by Jenika Snow
He spoke like he should be sailing yachts with his aristocratic buddies. The fact that he was drinking a beer with her with not-so-aristocratic people seemed so out of place. To make her point clear, someone yelled an obscenity and jumped off the deck into the pool. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing for an intoxicated person to do, but this wasn’t a new image for the parties Jayson and Kylie threw.
“What did you say your last name was again?” She took one more drink from her beer and downed it, setting the empty bottle on the railing. He watched her movements and finished his own.
“I’d offer you another but I don’t think you’d accept.”
A wave of heat slammed into her and she prayed for a breeze.
“Do you live around here? I can take you to your house if you want.”
He was very nice and sincere, but him offering her a ride sent up a bunch of red flags. They had just met, for fuck’s sake. She shook her head and headed toward the door. That last beer certainly wasn’t the best idea. She put a hand on her stomach as it rolled with unease.
“Don’t go inside, please. Let’s take a walk. I’d like to get to know you better.” He held up his hand and smiled. “Scout’s honor, I’m not a bad guy.”
Tristan could feel the heat from inside coming out of the door and another wave of nausea slammed into her. The fresh air did feel nice.
“We don’t even have to go for a walk. We can just sit and talk, whatever you want.”
She felt more comfortable with that. She looked at the deck, saw more people crowding onto it, and then looked toward the front of the house. “We can sit on the front deck.” His smile could have blinded her. She smiled in return, and they made their way to the front of the house. A wave of dizziness assaulted her and she placed her hand on the side of the house to steady herself. She used her other hand to cover her mouth. She so did not feel good. Max was in front of her saying something but she couldn’t make out the words.
“What?” Was that her voice? Distorted and woozy sounding? There were a few people walking around, but they looked more worse for wear than she felt. “I shouldn’t have had that last beer.”
Max had a hold of her arm and was walking her toward the long line of cars. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”
“N–No. My purse. My car. I have to tell Kylie.” Going home did sound like a good idea, but it was as if her body was working in slow motion. Max was all but carrying her to a car and then she found herself seated, unable to move. She watched as he went back into the house. A few minutes later he came back out and got into the car, opened her purse, and start riffling through her wallet. The need to snatch her personal items out of his hands was strong, but besides a few feeble mumbles she was helpless. A smirk covered his lips when he pulled out her driver’s license.
“Cute picture.” He shoved everything back inside and tossed her purse onto her lap.
“I need to stay. I’m not ready to go.” Her head felt like lead as she turned toward him. He was backing out, and all she could do was tell him no, that she wasn’t ready to go, but he wouldn’t listen. It was then, as fear started to coil tightly inside of her, that she realized he had gotten her address off of her license, and that she was at his mercy.
“Baby, you are so wasted you can’t even walk straight. I’ll take you home and you’ll thank me in the morning.”
She shook her head and tried the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Tristan found herself growing so tired that the idea of trying to keep her eyes open was abhorrent. The next thing she knew was a door slammed shut behind her and someone was talking.
“Come on. We’re here.”
She peeled her eyes open and another wave of nausea assaulted her. He helped her out of the car and they walked up the front steps. The sound of something to her side caught her attention, but she couldn’t even bring herself to hold her head up. She moaned. She was going to throw up.
“Oh, no you don’t.”
Tristan felt herself pressed against the side of her house and then a wet mouth latched onto her throat.
“You taste so good, baby.” He ran his tongue up her throat and kissed the side of her mouth. Tristan turned her head and tried to push him away, but her arms were far too heavy for her to lift. She moaned again when he pressed his lips to her mouth. He must have taken her moan as affirmation that she enjoyed his advances because he speared his tongue in her mouth.
She managed to turn her head and mumble, “No, no, please stop.”
“You don’t want me to stop.” He kissed the side of her neck again.
Tristan’s heart slammed hard against her ribs. It was like she was there but she wasn’t. Her mind knew what was happening but she couldn’t bring her body to stop it. “Please, stop.”
He grabbed her thigh roughly and lifted it over his. His fingers pressed painfully on her flesh, and she tried in vain to push him away. He was stronger, but she had resolve. The beers she had couldn’t have possibly made her feel this way, could they? It was too much work to think.
He pressed his lips against hers and forcibly shoved his tongue down her throat. He tasted like stale beer. She tried to push him away again. One of his hands held her head immobile while the other snaked its way between her breasts, over her belly, and under her skirt. Hot tears tracked down her cheeks. Her arms felt like lead plates, and coupled with his strength, she knew what was bound to happen.
His fingers ran over the edge of her panties and she started to shake. In one swift move he tore her panties away and ran his fingers over her now-exposed flesh. Wave after wave of dizziness and nausea swept over her. She was on the edge of passing out, but a force inside of her refused to succumb. She knew that once she was out there would be no fight in her and Max would have free rein over her body. He already did now, but the very idea of not being conscious was too horrible to even consider. So, using what little strength she had left, Tristan forced her eyes to stay open, forced herself to not let go.
