by Dawson, Zoe
Chapter Four
Travis
I swore, threw back the covers, and reached for Deke’s phone. Damn thing had been going off all day. I didn’t know what was going on, but I’d had enough. I turned the damn thing off and set it down. I had just settled back into bed when I heard him at the door, and he came in as quietly as he could.
I suddenly wished I had been able to get a single. After what happened yesterday, I couldn’t seem to get the image of him and Emmie together out of my mind. I didn’t know what Deke was playing at, but I didn’t want him to hurt Emmie. Hell, I barely knew her, but I hadn’t been able to get her off my mind from the moment I saw her amazing gray eyes.
I’d never seen such a color before. Those big black-framed glasses did nothing but make her look like a cute little Goth princess.
And I’d blown it again by not acting fast enough. But I was up against Deke, for krist sake. It hurt more than I was willing to let myself feel. Why couldn’t I just make a damn move? Why was I so…damned…stupid!?
“I’m awake,” I grumbled.
“Shoot, son, I’m sorry,” Deke said, and I wanted to punch him in the face.
“I’m sorry to wake you,” he added.
“It wasn’t you. It was your damn phone. It’s been buzzing all day.”
“Ah, shoot, has it? Sorry.”
I saw him cross the room in the dim light from the outside streetlamps. He picked up his phone and turned it on.
“Shit, a hundred messages? Damn.”
“What the hell happened?”
“I sorta got roped into participating in the fashion show, and my picture was taken. A lot.” He sounded weary.
I rolled my eyes in the dark. “All the hot females calling you?”
“No,” I saw him stiffen. “Maybe, but I’m only interested in one woman.”
I gritted my teeth. I knew who that was, and it was a good thing I didn’t give her the time of day today. I wasn’t as good with girls as Deke was. I was shy and felt mostly stupid around them. Just a big, clumsy oaf.
But with Emmie it was ten times worse.
Deke sat on the edge of his bed and sighed. “In fact, I just kissed her senseless and I would be with her right now if—”
“I don’t want to hear about your conquests, Deke,” I snapped and I had never heard myself sound full of goddamn mad. He’d kissed her? Sonavabitch! My heart felt crushed like I was having a combined head/heart attack, a physically debilitating, agonizing, mental breakdown.
“Travis?” he said, turning toward me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I was just damned fine. Too much thinking, too much pressure, and too much wanting. “Yeah,” I said again. “I’m fine.”
My head was a fucking mess, but I was fine.
“Is something wrong? You pissed at me because of the phone?”
“Yeah, so shut your trap so I can get some sleep. I have a class in the morning.”
In the morning, I raced to the shower as soon as the alarm went off and I did a quick job of it. I really wanted to be out of there before Deke got up. I’d already decided that today I would request another room. I couldn’t watch him and Emmie together. It was beyond me. Once again I was reminded that I would lose out to more social guys. I was quiet. Too quiet, except with Emmie it was easy to talk to her…until I realized I was talking to her, and then I got tongue-tied.
The shitty thing about it was I really liked Deke. I had originally classified him as one of those dicks who liked to make fun of me. But he’d turned out to be great, and we hit it off. I thought we would be best friends. Now, with Emmie between us, that wasn’t possible.
I slipped back into the room just as Deke was getting out of bed. It was early for him and I knew he didn’t have a class.
“Hey, Travis.”
I grunted at him and pulled the towel from around my waist and dried the rest of the way off.
“Hey, you guys,” Emmie’s voice came from the doorway, and she was standing there with a bag and a tray of coffee.
I froze completely, naked as a jaybird. It was like a catastrophe that can’t be controlled, kind of like rolling out in slowmo and fast forward at the same time. She turned to look at me with a smile on her face. It froze there as she stared at me in all my bare-assed glory.
