by Cathy Gillen
He let her catch his hand, then held his ground and twined his fingers with hers. “What are you really afraid of?”
Chapter Twelve
Travis didn’t think Holly was going to answer, at least not candidly. Then she drew a halting breath, looked him straight in the eye and said, “I’m afraid that my relationship with you will end up the same way my relationship with Cliff ended.”
Of all the weapons she could have used against him, this hurt the most. Travis clenched his jaw. “That’s not fair.”
Her lips compressed, she came toward him in a drift of perfume. “In the beginning of my marriage, everything was great—at least on the surface.” She lifted her elegant shoulders in a small shrug. “We had fun together, we wanted all the same things—a nice home, satisfying careers, the sense of continuity married people have in each other. In the end, he realized he had many more options than he’d originally thought. He realized he could move from the Texas banking scene to the international.”
Travis had an idea where this was going. He shrugged out of his tuxedo jacket and draped it on the coat tree in the hall. “Just like I could move from the girl next door to the oil heiress at the Kimball Museum.”
His small gibe was meant to bring Holly back to the reality of their situation. Instead, it only made her sadder, more circumspect.
“That date with you cost the winning bidder ten thousand dollars, Travis.” Twin spots of color flushed her fair cheeks. “I may not know who the woman was who won the evening with you, but I do know I can’t compete with that. I’ll never be able to compete with that.”
His heart going out to her, Travis went over and put his hands on her shoulders. He knew how it felt to be afraid the passion was too good to be true. He felt that way now. The difference was he wasn’t going to let his own uncertainty get in the way of what they could have if only they were brave enough to stay the course. “I’m not asking you to,” he said quietly, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek.
Holly shrugged and held his eyes with difficulty. “Maybe not now.” Her lower lip quivered. “But you know what they say. One taste of caviar and champagne, and you’ll never go back to beer and nachos…”
Travis rubbed his thumb across her lower lip, tracing the softness and the shape. “Anyone who says that doesn’t know me,” he told her, his voice husky but firm. “I have my own company. I could live in a ten-milliondollar home right now if I wanted.”
She studied his face gravely. “But you don’t.”
He sat down on the edge of the foyer table and tugged her between his spread knees. “It’s not my style—and never will be.”
Holly sighed, mindlessly fiddling with the buttons on his shirt.
“For me,” Travis continued, curving a hand over her silky bare shoulder, “the finer things in life involve love, passion and fun…and marathon baking sessions for the annual preschool cookie swap.” He waited until she met his eyes again before he continued with affection, “It’s coming over to your house all the time and having you come to mine. It’s being with you and all the kids. And being here with you, just the two of us, alone like this,” he said, even more softly.
Holly caught her breath. “Travis…”
He looked at her intently. He was not about to play games with something this important or potentially damaging to their relationship, even if it meant she could save face. “I know we said we’d keep this casual,” he recalled, the air between them charged with all the things they had left unsaid, up to now. “But casual is not the way I feel.”
He lowered his mouth to hers. “Or you, either, if you’re honest.” He pressed his lips to hers, caressing, learning them anew. “For instance, I know you were thinking about this kiss…wanting it…every time you looked at me tonight…”
Still holding her gently, he ran his tongue along the seam of her lips, until they parted in surrender and she swayed toward him, wanting more.
“And I know,” he continued, his voice deepening erotically, “that you like it when I kiss you like this. And you know why?” he whispered fiercely, prepared to be as relentless as he needed to be, in pursuit of her. “Because we belong together, Holly.”
For now. For all time…
Holly moaned deep and low in her throat, and then arched against him and kissed him back with even less restraint than he had shown.
He drew her flush against him, so she could feel his hardness. He wanted her to know how much she excited him, and he wanted to arouse her, too. Passionate longing swept through him as the continued thrust and parry of their tongues sent a wake-up call through every cell of their bodies.
Travis swept her into his arms and headed up the stairs, knowing that when they made love tonight, it was going to be hotter and wilder than anything either of them had ever experienced.
And Holly knew it, too. It was in her eyes when he set her down next to her bed and reached around her to release the zipper on her evening gown. Pulse pounding, senses already in an uproar, he helped her off with the dress. It was going to be a hell of an effort, but this time, he promised himself, he was going to go slow. Make sure she got every ounce of enjoyment out of this, and then some.
She hitched in a breath as he helped her off with her bustier, too, and explored the satiny pink tip of a nipple with the pad of his thumb.
“And there are many things we haven’t yet had a chance to do,” he murmured, stroking her lovely curves, moving from the rounded globe of one breast to the other, to her long, lissome thighs.
She hitched in a breath as he divested her of her stockings and panties. “I think I’m getting the idea,” she murmured breathlessly, unbuttoning his shirt.
He shifted her onto the bed, onto her back. Draping a leg over her thighs, he continued caressing her with the flat of his palm and his fingertips, making his way from her breasts to her collarbone, to her navel, studiously avoiding the part he most wanted to touch. He kissed her all the while, until she made a soft helpless sound that sent his own arousal into overdrive.
