Page 5 of Wild Hope
My cheeks heat with embarrassment. Of all the people to run into, it had to be Travis. I drop to the floor at the same time as he does, almost bumping heads. I pick up shards of glass, trying to ignore the fact that I’m so close to him I can smell his scent of hops and some musky male body wash.
“It’s okay. I’ll take it out of your pay.”
I glance up at him, and his lips twitch. “I’m kidding. It happens all the time.”
Now he’s being nice. I’ve been waitressing for the last six years, and not once have I dropped an entire tray of glasses or seen anyone drop an entire tray of glasses. Travis must think I’m an incompetent klutz.
“I don’t know what happened.” I pile broken glass onto the tray while embarrassment claws at my skin. “I didn’t expect you to be hiding behind the bar.”
He chuckles, and it’s a deep throaty rumble that I feel in my bones.
“I was stocking the fridge. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
He startled me the moment I walked in the door. I came back to help my brother and to see if my feelings for Travis had changed. That’s a big nope.
Travis’s hand shoots out and clasps me around the wrist. Heat from his touch skitters through my body, and my breath hitches.
“You’ve cut yourself.”
I glance down at my hand, and there’s a thin trickle of blood oozing from my index finger.
“Damn.”
Travis lets go of my wrist, and I slip my finger between my lips. A metallic taste hits my tongue as I suck hard to stem the blood flow.
Travis makes a strangled noise, and I glance up at him. He’s staring at my mouth as I suck the finger between my lips.
His pupils dilate, and a low growl rumbles from his chest that I feel all the way to my core. My skin heats with embarrassment as I realize what this must look like, even as heat floods my panties at the hungry way he’s looking at me.
Travis stands up quickly, and the moment passes.
“Get a bandage on that. I’ll get this cleaned up.”
He saunters out of the bar area without looking back.
I watch him go with a new lightness in my chest. Travisisattracted to me, I’m sure of it. If only I can get him to see me as something other than Quentin’s little sister.
3
TRAVIS
My palms are sweating, my blood is thundering in my ears, and my dick’s as hard as the trunk of a pine tree in the forest.
It’s bad enough that Kendra’s been wiggling her curvy ass all night, her hips swaying as she weaves through the restaurant. I haven’t been able to keep my eyes off her body. Then she goes and crashes right into me, her tits bouncing off my chest and the scent of flowers and perspiration trailing after her. But when she slipped her finger between her plump lips and sucked on it, I almost lost control.
An image of her full lips wrapped around my cock jumped into my head and I had to get out of there before I did something stupid, like throw her over the bar and claim her in front of the entire restaurant.
Because she’s not mine to claim. She’s Quentin’s little sister, and there’s no way she’ll ever be mine. Not that she’d want an old man like me anyway. Kendra’s a free spirit. She’s been on the road ever since her parents died, moving from town to town doing work here and there.
Quentin’s been worried sick about her, and so have I. Now that she’s here, he’ll do anything to make her stay. Which means I can’t hit on her, even if I thought she wanted me. I can’t fuck this up and have her leaving town. She’s safe her, even if she can’t be mine.
“Busy night out there?”
I jump at the sound of Quentin’s voice, and he chuckles.
“What you so jumpy for?”
Because I’m this close to throwing your little sister over my shoulder and carrying her to my cabin.
