by Sophia Lynn
“You're good at this stuff,” he said. “You ever think about doing this elsewhere?”
“What, you mean hiking?”
“Sure.”
“Well, I'd like to do the Appalachian Trail some time, though the Ice Age trail up north is closer...”
“As good as you are, you could maybe do something professional with it. I dunno, sponsorship, influencer cred, something like that. You could be making some good money that way.”
Eddy couldn't help laughing at him, shaking her head.
“Why the heck would I want to live like that?” she said. “I like hiking, it's fun, I love nature. Why in the world would I want to start getting money into the mix?”
“Why wouldn't you?” Travis retorted. “You're smart, you're beautiful. A little bit of hustle, and you could make something of yourself.”
Eddy pushed that you're beautiful away, because she was too irritated to deal with it.
“I have plenty of hustle, and I am making plenty of myself,” she said. “I don't owe you my life. Not everyone has to be on the hustle like you are, Travis McMichael.”
She was ready to fight him on this one, had a few times already, as a matter of fact, but he only laughed ruefully, shaking his head.
“You're right. You don't owe anyone anything.”
“That's really never been a problem for you, has it?” she found herself saying, flopping down on her side next to him on the blanket. He glanced at her curiously, and it struck her suddenly how very close she was to him; closer than she had ever been.
“I'm not someone who likes owing people,” he said, and she sighed.
“You know, there's a lot of ground between owing someone and just having connections. Having connections is good. It keeps us grounded.”
“Or anchored,” he pointed out, and Eddy grinned at him.
“Do you really want to own a boat without an anchor?” she asked. “Sounds like that would be prone to making sure that you don't have a boat anymore.”
Travis uttered a short bark of laughter, and then he reached over to brush some of her hair out of her face.
“Point, but at the end of the day, I'm not a boat or a boat owner, yet. I just don't like being tied down. I don't understand it when other people do.”
“Me, you mean.”
“Yeah. Like I said. Smart, beautiful woman like you, you could go anywhere.”
Eddy found that she couldn't tear her eyes away from Travis's, and when she spoke, her voice was nothing more than a whisper.
“I don't want to be anywhere else right now,” she whispered, and suddenly the distance between them vanished as she rolled closer and kissed him.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that this had been building for a long time. Whenever it was the three of them; herself, Sheridan and Travis, there was always a low grade of tension between her and Travis. For a while she had thought that she simply didn't like him, and the truth was that it was more complicated than that.
For all that he so often felt like the very opposite of who and what she was, there was an attraction between them that she had always thought he suspected as well. Now as he pulled her close to him, his mouth closing over hers with a passion that she had never suspected, she knew that her own suspicions had been right.
Well, I always thought that he would be an amazing kisser, she thought, and then she gave herself up to the intoxicating power of their need for one another.
Travis's mouth on hers tasted good in an elemental way that she had never guessed at. Once he was kissing her, once his strong hands were running up and down her back, once she could press herself against the solid bulk of his body, she never wanted to let go. She wanted this to keep on going on and on, and if there was a part of her that stung at the idea that this felt so good with a man who had already said he would never want her life or the way she wanted to live it, she pushed it away.
There was something intensely hungry in the way that Travis kissed her, longing and furious and kind all at once. He moved from her lips to the very point of her chin, and then he eased down so he could mouth the sensitive area of her throat, making her roll on her back and lift her chin for him.
"You feel so very good," she murmured, her hands tugging at his T-shirt. "I can't believe how good you feel."
"I've thought about how good you feel," he said, his voice ragged as if he had run a long distance. "I've thought about how good you might feel for years."
Eddy was momentarily distracted when he grazed the very sharpest edge of his teeth over her collarbone sending a deep shiver through her body.
"Ah... oh, oh that's good. What kept you? We could have been doing this for years?"
For some reason, that made Travis laugh.
"The guy code. You're my best friend's little sister."
"Oh come on, what century are you living in – oh!"
"I'm listening," Travis said innocently, throwing the tank top he had pulled over her head aside. Now he was lapping a tender soft path from the base of her throat down to her cleavage, and her hands went instinctively to tangle in his dark brown hair. It was softer than she expected, good in her fingers, and he made a soft groaning sound when she pulled lightly.
"Are you listening?" she asked, and he pulled her sports bra over her head as well, leaving her topless on the blanket.
"Of course I am," he said, nuzzling at her breasts. "I’m talented, I can do several things at once. What were you saying?"
She opened her mouth, not sure what she wanted to say but the urge to be a smartass had always been pretty strong in her. Whatever it was, was lost to the ages, however, when Travis closed his lips over one nipple, drawing tightly on it while his hand came up to squeeze the other breast.
Eddy's breasts were small but they were exquisitely sensitive, and she groaned as Travis's motions sent sensation rocking through her.
"Oh, no harder than that..."
"Too hard?" he asked, suddenly sounding concerned, but she shook her head.
"Exactly like that," she said, aware of how demanding she sounded. "Just like that, that's almost perfect."
