Ally couldn’t remember an occasion when she’d been more nervous in her entire life. She smoothed down the silky material of the black cocktail dress, wondering if she should change. It was sexy and dressy, but the hem ended at mid-thigh, and exposed way more of her legs than she usually showed. The black stiletto heels were extremely high, and the neckline plunged down to the valley of her breasts, making it impossible for her to wear a bra with the ensemble. Luckily, the top portion that covered her breasts had heavier material and pleats that covered everything. Still, she felt naked without a bra.
She took one last stare at herself in the mirror, murmuring to herself, “You can do this. They’re just people.”
But those people would be looking at her because she was bidding for Travis. He’d explained to her this morning about what had happened with Jason Sutherland, and what he needed her to do. She wasn’t exactly comfortable bidding with Travis’s money, but he’d looked so vulnerable that she would do anything to get him out of an obligation he obviously hated. And it really touched her that he was doing it for Jason.
They’d had a quiet day, Travis hovering over her and plying her with fluids and carbs—just what her hips didn’t need—to help her weather the altitude issue. She’d honestly felt just fine since the morning, her reaction obviously mild, and Travis’s concern had been way over the top. Strangely, she didn’t mind, finding it more sweet than irritating.
“Holy Christ! Please tell me that’s not what you’re wearing tonight.” Travis’s growl sounded from the doorway of the bedroom.
Ally looked at the displeasure on Travis’s face and her heart plummeted to her feet. “I don’t look good in it. I knew I should have picked something else,” she told him, disheartened.
“No, sweetheart, you don’t look good. You look like every man’s fantasy, a sensual goddess. I’m not sure my heart can take it.” He walked over to her and turned her to face him by taking her hand. He caressed her palm with his thumb, his eyes roaming over her body and finally stopping at her face. “There won’t be a man in the room who won’t want to fuck you. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings with that comment, or your confidence. It’s my confidence that’s in jeopardy. How am I going to keep a horde of horny men away from you?”
Ally rolled her eyes. “It’s not that revealing, and the only man who gets horny when looking at me is you,” she assured him, quietly pleased that he thought she looked hot. “And you’re looking incredibly handsome yourself, Mr. Harrison.” And he did. She saw Travis in a suit all the time, but in a tux, he was absolutely devastating. No doubt he’d have women panting all over him. And she’d definitely be one of the many. “How am I going to keep the women away from you?”
“All they have to see is the way I look at you and they’ll get the message loud and clear,” he answered, kissing the palm of her hand tenderly.
Ally nearly melted to a puddle right there on the bedroom floor. God, this man could make her feel like the most desirable woman on the planet. And she knew his assessment wasn’t even close. But it still made her want to howl with happiness.
“I don’t like your earrings, though,” Travis said thoughtfully.
Ally fingered the small studs in her ears. They were the best pair of studs she had, and as she was putting them on she was wishing she had got a prettier pair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think to pick up—”
“I think these would look better.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box.
“Travis…you didn’t.” She took the box with a shaky hand, flipping the lid with a gasp. Nestled in the velvet interior were the most exquisite bracelet and earrings she’d ever seen. They were unique and beautiful, and she instantly suspected who had made them. “Mia?”
“Yes. She makes every item unique and I wanted them to be different from what any other woman would be wearing,” Travis answered gruffly. “Put them on.”
Ally was torn. She didn’t want to reject anything Travis gave her, but as she looked over the glittering stones—black opals and diamonds—she knew they were very valuable and rare. She looked at Travis, his eyes filled with anticipation and anxiety, and pulled the jewelry from the box. Did he really think she wouldn’t like them? She pulled out the studs and put in the dangling earrings that had two long strands, alternating the black opals and diamonds. Silently, she handed the bracelet to Travis and let him fasten it around her wrist.
“I wanted to get the necklace, too—”
“No,” she told him emphatically, fingering the diamond unicorn around her neck. “I haven’t taken this off since you gave it to me, and I never will.”
“I figured you’d say that,” Travis said with a boyish grin.
