The Texan's Cowgirl Bride (Texas Rodeo Barons)

by Trish Milburn - The Texan's Cowgirl Bride (Texas Rodeo Barons)

  She rinsed the sand off the shell with the next incoming wave, then walked farther up the beach to a dry spot and sat down. As she stared out at the horizon, she wondered if she should continue her search. Was she to take today’s revelations as the impetus to keep looking or a warning that every lead was going to end in heartbreak?

  A tear escaped and ran down her cheek just as she realized someone was approaching. She swiped the tear away and turned to see Travis.

  “Mind if I join you, or do you want to be alone?”

  She patted the sand beside her. Being alone hadn’t provided any concrete answers to the questions swirling in her head. At least with Travis here, she’d have the comfort of his presence.

  He sat and propped his arms on his knees as he stared out at the Gulf of Mexico. “Makes you wonder why any of us live inland, doesn’t it?”

  She smiled a little. “I’m guessing it would lose its appeal if everyone lived here. Or when a hurricane was bearing down.”

  “There is that.”

  She realized as she sat there looking out at a landscape so different from the one she was used to seeing that she wouldn’t have her life any other way. Maybe she didn’t get to smell sea air every day, but the ranch was a part of her. She’d sunk not only her hard work and creativity into the Peach Pit but also her heart. Maybe finding her mother wasn’t what was important. She had brothers and sisters, a father and stepmother, people who were important parts of her life. And she’d soon be an aunt and would have another youngster besides Julieta’s son, Alex, to spoil with treats and gifts.

  Maybe that should be enough. She felt the need to draw inward, to cocoon.

  “Thank you for trying to find my mom.”

  Travis looked at her. “You’re not giving up, are you?”

  “I just don’t know if I’m strong enough to go through this over and over.”

  “You don’t have to. I don’t have to update you all the time, getting you invested in leads that might not pan out. I can keep looking and not tell you anything unless I do find her.”

  She hugged her knees close to her chest. “I’m not sure that would be any better. I’d always be wondering. Maybe it’s best if I just cut ties once and for all.”

  Travis cupped her jaw, running his thumb across her cheek. “I hope you don’t mean ties to me.”

  “Travis—”

  “Because I’m not letting you.”

  In the next moment, his lips captured hers in a kiss that sent zings of sexual awareness shooting to all her extremities. Travis pulled her close, and her hunger for him increased until she was ravenous. She might not have her mother, or even answers about her own future, but at the moment she had a wonderful, sexy man in her arms.

  “Come back to the cottage with me,” he whispered against her lips.

  “Okay.”

  As if he thought she might change her mind, Travis jumped to his feet and extended his hand to her. She placed hers in his and laughed when he pulled her up so quickly that she stumbled against him.

  “Don’t know your own strength?”

  His smile was wicked. “I knew exactly what I was doing.”

  And then he kissed her again, so deeply that she had to grip his shoulders to stay on her feet. As he took her hand and led her back toward the cottage, it was all she could do not to ask him to run. Because she was done putting off what she wanted. Everything else in her life might be full of questions but not the fact that she wanted to make love to Travis.

  They nearly tripped over their own feet as they hurried up the wooden steps to the cottage. As soon as they stepped through the bedroom door, Travis spun her into his arms again. His kiss stoked the fire already building inside her.

  “I can’t seem to get enough of you,” he said.

  “The feeling’s mutual.”

  “So what are we going to do about it?”

  She met his teasing by running her hands underneath the T-shirt he wore. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to satisfy my curiosity.”

  “About?”

  “What these muscles feel like. I’ve been wondering that since the morning I walked into my living room to see you stretched out on my couch shirtless.”

  He lifted a brow. “You could have satisfied your curiosity then.”

  “I wasn’t ready then.” She didn’t think he had been, either.

  “And you are now.”

  It wasn’t a question, but she answered anyway by shoving his shirt up and over his head. The sight of all that masculine skin, the feel of the cut muscles underneath her fingertips nearly made her pant like an animal.

  Travis eased his warm hands underneath her shirt, skimming her stomach. “Seems unfair for me to be shirtless and you still covered.”

  She met his eyes. “You’re right. What are you going to do about it?”

  A hint of a smile played at the edges of his mouth as his hands slid slowly upward over her stomach until they rested on her breasts. His fingers teased at the edge of her bra, one of the new ones she’d bought the night before. At the moment, she couldn’t remember what color it was and didn’t care.

  With agonizingly slow movements, Travis lifted her shirt over her head and tossed it across a lounge chair in the corner. He captured her lips again for a dizzying kiss before letting his mouth trail along her neck and then down to the swell of breast above her bra. In the next moment, he’d unclasped her bra and guided it down her arms. That warm, wet, talented mouth of his captured her left breast, causing a moan of pleasure to escape her.

  He kissed, licked and suckled her until she was in danger of collapsing.

  “I want to make love to you, Savannah, so bad.”

  “I want that, too. Now.”

