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.”