Slide Down on Me (2 page)

It was pretty common knowledge that she’d had nothing to do with her brother’s crimes. Oh, at first it had been assumed she was just as crooked, but as the drama played out, they’d learned she was a victim too.

Regardless, Travis’ anger over the loss of his family’s investments had died away the first time he saw her coming out of the flower shop after she’d moved home. He’d always had a fantasy about dragging her full-figured ass across his lap to spank the ever-lovin’ piss out of her. She’d never been particularly stuck-up, but their social circles hadn’t been allowed to collide and he’d never had the chance to get that close.

Back in the day, she’d had a bit of a reputation for liking sex a little rough, with some spankings every so often. Travis had itched to try it then, and seeing her now… That itch was stronger than ever.

Miles was the only person who’d ever known about the hard-on Travis had for Arabella Drake, and he was afraid he’d just given away proof that the desire lingered.

“What’s wrong with her car?” Miles asked, interrupting Travis’ thoughts and ignoring the previous question. He leaned a hip against the Wagoneer Travis had his head in.

“Transmission and fuel injection.”

Miles grunted. “Ouch. Nothing cheap. Especially for that kind of car.”

“Nope.”

“Don’t s’pose she can afford it?”

“Not sure. Told her I’d hold it until Friday for her.”

“Why?”

“Why not? It’s the right thing to do. Not like she can drive it.” Travis didn’t want to talk about it further, especially with his brother sounding almost gleeful about her hardships. He hadn’t decided what he was going to do about Bella’s car yet. He could fix it, but with what she’d said about not having access to that kind of money…he didn’t know what that meant exactly. If he charged her only for parts and waived the labor costs, would she be more readily able to pay?

“Serves her right.”

Travis kept his mouth shut on the topic of Bella. He didn’t know if Miles was needling him on purpose or what, but he wasn’t interested in giving his brother any further ammunition. “So, you here to work or…?”

Miles smirked, held his hands up and stepped away from the Jeep. “Okay. I get it. I’ll drop it. Put me to work. What do you need?”

“That silver sedan on the end needs an oil change.” Travis nodded in the direction of the Mercedes on the other side of the garage. His family’s shop had a reputation in their part of Tennessee for providing the highest-quality service in three counties. He’d learned the business from the ground up and when his uncle retired, Travis was given the reins. He loved his job, and though the recession had been difficult and he’d had to temporarily reduce hours for his mechanics—not to mention the fact that foreign repairs were always more expensive—people still brought him their cars.

He’d had to expand the business to take on more domestic cars, trucks and SUVs. There were a couple of other garages in the tri-county area, but his was the longest running with the most loyal business. He aimed to keep it that way.

“Got it. You got time to help me out at the Piersons’ this weekend? They want that deck finished.”

“Yeah. I can help you on Sunday morning.” Miles had taken over their father’s contractor business. He had a way with tools the way Travis had a way with engines. Both had been raised to handle whatever job needed attention and to be self-sufficient. Travis wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. “How long do I have you for today?”

Miles clucked his tongue and disappeared into the office. He emerged a few minutes later in a set of coveralls. “Until closing. I took care of a few jobs this morning.”

“Appreciate it.”

“It’s what we do, bro.”

“You got that right.”

Miles popped the hood on the silver sedan. “What are you going to do about Bella’s car?”

“Thought we were done with that topic?”

“Sue me.”

Travis snorted. “I don’t know yet.” Truth of the matter was, he didn’t want to wait until Friday to see her again. He shouldn’t be entertaining any ideas other than getting payment for the repair on her car, but the more he thought about Bella, the more he wanted from her. And the less it had to do with money.

Chapter Two

Bella locked the flower shop and briefly laid her forehead against the warm glass front of the door. The humidity hadn’t eased and the second she’d stepped outside, perspiration had broken out across her body. The heat was bad but the moisture in the air was oppressive.

She’d been dreading the clock striking five, dreading the walk home even more. Maybe she should have asked Travis if his offer of a ride earlier would have extended to taking her home. Oh well. There was nothing for it now. She turned and—

“Travis?” She couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice to find him leaning against his truck in the front parking spot. “I thought we decided on Friday?”