Burning with a need he could no longer deny, he guided her to the edge of the bed. He knelt on the floor in front of her and pulled her knees apart. She whimpered in delight as he breathed in the musky scent of her and then leaned forward to caress her damp, petal-soft skin, over and over. Satisfaction unlike anything he had ever known flowed through him when she gasped, gripped his shoulders and came apart in his hands.
His own body thrumming with the need to have her, he held her until the tremors subsided, then stood and divested himself of his clothing.
Holly had known from the first time Travis kissed her that the desire she felt for him was something she couldn’t fight. So she had decided rather than try and resist it, she would allow them to have a fling, and when that didn’t end as expected, an ongoing physical relationship that went along with their already well-established friendship.
But when he joined her on the bed again, when he let her explore his body as thoroughly as he had learned her own, when he finally could stand it no more and kissed her again with the tenderness and patience and adoration only a dream lover could possess, she knew much more was going on here than she had ever expected.
The impossible was happening. She had fallen head over heels in love with Travis. And those feelings only intensified as he draped her body with his own, slid his hands beneath her hips and lifted her against him. He entered her with excruciating slowness and care, taking command in a thoroughly proprietary male way that aroused her all the more.
Holly cried out softly, tangling her hands in his hair. Moving her palms over his shoulders, down his back, wanting him never to stop. And he didn’t. He took control of the mesmerizing pleasure, making it as hot and wanton as the emotions swirling inside her. Pausing and withdrawing, going deeper every time. Until she was arching her back and rocking against him, reveling in the erotic feelings, the sweet hot need, knowing that this time she was his, not just for the moment or the night, but for now and forever.
AS GOOD AS THEIR lovemaking was Saturday night, their shopping expedition on Sunday afternoon was even better. To Holly’s and Travis’s delight, the kids were thrilled with the opportunity to pick out gifts, and couldn’t wait to get home and wrap them.
“Daddy, you are never going to guess what’s inside this!” Sophie exclaimed as she put her clumsily wrapped gift under the tree in Travis’s family room.
“It’s not socks!” Mia declared.
Sophie shook her head vigorously. “Nope! It is definitely not socks!”
“It could be a coloring book,” Holly prompted with a helpful grin.
“Nope. It’s not a coloring book, either!” Sophie said, not getting the hint Holly desperately wanted them to take before they gave everything away.
“It’s not a tie, either!” Mia handed Travis her own gift to him.
Tucker passed Travis a flat rectangular box, covered in Snoopy cartoon Christmas paper. “I can’t ‘member what’s inside this,” he said with a baffled shrug.
Tristan elbowed his twin. “Our present goes under the tree, not to Travis, “he chided. “And the wallet’s not for now! It’s for Christmas!”
Travis regarded all the children, deadpan. “I am sure I will be very surprised,” he said.
Their excitement nearly overwhelming them, they raced back to the foyer to get the rest of the gifts they had wrapped.
“Mommy, all of these are for you!” Tucker announced as he put a small square box wrapped in silver next to the others under the tree.
Tristan added a slightly smaller box.
“Don’t worry.” Travis winked. “It’s not popcorn or peppermint!”
“And it’s not perfume!” Sophie declared as she shook a box vigorously, delighting at the sound of liquid inside, before setting it ever so gently under the tree.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Holly said soberly.
Mia added hers to the heap. “And it’s not something aqua, like your eyes.”
Now that, Holly noted, was interesting.
A scarf, perhaps?
Travis’s expression revealed no clue. But he had helped the children pick out the gifts for her, just as she had helped them picked ones for him.
“Don’t forget Mrs. Ruley,” Travis reminded them.
The children raced back to get those gifts, too. “She’s really going to like them,” Sophie declared in excitement.
“Yes,” Holly said, “she is.” The kids had chosen chocolate candy, English breakfast tea, scones and a sachet in her favorite lavender scent for their nanny.
They plopped down on the floor in front of the tree, admiring their handiwork once again. “Mommy, can we listen to Christmas music before we have supper?” Tucker asked.
She nodded. “That’s a very good idea.” After a marathon of shopping and wrapping, they all needed a little downtime.
The kids were finally settled. Travis and Holly left them there, still giggling and whispering about their gifts, and retired to the kitchen. “I think this is the first year they all seem to have an idea what’s going on,” he said.
Holly got out the skillet and handed him a dozen eggs. It was a breakfast-for-dinner evening. While he set about cracking them into a bowl, she added frozen hash brown potatoes to a skillet, and layered slices of turkey bacon on the microwave cooking plate. “I know—they were so cute today. And so serious about picking out their presents.”
“I really felt like we were a regular family,” he stated.
Holly turned and looked into his eyes. “So did I,” she said softly.
Travis’s gaze turned unbearably tender. “It was a good feeling.”
“A very good feeling,” she agreed.
The next thing she knew he had crossed the distance between them, taken her into his arms and was kissing her like it was Christmas. And maybe, Holly thought, kissing him back in exactly the same way, it was.
“I have one more request,” Travis said, when at last they drew apart.
She smiled up at him warmly. “And that is?” “About my proposal that our two families spend the
holiday together this year, as one…?”
Holly couldn’t think of anywhere she and her boys
would rather be but with him and the girls. “Consider
it a date.”
