But he knew, too, that the first frenzy of their lovemaking wouldn’t be enough. He’d want her again, slowly once he’d regained his sanity, taking all the time he needed to lose himself in her kisses, to stroke the satin skin between her thighs, taste the honeyed sweetness of her breasts.
No, he thought, as he urged the Porsche along the dark Coast Highway, no, he didn’t dare touch her now.
He turned into his driveway. The electronic gate opened at the touch of a button, then closed silently behind them. The gravel road had never seemed as long, nor the trees alongside so high.
The garage loomed ahead but he didn’t bother with it. He stopped the car, opened the door, stepped out into the sea-scented night and then she was in his arms.
“Travis,” she whispered, and the yearning in her voice, the softness of her sigh, almost undid him. All his romantic plans, the sweet seduction he’d intended, were swept away by need.
He kissed her, holding her head between his palms, threading his hands into her hair, angling his mouth over hers again and again while she clung to him, her fingers knotting into his shirt, her mouth open and wild beneath his.
He scooped her into his arms, carried her up the wooden steps that led to the deck, his mouth never leaving hers. He could hear the sea pounding against the sand, like the heavy pulse of his own blood.
He let her down slowly, her body soft against the hardness of his, and fumbled in his pocket for the keys.
“Wait,” he said thickly, and made one last attempt to hold on to his sanity.
But Alex couldn’t wait. Her body tingled with the tension that had built between them in the car, all through the endless, silent drive; she had never wanted anything, needed anything, as she needed to feel Travis’s arms around her.
She murmured his name, slipped between him and the door, her arms tight around his neck, her mouth open and enticing on his.
“Now,” she said, “Travis, please, now.”
She touched him, her hand sliding down over his erection, cupping him. She heard the metallic tinkle of the keys as they fell to the deck, heard his groan and then his hands were hard on her shoulders as he backed her against the door. He lifted her skirt and she felt her panties rip, felt his hand as he undid his zipper, and then he was inside her, deep inside her, and the stars began to spin in the heavens.
“Alex,” he whispered, as he cupped her bottom and lifted her to him. “Alex.”
“Travis.” Her voice trembled. She wanted to say more, to tell him what she felt…
But he moved, moved again. A high, keening cry burst from her throat, and she was lost.
She awakened, alone in Travis’s wide bed, as dawn touched the room with wisps of pink and gold. Above, the blades of a ceiling fan turned lazily.
Alex sighed, snuggled deeper under the blanket. Her muscles ached a little, her mouth was swollen. The delicate scent of their lovemaking clung to her skin.
It had been a long night, a night filled with abandon.
And she felt wonderful.
She sighed again, stretched her arms, rolled onto her belly and rubbed her cheek against the coolness of the pillowcase.
A smile curled across her lips. The case, the sheets, were silk. The bed was enormous. All in all, the room had been a perfect setting for the hours she’d spent in Travis’s arms…
Her smile faded.
It was the perfect setting. The room had been designed for this, for the seductions of a bachelor.
How many other women had shared this bed? There had to have been many. A man like Travis wouldn’t live a monk’s existence. How many others had died and been reborn in his embrace, only to mourn his loss?
The real question was, how long before it would be her turn?
Alex closed her eyes.
No commitment. No forever after. Just pleasure, for as long as it lasted. That was the bargain they’d made. The terms were mutual. She had discovered herself. She could be independent, she could be free, she could be a sensual, sexual woman.
Surely, that was enough. Wasn’t it?
She rolled onto her back and stared blindly at the turning ceiling fan. She had everything she’d dreamed of. And yet, suddenly, she felt empty, felt—
The door swung open.
“Good morning, Princess,” Travis said, and Alex sat up, dragging the sheet to her chin, while her heart flew into her throat.
He stood in the doorway, holding a tray in his hands. He was naked except for his unzipped jeans, his dark hair was mussed, there was a sexy stubble on his jaw and he was more gorgeous, more incredibly masculine, than any man had the right to be.
It would be so easy to fall in love with him.
The thought took her breath away. No. She could never do that, fall in love with a man like Travis, who didn’t believe in commitment or forever after, and certainly not in love…
“I made us some breakfast.” He smiled as he crossed the room and set the tray down on the nightstand beside her. “Bacon, eggs, toast and a gallon of coffee.”
Say something, she told herself furiously, and somehow she managed to tear her gaze from his face and look at the tray.
“It’s—it’s enough for an army,” she said, and forced a smile to her lips.
“Yeah.” His smile turned into a devilish grin. “But I figured you might be as hungry as I am this morning.”
She looked at him. She needed time to think, and she couldn’t do that here, in his bed.
“Travis—”
“Besides, we have to keep up our strength.” He kissed her. “Driving lessons tend to take a lot out of a person,” he murmured, his mouth against her throat.
Alex blinked and drew back. “Driving lessons?”
“Yeah.” He took a strip of crisp bacon from the tray, bit off a piece, then put it to her lips. “Well, not driving lessons, exactly. Open up, Princess, and take a bite.”
She did. Bacon had never tasted so ambrosial.
