"I told Steph we would meet her and Tristan to get tattoos tomorrow." I tell Hardin as we walk down the stairs with my suitcases in hand.

"Why?"

"Because she asked me to and I want to go."

"To get a tattoo?"

"No! Of course not! To watch her get one, I guess. I don't know, I thought it would be nice to hang out with another couple."

He turns to look at me with curious eyes.

"So this is your idea of double-dating then?"

"I suppose so."  I shrug.

"So we are dating then, you and I?"

Why did he ask that now? Everything is going so well.. well only for two days but still, it's been nice to not be on edge with Hardin.

"I.." I search  for the words.

"Thought so." He huffs and we reach the end of the stairs.

Landon is still sitting on the couch but he stands to his feet when he sees us.

"You're leaving then?" He questions, no judgment in his voice at all.

"Yeah, she is."

"Yeah, I am." Hardin and I answer at the same time.

"Okay, well I'll see you Monday in class." Landon smiles at me and I nod as Karen walks into the room.

"You're leaving? I thought we agreed you would stay here until you graduated." She teases and even Hardin smiles.

"Sorry." I tell her and she wraps her arms around me in a warm hug, the type of hug I wish I could receive from my own mother.

"Don't forget we are going out on the boat next weekend." Karen reminds me.

I feel Hardin's eyes on me and I assure her that I haven't forgotten and I'm very much looking forward to seeing their boat and spending the weekend with them. I say my goodbye's, nothing too formal seeing as I'm not really going anywhere, yet. Ken comes downstairs at the last minute and gives me a quick goodbye, barely acknowledging Hardin. Did something happen between them before I arrived?

Seattle is the last thing I want to think about right now, but it's the first thing I need to be thinking about.  When we get to the car Hardin places my suitcases in the trunk and I climb in before he has the chance to open the door for me.

"When were you going to tell me about going away with them next weekend?" He finally asks as he switches lanes on the busy freeway.

"I wasn't keeping it from you, it just didn't come up and you've been..busy."

"You know it's like a six hour drive to the coast right?"

"Yes?"

"Hmm.."

"What?" I turn to face him.

"Nothing."

"I'm sure they would love for you to come along with us. Have you been on his boat before?"

"Fuck no, I haven't. I don't want to."

"Why don't you want to? It could be fun, we are going whale watching. How nice would that be?" I try to sound excited.

"Why do you sound like you're talking about slaughtering puppies then?" He calls me out.

"I'm excited.. I'm just a little nervous, that's all." I look out the window.

"Nervous to be stuck with those prudes for an entire weekend on a boat?"

"No! They aren't prudes, and I'm not too fond of water."

"You're afraid of water?"

"I never said I was afraid of it! I'm just not too fond of it."

"So what you're saying is, you're afraid of it?" He grins.

"Shut up."

"You swam with me at the stream... now that I think of it, you were pretty scared to get in."

"I wasn't scared to get in that stream, it was dirty and I had never done anything like that before. I'll be fine on the boat, can we stop talking about it."

"Sure." He laughs.

"Are you going to come?"

"Oh yes, I plan on coming multiple times."

"Hardin!" I cover my face.

"I meant next weekend." I clarify and he laughs harder.

His hand moves from the steering wheel to my thigh and he gently squeezes, making the temperature in the car rise dramatically as his hand travels up to the apex of my thighs.

"This is one of those times when I need you to wear one of your skirts."

"I got some new ones today, not as long of course."

"What do you mean not as long?"

"They aren't as long as the skirts that I used to wear."

"Oh." He wants to say something but he doesn't.

"I wish you would come with us next weekend." Because I'm leaving for Seattle almost immediately after and I hope you consider coming with me.

"I'll think about it."

I'm startled when he presses his palm against me and I really wish I was wearing one of my skirts too. I look out the window into the darkness and I'm glad to see we are only a few minutes from home. With everything going on sex seems like a selfish thing to be doing but with Hardin moving his hand, fingers, and palm against my jeans, I almost ask him to pull the car over now.

