Rating: NC17
Things to Include:
Things not to Include:
Rory stood with her forehead leaning against the chilly wooden balustrade surrounding the large glass doors leading to the outside. The pools water glinted white and blue as the hot sun was reflected off its surface. The heat of the sun rose in shimmers off the solid surfaces. But she knew that the white marble that surrounded the pool would be cool underfoot. If she could just stand to walk outside the Club’s pool-house doors barefoot, and over the hot sandstone pavers to get to the marble. Her feet would burn, then the relief from the marble would feel so good that Rory knew she would step back onto a hot paver just to feel it all over again. First though she had to get to the pool-house from the lounge-house to get changed.
Rory pushed herself off the wood that was now hot from where her arm had been leaning on it and looked back inside. Did she really want to go outside? Emily had dragged Richard and her in off the golf course at nine am because it was too hot to play anymore. And if it were too hot to be outside at nine am, it would definitely be too hot to go outside now at eleven am. But everyone was inside, escaping the heat, sitting in the air-conditioned comfort, and if one more person asked Rory if she would like a drink or anything else she was going to scream. She was lucky to get through a single page before the next server interrupted her. One chapter like that had been enough to make her slam her book closed in anger and storm away.
She wasn’t hungry or thirsty. She had had morning tea with her grandmother after she had been ordered off the golf course while her grandfather had wandered off to talk to someone about something else. Rory hadn’t been paying attention. Her attention had been on her grandmother who was explaining all the pains she had been through to organise some fundraiser that she had to attend that night. Though Rory didn’t really care about that either. It was hard to know what Rory cared about these days. Even she wasn’t sure. She thought that if she were to ask her mother, Lorelai and her boyfriend, Dean, they’d have both said all she was interested in was school and the school paper because she was spending so much time in Hartford. One would say it with a tone of restrained pride, and one would say it with a tone of slight impatience. And Dean wouldn’t be the one who was the impatient.
Needless to say, if Rory were to ask someone like Paris Gellar, all she could envision was Paris snarking that all Rory cared about was herself and her stupid small town. She wasn’t putting in the hours needed to get into Harvard, at least, as far as Paris was concerned she wasn’t, and she wasn’t working as hard as she could to make The Franklin all that it could be either. If Rory wanted to ask her grandparents what they thought she cared about, they would say that Rory was a teenager, and she was a very smart one at that. Then Emily would look at Richard and Richard would grin at Emily as if to say, ‘it doesn’t matter, we know exactly what Rory’s future is.’
Now if Rory were to ask herself what she cared about, she’d shrug, not wanting to enter into that particular conversation. And so as Rory pushed open the doors, shivering as a blast of hot air plastered her hair to her face and cold air from inside crept up under her golf shorts, tickling the back of her thighs, she shrugged pushing away all thoughts that involved herself and the things she cared about.
Rory could feel herself literally wilt in the short two-minute walk from lounge-house to pool-house as the sun beat down on her and the hot wind blew at her, drying her sweat as soon as it appeared. Maybe leaving the air-conditioning had been a bad idea, she could feel a headache coming on already. Slipping though the glass doors of the pool-house, shivering as the cold air washed over her sticky skin and worked its way into her clothes, Rory grabbed a large bottle of water from the wet bar and made her way to her locker. She snorted in derision as she saw the engraved nameplate that had been attached a few months ago. One of the Christmas gifts from her grandparents had been junior membership at the Club. ‘After all Rory, you are spending a great deal of time with us over here. It seems ridiculous for us to sign you in each and every time.’ Richard had said as he gave her the membership registration.
Rory had shrugged. She had been spending a lot of time in Hartford, staying with them overnight when she had late meetings for the paper and late tutorials for her extension classes rather than struggle back to Stars Hollow through the snow at night. It had seemed to be the smartest most logical way to do things. And Rory was nothing if not smart and logical. She snorted again as that thought ran through head, because she of course defined the very essence of smart and logical. Right, and Paris was really a sweetheart just waiting for her Prince Charming to come along and release her inner Princess. Jerking open the locker, Rory popped two Advil’s, washing them down with the water before pulling out her bikini and the matching sarong, both purchased by her grandmother in celebration of the pool opening for summer hours. Surprisingly, her taste in swimwear had been approved by Lorelai, not so much approved by Rory who tended to think bikinis were more for people like Louise who liked to show off their body. As it turned out, everyone at the club under fifty wore a bikini, and some over fifty. Of course, they had the money to pay for the bodies needed to wear a bikini.
Rory frowned, wrinkling her brow as she thought about the nasty turn her mind had taken. Maybe she had been spending too much time here. Rory didn’t think nasty thoughts about people. Rory didn’t think nasty thoughts at all, well with the exception of where Tristan was concerned. She stopped still, rocking on the balls of her feet. Letting out an explosive breath she stomped over to a changing booth. Stripping out of her clothes in the now freezing air Rory stood for a moment with her arms raised and legs slightly more than shoulder width apart, shuddering as the cold air reached areas that it rarely would. She could feel the tips of her fingers becoming numb, could feel her nipples tightening painfully and she couldn’t feel her feet on the cold tile at all. And she loved it. Goose bumps covered her from head to toe, it was almost painful, such cold after such heat. Revelling in the feeling of her skin tightening, she ran one cold finger over her lips and down her neck, around one nipple and down over her stomach, before gripping her hip and squeezing it.
Quickly, before she could talk herself into anything else, Rory tied on her bikini and wrapped the sarong around her waist. She grabbed her clothes and threw them in her locker, taking the water with her she stood at the door of the pool-house looking once again out at the shimmering pool. Her feet were numb, she would have to stand on the hot cement to thaw them out before she could feel the contrast of the heated pavers and cool marble. Opening the door Rory slipped out again, quiet as a mouse. Not seeing another person nearby, she pulled off the sarong and let the hot air caress her cold, tight skin. Not even a minute later, Rory was too hot to stand in the sun like that anymore. Letting herself into the pool yard Rory immediately felt the cool marble soothe her burning feet. She sat her book on a small table and placed her sarong on a lounge-chair under an umbrella that relieved the hot suns rays, but did nothing for the blustering wind.
