Chapter 37
Tristan
“You seriously owe me,” I faux-glare at Reagan as she slips back behind the counter, tugging her apron on as she goes.
Fine, maybe it’s a halfway real glare. I love the girl, and nothing would make me take back the chance to help her out, it’s just that the case of blue balls I’ve got is making me super cranky right now.
That shit with Jesse’s computer last night and the way it made me flash back to what had happened every damn time I’d fucked anything up when I was with Josh really took it out of me.
Even with all the certifiably swoon-worthy things Jesse told me afterward and how the way he just held me made me full-on melt, I just hadn’t been up for anything besides snuggling up with him in bed after dinner.
So much for the hot AF night I’d spent the whole damn day looking forward to.
What’s crazy though is that I didn’t feel like I was pissing Jesse off or letting him down because of it.
I had, however, totally been counting on taking full advantage of having a solid couple hours with him this morning before heading into work to make up for lost time. Which is where the whole Reagan-seriously-owes-me bit comes in.
Long, and I mean looong before I’d had any plans to wake up, I’d gotten a call from Mitchel, asking me if I could do a double today to cover for the extra morning shift Reagan had planned to take on.
“She’ll be in to join you for her regular shift, but she said she was up all night with her sick kid and just can’t do the double today,” he’d told me. So of course, it wasn’t like I could say I wouldn’t. No way was I gonna be the dick who made it so a pregnant girl didn’t get a few hours of sleep.
And there went my sexy morning plans.
Fuck. Me.
When I hung up the phone, I really had only meant to kiss Jesse goodbye. I swear. He’d been wrapped around me, all warm and soft and too-good-to-leave, so how could I help it?
Plus, it wasn’t like I was even totally all the way awake. At least not at first…
It started out with a kiss so sleepy and slow and so goddamn sweet that it could almost lull me back to sleep. But then the trouble started when Jesse just had to go and softly lick against my lips, so naturally I had to return the favor. Totally his fault.
And if, instead of pulling away and ending things there so that I could drag my highly disappointed ass out of bed to get dressed, I just might have accidentally snagged his plump, totally impossible to resist lower lip with my teeth and sucked on it, just a teeny bit, can anyone really blame me?
As for that long, breathy moan I may or may not have let out as I flicked my tongue over his soft, puffy skin when I’d let his lip go?
Well, that probably might have had a little something to do with the fact that my very understandably rock-hard cock just so happened to be pressing up against his.
And really, who could have expected me not to grind my hips into his, just a tiny bit, once I realized that?
Anyway, without me really having done a thing, the two of us ended up rolling around, all sweaty and breathless and tangled up in the blankets, fucking devouring each other’s mouths until it was legitimately all I could do not to come all over the inside of the totally inconvenient joggers I’d thought it was such a good idea to wear to bed last night.
That was when my ever-responsible sunshine just had to go and catch sight of the time. Considering the fact that, even so, I was almost ten minutes late, I should be grateful.
Should being the key word there.
“I so owe you.” Reagan slumps against the counter as I pour fresh beans into the hopper.
“Ollie was coughing literally all night. Didn’t fall asleep until like an hour before I would have had to wake up.
I think I genuinely would’ve passed out in the middle of pulling a shot for someone if I’d had to come in at five thirty. ”
Annnd now I feel like a total dick for sulking about my morning. “He’s feeling better now?”
“A little. And Noah’s with him now, so I know he’s good. He said there’ve been little kids coming into the ER with the same thing, but Ollie’s nowhere near that bad, thank god.”
“I’m glad you have him. You and Ollie are lucky.”
“Yeah.” Her smile’s the sort of smile that two-weeks-ago-me would have called sappy AF. “But speaking of lucky,” she jabs her sharp little elbow in my ribs, tired face lighting up with a totally sadistic looking smirk as she singsongs, “look whose boyfriend’s come to visit him at work.”
What it says that I don’t even second guess the skippy-leap of my heart and the grin I just can’t keep off my face as I look up to see Jesse pushing in through the door, I really can’t say.
Can’t say, won’t say, same difference, right?
