I had to see Tessa on a regular basis since Jenna was still in rehab and wanted her girlfriend to stay at our apartment. For the most part I tried to avoid her. If I wasn’t at the club I was with Jace or Lucy. The only time I went home was to sleep, and sometimes I just crashed at Jace’s so that I didn’t have to deal with the chick waiting for me at home.
And she was waiting. Since Jenna had said that she was going to spend a little longer in rehab working more on herself—which I was happy for because I felt the longer she was in there the better her chances of a full recovery—Tessa had been trying to get me to notice her.
It had started out as simple things that had taken me a while to catch on to. Leaving her bra in odd places that she knew I would see it. Then walking around the apartment in less and less clothes. She’d started calling me a little more often when it had been a rare thing to get a call from her at all before Jenna had left. Then I’d come home one night and she’d been sitting on the couch naked. I’d turned around and walked right back out, thankful that Jace and one of his bandmates had been able to find an apartment to share in the same building as me.
I still hadn’t really caught on, thought it was just her getting back on the coke. I hadn’t wanted to talk to Jenna about it, afraid that she would get set back in her recovery if I upset her right then. But I’d decided that I was going to tell Jenna Tessa needed to go when she got home.
It was when Tessa started climbing into bed with me at night that I really wised up to what she was doing. The bitch was trying to get me to have sex with her. There was no way in hell that was happening. For one, I was too loyal to Jenna to do that to her. She loved Tessa, or so she said. Who knew, it could have been the drugs talking. Jenna was one of my closest friends and I would never hurt her like that.
For another, I didn’t like Tessa. Didn’t trust her and I sure as fuck didn’t want her. These days it was hard to respond to anyone in that department. I hadn’t even looked at another girl twice since Lucy had come back into my life. She just had that big a hold of me.
After the first night that I’d had to toss Tessa out of my room, I’d started locking my bedroom door. Now she was trying to seduce me anywhere she could and here she was at my office dressed like sex on legs.
Fuck my life.
“Go away, Tessa.” I tossed my pen on the desk and sat back in my chair, watching with disgust instead of the desire I was sure she’d been expecting me to watch her with as she walked across the office toward me. “I’m busy.”
She didn’t say a word, just smiled as she kept coming. I tensed the closer she got, hated the smell of her perfume as it filled the room. She was wearing Jenna’s perfume and I’d always kind of liked it. Now, on this bitch, I was beginning to get nauseated from the scent.
I reached for my phone, ready to call security to get her ass out if I had to when she pulled the receiver from my hand and tossed it aside. I glared up at her as she pushed me back against the chair and climbed onto my lap. I balled my hands into fists as she grinned down at me. I didn’t hurt females. My dad had drilled that into me from the time I was five. Girls were to be protected, not hurt.
I wondered if he would still say that if he knew how Tessa was. Probably. “Get. The. Fuck. Off,” I bit out, wanting to push her off but worried that I would hurt her in my desperation to get her as far away from me as humanly possible. This close I could see her eyes were bloodshot and her pupils crazy. She was high as a damn kite. Fuck, I felt dirty just being in the same room with her. Jenna deserved so much better than this conniving bitch.
“Hush, you know you want me,” she murmured in a voice I was sure she thought was seductive but only made my stomach turn. I’d known that Tessa was bi and not just a lesbian from the time she’d started seeing Jenna, but I’d never thought that she would do something like this. “Let me show you,” she whispered as she lowered her head.
I barely had time to close my mouth before she was practically attacking me. I sat still, not affected in the least little way as she tried to open my mouth with nibbles. There had never been a time in my life that having a girl kissing and touching me had made me feel like vomiting. I loved sex. But in that moment all I wanted to do was scrub myself clean and get as far away as I could.
I was so focused on how to get Tessa off me without hurting her that I didn’t hear the elevator. The sound of Lucy’s voice didn’t penetrate until she was only a few feet away and when it did I went a little insane.
Not caring if Tessa got hurt or not, I pushed her off. She landed on the floor hard and I scrubbed her lipstick off my mouth, wishing I had some bleach to rinse my mouth out with.
“You should put a sock or something on the door if you’re going to be busy in here.” Was that a hitch in her voice? Oh fuck. No. She was hurt. I could see it in her eyes.
Standing, I rounded the desk. “Lucy, this isn’t what you think.”
Her laugh was a little forced, but I could tell she was trying to play it off as nothing serious. Fuck. That wasn’t what I wanted. I hadn’t hooked up, hadn’t even looked at another chick since freaking September. All I wanted was for January 2nd to hurry the fuck up so that I could go after this beautiful girl with a clear conscious. “Okay, if you say so.” She wouldn’t meet my gaze, instead looking at Tessa who was slowly and ungracefully getting to her feet in her six-inch heels. “I’m going to go. I just wanted to tell you to leave Nate alone. He’s just teasing me and it’s making Lana laugh, so let us have some fun.”
“You’re Lucy Thornton,” Tessa muttered as she pulled her skirt down. Not that she had far to pull it. The damn thing just barely covered her ass.
Lucy stiffened and nodded. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
Tessa glared at her. “You’re the reason Jenna went away. If it weren’t for you Harris wouldn’t have made her go to stupid rehab.”
Black eyes widened as she took in the other chick. “I didn’t make anyone do anything. Jenna went to rehab because she needed help. And who the fuck are you? This isn’t any of your damn business.”
“I’m Tessa Conway. Jenna’s my girlfriend.”
The way Lucy’s eyes narrowed first on Tessa and then turned and met mine for the first time, full of disgust, made my stomach churn and my heart clench. Fuck. “What the fuck, Harris? How could you do this to Jenna? I thought you were her friend? Now you’re fucking her girlfriend while she’s trying to get clean?”
“No!” I didn’t mean to shout, but with her looking at me like she hated me and my own feelings of disgust and disloyalty eating up my soul I couldn’t control my voice. “I’m not fucking her. I’m not fucking anyone. And I sure as hell wouldn’t do that to Jenna. Tessa’s just…” I broke off, not wanting to tell Lucy how bad it had gotten at home yet. I needed to talk to Jenna first. “She’s just high and missing Jenna. This was a mistake.”
Lucy lifted her brows skeptically. Hands going to her sexy hips distracted me for a second and I lost my train of thought for a moment. Damn it. A month. Just one more month. I raked my hands over my face. “I swear to you that this was just a mistake. I wasn’t even kissing her back.”
“Whatever, Harris.” She shook her head, causing her crazy curly hair to fall into her face. I ached to push it behind her ear when she carelessly brushed it out of her eyes. “I’m going back upstairs. See you…whenever.”
No. No way. She was not going to walk away with that little threat hanging in the air. I reached out and grabbed her arm, not forcefully because I would never hurt Lucy. Never. That didn’t have to be drilled into my brain. It was tattooed on my damn soul. Lucy was too special, too fucking important. She was the type of girl you gave your life up to protect.
She stopped, still glaring up at me like I was the devil incarnate, but I ignored her as I turned my own killer glare on my temporary roommate. As soon as Jenna came home, this bitch was gone. “Get out before I have you tossed out by the cops. I’m sure they would love to know where you got the coke you’ve been snorting all night.”