Tristan (The Ruins of Emblem #1)

by Cora Brent

  “In that case I’m sorry I kicked you a minute ago.”

  “Don’t be, I enjoyed it. But there is one more piece of confusion I’d like to clear up.”

  “What’s that?”

  “There is no such thing as Todd, is there?”

  I’d forgotten about that little lie regarding my relationship status.

  “Of course there’s such a thing as Todd,” I argued.

  He frowned. “Seriously?”

  “Sure. I have faith that he still exists somewhere in the world even if he’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

  Tristan was pleased. “And he never will be again.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “I know it.”

  I snorted. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

  In response he crossed his muscled arms, leaned back in his chair and grinned.

  No fair.

  He was too damn hot and he knew it. Tristan Mulligan’s smile literally took my breath away.

  “Do you have a Todd?” I asked him.

  “Someone named Todd probably wouldn’t be pretty enough to make me happy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean. Do you have someone? A regular girlfriend?”

  “As opposed to an irregular one?”

  When I fixed him with an irritated look he dropped the act, softened his posture and leaned forward across the table.

  “I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said. “I’m not with anyone, regularly or irregularly. And tonight was the first time in months that I’ve had action with something besides my hand.”

  I wanted to believe him. “Really? I mean, look at you, I’m sure you’re not lacking for attention.”

  “Of course I’m not. But maybe I was waiting to catch the attention of someone like you.” While the comment could have been sarcastic he didn’t smile when he said it.

  There wasn’t time to explore the idea because shouting erupted at the bar, bracketed with the sound of breaking glass. The karaoke singing came to an abrupt halt and a woman screamed. When I looked up I saw Popeye had pinned HELLHOUND’s arm behind his back and was forcefully escorting him out. There was blood too, some on HELLHOUND’s face and some on Popeye’s white shirt so I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Tristan said. “There’s a rule of thumb I follow that when glass breaks and blood flows it’s time for a change of scenery.”

  “That’s a good rule,” I said and hastily collected my purse.

  We ran into Leah on the way out. She was standing by the door with a faded yellow dishtowel in her hands and frowning into the darkness.

  “He does this every week,” she complained. “Shows up here, sings like a stuck pig and then gets into a fight when someone cracks a joke about him. But he’s my dad’s old buddy so I can’t tell him not to show up anymore.”

  “How is your dad?” I asked her because when we last spoke a few days ago she said he’d stopped taking his depression meds and became suicidal again.

  “He’s doing better for now,” she said and noticed Tristan right behind me. “You guys are taking off?”

  “Looks like it,” I said.

  “I don’t blame you. I would leave too if I could.” She shook her head. “It sucks in here.” Then she sighed and stepped away from the door. “Have a good night, kids.”

  “I’ll come by tomorrow,” I said, feeling a little bad that my friend was stuck in this dingy bar with people like HELLHOUND when she obviously wanted to be doing something else.

  She smiled at me. “Tomorrow’s Sunday,” she said. “Mercifully the only day of the week that we’re closed. But I hope to see you next week.” She leaned close so that Tristan couldn’t hear. “And I’ll be expecting some details, missy.”

  I wrinkled my nose and allowed Tristan to escort me out the door. This time on the walk to the car I did take a chance and reached for his hand. He didn’t pull away.

  HELLHOUND was vomiting into a cigarette receptacle while the men who’d been standing outside earlier looked on and laughed. One of the bikers exited the bar, climbed on a gleaming motorcycle and sped away into the night like he was running from the devil.

  “We could drive over to Grande,” Tristan suggested. “There’s an all night diner there that serves up waffles that actually don’t take taste like dog shit.”

  I shook my head. “It’s late. My grandfather’s probably home by now and worrying about where I am.”

  I didn’t know if my grandfather was home or if he’d really worry. He didn’t pry and trusted me to come and go as I pleased.

  Tristan didn’t argue until we were inside his truck. He pushed the keys into the ignition but then didn’t start the engine, instead resting his hands atop the wide steering wheel and giving me a look that made my insides tremble.

  “Come home with me,” he said.

  I wanted to.

  Holy hell, how I wanted to.

  The thought of spending an entire night in Tristan’s bed and doing everything but sleeping almost had me panting.

  “Tristan, I’ve had a really good time with you,” I said. “For tonight let’s just leave it there.” I took his hand and threaded our fingers together. “There could be other nights, you know.”

  He was satisfied with that answer. “Damn right there will be other nights.”

  Tristan drove with one hand and kept the other locked on mine all the way to Globe Street. The porch light at my grandfather’s house was on and his battered Ford Explorer was parked in the driveway. I was surprised when Tristan jumped out and walked me to the door.

  “Thanks for coming back tonight,” I said. “Even after I was kind of a bitch to you.”

  “Thanks for putting up with me,” he said and raised an eyebrow. “Even after I invited myself to dinner and gave you a hard time every chance I got.”

  “You did give me a hard time,” I jokingly whispered, making the first real reference to our thunderstorm sex party.

  Tristan put his hand on himself and made an adjustment. “And since you won’t come home with me for an encore I’ll have to settle for jerking off until my hand cramps in order to get some sleep.”

