by Ginna Gray
However, the case histories he'd studied in college had been nameless, faceless women. Strangers. They hadn't been Rebecca. The very thought of her husband, the man who was supposed to have loved and cherished her, brutalizing her made his stomach churn and his blood boil.
He raked a hand through his hair and struggled for calm. "All right. I suppose I can understand why you feel that way. But, honey, believe me, no one's going to think any less of you for what he's done.''
She looked at him then, her eyes full of irony. "Oh no?" Her small, mirthless chuckle made his gut clench. "Now who's being foolish? There are people who think that if a woman gets slapped around she must've been asking for it. Which, of course, must mean that there's something wrong with her." He started to speak, but she cut him off with a raised hand. "Oh, I'll admit, they might feel sorry for her, in an abstract, condescending way, but God forbid they should get too close."
"C'mon, Rebecca. You don't really believe that, do you?"
"Oh, Travis," she said sadly, shaking her head. "Even you pulled away after you learned what my marriage had been like."
"Me!The hell I did!"
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that you called a halt this morning because you were honoring our friendship agreement?"
"This morning? That's it? That's what this is about?" Travis gaped at her. He could not have been more shocked if she had hauled off and slapped him. "Woman, are you crazy?"
He slid off his stool and spun hers around until her back was to the counter. Hooking his hands behind her knees; he spread her legs and stepped between them, leaning in close so that their bodies touched intimately.
"Travis!" Rebecca gasped. Eyes wide, she strained back against the edge of the counter, but when she tried to scoot off the back of the stool he jerked her forward again. Clamping his hands to the bar on either side of her, he enclosed her within the prison of his arms. "Travis, stop this."
"Damn you, Rebecca," he growled, ignoring her protest. "Never—not once in my life—have I been as angry with a woman as I am with you at this moment. How could you think, even for an instant, that I called a halt because I didn't want to become involved with you? That I thought you weren't good enough? How, dammit?" he barked, and Rebecca jumped.
"Travis, I-"
"Shut your mouth and listen."
Her eyes dilated. Swallowing hard, she nodded and pressed back so hard the counter gouged into her back.
"You're right about one thing. I wasn't trying to preserve this so-called friendship of ours. Baby, you should have known that was doomed from the start. Sparks have flown between the two of us since the day we met. The feelings we stir in each other are, and always have been, too strong for anything as bland as mere friendship. For the past weeks I've just been biding my time, waiting for you to realize that." He leaned closer and his voice dropped to a sensual growl. "Whenever I so much as get near you all I can think about is being inside you, making love to you until neither of us can move."
Hot color blossomed in Rebecca's face, but she struggled to ignore it. "Then why did you stop this morning? You must have known that I was willing."
"Oh yeah. I knew." Passion roughened his voice to a raspy murmur. Beneath heavy eyelids, his slumberous gaze drifted down to her mouth. "Pulling back was the hardest damn thing I've ever done. But I knew you were still shaken and raw from Evan's attack. Sweetheart, it's only natural that you'd crave affection and tenderness after what you'd just suffered. But what kind of man would I be if I took advantage of that?"
He exhaled a long sigh, and all the anger drained out of , him. Touching her cheek with his fingertips, he smiled tenderly. "When you and I make love—and make no mistake about it, sweetheart, we will—I don't want you to regret it later."
Mere inches separated them. She searched his face, feature by feature, her eyes wide and misty. "Do you mean that?" she asked in a quavering whisper.
"Every word," he whispered back. "I've been fighting it since I was seven years old, but something tells me that you and I have always been each other's destiny."
Her eyes grew luminous and her lips quivered. "Oh, Travis." Looping her arms around his neck, she gave him a melting look. "You really didn't have to stop this morning." Her fingers threaded through his long hair, her nails lightly scoring his nape. "To tell the truth.. .I wish you hadn't."
The sultry, aching softness of her voice feathered over his skin, making every nerve ending in his body tingle. He shuddered. "Rebecca... honey. After what you went through, you need to be pampered and cared for, not seduced. Later, when you've—"
"No, don't leave me," she said quickly, and looped her legs around the backs of his knees when he would have backed away.
