6
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.
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 too 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 every 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.
One week later, Ally watched Travis’s face as he painfully explained to his family the truth about his precognitive dreams, knowing how difficult it was for him. Her heart ached as she sat on the arm of his chair in his living room, his family all listening intently, as though they could sense how difficult this was for him, too.
Max and Mia were seated on the loveseat, Kade and Asha on the couch, all of them completely silent for a few moments after Travis stopped speaking.
“I knew,”
Kade finally said, his voice low and uncharacteristically sad. “I didn’t know you were having dreams, and I couldn’t really figure everything out, but I knew everything that happened was more than coincidence. You were there almost every damn time we needed you. Why the hell didn’t you tell me the whole truth? That’s a hell of a burden to have to bear alone, Trav.”
“I couldn’t tell you,”
Travis answered in a tortured voice, scrubbing his face with his hands. “You and Mia were all I had, and our father was insane. I didn’t want anyone to think I was as crazy as he was. I just wanted us all to be normal again.”
He paused for a minute before adding, “I didn’t dream about your accident, Kade. I’m sorry.”
Kade rose, his face set in a grim expression. He walked to Travis’s chair and said adamantly, “Get up.”
Ally cringed, hoping she wasn’t going to regret talking Travis into telling his family everything. This was her doing, her idea completely. She loved Travis so much, and she wanted him to bridge the distance with his siblings. Ally knew they loved him just as much as he loved them, although he’d never expressed himself well because of his isolation, and right now Travis needed assurances. She just wanted him to be happy, to realize how special he was, and she was counting on his siblings to help.
She watched as Travis slowly got to his feet, staring at his twin’s somber face, his expression uncertain. It took Kade less than a second to wrap his older brother into one of the fiercest bear hugs Ally had ever seen.
“I love you, you asshole,”
Kade said ferociously, hugging Travis tightly in his beefy arms. “And you could never be like our father. You’re the glue that held this family together every single time we needed it. I don’t give a shit if you couldn’t tell me about the accident. I wouldn’t be with the woman I love more than life if it hadn’t happened. Sometimes our pain in life is worth it.”
Ally watched, tears rolling down her cheeks as Travis slowly responded, and she saw his big body shudder as he hugged Kade in return, the two of them locked together in a brotherly embrace. She didn’t need to be told that it was the first time Kade had ever felt free to really express how much he cared about Travis because Travis had always kept everyone at a distance in the past.
“I love you, too, little brother,”
Travis answered quietly, slapping Kade on the back as they separated.
Ally’s heart clenched as she watched Kade’s face turn into a happy grin as Mia came right up behind him and threw herself into Travis’s arms, her face wet with tears. “I’m so sorry, Travis. So sorry for everything. If I hadn’t gotten myself into trouble, you and Kade wouldn’t have been so distant with each other while I was hiding out in Montana. Max and Kade had each other. You didn’t have anybody,”
she choked out on a sob, clinging to her older brother like a lifeline.
“I did, Mia,”
Travis crooned, holding his sister and rocking her. “I had you. At least I knew you were alive. I didn’t have to deal with the hell that I put Kade and Max through because they thought you were dead.”
“I would have been if you hadn’t hidden me and kept quiet,”
Mia answered, finally pulling back and kissing Travis on the cheek. “Max, Kade, and I would all be dead. You already know I love you, but I don’t think you’ll ever know how much. I’ve caused you the most problems, yet I still know you care.”
Mia swiped at her tears as she stepped back, looking her brother in the face.
“I love you, Mia. I always have. And I’m your big brother. It’s my job to keep you out of trouble,”
Travis told her almost arrogantly, but he was smiling.
Asha was the next to get her hugs and kisses in with Travis, and Max came forward and shook Travis’s hand and slapped him on the back in a brief hug. Stepping back from Travis, Max said remorsefully, “I owe you an apology, Travis. I hate myself for this, but I’ve resented you since I learned you hid Mia away from me.”
Max returned to take his seat by Mia, and Travis sat back down. Ally reached out her hand and Travis clasped it, bringing her palm to his lips and kissing it tenderly before bringing their joined hands to rest on the arm of the chair.
“I know you did, Max. And I knew to this day you were still resentful. But I never blamed you,”
Travis answered honestly.
“I’m not anymore, Travis. I am so damn grateful, and I don’t know how to say thanks for saving every one of us,”
Max answered thoughtfully.
“I can’t believe you all just accept this, that you believe me,”
Travis said hoarsely.
Ally squeezed his hand, knowing that his family’s unconditional acceptance meant everything to him.
“Why wouldn’t we?”
Asha asked curiously. “When Tate rescued me, he told me that you texted him. How did you know I needed him?”
“I had a vague dream the night before,”
Travis admitted. “And I wasn’t feeling good about the whole situation.”
