Texas Heat (Stubborn Texas Siblings Book 2) (8 page)

When
they rolled into Laurie’s driveway, Jeff was just
climbing down off his horse beside her truck. Laurie sighed
heavily and nervously reached out to take Travis’s hand.
“Let the games begin,” she muttered sadly. “That’s my
little brother, Jeff. He’s the one that is anti-marriage. He is
training to get ready to start the next rodeo season as a bull
rider. He’s not one you want to mess with, and I can tell by
the look on his face, he’s looking for a fight. Please be
careful…”

Travis linked his fingers through hers and leaned over to
kiss her. In that moment he could tell that she needed
reassurance that he wasn’t going to leave her. He found that
he wanted to slam both of her brothers into a brick wall so
hard they bounced off and fell onto the ground. It wasn’t
right that the other men could get away with making their
sister so afraid of losing any man. If they truly cared about
Laurie, her brothers should back off when she really cared
about a man. If they didn’t, he wasn’t afraid to say so
directly to their faces. It was past time that Laurie was
allowed to make her own choices for her life.

Gathering his courage, Travis climbed out of the car and
took his time walking around to the other side, pulling
Laurie’s door open and helping her out. When she stood at
his side, he tugged her into his arms and ignoring the tall
man making his way over to them, he lowered his face and
kissed her deeply, sweeping his arms around her waist so
that he was completely wrapped around her entire body. It
was a declaration of intent on his part and as a man he
knew that it was one that her brother would recognize.

Jeff cleared his throat and stood there tapping the toes of
his cowboy boots. “Start explaining yourself Laurie. Eric
has been on my back for letting you run off in the first
place ever since you disappeared and now you’re back with
this leech wrapped around you. I deserve an explanation…”

The kiss broke and Laurie sighed heavily turning her
attention towards her brother. She opened her mouth to
speak but Travis beat her to the punch.

“My name is Travis Robbins,” he said offering a
handshake. Jeff reluctantly accepted the other man’s offer
and cringed slightly when Travis squeezed his hand so
tightly it almost crushed his bones. “I took your sister back
to my family home to meet my mother,” he said pointedly.
“Thought Mom should meet the woman I intend to make
my wife.”

The words hung awkwardly in the air and the tension was
thick enough that Laurie thought perhaps she should run
into the house to grab a steak knife to cut through it with.
Finally after a long silence, Jeff found his tongue and
started his barrage of questions.

“Just who do you think you are? Do you honestly believe
you can just waltz in here out of nowhere and not have to
prove yourself? Do you even have a job? Are you some
lowlife deadbeat? Where do you live? Do you plan on
moving in here and mooching off my sister? Or is the idea
to get myself and our brother to pick up the tab and pay
your way? How long have you even known Laurie? Am I
supposed to be impressed by that fancy car of yours?”

Laurie was grinding her teeth in agitation and making a fist
so tight that her fingernails dug into the palm of her hand.
“Jeff, I’m trying to have patience with you… I really am.
You have no business butting into my life or Travis’s. If
you’d sit down and act like a normal human being for a
change, we might just tell you a thing or two, but it would
be our choice to do so.”

“It’s okay,” Travis said, patting her hand reassuringly.
“Yes, I own my own vet business. I’m moving here from
Kentucky, so I’ll have to start over and get all new clients,
yes, but I don’t plan on allowing you or your brother to pay
for a damn thing. I have money. Yes, I will be living here
with Laurie… it’s what married couples tend to do, but I’ll
be bringing plenty into the marriage. Laurie and I haven’t
known each other a real long time, but we know love when
we see it; neither of us is stupid. As to my car, it’s the one
toy I allow myself. Back at my old place, I have a practical
truck that I use for the business, and I’ll be bringing it back
here as soon as I can.”

“And I suppose you expect me to just accept this as a done
deal and not say or do anything to stir the pot in any way. I
should just tuck my tail between my legs and walk away
without checking him out and making sure this guy is going
to be good to you?” Jeff asked, glaring at Laurie in an
accusatory way.

