Page 40 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

She pulled her hand back and smiled at me. “Aw, you jerk. You know just what to say.” She pulled me into a hug, squeezing our cheeks together. “Don’t worry, Ari. We’ll get through this together.”

I hugged her back. “Thanks. I’ll take all the help I can get.”

At Arden’s suggestion, I excused myself from debate for the day and went home early. Fortunately, my mom was working late, so I didn't have to try to explain to her why I was in such a terrible mood. I made myself an early dinner, feeding Hazelnut as I went, and then headed up to my room to eat. Once I was done, I ran a nice, hot bath for myself, complete with some bath salts to hopefully relax the pain away. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

If I tried hard enough, I knew I could forget all about it.

“Aria?”

I sat up in the water and looked around. The voice I’d heard echoed in my ears clear as day, and it was definitely Tristan.

“Tris?” I called out, but there was no response.

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes once more, but the voice called out to me again. “Aria?”

That time, instead of just sitting up, I climbed out of the water. Droplets hit the tile floor as I stepped lightly to the rack where my towels hung and pulled one down. I wrapped it around my body, making sure everything was sufficiently covered, then opened the door and walked out into my bedroom.

Except it wasn’t my bedroom.

It was Taylor’s basement, where Tristan and I had made out. When I looked down, I was terrified to find that I was still wrapped in a towel. I looked behind me, to see if I could run back into my bathroom at least, but the only door there was the doorway that would lead me back to the upper floor of Taylor’s house, where I’d be far likelier to cross paths with someone I didn’t want seeing me like that.

What I was supposed to do, I wasn’t sure, but without any real instruction from my brain to do so, I opened my mouth and called out, “Tristan?”

And that time, I got a response. “Aria? Where are you?”

His voice was omnipresent, so I didn’t look in any particular direction as I replied, “Taylor’s man cave!”

It wasn’t like I was afraid, more confused, and as frustrated with Tristan as I was, if he could get me out of his brother’s house and back to mine without anyone seeing me damn near naked, I’d take it.

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.” His voice was directional that time, and came from behind me, so I turned around and saw him in the same outfit he’d been wearing at his party. He looked really good, and my heartbeat was already starting to hasten at the memories of what we’d done last time we were down there together. “I see you really dressed up for the occasion.”

“Clothes seemed like a waste of time at this point,” I replied. It wasn’t at all what was in my head, but when I said the words, Tristan's eyes flashed with excitement.

“Oh?” He took a few steps towards me, backing me up. “Making my job a little easier?”

“What can I say?” I said, grabbing the part of the towel where one flap was tucked into the other. “I’m a woman of action.”

Then I unwrapped the towel and let it drop to my feet.

What in the hell was I doing? It was an out of body experience, but I was in my body. It was like the logical part of my brain had been possessed by the part that had developed a desire for Tristan at the party that night that had been growing and growing without my knowledge.

Tristan closed the distance between us, setting his hands on my waist, and lifting me with ease up onto the pool table. My legs parted naturally, and he stood between them as his lips found mine. Alarm bells were going off in my mind, or at least the sane part of it, but the Aria that had the controls was all in, as I wrapped my arms around Tristan's neck and pulled him closer to me.

He worked his way from my lips, down my neck, and across my chest. Even as he got lower and lower, I wasn't stopping him, until he was just about to latch over one of my nipples. He stopped just short of it and looked up at me.

And barked.

I hunched my brow and looked at him like he was insane. “Did you just bark?”

The only response I got was another bark, then another, then another.

With one final, loud bark, I shot straight up in the bathtub, moving so fast water splashed out over the basin and drenched the floor. My heart was pounding so fast it felt like there were four in my chest.

It was just a dream?

Another bark pierced the silence, and I immediately recognized it as Hazelnut, not Tristan. All the bubbles that had been in my bath when I started, were gone, and the salts had all totally dissolved. Quite a bit of time had passed, and Hazelnut was likely barking because she was ready for bed, but my bedroom door was closed.

Was I happy or angry that she disrupted my dream? Even if it was just in my mind, having Tristan’s hands on me again was beyond welcome. I wanted him to keep going. To devour me to his heart’s content.

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