by Reina Torres
“Uncle Eddie,” she grinned at him and then wrapped him in a big ol’ hug, “I love you. You are the sweetest thing.” Stepping back, she held back a laugh at the shock on his face. “I’m a big girl and I’m not just talking about my hips. I can handle that big boy out there. I have a Taser in my purse and two kinds of pepper spray. If he tries anything,” she lowered her voice and leaned in like it was a secret, “anything, that I don’t want him to try, and he’ll be on the ground clutching the family jewels before he knows what happened to him.”
“Well,” he leaned down and looked out of the pass-through window, “you sound like you know what you’re doing. So, keep your aunt’s shotgun close by and give him both barrels if you need to. Around here folks don’t take kindly to men that hurt women. The Abrams boys won’t haul you in if you do it, they’ll likely help you bury the body in the hills.”
Grace shivered at the thought. “The Abrams brothers? They were all legs and fists back when I lived here. Glad to hear they’re still alive.”
“They’re not just alive,” Edward gave her a big grin. “They’re the law around here.”
That knocked her back on her heels. “The law? My, how times have changed!” Laughing, she watched her uncle spin around to rescue the burger he had on the flat top and slap it on a bun.
She held out a plate and kept it steady as he set the burger down on one side. She reached into the stainless steel containers on the counter and added tomato, lettuce, and their special house-made sauce. Edward put the top bun down and handed her the oblong bowl that went with the special.
Grace scooped up a bowlful of fries and then grabbed the long-handled ladle and put a heaping scoop of chili on the fries before adding a large spoonful of shredded cheddar on top. Taking a big sniff of the bowl, she headed for the door. “Don’t worry, Uncle. I’ll have him eating out of my hands.”
His laughter followed her out into the dining room.
Handsome and hungry was still sitting in the same place when she went back out. Setting the plate down first, she smiled. ‘You said the special. Here it is. Eddie’s famous burger and chili fries.”
Some people would grimace at the pile of food in front of him, but not this man. He looked like a little kid on Christmas morning, that is if kids at Christmas looked like they could bench press Santa’s sleigh and melt the North Pole with a smoldering look. And before she could say anything he grabbed one of the fries and lifted it up to his lips. A second later all of that gooey chili-cheesy goodness was in his mouth. Yeah, that was an image she didn’t need in her head or any other part of her body, because that man was fine.
One of the tables got up and headed for the register.
Swallowing hard, she moved away to the register and struggled to keep her focus on her job. She wanted to blame it on the hours and hours she’d spent on buses as she traveled across the states, but really, it was the idea that she’d finally met a man who wouldn’t shy away from her that was really turning her brain to mush.
“Well, I hope you enjoyed your meal.” She listened to the customer and nodded in the appropriate places as he paid her uncle a bunch of compliments. She soaked it up while she made the change. “I hope you’ll come back soon.”
“Me?” The man looked a little bashful as he answered back. “I’m here pretty much every other day when I’m not on duty at the…” he paused and looked at his friend, “at work. But if you’re going to be here-”
“I’ll be here as long as it takes my aunt to get well, so I’ll be here for at least a few weeks.” She reached out her hand to give him his change and he waved it off.
“Keep it for a tip.”
She looked down at the bills in her hand, but before she could look up to argue with him, the customer and his friend were outside on the way to his car.
Folding the bills up she dropped them in the tip jar on the back shelf. The jar was almost three quarters of the way full and Grace blew out a low whistle. Even split with the waitress coming in for the evening shift, she’d have a nice tidy sum to add to her travel money. Before she could decide what to do next the front door swung open with a jingle of the bell turning her head. “Welcome to the diner! Table for four?”
Chapter Three
A few hours later when the door opened, a harried young woman rushed in, her apron clutched in her hands. “Hey there, sorry I’m late!”
Grace looked up with a relieved smile, since her feet were killing her! “Just glad you’re here.” She held out her hand. “I’m Grace, Nellie and Edward’s niece.”
The young woman didn’t bother with shaking, she just wrapped her arms around Grace’s shoulders for a hug and then stepped back. “Thank goodness you could come! I take classes online during the day and work here in the evenings. And when I have some time off, I like to relax running the trails in the mountains and I’m so thrilled you’re here so I don’t have to give up any of that.”
When Grace managed to get in a word she took hold of the other girl by the shoulders and read her name off of the nametag she had pinned to her shirt. “Just remember to breathe once in a while, Kendra.”
A few short pants of air were all that she took. “Okay, will do. I’m going to go to the ladies and wash my hands and then you can go.”
She spun on her heel and started into the hall and then poked her head back into the dining room. “I’m Kendra, but whatever you want to call me is fine, whatever you like. Okay. Be right back.”
Grace could hear her uncle laughing in the kitchen.
“Don’t worry, Gracie. She does manage to let the customer get a word in edgewise every so often.”
Wiping her hand across her forehead she let out a whooshing breath. “Thank goodness! Need anything else before I go?”
Grace looked about the room. One table had their check. The other two had their food and the checks were written up on the pad with their tables clearly marked. Everything was ready to go, including herself.
