Chapter 16
Sixteen
Travis stared straight ahead as Liana drove them to The Tower.
She glanced over at him, and her heart broke at the shattered expression on his face.
In the garage she parked in Travis’s spot and went around to open the passenger door.
“Liana!” Jessie cried, emerging from the darkness with a flashlight. “Is everyone all right?”
“We hope so. The firefighters pulled a man from the house and took him to the hospital.” Lowering her voice, she added, “And we can’t find Travis’s dog, Dash.”
“Oh no. What can I do?”
“Keep your eyes out for Dash. She’s a yellow lab.”
“I will. Is Beck on his way back, too?”
Liana shook her head. “He stayed to look for Dash. I need to get Travis upstairs.”
“Of course. Let me know if y’all need anything. I’m so sorry about this.”
“Thanks.” Liana leaned into the car. When he didn’t move, she touched his shoulder. “Travis? Honey, come on. Let’s go upstairs.” She took his hand and gently tugged at it to encourage him out of the car and into the elevator.
When the elevator doors opened into his apartment, he went straight to the sofa.
Liana followed him, sat on the coffee table in front of him, and took his hands. “Beck will find her,” she assured him.
“What if she’s dead?” His battered voice was little more than a whisper. “What’ll I do without her? She’s my . . .”
“What, baby?”
“My family,” he said as new tears flooded his eyes.
Liana moved onto his lap and wrapped her arms around him. She wanted to tell him she would be his family if Dash was gone but couldn’t seem to get the words out.
He buried his face in her shoulder. “I can’t believe she ran into a burning house.”
“She probably saved that man’s life,” Liana reminded him. “And you did, too. You knew something was wrong because of the way she was barking.”
“I need to check on him,” Travis rasped.
“I’m sure Beck will, and he’ll let you know what he hears. Besides, you can barely talk. Do you have any honey or lemon?”
He shook his head. “Call the club. Someone will bring over whatever you want.”
“I want it for you.” She kissed his forehead and got up.
Liana called the club and asked them to send over hot tea with honey and lemon. Then she went into the kitchen, wet a paper towel, and brought it with her when she returned to the sofa. Turning him toward her, she wiped smudges of dirt and dried tears from his face.
He rested his forehead against hers. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’ll be here for as long as you need me,” she assured him.
Twirling a lock of her long hair around his finger, he sighed. “You can’t stay that long.”
The raw longing she heard in his injured voice tugged at her heart.
The intercom buzzed, and she got up to answer it. A minute later, a waiter from the club arrived with the cup of tea.
“I heard about Dash, Mr. North,” the young man said after he had given the tea to Liana. “I’m really sorry.”
“Thanks, Sam,” Travis said.
“Well, you all take care,” Sam said as he left in the elevator. “Let us know if you need anything else.”
Liana took the tea over to Travis. “Here,” she said. “This’ll help your throat.”
Travis took a sip. “Thanks.”
“He seems like a nice kid,” Liana said, struggling to think of some way to take Travis’s mind off Dash.
“He’s the one who gave me the four-one-one on you,” Travis said with a small smile. “I asked him to come back next summer to work in the office since he’s going to business school.”
“That’s quite an opportunity for him. He’ll learn a lot from you.”
Travis shrugged and lifted his arm to invite her to sit closer to him.
She looped her arm around his waist, rested her head on his chest, and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart. “How’s your throat?”
“A little better.”
“Maybe I can be a nurse if modeling doesn’t work out.”
“Or a wedding coordinator.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I mean it.” His voice sounded only slightly better than it had earlier, and she could tell he was making an effort to keep his mind off Dash.
“We’re going to have weddings every weekend of the year, sometimes two a week.
Big ones outside in the summer and smaller ones in the clubhouse during the off-season.
There’s no way Niki can handle all of them, and I’ve got other things I need to be focused on now that our first big one is behind us.
We’ve been talking about hiring a second coordinator. The job’s yours if you want it.”
Astounded, Liana looked up at him. “You’re serious.”
“Of course I am. I never joke about business.”
