Tess #3
So then they’d put up a fight. The confirmation made me tense up, which was silly. Like he’d said, he was a grown man. They could be unhappy all they wanted. It didn’t mean that Scott had to listen to them. And from what he’d just said, he wasn’t going to. I hoped it hadn’t been an ugly fight.
Maybe it had been and that was why he didn’t want to talk about it. Still, I wished he would trust me though to tell me. Wished he would let me all the way in.
There is time, I reminded myself. This was still new between us. Instead, I focused on the most important outstanding detail. “Are they going to talk to Kendra?”
“Yes, but…” He stopped so he could turn to me. “They want to wait until the DRF thing is all wrapped up. So that she can’t fuck it up.”
The thought hadn’t occurred to me that she might. I considered it for a few seconds. “She wouldn’t. I know Kendra, and she might be self-absorbed, but she’s not malicious.”
“It never hurts to be cautious.” Once again he was towing me down the hall, as if he had a specific destination in mind. “In the meantime, you have time off? I was planning to steal you for a weekend getaway, but now I’m thinking we’ll make it a long weekend.”
It seemed like a swift change of subject, one that should have made me cautious, but Scott knew the way to distract a woman, and it worked. Worry about Kendra and his parents dissolved into giddiness. “Is that your way of asking me if I want to go away with you for a long weekend?”
“I thought you liked it better when you weren’t asked.”
I did find a bit of being bossed about a real turn-on. The fact that Scott knew what kinds of things I wanted to be bossed on was a real plus. “Okay. I’m game. So where are we going?”
He pulled me around a corner and then stopped abruptly in front of a closed door. “Uh-uh. Not ruining the surprise. We’ll leave tomorrow. Pack warm. Bikinis if you have them. I’d be fine if that’s all you wore. The skimpier, the better.”
“I’ll see what I can come up with.” Now that I couldn’t raid my wardrobe from Kendra, I’d have to be creative. Luckily Teyana had some swimsuits I could borrow. I glanced at the sign on the door we’d stopped in front of. “And why are we at a walk-in lab?”
Looking around first to make sure we were alone, he backed me up until I was against the wall adjacent to the door. With one hand braced above me, he leaned his head so his mouth was close to my ear. “Because there is no way I’m spending four days and nights with you and not fucking you bare.”
A delicious shiver ran through me, and I had to press my thighs together and swallow hard. “So...STD tests.”
“Yep. You said you’re on birth control, right?”
“Yep.” Why was this so oddly romantic? There’d been men who’d wanted to fuck without a condom before.
None had ever been willing to prove they were free of infection first, though.
None had even bothered to try to assure me they were clean, which was why I’d been a faithful condom user despite being on birth control.
The gesture alone was enough to make me want to climb him like a tree and let him fuck me bare right then and there. “You know, you could just tell me you’re clean, and I’d believe you.”
He leaned back so he could look me in the face. “That’s very dumb of you, Tess, and you are not a dumb woman.”
I’d never been so moved by a put-down. “It is dumb of me, but it’s the truth. I trust you.” Something flickered in his expression. Something I couldn’t quite read. “Unless... Are you worried your test results will come back positive?”
“Not in the least.”
“You’re so sure.”
“One hundred percent. I haven’t been raw with a woman in years.”
And again I was swooning. Because this made me special, didn’t it? I was sure he hadn’t lacked for sex before me. He’d hinted at it enough. Of all those women, I was the one he wanted to be that intimate with. Me.
But then I realized if he wasn’t worried about the health risk that I faced by sex sans condom, then he was worried about his. “So it’s me you’re concerned about. What I might give you.”
He gave me an oh, please look. “We’re both getting tested, Tessa, because it’s what responsible adults do. And because I very much like the idea of responsible adulting with you.”
“I like that idea too,” I said, the words coming out quiet since my throat was suddenly tight.
I liked it a lot. I liked him a lot. Liked the way it felt like we were making a commitment to each other by this simple act.
Liked the way it felt like it was about something bigger than sex, like it was about something more real and special and intimate.
And if there was a hint of trepidation underneath those feelings, I told myself it was me.
I told myself it was because it was so new.
Scott had gone above and beyond proving himself.
With Tey. With this test. With altering the course of his future plans.
Ever since he came clean about his engagement, he’d been nothing but transparent.
So why, then, did it feel like there was still something he was hiding?