“Yes, I want it back.”
“We’ll see,” she said. “I need to run. I’d like to get home in time to change and make it to church this morning.”
“Hang on and I’ll go with you.”
She shook her head. “No. It’s better if we don’t start appearing in public as a couple. No need to feed the gossip trolls.”
“You sure? It won’t take me very long to get ready.”
“I’m sure.”
She stepped closer to him. “Thanks for being such a good friend.” She snaked a hand behind his head and pulled him down for a kiss. “Later.”
Travis heard the roar of the Porsche’s engine and he smiled. If only she could have seen her face when he’d told her about his car. There was no way she wasn’t going to drive it.
A couple of hours later, he was standing in the Whispering Springs United Methodist Church when his black Porsche roared into the lot.
“Ain’t that your car, bro?” Jason asked.
“Loaned it to Caroline. Hers died.”
Jason’s brows furrowed. “If I remember correctly—and I do—seems like you told me to take a hike when I asked to borrow it.”
“You don’t look good in a dress. Excuse me.” Travis walked over to his car as Caroline was climbing out. “How’d she run for you?”
“You’re kidding, right? I left a group of high school boys with their tongues hanging out when I passed them.”
“Maybe it wasn’t the car,” he suggested.
She closed and locked the door. “Right.” She snorted. “But I do love new-car smell.”
Jason stood at the church door waiting. “Morning, Caroline. I was so sorry to hear about your grandmother.”
“Thank you, Jason. I’m afraid I’ve left your fiancée shorthanded all week.”
“She hasn’t complained, but I know the office missed you.”
“That is so sweet. Thank you for saying that.”
“That’s a fine looking car you’re driving.”
Travis glared at his brother, who noticeably ignored him.
“It’s a loaner,” she said.
Jason laughed. “Come on,” he said, holding his arm out. “Let me escort you inside.”
Caroline took Jason’s arm. Travis gritted his teeth. His brother was so dead.
“Thanks, Jason,” Caroline said as she slid into her usual church spot. Fitzgerald side, third row, directly across from the Montgomery family. “You and Travis go join your family.”
Travis caught her eye and pointedly looked at the spot next to her. She subtly shook her. He turned and sat next to his mother. Caroline was probably right. After already sitting with her last week, there was no reason to give the rumor mill more grist.
“Good morning, Travis,” Elsie Belle drawled in a deep Southern accent from the pew behind him. “You too, Jackie.”
“Morning, Elsie,” Jackie said over her shoulder without turning her head far. Travis knew his mother wasn’t one of Elsie Belle’s biggest fans.
“Good morning, Elsie,” Travis said, trying to be polite without encouraging Elsie Belle.
“My family is going over to WSCC for lunch, Travis. We would love for you to join us.”
Beside him, his mother snorted just loud enough for only him to hear.
“Thanks. I appreciate the offer. Unfortunately I already have plans.” Which included not having lunch with Elsie Belle Lambert and her parents.
“Well, think about it,” Elsie Belle whispered. “You can give me your answer after church.”
Travis turned toward the front of the church. Hadn’t he just given her an answer?
“Honey, if you need to miss the family Sunday meal, I’d understand,” Jackie Montgomery said, a devious grin on her face.
“Shh. The service is starting,” he whispered back.
He could feel his mother shaking with silent laughter.
It was all he could do to keep his mind on the service and not on the woman across the aisle. Once he was sure he felt her looking at him, but when he moved his gaze in that direction, she was staring straight ahead.
After the closing prayer, Jackie pushed past Travis. “Caroline.”
Caroline turned and Jackie enfolded Caroline in her arms.
“I am so sorry about your grandmother. How horrible to lose family members so close together.”
“Thank you. Mamie was ill for some time, and I think she was in a great deal of discomfort for the past couple of months. I’m glad she’s no longer suffering, but I’ll miss her so much.” Her voice cracked.
“Come have lunch with us,” Jackie said. “We’d love to have you.”