Laurie had put up with
Jeff’s overprotective crap for long
enough and she stepped between the two men, her nostrils
flaring as she faced her brother down. “I am perfectly
capable of making my
OWN
decisions on if Travis will be
good to me or not. I don’t need my overbearing nosy little
brother butting into my relationship and trying to take it
over. You want nothing to do with marriage. Why would I
listen to a damn thing you had to say about any of this?”

Jeff grumbled under his breath and walked back over to his
horse and climbed up onto its back. “If you won’t listen to
reason from me, I’ll send in the big guns, because if you
honestly believe I’m going to just sit back and let you
marry some guy you
JUST
met that none of us knows spit
about, you’ve got another thing coming. Expect Eric here
within the hour… he’s going to be spitting mad when he
gets wind of this.”

“Yeah, well, he’s not
the only one who is going to be
pissed off when he gets here,” Laurie mumbled grumpily as
she watched Jeff ride off at a full gallop, a billowing cloud
of dust following in his wake.

She turned to Travis and offered him a tired smile. “Let’s
get our things inside and I’ll brew a pot of coffee. Eric
won’t be as easy to get rid of as Jeff was. I’m really sorry
they’re so pushy… In all fairness, I did warn you…”

“Yeah, you did,” Travis said, chuckling as he grabbed their
suitcases and followed her into the house. “No worries. It’s
nothing I can’t handle. If I had a sister with no folks to look
after her, I’d most likely be in the face of any man claiming
to want to marry her after only knowing her for a few short
weeks as well. I’d think something was up… that he had
something to gain by making her his bride. I’d want to
check him out too. Your brother cares about you, Laurie.
As irritating as it may be for you, for them to constantly
stick their noses into your business, I have no doubt that it’s
done with the utmost love on their part. I’m not ashamed of
the way I feel about you, and I’m not afraid to fight if that’s
what it comes to, for the right to pursue our relationship.”

By this time they were in the house and sitting at the table.
The coffee was percolating in the pot on the counter and
the suitcases were sitting in her bedroom on the floor by the
dresser. Eric would flip out if he knew that she had every
intention of moving Travis into her room immediately.
After spending the last few weeks falling asleep in his
arms, she wasn’t sure she was capable of falling asleep
without him anymore.

As far as she was concerned, it was one more point for
Travis in his campaign to marry her. Sooner or later, if she
didn’t say yes, he was going to leave her and go back to his
practice in Kentucky. Her heart broke just thinking about
watching him drive away knowing he would never return.
Of course, she’d already decided to say yes to his
proposal… but Travis didn’t know that yet. She had to
make sure that they could survive her brother’s onslaught…
There had to be a glimmer of light in the distance that
proved that someday down the road, Eric and Jeff would
grow to not only accept Travis in her life, but to love him
like a brother. That was really important to her. As crazy as
those brothers of hers drove her, she loved them; flaws and
all.

They were sipping their coffee with one hand and holding
onto each other for dear life with the other when they heard
Eric’s truck spin its tires as he pulled into her driveway at
top speed. Laurie sighed and then gulped nervously. “You
may be ready for this… but I’m not sure I am,” she
admitted honestly.

She loved her older brother and respected him for all he’d
been through in his life. After he’d lost his first wife, he
had withdrawn so far into himself; the only thing he’d
thought about was taking care of his younger siblings. It
wasn’t until he’d met and fallen in love with the woman
who’d accidentally been implanted with his first wife’s
eggs that Eric had finally remembered what living was all
about.

Sadly, that hadn’t stopped his need to interfere in her life
though. She was nervous about what a man like Eric would
say when a perfect stranger to him announced that he
wanted to marry his little sister after only knowing her for a
few weeks.

