Afraid to Fly (Anchor Point #2)(54)

I don't care if it was only a day and a night. I fucking missed you. 

"Shit," he ground out. "You're gonna make me come if you keep going like that."

I moaned around his dick.

"Fuck yeah. Keep . . . keep going."

Game on.

I stroked the shaft and concentrated my mouth on the head, and his every sound told me I was very much on the right track. Trembling fingers ran through my hair, and the air was full of whispered profanity.

"D-don't stop." He shivered hard. "Gonna come. Oh God, gonna come. Oh my God."

A shudder ran through his entire body. His cock thickened against my tongue, and then released, flooding my mouth with semen, and I kept right on stroking him and teasing him.

"S-stop," he stammered. "That's enough." He sank down into the mattress as I sat up. "Wow."

I wiped my lips with the back of my hand, then joined him on the pillows again, and he drew me into a kiss.

"Don't know if I've mentioned it before," he slurred, "but you have the most amazing mouth."

"Likewise." I dropped another light kiss on his lips. "And damn good hands too."

He chuckled. "You did seem to be enjoying them."

"No complaints at all." I grinned. "Five out of five stars. Would put my dick in your hands again."

We both burst out laughing, and God, it felt good to be laughing with him again. Somehow that made this seem even more real than being tangled up and turned on. Like we weren't just going through the motions, but had really come back to the way things should've been.

He pulled a sheet up over us, and we lay there for a long time, kissing lazily and enjoying the afterglow. I had absolutely missed his hands and his mouth, but mostly, I'd missed him. Now that I was beside him again, everything felt right in the world.

After a while, I said, "I missed you."

"It wasn't even all that long, but I missed you too. I'm sorry."

"We're here now. That's all I care about."

He lifted his head, and his eyes were full of uncertainty. Then he glanced over his shoulder. "I should probably give Kimber the all clear." He reached for his phone.

"I feel bad we scared her off."

"She'll be okay. She'd been trying to talk me into calling you, so I think she just wanted to give us some elbow room so we could talk." He quickly wrote out a text, sent it, and put the phone aside again. As he lay back down next to me, draping his arm over me, he smiled. "I'll talk to her about it later and make sure she's okay, but I'm pretty sure she'll be fine." With a quiet laugh, he added, "She'll be less inclined to kick my ass now that she knows we made up."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. She and Paul both thought I was an idiot." He caressed my cheek. "They were right."

I took his hand and kissed it gently. "You weren't being an idiot."

"I'm sorry, though." He smoothed my hair. "I guess I freaked out."

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm going to worry about it. Trust me." Travis sighed. "It's par for the course with me, I'm afraid."

"I can live with that." I draped my arm over him. "We're both package deals, you know? And we both happen to come with a lot of preexisting shit. And none of it is going away. But if you can be patient with mine, I can be patient with yours, and I think we can make this work."

Travis searched my eyes. Then, slowly, he relaxed, and a smile came to life. "I can definitely be patient with yours."



       
         
       
        

"Me too."

His expression turned more serious. "I'm not going to pretend that it's going to be easy." He ran his fingers through my hair. "In fact, I'm pretty sure we're both going to have moments where we wonder what the hell we got ourselves into. But don't think for a second that's enough to make me want to leave." He cupped my face and added a barely whispered, "It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it."

"Absolutely." I kissed him gently, letting it linger for a moment, then touched my forehead to his. "I love you."

"I love you too."

The relief of being here with him, naked and satisfied and together, nearly drove me to tears. I didn't care if the future wouldn't be easy. I'd had a taste of being without him, and I didn't like it.

This was what I wanted, and somehow, it was what I had.





The Following Spring

Sean and Paul's wedding couldn't have happened on a nicer day. Being the Pacific Northwest, there'd been plenty of rain lately-in fact, the sand was still damp from yesterday's downpour-but today was gorgeous. It was quite warm, actually, even with the cool breeze off the ocean, so thank God Paul and Sean had requested no uniforms. It didn't matter that Paul was one of my oldest and closest friends. I wasn't baking in a dress uniform just because he was tying the knot. I had my goddamned limits.

