“Oh,” I said as I blushed. “Yeah. You know, romance author, romance books, sex”—I held up a sucker—“cocks. It all ties together.”
He looked like he was trying not to laugh.
“What’s funny?”
His brow went up, as if he was trying to make himself look innocent, and he shook his head. “Nothing.”
I dropped my hand. “You think it’s stupid, don’t you?”
Why do I care? I just met the guy.
“No. Not at all.” He bit his bottom lip.
“What?” I smiled. “I know you want to say something.”
Travis shook his head.
“Okay, I know you’re thinking something.”
“I don’t know if I should say.”
“Just say it.”
He looked around and then met my eyes again. He lowered his voice. “I’m just picturing all these women sucking …” His gaze moved down to my mouth.
“Cocks?”
That same look crossed his face. The one where he looked like something was funny, but he didn’t want to share.
I rolled my eyes. “You just wanted me to say cock again, didn’t you?”
This time, he didn’t hold his laugh in.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“Nope.” His eyes widened. “Hey, your one eye …”
“I know,” I said, a little embarrassed. “It’s two different colors.”
For as long as I could remember, my right eye had a large spot in it that was almost half-brown. My parents didn’t remember when it’d first appeared either.
“Wow. That’s so cool. I didn’t notice it this morning.”
“Thanks. And I had my glasses on. It was harder to see then.”
“Hey, Travis, I found my markers,” Angela called out.
I looked to see her approaching her table.
“Talk to you later.” He smiled at me and scooted his chair back up to his table. “Where were they?” he said to Angela.
I faced forward, tuning out their conversation, and saw Harper walking up to the table. She sat down and leaned toward me.
“Was Travis just talking to you?” she whispered, excitement on her face.
“Yeah. He was giving me crap about our suckers.”
“What?” She straightened, and in a loud voice, she said, “Our suckers rule.”
We both looked over our shoulders to see if Travis would respond. He shook his head, but I didn’t know if it was at us or at Angela.
I laughed. “I don’t think the kids say rule anymore.”
“What would you know about that? You’re a year older than me.”
“Research.” My last book was about two people in their early- to mid-twenties. Not quite New Adult, but I’d still wanted to make sure I had the lingo down.
“Whatever.” Harper took out her phone and shoved it in my hand. “Look at what I found.”
I looked down and sucked in my breath. “Holy crap.”
It was a photo of Travis. He was wearing only a pair of dog tags. The picture only went down to the waist, but it was low, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t wearing any pants. He had spectacular arms, pecs, abs, and the famous V on his hips.
I pulled the phone closer. “How did I miss this?”
“I don’t know, but it’s good, right?”
I quickly peeked behind me. “Oh my God, yes. How did I not know he existed?”
“No idea because I found about five books he’s on the cover on.”
“I need to come out of my writing hole a little more often.”
Harper laughed and took her phone back. She hit the screen a few times and showed me another. And another. In a couple, he had shorter hair. In some others, his face was free of facial hair.
“I think I like him better with the beard,” she said to me.
“Me, too,” I said, amazed.
“Wow. I’m surprised to hear you say that after Andrew.”
Andrew was a guy I’d dated a few years back who’d let his beard grow. And grow and grow. I’d hated it. It had almost ruined any sort of beard for me on a man, no matter how short. Even Harper didn’t like beards as much after knowing my ex.
“Me, too.”
Travis was different from other guys I’d been interested in before, minus the hot body. I wasn’t going to lie. I’d always liked muscular men.
But there was no denying that I was attracted to Travis. I’d thought I was past the age of feeling boy-crazy, but he just did something for me. And my body. I wanted the man.
I put Harper’s phone down. “I’d better stop looking, or I’ll be the one who’s going to need a restroom.”
Harper frowned for a second until she got my joke. She laughed until the first reader walked up to our table.
Travis Zehler sat back in his seat as the readers started coming into the room. This part of a book signing always got him a little excited. He really enjoyed interacting with fans, whether it was fans of his or fans of the author he was with.
“Okay, Trav, it’s time for you to smile that beautiful smile of yours and lure some readers in,” Angela said.
He laughed because he knew she was joking, but she was also serious.
Angela was one of his favorite authors to attend signings with. He’d met her a few years earlier at an event like today’s, and they’d hit it off. He considered her and her husband, Dave, close friends despite living a state and a Great Lake apart.
He put the cheesiest smile he could on his face. “How’s this?”
“Perfect. You’ll have them all running to the table.”
At that moment, a reader did approach Angela’s table. “Hi.”
“Hello.” Angela always greeted readers with enthusiasm. “How are you today?”
“Good,” the reader said a little shyly.
“Have you ever read anything of mine before?”
The reader shook her head.
