Beauty Shot (Hope Parish Novels Book 5) (12 page)

I was sated, but
still horny for her.

And this was real,
and I might be coming down from that fucking intense orgasm, but just
thinking about it got me hard again. So damned hard.

I put on a new
condom, and pushed back inside her with a groan.

Perfect. She was so
perfect, so worth waiting for, like silk around me This time I took
it slow, which in no way lessened the intensity. I pumped into her
relentlessly, and she clutched me, digging into my skin, pulling my
hair, which I loved.

My God, my dick was
so sensitive, so achingly hard, and when she came again, I just kept
moving my hips, thrusting into her, increasing her pleasure with each
stroke.

I collapsed on my
side when it was over. I kept one arm around her, holding her to me.

“Bloody hell,
are you sure this was your first time?”

“Yeah,”
I said, my voice hoarse and deep. “Hey, where are you going?
I’m not done here. Give me some time.”

“What?”
she squeaked.

I grinned like the
cheeky devil she’d called me. “There are advantages to
fucking a younger man.” I met and held her gaze. “Minnie,”
I whispered her name, rolling on another condom and manhandling her
onto her back, settling my semi-hard dick between her legs, and my
mouth clamped over one of her distended, enticing nipples.

Her eyes popped open
on a groan, her dark lashes lifted, and the tightness in my chest got
worse.

“Fuck me,”
I whispered.

I was going
down—hard. Plummeting out of the sky like a stone. Her eyes
darkened as I sucked hard at her, my aching dick thickening, her
mouth parting when I probed her, her legs restless as they came
around my waist.

“You
show-off,” she breathed while I shoved into her, taking great
pleasure at the catch in her voice.

It wasn’t
going to be enough. Nothing we did would ever be enough. No wonder I
felt a little desperate. I was never going to get enough of her.

Never.

#

Minnie

“Was your
pursuit of me all about losing your virginity?” I snuggled up
all that hot muscle, but I was worried that now that his conquest of
me was over I would be tossed aside. I should be happy about that,
but I wasn’t.

“No, that’s
not what it was about, Minnie. I wanted you to be my first woman. For
it to mean something.”

“Deke, we’re
worlds apart. I’m already working in my career—” I
said, trying to make sure I got all my worries out in the open.
Verity had said to be honest with him.

“What if I was
part of your world? Would that make a difference?”

“I’m not
sure. You’re young. You’ll have other women in your life.
I just don’t want to mess us both up.”

“You’re
projecting. You already have me gone, and we’ve just started a
relationship.”

“We had sex,
Deke.” I was trying to be realistic.

“We have more
than that.”

I looked away, tried
to pull away, but he slipped his arms around me. I felt panicked,
scared, and I didn’t know why. Maybe I knew he was right.

He pulled me across
his body so that I was on top of him, the warmth of him, the feel of
him so right.

“Why don’t
you give me a chance? Stop lumping me up with every other
eighteen-year-old guy in the world and generalizing. I want to be
with
you
.
You make me happy. We have great chemistry, and I’m not just
talking about being in bed together. I never put much stock in my
looks, Minnie. They are only skin deep, like I said. I’m glad
you find me pleasing, but I’m made up of more than skin and
features. Would you want me to give up everything to stay in your
world?”

“No,” I
said softly. “I wouldn’t want you to sacrifice everything
you want for me. But I also am not willing to get involved with
someone who I don’t think will be around even in three months.”

“Who hurt
you?”

I stiffened. “Why
are you asking me that?”

“Because
someone hurt you, and you’re carrying around that baggage
instead of letting it go. It’s keeping you from trusting me,
trusting your own instincts.”

I wasn’t about
to tell him that the only consideration I had was not to become my
mother. I’d gone in the other direction and dated older men,
but never someone I was deeply attached to. Deke was a revelation…and
I realized one more thing, something that made my gut twist up like a
pretzel. He wasn’t so easy to dismiss.

Maybe I was worried
that Deke had the potential to be the love of my life if I let this
continue.

I’d chosen all
my other partners, but it had always been at a superficial level. It
wasn’t that way with Deke. He’d chosen me, and I had been
too weak to refuse.

