Travis was frantic, ready to turn the ballroom upside down, when Tate wandered over to him, motioning with his thumb toward the door that led outside as he approached. “She’s outside by the hot springs. She said she needed a few minutes.”
What the hell? Why had she gone outside? Travis frowned at Tate, but didn’t say a word as he started striding toward the door, but he didn’t make it very far before Tate snagged his biceps with an iron grip.
“You need to calm down, Trav. Something bad happened to her tonight. Her house was destroyed, burned to the ground. She’s upset,” Tate said solemnly.
Tate’s words hit Travis like a ton of bricks. “It really happened. Fuck!” His big body shuddered as he realized that his dream really had been precognitive, and Ally would most likely be dead had he not brought her to Colorado. Not that he would have taken any chances anyway, but it was an eerie and terrifying feeling, one that sent a cold chill down his spine. He yanked his arm out of Tate’s grip and sprinted for the door, his heart thundering in his chest.
She’s okay. She’s okay.
Rationally, he knew that she was alive. Tate had just seen her. Still, he needed to see her beautiful face with his own eyes. And she needed him. He could sense it.
He spotted her standing beside the hot springs, just holding her phone in her hand and staring at the water. Jesus! She looked so lost and alone, and so damn vulnerable, her arms wrapped around her upper body, her face streaked with dark lines. She’d obviously been crying and her makeup and mascara outlined the marks of her tears. But she’d never looked more beautiful because she was standing right there, still alive and breathing.
She’s mine. She was always supposed to be mine.
Travis had never been more certain of anything in his entire life. He wasn’t the type of man who believed in fate, always believing that everyone made their own destiny. Now, he didn’t believe that. Not when it came to Ally. There had really only ever been her, and he’d nearly lost her.
“Ally,” he said hoarsely as he walked to her slowly, opening his arms as she turned at the sound of his voice. She flung her whole body toward him, and he closed his eyes as he folded her tightly into his embrace. “Everything will be okay, sweetheart. I’ll make everything right again.” He stroked his hand over her hair, holding her head tightly against his shoulder. “All that matters is that you’re okay. Anything else, including the house, can be replaced.”
“Tate told you?” Ally asked softly.
“Yeah.”
“You knew it was going to happen, didn’t you? That’s why you wanted me to come with you? It didn’t have anything to do with avoiding the auction. You were trying to save me.”
“I had the same dream every time, but it was so fucking vague. I recognized the resort and the ballroom when I got a call that you had—” Travis had to force the word out his mouth in a guttural tone as he finished, “died. I didn’t know how or why. I didn’t know when. The only thing that made sense was that if something was going to happen, it was going to occur while I was in Colorado.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked in a confused voice.
“Christ, Ally. I wasn’t even sure anything was going to happen. And I couldn’t stand to even think about it, much less talk about it. I didn’t want to scare you for no reason. But I was going to make damn sure you were in Colorado with me, even if I had to kidnap you.”
“You wouldn’t,” she exclaimed, pulling back to look at his face. “And I might have been married.”
Travis gripped the hands on her back into tight fists. It was past time that he stopped bullshitting himself and everyone else. “You wouldn’t have married him. I would have done whatever I needed to do to make sure you didn’t get married.” He’d finally said it, admitted it to himself. It didn’t matter how much he wanted to think he’d let her be happy with another man. It simply wouldn’t have happened. He wanted her too much, needed her too much. He would have thrown her over his shoulder at the wedding if necessary and taken her away. “I couldn’t have waited much longer. I would have done everything in my power to make you mine.” His conviction that she belonged with him had been too strong, too powerful to ignore. The closer her wedding had gotten, the more desperate he had felt. There was no damn way he’d have let her say “I do” to another man without first fighting with everything he had to make her belong to him. Maybe he’d have fought with himself right up until the last moment, but he had no doubt how things would have ended, and she wouldn’t have ended up married to someone else. He would have fought dirty if he’d had to, and he was perfectly capable of doing just that. “Hell, and I thought Sutherland was crazy for the plan he’s making up with Tate’s help. I would have done something just as crazy or worse.”
“You never said what they were planning. You just said Jason was going after the woman he loved,” Ally murmured.
“Believe me, you don’t want to know,” Travis told her emphatically, immediately changing the subject. “Tell me what happened with the house.”
Ally explained what had happened, that she’d spoken to the police twice, and the house was a total loss. “I don’t think it will really sink in until I see it,” she finished sadly. “And I’ll need to find a place to live. I can’t believe I’m currently homeless.”
“You’re going to be living with me,” Travis growled, his protective instincts sharp and nearly painful.
“I appreciate you giving me a place to stay for a while, but I’ll find something as quickly as I can,” she assured him gratefully.
Fuck! The woman was going to drive him insane. “Permanently, Ally. No finding another place.”
Travis watched as she worried her lower lip, the dark smudges from her mascara still under her eyes. She was silent for a moment, the longest damn minute that Travis had ever endured before she replied, “I’m not sure I can do that, Travis.”
He exploded. “The hell you can’t. Why not?”
