by Unknown
Travis was glad that the sparkle was back in Raven’s eyes. He’d been worried all day that what he was planning for this evening wouldn’t make that sparkle he loved seeing in her eyes come back. He knew that the time was almost perfect for what he wanted to do. He’d gone to great lengths to make this night a memorable one. Even went so far as to call her brother to ask what her favorite foods were.
He’d been delighted to see her glowing smile when she’d seen what he’d cooked for her dinner. With the bruises finally faded and her smile back in full force, she looked more breathtaking than she ever had before. He knew that he wasn’t ‘Slick’, as the club had coined him when he was younger for his prowess with women and his ability to escape any situation, with her. He never had been and that, he’d finally realized, was because from the moment she’d flown out of that corner to demand he stop hurting Burner he’d been in love with her.
Even when he’d told himself he was being a jerk because he needed her to keep her head in a bad situation and coined her as a whiney china doll, he’d known. On some subconscious level he’d known that he could never show her the fake Travis, the one he showed the world, who was funny and easy going. He needed her to know the real him, the one he kept locked away inside. As he held her in his arms, he knew he could trust her to always be here on his good days and his bad. He could love her without pretense and she’d love him back.
He leaned forward, kissing her lips softly. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”
“Okay,” she said smiling.
He left her there and stepped inside, grabbing the patch he’d laid on the table in a box beside the door. He headed back out to her and handed her the box. She was sitting in the chair she’d eaten in and he knelt on the patio.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Open it and find out, Princess,” Travis whispered. Her smile faltered for a second before she pulled on the red ribbon, opening the box, pulling out the soft leather patch.
Chapter 20
“This is--is a patch?” she asked, her voice cracking and her eyes tearing up.
“Yes, will you wear it, Princess?” Travis asked, his smile splitting across his whole face.
“I--why do you want me to wear this?”
Travis stared at her, confused. Didn’t she already know why? He loved her, she had to know that. He’d told her, hadn’t he? Then he realized that he hadn’t and he felt like an idiot. No wonder this confused her; he hadn’t told her the most important thing.
“I love you, Raven,” he told her softly.
“What?” she shrieked, looking at him in astonishment. He was a little upset that him telling her he loved her got such a wild-eyed response. “But--but you love Charity,” she blurted, making him look at her in opened-mouthed horror. Who the hell had told her that? It had better not have been her idiotic brother or he was going to be her dead idiotic brother.
“Who told you that?” he demanded, glaring at her.
“Nobody had to tell me, Travis,” she told him, shocking him even more because he was now wondering what the hell she was talking about. He’d never been anything except polite to Charity. How she’d gotten the impression that he loved the woman was beyond him. “You dated her, but she picked Tick,” she told him, as if that explained it all.
It didn’t; he still didn’t understand how that had led her to the conclusion that he loved Charity. “Yes, but how the hell did you get to the conclusion that I was in love with her?” he asked, needing to understand what the hell he’d done that made her think any woman mattered more to him than she did.
“Well, then there is the fact that we’re of similar size and build and our hair’s the same color,” she continued, looking at him with wide teary eyes.
He still didn’t get it. That was her basis for thinking that he loved Charity, that she was the same size and their hair was similar? Although he thought Raven’s hair was much prettier than Charity’s. Raven’s was a much richer blonde with golden highlights that he loved. “And then there was today,” she finished and his brow furrowed with even more confusion.
He’d talked to Charity and she’d touched his arm, but that didn’t warrant her thinking he was in love with the woman. “What about today?” he asked, still trying to figure this out.
“You call her princess too!” she cried and that really confused him because he couldn’t ever remember calling Charity Princess, not even when they were dating.
“What are you talking about?” Travis was looking at her in confusion, his eyes clouded with concern. Raven saw his furrowed brow and he looked confused as to how she’d figured out that he loved Charity. She didn’t understand why he kept asking her about this; didn’t he know that this was hard for her? She didn’t want to think about him loving another woman, much less having to talk about it.
“Today in the diner you called her Princess. I heard you,” she told him and Travis racked his brain for the conversation he’d been having with Charity. Suddenly it hit him. Well I’ll be damned, that was what she was on about, he realized. In the diner Charity had been asking about Raven and she asked what it was that he called her. He’d told her Princess. That was why she thought he was in love with Charity.
He wanted to laugh about her mistaken impression, but from her teary-eyed expression he knew he couldn’t. When he’d told Charity what he called Raven, his voice had changed. He couldn’t say Princess and not think of his Raven anymore, it just wasn’t possible. When he said Princess, all the tenderness and love he felt for her flooded him and his voice changed to reflect those feelings.
His poor Princess, she was so sure she was right. “No,” he said, watching as her brow furrowed in confusion too.
“No what?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t call her Princess,” Travis said, looking up at her from where he knelt.
“I heard you, Travis,” she glared at him now.
“No, you heard me tell her that Princess is what I call you. We were talking about you, Princess.” He grinned at the repetitiveness of that sentence.
Raven stared at him for a long moment wondering if she should believe him. She thought for a long moment and realized that he’d never lied to her. Not once in the whole time she’d known him.
