She crossed her arms defiantly over her chest. “It was a moment of weakness, nothing more.”

Tristan scoffed. “That moment damn near broke my fingers off.”

Heat scorched her cheeks as memories of her behavior shot through her head. She was never going to live down her behavior and, judging by the expression on his face, he had no intentions of ever letting her forget.

“Asshole,” she muttered.

He sighed as he stretched in his chair. “That’s really getting old, baby.”

“Don’t call me that!”

He shrugged. “So, what am I ordering out for tonight? Chinese food, pizza, subs?”

She eyed him warily. “Ordering out for what?”

“Supper. If we’re going to spend all night in my bed, then I’m going to need sustenance,” he said charmingly, damn him.

Startled, her mouth dropped open. “You really are arrogant, aren’t you?”

“Only when it comes to you.”

“This,” she gestured wildly between them, “was a mistake. A momentary lapse of judgment. Nothing more. I have a date tonight with a really nice guy and I intend to forget all about this and go have a nice time with him!”

Tristan scratched the top of his head in a bored fashion, ignoring everything she’d just said. “Should I just order or do you want me to wait until you come over to decide?”

She laughed. She really couldn’t help it. The man was beyond conceited. “What makes you think that I’m coming over to your house tonight? I just told you that I have a date.”

He sighed heavily as he looked up at the clock on the wall above her desk. “What time is this date of yours supposed to pick you up?”

“Why?” she asked suspiciously. “Are you planning on waiting around for him?”

He shook his head as he stood up to organize the files and place them into his briefcase. Marty’s eyes briefly dropped to his lap and sighed with relief when she didn’t see his erection straining against his pants.

“I’m heading home now, but I just wanted to have a rough idea of what time I should expect you.”

She opened her mouth and then shut it, searching for the right words. Had he always been this conceited? She didn’t remember him being this way when they were younger. She remembered that he’d always acted indifferently towards the girls throwing themselves at him. At least, she thought he had.

“I told you,” she pressed a hand to her forehead, hoping it would be enough to fight off the headache that she was sure was coming, “I’m going out with Roger tonight. If you must know he’ll be here in an hour to pick me up. Then I’ll be with him for the rest of the night.”

“Uh huh, sure,” he said as he shut down his computer. “So, I’ll see you around, what….six?”

“I’m not coming over! What on earth makes you think that I’m going to be there when I have a date?”

He smiled knowingly at her. “You’ll be there and, as far as your date is concerned, I can guarantee you right now that isn’t going to happen tonight,” he promised with such conviction that she knew that he was up to something.

“What are you planning on doing?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I just know that your date isn’t going to take you out tonight, not when he realizes that you belong to me.”

“Belong to you?” she repeated dumbly. Then she laughed coldly. “You are an arrogant son of a bitch! I do not belong to you or any other man!” A partial lie considering that she’d always felt like she belonged to him in some strange way, but right now was not the time to think about that.

“What we did was a mistake and it will never ever happen again! And I will not be coming to your house tonight. I can guarantee that right now!”

He ignored her little outburst and grabbed his briefcase. He headed for the door only to pause in front of her. For a moment she thought that he was going to kiss her and try to convince her of his claim, which she was forty percent sure that she’d be able to resist. Instead, and much to her surprise, he leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss against her neck.

“I’ll be counting the minutes,” he said with the sexiest grin she’d ever seen as he walked out, leaving her dazed.

No matter what she’d said, she wanted nothing more than to go home with him and live out every single fantasy that she’d had over the past fourteen years, but she refused to feed his ego. She really didn’t want to go on this date, never had, but she’d let her friends push her into it. It had been the only way to shut them up at the time.

Besides, Roger seemed nice and harmless enough. It was supposed to be dinner and a movie, but she’d already decided that she was going to cut their date short after dinner. If she couldn’t be with Tristan, she’d rather be alone, which was the problem that she’d always had when it came to men. She’d never been attracted to them and had no real interests in dating.

She’d had a few boyfriends over the years, but when all was said and done they’d never been anything more than friends that she’d hung out with a few times. It didn’t matter what she did to convince herself otherwise, she was in love with Tristan and no other man would ever take his place. That didn’t mean that she was going to be a bitch and stand Roger up. She’d agreed to the date so she’d go, but she already knew that nothing would ever come of it.

Deciding the best thing for her to do was to go through with the date, she pulled out her small handheld compact and fixed her makeup. Her hair surprisingly looked good considering what they'd just done. When she was finished, she sat down and focused on her work while she waited for six o’clock to roll around. The time went by quickly and before she knew it there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” she said as she grabbed her purse and shut down her computer.

“Hi, I hope I’m not too early.”

Marty smiled. “No, I just finished.” She turned to face him. He was cute in a boy next-door kind of way where Tristan had panty-melting good looks. He was tall, but not as tall as Tristan. Just as she was silently reprimanding her brain for making unwarranted comparisons, she noted his frown of displeasure.

“What?” she asked, looking down at her blouse, wondering if she’d spilled something.

“Unbelievable,” he muttered.

“What?”

He rubbed the back of his neck while shaking his head in disbelief or disgust, she really wasn’t sure at the moment.

“Just a bit of advice, don’t screw around with another guy the same night that you have a date.”

“What?”

They could tell those things?

Was she wearing a sign or something?

He gestured to her neck. “Looks like whoever it was wanted to make sure everyone knew that you were spoken for.” He put his hands up in surrender and stepped back. “My loss,” he sighed. “Have a good night.” With that he left her standing there with a feeling of absolute dread.

Slowly, or so it seemed in her mind, but in reality she was probably moving fast enough to scare the hell out of the Road Runner, she dumped her purse on the desk and found her mirror. Taking a deep breath, she opened it and angled it towards her neck and stared at the large and obviously fresh hickey on her neck.