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“Travis.” She had to take a moment. “You’ve moved on and so have I. And as you pointed out the other night, you’re not the only one to blame. I did things too. And maybe it’s time for me to let go of the anger. There’s nothing else to say o
r do. Let’s just leave things alone.”
“I can’t do that.” Those alarm bells that had fallen silent were now clanging again, heavy against her chest, making it difficult for Ruby to breathe or think or speak. The air was rife with an invisible force that was drawing her to him. It scared the crap out of her.
“Why not?” she managed to squeak out.
“Because I like to win.”
“This isn’t a game, Travis.” She took a step back, anger making her hot and fidgety.
“It is, though.” He got up in her business again. “It’s the most important game of my life.” Travis reached for Ruby, and God help her but she couldn’t move. It was as if her feet were encased in cement. Her heart fluttered, and she felt dizzy.
Or maybe quicksand.
His hands settled on either side of her face, and he held her gently, bending even lower so that when he spoke, his breath caressed her mouth like a kiss. She tried to move as panic set in, but he held her firm, his voice throaty. “Let me do this, Ruby. So that we know. So that I know.”
He held her gaze a second longer and then swept his mouth across hers, a gentle caress that lit fires and rang those bells and made her knees weak. It made her want to close her eyes and go back in time. Back to before the marriage and the baby. Back to that first summer. It wasn’t a kiss so much as promise, and she barely managed to hold herself together. When he stepped back, she finally exhaled, a long, slow, ragged breath.
“What do you know?” Did she speak the words out loud?
“This thing between us, it’s not going anywhere. It’s part of us. Like DNA.” He was dead serious. “So why are we fighting it?”
“Why are we fighting it?” Unbelievable. Ruby had to take a moment to try to process what he was saying. “I can think of a million reasons why, Travis, starting with the fact that we’re divorced. We didn’t do so well the first time around.”
He looked away for a moment, and Ruby was able to catch her breath. She waited, like a fool, she waited, and when he turned back, her heart squeezed so damn tight, it brought tears to her eyes.
“Maybe this could be different.”
She was confused. And angry. Strangely exhilarated. And scattered. She tried to make sense of the jumbled thoughts rambling around inside her head. She tried again. “Too much has happened between us, and too much time has passed.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter.” He wasn’t going to make this easy. “Our history is complicated, Trav. And aside from that, I live in Crystal Lake now, which I’m sure has surprised the hell out of you, but I’ve made a life for myself. One that I’m proud of and one that fulfills me.” Okay, the proud thing was true. The fulfilled? Not so much. “You don’t live here anymore. You live in Detroit. You live in LA. You have a house in the Hamptons for God’s sake.”
His eyebrow shot up. “Been stalking me online?” He grinned. “I’m cool with that.”
Embarrassed, she was silent for a few moments, because, yeah, she’d stalked him online. “I’m just saying we could never work from a logistics point of view.”
“If that’s your only reason, then I’m feeling pretty confident considering a few days ago, you hated my guts.”
He was always so damn cocky and sure of himself. “What is it you think we’re going to do? Pick up where we left off? Because that’s never going to happen.”
“No,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t start a new chapter. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
A lightbulb went off. “This is about sex. You want to have sex with me.”
He looked confused at first and then shrugged, offering a smile that would make most women melt. Except Ruby wasn’t most women, and she was an expert when it came to Travis Blackwell’s charm.
“We never had a problem with sex,” he replied, that damn smile still intact.
“No. It was the other stuff that kicked our asses.”
“Maybe we need to forget about the other stuff.”
The air was electric. Practically sizzling. “And just have sex?”
“Is that what you want?”
