James River - Lost Lady Part 19

area.

Regan felt Travis's presence before she saw him. He stood in the doorway, blocking the light with his big body. Her body went rigid as her eyes locked with his.

Neither of them moved; they just stood looking at each other. Wave after wave of emotion went through

Regan until a loud cras.h.i.+ng sounded in her ears. After minutes, hours it seemed, she turned on her heel

and, skirts flying, fled back toward her office.

Farrell wasn't sure what was going on between Regan and this man, but he had a good idea. He didn't like this kind of reaction from her. Losing no time in following her, he was inches behind her.

"Regan, love," Farrell said as he put his hands on her shoulders. She was shaking so badly she could

hardly stand.

But Regan was barely aware of him. All she heard was the pounding of her heart and the slow, heavy steps moving deliberately toward her door. Trembling, the blood gone from her head and hands, she clutched at the edge of her desk and leaned toward Farrell's strength.

The door to her office was pushed open with brutal force, slamming back against the wall.

"Why did you leave me?" Travis demanded in a low whisper, his eyes drilling into hers.

As he came closer she could not speak, could only look at him wildly.

"I asked you a question," Travis said.

Farrell stepped between them. "Now see here. I don't know who you are, but you have no right to

anything from Regan."

He didn't finish what he had to say because Travis idly grabbed the smaller man's shoulders and tossed him to the far side of the room.

Regan barely noticed, only aware of Travis coming ever closer to her.

When he was inches from her, he gently touched her temple with his fingertips, and Regan felt her knees go weak. Before she could collapse, he caught her, lifted her in his arms, and buried his face in her neck. Without a word exchanged, he carried her toward the door, turned right, and went toward her apartment at the end of the hall. After two days of talking to the man Farrell had hired, Travis knew the entire floor plan of the Silver Dolphin Inn.

Her mind too full to think at all, she never considered what she was doing or committing herself to. All she knew was that Travis held her, and, more than life itself, she wanted him to make love to her.

Gently, as if she might break, he laid her on the bed and then sat beside her, his hands holding her face, fingertips caressing her cheeks and temples. "I had almost forgotten how beautiful you are," he whispered, "how delicately lovely you are."

Her hands went up his arms. How magnificent it felt to feel his strength once again, to feel the nearness of him! Her trembling began again as desire flooded her, coursing through her blood hotly.

"Travis," she managed to whisper before his mouth covered hers.

Desperate, frantic, turbulent, they began to tear at each other. There was no desire for sweetness, only a violent need that had to be fulfilled. Clothes tore away, b.u.t.tons flew across the room, a handful off laces burst, and delicate stockings shredded. As they came together like a clap of thunder following a burst of brilliant lightning, they clawed and clung, drove each other deeper and deeper, trying to satisfy their overpowering, uncontrollable need of each other.

Violently, in a blinding flash, they arched together as spasms twisted their bodies. Clinging in a breathless crush for full minutes before their muscles relaxed, they finally surfaced and looked at each other, their eyes seeming to try to devour each other.

It was Regan who broke the spell—by laughing—for Travis, his chest and one arm bare, wore one s.h.i.+rt sleeve alone.

Glancing down at what she was laughing at, he grinned delightedly.

"The pot shouldn't call the kettle black," he said as he nodded pointedly toward the remnants of her attire.

A petticoat was bunched about her waist, while a torn one lay under them. Her stays, half on, half torn off, were crumbled under one arm, while her dress was about twelve feet across the room, dangling by a b.u.t.ton from the corner of a picture frame. Rising on her elbows, she glanced down at her feet and saw that one stocking and its pretty lacy garter was intact while the other, with holes in it, was tangled in her toes.

Travis wore the one sleeve of his s.h.i.+rt and his boots and nothing in between.

With one look at Travis—his eyes dancing, his delicious body so near—she started laughing, her arms going out to him, pulling him to her as they began to roll about the bed, laughing gleefully, while Travis quite expertly tore away the remnants of her clothes. Never seeming to leave her, he took his boots off, and a loud crash of breaking china as one of the boots landed somewhere in the room caused new hilarity.

Sharp, teasing, nipping little bites on her shoulders and arms made her stop laughing and turn serious as she gave herself over to his lovemaking. Their first pa.s.sion was gone, and they could spend more time reexploring, rediscovering each other. As Travis's mouth traveled down her body, she closed her eyes, gave herself over to her senses. Running her hand down his arm, she caught his hand, raised it to her lips, and began to taste those broad fingertips that gave her so much pleasure. Sc.r.a.ping them against her teeth, gently chewing on the soft pads, running her tongue across his knuckles, she was so aware that this was the hand of a man—scarred, hard, callused, broad, yet delicate and sensitive. She bit hard in the palm, wanting to devour him.

Travis pulled his hand away to run it over her legs, to ma.s.sage, to kiss and caress, until she kicked her legs in impatience, wanting him again. When he brought his head up again, she pulled his mouth down to hers and threatened to swallow him whole.

Travis gave a low, seductive laugh and pulled her to him, both of them on their sides, facing, as he manipulated her legs around him and groaned when he entered her softness. Holding him tightly, staying with him as he moved her body, he prolonged her ecstasy for minutes, days, weeks, years, a century, as her head lolled backward, rolling, unaware of who or where she was.