“We did. Thought you could use a ride home.”

“Oh. That would be… You don’t have to do that. It’s out of your way and—”

“C’mon.” He cut her off and waved her forward. “I don’t mind.”

Bella stood at the edge of the curb, uncertain what to do. Travis was a secret, a wet dream, a fantasy she’d never be able to have. Would she?

“I won’t bite,” he teased and Bella laughed. They’d never had a real conversation before. Laughing. Teasing. She’d lusted, wanted, desired. But all of it together? Mind-blowing.

“From what I remember hearing, you like biting.” As soon as the words were out, she clamped her hand over her mouth and glanced around to see if anyone was within hearing distance.

Travis was grinning when she met his gaze again. He gave a slow wink and shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. The move pulled the denim tight across his cock and the sight did things to her insides she’d only wished to experience with the hotter-than-hell mechanic.

“I’m so sorry,” she rushed to say. “That was out of line.”

Travis waved a hand through the air. “No need to apologize and no need to stand on polite ceremony with me. There were stories about you too, so don’t think I believe you’re any more innocent than I am.”

Bella groaned and hid her face behind her hands. “Hush,” she urged when she’d pulled herself together. “This isn’t the place to discuss any of this. We shouldn’t even be discussing this at all.”

“You started it.”

“I know and I’ve already apologized for it.”

“Which I accepted. However…” He leaned casually against the front quarter panel of his truck and chuckled. “If I recall the rumors correctly, you liked your sex a little rough-and-tumble.”

Bella blushed “You
heard
about that?”

“There was nothing you did that was a secret in this town. Those private-school jocks you dated from down in Knoxville weren’t worth shit when it came to keeping their mouths shut. Word traveled fast. You were an extremely naughty girl, Bella Drake.”

Oh dear God. Had her parents known? Her brother? The whole damn town? She wanted to look away, to look down at the ground and wait for it to swallow her whole, but she wouldn’t hide from who she’d been any more than she hid from who she’d had to become.

She kept her gaze leveled at Travis. “
Were
being the operative word.”

“Pretty and perfect on the outside,” he continued, “never a hair out of place, but behind closed doors, you were something else entirely.”

Bella could only imagine what exactly had been rumored about her. “Lord, Travis. I don’t think anyone has ever been so bold, so…direct. Especially someone I hardly know.”

“I told you. There’s no standing on polite ceremony with me. If you and I can’t be real with one another, then it’s going to be a very quiet drive out to your place.”

She studied him. He’d changed out of his work coveralls and replaced them with well-worn, faded jeans and a tight black t-shirt. The shirt hugged his chest and arms while the jeans hung low on his hips.

He made her mouth dry up and salivate at the same time. She licked her lips with a parched tongue. “So this is you being real?”

“Part. Yes.”

His eyes were steady on hers and she couldn’t read what was in those dark orbs. But he spoke with a forthrightness she appreciated.

Damn. Her greatest temptation was not only offering her a ride home, but making her hot from the inside out with talk of rough sex and biting.

“That’s all in the past.”
More’s the pity.
“I’m completely respectable these days.”
Or trying to be.
Too much time spent in Travis’ company and everything she was trying to accomplish—settled down, sensible, trustworthy—would go up in a pile of smoke and ash.

“Really?” At her nod, he clucked his tongue. “Now that’s a damn shame.”

They should get off this topic. “Why?” Of course, if she kept asking questions, they never would.

“Why indeed.” He pushed off the side of the truck and opened the passenger door. “Let’s get you home.”

“People will talk if they see us together.” Regardless of sexual overtones or blatant conversations, his offer to take her home
was
kind. Heck, it would be the highlight of her week, but… “I mean, as we’ve just discussed, gossip is rampant around here. I don’t want to cause any harm to your business. Guilt by association isn’t fun.” Of course, she had firsthand knowledge of that and she wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

However, that was only one of her objections to accepting a ride from him. Her other was the sheer fact that it was
Travis
. She wanted his hands out of the pockets and on her. She wanted his cock out from behind his zipper and inside her. She wanted to toss away the respectability she’d been attempting to cloak herself in and get nasty with him the way she’d always fantasized.