I started to reach for the towel, but our eyes met and I saw appreciation in hers, an expression I had never seen there before. No sarcastic quips, no biting, witty comments, not even a breath seemed to stir her as she stared at me. I got hard, right then and there, as her eyes literally caressed me from my face down my torso, lingering on my abs and then, fuck, my dick. Then her eyes popped back up to my face and she backed up, still totally speechless. A state I had never witnessed before.
Her breath rushed out and she bobbled the coffee. Deke rushed towards her just in time to catch the tray, just barely. Covering her face, she backed out and slammed the door behind her.
Deke started laughing. He set down the tray and laughed harder. I grabbed my underwear and slipped into it, then my jeans. He was still lying on the bed laughing.
“Dammit. Did you see the look on her face?”
“I’m glad you find this so amusing, you jackass.”
Deke sat up wiping his eyes. “I bet she knocks from now on.”
“I’m sure she would prefer seeing you in your altogether.”
All humor drained from his face and he turned serious eyes on me. “What?”
“You know what I’m talking about. Don’t pretend you don’t.”
“What are you talking about? She couldn’t take her eyes off you. You’re a stud, son.”
“Right.”
Deke stood up, and I was getting madder by the minute, with despair wrapping tighter around my heart like a vise.
“Travis…” Deke looked toward the door then at me. “You think I have a thing for Emmie?”
“And she has one for you.”
“What?” He walked up to me. “You’re crazy. That’s not true.”
“Don’t try to spare my feelings. It is true.” I turned away, but he grabbed my shoulder and all my rage came boiling up. I swung and hit him right on the cheekbone. He flew back, hit the night table and went down.
I just stared at him, sprawled in a heap, and felt sick to my stomach. There was a knock and then Emmie peeked in. She saw Deke on the floor and gasped.
“What the heck happened?”
She ran over to him and cradled his head in her lap. I was horrified, agonized to see how much she cared for him. I’d never hit another human being in my life, and Deke was one of the best friends I’d ever had.
I ran my hand over my hair. “Geezus, Deke…Emmie.” I couldn’t face them, so I grabbed my hat and bolted.
#
Emmie
“Deke? Are you all right?” He groaned, and I helped him into a sitting position.
“Yes. Dammit! This has gotten out of hand. Don’t blame Travis.”
“Travis hit you? He knocked you down?” Violence had been part of my other life, the constant danger, and always the chance of getting caught. I didn’t know if I could handle it anymore. I wanted a different life, away from all that. I could barely believe Travis had hurt Deke. They had seemed so close. “Why did he hit you?”
He rubbed at the red spot on his cheekbone. He looked at me. “He, uh, has a thing for you.”
My jaw dropped. The memory of him naked was seared into my retinas. God, the way that man was built on the outside. Damn. And, his man parts were…impressive.
That’s why he’d gotten hard while I was staring at him. Because of me. I couldn’t forget the way he was built on the inside, too. Sweet, funny, gentle, smart. Gorgeous, normal, amazing Travis Blackwell liked me? That pathetic hope in my heart expanded from one heartbeat to another to full blown desire. “No….he does? W-what…Ohmigod.”
“He thinks you have the hots for me.”
I know I must have stared at him blankly. Then it dawned on my shocked
mind. “Ohhhhh, that’s why he hit you.”
He nodded and looked at me expectantly, but when I didn’t move, he said, “Emmie, he’s in agony. Go after him. Now. I’m fine.” He pushed at me and I let him go.
Springing up from the floor, I dashed out of their dorm room and headed for the stairs so I wouldn’t have to stand around waiting for the elevator. I knew where Travis’s first class was, and if I had to, I’d go right in there and make him come out and talk to me.
By the time I got to the lobby, I was running full out. I hit the doors of the John Jakes dorm and collided with a solid mass of muscle who stumbled back, arms going around me to steady me. After I regained my balance, I looked up into Travis’s unhappy and apologetic cobalt blue eyes. I could almost feel guilt and pain radiating off him.