Ally looked at herself in the mirror, the sophisticated bracelet and earrings setting off the dress perfectly. “I don’t know what to say right now, Travis.” She was speechless, unable to express herself past the huge lump in her throat. Nobody had ever given her something so beautiful or so thoughtful…except Travis. “They’re so beautiful and I’ll be so afraid I’ll lose them.”
Travis shrugged. “Just tell me you like them. And if you lose them, I’ll get you some more. It’s just jewelry, Ally.”
“Anything you give me is special.” She turned and stroked his cheek. “And I want to give you something in return. But what do you give a billionaire?”
He took her hand gently and placed it over his bulging cock. “You give me this. And that’s pretty special,” he told her with a mischievous grin.
She couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing at his unexpected action. “Pervert,” she accused him.
“You gave me your writing, Ally. And you gave me your faith. You give me yourself, sweetheart. Next to that, pieces of jewelry mean very little. So take the gifts I desperately want to give you,” he said huskily. “I just want to make you happy.”
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him tenderly. “You already do.”
“I can see your breasts.” He nudged the fabric of the top aside. “Holy shit! Do I have to think about you being almost naked under that dress all night?” He reached down and slowly lifted the hem of the skirt, hissing as he saw the black stockings and skimpy black panties. He groaned and dropped the skirt. “I’ll never make it through this night.”
“Of course you will,” she answered, her body flushed with pleasure.
“Watch how you sit down. And don’t let anyone close enough to see down the top of that dress,” Travis ordered in a graveled voice.
“Does that include you?” she asked innocently.
“Hell, no,” he exploded. “I’ll be leering like a horny degenerate every damn chance I get.”
Ally chuckled softly and picked up her black clutch bag. “Showtime for you, billionaire bachelor stud.”
“You know what to do?” Travis asked for about the one hundredth time that day.
“Yes. That was a very kind thing you did for Jason,” she answered as Travis ushered her out the bedroom door and they descended the stairs hand in hand.
“I wish I would have kept my damn mouth shut,” he said grumpily.
Ally smiled, knowing he didn’t mean a word of what he’d just said. Travis referred to himself as an asshole, and maybe there were many who were afraid of his sometimes icy exterior. But she knew better. Travis Harrison had a huge heart. It was just unfortunate that most people didn’t see him the same way she did.
“Bid high and get it over with,” he demanded as he closed the outside door and locked it. “And for God’s sake, don’t get too close to anyone or bend over. I’ll have a heart attack.”
Ally shivered at the possessive note in his voice, his concern more about somebody seeing her undergarments than the discomfort he was about to experience.
“Would you like me to find a trench coat to wear?” she asked him jokingly.
As he opened the car door for her, his face lit up hopefully. “Would you?”
“I was kidding, Travis,” she said as she laughed delightedly.
“Damn!” he exclaimed unhappily. “I wasn’t.”
Ally snickered as Travis buckled her seat belt and closed the door, striding around to the driver’s side and getting in.
“Thank you for the beautiful gift, Travis.” She fingered the bracelet in the dim light, still overwhelmed by the things that Travis did for her that just seemed ordinary to him. “Tell me what I can do for you in return.”
“I don’t want anything,” he told her simply as he started the engine. “I just want you. But if you’d let me rip that dress off you and examine your sexy underwear later, I’d be a happy man.”
“Done,” she agreed readily, her body already heating just from the thought.
“Best gift ever,” he answered with so much excitement and enthusiasm that he sounded like a kid at Christmas.
Once they were on the road to the resort, Travis grasped her hand and placed it on his thigh, as though he just needed to feel her touch. Ally let out a happy sigh and relaxed back into the leather seat, thinking that maybe her introduction into Travis’s world wouldn’t be so very difficult after all.
When the bidding got close to six figures, Ally started having palpitations. Yes…it was Travis’s money she was bidding, but he’d already given so much to this charity, and was generously managing it along with Jason Sutherland and Kade.
