Page 77 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

What was that all about?

After dinner, I drove Aria back to her house and promised myself I’d play by vampire rules. She’d alluded to me coming in at dinner, but she had to explicitly invite me or I wouldn’t go. I didn’t want her to think I was expecting anything. I was just happy for the date.

“This…” Aria started softly as we approached the door. “Was incredible.”

“It really was, wasn’t it?” I said. “I’m… glad you agreed to give me another chance.” We got to the door and stopped. Aria faced me and I reached out and took her hand in mine, looking down because I was suddenly super nervous. “Not to bethatguy, but… does this mean that we can be together?”

Aria was quiet after that. I looked up, but rather than the joy I expected to be on her face, there was only anguish. “No,” she said. “I’m sorry, but we can’t be together.”

33

Aria

“What?” Tristan said, looking at me, truly shocked. “Why not? I thought today went so well. It… Why?”

Emotions were burning in my nose and sending tears to my eyes. “I’m so scared.”

“Scared? Of what?” Tristan said.

“I’d spent all this time trying to believe that all these insecurities I had about myself weren’t true, then things got heated, and…”

“Oh…” Tristan said. “Aria. I swear to god, that stuff had nothing to do with you or your body, or anything. I was being an idiot. You are so perfect.”

I shook my head. “I’m so afraid that it’s all just gonna turn on its end again. This was so good, it felt so good. Like how I always imagined it would be. When I think of you, I think of the future. That’s what I want, but what if you change again? I can’t just live in fear of that.”

“I love you, Aria,” Tristan said.

“I know, I love you too. I really thought you were going to be my forever,” I said. “I don’t think I can handle the fear.”

“Aria, our forever starts tonight. Right now,” Tristan said, bringing my hand to his lips and kissing it. “I know I’ve lost your trust, but please give me some time to earn it back. I promise, you’ll never feel that pain again. I won’t stop until you trust from your gut that I would never hurt you ever again.”

I thought of my mom’s story and the guy she felt was her soulmate, but she was afraid of how much work she thought their relationship might take. I didn’t want to be like that. I didn’t want to be looking back in twenty years wondering what if about a guy I loved.

But could I trust Tristan?

“You can’t hurt me,” I said. “I can’t take it anymore.”

“I won’t,” Tristan said, even some tears coming to his eyes. “I hate how much I’ve hurt you already. I want to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Please, give me that chance.”

“Okay,” I said. “Yeah. I wanna take the risk.”

Tristan looked at me with passion deep in his eyes. “Open the door.”

I did as he said, opening the front door and letting us inside. We barely made it past the front doorway before Tristan’s hands were on either side of my face pulling me to him. I closed my eyes just as his lips pressed to mine and a few tears ran loose. Tristan pulled away from my lips and kissed my cheeks where the tears had fallen. He pressed me back against the wall and his fingers combed up into my hair as he moved down the side of my neck, dragging his lips down the curve of it. He wrapped around under my chin, then stuck out his tongue and licked his way back up and slipped it back into my mouth. I gripped his sides, that alone keeping me on my feet.

“Let’s go upstairs,” I said.

He nodded. “Okay.”

We tripped and fell our way down the hallway, stopping every ten or fifteen feet to make out some more. We could barely keep our hands off of each other, to the point that I was shoving Tristan’s jacket and peeling his shirt off when we were still in the hallway.

Thank god my mom was working late.

We got to my room and I opened the door, sending us falling inside. We just barely made it to my bed, with me landing on my back and Tristan hovering over me. Based on our previous circumstances, that was exactly where we would have been interrupted, but not that time. There were no party guests arriving, no dream to wake up from, no teacher coming to the rescue. It was just me and just him, and his breath was hot on my skin as he held the same anticipation I did.

At the same time, one of his hands worked my dress up my legs, while the other folded the top down to reveal my strapless black satin bra. He kissed across my chest and down my breasts, until he got to where he could peel the cups down and spring my breasts free.

I wasn’t a virgin, but as coy as I felt laying under Tristan, I may as well have been. His hand under my dress squeezed my ass, while his mouth moved over my waiting breast. My body pulsated with heat, and I leaned my head back and huffed out a quiet moan as he began to lick. He took handfuls of me below until finally working his hand around and between my legs to rub me over the fabric of my panties.

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