He didn’t let me go, but just stood there. Finally he said, “I was coming back. To explain. Emmie…I—”
“I don’t have a thing for Deke. We’re just friends,” I blurted out. “I like you, too,” I said in a rush. “That’s not exactly true. I’m crazy about you, but Travis—”
“You are?” he said, relief and wonder in the deep voice rumbling in his chest. He drew me inside and into a secluded alcove.
“I’m not very good with girls, Emmie. As usual, I’ve misinterpreted the whole thing. Deke must think I’m an idiot.”
“You are an idiot,” I said before I could stop myself. If only he’d told me. “But he completely understands. He was the one who sent me after you.”
“I should have said something to you, but I didn’t want to horn in on Deke’s territory. But I got worried that he’d hurt you, and it got all muddled up in my stupid mind. I was jealous.”
“You’re not stupid. It was just a misunderstanding.”
His face softened, and I didn’t think I would ever get tired of watching emotions move across his features or ignite in his eyes. As soon as I thought it, I saw an expression I’d never seen before. He was going to kiss me. My breath caught with anticipation. I had dreamed about kissing him for so long, ever since I’d seen him and his perfectly beautiful mouth.
But I’d held back, and even though a kiss was about to happen, and there was no way I would refuse him, I was still worried. Travis didn’t really know me. He knew the funny, often sarcastic Emmie who hid everything behind a layer of Goth attitude.
He didn’t know the real me. I blanched to think how he would react, he was so white-bread American and I so…wasn’t.
He opened an emotional floodgate, and the shame, fear, and regret of my past washed up against me, littered with all my barely-concealed frustrations and worries. This is one of the reasons I hadn’t given into my attraction, but after Deke spilled the beans and Travis had gotten so upset, I couldn’t hide it from him anymore.
“I should have just told you, but I’m so shy around women…and just thinking you might reject me…was daunting,” he said, bringing his hand up and smoothing his fingers along the curve of my jaw, preparing me for what was going to happen before he lowered his head and touched his mouth to mine.
When that gorgeous mouth fused to my lips, I let out a soft gasp, and he moaned oh-so-softly in the back of his throat. I lifted my hand to touch his waist, needing an anchor in this perfectly, purely sensual and physical act of showing Travis just how crazy I was about him.
His lips were as soft as they looked. When he opened his mouth, I couldn’t resist slipping my tongue in to experience more. He tasted exciting, so freaking male, so damned delicious. It was amazing kissing him.
He turned me deeper into the kiss, pressing me back against the wall. I melted and, for a woman who had to keep her guard up constantly, it was a true revelation. I was safe with Travis. I knew it instinctually. He would protect me with everything he had. I shivered at the powerful feeling as it twisted me up and changed me. I slipped my hand from his waist up the powerful length of his abdomen, over those heavy chest muscles to the back of his neck.
His hair was a silky seduction against my skin. He cupped my face in both of his big hands, sliding his thumbs over my cheekbones, digging into my hair as he slowly intensified his assault on my mouth, delving deeper with long, lazy strokes of his tongue, and I could feel his response in the subtle tightening of his body.
Oh, shit. My fantasies had nothing on reality. I had never wanted a man so much before. Never.
#
Travis
I hadn’t expected such a soft giving way, such surrender, and it went straight to my dick in a wave of pleasure so intense I groaned.
But I didn’t want this to be about sex. Emmie meant more than that to me. More than any girl I had known, and I didn’t want to blow it by rushing the physical. I felt weak when she wrapped both arms around my neck and deepened the kiss even more, pressing what I suddenly discovered were incredible curves against my body. Those baggy clothes had hidden a luscious figure, and I wanted to mold my hands over every inch of her.
Which was funny, because I’d spent a lot of time thinking about getting inside girls and had glossed over the kissing part. Well, turned out kissing was damn fine too, more than fine.
Kissing was actually the secret of life. I was sure of it. If we hadn’t been in an alcove of the busy entrance to John Jay dorm, and if Deke wasn’t in our room right now, I would kiss her all day, pushing us both a little closer to the edge. Yeah, circumstances sucked right now, or I’d give into the urge to press my hips against hers, pinning her more solidly to the wall, and I would have kept kissing her—kept kissing her until she was too hot to stop.
