Chapter Six
“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Bella asked, walking into the living room. She was sore. She was also well and truly wrung out. She needed a shower and a nap.
She found Travis staring out at the lake, but he turned when she spoke. He smiled and her insides gave a little flip. The man was dangerous to not only her sex drive, but to her heart as well. She needed to tread light and easy, but she wasn’t sure how. Her dream man had given her free reign to crawl all over him anytime she wanted. At least for as long as their arrangement lasted.
That was the kicker. For as long as their arrangement lasted. That was where the careful consideration for her heart should come in, only it hadn’t. And she was in danger of losing it to him.
Travis was as magnetic as she had built him up in her mind to be.
“Are you cooking?”
Relief settled in. She hadn’t realized how much she wanted him to stay, or how disappointed she’d have been if he’d said no. “Well, I was hoping you would.”
“And what would I be cooking?”
“I’m assuming you know how to use a grill?”
“Are you now?” A teasing smirk lifted the right corner of his lips. “Isn’t that a little sexist?”
Bella shrugged. “I don’t think either of us is in any position to be lobbing those kinds of words back and forth.”
He pulled her close for a quick kiss that left her weak in the knees. “You’re probably right, in which case, yes, I know how to use a grill. And yes, I’d love to stay for dinner,” he confirmed with another tempting but too short kiss. “What am I making?”
“Pizza.”
“Huh?” Confusion laced his question and she had to grin.
“Pizza. It’s something I learned about in Nashville several years ago. Grilled flatbread pizza.”
“I’ve grilled a lot of things but I have to say, pizza is not one of them.”
“Are you chicken?”
“Please,” he scoffed. “Do you grill your own?”
“Yep.”
“I see. Well, anything you can do, I can do.”
“Oh?”
“Within reason,” he qualified.
She did her best to bite back a smile. “Nice save.”
Travis nipped at her nose. “I thought so. How long do you need before I start the grill?”
“You can start it now. You only have to grill the flatbread. We’ll top it after.”
“You don’t melt the cheese or anything?”
“You can melt it, but I usually don’t.”
“You’re a strange woman, Arabella Drake.”
“Good strange or bad strange?”
“That all depends, I guess.”
“On?”
“On whether I can stomach this fancy-schmancy non-melted cheese pizza thing or if I end up calling Bobby down at the Pizza Palace for a real pie.”
“No faith in me at all. Such a shame.”
“No faith in your high-society food, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah, yeah. If you’d like, you can make your own, and I’ll even tell you how to make it so you can add toppings while it’s over the flame.”
“I’ll try anything once. You do have meat, right?”
“I thought you were the one with the meat.”
Travis hung his head and chuckled. “That’s so lame, Bells.”
“But you laughed.”
“So? It’s still lame. Gas grill?”
“No. Charcoal.”
“Damn.”
“What?”
“I don’t remember the last time I started a charcoal grill.”
“Need me to do that for you too?”
“Keep it up, little girl and I’ll give you something that’ll smart.”
“Ooohh. Threats.”
“Promises. And you know I keep my promises, don’t you, baby?” His voice was a bare whisper against her skin where he’d bent close. Bella clamped her lips together and nodded. She knew all about him saying what he meant and meaning what he said.
“What about …” she began.
“What about what?”
“What about you keeping it up?”
“That’s it.” He spun her around and bent her over the kitchen counter. The grill would have to wait …
* * * * *
“Were you all right after work today? Did something happen?”
The question caught Bella by surprise and she guessed it showed when Travis looked away. He picked up his beer and another slice of now cold pizza. He’d liked it, and she was happier than she figured she should be over Travis giving her grilled pizza his approval.
“No, why?”
They were on the deck out back, settled on a couple of blankets.
Between bites, they made out and screwed like a couple of teenagers. And “screwed” was the appropriate term. Nothing they did together was tender or soft when it came to sex. They fucked and they screwed.
She didn’t want anything different. She only wanted more. It was after sex that the gentleness came into play. It was an odd combination, but one he seemed to enjoy as much as she did.
“Well,” he started, “you didn’t wait for me in town and you walked right by the garage.”
Bella felt the heat of a blush. “I, uh … I wasn’t even paying attention.” How much should she tell him about her conversation with Mrs. Cleary? Should she tell him she would have the money for her car by tomorrow afternoon? Would it matter? Their little affair was due to end by Saturday anyway since he was only willing to hold her car until tomorrow.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. It was a busy afternoon and Mr. Martin showed up right after closing and demanded flowers for his wife.”
Travis chuckled and Bella felt a little relief. She needed to figure out what to do, though. She didn’t want things to end between them. She liked him and wanted to keep seeing him, but didn’t know if he felt the same connection outside sex that she did. There was comfort, laughter and it was easy to be herself. She hadn’t had that in a long time, at least on this level.
