Tristan’s eyes were dim and almost lifeless as he looked back at her.
“Mr. Knight,” she heard one of the officers calling over to him. “Ma’am. Please. He needs to be looked at. The medics…”
Both Serenity and Tristan didn’t acknowledge the officer, their eyes hypnotically trained on one another. Sobs tortured her again as she shook her head at him. “What did you do?” she moaned. “What did you do Tristan? I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead!”
His voice was haunted and distant as he spoke. “You came. You really came. I thought…”
“Tristan… Oh my God… Tristan…”
She pulled his head down to her shoulder and tightly embraced him, whispering words of relief and thankfulness to God through her shock. Tristan lightly embraced her back with his free arm, struggling not to fall over. Her embrace was strong and unyielding despite the soft and soothing words of the medics trying to talk her out of her shock and pull her away from him, insisting that they needed to get him to the hospital.
“No,” she forcibly protested, holding him tighter. “No. No.” She could hear Tristan whimpering and somewhere in the darkness of her soul knew he was in pain, but she couldn’t let go. She couldn’t let go. Not yet. Not yet.
People were grabbing her. Pulling at her. Warning her. Scolding her. Soothing her. They were all lost in the dizzying mental swamp of her shock, grief, and relief. Then, anger. Anger that was so great and magnifying it seemed to come from the pits of the hell.
She started hitting him and swatting at him. “You son of a bitch! You son of a bitch! How could you! What the fuck were you thinking? What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Serenity!” she heard Katherine calling to her. “Serenity no!”
Several cops grabbed her and pulled her away from him. She kept trying to get away and they held her back strong, still issuing words of reproach and threatening to arrest her if she didn’t leave the premises. Deep in the trenches of her madness, Serenity knew if she wasn’t who she was and if Tristan wasn’t who he was and the press weren’t around, they would’ve shot her on sight.
The medics had laid Tristan out on the stretcher and were securing him as he called over to Serenity. “I’m sorry,” he faintly said. “I’m sorry.”
The dam broke and Serenity began crying again, wailing so hard the cops took pity on her and let them collapse against her as they held her up. Katherine was over in the corner sobbing hysterically as the medic who had been with her before held her.
Tristan’s heavy sad eyes looked back and forth between his mother and Serenity as the medics hurriedly wheeled him towards the ambulance. They stopped momentarily as Tristan reached out and weakly touched Serenity’s hand as they moved past her and the officers. “I didn’t know what else to do,” he harshly whispered. “I didn’t want to live without you. I can’t live without you. Not anymore.”
Serenity slowly simmered down and soberly looked at him, crying silently. She looked over to see Nyle and Ricky standing by them, their faces etched with concern.
She felt Tristan tugging her hand again and looked back down at him. “I didn’t know what else to do,” he forcibly repeated. “You are everything to me. Everything. I’m sorry I waited too long to realize that.”
Serenity stood still, speechlessly looking at him. His eyes held hers revealing everything she needed to know in that moment and had chosen to ignore the last time she’d seen him. But it was too late. It was all too late.
“Mr. Knight,” the female medic that had been wheeling him urgently said. “Mr. Knight, I’m sorry but we have to get you to the hospital. We need to leave now.”
As weak as he was, Tristan held tight to Serenity’s hand, his gaze unflinching as he looked into her hollow eyes. They were completely oblivious to the hysteria going on around them. Not waiting any longer, the medics began moving again, breaking his hand from hers.
As they moved past he and Ricky, Nyle reached out to Tristan and mildly touched his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay man,” he softly said.
Not waiting on a reply, he rushed over to Serenity and peeled her away from the officers. Her eyes were glazed over, her entire body was still shaking with rage, shock, and visible grief. Her knees gave way and she collapsed, leaning heavily on Nyle, her arms hanging limp by her sides.
He effortlessly picked Serenity up and turned to make his way back to the car.
“You might want to take her to the hospital and get her looked at,” one of the officers said. “She might be going into shock.”
Nyle blindly looked at him. “She’ll be fine,” he meekly said. “She’s been through worse. Much worse.” With that, he continued towards the car, working his way through the nosey crowd and whispering reassuringly in her ear.
Tristan’s eyes were tight with remorse as he stared at the couple. His eyes grew heavy and he struggled to keep them open. His head was pounding. Fucking pounding. It hurt so bad he wished he had died. Dumbass had just grazed the side of his head and the top of his ear, taking a piece of it off. The shock of the impact had jarred him back to reality. But it was what had landed in his lap that startled him back to sanity. The bullet had ricocheted off the picture of Serenity before shattering the glass of his windshield and the picture had landed in his lap. Looking at it again, he couldn’t help but thank God he had misfired. It wasn’t time for him to go yet. He still had too much to do. Wrongs he had to make right.
He slightly jumped with a start when Ricky stumbled over to him, openly weeping. The medics tried to keep pushing past him, but Ricky threw his arms around Tristan, holding him tight.