Standing next to the pool with the suns reflection blinding her, she took one deep breath and dived eyes wide open right in. Rory unconsciously gasped in her mind, she twisted underwater, kicking her legs apart, lifting her arms above her head to propel herself through the water. She imagined she probably looked like a demented turtle to anyone who was watching, but the icy water was touching her all over, like there were deliciously naughty fingers touching her in places that rarely got touched. Rarely until recently that is. Rory closed her eyes, pursing her lips against the images and the feelings that that thought had set off in her already overloaded body. Pushing off the bottom of the tiled pool, she exploded through the top of the water to gasp for air. Relaxing back and letting herself float, her vision red against the sun through her tightly closed eyelids, her hearing magnified through the water she held her ears under. She gently propelled herself through the water and began to plan out the essay that she was going to research later that day at the Hartford library.
Unfortunately, her mind was distracted. The hot sun pounded against her skin, while the cold water of the pool had numbed her fingers and toes. And with the way she was kicking her legs, those naughty fingers of water were caressing her in places she did not want to think about right now. There was a splash and Rory’s fingers fisted and her thighs pressed together. Damn it! She had come outside to be alone, and right now, she really wanted to be alone. With her ears under the water, magnifying all sounds in the pool, she heard whomever it was swimming closer. Still, she refused to open her eyes and seek the intruder out, until she felt bubbles that was. The Intruder had swam under the length of her, blowing bubbles that broke against her shoulders, back, ass and thighs, bubbles that broke and turned into smaller bubbles which crawled along her skin, seeking their way up and out into the air. Bubbles that got trapped in places like the crease where her ass met her thighs, where her legs were pressed together tightly.
The Intruder’s movements in the water had stopped, hopefully she thought maybe they had gotten out of the pool. Rory relaxed and the trapped bubbles moved into a rather awkward position. She wasn’t sure if The Intruder had left yet. Flexing her muscles, clenching them to dive under the water, Rory’s eyes snapped open, blinding her, as those fingers of water, became fingers made of hot flesh lightly grasping at her calves. She kicked out, still blinded by the sun, struggling to get away from the fingers that were now holding tightly to her thigh and knee, pulling her closer to the hot, hard body of The Intruder. She had water in her ears and in her panic barely registered the voice saying her name repeatedly.
“Rory.”
“Rory. Ouch, shit! Rory!”
“Rory!”
It pierced her waterlogged ears that time and she relaxed, melting into the arms and leg that were wrapped around her. She relaxed before tensing again, not scared for her life, but there were other things that were just as scary. Blinking as her vision came back to her, she slapped at the broad tanned shoulder that was closest. “Jesus, Tristan, you scared the crap out of me!”
“Yeah, well you just maimed me, so we’re about even!”
“I didn’t hit you that hard.” Rory started to disentangle herself.
“No, but you did manage to kick my knee out of its joint.” She paused in her struggle against his octopus like limbs that weren’t letting her go.
“Really?” Her eyes moved down his body to his knee and Rory had to fight with herself to force her eyes to look at his knee and not at all the bits in between. Not that she could see anything clearly under the water anyway. “Sorry, will you be alright?”
“I’ll be fine.” Tristan pulled her closer, now that she had stopped struggling, he raised a brow to distract her from what he was doing. “Too hot to play golf this morning?”
“That’s what Emily thought.” He knew that already, he had heard Emily bitching out Richard as she sent him off so she could have Rory to herself. He understood that, he wanted Rory to himself all the time too. Rory resumed the struggle to get out of his arms. “Let me go.”
“Why?”
Rory scrunched her eyes in irritation. Every time she managed to pull one of his arms off, he reattached it more firmly as she went to remove the other. “Please, someone could be watching.”
He grinned at her, “Are you mad? In this heat? No one is coming outside today.”
“I did. You did!”
“Yeah, well you’re a weirdo, and I was just following you.”
She ceased her struggle, gripping his shoulders as she took the time to breathe. “You were following me?”
“I was watching you from inside. Your restraint surprised me. I thought you were going to rip that last server’s head off.” While Rory kept a strong grip on his shoulders, Tristan didn’t give her the same liberty, his hands were now as cold as hers, and they were working their way around her waist. “But you didn’t even swear at him, didn’t even raise your voice.”
“I don’t swear at people Tristan,” she smiled sweetly at him, “just you.”
“Really?” He smirked as her eyes widened as she felt his cold fingers pull back her bikini top and pinch her cold-hardened nipples. Her nails dug into the skin on his back.
“Don’t.” Rory fought to make him stop, fought to make herself want him to stop.
“Why not?” Tristan took the opportunity to palm her breast as her eyes closed. “You like it.”
“Tristan-” Rory sucked in a lungful of air as he moved one hand between her legs and pressing against the heat that was starting to warm the water there. “Please, please.”
Rory was close to sobbing, but whether she was saying ‘please don’t’ or ‘please don’t stop’ she wasn’t sure. Tristan had slowly been manoeuvring them through the water, and suddenly he pushed her away from him. Cold water rushed where his hot body had been pressing against her, chilling her all over again. Her skin prickled with goose bumps again, contrasting strongly to the hot sun and wind on her face and shoulders.
Just as suddenly, Tristan moved to her again, pressing her back against the tiled wall of the pool. He moved them sideways until Rory was barely touching the bottom of the pool. A place where he could stand comfortably, head easily above the waters level, but she needed to hold onto him. He smirked.
Using one hand to hold her against the tiles, Tristan used his other hand to pull one of her legs up around his hip. Rory almost hated him, it was always at this point that she hated him. The point where it was either time to say no or start to participate. The point where she never said no, the part where she always started to participate. The point where Tristan managed to talk her out of her guilt about cheating on Dean again and talk her into doing whatever he wanted.
“Tristan.” This time she would say no, this time she wouldn’t let him do this to her, wouldn’t let herself do this to Dean again.
“Rory.” His voice was low and full of sex and it rumbled in his chest under her hands. When had her hands gotten there? Right, she was going to push him away. Her fingers jumped against his skin, but she didn’t push. Tristan’s mouth landed on her neck. He bit her.
