“Okay. Less crowded,” he said, turning to face her on the bench. “Let’s hear it.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
He would have been willing to bet money on that. “Just get it said.”
“Fine,” she blurted, sitting back against the bench. “We didn’t use any protection last night.”
He stared at her, waiting for her to laugh. To tell him she was kidding and of course there was no problem. When she didn’t, he felt an invisible noose tighten around his neck, trying to shut off his air. “Protection? Aren’t you on the Pill?”
She gaped at him. “No, I’m not on the Pill. Why would I be?”
Damn it. “I just assumed…”
Folding her arms across her chest, she tipped her head to one side and arched both eyebrows. “And why would you assume that?”
“Because.” He jumped to his feet, walked a few paces, then spun around and came back. Keeping his voice low, he snapped, “I figured you weren’t interested in getting pregnant.”
“Isn’t that what condoms are for?”
Yes. And damned if he could even remember the last time he’d had unprotected sex. Travis was a careful man. He liked his life the way it was. His only commitment to his work. So when it came to his women, he practically sealed himself up with plastic wrap to avoid being caught by a woman looking for more than a brief sexual relationship.
So why the hell hadn’t he thought of that last night?
Because he hadn’t been thinking at all. He’d gone into this marriage regarding it as nothing more than an in-name-only bargain. They’d agreed to no sex, so he hadn’t even considered that it would be an issue. Then last night, he’d let his hormones lead him down a path that was turning around now to bite him in the ass.
“Perfect,” he muttered. “Just perfect.”
“How do you think I feel?”
He looked at her, one eyebrow arching. “Interesting question. How do you feel? Happy? Excited? Visions of King bank accounts dancing in your head?”
“Excuse me?”
“Well come on, Julie,” he said. “You wouldn’t be the first woman to try this.”
“Just hold on one minute there, buster.”
“Buster?” One corner of his mouth lifted.
“If you think I did this on purpose, you’re way off base.”
“Is that right?”
“Of course it’s right.” She stood up, too, and jabbed his chest with the tip of her index finger. “I’m not one of the hordes of women scheming to trap Travis King into marriage. You came to me, remember?”
One second ticked by, and then another while Julie gritted her teeth and waited for him to be an even bigger jerk. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t happen.
Travis shook his head, stared off at the fast-moving parade of pedestrians such a short distance away from them and then turned his gaze back to her. “You’re right. I did come to you. And what happened last night was both our faults.”
“Wow,” Julie said softly. “I think we’re having a moment, here.”
His mouth quirked, but his eyes were flat and dark. “Doesn’t change the fact that this is a serious situation.”
“Why do you think I brought it up?” She’d been doing some private panicking for most of the day. What if she was pregnant? Then what would happen to their “temporary” marriage? No. She pushed those worries out of her mind and told herself to think positively.
When he didn’t say anything, she took a breath and shook her head. “Look, we’re worried about this for nothing. It was only the one time….”
“Four,” he corrected.
“The one night, ” she amended. “What are the chances?”
“Guess we’ll find out,” he muttered, then took her hand and started for the sidewalk again.
“Where are we going now?” she asked as she practically ran after him.
“The nearest drugstore,” he said. “To stock up on condoms.”
A week later, Julie shielded her eyes and craned her neck back to stare up at the sky. Threads of white clouds stretched across the wide, blue expanse and the red-and-yellow sail dipping and swaying in the air currents looked like a gigantic tropical bird.
Of course, this bird was her husband, who was parasailing. Travis’s impulsiveness hadn’t changed any from when he was a kid. He still liked to try everything at least once. And as that thought shot through her mind, her insides melted, then heated up again.
In the last week, they’d put quite a dent in their condom supply. There’d been no reason to cling to a no-sex vow when both of them were more than eager to share their nights in Travis’s huge bed. And just thinking about the hours spent with him was enough to make Julie curl her bare toes into the hot, white sand beneath her.
She knew she was getting in deeper and deeper, but she couldn’t seem to help herself, and she would defy any other red-blooded woman to be any different. Travis King was a one-man hormonal treat. When he had his tremendous focus aimed on one particular woman, he was irresistible. He had sucked Julie into his world and she didn’t know how she’d ever get out again.
As she realized that, she felt as if someone had dropped a cold stone on her heart. God, she was an idiot. Staring up at the sky and her husband doing twirls and somersaults in the air currents, Julie felt her own stomach spin. This was the second time she’d married only to regret it almost immediately.
Jean Claude had been a creep, no doubt. But at least she hadn’t been completely out of her element in that relationship. With Travis, their worlds were so different, they were bound to collide soon. She was the daughter of his family’s cook for heaven’s sake. And Cinderella aside, these things rarely turned out well.