I had no idea what kinds of battles had ensued, but Sean and his mother had finally come to an agreement of some sort. The wedding was still happening out on the beach. With about sixty guests in folding chairs, it was probably small by her standards and huge by his, but he was smiling and relaxed, so he must've been okay with it.

Maybe it was the recent haircut, but I swore Paul was grayer than he'd been a few months ago. Which didn't surprise me, really-I'd planned a wedding before. No one made it through that particular gauntlet without a few gray hairs. Sean probably had a few too, but the black and cobalt-blue dye hid them.

While the grooms hurried around, making sure everything was running smoothly, Clint and I found seats in the rows of white folding chairs set up on the beach. The ceremony would be starting soon, so everyone was slowly making their way over here.

Beyond the white archway, Kimber and her boyfriend had strolled down toward the water. He was carrying her shoes in one hand, holding her hand with the other.

"They're pretty cute together, aren't they?" Clint asked.

I beamed. "Yeah, they are."

They'd been dating for a month or so, and I was still edgy about him, but that had less to do with him and more to do with the guys who'd rattled her in the past. He seemed nice. He was polite and respectful, and she was comfortable enough to be alone with him, which said a lot. As a nice switch from her previous boyfriend, he didn't get bitchy when she had to work long hours or focus on her classes, and he was almost as excited as she was about her graduation next week. 

So, since he wasn't an asshole and she was happy with him, I was happy for them.

But if you break her heart, kid, I will break you in half.

Clint put his arm across the back of my chair and kissed my cheek. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah." My back was still as fucked up as ever, and the TENS hadn't even been helping all that much lately, but I'd loaded up on Motrin and taken it easy the last few days. So I felt as good as could be expected. I'd take it.

I turned to him. "What about you? How are you holding up?"

He nodded, smiling tightly. "I'm good."

I didn't press. I knew exactly where his mind was-on his kids.

It had been a long road, but his ex-wife had finally agreed to start taking steps toward an amended custody agreement that would allow unsupervised visits. There was even talk of letting them come stay with us for an entire summer. If not this year, definitely next year.

She'd dug her heels in at first, especially since she and I hadn't met face-to-face, but then Clint had persuaded her to fly up here for a weekend.

So, in a couple of weeks, she'd be here.

Ever since they'd made the travel arrangements, he'd been distracted almost constantly. If things went well while she was here, then she'd come back in July with the kids. He wanted so badly for the visit to go well. For her to like me. He was so stressed about it now, I suspected he'd sleep for a solid week after she left. He was guardedly optimistic, though, and seemed to be feeling better about it as time went on.

I was optimistic things would go well too. She and I had talked on Skype a few times, and we'd gotten along, but she wanted to come to Anchor Point by herself before she let the kids come up. That way she could see our house, see the town, and meet me in person.

Clint was frustrated, but he also understood. And his frustration had eased a bit because he'd gotten to spend some time with the kids this year. Since January, he'd been to see them four times, burning a hell of a lot of leave by driving to Vegas each time, not to mention worrying me when he had to go over the snowy passes. I would have been happy to go with him, but there was no way I could cope with the road trip. And really, the kids needed to see him a few times before they had to adapt to my existence.

He'd come out to them in February, and they'd all taken it well. Better than he or their mother had expected. It probably hadn't hurt that he'd done it while he was sitting with them and their counselor, who skillfully guided them all through questions and feelings.

When he'd told them he had a boyfriend, though, the walls had come up. With some time and patience, though, and with the counselor's help so the kids could vent and ask questions, everyone had gotten used to the idea. I hadn't talked to them yet-his ex-wife wanted to wait until she'd vetted me in person first-but they seemed excited to meet me.