“Daaamn.” I whistled low. “My Kitty Kat’s kinky.” Placing my hands on either side of her hips, I caged her in. “I can certainly work with kinky.” My head dipped, first looking into her eyes before lowering my gaze to her chest.
Her shirt wasn’t formfitting but that didn’t stop me from getting a glimpse of her nipples straining against the cotton of her tee. My mouth salivated. The memory of my lips wrapped around that puckered tip shot to the forefront of my mind.
Slipping my hand under her shirt, I dragged my palm up her satiny smooth middle. Her breath hitched. I grinned.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t like it.” I flicked my thumb over her covered nipple, grinning wider when a gasp pushed over her lips. “That it didn’t get you dripping fucking wet for me.”
“Ooookay.” That wasn’t Kate’s voice. “Guess I’ll just come back later.”
The right thing, the decent thing would have been to remove my hand. I didn’t. My thumb worked in a slow circle, teasing her with a barely-there touch, over and over again.
“Tristan,” she hissed. Although it sounded more like a prayer.
No one else said anything so I presumed the scary one had left us alone.
“Yeah, baby?” I murmured next to her ear. “Tell me what you want. What you need.”
For one sweet, sweet second, she arched her back and pushed deeper into my touch. She snapped out of that real fucking fast. Gripping my wrist, she yanked my hand out of her shirt. Her palms connected with my chest next, shoving me a few steps away.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Her breaths came fast and hard. It wasn’t all anger. “My mom or dad could’ve walked in.” She thrust her finger in my face. “Don’t do it again.”
My gaze snagged on her finger before slowly returning to meet her glare. Arching my brow, I silently reminded her of what that little move did to me.
I’d never seen a woman ball her hand into a fist so fast. Nor had I seen Kate’s cheeks so stunningly red. I quite liked the look on her, and I would’ve found more ways to put it there if we hadn’t been interrupted again.
This time, it was Kate’s mom. She was there for me. Hooking her arm through mine, she led me to the patio.
“I want to know all about the man who’s swept my Katie off her feet.” The woman beamed at me. “You must be something wonderful for her to bring you home.”
Just like that, the calm I’d found with Kate—if you could call being turned the fuck on, calm—evaporated. In its place that desperate need to flee that’d sent me into the house in the first place.
My skin prickled with a new awareness I didn’t like. My feet were restless. And my damn walls came up fast. Thick and heavy, they deterred every kind word, every sweet smile, and gentle touch.
Without meaning to, I’d shut down, only catching a few of Mrs. Rivera’s words here and there. She talked about Kate, and as desperately as I wanted to listen, my brain wouldn’t let me.
My thoughts raced as the unease from earlier grew into a snarling beast. Over my shoulder, I caught sight of the sliding door.
I should leave.
Get up and run the fuck away from this house. Away from Kate. And Millie. And the unwanted things they made me feel.
Chapter twenty-two
Tristan
Ididn’t leave like I should’ve.
Instead, I found myself sitting at a table surrounded by Kate’s family. All the happy chattering was getting on my last damn nerve.
It wasn’t their fault; I just wasn’t used to any of this.
“Oh, I remember that,” the scary one, Isabella, said before she launched into a long-winded tale about how her father helped them with a school project and ended up glueing his fingers together.
It was so different from the way I grew up. There were no parents to help with my projects or assignments. Shit, in the beginning, there weren’t even projects or assignments because my mother had paid someone to do them.
“And then, when Katie wanted to help,” Eleanor chimed in with that condescending tone of hers. “She ended up making a sticky situation even stickier. Should’ve known then how useless she was.”
This wasn’t the first time she’d tried to disguise her snide remark as a joke. Her barbs were poison disguised as playful sisterly ribbing, slowlyeroding Kate’s smile and confidence. It was almost as if she was trying to make her feel small and foolish for the things that brought her happiness.