Oh, just look at him though. All pink-cheeked and messy-haired and hot AF in yet another hideous sweater that I just want to peel right off him…
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I hiss at Reagan, butterflies going fucking crazy in the pit of my stomach.
Bitch only rolls her eyes at me before waving her fingers at Jesse as he steps up to the counter.
“Hey there, Jesse. Or do you prefer sunshine?” She waggles her eyebrows at him, and the tips of his ears go pink.
“Either way, I’m Reagan. And did you know that Tristan talks about you like allll,” she drags out the word, “the time?”
“Ignore her,” I knock my hip against Reagan’s side, gently pushing her out of the way so I can tip up onto my toes and lean over the counter to wrap my arm around the back of Jesse’s neck and pull him down for a quick kiss. Just a little peck that’s nowhere near long enough.
Seriously, whoever came up with the bullshit idea that making out while at work isn’t appropriate has clearly never gotten a taste of my sunshine’s lips.
The little surprised huff of his breath though? Totally delicious and adorable enough to make up for how not-long-enough the kiss was.
“I brought you lunch.” He brushes his fingers over my cheekbone, and there’s no way I’m gonna be able to keep a totally sappy-ass look off my face. “Since you didn’t eat breakfast?”
“Does this mean you missed me, sunshine?”
“Yes.” Jesse doesn’t even hesitate, and fuck but does that make my chest go all warm and fuzzy feeling. “But I also didn’t want you to be hungry.”
Oh the things this guy does to my heart…
“Oh my god, you two!”
Jesse and I both turn at the sound, and of course, there’s Reagan, hands clasped beneath her chin.
“You do know this is, like, romance novel level mushy, right?”
Jesse laughs awkwardly, dropping his touch from my cheek and taking a step back from the counter. Damn but my skin feels cold and lonely without his warm hand.
“I can’t stay,” he tells me, and ohh, much as I hate that he’s going already, I do love how much he looks like he doesn’t like it. “I’ve got to get back to work on my research.”
“You could do it here.” Shit, I sound needy. Like I’m begging him not to leave. What kind of crazy Jesse-magic has this guy worked on me to reduce me to this? And why the fuck am I so totally here for it?
He shakes his head taking another step back, and for a hot moment, I feel like my stomach’s just gone and fallen straight through to the floor, ‘cause look at me, putting myself out there and showing him what he does to me, and—
“I wouldn’t be able to get anything done, Tris,” he whispers across the space between us.
“You’d distract me too much. It’s bad enough back at home, where I can’t stop thinking about you,” and there goes that blush, creeping right down under the neck of his ugly-ass sweater.
“But if I stay here, I won’t be able to keep my eyes off you. ”
Well fuck.
My grin is ridiculous. Full on, totally ridiculous. But hell if I can find it in myself to care.
“I’ll see you tonight though?” I wet my lips and tug the lower one between my teeth a little, and I swear I’m not trying to distract him from how totally needy I’m being.
He swallows hard, eyes on my mouth. “Yes. Tonight.”
And holy shit. My cock legitimately jumps and swells in my jeans at how sexy and intense and breathless he just sounded.
Can someone please tell me why it’s only noon right now?
“Oh. My. Fucking. God!” Reagan squeals the moment Jesse’s out the door. “He loves you, Tristan. Like, seriously. That man is in love with you.”
“’Cause he brought me lunch?”
Reagan’s full of shit. She reads too many damn romance novels.
Right?
Right. ‘Cause there’s not a fucking chance that Jesse could actually love me.
Is there?
And when will those damn butterflies give it a fucking rest?
Reagan rolls her eyes. “Not just because he brought you lunch. Though that was, like, disgustingly sweet. But ohmygod, do you see how he looks at you? Like, I don’t think he sees anything else. And did you even hear what he straight up said? That he can’t stop thinking about you?”
“He just always looks like that.” God, I need my stupid-ass heart to calm the fuck down. And don’t get me started on those motherfucking butterflies.
“He always looks like that because when you see him, he’s always looking at you.”
I totally pretend like I don’t hear her. “And besides, all he was talking about when he said that was that he wants to get me naked and in his bed again. Like I would have been all morning if someone hadn’t made me get called into work this morning.”