“But surely you’d prefer to have someone more experienced, someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“I’d prefer to have you,” he said, kissing her forehead. “You have style and class and star power that certainly won’t hurt North Point. And after watching you in action the last couple of days, I have no doubt you can do it.”
“You really think so?”
“I know so. You’ve told me you can’t imagine a life without modeling. I’m just offering a suggestion of something you might like to do.”
She returned her head to his chest.
“It’s nothing that has to be decided now. Think about it.”
He was offering her the chance to stay with him, to help him nurture his dream at North Point.
Liana had to admit the idea appealed to her.
She’d enjoyed the last two days even more than she had expected to.
But he hadn’t said anything about what it would mean for them as a couple if she were to stay, and that would make all the difference in what she decided to do.
One of the tabloid headlines had been running through her mind all night: “Has Liana Found Her True North?” Very possibly, but she’d never be able to stay with him if he didn’t love her the way she loved him.
His cell phone rang, and Liana sat up so he could get it out of his pocket.
“Yeah,” he said into the phone, which he put on speaker so Liana could hear, too.
“Hey,” Beck said. “We’re still looking. The good news is there’s no sign of her inside the house. It’s still pretty hot in there, but the fire marshal’s team took a quick look, and they don’t see her.”
Travis sighed with relief. “She could still be hurt, though, or even worse.”
“Possibly, but not finding her in the house is definitely good news.”
“Agreed,” Travis said.
“We’re going to call off the search for tonight. There’s no moon, so it’s dark as hell out here. I’ll have some guys out at dawn.”
“Okay,” Travis said. “Thanks for trying.”
“I want to find her, too.”
“I know you do. Did you hear anything about the guy they took out of the house?”
“He’s a cabinetmaker who was working late. He’s in fair condition at Newport Hospital with second-degree burns and smoke inhalation, but they expect him to make a full recovery.” “That’s a relief,” Travis said.
“There may be one other bit of good news,” Beck said.
“What’s that?”
“The photographers who’ve been stalking you and Liana? One of them got some film in the area of the house right before the fire. He may’ve captured something the cops can use to nail the bastards who’ve been screwing with us. He turned his memory card over to the cops a few minutes ago.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Travis asked.
“Definitely. Well, try to get some sleep. I know you’re worried, but we’re going to find her. One way or the other we will find her.”
“Thanks, Beck. I’ll talk to you in the morning.” He closed the phone and glanced at Liana. “Can you believe that?”
“How awesome would it be if one of our stalker photographers led us to the vandals? That would make all the aggravation worth it.”
He kissed the end of her nose. “And we’d have you and your celebrity to thank for it.”
“I hope he got something the cops can use.”
“God, all I can smell is smoke.”
She took his hands, pulled him up from the sofa, and led him into his bedroom. Turning to him, she lifted his dirty North Point polo shirt over his head and let it drop to the floor.
“I like Liana the nurse,” he said with a sad smile as he unbuttoned her blouse.
Liana watched his face as they undressed each other. The frenzy of passion from earlier was gone. In its place was something infinitely more tender.
He gathered the pile of smoke-infested clothes and brought them with him to the bathroom where he tossed them into the washing machine with a healthy dose of detergent while Liana turned on the shower.
She let the warm water wash away the smoke and the strain of the last few hours.
Travis stepped in behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and rested his head on her shoulder.
She turned to him. “How are you doing?”
“Hanging in there.”
“Your voice seems to be recovering.”
“My throat hurts.”
Liana held him close for a long time before she reached for a bottle of shampoo and washed his hair.
After she was done, he took the bottle from her. “My turn.”
Liana relaxed against him as he worked the shampoo through her hair.
When he turned her to rinse the shampoo, he bent his head and captured her mouth in a long, lingering kiss.
Liana wound her arms around his neck, and with his hands on her hips he brought her close to him.
As he eased her back and lifted her, she gasped from the chill of the tile wall. Tearing her lips free of his, she held him back. “Travis, no. Not without protection.”
He pressed his lips to her neck. “Just for a second.”