"Rebecca..."
"No, Travis, listen to me. The injury isn't that bad. I've had much worse," she insisted, and he felt a fresh spurt of rage rise up inside him. "Regardless of what Evan did, I know what I want. And believe me, no matter what happens, I know I'll never regret making love with you."
Travis's heart began to boom like a kettledrum. Desire surged through him. "Sweetheart.. .you don't know what you're saying. You're still strung out and upset from last night. I can't take advantage of you, Rebecca."
The slow smile that tilted her lips was pure provocation. A quick toss of each foot sent her sandals tumbling to the floor. Slowly, she rubbed her soles down the backs of his calves. "Actually, I'd be taking advantage of you. You are exactly what I need, Travis. Don't you see? Not just because of what happened last night, but because of my whole barren life. I need your warmth, Travis, your passion. I need to feel a special closeness with a caring man. I need to feel desired... wanted. I need it all," she whispered. "Very badly."
She sifted her fingers through his long hair and her gaze roamed his face, her eyes awash with longing. ''You're a very special man, Travis McCall. You like women—really like them—and it shows. I think that was what drew me to you all those years ago. Even when you were a teenager you had a knack for making girls feel special. Pretty or plain, fat, skinny or shapely, prom queen or wallflower, it didn't matter. You were charming to them all. Except to me, of course," she added with a wry grimace that sent a stab of guilt through him. "Even so, your natural warmth and caring drew me like a moth to a flame. It still does." She leaned forward and brushed his mouth with hers. Fulling back just inches, she looked into his eyes, her own soft with entreaty. "Please, Travis," she whispered. "Don't deny me this."
Travis's heart clubbed his ribs. He stared in those limpid blue eyes. His gaze dropped to her lips. He tried to swallow, but his throat felt as though it had an iron wedge stuck crossways in it.
What the hell was he going to do? He wanted her. More than he'd ever wanted any woman. More than he wanted anything on earth. More, heaven help him, than he wanted his next breath.
But, dammit, he also wanted what was best for her. Was it possible... ? Could the two really be one and the same? Or did he simply want to believe so?
Rebecca leaned forward to kiss him again, but Travis grasped her shoulders and held her away. She looked at him somberly, her blue eyes swimming with hurt. "Please, Travis," she pleaded. "Make love to me. If you care for me at all... make love to me."
The raw emotion in her voice, in her face, tore at his heart. Pride and passion, hope and uncertainty, longing and despair—they all mingled there. He could see how much it had cost her to ask. Travis felt humbled. Protective. Touched to his soul.
Right or wrong, wise or foolish—it no longer mattered. He could not deny her. He could not deny them.
He gazed into her upturned face, so open, so vulnerable, so incredibly lovely, and felt his heart turn over. Tenderly, as though she would break at the slightest touch, he cupped his hand to the uninjured side of her face. "Oh, sweetheart," he murmured in a voice that shook with the force of his feelings. "Sweetheart."
Slowly, savoring the moment, he drew her closer. Travis's head descended. Rebecca's lifted. Her eyes fluttered shut, and as their lips
met a sigh shuddered through hers. Travis felt the soft eddy of breath feather against his mouth, and his chest tightened.
From the first touch the kiss was heated and hungry. Travis wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He drank from her mouth as though he would devour her. Rebecca made an eager sound, and her arms tightened around his neck.
Shafts of sunshine penetrated the skylights, and dust motes floated like specks of gold in the shimmering beams. In the kitchen, the refrigerator hummed and the coffee-maker made a gurgling sound. The rich smell of fresh-ground coffee beans hung in the air.
Neither noticed. Mouths fused, they clung together in a paroxysm of need and want, straining to get closer, as though each sought to absorb the other. Small frantic sounds and frustrated moans issued from the pair.
