After dinner and lots of chatting with her sister, they both lounged out on the couch and did nothing. Tristan had already gone upstairs and said he was hitting the bed early because he wanted to get up early for his workout.

Then Zee finally wanted to head off to sleep so she went ahead and went upstairs as well. She was a night owl. At night she wanted to stay up as long as possible while she read a book. She tried that for a while, tossed that aside then grabbed her grandmother's journal. She was at the good part, her grandmother was getting married to her grandfather.

Dear Diary,

This is what I have dreamed of since I first laid eyes on him. I am marrying Gregory tomorrow. This man is my everything and I can not wait to start my life with him. Everything is so perfect. Well, I hope it will be.

Some say I'm too young to get married but I'm eighteen and I have met the man I want to spend my life with. Why wait? I still will finish college. I can still explore the world if I choose. But what better way to do that than with Gregory at my side?

Gregory is my friend. My best friend. He is my confidant. I can tell him anything and he will listen. My hope and dreams for the future, we share that. And he is my lover, and I know I will never, ever need anyone else in that way.

Words can not describe the love I feel for this man.

Tomorrow I will be Mrs. Daniels!

Thinking of how happy her grandmother was, and feeling some of that now with Tristan, she missed him already. She got out of bed and went into her bathroom, then softly knocked on the door connecting his bedroom.

"Jo?"

She opened the door and walked into his room. The lights were off and it was very dark in his room, but she could see his outline in the bed under the covers.

"You're sleeping?"

"Not anymore." He sat up in the bed. "What's up?"

"Can I sleep in your bed with you?" She did not bother to hear his reply, she walked to the other side of the bed and pulled the covers down.

"I don't do the sleeping in bed thing."

"Huh? What?" She leaned close to him to kiss him. He was shirtless, and she wanted to rub her hands all over his chest.

"You don't listen to me, huh?" he said. "I don't do all the cuddling and stuff."

"Then it's fine, I'll do all the cuddling." She moved as close as she could to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"Jo," he whispered. "Some things may...wake up down there."

"What things?"

Tristan groaned at her. "Just go to sleep and let me get some sleep okay." He kissed her forehead.

He snored, but she loved hearing it. He was fast asleep in minutes, while she lay there snuggled so close to him. Even though he said he did not like to cuddle, he threw an arm around her and held her sometime after he was fast asleep.

She kept her hands on his chest, rubbing it, wishing she could see all of his tattoos in the light. She thought of all the drama they went through just to be together. The drama they still had to go through to hide it from her sister.

What if Zee walked into his room and saw her in bed with him?

She fell asleep, again, having one of the best sleeps of her life. She thought she would wake up with Tristan still holding her, but when she opened her eyes, he was not there. She was a deep sleeper once she was asleep, so she didn't even feel him get out the bed.

She stepped out of his bed and looked out the window. Tristan's truck was still there, Zee's car gone.

She went to her bathroom, freshened up, dressed, and headed downstairs. She knew that if he was nowhere around, he was downstairs in the basement doing his morning workout. She made her way down there.

He was on the treadmill, earbuds in, running at a fast pace. Why so fast? That did not look like any fun to her.

"Hey," he said as he took out his earbuds. "What are you doing down here? I thought you never come down here."

"I wanted to see you."

He slowed the machine down a bit, but not much. "I'm almost done."

"I want to watch." She sat on the bench and faced him. Something so hot about him all sweaty and running as if someone was chasing him. She could barely walk for a long period, and here he was probably running miles.

"You do this every morning?"

He was breathless, but still managed to say, "No, not run."

"But you do work out every day? Why?"

"I don't." He slowed the machine down even more to a walkable pace. "Sometimes I just come down here to clear my head. Get away from you."

"What?" Those words stung. To get away from here? What did she ever do to him that made him want to get away from her?

"No Jo, I didn't mean it like that." He stopped the machine and stepped off. He grabbed his towel and came to sit beside her. "You're a lot sometimes. Not in a bad way, in a way that...I can't shake out of my head. And knowing I'm not supposed to be with you...I just wanted to be respectful."

"Am I like an annoying little sister?"

He chuckled at that. "Not like any sister I want to have."

She leaned in to kiss him but he moved back. "Let me shower and change. Hold my kiss for me, lil bit."