“Tristan!” A gasp of pleasure, or was that warning in her tone as she said his name? Rory couldn’t decide. Probably both. That’s how Tristan took it. He stopped short of leaving a mark and started to put his hands to better use. Sure now that she wasn’t going to let go, wasn’t going to push him away and say no, he moved his hand that was holding her knee and slid it down the underside of her thigh, and wriggled his fingers under her body warmed bikini bottoms. His other hand, no less active, moved up her chest and around her neck, untying her halter. Quickly pulling it down and out of his way, while he pulled her up in the water, he ducked his head and placed his mouth around one cold nipple.
“Tristan!” Definitely pleasure this time, and something else, surprise maybe, that his hot mouth, attacking her cold nipples could feel so good even though it hurt.
Feel so good.
Her other leg came up and wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer. While her arms wrapped around him, her fingers squeezing, and her nails dug into his shoulders. Tristan grinned to himself, she always left his back marked like this, it would sting for days when he showered.
He pushed her against the wall again, using his body to hold her up in the water, while the hand that had been on her ass moved to her hip and undid one side of her bikini. Rory smacked her head against the tile in shock as Tristan pulled her back into the water. Her nipples that were hot and hard from arousal after his mouth had warmed them, tightened painfully when he dragged her back down into the water.
Rory pulled him to her, kissing his mouth as he had kissed her nipples, all tongue and teeth and heat. And Tristan, beyond sure that Rory wasn’t going to push him away, not right now at least, kissed her back while he ground his erection against her. Damn, she was so freaking hot. It was like the water was boiling where his erection pushed against her pussy. One hand on her waist, his other moved back down and pulled away the now opened bikini bottom. Sliding one finger along her slick lips, Rory bit his tongue.
It was so cold, his cold finger and the icy water that followed in its path.
But all Tristan could feel was the heat.
Pressing one finger up into her, Rory tensed and pulled away from the kiss. “Shit.”
He pulled one of her hands down and pushed it into his pants. She wasn’t going to be the only one who got off here. “Touch me.”
“Tristan.” He pulled his finger out of her and Rory squeaked as cold water filled the space his finger had just been. “Tristan!”
Rolling his thumb over her clit, his other hand gripped her wrist almost bruisingly. “Touch me.”
Her fingers uncramped themselves from the balled fist she had been holding them in and moved around seeking his hardness. She found it and daintily wrapped her small cold fingers around him. His forehead moved to rest on hers and he pushed two of his fingers back up into her, he gasped as the heat of her sex felt like it burnt his skin. As her body tightened at his invasion, her fingers tightened and jerked at him. “Yes.”
Rory opened her eyes and they watched each other slowly build up a rhythm. Rory held onto him tightly, loosening her grip again each time he pulled out of her. Content to let him set the pace, content to let him initiate it all, content to be the follower.
Tristan could see it in her face, she was enjoying the pace, enjoying him teasing her. He would let his fingers get hot inside her before he would pull out and press them to her clit. As the cold water rushed into fill the space where his hot fingers had been she would squeeze his hips with her legs. His hot fingers teasing her clit until they became cold in the water again. Then he would remove them and once again press them back up into Rory. When his fingers left there, however, she would give a low moan of pleasure and pain. The cold water caressed and bit at the sensitive spot warmed by his fingers, as Tristan invaded her again with his large knuckled fingers and her fingers tightened around his erection. Things seemed to get faster and faster, as Tristan moved out of her and then pressed back into her, her grip to tightened and her wrist moved quicker.
Tristan moved his other hand from her wrist to pull and press at her clit as he continued to finger her, hard and fast, his four fingers in her, near cramping at how tight she was. Cramping as she squeezed him, harder and faster as he moved to make her come at the same time he would. He could feel it creeping up the back of his legs and down his spine. Her fingers and nails on him, her other hand convulsively digging into his upper arm. Eyes closed tightly against everything happening outside her body, outside his body, Rory was sobbing now.
“Please, please, please.”
Her groaning between each ‘please’ getting louder. Tristan moved, kissing her with teeth and tongue, lips bruising hers as he grunted out his orgasm, grunted as Rory came and near broke his fingers as she clenched tightly around him. He slowly pulled out, grinning to himself as she winced slightly at his movements.
Then he was wincing as he pulled away from her slightly, moving his fingers to clean them off in the pool water. With one arm still around his shoulders, he walked them a few steps until it was shallow enough for Rory to stand. Letting go of him, she moved away so she could tie her bikini bottom back on then turning allowing Tristan to tie the halter of her bikini around her neck again.
“Tristan-” Rory paused, not sure how to end it, not sure how to say that she had to leave, that this still wasn’t right, that it never would be right. “Tristan…”
“Rory. Rory.” Tristan watched the back of her neck tense as his tone of nonchalance washed over her. He knew what was going to happen now, it was the same thing that happened every time. Rory turned with an apologetic look on her face, truly sorry that she was going to say these things, again.
“You should go inside,” he tapped her nose, “You’re getting burned.”
Rory seised the out he had given her and nodded. “Yeah, I probably need more sunscreen.”
“I’m sure.” Tristan nodded towards her sarong and water bottle. “Don’t forget your things.”
“Right.” Rory slowly backed away, half fearing that he would pull her back to him, half fearing that he wouldn’t. She was on the first step out of the pool when she heard his voice behind her.
“I’ll see you later Rory.”
“Right.” She didn’t turn to face him, knowing she couldn’t hide the flush, couldn’t blame it on sunburn. She knew his tone and knew exactly what he meant by that last comment. Grabbing her water and sarong, not bothering to take the time to wrap it around herself, Rory scurried across the cool marble and hot pavers back into the pool-house. She released the breath she had been holding, a frown marring her brow.
He hadn’t called her back. Not this time, but then he had said he would see her later. Later when? Later today? This week? After the summer break? Why hadn’t he called her back? She would have returned, she always did, except those first few times when she had run away in tears. Rory running in tears from Tristan just seemed to go so well. She had run in tears after their very first kiss at Madeline’s after she had broken up with Dean. She had run in tears again after she had kissed Tristan again and he had pressed her against the wall and said nasty things to her. Then she had run in tears again after she had let him do those nasty things to her. The last time she had run in tears was when he had done some nasty things to her and then said even nastier things.
