Page 55 of Black Heart

“You’re such a slut!”

“Takes one to know one!”

The bimbo twins had found him, Tristan realized with a groan.

This really wasn’t his night.

CHAPTER20

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Fine,” Tristan said distractedly as he opened his car door and carefully climbed out.

With a sigh, Marty pulled the keys out of the ignition, grabbed her purse and did the same. She was more than ready to put this whole bizarre day behind her. Her day had started with harassing phone calls, Tristan stealing her much-needed apple fritter and dealing with his asshole ways. It hadn’t exactly been a pleasant experience. If that wasn’t bad enough, he decided to end the day by confusing her.

That is until all hell broke loose at her favorite barbeque restaurant. She still couldn’t figure out how Tristan knew what was happening. The whole thing had been scary and admittedly impressive. Tristan had moved with the confidence of a man twice his age and even when it was more than obvious to everyone that he was in pain, he still did his job and kept them all safe. It also didn’t hurt that the whole thing made him look incredibly sexy and she wasn’t the only one who’d thought so.

While he’d pointedly ignored the paramedics’ demands that he be seen at the hospital, every single woman there and a few that she was pretty sure weren’t single, fussed over him and offered to make him a homemade meal as a thank-you. A few of the more forward women had leaned in and whispered something in his ear that seemed to annoy him, which somewhat appeased her since she had a pretty good idea what they were offering him.

She hated not being able to make sure that he was okay and shereallyhated watching other women do it, but she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. He’d made it clear that he didn’t care about her. He wanted her that much was clear, but he didn’t care about her. She knew that wouldn’t bother some women enough to keep them from giving into years of fantasies, but she just couldn’t make love to a man who didn’t give a damn about anyone, including her.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning at seven-thirty,” Marty said as she turned to make the short walk home. Since he couldn’t make it to tonight’s group therapy session, her father decided that he would attend the meeting in the morning, or he shouldn’t bother showing up to work until he was cleared to return to full duty.

“Why don’t you come inside?” Tristan suggested, taking her by surprise.

“Why?” Marty asked with a heavy sigh.

“Because I think we need to talk,” Tristan said, gesturing for her to come with him.

“Sorry, but I’m really not in the mood for a lecture tonight or whatever it is that you have planned,” Marty said, once again heading towards her house but she didn’t get very far.

“We’re not putting this off any longer,” Tristan said as he took her hand in his and gave it a gentle pull in the direction of his house.

“Putting off what any longer?” Marty asked, wondering exactly what he planned on yelling at her about now. Was he pissed that she didn’t run when he’d told her to? Or maybe he was going to try bullying her into vacating their office. Then again, he might just want to take this opportunity to tell her that he didn’t care what Hank said, he wasn’t going to any of the meetings. If it was the latter, then they really didn’t need to have this talk because she’d already figured out that he was going to make her life a living hell.

“We need to talk about-”

“Is that...is that porno music?” Marty asked, cutting him off and frowning as she tried to make out the music coming from the other side of his front door.

“No,” Tristan said through what looked like a painfully clenched jaw. “I keep the television on to make burglars think that someone’s home,” he explained tightly as he dropped her hand and pulled out his keys.

“I see,” Marty said, doing her best to hide her smile. “By making them think that someone is enjoying some alone time?” she asked sweetly as he glared down at her.

“No.”

“If you say so...” Marty said with a look that clearly stated that she didn’t believe him.

“I don’t watch that shit,” Tristan said loudly as he opened the front door with a lot more noise than she thought was really necessary. Before she could tease him again, the music abruptly changed to the theme song fromGilligan’s Island.

He sent her a triumphant look as he closed the door behind them and walked down the hallway, pausing only long enough to send a rather odd glare at something in the empty living room. Okay, that was a little weird, Marty thought as she reluctantly followed him.

“Do you mind telling me what you need to talk to me about so that I can get on with the rest of my night and grab something to eat?” Marty asked as she followed him into the obscenely large kitchen.

“We can eat while we talk,” Tristan said, opening the freezer door and pulled out a white container overflowing with ice cubes and placed it on the counter, uncaring that ice went flying as he grabbed a kitchen towel and began filling it with ice.

“It’s been a long day, Tristan. Any chance that you can just get to the point?” Marty asked, biting back a sigh as she took over filling the cloth with ice when it became obvious that he was struggling.

“You don’t want to eat first?” Tristan asked, sounding nervous.

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