Counterpart (Succubi & Incubi Assn.) (39 page)

Ethan. I remembered him telling me about my control over
Bethany
, and how I was supposed to do it
and the sudden thought that occurred to me next was nerve-wrecking. “Did you
know?”

“Did I know what?” he asked, confused.

“Did you know that us having sex was the only way to control her?” I
was worried that the answer he was going to give me was just going to make me
disappointed in a way. I didn't want the reason he had to have sex with me was
because he had to.

It only seemed to sink in when he nodded his head. Seeing my face,
he was quickly placing his hands on my cheeks. “Maya, that's not why I did it
though, yes I knew that it would help you but that's not why. I did it because
I love you. I would do anything to protect you.”

It took me a while but I eventually believed him. I really had no
reason not to. “Okay.” Slowly, I relaxed into him and he wrapped his arms
around my shoulders, feeling content again. “We're like a sappy love story, do
you know that?”

His chest rumbled as he laughed. “Yeah, I can see it. It's always like
this at the beginning, sappy and full of sickening lines that will have
everyone gagging.” I could see that being us. “Then eventually, we'll reach the
stage where bondage gets involved and you voluntarily submit yourself to me in
handcuffs and crotch less panties, begging for me to do all these things to you
with a lot of objects.”

My body stiffened. “You're kidding me right?” I moved my head again,
purposely digging my chin into his chest. “Don't think you'll ever catch me in
handcuffs and don't even get me started on the rest of that shit you just
said.” There was no way in Hell that I would get into that BDSM mood. That just
wasn't for me. There were people that did enjoy that, but me? No thanks.

“Don't knock it until you've tried it,” he said.

“Did you really just say that?” I was shocked yet amused. “Why,
Tristan, have you tried bondage?” The familiarity of jealous was hinted inside
me and I pushed it away—well tried.

“I haven't tried it, but isn't that what woman are into these days?”
he asked.

“Some woman,” I corrected. “Just because I'm a succubus and I'm
supposed to be really great in bed,” I teased, “doesn't mean I'm into it. It's
not me.”

“Good.” He groaned, turning us so we were both on our sides. “That
shit's expensive.”

“Now you know the price, wow, I'm surprised.” I said, amused.

He shrugged. “There's a lot that I know.”

“Like what happened last night.” The words came out before I could
think about it and I clamped my mouth shut, but it was already too late.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to say that.”

Good one, Maya, ruin the mood.

“I want to tell you what happened but I can't.” He sighed, brushing
away a piece of hair from my face. “It would really only hurt you in the end.
And if I can protect you from nightmares by keeping quiet then I will. Don't ask
me to do something I can't do. Ethan said it would all make sense one day. Just
be patient.”

It was going to bug me knowing he was going to keep it from me.
Patience was really the only thing I could really hang onto, and just thinking
about it was making me impatient.

“I can tell you one thing though.” My ears perked up at this.
“You'll eventually find it but it'd probably be best if I told you first. I
actually should've told you before but I was so engrossed with pleasing you
that it slipped my mind.” I felt his hand move down my back and his fingers
drew a familiar line on my right side. “You have a scar right here.”

“What?” My first reaction was to shove the blankets off. Panicking,
I looked down at my side and there it was. A faint line of a scar went from my
hip bone and up my side about a few inches. At least I knew why Tristan was
kissing my side, but still. “How the hell did I get that?”

Tristan's finger was still tracing it. “A piece of glass.
Rosa
managed to heal it fairly quickly. You
lost a lot of blood from it, that's why you passed out.”

Just the fact that I had a scar not only scared me but it really
convinced me that something bad happened last night. Then something caught my
attention on Tristan's knuckles. “Are those bruises?” I picked his hand up and
studied the blue spots that were showing. “I know you get bruised a lot but
what the fuck? These look new.”

He slid his hand away from me and brought them to his face, looking
at them with what seemed like... well, nothing. He just looked at them like
they were nothing. Finally, after two seconds he shrugged. “I punched Ryan, he
moved the second time and I hit the wall.”

Wait, hold on. “You punched Ryan? What the hell for?” I get that he
was a dick, but I never thought Tristan would do that.

“He's an asshole, Maya. He liked to taunt you. He found pleasure
with it. He even loved starting rumors about you and Melinda. I got sick of it
last night and well, I punched him.”

I was stunned by his actions. Ryan deserved the punch, there was no
doubt about that. I just never thought that Tristan would get that angry.
Ethan's words of me telling Tristan that he did a good job was understandable
now.

My stunned emotion eventually turned into acceptance, and then I
found myself pulling the blanket back over us and pressing myself against the
man that has always protected me. “Next time you want to punch someone, please
let me be there.”

He hugged me to him again, kissing my forehead. “Promise, actually
you might be in luck. I have my match later on tonight.”

Tonight? I looked over his shoulder towards the clock on my dresser.
4AM. God, the sun was about to come up and now Tristan wants to tell me that he
has his match on tonight. Wait. “You're actually going to do the match? You're
not mad about...” I wanted to say Geoff, but yet again, I wasn’t sure if it was
a subject that should be brought up right now.

“I thought about it. I thought about giving it up—forfeiting—then I
remembered that you did it for me, and if there was one thing Geoff taught me,
it was too never let a good thing go.
Don't miss a great opportunity,
Tristan. If it turns up in front of you, it's most probably fate. If it doesn't
and it gets given to someone else, then fucking forget them and move the hell
on.
”

I grinned as I moved closer—if that was possible—into him. “He
sounds like a really cool guy. I kind of wished I met him, properly that is.”