Travis was waiting for Caroline’s answer when a hand landed on his arm. “Travis? Lunch?”
He glanced down at the hand and then back at Elsie Belle. “No. I’m sorry. I’ve already made plans.”
Her hand fell from his arm. She looked at his mother conversing with Caroline. An expression of ire flashed in her eyes.
“Fine.” She whirled on her heel and marched out of the church.
“You need to do something about her, son,” his dad said.
“What?” Travis said. “I’ve never encouraged her.”
“Well, give it some thought.” His dad slapped him on the back and moved on.
He drove straight to his parents’ house, expecting Caroline to be there or to arrive behind him. She never came. When he asked, Jackie said Caroline had begged off, explaining she wanted to go to her office today and check the schedule for the week. As much as he wanted to blow off Caroline’s absence, he couldn’t. They’d been together non-stop for days and he missed her.
That evening, he wasn’t sure whether she’d come back or not. They hadn’t spoken all day, not that he hadn’t picked up his telephone more than once to call only to set it back down. She knew she had an open invitation to come back. He wasn’t going to beg.
At ten p.m., he heard the garage door grinding up. His heart leapt into his throat. Without looking at which magazine he’d grabbed, he snapped it open and began to read, inanely pleased that she’d come back.
“Travis?”
“In here,” he called, still holding the magazine as camouflage.
“Hey,” Caroline said, propping a small roller bag against the den wall. She draped a plastic-shrouded set of clothes on the back of a breakfast bar stool. The ever-present charm bracelet jangled with each movement.
“Hey, yourself.”
“I hope you were serious about my coming back?”
He tossed the magazine on the table. “I was. I’m glad you did.”
A tinge of pink colored her cheeks. “You were right.”
“About what?”
“Being alone in my house. It never bothered me before, but it seemed like everywhere I looked, I saw something that made me think of my grandmother.”
He nodded. “I remember. Sometimes it’s the simplest thing that can set off a memory.”
A tired, sad smile stretched across her mouth. “I went to make a cup of hot tea and I remembered when she and I would have tea parties. And once when I had a bad cold, she gave me tea with honey and a shot of bourbon to cut my cough. Just silly things like that.”
He walked over and caught her face between his hands. “Not silly at all.” He kissed her. Her lips were soft and plump and exactly the right size. When she leaned into the kiss, he enfolded her in his arms and took the kiss deeper, enjoying the tangle of their tongues. He soaked up her taste like a smoker’s first drag on a cigarette. He pulled back to look into her eyes, now dark with desire. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“So am I.”
He took her hand and led her back to his bedroom.
Nervous nausea had filled Caroline’s stomach when she’d pulled into Travis’s garage. She’d mentally crossed her fingers that his invitation to come back for a few days was sincere. Now, as she held his callused hand and they made their way to his bedroom, a feeling of relieved bliss replaced the nervous nau
sea. Although, finding herself back in his bed produced a whole different kind of nervous energy.
The summer spread had been pulled back. The blue sheets from last night were gone. In their place, a fresh set of beige sheets covered the bed. On the right side, where she’d slept last night, a single red rose lay on the pillow. Her breath caught when she saw it.
“Oh,” she said with a sigh. She looked at Travis, who seemed to be watching her with bated breath. “The rose. For me?”
He grinned. “Who else?”
He turned her to face him. Lifting his hand, he ran a finger along her cheek, the callused tip leaving excited nerve receptors in its wake. She leaned into his hand then turned to kiss the palm. Stepping closer until her breasts met the flat hardness of his chest, she slipped her hand behind his neck and pulled him down for a deep, soul-seeking kiss. When she parted her lips, he thrust his tongue into her mouth, starting a tangle with hers. Licking, nipping, kissing, he worked along her chin, down her neck and then back up to her ear.
“Come to bed with me,” he whispered, his hot breath sending shivers down her spine. “I’ve thought of nothing else all day.”