"You're going to wreck the car." I scold him even though I don't want him to stop.

"I've done more than this while driv.." He stops himself but I know what he was going to say.

Hardin's POV.

"Oh." She sighs and looks back out the window as I pull into the parking lot to our apartment.

Why the fuck did I just say that to her? I know how it makes her feel to bring up the sexual relationships that I've had in the past but I really didn't mean anything by it. I was only trying to tease her while really teasing her.

"I didn't mean.."

"I know." She presses her cheek to the window.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, let's not talk about it." She requests and I agree.

I ruined the whole mood, I know I did. Way to fucking go Hardin. I turn the car off and she climbs out of the car without a word. Fuck.

With both her suitcases in my hands I follow her into the lobby and wait for the elevator to open. She is pissed, she has to be. She doesn't look pissed though, she looks..thoughtful. What the hell is she thinking about? Cutting my balls off and shoving them down my throat for saying that stupid shit in the car?

If she is, I don't blame her.

"Are you mad at me?" I ask, sitting her shit on the floor to dig the keys out of my pocket.

"Nope." She opens the door with her own set of keys and I roll my eyes when I know she can't see me.

She's going to act like a..

My thoughts are silenced as she pushes me against the door, closing it with a loud thud.

"What the.." Her mouth is on mine instantly.

Okay then...

Her tongue pushes past my lips and her fingers slide through my hair. She takes my bottom lip between hers, sucking, hard. I want her, I want her now. One of her hands is removed from my hair, traveling down my body at the slowest possible rate before she finally reaches the top of my jeans. She bites down gently on my lip that she still has captured between hers and releases it, removing her mouth from mine. As soon as I begin to protest she drops to her knees in front of me.

Fuck. She's barely touched me but I am already hard, incredibly fucking hard. Her fingers attack the buttons on my jeans and she tugs them down, along with my boxers in one swift movement. Before I can even speak, she takes me into her mouth. Her mouth is so warm and fuck, her lips are so wet and soft, and her tongue sliding up and down my length and I can't see straight as I try to watch her in front of me on her knees.

She takes me deeper into her mouth, and closes her eyes as she swirls her tongue round and round.

"Tessa.." I warn, trying to get her to stop.

As good as this feels, and it feels so fucking good, I want her in bed.. or on the floor, I don't really give a fuck but I want to fuck her.

She doesn't let up, she sucks harder and my hips flex to thrust even deeper down her throat.

"I want to fuck you." I beg her.

The words stop her movements and she bats her lashes at me, her mouth is still full and it's a wonderful fucking sight. She pulls back, causing me to fall from her mouth, stands to her feet and walks toward the bedroom without a word, leaving me standing here with my boxers and jeans around my ankles. The small hint of a smile plays on her pink and now swollen lips when she turns back to taunt me. I ditch the jeans, pull my boxers back up, and follow her to the bedroom.

Tessa's POV.

The surprise on Hardin's face when I dropped to my knees in front of him was enough to make my entire night. I'm unsure what to do now that I came into the bedroom, I know what's going to happen and my blood is pumping rapidly in anticipation.

While debating whether or not to undress myself Hardin appears behind me, pressing a kiss to the back of my ear.

"Get on the bed." He whispers sternly.

"Okay." I don't turn him down this time.

"Thought so. You're not so quick to deny me when you're soaking."

My eyes go wide at his dirty words, they still hold their shock factor after all this time. They still awaken something in me, stirring me until I'm ready to explode.

I lay back on the bed and he kneels on the bed, undressing me from the waist down. His eyes never leave mine and I'm on fire under his heated gaze. I can't handle it, the anticipation of what's to come is going to kill me. We slept together only days ago but it feels like so much longer. The need I have for him is maddening and it's taking over all of my senses as he teases and tortures me, dragging his lips across the span on my stomach, stopping every inch or so to bite down on my flaming skin.

