Beauty Shot (Hope Parish Novels Book 5) (8 page)

In the morning, I
raced to the shower as soon as the alarm went off and I did a quick
job of it. I really wanted to be out of there before Deke got up. I’d
already decided that today I would request another room. I couldn’t
watch him and Emmie together. It was beyond me. Once again I was
reminded that I would lose out to more social guys. I was quiet. Too
quiet, except with Emmie it was easy to talk to her…until I
realized I was talking to her, and then I got tongue-tied.

The shitty thing
about it was I really liked Deke. I had originally classified him as
one of those dicks who liked to make fun of me. But he’d turned
out to be great, and we hit it off. I thought we would be best
friends. Now, with Emmie between us, that wasn’t possible.

I slipped back into
the room just as Deke was getting out of bed. It was early for him
and I knew he didn’t have a class.

“Hey, Travis.”

I grunted at him and
pulled the towel from around my waist and dried the rest of the way
off.

“Hey, you
guys,” Emmie’s voice came from the doorway, and she was
standing there with a bag and a tray of coffee.

I froze completely,
naked as a jaybird. It was like a catastrophe that can’t be
controlled, kind of like rolling out in slowmo and fast forward at
the same time. She turned to look at me with a smile on her face. It
froze there as she stared at me in all my bare-assed glory.

I started to reach
for the towel, but our eyes met and I saw appreciation in hers, an
expression I had never seen there before. No sarcastic quips, no
biting, witty comments, not even a breath seemed to stir her as she
stared at me. I got hard, right then and there, as her eyes literally
caressed me from my face down my torso, lingering on my abs and then,
fuck, my dick. Then her eyes popped back up to my face and she backed
up, still totally speechless. A state I had never witnessed before.

Her breath rushed
out and she bobbled the coffee. Deke rushed towards her just in time
to catch the tray, just barely. Covering her face, she backed out and
slammed the door behind her.

Deke started
laughing. He set down the tray and laughed harder. I grabbed my
underwear and slipped into it, then my jeans. He was still lying on
the bed laughing.

“Dammit. Did
you see the look on her face?”

“I’m
glad you find this so amusing, you jackass.”

Deke sat up wiping
his eyes. “I bet she knocks from now on.”

“I’m
sure she would prefer seeing you in your altogether.”

All humor drained
from his face and he turned serious eyes on me. “What?”

“You know what
I’m talking about. Don’t pretend you don’t.”

“What are you
talking about? She couldn’t take her eyes off you. You’re
a stud, son.”

“Right.”

Deke stood up, and I
was getting madder by the minute, with despair wrapping tighter
around my heart like a vise.

“Travis…”
Deke looked toward the door then at me. “You think I have a
thing for Emmie?”

“And she has
one for you.”

“What?”
He walked up to me. “You’re crazy. That’s not
true.”

“Don’t
try to spare my feelings. It is true.” I turned away, but he
grabbed my shoulder and all my rage came boiling up. I swung and hit
him right on the cheekbone. He flew back, hit the night table and
went down.

I just stared at
him, sprawled in a heap, and felt sick to my stomach. There was a
knock and then Emmie peeked in. She saw Deke on the floor and gasped.

“What the heck
happened?”

She ran over to him
and cradled his head in her lap. I was horrified, agonized to see how
much she cared for him. I’d never hit another human being in my
life, and Deke was one of the best friends I’d ever had.

I ran my hand over
my hair. “Geezus, Deke…Emmie.” I couldn’t
face them, so I grabbed my hat and bolted.

#

Emmie

“Deke? Are you
all right?” He groaned, and I helped him into a sitting
position.

“Yes. Dammit!
This has gotten out of hand. Don’t blame Travis.”

“Travis
hit
you? He knocked you down?” Violence had been part of my other
life, the constant danger, and always the chance of getting caught. I
didn’t know if I could handle it anymore. I wanted a different
life, away from all that. I could barely believe Travis had hurt
Deke. They had seemed so close. “Why did he hit you?”

He rubbed at the red
spot on his cheekbone. He looked at me. “He, uh, has a thing
for you.”