“Porsche lessons,” Travis said, watching her, smiling when her blue eyes widened. “Unless, of course, you’ve changed your mind about wanting to see what it’s like to handle a fast car…”
Alex gave a wild whoop, tossed back the sheet and sprang from the bed.
“Oh, Travis! No, I haven’t changed my mind. I’d love to drive your car. Do you really mean it? Do you…? Travis? What’s the matter?”
He looked at her. She stood with the glass deck doors at her back, limned by the light of the new day, naked and rosy and gently marked with the signs of his possession.
“Travis?”
He wanted to tumble her back down onto the bed, and make love to her again. Wanted to slip deep inside her and hear her soft little cries as he took her over the edge of the precipice.
“Travis, what is it?”
But mostly—mostly, he wanted to hold her in his arms. Just hold her, and never, ever let her go. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not…
He rose to his feet.
“I just remembered.” His voice was gruff. “We’ll have to put the Porsche lessons off until another time. I, uh, I have an appointment this morning.”
“Oh.” Her smile tilted. “Well, sure. Tomorrow, maybe. Or the next day…”
“I’ll call you,” he said. “When I have the time. How does that sound?”
Like a polite goodbye. That was how it sounded. The bastard! Had she really just been warning herself not to fall in love with him? Only a masochist would fall for a man like Travis Baron.
And here she was, standing naked in the middle of his bedroom.
She wanted to fold her arms over her body but she didn’t. Instead, she reached for his shirt, which he’d discarded so eagerly the night before.
“It sounds fine,” she said politely. “Although, now that I think of it, I’m going to be busy the next few days.” Her fingers trembled as she buttoned the shirt from her throat to her thighs. “Do call me, though. I’m sure we can get together again.”
He nodded. “Good. I’m, uh, I’m
glad you understand…”
“Oh, I understand, Travis. Completely.”
He nodded again. She didn’t understand; he could hear it in her voice but whose fault was that? Not his, surely. He’d made his position clear. Okay, so maybe he’d been carried away a few minutes ago, making all those plans for them. She should have stopped him. Hadn’t she said she wanted the same freedom he wanted? But that was the way women were. They said what they figured a guy wanted to hear, even if it was nothing but a bucket full of lies.
“Travis?”
He looked up. “Yeah?”
“I’d like to get dressed.”
But not in front of him. She didn’t have to say the words for him to hear them.
“Sure. Uh, if you’d like to use the shower…”
“I’ll shower at home, thank you.”
He nodded again. It was all he seemed capable of doing. “Fine,” he said briskly. “I’ll just be a couple of minutes, and then I’ll drive you.”
He walked into the bathroom, shut the door and stepped into the shower stall. Then he turned the water on full, bowed his head, pressed his hands flat against the marble wall and let the water beat down on his shoulders.
He should never have brought Alex home last night. Whatever had he been thinking? And what was all this stuff he’d gotten himself into, with her ridiculous Wish List? So she’d never done a lot of things. Big deal. He’d never done a lot of things, either. Never flown a jet. Never ridden a balloon across the Pacific. Never really fallen in love without holding a part of himself back…
“Hell,” he whispered. “Oh, hell.”
But he wasn’t in love. He never would be. He’d thought he was before, and learned the hard way never to tie himself to one woman for too long.
Alex would just have to accept that.
Travis shut off the water, stepped from the shower and flung open the bathroom door.
“Alex,” he said, “Alex, look…”
The words caught in his throat. His bedroom was empty.
Alex was gone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GONE? Where could she have gone without a car?
Travis pulled on his jeans, ran into the hall and down the stairs.
“Alex?”
The silence of the early morning echoed her name.
The front door stood open. He stepped outside, called for her again. There was no answer, and no sign of her.
Travis mouthed an oath. Barefoot, barechested, he got into his car and turned the key. The engine started with a roar; gravel flew as he made a U-turn and stepped hard on the gas.
She couldn’t have gotten very far.
He might have known she’d run. Hey, she always ran. She’d run that first night, run when he’d confronted her the next day. She’d wanted to run at Peregrine, too, but he’d been too quick for her.
The gate at the end of the driveway was open. He gunned the Porsche through it, then stood on the brakes, glared left, then right…
There she was, marching determinedly along the shoulder of the highway, heading south toward Los Angeles. This time of the day, the road was jammed with vehicles, zipping by in a dizzying stream.
Travis jumped from the car and stormed toward her.
“Alex!”
She heard him. He knew she did; he could tell because she picked up her pace, But she didn’t turn, didn’t acknowledge his presence any other way.
A van shot past, horn blaring.
“Alex, dammit!” Travis caught up to her, grabbed her arm and spun her toward him. Her face was flushed, her eyes and mouth narrowed.
“Let go!”
“What in hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing? Let go of me, Cowboy!”
“Don’t be a bloody little idiot! You can’t walk back home.”
“I can do whatever I want to do, Mr. Baron.” Alex bared her teeth. “Get your hand off me!”
“You’re behaving like a child.”
