball.

It would only be a matter of time.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16