Hardin's POV.

"I always do." I say.

My words are true, I do always find her figuratively and literally.

I can't fucking believe that I came out here to find Tessa and Zed sitting here talking about her hiding from me. This is bullshit. She latches onto Zed to steady herself and I stride across the frozen grass to get closer to them.

"Hardin." Tessa squeaks, clearly surprised by my presence.

"Yea, Hardin." I repeat her words.

Zed scoots away from her and I try to stay calm. Why the hell is she out here with Zed alone? I specifically told her to stay inside, in the kitchen. When I asked Steph were the hell Tessa was all she said was "Zed". After five minutes of searching the entire fucking house I decided to check outside and here there are. Together.

"You were supposed to stay in the kitchen babe." I add the word to soften my harsh tone.

If I blow up on her now she may try to leave with him and that has already happened too many times. I will not allow it to happen tonight. I have been doing my best lately to keep my temper reigned in.

"You were supposed to be right back." She fires back.

I sigh and take a deep breath before speaking again. I always react on every impulse that I get and I am trying not to do that anymore. But fuck if she doesn't make that difficult.

"Let's go inside." I tell her and reach for her hand.

I need to get her away from Zed and honestly I need to get myself away from him as well. I have already beat the shit out of him once and I wouldn't mind doing it again.

"I am going to get a tattoo Hardin." Tess tells me as I aid her down from the wall.

"What?" Is she drunk?

"Yeah.. you should see Zed's new tattoo Hardin. It's so nice. Show him Zed." She smiles.

Why the fuck was Tessa looking at his tattoos and how much of their conversation did I miss? What else were they doing? What else was he showing her? He has always wanted her since the first time he met her, just like I did. The difference being that I wanted to fuck her and he actually liked her. But I won, she chose me.

"I don't.." Zed begins. I can see how uncomfortable he is, Tessa too.

"Go on, show me." I instruct.

To my horror and absolute fucking annoyance, he lifts his shirt up and I see the bandage. The tattoo itself is actually pretty cool but why he felt the need to show my Tessa this shit is beyond me.

"Isn't it cool? I want one. I think a smiley face." She beams.

She isn't serious. I pull my lip ring between my teeth to prevent myself from laughing at her. Some of my annoyance disappears at her ridiculous idea for a tattoo.

"Are you drunk?" I ask her.

"Maybe." She giggles.

Great.

"How much did you drink?" I ask her, I had two drinks and I can tell she has had more.

"I don't know.. how much did you drink?" She teases, and lifts the bottom of my shirt up. Her cold hands rest against my hot skin and I flinch before she nuzzles her head on my chest. See Zed, she is mine. Not yours, not anyone's , only mine.

"How much did she drink?" I ask him.

"I'm not sure how much she drank before but we just played two games of beer pong but we used cherry vodka sour mix instead of beer."

"Wait.. we? You two played beer pong?" I ask through my teeth.

"No it's cherry vodka sour pong." She corrects me with a laugh.

"We won too, twice. I made most of the shots. Steph and Tristan were both pretty good but we beat them. Twice." She reminds me again.

This is Tessa, the girl who is so used to being the best and smartest at everything that she is boasting over winning a game of beer pong and I love every bit of it.

"Straight vodka?" I ask him.

"No, its the mix with only a little vodka but she had a lot of it."

"And you brought her out here in the dark when you knew she was wasted?" I raise my voice.

"Hardin, you need to chill out. I am the one who asked him if I could come outside with him. He told me no at first because he knew you would act like this." Tessa frowns at me and tries to remove her hands from my bare stomach but I gently put them back against my skin. I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her even closer to me.

Chill out? Did she really just tell me to chill out?

"And let's not forget if you wouldn't have left me you could have been my beer pong partner." She adds, her speak slightly slurred.

I know she is right but she is pissing me off. How could she play with Zed out of all people? I know he has feelings for her still, nothing compared to what I feel but I can tell by the way he is looking at her that he cares for her.

"Am I right or am I right?" She asks.

"Okay Tessa." I growl in an attempt to silence her.

"I'm going to go inside." Zed says, tossing his cigarette onto the ground before walking away.

"You are so grumpy, maybe you should go back to wherever you ran off to." She tries to pull away from me again.

"I am not going anywhere." I respond, purposely dodging her remark about my absence.

"Then stop being grumpy because I am having fun tonight." She looks up at me. Her eyes appear even lighter than usual with the black lines she colored around them.

"You couldn't have expected me to be happy when I couldn't find you and when I finally do you are outside alone with Zed out of all people."

"Would you rather me be out here with someone else?" She is awfully testy when she is drunk.

"No, you are missing the point here." I snap.

"There is no point, I didn't do anything wrong so stop being a grouch or I don't want to hang out with you." She threatens.

I want to yell at her, tell her she is annoying as fuck when she is drunk, and go back upstairs, but I have to admit this sassy and drunk Tess is amusing. Her choice of words when she is trying to insult me by calling me a grouch is cute. Besides she has had too much to drink and there is no way in hell that I am leaving her alone, even for a minute, not again at least. I want her to have a good night especially because I was worried someone would say something stupid and I would have to beat the shit out of them. Hell, if this were two weeks ago, I would have beaten the shit out of Zed, again.

"Fine, I won't be a grouch." I roll my eyes.

"No rolling your eyes either." She scolds and I take my arms away from her waist.

