“So, you and Matt?” I said, trying to be happy that at least one person had a love life.
“Maybe. So far so good, anyway.” She sat at the table with me. “He’s showering and then heading out.”
“Where’s Allison?”
“She went home. Her grandma is sick or something. You want to do something today?”
“Sure.” Anything to take my mind off my disastrous evening with Dylan.
After coffee, I showered and dressed. Corrine and I decided to go to the mall to shop. Since we were planning to go out that night, we wanted to buy new outfits. It was money I shouldn’t spend, and yet since I probably wouldn’t be able to afford my last year of grad school, I decided to live it up a little. Retail therapy.
I found a dark green dress that was more revealing than I normally wore, but feeling like it was time to move on from Dylan, I decided to buy it.
“Ooh la la,” Corrine said when I exited the dressing room to show her. “You look hot, Tessa. The guys are going to be all over you.”
I swallowed the nerves at that idea. After all, that’s what I needed. It was time I stopped pining for Dylan and opened myself to the idea of meeting another guy.
We had a late lunch, and then headed home to get ready for the club that night. I worked to push Dylan out of my mind as I put on the sexy dress and did my hair and makeup. But it was no use. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I wondered if he’d like what he saw. Would he see a woman or a love-sick coed?
Inwardly I growled at myself and my stupid crush on him. “I hope I meet someone even better tonight,” I told my reflection.
As we left the house, Dylan pulled his car into the drive. I worked to not look at him as he got out, but of course, I was helpless. I chanced a glance. His eyes narrowed as if he didn’t like what he saw.
I swallowed the pain at that and reminded myself that tonight, I’d be like a normal twenty-three-year-old woman. I’d dance and drink and flirt.
In the club, Corrine and I found a table not far from the dance floor and ordered drinks.
“Hello, ladies.”
That was fast, I thought, until I looked up at the voice and saw it was Matt.
“You stalking me?” Corrine asked teasingly.
“Yep.” He took a seat and waved his hand toward the bar. “Do you mind if my buddy Jared joins us?”
Oh God, was I being set up by Corrine and her new boyfriend? I looked to the man who was approaching. Okay, so he didn’t look so bad. In fact, he was actually really attractive in a boyish, clean-cut way.
He stopped by the table.
“Jar this is Corrine … she’s mine, so hands off. And this is Tessa, I don’t know if she’s spoken for.”
Jared quirked a brow. “Is this a set up?”
“I thought the same thing,” I said.
“It’s friends getting together,” Corrine insisted.
Jared sat in the empty chair next to me. “Well Tessa, I guess it’s you and me tonight.”
“Are you disappointed?”
“Hell no.” His eyes scanned my face and then lower. “Not at all. Do you want to dance?”
“Sure.”
“Behave,” Matt said as Jared and I stood to go to the dance floor.
“You heard him. Behave Tessa,” Jared said as he pressed his hand on my lower back to lead me to the dance floor.
“I’ll do my best, but no promises.”
He smiled. “I like your style.”
I would like to say that Jared totally made me forget Dylan, but that would be a lie, which was a disappointment. Jared was smart and fun and moved well on the dance floor. But I couldn’t help but compare him to Dylan. Even so, when he asked if he could call me some time, I gave him my number. I couldn’t expect to get Dylan out of my system in one day. He wasn’t going to leave it at all if I pined for him either. I needed to move on and live my life, and if Jared wanted to spend time with me, he seemed like the perfect solution to my problems.
That night in bed, I woke up in a heated rush, my body throbbing with sexual need. But it wasn’t Jared who had me all hot and bothered. It was Dylan. In my dreams, he was dancing with me, not in the club but in his living room. He was naked, showing off his eight pack abs, his sculpted chest, and fine hard ass. His dick was hard, thick, long, and I dropped to my knees wanting to taste him.
In the next second, we were in his room, and he was over me, pressing me into his sheets and entering me. There was no pain this time. Just the sweetest pleasure, building and building until the moment I would have come. Instead I woke. I punched my mattress in frustration. My heart was such an idiot.
10
Dylan
The laundry was done. The house was clean. I was a fucking mess. I missed Maisie like crazy and worried how she was being treated by Veronica and Leo. Then there was Tessa. I hated seeing her dressed up to the nines. How many men had hit on her last night? Had she let any of them touch her?
All day my brain was either worried about Maisie or ruminating about Tessa. Finally, late afternoon, a dark sedan pulled in front of the house. Thank God, I thought as I rushed out the door.
“Daddy!” Maisie hopped out of the car, making me wonder if she’d been belted in. She ran to me and I scooped her up.
“Maisie.” I held her. “I missed you a million times.”
Her arms held my neck, and for the first time in two days, I felt like maybe my world would tilt back to right.
“I missed you
