Before she could think of something to say that wouldn’t give her inner thoughts away, there was a knock on her apartment door. “I think our dinner has arrived,” she said, thankful for Mr. Chang’s habit of always being punctual.
“Why don’t you set the table while I take care of the delivery guy?” Travis asked, starting toward the door.
As he walked across the living room, he wondered what in the name of hell he’d been thinking when he’d taken Fin up on her offer to eat at her place. They couldn’t be within twenty feet of each other for more than a couple of minutes without the sexual tension around them becoming so thick it could be cut with a knife. And just the thought of how responsive she’d been to his touch that night in his barn was enough to make his body as hard as a chunk of granite.
But no matter how strong the attraction was between them or how great the sex, nothing could ever come of it. Not only was she Jessie’s biological mother, Fin Elliott was a sophisticated career woman. She was city from the top of her pretty red head all the way to her perfectly polished toenails. Her lifestyle was glitz and glamour and that was a far cry from the simple life he led in the wide open spaces on the Silver Moon Ranch. While she attended formal galas and went to trendy nightclubs, he was more apt to be going to a stock auction or stopping in at the local honky-tonk for a cold beer.
As he paid the delivery boy, Travis took a deep breath. The best thing he could do for his peace of mind would be to remove himself from the temptation that Fin Elliott posed to his suddenly overactive libido. He’d take the food into the dining room, make his excuses and head back to his hotel for room service and a shower cold enough to make him spit ice cubes.
But a few minutes later, when he set the bag on the chrome-and-glass table, Fin’s warm smile had him settling onto a chair across from her. As he watched her pull white cartons with red Chinese symbols from the sack, he counted at least six, plus a couple of foam containers and some small waxed paper bags.
“How much did you order?” he asked, skeptically eyeing the amount of food in front of them.
She stopped fussing over the lids on the containers of what looked to be some kind of soup to give him a sheepish grin. “For some reason, everything sounded so good.” She caught her perfect lower lip between her teeth. “But I think I might have gotten a little carried away.”
“It looks like you’re getting ready to feed an army.” Laughing, he reached for one of the boxes. “Lucky for you, I’ve always had a pretty healthy appetite.”
“I normally try to watch what I eat, but lately, I’ve been absolutely ravenous,” she said, spooning a heaping mound of rice onto her plate.
They ate in silence for some time, but Travis took little notice of the flavorful food. His mouth had gone as dry as a desert when he watched Fin delicately nibbling on a barbecue rib. But when her index finger disappeared between her kissable lips as she sucked away the last traces of sauce, his heart stalled and he felt as if he’d taken a sucker punch to the gut.
“That was good,” he lied when, several minutes later, they settled down on the couch to drink their coffee. Truth to tell, he had no idea what he’d consumed, let alone how it had tasted. But it beat the hell out of telling her the truth—that he’d been so caught up in watching her, he’d practically forgotten his own name.
“I’m sorry you missed out on your steak dinner,” she said apologetically.
“I wouldn’t have enjoyed it anyway.” He took a sip of the worst coffee he’d ever tasted in his entire life. Placing his cup on the coffee table in front of them, he decided that Fin might be beautiful and sexy as sin, but she couldn’t make coffee worth a damn.
“You wouldn’t have enjoyed your dinner because you missed getting to spend time with Jessie?”
“Not really.” Shaking his head, he grinned as he stretched his arm along the back of the couch behind her. “I’d had about all I could take of old Ornery and his hovering. That more than anything will put a man off his feed.”
“He was a bit much, wasn’t he?” The sound of Fin’s delightful laughter sent a wave of heat streaking from the top of his head all the way to the soles of his size 13 boots.
Travis nodded as he touched the silky strands of her auburn hair with his index finger. “Old Ornery crossed the line between providing good service and being a pain in the butt.”
When he moved his hand to lightly stroke the satiny skin at the nape of her neck, he felt her tremble. It was only the slightest of movements, but there was no mistaking that she was feeling the same overwhelming pull that he was.
As he watched, she closed her eyes and leaned back into his touch. “You know what Jessie was up to this evening, don’t you?”
Putting his arm around Fin’s slender shoulders, he pulled her closer to his side. “Our daughter is trying to set us up.”
“That would be my guess.” Fin’s voice was softer than usual and she sounded a little breathless.
“Jess has been after me for quite a while to improve my social life.” He chuckled. “Before she moved here, she even hinted that I’d been hiding out on the ranch ever since my wife died.”
Fin nodded. “I’ve been accused of using my career to avoid becoming involved with anyone.”
“Have you?” Realizing that she might be offended by his question, he shook his head. “It’s really none of my business.”
“I don’t mind.” She opened her eyes to look at him. “I haven’t been using my career as an excuse. I’m just not good at relationships.” She smiled. “As long as we’re being honest about it, what about you? What’s your excuse?”
He wasn’t sure how to answer. It had taken him a few years, but he’d finally moved past the grief and accepted that he and his wife, Lauren, had been robbed of growing old together. But getting back into the dating pool seemed a little ridiculous at his age. And to be truthful about it, he hadn’t really wanted to expend the energy to try.
