Christ, I’m a mess. Take a deep breath and be patient.
“Travis,” Aubrey breathed, her voice a mere wisp of sound that tugged mightily at his heart and farther south as well. “I need you.”
“You’ve got me, baby.” He massaged lotion into her full breasts, the nipples tightening under his palms. “Every bit of me.”
Plucking at the pale pink tips, he lowered his head and drew one into his mouth before laving it with his tongue, the vanilla scent from her skin wrapping around him. Aubrey hissed with pleasure and her fingernails dug into his shoulders, sending a rocket of pleasure and pain straight to his already aching groin. He was hot, hard, horny as hell, and he only had himself to blame for being frustrated. He’d started this game and he needed to see it through.
After lavishing attention on her nipples he kissed a trail over her belly while he pushed her legs farther apart, situating himself between them. Her fingers curled in his hair, tugging deliciously as he licked up and down her slit, avoiding the one spot she wanted him the most.
Flames coursed through his limbs and settled in his abdomen as his tongue traced patterns around her clit but never giving her the rhythm she needed to go over the cliff. Her legs shook as she pressed her thighs to his head and he dipped two fingers in her tight channel, coming back drenched in her honey.
“Do you want to come, baby? You need to tell me if you do,” he cajoled, his fingers slipping deep inside of her and finding that sweet spot that made her wild.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she chanted, her head thrown back and her eyes closed in ecstasy. He fucking loved seeing her like this knowing she was feeling the same things he was. Their lovemaking was more than sex. It bonded them together more closely each and every time. “Please, Travis.”
“Whatever my lady wants, she gets.”
Flattening his tongue, he swiped it back and forth over the top of her clit before sucking it into his mouth, his teeth lightly scraping the sides. Her response was swift and vocal.
Arching her back, her channel walls tightened on his fingers and a rush of honey drenched his hand. She called out his name over and over as the waves made her body tremble and quake. Travis wasted no time, not letting her come down completely from her high. He ripped off his sweatpants and boxers, impaling her in one deep, soul-destroying thrust.
Groaning, the pleasure rushed from his hard length, down his balls, through his legs, and up his spine. Tight. Hot. Wet. So fucking perfect. He began to move and she rocked her hips in time, her fingers digging into his buttocks.
“Harder. Faster.”
He sped up, the sweat pooling at his lower back and his jaw clenched as the pressure built at the base of his spine. Holding back was pure torture but he wanted Aubrey to fly apart one more time before he let himself go. She wrapped her legs around his waist as they set a punishing pace, every stroke rubbing against her already sensitized clit. He felt her clench around him and knew she was almost there.
“Come for me. Let go, I’ve got you.”
And you’ve got me.
He was relentless, pistoning in and out of her like a metronome, the sweat pouring off of him and the pressure in his balls turning to excruciating agony. He thought he might burst a blood vessel but then her walls fluttered and clenched, her back arching and his name on her lips.
Her climax wrung his own from him, black spots dotted his vision and it felt like he was being turned inside out as his seed shot from his balls and deep inside of his most perfect woman. He groaned a few words that he couldn’t even understand and collapsed on top of her, his breath coming in ragged chunks as he sucked air into his starved lungs. Her fingers trailed up and down his damp spine and he heard her sigh of satisfaction. They stayed just like that as the world ceased to spin around them, time having no meaning as their lips met one more time in a kiss of love and tenderness.
When some blood had returned to his brain he realized he was crushing the woman he loved to death and he rolled over on his back, his arm around her pulling her close so he wouldn’t miss a moment of feeling her skin next to his.
She laid her cheek on his chest and traced patterns on his belly. “I can hear your heart racing.”
What they had just shared was too monumental. He couldn’t keep the words inside any longer.
“It doesn’t belong to me anymore. It’s your heart now.”
Travis could feel Aubrey hold her breath and he could swear that same heart in question stopped beating for a moment as he waited for her response. When he didn’t get one, he knew he’d fucked up.
It was too soon.
He’d pushed too hard.
She just didn’t love him.
Then she sat up and looked him right in the eye, a few shimmery silver tears sliding down her cheeks.
“I’ll take good care of it. I promise. I love you, Travis.”
Her voice was shaky but she never looked away, not trying to hide her crying. This wasn’t the moment to try and be cool. He was as overcome with emotion, if not more. His mouth and tongue didn’t seem to be working very well and it took him a few tries before he was able to form actual words.
“I love you too. So very much.”
They cuddled together, pressed close from head to toe. No more words needed to be said. They’d crossed a milestone and everything at that moment became better. It became more.
He would spend the rest of his life loving, adoring, and protecting Aubrey Grayson.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
‡
Aubrey, Travis, and Shane were having breakfast downstairs in the hotel dining room the next morning and she and Travis kept sneaking looks at each other and smiling while holding hands under the table. Apparently they hadn’t been all that inconspicuous though, because finally Shane slapped his fork down with a mock sigh of frustration.