She discovered Tristan had a terrible temper. Mostly, it burned slowly, but sometimes it flared at the most unusual things. When she mentioned Dean, she could almost understand if it burst, but it didn’t. And so thinking Dean to be a non-issue between them, she had brought him to the Club. The Sunday afternoon that she had brought Dean with her had proved how very wrong she was in thinking he didn’t matter to Tristan, because at Dean’s arrival Tristan had gone off the rails.
His temper never presented physically, but she had seen the red flush creep up his neck and knew that he was angry beyond anything she had seen before. And it had excited her. Tristan usually played it so cool and calm, every card was held close to his chest. He never got emotional, acting as though he was never involved. Not like she was. But after a few harsh words, whispered angrily into her ear about belonging while Dean was in the bathroom, Tristan had taken off into the sunset in his brand new modified Mazda RX8, the wheels spinning and the stereo blasting. Leaving Rory with a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. But Dean returned and Tristan didn’t, so the feeling of dread had lessened as the night wore on. The next morning she avoided Tristan out of habit, not feeling anything out of the ordinary, not feeling the last vestiges of dread grip at her stomach when Tristan had turned up late to their second period Literature class with a black eye, split lip and swollen knuckles.
Well, she hadn’t felt the dread gripping until she saw him standing at the end of the book shelves in the library where she had taken cover from Paris during their lunch break. But looking up, she had felt something grip her stomach. Call it dread, call it arousal, call it whatever, something had grabbed hold and it didn’t let go as he sauntered up to her, hidden from prying eyes between the stacks.
“Rory.”
She didn’t look at him, she didn’t want to, this feeling in her stomach felt a little too much like fear for her to confront Tristan when he was looking like this, all bruised and sexy and dangerous. “Hello, Tristan.”
“How are you, Rory?” Things were strangely formal, slightly brittle and Rory was almost scared of the consequences should the tone between them break. Tristan stepped closer.
“I’m fine, thank you.” She didn’t want to ask, but courtesy demanded it of her. “How are you, Tristan?”
Her tone didn’t belie the fact that she really didn’t want an answer to her question. Tristan being Tristan however took another step closer before answering. “How am I? Well let’s see shall we? Yesterday I was having a great day, hanging out at the Club with a few friends, drinking a little, getting high, just taking it easy. Looking forward to getting laid that night because a certain someone, we wont name names, had mentioned in passing to a friend that she was going to be spending time here in Hartford this Sunday. Which inevitably means she would have turned up at the Club with her grandparents, hence, my looking forward to getting laid-”
“Tristan-” He quickly slapped a hand over her mouth, it didn’t hurt, but her eyes widened in shock that he was touching her in school, in a way that felt intimate. He took another step closer.
“Quiet, Rory, I haven’t finished. Where was I? Oh right. So, there I was looking forward to getting laid when the girl in question turned up with her grandparents, and, here’s the shocker, her boyfriend! Now, I was more than a little surprised, but hey, these things happen, so I decided to let it go. I wasn’t going to let it bother me, and for a while it didn’t. But then something happened, do you know what happened? Can you guess what happened? No? I’ll tell you what happened.” Tristan now had her pressed against the bookshelf with his body that was tight and hot with anger, his hand still over her mouth, not even giving her a chance to interrupt or answer his rhetorical questions. “I walked past this girl and her boyfriend who, I admit, were busy and more than likely didn’t want to be interrupted, but I’m a nice polite guy, I like to say hello to people I know. So I stop, I say ‘Hello’ I get ignored by the girl and get told to ‘get lost’ by her boyfriend. Not nice really, don’t you agree?”
He raised his eyebrows in question, but didn’t wait for an answer. “So when said boyfriend leaves said girl’s side, I go up to this girl. We have words, I say things, she says things, I say few more things. Then she turns away, in the middle of this conversation to return her attention to her boyfriend.” He kept spitting out the word like it was profanity. “It riled me, I admit. My day had been going so well, but it went down hill pretty damn fast after you, sorry, she, turned up. I left the Club, in my RX8 which in my anger at what had just occurred, I managed to get two tickets, and then, to top off such a fantastic day behind the wheel I managed to total my brand new thirty thousand dollar car.”
Rory yanked his arm down, away from her mouth. “Are you okay? I thought you had been in a fight! Are you hurt? Did you-”
He pushed her back against the bookshelf again, bringing his hand up to re-cover her mouth. “I’m not finished, Rory.”
Rory shivered and her breathing halted at his tone, full of anger and darkness, his eyes glittering with it.
“So, after totalling my car and the tickets and damn near loosing my license, just to kick that pleasure factor up a notch, I decided, ‘Hey, drinking with my buddies had done so much for me today, why not do it some more?’ So, I took one of my mother’s cars, and headed round to my friend Brett’s house. You know Brett, tall guy, dark hair? Anyway, he’s known as a guy who can throw a party together within minutes. And he did. So I partied. I drank and smoked weed and put all thoughts of my car out of my mind. All thoughts of the girl and her boyfriend out of my mind. Right up until the guys started up a game of Top Ten. You know that game don’t you? Where all the guys compare the girls on their list of chicks they want to fuck.”
His smirk widened as Rory resumed breathing, taking in short, shallow breaths as a fear settled in. This might explain some of the looks she had been getting from some of his friends today. “Yeah. So it kicked off, same old, same old really. A few new girls, a few of the classics. Louise and Madeline remain on the lists, despite all of us having been through them both at least twice. Some of us have even had the pleasure of fucking them both at the same time. If you never do anything else in life Rory, don’t ever turn down a threesome with Madeline and Louise.”
Rory could feel her eyes tearing up, she was so angry with him, he was trying to hurt her deliberately now. What they had was in no way exclusive, she had Dean after all. He could have who ever he wanted, but this was cruel, the way he wanted to rub the things he’d done in, rub her inexperience in.
“So we get through a few of the guys, and it occurs to me, that there is one new name that is popping up on just about everyone’s list. And it’s weird, because she’s known as a Mary, right? My friends aren’t really interested in Mary’s, they’re too much hard work just to get laid. And I’m sitting there, mentally making up my list of the chicks I want to throw a bone in, thinking that I could end the boring-ass conversation that’s started up about the Mary simply by saying that I’ve already gotten my dick wet in her. But I don’t, know why?”
