After 2

Chapter 149.

Hardin's POV.

"I always do." I say.

My words are true, I do always find her figuratively and literally.

I can't fucking believe that I came out here to find Tessa and Zed sitting here talking about her hiding from me. This is bullshit. She latches onto Zed to steady herself and I stride across the frozen grass to get closer to them.

"Hardin." Tessa squeaks, clearly surprised by my presence.

"Yea, Hardin." I repeat her words.

Zed scoots away from her and I try to stay calm. Why the hell is she out here with Zed alone? I specifically told her to stay inside, in the kitchen. When I asked Steph were the hell Tessa was all she said was "Zed". After five minutes of searching the entire fucking house I decided to check outside and here there are. Together.

"You were supposed to stay in the kitchen babe." I add the word to soften my harsh tone.

If I blow up on her now she may try to leave with him and that has already happened too many times. I will not allow it to happen tonight. I have been doing my best lately to keep my temper reigned in.

"You were supposed to be right back." She fires back.

I sigh and take a deep breath before speaking again. I always react on every impulse that I get and I am trying not to do that anymore. But fuck if she doesn't make that difficult.

"Let's go inside." I tell her and reach for her hand.

I need to get her away from Zed and honestly I need to get myself away from him as well. I have already beat the shit out of him once and I wouldn't mind doing it again.

"I am going to get a tattoo Hardin." Tess tells me as I aid her down from the wall.

"What?" Is she drunk?

"Yeah.. you should see Zed's new tattoo Hardin. It's so nice. Show him Zed." She smiles.

Why the fuck was Tessa looking at his tattoos and how much of their conversation did I miss? What else were they doing? What else was he showing her? He has always wanted her since the first time he met her, just like I did. The difference being that I wanted to fuck her and he actually liked her. But I won, she chose me.

"I don't.." Zed begins. I can see how uncomfortable he is, Tessa too.

"Go on, show me." I instruct.

To my horror and absolute fucking annoyance, he lifts his shirt up and I see the bandage. The tattoo itself is actually pretty cool but why he felt the need to show my Tessa this shit is beyond me.

"Isn't it cool? I want one. I think a smiley face." She beams.

She isn't serious. I pull my lip ring between my teeth to prevent myself from laughing at her. Some of my annoyance disappears at her ridiculous idea for a tattoo.

"Are you drunk?" I ask her.

"Maybe." She giggles.

Great.

"How much did you drink?" I ask her, I had two drinks and I can tell she has had more.

"I don't know.. how much did you drink?" She teases, and lifts the bottom of my shirt up. Her cold hands rest against my hot skin and I flinch before she nuzzles her head on my chest. See Zed, she is mine. Not yours, not anyone's , only mine.

"How much did she drink?" I ask him.

"I'm not sure how much she drank before but we just played two games of beer pong but we used cherry vodka sour mix instead of beer."