More than a Mistress(28)

He rose to his feet.

"I just remembered." His voice was gruff. "We'll have to put the Porsche  lessons off until another time. I, uh, I have an appointment this  morning."

"Oh." Her smile tilted. "Well, sure. Tomorrow, maybe. Or the next day … "

"I'll call you," he said. "When I have the time. How does that sound?"

Like a polite goodbye. That was how it sounded. The bastard! Had she  really just been warning herself not to fall in love with him? Only a  masochist would fall for a man like Travis Baron.

And here she was, standing naked in the middle of his bedroom.

She wanted to fold her arms over her body but she didn't. Instead, she  reached for his shirt, which he'd discarded so eagerly the night before.

"It sounds fine," she said politely. "Although, now that I think of it,  I'm going to be busy the next few days." Her fingers trembled as she  buttoned the shirt from her throat to her thighs. "Do call me, though.  I'm sure we can get together again."

He nodded. "Good. I'm, uh, I'm glad you understand..."

"Oh, I understand, Travis. Completely."

He nodded again. She didn't understand; he could hear it in her voice  but whose fault was that? Not his, surely. He'd made his position clear.  Okay, so maybe he'd been carried away a few minutes ago, making all  those plans for them. She should have stopped him. Hadn't she said she  wanted the same freedom he wanted? But that was the way women were. They  said what they figured a guy wanted to hear, even if it was nothing but  a bucket full of lies.

"Travis?"

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"I'd like to get dressed."

But not in front of him. She didn't have to say the words for him to hear them.

"Sure. Uh, if you'd like to use the shower..."

"I'll shower at home, thank you."

He nodded again. It was all he seemed capable of doing. "Fine," he said  briskly. "I'll just be a couple of minutes, and then I'll drive you."

He walked into the bathroom, shut the door and stepped into the shower  stall. Then he turned the water on full, bowed his head, pressed his  hands flat against the marble wall and let the water beat down on his  shoulders.

He should never have brought Alex home last night. Whatever had he been  thinking? And what was all this stuff he'd gotten himself into, with her  ridiculous Wish List? So she'd never done a lot of things. Big deal.  He'd never done a lot of things, either. Never flown a jet. Never ridden  a balloon across the Pacific. Never really fallen in love without  holding a part of himself back...

"Hell," he whispered. "Oh, hell."

But he wasn't in love. He never would be. He'd thought he was before,  and learned the hard way never to tie himself to one woman for too long.

Alex would just have to accept that.

Travis shut off the water, stepped from the shower and flung open the bathroom door.

"Alex," he said, "Alex, look..."

The words caught in his throat. His bedroom was empty. Alex was gone.





CHAPTER ELEVEN




GONE? Where could she have gone without a car?

Travis pulled on his jeans, ran into the hall and down the stairs.

"Alex?"

The silence of the early morning echoed her name.

The front door stood open. He stepped outside, called for her again. There was no answer, and no sign of her.

Travis mouthed an oath. Barefoot, bare-chested, he got into his car and  turned the key. The engine started with a roar; gravel flew as he made a  U-turn and stepped hard on the gas.

She couldn't have gotten very far.

He might have known she'd run. Hey, she always ran. She'd run that first  night, run when he'd confronted her the next day. She'd wanted to run  at Peregrine, too, but he'd been too quick for her.

The gate at the end of the driveway was open. He gunned the Porsche  through it, then stood on the brakes, glared left, then right...

There she was, marching determinedly along the shoulder of the highway,  heading south toward Los Angeles. This time of the day, the road was  jammed with vehicles, zipping by in a dizzying stream.

Travis jumped from the car and stormed toward her.

"Alex!"

She heard him. He knew she did; he could tell because she picked up her  pace, But she didn't turn, didn't acknowledge his presence any other  way.                       
       
           



       

A van shot past, horn blaring.

