My brain spinning, I shook Tristan awake, and he sat up in a panic.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” he asked quickly.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m okay.”
“Okay, so that’s just how people in Bardstown say good morning now? By scaring the shit out of someone first thing?”
He laid back down and rubbed his eyes, looking like he was trying to properly wake up. It’s possible I had overreacted.
“I need help to sneak out of here,” I told him. “It sounds like everyone is awake.”
His charming smile turned wicked as he pulled back the sheet, revealing me in just his t-shirt and bare legs. He didn’t seem bothered at all by the situation at hand. Why would he be bothered? Men never had to deal with slut shaming.
He literally had nothing to lose here. His life was in New York. But this was my life. This was my place of employment, for god’s sake.
I suddenly worried that this was not the best idea. If his mother found out and fired me, where else would I be able to work in this town? I’d have to leave, move to Louisville, or maybe even farther, just to have a shot at a decent career.
This wasn’t going to end well, and we needed to shut this down. But I didn’t know if I was strong enough. And there were more immediate needs at hand–like getting out of this house.
“Tristan!” I whispered, slapping his hand away as it moved up my leg. “This is not the time, I really have to go.”
He looked at me and nodded once. We both got dressed in silence. I felt even more ashamed having to go home without panties. Those were my favorite ones, too.
“You could climb out the window,” he suggested. “There’s a ladder out there under the vines.”
Of course there was. That’s how he had snuck all the girls in and out in high school. I rolled my eyes at him and started for the window.
“Wait. I’ll go downstairs and distract everyone by getting them out on the back porch. I’ll text you when the coast is clear and then hustle down.”
His plan seemed reasonable enough. He kissed me deeply and then walked out of the room.
A few minutes later he texted me a thumbs up emoji and I headed out the door and down the stairs. I was walking out the front door when I caught a glimpse of William from the corner of my eye. He was sitting in his favorite chair on the front porch.
What the hell, Tristan?
“Morning, WIlliam,” I greeted, trying to be quiet but also sound friendly and normal.
“A good morning it is,” he said with a chuckle that made me blush.
“I better get going. I just needed to check on the, uh, carrots I planted in the garden the other day.” That was the best lie I could come up with and it sounded ridiculous.
“Oh, sure,” William said, but he saw right through me.
“I should get going. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I waved goodbye and hurried down the walk back home.
Now I needed to come up with an excuse to tell my mom. I didn’t have a curfew or anything and I had stayed out all night before. But this was different. This was Tristan.
Hopefully, Mason hadn’t come by the house last night. I was in no way ready to talk to him about what happened. I was starting to think this was all such a bad idea that we should just forget about it and then we would never have to tell anyone.
But Mason could always somehow find out the truth. It was his super power. Very annoying.
I had to figure out what I wanted to happen with Tristan, and I had to figure it out fast.
Tristan
I couldn’t understand why Arya had been acting so weird this morning. Did she regret last night? That would really suck if she did because that was, by far, the best sex I’d had in a very long time. And I was hoping to do it again. Somewhere we didn’t have to be quiet.
I already missed the feel of her skin beneath me as her soft curves moved.