Consumed By You

by Lauren Blakely

  “I believe I’d be amenable to that,” she said as she slid off her panties. “Seems I’m all ready.”

  He grabbed a condom from his pocket and pushed down his briefs. “Funny. Me, too.”

  She bunched up her skirt at her waist and straddled him.

  She gripped his shaft, thrilling at the instant reaction her touch elicited. He closed his eyes and groaned. She stroked him, savoring the feel of his rock hard cock. A fierce sense of possession wove through her—the deep belief that he was hers, and she was his, and that the two of them simply belonged together.

  Their connection might have started here, on this road, long ago, but it ran deeper now and reached farther, stretching into a future together. She rolled the condom on him and lowered herself onto his erection, sparks of heat roaring through her as he buried himself in her. He groaned and gripped her ass, moving her up and down on him. Space was at a premium in his vehicle, but she didn’t mind being snug, her knees tucked up, taking him.

  “Come closer,” he whispered. “Let me feel you.”

  She lowered her chest to his, and they were gazing at each other, an intense line of connection like an invisible thread between them. “Hi,” she said, moving up and down on him, each thrust making her bolder, giving her confidence in the possibility of them.

  “Hi,” he said, and he cupped her face. “Hi, you absolutely beautiful woman. I can’t stop looking at you.”

  “So don’t,” she said, rocking faster, more fiercely, as they moved together in rhythm.

  “I won’t,” he said, and his voice touched down deep inside her, setting off a chain reaction, pleasure surging through her, running over her skin, taking hold of her body. She blazed with need for him. With longing.

  With love.

  “I don’t want this to stop,” she moaned, and she wasn’t talking about the orgasm that started to overtake her body.

  “I don’t either.”

  She moved on him until he came too.

  Maybe he did want the same things. All of them.

  …

  Two hours later, she was feeling pretty good. It was everything—from the sex, to all the ways he’d touched her, to the laugher, to their friends, to the love that was simply in the air.

  Oh and, yeah, this glass of champagne played a role too. The bubbles tickled her nose as she took another sip. The waiters had poured the drink freely, and it was time for toasts. Jamie’s parents had toasted, her sister had said a few words, then Smith’s dad joined in, and even the reserved Becker had spoken about how glad he was to see the two of them together.

  Cara held out her glass to Travis and clinked with him as Becker finished with a hearty “Congrats!” then handed the mic back to Jamie.

  “How about Cara?”

  Cara blinked and turned around to find Jamie, staring at her from the middle of the reception room, waving her over. “You found our dog, and the dog brought us together for real!”

  Cara laughed, and shrugged.

  Travis nudged her on. “Go say a few words. Make fun of Smith.”

  But that wasn’t her style. She wasn’t a roaster at toasts. She weaved through the crowd under the twinkling lights and took the mic. She scanned the room quickly, cataloguing a sea of friends, of family, of all the people in Hidden Oaks who she adored. This was her town. Her home. The place where she was meant to be. Destiny or fate had brought her from Nevada to here years ago, and the need to be close to her family had called her back last year. Now, as she rested her gaze on Travis, she knew that all she wanted was in this town—she’d waited and longed for a love like this.

  And it had been him, right here, all these years.

  She didn’t plan on blurting out her feelings in front of everyone. That would be the height of tacky to steal the floor at a friend’s wedding, but she could start.

  “I just wanted to say that Jamie and Smith have always been perfect for each other. I’ve known that. Anyone who spent any time with them could see it. In fact, I even told Smith a few years ago that it was obvious that he was madly in love with her,” Cara said, locking eyes with the bride and groom, and they knew exactly what she was talking about—those two dates she went on with Smith that made it clear to her that he was hung up on another woman. That was fine by her, since she and Smith were better off as friends, and since she too was hung up on someone else. Always had been, ever since their first date in high school. “In any case, when Smith asked me last year to help him find a dog for Jamie, that’s when I knew it was true love for both of them.”

  A chorus of oohs and ahs emanated from the attendees. Smith tugged Jamie in for a kiss.

  “See?” She pointed at the bride and groom, locked in a kiss. “This is what I’m talking about, right?” Cara tossed the question out to the crowd, and was met with a collective yes. “And my take is this—sometimes a dog can bring two people together.” Her gaze stopped to settle on Travis, hooked into his from across the room. Her heart filled with warmth; hope and nerves flooded her bloodstream. Still, she pressed on. The undercurrent of her toast was for him. “I suppose a dog, like Chance, or even a pair of dogs, can kind of be matchmakers. I like to think they have a way of bringing two people who were meant to be together even closer. Here’s to dogs and love.”

  Travis tipped his water glass to her, the crowd raised their drinks, and Jamie thrust her champagne flute high in the air. “I think we need to dance,” the bride declared.

  The DJ took the cue, cranking up some music, and Cara set down the mic on the table and returned to Travis.

  “Want to dance?” he asked, and she said yes. They moved to the dance floor and swayed. “Nice speech, by the way.”

  His gorgeous blue eyes, like an azure stream, never strayed from hers. In his eyes, she saw such passion, such honesty, such vulnerability. She wanted to be the woman he trusted, the woman he was willing to make a go of it for, because he was the man for her. Screw waiting. She didn’t need to surprise him at the auction to let him know how she felt. There was no time like the present.

