Chapter Eight
Saturday Afternoon
“What’s my car doing here?” Bella asked, stepping out from beneath the awning of the flower shop.
Her wide eyes made him grin and the sunshine glinting off her auburn hair made him itch to wrap the strands around his hands and tug her close. “It’s finished,” Travis said.
“Travis, I—” Her eyes darkened in the afternoon sun and something niggled at him.
“I know you’ll pay me when you can, Bells,” he rushed to reassure her. He wanted the car out from between them. Their affair hadn’t had anything to do with her car after that first kiss on her porch. At least not for him, though that hadn’t stopped him from reminding her that it had.
“Is that why you’ve been leaving in the middle of the night? Why you wouldn’t spend the night with me? Is that when you were fixing my car?”
“Yeah. Look, I wanted you bad, baby, and I knew you wanted me too. I—”
“I did want you. You were the one guy I wasn’t supposed to ever have.”
“But you have had me.”
“I have—and I’m not done with you.”
“You don’t have to do this. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have made you sleep with me to get your car fixed cheaper. I would have worked with you on it, no matter what. I—”
“We’ve got to stop interrupting each other,” she quipped. “Travis, do you want to keep seeing me?”
He hadn’t expected her to ask. Or could be he’d hoped she would. “Hell, baby, yeah. I do.”
“Then shut up. I have some things to say, and a proposal to make, but I can’t do it if you keep feeling bad about what we’ve been doing for two and a half days.”
“Now c’mon. I don’t feel bad about what we’ve done. Only how I got you to agree to it.”
“You didn’t get me to agree to anything. I told you I didn’t care. I’d take you any way I could get you. I asked at the shop for time because that’s what it was going to take to get that kind of cash together. I said yes to sleeping with you under the pretense of payment knowing I could get you the money.”
She turned the tables and stunned him. “What?”
“Yeah.”
Even in the summer heat, she blushed. Pink lit her cheeks and she glanced away from him. The little minx. “Tell me.”
She sighed and locked gazes with him again. “Long story short, I have money. I have a small trust fund and a little savings. My accountant put safeguards and security measures into place when things came to a head with Artie. It was only for emergencies, for my future, for my children. It was all I had left. I didn’t lose as much as others, but Artie took something so much more valuable from me. He ruined my family name and my legacy. But then …” She smiled all soft and gentle and his heart flipped over. “Then you came along looking for something else, offering something more.”
“Shit, baby. I—”
“I swear, Travis. If you say you’re sorry one more time, I’m going to come over there and kick you. Not another apology. Not another anything until you listen to everything I’ve got to say. Understand?”
He nodded and she grinned. Truth be told, he couldn’t have formed any other words if he’d had to. She had him by the balls and he loved it. He couldn’t wait to hear what else she had to say, but no matter what it was, he wanted her. Not her money, not her name. Her.
“I want to keep fucking you, Travis.” Her grin widened when his jaw dropped. Of all the words in the world … “I want to keep seeing you, but I didn’t want my car repair hanging over our heads. Before I could make arrangements with my bank, though, Mrs. Cleary informed me of some other things. Some important things. Some life-changing things.”
“Mrs. Cleary is part of this?” Confusion clouded his voice and vision. What was she trying to say? He felt the muscles of his face pinch and scrunch as he tried to follow her line of conversation.
“She is,” Bella affirmed. “I know I should have told you when I found out a couple days ago. I … I didn’t want things to end before I was ready and if I’d said something, you might have wanted to stop. Only … only I ’m not ready for our arrangement to end and I was afraid if you knew—
“Knew what?” he interrupted, still stuck.
“My mother invested in the flower shop. When the business made the initial investment back and more, Mrs. Cleary tried to pay my mother back. Only she wouldn’t take it and signed her part of the shop over. Mrs. Cleary never filed the paperwork and put the money in an account. My mother remained a silent partner until she died. Mrs. Cleary transferred the partnership to me with the option of being a full partner. Not the investment partner. Not a silent partner. A full partner with say so. Said it was only right.”
Bella could hardly contain her excitement and Travis was still trying to keep up. “You own half the shop?” A slight breeze could’ve knocked him over, he was so shocked at the turn of events in Bella’s life.
“I do.”
“And you have money? Without having to touch the stuff you have socked away where your brother can’t get to it?”
She nodded. “I have a check for the car. All two thousand, five hundred sixty-seven dollars and thirty-nine cents. You will take a check, won’t you? Though if you prefer cash, I can get that for you.”
“I don’t know what to say.” There were no truer words. What could he say? His heart stuttered when she’d said she had money. He didn’t want the class chasm to widen between them again. They were adults this time, so it was possible things didn’t have to change in that way.
But then his brain started to catch up.
Shit. She had money again. She could have status again. She was a business owner. She …
And suddenly the chasm that existed between them during high school opened up in his head. He didn’t want to lose her, not now that he’d had her. He didn’t care about getting paid for the car. He never had. He just … Fuck. The whirlwind of news gutted him.
He stared at her and wondered if she could see the uncertainty in his eyes. Everything ceased to exist but him and her and a small bit of physical distance.
His family never told him he wasn’t good enough for someone like her. They only told him she was a different kind of person and came from a different world that him. They only told him that he was better off not getting involved with her.
He took a few chances and true to her status, she shunned him. But that didn’t stop his infatuation with her.
The news she gave him now? None of that mattered to him. He still wanted her. Money or no money. Arranging flowers or designing people’s living rooms. He didn’t care. He at least wanted a chance. He—
“Travis?”