He shrugged. “It happens that way sometimes.”
“You have an incredible gift, Travis. I think there are many spiritual things that we don’t understand, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist,”
Asha murmured. “I’m more grateful than you’ll ever know that you texted Tate that day. I wouldn’t have made it even a few minutes longer without his help.”
Ally wanted to hug her friend for reassuring Travis, for trying to make him more comfortable with himself. “He saved Tate, too.”
Mia leaned forward, a look of awe on her face. “Tell us.”
“He told you?”
Travis asked, looking up at her with a frown.
“He did. When my house was destroyed, he told me his story because I told him I thought you knew it was going to happen.”
Ally quickly explained what had happened with Tate to the rest of the family. Travis had already told them about his recurring dreams about Ally, and why he’d taken her to Colorado.
“Holy shit, Trav. That’s amazing,”
Kade exclaimed, gaping at Travis.
“It’s peculiar. And so am I,”
Travis rumbled awkwardly, but not very emphatically.
Ally sighed, knowing it would take time for Travis to completely accept who he was, but having his family know about it and validate him was an important step.
“You’re gifted,”
Asha argued.
“Special,”
Mia said with a nod.
“I never wanted to be gifted or special,”
Travis rasped. “After our crazy childhood and our insane father, I just wanted to be normal.”
“You’ve never been normal,”
Kade said with a grin. “You’ve always been an asshole. And what happened to the brother who told me he hadn’t met a woman who was worth losing his common sense over? Did you see the picture of you in the paper grabbing Ally’s butt and kissing her like you’d lost it in the middle of a formal ball?”
“Yep. I framed it and it’s on my desk at work,”
he admitted non-apologetically. “I’ve joined the psycho men club. In fact, I might have to become the damn president of the organization.”
“Still want to get rid of that desk?”
Kade asked with a smirk.
“Hell, no. Not anymore. It’s become my favorite damn piece of furniture in the whole building,”
he answered emphatically.
Ally flushed, knowing exactly why Travis used to hate that desk. But they’d had a few more adventures in the office on that particular wood surface, and now he swore he’d keep it forever, even if it did distract him sometimes. But she knew he’d be cursing it again if she wasn’t around.
The men bantered a little longer, the women throwing in their own comments.
Ally looked down at Travis, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Today had been a big hurdle for him, and she knew he hadn’t really wanted to deal with it.
But she had enough faith in his family to know that they’d always accepted Travis unconditionally, and she wanted him to know that, to believe that.
So she had pushed him, encouraged him, hoping nothing would go wrong.
Someday he’d be more comfortable with his special and unique traits, but he’d lived with his gift alone for so long that it wouldn’t happen overnight.
She’d been staying with him since they’d returned from Colorado, and although his house was enormous and had incredible security, it wasn’t ostentatious.
Of course, she should have known it wouldn’t be, because that wasn’t Travis’s style.
He’d gone to her destroyed house with her, but almost nothing was recoverable.
Strangely, she wasn’t really sad.
There were a few personal items that she would have liked to have, but it was almost like she hadn’t even really started living until she’d fallen in love with Travis.
And it felt like everything that had happened before in her life was all leading to this…to him.
Travis made her feel loved, complete, and perfect. She doubted they’d ever stop fighting sometimes, but it was almost like…foreplay. Besides, Travis wasn’t the type of man who needed a wife who didn’t challenge him. And she adored his loving alpha male, protective personality. It made her feel safe, and there was never a day that she didn’t feel loved, even if he was pissed off at her for something.
“So when is the wedding?”
Asha asked inquisitively, looking excitedly at Ally.
“Soon,”
Travis said irritably.
“Next year,”
Ally answered at the same time.
They looked at each other and frowned.
Travis wrapped a steely arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap. “I’m not waiting until next year,”
he informed her stubbornly, his voice holding a warning note.
“We haven’t set a date yet,”
she told Asha with a wink.
“But it sure as hell won’t be next year,”
Travis replied obstinately.
Kade looked at Max. “Should we start placing bets on who will win this argument?”
“Nope,”
Max replied with a grin. “It wouldn’t work. We’d both be betting on Travis.”
Asha, Kade, Max, and Mia all laughed as they got up to leave.
“I think we’ll let you two work this one out,”
Kade said, slapping Travis on the back as he walked past him.
Ally scrambled to get off Travis’s lap to see everyone out, but he held her tightly for a minute longer, whispering huskily into her ear, “We aren’t waiting that long, even if I have to get out my naughty tie.”
Ally shivered at the thought, knowing that when Travis wanted something, he always got it. When Travis really wanted to be wicked, he knew exactly how to get to her. “We’ll discuss it,”
she told him firmly as she got up.
“Not for long,”
Travis said ominously, a happy grin on his face now.