Plus, he’d had to placate a blackmailer because of her! No, she knew that sooner or later, there was a world of hurt waiting for her. Because despite knowing that she shouldn’t, that there was absolutely no logical reason for her to allow herself to fall in love…it was already happening.
“Señora King?”
“Huh? What?” She tore her gaze from Travis, who was getting lower and lower in the sky, to look up at a hotel employee wearing white slacks and a green-and-white tropical shirt. “I’m sorry. What?”
He smiled and Julie wondered if Travis’s cousin Rico hired only gorgeous employees.
“There is a phone call for you, señora,” he said and handed her a small satellite phone.
“Oh, thanks,” she said, though she couldn’t figure out who would be calling her here. “Hello?”
“Julie O’Hara King,” her mother said in a tone Julie hadn’t heard since she was sixteen and late for curfew. “Would you explain to me how a completely indecent photo of you and Travis ended up on the front page of the tabloid at my local grocery store?”
Oh, God.
“Thomas, I’ll straighten this out as soon as I—we—get home,” Travis was saying.
From Julie’s perch on one of the sleek sofas in their suite, she turned her head to follow Travis’s progress as he paced around the perimeter of the room. Ever since he’d landed and been told about the scandalous photo of them that had apparently been sold to an American tabloid, Travis had practically been foaming at the mouth.
She couldn’t really blame him, though. As it was, Julie wanted to find a hole and crawl into it. Her mother had seen that picture. And her friends at home. And their parents. And strangers the world over were, even now, standing in grocery lines across the globe, looking at her blacked-out boobs.
She groaned.
“My lawyers are handling the situation,” he insisted and Julie had the feeling that Thomas Henry, wine distributor, was less than impressed with Travis’s assurances.
By the time Travis had returned, Julie had fielded three more phone calls, though none of them had had quite the embarrassing punch of her mother’s. Still, talking to Travis’s brothers, not to mention his lawyer, about the photos had pretty much sapped whatever energy she’d had left.
How was she ever supposed to look people in the eye again? Maybe she wouldn’t have to, she thought frantically. Maybe they could move. To Zimbabwe or something. Yes. That would work. Run and hide until the embarrassment faded away. Shouldn’t take more than ten or twenty years.
They couldn’t hide though. They had to go back to Birkfield. Which was why Travis was on the phone now with Thomas Henry, trying to smooth ruffled feathers. Though what Henry had to be ruffled about, Julie wasn’t quite sure. It wasn’t him splashed across papers, sharing space with stories about headless aliens and fifty-pound newborns.
Oh, God.
“Fine. I’ll get in touch as soon as I’m home. We’ll work this out, Thomas.” Travis hung up and tossed the phone onto the nearest chair. “This is a mess.”
“You think?”
He shot her a quelling look.
She gave him one right back. “Hey, I’m in those pictures, too, you know.”
“Right, right.” He nodded, stuffed his hands into his slacks pockets and walked toward her. “I don’t like not having control. It’s not natural.”
“Welcome to the real world,” she muttered.
“I’d rather have my own. Where I make the rules.”
She knew that. It was in his nature to be in charge. To take care of things himself. To protect those he cared about. Not that she was putting herself in that very select crowd. This was just a special circumstance.
Time for a change of subject. “What did Mr. Henry have to say?”
Travis scrubbed one hand across the back of his neck. “I told you he was eccentric? Well, he’s also conservative. Yeah, and don’t ask me how he can be both. He just is.”
“Okay…” Eccentric and conservative.
“Seeing that picture made him rethink doing business with King wines, but I think he’s coming around. He admits that it’s our honeymoon and hardly our fault!” Travis said as Julie took a tight rein on her runaway imagination. Pay attention, she told herself.
“If we could just settle this marriage thing and get back home, I could tie up a business deal with Henry before he has a chance to back out.”
His features were tight and his eyes were narrowed as if he thought he could solve everything simply by concentrating hard enough. But for the moment, he was stalled. The future he planned was hanging just out of reach and there was nothing he could do to hurry things along.
That knowledge had to be driving him crazy, Julie thought. A man like Travis wasn’t used to waiting or having zero input on what happened to him.
“My lawyer’s tracking down the photographer,” Travis said tightly. “And he’s got a call in to the tabloids, for all the good it’ll do. Now that the picture’s out there, it’s going to be a lot harder to get rid of.”
Great. Julie stood, faced him, then quietly wrapped her arms around his middle, laying her head on his chest.
Travis just stood there. “What’s this for?”
