What He Really Feels (He Feels Trilogy) (28 page)

We headed up to my apartment, hand-in-hand, walked through the door, and headed straight to my bedroom to finish what we had started in the back of the cab.

Thank God we didn’t run into my roommate, or worse, Julianne.

It took about three seconds flat from the time my bedroom door closed to when I had Lindsay naked on the bed, panting underneath me. Since we had both warmed up in the limo, it didn’t take long before she was yelling out my name in ecstasy as I pumped up hard into her, finding my own release inside of her.

I collapsed across her chest and she held me against her, stroking my back softly. We must have stayed in that position for an hour before Lindsay finally spoke, her voice soft.

“I don’t have any clothes for tomorrow, and I don’t really want to do the morning walk of shame in my sequined dress. Any chance you’ll take me home?”

“Whatever you want, Gorgeous,” I murmured, kissing the side of her breast that was closest to my face. I was disappointed; I had hoped she would stay the night in my arms.

“You can help me with some boxes, too,” she said.

“You want me to stay with you?” I asked, finally summoning the strength to pick up my head and look her in the eyes.

“Of course, Tiger.
I don’t want to spend another night apart from you. My place tonight?”

I leaned up and kissed her. “I don’t want to spend another night apart from you, either.”

I forced myself to unwrap my body from hers, and I packed a small overnight bag with everything I would need to get ready in the morning, and then we headed to her place in my truck.

CHAPTER 14

I knew her address by heart since I’d had to input it for all of the deliveries I’d scheduled, but I realized I knew nothing about where she lived. It turned out that she lived in a condo that overlooked the beach. Her friend Pen owned the place – well, technically, Pen’s parents did – and Lindsay was staying there rent-free for the time being.

It was a beautiful, modern condo, and I wondered what the hell Pen’s parents did that allowed them to afford such a luxury. I gazed at the structure for a moment while Lindsay opened the front door. It appeared to be well-built, perfect for the beach view it afforded its residents. Lindsay led me in, and I glanced around the inside of the place. It was as well-built as the outside, and I suddenly had the inclination that I wanted to live there. Too bad it was Pen’s place.

A beautiful, curvy redhead with bright blue eyes and wild hair sauntered down the wooden staircase toward the door.

“Hey, Pen,” Lindsay said, walking over to a small table in the hallway that had a smattering of mail on it. “This is Travis.” She flipped through a few envelopes and advertisements.

When Pen got to the bottom of the stairs, I shook her hand. “The infamous Travis,” she greeted me with a smile and I immediately liked her.

“Hi,” I said, suddenly feeling like I was being scrutinized by the best friend… because I was.

“He’s cute, Linds,” Pen said. I think I blushed. “And he sent you all those flowers…”

“Hands off, sister,” she said, picking up a magazine from the bottom of the pile of mail and glancing up at us. “He’s mine.”

“She’s right,” I confirmed. “Sorry, Pen, but I’m taken by that gorgeous girl over there.” I jerked my thumb toward Lindsay.

Pen
giggled, a warm, throaty sound that made me think she could be a singer in one of those lounges where the singer lays on top of the piano. She had the body for it, too.

“Fine.
I’ll try my luck elsewhere. Know any good looking guys?”

“Not that are single,” I replied.

“Didn’t say they had to be.” She giggled again, and this time, I laughed with her.

“Stop flirting,” Lindsay commanded as she sidled up next to me, wrapping her arm around my waist. “Want a tour of the place?”

“Sure,” I said, thinking that the only room I really needed a tour of was Lindsay’s bedroom as I slung my arm over her shoulder.

I didn’t know what it was about her, but when I was around her, I was one horny fucker.

Literally.

I was burning with need for her, and I wasn’t sure where the powerful pull was coming from, but I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off of her.

Whatever was magnetizing me to her was all-encompassing, and I was certain that nothing could ever keep me from her.

She led me through the place quickly. It featured a family room and a huge, gourmet kitchen on the first floor (with dozens of flowers on the granite countertops, I noticed with a smile), along with a home office and huge wraparound deck that looked out over the beach.

The upstairs had a master bedroom that was Pen’s room and two other bedrooms that both had their own bathrooms, enormous walk-in closets, and balconies overlooking the beach. The house was as perfect as if I had designed it myself.

Lindsay led me into her room, and I noticed the Valentine’s Day tiger on her bed, which I found pretty significant considering when she had left her house earlier that night, she hadn’t even been talking to me. The fact that she had slept with it the night before even though she had been furious with me meant a lot to me. And, apparently, to TJ, who was eager to get out of my pants and into her.

As I held Lindsay’s body close against mine on her balcony listening to the waves roll in and out off the shore, I knew that this house was perfection. And I also knew that we were going to make a lot of great memories there, the first of which was about to begin.

“Gorgeous,” I whispered, looking down at the top of her head as it rested against my chest.

“Yeah, I love it here,” she murmured.

“I wasn’t talking about the scenery.”

“You’re a smooth talker.”

“I don’t know about that. I’m just stating a fact. You got your nickname for a very specific reason.”

“So did you, Tiger.”

“I once told you that the nickname you gave me could apply to you, too. Remember?”

She nodded and pulled back to look up at me. I lowered my head and pressed my lips to hers.

“God, Lindsay,” I whispered, tightening my arms around her body.

“I know,” she murmured back.

“You’re just… fucking spectacular.”

I felt her smile against me, and she kissed my neck.

“You’re pretty fucking spectacular yourself.”