  I tried to shush him because the houses here were very close together and he didn’t keep his voice low. “Do you have to say things like that so loudly?”

  “How else should I say them?”

  “You should-“ I started to say but couldn’t finish because his mouth cut me off and I lost the ability to process coherent thought. Saying Tristan Mulligan was a good kisser was like saying the Grand Canyon was a big hole in the ground. The description just didn’t do nearly enough justice to the reality.

  I felt myself being lifted and moved into the shadows beyond the porch lights while his tongue held me captive. His hands were everywhere and I slipped my arms around his strong shoulders, pressing my body close as my back ran into a wall. He kissed me harder. He pushed my hair aside and sucked at my neck. He rolled his hips into mine to erase any doubt that this was only a fraction of what he really wanted to take.

  And then he stopped.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he whispered. Tristan planted one final kiss on my mouth and left.

  “Bye,” I whispered, still reeling and needing the solid wall at my back for support as my fingertips brushed over my tingling lips.

  Tristan waved to me from the curb then climbed into his truck and drove away.

  I had no doubt he really would be back tomorrow.

  I also had no doubt that we’d officially started something that wouldn’t be easy to explain to anyone.

  Chapter Ten

  Tristan

  “Let’s work this out one more time. What are you not going to say?”

  Pike scowled at me. “I’m not five years old.”

  “I know that but humor me, okay?”

  He sighed. “I’m not going to talk to her about fucking.”

  “Good job.”

  Leah was sortin
g through a pile of papers on the far side of the bar but she overheard the conversation and I saw her crack a rare smile. She was actually being friendly these days. I guess she’d decided that if her friend Cadence said I was all right then I really was all right.

  There were only a handful of afternoon drinkers scattered around the Cactus and I kept an eye on the door waiting for Cadence to walk through it. She’d texted to say she was going to be a little late because of some meeting but I’d been hanging out here for over an hour and was getting impatient.

  Not that I was going anywhere.

  I had nothing else worth doing and I’d wait for her for a whole lot longer than an hour.

  “Hey Tristan.” Pike poked me in the side. “You didn’t tell me if you’re fucking her.”

  I groaned. “We just went over this.”

  He answered with a crooked grin. “She’s not here yet. You said I couldn’t talk to her about fucking but you didn’t say I couldn’t ask you.”

  “No, we’re not fucking,” I lied. “Now turn around and enjoy your beer.”

  Pike chuckled but he obeyed. I’d found him wandering around a few miles outside town this afternoon and couldn’t leave him there so I’d been stuck driving around with him for a while. He said his friend had dropped him off on the side of the highway but he seemed confused so I figured he’d probably drifted away from his mother’s house again with some errand in mind that he’d quickly forgotten about. At least his mother had the good sense to hide all the car keys. When Pike heard that I planned to meet Cadence at the Cactus later he begged to come along and I didn’t have the heart to turn him down. But after this he was going home whether he wanted to or not. I had ideas about how the evening was going to go and those ideas didn’t include Pike.

  Pike didn’t ask any follow up questions and stuck his face in his beer. The statement I’d made about Cadence wasn’t technically a lie. Aside from that wild ride in the back of her car last Saturday night we hadn’t had sex.

  We were taking things slow. Or something. We’d seen each other every day this week but she was determined to do the ‘getting to know you’ thing so we’d spent our time talking and making out like teenagers, which was torture in the best way. The strange thing was, we got along pretty well when I wasn’t going out of my way to get under her skin. And while I was staggering around with a vicious case of blue balls after every evening I understood why she wanted to hold back for now. I could respect that. In fact I respected the shit out of that. Besides, going wild in her frilly bedroom on Globe Street with her grandfather snoring in the next room wasn’t too appealing and she didn’t want to stay at my place on a night when she had to be up at five to get ready for work.

  But today was Friday. Neither of us had to wake up early for work tomorrow. And I’d been on my best behavior all week, a real gentleman who opened doors and told her she looked pretty and listened to her talk about her daily struggles at Emblem High. Cadence deserved to be treated well and I was happy for the chance to prove I was capable but the restraint was fucking killing me. I needed to fucking have her and I needed to have her tonight.

  “She’s here,” announced Pike as if I didn’t have eyes to see Cadence walk through the door and deliver a huge smile that sped up my pulse. I took the time to meet her eyes and smile back and then I couldn’t stop greedily staring at her body. She wore a green button down dress that belted at the waist and flattered her figure in every way possible. Her hair had been tied back but was coming loose after working all day. The girl really was stunning whether she was naked or not and I hoped like hell she considered it her destiny to be underneath me with her legs open before nightfall.

  “Sorry I was late,” she said, landing a kiss on my cheek and then dumping her purse on the bar. “I was hijacked into being the staff leader for the homecoming dance committee.”

  A kiss on the cheek wasn’t enough. I seized her around her waist before she had a chance to sit down and pulled her in, locking my knees around her.

  “I’ve been waiting for an hour,” I said.

  Cadence rested her arms on my shoulders. “I said I was sorry.”