Most likely, he would rant and rave at her if she admitted
that she’d fallen in love with the man after only a week and
a half. He’d be even less impressed if he were to learn that
she’d slept with Travis before her heart had taken the
plunge. She knew her big brother well enough to know
exactly what he would say. He’d claim that her emotions
were mixed up and that she was mistaking lust for love.
Well, she had news for him… she’d been in lust plenty
over the years. It hadn’t felt a thing like what she was
experiencing now. No; this was definitely the real thing.
All she had to do now was convince Eric. The very idea
was unsettling at best. She honestly couldn’t remember a
time when she had been more freaked out by anything she
had to do. Terrified might even be too mellow a word to
explain the fear ripping through her as her brother stomped
up to her front door and pounded on it hard enough to rattle
the hinges.

“Open up! I know you’re in there!” he bellowed through
the closed door. “I swear, I’ll kick the damn door in if you
don’t open it in the next ten seconds!”

Laurie leapt from her seat, knowing he meant every word
of the threat and sprinted to the door, yanking it open and
holding it ajar so he could push his way into her home. Her
brother was a big man and as he stood beside her fuming
mad, he made a very imposing sight to behold. “Eric, calm
down before you have heart failure,” she scolded shakily as
she quietly closed the door, taking a moment to fortify her
nerves with a deep cleansing breath.

“Calm down?” he asked hysterically. “How can you expect
me to calm down? My little brother barges into my house
yelling and screaming about our only sister insisting she is
going to
MARRY
some guy she’s known all of a month
that neither of us have ever even heard of let alone know a
damn thing about and you think I should be
CALM
about
it?” His nostrils were flared and his eyes were wild. Laurie
had seen him angry a lot over the years, but he’d never
looked quite this scary. She stammered and took a huge
step backwards away from him so that she was out of his
reach in case he took a swing in her direction. Eric wasn’t
one to ever strike a person when he was mad, but then
again, she’d never seen him anywhere near this angry in all
her years.

“First of all, I didn’t announce anything… He just barged
in on us the second we got back. He demanded to know
what was going on and Travis humored him by answering
as honestly as he could. I’m a grown woman, Eric. I don’t
owe you an explanation. This is
MY
life we’re talking
about here, not yours.”

“Are you telling me that Jeff stretched the truth? That this
man didn’t claim to intend on marrying you?” Eric
demanded angrily.

Travis cleared his throat and took his hat off, running his
fingers over the rim. “I had intended on coming into town
and introducing myself to you and your brother and getting
to know you properly before asking for Laurie’s hand the
old fashioned way… but it would seem that it wasn’t
destined to happen that way. I know that it must seem like
it happened quickly to you… but I assure you, I love your
sister. Sometimes in life, you meet someone and you just
know. That’s what happened with us… at least on my
part,” he said, looking over at Laurie.

“Mine too,” she said in a breathy voice. She looked over at
her brother and swallowed hard. “I know you don’t
understand and you may not like it… but what happens
between Travis and I is none of your business. Now, I’m
going to ask you to trust me to make my own decisions like
the grown woman I am and leave us in peace. We’re not
getting married right away, so you can relax. I promise you,
I’ll take my time and make sure this is what’s right for my
future. But I won’t put up with having you underfoot while
we try to see if we can make things work. And before you
think about sending Jeff back here, let me assure you, if
you do that, I’ll run away with Travis get married and move
back to Kentucky with him where you’ll never see me
again. Leave us be, and we might decide to settle here
where you can be part of our lives. Deal?”

“Alright, Laurie… but I swear to you, if he hurts you, I’ll
cut him down to size faster than you can ask how it
happened.”

Having said that, Eric spun around and left just as quickly
as he had forced his way into the house, leaving them in
silence… their previously spoken words of intention
hanging in the air so thick it was almost a physical
presence.

“So…” Laurie said, dragging the word out
awkwardly.
“Now what?” Travis shrugged his shoulders. “How should
I know? It’s not like I’ve ever proposed to a woman before.
Actually, I never intended to get married at all, but a couple
of days acting the part with you, and it was all I could think
about.”

