The Bet

by Rachel Van Dyken

  She and Jake were sitting under the tree. Her braces were glowing in the candlelight of the room, and Jake, such a lady-killer even at the ripe old age of sixteen with his curly brown hair and megawatt smile. She giggled at the memory, transfixed by what she saw.

  Travis was in the background, sulking, or what looked like sulking. His eyes were downcast, and he was playing with a brightly wrapped package in his hands. The video zoomed in. He was shaking and mumbling something to himself.

  “Just give it to her,” Grandma Nadine urged from the side.

  Kacey watched in horror as she read the red tag. To Kacey.

  Swallowing a knot of emotion, she watched as Travis wiped his hands on his pants and slowly got up and walked toward her.

  She wanted to go back in time and scream at herself, “Look at him! Look!”

  Instead, sixteen-year-old Kacey flashed him a look of annoyance and then got up and made some excuse about needing more spiced cider.

  Travis froze.

  Jake sneered. “What? Did you actually think she’d accept a gift from you? After everything you’ve done?”

  Travis shook his head and licked his lips, the package slowly dropped out of his hands onto the floor. He shoved his hands into his jeans and walked off.

  Jake rolled his eyes as Grandma Nadine went after Travis.

  And then Jake did the most asinine thing she’d ever seen in her life. He ripped the tag off of the package, and when Kacey walked back into the room he held it out to her as if he had gotten her a present.

  “For me?” Kacey squealed with excitement. “Oh, Jakey!”

  Oh gag me, she thought but couldn’t tear her eyes away.

  Slowly, she watched as her sixteen-year-old self unwrapped the package and gasped with excitement, throwing her arms around Jake’s neck.

  “It’s so perfect!”

  And in that moment Kacey knew exactly what the present had been.

  Tears flowed freely down her face as the movie played.

  It was a framed picture of her and her parents on a family vacation, and underneath it was the word Love.

  She clicked off the TV and began to sob into her hands.

  It was the very same picture that still sat next to her bed at night. The same picture she’d wept into when her parents died, the same picture she’d talked to when she’d had a bad day. And it had never been from Jake.

  But Travis.

  She looked over at him now. His eyes were completely open, but she was unable to decipher if he was upset or just cautious as to how to proceed.

  “You…” She swallowed down the tears. “You gave me the best present I’ve ever had. When my parents died…” She couldn’t even finish, her body racked with sobs.

  Travis cursed and immediately pulled her down to him, spooning her and kissing her hair. “Shh, baby, it’s okay. It’s going to be fine.”

  It had always been Travis. Always. She flipped around to face him as he brushed the tears away from her eyes.

  Then his mouth was hot on hers, possessive, fierce. It melted every part of her, and made her knees weak even though she was lying down. He kissed her tears away, his kisses burning a trail down her cheek until he found her mouth again, searching and pulling.

  ****

  Embarrassment had washed over Travis when he’d opened his eyes. It was as if he was reliving the moment all over again. Reliving the pain of being rejected and then made fun of left a bitter taste in his mouth.

  All he had wanted back then was to say he was sorry, to give Kacey something she could treasure before she left for college.

  Jake had ruined everything, but in the end Travis hadn’t cared that Jake took credit. It had sucked, and he’d been pissed, but when he’d seen the look on Kacey’s face, he’d known it was worth it. Regardless of who’d given her the picture, at least she had it, and for that he’d been thankful.

  He’d just wanted her to be happy.

  His only desire had been to see her smile.

  Mission accomplished. He left it alone, walked away, and hadn’t spoken to her since that fateful day.

  “Travis.” Kacey kissed him roughly across his lips. He should have cared that he had gross numbing cream on his arms, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was now in his arms, exactly where she belonged.

  “Travis,” she said again, this time pulling away.

  “What?”

  “I can’t feel my lips.”

  “Huh?” He looked down. Sure enough, some of the cream had gotten onto her lips, and they were swelling at an alarming rate. “Um, Kace, maybe you should take some Benadryl.”