When she thought she would go insane, he abruptly pushed her to her back and thrust into her long and hard until their bodies at last found release.

Without a word, exhausted, sweaty, sated, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Regan was the first to awaken, surprised to see the sun setting outside her window. Stretching, moving away to look at Travis sprawled across the bed, she wondered if she'd ever have any sense when it came to him. For the first time in years she'd completely forgotten her responsibilities to her daughter, her friend, and her business. Quietly, so as not to disturb him, she left the bed and dressed, grabbing what was left of her mutilated garments from the furniture. Before she left the room she planted a kiss on Travis's hair and covered the lower half of him with a light quilt.

Silently, she left the room and headed toward the kitchen. Brandy must be wondering what had happened to her.

Travis awoke slowly, feeling as if he'd slept well for the first time in years. With a smile on his lips, he turned his head to look at his wife, but, instead of Regan, he encountered a pair of solemn brown eyes watching him intently.

"h.e.l.lo," Travis said quietly to the little girl. "What's your name?"

"Jennifer Stanford. Who are you?"

Even before she spoke, Travis had an idea of who she was. There was a look about her of his younger brother, and the arch of her eyebrows was very like their mother's. "Is your mother's name Regan?"

Seriously, the child nodded.

Sitting up on the bed, pulling the quilt across his lower half, Travis was also serious. "What would you say if I were your father?"

Jennifer traced a pattern on the bedspread. "I might like it. Are you my father?"

"I think it would be safe to say I am."

"Are you going to live with us?"

"I was planning for you to live with me. If you were to come sit by me I could tell you all about where I live. Last year I bought four ponies just the right size for my daughter."

"You'd let me ride a pony?"

"It would be yours to care for, to ride, and to do whatever you wanted with it."

After just a moment's hesitation, Jennifer climbed onto the bed beside her father, far away at first, but as

Travis's storytelling increased, soon she was sitting in his lap.

And that is how Regan found them, cuddled together, fascinated by each other. It was a charming picture.

As soon as Jennifer saw her mother, she started bouncing on the bed with glee. "This is my daddy, and

we're going to go live with him, and he has a pony for me and pigs and chickens and a treehouse and a

swimming pond, and we can go fis.h.i.+ng and everything!"

After one quick look at Travis, Regan held out her arms for her daughter. "Brandy has supper ready for you in the kitchen."

"Can Daddy come too?"

"We need to talk," Regan said sternly. "He'll see you later—that is, if you eat what Brandy gives you."

"I will," Jennifer promised, waving to her father before scampering out the door.

"She's a beauty," Travis said. "I couldn't be prouder*"He stopped when Regan turned to look at

him in fury. "Did I do something?"

"Did you do something?" she mocked, trying to control her temper. "How dare you tell my daughterwe're going to live with you!""But of course you'll return now that I've found you. It just took me a while, that's all.""Did it ever occur to you that I've always known where you were?" she fumed. "At any time that I wanted, I could have returned to you and that monstrosity of a plantation of yours."

"Regan," Travis said, his voice low. "I don't understand why you left, but I can tell you that you and my daughter are returning home with me."

"Right there is why I left," she said. "From the moment I met you you've told me what to do and how to

do it. I wanted to stay in England, but you wanted me to come to America, so I came to America. You initiated a wedding ceremony without even asking me if I wanted to marry you. And then at that plantation of yours! I was left in charge of a hundred people who did everything they could to defy my authority. And all the while you were* out chasing horses with your dear Margo."

At the last, Travis smiled. "Jealousy, was that why you left me?"

Regan threw up her hands in despair. "Haven't you heard anything I've said? I don't want you to run my life, or Jennifer's. I don't want her growing up and being told when to do something and how to do it. I want her to learn to make her own decisions."

"When have I ever stopped you from making decisions? I gave you half a plantation of decisions to make, and I never interfered."

"But I didn't know how to make them. Can't you understand? I was so afraid, in a new country around strangers who constantly told me I didn't know how to do anything. I was afraid!"

Travis's eyes were twinkling. "From what I've heard, you've done very well here. You didn't seem to be afraid of Americans here, so why were you there? I admit I have a fairly harsh group of judges working for me, but if you did it here, why couldn't you have done it then?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Here I had to do something or starve. At your place I could have stayed in my room and never come out."

"Which you did most of the time, if I remember correctly."

She gave him a sharp look because she'd had no idea he'd known what she did during the day. Had he any idea how terrified she'd been during those months?

He continued, "After starting from scratch and buying and building a whole town, my place should be easy to run. I have a wagon here. We could pack Jennifer's clothes and yours and leave tomorrow. Or, better yet, let's leave now. You have clothes at home, and I'll buy my daughter everything new."

"Stop it!" she shouted. "Right this moment! Do you hear me? You are not going to start running my life for me again. I like having some power of my own. I like deciding what I want to do rather than having you or my uncle or even Farrell making my decisions for me."

His head came up. "Who's Farrell?"

With a look of disgust, she answered, "The man you so blithely tossed across the room this morning."

"So what's between you two?" he asked, his eyes in a hawklike gaze.

"I knew Farrell in England. In fact, I was engaged to him once, and he came to America to find me."