He could be so fucking cruel in his anger. Rory’s arms felt dead beside her, in her mind she could see herself throwing him to the ground and kicking him in the kidneys, she could see her fists breaking his lip open again, but her arms remained dead-weight at her sides as she slowly shook her head at his question. Mute to all sounds no matter how much she wanted to answer his questions with a clever remark that would take his breath away leaving him speechless and giving her an opportunity to run again.
“Let me tell you why, because for some strange reason I actually like this girl, I’m not in love or anything stupid like that. Oh no, but even after the events that had taken place that afternoon, I still like this girl, most of the time anyway. And I like her enough that I don’t want to humiliate her, I don’t want everyone in this damn school to know what we do. And, I certainly don’t want the things we do to come to an end, which I sure as shit know would happen if I so much as breathe a single word of it to any one of the morons I consider friends. So I keep quiet.”
Rory felt all the tension in her body release, like a shot of morphine injected into the bloodstream. Everything became hazy in the glow of it all still being hidden. She felt Tristan remove his hand from her mouth and place it on her hip but she was so relaxed she almost missed his words as he continuing talking. “I keep quiet right up until that asshole, Johnson starts in on you. See, Johnson, the brain-trust that he is, announces to the group that he has already had a piece of you, Oh, not the whole pie, but a nice little slice. He charmingly referred to it as getting to third.”
“I know, ridiculous right? But I wasn’t exactly thinking straight last night. So I jump straight to conclusions. Mary had been giving out party favours that she hadn’t given out to me. That was my initial thought, but then I realised just how fucking ridiculous that was and decided that Johnson was stupider that I originally thought. So, when everyone was gaping at him like stunned fish I started the inquisition. I asked where, he said here, in the school library. Plausible, everyone knows you spend more time in here than the librarian. I asked when and he replied after school, when we all had that lit essay due last month. Now, I knew this was a lie, because you used your grandfather’s library for that assignment. Not that I could mention that, after all, how would I know that? I don’t have much more contact with you than any of them at school. I asked a few more questions, and his answers got weaker and weaker. By the end of it, no one believed you’d been down on your knees sucking him off.”
If Rory’s arms had been working, Tristan would have had two black eyes by now. As it were, his diatribe was like a car crash. She couldn’t turn away from the wreckage he was making of their relationship. “But then he got defensive, asking why I was so interested. Said I was jealous because you had turned me down flat and that was before you even knew what I was like. They all had a good laugh at that. Saying that you were smart enough to say no to me and blah, blah, blah.”
Tristan had a tight grip on her hips and was slowly, oh so slowly, grinding himself against her. Just another thing that was adding to the stupor of Rory’s senses.
“There was some arguing, with me defending your precious honour, saying that if you were smart enough to say no to me, you’d sure as shit be smart enough to say no to Johnson. He was getting really angry at us by then, because we’re piling so much shit on him, for being a shit liar, for not getting laid in the past month, that sort of thing. My night was finally picking up after all the crap that had happened that day. I figured maybe it didn’t have to end with me knee deep in shit. But no, of course not, things went to hell again when Johnson asked me for my Top Ten. So I listed them, one through ten. And they didn’t comment on a single one. Not Summer, who was an obvious pick to rake me with, and they all know, she’s such a good fuck that she’s almost worth the shit she puts you though. They didn’t comment on Madeline or Louise. But I listed you, and they dog-piled me! But I was good I sat back and just took the ribbing. Until Johnson tried to get me to bet him five hundred bucks that I couldn’t nail you by the end of the semester, but that he could. We all laughed at that one, then he said something that I won’t repeat around such delicate ears.” Tristan leaned in and licked the shell of Rory’s ear. “Needless to say I turned and ended Top Ten with his sister, Penelope, because she was easy and liked to be fucked from behind.”
Rory stiffened.
“That’s when he jumped me. That’s
where the black eye came from and the split lip and the sore hand. The night
ended with the cops breaking up the party and my father sending our butler to
come pick me up when I got charged with brawling and malicious damage to
private property or some fucking thing. That was my day, great huh? Now I’m
feeling physically sore, my ears hurt from the bawling out they got from my
parents this morning. And I’ve had a hard-on for about three hours, since you
bent to pick up your pen as you walked in front of me during second period and
I saw you were wearing a thong.” Tristan ground hard against her before ducking
his head and taking her mouth with his.
That kiss had quickly escalated from punishing to hard-core porn. He picked her up and Rory wrapped her legs around his hips as he backed her into the shelf, knocking off books in their haste. Rory’s fear of being caught was waring with her fear of wanting to get caught. She had no doubt, that had the bell not gone off right above her ear, where she had been wedged in the corner between the wall, bookshelf and Tristan she would have been caught. And she would have been caught doing something she was sure was an expellable offence. It had taken all the will power she possessed to push Tristan off of her and out from under her top where he had made quick work of her bra. Even then it had taken her promising him that she would meet him after school despite having already told her mother and Dean that she would be home on time and they could all have a movie night. She hated that she lied to them, and that she lied so well.
But these days, she didn’t have to lie to them. They simply assumed she was working her heart out on school assignments, on The Franklin and on other various school activities. She was grateful that she didn’t have to lie to them anymore.
Rory snapped back to the present when she turned on the shower and the freezing water washed over her in the air-conditioned pool-house. Her lips were blue with cold before the hot water started to filter through. As soon as the water was temperate, a pleasant change from today’s mercurial changes from hot to cold, she rinsed the combination of salty water and sweat from her body, paying particular attention to the sticky mess between her legs.
When she was done, she wrapped herself in a towel and sat on the seat in front of her locker as she decided on her plan of action. Her grandparents wouldn’t want to leave until after lunch meaning if she wanted a lift to school she would have to call a cab or do something dumb like track down Tristan for a ride. But she knew that wouldn’t get her anywhere near the library.
Instead she put her mind to thinking of places here at the club where no one would be, where no one would distract her or interrupt her. She wanted a place where she could read her book in peace. She couldn’t spend her time outside, even in the shade it was unbearably hot. The pool area was out of the question for obvious reasons. She considered the sauna, but she’d be ejected after a ten-minute period due to the unseasonable heat and the likelihood of dehydration. She was still lost in an internal debate of the least claustrophobic places she could read her book when she felt a hot hand rub over her bare cool shoulder.