"Alex, dammit!" Travis caught up to her, grabbed her arm and spun her  toward him. Her face was flushed, her eyes and mouth narrowed.

"Let go!"

"What in hell do you think you're doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? Let go of me, Cowboy!"

"Don't be a bloody little idiot! You can't walk back home."

"I can do whatever I want to do, Mr. Baron." Alex bared her teeth. "Get your hand off me!"

"You're behaving like a child."

"I am neither a child nor an idiot." Her eyes flashed. "Let go or so help me, Travis, I swear-"

"I don't like people running out on me, Princess." He moved closer, his  fingers biting into her flesh. "You should have figured that."

"I did not run." Her chin lifted a notch. "I left. And I don't have any  reason to give a flying fig what you like and don't like."

"Alex, dammit-"

The sound of tires crunching on gravel made them both turn. A police car had pulled up behind them.

"Now see what you've done," Travis muttered.

"What I've done?" Alex glared at him. "What I've done?"

A uniformed officer stepped from the car. His smile was pleasant but his walk was purposeful and cautious as he approached them.

"'Morning, folks. Is there a problem here?"

Travis took a breath. "No problem, Officer. The lady and I are just having a, uh, a discussion."

The cop nodded. Travis felt the weight of his gaze as it swept over him,  taking in his bare chest and feet and his hand wrapped around Alex's  wrist.

"Is that what this is, ma'am? A discussion?"

"No," Alex said coldly, "it is not. This man-this man..."

"Do you know him?"

"Yes. And he..." She hesitated. There was nothing she could say that  wouldn't make her want to crawl into a corner and hide. Could she tell  the officer that she and Travis had spent the night together? That she'd  run away because she felt used and cheap? That he'd come after her  because he felt insulted, or maybe simply because he'd had second  thoughts and decided the sex was too good to give up?





"Ma'am?"

Alex swallowed dryly. "I know him. And we're-we're having a disagreement, not a discussion."

"A disagreement," the cop said, in wearied tones that probably meant  he'd heard it all before. "Well, if it's all the same to you, lady, it'd  be a good idea if you took your disagreement back where it started."

"We will," Travis said grimly, his hand tightening on Alex's. "We were just on our way back to my place. Weren't we, Alex?"

She looked at him and he knew she'd liked to have tried clawing out his eyes, if they'd been alone.

"Yes," she said through her teeth.

"And you're going with him willingly, ma'am?"

Alex sighed. "Yes, Officer."

The cop nodded, folded his arms and waited. Alex wrenched her hand free  of Travis's. Head high, shoulders back, she marched back to the gate.  Travis, feeling like an idiot, muttered something about having a nice  day and started after her. He climbed into his car, put it in reverse,  punched the control that closed the gate, glanced in the mirror-and saw  Alex, setting off through the trees toward the adjoining property.

"Holy hell," he muttered. He left the car in the driveway and went after  her. "Where do you think you're going now?" he snapped, when he caught  her.

"The same place I was going before you interfered. Home."

Travis let go of her, folded his arms across his chest and smirked.  "Yeah, well, first you'd have to scale the ten-foot wall that separates  my property from the place next door." "I'll manage."

"I doubt it. Besides, you really have led a sheltered life, Ms. Thorpe,  if you don't realize your mausoleum is at least an hour's drive from  here."

"It is not a mausoleum." Her tone was frigid. "And I never had any  intention of walking. I'll call for a cab, just as soon as I find a pay  phone."

"Listen, lady, you want to go home?" Travis slapped his hands on his hips. "Fine. I'll drive you there."

"I don't need you to do anything for me, thank you very much. I am perfectly capable of-"

Hell. "Look, this is crazy," Travis said, and shoved a hand through his hair.

"It is not crazy. There must be a hundred public phones on that road."

"I don't mean that, dammit. I mean-I mean, what happened this morning."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Alex turned on her heel and began walking toward the gate. Travis  stepped out in front of her, clasped her shoulders and stopped her.