by Jill Sanders
When he finally moved up and positioned himself right outside of her heat, he felt his arms shake, his body shake with anticipation. He wanted the moment to last, but knew that too soon he’d be spent. He wasn’t usually quick; he’d pleased a lot of women in the past. But the last few people he’d slept with had complained that he was a selfish lover. Both Alexis and Savannah had said so.
He felt a shiver of nerves run through him and wanted to hold out as long as he could. For himself and for her. When he slid into her, he closed his eyes and tried hard to focus on making the feeling last. Then she moved and he couldn’t stop his hips from flexing, over and over again. She wrapped her legs around his hips, and her nails dug into his shoulders. He looked down at her and saw her blue eyes turn darker. Her lips were swollen slightly and when he leaned down and kissed them, he realized she was on the verge of coming. He grabbed her bent leg and hoisted it up to his chest, then reached down and touched her slightly and watched the most beautiful thing he’d seen in years. Her skin flushed, she bit her swollen bottom lip, and she moaned with pleasure. Her wet hair was fanned out over the pillow and all he could think about doing was making her come again and again.
He began to move faster and faster and felt himself building up, but he wanted to wait. Wait until she could come with him this time.
“Please,” she begged.
“What?” he groaned. “Tell me.” He used his hips and held her leg close to his chest, gripping her sweet ass in his hand. His nails dig into the soft skin, and he wished he could bury his face into the softness.
“Travis, come with me.” She shook her head back and forth, and he realized she was on the edge once more. This time he knew he would go with her. Leaning down, he kissed her so deeply that he felt his heart skip as he let himself go completely for the first time in his life.
·
Chapter Five
Holly lay there and listened to their breathing. What had she done? She’d just had wild, crazy sex with one of the baddest boys in Texas. That’s what! Everyone in Fairplay—hell, in the county— knew what Travis Nolan was. He was no good. Never would be. His father had bailed him out of jail more times than anyone could count.
He was trouble and she’d just had the best sex she’d ever had in her twenty-five years with him. And, God help her, she wanted to do it again. She peeked open one of her eyes and tried to see, but the sun had set and it was now too dark in the room to see anything. Opening both of her eyes, she turned her head and tried to make out his shape.
“I guess you’re going to kick me out now,” he said, chuckling a little.
“No, I wasn’t going to.” She turned and leaned up on her elbow towards him. “Why? Get kicked out of beds a lot?”
He chuckled again. “Not lately.”
She ran her fingers over the muscles in his chest. He had not been this built the last time she’d seen him. Actually, she remembered thinking that he’d gained a beer belly and love handles the last time she saw him, years ago.
“Why did you choose cage fighting?” she asked, absentmindedly.
“It chose me.” He took her hand in his and intertwined their fingers.
“Oh?” She liked the feeling of his fingers in hers.
“I was in Vegas all of three months when I ran out of money. I didn’t want to write home and ask for more.” He shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “I guess I was hoping I could make it on my own. I ended up trying to sell my truck to some sleazeball who decided he’d rather take it than pay for it. I kicked his ass and then his buddy, a three-hundred-pound Mexican, jumped out of his car. I thought I was dead. Instead, the man handed me a business card and invited me to my first underground match. Randy put up the money for me to enter the match, paid for my rent for the rest of the month, and told me that if I won, he’d pay my rent for the rest of the year along with a big bonus. I won the first match and got sucked in. He bought me a membership to a local gym and…” He closed his eyes and she could see in the darkness that he was tense about the memory. “The rest is history.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
His eyes opened and he looked at her. She wished for the light, so she could see what he was feeling. “I used to, I guess, for a time. Fighting helped clean up my life. But now I feel like it’s keeping me down.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have obligations that I can’t escape.” He sat up and reached for the light. The soft glow filled the room and he stood up. There were more tattoos on his back, smaller but still as impressive as the ones on his chest. She felt she could spend hours exploring them, running her fingers over each line, each dip in muscle. “I have to go back to Vegas next week. Just for a few days.” He ran his hands through his hair, messing the locks up, causing them to stand straight up.
“Can I come with you?” She sat up, pulling the sheet over herself.
He was in the process of pulling on his damp boxers, but stopped and looked up at her. “Why?”
She shrugged and smiled. “To watch you fight.”
He shook his head. “You don’t belong at an illegal cage fight.”
“And you do?” she said, scooting to the edge of the bed.
He grunted and yanked up his boxers. “Goodnight.” He started walking towards the door.
“Travis?” She waited until he stopped and looked back at her. “Stay.”
For a moment it looked as if he wanted to, but then he shook his head and walked out without another word. She looked at the closed door for a while then sighed and leaned against the headboard.
She’d asked for trouble. After all, he’d made no commitments. Hadn’t even hinted at them. No doubt she’d just had her very first one-night stand.
Then she realized how big of a fool she’d made of herself. Why had she asked to go with him? It was obvious he didn’t want a relationship. And here she was practically begging to go to Vegas with him next week.
