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Chapter 18
It was maybe thirtyminutes later that a freshly washed, sweet-smelling Brooklyn came back outside. Dressed in Wonder Woman pajamas, with her hair brushed back, she went with her arms outstretched straight to Isabel.
“I’m nottired,” she said, voice sulky. “But Storm promised to readtwo chaptersof the Yellow House Mystery if I laid down.” Even as she pulled back from Isabel, hug received, Brooklyn knuckled at her eyes and smiled with pride. “She wasonlygoing to read one, but I asked for two and promised to bereallygood.”
“Very clever,” Isabel told her.
Travis had a feeling the kid wouldn’t be awake past five pages.
The girl Isabel cuddled close was already blinking heavy eyes, each blink lasting longer and longer.
Brooklyn clambered off Isabel but instead of heading for the door and the promised story, she spun and hurled herself at Travis. He caught her, biting back a grimace at the twinge of pain in his side. But it was just that ... a twinge. Cradling the back of her head, he felt another twinge, this one closer to a true ache, right in the vicinity of his heart as Brooklyn burrowed in closer.
“Next to Isabel, Mariah, Aaron and Storm, and maybe my new best friend Lizzie, I think I like you best, Mr. Travis,” she said in a loud whisper, right next to his ear.
“Thank you, Brooklyn,” he murmured, his heart squeezing even tighter. “I’m pretty sure you’re one of my favorite people, too.”
She gave him a smile of such sweetness, it stabbed him right in that aching heart and he was left breathless as she pulled away and headed for the house, her hand tucked into Storm’s.
Aaron was at the door, a grin fighting to tug at his lips, but never fully manifesting as he said, “Storm and I have studying to do. We’ll turn the lights out ... and stuff.”
As the door shut, Isabel smothered a laugh. “If romantic music comes on, I might start giggling.”
The second the lights switched out, Travis moved.
“I don’t need romantic music.”
Her breath caught just as his mouth came down on hers. The thin sliver of the moon overhead was all the illumination left, the few lights on the house not enough to penetrate here on the deck. All she could see was his looming shadow and the glint of his eyes just before her lashes closed.
And then she was lost.
Lost to the heat of him.
Lost to the strength of him.
Lost to the taste and feel of him.
Lost tohim... to Travis, the only person who’d ever pulled these kinds of emotions from her. At that moment, it didn’t matter that they’d only been a couple of teenagers when they’d met. It didn’t matter that he’d broken her heart or that they’d spent over a decade apart.
It only mattered that his mouth was on hers, that he’d skimmed a hand up her side to cup the back of her neck as he angled her head while deepening the kiss.
She grabbed his arms and sank her nails into his biceps, through the fine linen of the shirt that had draped lovingly over the taut and toned body that had taunted her all evening. He grunted in approval and settled his weight more firmly against her. Isabel tore her mouth away from his and arched her hips up. “Fuck!”
His lips feathered down her neck. “Are we okay?”
She had to force her lids up. If she hadn’t heard the concern in his eyes, she wouldn’t have bothered. Every last neuron in her body was on overload, the pleasure she felt having him so close visceral in its intensity.
“More than.” She stroked her palms down his sides and dragged the hem of his shirt up, pressing her hands to the hot, smooth skin of his back. She felt the ridges and bumps of scars—so many scars—but she shoved aside her worry and anger—for tonight, for now, she only wanted to feel. “There’s just one problem.”
Her eyes had adjusted to the dim light and she caught a hint of his smile.
“Only one?”
“Maybe more than one ... ” She rose up and bit his lower lip. “You’re wearing too many clothes. And we’re on the damn deck.”
A hoarse noise escaped him and then he kissed her. “Bella-mine ... ”
The sound of that old, familiar name, one he’d used almost from the first, had her throat going tight and she clung to him, need spiraling out of control.
