“Honestly, Petal, the entirety of today was a new experience for me. I’m not the ‘bring home to mother type.’”
“Really?” I push up on my elbow to look down at him. “No one has ever taken you to meet their parents?”
“I’ve never… been this way with anyone else. Have I had plenty of fleeting relationships? Sure, but never once has anyone offered to bring me home to mum.”
I don’t doubt he’s telling the truth, but it makes me wonder if he’s truly been different with everyone else except for me.
“Why me then? Why do you think that surprises me so much? Have you honestly treated me that differently than you’ve treated all the others?”
“Petal, in all ways, you’re truly in a class by yourself. I’ve never wanted more than passing casual before. I saw you and in an instant, I saw…more. I didn’t know what that more would contain, but I wasn’t going to stop pursuing it until I sorted it out. Now I refuse to let it or you go. It may sound trite and overdone, but…you’re mine, Nora.”
My entire being runs warm in that moment, like I’ve melted away right there in that bed into a puddle.
“I’ve never been happier to hear those words before.” I kiss his chest once… twice… and a third time. I crawl over onto his body completely. The weight of me melts against him. His arms wrap around me and his fingers stroke long and lazy up and down my spine. “Feel like something warm?”
His laugh rings in my ears soft and husky. “Isn’t that what we just did, Petal?”
I smile back at him. “I meant to drink. I’d like a nightcap. Would you be able to let go of me long enough to bring something Irish and amber back to the bedroom?”
“I suppose, if I must,” he groans and relaxes back onto the bed, dropping his arms away to let me go. I slide off to the side and settle in and under the sheets and watch when he climbs from the bed.
He stands, not wearing a stitch of clothing, looking like the Adonis that he is and I simply cannot believe this is my life.
He’s not your typical buff, muscled man with bulging biceps and an eight-pack of abs. He’s toned in the most perfect way possible, sturdy, and perfectly shaped. He truly looks like an artist, with the vision of the perfect man, carved him from stone.
I could stare at him all day long and never grow tired of it.
And when he returns, I get an even better view of the front side of him… and that’s just… wow.
“Where did you come from?” I ask, only half joking. “You can’t be real.”
“Well, I was born in Notting Hill to my parents and then we ended up in East Sussex.”
I toss a pillow from behind my head at him. “You know what I meant.”
“I know full well, Petal. I just enjoy teasing you.”
The tumblers in his fingers clink together as he sits beside me. He offers one to my hand before taking the stopper out of the decanter. The aroma of what has to be expensive liquor hits my senses as he pours into the glasses. “You do it well, Tristan. Umm…I have a question. Am I the only one you’ve called Petal?”
He turns to me with a face that seems to say that is the most insane question he’s ever been asked.
“You’re the only one that I’ve cared enough to call anything but their name. Petal just came naturally. You reminded me of a flower. Your delicate nature, your scent… Petal is who you are to me. No one else could ever be that because it’s you.”
I clink my glass to his and take a small sip along with him. It’s warm and strong and I can feel it sliding down my throat and heating my stomach. It’s lovely.
“I just wanted to know, but it does please me immensely that I’m the first and only.”
He smirks in that small way so that his dimples shine through his eyes. “Is the drink everything you desired?”
“It is. The only thing that would make it better is a little more, and your beautiful body back beside me.”
“Let me taste this on your lips.” Tristan leans in with a gentle swipe of his tongue across my already swollen lips to remove a stray drop of scotch I didn’t know was there. “I prefer it that way. A glass doesn’t do it justice.”
I shiver from head to toe and smile. “You know, if you keep doing things like that, we are never going to leave this bed.”
“That’s the idea. Come to me, Petal.”
He climbs back into the sheets with me and we settle back into the position we were in prior, him on his back, me curled around him like a vine, each sipping from our glasses.
“Thank you again for going today. It really meant the world to me. I just hope Maria wasn’t too hard on you in the kitchen. She’s just as protective as Lucas.”
“I figured that out rather quickly, if I’m honest. She wasn’t hard on me, but I am now slightly frightened by her. She seems like she could turn into the very pink dame from Harry Potter quite quickly if she’s pushed to that point.”
I look up at him in confusion. “Did you just reference Harry Potter?”
“Love, I’m from the UK. They’d never let me back into the country if I wasn’t familiar with it.”
I take a slow draw from my glass as I hear him hum in appreciation of his sip. I watch Tristan close his eyes and rest his glass over his rib cage just before I rest my head on his warm chest. I run my finger around the rim of my glass. “I thought you weren’t able to go back to London anyway. Or so I’ve heard.”
His eyes pop open for a moment then his brow raises in confusion. “What? What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t I be allowed back in London?”
“There is quite the rumor mill about you on campus. According to a few people, you did some pretty shady things and cannot get back into the country.” I smirk over my glass.
In the time that I’ve been on campus, I’ve heard so many rumors, stories, and outrageous tales about the man beside me. I’m sure most are bullshit, but… there could be some truth to some.
“Shady things? I’ve heard the one about me turning into a werewolf on the full moon. Another connection to Potter lore. I wasn’t aware that you were researching these things.”
“I wouldn’t say researching. Just curious. Before I met you and Professor Griffin, I also was under the impression you were more than friends in a very non-family way.”
“Not in the least. Not at all. Adrianna is a beautiful woman, but we are absolutely more like family than anything.” He pulls me in closer and rests his hand on my waist. “What else have you heard?”
“That I’m not your first student relationship. I heard one woman specifically one day at a table behind me describe you in full detail. I listened intently. I remember every word she said.” I giggle a bit. “She wasn’t even close.”
Tristan rolls to his side. His face is set in an angry tone. “I don’t date students. I don’t. I’ve never made it a habit of plucking from the pupil pool. You are the exception not the rule. Do you understand?”
“So, you plucked me?” I smile sweetly to soften his mood. “Yes, Tristan, I understand. I’m just telling you what I heard. She was clearly lying. Everything she said about you was completely off.”