SUNDAY EVENING CONTINUED TO be magical, as Travis and Holly made plans for exactly how the holiday would play out, right down to what they were going to cook for Christmas dinner, and the time they’d get up on Christmas morning.
On Monday, however, reality hit.
At noon, as previously arranged, Travis accompanied Holly to Martin Shield’s office, where Cliff was waiting. Also there, to Holly’s surprise, was Simon Armstrong.
Holly hadn’t seen Simon in nearly three years. Always on the chunky side, he had gained a little more weight and had gray around his temples. But he was the same exceedingly decent man she remembered. Kind and cordial. Very down-to-earth.
Holly assumed Simon was there for the same reason Travis was, to lend moral support.
Martin Shield waited until everyone was seated, then turned to Holly.
“As you know, at the time of your divorce years ago, Cliff set up trust funds in the boys’ names that will cover any and all expenses you might have rearing them, as well as their education, through the college and postgraduate years. The court accepted this lump-sum payment in lieu of monthly child support and an additional trust of alimony for you,
because they deemed it in the best fiscal interests of you and the children.”
“I appreciated the responsible way this was handled,” Holly said quietly. Cliff’s generosity had meant she hadn’t needed to work at all during the first two years of the twins’ lives. She had been able to purchase outright a comfortable home in a nice neighborhood, and when she had gone back to work, she had been able to afford a housecleaning service as well as a nanny.
Martin Shield continued, “He also asked for no visitation, and granted sole custody of the twins to you.”
“Over my protests,” Holly reminded them. At the time, she had wanted her ex-husband to continue to see the boys, in the vain hope Cliff would come to love them as deeply as she did.
“You know that never would have worked,” Cliff interjected, beginning to look a little impatient. “I discovered I’m not the parental type. And frankly, it’s not something that can be faked.”
He was right about that, Holly thought. Cliff didn’t seem to respond to children at all. Whereas someone like Travis loved all kids as much as they loved him.
“Consequently,” Martin Shield continued in his deep, officious baritone, “Cliff would like to terminate his parental rights to the boys.”
Holly stared at the distinguished attorney, certain she could not have heard correctly. Of all the things she had expected, it wasn’t this!
“Unfortunately,” he said with a frown, “this is no simple feat in the state of Texas. The courts here require that two parents be responsible for any offspring, whenever possible, and will not permit any one parent to terminate their responsibility to their offspring—fiscally or otherwise—unless there is another parent immediately willing to step in and take on such responsibility through formal adoption. That person must be approved by the guardian ad litem appointed by the court to look after the child’s interests. When all is in order, the guardian ad litem report, the termination of parental right, and the adoption must occur on the same day, concurrently, as part of one procedure.”
“Which is why I’m here,” Simon interjected. He looked Holly in the eye, his manner as genuine and kind as his voice. “I’ve always wanted kids. I’ve known all along what a treasure you have in those twin boys of yours.”
“And he never let me forget it,” Cliff said, just as honestly. “Which is why when I found out that I would not be able to sever ties with the children without finding another father for them, I immediately thought of Simon. He’s here in Texas. He’s ready an
d willing to take on the task of single fatherhood in a way I simply can’t.”
“Naturally, it wouldn’t happen overnight,” Simon said. “I’d start out spending time with the kids, acting as an ‘uncle’ figure in their lives, taking them to the zoo and playing baseball with them, and ultimately being legally responsible for them without stepping in as a traditional father. We can all agree that would be a little too presumptuous.” Simon paused. “I just want to make sure the twins have a father figure in their lives.”
They already have one, Holly thought. And a very fine one at that!
“So if you agree,” Simon proposed hopefully, directing Holly’s attention back to the crazy plan her ex and Simon had cooked up.
“Are you nuts?” Holly shot back. She had so many objections to this travesty of an idea she didn’t know where to begin.
She glared at the three men who had so thoughtfully arranged this for her, not sure whom to let have it first!
Travis looked equally incensed. But he was a lot quicker to put his thoughts together.
“Hold it right there!” he commanded flatly. He stood, interrupting the proceedings, and he squared off with the other men in the room. “I don’t know what you all think you’re trying to pull here, but Simon Armstrong is not Holly and the boys’ only option!”
HIS PRONOUNCEMENT WAS MET with differing emotions, Travis noted. Martin Shield looked impressed. Simon Armstrong appeared crushed to think his chance to be a dad was curtailed yet again. Cliff Baxter seemed ticked off—probably because he didn’t like having his high-handed, thoroughly obnoxious plans derailed. And Holly just looked stunned and brokenhearted. Which in turn broke Travis’s heart. The last thing his woman needed was to be disrespected by that cur of an ex-husband again.
“I’m available, if the boys need a father,” he declared.
Holly jumped out of her seat. “If they need a father, I’ll find them one!” she cried. Looking and sounding more emotional than ever, she turned to Simon first. “If you want to be a single dad so badly I suggest you find children to foster or adopt on your own!” Holly whirled back to Cliff. “How could you do this,” she asked angrily. “And at Christmas, no less! Why would you do this?” Moisture gleamed in her eyes. “Why did you even want to see them at all if this is what you had planned?”