“No way.” She shakes her head, totally not taking the bait of my bitchy last words. “That is not all it is, and I definitely do not need to hear the gory details. And anyway, I thought you two were, you know, taking things slow?”
I raise an eyebrow at her. Or try to. Not sure I can really feel my face right about now.
“Okay, fiiiine,” she whines. “Yes, I need to hear the gory details. I want them. Allll of them. Let me have them? Pleeease?”
“Not happening, Reagan. Gentlemen don’t kiss and tell.” Thank fuck she’s gone and distracted me with this.
She laughs so loud that the few people parked in chairs at the back of the shop raise their heads and look over at us. “You are not a gentleman, hon. That boyfriend of yours though? Definitely a different matter.”
“Not my boyfriend.”
“Oh, but he wants to be,” she smirks at me. “And you know you want him to be too.”
Fuck Reagan and her stupid-ass romance novels.
The only way I could get all her talk about love and boyfriends out of my head was by filling it instead with scrumptiously dirty thoughts about my sunshine and all the things we could have done to each other if I hadn’t had to leave him for work this morning. And all the things we could do tonight…
Thank fuck that it turns out that my apron’s great at hiding boners.
And yeah, of course by the time I left the shop, Reagan had managed to drag it out of me that while yes, Jesse and I have indeed been naked in his bed, no, we still haven’t actually fucked.
Yet.
Dinner was the last thing on my mind when I finally made it through to the end of the day and back to Jesse’s place, totally skipping over even stopping off at my apartment.
Why would I need to go there when I know what’s waiting for me next door?
But because he’s Jesse—all practical and responsible and way too fucking sweet for my own good—skipping out on eating in favor of getting him naked and in bed that very moment wasn’t gonna happen.
Never mind the fact that not having had him for nearly two whole days now will be the thing that’s gonna kill me, not lack of food.
To pay him back for making me wait when I’m legitimately dying, I’ve spent the whole time at the restaurant, that same little hole in the wall Thai place he’d taken me to on our first date, with my chair scooched right up close against his, letting my hand wander all over his thigh under the table, stroking and massaging up and down.
On the walk over here, only the fact that the wettest, coldest rain I’d ever felt in my life was pouring down on us had kept me at least a bit distracted from how I wanted nothing more than to turn around and drag him right back to his apartment.
The way his fingers had skimmed along my neck though when he’d helped me out of my coat when we’d gotten to our table?
So very not helpful. Add in the fact that I’m totally sure the fucker did it on purpose, and that was all it took to send every one of my thoughts straight back to the whole naked-in-bed thing.
Hence my highly enjoyable exploration of my sunshine’s hot AF thigh.
Just like that night when I’d tried to lure him into some sexy bath time though, the joke’s on me, ‘cause the way Jesse’s shifting around in his chair and the feel of his thick muscles tensing up under my hand as I stroke over them, always stopping just short of where I know his cock’s gotta be straining at his jeans, has me all kinds of hot and bothered too.
My totally unhelpful mind takes over from there, replaying particularly juicy moments from the night before last, right along with what he’d said after…about how he wants to take his time with me. Make me feel so good…
Fucking god, I seriously think I might just drop dead if I don’t get to touch him soon. If he doesn’t touch me soon…
When I finally give in—finally being the key word, ‘cause seriously? I’ve gotta deserve some real credit for how long I held out—and let my fingers stray just that teensy bit farther up to give his fucking-hard-as-a-rock bulge a squeeze, my own cock throbs and leaks, and I can’t hold back a moan at the exact same moment as Jesse full-on chokes on the mouthful of water he’d just tried to swallow down.
“Jesus,” he gasps when he can get a breath, which is seriously delayed by how, the whole time he’s coughing, both of us are totally cracking the fuck up. It’s late enough that the restaurant’s empty except for us, so it’s not like we’re gonna piss anyone off with how loud we’re being.
Then ohhh. Suddenly, he’s not laughing anymore, and neither am I, ‘cause he’s staring at me, pupils blown wide as he leans in, whispering in this thick, growly-hot voice, “You win, Tris. Are you happy?”
Oh, fuck yes. So happy.
‘Cause I definitely like the sound of this.