“Some people might call it hiding out.” He shrugged. “I think it’s been more a case of not knowing how to be single again. I met my wife when I was nineteen years old and we were together until she passed away a few years back. If I have any dating skills left, they’re pretty rusty. And besides, the rules of the game have changed quite a bit over the past thirty years.”
She smiled. “Some of us were never good at the rules to begin with.”
When his gaze met hers, he seriously doubted that Fin had any problems with dating protocol or with men asking her out. She most likely had them lined up from one end of the city to the other just waiting for any indication she’d be willing to grace them with her companionship.
“You’re probably a lot better at it than you think, sweetheart.”
Staring into her beautiful emerald eyes, Travis couldn’t have stopped himself from leaning forward to press a kiss to her perfect lips if his life depended on it. But instead of the brief, friendly peck he’d intended, the feel of her lips as she kissed him back sent a wave of longing all the way to his soul and he didn’t think twice about taking the kiss to the next level.
When Travis’s firm masculine lips moved over hers with such tenderness that it brought tears to her eyes, Fin felt something warm and inviting blossom deep inside of her. The feeling quickly spread to fill every corner of her being. Never in all of her thirty-eight years of life could she remember a kiss being as enchanting, as compelling, as his gentle caress.
Without a thought to the consequences or the fact that they were playing a game that could very well end in disaster, not to mention destroy her newfound relationship with Jessie, Fin didn’t so much as hesitate to move closer and wrap her arms around Travis’s broad shoulders. Is was totally insane, but she wanted to feel his strength surrounding her, needed to once again savor the taste of his masculine desire.
When he traced the soft fullness of her lower lip, she felt as if the blood in her veins turned to warm honey and she opened for him on a ragged sigh. Every detail of their night together in
Colorado came rushing back as he tasted and explored her with tender care, and Fin felt her body tingle to life as he coaxed her to respond.
She’d never thought of herself as a sensual being, but in Travis’s arms she felt more sexy, more alive than she’d ever felt in her life, and she tentatively met his demands by stroking his tongue with the tip of her own. His deep groan and the tightening of his arms around her was her reward. Feeling more feminine and powerful than she had in a very long time, she pressed herself to his wide chest. Heat flowed through her from the top of her head all the way to the tips of her toes as he stroked the tender inner recesses of her mouth. Fin could have no more stopped the insanity than she could stop her next breath.
Desire, sweet and pure, filled every cell of her being, but when he broke the kiss to nibble a path down the column of her throat, the building passion sent waves of delicious sensation coursing throughout her body. Her insides quivered and a soft moan escaped her lips as the heat flowed through her and began to gather in the pit of her stomach.
“Tell me to stop, Fin. Tell me to get the hell away from you before this goes any further,” he said, his voice raspy with the same need overtaking her.
“I don’t think…I can,” she answered honestly.
His deep chuckle caused her to shiver with longing. “Then we may be in a heap of trouble, sweetheart, because I’m not sure I have enough strength to do the gentlemanly thing and leave on my own.”
“You’re right. We have a big problem, because I’m not sure I want you to be noble,” she said before she could stop herself.
His chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath. “I haven’t been able to forget that night back in October when you visited the ranch.”
“I haven’t, either.”
“I don’t know how it’s possible, but I want you even more now than I did then.”
Her breath caught and her heart skipped a beat when he slid his large hand along her ribs to the underside of her breast. “Th-this is insane.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” he said as he cupped the soft mound through the layers of her clothing.
“I’m not good…at relationships,” she reminded him when he began to trace slows circles over the tip of her sensitive breast.
“Like I told you earlier, I’m not looking for one,” he said, his lips caressing the side of her neck as he spoke. “But I know what it’s like to make love to you and I’d like to do it again.”
“No strings attached?”
He nodded. “We’ve already opened that corral gate and the horse got out. I can’t see the harm in having one last time together.”
Resting her head against his shoulder, Fin did her best to remember all of the complications that being with this man could cause. But for the life of her, she couldn’t think of a single one at the moment. And if she were perfectly honest with herself, she didn’t even want to.
Before she could change her mind, she pulled from his arms, stood up and held out her hand. When he placed his callused palm on hers and rose to his feet, the look in his incredible blue eyes promised forbidden ecstasy and dark pleasure.
“One last night,” she said as she led him into her bedroom and closed the door.
Three
Fin’s heart raced and her knees had started to tremble, but calling a halt to what she and Travis were about to do wasn’t a consideration. She felt as if she would burn to a cinder if she didn’t once again feel the tenderness of his touch and experience the power of his passion.
“I know this is going to sound like I’ve lost my mind, but I have to know,” he said, his voice low and intimate as he turned her to face him. “Are you sure about this, Fin?”
Just like everyone else, there had been several instances in her life when she’d been uncertain about her decisions. But this wasn’t one of them.
“If we don’t make love, I think I’ll go up in flames, Travis.”
“No regrets tomorrow?”