“Rory.”
She relaxed before tensing again. “Tristan.”
“Wanna come for a ride?”
“Yes.” She didn’t even hesitate. Here was the perfect solution to her problems. Well, it would be if Tristan weren’t the one who was driving her.
She pulled away from his hand and stood up, gathering her towel around her more securely before turning to face him.
“I have to tell my grandparents.”
“I’ll go find your grandfather while you get dressed.” Tristan smirked before going through the glass doors into the intense heat. Richard had taken a liking to him at her sixteenth birthday party and encouraged her friendship with him at every turn, often pleased with the fact that Rory so often left the Club with him to get a ride to the library or to the school. If her grandfather knew what happened before she actually got to the library or her school activities, he might have a different opinion on Tristan’s acceptability as a friend.
Rory quickly pulled on her shirt and skirt. Shivering in the cold air-conditioned room, she denied herself an extra layer of protection against the chilly air knowing that she would soon be stepping out into the heat. Besides, she kind of liked the way her skin tightened as it became covered in goose bumps.
After slipping on her sandals,
Rory went in search of her grandmother. Sure Tristan had said that he would
tell Richard, but Rory needed a little more time before she got in the car with
him. Another encounter with Tristan so soon after the pool incident couldn’t
lead to anything good. Well, ok, it would be good, but Rory didn’t think she
could handle any more guilt today, this week even. Not when it involved
cheating like this. This was about more than cheating on Dean, she was cheating
on everyone, her mother, her grandparents, her schoolwork, Paris and The
Franklin.
She hated this! Hated that he held such a power over her. That time that she had brought Dean to the Club had been the worst day of her life with him. Tristan thought that she had ignored him, but she had been concentrating on Dean so hard so that he wouldn’t see the cracks in her façade. And it had worked, to the expense of her friendship with Tristan. And they had been friends, at least Rory thought they had been friends. Who knew what Tristan thought of their whole screwed up relationship. Who knew what Tristan thought about at all. Aside from sex and cars, Rory didn’t think Tristan thought about much at all.
The heat that had plastered her hair to her neck when she had stepped out of the pool-house faded into obscurity as she pushed past the glass doors leading back into the lounge-house. Her grandmother had to be somewhere around here, if she could find her before Tristan came to tell her he had found her grandfather, she would have a few spare minutes to come up with a reason not to get a lift with him, a firm memory of why she’d say ‘no’ when he suggested an alternative to the library, a reason why she wouldn’t touch him or let him touch her, a reason to not let him kiss her, or hold her, or fuck her senseless.
Her hopes of those spare few minutes were squashed when she saw her grandmother and grandfather siting at a table with Tristan standing next to them smiling at her as her grandfather waved to get her attention. There would be no getting out of this now, not when Tristan had turned on his charm and pressed all the right buttons that old people were so fond of.
Rory stamped down firmly on the feeling she thought might be happiness that she wouldn’t be able to say no to the ride Tristan had offered.
“Rory! Tristan was just explaining that he had offered you a lift to the library seeing as how he was headed there himself this afternoon.”
She smiled, “Yeah, he caught me out in the pool. It seems easier this way, saves you the hassle.”
“Out in the pool! It’s far to hot to be outside. You are to go straight from the car into the library, I don’t want to hear about you running across that road to the coffee shop! And I will know, Tristan will tell me, won’t you dear?”
“Of course I would, Emily. Rory drinks too much of it as it is, never mind in this heat.” Emily fluttered her eyes at Tristan’s unashamedly flirtaceous tone before turning back to Rory. “Now, are you returning home tonight or are you going back to Stars Hollow?”
“I’m not sure Grandma, it depends on how much I can get done this afternoon.”
“It’s ridiculous if you ask me. Studying in this heat, on a Saturday, why it’s school holidays! You’re both teenagers, you should be out having fun!” Emily smiled at Tristan again.
“Summer extension classes Grandma, if I want to get into Harvard these will help me get there.” Richard and Emily exchanged knowing smiles about Rory’s future.
“Well if you ask me, it’s a very commendable sort of thing that more teenagers should partake in. The attitude that many children have towards their schooling these days is appalling. Though I do agree with Emily, you should have some fun on your holidays, Rory! Perhaps Tristan could entice you into going to a movie or something?” Richard hummed at Tristan before he turned to Rory. “I hear that the Drive-In is showing a special ‘Hitchcock in Hartford’ feature, perhaps that’s more your speed?”
“Grandpa, I just don’t have time for that sort of thing at the moment. And if I did, I’d go with Dean.”
Emily waved her hand lazily in the air. “You told me that boy wasn’t a fan of film noir. But I happen to know that Tristan loves the classics! Why-”
Whatever Emily had been about to say was interrupted by the waiter as he brought two large bowls of salad and sat them on the table. Rory started to pull Tristan away so that she could escape the now stifling air near the table.
“I’ll think about it Grandma, but we have to go. Enjoy your lunch!” She dashed away with Tristan’s wrist held firmly in her small hand.
She could feel her face reddening, but with any luck she had turned away in time. Hopefully her grandparents hadn’t seen the rush of guilt and anger on her face as she thought of Emily comparing Tristan and Dean with each other. She knew that in her grandmother’s eye Dean would come up painfully short, she made that clear any time he was mentioned in her presence. And sometimes, just sometimes, Rory would come to the same conclusion and she would hate herself all over again because of it. She would hate herself, hate Emily and Richard, hate Tristan for being everything he was and Dean for not being everything her family needed him to be.
She barrelled through the door
with Tristan’s wrist still in her grip, her anger and the sun blinding her for
a moment. She slowed and suddenly it was Tristan who had her wrist in his grip,
dragging her along the footpath to the valet area where his car was waiting. He
had opened the passenger door and she was seated before she realised she hadn’t
taken the time to think of reasons for saying no. And now she needed a reason
to go home tonight too. Otherwise she’d stay in Hartford with her grandparents,
with Tristan. Again.
Rory settled back in her seat, he was driving another RX8, but his fathers punishment for crashing his last car had been to restrict him to having the standard model rather than one that had more extras than a NASA craft. The leather still smelt new and it was one place Rory felt completely comfortable in Hartford.
