I shrugged a pink shoulder in his direction. "I know."

The full lips that were inches away from mine brushed the skin on my shoulder lightly. His voice was much lower than normal, "Stay with me tonight?"

I snorted and fought the urge to slap my palm across his forehead and sound too enthusiastic about saying yes. I had to go to school the next day for a faculty meeting but it would totally be worth it. "Sure, Mag."

His gaze swept across my chest and shoulders, up my neck, and finally landed on my face. Heavy, hooded eyes looked at me in a way that made me breakout in goosebumps. "Good, I'm not picking up Yoda from my mom's until tomorrow since we're getting home so late."

Hours later, I found myself pulling my suitcase along the path to Tristan's back door. His broad shoulders led the way before he unlocked the backdoor and turned off the alarm. When we got off the plane a little less than an hour before, the clock showed that our flight landed a few minutes shy of midnight, so by then it was close to one. I walked in after him, adjusting my eyes against the bright light of the kitchen while I followed him through the house and up the stairs.

"The house seems so empty without Yoda," I told him, walking into his room where he was standing with his back to me. I'd become so used to having the big monster following me around and darting between my legs that I missed his absence. Even the bed looked empty without his meaty body draped across it. My nerves suddenly made my stomach hurt. We'd slept together a few times already but this felt different. Intimate.

"I know, it isn't the same without him here," Tristan agreed, looking right at me.

I knew we both needed to wake up early, so I opened up my suitcase to grab my toiletry bag and makeshift pajamas. I felt really strange standing inside his bathroom, brushing my teeth in his sink while he did things in his bedroom. I felt weird but not in a bad way. I think it was just difficult for me to wrap my head around him inviting me to spend the night with him after we'd already spent two other nights together. Most guys would have wanted to get life back to normal, right?

"You don't mind if I use your shower? I feel gross," I called out to him, already pulling my tank top over my head as carefully as possible so the material didn't scratch my heated skin.

"You don't have to ask, goldie!" he hollered back from his bedroom.

Not knowing whether to leave the door open or not, I kicked it partially closed before turning on the water to his shower and peeling off the rest of my clothes. I hopped in and let the lukewarm water run over me, wincing at the feel of it on my sunburned skin. Using his soap I lathered up and chanced a glance, while I was shaving my legs again, to look up through the foggy stall door. Tristan was standing on the other side of the glass, resting his behind against the sink counter with one arm gripping the edge of the sink while he brushed his teeth. Those green eyes were locked on me.

I didn't say anything as I rinsed off, and by the time I looked up again he was out of the bathroom.

Once I was dressed in the first t-shirt he'd let me borrow back in L.A. and a clean pair of underwear, I found him on top of the sheets in sleep pants and a t-shirt with his long legs crossed at the ankles. He had a book open on his lap before he saw me and set it on his nightstand while grabbing something off of it in exchange.

"You aren't going to shower?" I asked, climbing onto the other side of the bed slowly but keeping an eye on him while he drank in my chest through the nearly translucent white of his shirt.

He shook his head as he licked his bottom lip. "No." He patted the bed in front of him. "Come here so I can put more aloe gel on you."

Well, okay then.