“Tristan,” I breathe. “Don’t.”
He sighs against my mouth. “Try again tomorrow, I suppose.” He captures my lips. His tongue slips easily into my mouth and heat spirals hard inside me, a fire set by the way his teeth land in the flesh of my bottom lip—a gentle bite that feels like a claiming.
I can’t help the low sound I make as I stroke my tongue along his. I dig my nails into his chest and arch toward him before I laugh at my own stupidity.
“What?” he asks, still feathering kisses on the edge of my mouth.
“I was just thinking that if I kissed you now, I wouldn’t want to stop.”
A fine tremor runs through his shoulders, and I half expect him to keep going, but he pulls away, his eyes glazed. I’m panting against the wall while he takes a shaky step back.
“See you tomorrow,” he says softly before he disappears out the door.
It takes me a full minute to catch my breath. One kiss from Tristan Prince is far more intense than any workout I’ve ever done. He’s dangerous.
Today, I survived.
Tomorrow? I’m not so sure.
48
TRISTAN
Tristan Prince’s plan to get Katie Bailey to fall in love with him
- Be sneaky
- Wear less clothing
- Find out what she wants and give it to her
- Tell her your secrets
- Play one of your songs for herno she’ll hate that
- Under no circumstances should you blurt out your feelings!!
Iam a man with a plan, but the list is distressingly short. I lie in bed at three a.m., wide awake, my mind spinning.
Last night was a roller coaster of emotions. Giddiness when she wanted me too, then disappointment when she didn’t immediately confess her feelings, then dawning hope as I realized how scared she was. That hope grew with herstubborn confession that she wanted more, then flickered when she implied it was temporary.
I’m not fucking temporary.
And I’m not letting her try to make this weird either.
Which means today, I make a plan, and later, I show her how good things can be with us.
I sigh before I slip out of my bed, and pad down the hall to the lab. My laptop is there, the black screen staring accusingly at me. I still haven’t announced. Mac’s emails are increasingly urgent. Grandfather’s are increasingly terse.
I blow out a breath and push the anxious thoughts away. Whit says three a.m. thoughts are not to be trusted under any circumstances. I pull up Google and pause, my fingers hovering over the keyboard.
If I’m being perfectly honest, which Aiden keeps encouraging me to be, I don’t have the first clue how to win a woman over. I’ve never tried. Ever. I always figured it would hurt too much to even admit I wanted something I couldn’t have. That it would feel exactly like I did as a kid—trying to get people’s attention in the worst way possible and failing every time. I would rather die than feel that way again.
I frown. Correction. I would rather die than not have Katie.
Slowly, I type into the search bar—animal mating rituals.I’m a man of science, after all. Animals have been winning over their mates with a few leaves and a fresh kill for thousands of years. It can’t be that hard, right?
“I’ve been doingit all wrong.”
