“It’s okay,” Travis said, patting her hand reassuringly. “Yes, I own my own vet business. I’m moving here from Kentucky, so I’ll have to start over and get all new clients, yes, but I don’t plan on allowing you or your brother to pay for a damn thing. I have money. Yes, I will be living here with Laurie… it’s what married couples tend to do, but I’ll be bringing plenty into the marriage. Laurie and I haven’t known each other a real long time, but we know love when we see it; neither of us is stupid. As to my car, it’s the one toy I allow myself. Back at my old place, I have a practical truck that I use for the business, and I’ll be bringing it back here as soon as I can.”
“And I suppose you expect me to just accept this as a done deal and not say or do anything to stir the pot in any way. I should just tuck my tail between my legs and walk away without checking him out and making sure this guy is going to be good to you?” Jeff asked, glaring at Laurie in an accusatory way.
Laurie had put up with Jeff’s overprotective crap for long enough and she stepped between the two men, her nostrils flaring as she faced her brother down. “I am perfectly capable of making my OWN decisions on if Travis will be good to me or not. I don’t need my overbearing nosy little brother butting into my relationship and trying to take it over. You want nothing to do with marriage. Why would I listen to a damn thing you had to say about any of this?”
Jeff grumbled under his breath and walked back over to his horse and climbed up onto its back. “If you won’t listen to reason from me, I’ll send in the big guns, because if you honestly believe I’m going to just sit back and let you marry some guy you JUST met that none of us knows spit about, you’ve got another thing coming. Expect Eric here within the hour… he’s going to be spitting mad when he gets wind of this.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not the only one who is going to be pissed off when he gets here,” Laurie mumbled grumpily as she watched Jeff ride off at a full gallop, a billowing cloud of dust following in his wake.
She turned to Travis and offered him a tired smile. “Let’s get our things inside and I’ll brew a pot of coffee. Eric won’t be as easy to get rid of as Jeff was. I’m really sorry they’re so pushy… In all fairness, I did warn you…”
“Yeah, you did,” Travis said, chuckling as he grabbed their suitcases and followed her into the house. “No worries. It’s nothing I can’t handle. If I had a sister with no folks to look after her, I’d most likely be in the face of any man claiming to want to marry her after only knowing her for a few short weeks as well. I’d think something was up… that he had something to gain by making her his bride. I’d want to check him out too. Your brother cares about you, Laurie. As irritating as it may be for you, for them to constantly stick their noses into your business, I have no doubt that it’s done with the utmost love on their part. I’m not ashamed of the way I feel about you, and I’m not afraid to fight if that’s what it comes to, for the right to pursue our relationship.”
By this time they were in the house and sitting at the table. The coffee was percolating in the pot on the counter and the suitcases were sitting in her bedroom on the floor by the dresser. Eric would flip out if he knew that she had every intention of moving Travis into her room immediately. After spending the last few weeks falling asleep in his arms, she wasn’t sure she was capable of falling asleep without him anymore.
As far as she was concerned, it was one more point for Travis in his campaign to marry her. Sooner or later, if she didn’t say yes, he was going to leave her and go back to his practice in Kentucky. Her heart broke just thinking about watching him drive away knowing he would never return. Of course, she’d already decided to say yes to his proposal… but Travis didn’t know that yet. She had to make sure that they could survive her brother’s onslaught… There had to be a glimmer of light in the distance that proved that someday down the road, Eric and Jeff would grow to not only accept Travis in her life, but to love him like a brother. That was really important to her. As crazy as those brothers of hers drove her, she loved them; flaws and all.
They were sipping their coffee with one hand and holding onto each other for dear life with the other when they heard Eric’s truck spin its tires as he pulled into her driveway at top speed. Laurie sighed and then gulped nervously. “You may be ready for this… but I’m not sure I am,” she admitted honestly.
She loved her older brother and respected him for all he’d been through in his life. After he’d lost his first wife, he had withdrawn so far into himself; the only thing he’d thought about was taking care of his younger siblings. It wasn’t until he’d met and fallen in love with the woman who’d accidentally been implanted with his first wife’s eggs that Eric had finally remembered what living was all about.
Sadly, that hadn’t stopped his need to interfere in her life though. She was nervous about what a man like Eric would say when a perfect stranger to him announced that he wanted to marry his little sister after only knowing her for a few weeks.
Most likely, he would rant and rave at her if she admitted that she’d fallen in love with the man after only a week and a half. He’d be even less impressed if he were to learn that she’d slept with Travis before her heart had taken the plunge. She knew her big brother well enough to know exactly what he would say. He’d claim that her emotions were mixed up and that she was mistaking lust for love. Well, she had news for him… she’d been in lust plenty over the years. It hadn’t felt a thing like what she was experiencing now. No; this was definitely the real thing. All she had to do now was convince Eric. The very idea was unsettling at best. She honestly couldn’t remember a time when she had been more freaked out by anything she had to do. Terrified might even be too mellow a word to explain the fear ripping through her as her brother stomped up to her front door and pounded on it hard enough to rattle the hinges.