"Oh, well, almost perfect, sounds like I've got some work to do..."
Then there were no words as they kissed under the dappled shade of the tree, Eddy's body lighting up like fireworks under Travis's clever hands, his mouth, his body.
When she couldn't stand it any longer, she sat up to pull his T-shirt over his head, ignoring the sound of a ripping seam as she did so, and when she reached for his shorts, he stopped her.
"Hey, you can destroy my shirt and I'll still be okay getting back to the car, but if you destroy my shorts, there are going to be questions."
He pulled down his shorts and got rid of his boots and socks himself, and then he thoughtfully removed hers as well. Now there was nothing between them, and for a long moment, they simply looked at each other, separated by nothing more than a few inches of space.
"Eddy," Travis said, a cloud crossing his face. "You know that I'm not planning to—"
Eddy shook her head, because that wasn't something that she cared to think about in the middle of whatever this was.
"I'm on birth control, I don't have any expectations for you, and I've known that you weren't planning on staying for years, Travis."
It was only after the words were out of her mouth that she heard something cold in them, something that was harsher than she thought or intended, but then Travis took her in his arms again, kissing her with a new wildness, and all of that fell out of her head.
With her clothes gone, he could cup her mons with one large hand, flexing his fingers against her slit and making her moan gently.
"Feels good, sweetheart?" he asked, and it was only when she nodded that he started rub, gently at first, and then more firmly as he held her close with the opposite arm.
There was something amazing about being held by a man like Travis. Of course he was taller than she was, but he was just bigger as well, in every d
irection. It was as if it was a force of nature making love to her and not just a man, and though she had always believed in being an active lover, in giving as good as she got, Eddy finally just gave herself up to it, letting herself open in a way she never had before. It felt as if someone had cut all of the strings holding her up and the only thing that held her to the ground, that kept her from floating away, was Travis and his touch. The rest of the world faded away as Travis's hands worked over her, as the pressure of his body against hers gained a new urgency. There was nothing but her and Travis in this time and place.
He stretched her out on the blanket as he worked his way down her body, his strong hands running up her legs and down them again. She was usually ticklish along her sides, but even that fell away as he pressed his hands against her ribs, smoothing them down and leaving nothing but tantalizing warmth in their wake.
When his fingers opened her, Eddy fell back against the blanket with a moan, her fingers grabbing on to the fabric as he explored her with an expert touch. There was never a moment where he tried to move too fast, never a time when she felt as if he was rushing her. There was no time at all here, just the waves of pleasure that started lapping over her and then rocking her as his touch grew more urgent.
"Do you have any idea how beautiful you are like this?" Travis whispered, his breath tickling her ear. "Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are, stretched out under the sky and with your entire body just perfect for me?"
She could feel it now, his erection pressed against her hip. She had seen how large and thick he was when he stripped, but it felt even larger now, snug against her body. Deliberately, Eddy pushed back against him, making him growl and mouth at her shoulder.
"Should have been doing this ages ago," he groaned. "Should have—"
She didn't want to hear about what they should have been doing, so she turned her head to capture his mouth in hers, drinking his words down until there was only a needy moan left.
He had three fingers working in her now, and without her knowledge, her hips had started rocking up against his touch, her heels dug into the blanket and her entire body rolling up for him. She had gone from desire to need, and now it felt as if she were humming with pleasure and the anticipation of more of it.
"You're just what I want," she murmured, barely aware of what she was saying. "You're just perfect..."
"God, but you're wonderful," Travis replied, and he rose over her.
For a moment, she thought he was going to enter her immediately, but instead he was still, letting her feel the power and the weight of him over her. There was an amazing sweetness to it, how strong he was, how he blocked out the light to leave her in his protective shadow. His weight mostly on his elbows, he stroked her hair out of her face and leaned down to kiss her even as his knee parted her legs.
He felt even bigger than he had before when he was situated between her thighs, and now she could feel the blunt head of his cock nudging between her lips, exposing how soft she was and how very wet.
"Incredible," Travis murmured, and she groaned as he reached down to sweep the head of his cock just slightly between her lips. It was amazing, it was tantalizing and it just wasn't enough.
"Please, Travis," she moaned, reaching up to press her hands against his shoulders. It was a little like pushing against the mountain itself, and she would have been embarrassed by the begging noise that she made if she wasn't so carried away by her own need.
"God, but I could never resist you," he murmured, and then with one thrust, he entered her fully.
The sensation of being so surely and completely filled took Eddy's breath away, and from the expression on Travis's face, something about it stunned him as well.
"Eddy," he murmured, something a little broken in his voice. "Eddy, sweetheart, are you all right?"
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was stunned by the idea that this was Travis McMichael calling her sweetheart, Travis McMichael with that worried tone in his voice for her. Then it was all swept away because her body demanded more.