“I am neither a child nor an idiot.” Her eyes flashed. “Let go or so help me, Travis, I swear—”
“I don’t like people running out on me, Princess.” He moved closer, his fingers biting into her flesh. “You should have figured that.”
“I did not run.” Her chin lifted a notch. “I left. And I don’t have any reason to give a flying fig what you like and don’t like.”
“Alex, dammit—”
The sound of tires crunching on gravel made them both turn. A police car had pulled up behind them.
“Now see what you’ve done,” Travis muttered.
“What I’ve done?” Alex glared at him. “What I’ve done?”
A uniformed officer stepped from the car. His smile was pleasant but his walk was purposeful and cautious as he approached them.
“’Morning, folks. Is there a problem here?”
Travis took a breath. “No problem, Officer. The lady and I are just having a, uh, a discussion.”
The cop nodded. Travis felt the weight of his gaze as it swept over him, taking in his bare chest and feet and his hand wrapped around Alex’s wrist.
“Is that what this is, ma’am? A discussion?”
“No,” Alex said coldly, “it is not. This man—this man…”
“Do you know him?”
“Yes. And he…” She hesitated. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t make her want to crawl into a corner and hide. Could she tell the officer that she and Travis had spent the night together? That she’d run away because she felt used and cheap? That he’d come after her because he felt insulted, or maybe simply because he’d had second thoughts and decided the sex was too good to give up?
“Ma’am?”
Alex swallowed dryly. “I know him. And we’re—we’re having a disagreement, not a discussion.”
“A disagreement,” the cop said, in wearied tones that probably meant he’d heard it all before. “Well, if it’s all the same to you, lady, it’d be a good idea if you took your disagreement back where it started.”
“We will,” Travis said grimly, his hand tightening on Alex’s. “We were just on our way back to my place. Weren’t we, Alex?”
She looked at him and he knew she’d liked to have tried clawing out his eyes, if they’d been alone.
“Yes,” she said through her teeth.
“And you’re going with him willingly, ma’am?”
Alex sighed. “Yes, Officer.”
The cop nodded, folded his arms and waited. Alex wrenched her hand free of Travis’s. Head high, shoulders back, she marched back to the gate. Travis, feeling like an idiot, muttered something about having a nice day and started after her. He climbed into his car, put it in reverse, punched the control that closed the gate, glanced in the mirror—and saw Alex, setting off through the trees toward the adjoining property.
“Holy hell,” he muttered. He left the car in the driveway and went after her. “Where do you think you’re going now?” he snapped, when he caught her.
“The same place I was going before you interfered. Home.”
Travis let go of her, folded his arms across his chest and smirked. “Yeah, well, first you’d have to scale the ten-foot wall that separates my property from the place next door.”
“I’ll manage.”
“I doubt it. Besides, you really have led a sheltered life, Ms. Thorpe, if you don’t realize your mausoleum is at least an hour’s drive from here.”
“It is not a mausoleum.” Her tone was frigid. “And I never had any intention of walking. I’ll call for a cab, just as soon as I find a pay phone.”
“Listen, lady, you want to go home?” Travis slapped his hands on his hips. “Fine. I’ll drive you there.”
“I don’t need you to do anything for me, thank you very much. I am perfectly capable of—”
Hell. “Look, this is crazy,” Travis said, and shoved a hand through his hair.
“It is not crazy. There must be a hundred public phones on that road.”
“I don’t mean that, dammit. I mean—I mean, what happened this morning.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Alex turned on her heel and began walking toward the gate. Travis stepped out in front of her, clasped her shoulders and stopped her.
“Let’s not play games, Princess. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Things were going fine until I—until—”
“Until?”
He took a deep, deep breath. “Until I lied.”
Alex blinked. “Lied?”
“I didn’t have an appointment.” He took another breath, dragging it deep into his lungs as if it might be his last, and glared at her. “I just—I panicked.”
“Panicked?”
“Do you think you could stop repeating everything I say?”
He folded his arms again. She wished he hadn’t. It made her look, really look, at that broad expanse of tanned, muscled chest; at those rounded biceps. At the swirl of dark hair that tapered to a silken line before disappearing into the unbuttoned waistband of his jeans.
She forced her gaze to his face. “I’m not repeating everything you…” She stopped, bit her lip, cleared her throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Travis. Panicked about what?”
He turned and started walking. She hesitated, then followed him past the house, through a small garden and down to the beach. When they reached the sand, he turned and looked at her. “You’re not the first woman who spent the night in my bed,” he said gruffly.
Alex nodded. His words sent a funny little pain through her breast but she ignored it.
“There’s no need to boast,” she said coolly. “I didn’t think I was.”
“Yeah, well, I just want to be sure you understand that.”
She kicked off her shoes and dug her toes into the warm sand. “You needn’t hammer it in. There was nothing special about last night. I’ve got that.”
“No. No, you don’t!” He caught hold of her wrists and yanked her toward him. “There damned well was something special about last night, and you know it.”
A gust of wind blew Alex’s hair across her face. She tugged one hand free, scooped back the strand and stared at him, bewildered.
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