My jaw dropped. The
memory of him naked was seared into my retinas. God, the way that man
was built on the outside.
Damn
.
And, his man parts were…impressive.

That’s why
he’d gotten hard while I was staring at him. Because of me. I
couldn’t forget the way he was built on the inside, too. Sweet,
funny, gentle, smart. Gorgeous, normal, amazing Travis Blackwell
liked
me? That pathetic hope in my heart expanded from one heartbeat to
another to full blown desire. “No….he does?
W-what…Ohmigod.”

“He thinks you
have the hots for me.”

I know I must have
stared at him blankly. Then it dawned on my shocked mind. “Ohhhhh,
that’s why he hit you.”

He nodded and looked
at me expectantly, but when I didn’t move, he said, “Emmie,
he’s in agony. Go after him.
Now.
I’m fine.” He pushed at me and I let him go.

Springing up from
the floor, I dashed out of their dorm room and headed for the stairs
so I wouldn’t have to stand around waiting for the elevator. I
knew where Travis’s first class was, and if I had to, I’d
go right in there and make him come out and talk to me.

By the time I got to
the lobby, I was running full out. I hit the doors of the John Jakes
dorm and collided with a solid mass of muscle who stumbled back, arms
going around me to steady me. After I regained my balance, I looked
up into Travis’s unhappy and apologetic cobalt blue eyes. I
could almost feel guilt and pain radiating off him.

He didn’t let
me go, but just stood there. Finally he said, “I was coming
back. To explain. Emmie…I—”

“I don’t
have a thing for Deke. We’re just friends,” I blurted
out. “I like you, too,” I said in a rush. “That’s
not exactly true. I’m crazy about you, but Travis—”

“You are?”
he said, relief and wonder in the deep voice rumbling in his chest.
He drew me inside and into a secluded alcove.

“I’m not
very good with girls, Emmie. As usual, I’ve misinterpreted the
whole thing. Deke must think I’m an idiot.”

“You are an
idiot,” I said before I could stop myself. If only he’d
told me. “But he completely understands. He was the one who
sent me after you.”

“I should have
said something to you, but I didn’t want to horn in on Deke’s
territory. But I got worried that he’d hurt you, and it got all
muddled up in my stupid mind. I was jealous.”

“You’re
not stupid. It was just a misunderstanding.”

His face softened,
and I didn’t think I would ever get tired of watching emotions
move across his features or ignite in his eyes. As soon as I thought
it, I saw an expression I’d never seen before. He was going to
kiss me. My breath caught with anticipation. I had dreamed about
kissing him for so long, ever since I’d seen him and his
perfectly beautiful mouth.

But I’d held
back, and even though a kiss was about to happen, and there was no
way I would refuse him, I was still worried. Travis didn’t
really know me. He knew the funny, often sarcastic Emmie who hid
everything behind a layer of Goth attitude.

He didn’t know
the real me. I blanched to think how he would react, he was so
white-bread American and I so…wasn’t.

He opened an
emotional floodgate, and the shame, fear, and regret of my past
washed up against me, littered with all my barely-concealed
frustrations and worries. This is one of the reasons I hadn’t
given into my attraction, but after Deke spilled the beans and Travis
had gotten so upset, I couldn’t hide it from him anymore.

“I should have
just told you, but I’m so shy around women…and just
thinking you might reject me…was daunting,” he said,
bringing his hand up and smoothing his fingers along the curve of my
jaw, preparing me for what was going to happen before he lowered his
head and touched his mouth to mine.

When that gorgeous
mouth fused to my lips, I let out a soft gasp, and he moaned
oh-so-softly in the back of his throat. I lifted my hand to touch his
waist, needing an anchor in this perfectly, purely sensual and
physical act of showing Travis just how crazy I was about him.

His lips were as
soft as they looked. When he opened his mouth, I couldn’t
resist slipping my tongue in to experience more. He tasted exciting,
so freaking male, so damned delicious. It was amazing kissing him.

He turned me deeper
into the kiss, pressing me back against the wall. I melted and, for a
woman who had to keep her guard up constantly, it was a true
revelation. I was safe with Travis. I knew it instinctually. He would
protect me with everything he had. I shivered at the powerful feeling
as it twisted me up and changed me. I slipped my hand from his waist
up the powerful length of his abdomen, over those heavy chest muscles
to the back of his neck.