“Thank you for giving me a second chance.” My voice was soft and uncertain as I briefly, for maybe the very first time, thought about how differently the outcome could have been if she had decided not to go with “Xavier.” I don’t know what made me so confident that she would show, but I hadn’t allowed myself to think about the alternative. It was too scary and too painful to even consider.

“Well, for the record, you didn’t give me much of a choice.”

I grinned. “No, I didn’t.”

She looked up at me for a moment. Then she laid her head back against my chest and started talking, and once she started, the words tumbled out.  

“Travis, I didn't want to see you today because I knew that as soon as I did, I would give in to whatever you asked. Based on what I know about my feelings for you, I know that you could hurt me really badly. I am so scared of that. I knew that the moment I laid eyes on you tonight, I wouldn’t be able to resist you. That's why I didn’t respond to your flowers or your messages. It was because I'm so fucking afraid of what you could do to me.”

I squeezed her more tightly against me. “Jesus, Lindsay. I’m so sorry about what a jerk I was.”

She tightened her arms around me, too. “You weren’t a jerk. You made a mistake.”

“Look at me.”

She did, and I dropped my head to plant a kiss on her lips.

I murmured quietly against her lips. “I’m so, so sorry about Sunday night.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Okay. It isn’t. You hurt me when you ignored my calls and my texts and I can’t be in a relationship where I’m going to get hurt like that.”

“And you won’t be. I won’t do it again. I'm falling for you faster than I realized I could fall for someone.” I brushed her lips with mine, and then I pulled back and gazed down at her. “I don't know how to deal with these feelings because they are so unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I’m at a loss here. I loved someone else for so long and then you came in and it was like I just snapped my fingers and my feelings for her were gone. It was like I opened my eyes to what it could really be like, and it’s so much better with you.”

“Oh, Tiger,” she whispered. She took a deep breath, and then she brushed her lips against my chin. “God, what you do to me.”

“If it’s anything like what you do to me, I get it.”

We headed to bed, both totally exhausted from the long day. We lay cuddling together, our heads on our own pillows, facing each other with one arm under our pillows and the other draped across each other’s waist.

“Do you want to continue with our alphabet getting to know you game?” I asked.

“Why don’t we just talk?” she said.

“Tell me about you, then.”

“Well, as you know, I’m twenty-four. My name is Lindsay Rachelle Rhodes.”

“Rachelle?”

“It’s a family name. My mom’s great-aunt. My mom always loved the name.” I nodded, and she continued. “I am a junior event planner and someday I want to start my own business.”

“I know that stuff.”

“Tell me about you.”

“Okay. I’m Travis Matthew Miller. I’m twenty-six. I’m an architect. Now you go.”

She rolled her eyes. “What else do you want to know?”

“Tell me about your family.”

“I have two older brothers and a sister. I’m the youngest. My parents got divorced when I was five. I have three nieces and two nephews, all my sister’s kids. Neither of my brothers is married, but one is in a relationship. The other one is… kind of a douche.”

I chuckled.
“Names?”

“My mom is Lorraine, and my parents wanted to have girls with L names. My sister is Laura, and she’s married to Steven. They didn’t do theme names. Her girls are Mackenzie, Olivia, and Sophia. The boys are Logan and Ethan.”

“Brothers?”

“My dad’s name is Henry, so my brothers got H names: Harrison and Hunter. Harrison has been dating Katie for three years, and Hunter’s the douche.”

“You know I’ll never remember any of this.”

“Obviously.”
She grinned.

“Why is Hunter a douche?”

“He’s a good looking guy and he knows it. He uses his charm against women.”

I nodded. “I take it he used it against the wrong woman?”

“Yes. My roommate-slash-best friend Pen.”

“Ah. How long did they date?”

“They didn’t ‘date,’ per se. They had sex a few times and she thought it was going somewhere but he didn’t.”

“Too bad.
Pen seems like a catch.”

“She is. She’s amazing.”

“Where do your parents and siblings live?”

“I’m from here originally. I grew up in Point Loma, and my mom still lives in the house where she raised us. I don’t talk to my dad. My sister is in Oceanside,
Harrison is in Carlsbad, and Hunter lives about five miles from here.”

“What happened with your dad?”

“He left my mom with four young kids. He’s been largely absent in my life.”

Hearing this made me sad, especially given the amazing family I had been blessed into. It made me want to take care of her. “Did your mom ever remarry?”

She nodded. “Yeah. My siblings and I all call him ‘Dad’ because he’s been around for fifteen years, but he can be hard to handle sometimes.”

“How?”

“He’s just very quick to point out flaws in others but can’t see his own. He can be nasty and vicious.”

I knew people like that, but none that I kept as a permanent part of my life, opting instead to surround myself with more positive influences.
“Anything else about your family?” I asked, not sure how else to respond to that revelation and wondering what effects that sort of environment had on her.

“Just that I’m basically the world’s best aunt.”

“That’s cool. I’m basically the world’s best uncle, so just another item for our common interests list.”

She giggled. “Tell me about your family. Who are the nieces or nephews who are blessed with the world’s best uncle?”

“Nephews. Parker and Jackson, three and five, and they belong to my older sister, Liz. My parents, Kathy and Jack, are awesome people still happily married after I have no idea how many years. I’m very close to my family.”

“Why did you become an architect?”

“My dad is an architect, and oddly, that made me never want to pursue it. I wanted to do my own thing and I didn’t want to be him. But when it came time to choose a career path, design was where my passion was. And now I couldn’t imagine any other career, except, obviously, a professional baseball player, but apparently that wasn’t in the cards for me.”