Texas Heat (Stubborn Texas Siblings Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter 9

The next morning, Travis woke up to find the bed beside
him empty and he wondered at the equally empty feeling in
his chest that accompanied the realization that she’d left
him without saying anything. He frowned in response and
got out of bed, tugging a fresh pair of underwear and pants
on before making his way down the hall in search of
Laurie. His mother would expect them to appear at the
breakfast table together. He had to work hard to convince
himself that it had nothing to do with the fact that he
wanted to see her.

He found her in the kitchen, cooking over the stove and
talking in an animated voice to his mother. His heart leapt
in response and he wondered at the warm fuzzy feeling that
he was experiencing as his gaze swept over her face. His
legs felt like cooked noodles as he made his way over to the
stove and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing a
hot kiss to the side of her neck.

“Morning, beautiful. I missed you when I woke up to find
you’d left me,” he murmured honestly; not caring that his
voice was loud enough that his mother could hear him. He
had wanted her to believe them to be a happily married
couple anyway. If he was able to be honest with Laurie and
convince his mom that he was hopelessly besotted with the
woman she believed was his wife, Travis could only see the
good in that.

Laurie forgot all about the food she’
d been cooking and
slumped against him, lifting her face, moaning as he kissed
her with greedy lips.

Travis had meant to keep the kiss mellow and calm, but the
way Laurie had all but caught fire in his arms, he couldn’t
seem to remember much of anything other than the fact that
the woman in his arms had blown his mind the night before
and that he very much wanted it to happen again… and
again and again.

“I’m beginning to understand why I hadn’t heard about
your wedding before,” his mother said, laughing so hard
she began to cough. “The two of you are so wrapped up in
each other; you lose complete ability to recall much of
anything else… or anyone else for that matter. Believe me,
I’m pleased to see my son happy with the woman he’s
chosen… but perhaps, you could save the X-rated stuff
until you’re behind closed doors?” she added when Travis
moved his hand under Laurie’s shirt to fondle her breast.

He leaned his forehead against hers and sighed as he
removed his hand from her shirt. “Sorry, Ma. I did warn
you… We’re still in our honeymoon faze. You’ve done
nothing but pester me to settle down with a woman for as
long as I can recall. I’ve finally done it, and now you want
to complain. You can’t have it both ways, Ma.”

Laurie was still breathing hard and was struggling to focus
on anything outside of the man who was still holding her in
his arms. “Don’t give your Mom such a hard time, Trav,”
she scolded, cringing at the husky tone that the words had
come out in. “She cares about you…”

“As I’m sure your
brothers care about you. Are you saying
that you condone their interference in your life?” he asked,
looking down into her face and ignoring his mother all
together.

“That’s not fair,” she said, stepping backwards away from
him, wrapping her arms around her body in a comforting
gesture. “My brothers interfere in every single aspect of my
life and scare anyone and everyone that I enjoy in my life
away. Your mom just wants to see you happy. She’s not
trying to control your life. Can’t you see the difference?”

“I am happy” he told her huskily. “Happier than I’ve ever
dreamed of being… and it is all because of you. Not her.”
His mother cleared her throat loudly. “I’m right here, you
know…”

“And I’m going to step outside for some fresh air,” Laurie
said, wringing her hands. “I want to check under the hood
of the car and make sure everything is still looking good.”

Travis started to argue but bit his tongue when he saw the
stunned look on his mother’s face at Laurie’s mention of
looking at the car. After the door slammed shut behind
Laurie, he looked back over at his mother and rubbed his
hand over the back of his neck.

“My wife is a mechanic,” he explained lamely. “Digging
into an engine soothes her when she’s upset.”
“Perhaps you should go to her,” his mother suggested,
looking towards the doorway where Laurie had
disappeared.

Travis nodded his head and ran down the hall and outside.
He stilled when he saw Laurie leaning over the engine of
his car with her arms deep in the engine. That strange
swelling in his chest hit him again and he lifted his big
hand to touch the spot over his heart in response. There was
no denying the response Laurie always spurred inside of
him; the only thing was that he was scared to death of what
it might mean.

“Laurie?” he asked, walking up behind her and wrapping
his arms around her waist. When she hummed with
pleasure, he brushed a kiss against the side of her neck.