His hair was a silky
seduction against my skin. He cupped my face in both of his big
hands, sliding his thumbs over my cheekbones, digging into my hair as
he slowly intensified his assault on my mouth, delving deeper with
long, lazy strokes of his tongue, and I could feel his response in
the subtle tightening of his body.

Oh,
shit
.
My fantasies had nothing on reality. I had never wanted a man so much
before. Never.

#

Travis

I hadn’t
expected such a soft giving way, such surrender, and it went straight
to my dick in a wave of pleasure so intense I groaned.

But I didn’t
want this to be about sex. Emmie meant more than that to me. More
than any girl I had known, and I didn’t want to blow it by
rushing the physical. I felt weak when she wrapped both arms around
my neck and deepened the kiss even more, pressing what I suddenly
discovered were incredible curves against my body. Those baggy
clothes had hidden a luscious figure, and I wanted to mold my hands
over every inch of her.

Which was funny,
because I’d spent a lot of time thinking about getting inside
girls and had glossed over the kissing part. Well, turned out kissing
was damn fine too, more than fine.

Kissing was actually
the secret of life. I was sure of it. If we hadn’t been in an
alcove of the busy entrance to John Jay dorm, and if Deke wasn’t
in our room right now, I would kiss her all day, pushing us both a
little closer to the edge. Yeah, circumstances sucked right now, or
I’d give into the urge to press my hips against hers, pinning
her more solidly to the wall, and I would have kept kissing her—kept
kissing her until she was too hot to stop.

Even the thought of
it made me harder.

Oh, great. I
stopped, right then, right there. Stopped, and for a few seconds
didn’t move, not an inch, just tried to catch my breath and
locate my brains.

She didn’t
move either, just stood with her mouth on mine, her breathing ragged,
her body trembling—and I knew we were going to make love. For
real, real physically, real soon.

She’d kissed
me like she was drowning and I was the rope that could save her. And
once was not going to be enough, not when everything I’d ever
dreamed of shattered in the reality of having her in my arms with her
mouth hot on mine, her body moving against mine, all curves and
softness and need.

The need had
surprised me, but I’d felt it as surely as I felt her tongue
slide along the length of mine, as surely as I felt her hand
clutching my waist. I had a feeling she was just as surprised by her
reaction as I’d been.

Gently, because I
couldn’t resist, I kissed her one more time, brushing my mouth
across hers in a light caress, more of a see you later than a howdy,
trying to take us both down one level from being ready to crawl
inside each other’s pants. Then I eased back a bit.

It didn’t
work. Looking down at her, her face flushed, her mouth wet, feeling
her breasts rise and fall against my chest with every breath, I still
wanted to get inside her pants. I dipped back down for another taste,
then one more, before I was actually able to let her go and retreat
half a step.

Her eyes fluttered
open, her gaze slowly clearing from a slumberous shade of confusion
to a thunderstruck, WTF gray. A wash of color rose in her cheeks as
she stared at me, suddenly wide-eyed.

“Ohmigod.”

I’d second
that.

“I’ve
got to go,” I said, although her arms were still wrapped
tightly around me, my thumbs still stroking the soft skin of her
cheeks. “I’ve got class.” My thumb slipped down to
caress her throat.

“Of course,”
she said. The color in her face deepened, but her gaze didn’t
waver from mine, not for an instant. She was mesmerized as I was, her
pulse racing beneath my hand.

God save me.

“I want a
date,” I said, the words were out, husky and heartfelt, before
I had time to think. I wanted to get close to her, learn more about
her.

“J-just one?”
she asked, and it was the first time I’d ever heard her sound
tentative.

I relaxed my arms.
There was no need to push. She’d melted for me with a kiss. I
could take it from here—take it all the way home. I could feel
the grin curving my mouth. I was going to like chasing her just fine,
little Miss Smarty Pants, with her baggy clothes and smarts and
completely wild kisses.

I laughed softly.
“We can start with that.”

She laughed, too, as
we reluctantly stepped apart.