"Hardin please." I reach down to grasp his hair but he dodges my touch.

"You need to learn some patience Tess."

"Me?" I gasp as his tongue touches swipes across me, there.

"Fuck, you taste so good." He moans against me and I squirm beneath his skilled tongue and filthy mouth.

I try not to close my eyes because I want to watch him between my thighs but the sensation is too much, too consuming. I attempt to close my thighs but he pushes them open, spreading them much further than they were seconds ago. I groan and buck off of the mattress as his fingers slide into me.

"Tell me." He commands.

"It feels so..oh my.." I can't speak as his fingers quicken and circle inside of me.

As soon as I clamp my eyes shut he stops and I hear myself whine involuntarily.

"Not yet." He smirks, my arousal glistening on his lips.

He licks the surface of them as I watch him and brings his index finger to my mouth like he has done before. Just like then, a small voice in the corner of my mind reminded me it was wrong, but it feels so right. So hot, and so right as he presses the pad of his finger against my flat tongue.

"See how good you taste? Suck." He leans up to sit astride my body and I bite down playfully on his finger.

His hands find the hem of my shirt and tug it over my head. I love the way his pupils dilate as his eyes rake over my chest. I mentally hug myself for wearing the black lace bra that I know he loves.

He flips me over and before I realize what he's doing, he grips me by the back of my thighs and pulls my knees up so I'm on my hands and knees in front of him. I hear the condom wrapper and I whimper impatiently. When I stop to think about my sexual experiences with Hardin, some of them.. okay most of them, still amaze me. It doesn't seem like I could possibly be the girl doing these things yet I loved every second of it.

"You're getting on birth control soon. Like this week." He tells me before pushing into me, filing me, making my arms give out and I fall onto the mattress.

He lifts me back up and holds me in place in front of him as he sets a steady rhythm, not too fast, not too slow, but incredibly deep and god, it feels so good.

"I want to be able to feel you, every fucking inch of you." His hand runs along my spine and he picks up speed.

I moan and he gathers my hair in his hands to hold me in place, moving faster, and faster as I climb higher and higher.

"I want to hear you." He groans.

His name falls from my lips and I feel him tug at my hair as I clench around him, both of us coming undone.

I roll over and he gathers me in his arms to bring me to his chest.

"I love you, Tess. You know that don't you?" He softly whispers above my ear.

"Yes, I know." I smile and push his t-shirt up his stomach to expose his skin.

I trace small patterns along the black ink and he does the same to the small of my back.

Silence sits between us but it's a comfortable, blissful silence.

"I'm afraid to be expelled." His voice startles me but his confession startles me even more.

I look up at him and his eyes meet mine.

"You are?"

"Yeah. I know it's stupid.." He begins.

"No, it's not stupid. Anyone would be afraid, I know I would be. It's okay to be afraid."

"What will I do if I can't go to WSU anymore?"

"Go to another college."

"I want to go back home."

My heart sinks.

"Please don't." I say quietly.

"I have to Tess. I can't afford university if my dad isn't the chancellor."

"We could find a way."

"No, this isn't your problem."

"Yes it is. If you go to England we will never see each other."

"You have to come Tessa, I know you don't want to but you have to. I can't be away from you again. Please just come." His words are so full of emotion that I can't seem to find mine.

"Hardin, it's not that easy."

"Yes it is. It's easy, you could get a job doing exactly what you're doing now and possibly make even more money and go to an even better university."

"Hardin.. I can't. I'm going to Seattle." I focus my eyes back on his bare skin.

"You don't have to decide tonight, let's just go to sleep." He sighs.

I almost tell him that I'll pack my bags and go to England with him, but I can't.

For now, I will stay the coward that I am and push the news of Seattle back another day while he holds me in his arms and closes his eyes to sleep.