"Travis, please," she whispered, because she couldn't think much beyond that, and when she worried that he might not get the idea, she shifted to push her hips up against him, whimpering with need. Her rocking motion sent a wave of almost dizzying hot pleasure through her, and Travis caught his breath, bracing so they could both feel the full range of her motion.
Then it was as if a dam had broken, and Eddy realized that his earlier teasing touches had come with a price. There was something that had come loose in Travis now, something unrestrained, and perhaps she should have been afraid of that, but instead, it drove her wild. She felt as if she were surfing the edge of something deep and profound and ancient, and she couldn't be afraid, because this was Travis, and she knew him, and she—
She reached her peak with a wild cry, all of that pleasure rising up to a deafening pitch before shattering altogether. One moment she was still striving for the promise of his touch, and the next she was broken into light, her vision briefly whiting out as she was utterly consumed. She shook, she cried out, and Travis echoed her cries as he thrust wildly into her, filling her and burying his face in her shoulder.
It was as if time stopped in that moment, as if nothing could break the beauty of that space, but then of course, time started again, and Travis partially collapsed on her body, still somehow supporting himself so his full weight didn't crash down on her.
Travis shifted, and Eddy realized with a hint of guilt that her fingernails were dug into his bare upper arms. When she released, her fingers were sore, and she winced at the half circles she had dug into his smooth skin.
"Ow," he said, a teasing laugh in his voice, and she shook her head.
"Sorry, I didn't realize I was doing that."
"Hey, I'm not complaining."
He leaned down to kiss her, and even as she kissed him and enjoyed it, there was a voice in the back of her head reminding her not to get too attached, that Travis McMichael was not staying, not in Springwell, not in her life.
Still she let the kiss linger, because God, was he good at it, and then with a firm touch, she pushed him away.
"Well, I guess I have to reevaluate how out of shape I thought you were after the climb up the mountain," she said with a laugh. "That was pretty impressive."
Travis looked briefly startled – and perhaps for just a second disappointed?– and then he grinned.
"Hey, some of us put our time into endurance training, and we don't have to do that climbing up big rocks."
She rolled her eyes, sitting up and reaching for the pack. Eddy was grateful that she had always believed in being prepared, because she had wet wipes in her gear, and she passed one to Travis while she cleaned herself up.
She was alarmed by the signals that seemed lit through her body, telling her to go be as close to Travis as she could, to hold him, to kiss him, to be with him.
Hormones, she thought, forcing them down. That's all.
When she was clean and dressed again, she turned back to find that Travis had done the same, and now he was sitting on the blanket as if nothing had happened. He might have been slightly breathless from the hike up, his hair might have been ruffled by the wind instead of her fingers.
Travis, who normally wore a cocky grin, especially when he was hanging out with her and Sheridan, looked unusually serious.
"Look, Eddy," he began. "I'm not looking to—"
"Oh, God, please don't," she said, rolling her eyes. She wasn't sure she could bear to hear to hear what came next, whatever canned speech he had to tell a girl he wasn't around for the long haul.
"Eddy?"
"Give me some credit, Travis," she said, reaching briskly into her pack and pulling out the water bottles and the plastic bag full of sandwiches.
"Credit?"
"I have known you since you were seventeen. I know what you think about this town, and about where you think you're going. And hey, I honestly think you're going to get there. You're smart
, you're tough, you know what you're doing... you know what you want, and I've always admired that."
She handed him a water bottle and a sandwich, which he took a little warily, as if she was an animal that might bite.
"And I know that what we did, that was a one-time thing. It was a good time, but we're not going to keep going. Trust me, I don't have any more interest in being your girlfriend than you want me to be."
"Really?" he asked, and she laughed, taking a swing of her own water bottle to hide the weird twinges in her heart.
"Really," she said. "I know where you're going, and I have absolutely no interest."
"You know, I'm not the only one here who knows what they want," Travis pointed out, and she nodded decisively.
"You know your path goes one way," she said. "I know that I want to stay here. Springwell's home. I've been helping my dad more and more at the Recollection, especially with Sheridan doing more field expedition thingys. This is good. This is what I want."
"Are you sure?" asked Travis, more seriously than she had ever heard him. "Eddy, you're smart, and—"
"Okay, stop," she said, irritation leaking into her tone. "You keep saying I'm smart, but you obviously don't believe it if you think I can't make my own decisions about things, do you?"
"That's not what I meant," snapped Travis. "I'm saying that this town is too small for you. I'm saying that with everything you are, you could make it in a big city where so many people can't—"
"And what does that mean when I don't want it?" she shot back. "One thing you need to figure out before it gets more damned irritating, Travis, is that not everyone wants what you want. I've been respectful of what you need, now I'm telling you, not asking you, to be respectful of what I need."
"And what is it you need?"
"My home," she responded promptly. "My people. I want to make the place I grew up a good place. I want to care for the store that my parents built up from nothing, and I want to keep their connections and to make them even stronger."
"In Springwell," Travis said, his tone disgusted, and she glared at him.
"Yes. And you want to leave. And who the hell is stopping you?"
