Rabbit Creek Santa (9 page)

"Yeah, the other guy is much better looking than this mutt," GW said behind him.
He looked pretty battered, too.

"
Except for the big ass bald spot on your tail," Travis retorted.

"Least I don't taste like tail," GW laughed.

"Good thing or you and I'd be having a little chat," Max said from the wide doorway.

The men hooted
and cracked jokes about who was boss in GW's house. "Don't worry, Max, Travis says your wolver tastes like crow!" someone called.

While the teasing went on, Lindy made a move toward the platters she'd dropped. Still holding her wrist, Travis pulled
her to him. Sliding the hand he held behind her back, he brought her closer and kissed her, longer and harder than a playful kiss would warrant. Her lips were warm and soft and pliant beneath his and he wanted to prolong the kiss, but he was making a statement, not making love.

Surprised, Lindy kissed him back and then flushed crimson when he released her to the hoots and hollers of those in the room.

"Sweet as honey," he said quietly to her and louder to the others, "Had to get the taste of crow out of my mouth."

"Travis!" Lindy meant to say it sharply, but it came out a little breathless.

"Kiss her again, Travis!" someone called, "Sometimes it's the only way to shut them up!"

Travis didn't kiss her again. Instead, h
e took small slice of beef from his plate and popped it into her mouth which she'd opened to speak. The men laughed, but a sweet and satisfied collective sigh rose from the watching women.

In the time honored tradition of wolvers, Travis had officially declared a serious interest in making Lindy his mate. He'd shared his food. He'd
fed her from his hand.

Lindy
, standing like a deer caught in the glare of headlights, was the only one who wasn't smiling.

The short drive home was mostly in silence. Joey was exhausted from his playtime with the other pups and was asleep before they reached the end of the Cramer's long drive. His new bright blue pickup truck, a gift from Maggie and Roy, lay beside him on the seat. Glancing in his rearview mirror at the sleeping child, and then over at the child's mother, Travis thought he'd been blessed with two angels for Christmas.

He couldn't wait to tell his sisters. One would laugh and tell him he'd always been spoiled and got what he wanted. The other would laugh and warn that pups were only angels when they were sleeping. If he
told his parents, his mother would have her bags packed and be pushing his father out the door before they had time to hang up the phone.

He wouldn't te
ll them yet, he thought with another glance at Lindy. He still had to convince her that what they were feeling was right and good and meant to be. He'd felt it when they kissed and he knew she felt it, too, but there was something besides surprise in her eyes when he let her go and again when he fed her the meat. No one else saw it, but Travis did. It was fear.

Lindy had her eyes closed, too, but she wasn't sleeping. She was thinking about what she needed to say when they got back to the house
. In the quiet of the night after Joey was snug in his crib, she would gently explain why this thing between them couldn't be. With the way she felt after he kissed her and the way her wolf whined with pleasure when he fed them from his hand, it wasn't going to be easy.

She'd loved Joe with all her heart, but it hadn't felt the same as what she felt with Travis. With Joe, the love between them had grown slowly over time
. She didn't understand what she felt with Travis.

Her wolf
understood it, though, and she recognized something more. Travis wasn't a possible boyfriend or lover. He was her true mate, the wolver who was born for her. Her wolf had been happily content with Joe, but with Travis, she was excited, elated.

Her inner wolf
wasn't elated now, however. She was angry and snarling at Lindy's denial of it and Lindy's stomach churned with her wolf's irritation.

"You don't understand,"
Lindy whispered silently.

But her wolf did. You can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to your wolf.

By the time they pulled up to the house, Lindy had her speech prepared. She was ready to tell Travis why he needed to move on.

What she wasn't ready for was
the way Travis gently moved her out of the way so he could lift the sleeping Joey from his seat. She wasn't prepared for the way her heart melted when Joey snuggled into his Piyo's chest, his chubby little fingers tap-tapping against it as if assuring Travis that everything was all right. She wasn't prepared for her eyes to grow misty when her baby cried out in his sleep and Travis comforted him by running his fingers through Joey's soft curls and calling him son.