Even the thought of it made me harder.
Oh, great. I stopped, right then, right there. Stopped, and for a few seconds didn’t move, not an inch, just tried to catch my breath and locate my brains.
She didn’t move either, just stood with her mouth on mine, her breathing ragged, her body trembling—and I knew we were going to make love. For real, real physically, real soon.
She’d kissed me like she was drowning and I was the rope that could save her. And once was not going to be enough, not when everything I’d ever dreamed of shattered in the reality of having her in my arms with her mouth hot on mine, her body moving against mine, all curves and softness and need.
The need had surprised me, but I’d felt it as surely as I felt her tongue slide along the length of mine, as surely as I felt her hand clutching my waist. I had a feeling she was just as surprised by her reaction as I’d been.
Gently, because I couldn’t resist, I kissed her one more time, brushing my mouth across hers in a light caress, more of a see you later than a howdy, trying to take us both down one level from being ready to crawl inside each other’s pants. Then I eased back a bit.
It didn’t work. Looking down at her, her face flushed, her mouth wet, feeling her breasts rise and fall against my chest with every breath, I still wanted to get inside her pants. I dipped back down for another taste, then one more, before I was actually able to let her go and retreat half a step.
Her eyes fluttered open, her gaze slowly clearing from a slumberous shade of confusion to a thunderstruck, WTF gray. A wash of color rose in her cheeks as she stared at me, suddenly wide-eyed.
“Ohmigod.”
I’d second that.
“I’ve got to go,” I said, although her arms were still wrapped tightly around me, my thumbs still stroking the soft skin of her cheeks. “I’ve got class.” My thumb slipped down to caress her throat.
“Of course,” she said. The color in her face deepened, but her gaze didn’t waver from mine, not for an instant. She was mesmerized as I was, her pulse racing beneath my hand.
God save me.
“I want a date,” I said, the words were out, husky and heartfelt, before I had time to think. I wanted to get close to her, learn more about her.
“J-just one?” she asked, and it was the first time I’d ever heard her sound tentative.
I relaxed my arms. There was no need to push. She’d melted for me with a kiss. I c
ould take it from here—take it all the way home. I could feel the grin curving my mouth. I was going to like chasing her just fine, little Miss Smarty Pants, with her baggy clothes and smarts and completely wild kisses.
I laughed softly. “We can start with that.”
She laughed, too, as we reluctantly stepped apart.
“Tonight. Dinner.”
She nodded. “I’ll meet you outside at five?”
“That sounds good. Gives me time to do my homework. And, no,” I said when she opened her mouth. “We can’t study together just yet. I wouldn’t get anything done. Well, except cataloguing every cell in your mouth.”
“Okay, point taken.”
“Uh, there is one more thing,” I said before I let her walk away.
“What?”
“Plan to be with me all day Saturday.”
“All day?”
“Yeah, all day. That work?”
“It works great,” she said.
Then she walked away and I let her go, but watched until the door closed behind her.
“Travis!”
I jumped when Deke walked up to me, and I swore when I saw his eye was already going black and blue. “Shoot, son,” I said before he could speak. “I owe you a huge apology.”
“Nah. I get it. Everything worked out with Emmie?”
“It shore is. Got a date tonight.”
“That’s great.”
“Still sorry about the shiner.”
“You pack a punch, boy. But we’re good. Right now I’m headed back to hang with my Suttontowne friends. We’re going sightseeing.”
“Right, you don’t have classes today. Well, have fun.”
Chapter Five
Minnie
I woke up with a pounding head and Verity’s soft voice in my ear. “Minnie, wake up. We have a problem.”
I moaned and opened one eye. “It’d better be a really bad problem.”
“It is.”
She shoved a newspaper in my hand, and my sleepy, gritty eyes widened, the hangover banging in rhythm to the beat of my heart.