Awakening Veronica (34 page)

Travis pressed his lips together as he stroked her jaw. “I’ve decided to retire. I’ll be going back to DC to pack up my mostly empty apartment and tie up loose ends.”

“By then you’ll know about the job in California. You’ll have made a decision.”

Suddenly the time remaining felt so precious and fear settled in that what remained was now tainted by her outburst.

Hank let out a long sigh and said, “Nika, you’re torturing yourself because you can’t imagine a permanent solution which involves you being happy, can you?”

She couldn’t reply because the only answer she could give wouldn’t make him happy, and might only get her in deeper trouble for kissing Travis in front of everyone at the Dancing Pony when she’d showed up with Hank. People were probably talking about that already. He was worried about how she felt when he should be worried about damage control.

“Hank, I shouldn’t have said anything. I should’ve stayed home tonight. Maybe this was hoping for too much. I’ve been in my own happy fantasy bubble for two weeks but I was bound to come back to Earth eventually. This is what I get for hoping—”

Hank growled. “Just adding more licks, Nika.”

Travis pulled her toward him and kissed her hard. He gathered her hair in his fist and held her tight when she squirmed, immobilizing her. He pulled back, licking his lips. “I’ve missed you for five days. And I get home and when I’m expecting a warm welcome, all I hear is you talking about how it’s going to end soon. That’s not a warm welcome, and what makes you think I’d throw away what we have together so easily? That job is not the only opportunity out there.”

“But I—”

Travis smiled. “You’re still talking.” He laid his lips on hers and she struggled. They needed to understand. They needed to know that she understood. It’d been a long shot to begin with. But then his words began to sink into her panicked brain and she stopped squirming against him. His words, and Hank’s echoed in her mind, and the tight knot in her loosened in tiny, hopeful increments. She wrapped her arms around him.

Hank spoke into the stillness. “You’re so certain that we’d cast you aside for our jobs. Yes, our jobs, if we decide to pursue them, do make a difference, but Nika what you’re failing to take into account is that
you
make a difference in our lives. You’re scared because you think you demanded a declaration but you don’t have to demand anything. I’ll gladly give it to you. I want you to stay in Divine. I want to protect you from Brent, and from the hurt your family members and their dumbass friends have dealt to you. I want you in my bed every night and I want you in my life. My only purpose in pushing you was because I need to know where you stand. As far as you kissing Travis in the Pony, I gotta tell you that horse is already out of the barn.”

Veronica gasped and Travis pulled back, gazing at her with eyes hazy with passion. She wanted to continue that hot kiss but she needed to know. “What happened?”

Hank shrugged and smiled at her. “The gossip mill, fueled by Tabitha Lester, I’m sure. Several people in the office knew about you, me, and Trav, and they weren’t unhappy either. My secretary has been bugging me for ages to find a good woman and settle down so she can babysit. And individuals in town have made comments the last couple of days.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

“You were busy and I didn’t want to derail your work, and I didn’t mind. No, not all of them were happy about it but I think the majority were either unaffected by the news or happy for us. One lady wanted to know if she could get you to autograph one of your books for her.”

Surreal.

Travis tilted her face so she looked up at him. “I was already feeling a pull to Divine, Nika. Running into you at the wedding has only increased that pull. But I haven’t wanted to push you, either. I want you to make your own choices about staying in Divine. Yes, the opportunity in California is a good one but it isn’t the only one. They may wind up passing me over. But, I gotta say, regardless, I hope you’ll consider moving down here. Now tell me what Brent is up to.”

She explained the texts and the e-mails from Brent to him, and that she’d reminded him on several occasions that he had to move out—no ifs, ands, or buts, to no avail. She’d even had the landlord phone him but he hadn’t answered any of the calls.

Travis went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. While he put it together, he looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes. “Guess what I did during all those delays getting home.”

“What?”

“I read your books.”

“More than one?”

“Yes. I read
The Game Warden Traps a Wife
and
Bound at the Bonfire
.”

Her original sweet romance and her first attempt at erotic romance. “That’s quite a wide range of heat levels.”

Travis gave her a warm smile that made her tension unfurl. “Yes, it was.”

“Did you like them?”

Hank walked in the kitchen with the beautiful crocheted gown draped over his shoulder. “I started a fire for us.” Without another word he started undressing her, and she went instantly wet as his eyes roved over her nudity.

“I did. Reading your first book was very…”

“Awkward?”

He scoffed. “Why do you have to expect the worst? I was
about to say
it was humbling. I know you have to develop characters and add conflict and all that ‘writerly’ stuff but I was humbled by how you characterized the game warden. I hope I get the chance to try to live up to some of those fantasies. And the other, erotic one…hell.”

“You liked it?”

Travis pressed his lips together and gave his head a shake. “You’ve got a handle on that erotic writing thing. You’re naughty.”

Hank helped her into the gown and chuckled. “She is at that. I started
Bound at the Bonfire
on my lunch break today.”

“You did? You didn’t say anything.”

“Forgot. I would’ve told you but other stuff stole my attention this evening. Trav is right, you
are
a naughty girl. I can see why your readers love you.”

She bit her lip and said, “So…how did you react to
Bound at the Bonfire
?” The curiosity was killing her.

Travis made a rumbly sound of amusement. “That outdoor bondage scene, the one that happens on the camping trip, was hot.”

“I haven’t gotten that far yet,” Hank said with amusement lacing his voice. “Don’t give it away.”

“Let’s just say that your writing talents include getting me hard.”