“Because I’m in love with you,” she replied breathlessly. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I love you. When I realized just a short time ago that if not for your warning, I would have been dead, all I could think about was that I would have regretted not telling you that. So I have to say it. But I also know how I felt when that beautiful brunette won the auction, and I knew you wanted her to when you hugged her. Just seeing you with another woman like that destroyed me. I know who she is now because Tate explained, but I realized that with you it has to be all or nothing for me. I love you so much it hurts,” she ended on a sob.
Travis grasped both sides of her head and covered her mouth with his, kissing her roughly, his tongue taking possession of hers, melding them together as his head spun from her confession. She fucking loved him. He couldn’t wrap his mind around that, and he didn’t want to. Right now he wanted to brand her as his, let her know that they were never going to end. Finally, he pulled his mouth from hers and rasped, “Do you think I don’t feel the same fucking way you do, Ally? I can’t believe you thought for even a second that I could or would betray you. You can feel what I feel. I know you do. Do you really think I’d ever let you go? You’re marrying me, and then I’ll show you every damn day how lucky I feel to have you as mine.” He moved his hands to her ass in a proprietary manner, desperately needing to bury his aching cock inside her. “I’m not sure love even explains how I feel. Dammit…I love you, but it’s more than that. I knew four years ago, from the minute you walked into my office and looked at me with those damn gorgeous green eyes of yours, that I was completely screwed, and not in a good way. So put me out of my misery after years of hell. Tell me you’re going to marry me,” he rasped, one of his hands slipping into her sexy panties, his fingers immediately drenched.
Ally moaned softly and answered, “But we haven’t even talked about marriage yet,” she protested weakly.
“Say it,” Travis demanded in a husky voice, needing to hear her finally say she’d be with him forever. If she didn’t, he was going to lose it. He teased her clit, putting more pressure on the bundle of nerves. “Say it now.”
“Travis.” His named left her lips with a sigh. “I love you.”
Okay…he loved that, and he wanted to keep hearing her say it, but he wanted more. “Say you’ll marry me.” His patience at an end, he grasped the panties and tore them from her body, shoving them hastily into his pocket, as he pushed her back against the wall of the building, a dark, secluded corner where they wouldn’t be seen.
“Travis, we can’t do this here,” Ally protested weakly. “And yes, I’ll marry you. I love you.”
Ah…both of the things he wanted to hear at once. Adrenaline pumped through him, his body and mind on such an ecstatic high that he never wanted to descend. There was no way he wasn’t going to bury his cock inside her right now. He teased her clit a little harder, stroking the slick flesh between her thighs to make her even hotter as he liberated his cock from his pants. “Right now, Ally. I want to bury my cock inside you so deep that you can’t think about anything but me fucking you and making you come.”
“God, yes,” she moaned. “Fuck me, Travis.”
Shit. He loved hearing those words coming from her lips when his name was attached to them. He grasped her ass and pinned her to the wall as he lifted her. “Wrap your legs around my waist.”
She obeyed immediately, fisting her hands into his hair as she said in a lusty, sultry voice, “You’re mine, Travis.”
Travis impaled her with one thrust of his cock, biting back a groan, loving the way she claimed him. Her possessiveness heated his blood, made his own proprietary emotions even more frenzied. There was nothing he wanted more than for her to feel secure enough, fierce enough to lay claim to him. “Tell me you love me,” he demanded, wanting to hear those words all the time now that she’d said them.
“I love you. Now fuck me,” she ordered, wrapping her arms securely around his shoulders.
Travis lost it, unable to keep himself from thrusting deep and hard inside her over and over again, the dark beast inside him taking control.
Need her to be mine. Need her to be mine.
“Tell me you’ll stay with me forever,” he commanded as he drove his cock into her deeper, harder, faster.
“Yes. Forever,” she answered ferociously as her body started to quiver, her channel clamping down on his cock.
Travis could feel her climax tearing through her body, her channel pulsating over his pummeling cock. He grasped her ass harder, bringing her hips up to meet every stroke of his cock.
And then, she bit him, her teeth sinking into the flesh of his shoulder, which he knew was to keep herself from screaming. But the feel of her erotic marking made him detonate, and he moved his head and captured her mouth with his, both of them groaning into the kiss as they shuddered together, their muffled sounds of satisfaction mingling as their bodies were sated.
Releasing Ally’s mouth so she could breathe, Travis buried his face in her hair as she rested her head on his shoulder, both of them gasping for breath. He lowered her feet to the ground, pulling her short skirt back around her thighs and fixing his trousers quickly before reaching for her again, keeping her locked against him.
“My wish came true,” he told her in a hoarse voice.
“What wish?” Ally asked curiously, still slightly breathless.
“The one I made in the hot springs the other night.”
“You wished you could screw me blind against a wall?” she asked teasingly. “And my wish came true, too.”
Well…maybe if he had thought of that, he might have wished for it. It had been pretty damn amazing. But what he had wished for was much more important. “No. I wanted you to love me and stay with me forever.”
She looked up at him, her luminous eyes filled with tears. “That was my wish. I wanted you to love me so badly.”
