“’Kay.” A shiver raced through her slender body. “I’ll try.”
“If you scream again, me and my boxers will be waiting.” And many other things I didn’t care to mention.
Laughing, she crawled back under the covers. “Well, if that doesn’t set me at ease, I really don’t know what will.”
“Security system.” I winked and made my way toward the door. “State of the art. The only person getting in your room is me, and that’s only if you scream again…”
“If I scream, you come?”
I fought back a groan of frustration as I gripped the door handle, nearly pulling it free. When I turned, her smile was flirtatious, almost inviting. Damn it. Sinning never looked so good.
“Sure.” I tried to match her smile with one of my own. “Think of your scream as a bell… ring it and I’m here.” Really? That was all I had in response?
“Thanks…” She lay down on the pillow. “…for everything.”
Guilt stabbed me square in the chest as I gave a curt nod and shut the door behind me.
What the hell was I doing?
I had no flipping clue.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“He tried to commit suicide,” Mel said numbly the next day.
I’d just been discharged from the hospital, and she was driving me to my penthouse, the one place I’d let her see that wasn’t owned by good ol’ Dad, though he’d paid up-the-ass for it to keep his dirty little secret happy.
“So?” I shrugged, tossing a pain pill in my mouth. “That’s not the first time it’s happened. Surely won’t be the last. Think of it as us helping groom him for life.”
“Tay!” Mel shook her head. “We can’t — I can’t… I can’t keep doing this. It’s not fun. I mean, can’t we just do normal things like go to the movies?”
“What’s really bothering you?” I asked, finally turning toward her ghostlike face.
She chewed her lower lip and looked down. “I got in.”
“What?”
“I applied to college, Tay. I got in.” —The Journal of Taylor B.
Lisa
I RUBBED MY eyes and gripped my cell phone. Blurry vision and caked-on mascara, not a good combination. Finally, the fuzziness of the screen dissipated, and I was able to see the time.
Six in the morning.
I set the phone back on the stand and groaned. The last thing I wanted to do was get out of the most comfortable bed I’d ever slept in and take the walk of shame down the hall and let my professor — ha! — my sexy professor — drive me to school.
I groaned again.
He’d been right. The morning hadn’t made it better, but I did feel like I had a bit more energy to tackle the day. I sent a quick text to Gabe so he knew I was all right and slowly rose from bed.
Yawning, I padded over to the door and quickly peered into the hall to see if I could hear any movement or indication that Tristan was up.
Nothing.
Just as I was about to go back into the room, I looked down. A pair of jeans, white T-shirt, and TOMS shoes were sitting in a neat pile on the floor; a yellow knit cap topped off the pile with a note attached:
For you.