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“Damn, what happened?” Tristan asked as he rolled his suitcase through the silent home, decorated to be as basic and beige as possible.
“It’s actually, well, uh, it’s pretty embarrassing.”
He cocked his head, lips slanting into a smirk. “I love embarrassing stories. I’ll trade you one if you tell yours.”
“Deal,” I said, never having bargained for a life story before. “I was… getting ass shaking lessons and hit my knee against a chair, knocking it clean out of the socket. Had to get two surgeries to fix the damage.”
Tristan paused just as we reached the back door, his jaw cracked open, his chin practically on the floor. I chuckled, not surprised at his reaction.
“I’ve had knee problems all my life, so it’s not like ass shaking was thesolereason I had to be discharged from the Marines, but it played a big-ass part in it.”
It was Tristan’s turn to laugh. “I’m sorry, Gabe. I’m not laughing at your injury. I’m just trying to picture this brick wall of a man shaking his ass for the coin.”
“I don’t think you’d be laughing if you saw how good I’ve gotten at it.”
He arched a brow and crossed his arms. I realized I had walked directly into a trap.
A thirst trap, to be exact. The most dangerous kind.
“Show me, then,” he said, his smirk turning devilish.
I was about to say no. We had to keep going, had to get to the next Airbnb. But… it would make him smile. And that would be worth the minute or so of potential humiliation.
I turned, putting my hands up on the wall and arching my back a bit, pushing my ass out. I pressed my forehead against the wall and found myself smiling as I made my cheeks dance up and down, focusing on giving Tristan a damn show. His gasp told me all I needed to know as I kept going, using my hips to add a bit of swirl in there before I dropped down as far as my knees would let me.
Thankfully, I didn’t need help getting back up. Now,thatwould be embarrassing.
I turned around to Tristan slow-clapping, that smile wide on his face. “That was impressive. I’m a little hypnotized if I’m being honest.”
“I can get you even more hypnotized, but not because of my dance skills.” I gave Tristan a wink, leaving his jaw cracked open again as he took in what I said. I didn’t give him time to snap back, grabbing his suitcase and opening the door. “Come on, you can tell me your embarrassing story in the car.”
“Ah shit, that’s right. I forgot about that.”
“I didn’t,” I said, rolling the suitcase out into the yard. I shut the door behind us and led us through the well-maintained yard. We went over to the fence, where a latched exit was lit by a nearby streetlamp. I opened the gate, and we stepped out onto the street that surrounded the property.
The black town car I ordered waited for us exactly where he said he’d be. A quick glance up and down the street told me no one was around. I opened the door for Tristan and got in after him, thanking the driver as I settled in.
“Wait until you see this next place,” I said as we started to drive off.
“Better than this one?”
I gave him a guilty smile. “I splurged a little using the company card. Zane gave me the OK, though.”
“Oh Lord,” Tristan said, shaking his head. He fiddled with the silver chain around his neck, tucking it back under his black T-shirt. “Alright, so an embarrassing story… damn, I’ve got a few, actually. Hmm, let’s go with the time I tripped and fell face-first into Ryan Reynolds’ crotch.”
I nearly choked on air. “That sounds less like an embarrassing moment and more like a wet dream.”
“Oh, it was pretty much both. Except I wasn’t dreaming. I was accepting an award for one of my books at the GLAAD Awards, and he was a presenter. He was onstage, standing by the podium, when I’m walking toward him and trip onliterallynothing. I fall forward but in the weirdest way possible, right down on my knees. The momentum pushes my face directly into Ryan’s crotch. His instant reaction is to reach down and block me, but instead, his hands end up on the back of my head and lock me there for a few seconds, which felt like an entire eternity.
“Of course, the entire room broke out into raucous laughter and hoots. I made a joke about never washing my face again, which landed pretty well considering the moment.”
I started to laugh sometime around the middle of his story, my stomach hurting as I pictured the scene.
“That is pretty embarrassing, but one hell of a story.”
Tristan nodded, his smile still wide and his face lighting up. It was a very welcome contrast to the terror that had infiltrated earlier in the night. I wasn’t letting my guard down by any means, but I did take a moment to relax into the seat, allowing myself to enjoy this moment, just like my therapist would have told me to.
“I’ve got pictures of it.”