  “It was about you,” she said softly.

  “What?” He tilted his head to the side, as if he hadn’t quite heard her.

  “The part about two people who were meant to be together. That was you and me. Us, Travis, us,” she said, and it was as if she’d swallowed a dose of sheer terror, and it was coursing through her body right now. But on the other side was hope, and possibility, and all her dreams coming true. She shoved her fears behind her and didn’t look back.

  “It was?” he asked, furrowing his brow.

  What the hell? Was this complex math to him? “Yes,” she said in a clear, firm voice. “It was about you. You didn’t realize that?”

  He shook his head. “No. I thought it was about Smith and Jamie,” he said, slicing a hand through the air as if he could eliminate the possibility that she’d been talking about him.

  Okay, time to spell it out. “Travis, I’m just going to say it. I thought I could get you out of my system with this arrangement we had, but I can’t and there’s a reason. Because you’re not supposed to be out of it. You’re supposed to be in it. And in my life. I thought I had to make all the smart and wise choices, because I didn’t come from a place of smart and wise choices. But I’ve learned that some things can’t be planned perfectly, and maybe it’s better if they’re not planned. So I’m letting go of all those things I told myself I had to have, because I don’t want to lose you.” She gripped his shoulders the whole time, needing something solid to hold as she poured out her heart. “And I know you don’t believe in serious relationships, but I’m not asking for the white picket fence, or a ring. I tried to plan my life down to the day, and I’m not doing that anymore. All I’m asking is if you’d like to try something more. If you’d like for this fling to be more than dog training and sex, because I feel so much more for you. And I would really like to bid on you tomorrow night, and take you off the market, because I can’t stand the thought of any other woman havin
g you,” she said, taking a breath after all those words tumbled out.

  “Because I am in love with you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  His ears rang.

  Blood pounded in his head.

  This wasn’t possible. There was no way she could have just said that.

  Those were words he’d never heard before. They were words he didn’t want to hear. They didn’t fit his plan. They didn’t adhere to the rules he lived by. They threw him out of whack, like a washing machine tossed into an unbalanced spin cycle.

  Up was down. Left was right. The room spun wildly out of control.

  He said the first words that came to his head. “You don’t mean that.”

  She narrowed her eyes and shot him a strange look. “I do mean it. Why else would I say it? Do you think I just go around saying things I don’t mean?”

  He shook his head, and his skull felt heavy, like there was water in his brain, slogging around. The melody from the pop song played in the background. He barely even recognized it as the tune they’d been dancing to seconds ago. The words seemed to be sung from a distant planet.

  Hell, he felt like he was on Jupiter right now. Nothing made sense. From the way his heart had jumped around in his chest when he first saw her tonight, to how much he’d enjoyed the simple and easy way they’d spent their evenings—cooking and talking and christening new surfaces in and out of their homes—even to how he’d felt in her bed the other night. None of those made a lick of sense either.

  But maybe… Were they part and parcel of why she thought she was in love with him? Were all those topsy-turvy, kaleidoscopic feelings that knotted up his chest some sort of sign that he’d fallen, too?

  No.

  No way.

  He dismissed the ridiculous notion of love as quickly as it had arrived. If he put stock in such crazy ideas, he’d be in big trouble. Especially because his stupid heart was trying to talk him out of what he was about to say.

  But this wasn’t a moment for the heart. The head had to stay in control.

  “No, I just didn’t think that’s what this was about,” he said softly, gesturing from her to him and back. As if reminding her of the deal could erase what she’d just said. “You didn’t want anything more from me. You made it clear that day in the park that I could never be the man for you. Hell, you said it at my house too when you proposed this whole dog training and sex idea. I thought we were supposed to stick to the plan.”

  She breathed in hard, as if she were trying to suck in all the air through a straw. “You’re right. That’s what we planned. But things changed for me. I thought they changed for you, too?”

  They had. Oh hell, they had. But he couldn’t let himself be guided by something as risky as emotions. Emotions were dangerous. Especially since they were already affecting her.

  Her voice rose at the end of her question, quavering, and he fought every instinct to gather her in his arms and comfort her. He wouldn’t give in, though, because he had to make her see where she’d gone off track. She might think she’d be content kicking their fling up a notch or two. But her happiness with that kind of relationship would soon fade. This woman deserved the world. She deserved a man who could truly give her all her dreams, not merely satisfy her compromises.

  “Sure, things changed, but Cara, you deserve more than a guy like me. You might think you’re in love, but—” he stopped to gesture wildly to the scene around them—all the dancing and the drinking and the laughing. “You’re just saying that because of the wedding, because the sex is great, because you had a glass of champagne.”

  “Oh. Is that it?” she asked, her voice hard now.

