“Yeah—everyone in the family has them,” I told her. “They’re engraved on the inside, too. You have to look closely, though.”
Tria’s face scrunched up a bit.
“How does that fit into hotels?”
“Michael wanted to expand and diversify the company,” I explained. “When I was a kid, he ended up buying this failing hotel chain and turning it into Silver Springs. He’s got a few other things like that—casinos in Vegas and some riverboat casinos in the Midwest, too. I think the last thing he started up was partial ownership in some computer hardware company.”
“So your family owns all of that?”
“Yep,” I replied. “The silver goes back generations.”
“Wow.”
“Like I said, I’ve been there and done the rich thing. It isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.”
“But still,” Tria said with a shake of her head, “you walked away from all of that? Why?”
No fucking way.
“Enough for one night,” I said. “Go to sleep. We still have a ways to go tomorrow.”
Tria growled at me a bit, but I wasn’t going to budge, and she didn’t really have the energy to argue with me about it anymore. I moved my fingers up her arm and to her cheek, which I stroked softly. Tria’s eyes drifted closed for a moment, and I took the opportunity to press my lips against hers. She responded, her hand gripping the back of my neck again.
As our tongues touched, I let my hand drop back down her arm, over her elbow, down to her waist, and then to her hip. I paused for a moment before reaching around, going slowly just in case she hadn’t really meant what she said or had changed her mind.
She didn’t move to stop me.
With my fingers spread out, I cupped one ass cheek and pulled her lower body closer to mine. I groaned into her mouth, unable to help myself as her grip tightened on my neck. Our mouths moved together, and I held her firmly against my body as we kissed and touched.
We broke apart, breathless.
Relaxing my grip, I let go of her ass and my fingers drifted back up her body until they reached her cheek again. I leaned forward, touched her lips softly, and then backed away.
“Now go to sleep,” I commanded.
With an exaggerated sigh, Tria settled against me with her head on my shoulder and was asleep in seconds. I joined her quickly afterwards.
*****
I woke hugging the pillow Tria had slept on.
It still smelled like her, and I found myself gripping it tighter and inhaling the scent before I even bothered to open my eyes. The bedroom was empty, and the door to the bathroom was open and the light was off, so I figured she must have been up for a while. I dragged myself from the Egyptian linen sheets to take a piss.
In the outer room, Tria was on the computer, intently staring at whatever was on the screen. For a long moment, I just watched her face as she sat there, and I wondered if that’s what she looked like when she was in class, listening to a lecture. She glanced up at me when I shuffled to one side, and her eyes narrowed into a glare immediately.
“I haven’t been awake long enough for you to be pissed at me,” I stated.
Tria tilted her head to one side and turned the monitor so I could see it.
It was fucking Wikipedia.
“When were you going to tell me?” Tria asked. “Ever?”
I briefly scanned the webpage with the heading “Teague Silver” and the section Tria was reading, detailing the marriage of Douglass Teague, the monarch of the silver industry, and Julianne Hoffman, the sole heiress to Hoffman College.
“These are your parents, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” I muttered. I reached back and scratched at my head nervously.