“I’m not getting laid now and I’m tired of it.”
“So you’re going to sleep with Ryan?” My question comes out on a breathless laugh, and she scowls.
“Don’t mock me.” She speeds up, and I speed up too, even though my head feels fuzzy and I hate running in jeans.
“I’m not.” I put my hand on her arm and she slows, then stops. I’m not mocking her. I’m just…catching up.
“What, Tristan?” She glares up at me, her deep brown eyes annoyed and narrowed on my face. “I don’t want to be alone. I want to be wanted. You made me admit it. Happy?”
I still, blinking slowly at her. I never imagined Katie was lonely. But of course she is. She lives in the apartment above the security center and takes one day off a week. She barely drinks and she works constantly. She’s fiercely loyal and overprotective and takes paranoia to new extremes. I’m not sure when she’d ever have time to meet guys.
And why does the thought of her dating make me feel weird? Like a piece of my insides is trying to separate from my body?
I rub a hand down my face. This is why I don’t stay out all night. It makes me feel sluggish and strange. I need to sleep for a week.
“So you want to meet someone?”
She tips up her chin. “Yes. You’re not going to be the only one staying out all night and having marathon sex.”
“What did you say?”
Her eyes widen and she starts jogging again. I hurry to keep pace.
“Did you say marathon sex?”
“Nope,” she says quickly.
“Yes. You did.”
Her braid swings in time with her steps and she quickens her pace as I start to pull even with her. The dawn light is blinding as we exit the tree cover and face the ocean.
“Katie,” I say warningly.
“Fine.” Her shoulders are tight and her steps falter. “I heard some girls at the bar. Talking about you.” She slows to a walk as the catering building comes into view.
“Talking about me how?” I feel like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff.
“They said you were good in bed.Insatiable.You had a marathon of sex with one of their friends.”
I’m staring. I can’t help it. I feel like I’ve been knocked out and woken up in an alternate reality.
“Stop looking at me like I’ve grown an extra head. I want someone to be insatiable for me. I want tobeinsatiable. I talked to Sienna, and everyone is out here having hot, sweaty sex, and I should be too.”
My stomach pulls taut.
I clear my throat.
“Donotargue with me. I’m athletic. I should be breaking a sweat in bed. I’ve dated losers who weren’t right for me and I’ve been stuck for so long—and I’m done. I’m just fucking done.”
Her eyes are flashing and her chest heaves on shallow breaths.
I’m right back where I was ten minutes ago, drowning in need, but now the sex in my head is more athletic. We’re roughhousing and we are insatiable for each other. I’m half hard under my jeans and I thank the powers that be that her blazing gaze is on my face and not my body.
And then I think about her offering to break a sweat in bed with some stranger, who might be a creep, or a stalker, or just plain bad at sex.
“I’ll help.”
She blinks at me. “You will?”
