Made Marian, Volume One by Lucy Lennox
Tristan
“Fuck you. Couldn’t help it. You’re not the only one who met Jesus just now.” Blue laughed.
I stretched out and felt my foot land in cold, wet sludge. I yelped and winced. Blue sat up to see what had happened.
“Wet spot,” I said before realizing that the wet spot was actually the shirt I’d been wearing. I looked at Blue with a raised brow. He blushed all the way to the tips of his ears.
“Oops.” He grinned. “I’ll have to loan you one of mine for your walk of shame.”
He was so damned cute. His wavy, strawberry-blond hair was messy and his blue eyes shone with a clarity I hadn’t seen in them before. I wanted so badly to wrap him up in my arms and hold him while he slept. But maybe he was trying to tell me something.
“I should get out of your hair then,” I began. Blue’s face turned cloudy.
“What? No, that’s not what I meant,” he said.
I looked at him to try to gauge his thoughts. “It’s okay if you’d like for me to go. I know this isn’t exactly how you planned your evening.”
“You’re right. It’s not how I planned my evening. I planned to host a massive solo pity party at the bar and fall into a strange hotel bed alone. Instead, I met a sumptuous piece of man candy and got to lick it,” he finished with a tease.
I smacked his chest. “Be serious, you ass.”
“Okay. Instead, I met an interesting, kind man who actually cared and listened. We had a wonderful dinner together despite me finding out that my ex had possibly married a newborn baby. This mysterious stranger then kissed the hell out of me to make said ex jealous. He let me use his exquisite body to have a star-spangled orgasm and, god willing, will warm this beautiful bed with me tonight.” He looked into my eyes with complete focus and sincerity. “There, how was that?”
What I wanted to say was that it took my breath away. He took my breath away. But what I said was, “Meh.”
Now it was his turn to smack me, but he kissed me instead. “Stay,” he said in a quiet voice. “Please stay.”
At that point, the voice of doubt floated through my brain. Don’t sleep with a guest. Don’t start something the week of your brother’s wedding. This guy is just passing through and will be gone next week. Then what? Oh, and he’s a guy.
But by the time my brain demanded answers, my body was naked under the big duvet, wrapped around the warm, sensual man beside me and sliding into delicious sleep. Blue’s body smelled faintly of lemons and the distinctly male scent of his body after a long day. I inhaled it like it was laughing gas at the dentist, desperate to draw it into my body in search of sweet surrender.
I woke up a few hours later needing to take a piss. When I came awake, I felt coarse chest hair under my hand and was startled for a nanosecond before remembering it was Blue. As soon as I remembered, I sank back down into him just wanting to stay fully connected to him for a moment before getting up for the bathroom.
My lips found his shoulder blade and I softly kissed it, sliding the tip of my tongue out to taste his delicious skin. I had been wrong when I described wine as ambrosia. The true nectar of the gods was this man’s skin.
Finally I forced myself up and to the bathroom, cursing the drinks I’d had that led to my bladder’s insistence. I kept the lights out and did my best to stay quiet, but when I slid back against Blue’s warm body, I could tell he was awake.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“S’okay,” he mumbled sleepily. “Gotta pee too.”
When he got back to bed he grinned at me. “Didn’t cut and run, I see.”
“Nope. I ain’t skeered,” I joked. “Plus, you’re all warm and snuggly. And furry. Like curling up with a puppy or some shit.”
“Is that a fancy way of calling me your bitch?” he asked.
“I’d never call you that. Unless we were in prison. In which case, yes. I’d be happy to claim you as my bitch. I’d consider it an honor if you’d be my prison bitch. In fact, now that I think of it, since I’ve discovered that I’m attracted to you, we should go on a crime spree and get caught. Think of all the sex we could have while we did our time. People would even cook for us. It’s worth considering.”
“Sounds delightful. Tell you what, you try it first and let me know how it goes.” He chuckled, burrowing into my chest. I lifted my arm up so he could slide closer and rest his head on my shoulder. It felt good. It felt right. I kissed the top of his head, inhaling the scent of his shampoo.
I slid my toes under one of his calves to pull his leg between mine. Better. He tilted his head to look up at me, but I couldn’t make out his expression in the mostly dark room.
“What is it?” I asked and almost, almost called him “baby.” What the hell? Maybe I had taken a fall and was now in a strange drug-induced coma. I woke up that morning a regular straight guy going to work. And now here I was, naked in bed with a strange man who I wanted to lavish with affection.
“Nothing,” Blue said.
“Liar.”
“Fuck, Tristan. It’s too late for deep thoughts. Let’s just go back to sleep.”
Part of me wanted to push. Wanted to know what deep thoughts were grinding around in that head of his. But he was right. It was really late and I had to work the following day. I also had to make it out of that room without my employees seeing me do the unthinkable: a walk of shame out of a guest’s room.
I should go now, but I just can’t bring myself to leave him yet. Just a little longer. Just a couple more hours of my skin against his and the feel of his warm breaths on my chest.
My phone alarm went off at 6 a.m. and I turned it off within seconds. Luckily it started off at a lower volume and I was so attuned to it I could react before it woke Blue. Peeling myself away from him was disheartening, because I didn’t know when I would see him again. I took a quick shower and then pulled on my jeans, remembering my ruined shirt.
After finding the notepad and pen I knew would be in the bedside table drawer, I scribbled a note and left the pad propped in front of the bathroom sink.
Blue had just arrived, so I had to assume he was staying for more than one night. That meant I would probably see him, but would he want to be with me? Would he let me into his bed again? Or would he wake up this morning regretting what we did?
I leaned over and kissed his forehead. He looked so peaceful in the full relaxation of sleep. The man was stunning. Not perfect, but so gloriously imperfect in all the right ways. A golden boy. I had to remind myself that if I never got another chance to touch him, I would still be one lucky asshole for having had one night with him.
I grabbed a gray T-shirt from Blue’s suitcase and slipped it on before I snuck out into the quiet hallway and made my way out a back door and to my parked vehicle.
I drove the short quarter mile to my cabin and saw Piper leaning against the fence, watching me from the backyard. She looked pissed, her blue eyes boring holes through me. Great. Just what I needed. A guilt trip. It was well deserved. I had left the night before, promising her I’d be back an hour later. She wasn’t happy about it, but I left anyway. And then everything happened with Blue and I hadn’t thought about her at all.
Okay, maybe I deserved the guilt trip. After all, I had let down the love of my life again, but I knew full well she would forgive me the way she always did.