  She gasped when he scooped her up into his arms as if she weighed next to nothing and carried her to the bed. He paused to rub his fingers gingerly over the fading bruising on her ribs.

  “Am I going to hurt you?”

  Such a simple question, but it carried an incredible impact, so much caring. Savannah lifted her hand to his face and cupped his strong jaw. “No.”

  Despite her answer, he was careful as he lay down beside her and pulled her close, capturing her mouth once again. Within moments, however, he seemed to forget his resolve to be gentle. The kiss grew more heated, yearning, desperate. The feel of her naked breasts against the warm skin of his chest made her body throb for even more contact.

  “Make love to me, Travis.”

  Within moments, he’d divested her of her shorts and underwear and quickly stood to remove his jeans and boxers and sheath himself. Savannah’s mouth watered when he stood before her naked, the setting sun providing an orange glow behind him.

  He joined her in the bed again, and words were put aside, replaced by caresses, kisses, a tangle of legs and the need to be even closer. Travis’s hand skimmed the curve of her hip before he moved it between her legs at the same time he used his thigh to nudge her legs apart. He teased her sensitive flesh, and she groaned into his mouth. His ministrations seemed to go on forever, driving her crazy with wanting, before he slipped a finger inside her.

  Instinctively, she pressed harder against him. Travis rolled her onto her back, and her heart sped up at the wonderful weight of him.

  His mouth moved to her ear, nibbling, then nuzzled her neck as his finger continued to circle and probe. He continued trailing his mouth down her neck until he captured her right breast this time. Her thoughts flew to the lump inside, but when Travis’s tongue darted against the tip she could think of nothing else but the pressure building in her middle, the absolute ecstasy of having her body tasted by this man.

  “Travis,” she breathed as she ran her hands through his hair, pressing him closer.

  As if he understood that the sound of his name on her
lips was a plea, he removed his hand from within her. He captured her whimper with his mouth on hers as he slipped the length of him inside her. Without thinking, she rose up to meet him.

  “Damn, you feel good,” he said, his breath ragged.

  She ran her hands down his back until they reached his hips and dug into that firm flesh.

  There was no more waiting, no more being slow and careful. Travis pulled almost all the way out before thrusting into her again. She cried out as she threw her head back against the pillow.

  Travis lifted his head. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No,” she gasped. “And stop talking.”

  The smile of male satisfaction that spread across his face made her dig her fingers deeper into his flesh. He reacted by pressing farther into her, then kissing her with so much passion that she instinctively spread her legs wider.

  Travis ran his fingers up the inner part of her thighs before sliding his palms beneath her hips. The next thrust came faster, the one that followed faster still. As his pace increased, so did Savannah’s breathing until she was gasping for breath. She loved the feel of his firm hips beneath her hands, the way they tightened with each thrust. The faster he moved, the closer she felt herself getting to release.

  “Keep going, don’t stop,” she said next to his ear.

  He complied, seeming to do the impossible by driving into her even faster.

  There, there, she...was...almost...

  Savannah gave the intensity of her release a voice by crying out Travis’s name. She was still riding the wave when she felt him tense all over. As she managed to focus on him above her, he threw back his head and thrust one more time before finding his own release. She’d swear he growled like an animal, and the muscles were stretched taut in his arms and neck. Unable to keep from touching him, she ran her hand down his sweat-slicked chest.

  When Travis met her eyes, she saw an intensity in his that made the deepest part of her sing. She knew without a doubt that she was totally in love with him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Travis fell back onto the bed, totally wiped out. But he’d swear at the moment that he’d never felt better in his life. A twinge of guilt tugged at him as he forcefully shifted his thoughts to intimate times with Corinne. There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in his mind that he’d loved her, that he’d enjoyed making love to her, but this? Now with Savannah? Perhaps the all-consuming happiness he felt at the moment was just the product of how recently he’d had sex, but he didn’t think so.

  Savannah ran her fingertips down the middle of his chest. “What are you thinking?”

  He would not tell her he’d been thinking of his wife. Instead, he turned his head toward her. “That I’m not sure if I’m ever going to be able to walk again.”

  Her cheeks pinkened as she smiled, and he couldn’t resist touching her. He pulled her next to him, and she laid her head on his shoulder. This, right now, was life at its best.

  “I’ve never done that before,” she said.

  “Had sex?” he teased.

  She playfully swatted his arm. “I’ve had sex.” She gestured toward the windows. “Just not with the blinds wide-open where anyone could see.”

  “They can’t see us from the beach. And even if they could, I guess we gave them a good show.”

  She made a sound of shocked surprise and poked him in the side.

  He laughed and kissed her on the forehead. “It was wonderful, Savannah.” He paused before he went on, wondering if he should say what he was thinking. But what they’d just shared had only convinced him further that he was falling in love with her, no matter how he’d once thought that impossible. “It’s the first time since Corinne.”

  Savannah pulled back to look at him. “Really?”

  He nodded. “Just didn’t seem right.”

  “And now?”

  He heard the concern in her voice and wanted to reassure her. “Nothing has ever seemed more right.”