“Maybe.” She caught her lower lip between her teeth to keep it from trembling a moment before she shook her head. “But not about you or our lovemaking.”
She knew he was confused by her answer, but she wasn’t sure how to explain what she didn’t fully understand herself. How could she put into words that if she had any misgivings at all about what they were about to share, it wouldn’t be about him or their night together? It was her inability to share more of herself than just her body that saddened her.
But she’d made a decision the day her father had forced her to give up her daughter. She’d vowed to concentrate on building a career that no one could take away from her. Very few men wanted to take a backseat to a woman’s commitment to her work, let alone accept it and understand why she was so driven to succeed.
Of course, with Travis it was a moot point. He wasn’t looking for a relationship any more than she was, nor did he have any expectations that they would ever have anything more than this one night together. Still, it seemed rather sad to think of all that she’d had to sacrifice in order to ensure her success.
Reaching up, she smoothed the lines creasing his forehead with the tip of her index finger. “Rest assured, I don’t regret that night at your ranch, nor will I regret making love with you tonight.”
“Then what—”
“It doesn’t matter.” She placed her finger to his firm lips to silence him. “Please hold me, Travis. I need you to kiss me and make love with me.”
He stared at her for several long seconds as if trying to assimilate what she’d said before he took her into his arms. Slowly lowering his head to settle his mouth over hers, Travis kissed her with a thorough tenderness that brought tears to her eyes and curled her toes inside her chic black pumps.
Her pulse sped up and her stomach fluttered with anticipation when he deepened the kiss and she tasted his undeniable hunger for her. As she surrendered herself to the way he was making her feel, every nerve in her body sparked to life and a heavy warmth flowed through her veins, settling into a delicious coil deep in the pit of her belly.
As he teased her with a light stroking touch of his tongue to hers, she was vaguely aware that he’d moved his hands from her back to her waist. But when he slid his palms up over her ribs, her heart skipped several beats and her nipples tightened in anticipation of his gentle caress.
When they’d made love that night in his barn, their joining had been spontaneous and hurried—an unplanned union with the danger of being discovered. But tonight would be different. Although neither of them had intended for the evening to end with their sleeping together, tonight they had time to explore, time for the excitement of discovering what pleased each other. And they were completely alone. There was little or no possibility of anyone interrupting the coming together of two lonely souls in search of a few hours of comfort and companionship in each other’s arms.
The exquisite sensations radiating from her breasts when he finally grazed the sensitive tips through her clothes sent liquid fire racing through her veins and caused her knees to wobble. The taste of his passionate kiss and the feel of his gentle touch were both thrilling and, at the same time, extremely frustrating. She wanted to feel his hands on her body without the encumbrance of satin and lace, wanted to experience the excitement of his firm lips and moist tongue savoring her sensitive skin.
“You feel so damn good,” he said, raising his head. He drew in a ragged breath as he reached to turn on the bedside lamp. “But it’s not enough. I’m a visual kind of guy. I want to see your beautiful body while I’m bringing you pleasure.”
Captured by his intense stare, Fin felt as if he could see all the way to her soul and knew the degree of need he was creating within her. “I want to see and touch you, too, Travis.”
With nothing more than a promising smile, he pulled the tail of the shirt from the waistband of his jeans, then took her hands in his and guided them to the snap closures. “Taking off each other’s clothes was one of the many things we missed getting to do the fir
st time we were together.”
Her stomach fluttered with a delightful thrill at the thought of undressing him. “What else did we miss?” she asked as she unfastened the first gripper.
“We didn’t get to take our time the way I would have liked,” he answered, leaning forward to nibble on her earlobe.
“How long—”
“What I have in mind will take all night, sweetheart.”
A shiver streaked up her spine and her fingers didn’t seem to want to work as she fumbled with the next snap. “A-anything else?”
The look in his eyes seared her. “I didn’t get to kiss you in ways that will make you blush from just thinking about it.”
“I—I don’t blush easy.” Why couldn’t she get her voice to work the way it should?
When he whispered what he intended to do, a jolt of pure electrified desire shot to every part of her being and she knew exactly why her vocal cords were freezing up. He was trying to send her into sensual meltdown and doing an excellent job of it.
“Is that what you want, Fin?”
Unable to get words past her suddenly dry throat, she nodded. She wanted everything this wonderful man was willing to give and had every intention of returning the favor in kind.
When she finally managed to unfasten the last snap on his shirt, she parted the chambray to gaze at his perfectly sculpted chest and stomach. A fine dusting of downy, dark blond hair covered sinew made hard from years of strenuous physical labor. She knew several male models who would kill to have Travis’s muscle definition. But his perfectly padded pecs and rippling belly were results that no amount of time spent in a gym could accomplish.
“You’re magnificent,” she said, deciding he definitely had a point about their missing out on several enjoyable steps in the fine art of foreplay.
His low chuckle sent a wave of goose bumps shimmering over her skin. “I’ve been called a lot of things in my life—most of them pretty unflattering—but this is the first time anyone’s ever referred to me as magnificent.”
Dynasties:The Elliots, Books 7-12 Page 63