Ally’s words echoed in Travis’s heart, and as he looked down at her, he vowed to give her all the love she’d never had in her life until now. She wanted so little when he wanted to give her so damn much. “I do. I wanted you to love me too, baby.” He swiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks, making an even bigger mess of her makeup. He reached into his pocket, grinning as he came to her ripped panties first, but digging deeper for the small box he’d been hoping to give her tonight. He popped open the lid, the glimmering diamond catching every ray of the dim light. “I’m not even going to ask you to marry me again because you already said yes and you can’t take it back,” he grumbled, not willing to even take that chance. He pulled the ring from the box, put the container back in his pocket and took her hand, slipping the diamond onto her finger.
Mine.
Holy hell, she looked good wearing his ring, a physical declaration that she was finally his.
“Travis, I don’t know what to say,” she murmured, her eyes traveling from the ring to Travis’s face. “Damn. All I’ve done is cry all night. I hardly ever cry.” But her eyes were bright with tears.
“Nothing,” Travis answered in a rush. “Don’t say anything. You already said yes.” No backing out now. She’d already agreed to marry him. There was nothing more to say. “Just kiss me,” he suggested hopefully, hoping she wasn’t going to cry again. “I don’t want to see you sad anymore,” he admitted in a ragged voice.
Ally stroked his cheek, and then put her hand behind his neck to give him the sweetest kiss he’d ever had. He savored it, savored an embrace that was full of tenderness and love, a connection that was so much more than passion. She pulled away slowly and whispered huskily, “I’m not sad. I’m overwhelmed.”
“I know. Your house—”
“Not the house,” she interrupted, giving him a small smile. “I’m overwhelmed by you, by us. I’ve never been this happy and it’s almost scary.”
“Then get used to being terrified, because I plan to keep you happy ever damn day,” he answered with a devilish grin, knowing exactly how she felt. For a man who had lived in isolation and darkness for so long, being this damn happy was fucking terrifying, but he’d risk it. “You’ll get used to it eventually.”
Ally gave him a watery smile, swiping her hands across her cheeks. “I need to clean up. I know I’m a mess. And I’m curious to see who ended up with Tate for the evening.”
Travis wasn’t curious, but he smirked as he hoped the other man had ended up with the most annoying woman at the charity event. It would serve the bastard right for the way Tate had tortured him about Ally.
He put his arm around her and walked her to the ladies’ room, waiting outside after he ducked into the men’s room to clean himself up, propping a shoulder against the wall as he watched the crowd. The ball was in full swing, the auction apparently over. His eyes searched the dance floor, looking for Tate, but he didn’t see him anywhere.
“I think I look as good as I’m going to get without more makeup,” Ally said in a low, anxious voice behind him.
Travis turned and looked at her. “You’re stunning.” And she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Ally rolled her eyes at him. “I look like a woman who has been crying all night. My eyes are puffy, my makeup is gone, and my nose is red. I’m not an attractive sight.”
Travis thought she was wrong. He looked down at the ring on her finger and back up at her face, thinking she looked incredible. “You look like you’re mine,” he told her simply, thinking that that made her more than attractive. She looked like a goddamn miracle to him. “Dance with me,” he demanded, reaching his hand out for hers.
She slipped her hand into his with a smile, moving closer to him to whisper, “Don’t forget that my butt is bare. Some barbarian ripped off my panties and I doubt they’re wearable.”
They weren’t. Travis had pretty much shredded them. He checked her skirt, making certain she was covered. “For Christ’s sake, don’t bend over,” he rasped harshly, pulling her into a more secluded area of the dance floor, torn between the desire to hold her in his arms and his territorial need to make sure he didn’t expose her. As he pulled her into his arms, he solved the problem by putting one of his hands on her ass instead of her back, making damn sure her skirt didn’t ride up.
“People are staring,” Ally told him in an amused voice as she followed his lead perfectly.
“I don’t give a shit,” he responded, surprising himself that he really didn’t care. It was a formal occasion, and maybe it wasn’t appropriate to hold her this way, but it felt good. “If they don’t like it, they don’t have to look.”
“Travis Harrison, are you actually willing to do something a little bit scandalous?” Ally teased.
He looked into her deep green eyes, his expression intense. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do when it comes to you,” he told her in a hoarse rasp, knowing he meant every single word. “Tell me you love me again,” he said insistently, knowing he sounded pathetic, but he didn’t care about that either.
“I love you,” she responded immediately.
Travis felt his cock growing hard just from the tender, sultry tone of her words. Unable to stop himself, he stopped dancing and he kissed her, not holding back anything as he tried to tell her without words how much he treasured that love. Ally loved him exactly as he was, asshole and all. She didn’t care about his wealth, his freaky precognitive dreams, or his less than tactful behavior sometimes. She just cared about…him.
Cameras flashed, and Travis knew he’d see a picture of himself in the society pages tomorrow, ravishing his new fiancée on the dance floor of a charity ball. And he’d actually relish it. He’d waited for Ally for years, and he wanted every man in the world to know she now belonged to him. In fact, he’d happily look for the photo tomorrow because he was pretty damn sure he’d frame it.