The ballroom at the resort was magnificent, but everyone was currently crowded around the small stage in the corner, women practically shoving to get closer to the platform. Travis stood up there, looking calm with his hands in the pockets of his pants, but his eyes never left hers. He kept nodding subtly, encouraging her to go on.
Had he known the bidding would get this high? He’d ended up being the first man up, so Ally had no idea what kind of money this event was going to raise, or how much each “date” was going to bring in.
Bid high and get it over with.
That’s what Travis had asked her to do. But how high was high?
Women were bidding furiously, one right after the other, Ally raising her paddle every time the bidding slowed and the auctioneer was waiting for a higher bid. She looked briefly at the women, every one of them dripping with gems, looking like they belonged there.
Travis shot her a slightly uncomfortable and irritated look, telling her he wanted to get the hell off that stage quickly.
Come on, Ally. It’s not like Travis can’t afford it. Don’t think about it. Just rescue him.
“Two hundred thousand,” she called out confidently, raising the bet over what she thought most women would bid.
All eyes were on her, most of the women giving her a disgusted look, but Travis just smirked slightly and his eyes danced approvingly.
Most of the women stopped chattering and lowered their paddles, eyeing Ally like she was some sort of criminal. The bidding slowed considerably, only Ally and two other women still in the running. She was raising her paddle, the bid increasing minimally each time.
Travis was giving her pained look, so she shouted again, “Three hundred thousand.” She tried hard not to hyperventilate.
The other two women lowered their paddles and gave her cutting looks. But Ally ignored them because Travis looked happy as the auctioneer did a last call.
“One million dollars.” The feminine call came from behind Ally, and she whipped around to see a beautiful brunette giving her a smug look.
Confused, Ally looked back up at Travis, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was smiling at the beautiful brunette behind her. And the woman was looking right back at Travis now with a broad smile.
Ally waited, the whole room silent as the beautiful woman and Travis smiled at each other. When Travis’s eyes finally moved back to her, he shook his head, and Ally looked at him in shock. Obviously, he wanted this woman to win the auction.
Pain radiated through Ally’s chest and she tried to take a deep breath, but she found all she could do was breathe hard and fast, her chest aching as she watched the auctioneer award Travis to the gorgeous brunette.
The woman pushed past Ally, working her way to the front of the stage, not appearing to care who she pissed off in the process. As Travis stepped down, the woman flung herself into his arms, and Ally stepped back when she saw that Travis didn’t rebuff her. He leaned down to whisper something in her ear, and the woman laughed and kissed him on the cheek, still clinging to his arm.
He wants her. He’s not pushing her away. He wanted her to win the auction. He’ll spend the whole night with her.
Ally turned and dropped her paddle to the floor, unable to watch Travis and the other woman any longer. At that moment, all she wanted to do was escape.
She pushed past the back of the crowd, looking desperately for a place to escape. Her face burned with humiliation and her heart clenched with hurt.
Could I have been so wrong about Travis?
Bolting through the outside door of the resort, she wandered blindly, ending up at the enormous hot springs pool that was now closed. There wasn’t another soul around, so she sat in one of the wooden chairs beside the pool, the smell of minerals bringing back images of her and Travis making love in the pool at the guesthouse. She’d thought they’d been so connected, like there was no other person in the world for either one of them.
She tried to make sense of what had just happened, how Travis had turned away from her so easily, but she couldn’t. And who the hell was the woman? Was she someone from his past? Ally had never seen her before, and what would a woman from his past be doing in Colorado?
He comes here a lot. Maybe he met her on a previous trip.
Whatever the case may be, Ally knew things would never be the same for her and Travis, and she was devastated. He’d picked another woman over her, and that pain was so intense that she wanted to curl up in a fetal position from the sheer agony. Tears poured down her face, and she let out a strangled sob just as she heard the distinctive ring of her phone.
She almost ignored it, but she pulled it out of her purse, noticing in the dim light that it was a call from home, the police department. She clicked the Talk button with trepidation.
