32. Travis
TRAVIS
I ’d been conscious for a while now, but I wished I wasn’t.
My head felt like little men were inside beating the interior of my skull with hammers.
My jailers hadn’t offered me any food, but I knew if I tried to eat it would come right back up.
I was in some sort of DIY cell in the middle of a large shed.
There were two men there with me. They’d been playing on their phones most of the afternoon.
The puppy was whining. I was sure she was hungry. She’d already pissed in the corner of our cell, but it didn’t smell nearly as bad as the two men who watched me.
I tensed when I heard cars pull up outside, then the rumble of voices.
The two men stood. After one of them checked that the cell door was secure, they stepped outside.
Gunfire erupted as soon as they exited. It sounded like a hundred men were firing at once.
The puppy pressed herself against me and whimpered.
I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I had no idea what was happening.
Was Dax out there? Were the drug runners fighting with him and his family?
If so, I had to believe the Theriots would win.
Please don’t let Dax get hurt, I prayed.
A few moments later, the shooting stopped.
“What the hell have you done?” a man yelled. Was that Sheriff Winston? Did that mean?—
The door to the shack slammed open, and Dax rushed in. The moment I saw him, I started to cry with relief.
“Travis! Are you all right?” I nodded, unable to speak.
Dax rattled the cell door. I thought he was going to pull it right off its hinges, but Ambrose appeared behind him. “Get back. I’ve got the key.”
Dax growled and took the key from him.
“They gave you a dog?” Ambrose asked.
The puppy was hiding behind me and whining.
The need to reassure her helped me find my voice.
“It’s okay. They won’t hurt you.” I faced Dax and Ambrose again as Dax swung the door open.
“They used the puppy to lure me outside.
I was petting her and trying to figure out where she belonged when they shot me with a tranquilizer dart. “
“Fuck. That makes me want to go out there and shoot them all over again,” Ambrose said.
Dax snorted. “Be my guest.”
He held out his hand for the puppy to sniff, then made sure she stayed away while he cut the bonds on my ankles and wrists.
“I thought…” I had to take a breath before I could continue. “I thought you’d be angry with me that I went outside.” I pulled the puppy against me, and she started licking my face.
“No. Never. You went into the yard. You should have been safe, but they’d killed the guard I had stationed in the alley.”
Guards. Where were the ones who’d been watching over me? “Where are the men that were here?”
“LePlatt is dead. They’re all dead.”
“But we were supposed to?—”
“Plans changed when they took you. Nobody hurts you and lives.”
The puppy barked then as if to agree, and Dax scratched her behind the ears. She’d clearly gotten the message that Dax was a safe person.
“Can we keep her? Please.”
Dax cupped my face, brushing away my tears with his thumbs. “Travis, you can have anything. You can run a whole dog rescue if you want. I’m just thankful you’re here and alive and uninjured. I should never have left you.”
“Dax, it’s not your fault.”
“If I were you,” Ambrose said, “I’d take his offer and start naming your price.”
Dax flipped Ambrose off, then he scooped me and the puppy up in his arms.
“You should be checked out by a doctor.”
“There’s nothing wrong with me. I just feel a little bit hungover from the tranquilizer. Otherwise, I’m just scraped and sore from trying to get free. That’s all.”
Dax huffed. “I want to be sure.”
“I just want you to take me home as soon as you can. I know there’s probably?—”
“There’s nothing he needs to do here,” Ambrose said. He clapped a hand on Dax’s shoulder. “Take him home. I’ll deal with Winston. Remy and Lance can handle everything else.”
I didn’t want to take him away from family business. “If you need?—”
“He’ll be useless if he stays. He needs to be with you now.”
Dax nodded. “He’s right.”
“Damn, I don’t hear that often.”
“You’re too busy saying it yourself.”
Ambrose flipped him off.
“Thank you,” I said to Ambrose, and he grinned.
“Anytime.”
Once we were outside, Dax reluctantly set me down so he could talk to his cousins, but he kept his arm around me.
We gave them a brief explanation of what had happened to me, and I tried to keep from looking at the corpses on the ground.
“Can I go see if the puppy needs to?—”
Dax’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, you’re way too pale.”
“Get him out of here,” Remington ordered. “We’ve got this.”
We let the puppy run around by Dax’s SUV long enough to do her business. Then I picked her up and kept her on my lap for the duration of the ride back to Dax’s house.
Dax insisted I tell him everything that had happened to me after he’d left me that morning.
Recounting the day was easier with a puppy on my lap.
I petted her rhythmically as I talked. When I was done, I asked Dax to explain how he’d found me.
He was much too vague, but I knew he didn’t want to share too many gruesome details.
Dax made one stop on the way home—a pet store. He ran in for a few basic supplies.
When we got home, the puppy gobbled down some food and then flopped onto her new bed and fell asleep instantly. Dax took my hand and led me quietly to the bedroom.
I was too tired to stand, so I sat on the edge of the bed, and Dax knelt in front of me.
I opened my legs, encouraging him to come closer.
He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his face against me.
I slipped my hands into his hair and bent to kiss the top of his head.
We stayed like that for several moments.
When he finally pulled away, he looked up at me and said, “You anchor me, Travis. You make me feel like I can stay in control. I want to use all my skills to keep you safe and give you everything you want.”
“Dax, when I’m with you, I feel seen. I feel like someone cares about me for who I am.”
“I love you, baby.”
“I love you too, and I…”
“Want me to fuck you until you don’t know what year it is. I’m hoping that’s what you’re about to say because I can’t wait much longer. From the moment I saw you in that damn cell, I needed to touch you, to claim you, to prove we were both here and alive and together.”
Travis smiled. “That’s exactly what I need.”