“I can just find a table by myself if you’d like me gone. I feel like the proverbial fifth wheel. I can only imagine what happened between you two after I fell asleep.” Shane held up his hands with a grin. “And I sure as hell don’t want to know either. But both of you have been giving each other sly smiles since I opened my eyes this morning. I’m happy for you and all, but please don’t offend my delicate sensibilities and start going at it right here on the table. I’m way too innocent for that.”
Feeling the heat rise in her cheeks, Aubrey couldn’t contain her nervous giggle. “Innocent? You? I have never heard anyone describe you that way, Shane Anderson. Not one. In fact, I heard a story about you, Sissie Mae Watkins, and a hay loft that just about curled my hair. Is it true?”
Travis chuckled over his coffee cup and nodded, not giving his cousin a chance to answer. “Shane can’t even see innocent in the rearview mirror—that’s how far he is from it. And yes, that story is true. Every damn word. Hell, there are probably parts we haven’t even heard about that would scar us for life.”
Shane groaned and signaled to the waitress for a coffee refill. “I don’t have to take this abuse.”
“Yes, you do,” Travis laughed. “You earned every bit of it. Admit it, you enjoy your debauched life.”
A grin spread across Shane’s handsome face. All the Anderson men were too gorgeous for their own good. “Every single second of it, and Sissie Mae is a particularly pleasant memory, if I may say so. That was a good night.”
The waitress refilled their coffees but Travis barely noticed. He appeared to be enjoying this trip down memory lane. “You almost burned the Watkins’s barn down. I think her daddy still has a restraining order on you.”
“You worry too much,” Shane scoffed as his phone began to chime. “It was just a little harmless fun and no one got hurt. Seriously, anyway. Excuse me, I need to take this.”
He swiped the screen and stepped away from the table to the outdoor patio, the day already sunny and warm, leaving Aubrey and Travis alone at the table.
“He’s right, you know. I can’t take my eyes off of you. You look even more beautiful than usual this morning.
” Travis lifted her hand and brushed his lips across her knuckles and then her fingertips, his gaze taking in the simple white sundress she’d chosen to wear today. “I love you.”
Her throat tightened up and her breath quickened. Would he always have this potent of an effect on her? “I love you too. A lot.”
“Good, because that’s how I feel too.” He leaned closer and she could smell his fresh from the shower scent, yummy enough to make her want to abandon her breakfast and drag him upstairs, stripping the conservative khaki pants and shirt from his delectable body. “What would you say if I planned a vacation for us? Just you and me. No work and no interruptions.”
“I thought this was supposed to be a vacation.”
Travis grimaced as his gaze strayed to where Shane was standing outside the windows of the restaurant. “It certainly hasn’t turned out to be much of one. I want us to have a real vacation. How about I rent one of those beach houses and we go somewhere that doesn’t have Wi-Fi?”
He was dreaming and Aubrey knew it better than anyone. “I keep your schedule, remember? When do you think we’ll find this magic time in your calendar? You’re booked for the next six months or more. The only reason we were able to come here is because you can work from the suite.” She patted his hand comfortingly. “It’s okay. I know that you’re an incredibly busy man. I’ve told you before but I’ll say it again. I don’t need you to cater to me, Travis. I’m independent and can take care of myself.”
Instead of being happy or relieved he was actually scowling at her words. “I wouldn’t mind it if you needed me just a little bit. I like taking care of you.”
“I do need you.” Aubrey tried to put as much feeling into her words as possible, wanting Travis to understand. “I need you to love me. I need you in my life because I love having you there. But I don’t need you to pay my bills or make everything in my life perfect. That’s not your job. I wouldn’t be much of a partner if I didn’t row the boat with you.”
“What if you get tired of rowing?”
“What if you do?” she shot back. “Your needs are just as important as mine.”
She stopped there, letting her words sink into the hard head of the stubborn as hell man she loved more than anything in the world. His sense of honor was one of the reasons she admired him so much but it was going to be the death of her. She wanted a man by her side, not a father looking over her shoulder.
Their conversation wouldn’t be finished however as Shane joined them again, slapping his phone down on the table. “That was an interesting conversation.”
“Are you going to share with the class?” Travis asked, sitting back in his chair. He looked relaxed but Aubrey could see the tension that had crept into his frame. He was taking this entire murder case onto his own shoulders, wanting to clear Martin’s name.
“As a matter of fact, I am.” Shane leaned forward, his gaze circling the dining room and then coming back to rest on Aubrey and Travis. “That was the reporter contact I made at the local newspaper. He told me a few fascinating things, first and foremost that although it’s only a preliminary report, the coroner is leaning toward ruling Iris’s death an accident.”
Aubrey’s jaw fell open. “An accident? How can that be?”
“According to the reporter, her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit which means she was probably feeling no pain when she went into the water. In her room was an almost empty champagne bottle so it looks like she drank the whole thing. Their theory is she got drunk because she was upset about Bruce’s death, took a walk outside maybe to get some air, then fell in the pool and was so incapacitated she couldn’t get out.”
Travis rubbed his chin, obviously not convinced. “This looks fishy to me. First, we’re to believe that she was depressed, which when you and Aubrey talked to her she clearly was not. Then I have to buy into the fact that she drank an entire bottle of champagne. By herself. Don’t people drink champagne to celebrate things? And then she wandered outside to the pool, fell in, and drowned. I’m not feeling this.”
