CHAPTER 9
It had been another couple of weeks and I hadn’t talked to Tylar. That was a record for us. I probably should have called to apologize to her; I had been pretty snippy. It would have been nice if she had picked up the phone first, though.
Tristan and I had the nursery in order. The only thing we still needed was a wooden cradle. That was Tristan’s idea. I frankly thought that a bassinet served the same purpose and they were easy to find. Tristan was adamant that we find just the right wooden rocking cradle for our room. We had been to several places, but nothing suited him. He was being extremely particular about this.
I was meeting Tristan at the club this evening. He wanted us to have dinner there together. As promised, he had hired a night manager and his hours had been reduced. We had more time together which was great. Ian had not bothered us any further. Everything was going well, which always put me on edge.
I showered and dressed for my dinner date with Tristan. My baby bump was very obvious now and I wore it proudly. Tristan and I enjoyed feeling the baby kick and would lie for hours in bed watching and feeling.
The doorman buzzed up that my cab was waiting out front. Tristan didn’t want me driving in Atlanta traffic at night. He was being overly protective, which I was starting to get used to.
Tristan saw me immediately when I entered the club. It was fairly crowded but it was Friday evening so there were a lot of professional people still enjoying happy hour; others were arriving for dinner.
“Hey sweet baby,” he said, lowering his face to kiss me. “You look very beautiful this evening.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself, babe,” I said, kissing him back.
“Hey,” he continued, “I heard that Trey and some of his partners are here. Let’s go say hello before we go to the dining room. I was told they’re sitting at a table on the other side of the bar.”
“Sure, let’s go say our hellos.”
(Show time!)
Tristan escorted me over to the table, his arm around me. I saw immediately that Amber was sitting next to Trey. There were two other male lawyers at the table both looking as if they were in their late forties or early fifties. All eyes were on Amber as she was going on about something. Trey spotted us and raised his eyes off of Amber to look up as we approached.
I watched as Amber turned her attention to follow Trey’s gaze. Her eyes skipped over me and went straight to Tristan where they stopped and didn’t move.
“Don’t get up,” Tristan said. “We just wanted to say hello. Jo Anna mentioned you were here.”
Trey introduced Tristan and I to the other two partners, saving Amber for last.
“Of course Gina has already met Amber at our place; but I’m not sure if you’ve met my brother, Tristan.”
“He looks vaguely familiar,” she cooed, eyeing him boldly. “Perhaps it’s from being in here.”
Tristan shook her hand; his expression offered no indication that he had met her before. She continued gazing at him as he told them to enjoy their evening and said something to Trey about coming over Sunday to watch the Braves on television. He then pulled me along with him as we made our way to the dining room.
As my luck would have it, Sunny was our waitress. She maintained her professional stance in front of me. There had been no further incidents of her being insubordinate to me; Jo Anna assured me that if she witnessed any flirtatious behavior towards Tristan I would be the first to know.
After she left with our orders I asked Tristan if he wanted to switch entrees.
“Why? If you’ve changed your mind I’ll call Sunny back and change your order.”
“That wouldn’t do any good. I’m sure the bitch is going to spit in whatever it is that I order.”
Tristan chuckled, taking my hand in his. “You really do have a beautiful glow about you, Gina.”
“Tristan, puleeze,” I said.
“What? Why is it you are so uncomfortable with me telling you things like that, Gina?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging, “I guess I’ve never believed that I’m pretty, much less beautiful.”
“That’s probably because Ian never told you that. He never appreciated what he had.”
“No,” I replied, “In all honesty, Ian did tell me that. I just never believed him, either.”
Tristan regarded me quizzically. He probably thought I was fishing for more compliments. The truth was, compliments made me uneasy. I didn’t feel compliment worthy.
“I guess I don’t understand. Did you have some sort of a weight problem, buck teeth, or Stage 4 acne growing up?”
I had to giggle at Tristan. He could be so damn funny at times.
“No,” I said, “I don’t know. I guess I just never ran with the popular chicks, or the sorority sisters, or the cheerleaders. I was just kind of a loner growing up. I actually wasn’t in to make-up or clothes back then.”
“That is difficult to fathom,” he said with a chuckle. “So, what was it like growing up in New Jersey? You haven’t told me a whole lot about it, or your family for that matter. I want to know everything about young Gina, teenage Gina.”
I wasn’t comfortable going there. Not with Tristan. Not with anyone. My past wasn’t all that pretty. I preferred for it to stay just where it was. I didn’t allow visitation.
“Actually Tristan, it was pretty routine and boring. I was raised Catholic; attended parochial schools. I have an older brother, Peter. He was two years ahead of me in school. He was very athletic and popular. I was more of a wallflower. That’s about it.”
“I’m sure there’s more to it than that. I imagine you have some fairly colorful stories to tell.”