The conversation that followed turned Ally’s whole word upside down, leaving her feeling raw and completely destroyed by the time she clicked the phone back off. Her entire body shuddered and she froze in the chair, so shocked that she couldn’t move.
“Ally?” Tate Colter took a seat beside her, but Ally barely noticed him. “You okay?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was, “No. I don’t think so.”
Tate leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, waiting patiently. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
She wanted to tell someone, but she could barely comprehend the whole thing herself. “My house is gone. Apparently there was a sinkhole that opened underneath the house. They said it wasn’t very big, but it was enough to crack the foundation and cause a leak in some of the pipes and lines. The gas leaked and the house exploded. It’s entirely…gone.” Saying the words made it seem more real. “I think Travis—”
“Saved your life?” Tate finished for her casually. “I’m sure he knew. He’s been insistent on bringing you here for a while now.”
“You know?” Ally looked at Tate in surprise.
“I’ve known for a while now. He saved my life, too. Back when I was on active duty, Travis warned me not to volunteer for any missions that I wasn’t actually assigned to be on. I thought he was crazy. He knew very little about what I was doing. Nobody did, and they still don’t. It’s not something I can really talk about. All I can really say is that his warning made me hesitate when another pilot got sick and someone needed to take his place. I hesitated because of what Travis told me, because I wasn’t assigned to it. And because I took a fraction of a second to think about what Travis said, somebody else spoke up before me and took the sick guy’s place.” He hesitated for a moment before adding solemnly, “Everyone on that mission died, Ally. When he told me about his dream about Asha, I took him seriously, and was more than happy to stay close to her. I didn’t doubt that she was in some kind of danger if Travis had dreamed about it.” Tate took her trembling hand in his. “I’m sorry about your house, Ally. But I’m glad you’re here.” He stroked her fingers lightly. “Travis is looking for you. He’s worried.”
“He has another date,” Ally said painfully, her whole world still rocking from shock.
“The woman who bought him was my sister, Chloe, who happens to be engaged. She wanted to donate anyway, so she said she’d try to get here in time to bid on Travis since she wouldn’t have to spend the evening with him. She won’t stay long since she hates these kinds of functions. She hasn’t seen him in a while and he cares about her like a sister. She didn’t know about you, Ally. I didn’t mention you. I just told her that Travis was helping out a friend and wasn’t thrilled about taking his place. She said if she got here in time she’d do it. I never got a chance to tell her that you’d probably be bidding on him, too. It’s not his fault. And he’d never do that to you. I’ve known Travis since college, and he’s never cared about a woman the way he cares about you. He’s frantic right now because he can’t find you.”
Tears of relief rolled down Ally’s cheeks, and she started openly sobbing. Tate reached for her and put his arms around her shoulders, comforting her as she wept.
“You’ll get another house, Ally. Everything will be okay,” he crooned softly to her. “I know this is all a lot to take in, and you’ve lost everything, but it can all be replaced. You’re still alive, and that’s all that matters.”
“It’s just a house, and I didn’t lose everything I care about. I still have Travis.” She sniffled against his shoulder. The house was a shock, as was the fact that she could have very well been dead right now. What were the chances of a sinkhole opening underneath her house? She would have been home, probably already in bed. It was a pretty eerie feeling. But knowing Travis hadn’t betrayed her was all she cared about right now. Her tears were now tears of relief rather than sorrow.
“I don’t think you could lose Travis even if you tried,” Tate said with a chuckle. “He’s tearing the ballroom apart, looking for you.”
Ally pulled back and gave Tate a weak smile. “Go tell him you found me. I’ll be in. I just need a few minutes. I’m kind of a mess.”
Tate got up and grinned at her wickedly. “I’ll tell him we just finished a rendezvous in the dark.”
“I wouldn’t,” Ally warned Tate.
“I would. I’ve never seen Travis like this before. It’s highly entertaining,” Tate retorted mischievously, whistling softly as he walked away.
Ally shook her head, wondering if Tate was suicidal as she watched him saunter away. Just then, her cell phone rang again.