Dylan(66)
There’s nothing I can give her…
The cab drops me in front of her building, and I jog to the entrance. I ring the intercom, but I get no reply. So I pull out my cell and call her.
Please, Tess, answer. Please.
“Dylan?” Her surprise comes through, loud and clear over the line. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I lean against the huge glass doors of the building, weak with relief. “You’re okay.”
“Yes, I’m okay. Why shouldn’t I be?”
“Where are you, Tess?”
“At work, I stayed late. Why? What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I thought…” I close my eyes. “Well, the others thought you’d gone back to your apartment to get some things, and we were worried you’d run into your ex. You weren’t answering your phone.”
Silence ticks by. “I didn’t hear it,” she whispers. “Must have put it on silent by mistake. Where are you?”
“Outside your building.” I blink and push off the door, try to remember if there’s a bus stop nearby. “Glad you’re okay. Didn’t mean to bother you.”
“You’re not bothering me.” She sounds like she’s smiling, and I have no idea why, but I’m still reeling with relief at the fact she’s okay. “I wouldn’t go back alone. I promise.”
“Good,” I say gruffly. “That’s good.”
“Look, I’m finished here. I can come pick you up and take you home.”
“You don’t have to.”
“No, but I want to.”
I chew on that. She’s being polite. And I should say no. She’s made her position clear, and Zane pounded it home. But I want so see her so much it’s like a physical ache, and let’s be honest, now that the adrenaline is fading, I feel like I’m hung over to hell and like my skin is stretched too tight over my bones.
“Dylan? Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I am. Thanks. I’ll wait for you.”
“Great. Be there in ten.”
She disconnects, and I stare out into the gathering darkness. Yeah, I’ll wait for as long as it takes.
***
“You always work late?” I lean back on the leather seat of Tessa’s jeep and try not to shiver too hard. It’s warm inside the car. Compared to the icy wind blowing outside, it’s like sitting inside a furnace. And I’m still cold.
“No. I wanted to finish writing a funding request letter, so I could send it.”
“Funding request letter… What do you do there exactly?”
Her eyes brighten as she starts talking about her new job—the significance of the archaeological site, the social aspects, her part in it.
“You’re amazing,” I say when she stops to take a breath. A smile tugs at my lips. “I mean it.”
Her cheeks flush. “Thanks. I adore this job. I don’t think I’ve ever been this interested in my college classes.”
“So you’re dropping out of college?”
“For now. Maybe for a year, to decide what to do and get my life back on track.” She tucks a strand of hair behind an ear. “So much has changed. So much to do.”
Something is different about her. I try to figure it out. Her sweater is falling off one shoulder, baring her smooth flesh. She’s wearing skin-tight, ripped jeans and tall boots. Her hair is caught in a messy ponytail. All this is new, and still…
Her face. It’s so fresh and beautiful. Her skin is bare of any powders and creams, letting faint freckles show on her cheeks. She has a dark smudge—of maybe ink?—on the tip of her nose. Her lips part, and I can’t look away, dying to kiss them, aware my jogging pants are growing tighter by the second.
“I do need to go back to my apartment,” she says, and I force my mind out of the gutter.
“Thinking of moving back in?”
“No, I… No, I’m not going back. I can’t stay in a place that Sean has access to. I just need to grab my things. I have my papers, my laptop, my books, my clothes …” She glances down at herself and makes a face.
“I love how you look now,” I say truthfully.
She pulls a loose strand of hair into her mouth and chews on it. It’s oddly charming. And madly sexy. “No, I’m a mess. I’m not even wearing lipstick. The printer broke down, and I had to change the cartridges. My hands were black. Took ten washes to get the ink off them.”
Well, that explains the ink smudge. “You look fine.”
“No make-up, my hair hanging like this… My parents would go into hysterics if they saw me.”
“Well, I’m not your parents.”