“What did you touch? Have you told anyone about us?”
The carnal look dimmed, “I’ve told no one. I checked your towels and toiletries. I accidentally skipped your room on my rounds this morning earlier and saw you leave so I made sure everything was in order. I didn’t want to give you any reason to complain. I need this job.”
Tristan stared at her for a beat and Kyla felt anger rise.
“Get away from her!” Kyla shrieked.
Tristan glanced over his shoulder at Kyla, looking both surprised and bewildered.
“What?”
“Get. The. Fuck. Away. From her. Move back!”
The maid didn’t even look in Kyla’s direction. Her gaze was fixed on Tristan.
“Kyla?”
Kyla’s chest was heaving up and down. She was wide-eyed and frantic.
“Forget we spoke,” Tristan said to the maid and the maid nodded.
Tristan grabbed Kyla’s hand and marched back to their room.
“Did you really think I was gonna hurt her?” Tristan was incredulous as he shut the door.
Kyla was backing up, fingers on her temples, trembling.
“I wouldn’t have hurt her, baby. She wasn’t an enemy. I just needed to get a read on her to make sure of it, that’s all. Make sure she wasn’t mesmerized by someone else… to get information, to plant anything in our room…”
“I didn’t think you were gonna hurt her,” Kyla said.
“Then what was that about?” Tristan looked baffled.
“I just got this overwhelming… I don’t know … jealousy. I thought you were gonna bite her and then the way she was looking at you and with the way she looked... I know I shouldn’t think that but it was like…”
He shook his head, “Primal instinct?”
“If you didn’t get away from her when you did I think I might’ve actually gone after her. Because her eyes are sorta like mine.”
He snickered.
“It’s not funny.”
Horror started to sink in. Kyla felt murderous in that room, like she wanted to gouge that pixie maid’s eyes out so that they wouldn’t be green.
“It’s kinda funny,” he said and folded his arms across his chest. He had a big smile on his face.
She let out a grunt of frustration, “I’m going for a bath.”
She grabbed both the Puma bag and a bag with some toiletries they’d bought at Walmart and went into the bathroom.
She turned the water on, plunked the plug in, and got in and lathered up her legs with shaving cream and pulled the cover off a disposable razor.
She chided herself for being jealous like that when he’d done nothing to make her think he’d ever cross that line with another woman. She also chided herself for her behavior before then, when she was clearly thinking like a guy, with her vajayjay, instead of her brain.
She didn’t know if Tristan had been stopped back at the condo because of her declaration and her feelings or if it was because he’d been shot by enough tranquilizer to take down a few elephants, and here she was trying tempt him into something that might go badly.
What was this bond they had doing to her?
She didn’t like how clouded her judgement felt. She’d run away from him out of self-preservation and yet here she was offering to do experiments with no controls and no help in place and wanting to gouge the eyes out of any dark-haired green eyed woman who looked his way.
She was craving him and that morning had done nothing but rev her cravings up a notch. There was no climax for her and he hadn’t bit her. She couldn’t believe her train of thought. She didn’t know how to get sensible Kyla back. And the idea of him with anyone else?
“Ah!” Oh fuck. She’d nicked her ankle with the razor and it was stinging.
A little red line trickled down her foot. Her eyes widened. She shoved the foot under the still running water.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! How could I be so stupid?
She stared at the bathroom door, feeling her heart pump loudly. On the other side of the door he was trying to control himself and she’d just split her fucking ankle open while shaving because she wasn’t paying attention!
She kept the leg under the running water, praying the bleeding would stop fast and taking slow and deep breaths to try to settle herself down.
The bathroom door flew wide open, crashing loudly into the wall. Tristan’s eyes were huge. They were still blue but his mouth was open. He looked absolutely livid. He obviously smelled it from outside the door!
Blue. Don’t turn black, don’t turn black!
She winced and applied pressure with a washcloth, dropping the razor onto the floor, staring up at him horror-struck. His eyes landed on the razor and then followed up to her face, almost in slow motion.
She raised her palm at him to halt him, “Sorry! It was an accident. Go, go, go! Hurry, get out. I’ll get it to stop.”