“Laugh all you want but that man scares me,” she admitted.
“Hey, you didn’t have him as a teacher.”
“No, but believe me, we heard plenty about him around town. It doesn’t appear that he’s mellowed out any after he retired from teaching and took over the hardware store. Hey, was it true his son’s nickname was MNM?”
“It was. Those were his initials. When we all found out, we chipped in and gave Mr. Martin a big jar of M&M’s. He was confused and we just laughed. None of us were brave enough to tell him the truth.”
Bella grimaced. “Poor kid.”
You get the old man his flowers?”
“I did. He even smiled when I gave them to him at no charge.” She still couldn’t get over the look on Mr. Martin’s face when she’d said she wanted to take care of the cost. It was those little things that may change some opinions of her and her name. She couldn’t buy their forgiveness, but she could make small gestures of kindness and friendship.
“No charge, huh? I bet he was shocked.”
“You could say that. Never did understand what his wife saw in him. He was always so grumpy.”
“We always suspected it was the fact he played the trumpet. Could be he had good oral skills.”
Bella smacked Travis’ arm. “Ewww.” Travis grabbed her hand and sucked at her palm, tickling the center with his tongue until she moaned.
“See?” he said, his breath hot against her damp skin. “Never underestimate the power of strong lips.” He folded her hand in his. “So … Have you been up to your old house?”
“N-no.” Bella struggled for a second with the subject change, but caught up quick enough. “I mean, I drove by a few times when I first came back to town, but haven’t been back since. The bank owns it and there’s a ‘For Sale’ sign out front. It’s painful to see it that way. My mother loved that house.”
“We always said y’all were the Ewings of Tennessee.”
Bella laughed and nodded in the darkness. She lay back on the blanket and stared up dark, inky sky. “I remember hearing that phrase once or twice growing up and had to ask my parents what it meant.”
The Drake family home mirrored the South Fork ranch in Texas, made famous by the television show Dallas. A Civil War-era plantation house were on the property too, but it couldn’t be seen from the road and that wouldn’t do for Bella’s mother. So, another house was built in full view of the whole town.
Travis lay back as well, his fingers still wrapped around hers. “I’m sorry about everything, Bells.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, but thank you. You’re the only one who feels that way. Miles isn’t as forgiving.”
“No. He’s jealous.”
“Jealous? Why?”
“You wanted me and not him.”
“Well, yeah, there is that, but he’s a bit older than me and I bet he’s not near as sexy as you when you're naked.”
“I wouldn’t know. Don’t intend to find out either.”
She turned and looked at him. He stared up at the star-studded sky and his profile was all hard lines and angles.
He had a demanding, physical job. He sometimes helped his brother with their family contracting business. Travis had no need for a gym the way the men she'd dated before had.
She preferred the man next to her. His body, his mind, his dirty, hard sexual tastes. “But to be honest, I don’t think you’re all that sorry either,” she teased.
“Come again?”
Bella snickered and rolled to her side. She propped her head up with her free hand. “Is that an offer?”
He rolled to face her, mimicking her pose. She loved how comfortable they were being naked with each other. In her past, after sex, she was the one to cover up. She liked it rough and tumble, but there had always been a small bit of shame that followed her loss of control. There was none of that with Travis.
“Not an offer. A promise. But tell me what you meant about me not really being sorry.”
For a moment, the way his nipple piercings winked in the moonlight distracted her, teased her. She considered tabling the conversation until she satisfied the urge she had to taste the metal again.
“Hey,” he said, snapping the fingers of his free hand in front of her face. “Eyes up to mine, please. You’re a nympho,” he chuckled. “Anyone ever tell you that?”
“No, but no one has ever been you before either.”
“Probably a good thing.” He tweaked her nipple and she moaned, leaned into the touch. It was gone as soon as it had come. “Tell me.”
“If you were truly sorry, we wouldn’t be going at it like a couple of animals in mating season.” It was refreshing that she could be honest with him about what she was thinking or feeling at any given moment. Something about their no-strings arrangement freed her tongue from restraint. She wasn’t trying to impress Travis or keep him. She wouldn’t deny that she’d love to be in his bed every night. She wouldn’t deny she wanted that for the foreseeable future and longer, but that wasn’t what he offered her.
“One thing has nothing to do with the other,” he continued in a soft and timid tone, as though he didn’t believe his own words. She called him on it.
“One thing has everything to do with the other, Travis.”
Her circumstances pulled the rug out from under her and meant she was no longer sheltered by money or name. She and Travis were on a level playing field, or at least a lot more level than when they’d been younger. She no longer had a free or easy ride. And if she were honest with herself, she liked it that way. She liked working. She liked having a hot man in her life, even for a few days. She had a newfound confidence in putting one foot in front of the other. She wasn’t going to tiptoe with him or anyone else, including herself.
