Bliss reached for him, but he crowded her back against the mattress and laid her down. He knelt over her, running his thumbs over her nipples, watching her squirm. She didn’t shy away from his gaze, and more often than not she stared right back at him, owning this beautiful body of hers and the desire she felt for him. He loved the rounded softness of her hips, stomach, and breasts, so different from himself.
“Travis, I want you inside of me,” she said without hesitation.
“Not yet.” He had to put her over the edge first.
She made a frustrated sound, something between a sigh and a growl. He chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose as he shoved his hand past the stretchy waistband of her pants. He cupped her mound, pressing two fingers against her folds. Her mouth opened and her eyes fluttered shut. He parted her folds, rubbing against her. Her hips shifted under him, but he was saving being inside of her for a few moments longer.
He sat back on his heels, tugging her pants and panties down her long legs.
This was what sex was supposed to be like. He’d deprived himself of human connection on a meaningful level besides his friendships. Caring for Bliss, and knowing she felt something for him, too, changed everything. He didn’t just want to please her, he wanted—more. It wasn’t just his dick, it was his heart.
He slid his hands between her knees and pushed them open, going to his elbows. She shifted and gripped the sheets with both hands. There was something erotic about the sight of a woman’s breasts from this angle, especially hers. Later, he’d have to spend more time between them, but her pleasure came first.
Bliss’ mouth opened, and her gaze bore a hole into his skull. She didn’t shy away from what turned her on, which was just that much better.
He licked the length of her slit, tasting the slightly salty tang of her skin.
“Travis,” she drew his name out for several seconds.
He spread her folds, licking her. He thrust his tongue into her pussy. Her hips came up off the mattress, and her knees squeezed his shoulders. The noises she made were even better than last time. Her hand found his hair, and her nails raked across his scalp.
“There, right there.” She gasped.
He slid his fingers into her, curling them against the sensitive g-spot while sucking on her clit. Her mouth dropped open, and her back arched. He felt the spasms of her vaginal wall before her first high-pitched moan. She grabbed a pillow, muffling the sounds of her orgasm while he stroked her, keeping the steady, even pace, milking her for everything he could until she lay slack and boneless against the sheets.
God damn, she was fantastic.
He eased out of her and carefully crawled up to lie next to her. The jeans were on the extreme side of uncomfortable now, but he could manage.
“Oh my God. Oh my God.” Bliss lowered the pillow to her chest and panted.
Travis allowed himself a chuckle.
“Good?” he asked.
She stared at him with wide eyes.
“Good? Great would be an understatement.” She grinned without some of the tension she’d carried earlier.
Bliss rolled toward him and threw a leg over his. He stared at the ceiling and mentally ran through what ammunition he had with him. The state of his razors. Anything but the feel of her breasts against his chest, the still-hard nipples prodding him, or her thigh rubbing up against his balls.
He knew every one of her injuries, had listened as the nurses uncovered them and then again when Bliss recounted the horrors. She wanted release, and he’d give her that, but until she had more time to heal, he wouldn’t presume that sex was on the table, no matter what she said.
She kissed his jaw and cupped his cheek, turning his face toward her. He hesitated—some people weren’t fond of their taste on another’s mouth—but she didn’t show any reservation. She kissed him and slid her leg over his hips.
“Careful.” He winced and adjusted his dick with one hand, the other busy copping a feel.
“Sorry.”
Bliss sat up, straddling his thighs. Her smile was the stuff better men wrote songs about. She grasped his zipper and tugged it down. He hurriedly cupped his dick before it got caught in the zipper.
“Hold on.” He grabbed her hands, staying away from her bruised wrists.
“What?” She frowned.
“Just, don’t think you have to.”
She tilted her head to the side.
“I mean, if you aren’t ready,” he said.
“Travis, Daniel didn’t rape me.”
“I know, but it doesn’t mean you’re ready. If you aren’t.”
“I don’t know if I should thank you for being considerate, or slap you for being stupid.” One side of her mouth screwed up.
“No slapping.” He cringed and covered his erection.
Bliss chuckled and ducked her head, kissing his mouth. He couldn’t keep his hands to himself. He palmed her breasts, capturing the hard nipples between his fingers. She groaned against his lips and her eyes parted.
“Are you really turning me down right now?” She stuck out her lower lip.
“No, but—”
She put her fingers over his mouth.
“Nothing good comes after but.”
Bliss replaced her fingers with her mouth while her other hand wrapped around his cock.
“You really want to turn me down right now?” she asked.
“No. I just want what’s best for you.”
“Can you stop being so considerate for a little bit? Are you really going to argue with me about having sex?”
He should.
She’d been through so much.
“No,” he finally said.
She smiled and planted a kiss on his mouth while her hands slid down to cup his balls.
“Any chance you have a condom?” she asked.
He sat up, pushing her back onto her heels, and slapped his wallet onto the nightstand. Tucked inside was a little precautionary protection. He grabbed it and ripped the packet open. If she was determined to have sex—with him—he was done fighting what they both wanted. He’d tried the selfless martyr route, and that clearly wasn’t for them.
