Biker's Virgin

“What if he doesn’t want me back?”

“He’ll want you back,” Jason assured me. “I know Tristan well enough to know that.”

I considered it for a moment. “It would be nice to be back in Hawaii…and the job was really good. I just don’t know if I could handle that.

“Handle what?”

“Seeing Tristan every day,” I admitted. “I mean, it’s going to be difficult seeing him with other women. How am I supposed to cope with that?”

He was looking at me carefully. “Your feelings for Tristan…they’re serious?”

I smiled. “Extremely serious,” I said. “I’ve been waiting for them to disappear for ten years now and so far, no luck. And being with him these past few months… It’s only cemented the fact that I’m in love with him and will probably always be.”

“You know, Molls… Tristan has always been like that,” Jason told me. “Work always came first with him; it’s how we were both raised. It’s why none of his previous relationships worked. He’d end up neglecting his girlfriends in favor of his work.”

“I know that,” I said, trying to pretend as though that were the real reason I had left Hawaii.

“I just never thought that would be a factor for you,” Jason observed.

I tried not to look too guilty. “Neither did I,” I said lamely. “But I suppose I just felt as though I were more like his mistress than his girlfriend. I mean, some days it was just about sex...”

“Okay, okay. I don’t need to know the details.”

I smiled. “Come on; we’re both adults.”

“You’re still my little sister,” he said. “And there are some things I never want to discuss with you.”

I rolled my eyes and leaned back against my pillows. “I need to think about this…”

“I wish you had told me how you felt about Tristan,” Jason said. “I could have warned you.”

“Warned me?” I asked. “Against what?”

“I guess I would have tried to discourage you from getting involved with him in the first place,” Jason said. “He’s a good guy, but when it comes to relationships, he’s not exactly had a high success rate.”

“It only takes one time,” I pointed out. “It only takes the right woman to change a man. Look at Mom and Dad.”

“They were a special case,” Jason said

. “That doesn’t happen very often.”

“I know I was naïve,” I said. “But I’m still glad everything happened the way it did.”

“Because you’re a secret masochist?”

“No,” I said. “Because now I can finally put my feelings for Tristan behind me and try to move on. Maybe now I’ll be open to another man.”

“Even if you work for Tristan?”

I gritted my teeth together as my resolve formed. “I shouldn’t have slinked away like some broken thing,” I said. “I should have stayed and proved to him that I could do my job, no matter what.”

“You still can,” he pointed out.

I nodded slowly, as I realized I could do that. I had given up too easily; I had let my emotions cloud my judgment. It was time to grow up and face Tristan again. And maybe in facing him, I could also let him go.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Tristan