“Are you really taking me to the library?” She asked quietly.
“Is that where you want to go?” His voice was just as quiet as he concentrated on taking the corners fast and close.
“I don’t know.” And she didn’t. All thoughts of saying no to any of his suggestions had disappeared from her mind as soon as the Country Club had been out of site. As soon as she had started to watch him drive, watch the muscles in his arms move under his smooth golden skin as he steered and changed gears.
Tristan took his eyes off the road for a few quick seconds to glance at her. “It’s too hot to stay outside. Too hot to keep the car running for too long. So unless you have a better suggestion, we’re going to the library.”
She shrugged. “Okay.”
She had work to do and all her doubts about spending time with Tristan had resurfaced when he had turned to look at her.
They arrived shortly after and parked under a large, shady tree. Climbing out of the cool car and into the heat again, Rory felt herself break out into a sweat. Even in the shade it was unbearably hot. She knew that she should have stayed at her grandparents house today and worked there, but she had wanted to play a game of golf with Richard, it was something they hadn’t done together in a while. Besides, there hadn’t even really been warning of the heatwave that had settled over the area. New York and further south had been having power outages, there were fires raging through some of the forests down south, but no one had predicted its move to cover Connecticut with such fierce conditions. Yesterday had been a hot day for summer, today the heat was nearly unbearable.
Trying to escape the heat as quickly as possible, Rory and Tristan moved through the harsh sun and into the entrance of the library. Walking in together Rory was quick to distance herself from Tristan moving towards the poetry section. Sitting at a single desk she delved into her notes and gathered a large variety of books. Working solidly for a few hours, she was roused from her self-imposed isolation by an announcement over the PA system.
“The library is closing early due to the malfunctioning air-conditioning and electrical system in the building. If you require to borrow books please write down a list of titles, authors and barcode numbers and present them to the check out desk. Otherwise we would appreciate it if you could return your books to the shelving carts. We apologise for any inconvenience and hope to have the problem rectified within the next few days.”
Rory slammed all the books she had opened closed and stomped over to place them on a nearby cart. She hadn’t felt the air conditioning cut up, but she was feeling it now as sweat trickled down her spine and soaked into her shirt. Jamming all her things into her backpack she was met by Tristan as they both walked out of the library together.
“Fantastic! What am I supposed to do now? The school library is closed and my grandfather doesn’t have what I need, neither does the Stars Hollow library!” Rory kicked at the bottom of the library’s door.
Tristan wiped the smile off his face before Rory saw him. Her little tantrums like this always amused him, ever since she had screamed at him during that test last year but it was better not to provoke her. It might mean the difference between getting laid and having her not speak to him for a week. “What do you need?”
“I’m nearly done, but I needed to find a copy of Byron’s ‘Darkness’. They didn’t have it. I knew I should have booked to use one the computers earlier!”
Tristan turned and moved towards the car pulling Rory along behind him. “I’ve got a copy.”
Rory almost fell over, she had stoped moving, but Tristan had kept pulling. “Where?”
He let go of her hand and turned back to her. “What do you mean where?”
“Where is it?”
A slow grin spread across his lips and he stepped closer to her. “At home.”
The sun that had nearly set, leaving the sky streaked pink and orange was beating down upon her, glaring in her eyes. That combined with the heat that Tristan was generating within her threatened to overwhelm her and she felt faint, felt the blackness that was coming up to swallow her flash around the edges of her vision.
The grin disappeared and he frowned as her eyes went flat and blank. “Come on, Mary.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and directed her back to the car. Worried that she was going to pass out in the heat, worried that she would rather face passing out in the heat than go home with him again. Especially after what had happened the last time she had gone home with him.
He hadn’t meant to mark her like that. And he certainly hadn’t expected anyone to see it in the place where he had done so. He of course hadn’t thought about the close relationship that Rory had with Lorelai. A relationship that meant the doors were never locked, a relationship that meant that Lorelai could walk in anytime that Rory was showering or getting dressed.
Besides, she had liked it when he was doing it. It wasn’t until later, when she had cornered him at school, away from prying eyes and ears that she had bawled him out about doing such a thoughtless thing to her. But it had been four days since he had actually bitten her like that, so that had taken the sting out of her argument. If she had been really mad about it, she would have said so at the time. What she was really mad about was having to lie to Lorelai about who had done it. Because she had told Lorelai that it was Dean. That in turn made it difficult for Dean because he had no idea what Lorelai was upset with him about. It had taken all of Rory’s persuasion to convince Dean that it was her Lorelai was angry with and that he shouldn’t ask her mother about it. Truth was that Tristan couldn’t give a shit about the fact that Dean was in the shit with Rory’s mother. He enjoyed doing everything he could to drive a wedge between Rory and Dean. Hell, there was a sick satisfaction in the wedge he managed to drive between Rory and Lorelai at times. Because when Rory was fighting with Lorelai, she spent more time in Harford, and that always worked to his advantage.
It was near dark as Tristan turned into the street he lived on when he noticed that Rory was once again covered in goose bumps. He turned the air up higher, watching as she shivered in the blast of cold air.
Idling the car as he waited for the garage door to open, he took his time to watch Rory. She was sitting next to him, picking at her fingernails, not relaxed back into the seat, holding herself rigid.
“Relax Rory.” She jumped as his voice penetrated her thoughts. “I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me too.”
He pulled into the garage and stepped out of the car.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” She whispered so he wouldn’t hear her.
Letting herself out of the car and following Tristan into the cold, dark house, Rory swung her backpack onto her shoulders. She was going to get the copy of her poem and then she was going to get a lift to her grandparent’s so she could spend the rest of the night finishing off her essay. She followed him up the stairs and into his room. He dumped his stuff on his desk and moved to the bookshelf as she stood awkwardly just inside the door.
“Come in Rory.” He smirked at her before adding sarcastically. “I’m not going to bite you.”
She threw her bag on top of his and dug through it furiously looking for her pen and a scrap piece of paper. He dumped a book next to her and turned away. “I’m going to get us something cold to drink.”
She grunted at him non-committally, refusing to meet his eyes, refusing to look anywhere in the room but at his desk. Refusing to look at the bed with its rumpled sheets and its covers kicked on the floor.