“Open up! I know you’re in there!” he bellowed through the closed door. “I swear, I’ll kick the damn door in if you don’t open it in the next ten seconds!”
Laurie leapt from her seat, knowing he meant every word of the threat and sprinted to the door, yanking it open and holding it ajar so he could push his way into her home. Her brother was a big man and as he stood beside her fuming mad, he made a very imposing sight to behold. “Eric, calm down before you have heart failure,” she scolded shakily as she quietly closed the door, taking a moment to fortify her nerves with a deep cleansing breath.
“Calm down?” he asked hysterically. “How can you expect me to calm down? My little brother barges into my house yelling and screaming about our only sister insisting she is going to MARRY some guy she’s known all of a month that neither of us have ever even heard of let alone know a damn thing about and you think I should be CALM about it?” His nostrils were flared and his eyes were wild. Laurie had seen him angry a lot over the years, but he’d never looked quite this scary. She stammered and took a huge step backwards away from him so that she was out of his reach in case he took a swing in her direction. Eric wasn’t one to ever strike a person when he was mad, but then again, she’d never seen him anywhere near this angry in all her years.
“First of all, I didn’t announce anything… He just barged in on us the second we got back. He demanded to know what was going on and Travis humored him by answering as honestly as he could. I’m a grown woman, Eric. I don’t owe you an explanation. This is MY life we’re talking about here, not yours.”
“Are you telling me that Jeff stretched the truth? That this man didn’t claim to intend on marrying you?” Eric demanded angrily.
Travis cleared his throat and took his hat off, running his fingers over the rim. “I had intended on coming into town and introducing myself to you and your brother and getting to know you properly before asking for Laurie’s hand the old fashioned way… but it would seem that it wasn’t destined to happen that way. I know that it must seem like it happened quickly to you… but I assure you, I love your sister. Sometimes in life, you meet someone and you just know. That’s
what happened with us… at least on my part,” he said, looking over at Laurie.
“Mine too,” she said in a breathy voice. She looked over at her brother and swallowed hard. “I know you don’t understand and you may not like it… but what happens between Travis and I is none of your business. Now, I’m going to ask you to trust me to make my own decisions like the grown woman I am and leave us in peace. We’re not getting married right away, so you can relax. I promise you, I’ll take my time and make sure this is what’s right for my future. But I won’t put up with having you underfoot while we try to see if we can make things work. And before you think about sending Jeff back here, let me assure you, if you do that, I’ll run away with Travis get married and move back to Kentucky with him where you’ll never see me again. Leave us be, and we might decide to settle here where you can be part of our lives. Deal?”
“Alright, Laurie… but I swear to you, if he hurts you, I’ll cut him down to size faster than you can ask how it happened.”
Having said that, Eric spun around and left just as quickly as he had forced his way into the house, leaving them in silence… their previously spoken words of intention hanging in the air so thick it was almost a physical presence.
Chapter 14
“So…” Laurie said, dragging the word out awkwardly. “Now what?” Travis shrugged his shoulders. “How should I know? It’s not like I’ve ever proposed to a woman before. Actually, I never intended to get married at all, but a couple of days acting the part with you, and it was all I could think about.”
“We were only seeing the up side of being a couple because it wasn’t real,” Laurie said, nervously chewing on her lip.
“My feelings for you are as real as they come,” he whispered huskily, wrapping his arms around her waist and looking down into her face.
Laurie shook and she had no idea if it was nerves or excitement… or a little bit of both. Her eyelids felt heavy as she watched him lean down towards her, his lips mere inches away from hers. “I can’t fight how I feel about you, Laurie; and I don’t believe you want to fight your feelings for me either.”
She was breathing hard and her heart was pounding irregularly. “Travis…” she sighed heavily, lifting her face to his, wanting his kiss more than she’d ever wanted anything else in her life.
“Tell me you love me,” he demanded in a graveled voice. “That this thing isn’t a one way street. That there’s at least a chance that you might agree to marry me one day…”
A whimper escaped and Laurie lifted up on her tip-toes, closing the distance between them, pressing a hungry kiss to his lips. He groaned and swept her closer to his chest, deepening the embrace until they were both breathless with need.
“Tell me that’s a yes,” he begged between hot kisses to her lips, cheeks and jawbone. “Yes,” she whispered huskily. “I’ll marry you… as soon as possible… I love you… as horrified as I know my brothers will be by it all, I can be just as stubborn as they are. I won’t let them make our lives miserable,” she promised.
Travis swept her up into his arms, carrying her back to her bedroom, pressing hungry kisses tall over her face. “As long as I have you, I could never be miserable… You’ve made me a very happy man… I swear to you, I’ll never give you reason to regret loving me and giving me a chance.”
After that, there were no more words as he laid her down on the bed and made sweet love to her. They each uttered words of devotion and love as they clung to each other. Laurie didn’t know how they would manage to get married without her brothers interfering or stopping them, but she loved Travis enough to take the chance. If they tried stopping the wedding, they wouldn’t like the price they’d pay, because she’d never let them hear the end of it. Early the next morning, Travis drove Laurie into her garage and helped her with anything he could. Midway through the day, she had her head under the hood of a neighbor’s truck and he was watching her, thinking how beautiful she was and how lucky he was.