Beside her, her uncle Edward had done the same visual perusal of the room. “Nope, you’ve been great! A lifesaver! Go give your aunt a kiss for me and I’ll be home when we close up.”
Picking up her suitcase in one hand, and slinging her purse over her other shoulder, Grace headed for the door.
She wasn’t more than a step outside when a truck pulled up, just a few feet away. Travis leaned out the window, his gaze eating her up. “You ready to go, Grace?”
Nodding, she changed the hold on her suitcase, even just holding it for a few moments, it was starting to chafe her palm “Absolutely. And thanks for offering to drive, I don’t mind walking, but carrying my suitcase, no thanks.” Starting around the truck toward the passenger side she came up short when she saw Travis in front of her near the far headlight.
Leaning back, she looked at the other side of the truck and saw the open door. “How did you get over here so fast?”
He shrugged and took the suitcase from her hand. “You didn’t think I was going to let you carry this or open your own door, did you?”
She paused and his eyes darkened in the twilight shadows.
“Well, if they weren’t smart enough to treat you with respect, they didn’t deserve you.” He’d obviously seen in her silence what she would rather forget.
Grace looked down and saw him offer her his arm. She wanted to argue with it and tell him he was too good to be true, but that thought was fleeting and gone a moment later. Slipping her hand into the crook of his arm, she felt the warmth of his body like a winter fire in the mountains, a gentle hum of energy that crackled along her skin.
It was drugging. That slow languid heat that sapped your energy and made you want to lay out in a hammock all afternoon long. Give her a glass of sweet tea and a tree full of Spanish Moss and she’d tuck herself against his side and lose herself in a dream.
A moment later she felt the shift of his body as he easily lifted her suitcase into the bed of his truck and then reached for the door handle. It swung open easily and bef
ore she could move to step up onto the runner, she felt Travis’ hands on her waist, lifting her into the cab.
She felt the soft seat under her backside and almost moaned. You could sink into a seat like that and fall asleep in minutes. There were other things that you could do on seats like those, and most of them involved bare skin and one of them on top.
“Comfortable?” His voice sounded lazy, but the look in his eyes was anything but. He was searching her eyes, or her face. She didn’t know which and she didn’t really care. His gaze moved from her to the seat that extended from the passenger side to the driver’s side of the cab. When he met her eyes again, she knew he’d guessed where her thoughts had been. “Don’t worry, Grace, I don’t have any intention of laying you down on this seat-”
“You don’t?” She blinked at him, her heart falling into the pit of her stomach. “Of course you don’t,” she forced a laugh and felt the color drain from her face as she struggled to keep a carefree expression on her face, “that would be silly.”
She felt a burning heat on her leg and looked down. Travis’ hand was on her knee… well, on her thigh, and one of his fingertips was hidden under the hem of her skirt. She wanted to push it away, but she was determined to be calm. Right. Sure. Whatever.
“Grace,” she felt his voice against her neck and it brushed against her skin like a caress, “look at me.”
She took a breath, steadying her nerves and telling her body to calm the hell down. Just because he had his thumb making sweet arcs on the inside of her thigh, it didn’t mean a thing.
“Grace?”
Lifting her gaze, she met his head on, challenging him. “Yes?” She hoped he heard the frosty tone of her voice and got the point, but a moment later she knew she was out of her depth. His eyes went dark, like the endless sky at night.
He curved his thumb and she felt the rough catch of a callus against her skin. “Maybe now, you’ll let me finish.”
Travis went silent and she concentrated on breathing… in and out, in and out, because he kept brushing his thumb over some kind of nerve she didn’t even know she had. And talking, just wasn’t something she was physically able to do with his hand touching her bare skin.
“I said that I don’t have any intention of laying you down on this seat, not while I’ve got this car parked in front of your uncle’s diner.”
His words sunk in, but she could only manage a slight nod.
“I’ve got no shame about my body, Grace, and I can’t wait to see your beautiful body as soon as you’re ready to show it to me, but,” he stepped closer and she instinctively parted her thighs so he could fit between her knees, “I don’t share. When you let me love you, we’re going to be alone, and hopefully somewhere you can scream and we won’t disturb the neighbors.”
She was fairly sure her mouth was hanging open.
She was also fairly sure her brain had frizzed out and stopped working.
It didn’t matter because she felt Travis’ hips pressed tight against her knees and his hands were both halfway up her thighs, under her skirt.
“Is that what you want, Grace?” He leaned closer. It was probably only a fraction of an inch, but Grace felt like he was close enough that she could almost taste his kiss.
And she wanted that kiss.
Badly.
“Yes.” The word managed to rush past her lips before she could even consider stopping it from happening. “Yes, that’s what I want.”
He smiled and the tension between them shifted. It was lighter, easier, at least on the surface, but under her skin she felt his heat and her own pooling together, raising the temperature between them. “Good. But first-”
“First,” she agreed, “we have dinner with my aunt.”