Her voice came out in a husky sigh when she finally found
it to speak. “Trav… please…”

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you with my Ma,” he told her,
moving his mouth to her shoulder blade to plant a kiss
there.

Laurie groaned loudly. “I knew going in that we’d have to
make her believe we were newlyweds… I just never
expected the guilt that came with the lies. I also never
thought I’d end up feeling…” she stopped talking in the
middle of the sentence as the words turned into a large
lump in her throat.

“I care about you a lot more than I’d intended too,” Travis
admitted pulling her body tighter against his so that she
could feel his erection.
As he said it, he realized the truth behind the words and felt
emotion bubble up deep within him. He lowered his head
and kissed her brow. “The car’s fine, Laurie… Come back
inside,” he pleaded quietly.

“I couldn’t possibly face your mom right now,” she argued
softly; sighing lustily when he put his knee between her
legs and pushed them apart so he could settle his body
between them.

“Ma likes you,” he told her huskily, pressing his body
eagerly against hers.

“The feeling is completely mutual,” Laurie admitted,
feeling her knees go weak when his hand settled at her
waist.

“I can’t tell you what it means to me to have her love my
wife so much,” he told her honestly, pressing another
heated kiss to her neck.

“But I’m not really your wife,” she argued; her voice
shaking as he reached up to play with her breasts.
“Travis…” she moaned, feeling needy as his fingers
tweaked her hardened nipples.

“You could be,”
he said, his voice cracking as he said the
words. “How about it, Laurie? Marry me for real… Be my
wife,” he pleaded quietly, moving his hand between her
legs to rub over her moistened core.

“My brothers would have a conniption fit,” she argued
softly. “If Jeff wouldn’t kill you, you can bet Eric would.”
“I’m not afraid of your brothers,” Travis declared bravely.

“Well, you should be. If they even got wind that we’d slept
together, you’d be in danger. If we were to run off together
and actually get married, I’d end up a widow before the
year’s end.”

“You’re exaggerating,” he teased, nibbling on her ear.
“No… I’m not,” she argued. “I need some space. I can’t
think about this right now.”

“Promise me you’ll
consider it,” he demanded. “I’m quite
sure I’ll never get enough of you, and that’s a dilemma I
never encountered before. That’s not going to change
anytime soon if ever. It would make Ma happy, and the
idea of walking away from you and what we share makes
me itch. I’d be miserable. The only thing I can come up
with as a solution is to marry you for real.”

“Well, there’s one thing you haven’t considered… Texas is
my home. My whole family is there… my business is there.
I can’t just up and move that far away from my brothers.
Even if my brothers could eventually get over my suddenly
getting married behind their backs, they would never
understand my leaving them that far behind. Not in a
million years.”

“Couldn’t we compromise?” he asked, groaning. “Settle
somewhere halfway between my home and yours?”

“Oh, sure… that would work,” she said sarcastically. “You
leave your business and I leave mine, settling somewhere
away from all of our family members where we have to
start completely over from scratch. Makes total sense…
why, I have no idea why I didn’t think of that sooner.”

Travis stepped away from her and ran his hand over his
hair in agitation, messing it up in the process. “Think on it,”
he said quietly. “Go ahead and spend a little time here with
the car. I’m going to go sit on the porch in the recliner for a
bit. Let me know when you’ve reached a decision,” he said
turning away from her. He stopped mid-step and turned just
his head to look back at her. “Just promise me you won’t
rush to make a choice. I care about you a great deal and I
don’t want to lose you or what we’ve found together.”

Laurie stood motionless as she watched his big body
lumber away from her with his head hung low in despair. A
lump of emotion formed in her throat as her eyes moved to
the tattoo on his arm. The big heart with his mother’s name
surrounded by thorns and roses made her soften towards
him even more than she had when he’d held her in his
arms, pressing his body urgently against her own. Travis
had a heart as big as all of Texas, and she knew that if he
fell in love with her, he would never let her down. A love
like that was so enticing… but so frightening at the same
time. She was torn as she thought of her options.

The last thing she’d expected when she’d set out on this
trip with Travis was a real proposal… Or the feelings he’d
unearthed in her. She knew she had a history of making bad
choices when it came to men. Her brothers were both quick
to point that out to her on a regular basis. Before making a
permanent decision like marriage, she had to take some
serious time to really think it over. This wasn’t the time to
be impulsive. She had to think about more than the way her
blood heated every time she even thought about the big
sexy man who had claimed both her body and her heart.