She tipped her head back and gave him a tired smile. “I thought you could use a hug. And Lord knows, I sure could.”
He sighed, then folded his arms around her. “Good point.” As he smoothed his hands up and down her back, he said, “I’ll take care of this, Julie.”
“I know,” she said softly, relishing the feel of his hard body pressed along hers. She shouldn’t enjoy this so much, Julie told herself. She shouldn’t get used to the feeling that it was she and Travis against the world. That the two of them were a team, united against all attackers.
Because to Travis, this team of theirs was temporary.
And when the game was over, she’d be nothing more than a memory for him.
Seven
F our days later, Julie’s divorce came through.
That same afternoon, Travis arranged for a quiet marriage ceremony in Judge Hernandez’s office. The service was brief and, thanks to the judge, safely away from the prying eyes of roving photographers.
With everything at last settled, Travis was anxious to get back to the winery. He had plenty of plans to put into motion and now that he was safely— legally— married, he wanted to get started. A car was called to pick them up at the hotel for the short trip to the airport, where a King jet was waiting.
Travis felt as though he were finally getting a tight grip on his universe again. He was back at the helm and now that he’d taken care of the problems facing them, everything else was sure to run smoothly. He and Julie were working well together—who would have guessed he’d find the most incredible sexual partner in his life by marrying an old friend?
Turning his head slightly, he looked at her and tried to see past the instant jolt of pure lust that slammed into him. She was beautiful, true. But was she all that she claimed? There remained a niggling doubt deep within him that perhaps Julie wasn’t as innocent as she professed to be. There’d just been too many things that had gone wrong since they’d married. Jean Claude. The photos of them on their balcony. The night they’d lost control and risked pregnancy.
He’d like to think that he could trust her. But the bottom line was, Julie had entered into this “marriage” for the same reasons he had. She was being paid well for participating and who was to say she hadn’t cut a side deal with Jean Claude to try to improve on the one she’d already made with Travis?
When she turned her head to look up at him and smile, Travis told himself he had nothing to worry about. But still, he’d be cautious. It didn’t pay to trust the wrong people.
He checked his watch and said, “If Rico doesn’t get his butt out here soon, we’re going to leave without saying goodbye.”
“Five minutes, Travis,” she said. “Relax.”
But that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Still, he couldn’t help admiring the woman he’d married, from a purely objective perspective, of course. She was wearing white slacks, a pale yellow tank top with a peach-colored overshirt that hung open in front and white sandals on her feet. Sunlight washed through the lobby and seemed to practically glow as it gilded Julie. She looked fresh and beautiful and his body stirred hard and hot right there in the hotel lobby.
Damned if he could figure out just why she affected him as she did, but as long as they were married, he planned to make the most of it. Before he could reach out and cup her cheek, though, a voice sounded from behind him.
“Travis, I am sorry to see you go so soon.”
Turning, he held out one hand. “Rico, your timing, as always, sucks.”
His cousin l
aughed as if he knew exactly what Travis meant.
“But we appreciate the hospitality,” Travis said.
“Yes,” Julie added. “Thank you. Your hotel is just gorgeous and we had a—” she sent Travis a small smile “—wonderful time.”
They had, Travis mused, watching her luscious mouth curve. Except for the paparazzi and the delays in the divorce and the minor crisis of photos taken at a private moment ending up on the front page of national newspapers. But she was standing there smiling, her green eyes shining, as if they hadn’t had any trouble at all.
He was forced to admit that Julie had taken all of this mess in stride. Much better than any other woman he knew would have done. Hell, if it weren’t for her even keel and stubborn calm, he probably would have gone over the edge himself.
Not a happy thought, he told himself. He didn’t like the fact that he’d needed her to keep him calm. And thinking of that, why the hell had she been relatively calm about all of this? Was she really so damned easygoing? Or was it that she’d known ahead of time about all the problems that would arise because she’d been in on planning them from the start?
Hell, he hadn’t planned to seduce her on the damn balcony. But she’d looked so blasted edible, he hadn’t been able to help himself. Had she seduced him? Arranged for a photographer to catch them at an inopportune moment? But why? Hell, she’d been even more embarrassed and angry than he had. At least, he told himself, she’d seemed to be. And what about Jean Claude? How the devil had that little weasel managed to get onto the winery property on a day when Travis had had extra security measures in place? Had Julie helped him sneak past the guards?
And what about their first night of amazing— unprotected— sex? Why the hell hadn’t she been on the Pill? Had she actually been trying to get pregnant and hold him up for more cash?
“Travis?” Her voice prodded at him and her tone said she’d already called his name a couple of times. “Earth to Travis….”
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