  “Why?” her eyes widened.

  “Um, just take my word for it, ‘kay?”

  He lightly pushed her away, reached for the pill bottle, and tossed her a pink pill. The very same one that had sent him into dreamland for at least a half-hour.

  She took the pill and grimaced as the water touched her lips.

  “Shower.” He looked at his arms then at her lips.

  She blushed.

  “What? Suddenly turning into a prude on me?”

  “No.” Kacey bit her lip and forced a piece of hair behind her ear. “It’s just that, well, the stuff I used, it has clove and some other things in it, and water just makes it worse. You have to use oil to get it off of your skin.

  “Oil.” He repeated, mouth slightly ajar. “What type of oil?”

  “Coconut oil.”

  “Right.” He gulped and turned away, lifting his arm above his head to scratch his neck. “So we have to rub down with oil.”

  She nodded.

  “But I can’t actually…” He nodded in her direction, and she gave him a blank stare. He looked up at the ceiling. “I can’t actually touch you because then the oil and the numbing cream will get on you.”

  She bit her lip and winked.

  “So I can look but I can’t touch?” Why did he need to keep torturing himself? No matter how many ways he said it. No still meant no. He would have to watch her lather herself with oil while he stood there like an idiot, keeping his hands to himself.

  “Maybe it would be best if we did this separately. You know… you go into one room and I go into the other.” His body jerked in opposition.

  “Travis.” Kacey put her hands on her hips. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

  “I lost it along with my manhood the minute I fell asleep and began drooling.”

  “C’mon, you can do it.”

  “Oh, I know very well I can do it, thank you very much. I’m just unable to perform at this given moment in time. Believe me, my body has no problem understanding what I can and cannot do.”

  Kacey’s eyes scanned him from head to toe, her eyes stopping exactly where a lady’s eyes should never linger. “I see.”

  Yeah, anyone could see. She’d have to be blind not to see.

  Blood began to pulse through his system into all the wrong places. Could a man die with want?

  “We’ll go fast.” She placed her hand in his.

  “Yes, because every man dreams of going fast when he’s in the presence of a beautiful woman as she slathers oil across her naked breasts and moans and…”

  “Travis?”

  “Yeah?” he said hoarsely.

  “We aren’t making a porno, so there won’t be any moaning.”

  “Hey, it’s my torture, and I’m imagining moaning. Let me dream.”

  She lifted her hands up into the air as if giving up and marched ahead of him up the stairs.

  He counted each stair as his foot hit, hoping and praying that somehow he would get through this without exploding or doing anything remotely embarrassing. His track record proved that the odds were not in his favor. Damn Hunger Games’ reference. He cursed and stomped up the last two stairs to the master suite shower. It was the biggest one in the house and had two shower heads and the rain effect that made you feel like you were, well, getting rained on.

  He stepped into the bathroom
and watched as Kacey grabbed a tub of coconut oil and rubbed it between her hands.

  His fantasy was immediately crushed. “It’s all hard.”

  “That’s what coconut oil is,” she said and winked. “It warms up when you rub it in your hands and turns into liquid.” She quickly demonstrated and then gave him a chunk of it. “I only have the numbing cream on part of my face, thanks to you, and on my arms — again thanks to you.”

  “No problem,” he said through gritted teeth as he watched her apply the oil to her hands.

  “Strip,” she commanded when he stood immobile, gawking like a teenager.

  “Sorry, what?”

  “Strip.” She nodded to his shirt. “Now.”

  “But, it’s only on my arms and—”

  “Travis, don’t be a baby. Just take off your clothes like a man so this woman can rub you down.”

  Sweating. He was actually beginning to sweat at the thought of Kacey’s hands anywhere near his body. Nothing could be more embarrassing than being painfully aroused and unable to do anything about it, with the woman of his dreams patting him down with oil. Especially when knowing that she was the reason he was so turned on.

