“Yes,” Travis answered immediately. “I would have done anything to keep him from hurting the rest of my family.”
Ally reached out her hand and stroked his cheek, letting her fingers wander into his hair. “You were so incredibly brave. I know everything you went through had to be painful, yet you survived intact.”
Travis barked out an unamused laugh. “Maybe not intact, but yes, I survived.”
“I’m sorry I had another meltdown on you.” Ally felt a little silly now. After all that Travis had gone through in his lifetime, her history was mild in comparison.
“Don’t,” Travis said huskily, his arm tightening around her waist. “Don’t minimize your emotions or push them under your skin. Stop being so damn hard on yourself. It’s not your fault, Ally.”
Ally took a deep breath, her gaze clashing with Travis’s. “I need to get my shit together.”
Travis rose, taking her with him. “You need to start listening to new voices. And add your own, too.”
“I’ll try,” Ally told him adamantly, determined to break out of her old habits.
“You look beautiful, Ally.” He took a step back. “Now take off your dress.”
Ally’s eyes shot to Travis’s face, his intense, unrelenting stare making her take a step back. “What?” She knew she couldn’t have heard him correctly.
“Take. Off. The. Dress. Either take it off willingly or I’ll do it for you, and it probably won’t be wearable anymore after I do,” he growled.
“W-why?” She had heard him correctly, and her entire body flooded with heat.
“Because you’re going to start to hear a new voice, and that voice is going to be mine while I make you come.” Travis folded his arms in front of him and waited.
Ally balked as she looked at Travis waiting arrogantly, expectantly. “I’m not taking off my dress. And you’re not going to rip it. It probably cost a fortune.” She crossed her arms in front of her, the two of them having a stare-down.
“You will,” Travis remarked ominously as he slowly unbuttoned his suit jacket and shrugged it off his shoulders. “I didn’t come here tonight to fuck you, Ally. But I’m going to because I can’t wait any longer.” His fingers went to the knot in his tie, and he nimbly unfastened it and slid it from around his neck. “And I don’t think you want to wait any longer either.” He started unbuttoning his pristine shirt. “I’ve waited four goddamn years, and there wasn’t a single one of those days that my cock wasn’t hard for you, that I didn’t want to sink into you and make you mine.” He unbuttoned the small fastenings at his cuffs and let the shirt slide off his shoulders, landing in a heap at his feet along with his jacket and tie. “Tonight you’re mine. Completely. Unequivocally. You won’t be hearing any other voice except mine telling you how damn beautiful you are, how much I want you. And you won’t be feeling anything except pleasure.”
Ally froze, gaping as she watched Travis’s ripped abs and muscular arms being exposed to her hungry eyes. Sweet baby Jesus, the man was beautiful. He was all predatory grace and solid flesh that her fingers itched to touch. “You’ve been attracted to me for that long?”
He stalked her, moving the few steps necessary to pull her body into his. Lowering his head, he traced her sensitive earlobe with his tongue. “Not attracted, Ally. Obsessed,” he answered harshly, his warm breath wafting over her ear.
Ally shivered, unable to stop herself from putting her hands to his chest, her fingers exploring silken skin over steely muscles. He had a tattoo, a beautiful phoenix flying free of fire on the right side of his chest, which just made him even hotter, more unpredictable. Travis was the last man on earth she could see with a tat. She smoothed down his ripped abdomen and up his back, savoring the feel of his heated skin beneath her fingers.
Travis nipped at the sensitive skin of her neck as he said huskily, “Time’s up on the dress, sweetheart.”
Ally jerked back as she felt his fists tighten on the material. “No! Don’t.” She wasn’t sure if her concern was actually the dress. Really, for the first time in her life, she wanted to be sexually bold. She could see the desire in Travis’s eyes, and she needed to trust it. Reaching up and behind her, she lowered the short zipper and started wriggling the material over her head, revealing the risqué underwear as the silken material moved upward. She was breathless with anxiety by the time she dropped the dress to the floor, standing right in front of Travis in nothing but tiny red panties, a matching bra, a garter belt, and silky stockings. Her stiletto heels were still on her feet, but they barely helped, as Travis was still towering over her.