“You didn’t call her your Princess?” she asked, still unsure.
“No, I only have one Princess and that’s you.” Travis wanted to laugh at the number of times he’d said princess in the last hour. It was getting a bit overly ridiculous. “I love you, Raven, and only you. Not Charity. Not any other woman.”
“But you’re nice to them and you’re not to me. Well, you are nice to me, but you don’t flirt or joke with me.” She had an adorable frown on her face as she said this that made him want to kiss her. Unable to resist, he leaned forward kissing her lips, which parted slightly.
“I don’t. I was a bit upset about that myself until I realized why a few days ago. Do you want to know why I don’t treat you the same as I do other women?” he asked, his smile wide, his hands holding her knees.
“Yes,” she said, looking at him expectantly.
“Because I love you. I love you so much that I don’t pretend with you. I’m always just me. Not the man I put on an act to be, but me, the real man behind all the jokes and flirting. You get the real me, Raven. The raw untamed man who’s just under the surface of all the bullshit I present to the world. I can’t fake anything with you. You’re too important and you have been since the moment I met you,” Travis told her cupping her face.
Her eyes filled with tears because she understood what he was telling her. That she was the only person he trusted enough to be himself with. That she was the only one who’d ever know him fully without all the smoke and mirrors. It was the most beautiful gift anyone had ever given her. It took her broken, almost shattered, heart and mended it whole.
She threw herself at him, knocking him back on the patio with a loud thump and a pain-filled cry as his head smacked into the wood, follo
wed by laughter as she began peppering his face with kisses.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I love you too. So much it hurts to breathe sometimes,” she told him between kisses.
“Oh, Princess. I love you too, never doubt that, ever. You’re the only woman I will ever love. Well, unless we have a daughter, then I’d love her too, but only then,” he told her, firmly kissing her lips again.
Raven giggled at that and he realized that was the first time he’d ever heard her giggle. He liked it. The sound tickled his insides and made him tingle. She was perfect, just perfect and the fact that she loved him back made his heart nearly burst from his chest. Kissing her deeply, needing to sink into her sweetness, it didn’t take long for him to roll her beneath him and strip her in the candlelight to make love to her beneath the moon.
When Raven woke the next morning she stretched and yawned, feeling wonderful. They’d made love on the patio and then Travis had carried her upstairs to their room, laid her out on the bed and made love to her a second time. Sitting up, she looked down at the man who was sprawled on his stomach with his head on the pillow, his hands beside his head and his eyes closed tightly.
She ran her hands down his naked back with a sigh, giving his tight ass a squeeze. All this hard manliness was hers and she could touch until she was drunk on it. She wanted to caress him all day but she’d promised Mia she’d help her with the school’s annual bake off. She looked at the clock seeing that she had about forty-five minutes to get ready. She pulled her hands off her man and was getting up when hard male arms wrapped around her, pulling her back on the bed.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he growled. “You were doing fine rubbing on me. I wanted you to take advantage.”
“I wish I had time, but I have to go help Mia with the bake off.” She moaned when his hand landed on her inner thigh, then slid forward to brush against her clit. “Stop, I need to get ready,” she whispered, wishing that she hadn’t told her friend she’d help her.
“How long?” he asked
“I have to leave in the next forty minutes or I’ll be late,” Raven told him between drugging kisses. His hands were rubbing over her nipples and she was flooded with desire.
“Plenty of time then.” And his hands were closing over her thighs, spreading them as his hard thick cock pierced her with a single hard thrust of his hips. Raven let out a long moan as his cock began to pump lazily inside her. Dear lord, while he’d distracted her with caresses and kisses he’d been lining up to enter her, she realized, groaning as a particularly hard thrust hit her g-spot making her eyes roll back into her head.
Travis thrust into Raven’s tight wetness with a hard stroke, wanting to hear her scream his name like she had last night. He loved making love to her. He always felt needy and almost desperate for her. When he’d felt her hands smoothing up and down his spine to squeeze his ass, he’d thought she would start to make love to him. When he’d realized that she intended to get up, he’d decided to ravish her instead.
He wanted her constantly; he was almost crazy from the desire he felt for her and her tight little pussy. He’d been inside her three times last night alone and it only made the hunger for her burn hotter. He liked that no matter how many times he had her, he was always ready for more. He pumped into her harder, his hips smacking against her hip bones. He knew she was close, he could feel it in the clenching muscles surrounding his cock.
His hands gripped her hips hard as he continued to move inside her. She cried out and he gripped her ass harder as he thrust a few more times and roared out his own climax. Raven sat up looking at him, still panting.
“You’re going to make me late.”
“You have plenty of time to make it still. It’s only been ten minutes,” Travis told her chuckling. Raven climbed off the bed, turning to look over her shoulder, her naked body looking deliciously displayed as she watched him. Travis had propped himself on his elbow staring at his woman’s ass as she moved towards the bathroom.
“Huh, well if you don’t want to shower with me, I guess I will be on time after all.” She laughed when she saw him throw the covers off and chase after her. She waited until he was almost there and shut the door, flicking the lock.