She reached for the top pearl-button snap on his shirt and pulled. Snap. Then she pulled again. Snap. Each snap raised her heart rate by five beats. By the time she reached the last snap, her hands were at his waist and her heart rate was soaring. She smoothed her hands over his hard pectoral muscles, enjoying the crinkle of his chest hair against the palms of her hands. She traced each muscle, each tendon of his upper torso until he was vibrating beneath her fingers with need. He jerked the tail of his shirt from his jeans, ripped it down his arms and tossed it into the corner.
He ran his gaze down her body and back to her face. “Looking at you right now is like looking at a wrapped present. I don’t know whether to rip off all the wrapping and get right to the present or take my time, pulling off each ribbon and piece of tape until the prize is finally exposed.”
The combination of his gritty words with the appreciative gleam in his eyes had her quivering with desire. She pulled her cotton top over her head and tossed it into a chair.
“Let me make the decision easy for you.” She reached behind her back, unfastened her bra and let it skitter down her arms and float to the floor. After toeing off both shoes, she pushed the button on the waistband of her shorts through the buttonhole. Her fingers grasped the pull tab on her shorts’ zipper. Slowly, she slid the zipper down.
“Aw, hell.” Travis swept her into his arms and deposited her in the middle of his bed. With one swift move, he finished unzipping her shorts and had them off in a nanosecond. His jeans and briefs were hurriedly kicked into the corner to join his shirt. “Damn you’re a tease,” he said, joining her on the fresh sheets.
He pulled her into his arms. Hot, needy flesh met hot, needy flesh. He kissed her, his tongue doing long, complicated spirals inside her mouth.
Caroline rubbed her breasts through the coarse hair of his chest. Her nipples stood erect. She wanted to touch and rub against his body in every way possible.
He kissed and nibbled along her chin and down her neck. When his mouth latched on to her breast, she arched.
“More,” she gasped out. “Suck harder.”
He did, drawing more of her flesh into his mouth with strong suction. Her sex tingled and ached for relief. When he blew hot breath across her erect nipple, she squirmed with pent-up desire.
She cradled his head in her fingers as he licked and sucked her breasts. Involuntary guttural moans rattled in her throat. Technically, she hadn’t been a virgin when they first made love, but she’d never had these feelings before, this overwhelming desire to touch and be touched everywhere. Travis had the ability to reach areas inside her no one ever had.
“God, Caro,” he gasped as he kissed his way down her abdomen. “Your skin tastes like honey.”
He wedged himself between her legs, spreading them wide with his hard body. Shoving his hands under her ass, he lifted her aroused sex to his mouth. He kissed her vulva, sucking gently on the inflamed tissues.
Caroline’s legs quivered. She felt the muscle spasms of her vagina. She slammed her head into the pillow and knotted the sheet in her fingers.
With a flick of his tongue, he separated her folds, licking along each side, rimming the edge of her opening. She squirmed in his hands. Her insides whirled like a weather vane in a tornado. An intense, almost painful energy built inside her.
“Stop, Travis,” she said with a low moan. “I can’t take any more.” She shifted her hips in his hands, trying to move away while simultaneously trying to move closer.
He wouldn’t let her go. He dug his fingers into the flesh of her ass as he held her firmly against his mouth, using his tongue to torture her again and again, building the swirl of electricity inside. When he jabbed the tip of his tongue inside her, she screamed as wave after rippling wave coursed through her. There seemed to be no end to her climax. As the orgasmic jolts would begin to subside, Travis would use his tongue to ramp them up again. She grabbed whatever she could to hold on to…the sheets, the headboard, his hair. She pounded her head into the pillow. She lacked the ability to open her eyes or make a sound other than moans and cries. Finally, she found her voice.
“Please,” she begged. “Mercy.”
He lowered her hips to the bed and covered her with his body. “Caroline,” he whispered in her ear. “Darlin’, I need to be inside you.”
“Oh, God, yes,” she said with a plea. “Please.”
