Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Stop watching me like a fucking weirdo.” He opens his eyes.
“Like you don’t want me to be obsessed with you.”
He grins, pushes me to my back and lies on top of me. “You better be obsessed with me. I would lock you in my room and never let you out if I could.”
“I’d kick your ass if you tried.”
“You say that like it’s not foreplay for us.”
Tiernan presses a quick kiss to my forehead, then grabs his phone from next to the book on the nightstand. We finished The Count of Monte Cristo, another book after that, and now we’re reading Giovanni’s Room. Together. It’s strange and perfect and maybe one of my favorite things.
He walks naked toward the bathroom, and I get out of bed and follow him.
“We’re going out tonight,” Tiernan tells me as he takes a piss.
“Who said I want to go out?”
“You don’t give a fuck. You just like to argue.”
True. And it would be nice to do something. Things have been pretty quiet. Everyone has gone to every class, and Tiernan’s thrown one party. They went right about their business after killing Michael Jensen, partly because he deserved it, partly to keep up appearances. I haven’t heard anything from the cops, either because they believe the rumors and decided he left town of his own volition—everyone is talking about him fucking a professor who suddenly took a leave of absence, and of his past in Ohio which has suddenly leaked—or if it’s because Tiernan had something to do with it. I know they have connections to law enforcement.
“And you just like to be in control,” I counter.
“Awesome. We both know each other. That’s all we’ve discovered in the last ten seconds.” He shakes off his dick, then turns the shower on.
I take a piss too, then climb in with him, and all I can think is, this is so fucking weird—that we have this, that we’ve fallen into this almost domestic life, while also selling drugs, hiding murder, and me suddenly getting a whole lot richer because I stole money from said dead man. I still can’t wrap my head around that…Tiernan giving me the money. Sure, he doesn’t need it, but that’s a huge fucking deal to give it to me. I don’t know how I would have kept going without it, but because of him, I’ll be okay.
I grin.
“What the fuck are you smiling about?”
“Nothing.”
Everything.
*
“I want to go out with you guys tonight, but I think Tiernan is going to be a protective asshole about it,” Aislin says as we sit in the café together, having a late lunch. We didn’t have classes together today, but we still spend a lot of time together. If I had a best friend, it would be her.
“Do you think you’re ready for that?” She’s struggled some the past few weeks, probably ever since the night she was almost drugged. She tries to hide it. Aislin thinks being strong means she can’t be upset about what happened, but she can.
“Yes. I want my life back. This is my freshman year. I want to have fun and not let that asshole…or, you know…get in the way of my life. Tiernan and Rory are fine. Why should I let it affect me?”
“Maybe they’re not.” I shrug. “Maybe we all just play pretend. It’s okay not to be okay, though, and it’s okay to want your life back. If you wanna go, then do it. Tiernan can deal with it.”
She laughs. “I love that you challenge him. Rory and Cillian are people you don’t want to fuck with, but they’re also careful with my brother. They have to be because…well, things you’re not supposed to know about, but considering you’re Tiernan’s boyfriend, you know more than you should.”
My sandwich goes down the wrong pipe, trying to choke me. I cough, hitting my chest as if that really does something.
Boyfriend…?
That’s the first time someone has mentioned that word, and it’s one hundred percent the first time it’s been directed at me.
“Oh my God. You’re freaking out because I called you his boyfriend, aren’t you? Boys are so ridiculous. What the fuck do you think you are, Dean? You basically live with him. You’re in his bed every night. The two of you mark your territory so much, I’m surprised you don’t piss on each other. That’s about as boyfriend as you can get.”
“That’s not what we are.”
She pops a fry into her mouth. “What are you?”
His?
He’s mine?
That’s all I got.
“Titles don’t fucking matter,” I answer, and she laughs. It’s good to hear her do that. The first few days after everything went down, I was worried about her. I’d wanted to do whatever I could to fix it. I know she used to crawl into bed with Tiernan when they were kids, and then there was the night she slept with me. If I wasn’t there, I knew he would have been there for her, so I’d taken his hand and led him to her room. We slept there with her, both of us, one on each side, for two nights.