Just as she heard the zipper of his jeans being pushed down, his body was no longer pressed against hers. She instantly slid to the ground, not being able to hold herself up any longer. She blinked a few times at the scene before her, not sure if what she was seeing was accurate.
Max was on his back on the front lawn while Kash stood menacingly over him. Her eyes widened fractionally as she watched Kash slam his fist into Max’s face repeatedly. Max’s feeble attempts to ward Kash off only seemed to make him more pissed. In the moonlight, Kash looked fierce. His muscles strained every time he reared back and slammed his fist into Max. When Max stopped fighting back and only moaned on the ground, Kash got off of him. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles.
“When a woman says no that is exactly what it means, motherfucker.” It looked like Kash was going to go another round on him, but Max sprinted toward his car. Kash made a move forward, his anger palpable in the night air, but Tristan moaned loudly when an intense wave of dizziness slammed into her. She couldn’t hold the contents of her stomach any longer.
Head to the side, Tristan let the inevitable happen. When she was done, she glanced up at Kash and saw him watching her with an unreadable expression. He glanced once more at where Max had taken off and then back at her. She heard the squeal of tires as he tore out of there like his life depended on it, which she supposed it did. She blinked up at Kash, who cursed and was walking briskly toward her. She knew she should be afraid. Hell, he had just beat the shit out of someone right in front of her. He had also saved her.
When he was close enough that she could see his face, she saw a small cut above his eye. Dried blood covered it so she knew Max hadn’t hit him. Had he gotten into an earlier fight as well? He didn’t say anything as he picked her up. That was the last thing she remembered before darkness took her.
* * * *
The urge to lunge for the sneaky little bastard and finishing him off was strong within Kash, but as he held Tristan in his arms, that volatile need dimmed. She was rel
atively unharmed, physically, but he knew all too well that emotionally she would be black and blue. The pain that throbbed beneath the skin of his knuckles wasn’t nearly as bad as the pain he felt when he looked at her. She was either extremely drunk or she had been drugged. He had a sickening feeling it was the latter. He gritted his teeth, rage slamming into him so fast and hard it sucked the air from him. He found himself holding her tighter, wanting to hunt down the bastard that had dared to put his hands on her. He glanced behind him at the street, cursing himself for not getting the prick’s plate number. Oh, he had no doubt that their paths would cross again, and when they did Kash didn’t plan on holding back.
The door shut soundlessly behind him and he strode up the stairs to her bedroom. All he kept picturing was seeing her pressed against the side of the house, saying no repeatedly while that fucker forced himself upon her. He shuddered to think what would have happened if he hadn’t been there.
He set her on the bed and just stared at her as the moonlight slashed across her face. Even unconscious he could see the worry and fear etched in her expression. Lifting his hand, he ran the tip of his finger over her brow trying to smooth the worry lines away. She relaxed under his touch and he felt his heart lurch in his chest. The effect she had on him was crippling, yet he still wasn’t ready to acknowledge it. The way things were was how it was supposed to be.
He had meant to go to the party, but he knew that whole scene wasn’t him. He was a loner, and people tended to get antsy around him anyway. Whether it was from his size or the fact they could sense something dangerous about him, he didn’t know, but he was glad they kept their distance.
When he closed his eyes all he could see was himself, small and helpless, praying someone would help him. He was far from perfect. In fact, he was the complete opposite. The only thing he could give her was his protection, and he would do that with every ounce of his being. He opened his eyes and wished he could have spared her tonight. He knew from experience it would always haunt her, and the only thing he was grateful for tonight was the fact he had stopped it when he did. A great sigh left him and he stood to leave. He would stand outside her door if he had to, because the need to make sure no one touched her was stronger than anything he had ever felt before. What the hell was happening to him?
Chapter Five
Pain like nothing Tristan had ever felt had her eyes snapping open, which in turn caused her to groan aloud. She closed her eyes from the blinding sunlight. A wave of nausea slammed into her and she sprinted to the bathroom. Whatever was in her stomach was lurched out. Did she really have that much to drink last night? She tried to recall what had happened and how she had gotten home when she didn’t remember driving, but all that came was nothingness.
She rested her head on the toilet seat, too sick to even care how disgusting that actually was. As she leaned over the seat again someone grabbed her hair and held it out of the way. She would have thanked that person if she wasn’t busy dry heaving. When the tremors stopped she opened her eyes, wiped the tears away, and stared at Kash. It took her a moment to realize it was him who held her hair out of the way while she further embarrassed herself, but she was too sick and too grateful all in the same breath.
When she was confident she wasn’t going to throw up anymore, the realization that she didn’t have the strength to stand washed through her. Great, not only did he see her puking her guts out, he was also a witness to the fact the porcelain throne was her new pillow. Before she could thank him and tell him she planned on calling this her new home for the next several hours, he had her in his arms and was striding back to her bed. A blissful sigh escaped her as her head hit the pillow, but that was short-lived as dizziness and a splitting headache took over. All Tristan wanted to do was curl up in a ball and die.
“I didn’t even think I drank that much last night.” The bed dipped beside her, and she cracked her eyes open to see that Kash had sat down. His gaze was directed toward the window, an extremely intense expression covering his face. The muscles under his jaw worked overtime, and for a split moment the air in her room grew thick with tension and rage.