  Cursing, he lifted his shirt and threw it to the ground. His pants quickly followed, and then he reached for his boxers…

  “I-I…” Kacey’s mouth dropped open and she covered her eyes. “I just meant your shirt.”

  Hell.

  What was he supposed to say? Sorry, I was too distracted by your lush mouth to understand what you were saying? Sorry, other parts of my anatomy are clouding my decision-making skills?

  So he said nothing; instead he grinned and held out his arms, knowing full well she had to get extremely close to put the oil on.

  Her face flamed red as she stepped into his space and began very slowly rubbing oil up and down his arms. He closed his eyes as her hands took on a seductive rhythm. He had to fight to keep from leaning forward and taking her on his parents’ bathroom floor.

  “Umm,” Kacey’s voice wavered. “Your forearms are fine. You can rinse them and your hands.”

  He opened his eyes, and she was a breath away from his lips. “Okay,” he stepped into the shower and rinsed off the lower part of his arms and his hands. The welts were gone, and they were no longer numb. He wrapped a towel around himself and walked back out.

  “Now what?”

  “You still have some here.” She touched his shoulders with the oil and began to rub. It felt so damn good, he wasn’t sure he could keep on standing. And then he realized she hadn’t ever put any numbing cream on his shoulders.

  She hadn’t reached that far because he’d had on a t-shirt.

  His eyes flew open.

  She was grinning.

  “Tease.”

  “Absolutely.” She kissed him hard on the mouth. He laughed and pulled her directly into the shower, clothes and all.

  “Oh sorry, you’re gonna have to take those off now.” He shrugged as she swatted him on the arm. The little tease lifted her hands above her head. Slowly, he pulled at her shirt until it was off. His heart hammered in his chest as he viewed her lacey black bra.

  “These too.” He pulled at her jeans, jerking her against him. She giggled and tugged at his towel. It fell to the ground. Grinning, he unbuttoned the first button of her pants and unzipped them. She wiggled out, and soon she was standing in front of him, a beautiful, sensual goddess. Damn! He didn’t deserve her. But he wanted her so much that in that moment he didn’t really care.

  He pulled her under the shower. The water teased down her body, little droplets dripping off her lips and running down her neck, only to stop in her lacey bra and slide down her sleek stomach.

  He bent down and held a droplet captive between his lips as he kissed her chin and closed his eyes.

  She tasted like home.

  Like forever.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Clearly, she was out of her mind. Never had she been naked with a man before. Ever. She didn’t count Jake because, after this particular moment, she wasn’t really sure he had been a real man. Not after seeing Travis and his naked body.

  People could write romance novels about that body.

  All rippling muscle stretched across his chest. She sighed happily in his arms as he licked water droplets off of her neck.

  Not to mention… well, the unmentionable parts that ladies were so not supposed to mention. She giggled nervously. Jake couldn’t hold a candle to him, mainly because he wasn’t him. Travis wrapped his arm around her neck and dipped her underneath the showerhead again. He reached for the soap and began lathering it across her chest.

  He backed up. “Damn, I wish I had the heart to take this off too.” He pointed at the bra and smirked. “But you look too pretty in it.” With one fluid movement he was kneeling in front of her. Her knees nearly knocked together, she was so nervous as he placed kisses across her stomach.

  With his teeth he nipped at her hipbone and bent down to kiss behind her knee, slowly raising his eyes to look at her. Travis placed his hands on her hips. “Perfect.”

  His hands didn’t budge. He didn’t even try to take off the rest of her clothes; instead he continued to kneel in front of her. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against her stomach.

  She caressed his head for a few minutes as the water cascaded down his back. Then he looked up at her again, his eyes smiling right along with his mouth.

  He ran his massive hands up her thighs and then continued lathering her body. She wanted him so badly, but he never made a move to do anything more than kiss her.

  Travis reached for the shampoo and washed her hair, taking special care in massaging her scalp. She leaned her back against him and closed her eyes. Naked muscle encased her body, and she wanted to stay there forever.