“Well I don’t,” I snapped, instantly regretting my tone. “I’m sorry, Tristan. I didn’t mean to snap. I just really didn’t enjoy high school.”
“Well who did, I suppose? That’s alright, babe. We can talk about something else.”
(Yes, please!)
Tristan and I enjoyed the rest of our dinner. I couldn’t shake the image of Amber from my mind; the intensity of her gaze on Tristan. He had seemed oblivious to it. Right about now I was wishing that I wasn’t estranged from Tylar. This was the kind of stuff a BFF could help with.
Once home, Tristan hit the shower. I gathered the appropriate props for our room. I had an idea brewing that might help. I lit some aromatherapy candles placing them around the bed. I switched on the flat screen and located a music channel that was playing relaxation mood sounds. I changed into a silk nightgown and dimmed the lighting. I rummaged through my purse, locating my pen size flashlight and tucked it underneath the folded quilt at the foot of the bed. There. Tristan was going to get a full body massage and I was going to conduct a covert birthmark search in the process.
Tristan emerged from the bathroom with a bath towel tucked around his hips. He immediately noticed the ambience I had incorporated into our room.
“What’s this?”
“This is my gift to you this evening, Tristan. I am giving you a full body massage, with a soothing ointment that is guaranteed to blow your mind.”
“Well, I like the ‘blow’ part,” he teased.
“We’ll save that for later. Come on; let’s start with your back since we know where this will end up later.”
Tristan obliged by dropping his towel and stretching out on the bed on his stomach. He crossed his arms in front of him, resting his head on them. I straddled him and started at his shoulders. I poured a little bit of oil on his upper back and started with firm, circular motions on each of his shoulders. He immediately relaxed, moaning in pleasure as I worked my way southward.
I continued the massaging between his shoulder blades, then his lower back, scooting myself back so that I could make my way to his nice, tight ass. I lifted myself from him and knelt at his side so that my view could be unobstructed when inspecting his butt. He was fairly relaxed almost dozing by this time.
I moved my massaging to his buttocks now. I was glad that I had tucked the small flashlight under the quilt. The dim lighting was not revealing anything obvious at this point. I had kind of figured that since I had seen Tristan’s naked tush hundreds of times and couldn’t recall a birthmark, it was not going to be real obvious. I was so hoping it wasn’t there.
I massaged his left cheek while my right hand dug beneath the quilt, feeling for the pen light. I found it and flipped it on with my right hand. I continued massaging his cheek with one hand while I focused the tiny light on his butt. His left cheek had been thoroughly examined. All clear. No devils’ fork.
“What happened to both hands, Gina?”
(Oh shit! He noticed the one hand massage!)
“You aren’t massaging yourself with your right hand are you?”
“Ha ha, Tristan. You wish.”
I stuck the pen light between my teeth and put my right hand back on his ass so he wouldn’t turn over and see what I was doing.
“Much better,” he sighed, relaxing once again. I continued to rub and knead his cheeks, lowering my face to get the light directed to the right places. His right cheek looked to be free of birth marks as well. I massaged down under the cheek, raising it up with my hands and there it was. Fuck! On the underside of his right cheek was a small, brownish flat birthmark which was indeed shaped like a three-pronged devils’ fork. Shit!
I hadn’t realized that I had stopped rubbing him to focus on the birthmark until I heard his voice.
“What the hell are you looking for, Gina? I promise I thoroughly washed my ass in the shower.”
(Oh shit!)
I dropped the pen light from my mouth and looked up to where I saw his head turned around watching me. How in the hell was I going to explain this? Anything other than the truth was going to sound like I had obvious issues. If I told him the truth, then it would appear as if I thought he had lied to me.
“I know that, Tristan,” I laughed, killing time. “I guess I was just curious about whether men ever got cellulite or not.”
He cocked an eyebrow, eyeing me suspiciously. He debated as to whether or not I was being honest with him. I was certain he couldn’t find any plausible reason that I would be lying about something so ridiculous.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Do I have cellulite on my ass?”
“Nope, you’re good,” I said, giving him a slap on his butt cheek. “You do have an interesting birthmark under your right cheek though. It’s shaped like a devil’s fork. Did you know that?”
“That’s news to me,” he replied, shaking his head. “Of course I will have to take your word for it since I’m unable to swivel my head 180 degrees and maneuver it down through my legs in order to verify. I’m sure you and my mother are the only ones privy to that juicy little tidbit.”
(Well no, not exactly.)
“If you’re done with my backside, I’m ready to turn over, babe. I kind of like the thought of you being on my front side.”
I switched off the pen light, tossing it over onto the night stand. I climbed up onto Tristan and we spent the next hour rubbing oil onto each other and riding the slippery slide into our own special fuckfest.