I wrapped my arms around his neck and ran my fingers through the short hairs on the back of his head. I loved the way they prickled against my skin.
Travis put his hands on the small of my back and pressed my body against his until I couldn't get any closer. I swayed with him, resting my head on his chest where I could hear his steady heartbeat over the music.
Rising up on my tiptoes, I placed a chaste kiss on the side of his neck and his hands tightened around my waist.
Okay, so maybe the kiss wasn't that chaste. Maybe I wanted to drive him crazy. Maybe I wanted to make him to lose control.
He pulled back and rubbed his nose over mine. I loved it when he did that. It made me feel special. Cherished.
"Wanna get out of here?" he said against my lips.
I nodded eagerly. Travis grabbed my hand and hauled me away from the crowds of people. We were practically running when we came to his apartment, but we didn't go inside. Instead, he opened the passenger door to his pickup truck and planted me inside.
"Where are we going?" I asked breathlessly after he started it up.
"County cruising." He smiled, dimples on full display.
We took a back road out of town and headed south until the lights from the festival were far off in the distance. After slowing to a stop on a deserted country road, he turned off the ignition, then reached beneath the bench seat to pull out a folded-up blanket.
"Come on," he said, hopping out of the truck.
I followed him around to the back where he lowered the tailgate and spread the fuzzy blue blanket over the bed of the truck.
After helping me up, Travis laid down and I curled into his side as he put his arm around me.
"What are we doing?" I asked through the sounds of the night, which was mostly the breeze rustling through the cornfields and the crickets chirping.
"Star-gazing." He looked up into the sky.
Looking up in the same direction, I noticed how bright the stars seemed now that they weren't drowned out by city lights.
"That's the Big Dipper. And there's the North Star." He pointed out. "And those three in a line, that's Orion's Belt."
"You know a lot about this stuff, huh?" I looked at his face.
He gave me a sheepish smile. "Not really. That's about all I know. Hank knows a lot more about it. He knows all the constellations, and every year in August there's a few days of meteor showers. Sometimes you can see ten shooting stars in an hour … "
He was babbling, and I wondered if he was trying to distract himself from the sexual tension. I wasn't going to let him get away with it.
"Travis?"
"Yeah?"
"That's all really great, but if I'm being honest, I don't really want to talk about the stars right now."
He barked out a laugh. "Neither do I."
He rolled so he was lying on his side, facing me, and he tilted my chin up with his thumb and forefinger. There was no hesitation to our kiss as my tongue eagerly met his.
He bit down on my bottom lip before trailing kisses over my cheek and down to my neck. He sucked at my pulse point and a whimper escaped from me.
Softly, he ran the tips of his fingers over my shoulder before bringing his mouth to my skin. This was another first. I'd never been kissed on the shoulder before and I had no idea it could be so erotic.
A continuous pulsing started between my thighs and I felt myself getting wet. My hand played along the bottom of his shirt, then slipped underneath to feel his abs. I traced the lines with my fingers, until I moved up high enough to graze his nipple.
Travis gasped against my neck. His breath fanned over my skin as he started to pull down on the top of my dress.
Just as I thought we were finally-finally-getting somewhere, I felt a sting and an itch at my temple.
"Ow," I hissed and swatted at the air.
"What's wrong?" Travis asked, concerned.
"Mosquito bit me," I said, scratching at the bump by my hairline. As the haze of lust started to clear, I realized I was itching in other spots, too. "I think I'm getting eaten up out here."
"Damn. Maybe we should get home," he suggested.
With a heavy sigh, I agreed. I should have remembered bug spray, but in the heat of the moment, I'd forgotten how much mosquitoes love me.
Travis rolled the blanket up while I got back into the truck.
On the drive back, I itched all over. I found I had bites on my arms, hands, knees, ankles and several on my toes. Mosquito bites on toes were the worst.
"What kind of mosquitos do you have in Tolson?" I asked, baffled by the number of bites I'd obtained in such a short amount of time.
Travis glanced over at me as I furiously scratched at my body. "Did you seriously get bit that much?"
I grunted unattractively as I found another bite on my face. "It's my blood type. O negative." Travis had a skeptical expression on his face, so I insisted. "I'm serious. That's a real thing."
When we got into the apartment, he turned the lights on and his eyes widened when he saw all the welts on my skin.
"Holy shit," he hissed. "You weren't kidding."
I just made a pathetic whining sound while I sat down on the couch and scraped at my skin some more.
"Don't scratch so much. You're gonna make them bleed," he said, and I shot him a dirty look. "Hold on, I think we have some Calamine lotion."
Travis went into the bathroom and when he returned, he held up the pink bottle like it was some kind of trophy.
"Last year, Colton walked through some poison oak," he said, applying it to all the red bumps on my legs and arms with a cotton ball. "This stuff works wonders."
The cool cream felt good on my skin and I let out a sigh of relief as it started soothing the itch.
"I thought making out in the back of your truck under the stars was so romantic," I grumped. "This-" I gestured to all the bumps, which were now covered with big pink splotches of lotion. "-is so not what I was hoping for."
"Lift up your dress." Travis's voice came out huskily.
"I think it's a little too late to bring the mood back," I quipped, arching an eyebrow.
"I bet you have bites under here." He flicked at the hem of my dress with his finger. "I'm just trying to be thorough," he said with a wicked smirk.
Standing up to give him better access, I watched him as he kneeled in front of me. My breath caught in my throat as he searched my skin. His fingertips grazed the edge of my white cotton panties, lifting them in certain places, but not removing them from my body.
He was right. I had two bites on my inner thigh, one on my butt, and one on my hip. He seemed to take extra care with those, going as far as applying the lotion twice.
I wasn't sure which was worse-the itchy welts on my skin or the sexual frustration I was feeling.
Just as Travis was finishing up with the last untreated bumps on my face, Colton walked through the door.
"What the hell happened to you?" he asked, looking me up and down.
"Country cruising happened," I said, and Colton guffawed obnoxiously. "You guys have some seriously aggressive mosquitos in this town," I informed him as I resisted the urge to claw at my skin.
TRAVIS
Three really is a crowd.
Don't get me wrong. Colton was my best friend and I loved him like a brother. But the dude was a cock-block.
It was another rainy Sunday, only this time, Colton hung with Angel and me at the apartment. All day.
She didn't seem to mind his company. In fact, they even spent a good hour making random comments about some ridiculous romantic comedy on TV.
The only good thing about that was having Angel next to me. Every now and then, she would absentmindedly graze her fingers over my stomach and I kept getting a whiff of the scent coming from her hair. Honey and vanilla.
At least Colton wasn't trying to sit on the couch with us.
"Gerard Butler was way better in 300. That movie was epic," he told Angel.
"You would say that," she smirked. "Every guy thinks that movie was epic."
"The special effects alone made it awesome. Although, it didn't have Katherine Heigl in it. She's pretty hot." Colton grinned and Angel rolled her eyes at his typical guy observation.
"What's Tara up to today?" I hinted, hoping he would leave.
"Hell if I know," he replied with a shrug.
He and Angel resumed their friendly banter while I wallowed in my grumpy mood.
Last night, I'd been ready to take things to the next level with Angel. Maybe not sex, but definitely more than what we'd been doing.
And shit, I was still ready. But it wasn't going to happen with my roommate hanging around.
Even though Angel's mosquito bites looked better this morning, I'd insisted on applying the lotion again. I told her it was because I didn't want her to be itchy, but I might've had ulterior motives.