As if she sensed him, Mari stopped and turned toward the window. Slowly, she stepped to the sill and looked down. A smile slipped across her face. The window was already open and her curtains fluttered in the breeze.
Smiling down at him, she said, “You could have come to the front door.” Mari had on a white cami and jeans. There was a patch of lace at the top of the cami, but the shirt was cut lower than anything she usually wore. It was the kind of tank top that Mari would have layered, but tonight she hadn’t. Her arms were bare, her hair pulled up, and that smile on her face made Trystan want to climb up the side of the house to her.
“I didn’t want to risk being seen. You know, by nosy neighbors and all that.” Trystan had his hands in his pockets. He might have looked suave on the outside, but his pulse was pounding in his ears and the paper with Mari’s address on it was getting strangled in his pocket.
Mari leaned on the windowsill. Her breasts curved beautifully, swelling, as she leaned on her elbows. “Are you sure this didn’t have anything to do with, I don’t know, being you?”
Trystan grinned. “What does that mean? Being me is pretty good, but you’ll have to be more specific.”
She laughed. It was that magical sound he loved. It reached deep into Trystan and he didn’t want it to end. “The Romeo and Juliet thing, this little seduction scene you’ve got going on here. It’s insanely romantic. If you showed up with your guitar and sang from below my window, I would have died.”
Trystan snapped his fingers. His palms were so damp from nerves that they nearly slipped past each other without making a sound. “Damn it. I knew I forgot something.”
Mari smiled down at him before straightening up. “I’ll be down in a second. There’s a door by the kitchen,” she pointed the direction he needed to go, “I’ll come down and open it up.”
“But I was going to scale the wall.”
“Don’t you dare!” she said, still laughing and disappeared from the window.
Trystan walked in the direction she pointed and came to a leaded glass door made from thick wood. His heart dropped into his shoes. Not only was she smarter than him, but she was way richer. He was poor. Suddenly a rush of cold ran through his stomach and he wanted to leave. This was a mistake. There was no way they’d have enough in common, coming from such different backgrounds, but before Trystan could give it another thought, Mari threw open the door. She looked fantastic, her body all smooth curves and that bared neck was perfect for kissing. Trystan felt every inch of his body respond to her. If only his body listened to his brain.
“I’m glad you came,” she said shyly, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. “I started to think you weren’t going to show up.”
Trystan walked past her and into the kitchen, trying not to gape. The kitchen looked like something that belonged in a showroom somewhere. His fingers found his pockets again and hid out in there to conceal the nervous twitch of his hands. “Practice ran late.” Turning toward Mari, he said, “I wouldn’t have missed this.”
“Good.” She held out her hand and Trystan reached for it, hoping she wouldn’t mind how warm it was. “I mean, I’m glad you came. Not seeing you after school was weird. We’re always together. Did you notice that before?”
His eyes slipped over Mari’s body and her face flamed red. “Of course I noticed. I notice every inch of you, every day.” He tugged her hand, pulling her into his arms. This was where she belonged. He could feel it. Smiling that wicked smile of his, Trystan said, “For the longest time, I thought you knew, and that you were just playing me.”
“Ha!” she blurted out, and wrapped her hands around Trystan’s waist. “I was playing you? You made me so crazy that I couldn’t think straight. I had no clue you thought of me that way at all, I mean, why would you?”
“Are you kidding?” Trystan asked, his hands tangling in her hair, as he tilted her face up to meet his gaze. “You have no idea what you do to me, how you make my heart hammer in my chest, until it feels like I can’t breathe another breath, how one look from those dark eyes sets my skin burning, longing for your touch, or how your smile sets me on edge and fills my dreams until I see you again. I thought you were doing it on purpose, but then I realized that you didn’t know—that you were just being you and I was the one with the problem.”
“The problem?”
“Yeah. I was hopelessly in love with you.” He ran his fingers through her hair as he spoke, brushing the back of his hand against her cheek. She looked up at him with such wide dark eyes, eyes that didn’t trust what they saw. She was afraid he’d hurt her, and Trystan felt exactly the same way.
After a moment, Mari looked down, breaking the intensity of the moment. “Come this way. I want to show you something.” Trystan followed her through the dark house, their fingers laced together. As they climbed the stairs, he knew where they were going, to her bedroom.
Stopping in front of the door, she turned to him. “I thought we could hang out and talk for a while, if that’s all right?”
“That sounds perfect.”
Mari pushed the door open and a smile leaked across Trystan’s face. She stepped into the room and turned to watch his reaction. He glanced around at the white moldings and thick trim around the door and window. There was a flat screen TV on one wall along with a stereo and iPod dock. A Kindle sat on her night stand, with a computer screen glowing softly on the desk next to her bed. The bed made Trystan pause. It was larger than his—well, the one his dad threw away—and was covered in a white and purple bedspread that had a cascade of ruffles on the skirt.