“When was the first time?” she asked. “The first time you thought about me…like that.”
“Before you moved in,” I told her without hesitation. “Long before. I think it was when I started walking you home.”
“You never said anything,” she remarked.
“I was afraid I would piss you off. I was setting myself up as a big brother or whatever…”
“I thought about you the first night we met,” she blurted out.
I looked back to her face.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes,” she said with a blush. “You were my hero.”
I tried to shrug it off, but she wouldn’t let me.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said. “You didn’t have to chase them down the street and save me from them. I can’t even think about what might have happened if you hadn’t been there.”
“I’m glad I was.”
“So am I.”
She snuggled closer against my chest, and I wrapped one arm around her head to bring her cheek against my shoulder. Her bare skin was warm against mine and still slightly flushed from the sex.
“I’m sorry,” Tria suddenly piped up.
“For what?”
“Making you wait so long.”
“I’m not,” I told her with a firm shake of my head.
“You aren’t?”
“No.” I snickered through my nose and kissed the top of her head.
“Why not?”
I thought about it for a minute, trying to figure out how to answer.
“Because if we had done it when I first wanted to…” I faltered and then tried again. “It wouldn’t have been the same. I mean, I’m sure it would have been great and all…but not the same.”
She looked up at me, confused.
I sighed.
“You would have just been another chick I’ve fucked,” I said.
Tria lowered her eyes as she thought about it for a minute.
“What am I now?” Tria readjusted herself to turn toward me a bit more. She propped herself up on her elbow and waited.
I considered for a minute and then shrugged.
“You’re my Tria.”
Her eyes sparkled for a moment, and then we kissed again, but only briefly. When we parted, my focus stayed on her eyes. My heart began to beat faster, and though my body made it clear that I wanted her again, the thrumming of my heart was not in response to the lust.