Travis stepped back, drawing his hands down her legs with an ease that had her shaking by the time he lifted his hands away. He held the door while she turned to face the dashboard, busying her hands with her seatbelt and then waiting while he rounded the cab and climbed up beside her. It gave her a little thrill when his arm brushed hers and she swore that she could feel the hard muscles beneath the worn green t-shirt he wore.
He put the truck in drive and moved toward the exit of the parking lot.
She pointed down the street. “Do you mind stopping at the store on the way? I don’t know what they have in the pantry.”
When he didn’t answer her right away, she looked over at him and saw his smug smile. “I asked you to dinner,” he reminded her, “I don’t expect you to pick up groceries.” Nodding his head toward the sliding window between their heads. “While you were finishing up work, I went to the market and asked them what your folks usually order up.”
She eased her focus away from his face, because all she wanted to do was climb up in his lap, straddle him, and kiss the stuffing out of this man. Her gaze landed on his hands where he gripped the wheel and she reached up to tug at her collar. “That was really sweet of you, Travis.”
“Just trying to take care of you, Grace. That’s all I want to do.”
Whoo boy. She wanted him to take care of her too. Crossing her ankles, she was able to press her thighs together, hoping to ease the building tension in her body.
It wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t going to be enough, until she got him beneath her.
She swallowed and pointed at the fork in the road. “Take the right.”
He easily turned the wheel in his hands and followed her directions. A few more turns and she didn’t even need to tell him which driveway to pull into. It must have been the way she grabbed onto the dashboard and leaned forward on the seat, a soft gasp filling the cab with her joy.
Grace fumbled with the release on her seatbelt, her fingers were almost numb with anticipation. She was a heartbeat away from looking down and jamming it with her finger when she felt the warm slide of his arm against her hip.
Heat crackled along her skin in its wake and she heard the distinct click of the seat belt releasing and the warm press of lips against her cheek.
The sound of Travis’ voice in her ear made her tremble. “Welcome home, Grace.”
He was fairly sure he’d broken her. Sliding down from his seat in the cab, he easily picked up the bag of groceries from the bed of his truck and circled around to her door. Pulling it open he had to tug on her hand to get her to move to the edge of the seat.
Once she was there, he leaned in, wrapped his arm around her waist, and with his hand full of her curvy hip, he lowered her down to the ground.
The hard way.
Along his body.
Every inch of his body from his abs to his knees against her lush curves. He was in heaven and in hell and he loved every minute of it. And if her hand fisting in his t-shirt and her lips parting on a shuddering sigh were any indication, she was right there with him in more ways than one.
“Come on, gorgeous,” he nudged her with a gentle push on her lower back, “let’s get inside before I forget that we’re taking this slow.”
“Slow?” He heard an echo of odd tones in her voice. Disappointment? Confusion?
Leaning down, he brushed his lips against the top curve of her ear and the soft mewling sound she made had him hard and breathless in an instant. “Slow enough that I’m going to be suffering every minute until I have you under me.”
Her breathing hitched and he nudged her again.
“Go inside so I can feed you.”
She nodded and took a stuttering step forward. Another few steps and they were well on their way to the front door.
He watched her bend over and pick up a flower pot beside the door. Her skirt pulled high on the backs of her legs and he was treated to the dark solid line of her thigh-high stockings against the pale perfection of her flesh.
Fuck me.
Standing, she fit the key into the lock and opened the front door. She moved inside and waited, holding the door.
He brushed off the bottoms of his boots on the rough-hewn mat and when he stepped inside sh
e stopped him with a hand on his chest. Travis looked down at her, his eyes narrowing in confusion.
“What-”
She rose up on the balls of her feet and pressed a kiss to his lips, savoring the touch for a long moment before moving away a half-step. “That’s because I didn’t have to ask you to wipe your boots off outside.”
“My mom taught me well.” He felt his chest swell a bit in pride. It was the truth. His mother had been the largest influence in his life and it was probably the reason why he didn’t get on with his uncle.
Her eyes narrowed and he suspected that she was staring at his mouth. Just for her, he dragged the tip of his tongue over his lip and heard her moan deep in her throat.
“So you’re telling me, that if I show you good manners, I’ll get a kiss as a reward?”
She blew out a breath and he felt it brush against his neck, tickling the soft lobe of his ear. “Maybe I should.” She took another step deeper into the room. “After all, good behavior should be rewarded, don’t you think?”
His bear inside of him got up on his massive paws and let a shudder roll through his powerful body. The massive grizzly opened his mouth wide and snapped it shut with a satisfying smack of his jaws. “What about bad behavior?”
“I guess that would depend.” She tilted her head toward the kitchen before she started to move, and maybe it was his imagination, but he thought she added a little extra sway in her hips and he couldn’t do anything else but follow behind her, enjoying the gravitational pull of her heavenly body.
“Depend on what?” He felt the back of his neck prickle with heat. Her tone and her playful nature were making him sweat in anticipation.
When she stopped in the dining room, she trailed her fingers along the edge of the oval table and shrugged. “On how good you are at being bad.”
