Page 65 of Apparently, I’m A B!tch

Chapter33

Tristan

I laughedas Nikki jumped from the bed and ran for my bathroom, her legs parted as if she just rode a horse and couldn’t walk straight.

I’d never had sex like that before.

Nikki was so hot lying underneath me, moaning with desperate pleasure painted on her beautiful face. All my fantasies, and I never could’ve guessed she would look like that.

Despite the lazy post-orgasm fog that weighed down my limbs, I stood and hummed as I pulled some briefs, a pair of jeans and a cotton V-neck tee out of my drawer. My studio smelled of sex and baking. I could get high on this scent.

At an urge to know if I could breathe in her scent of lime and coconuts, I almost dug my nose into the spot Nikki’s head had been resting. I held myself back, but promised myself I’d never wash my sheets again, as Nikki called out from my bathroom.

“Tristan?”

“Yes?” I went to the room and saw her gorgeous face looking up at me from the toilet as I slid my shirt down my chest.

“We… had sex.” She bit her lip and worried it, and it took a second to kick my brain into functioning.

I leaned against the door frame and smiled, still dazed by the insane pleasure she’d just given me. “We did. And I think that makes today the best day of my life. Officially speaking.”

She cracked a half-smile. “Better than that time Uncle Henry let us pick the shop’s raffle winner and it turned out to be the ex-guitarist for Bon Jovi?”

I let out a laugh at the memory. “The tickets he gave us for his one-man show were pretty awesome. But yes, this is better.”

Her eyes glimmered and she laughed. The sound, the way she looked, it stunned me until I couldn’t breathe.

“I love you,” I said softly.

Her laughter stopped and she snapped her glance to meet mine, the joy draining from her. “It scares me when you say that.”

Somewhere between my chest and belly, dread rose at her words. “Why?”

“Could you… find my clothes, please?”

She cast her glance to the side, acting as if the towel rack welded to my wall was more interesting than me. It was as if an iron hand reached right into my chest and squeezed my heart.

I turned away and picked up her clothes, but once she came out of the bathroom draped in one of my towels, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “Is everything okay?”

She nodded, still biting her lip, not meeting my eye.

I tightened my jaw as she took her clothes from me and went back into the bathroom. “Nikki, please don’t lie to me about being okay.”

But she shut the door and didn’t come out until she’d changed. By then, my timer had gone off with a RA-RA-RA that made us both jump.

I went to the stove, pulled on a mitt and opened the oven door, letting the sweet smell of freshly risen pastry swell around my small studio.

“What are those?” Nikki asked, sniffing suspiciously as I set the tray down on the dining table to cool. I noticed she ignored my earlier outburst, and that fist tightened around my heart that much more.

“Fresh shaabiyat for tomorrow.”

She stiffened, her hazel stare going from the tray to me. “You bake these?”

I nodded down at them. They were perfect; crisp and ready for drizzling.

When I looked up to meet her glance, she asked, “Should I be surprised that I just found out about this?”

I frowned at her. “Nikki, come on. This doesn’t qualify as keeping things from you. If you asked where these came from, I would’ve told you. I don’t mean to keep things from you, I just don’t think to tell you everything.”