As he settled his big body into the lounge chair, Laurie
turned her attention back to the car. At least this was
something she knew how to deal with; unlike her growing
feelings for the man who’d just asked her to be his wife.
She had some serious soul searching to do, and she knew
her only hope of concentrating on the decision she had to
make, was burying herself in her work.

Chapter 10

Laurie’s cell phone rang and she sighed heavily. For the
last several days, she’d been enjoying the pretense of being
Travis’s wife. His mother was a loving gentle woman with
a big heart who clearly just wanted to see her son happily
settled down. The fact that he’d jumped on board with her
plans had gone a long way in her sunny outlook on life.
She’d had her fair share of moments that had concerned
both Travis and Laurie as far as her health went, but they’d
known going in that the older woman was at death’s door.

Travis had been attentive, seductive and insistent with her
and the way he touched her every chance he got had made
her giddy. She’d spent a lot of time thinking about his
proposal and she’d wavered back and forth between
wanting to leap first and worry about the consequences
after the fact, and listening to that tiny voice inside her head
that said that it was an epically bad idea.

“Hello?” she said into the phone as she walked out onto the
front porch for privacy. If she was right and one of her
brothers were checking up on her, she didn’t want Travis’s
mom to overhear the lies she’d have to tell her siblings to
cover for what she was really up to. The one thing she
knew she could never do was tell them the truth. They’d
both be there in her face in a matter of hours, calling her a
fool and dragging her back home by her hair. That wasn’t
an option. She wasn’t ready to walk away from Travis yet,
and thinking about what that might mean scared her, but it
was the God’s honest truth.

“Where the Hell are you?” Eric barked in her ear. Laurie
could hear his children in the background and Jeff
grumbling a quiet apology on the other line. She sighed
heavily and made a fist around the deck railing.

“I told Jeff before I left,” she answered evasively. “I just
had to get away for a few weeks. Honestly, I’m fine you
guys.”

“Don’t give me that bull,” Eric scolded coldly. “I’m not
stupid little sister. I know you well enough by now… you
don’t leave your shop for anybody or anything unless it
involves another stupid choice with a man who has no
intention of making an honest woman out of you.”

Laurie had to bite back the words of argument that leapt to
her lips. She wanted to throw it in her brothers’ faces that
the man she’d left with had asked her to marry him, but she
knew if she did that, it would only open a can of worms
that she had no desire to deal with just yet.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response,” she
said instead. “Think about when Madeline first came into
your life, big brother. Did you see me trying to interfere or
warn you away from her because of your past? No. You
didn’t,” she answered for him when he only grunted in
response.
“Sooner or later, you are going to have to accept the fact
that I’m a fully grown woman, perfectly capable of making
my own decisions for my life. I’m not saying that your
accusation is true, but
IF
it was, it wouldn’t be any of your
business. You can tell Jeff that our deal is off and you
should know that when he was out of town, he was looking
for the surliest bull he could find to practice on so to take
his hits in order to be ready for rodeo season when it comes
around. Do with that information what you like.”

Having said that, she hung up without giving her brother a
chance to respond. Not wanting to take a chance on them
calling her right back, she flipped the phone to the off
position and headed back into the house to hang out with
Travis and his mom. After her confrontation with her
brothers, it would serve them right if she did just run away
and get married behind their backs.

If she wasn’t so attach
ed to the idea of living in her home
town despite her brother’s interfering ways, she might have
just gone ahead and thrown caution to the wind and done it,
too. Lord knows it would have served her interfering
brothers right. That was no reason to permanently tie her
life to a man’s though. Not any more than the fact that they
had beyond incredible chemistry and out of this world sex
that led to mind-blowing orgasms.

It was what she was starting to feel for Travis in the depths
of her very soul that had Laurie wavering the most. If only
she was certain of his feelings for her, her decision would
be a lot easier to make. The word love had yet to come up
out of his mother’s earshot, and she had no idea if he meant
it when he said it to her in front of his mother or if it was all
for the older woman’s benefit. For that reason, she had
been hesitant to say the words back to him, even in front of
his mother. She had gone out of her way to try to show him
in every way she could possibly think of though. That had
to account for something.