“No.” She pushed him away. “No.”
He seemed stunned by what he’d wanted to do. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s all right,” she said, even as her heart pounded with unfulfilled desire. She ducked under the water to rinse off the last of the shampoo.
Travis got out ahead of her and waited with a towel when she stepped out. He wrapped it around her and hugged her. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She wrapped her hair in a second towel. “Your mind is elsewhere tonight.”
“That’s no excuse for being careless with you.” He kissed her bare shoulder, and his eyes met hers in the mirror. “Would it really be so awful?”
“What?”
“If you got pregnant.”
Liana’s eyes widened. “Yes! It would be awful.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot your body is your meal ticket.”
A surge of anger cut through Liana, and she turned to face him. “That’s not it.”
“Is it the idea of having my baby that’s so repulsive to you?”
“There’s a right way to bring a baby into the world, and this isn’t it,” she shot back, incredulous.
She pushed by him, went into the closet where her bag was, and pulled on a pair of shorts and a loose-fitting T-shirt.
When she came out, Travis waited for her, still wearing a towel and still appearing to be making a supreme effort to remain calm.
“Do you care to explain that?” he asked.
“We’re halfway through a two-week fling. We said no emotion, no strings. Where do you see a baby fitting into that?”
“What did you think would happen if you got pregnant during this non-emotional affair of ours? Condoms have been known to break, you know.”
His fierce expression unnerved Liana, who suddenly found it hard to look at him. He solved that problem for her when he raised her chin and forced her to make eye contact.
“What did you think I would do if you got pregnant?”
“I never considered it.”
He laughed but there was a harsh edge to it. Liana wasn’t sure if that was because of the subject matter or his injured throat.
“Like hell you didn’t. You knew you’d be able to count on me no matter what or you never would’ve gone to bed with me in the first place.”
Liana couldn’t think of a thing to say to that. How well he knows me . . .
“Well, I guess that leads us back to vanity.”
“You’re being a jerk.”
His smile was almost a sneer. “Did I hit a nerve?”
Her eyes filled. “No! Not at all! Whether you choose to believe it or not, it’s not about vanity.
It’s about morals. Remember them? Just because I was willing to have a fling with you doesn’t mean I’m interested in having a baby out of wedlock.
If I ever have a baby, Travis, I’ll be married to a man I love and who loves me—not a man I’m having a two-week fling with. Does that clear things up for you?”
His face was a study in sadness. “Yeah. I get it.” He went into the closet and dressed in old jeans and a shirt.
“Where are you going?” she asked when he reemerged carrying a flashlight.
“To look for Dash on the beach.”
When she was alone, Liana braced her arms on the countertop and took several deep breaths to calm her racing heart.
I should’ve told him. I should’ve said that nothing would make me happier than to have his baby—a handsome, dark-haired boy with his daddy’s devastating grin and those dark, searching eyes.
Maybe I would’ve told him if he hadn’t seemed so intent on provoking me.
She raised her head and looked into the mirror.
“I love you, Travis,” she whispered, wishing she could bring herself to say it to him. “I love you so much.”
Travis stalked off the elevator into the garage and used the flashlight to check under the cars for Dash.
“Why did you have to do that?” Just because you don’t have the balls to tell her how you feel doesn’t mean you should back her into a corner like a freaking lunatic.
And what makes you think a woman like Liana McDermott would want to be saddled with your kid?
He ached when he imagined a little princess with her mother’s shiny dark hair and bright violet eyes.
Why didn’t you just tell her that you want to be the guy who loves her and marries her and gives her babies—and anything else she wants or needs?
Why didn’t you just say it? Because you know that’s not what she wants.
She made that clear again just now. She’s in it for the sex, and she has been from the beginning.
Yeah, well, I’ve delivered on that, haven’t I?
But if that’s all it is to her then why did she take such loving care of me after the fire?
She’d gotten him tea. Even his own mother had never made him feel so cared for. Not like Liana had. If that wasn’t love then maybe he didn’t know love. But damn! It had felt like love to him, and he’d liked it. A lot.