Getting up, she walked into the bathroom and decided what she needed was a long hot shower to get clean. She stood under the spray and dreamed of the day that she could take a long bath in her new apartment. Maybe then she could wash off the gross feeling that she had, knowing she’d just been used. Even worse, she’d used him right back. Would that feeling ever go away? She began to hate him for coming back, for being so damn sexy. And for tricking her into believing he had changed somehow.
When she walked back out, she was shocked to see Savannah laying down in her bed, clothed in only a tiny pink nighty.
“What the hell?” She sat up and covered herself with Holly’s sheets.
Holly laughed and wrapped her robe around herself tighter.
“Where’s Travis?” Savannah looked off towards the bathroom, no doubt expecting Travis to walk out half-naked.
“You’re in the wrong house,” she said dryly. “He’s staying in the main house. I live here temporarily.” She tossed Savannah her coat, which was thrown over the chair. Then Holly walked towards the front door. “I’m sure he’ll be excited to see you.” She held the door open as Savannah tied the long coat around her large form.
When Holly shut the door behind her, she forced herself not to look out the window and see if Travis let her in. Instead, she stood with her back to the door and listened as closely as she could. When she didn’t hear anything, she walked back into the bedroom and desperately tried not to cry.
She sat on the edge of the bed, and suddenly something flashed in her head. Rushing to the phone, she picked it up and dialed Melissa’s number.
“Hello?” Her friend sounded tired.
“I’m sorry.” She glanced at the clock and realized it was past ten at night. She knew that Melissa worked the early shift at the health clinic and most nights was in bed by eight. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
“You’ve already said that. Spill. What’s going on that you would call me this late?” Her friend knew her too well.
“Savannah’s pregnant.”
“What?” Melissa y
awned. “You’re crazy.”
“No, I’m not. Listen. She was just here at my apartment and I saw it for myself.”
“How?”
“She was wearing a small teddy.”
“What?” She could tell she had Melissa’s full attention now. “What was Savannah Douglas doing in your apartment wearing a teddy?”
“What’s going on?” she heard Melissa’s fiancé, Reece, say in the background.
“Holly claims that Savannah was just in her apartment wearing nothing but a teddy and that she’s pregnant.”
“Holly’s pregnant?” Reece asked and Holly could hear that he was half-asleep. She tried not to chuckle.
“No, Savannah. Never mind. I’ll tell you after I know everything.” Melissa turned her attention back to her. “Okay, spill.”
“Well, I had just gotten out of the shower, because…” She stopped herself from telling her friend that she’d just made the worst mistake of her life, so she coughed to cover it up. “Anyway, when I came out of the bathroom, there she was, spread out on my bed, wearing nothing but a small—very small—pink teddy. I could see she’d gained some weight but thought nothing of it until after I ushered her out. Then my mind kind of snapped back, and I realized that what I had seen wasn’t fat, it was a baby bump.”
Then her mind and heart did a giant jump. So much so that she started hyperventilating. If Savannah was pregnant, there was a good chance that Travis was the father. And she’d just had wild, crazy sex with Travis, in this bed. She stood up quickly and glared at the bed, at the sheets. She felt her head spin again.
“Holly!” She realized a moment later that Melissa was screaming into her ear. “Holly, are you okay? Don’t make me go over there. Answer me!”
“I’m here.” Her voice sounded so far away, she swallowed a few times to try and come back to the present. “Listen, anyway, let’s meet for lunch,” she said absently. “I’ll let you go. Night.” She hung up and threw herself back on the bed and cried until she fell asleep.
Travis stepped out of his parents’ bathroom and almost fell on his ass. Savannah lay across his parents’ bed in nothing more than a pink strip of silk. Her long blonde hair was spread out over his grandmother’s handmade quilt. Her manicured fingernails ran up and down the sides of her thighs, which he noticed were a lot larger then they used to be. Even if he hadn’t just released his pent-up sexual tension with Holly, he still wouldn’t have been excited at the sight of her.
“How did you get in here?” He wrapped the towel tighter around his waist and reached for her arm.
“Oh, come on now. You know I still have a key from when I used to sneak up here,” she purred. She gasped when he tugged on her arm and pulled her up to stand next to him.
“Get out,” he growled as he started walking towards the hallway.
“How dare you.” She jerked her arm away from him. “You never complained before.” She ran her fingers up his chest and leaned her breasts against his bare chest. “Besides, I’ve no doubt you’re as bored as I am in this town.” She smiled and ran her finger up and pinched his nipple between her nails. “Maybe we can be bored together.”
“Out.” He jerked her arm away from his chest. “I don’t want to play your games anymore.” He started walking towards the door, but stopped when he noticed her jacket was thrown over his father’s reading chair. Tossing it to her, he waited until she tied it around her rather large belly.
“Really, Travis,” she said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it right there in his parents’ house. His folks had never allowed him to smoke inside the house, one of the main reasons he’d moved into the apartment above the garage. He used to smoke a pack a day, and he wasn’t going to have his folks tell him he couldn’t do it inside his own place. She blew the smoke towards his face and he cringed. Gone was the desire, when he smelled smoke, to pick it up again.