Ally smiled back, more than ready to bicker with him because it always ended in the most delicious make-up sex.
Finally, Travis closed the door behind his family and faced her, a look of relief on his face.
“Was it so hard?”
Ally asked him tenderly, knowing it had been, and wondering if he wanted to talk about it.
“You were right. I needed to do it,”
he answered in a voice husky with emotion. He pulled her against him, wrapping his arms tightly around her and burying his face in her hair. “Thank you for giving me back my family, Ally.”
His voice was coarse and raw with emotion.
Ally tried to swallow the lump that was forming in her throat as Travis held her tightly, his body quaking. She stroked his hair, wrapping her other arm around his neck, knowing how much all this meant to him. He’d been alone for so very long, having a family but yet never quite being connected to them since the death of his parents. Ally was so grateful that everyone in Travis’s family had tried to convince him that his parents’ deaths weren’t his fault. “I love you,”
she told him gently, continuing to stroke his hair to comfort him.
“I love you so much I think it might kill me,”
Travis said in a muffled voice, still not loosening his grip on her. “You need to marry me soon,”
he added in a more demanding but poignant voice.
“We’ll talk about it,”
Ally said, knowing she’d relent. She felt the same way as Travis did, and she didn’t want to wait.
Travis pulled back and met her gaze, his expression intense. “Like hell we will,”
Travis grunted.
And then he kissed her, and Ally knew exactly who was going to win this argument as she was swept away by the same volatile passion he was feeling, the two of them completely lost in each other.
Two Months Later
Ally knew Travis was on his way, and she whispered her usual countdown.
“Five…
“Four…
“Three…
“Two…
“One…”
She sighed as she watched her handsome husband walk through the door of his office, dressed in one of her favorite dark suits, and shooting her the wickedly gorgeous grin that always made her heart start doing cartwheels inside her chest.
“Good morning, beautiful,”
he said gruffly, his eyes roaming over her possessively.
“Good morning, Mr. Harrison,”
she responded mischievously. “Let me get you some coffee.”
Ally was always willing to go get his coffee when he greeted her like that, which he hadn’t failed to do on any day since they’d returned from Colorado.
Most days, they rode to work together, but Travis had had an early morning meeting, so Ally had driven herself in her new vehicle.
Travis had gotten her a Ferrari F12 as a wedding gift, a surprise that she hadn’t quite recovered from yet, although they’d been married a month ago in a small ceremony at his home.
Even though the wedding had been small, it had been the most beautiful event of her life, the day she was joined with the man she knew she’d love forever and beyond.
Asha, Mia, Maddie, and Kara had all pitched in to get it planned quickly, and they’d had all their family and closest friends at the ceremony and reception, which was everything Ally had ever wanted or dreamed of for a wedding.
Of course, Travis had needed to have the best of everything for the wedding, and had shocked her later with a new F12.
Ally was pretty sure he was still anxious about her driving a fast car, and he’d texted her twice to make sure she’d made it safely to work, reminding her to watch her speed.
If she was honest, she hadn’t been able to resist using a little of the enormous power of the vehicle, but only reasonably so, because she was still a little nervous about driving a car that damn expensive.
Travis had taken her out to his racetrack, but Ally hadn’t yet seen him use the superb racing skills that she knew he was capable of exhibiting when she was in the car.
She teased him about driving like a little old man in some of his fastest cars, but he just grumbled that he wasn’t risking her life by doing suicidal speeds when she was with him.
But she loved the exhilarating feeling of speed when Travis was doing his track runs, even if she knew he drove a hell of a lot faster on them when she wasn’t around.
Ally grabbed them both a cup of coffee and brought them into his office so they could have their morning discussion about business.
She looked at him, his expression now pensive.
“Are you okay?”
Ally asked, concerned.
He’d looked so happy a few minutes ago.
“I have something for you,”
he said slowly, his voice low and serious as he added, “Please don’t get mad.”
Ally quirked a brow at him, wondering if he was referring to some of her lectures about buying her things she didn’t need. After her house had been destroyed, Travis bought, and bought, and bought for her, even when he knew she’d eventually get an insurance settlement to replace the things she really needed. And he hadn’t stopped yet, many of the things he was buying way more than she needed.
“I probably won’t get mad,”
Ally told him patiently, although she always left herself some wiggle room in case he went over the top.
“You might,”
Travis warned her, holding out an envelope to her. “This is for you.”
A little alarmed by the serious expression on his face, she hopped up and took the letter, looking immediately at the return address, recognizing the name immediately. “Why would I be getting something from them?”
she asked quietly, perplexed as she opened the envelope, and then slipped her reading glasses from the top of her head and put them on.