  “Of course. Weddings do that to people. They work their voodoo magic, their smoke and mirrors,” he said, layering on reason on top of reason to prove his point, to protect her from this risk she wanted to take. Hell, she reminded him of Hunter now, swinging for the fences, falling in love with the pot, not the hand. He had to treat her the same way as a client going off the deep end. He didn’t let Hunter deviate from the roadmap; he had to protect Cara from too many emotions, too. He would not let the strange, funny, foreign things he’d been feeling when he was with her derail him. He’d had a plan since he was a kid. He’d seen how love and the loss of it could tunnel a hole in a family. He’d spent the last twenty years since his father’s death learning how to manage risks, studying, analyzing, and figuring out precisely when, how, and where to take them and how to avoid them. Nowhere in that plan was there room for a woman falling in love with him, and certainly there wasn’t room for him falling in love with her either.

  She narrowed her eyes. “You’re saying I feel this way because of a wedding?”

  He swallowed dryly. He hated to say the next words, but he had to do this for her sake. She was better off not being in love with a man who couldn’t return the sentiment. Regret washed over him, but he knew that as hard as these words were to say, he had to give voice to them. He had to let her go so she could have the life she craved. That life was not ever going to be with him. “We were just having a good time. We had a good time tonight, and on Miner’s Road, and here at the reception. The whole thing. It was a good time.”

  “Yeah. A good time,” she said, repeating him, but the words came out like a bite and he practically felt the teeth marks in his skin. She stepped away from him and crossed her arms. “You’re right, Travis. It’s just the champagne, it’s just the sex, it’s just the wedding. It couldn’t possibly be anything else. Because I couldn’t possibly fall in love with someone who would belittle my feelings like you just did. I hope you have a good night now. Excuse me. I’m going to the ladies room.”

  She turned on her heel and cut through the sea of friends and family dancing with each other, old couples swaying to the music, young couples rocking it out, Smith and Jamie laughing and kissing, the gray-haired woman who owned the coffee shop shaking her hips with her equally-silver-haired husband, even his fellow firefighter Jackson dancing with the town’s librarian, Kelly. Everyone was together, and he wasn’t even truly here.

  He could barely figure out how to move his feet, how to take a step, what to do next.

  All he knew was that risks like this didn’t add up. They didn’t pan out.

  Even though the evidence all around on the dance floor proved the opposite. But he put on his blinders, not wanting to see what was in front of him.

  A few minutes later, he headed out of the reception room, across the hallway, and to the ladies’ room door. The least he could do was apologize for making her feel so bad. He said her name softly. He didn’t hear anything. He pushed open the door. “Cara?”

  But her name simply echoed across the tiles. He looked down, to see if he could spot her shoes underneath the stalls. No one was there.

  He turned around and nearly bumped into Becker, who’d just come in from outside. “Have you seen Cara?”

  Becker nodded, and his eyes looked sad. Wait. That was wrong. It wasn’t sadness Travis saw in them. It was disappointment.

  He’d seen it from his mentor, from his mother, and even from his dad when he was younger and had messed up. “She’s leaving,” Becker said, pointing his thumb to the door. “We just put her in the limo and the driver is going to take her home.”

  Something in his heart cratered, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

  Then he took off for the door, pushed it open, and ran across the gravel in hot pursuit of the limo. The sleek black car was trudging slowly across the lot. He caught up in seconds; his volunteer gig as a fireman had its perks—a quick burst of speed. He banged on the black tinted window several times.

  The car stopped, and he breathed out heavily. Then, the window lowered, but as it did, he realized he had no fucking clue what to say.

  Cara’s face appeared in the open window. Her lips were a tight line, but her blue eyes couldn’t hide the hope she must be feeling.

  The way he’d felt inside the reception was nothing compared to the comp
lete and utter awareness of what an asshole he was about to be.

  “I’m sorry,” he muttered.

  She shook her head. “Good-bye, Travis,” she said, and raised the window.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  His mom answered the door in her bathrobe. The stern but surprised look in her blue eyes told him that she hadn’t been expecting him tonight.

  His bow tie was gone, his shirt’s top two buttons were undone, and all he wanted was his dog. Henry raced down the stairs and greeted Travis at the door, tail wagging. “Hey, buddy,” he said, bending down to scoop him up in his arms.

  Henry licked his cheek. Travis understood his dog. Henry made sense to him, Henry was easy to take care of, he responded, he listened, and Travis knew exactly what Henry needed at any time during the day. When the dog paced at the door, he needed to go outside; when he nosed the cupboard in the evening, he was hungry for dinner; when he pawed at his leash it was time for a walk.

  Women, on the other hand, were more confusing than astrophysics.

  “I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow morning,” his mom said. As she shut the door behind him, Travis crumpled onto the couch in the living room, slumping into a tuxedoed mess.

  “Sorry. I thought I was going to be somewhere tonight but it didn’t work out.”

  His mom sat across from him in a chair, studying him as if she could find in his expression the answer to his much-earlier-than-expected appearance. “Translation: You mean you were going to spend the night with Cara and now you’re not, probably because you said something stupid.”

  His jaw dropped. “Mom! Why would you assume I said something stupid?”

  “Because you’re my son, and I know you. And I know Cara. And that means I can put two and two together.”

  He slouched deeper into the well-worn couch. He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not that simple. She wants a relationship and that’s not what I do.”

  His mom nodded several times, then she narrowed her eyes. “What is it that you do, then?”