He reached over and took the cigarette from her, then walked into the bathroom, tossed it in the sink, and flipped on the faucet.
“Well, really!” she exclaimed. “How dare you treat me like this?” She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, a move he’d seen a million times.
“You shouldn’t be smoking in your condition.” Her eyebrows shot up. “You can probably hide it from the town, but not me, not when I just saw you wearing hardly anything.” He nodded to the large coat that covered her belly now. “Grow up.” He took her hand. “Just do it somewhere else.” He walked her to the hallway and started going down the stairs. She faked tripping, but he was ready for it.
When they’d been dating, she had always faked injuries to make him feel like he’d abused her. His hand tightened on her arm and he held her steady.
“Stop it, you could hurt the baby.” He cussed when she tried to push his hand away. “Savannah, stop it.” He jerked her arm until she walked down the stairs without tripping.
“Let go of me,” she shouted.
“Go home.” He dropped his hand and opened the front door.
“I hate you,” she screamed.
“Good, now go home.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
She walked up to him and slapped him in the face. “How dare you treat me like this? The mother of your child.” She pouted and big fat tears started falling from her eyes.
“Nice try.” He smiled a little. “Try barking up someone else’s tree.”
“Are you calling me a lair?” She pushed her face into his and he wondered why he’d ever fallen for her games.
He chuckled and then nodded. “I suppose I am. If you go around claiming that the child is mine, I’ll demand a test, which will prove that it’s not.”
Her bottom lip pushed out and she looked up at him, then her face softened and her voice purred again. “It happened when I was visiting you. It could be yours.”
He shook his head no. “We haven’t been together in four years, since before…” He stopped himself from saying before his mother had almost killed a man. Instead, he shook his head again. “It’s not mine.”
She blinked a few times and then started running her fingers over his chest again. “If you want, it can be yours. Ours.”
He took her hands and pushed her away. “Not interested.” He stepped back. “Goodnight, Savannah.”
He watched anger cross her face again. Then she walked up and punched him in the jaw. There wasn’t enough power behind it to do much damage, but it caused his head to hit the door behind him. His ears started ringing as she yelled and cussed at him. He waited until she was done, then took her arm again and stepped outside on the front porch and then back in the house. Without a word, he shut her outside.
He listened for a while as she pounded on the door, cussing at him, threatening him with everything from telling everyone that he’d raped her, to saying he’d beaten her and denied that the baby was his. He was just thankful that he could say definitely that the kid wasn’t his. He leaned his head against the door and cringed. There was a large knot on the back of it and when he reached back and touched it, he hissed with pain.
Damn, now he was going to have to change the locks.
“It’s that slut, isn’t it?” she screamed, causing his mind to sharpen back to what she was screaming. “That slut living in our old apartment.”
At first he didn’t know what she was talking about. What apartment? They had never lived together. Then he remembered Holly and he swung open the door.
“Leave Holly out of this.”
Savannah’s eyebrows shot up. “So, this is about her.” She crossed her arms over her chest and chuckled. The sound caused his skin to crawl.
“No, just leave her alone. She’s just renting the apartment.” He moved to shut the door again.
“Well, that’s not what she told me when I was up there earlier.”
He stopped and yanked open the door again. “You’re lying.”
“Oh?” She raised her eyebrows again. “She told me all about it. I thought you were staying at your place
, but found out when she came out of the shower. Now I know. I’m not stupid you know.” She yelled the last part.
“Go home.” He slammed the door in her face and heard her kick the locked door and scream. Then he heard her Jeep peel out of the driveway. He listened for a while, making sure she was gone, and then he walked to the back of the house and looked towards the apartment.
Holly’s light was still on, making him wonder if she’d heard everything that had just gone on. For some reason, he didn’t want Savannah and her craziness to touch Holly.
·
Chapter Six
The next morning Holly stood in her store and smiled. The bar top had arrived. The thing weighed a ton, and she stood back and watched as the men lowered it in place with two forklifts.
They drilled and screwed large bolts into place until it was secure. Then Holly rushed over and tested it for herself. It was solid. She smiled over at Roger.
“Perfect.”
“It does look good.” He stood back and smiled at her. “I didn’t think the look would work, but now I can see what you had in mind.”
She nodded. “I’m still trying to convince Aaron to make my bar stools.” She looked out of the side of her eyes towards Roger.
He ran his hand over his two-day old beard. “Maybe I can give him some time off so he can focus on the stools.”
“Oh!” She rushed over and hugged him.
“But it will have to be after we’re done here. When we start working on the theater,” he warned her.
“I’ll take it.” She smiled and then leaned up and placed a kiss on his rough face.
“Am I interrupting?” Travis said from the doorway.
She looked over and smiled at him. She wasn’t going to let him or what they had done last night ruin her good mood. Her bar top was in, and she was going to get her unique bar stools. Nothing was going to dampen her mood. Not even Travis and the possibility of him being back with Savannah. Or the possibility of them being a family very soon.