Iris hadn’t seemed like a depressed drinker but then Aubrey had only spoken to her that one time.
“Maybe she finally accepted that Bruce was gone,” she suggested. “And when it hit her she just couldn’t take the pain.”
“Both explanations are plausible,” Shane shrugged. “They’re also running a tox screen on Iris’s blood but they won’t get that back for days. What’s important here is that the reporter talked to Detective Prather this morning after he saw the preliminary report and the detective believes there is no connection between the two deaths.”
“In other words, Martin is still on the hook,” Travis finished for him. “I was hoping that there would be some evidence linking Bruce and Iris together that would exonerate Martin. I sent the photo Aubrey found to his attorney this morning but I’m not sure if that’s going to help him get bail. The judge has been quite uncooperative.”
“This is a murder case,” Aubrey reminded him gently. “Plus Martin has vast resources. They consider him a flight risk.”
Shane tapped the table with his phone. “There’s more.”
“Of course there is,” Travis sighed. “More good news I assume?”
“The final autopsy report for Bruce was filed. It appears that he had sleeping pills in his system. A lot of them. That would have made him sleepy and possibly easy to handle when he was lured out to the beach.”
“So a woman could have done it,” Aubrey murmured, thinking about Iris’s untimely demise. “Do you think Iris did it and then out of guilt offed herself?”
Travis scraped a hand down his face, his expression a mask of tension. “That is entirely possible. From what we know she and Bruce were seeing each other but perhaps she was pushing him for more. Maybe she wanted him to leave Caroline and he refused.”
Shane leveled a gaze at Travis. “But you still don’t believe it was an accident, do you?”
“No,” Travis finally replied, clearly not happy about admitting it. “No, I don’t. I’m sorry but it’s too much of a coincidence. I think Iris’s death was probably not accidental and I think it has something to do with Bruce’s. But I can’t prove any of it.”
Pursing his lips, Shane drummed his fingers against his coffee cup. “We’ve gone over the suspects but what about the evidence? How about the cufflink? If Martin didn’t accidentally drop it stabbing Bruce in the heart then it was planted there. Who might have access to those cufflinks?”
Travis tapped his chin in thought. “Alana. Caroline. The housekeeping staff, but we have to assume they have no motive to frame Martin. Caroline has the most motive of course.”
It appeared Travis didn’t enjoy admitting that either.
“Certainly a wife might want her husband and his girlfriend dead but what does she gain?” Aubrey queried. “In Caroline’s case she wouldn’t have gained anything except her freedom and she could have gotten that with a divorce.”
Shane snapped his fingers. “Money? Did she have a prenup with Bruce? If not, she might have been on the hook for a big chunk of change.”
Travis sighed and shook his head. “They had one. Martin made sure of it. Ironclad too from what he said. If Bruce and Caroline divorced he came out with a small settlement of two hundred and fifty thousand. Hardly the millions he’d grown accustomed to.”
“Then Caroline wouldn’t have much to gain by killing Bruce and Iris,” Aubrey pointed out. “Except for revenge. Honestly she didn’t look like the vengeful type. She seems really sweet.”
“She is,” Travis agreed with a small smile. “But she’s also been the type to not stand up for herself, which is exactly how she ended up in a rotten marriage with Bruce. Any other woman would have kicked him to the curb a long time ago.”
Shane drained his coffee cup and signaled to the waitress for the check. “Then I think we know what we need to do.”
Aubrey’s brows shot up. “We do?”
“We do,” Travis confirmed. “We n
eed to talk to Caroline and Alana. They had access to the cufflinks.”
Shane signed for the bill and the three of them stood, exiting the restaurant.
“So how do we do this? Good cop, bad cop?” Aubrey asked. How did one ask if their friend had a motive for murder? She wasn’t that good at all this cloak and dagger business.
Travis rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re their friends and we’re trying to help.”
Aubrey rolled her eyes and followed Travis and Shane into the elevator. “If they’re innocent and our friends this should go great. If one of them is the killer this could get kind of ugly.”
The kind of ugly that could get dangerous.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
‡
It was decided that Shane and Aubrey would go back to the suite and that Travis would talk to Caroline and Alana since he knew them the best. Travis knocked on Martin’s hotel room door and was surprised when Tom Lovell was the one who opened it.
“Tom,” Travis greeted the younger man. “I’m here to see Caroline and Alana.”
He waited for Tom to step aside but instead he stood in the doorway. “Alana’s not here. She’s down in the spa trying to relax. She was very upset when the judge wouldn’t give Martin bail.”
Interesting way to deal with it. A mani-pedi or maybe a facial.
“Then I’d like to see Caroline, please.”
Travis kept his voice level, showing no aggression but also no surrender. The two men stared each other down for a few moments but then a voice from inside the suite shattered the tension.
“Tom? Who’s at the door?”
Caroline.
“It’s Travis. I told him this isn’t a good time.”
Indecent Danger (Danger Incorporated Book 3) Page 16
