Leaning forward, I kissed him and took it as a good sign when he didn’t pull away. “What?”
“Promise me you’ll try.” He breathed against my mouth.
“I promise.” The words were out of my mouth before I even realised, and he smiled against my lips.
“Good.”
I nipped his lower lip gently with my teeth as I slid my hands down his back to the waistband of his pants. “I should probably talk to Mitch.”
He kissed me. “Let me take care of it. We’ll deal with this, Quinn. I don’t want you involved anymore. It’s too dangerous.”
“You can’t just—”
Travis kissed me again. “Yes. I can.”
“You can’t control me by kissing me,” I lied.
He ran his tongue along my bottom lip and slid it inside my mouth.
I moaned.
“Should I stop kissing you?”
“No.”
“Good, ‘cause I’m remembering how you kissed me last night.” He grabbed my hand and put it on the hard bulge in his pants. “And how I returned the favour, and …” He trailed off, groaning when I rubbed the straining length of him.
A tap came at the door, and I snatched my hand away. We both turned, Travis rising to his feet.
Jared stood there, phone in hand. “Mitch wants to talk to you. He’s been in touch with Melbourne’s AFP and they’re sending over a fed. They want to know what the f**k is happening with this assignment—”
“Jared!” Travis cut him off loudly, frowning.
Jared looked from Travis to me and shook his head.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Travis snatched the phone from Jared’s hand, glowering. He turned to me, his eyes softening for a moment. “Nothing, Quinn. Get some rest. I’ll be back.”
He waited for my nod before he left the room.
Jared watched his retreating back for a moment before turning to me.
“So... I haven’t been able to talk to you without big mouth or big ears around. How goes the party planning?”
Of course I’d agreed to help him plan Evie’s party after my plans to leave fell by the wayside. Thankfully he’d put me on to Carol, the office administrator at Jamieson and Valentine Consulting. Between the two of us, we’d managed to put everything together in under a week.
“All done.”
He raised his brows. “Already?”
I shrugged, a little bit smug at my efficiency. “Just waiting on numbers to get back to us.”
“So the Florence Bar is booked?”
“Uh huh, as are the caterers, the cake, and music. We’ve organised a photo booth, a stylist—”
“Stylist?”
“Yeah, to pull the look together.”
“The look?”
“Carol and I thought it might be nice to go with a vintage glamour look.”
“What the hell is vintage glamour? Wait,” he said and held up a hand, “I don’t want to know. As long as we don’t have to dress up, like in fancy dress.”
I was about to tell him he’d need to at least wear a suit, when his eyes went wide with warning and he mouthed, “Big ears,” at me just before I heard Evie say, “What’s fancy dress?”
I smothered a laugh, watching Jared lean casually against the door frame as though we’d just been discussing the weather.
“Um…just the Christmas in July party that Jettison Records is having soon,” I answered.
Jared gave me a discreet thumbs up in relief at my response. It soon turned to one of horror when she whooped with glee. “Yes! I love fancy dress,” she said, not even considering it odd that after what happened earlier, Jared would be standing in my hotel room discussing fancy dress parties with me. “We could do a cutesy couple thing, Jared.”
Jared folded his arms. “No way, baby.”
I didn’t have the heart at that moment to tell either of them that Jettison Records hadn’t mentioned anything at all about their party being fancy dress. Evie was looking too excited, and it was just a little bit funny watching Jared squirm.
She arched a brow at him and said huskily, “I’ll make it worth your while.”
Not even I could miss the heat that had his eyes turning lazy. “Oh yeah?”
I cleared my throat and Evie shifted her attention to me. “Quinn, way to go. Mac said you were the one that threw the chair.”
I shrugged modestly. “Well, I remembered Travis saying to be resourceful.” I didn’t mention that it hadn’t hit anything besides the wall.
Three weeks of being permanently attached to mostly Travis and Casey came and went. On the minus side, I didn’t really know what was going on. Travis said it was in the hands of the “proper authorities.” On the plus side, Evie’s party was keeping my mind occupied, and Travis and Casey were busy making sure I was safe at all times. It felt rude to complain about the lack of privacy. In fact, they were spending so much time shadowing me everywhere, I wasn’t sure how to repay the gesture.
When I made that particular announcement to Travis and Casey last night in the loft, Casey choked on his drink. When I’d spun around from rummaging through the bottom shelving on the fridge, I caught two sets of eyes swivel quickly from my ass to my eyes. Mine narrowed as I watched Travis bite down on a smirk.
After several slurs towards men and their levels of maturity, I finished putting together my late night sandwich and stole the remote. Satisfied with my win, I flicked until I could find the girliest, most romantic love fest on television that ever existed and revelled in Casey’s groans of “that guy’s a total wimp” and Travis huffing whenever the hero did something “unrealistic.” I admit to also revelling a little in sitting between the two of them. Both in worn faded jeans, Travis was bare chested and Casey wore a stretchy shirt that had seen better days.
