Wicked as Lies (Wicked & Devoted #3) - Shayla Black Page 0,26
a nap. While she did, Zy oversaw the repair of the siding when the workers came by, then made arrangements with the glass company to come out when the replacement window arrived on Saturday.
As afternoon wound down, they cooked dinner together. It felt intimately domestic and so terrifyingly normal.
After a mere two days, she’d gone from feeling like she was sharing her space with a stranger to dreading the moment he left. But if he stayed, she would only get attached. So would Hallie. It wasn’t smart for either of them.
“TV?” he asked once they’d done the dinner dishes together.
For Tessa, the noise box was more of a way to fill the silence than to pass the time, and she didn’t want to waste a moment she spent with him. “I doubt there’s anything good on. Why don’t we talk?”
“About what?”
“I don’t know. Something interesting. You and Trees are really tight. How did you two meet?”
A grin crossed his face. “In basic. We had this obstacle course to complete, which included rappelling down the fifty-foot Warrior Tower. Since Trees is so damn tall and his wingspan so wide, he had an advantage. Our first time as a class through the course, he handily beat everyone. So, being the competitive asshole I am, I told him I was going to beat him by the end of the class.”
Tessa could picture that. “Did you?”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure I would have if other shit hadn’t slowed him down. See, on our last run-through, he was coming off the tower and smoking everyone. I’m hauling ass, trying to catch up, when I see another guy fall from the top of the wall. Trees forgot all about me and the fact we had an unfriendly bet going. He hopped off to help the guy but had to jump to the side at the last minute to avoid landing on him. He broke his ankle.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. Once he saw me coming over the wall, he remembered what was at stake and he was pissed.”
“What happened then? Did you finish?”
“I was a cocky shit. I had every intention of continuing on and beating Trees so I could collect on our bet…which was nude photos of some poor schmuck’s hot girlfriend.”
“No!” It was both horrifying and funny.
“Oh, yeah. We were eighteen—stupid and horny. And we’d been without sex for weeks.”
“Weeks? I was still a virgin when I turned eighteen.”
He shot her a sidelong glare. “Yeah, not me. Not even close.”
“Sixteen?”
Zy shook his head.
“Fifteen?”
He just raised a brow.
Tessa gaped. “Fourteen?”
“Thirteen, but I wasn’t looking for it. My older brother’s ex-girlfriend, Celeste, decided to nail me to get back at him for cheating on her, and I was too dumb and horny to say no.”
Holy cow! “How old was she?”
“Seventeen.”
“What did your brother do when he found out?”
“He didn’t right away. I wasn’t saying a word, and Celeste didn’t tell him because we were too busy getting busy.”
“You’re lying.” The story was so crazy, he had to be.
“Swear to God, that’s the truth. About four months later, he caught us and he tried to beat the shit out of me. But I’d turned fourteen by then. I was big for my age, and of the two of us, I’d always been way more athletic. I held my own until our dad broke it up.”
“Did you see Celeste after that?”
“Not much. My brother blabbed to everyone at school that we were fucking, so she treated me like I had the plague.”
“That’s horrible!”
“That’s Theo.” He shrugged. “We were never close. We had nothing in common…except nailing Celeste. At least she said that, between the two of us, I was better.”
She gaped at him, then laughed. “That’s horrible, too.”
“Awful. But now that I’ve fessed up, tell me about your first time.”
“No.”
“C’mon. It can’t be more ridiculous than mine.”
He had her there. “All right. Um…the summer after high school graduation, I spent with one of my girlfriends and her family on the beach in Naples, Florida. Her older brother brought his college roommate. We had a typical summer fling…and I thought I was in love. But after I went off to college that fall, I never heard from him again.”
“Damn. Guess we’re both unlucky in love.”
“I am. But I’m sure you have no problems. Why are you still single?”
He shrugged. “Never met anyone special, I guess, especially not in the Middle East, where I’ve been the better part of six years between my service and contracting. I’ve been Stateside less than two weeks.”