The door closed quietly behind her and she relaxed slightly. Grabbing her phone from her bag she quickly called her mother and left a message saying that she was going to stay in Hartford again that night and that she’d be home tomorrow in time for them to go to lunch. Disconnecting she turned back to the desk and started to scribble the poem out, wanting to be done before he returned so she could leave as soon as possible. But when he didn’t return she slowly relaxed some more, getting caught up in the words and the flow of the poem. She started to say the words as she wrote them, rocking gently in her chair to their cadences. She had just finished when she felt him behind her, his breath hot on her neck before he kissed her. Softly and unlike any other Tristan kiss she had experienced before. Tristan wasn’t soft, wasn’t gentle. He was hard and heavy, he was fast and exciting. But this, this was exciting too, it was new and it was different. She sat still waiting for his next move, knowing that as soon as she had entered his car earlier this afternoon that she was agreeing to anything he wanted.
He pulled away, handing her a tall glass of iced water. “You finished?”
She nodded and sipped at the drink.
“Good.” He took her glass from her hand and placed both hers and his on the desk beside her. He fished a piece of ice out of his drink and put it in his mouth as she watched him, her throat tight and mouth slightly open. He pulled her to her feet, standing her in front of him so that her skirt caught on his shorts but their skin didn’t touch except where his hands were gripping her elbows. Letting go of her cool skin, he took a step back.
“Why that poem?”
“I like it.”
“It’s depressing.”
“It’s sexy.”
His mouth quirked at the corners. It still sounded strange when she said words like that, like ‘sexy’. Such grown up words, but to him she still seemed so young and innocent. And he was probably the only one who should know better, know that she wasn’t young and innocent. ‘It’s all about death.”
“You’re so presuming Tristan, you have no subtly. It’s about love and passion.”
He fished another piece of ice out of his drink and held it in his fingers. “You’re aroused by it aren’t you?”
She blushed.
“You’re aroused right now. Wet and slick and your belly is starting to cramp with the need to cum.” Her eyes widened and her breathing became shallow. He often tried to shock her with words, but rarely achieved it. He had this time. Probably because he was right.
He reached up and ran the piece of dripping ice over her collarbone and up her neck, ran it over her skin until it was melted into a piece too small for him to hold. He let it slip from his grip and watched it fall into the neckline of her top. A small wet patch appeared where it caught in her bra and melted. Ducking his head, he moved his lips and tongue across her chest as he had done with the ice. He pulled her shirt up over her head and reached behind her unclasping her bra, throwing them both off to the side somewhere. He watched her as she shivered in the cold air of his room, her nipples tightening further. He didn’t touch her. He wasn’t going to, not until she touched him first.
And she did, reaching out and pulling him to her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and went up on tip toes to kiss him, rubbing the hard points of her breasts against the rough material of his shirt. She shuddered as his cold fingers moved along her back at a slow pace, sliding around her rib cage and back down her stomach to rest on her skirt sitting on her hips before he gently pushed her away.
“Take your skirt off.”
Her fingers fiddled with the buttons. “I can’t stay long. I have to get back to my grandparents soon.”
“No, you don’t. I called them, said I was going to drive you home to Stars Hollow. I thought you wanted to go home and be with Dean seeing as how you didn’t want to go with me to the movies.”
“No, no! You couldn’t have! Why did you do that?”
“I thought I’d save you the hassle. And it’s no big deal. I’ll drop you off where no one can see, like normal.”
“It is a big deal! I just called my mother and said I was staying in Hartford tonight!” Her hands left her buttons and she slapped his shoulder. “What were you thinking? What am I going to do now?”
Rory was starting to panic. This wasn’t going to work. Where was she going to go? If she went home to Stars Hollow her mother would know she had been lying. If she went to her grandparents they would know that Tristan had been lying. She was in so much trouble!
“Calm down. You can just call and say you’ve changed your mind and that you’re coming home.”
“No way! She’d assume that I’ve had a fight with Grandma and she’d call to find out why, then Grandma would tell her that I hadn’t even been with her to fight so she’d ask a bazillion questions!”
“Okay, okay, god. Fine, I’ll call Emily and say that my car has broken down in the heat or…”
“You have a brand new car, Tristan. She won’t believe it.”
“Then I’ll say something else, or…”
“Or what?”
“You can stay here. No one will find out.”
“Oh, you’d love that. I bet that was your plan all along!”
“Oh fuck off. How was I to know you were going to call home?”
“I can’t stay here. I can’t.”
“Why not? Who’s going to find out?”
“Everyone. Lorelai will call Grandma’s to talk to me! Or the other way around!”
“Since when has she not called your cell phone so she could avoid talking to Emily? And your grandparents have that charity thing tonight. They wont be home to call you.”
No matter how persuasive his arguments were, Rory knew this was wrong. If ever there was a lie that she was going to get caught in, this was it. There were too many variables, too many things that could happen. There were too many people who could get hurt by this.
Tristan placed a hand on her waist and brought her stumbling to him, he kissed her lips, her jaw and her neck before whispering into her ear. “Stay here tonight Rory. I’ll take you home tomorrow. Nothing will go wrong, no one will find out.”
Both of his hands were running up and down her back, soothing her as she fought to remember why she shouldn’t be here, why this would hurt her as much as it would everyone else she loved. “Tristan…”
“Stay with me, Rory.”
She couldn’t. It would hurt everyone if they found out about her lying.
But at least they’d know the truth then.
Oh god no! She’d never be allowed out of her mother’s sight again. She’d never get to see her grandparents. She’d be pulled out of Chilton. And Dean. Dean would find out and she had no doubt that he’d break up with her. Again. And she remembered how horrible it had been the first time.
But she could be with Tristan if Dean broke up with her.
Tristan was sucking lightly on the top of her breast, if he wasn’t careful he’s leave another mark and then Lorelai would know for certain that it wasn’t Dean who had done it last time.
“Stay.” He bit harder and she knew he’d marked her.
If she stayed, she’d hurt everyone. She’d be caught in the web of lies she’d spun so she could be with him.
He bit her again, higher on her chest.
“Stay.”
She’d finally be able to tell the truth.
“Stay.”
She pulled his mouth to her own and kissed him.
“Okay.”