“Stupid,” Ricky shakily said. “You stupid son of a bitch. You stupid son of a bitch.”
“Sir,” the male medic warned impatiently,” you’re going to have to move. Now.”
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” Ricky said, standing up and pointing at Tristan. “To us. Ever.”
Tristan slightly nodded as the medics wheeled off. Ricky jogged over to Katherine and secured her away from her medic, consoling her and fighting back his own tears.
Tristan’s eyes were still on Serenity and Nyle as he watched Nyle carefully placing her in the car. From where the ambulance was parked, he could see them perfectly. The medics had slightly raised his stretcher so that they could continue to monitor his vitals and address his wounds. He was vaguely aware of the fuss going on around hm. The medics asking him the same questions for the hundredth time, the commanding officer saying he’d see him at the hospital to ask more questions, fans screaming his name, invasive reporters shouting questions, the sounds of his mother’s sobs echoing through the commotion, the medics talking animatedly amongst themselves…
He unflinchingly looked on as Nyle got in the car and began backing his way out of the swarm of vehicles. Tristan could clearly see Serenity staring at him through the window, her body fraught with shakes and hard sobs.
As the doors of the ambulance closed shut on their unflinching, emotional gaze, he couldn’t stop his mind from seamlessly drifting back to how their love story began…
TRISTAN:
Mine, all Mine, BOOK II
A Sneak Peek
SERENITY
Saturday, July 13th, 2013
“Tristan Knight requests the pleasure of your acquaintance.”
Serenity Harris looked up at the big, burly bodyguard hovering over her and swallowed hard. She squinted at him through the dim light of the club. “Huh?” she squeaked over the noise.
“Tristan Knight would like to see you.”
Serenity’s heart pounded in her chest as she tried to digest the massive man’s words. Had he said what she thought he said? She half-stood off the shaky bar stool she was sitting on and strained her ear closer to his mouth. “Did you say Tristan Knight?”
The man sighed with impatience and pointed over his shoulder towards the other side of the room. “Yes!”
Serenity’s eyes widened with acknowledgment as her eyes me
t the dreamiest set of eyes she’d ever seen on a man. Tristan Knight was standing on the other side of the room intensely looking at her. There were a swarm of people around him, but he wasn’t paying them any attention. His sole focus was on her and her only.
Serenity swallowed nervously and licked her dry lips. He was as perfect in person as he’d been up on that stage when she’d seen him almost two hours before. She’d had no idea he was coming to this club. In the touring booklet she’d stolen from one of the drunken fans standing next to her, it had said their next gig was the following day in Atlanta, GA. She’d been sure they’d hit the road after their show to get there and rest up before their performance. She wondered what had made him stay.
Tristan was holding a drink in his hand and he raised it to her and crookedly smiled. Her panties instantly got wet and she squeezed her thighs together as she sat back down. She looked up at the guard and mutely nodded. “Okay.”
“Sit here for a minute. He’ll be with you shortly.”
With that, he was gone. Surreptitiously, Serenity looked back over at Tristan and softly gasped when she saw he was still staring at her. She looked around the club, wondering where in the hell her best friend Kara had disappeared to. Kara was going to lose it when Serenity told her what the bodyguard had said. She and Kara had been best friends since they were eleven years old and in all those years, Kara was always the one to break rank whenever something or someone more interesting came along. Although both girls were eighteen, Kara’s mother Brooke had made them both swear to travel as a pack and never leave one another, because there was always some crazy fool out there waiting to take advantage of beautiful young girls. Serenity guessed pop stars didn’t come into the fray.
The ladies had gone to a Knight and Nyle concert that day. Knight and Nyle were an on the rise pop act that consisted of Tristan Knight, his best friend Nyle Wentworth, and a few of their friends. The group was new on the scene and had just hit the Billboard Top Ten with their number 1 single, “Hate to Love You”. Tristan took the lead on most of the songs, while Nyle mostly sang co-lead or background with the other guys. The album had been released a year earlier, but it wasn’t until the single was released that the band really took off. Since then, you couldn’t turn on the radio or television without hearing their songs or seeing an interview. Upon hearing the single and then seeing the video, Serenity was instantly attracted to Tristan and when she heard they were coming to her hometown Charlotte, NC for a promotional tour, she didn’t think twice about buying a ticket or asking Kara to go with her. Kara did, begrudgingly. She didn’t think much of the group or their music. She was more of a rap music fan, much to the chagrin of her mother.
They’d purchased their tickets early enough to get good seats and were about four rows back from the stage. From the minute they hit the stage, Serenity’s dull mood was instantly uplifted. She had a ball and found herself falling in love with their other music as well. Even Kara was dancing and clapping along to some of their hits. Serenity couldn’t take her eyes off Tristan. He was the sexiest and most beautiful man she had ever seen in her life. She’d tried numerous times to catch his eye, but he never looked over her way. Now, here they were at the club and he’d seen her and requested her. It was a lot to wrap her mind around. She wondered what he wanted.