If she rode in his truck, mere inches from him, she wasn’t sure she could trust herself not to reach out.

“Don’t you worry about that. I can handle myself and any of my customers who may have issues. C’mon now. In the truck with ya. It’s screamin’ hot out here.”

Bella couldn’t find any other way to argue with him. She stepped off the curb and climbed inside the truck. Once she was seated and strapped in, Travis closed the door firmly and joined her from the driver’s side. She stared straight ahead until they turned the corner between the seed store and vegetable stand on the edge of downtown.

“Why are you being nice to me?” she asked when the silence became too much for the small cab of the old truck. Her entire body and all her senses were aware of him. Dirt, sweat and grease smells assailed her, but underneath it all was the scent that was purely Travis. He’d always had dirt under his nails and oil smudges on his clothes and arms, but he smelled like the country. Fresh-cut grass, hay bales, freedom. All of it went against the look of him—hard, inked, pierced. He’d had the tattoos and the ear piercings for as long as she could remember. Every time she saw him, it seemed there was some new piece of art on his body, but he still had that smell of springtime and summer all rolled into one.

“Why shouldn’t I be nice to you? You didn’t do anything to me.”

He spoke so casually, so easily. He was relaxed, his hands lightly gripping the steering wheel, his eyes focused on the road ahead.

His comfort in her company somehow gave her permission to loosen up. “No, I didn’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that my name is Drake.”

“You’re not your brother or his actions.”

Bella met Travis’ gaze then. His eyes were as unreadable as before, even though there was a slight tilt to his lips. She nodded, once again grateful for his straightforwardness.

They were headed north on the two-lane road that lead out to her house. Wildflowers in red and yellow and purple lined the ditches on either side, but open fields soon gave way to trees and shrubs and the lake beyond.

She lived on the quiet, often deserted end of the lake. “You know, I never thought I’d like solitude.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“I’m used to, or
was
used to noise and city life. Nashville was awake and there was always something to do. I didn’t sleep late or go to bed early.”

“I can see where there’d be an adjustment.”

“There has been, but it’s growing on me again. When I lived here before, I thought it was too quiet, then when I first went off to college, I thought it was too noisy.”

“Change can be good.”

“It can,” she agreed. Out the passenger window, the lake glistened under the late-afternoon sun. She’d gone swimming in it when she was younger, along with the rest of the county.

Several floating docks dotted the large body of water and all the girls would swim out to sunbathe on them, while most of the boys, including Travis and his brother Miles, would water-ski or fish or swing out and jump into the lake from long ropes that dangled from tree limbs.

Her guilty pleasure had been to watch Travis. She’d done it as discreetly as possible so no one would notice. She’d been in awe of him, fascinated by him, and crushing on him so hard. She had thought growing up, moving away, living among her own privileged kind in Nashville society would have cured her of fairy tales filled with hot, sex-in-a-pair-of-jeans Prince Charmings. She’d obviously been mistaken.

Several minutes later, the curve of her crescent-shaped drive came into view. Travis veered to the right and Bella tried to quell the pang of disappointment that the ride was over so soon.

He was magnetic, completely at home and yet out of place in this little country setting. Global warming had nothing on the heat of Travis’ thick Southern drawl and the crazy things it still did to her insides.

He pulled to a stop and before she could say anything, even a thank-you for the ride, Travis had the truck in park and the keys out of the ignition. She gaped at him, but he didn’t look at her, only got out and came around to open her door.

“Thanks,” she said, hopping down from the cab.

Travis inclined his head and gave a small smile. “My pleasure.”

She was surprised when he closed the door to the truck but didn’t leave. She was on the second step to the screened-in porch when Travis cleared his throat. Bella turned to find him leaning against the same front quarter panel as he had earlier. He’d crossed his arms over his chest and his feet at the ankles. Arrogance and heat lit his eyes. She couldn’t mistake the latter because it matched her own. Finally something discernible in the deep-blue irises.