“Kash?” She whispered his name, partly because the sound of her voice was too loud and caused her head to throb harder, and partly because she was afraid of what his reaction would be. He turned to her and the look on his face had her recoiling. He must have seen her fear because his expression visibly relaxed and he smiled down at her. Her eyes drifted to the cut above his eye and a flash of memory came back to her.
Moonlight, shadows, blood.
Tristan lifted a hand to her head in hopes she could stop the room from spinning. “I can’t even remember how I got here.” When she felt his hand on top of hers, she snapped her eyes open and pulled it away. He breathed out roughly and removed his hand.
“Listen, I’m the last person that should be explaining anything to you, but Kylie already left and you need to know.”
“Kylie was here?”
“Yeah, and Jayson. She dropped off your car, checked on you, and left with Jayson.” He ran his hand through his hair. “She was pretty upset after I told her everything.”
Tristan felt her brows draw down as she tried to remember what exactly happened.
“Do you remember that guy that brought you home?”
Tristan thought back to last night. Dirty-blond hair and brown eyes came to her memory. Drinking a beer, standing on the deck. Like a rush of water off a mountain, everything fell into place. Everything. Tears sprang forth and she tried in vain to stop them, but it was no use.
“I’m so stupid.” She covered her face and cried. She couldn’t help it. The tears flowed and her body shook. She cried because she was a moron for getting in that situation, she cried because she should have known better than to drink an open container, and she cried because she was embarrassed Kash had seen it all and had to clean up her mess.
Her shoulders fell forward as the sobs overtook her. “I’m so sorry I got you in the middle of that. Thank you, though. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” If Kash hadn’t been there she didn’t want to think about what would have happened. In the next instant she was in his arms, crying harder than she had ever cried.
“You have nothing to apologize for. If you hadn’t been there, watching the whole thing, sick from whatever that motherfucker gave you, I would have killed him, easily.”
Tristan pulled away from him and sniffed. His words were matter-of-fact and dead serious. The look on his face confirmed he meant every word. He lifted her chin with his finger and stared into her eyes. She got lost in those green depths.
“You were my guardian angel last night.”
He smiled but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Nah, I just was at the right place at the right time.” He smoothed a lock of hair off her forehead. “I promise he won’t bother you again. No one will.” His declaration startled her. He was so firm with it, yet he hardly knew her.
After a suspended moment of them just staring at each other, he finally pulled away and stood. “Kylie wants you to call her when you get up.” He walked toward the door and stopped before he left. “I’ll bring you up some aspirin and something to eat.”
The idea of food turned her stomach, but she knew she had to eat something. She reached for her phone, saw Kylie had called a dozen times, and knew she would soon get an earful.
When she brought the phone to her ear, she had to grit her teeth in pain as the earsplitting ringtone came through the receiver.
“Oh my God, Tristan. Are you okay?”
Kylie’s screech came through too loud, and Tristan pulled the phone away, wincing in the process. “I’m okay, but don’t talk so loud. I have the mother of all headaches.” She could hear Kylie crying in the background. “Hey, why are you crying? Is everything okay with you?”
“You are such a bitch to worry me like that.” She sniffed once and Tristan could hear tissue being pulled out of a box. “When I couldn’t find you last night I started to freak o
ut, but then I saw your car still in the driveway so I assumed you were just talking with that guy you met in the kitchen.”
His face came back to mind and her stomach turned once again. “Who was he anyway? The only thing he told me was his first name, Max.”
“The crazy thing is we have no clue, no one does that we asked. By the time he showed up, everyone was either too drunk to question who the hell he was, or they assumed someone else from the party brought him.” She sniffed again. “Jayson and I can’t help but feel like this is all our fault, Tristan.”
“It isn’t you guys’ fault.” Kylie didn’t respond, but Tristan could hear her friend gently sniffing. “Don’t cry. I’m just glad Kash was there, Kylie.” Tristan shivered at the memory. “I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if he hadn’t been there.” Tristan debated whether or not to tell Kylie how Kash had beat the shit out of Max. In the end, she had to tell her because she couldn’t believe it.
“He almost killed him, Kylie,” she whispered, not wanting Kash to hear.
“Good. It’s a fucking shame he didn’t. I swear to everything that is holy, Tristan, if I saw him walking down the street I would kick his ass, too.”
Tristan couldn’t help but smile at the image that conjured. Kylie was all of five foot two inches. To see her kick anyone’s ass would have been comical.
“He was frightening, Kylie. The way he hit him, it was like nothing I have ever seen.” Despite the haze of whatever drug Max had given her clouding her mind and body, Tristan remembered how Kash looked under the moonlight. His muscles straining, his body arching as he repeatedly hit Max. He had been a machine.
“You should have seen him recounting last night’s events to Jayson. He was so…intense about it.” Kylie cleared her throat. “Listen, I’m going to come over later.”
“You don’t have to, really. I think I just want to sleep the rest of the day.” There was a beat of silence and Tristan knew what was about to come.