“I want to see
you again.”

“I don’t
think it’s a good idea.” But no matter how I tried. I
couldn’t move away from him. I suddenly realized I wasn’t
going to be able to get these memories out of my mind.

He pulled me against
him and kissed my mouth so tenderly. I made a soft sound and clutched
at him, overwhelmed. Wanting something that wouldn’t be good
for me. He’d sneaked in beneath my armor somehow, and I felt
helpless to stop the emotion that welled up in me.

“There’s
something here, whether you’ll admit it or not. I’ll
continue with this Bespoke campaign for you, but I’m turning
down any offers I might get for doing this permanently, even from
you. The money is nice, but I always hated being objectified. It’s
not for me.”

“Deke, you
continually impress the hell out of me. Anyone else your age would
drop out of school and take this in a heartbeat.”

“Maybe so. But
I’m just not that guy. Think about seeing me again, Minnie.
We’ll build the trust together, get back whatever you lost. But
you have to be willing to give me a chance. Let me in.

He’s
already in
,
I admitted to myself. How was I ever going to get him out? It hurt,
but I knew if I continued with him it would hurt ten times more.
Wasn’t it better to cut it off now?

“We’ll
figure it out,” he murmured as I closed my eyes and drifted
against him, losing my edge. I kissed his rough face and inhaled his
delicious scent as he stroked his hand over my hair.

#

Emmie

By the time Saturday
rolled around, I was having second thoughts. It wasn’t that I
wasn’t enjoying my time with Travis. Just the opposite, but the
more I got to know him, the more nervous I became.

He showed up at
every morning class with my favorite macchiato, and later we’d
meet for lunch. It was over those lunches that I learned about his
wonderful wholesome life. His parents still married, still in love
after twenty-five years of marriage, a stable home life with a loving
family, a sister and younger brother. He’d gone to school, had
friends, attended his prom. All the trappings of a normal,
well-rounded guy.

I’d
experienced none of that.

But the problem was
I was hooked on him. Adored him. Wanted the kind of life a man like
Travis could promise without having to worry about shadows from the
past. We had such a good time. He was so funny, so darned cute and
attentive. But when he plied me with questions, I sidestepped
them…and I could tell he noticed, although he didn’t
press me.

We were just leaving
campus when I spotted a Lincoln Town Car, a uniformed chauffer
waiting at the rear passenger door.

He waved the driver
away and opened the door for me.

“Why won’t
you tell me where we’re going?”

“It’s a
surprise. But I think you’ll like it.”

“If I’m
with you, Travis, I will like it.”

He blushed, which
was one of the things I adored most about him.

“It’s a
two-hour trip. I will tell you we’re going to Long Island.”

“If this is a
two-hour trip, isn’t that kinda pricey? Too bad as freshmen we
aren’t allowed to drive.”

“I make this
trip at least once a week, twice if I can manage it. I can’t
stay away. So I’m not put out at all. It’s all good.”

“Okay, if
you’re sure.”

“I’m
sure.” He glanced over at me and noted the space between us.
“It wouldn’t hurt my feelings, darlin’, if you
scooted your sweet self closer to me.”

“Are you
hitting on me, cowboy?” I said, scooting over, and he grinned,
putting his arm around me and hugging me close.

As we left the city,
I snuggled up to his solid warmth. The urban jungle was left behind,
its skyscrapers receding as we got on the highway. Travis leaned over
and said, “There’s no scenic route, darlin’, or I
would take it. Just highway, but it will be worth it once we get
there.”

“I’ve
never been out of the city.” I had been too busy trying to
survive and doing whatever it took to stay safe.

“You’ve
never travelled?” He stroked his hand over my hair, then played
with the ends.

“No.”
This was getting into dangerous territory. Territory I didn’t
want to talk about. I was much happier talking about Travis’s
life than my own.

“How about
your family? They never went anywhere?”

“Doesn’t
this highway go to the Hamptons?” I said and he stared at me a
moment before letting it go. “Yes, it goes to the Hamptons, but
the summer rush is long over, and it shouldn’t be crowded at
all.”