They headed upstairs and he went to his bathroom and closed the door. She poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat in the kitchen to eat it, waiting for him to come out.

This was all still new to her. There was no handbook on this, dating your roommate. Having her boyfriend see her at her worst in the morning, in her boring PJs, or waking up on the couch with drool running down her mouth. If they did not live together, maybe he would not see all of those things till much later in the relationship.

Ah, relationship. She was in a relationship with a hot boy but had no one to tell. Maybe she needed to journal about it. All the things she was feeling right now.

Tristan walked out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Sheer perfection, that was what he looked like to her. Body was amazing, but besides that, the tattoos made him even sexier.

"Didn't expect you to be sitting out here-"

"Because I-"

He stopped her mid-sentence, picked her up, and gave her one of those amazing kisses again. Her body went to jelly at the touch of his lips. Her legs wrapped around his waist, arms wrapped around his neck, it was the perfect position. He carried her back to the laundry room, sat her on top of the dryer, reached over, and started the dryer.

She stopped kissing him and giggled. "What are you doing?" She knew exactly what he was doing. Recreating their amazing first kiss.

"That kiss still rings in my fucking head," he said between kissing her. "You don't know the things I wanted to do to you right then."

"Like what things?"

He pulled her closer to him, her chest against his bare, damp chest. She felt his hardening again and welcomed it.

"All the things I'm not supposed to do."

"I want to do all the things...with you...now," she said, breathlessly between kisses.

"I don't want your first time to be in a cramped laundry room."

She smiled at him. "At least it will be memorable."

"Naaa, I want you to remember it for other reasons." His hand slipped up her t-shirt and caressed her stomach. "But you really want to? With me?"

"Yes!"

His hand moved closer to her breast, moved her bra aside, and palmed her full breasts with one hand. His kisses trailed down to her neck, the vibration from the dryer making her body ache in all the right ways. She was ready to take things into the bedroom, as he said before to her.

She reached down and tugged at his towel till it fell loose and dropped to the floor.

There before her eyes was something magnificant. Even bigger than before when she had a peek at him, it was hard, and long and thick and beautiful.

Tristan snatched the towel up.

"Hey, stop!" He covered himself back up. "We're not-"

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, but just because I want to fuck the living hell out of you doesn't mean I'm about to." He secured the towel in place.

This upset her. She liked what she saw and she wanted to look at him and imagine all the things he wanted to do to her. It made her body ache the way she wanted him so badly. His rejecting her again made her pout.

"And don't do that." He leaned over to kiss her. "Don't look at me with that face, you know it's my weakness."

"So you're not going to have sex with me because..." She had no words for why he desired her but did not want to take things any further.

He pulled her down from the dryer and cut the machine off.

"Because even if you think you're ready, I need you to be a hundred percent sure."

"I am! A hundred and ten percent sure."

He chuckled at her. "Then I'm not ready, how's that."

"Well...when will you be ready?"

He thought about it, looked her in the eyes, bit his bottom lip before he said, "When I want more than just to fuck you."

Whatever that meant. She headed out of the little laundry area, but he was right behind her.

"Jo." He stopped her by grabbing her arm. "You're mad at me?"

She shook her head. Her body was still on fire from the way he made her feel. He pulled her in his arms and squeezed her.

"Let me go get dressed then we can hang out, okay?"

"Okay."

She let him go upstairs while she went into the den and picked up her tablet before going into the living room. She busied herself playing a game before Tristan came back down thirty minutes later. He was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. He came over and sat by her then grabbed the remote control.

"Let's finish watching Star."

"What took you so long upstairs to change?"

"Huh?"

Why was he acting as if he had not heard her question? "I said why did it take so long to change into a t-shirt and shorts?"

"You're nosy as hell, I see." He gave her a grin. "Somebody didn't make my bed, so I had to do that."

"Oh, sorry."

"And then I had to rub one out. Don't worry, I washed my hands."

He had to what?

"It's okay if I use your bathroom sometimes?"

"I'm fine with it."

"Okay, just keep your hands to yourself before we both get all hot and bothered again."

That was going to be so hard to do! She wanted to be wrapped in his arms, more kisses, more touches, more everything, and even more of the things she did not know.

This was almost as torturous as when she could not have him at all.