“I hate to say this to you, but I’m going to have to go back to Kentucky sooner rather than later… I have to get my business moved. I have all my personal belongings with me… but the vet business is all back there. I need to be able to support you, even if you don’t think you need to be taken care of. Your brothers are never going to accept me as your husband until I can show them that I’m not looking at you as a way to kick back and do nothing while you pay my way.”
Laurie looked up at him, wiping her hands on a grease rag. “Would you mind if I went with you?” she surprised him by asking.
“Of course I wouldn’t mind… I just figured, I’d already asked you to miss out on a lot of work when I dragged you to my mother’s house. Then there are your brothers… What would they say?”
“I don’t give two figs what Eric and Jeff have to say about it. I meant what I said… this is my life we’re talking about here. As an overall general rule, I keep the town’s people’s cars in good working order. They can handle me taking another week or two off while I help my fiancé move.”
A slow grin covered his face and he swept her into a tight embrace. “I do like the sound of that word on your lips… fiancé. Although, I must admit… I liked having you call me husband even better.”
“Does that mean I can come with you?” she asked, walking over to him and lifting her face accepting his kiss. Travis groaned loudly. “Sweetheart, I can’t think straight when you kiss me like that,” he mumbled against her lips.
She sighed and stepped away against her will. “This is my place of business,” she said, smiling. “If one of us should be concentrating on thinking straight, it’s me. But instead, all I can think about is the sexy man in the room and the way you kiss me.”
“Any chance I can sweet talk you into actually running away with me and getting married on the down low at a moments’ notice at a little 24 hour wedding chapel like we told my mom?” he asked, nibbling on her ear and pressing tiny kisses down the curve of her neck.
Tears flooded Laurie’s eyes and she struggled to blink them back. “Do you really want that?” she asked, sniffling. “I want you to already BE my wife, just like I told my mother. I want that ridiculous yarn we spun for her to be the truth.”
“In that case, let’s make it true,” she said, smiling through the tears.
“And your brothers?” he asked nervously.
“Screw ‘em,” she said playfully. “Second thought… don’t. That hot bod of yours is all mine and I’m not sharing with anyone, let alone my own brothers. Forget about them. They’ll have to learn to deal with it sooner or later. It’ll serve them right for butting in on my life and barging in here demanding input on the important decisions in my life.”
Travis grinned widely. “Would it be too pushy of me to ask you to wrap up things here at the garage so we can go back to your house and make love?” he teased, kissing her cheek, dragging his lips towards her mouth.
“I have to finish fixing the truck,” she argued in a whispered voice. He slipped his hand under her shirt to touch her heated skin and she groaned. “Travis…” she moaned, arching her neck when he bent his head to caress it, placing tender kisses all along its length.
“I can’t help it,” he explained huskily. “I want you…”
Laurie groaned again. “Give me ten minutes to finish the truck and I’m all yours…” He reluctantly pulled away and sat down in a chair watching as she quickly went back to work on the truck. He’d never seen anyone do anything so quickly in his life and he couldn’t seem to stop smiling. The fact that she was just as anxious to be with him as he was to make love to her just made him that much happier.
In his mind, they were already half way back to Kentucky, stopping to get married before they finished the road trip back to his office to pack up his things. He crossed his legs and leaned back with his head resting against the wall behind him. He could afford to be generous and give her the time it would take to finish working on the truck. Besides, he rather liked watching her in full m
echanic mode. She was sexy with grease all up her arms, and that tiny smudge she’d gotten on her cheek when she’d scratched an itch only made her look that much more desirable to him.
“Do you know anywhere near by that I might be able to buy some land that’s big enough to put a barn and vet clinic? I’d like to have somewhere to put my equipment when we get back.”
“As a matte r of fact, the plots on each side of mine are both for sale. If we bought them both, we could put the barn and clinic on one side and I could build a bigger garage on the other… I just haven’t had quite enough funds to buy it and build the garage myself just yet.”
Travis nodded his head. “I don’t see why we can’t make that work. I’ve got a bit of money saved and my business is worth a mint… Selling it off to another vet should get us more than enough funds to buy the land and build the barn, the clinic and the garage.”
“You don’t have to do that…” she said, feeling guilty. “I don’t want to be with you just because of what I think you can give me…”
The smile that covered his face was priceless. “Don’t you think I know that? After all, you didn’t have a clue what I was worth when we got together. It’s what I love the most about being with you. What we share is completely honest.”
“Well, if we’re talking honesty here, perhaps I should tell you I’m thinking about getting your name tattooed on my ass to prove that you are the sole owner of it and everything attached to it. What do you think? The last time I got ink just because, my brother pretty much had a conniption fit.”
“One more reason to do it in my opinion … I suppose I could deal with you getting my name tattooed onto your hot bod… but only if you don’t mind my getting your name on mine,” Travis said, giving her a heart-stopping smile. “Have I mentioned how much I love that you’re strong enough to have all that ink? It turns me on, something awful.”
Texas Heat (Stubborn Texas Siblings Book 2) Page 8