"Fine, no eye rolling." I smile.

"That's what I thought." She tries to fight her smile.

"You are quite bossy tonight."

"The vodka makes me brave." She informs me.

I feel her hands move lower on my stomach.

"So you want a tattoo then?" I ask, moving her hands back up but she defies my actions and touches me even lower.

"Yep, maybe five. I don't know."

"You aren't getting a tattoo." I laugh but I am beyond serious.

"Why not?" Her fingers play at the hem of my boxers.

"Let's talk about it tomorrow when you are sober." I know this idea will not appeal to her when she is not drunk.

"Let's go inside." I tell her, trying to move from where we are standing.

She slips her hand into my boxers and stands on her toes. I assume she is going to kiss my cheek but she brings her mouth to my ear. I hiss as she squeezes me gently in her hand.

"I think we should stay out here." She whispers.

Fuck.

"The vodka certainly makes you brave." My voice cracks, betraying me.

"Yes.. and it makes me hor.." She begins to say, way too loud. I cover her mouth as a small group of drunk girls walk by.

"We need to get inside, it's freezing and I don't think they would appreciate me fucking you in the bushes." I smirk and her pupils dilate.

"I would appreciate that very much." She says the moment my hand uncovers her mouth.

"Jesus Tess, a few drinks and you become sex crazed." I laugh remembering Seattle and the filthy words that fell from her full lips.

I need to get her inside before I take her up on her offer and drag her into the bushed.

"Only for you." She winks and I can't hold in my laughter.

"Let's go." I put my hand on her arm and pull her across the yard and into the house

She pouts the entire time and that makes my groin ache even more, especially when she pushes her bottom lip out. I could easily lean across and pull it between my teeth. Fuck, I am just as bad as she is and I am not even drunk, maybe a little high but not drunk. She would be so pissed if she would have found me upstairs, I didn't actually smoke but I was in the room and they were making it a point to blow it in my face. Somehow I know that the pot smoke would be the least of her worries if she would have walked into that room.

I pull her through the crowd and lead her into the least crowded room downstairs which happens to the kitchen. Tessa leans her elbows onto the island and looks up at me. How is it that she looks just as beautiful as she did when we left the apartment when all the other girls here look dreadful by now? After the first drink their makeup begins to smear, hair begins to tangle, and they look sloppy. Not Tessa, Tessa looks like a fucking goddess compared to them. Compared to anyone.

"I want another drink Hardin." Her voice is low.

"I don't think that is a good idea."

"Please? I am having fun, don't be a party pooper." She sticks her tongue out of her mouth like a child.

"Fine, one more but you have to stop talking like a ten year old." I tease her.

"Okay sir. I sincerely apologize for my immature language, I will not repeat my.."

"Or an old man." I laugh.

"Fuck, okay then. I will stop fucking talking like a mother fucking.." She doesn't finish her foul sentence because she and I are both laughing too hard.

"You are insane tonight." I tell her.

"I know, it's fun." She giggles.

I am glad she is having fun but I can not help the annoyance that I feel from her having fun with Zed, not me. I am going to keep my mouth shut though because I don't want to ruin her night.

"Let's go find Steph." She stands, taking a sip from her drink.

"You okay with her now?" I ask her. I don't know how I feel about that. Good I suppose.

"I think so. There they are!" She points to Tristan and Steph sitting on the couch.

As we walk into the living room a small cluster of guys sitting on the floor turn to look at Tessa. She is oblivious to their lustful stares but I am not. I shoot them a warning glare and almost all of them turn away except a blonde who slightly resembles Noah, who still continues to stare as we walk by. I debate whether kicking him in the face will be a good idea or not but I choose to take Tessa's hand in mine instead, for now at least.

Her head snaps back to look down at our joined hands and her eyes are wide. Why is she so surprised that I held her hand? I mean yeah, it's not something I feel comfortable doing usually but I do it on occasion, don't I?

"There you two are!" Steph calls as we approach them.

Molly is sitting on the floor next to a guy who's name is Jason I think. I am pretty sure he is a junior and his father owns some land in Vancouver, making him a trust fund brat. The two of them look fucking stupid together but I am just glad she is leaving me alone for now. She is so damn annoying and I know Tessa hates her.

"We were outside." I tell her.

"I am bored." Nate says, stirring his finger through his beer.

"Are we still going out after this or not? It's already almost eleven." Logan asks.

"We could go after midnight, or we could all just go tomorrow night." Nate suggests.

"Who gives a shit, this party sucks." Molly says, rolling her eyes.

"Let's just stay here, it's going to be midnight soon anyway." Steph speaks, ignoring her on-again, off -again friend.

I sit down at the end of the couch and pull Tessa onto my lap. Multiple eyes dart to us but I don't give a shit. I dare someone to say something about it. Within seconds, they all look away except Steph who gives me a smile. I don't return it, but I don't flip her off either, which is what I initially planned to do.

"We should play truth or dare." A voice suggests and it takes a second to realize who the voice came from.

What the hell? I lean my head up to look at Tessa who is still seated on my lap.

"Sure, like you want to play." Molly mocks her.

"Why would you suggest that, you hate those games." I say quietly.

"I don't know, I think it could be fun tonight." She smirks.

I follow her eyes to Molly and I don't even want to know what is stirring in that pretty head of Tessa's.