Angela had her books in piles in front of her, and she pointed to the one on the reader’s left. “My books are part of a series, and this is book one.” She guided her hand down the row of all four piles. “Book two, three, and four. They are sports romance. All the characters are on the same NFL team.”
The reader picked up book one and looked at the back and then the front. She looked up at Travis. “Is this you?” She pointed to the cover where he stood with a blonde woman in his arms.
He smiled. He was always a little embarrassed when someone asked him that. He’d been taught to be humble, so he always felt like he was bragging a little when he said yes. “That’s me.”
“That’s so cool,” the reader whispered as another approached.
“Actually, Travis is on all the covers. Each book is about a different couple, so that’s why you really see his face on book one and why each book has a different female model. It also helps that he has different hairstyles in a couple of them.”
“Wow. You get around, don’t you?” reader number two said.
They all laughed, but her comment bugged him a bit.
He shrugged. “They’re just pictures. It’s all part of the job. It’s not like I dated any of them.” He made sure to smile as he said this.
Travis had only really dated one fellow model, and it had been bad from the start. He much preferred seeing someone who didn’t work in the industry.
“I just hate to see Travis starve, so I buy his photos.”
Travis bit his cheek, so he wouldn’t laugh too hard.
But reader number two was unfazed by their comments. “I’ll definitely buy book one. Will you both sign it?”
“Of course,” Angela said. Then, she looked out of the corner of her eye at him. “Maybe.”
Travis laughed again and grabbed the book first, so the reader could pay while he signed. Sometimes, he put little quotes or lines in with his signature, but nothing came to him, so he just wrote his name.
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“I’ll take the first two books,” reader number one said after number two was gone.
“Thank you,” Angela said.
The reader paid, and they both signed the insides.
After number one was gone, Angela pushed her shoulder into his. “Thanks for helping me sell books.”
“That’s why you brought me.”
“That, and your charming personality. Sorry about that reader’s comment.”
He smiled. “It’s not your fault. And, yeah, it irked me a little, but it’s really not that big of a deal.” He lifted his brow. “Now, if she starts stalking me, then I’m going to blame you for bringing me here.”
Angela laughed.
“You joke, but if I get any naked pics, I’m forwarding them to you.”
Angela just continued to laugh.
The signing went on, and readers came and went. Some of them didn’t pay much attention to him, and some were fascinated by him. Travis never really understood that because he was just a person like them. He wasn’t anything special, no more than anyone else anyway.
The table was empty for the moment, so Travis took the opportunity to look at his phone. A few texts had come in, but he’d ignored them while readers were at the table.
“I always feel bad, saying this to another author, but I haven’t read your books. Tell me about them,” a musical voice said.
He looked up to see Sydney Hart.
She glanced at him for a second and smiled but turned her attention back to Angela. This let him look at her without her knowing.
She had the girl-next-door look going for her, and that was totally his thing. Women who wore a lot of makeup and fancy clothes never really did it for him. In fact, even though Sydney looked good, he actually preferred her the way she’d looked that morning at breakfast. No makeup and her glasses on. She had beautiful porcelain skin she didn’t need to cover up with anything. Although he had overlooked her cool-ass eye that morning because of her glasses.
Travis was also a breast and a leg man. Maybe that made him a pervert, but he wasn’t dead. He’d noticed Sydney’s ample chest. And, while she wasn’t very tall, he could tell she had long legs for her height. For a moment, he let himself picture them naked and spread open for him while he—
“Travis.” Angela smacked his arm.
“What?”
Angela gave him a seriously, dude look.
He shrugged. “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” One thing he’d learned in life was to own up to things even if it made him look less than favorable. Life was too short to lie, especially about petty shit.
“Sydney is buying books one and two and an extra book one. So, get to signing.”
Wow. He really had missed a chunk of the conversation. “Why two?”
“I’m buying a set for myself and book one for my reader group. I like to do giveaways, and they love getting signed books from other authors even if they’ve never read them before. Plus, it helps get author names out there.”
“I love that idea,” Angela said. “I’ll have to come over and get one of your books and do the same. I’m always looking for a way to engage my readers.”
Travis took one copy of the first book and wrote, Never give up on your dreams, and then signed it. The book was about a football player who got injured and was worried that he’d never play again. Don’t give up fit with the story and was inspiring, too.
He slid the book over to Sydney. “This one is for your reader.”
She opened it up, read the inside, and smiled. “Thank you.” Then, she pushed the book over to Angela to sign.
“Damn it, Travis. That’s what I was going to write.”
He laughed. “You can write that in the next one.” He gave her the second copy of book one. “I’ll even let you write in it first.”
“Wow, that’s so magnanimous of you,” she said sarcastically.
Travis crossed his eyes. “I sorry. Me dumb model. Me no understand big words.”
Sydney laughed. “You two must have a lot of fun together.”
