Page 36 of Don't Bite The Boss
“Stop.” I raise my hand as I raise my eyes to his. “You used me, you put my life at risk and didn’t have the decency to forewarn me of the enemies you had. You lied to me.”
“Pru, please. I’ve wanted to tell you on dozens of occasions. But the closer we became, the less important it seemed.”
“I never want to see you again, Tristan,” I whisper, turning and flitting from the room faster than his eyes can follow.
I head straight to the Berrington airstrip and instruct the pilot, now always on duty on a revolving 24-hour roster, to fly me to Minnesota. There is only one person I know who understands the pain of losing an Irresistible they once loved - I need Tess.
14
I sit on the rocking chair on her porch and scream in rage into the laptop, causing Orson to squeak in fright and roll off the edge of the balcony where he had been stretched in the heat of the night trying to cool. He lands on his fat little porcine ass in the garden, with a grunt.
“Sorry, Orson,” I sigh, squeezing the laptop until the glass cracks.
“What is it?” Tess asks breathlessly as she comes skidding to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, an uprooted sapling in one hand, hand spade in the other.
“Well thankfully it isn’t anything serious,” I say sarcastically motioning to her weapons of choice.
“Don’t do that to me,” she says, dropping the spade and clutching her heart, “I thought something was wrong.”
“Somethingiswrong,” I groan, “look.”
I turn the cracked screen around, and she squints to see I am pointing at a smiling Tristan pictured during some fancy soiree in Paris, a model on each arm.
“You know that’s just work,” she says, not even sounding remotely like she believes what she is saying. “Nick said the Berrington firm had a contract in Rennes, Tristan probably has to escort councillors’ daughters to all sorts of things.”
“Bullshit,” I sigh, “I’ve been gone two months, Pru, and he hasn’t tried to get me back, not once. He’s gone back to his life of fishing, fucking and fighting – just like he said he used to do on his sloop. And I couldn’t care less. It means I don’t have to be put in the same shitty position Serena was of deciding whether or not to turn him into a creature of the night – not that I think he would want that.”
“I don’t believe you don’t care, not for even a second,” she sighs, “and anyway, you will know for sure if he brings a date to the wedding.”
“The wedding,” I groan, flinging the laptop into the rose bushes and falling dramatically to the porch decking in a fake swoon. If there is one thing I really, truly do not want to attend, it is Nick and Charlotte’s upcoming night-time nuptials. I maintain they should elope, but no, Charlotte wants the whole white wedding shemozzle.
Tess laughs.
“Don’t be like that, it’s not every day one of our family gets hitched.”
“Yes, and look how the first time worked out,” I snort, referring to Serena and Christopher’s divorce. “I said all along, didn’t I say? That it was a bad idea to marry a human.”
“Well, Nick isn’t a human anymore. And I still believe love will out,” Tess smiles. “Christopher and Serena are meant for each other, they will get back together, and so will you and Tristan, just wait and see. Weddings have a way of bringing people together.”
“Tess,” I shake my head, “Christopher has, to all intents and purposes, abandoned us. Valerie says she hears from him periodically, but mostly he is on some super-secret mission that takes him away from home for weeks at a time. And Tristan, well, it’s clear he is wining and dining supermodels. He has a penchant for the type, you know.”
“The fact you are so mad just shows you actually do still care for him, you know,” she cocks her head to one side and grins at me, “despite telling me ad-nauseum these past weeks that you don’t.”
“Feelings, yes,” I sigh, “but what basis can a relationship have if you can’t trust someone. If they keep secrets, deceive you?”
“Are you saying he knows everything there is to know about you?” she screws up her nose.
“No,” I roll my eyes, “but I’ve never lied to him.”
“I see, so keeping from him the fact you found him irresistible, doesn’t count?”
“No,” I scowl.
“And he knows what you did to his ex-fiancé?”
I shake my head and look down, consider nibbling my nail.
“No.”