Travis placed his palms against the sides of her breasts, alternately pressing the soft globes and rotating the heels of his hands against them. Rebecca gasped and broke off the kiss. "Travis. Oh, Lord, Travis!" Unconsciously she tightened her legs around him, bringing his aroused body tighter against that part of her that throbbed and burned for him.
Travis growled deep in his throat. With an urgency that bordered on desperation, his hands roamed her back and hips, her shoulders, tunneled beneath the fall of damp curls and explored her bare back above the cotton sundress.
Rebecca clutched and kneaded the hard muscles of his waist and back, skimmed her small hands up and down his sides, finally working one between their bodies to stroke his taut belly.
He stilled abruptly, his stomach muscles clenching. "Ahhh, sweetheart, yes. Yes!" he ground out in a pained voice.
He jerked, and his breath hissed through his teeth when her finger delved into his navel.
The tiny caress snapped his control, and with a frustrated sound, he curled his hands around the straps on her sundress and yanked. Threads popped, and the thin spaghetti straps tore free.
Taking a half step back, he hooked both thumbs under the elasticized top of the dress and shoved it down to her waist. His withdrawal drew a small sound of protest from Rebecca, but before she could pull him back, Travis filled his palms with her breasts. She stilled, her breath catching.
He stared at the lush mounds. The thunderous pounding of his heart reverberated in his ears. His loins grew hotter, heavier. Her pale skin had a pearly tone, and just beneath the surface ran a delicate tracery of blue veins. Small, dusty pink areolas, velvety as rose petals, crowned each uptilted globe, their centers pointy and straining.
Mesmerized, he watched his thumbs sweep across her nipples. The already aroused peaks puckered into pebble hardness. "Lovely," he murmured. "So lovely."
Rebecca made a keening sound and arched her back. Her hands tightened on his shoulders, her fingernails digging into his flesh. Slowly, his gaze lifted, and he froze.
Rebecca sat absolutely rigid with her head thrown back, her eyes squeezed shut, that lovely face taut with agonizing passion. She was so erotically beautiful, just looking at her made him hurt all over. Perched there on the stool like a pagan offering, bare from the waist up, her body flushed and trembling in the throes of passion, she was the most exquisite, most desirable woman he had ever seen.
The last vestige of Travis's control snapped. With a growl, he snatched Rebecca back into his arms and fastened his mouth on hers. Her breasts flattened against him, the turgid little nipples thrusting through his chest hair to rub erotically against his skin, and Rebecca moaned. He caught the sound in his mouth, devouring it and her lips with the avidity of a starving man at a banquet.
His hands ran over her bare flesh with unmistakable urgency. "Ah, sweet... I can't... I've got to..."
His panted cries drove Rebecca to even greater frenzy. She clung to him, scattering kisses over his neck and shoulders, the underside of his jaw, his chest. "Yes. Yes. Hurry, Travis. Oh, please, hurry," she gasped, when he tossed the skirt of her sundress up and hooked his fingers in the top of her panties. At his urging, she lifted up, and he stepped back far enough to whisk the undies down her legs and toss them aside. Before the scrap of silk and lace hit the floor, she popped the snap on his cutoffs and shoved them and his briefs down over his hips. The garments fell around his ankles and he kicked them aside, and reached for her.
Caught in the maelstrom, they'gasped and moaned and snatched desperately at one another, out of control, their hands bold and seeking, their trembling bodies on fire. Neither gave a thought to where they were or to the incongruity of making love in the living room when there were a half dozen beds in the house. Nothing mattered, nothing existed but the burning desire that drove them.
Cupping her hips with his broad palms, Travis pulled Rebecca forward until her body balanced on the edge of the stool. She gave a little whimper of pleasure and her eyes glazed when he nudged the moist petals of her womanhood.
Travis set his jaw, and in one smooth motion he slid his hands down her thighs, lifted her legs around his waist and thrust his hips forward. Rebecca gasped, and Travis said her name in a guttural voice.
He pressed deep and stilled, his teeth clenched. For a moment only the harsh rasp of their breathing sounded.
Then they began to move.
