Page 104 of It's Always Been You

Her husband had reached a new level of caveman. What’s next? Pee circles around her? “Sorry, buddy. No can do,” Caitlin quipped and tried again to escape. She heard an exasperated sigh, found herself under Travis again, her wrists manacled by an iron grip on either side of her face.

He loomed above her. “I’ll only fuck you all over again.”

“Travis, what the hell? Let me go.”

“No.”

“Whatiswrong with you?”

He ducked and nuzzled her neck. “Just want me all over you, babe.”

“I’m serious. I’m not sleeping with your cum between my legs. It’s dis—”

“I swear, Cat, if you say it’s disgusting, I’m going to smack your ass.”

“—tracting. It’s distracting,” Caitlinwasgoing to say disgusting, but she had some self-preservation left in her.

“Nice save,” Travis murmured against her lips. Obviously, he knew what she was really going to say. He finally relented, picked her up from the bed, and carried her to bathroom.

“So how long have youbeen friends with Nate?”

After Travis dutifully cleaned her between her legs, they attempted to return to sleep to no avail. Caitlin put a halt to Travis’s attempt to have sex again, and even said no when he offered to go down on her. Instead, she channeled their insomnia into something more useful—getting to know more about her husband.

“High school,” Travis said. “First year. Nate just moved into town with his dad. They were our neighbors.”

“What happened to Nate’s mother?”

“She died when Nate was ten. Car accident. His dad never remarried. Nate’s dad, Uncle Lawrence, and my dad hit it off immediately. Nate and I were still sizing up each other.”

“Teenagers.”

Travis chuckled, “Yeah. We were both on the football team so we were cool with each other, but we didn’t hang out much. Nate liked to cause trouble, and one time got into deep shit with a junior who was rumored to be a member of a local gang.”

“What did he do?”

“He fucked the guy’s girlfriend.”

“Dumbass.”

“Yup. You have to understand male teenage hormones, babe. Anyway, the gang was waiting for him after school, and the guy he fucked over came up to him and confronted him about stealing his girl. Turns out, it was the girl who came on to Nate and told him she had already broken up with the guy.”

“Don’t tell me they had a brawl in school.”

“No. I heard the guy tell Nate where to meet him, calling him chicken shit if he didn’t show up.”

“I wouldn’t think Nate was one to back down,” Caitlin murmured.

“Yep, Reece’s got balls.”

“Then what?”

Travis sighed, “I couldn’t, in all good conscience, let the poor guy go by himself.”

“Oh, God.”

“We both got our asses kicked. We got beat until our eyes were shut, and we had a couple of cracked ribs.” Travis was laughing.Laughing.

“Nuts,” Caitlin muttered.

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