Dax rose, pulled me to my feet, and undressed me. Unlike before, he took his time, caressing me, savoring me. I’d never felt more loved. When I was naked, he stripped off his own clothes then lifted me and laid me on my back on the bed.
I held my arms up, reaching for him. “Come here. I need you inside me.”
He held up a finger as he walked around the side of the bed. “We’re using real lube this time.”
I laughed and waited impatiently for him to find what we needed, settle between my legs, and stretch out over me.
“Kiss me,” I demanded.
He brushed his lips over mine, then slowly explored my mouth, but soon the kiss grew harder, needier. We both worked our hips, rubbing our cocks together. It felt so good to be with him like that, our bodies pressed together, our desire running so hot all we could do was rut against each other.
“Need you so much,” he murmured against my neck.
“Me too. Need you.”
He reached between us, taking both our cocks in one hand. He stroked us, and I groaned, arching up and begging for more.
He had me so damn close to the edge before he stopped, and I whimpered when he let go.
“I want to make you come in every possible way. I want to keep you in this bed for days. I don’t want to do anything but pleasure you and hold you.”
I smiled. “That sounds good, but I have a feeling Beau will expect me at work.”
“There’s no need for you to work. I can give you everything you desire.”
I shook my head. “I’m not just going to live off you.”
Dax frowned, but he didn’t protest. “All right. I won’t insist on that, but you are going to live with me.”
“You want me to move in?”
Dax shook his head. “You are moving in,” he said. “It’s not optional.”
“So fucking bossy.”
He traced the line of my jaw. “You love it.”
“Maybe.”
He reached for the lube, slicked himself up, and then he was pressing against my ass. “I’m going to fill you so full all you’ll be able to think about is me.”
“You’re already all I think about.”
“I love you.”
I tried to say the words back, but he pushed into me, and I gasped instead. I still wasn’t used to the size of him, but that didn’t matter. He felt so good inside me I didn’t mind the burn. I wanted all of him, every inch.
“More,” I demanded.
Dax pulled out, slowly tormenting me. Then he drove back in, giving me everything I wanted. He fucked me hard and fast, and I met every stroke. By the time I cried out his name as cum shot from my dick, we were both slick with sweat and gasping for breath.
Before my climax had ended, he buried himself deep, and I felt him spilling inside me. When he’d emptied himself, he collapsed onto me, and I wrapped my arms and legs around him.
Minutes passed before either of us could move or speak. Finally, I forced myself to open my eyes and come back to the present moment. “You did it.”
Dax propped himself up on his elbows. “What did I do?”
“You fucked me so hard you made me forget what year it is, what day it is, what time it is. I’m not sure I can think at all.”
He grinned. “That’s exactly how it should be right now, baby. You don’t need to think. All you need to do is feel.”
I took a slow, deep breath. “I feel fantastic. Better than I have in years. Maybe ever.”
He smiled. “So do I. You do that to me. You make me feel things I didn’t think I could.”
“I never thought a man would love me, actually love me. I thought that I either had to be alone or be nothing more than an accessory.”
“Those fucking bastards never deserved a man like you. You should be treasured, taken care of, protected, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do for you.”
“I thought I didn’t want that. I thought I needed to be on my own to protect myself, and I think I did for a while, but now I want to be yours. I want to move in with you. I want you to be my protector.”
“And I want to give you the world.”
“I don’t need that much, but maybe a trip to see some more of the world would be nice. I think I’m ready for that now.”
“Then we’ll plan a vacation as soon as possible. We can talk about that later.”
“Do you have plans for right now?” Surely he wasn’t ready for round two yet.
A yip and a scratch at the door interrupted him. “I think someone has plans for us.”
“Let her in. I’m sure she’s scared. I don’t know where she came from or how those assholes found her, but I want her to know she safe here.”
I gasped when Dax sat back and his softening cock slid from my body.
“You okay?”
“Yes, just sore in the best kind of way.”
“Good.” He opened the door and the puppy bounded in. “You’re going to have to think of a name for her.”
“I already have. I think we should name her Hope because that’s what you gave me.”
Dax smiled, that relaxed, genuine smile I loved so much, the one I remembered from all those years ago when I first had a crush on him. “I think that’s perfect.”
He let Hope into the room, and she joined us on the bed. “What will we do with her if we take a trip? She’s too young to leave anytime soon.”
“That’s when having close family comes in handy. Maybe we can get Ambrose to watch her.”
“I don’t want him taking her out to the bayou. An alligator could snap her up in a second.”
“This might be a good chance to lure him back to the city. I could ask him to stay here.”
“I doubt he’d say yes, but it’s worth a try.”
“I do have plans for us,” Dax said.
I looked down at the puppy. She was rolling on her back and making adorable, contented sounds. “Let’s not kick her out yet.”
“Not those kind of plans. We both need food, and we need to get your things from the apartment at the shop.”
“You want me to move in today?”
“You’ve basically been living here already, and I’m not spending another night apart from you.”
“You took care of my enemies. I should be safe on my own.”
“Your safest with me, and that’s where you’re going to stay.”
I grinned. “That’s where I want to stay.”
Dax pulled me to him for a gentle kiss, and Hope snuggled her way between us. I had a family again. How incredible was that? My brother and I had reconciled, and I was starting my own family unit with Dax and Hope. “I really thought I was going to spend the rest of my life alone.”
“Then it’s a good thing Beau was taken prisoner because we clearly needed to meet each other again.”
“It’s the best thing that could’ve happened to me.”
Dax kissed the top of my head. “You give me hope too, you know.”
“That’s exactly what I want to do. For the rest of my life.”
Dax kissed me then, and Hope jumped up and down giving us both kisses too. I was happy, truly happy, and for once, I believed it would last.