Giving up hope on spotting Kara in the crowded club, Serenity looked back over at Tristan and suppressed a moan when she saw he was still checking her out. Whatever he wanted, he was taking his time making his way over to her. He was mingling with a few women and talking to them, but his eyes stayed trained on her as he nursed whatever was in his glass, a coy smile playing on his lips while he hypnotized her with his magnetic gaze.
Her eyes drifted over his flawless form, appreciatively drinking him in. He was a little overdressed for the club, but he looked sexy as hell. He was wearing a black button-down dress shirt with a striped tie, slim-fitting dress pants, and a black lapel jacket that was unbuttoned. The shirt filled out his muscular chest perfectly and gave him a sophisticated, gentlemanly look, which was quite different from the casual attire he wore onstage. His black hair was tapered on the sides, short at the back and combed back off his forehead on top.
Serenity swallowed hard and shakily ran her fingers through her long, black hair. She wished there was a mirror around so she could see how she looked. She wanted to get up and go to the restroom and check, but she was afraid she’d miss him if she did. She bit her lip and glanced down at her hands, wringing them nervously. She wished Kara would hurry up and surface. She needed her advice on how to handle Tristan when she met him. She didn’t have much experience with guys; she’d only had one serious relationship her whole life and that had been with a guy she’d known since childhood. She didn’t know how to flirt, and she wasn’t always comfortable in her own skin. The way she’d grown up had a lot to do with that.
She looked up and met Tristan’s intimidating eyes again. He was making her feel incredible. The heat of his eyes was literally making her skin burn and tingle. No man had ever looked at her the way he was looking at her now. She didn’t know what to make of it. She was nervous and anxious. And she was scared. But also exuberantly excited.
She took note of the beauties around him and felt self-conscious. To say the women surrounding him were beautiful was an understatement. They ranged from fair-skinned blondes with ample breasts to dark-skinned Black women with round bottoms and thick thighs. Some were dressed classy; while others were dressed like they’d just walked in off the street. But they all held their own and their confidence oozed out of them like magic.
Placing her hand to her outfit, she looked down at it and frowned distastefully. She wished she had worn something a little sexier. She had wanted to wear an old one-piece silk pantsuit with an off the shoulder sleeve and a pair of old black pumps from her church days, but she couldn’t find it. When she finally located it in her mother’s room, she was disgusted to see her mother had worn it and vomited all over it. So she opted to wear an old plain tank top with a pair of old black jeans instead. She wore the black pumps to make her casual wear less dank but it hadn’t worked. She looked plain in comparison to those other women and for a minute, she wondered what he found so fascinating about her when he was surrounded by so many flawless beauties. Her shirt and jeans were at least seven years old. The jeans had been worn by her mom before they had been passed down to her. Her mom had gotten so skinny the jeans practically fell off her when she wore them. They accentuated Serenity’s plump round ass and wide hips perfectly but were by no means fashionable.
She wished she’d had money to purchase something new, but her funds were depleted. Kara offered to let her borrow one of her outfits or buy something for her, but she declined. She and Kara were best friends- almost sisters- but she was still too proud to beg her for anything. It was bad enough she spent days at her house without contributing to household bills or food.
“There you are!”
Serenity looked up with relief when she saw Kara walking over to her, her medium-length brown curls swaying as she moved. “Where did the hell did you go?” Kara asked.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Serenity wrinkled her nose and frowned at her best friend. “Looking for me? I’ve been here the whole time. Where the hell did you go?”
“Are you ready to go?” Kara asked, ignoring her question as she sipped brown liquid out of a small glass.
Serenity shook her head and made a face when she detected the unmistakable slur of Kara’s voice. Both girls were beneath the legal drinking age limit and getting drunk was not smart, especially in a club full of strangers. Kara’s mother would kill her if she came home drunk. Serenity’s own mother probably wouldn’t even notice.
“I’m ready to go,” Kara continued, finishing the glass. “I want to go home. Are you ready?”
“Where have you been Kara?”
“I had to go to the bathroom. Something I ate is not agreeing with m
e.”
“You couldn’t just tell me that instead of running off?”
“I didn’t want to interrupt the conversation you were having with that fine guy I saw you talking to. Speaking of which, where is he?” Kara craned her neck, looking for him.
“I got rid of him about five minutes after you ran off. Once he told me what he wanted, all bets were off.”
“What did he say he wanted?”
“His face in my crotch.”
Kara threw her head back and guffawed. Her green eyes were bright with mischief as she spoke. “Sounds like my kind of guy. I ran into a cute Puerto Rican papi on my way back over to you. I gave him my number and he’s going to call me in about an hour, which is why you and I need to get the fuck out of here now.”
Mine All Mine : Book One Page 13