Angela nodded. “We do. Sometimes, too much.”
A look crossed over Sydney’s face for a fleeting moment, but it passed as quickly as it’d come, and she grinned. “I bet there are some good stories there.”
“There are. Someday, I’ll tell you.”
Travis opened up book two. This was a story about a nerdy girl who fell in love with the bachelor-of-the-year football player. He decided on a saying that went with the story but was also directed at Sydney: You’re more beautiful than you know.
He traded books with Angela, and in book one, he wrote, Some things are worth fighting for.
When Sydney opened them up, her eyes widened, and she might have blushed. “Wow. I think I should maybe give these to my readers instead.”
Travis frowned. “I don’t think so. Those are for you.”
I brought the books I’d bought from Angela back to my table to put away for safekeeping. I pulled the copy I’d gotten for my readers off the top and handed it to Harper. “Look inside. They both signed it. I hope my readers love it.”
She opened the cover and looked inside, read what Angela and Travis had written, and then hugged the book to her chest. “Can you just give it to me as a present?” She batted her eyelashes. “Or let me be the winner?”
I grabbed for the book, but she held on. “If I give it to you straight-out, then that would be cheating.”
She stuck her bottom lip out.
“Harper, it was ten dollars. Go buy your own.”
“Fine.” She let go and stuck her nose in the air. “But, now, you know that’ll be one less book of yours I’m going to buy.”
I playfully shoved her. “You already own all my books, free of charge.”
“Oh, yeah.”
We both laughed as I quickly put my book away before she stole it from me.
“Why don’t you go get one now before you forget?”
“You’re right. I probably should.” She pulled out some cash from her purse and got up from the table.
Since my table was vacant of readers, I did a little organizing in hopes that it would help with cleanup later.
“Hey.”
I looked up to see Derek. “Hey. What’s up? You having fun?”
He nodded. “I always do. You?”
“Yeah. There’re still some tables I want to get to before the event is over, but so far, it’s been fun.”
“So, earlier, I mentioned a writer group that is forming in our area. Would you be interested in joining?”
“Yes, tell me more.”
“Well, you know how there are so many groups online, which is great. But a few of us have been talking and thought we should do something where we got to meet in person, too. We were thinking once a month or even once every other month, depending on people’s schedules.”
“I like that idea. It’s so great to have writer friends online, but sometimes, it would be so much easier to talk about things in person. Especially those complicated plots.”
Derek smiled. “Exactly.”
“How many are going to do it?”
“So far, it’s only three of us, but I know I have some other contacts in the area. I need to go through my Facebook friends.”
“Do you care if I invite some?”
“No. The more, the better. I figure not everyone will always be able to make it, so if we could get around ten authors, then we’d hopefully always have a few who could attend our meetups.”
“That sounds like fun.” I picked up my business card and handed it to him. “I know you can contact me through Facebook, but here’s my e-mail. That might be easier. When are you looking to start?”
“That’s the hard part. We don’t know. Next month is Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then Christmas and New Year’s.”
“That’s a good point.”
He smiled. “We’ll figure it out.” He
held up the card. “Thanks for the interest. I’d better get back to my table.”
“Later.”
A few minutes later, Harper came back and sat down with her new book. “What did Derek want?”
“He wanted to talk about the writer group he’d mentioned earlier. It’s an in-person group, and he asked if I wanted to join.”
“Ooh. Maybe then you can ask him out.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not asking him out.” He was attractive, but I wasn’t attracted to him.
“Well, you should. When’s the last time you got laid?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Translation: So long that I don’t even remember.”
“Shut up.”
Harper laughed at me.
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
I sighed. “Unfortunately.”
I laughed at Harper’s scowl.
We heard some voices laughing behind us, so we turned around. It looked like some readers were getting pictures with Travis.
“We should do that,” Harper said. “He’s been taking pictures all day. I bet your readers would love to see some pics of him.”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“Not a bad idea? It’s a great idea.”
I stood. “Okay, let’s do it.”
While I couldn’t deny that I wouldn’t hate being close to him, I felt silly for asking for a picture with him. He had all these women gawking over him, and I really didn’t want to be another one. Even if I was secretly just as bad as they were. I wanted to pretend like I wasn’t like other girls, but I totally was.
Harper and I walked over to Angela’s table.
“Do you care if we take pictures with you both?” I asked.
Ha. If we asked for both, it would look less like we only wanted a picture with Travis. Way to go, brain!
I took a picture with just Angela and then Angela and Harper. Harper took one with Angela alone. We asked another author to take a picture of the four of us. And then it was Harper, Travis, and me. Harper and Travis took a picture and then just Travis and me.
Both times, I wanted to bury my nose in his chest and breathe him in.
Down, girl.
Object of My Desire Page 3