  They kissed for a while, and he was beginning to be ready to go again when he realized that Savannah was tired. So instead of sating his building need for her, he allowed her to snuggle next to him and fall asleep. Carefully, he pulled the sheet up to cover their bodies. But when he caught sight of her naked breast, he stopped. He’d give anything to know for sure that she was perfectly healthy. While they’d made love, he’d been able to forget the fact that she might have cancer, that she could be ripped from him too soon as Corinne had been.

  He didn’t want to think that way, but it was impossible not to. When you’d been through an unexpected loss, you began to expect the same thing everywhere you turned. The fact that he hadn’t had sex with anyone else since Corinne’s passing was probably just him protecting himself. But he hadn’t done so with Savannah, and that self-protective instinct wondered if he’d made a mistake. Was it already too late to pull away, even if he thought he’d have the strength to do so?

  Though he wanted to be strong and positive for her, he felt too weak to keep the negative thoughts out of his head. They followed him into slumber and plagued his dreams, causing him to wake with a start sometime later.

  “You okay?”

  Her voice came from across the dark room. When he looked that direction, he saw her outline next to the window.

  “Yeah, fine. What are you doing?”

  “I’m too embarrassed to say.”

  “Oh, yeah?” He shifted off the bed and walked toward her. “This I’ve got to hear.”

  “No.”

  He lifted her chin. “What?”

  “I was just wondering...”

  “Wondering?”

  “What it’s like to make love out on the beach, under the stars.”

  Travis went instantly hard at the thought. He pulled her close and placed his lips next to her ear. “I say we find out.”

  A couple of minutes later, they hurried down the steps to the sand below.

  Savannah held his hand with one of hers and grasped a couple of blankets under her other arm. “I can’t believe we’re doing this. What if someone sees us?”

  “It’s the middle of the night. Most people are asleep.”

  “We’re not. Maybe some people like to go for walks on the beach at this hour.”

  At the bottom of the steps, he turned toward her and dropped a kiss on her sweet lips. “That’s what the blankets are for.”

  Travis felt like laughing as they hurried down to the beach. He remembered seeing an area a short distance from the cottage, a sort of natural alcove hidden by the dunes. He led Savannah there and spread one of the blankets. They lay down side by side facing the clear, star-filled sky.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  He shifted to his side to look at her. “So are you. I’ve always thought so.”

  She laughed a little, as if she didn’t believe him.

  “It’s true. I had a crush on you in high school.”

  She met his gaze, and even in the dim light he could see the disbelief.

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “I assure you, I did. I tried so many times to tell you, but I bungled it every time. Besides, your one true love was barrel racing back then.”

  “But Corinne?”

  Travis pushed Savannah’s hair behind her ear. “I moved on, fell in love, got married.”

  “I never told you how sorry I was about Corinne. She was a lovely person.”

  “Yeah, she was. I felt guilty about her death for a long time. Still do sometimes.”

  Savannah caressed his cheek. “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “It was my fault that I wasn’t here. I was thousands of miles away.”

  “Even if you had been here, it likely wouldn’t have changed anything.”

  His heart ached with old pain. “I’l
l never know for sure. She might not have stopped at that gas station that day. We could have been on vacation, at home, out to eat, anywhere but there.”

  “You are no more at fault for Corinne’s death than I am for my mother leaving.”

  “It’s not the same. Your mother is still out there somewhere.”

  “We don’t know that, either. What I do know is that I wondered if I’d done something to make my mom run away. That’s what happens when you’re a little kid and your mother leaves a note on the kitchen table saying she can’t stay anymore, that she needs to be alone.”

  Travis pulled Savannah close. “It wasn’t anything you did.”

  “I know that now. And you have to believe that what happened to Corinne was no one’s fault but that man who shot her.”

  Somewhere down deep, he knew that. But that didn’t make it any easier to totally absolve himself. Corinne had died alone, and he had to live with that. As he looked into Savannah’s eyes, however, he realized he wanted to move on. “You’re amazing, always have been.”

  “Not really. I’m just a girl who likes horses and baking pies.”

  He placed his palm against her chest. “And who has a kind heart.”

  Travis pulled the second blanket over the top of them and kissed Savannah. Slowly, they made their way out of their clothes and made love under the wide Texas sky. As he opened his heart up to her, he felt the old wall he’d built around it beginning to crumble and fall away.

  * * *

  SAVANNAH HAD NEVER had a better weekend, not even when she was at the height of her winning years on the rodeo circuit. Considering her health was still uncertain and she felt no closer to finding her mother and the answers she realized were still important, her happiness was even more amazing. But she’d never felt closer to anyone in her life than she did Travis. That didn’t seem reasonable, possible, but it was no less true.

  They took long walks on the beach, talking about everything that had happened to each of them in the years since high school. He took her to eat fresh seafood, scrumptious pizza and French pastries at a tiny bakery called Délicieux. They sat on the deck holding hands and watched the gorgeous sunrise. And they spent a good bit of time in bed, discovering all the curves and pleasures of each other’s bodies.