More than a Mistress

I wanted to take care of you, Princess. It's as simple as that.

Her lover had become her friend. For some reason, the thought was as frightening as it was exhilarating. "Princess?"

She took a breath, shut off the water and cracked open the shower door. Travis stood outside—at least, she thought, as she began to laugh, an enormous white towel stood outside, with a man's denim-clad legs peeping out from under it.

She stepped onto the mat and let him enfold her in the towel.

"Mmm," she sighed, as he drew her close, "that feels lovely."

Travis nodded. "Yeah," he said, and sternly warned his body to behave itself. Alex had been ill. She was still fragile—and heaven only knew how she'd react, when she saw what he'd done. He wrapped the towel snugly around her, stepped back and motioned her ahead of him, into the bedroom. "Well," he said briskly, "I've laid out something for you to wear. If it's not what you want, just tell me."

She laughed as she padded across the carpet. "Anything that makes me look human again will be just..." Her words trailed away as she looked at the clothing on the bed. A pair of her jeans. One of her silk blouses. Panties that were hers, and a bra. She looked up. Travis was at the closet, his back to her. "Oh, Travis," she said, and smiled. "That was sweet of you."

He didn't turn around. "What was?"

"Going to my house and picking up some stuff for me to wear. That was really—" .

He swung toward her. "I picked up everything," he said gruffly.

Alex cocked her head. "I don't understand."

"Well, maybe not everything, but most of what was in your closet and in your dresser drawers. Your housekeeper collected the things she thought you'd want and I brought them here, but we'll go back, if I forgot anything, and—"

He looked at her puzzled face, fell silent and stepped aside. Alex stared past him, into the closet, where her clothing hung side by side with his.

"Travis?" Her gaze flew to his. "What is this?"

"You're moving in with me."

"Moving...?" Alex laughed. "No, I'm not. I have a house. A life. And we agreed—"

"Nothing's changed." His voice was rough and so was the way he reached for her and enclosed her in his arms. "It's crazy, not living together."

"But we agreed—"

"I know all about that. But while we're together—"

"While it lasts, you mean."

He nodded, his green eyes on hers. "Yeah. While it does, I want you with me."

Alex bristled. "Did it ever occur to you to ask what I might want, Cowboy?"

His hands covered hers. Gently, persistently, he drew the towel from her fingers and let it fall to the floor so she stood within his embrace, naked.

"All right. I'm asking, Princess: Do you want to be with me, or don't you?"

She looked up at him, knowing what her answer should be, knowing she should demand her independence, that there was no way she ought to let him take control of her life—or of her heart.

He bent his head, kissed her. "I'm waiting," he whispered.

Alex's arm curled around Travis's neck. "This is crazy."

It was all the answer he needed.

He stepped out of his jeans and drew her down to the bed, into his arms. He rained kisses on her temples, on her throat. He licked her nipples, bit them gently, stroked her thighs and buried his face between them.

It had been so long. Days, an eternity...

"My turn," she said softly, and knelt over him, kissing her way down his hard-muscled body, taking him into her mouth, loving him with teeth and tongue until he groaned and rolled her beneath him. He entered her on one hard, possessive stroke and she burst instantly into a million shards of light.

"My beautiful Princess," Travis whispered, as he settled her in his arms.

Alex nestled against him, closed her eyes and told herself it just wasn't true...

But it was.

She'd fallen in love with Travis.

CHAPTER TWELVE

TRAVIS had never been so happy.

And it amazed him.

Even at the beginning of his marriage to Cathy, before things had started to go bad between them, there'd been mornings it had seemed a chore to smile and be cheerful. He'd had something about work on his mind, or sometimes just Cathy's early-morning chatter had made his teeth grind together.

Alex was different.

She woke him with kisses, or he woke her. It didn't much matter. Either way, by the time he left the bed, he was always smiling. He'd never much cared for breakfast and he still didn't, but having coffee across from his Princess's lovely face seemed the perfect way to begin the day. Ending it by knowing she'd be at the door to greet him was even more perfect. It was amazing, how fast he came to expect to see her there, waiting for him. And she always was, despite her growing involvement in the empire her father had left her.