I wasn't the first time she'd heard him use the word. Men used it the same way they did buddy or pal or pup and yet this
time she heard it differently. What happened next wasn't a dramatic moment, nothing she would remember in years to come and yet it touched her.

When they entered the house, Travis laid the
sleeping boy on the sofa and began to gently remove Joey's snowsuit while Lindy ran for his pajamas. Stripped of his warm and cuddly cocoon, Joey's face crumpled and his little arms flailed. Lindy heard his cry of protest while she was upstairs and she hurried down to comfort him, knowing that if the boy awakened, it could be hours before he went back to sleep.

Travis was on his knees beside the sofa with his forearms to
either side of Joey, his warm jacket open and tented over the diaper clad pup.

"It's all right, son," he was whispering in Joey's ear while he stroked the sleepin
g boy's head. "Piyo's here. I'll keep you safe and warm till Mama comes. I'll always keep you safe and warm."

When he looked up and saw Lindy watching, he colored a little with embarrassment as if he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't. His words weren't meant for Lindy to hear.

"That's my name. Piyo," he said with a self-conscious shrug. "It makes me feel kinda special. Stupid, huh?"

But Lindy knew it wasn't stupid at all.
It was exactly what Travis said. Special.

He carried Joey up to his crib and watched while Lindy tucked her pup in, once more trading truck for soft bear. Travis had a lump in his throat as he watched her kiss her son goodnight. He'd watched his sister
s do that a hundred times. It was always sweet, but it never made him feel like this.

He waited for her in the hall and as soon as she closed Joey's door behind her, he took her in his arms. Without giving her a chance to
react, he kissed her. He felt her stiffen and thought for a moment she was going to pull away in protest, but then her body melted into his and just as she had at Maggie's, she kissed him back.

Unlike at Maggie's, here there was no reason to break the kiss
. Travis pressed her back against the wall of the narrow hall way. He pressed his knee against the wall between her legs and lifted her up on her toes. He could feel the heat of her, smell her rising ardor and damn, wasn't that the aphrodisiac on top of what he was already feeling. His wolf went wild.

Lindy wasn't faring any better. She'd meant to say no, but her mouth wouldn't form the word. When his lips touched hers, it was like a volcano opened up somewhere down below. It was the same as what happened at Maggie's only this time, he didn't stop. He didn't give her time
to think. He just kept pressing those warm, moist lips against hers, driving all reason from her mind, leaving her body at the mercy of her over enthusiastic wolf. His lips were not enough.

She was the one who opened her mouth an
d drove her tongue at his teeth and Travis responded, attacking her mouth with tongue and teeth as if he wanted to devour her. He did. He wanted every inch of her, couldn't get enough of the taste of her. His sweet little widow had turned into one hot little mama and damned if she wasn't feeling good.

Her red wool sweater was sweet. It molded to her figure, but not too tight, only hinting at the pleasures beneath. He'd been eyeing that sweater all night, but now he wanted it gone. He wanted no more hints. Travis ran his hands down her sides and lifted that sweater
up and up. Her arms snaked down through the sleeves. Their lips broke contact as he pulled it over her head and his wolf howled in frustration when confronted with that damn red bra. It might have been pretty. It might have been sexy. He didn't know. He didn't care. He wanted it gone.

Lindy felt the same way about his shirt
. She'd seen that naked chest in her kitchen. It bothered her then. It drove her crazy now. She wanted her hands on that warm skin. She wanted to run her fingers and tongue over those glorious pecs and abs and follow that thin strip of hair that ran down the middle to wherever it led. She ripped the shirt up from his jeans, fumbling with the buttons and whining with frustration when her fingers seemed all thumbs.

"Off, off, get it off
," she panted and Travis obliged by pulling the half buttoned shirt over his head and tossing it through the doorway behind him.