Travis rolled the condom on by feel alone while Bliss’ mouth kept him busy. She pushed his shoulders and he lay back, cramming a pillow under his neck. This was a sight he didn’t want to miss.
She grasped his cock, her eyes a little wider.
“I thought I imagined it being this big,” she said.
“It’s only going to get bigger the longer you look at it.”
“Oh, really now?” She grinned.
She lifted up on her knees, and he grasped her hips, steadying her. Her grip tightened, holding him in place as she sank down. He held himself back, allowing her to go at her own speed. She planted her hands on his chest, her nails driving into his skin as she rose and sank, working more of his cock into her tight little pussy. Finally she sank down, taking the last bit of him into her.
Bliss sucked down deep breaths, her gaze a little unfocused.
He sat up, wrapping an arm around her waist, and kissed her. She groaned, sucking on his tongue, and clung to his shoulders. Her body relaxed further and the vice-like grip on his cock eased.
She pushed on his shoulders, and he released her, breaking the kiss and letting his hands drift down to her ass. There was no telling how long he’d last. Not long enough, that was for sure. Her body fit him better than the gloves she’d gifted him. There was a rightness to the world when he was in her.
Bliss rose on shaky knees.
“Christ.” He groaned.
“Bliss.” She kissed his cheek. “My name is Bliss.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Little sparks of light were going off behind his eyelids. She rose and fell, her breasts rubbing against his chest. He dropped back to the bed, giving her free rein to move as she liked. Her hands found his chest again, and her nails dug in.
Travis lifted his hips, moving in time with her.
“Fuck—Bliss.” He grasped her hips, lifting her, and thrust, losing himself in the tight, hot feel of her body around his.
He squeezed his eyes shut as his orgasm spurted out of him. Bliss fell forward, collapsing against his chest, her breath fanning over his skin. He wrapped his arms around her.
If only every day could be spent with her.
11.
Daniel lifted the cigarette to his lips, his gaze on the black SUV. He didn’t smoke, but it gave him a reason to loiter outside the hospital. Tapping the phone lines hadn’t told him anything he couldn’t have guessed on his own. What he needed was another way to keep tabs on them, especially once they returned to Vegas later in the day.
Three figures climbed out of the truck. The two men automatically put the smaller woman between them, not that Bliss was worth saving. But she was for later.
He waited until they’d entered the hospital, and then waited longer, letting the cigarette burn down almost to the filter. Disposing of the butt, he kept his head down and strode out to the parking lot, peering at the other cars. No one had pulled in after the two bodyguards, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t waiting for him to expose himself. So far, the cops were looking in all the wrong places, the places some other idiot would go on the run. But not him. He had a brain.
Daniel pulled the spare rental key out of his pocket and clicked the fob. The black SUV beeped.
One more glance around.
No one was watching.
He circled the truck and opened the passenger door. A few belongings littered the console and floor board. Nothing useful. He dug into the back seat and came up with several bags. One of which had Bliss’ nametag already attached to it.
Perfect.
He dug into his pocket and pulled out the tiny tracking device. Disguised as a bit of garbage, it would blend into her belongings. With any luck, it would lead him right to her once they went to ground in Vegas.
A pair of black gloves stuck out of the seat pocket. He grabbed them, turning them over.
Nice.
He shoved them in his pocket and got out of the SUV, locking it with the rental key. Satisfied, it was time to get out of the city and hit the road. His new ride should be ready soon, and he needed to return the key before it was missed.
Daniel’s plans were falling into place.
BLISS PEERED OUT BETWEEN the blinds. The upper-middle class house was one of many nearly identical models in the Las Vegas housing development. Except it wasn’t. This one was owned by the government. Not just the police, but the government. An unmarked police car had delivered them here and then left. Someone was supposed to bring Travis’ rental around eventually. From the talk that had gone on around her, she picked up that their arrangement was unusual.
The difference was Travis. His continued presence in her life made everything different.
“Where the fuck are they?”
She turned and watched Travis upend his bag onto the big bed that sat in the middle of the master suite. He’d marched in here and deposited both their bags on the dresser as if it were the most natural thing. She liked that. Liked knowing he would be next to her tonight when the nightmares came again. That when she needed him, he’d be an arm’s length away.
But only for another week, at best.
During the flight she overheard his hushed phone call. He was passing up work to be with her, and while she appreciated that, she couldn’t let his life stall for the sake of her comfort.
“What’s wrong?” She crossed to the bed.
“The gloves. I had them earlier, but they aren’t in any of my stuff.” A few days ago, his ferocious frown might have sent her into hiding. Now she just wanted to kiss him.
“They’re somewhere.” She shrugged. They’d packed in such a rush to make the flight before another front blew in. She doubted he really thought about what went where.
“But they should be here.”