“We were only seeing the up side of being a couple
because it wasn’t real,” Laurie said, nervously chewing on
her lip.

“My feelings for you are as real as they come,” he
whispered huskily, wrapping his arms around her waist and
looking down into her face.

Laurie shook and she had no idea if it was nerves or
excitement… or a little bit of both. Her eyelids felt heavy
as she watched him lean down towards her, his lips mere
inches away from hers. “I can’t fight how I feel about you,
Laurie; and I don’t believe you want to fight your feelings
for me either.”

She was breathing hard and her heart was pounding
irregularly. “Travis…” she sighed heavily, lifting her face
to his, wanting his kiss more than she’d ever wanted
anything else in her life.
“Tell me you love me,” he demanded in a graveled voice.
“That this thing isn’t a one way street. That there’s at least
a chance that you might agree to marry me one day…”

A whimper escaped and Laurie lifted up on her tip-toes,
closing the distance between them, pressing a hungry kiss
to his lips. He groaned and swept her closer to his chest,
deepening the embrace until they were both breathless with
need.

“Yes,” she whispered huskily. “I’ll marry you… as soon as
possible… I love you… as horrified as I know my brothers
will be by it all, I can be just as stubborn as they are. I
won’t let them make our lives miserable,” she promised.

Travis swept her up into his arms, carrying her back to her
bedroom, pressing hungry kisses tall over her face. “As
long as I have you, I could never be miserable… You’ve
made me a very happy man… I swear to you, I’ll never
give you reason to regret loving me and giving me a
chance.”

After that, there were no more words as he laid her down
on the bed and made sweet love to her. They each uttered
words of devotion and love as they clung to each other.
Laurie didn’t know how they would manage to get married
without her brothers interfering or stopping them, but she
loved Travis enough to take the chance. If they tried
stopping the wedding, they wouldn’t like the price they’d
pay, because she’d never let them hear the end of it.
Early the next morning, Travis drove Laurie into her garage
and helped her with anything he could. Midway through the
day, she had her head under the hood of a neighbor’s truck
and he was watching her, thinking how beautiful she was
and how lucky he was.

“I hate to say this to you, but I’m going to have to go back
to Kentucky sooner rather than later… I have to get my
business moved. I have all my personal belongings with
me… but the vet business is all back there. I need to be able
to support you, even if you don’t think you need to be taken
care of. Your brothers are never going to accept me as your
husband until I can show them that I’m not looking at you
as a way to kick back and do nothing while you pay my
way.”

Laurie looked up at him, wiping her hands on a grease rag.
“Would you mind if I went with you?” she surprised him
by asking.

“Of course I wouldn’t mind… I just figured, I’d already
asked you to miss out on a lot of work when I dragged you
to my mother’s house. Then there are your brothers… What
would they say?”

“I don’t give two figs what Eric and Jeff have to say about
it. I meant what I said… this is my life we’re talking about
here. As an overall general rule, I keep the town’s people’s
cars in good working order. They can handle me taking
another week or two off while I help my fiancé move.”

A slow grin covered his face and he swept her into a tight
embrace. “I do like the sound of that word on your lips…
fiancé. Although, I must admit… I liked having you call me
husband even better.”

“Does that mean I can come with you?” she asked, walking
over to him and lifting her face accepting his kiss. Travis
groaned loudly. “Sweetheart, I can’t think straight when
you kiss me like that,” he mumbled against her lips.

She sighed and stepped away against her will. “This is my
place of business,” she said, smiling. “If one of us should
be concentrating on thinking straight, it’s me. But instead,
all I can think about is the sexy man in the room and the
way you kiss me.”

“Any chance I can sweet talk you into actually running
away with me and getting married on the down low at a
moments’ notice at a little 24 hour wedding chapel like we
told my mom?” he asked, nibbling on her ear and pressing
tiny kisses down the curve of her neck.

“I want you to already
BE
my wife, just like I told my
mother. I want that ridiculous yarn we spun for her to be
the truth.”

