I've been pacing around this damn living room for what feels like hours. Where the hell is Tessa? I'm about to call her when I hear the door open.

"Hardin! I'm back!" She sounds out of breath.

I rush to greet her and see why. "Let me help you with all that stuff!"

"Thanks. There's more in my car."

"So, I guess we're roomies for the next little while." I can't help but smile.

"Thanks again for letting me stay here." She smiles brightly.

"Anything you need, remember that, okay?"

"Okay." She smiles again.

After I help her move most of her stuff into Zed's old room, I turn to her and say, "I'm sorry about earlier."

"It's okay, Hardin. You weren't exactly wrong," she sighs.

My heart drops. I swear if he fucking hurt her... "What does that mean?" I ask impatiently.

"He is starting to scare me. Steph said he showed up drunk going on about how you and I better not be together. He also threatened that he'll make me regret leaving him, again."

"See! I knew this would happen! He's not the same person we used to be friends with, Tessa," I warn.

"I know." She shakes her head and looks down.

"Promise you won't put yourself in a position where you'll be alone with him? If for some reason you need to be within even a foot of him, I'm going to be there," I demand.

"Okay, Hardin."

"Come here, Tess." I open my arms to her. She walks over and buries her face into my chest. "You don't have to be scared. I'll never let anyone, especially Zed, hurt you. You know that, right?"

"I do."

"How about we do something to take your mind off of everything? What would you like to do for the rest of the night?"

"Um, maybe we could watch some old movies or something?"

"Of course. You go pick something and I'll get us some snacks. We should order pizza for dinner, too."

"Okay, sounds good." I finally see that breathtaking smile again.

As I'm gathering whatever snacks we have in the cupboard, my mind drifts to that almost kiss. I wonder if we can finally finish what we started, or has Zed ruined that for us?

A few hours later we've finished two movies, more than half the pizza, and devoured almost all the snacks. Tessa is starting to get sleepy, but insists she isn't ready to go to bed yet and wants to watch another movie.

"Well, at least change into your pyjamas," I suggest.

"Yeah, okay." She yawns. "Be right back." She goes to her room.

A few minutes later I hear her yell to me. "Hardin, I must have forgot to pack my pyjama shirt. Can I borrow something from you?"

"Yeah, just go pick something out of my dresser," I shout back.

"It's quite the selection you have here. Everything is black," she teases.

"Hey, don't go insulting my taste in cloth-" I'm cut off by the sight in front of me. Holy shit. "Wow," I mumble.

"What?" Tessa asks as she looks down at herself. "Should I not have picked this?"

"Uh... no, it looks, um.. perfect on you," I manage to finally say.

As she walks back toward the couch I take in the sight in front of me. I thought nothing could be hotter than her in a towel, but her wearing my shirt is a whole new level of sexy. She fills it out perfectly. Her full chest and hips look divine in the thin black cotton. And the thought of something of mine touching her delicate skin, well it's doing naughty things to me. I shift uncomfortably on the couch.

"Um, thanks," she giggles and blushes. She sits down next to me and I need to pry my eyes away before she notices me staring.

"Should we start the next movie?" I ask.

"Okay."

We've already finished half the movie before I notice Tessa staring at me out of the corner of my eye. I turn to her and ask, "What?" as I chuckle nervously.

She doesn't say anything. Instead, she just looks at me and I watch as she pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. Fuck. Suddenly, I feel her running her fingers through my hair as she pulls my head down toward her. She presses her lips against mine and all I feel is the heat between us. Our lips fit perfectly together. Our tongues start moving in sync with each other. It's like we've been doing this all our lives. I need more.

I reach for her and pull her onto me. She straddles my lap and I grab her full hips. I manage to pull away from the kiss long enough to moan, "Tess..." She starts moving against me and I feel myself getting hard. I start kissing down her jawline and start sucking on her neck as I move one of my hands to the small of her back.

"Hardin... that spot, it feels so good," she moans.

"Fuck, Tess, you have no idea all the dirty things I want to do to you," I say in between sucking and then kissing her neck. "Every inch of you tastes so good."

I pull away and look into her eyes. She wants more. I grab her hips again and flip her so she's lying down against the couch cushions. I climb between her legs and go back to kissing her sweet lips. I reach down and run my hand along her thigh and pull it up to wrap her leg around my waist. I reach under her shirt and I'm pleased to discover she isn't wearing a bra. I start to massage her full chest, but ask, "Is this okay?"

She nods.

"I want to hear you say you want this, baby," I press.

"I want you to," she moans.

I start nibbling her earlobe and she runs her fingers through my hair, tugging lightly as she moans my name. It's the sweetest fucking sound I've ever heard.

"Hardin..." she moans.

"Mmm-hmm," I moan back.

"Hardin?" She stops playing with my hair and I sense something is wrong.

I stop what I'm doing and pull back to look into her eyes. "What's wrong, Tess?"

"I'm sorry, Hardin, but I think we should slow down." She frowns.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No! Everything you did was... really good." She blushes. "I just don't think I'm ready to go any further."

"Okay, Tess. I want you to be comfortable and ready when we decide to go further."

I move to get up from between her legs and help her to sit up. We're both back to sitting on the couch. She's flustered and I'm still very turned on.

"That was... fun." I smile.

"It was." She blushes.

"Are you sure you're okay with what just happened?" I hope I didn't move too fast for her.

"Yeah, I wanted it, too. I haven't stopped thinking about our almost kiss all day." She continues to blush.

"I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking about it."

"I'm sorry I stopped you." She frowns.

"Don't say that. I'd never push you into anything you aren't ready for."

"I know."

"Don't worry though, when you are ready, I'll gladly fuck you all day and all night," I half joke.

"Hardin!" She turns beet red.

"Just saying, Tess. You are by far the sexiest woman I have or will ever lay my eyes on."

"Stop!" She tries to hide her face and I chuckle. "Let's finish the movie." She gently shoves my shoulder.

"Okay, but come here," I say as I reach to wrap my arm around her shoulders.

I think about how I'm the luckiest son of a bitch around because I'm here with Tessa. The rest of the night we sit on the couch, cuddling together and fall asleep while trying to finish the movie.