Hank nodded. “I’ll go with you on that one. Sometime, I want you to read to us from what you’re writing.”

“You’d like that?”

“I think it’d be a great start to an evening of play,” Travis said. “I’d like that, too. You look beautiful, Nika. The gown is sexy on you.”

They both kissed her, and although she was still worried about what’d happened earlier in the evening, she went willingly into his arms for a kiss, and then turned to Hank and gave him the same.

Hank sipped from his mug of coffee and said, “Let’s go sit in front of the fire and hammer out what happened earlier.”

She took her place in the middle of Hank’s couch, folding her feet up under her and curling into a ball, thinking that they wanted to talk some more, but Hank stood before her, looking so powerful and masculine in his boots, jeans, and his sexy silver temples and sideburns. There was a smile on his face and a hot look in his eyes as he said, “Maybe ‘hammer’ wasn’t the right word, Nika. Stand, please.”

She did as he asked, responding instantly to his steely tone, and then she remembered what he’d told her earlier. “Time for my spanking?” She smiled, her pussy warming at the thought of another spanking like the first one.

He sat with Travis on his left and said, “Time to get your attention. Lift your gown, please.”

He’d said “please” both times, so mannerly, but his tone left no room for argument. She went completely wet as she gathered the skirt of the gown into her hands until she had it up around her hips. He gazed at her, his lips a straight line, and she knew she was going to get extra licks for not lifting it higher. “Have it your way, Nika.”

She pulled it up to her waist and Travis murmured, “Good girl,” as he caressed her abdomen and her mound, drawing a soft exhalation from her.

She was about to ask them what next, already knowing, when Hank pulled her across their laps, so her upper body rested on Travis’s thighs and he pulled her arms forward and held them so she couldn’t pull them back down. Her arousal was like a helium balloon rising on the currents of heat in his eyes.

Her bare ass was across Hank’s lap. He positioned her so her legs slanted down and her feet rested on the floor, giving him the perfect angle for spanking her. More liquid arousal leaked from her pussy as he squeezed her butt cheeks, molding them with his callused hand, warming them, and increasing her feelings of vulnerability. “Nika, we’re tired of hearing you doubt your worth to us.”

Wham!
Oh, that one was hard. It jarred her whole body and made her skin sting.

“You insulted me by implying the only reason I’d want you with me is because I feel sorry for you. That’s not how I feel at all.”

Wham!
That one was even harder and her whole body shook with the force of it. Pain bloomed in her other butt cheek. Tears misted her eyes.

“You pulled back from giving Travis a sweet welcome home, hurting his feelings.”

She scoffed but didn’t have time to voice her objection before his palm landed again.

Wham!

Holy shit! That one stung something fierce. Okay, clearly this is not going to be a fun spanking.
But every word he’d said was true, although she didn’t believe for a minute that Travis got his feelings hurt that easily.

“You called yourself stupid. Three times. You are not stupid.”

Wham!
That one was really hard. Her lip swelled from biting it so hard, and from being facedown. Her breasts rubbed against Travis’s thighs, stimulating her nipples, and she moaned.

“You believe that I would need to be forced into making a declaration of how I feel, we feel, about you. Silly girl.”

Wham!

Ow-ow-ow!

“You insulted us by implying that you don’t trust us enough to hope that there is the chance for something more between us. You implied that we would let you go easily. Let me tell you right now, Veronica Benedict, you should be full of hope.”

Wham!
Holy fucking hell! She wasn’t going to be able to sit down!

“You implied that you don’t make a difference in our lives.”

Wham!
She burst into sobs. Maybe he had been right when he’d used the word hammering. Her butt felt hammered. But more importantly, so did all her doubts. He beat them all down for her and she dropped her head into Travis’s lap, her tears soaking his jeans as she cried.

Hank’s hands gently squeezed her cheeks, making them even hotter. They felt swollen and painful and must’ve been bright red. This definitely hadn’t been a pleasure spanking like they’d given her before.

Hank spoke softly as he stroked her bottom. “Do I have your attention now, Nika?”

No other thoughts circled in her brain and she nodded. No doubt, no negative tapes playing in her head. She listened to him.

“You listen to Hank, Nika,” Travis said softly as he cupped and stroked the back of her head. She nodded as she cried.

“It’s only been a little over a week we’ve been together, Nika. So much has happened, to us and to you, it seems longer. But I know my own mind. And I know how Travis feels. We want you in our lives. And we don’t want to change you. We want you just the way you are, with all of those qualities you perceive as flaws. Being with you…Nika, being with you is like coming in from a freezing rain and finding the house full of warmth and love. We can’t predict the future and we don’t know if you want to stay with us just for now or maybe forever but I’m not letting you pull back into your shell. You’re not going back to the foreman’s house. I know that sounds bossy and highhanded. But I don’t believe that in your heart you really want to go back there either. Divine loves you. Our friends love you. They were ready to go to war for you the other day when those ladies showed up. Everyone I’ve talked to, who has met you, has told me how much they like having you here. You need a declaration, Nika? I’ll give you a declaration. I want you here with me, with us. I want to bundle you up, get in the truck, and bring whatever remains of your life in Montana down here where we can love you and protect you and take care of you. And if I run across Brent, Phil, or Gordon while we’re there…” His harsh growl made all her senses fire with the purely territorial sound. “I’ll find it hard to hold back from beating the shit out of all three of them.”

Her body felt limp and warm, draped over them as the words washed over her and she lifted her head to look over her shoulder at him. “Divine loves me?”

Hank stroked the underside of her chin and said, “Do I have your attention?”