He blinked and shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “Yeah, babe. Sorry.”
“Are you okay?”
For a second, she looked as uncertain as he felt and for some reason, that made him feel a whole hell of a lot better. “I’m good. Happy for you. I know it had to be unexpected, yeah? What Mrs. Cleary told you?”
She stood stiff and he hated it. She was right in front of him and her body language seemed to take her a million miles away.
“You could say that.”
“I guess that’s why you seemed kinda spaced out the other day. When you walked straight past the shop and on toward home.”
“I didn’t know what to think, you know? It was … Well, it was as you said, unexpected. I wanted to tell you, but didn’t know how and thought it would …”
She let her words hang in the air. Thought it would what? Change things? She’d said she wanted to keep seeing him, keep fucking. But did she? Really? He wanted to ask but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Then again, if he didn’t ask, how would he ever get to touch her again? How would he let her know that if the money didn’t matter to her, that it didn’t matter to him either? “Bella?”
“Can you answer a question for me?”
“Sure”
“Would you like to date me, Travis?”
“Date?” God, she floored him. Over and over and over again. Soon he was going to have to scrape himself off the hot asphalt of the parking space. Bella rolled her eyes and gave him an irritated look. He didn’t even try to hide the smile that spread across his face.
“Yeah, you know, dinner and a movie? Picnics at the lake, walks through town? People seeing us in public, holding hands, P.D.A. Any of that ring a bell?”
He’d collected himself and was once again on firm footing. “I’m surprised at you. A few days ago, you were afraid of what people would say, seeing us together. You were afraid how that would affect me and my business. Are you saying you don’t care about that anymore?”
“No, but you said you could handle it and I figure I should take you at your word.”
Travis nodded and curled his fingers into his palm, the need to reach for her almost too much to stand. “I did say that, so yeah, you should trust me to deal with it.”
“Right,” she agreed.
“But what about the reputation you’ve been trying to establish for yourself? I understand why you’ve been trying so hard for, what was it, respectability? Being with me is definitely not going to earn you that. I have a good business, but I have a raisin’-hell reputation too. Of course, most around here don’t realize I haven’t been that guy in years, but I’m afraid with you, he might resurface.” Especially with the jam and honey and belt he had in the front seat of her car.
“Travis, I—”
“Naw, now it’s my turn to talk. I don’t much care for what people in this town think or say or do. In part, you serve as a reminder of what Artie did, of what too much money, too much greed, too much of everything can do. My brother doesn’t like that I’ve been seein’ you. And that reputation of … Well, it’s pretty much up in smoke now. Coming back here took guts and courage and while it may not be my place to say, I’m proud of you for it. You, Arabella Drake…damn baby. I want you. I want you here.”
“Then that leaves me still waiting for an answer. I know all that other stuff. I know people who’ll gossip and be all in our business. But I need an answer to my question.”
“Dinner, movies, picnics, walks? I can do that. P.D.A.? Yeah, I can do that too, though you should be careful what you ask for. You’ve been living in a little cocoon since you’ve been back. Work and home. Dating would change all that. It would put you in the position of having to endure more looks and more whispers. So …” Travis shrugged and shook his head. “What else is on your list of requirements for dating?”
“Well,” she hedged. Her eyes sparkled, her lips twitched, and Travis knew that nothing he’d said so far was going to deter her. “Sex, but I’d already said I wanted to keep that going.”
“Sex. Hmm. But isn’t that extortion? Respectable dates, which between us is questionable, in exchange for sexual pleasure?”
“Could be that it’s sex in exchange for questionably respectable dates. If it could be sex in exchange for getting my car fixed at a lower rate, then …” She shrugged. She gave her nails a once-over glance, acting for all the world as if this wasn’t a big deal, when in fact, he knew different. Asking him to take a chance on someone named Drake. Asking him for something normal, real. Something more than a closed-door affair.
“Bella.” He waited for her to look at him. When she did, her eyes were clear. There were no teasing sparks, no hints of playing. He only found interest in those blue orbs focused on him with unblinking intensity. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He’d give her this last chance to say no, but he was pretty confident she wouldn’t take it.
“I’m sure that the sex is incredible and hot between us,” she answered without a hint of shyness. “I’m sure I like you enough to see where it can go. I’ve begged for a lot since everything happened with my brother. It’s humbled me and made me more vulnerable than I can ever remember being in my whole life. I’ve been alone and I’ve had to learn how to live my life all over again. You said it took courage to come back home. It was the only place I could think of, the only place I wanted to be.
“I know some still don’t trust me or my name, but I’m not leaving. I’m stubborn like that. They’ve kicked my pride around. They’ve knocked my ego around a bit, too. I deserve to be happy, though. I want to see if that is possible with you. I won’t beg for it. I won’t plead with you to give me a chance at more than the few days we’ve had. I want you, Travis, but you have to want me, too. You have to want me as much as I want you.”
His response came swift and sure. “Come and kiss me, baby.” He had no doubt in his mind and he wouldn’t make her beg—right then.
Later, when he got her naked.
Later, when she was wet and ready to come.
Later. That’s when he’d make her beg.
“Yeah?” Surprise and happiness laced her voice. She took two steps off the curb, two steps toward him.
“Come and kiss me,” he said again, and she took another step toward him. “Come and take me home with you.” Heat lit her eyes and she pulled one corner of her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Come and get me, Bella Drake.” He spread his arms wide, the way he had a few days earlier when he’d offered her a fantasy. “I’m yours for the taking.”
The End