As she started reading the enclosed letter, her knees gave way and she had to sit to complete the rest of the correspondence. “Oh my God. This isn’t real. It’s a hoax.”
It was a notification that the first book in her young adult fantasy series had won one of the most prestigious awards possible for an unpublished manuscript. “I didn’t ever submit to them.”
“I did.”
Travis’s voice was low and anxious. “But it was all you, Ally. None of the judges know who the manuscript belongs to and I swear I didn’t interfere. I just submitted it. What does the letter say?”
Ally’s eyes flew to his face, astonished. “It says I won first place, book of the year for an unpublished manuscript.”
Her hands were trembling as she got up and handed him the letter, watching as he scanned the brief notification.
He grinned up at her. “I knew you’d win.”
If Travis was telling her he hadn’t made this happen, that she had won on her own merit, she knew it was true. If there was one thing Travis didn’t ever do, it was blatantly lie. He might have avoided the truth in the past, but he’d never lie to her about something like this. “You submitted for me?”
Ally said huskily, her voice clogged with tears. Just the fact that Travis thought about doing something like that was amazing. She knew he had faith in her, but this was incredible.
“Are you angry?”
He sounded nervous. “I know I should have asked you first, but I didn’t think you’d do it. And I knew you’d win.”
“I probably wouldn’t have,”
Ally admitted, knowing she’d grown emotionally a great deal since she’d broken off her relationship with Rick. Still, submitting her manuscript for such a prestigious award would have been daunting, and it honestly probably wouldn’t have even occurred to her to do so.
“I wanted you to have official validation that your work is fantastic from people who wouldn’t be biased. People other than me.”
Ally got up and walked around the desk, and threw her arms around his neck. He seized her body immediately, pulling her into his lap.
“I’m not mad,”
she told him tearfully, still so amazed at the strength and thoughtfulness of the man she had married.
“I just want you to be happy, Ally. I know you said you still wanted to stay here and work with me, but I want you to do whatever you want to do, reach for whatever dreams you have. You can finish your MBA, or write more award-winning novels now that everyone in publishing will be wanting to put out your books. I don’t care what it takes to make you happy. I’ll do it,”
Travis said fiercely, his grip tightening around her waist. “As long as you’re always mine.”
“I’m already ecstatically happy, Travis, because you love me.”
She brushed an errant lock of hair from his forehead. “And I don’t want to go back to college for my MBA anymore. I think I was studying business because it was safe, normal. I do want to write, and I want to be with you and make you happy. Those are my only two dreams now. And someday I’d like to have a child.”
“Sweetheart, I’m already happy. And I’m more than willing to do overtime to work on that baby dream,”
he told her enthusiastically.
Ally smiled, knowing if he worked any harder at that, she’d be exhausted. Travis was already insatiable. And really, she loved her job at Harrison now that her husband wasn’t the billionaire boss from Hell anymore. “I’d like to stay, unless you want another assistant. I can write in the evenings and weekends when you’re busy. And you did promise me you’d take me everywhere with you. I can write anywhere.”
“Thank God,”
Travis replied fervently, placing his forehead on her shoulder, relieved. “I doubt I could find anyone else to put up with me, and I wasn’t sure how I’d make it through an entire day without you here. I need you, Ally.”
Ally’s heart clenched, knowing he meant that he needed her in more ways than just an assistant. And she needed him, too. Maybe as the two of them got used to their intense relationship that left them both feeling vulnerable, they’d feel differently. But right now, Ally was exactly where she wanted to be.
“I’d never get another job with such great fringe benefits,”
Ally told him teasingly. “And it would be sad if you started hating your desk again.”
She reached out and stroked a hand over the polished wood.
Travis growled and stood, lifting her onto the desk in front of him. “I think I need a reminder of just how much I love it.”
His expression was wicked as he started unbuttoning her blouse.
“Mr. Harrison, you have a meeting shortly,”
Ally reminded him sternly.
“They can wait. I’m the damn boss,”
he rasped.
Ally reached out and started unbuttoning his shirt, needing to touch his heated skin. “I need to touch you,”
she murmured, her heart so full of love that she was afraid it was going to burst.
“Fuck. Then I’ll probably make it to the meeting on time,”
he said harshly. “You know what happens when you do that.”
“Then kiss me,”
she asked him sweetly.
Travis looked down at her, his eyes dark and swirling with emotion. “I love you, Ally.”
Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the intensity in his eyes as she replied, “I love you.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, abandoning his buttons to sink into Travis’s passionate embrace.
He was still late for his meeting, but when he finally did arrive, he shocked his employees by entering the conference room with an enormous smile on his face. Halfway through the meeting, Travis’s phone blasted a loud, upbeat musical tone. Every face around the conference table was stunned when, instead of being irritated about Ally changing the ringtone on his phone…Travis Harrison actually laughed.
The End