Shame (Ruin #3)(30)
Author: Rachel Van Dyken

But most of all? I wanted to ignore the fact that my life was hanging on by a thread… a thread Taylor still held. Heck, he held both thread and scissors.

“Lisa…” Tristan’s mouth covered mine again, heat soared through my body. “…before…” He finally pulled back and looked directly into my eyes. “Tell me, tell me what happened.”

I froze. My hands clenched his shirt so tight it was going to permanently wrinkle it where my fingers had tugged.

“You can trust me,” he whispered.

“I can’t,” I said honestly. “At least not yet.”

“Okay.” He sighed. “Okay, then it seems I have a lot of work to do.”

“You’re leaving?” Rejection slammed into me.

His eyebrows shot up. “Does it look like I want to be anywhere but here?”

Confused, I shook my head. “But you said work—”

“Work on your trust,” His eyes narrowed. “Do you really have no idea the effect you have on me? On possibly the entire male population, including the blind?”

I laughed and rolled my eyes, trying to pull away from him as a blush crept up my cheeks.

“No.” He held me firm in his lap. “You are magnificent.” He kissed me softly on the lips. “Anyone who says differently is clearly insane.”

“Says the guy who let me get out of his car.”

He nodded. “Says the guy who let you walk away… once.”

“Twice.”

“Class doesn’t count.”

“Oh?”

“And I won’t make the same mistake three times.”

“We’ll see.” I touched my tongue to my lips. “Won’t we?”

With a grin, he set me away from him and leaned back on the couch. “Ask me anything.”

“Anything?” I pulled my knees to my chest. “Anything I want?”

He laughed; his smile was beautiful. “Well, within reason.”

“Reason? What’s that?” I teased.

“Cute.” His eyes narrowed.

“Okay.” I popped my knuckles.

“Whoa!” He chuckled and held up his hands as if to shield himself. “Preparing for a fight?”

“Just getting my question ready.”

“With your fists?” He scooted away. “Just to be safe, you understand.”

“Please, like I’d actually beat my professor.”

“Stranger things have happened.” He dropped his hands into his lap. “So, question? You get one question before food arrives, then I want to see you eat at least three pieces.”

“What is with guys making girls eat all the time? We’re either too fat or too skinny.” I rolled my eyes. “And, for the record, I normally love eating and have an appetite that would put Gabe to shame.”

“Gabe…” Tristan repeated the name. “…threatened to kick my ass.”

“He’s a good friend.”

“Good to know if we were in duel I could count on you,” Tristan said grumpily. “I’m going to put a time limit on the question if you don’t hurry up.”

Panicked, I searched my head for the right question, one that would give me more clues to who he was.

Meanwhile, Tristan hummed the Jeopardy theme.

“You’re right.” I laughed. “You can’t even hum!”

“I did warn you.” He continued humming.

“Okay, okay!” I held up my hands, happy he was here, happy for the distraction. “So, you’re the CEO of a huge company I have yet to do an Internet search on, but Wes made it sound like… I don’t know, like you were really important.”

“Do I not look important?” he asked in a serious tone, his eyebrows pinching together.

My smile fell.

“I’m kidding.” He smiled. “So I’m the CEO, yes, but the board mainly runs a lot of the company now, and it’s expanded so much that… well… I’m able to take time off and not worry too much about us going under.”

“What type of company?”

“Is that your question?”

I chewed my lip. “For now.”

“Companies… real estate investments, which is kind of boring and… um, pharmaceuticals.”

Wow, not what I expected. “So you’re a legal drug lord?”

He burst out laughing. “Sure, I’m part of the US drug cartel also known as prescription drugs.”

“What type of drugs?”

“All drugs.”

“Meaning?”

“Our specialty is… psychotropic drugs.” He coughed into his hand.

I nodded slowly. “Psychotropic? So drugs for mental health.”

“Exactly.” He looked away and shrugged. “All very boring to you, I’m sure.”

“That’s why you’re so rich.” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and by his stunned expression, it was completely possible I’d just crossed a line. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you…”

“No.” He ran a hand through his hair, his T-shirt lifting enough to give me an awesome view of his lower abs. “It’s true… that’s the society we live in, right? Have a headache? Take this. Have a pain? Take this. Have a heartache? Here, this will make you happy again.” His tone became more and more bitter as he talked. “We mainly deal with research drugs, ones that help people who have mental struggles. We’ve made strides for those with bipolar disorders, and we’ve failed in other areas…”

Fascinated, I couldn’t help but ask, “What areas?”

He swallowed. “Schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, anti-social personality disorder, to name a select few.”

“What’s—”

A knock sounded on the door, interrupting all train of thought. I jumped to my feet just as Tristan rose to his and gently pushed me back on the couch. “My treat. You sit…”

“Sitting.” I held up my hands in surrender.

With a smile, he bent down and kissed me briefly across the lips then went to the door and opened it.

“That’ll be—”

The voice stopped talking.

I leaned back and nearly choked on my tongue.

Jack. Jack was delivering pizza to me and my professor. Oh. Crap.

“Dr. Blake?” Jack scratched his head and weaseled his body halfway into the door. “Lisa? Is there a class party I don’t know about?”