He didn't answer me, and I knew that it was still a soft subject for
him. I didn't push any further. Instead, I switched to something that I should’ve
brought up before we had sex. “Where are Melinda and Daniel by the way?”

“They went out last night, said that they were giving us the dorm so
we could talk. They're staying at Sophia's.”

Both Melinda
and
Daniel are staying with her? “Poor Sophia,”
I murmured, finding myself pretty distracted by Tristan's chest.

“Why poor Sophia?” he asked.

I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his chest, satisfied
when I heard his breath quicken. “Daniel's a pervert.”

Tristan let out a short laugh but it was muffled and quite distant.
I looked up to his face and noticed his eyes were now closed, his face buried
in the pillow. I shuffled my body up until I was nose to nose with him.

“I love you.” Even though I knew it sounded sappy, I just wanted to
tell him one more time. I guess I just wanted him to know that I did.

With his eyes closed, he seemed to be really good at navigating to
find my lips and he softly kissed them. “I love you too, babe.”

“Psssst.” I felt an annoying prod against my cheek and my hand moved
up instinctively to wave it away.

“Psssst.” The poke was harder now, and it actually annoyed me enough
to snap my eyes open, glaring at the female annoyance.

Melinda stood there, grinning away at the scene in front of her, and
just with pure Melinda fashion, she decided to do hand actions. At first, I was
confused by the way she pointed at me then at Tristan—who was still happily
asleep judging by his breathing patterns. With one hand she formed the shape of
a circle while the other was placing two fingers into the circle.

By this time, I was caught up.

“Seriously?” I mouthed to her, not wanting Tristan to wake up to my
best friend wanting to know if we had sex last night.

She nodded eagerly, changing up her signals which now involved her
thrusting her hips in mid-air.

She has got to be kidding me.

All I could do was watch her make an idiot of herself, when inside I
was laughing so hard. She could be a real idiot sometimes but it didn't mean
that I was going to tell her anything, yet.

It wasn't long before she realized that I wasn't saying anything and
before I knew it, she was pulling the blanket up enough to see that I was
naked. The coy grin on her face made me glare at her, and then she brought her
face close to mine. “I bet he was good,” she whispered.

More than good actually. I wasn't going to tell her that. And after
that stunt, I don't think I ever will now. Moving my face closer to hers until
we were nose to nose, I smiled. “Go away before I punch you.”

She moved back, her palms up. “Don't need to be a hater, Maya. I’m
just trying to make conversation.” She turned on her heel and proceeded to walk
out of my room. “Sorry for wanting to know how my best friend was feeling.”

When the door shut behind her, I felt the hard chest behind me
vibrate. “You have a good taste in friends.”

Embarrassed by Melinda's eagerness to finding out about my sex life,
I turned my head, seeing Tristan's blue eyes opened slightly but showing the
obvious sign that he had just woken up. I groaned, bringing my hand up to cover
my face. “She's interesting, I can say that much.”

I felt him bury his face into the crook of my neck, mumbling
something that didn't reach my ears.

“What?” I asked.

“I said,” he said clearer, but still had his face buried. “Was I
good?”

Pressing my lips together, I felt the laugh rise from chest before
my battle to keep it down failed. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “just wondering what you were going to tell her.
That's all.”

Curious about his own curiosity, I moved away from him so I could
see his face. I sensed a form of shyness when his eyes were once again closed.
“You think that I'm going to tell Melinda that you were bad?”

“No,” he sighed, his arm reaching around my waist to pull me back to
him. “I'm just saying that girls do talk about these things. I was just
wondering.”

I couldn't deny that girls did talk. We were much more open about
these things. Males? I wasn't entirely sure—well, human males. Daniel was
pretty open. “Are you going to talk to Noah about it, you know, put it on a
rating scale of 1 to 10?”

I heard him snort. “Even if I did, I'd say the truth.”

“And that is?” I asked.

Moving his head until he was finally looking at me, he smiled,
brushing his lips against mine. “That you're off the scale.”

“Wow, that's cheesy, Tristan,” I said, not complaining about his
answer in general.

“I told you.” He kissed me, slowly running his lips over mine. “It's
sappy at first, and then we'll get to the more... raunchy things.”

“Mhm,” I smirked when I felt something extremely pleasant rest on my
thigh. “Good morning, Woody.”

“Really?” He laughed. “Just when we were going through the sappy
moment too. Thank you for ruining Toy Story by the way.”

I grinned, leaning up to kiss him again. God, I can't get enough of these
lips. “I better go talk to Mel and Dan. They're probably eager to hear what
happened, even though I don't even know myself.” I slowly started to move out
from underneath the blanket, only to be reminded that I was completely nude. “Um.”
I felt the bed move but I was too busy trying to look for my shirt—anything
that will cover myself. I don't think it would be entirely appropriate to just
walk out naked.

Something white appeared in front of me and I looked to see
Tristan's shirt being held out by non-other than Tristan himself.

Oh, hello butterflies.

I felt like an amateur staring at the shirt as if it's like a new
discovery. It'd be a lie if I said that I'd received a shirt from some guy, and
I know that I'm making a really big deal about this right now but this honestly
hadn't happened before.

Oh man. There are so many things I don't know.

Taking the shirt from his hand, I sat up and slid my arms into the
sleeves. Instantly, my nose welcomed the familiar musk scent that came with
Tristan, and not only did I enjoy the feel of the fabric on my skin but it
actually felt comfortable. Obviously I wasn't perfectly fitted for it, so it
ran all the way under my ass, but I couldn't care.

Holy shit, I’m actually wearing Tristan's shirt.

Oh my God, I'm really an amateur.