The feel of him under her probing hands was everything she imagined
it would be; all heat and hard muscle. She wanted that hard muscle holding her, surrounding her, pounding into her. She wanted him in a way that began to frighten her, but then he was kissing her again and all rational thought fled.

She tore at his belt while he tore at the back clasp of her bra. When the clasp gave way and the bra fell to the floor, Travis reared back and groaned
at the sight of the luscious pair of breasts finally and fully exposed.

He
looked up at those big eyes. Her face was flushed with her arousal, her lips slightly swollen from the force of their kisses. "God, you are beautiful," he whispered as he sank to his knees.

Her breasts were everything he'd dreamed they'd be, round and full and perfect.
They were soft under his kneading fingers, the skin like fine silk. He pressed his lip to one puckered nipple and tickled it with his tongue and chuckled against it when he felt it stiffen further. Soft and sensitive, that was his Lindy.

Lindy tilted her head back ag
ainst the wall, arching to increase the pressure of his mouth at her breast. Her skin felt hot. Her breath was coming in heavy gasps. When Travis scraped his teeth along the underside of her breast her heels came off the floor and she almost lost control of her wolf.

Which was exactly what Travis wanted her to do.
After thoroughly treating her breasts to his teasing lips and tongue, he worked his way downward. Button undone, zipper down, he began sliding her slacks down over her hips.

"Bedroom," Lindy suggested breathlessly
and gasped as the slacks and panties slid down her legs.

"Not waiting," he muttered
, tossing her shoes aside and stripping what was left from her legs. Hands finally palming the cheeks of her glorious ass, he ordered, "Spread."

"Travis!" she protested even as she did as she was told. What was wrong with her?
Her body was on fire, yet she was standing stark naked in her cold hallway with a man's mouth between… "Oh my god," she hissed when he touched his mouth to that most private place. She was up on her toes again.

He sucked, nibbled and kissed her clit until she thought she
would come apart. She grasped his shoulders and pressed her back to the wall, her hips bucking forward, looking for more. As his mouth kept working, his fingers slid into her, his thumb adding to the torment of her clit. Lindy rode his hand, driving her body onto it, unable to stop the passion rising inside her. She stiffened as the heat from the volcano that began with his kiss, boiled up and up until she thought she would explode in flames and fire.

"Let it go, sweet Lindy, let yourself go with it
," Travis whispered hoarsely.

"Travis?" she whispered back
and then squeaked, "Oh, oh, oh!"

It was all she could manage before the
volcano's scorching fire rose up through her body and consumed her. Her legs were shaking so badly her knees buckled, but Travis was there to catch her and she clung to his shoulders. He held her close and kissed her face and hair until the orgasm passed and her head fell to his chest.

"I think that's Ho, Ho, Ho, sweetheart
," he chuckled into her hair, "Best Christmas present anyone ever gave me."

Lindy responded with a
breathless giggle, still a bit disoriented. "You're not funny."

"Then why are you
laughing?"

"Because I've lost my mind
."

"See?
" Travis kissed her quickly on the lips before declaring proudly, "And I did that for you and now I'm going to do it again."

Lindy ran her hand along his cheek
. "But what about you?"

Leaning his forehead against hers, Travis grinned.
"Ah, sweetheart, I'm going to get mine. You can bet this merry little ass on that."

He
slid his hands over her rear end, giving her cheeks a squeeze that made her jump, then ran them up her sides from her hips, stopping to run his thumbs over her taut nipples eliciting another jump.

"
Oh yeah," he laughed. "I'm about to get mine. Legs around me," he told her as he lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he waltzed her in a circle, aiming for her bedroom door. She threw back her head and laughed, deep in her throat at his antics and it was the sexiest thing he'd ever heard.

He kicked the door closed behind them before falling on the bed with Lindy still in his arms and laughing.

"Travis!" she squealed and that was all that was heard but for the squeaking of the bed until Lindy was calling his name in a completely different way.