She heard the rip of foil only seconds before she felt the head of his hard penis pressing at her opening. She spread her thighs wide. He pushed in, stretching tissue unused to such girth. Oh Lord, it felt so good. She moaned and pressed her hips down on his shaft until he was imbedded to the hilt.
A deep-chested groan rolled from him. “You feel so good,” he said. “I hate to move.”
She smiled, knowing he couldn’t see it. She wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed her thighs while tapping his butt with her heel. “Giddy-up,” she said with a giggle.
He laughed and pulled slowly out of her. Her breath caught in her throat and held until he thrust back deep. He pulled out and thrust hard again.
“I’m trying to take it slow,” he said with a gasp. “I just can’t. You.” He thrust into her. “Feel.” He thrust again. “Perfect.”
“Faster,” she said. “Faster.”
He did as she asked, moving in and out of her rapidly. The swirl of energy built again, each thrust pushing her higher until she came with a cry. He pushed inside one more time before he pressed firmly inside and held. The hard pulse of his orgasm rocked her.
Collapsing on top of her, he groaned. “Damn, woman. You’re gonna give me a heart attack.”
Caroline traced her fingers down his spine, enjoying the twitches of his firm muscles until she reached his butt. His hard, solid muscles barely indented when she squeezed.
“Yeah. I kind of liked it too,” she said in a whisper. “I liked it a lot.”
“Be right back,” he said as he slid off her. He stopped suddenly. “Oh shit.”
“What?” She sat up. Travis was staring at the broken remains of his condom.
He looked at her, his eyes wide. “Holy hell, Caroline. This hasn’t ever happened before.”
“No problem. Really. Don’t worry about it. Give me a minute. I’ll be right back and explain.”
Caroline hopped from the bed and headed for the bathroom. By the time she returned, Travis had disposed of the faulty condom and was waiting for her in bed. She slipped under the sheet and moved across the mattress until their bodies touched.
“I am so sorry,” he said.
She shook her head, a sad smile tugged at her lips. “Like I said, it isn’t a problem.” She lowered the sheet until the hem was just above her mons. “Surely you’ve noticed the scars here.” She pointed to a number of faint lines crisscrossing her flesh. “I was in a bad car accident in high s
chool.” She pulled the sheet back up. “I probably shouldn’t have lived. My boyfriend didn’t.” She paused as the easily recognizable survivor guilt rolled over her. She sighed and then continued. “I had quite a bit of abdominal trauma. The surgeon who did my repairs took my right ovary out. She told me it’d been ruptured in the accident. There was damage to my uterus, but at my age she didn’t want to remove it and the remaining ovary. She repaired everything the best she could, but I was advised that my chances of getting pregnant were like one in a million.”
Travis wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight. “That’s awful, babe.” He slid lower in the bed, taking Caroline with him. She rested her head on his chest.
“I think it was that doctor who stimulated my interest in medicine. Without her, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now. Not having children is a small price to pay for living.”
Travis toyed with the charms on Caroline’s ever-present bracelet. “That sucks. Really, really sucks.”
Caroline shrugged. “It is what it is. So anyway, this morning’s broken condom is nothing to lose sleep over, at least as far as pregnancy is concerned. I promise.” She looked up at him. “As far as sexually transmitted diseases go, you have nothing to worry about from me. One of the requirements of the company I work for is annual testing for most diseases I could transmit to a patient. HIV. Hepatitis. Herpes. MRSA. You name it and I’ve probably been tested for it.” She glanced away. “And let’s face it. I haven’t been with a man in a couple of years, so yeah, I’m squeaky clean.”
“It’s been over ten years since I’ve had sex without a condom,” Travis said. “Back when I was married to Susan. I haven’t had all the testing you have, but I don’t think you have anything to be worried about with me. I’m pretty careful. But I’m willing to be tested for anything if it would make you feel better.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. If anything happens, then we can deal with it.”
They lay there in the quiet, Caroline listening to his heart’s steady rhythm while he continued to finger her bracelet.
“No Texas?”
“Excuse me?” She raised her head to look at him.
Texas Tango: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 2 Page 14