“You little witch!” he chuckled from the other side of the door. “You’re going to pay for that, Princess.” He smacked the door hard.
Raven turned the water on testing it with her hand, smiling widely. That man made her happy and now that she knew he wasn’t in love with Charity, she was ecstatically, deliciously happy. Climbing into the shower, she moaned as the hot water ran over her head, closing her eyes with a sigh.
That was when hard arms snaked around her waist and warm lips brushed against her ear. She startled and screamed loudly, her heart pounding in fear.
“You’re definitely going to be late, Princess,” Travis growled against her ear, his thick cock pressing into her ass. Raven was an hour late to the bake off but she was happy that her man was just as crazy about her as she was about him.
Chapter 21
Travis kissed Raven again, laughing at her when she tried to pull off his shirt again. She’d been trying to persuade him not to go with her brother and Matt for over an hour. He was damned tempted to allow her to convince him. After all she was naked, having stripped to get him to agree to stay with her. A naked Raven was hard to resist. He was actually surprised that he had the willpower to stop her hands from sliding into his pants. Travis needed to go with them to find some information on the Jackals’ latest movements.
It hadn’t been an order but since he loved his woman, he didn’t want anything to happen to her family. It might make his Raven sad if her brother or their friend was hurt and that was unacceptable. He never wanted Raven to be sad. Not ever. He knew it would happen eventually but he was going to do everything in his power to stop it. He wanted her to always feel happy and safe. He smacked her ass lightly, regretting it when she paused, her eyes clouding.
Fuck, he hated when something reminded her of her kidnapping. Over the past few weeks he’d seen a new confidence come over her and she was opening up more about what had happened at the compound.
Sometimes after she talked about her stay with the Headhunters, he’d have to go visit Ratchet to work out the anger that he felt nearly burning him up inside. He would arrive at the farm, Ratchet would take one look at him and take him to the makeshift fighting ring that he and Tick had set up years ago. Then he’d fight the other man until they were both bloody and exhausted. By the time they were done and Travis headed home to Raven, he was a mess of bruises and cuts.
She would sigh before she patched him up and threatened not to tell him anymore, but she always did. He was glad that she trusted him with her pain as he trusted her with his. He’d talked about staying with his mother and how some days had been hard. Those days had been the ones when his mom hadn’t even recognized him. He’d told her about the way she’d been angry sometimes and he’d had to restrain her. He also told her about the good days when she was almost the woman he remembered.
Taking care of his mom had been both the best and worst thing he’d ever had to do. He’d hated that Alzheimer’s had stolen so much of the warm caring woman he’d known, but he wouldn’t trade the time he’d had when she was normal for anything. Raven understood that and she’d only listened as he spoke of his mother. Her words when he was done talking had warmed his heart. She’d looked at him with a sad smile and teary eyes and told him that she wished she’d gotten to meet her.
Raven whined loudly, pulling him from his faraway thoughts. “I want you to stay here with me. My brother and Matt can take care of themselves! I have to go with Molly and Lisa to Titus for two days tomorrow and I wanted to spend the day with you.” Raven rubbed her breast against his leather-clad chest making him groan. Good lord, was the woman trying to kill him? He wasn’t going to be able to walk if she kept up this teasing.
“I need to go with them and I’ll be back tonight. We can play
then, you little minx.” Travis cupped her ass, taking her lips for a deep drugging kiss, wishing that this wasn’t something that he had to do today. He’d miss her while she was in Titus for two days but he wasn’t willing to risk Marcus or Matt getting hurt while he was with her. It would break her heart and he couldn’t bear that.
Raven was sure from the way he was devouring her mouth that she’d finally won and wanted to crow in triumph. She felt his hands slipping into her hair to cup the back of her head as he deepened the kiss, his arm wrapped around her possessively. The doorbell rang, breaking the mood, and he pulled away.
“Duty calls, Princess,” Travis whispered as he let her go and headed to the door.
Damn her brother! Whoops, she’d cussed again, but heck, who wouldn’t when they were denied the chance to spend the day in bed with Travis. The man was a God when it came to sex, and he played her like a fiddle.
“Wait, Travis.” She grabbed her robe, putting it on as she followed him downstairs.
“I need to go with them and you need to go and get some clothes on,” he growled, glaring at the robe she was wearing.
“It’s my brother, he doesn’t care a wit that I’m naked under this robe. As a matter of fact, if he knew I was naked he’d likely be sick,” she told him, still following him to the door.
He turned glaring at her, his finger tapping against her nose gently. “Need I remind you that Matt is going too, and he is not your brother. Now, take that fine ass of yours upstairs and put on some clothes.”
“Oh please. Matt has less interest in me than my brother. I’m like his older sister,” Raven told him, moving to open the door for her brother and Matt.
“It’s about time. Yuck, were you in the shower? That’s disgusting, tell me you weren’t in there together. Or better yet, let’s just pretend that you’re not wearing a bathrobe. Because eww.” Matt said, walking into the house and plopping down in the chair, propping his feet on the table.