Jared rang midway through the movie in a panic because Evie’s birthday party was looming the next day. Sworn to secrecy, I had to abandon the couch reluctantly.
“I’ll be back,” I warned the pair of them with narrowed eyes and a waggle of the remote which I took with me while Jared spoke in my ear.
I giggled when I turned and saw I was getting chased. My heart thumped as I darted for the kitchen. Glancing behind, I saw Travis closing in on one side, Casey on the other. At the last minute I opted for the dining area and shrieked when Travis lunged for me and missed by a millimetre.
I gasped into the phone that I was still there when Jared called my name in irritation, but the last minute indecision cost me. I squealed when a pair of strong, tanned arms circled me from behind and grabbed for the remote. I tried to hold it aloft, but was no match for the strength that had me locked down.
“Shortie.” Casey laughed in my ear as he snatched the remote easily from my hand. Breathless, I spun around and found myself only centimetres from his bright, blue eyes.
Casey jerked back. “Got it!” he whooped at Travis and took a running dive for the couch in victory.
“Dammit, Jared,” I complained down the phone breathlessly. “You just cost me the remote.”
No sooner had air filled my lungs when Travis slammed my body hard into the wall and planted his lips on mine.
“Travis, I’m on the phone,” I breathed.
“I don’t care.” He groaned into my neck. “You’re being cute. I like you this way. It gets me hot.” Travis grabbed the phone from my ear. “She’ll call you back,” he announced and tossed my phone away.
“That was rude,” I muttered.
His grin was devious as his hand slid swiftly underneath my shirt and trekked upwards. “I’ll show you rude.”
“Guys,” Casey called out as Travis found my mouth again, gripping my thigh and tugging it around his hip as he ground his body against me. “That’s not fair.”
My face flamed as Travis grabbed hold of my hand and tugged me into his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He advanced slowly, and shrieking with laughter I jumped on the bed. My hand swiped a pillow and held it in a threatening stance as I bounced from one foot to the other, waiting to see which way I needed to run.
Travis paused, tilting his head at me as though changing tactics. Lowering his lids, he moved his hands to the button on his jeans. He undid one slowly, then another, and I froze when I realised he wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
My mouth went dry as his fingers slowly worked their way down until each one was undone and his jeans were tugged off. Heat slammed into me as my eyes ran over his chest, lean hips, long muscled legs, and everything in between.
“Like what you see?” he asked huskily.
“M-maybe,” I stammered.
With laughter in his eyes, Travis leaped easily onto the bed. All I could manage was to hold the pillow aloft in defence.
Travis wrenched it easily from my hands. With a toss he threw it across the room. My hand flew to my mouth, covering the shout of laughter when it hit the lamp, sending it crashing to the floor.
Ignoring it, he advanced another step towards me, his eyes falling to my mouth when I bit my lip in anticipation.
In an effort to throw him off, I came at him and we went down in a tangle of nak*d limbs and laughter. It soon dried up when Travis slid his mouth along my skin, his tongue tracing lazy circles along my collarbone. Within moments, my own jeans were tugged off and his hand was tracing those same lazy, maddening circles up the bare skin of my thigh. I parted my lips when his tongue demanded entrance to my mouth while his fingers grazed my panties, teasing the edges of the lace material.
I moaned into his mouth, my body throbbing when they eventually slipped underneath the lace, teasing me playfully where I ached for him.
When those fingers inched inside of me, he groaned into my neck, letting out a shuddering breath as I moaned his name.
A loud rap at the door registered through the fog, and Travis cursed loudly.
“Umm, sorry, guys,” Casey called through the door, “but Travis, it’s the phone, mate. It’s one of your work assignments.”
Travis leaned his forehead against mine, his hands retreating reluctantly. “Quinn,” he breathed against my lips. “Dammit. I can never get enough of you.”
I watched my fingers trail down the side of his face while he watched me.
I love you.
Travis couldn’t drag his eyes from mine. Could he see the love there?
I closed them. “Hurry back.”
“Don’t leave.”
I opened them. “I won’t leave.”
He nodded once, relief softening his features and relaxing his shoulders. David had been released three days ago, but while Travis was worried about my safety, I was worried about his.
“Good. I don’t want you going anywhere at all without me or Casey. No one else, okay?”
“Travis. I can’t do that forever.”
I had a job, bills to pay, a dog to walk. I couldn’t have a permanent bodyguard.
“It’s just for now. Trust me. He’s caught up in the kind of shit that will see him going back in for a very long time.”
“What shit?”