“You’ll find them.” She climbed onto the bed and lay down on her side, watching him. “Heard from Ethan?”
“Yeah. He texted. Sounds like he’s still being a grump.”
“When will he get home?”
“Tomorrow, as long as flights aren’t grounded.”
“You guys seem really close.”
“Should be. We’ve known each other since Basic.”
“Yeah?” She curled her arm under her, eager to hear anything about his past.
Instead, Travis grunted and started folding his clothes.
Well, nuts.
“What was that like?” she asked.
“Basic? Bullshit.”
“That’s all you have to say about it?” She laughed and threw a pillow at him.
Travis caught it, folded it in half and sat on the mattress, the pillow under his forearm.
“I don’t have a lot of good memories from Basic.”
“Why?”
“I had a friend that enlisted with me. He couldn’t hack it, got kicked out and...it’s just bad memories.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Carlos went on to have a kid. It was his baby momma who went crazy, threatened to kill the kid, and I grabbed the boy while Carlos talked her down.”
“Oh, no.”
“Yeah.”
“But...what happened? You told me a little, but I’m guessing not the whole story.”
Travis sighed and stretched out, cramming the pillow under his head. He stared at the ceiling, hands crossed over his stomach.
“Carlos had a bad picker. He only liked the crazy women. He knocked up Priss right before Basic, and he always said getting kicked out was good, because he got to be there for her during the pregnancy. She was never right in the head. Every time I was home, they’d broken up and been back together a couple of times.”
She held her breath, dreading the end of his story.
“That last time, they were split up. She called, pissed about something that didn’t even make sense, and threatened to kill their son, Manuel. Carlos, he was scared. Real scared. So we went over there, and she’s hitting on this kid.” He swung his hand in the air, not looking at her. “He was seven, I think. She’s just wailing on him. Carlos grabs her, and I figure, this kid needs help. I grab him, get in the truck and go down the street until the cops come.”
Her heart hurt. On the surface he was just rattling off the details, but she knew how much it had to bother him. Travis was a protector. He’d acted with the best interests of the kid in mind.
“We must have sat there for an hour. I thought no one was coming. I didn’t have a cell phone, and all I’ve got is a screaming kid. Well the cops get there, yank me out, start yelling, and they haul me to prison and give the kid back to Priss and Carlos, who in that hour had patched things up and were back together. They stayed together all during my trial. Carlos, he lied through his teeth on the stand. It was awful, but he never was very strong when it came to women. Worst of it? I was in the pen maybe six weeks when I heard Priss killed Carlos on one of her crazy benders.”
“No!”
“Yeah. I got paroled a couple months later.”
“What happened to Manuel?”
“He lives with Carlos’ mother now. I go by and see him whenever I’m home.”
“Does he like you?”
“Yeah. He got all the brains his parents never had. Smart kid. Scary smart.”
“What did you do after that?”
“I got out and went straight to a bar. My sister, Emma, showed up, and we drank until we were seriously fucked.”
“Really?” Bliss laughed and tried to picture what Travis’ sister must look like. She had to be an interesting woman.
“Yeah, you don’t want to have a drinking contest with her. Our old man had her on the bottle young. She can’t drink me under the table, but she can hold her own.”
&nb
sp; “Your dad got you guys drinking when you were kids?”
“My sister. My mom would have smacked him silly. Didn’t stop me sneaking a few beers.”
“Okay, wait...” She shook her head, rearranging the pieces.
“My dad stepped out on his wife a lot. He only had two kids though. Emma, whose mom is his wife, and me. We’re about a year apart.”
“And it’s your dad who had the run-in with the serial killer?”
“Yeah. BTK. He murdered my grandparents and made him watch.”
“That had to be rough.”
“It wasn’t a cake walk.”
“And you said a copycat tried to kill your sister?”
“Yeah, earlier this year, guy called himself BTKiller. He was...I don’t know, trying to recreate the original BTK murders because he thought he was the reincarnation of the guy. You’d have to ask Emma. He had this idea that if he killed all these people, her and this cop, he’d set his soul free or some bullshit.”
“And that’s how you got hooked up with the FBI?”
“Kind of. Their guys called me, asked me some questions. It went from there.”
She shook her head, mind reeling. They hadn’t even touched on his time in the Navy, doing whatever it was he did, or his job now. Danger was woven into the fabric of who he was. There was no use wishing him safe because, even doing something safe, he was dangerous.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing, I’m wrapping my head around all of it.”
“I’m not a good person, Bliss.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes.
“You’re seeing me as the man you want me to be.”
“Or maybe you’ve decided to be a martyr because a few idiots said you were a bad apple? I can’t believe that. You’re a lot better than you give yourself credit for.”
“I’m not.”
“Fine. If that’s what you want to believe.” She rolled off the bed, stood and stretched.
If Travis wanted to be a martyr and believe he was some sort of awful human being because a bunch of bad stuff had happened to him, she wasn’t going to change his mind. But now she understood him a tiny bit better, and she liked what she’d seen.
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