I didn’t want
to hear his disappointment that I still wouldn’t open up. I
wasn’t sure I could, and that was when my doubts started all
over again. I didn’t want to hurt Travis. God, it would kill me
to hurt him, but I wasn’t sure he could handle where I came
from, what I’d done, who I had been. It was safer to stay away
from anything that hinted at my past. “This might be highway,
but the fall colors are beautiful.”

“They are.”
He picked up my hand, and I noticed again how large his were. Nails
neatly trimmed, calluses on the palms.

“What are
these from?” I ran my finger over a thick one.

“Ropin’
and ridin’,” he said, running the fingertips of his other
hand over the back of mine. “Yours are so delicate, so soft.
Look like a computer geek’s hands.”

“Hey,” I
said playfully. “You’d better watch out for computer
geeks. We rule the world.”

“I have no
doubt about that, tough cookie.”

Travis had no idea
what tough was really about…well, at least my kind of tough. I
suddenly missed Deke’s presence. He was a good buffer and kept
the personal questions to a minimum. But I was being silly. Without
intimacy, there couldn’t really be trust, which meant the issue
wasn’t about spilling my guts to Travis, but whether or not I
trusted him. “Did you see Deke today?”

He shifted and then
looked out the window. “I did briefly. He’s pretty busy
with the modeling gig and keeping up with his classes. But I think he
likes being close to Minnie.”

“That’s
her name?”

“Yeah. He says
it’s all so dumb. He just mugs for the camera and they take his
picture.”

“What you guys
won’t do to impress a woman.”

“Since I’m
in the process of taking you all the way out here, I reckon I’ve
got no room to talk,” he said smoothly.

I nudged him with an
elbow and he cracked a grin. “Oh, you’re trying to
impress me, huh?”

His blue eyes
twinkled. “No hints.”

I dug in his ribs
and he laughed. “Hey, stop that,” he said with a catch in
his voice, bucking when I dug in again, and I ended up sprawled
across his lap. “Hey, I like this position,” he
whispered.

He dipped down and
kissed me softly.

“Travis,”
I whispered back. “The driver.”

His eyes narrowed
and another grin made me grin back. His eyes danced. “Let him
get his own girl,” he said.

I giggled.

“That was very
close to a schoolgirl giggle.”

“Was not,”
I said, reaching up and pulling his head down.

“Was, too,”
he said before kissing me soundly this time.

The car came to a
stop and I popped up, looked around—and gasped. “A
ranch?” I glanced at Travis, and his smug look made me laugh. I
scrambled out of the car to find two weathered posts holding up a
copper sign with running horses across it that read: Wild Horse
Ranch.

“I keep horses
here. Working horses, so I can ride and rope when I want to. It
wouldn’t be good to get rusty.”

“Horses?”
I said, taking a step back. “Are you expecting me to
ride
?”

“Absolutely.
Come on. You’ll love them.”

The driver settled
in to wait, and Travis led the way to a big weathered clapboard barn.
The pungent odor of manure and the fragrant scent of hay lingered in
the air. A dark-haired man waved to Travis and he waved back. He
entered the barn and the sound of nickering came from one of the
stalls on a row of stalls.

“That’s
Chico. He always knows when I’m in the barn. He’s like a
dog, gets all excited whenever I show up.”

“Exactly how
many horses do you have here?”

“Three. A cow
pony for roping and two riding horses.”

It was dawning on me
that Travis wasn’t exactly poor. Long Island was one of the
most upscale areas in the U.S., and it couldn’t have been
cheap, not just to board horses here, but to actually transport them
from Texas.

“How did you
get them here?”

“Flew them.
It’s tricky business. Something I normally don’t like
doing, but Chico and the ladies normally travel like champs.”

He slowed about
halfway down the row. A large buckskin horse with a black mane had
his head over the stall. In the stall next to him was a chocolate
brown one with a slash of white on its forehead, and then in the next
stall was a beautiful black and white one. I think they called those
pintos. Chico whinnied loudly when he spied Travis. Travis broke into
a wide grin and eagerly approached the animal. I hesitated. The
largest animals I’d ever seen were rats, and I never had any
interest in petting them.