“Shit, Bells.” He moved lightning quick. She was on her back and he straddled her in the span of time it took to inhale the air between them. “What do you want me to say?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Fine. Yes, one thing has everything to do with the other. Your current situation in life, how its knocked you down several rungs and left you in debt to me made it easier to approach you. It made it easier to get what I’ve wanted since the first time I saw your wet body through a bathing suit on this very lake.” He covered her body with his. “It was a black one piece, you remember? Your nipples pointed just enough to make every guy within view hard as a fucking tree trunk. It hugged your ass when you climbed up to the floating dock out in the middle of the water and …” He licked his lips. “And if you laid down in just the right position? We could all see the wet fabric pulled tight between your legs.”
“Oh God,” she groaned, aroused and humiliated by her younger self as seen through Travis’ eyes.
“You were beautiful and so sexy with your curves when every other girl was stick thin. But you were untouchable, especially for someone like me. I spent my life covered in dirt and grease and your mama wouldn’t have let me within a mile of you. So yeah, your current circumstances make getting near you much easier.”
His words, while harsh and honest, fueled her need. He was using her, and in some ways she was using him too, and she couldn’t find it in herself to be upset or offended. They were both getting something they’d wanted for years. Each other.
She pulled her knees up and spread her legs. It was his turn to be surprised and his gaze widened, but only for a second. He took the move for what it was—an invitation.
He slid back, lifted her legs with his arms under her knees, and shifted until he pushed inside her. She arched and in one smooth motion, he had her heels on his shoulders. It changed the downward angle of his cock and lifted her ass. She was open, vulnerable, and she wouldn’t want to be any other way. Not with him.
“It’s taking advantage, my bedding you, but I had to, Bells. You’ve teased my dick, my imagination since we were teens.”
“And the reality?”
Travis stopped and stared down. “Fuckin’. Hot.” He leaned forward and the move forced her knees in toward her chest. She felt the stretch all along the backs of her thighs. It also forced him deeper. “I’ve had you in ways I’d only dreamed about and not even in all the ways I want.”
Her brain latched onto that last little nugget of information and filed it away for later. At the present, though … “Tell me more.”
“Insatiable girl,” he said.
Her stomach flipped at his affectionate tone of voice. It then flopped over again at the words that followed and the hard, plowing motion of his hips. He drove into her. Pulled out. Over and over, punctuating his thoughts with sexual exclamation points.
“I want you under me, over me. I want to be behind the counter in the flower shop with my mouth pressed against your pussy. I want to bring you to the garage and put you on your knees with my dick in your mouth. I’m pretty sure I can work like that. More?” he asked as he lowered her legs and wrapped them around his back.
She wiggled and readjusted herself beneath him, and he touched his chest to hers, his lips to her ear. He never stopped moving inside her. “Spank you with a thick rubber belt from a car, leaving grease tracks on your pretty bottom. Finger you in broad daylight out on the floating dock for everyone to see. Fill you with everything I can find to fit in your sweet cunt that shouldn’t be there. Tempt you, tease you, suck you, spread you. I want you tied wide open and offered up to me as if you’re the exact treat I’ve been craving. I want to slide on you, up in you, pull you down on me, make sure you remember these moments every time any man thinks to fuck you.”
Bella shuddered on his cock, her orgasm so hard and acute, tears leaked from her eyes. She grunted with animalistic need and Travis obliged. He plowed into her with long, punishing strokes. No man had ever said those kinds of things to her. No man had ever made her come with only their cock inside her. No man had ever made her feel so wanted, desired, so carnal.
She bucked under him, arched. He lifted at the same moment and snagged a nipple between his teeth and tugged. Her fluttering didn’t stop. It flowed through her, kept her riding the shockwaves each time he dragged against her walls.
“I love that I can make you lose control like that,” he rasped as he rose above her.
Seconds later he knelt over her throat and presented his cock to her mouth. She wanted him to come inside her. She wanted that feeling of him losing control while buried in her body.
“Take the ring between your teeth. Yes, baby. You got it. Now,” he said as he wrapped his hand around the shaft and began stroking, “tug on the ring. I know how much you… God, yeah. Tug harder.” He gulped breath. “Fuck, Bells.”
Cum hit her lips and teeth and she let go of the ring as he fed his cock into her mouth. She greedily took it, held it, sucked him down. He grabbed hold of her head and fucked her throat.
“Think that one … think that one might have killed me.” Travis crawled off her and lowered himself to the deck. He wrapped her in his arms and his heartbeat thundered in her ear. “Hottest fuckin’ piece of ass I’ve ever had,” he whispered into her hair.
“You’re not alone in that,” she whispered back before closing her eyes, sated for the moment.