  “Rinse,” he whispered in her ear as he pulled her backward underneath the showerhead again. His fingers worked magic as he rinsed the shampoo from her head, and then those same warm hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her more tightly against him. “We should get out.”

  Not the words she was thinking he would say.

  “What?” She didn’t mean to snap or sound irritated.

  “I think…” He nibbled her ear and breathed into it. “…that we should get out, before we christen my parents’ bathroom.”

  Rejection washed over her. Trembling, she slowly moved away. He grasped her and lightly pushed her against the cool tile wall.

  “Not like this,” he murmured in her ear as he nuzzled her neck underneath her hair. “Besides, it’s our first time together… Do you really want to remember it being in my parents’ shower?”

  On second thought.

  She giggled and kissed him full on the mouth. His eyes wavered as his hungry gaze swept her up and down. With one final hard kiss he pushed her away and told her he would be a minute.

  She hopped out, wrapped a towel around her, and heard the shower turn off. Travis stepped out, a cocky smirk placed firmly across his handsome face.

  “Something funny?”

  “No.” He kept smiling and rubbed his chin.

  “Why don’t I believe you then?”

  “Because I’m lying.” He leaned his arm against the wall and settled his full weight to the side.

  “So?”

  He shook his head. “Nope, not gonna tell you. You’re just going to have to see, but aren’t surprises the best?”

  “No. No they aren’t,” she said dryly.

  He blew her a kiss and then smacked her on the butt as he walked out of the bathroom. Cocky one, Travis Titus. Who would have ever thought that the little boy with the stutter had game? Or kissed like a movie star? Not that she’d ever kissed a movie star before, but she figured kissing Johnny Depp was pretty much like kissing Travis.

  It had to be.

  It was too good to be anything but that.

  She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Every piece of skin visible was flushed. Her fingers clutch
ed the side of the sink. A clanging noise sounded as she gripped the sink harder. The ring. Jake’s ring to be exact, stared back at her, mocking her. Instead of guilt, she felt minor annoyance. Kacey reached down and slid the ring off.

  Decision made, she padded over to Jake’s old room. Everything was just as he left it. Trophies were scattered across his dresser. A few pictures of The Pussycat Dolls hung on the wall, and his bedspread was the same faded red. So many memories were part of this room. But it was over. Done. Tomorrow she had to leave, but she hoped Travis would ask her to stay. Actually she hoped he would make the big gesture. One thing was for certain. She was saying goodbye.

  Goodbye to Jake, goodbye to the pain and the memories, and hello to a bright future with the boy next door. She bit her lip to keep from squealing with excitement as she thought of her time with Travis. She set the ring on the dresser and ran to her room to put on some fresh clothes. Whatever surprise Travis had waiting for her, she wanted it, as soon as possible. Especially if he was giving and she was receiving.

  ****

  Kacey bounded down the stairs in the general direction of the kitchen, where she assumed Travis would be located. After all, they hadn’t eaten anything but cookies all day and it was nearing lunchtime.

  The sound of a pot clattering confirmed her assumptions. She walked into the kitchen and burst out laughing.

  Travis was on his hands and knees, putting bits and pieces of hard macaroni into a bowl.

  “Trouble cooking?” She tilted her head and smirked.

  He looked up and scowled. “Nobody ever said multi-tasking was so difficult.” He threw one last piece of macaroni into the pot and stood. “Luckily, we have more than one box of this stuff.”

  “You do know you’re supposed to boil the water first.” Kacey pointed at the dry macaroni.

  “I know.” Travis laughed unconvincingly and dumped the noodles into the trash and placed the pot underneath the sink.

  Kacey took full opportunity to gaze at his tight jeans. She felt herself smile when he reached forward and grabbed a towel to wipe off the table. It was almost like she was in a trance. So much, in fact, that when Travis turned around she had to snap her head back up.