The hunger that had been building in both of them rose to the surface, voracious and consuming, setting a frantic pace. In silence, they clung together tightly and loved each other. With each rock of his hips, Travis's movements grew stronger, faster. Rebecca's legs tightened around him, her hips rising in a powerful undulation to meet each thrust.
Urgency drove them. Glorious, consuming urgency. It was a race to the summit. Neither could hold back. Neither wanted to. Within seconds Travis felt Rebecca's body tense, felt the first pulsing spasms overtake her.
"Yes. Yes! Oh, Lord, sweetheart! Yes!"
"Oh!Oh!Traa...vis!"
Together they reached the top and went sailing out into space, carried on an explosion of purest ecstasy, their hoarse cries of completion echoing through the firmament.
Later—he had no idea how much later—Travis gradually became aware that he had collapsed against Rebecca. His legs seemed to have turned to mush and the weight of his torso had pushed her back against the counter, which seemed to be the only thing holding them upright.
She was draped around him like a wet towel, her head on his shoulder, arms dangling over his, legs looped limply around his thighs. Their lungs were working like smithies' bellows, but except for the heaving of their chests, neither of them moved. Travis made a gasping attempt at a chuckle and wondered if they could.
Finally, when he'd caught his breath and he trusted his legs to support him, he straightened, easing back from Rebecca. As he disentangled them, she stirred.
Lifting her head from his shoulder, she gave him a fluttering smile and a sleepy-eyed look. "Mmm, hi," she mumbled.
"Hi, yourself," he replied, gazing tenderly down at her. A fraction of a second later, Travis saw-the first flicker of awareness enter her eyes. A wicked smile tugged at his mouth, but before embarrassment could set in, he scooped her up in his arms and headed for her bedroom.
"What—Travis! Where are you taking me?"
"Back to bed. I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. Besides, the next time we make love I want it to be somewhere comfortable, where we can take it slow and easy."
Hot color flooded Rebecca's chest and neck and surged up into her face, but she ignored it. Looping her arms around his neck, she peered at him uncertainly and chewed at her lower Hp. "Travis... about what happened—"
He stopped her with a kiss, a long, thorough kiss that made her go limp again and lasted until her back sank into the mattress.
"Travis, I don't want you to think—"
"You know what I think?" He stretched out beside her and firmly gathered her close. "I think what happened out there was the hottest, sweetest, most earth-shattering, mind-boggling, heart-stopping loving I've ever experienced. I think it was fantastic." He dropped another kiss on her mouth. "I think you're fantas
tic. Now, quit talking, woman, and let me hold you while we both get some rest. I need a nap."
Brooking no argument, he tucked her head into the hollow of his shoulder. With a sigh, Rebecca snuggled against his side. At the small sound of acquiescence, Travis grinned and added wickedly, "Otherwise, you're liable to kill me the next time."
"Travis!"
She punched his chest and tried to jerk out of his arms, but he held her tight and laughed. "Ah, sweetheart, I'm sorry. But you're such a delight to tease I just couldn't resist." He squeezed her tight and nuzzled the top of her head with his chin.
"You're impossible," she grumbled against his collarbone, and tweaked a tuft of chest hair for good measure.
Travis grunted. Laughing, he captured her hand and brought it to his mouth before she could inflict more damage. "Yeah, but you know you love me," he teased, alternately nipping and kissing the end of each finger.
She tipped her head up and smiled sweetly. Using the other hand, she grabbed a hunk of flesh along his side and gave it a hard twist. Travis jumped as though he'd received a jolt of electricity.
"Ow! Ow, that hurts!"
"Serves you right, you conceited oaf," she charged, but amused exasperation robbed her voice of heat. "That was just a childish crush and you know it. Ooooh, I knew it was a mistake to tell you about it. I'll show you love, you—"
She reached for another hunk of flesh, and Travis yelped and jerked away. Squealing in mock outrage when he grabbed her hand, Rebecca bucked and pitched and struggled against his hold.
"Pinch me, will you? You little devil."