  “I don’t want you to be sorry.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  “A better greeting.”

  This time she really kissed me, tongue and all. If we weren’t in the middle of the stupid bar I might have torn those buttons off her dress with my teeth. But unfortunately we were in the bar and I had to stop myself from feeling her up because Pike was over there panting on the stool beside me.

  “Hi,” he said to Cadence, his chubby, acne-scarred face looming a little too close for comfort. “Remember me?”

  “Hello Pike,” replied Cadence as she unraveled herself from me and shook hands with the star struck Pike. I’d already told her all about him so she’d understand why he was the way he was. But I still shot the guy a hard look to remind him that when Cadence was around he needed to have some manners.

  Pike did a good job keeping the conversation clean and didn’t once use the work ‘fucking’ but he unintentionally opened a can of ugly worms.

  “Yeah, I was helping Tristan today,” he proudly declared.

  Cadence had parked herself on the edge of my knee and gave him an indulgent smile. “You did? That’s great.”

  “Yeah, we made deliveries.”

  Fucking hell, Pike!

  “Deliveries?” Cadence said and turned to me. “I thought you had the day off.”

  “I do.” I only drove the tow truck three days a week and this wasn’t one of them. The deliveries in question had nothing to do with my day job. And I sure didn’t like giving Cadence any reminders that I qualified as a drug dealer even though most of my clients were pushing seventy and just wanted to get it up a few more times before they died.

  “I waited in the car,” Pike said. “But Curtis said I helped.”

  Now she was really confused. “Curtis was in town?”

  “No,” I said. That was another thing. Curtis knew nothing about what was happening between me and Cadence. We hadn’t spoken since the dinner and Cadence admitted she hadn’t yet said anything to her parents or her sisters either. We weren’t hiding anything or being dramatic. We just didn’t require anyone else’s input at the moment.

  I lowered my voice and spoke directly into Cadence’s ear. “He gets mixed up.”

  “Oh.” She nodded, looking sad over the thought of poor Pike and his traumatic brain injury. The fact that my old friend got so many daily details scrambled was sad indeed but this time there might be an unexpected bright side in that Cadence wasn’t going to ask any more questions right now about what my ‘deliveries’ consisted of. Instead she allowed me to settle her on my knee with my arm around her middle.

  Leah set her paperwork down and joined us because she wanted to talk to Cadence. I remembered I had some news that might interest her.

  “Hey, did you hear Jedson’s name was cleared?” I asked. “Word has it he’s coming back to town.”

  It took about half a second for me to realize the announcement had been a bad idea because Leah’s face paled. Even her lips looked bloodless. Ryan Jedson was another guy from Curtis’s days and they even dropped out of Emblem High at the same time. For six years he’d been a wanted man on the run because someone fingered him as a murderer. Now that new evidence confirmed his innocence he was coming back to pick up the pieces of his life. I’d only mentioned him because I knew he’d grown up living in a rental trailer on the handful of acres Leah’s family used to own beyond the Cactus. But I guess his name came with a few bad memories because Leah was now looking ill as she lowered her head and started to move away.

  “No, I hadn’t heard that,” she mumbled and started polishing the shot glasses I’d seen her polishing half an hour ago.

  “So there’s a game tonight,” Cadence said after she helped herself to the beer I’d barely touched.

  “We can play games,” I promised as I slipped a thumb under her
dress belt. Pike asked Leah if he could have another bowl of pretzels.

  Cadence twisted around to give me a look. “I meant a football game.”

  “I am willing to tackle you if that’s what it takes to make you happy.”

  She ignored the insinuation. “It’s the first game of the season. Some of my students are playing. Nesto’s going to be playing too. Want to go?”

  Hell no. Sweating my balls off in the Emblem High bleachers didn’t sound spectacular. My balls preferred to be sweating in a different scene, one that involved a certain green dress getting tossed on the floor and pretty legs opening wide.

  “Actually I was thinking I’d cook you dinner at my place. I went grocery shopping and Dover’s working.”

  She was skeptical. “You know how to cook?”

  “Sure.”

  “On Wednesday when we stopped at your house we ate cornflakes with bananas for dinner.”

  “And that was awesome. But I can boil a mean pot of spaghetti when I put my mind to it.”

  She was charmed. “All right. Make me spaghetti. The game doesn’t start until seven so we have plenty of time.”

  “Plenty of time,” I agreed and massaged her hip until she starting squirming around on my knee. I was sure that keeping me at arm’s length all week tore her up as much as it tore me up. And I’d decided that before the night was over she was going to admit it, preferably while she was in the middle of hosting my dick.

  Cadence hopped off my knee but I didn’t miss the way she kind of staggered around for a few steps with her face flushed. I would bet every dollar I owned that her panties were soaked and I was already so hard I wondered if I’d hold out until after dinner.

  “So I’ll meet you at your house?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I’ll be there as soon as I drop Pike off.”

  “Can’t I have spaghetti too?” Pike asked when I nudged him off the stool.

  “You know your mom’s waiting for you to come home for dinner,” I told him in a cheerful voice and he grumbled but he didn’t have a choice because this wasn’t turning into a threesome.