That hot bod of yours is all mine and I’m not sharing with
anyone, let alone my own brothers. Forget about them.
They’ll have to learn to deal with it sooner or later. It’ll
serve them right for butting in on my life and barging in
here demanding input on the important decisions in my
life.”

Travis grinned widely. “Would it be too pushy of me to ask
you to wrap up things here at the garage so we can go back
to your house and make love?” he teased, kissing her
cheek, dragging his lips towards her mouth.

“I have to finish fixing the truck,” she argued in a
whispered voice. He slipped his hand under her shirt to
touch her heated skin and she groaned. “Travis…” she
moaned, arching her neck when he bent his head to caress
it, placing tender kisses all along its length.

He reluctantly pulled away and sat down in a chair
watching as she quickly went back to work on the truck.
He’d never seen anyone do anything so quickly in his life
and he couldn’t seem to stop smiling. The fact that she was
just as anxious to be with him as he was to make love to her
just made him that much happier.

In his mind, they were already half way back to Kentucky,
stopping to get married before they finished the road trip
back to his office to pack up his things. He crossed his legs
and leaned back with his head resting against the wall
behind him. He could afford to be generous and give her
the time it would take to finish working on the truck.
Besides, he rather liked watching her in full mechanic
mode. She was sexy with grease all up her arms, and that
tiny smudge she’d gotten on her cheek when she’d
scratched an itch only made her look that much more
desirable to him.

“Do you know anywhere near by that I might be able to
buy some land that’s big enough to put a barn and vet
clinic? I’d like to have somewhere to put my equipment
when we get back.”

“As a matte
r of fact, the plots on each side of mine are both
for sale. If we bought them both, we could put the barn and
clinic on one side and I could build a bigger garage on the
other… I just haven’t had quite enough funds to buy it and
build the garage myself just yet.”

Travis nodded his head. “I don’t see why we can’t make
that work. I’ve got a bit of money saved and my business is
worth a mint… Selling it off to another vet should get us
more than enough funds to buy the land and build the barn,
the clinic and the garage.”

“You don’t have to do that…” she said, feeling guilty. “I
don’t want to be with you just because of what I think you
can give me…”

The smile that covered his face was priceless. “Don’t you
think I know that? After all, you didn’t have a clue what I
was worth when we got together. It’s what I love the most
about being with you. What we share is completely
honest.”
“Well, if we’re talking honesty here, perhaps I should tell
you I’m thinking about getting your name tattooed on my
ass to prove that you are the sole owner of it and everything
attached to it. What do you think? The last time I got ink
just because, my brother pretty much had a conniption fit.”

“One more reason to do it in my opinion … I suppose I
could deal with you getting my name tattooed onto your hot
bod… but only if you don’t mind my getting your name on
mine,” Travis said, giving her a heart-stopping smile.
“Have I mentioned how much I love that you’re strong
enough to have all that ink? It turns me on, something
awful.”

“Yeah, well, the feeling is completely mutual,” she
admitted, wrapping up the work on the truck. “I’ve always
had a bit of a thing for bad boys… Yet I wanted to be with
one of the good guys… with you, I get the best of both
worlds. It’s perfect!”

“You’re perfect,” he proclaimed as he pulled her into his
arms ignoring the grease she was getting on his shirt.
“You’re well worth living with this extreme Texas heat for
the rest of my life. I love you woman.”

“I love you too,” she whispered. “I’m finished now. I’ll jus
t
call the truck’s owner, park it outside and leave the keys
under the floor mat so we can go.”

They made their way out into the hot Texas air arm in arm;
Laurie’s head resting on Travis’s shoulder. It didn’t matter
what they had to go through to be together. When her
brothers came along and got in their faces about running
away to get married without them, she would get her
stubborn up. If there was one thing her whole family was
good at, it was being stubborn as the day was long. Things
would heat up for her and Travis in and outside of the
bedroom, in any number of ways.