She found Travis sitting with his mom in the living room,
sipping a cup of coffee. He stood when she entered the
room and went over to her side, tugging her into his arms
and placing a hot kiss on her mouth, instantly making her
forget all about the anger her brothers had stirred within
her. This man was very good at doing that… making the
rest of the world just fade away to nothingness with a
simple touch.

Laurie slumped against him as he swept his hands up over
her back to tangle in her hair as he ravaged her mouth. Her
knees went weak and her nipples puckered into hard peaks
against his chest the longer the kiss went on.

When the kiss finally broke, they were both breathing
heavily and his voice shook with desire as he admitted that
he’d missed her while she was outside and asked if
everything was alright back at home with her family. How
he’d known the call had been from her brothers, she had no
clue, but she wasn’t about to question it. They’d grown
very close in an extremely short amount of time. It made
sense in an odd way that he could read her so easily.

“As usual, my big brother was in one of his moods,” she
answered breathlessly.
“Let me guess,” he said, groaning when she settled her
hand on his belly just above his belt. “He was angry that
you’d left town without bothering to check in with him and
tried to convince you that you had to come back or risk
certain doom.”

Laurie arched an eyebrow at him and grinned. “What?
Where you listening in on our conversation, or were your
ears just ringing, sensing the fact that we were talking
about you?”

“Talking about me, huh?” he asked full of good humor.
“I’m sure your brother just loved that.”

“You have no idea,” she answered, laughing so hard her
belly hurt. She could only imagine what his mother was
thinking but right at that moment, she was enjoying the
openness between herself and Travis too much to care.

“So, did you give him the play by play of every moment
behind closed doors during our honeymoon?” he asked
huskily, pressing his growing erection between her legs to
let her feel how affected he was by her hot body being held
in his arms.

Laurie laughed again. “Do I look like I have a death wish?
Or worse yet, a desire to bury my husband so soon after
tying the knot?” she asked, smiling up at him, thoroughly
enjoying their banter.

“I love the sound of that word on your lips,” he said in a
lowered intimate voice. “Husband… sounds heavenly.”
She whimpered and moaned when he brushed his lips
against her jaw bone. When he whispered the words “I love
you, Laurie,” it was all she could do to remember to
breathe.

“Trav…” the word was strained and came out as a plea of
sorts. His mother cleared her throat and stood on shaky
legs.

“On that note, I do believe that was
my cue to head towards
bed. I have no desire to watch the two of you get all mushy.
Nor do I wish to watch you make out like a couple of sex
starved teenagers.”

“Stay…
Keep doing your knitting,” Travis said, not taking
his eyes off Laurie’s face. “I’ll just take my wife to bed for
the night. That way you don’t have to worry about
watching us go at it like the newlyweds we are and we can
make love without an audience.”

When he swept her up into his arms, Laurie moaned and
rested her head against his chest, giving in to the need to
touch her tongue to his lips. Travis groaned and tangled his
tongue with hers, sucking it into his mouth.

After the loving was over close to an hour later, Travis
turned to look at the woman at his side. He reached out and
brushed her bangs off her forehead, tucking the strands
behind her ear. “Run away with me, Laurie… Marry me. I
can take good care of you. You don’t have to work another
day in your life if you don’t want to.”

Laurie sighed and snuggled into his chest, playing with his
chest hairs with her fingertips. “I love what I do,” she said
softly. “Fixing cars is the one thing I’m really good at in
life. When I’m frustrated or can’t think straight, the puzzle
of fixing a problem in someone’s engine is the only thing
that makes it better for me. I’d go crazy if I couldn’t work
on cars. My dream is to rebuild the older classics from the
ground up… taking a piece of trash that doesn’t even run
and making it into the hottest, fastest car in town.”

“So you can keep the shop after we get married,” he said,
compromising. “Just say we can always be like this
together,” he begged, kissing the curve of her neck.

“You’re just saying that because it would make your mom
happy,” she said, sighing sadly.

“No… I’m saying it because it would make me happy,” he
told her honestly. “I want to be with you, Laurie. For real
and for always. I didn’t expect to feel this way when I first
suggested that you come here with me… At the time, it was
all about the sexual tension and nothing else. But
somewhere along the lines, it became about a whole lot
more, and I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way.
Admit that you love me, Laurie…”

“Heaven help me,” she muttered in a breathy voice. “You
know I do.”