Nicole Edwards - Travis

No doubt, this project wasn’t going to be cheap, but at least she could do the work in stages. And she was extremely resourceful. She just needed some local crews to help because those she normally worked with weren’t likely to venture this far out. And if Gage was looking to save some money, he could add some elbow grease of his own.

After Gage locked up the house and helped her into his truck, Kylie allowed her mind to relax as he drove. The familiar song on the radio made her want to tap her foot on the floor, but she refrained. It was rare that she was in a good mood after such pressing thoughts from her past, but for some reason, just being in Gage’s company helped. That, and the prospect of the new job, made her smile.

For once, she just wanted to enjoy what life threw her way. It was high time she stopped trying to hide behind those events that had changed her life irreparably. Time to move forward.

Still smiling, Kylie pulled herself back to the present as Gage turned onto a long dirt driveway. In the distance, she saw a lovely old farmhouse come into view, the fresh paint and new roof gleamed radiantly in the bright Texas sunshine. This one looked significantly different than the one they’d just left. This one was sporting a recent facelift.

Refraining from asking questions, Kylie paid attention to the details of the house in case Gage was here to show her some ideas he had, her brain barely registering the men moving furniture into the house. As she focused on what they were doing, she noticed two more talking on one end of the beautiful wrap around porch.

Kylie mentally cleared her throat because… Wow! Did this place only breed hot, sexy cowboys?

When Gage pulled the truck to a stop, Kylie unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out. She continued to stare up at the beautiful house, her eye for detail noting the few things they’d done to stick with the house’s former glory, although there were quite a few enhancements they’d made to modernize it as well. Either way, she was impressed. Wouldn’t have been her choice, but then again, it wasn’t her house.

Gage surprised her when he walked around to her side of the truck, taking her hand in his. That tingle that had been stirring in her belly erupted into a volcanic explosion of activity, and she wondered if her palms were going to start sweating. God, she hoped not. At least not while he was holding her hand.

Hoping she made a good impression on these people, whoever they were, Kylie pasted on a smile and fell into step beside Gage.

♂♀

Gage Matthews wasn’t quite sure what prompted him to take Kylie’s hand in his as he led her away from the safe haven of his truck and toward the house. But the moment their palms touched he knew it was a mistake.

With her soft, delicate fingers linked with his, he felt that spark he’d grown accustomed to over the last couple of months. The one that ignited in his loins and radiated out through the rest of his body, kick starting more than just his libido. Somewhere along the way, this woman managed to cause hope to bloom in the dark, cold corners of his soul.

Holding Kylie’s small, cool hand in his, feeling the way she squeezed his fingers as though he just might be able to ground her in this unknown situation made him hate himself that much more.

He knew he needed to cherish this feeling for as long as he could, because a few minutes from now it was going to be stripped away from him, and he had no one to blame but himself. His actions were about to have disastrous results on what little of a relationship they had built to this point.

Ha! Relationship.

As if he could even classify what was going on between him and Kylie Prescott as a relationship, but for the life of him, he hadn’t come up with a way to describe it any other way. Only his version was more on the fucked up side of things because lies and vendettas didn’t provide the necessary platform for a relationship, but that’s exactly how Gage had started out constructing this – whatever this was – with Kylie.

Lies. Deceit.

God, he was such an asshole.

Shit.

His stomach churned painfully.

If he had had anything to eat in the last twenty four hours, he might be worried he would lose it right here and now. Except Gage couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep either. No, he spent most of his time trying to figure out just what the hell he’d gone and done.

He wasn’t even sure at what point this had seemed like a good idea, but he knew he was past the point of backing out now. His first mistake was obviously getting so caught up with this enigmatic, funny, cute woman over the course of several weeks. And the more time he spent in her company, the more he’d let himself get carried away in some sort of selfish fantasy. One that he suspected would be shattered right along with the rest of his hopes up to this point.

It was true, when he walked up to her door that one fateful morning, he’d had an agenda. Somewhere along the way, he had managed to convince himself that getting close to her was his punishment for what he intended to do. How he ever thought she wasn’t going to be hurt by his dubious actions, he still didn’t know.

Initially, he intended to treat his interaction with Kylie as a business transaction. He would wine her, dine her, convince her he needed her help to restore the house his grandmother left him when she passed away two years ago. And from there he would use her to cause an explosion of epic proportions right in the middle of Travis’ life.

Yep, walking away unscathed was also high on his list of things to do, but at this point, the latter seemed like a pipedream.

Fuck. Since when had he become such a bastard?

Gage had learned more about himself in the past couple of months than he wanted to acknowledge. The first of which being that he harbored an intense desire to keep Kylie close although his actions said otherwise. Or at least they were about to. The second was that he wanted to punish Travis Walker in ways he had never imagined. The man managed to get under his skin and quite frankly, Gage didn’t fucking like it.

Or maybe he liked it too much.

Somewhere along the way, a vindictive series of lies and underhanded deception had led him to the path he was on this morning. The biggest lie of them all was that Gage wasn’t affected one fucking iota by the way Travis had plastered him against the wall and kissed him with an intensity that damn near blew a fucking hole through the top of his head. Twice.

It shouldn’t matter to him that he knew so little about a man who single handedly brought the brick and mortar walls of his life crashing down around him at the same time he effectively made the earth shift beneath his feet. A man that Gage had known for most of his life because Travis was Kaleb’s brother.

What mattered was that Gage had a ridiculously powerful attraction to the man. One he absolutely wasn’t happy about. And on top of that, after what clearly was leading to a tryst to rival all, Gage hadn’t heard a single thing from Travis. Not that he’d attempted to make contact either, but he also hadn’t been the one to initiate what was – no, make that what had been – happening between them.

Yet, none of it explained what he was doing here or how he somehow dragged the seemingly innocent woman at his side right into the eye of the storm. For weeks, he tried to tell himself that he needed to remain detached and he’d be fine. His original plan hadn’t even taken into account what this would do to this unsuspecting woman.

Sweet, innocent, charming… Kylie was all of those things and he was about to risk everything they’d established between them thus far. Her honesty was something he had come to cherish, but none of it mattered the closer his feet carried him to Kaleb’s front door.

This was the beginning of the end.

And to think it all started with a kiss and a need to get a rise out of Travis for putting him in a position that he feared Travis would never follow through with. Paying Travis back for the shit storm of emotions he managed to rain down on him when he least expected it had morphed into something totally unexpected.

Regardless of what Travis had done, Gage’s reaction left a bitter taste in his mouth, and he was beginning to realize he didn’t much care for this side of himself. Unfortunately, he hadn’t given much thought to the repercussions his actions would have on innocent bystanders. Namely Kylie.

Too late to think about it now, Matthews.

Admittedly, when he showed up on Kylie’s doorstep, his rationale made absolutely no sense, but he couldn’t get past his need to punish Travis for making him feel things he didn’t want to feel. Not to mention for being arrogant enough to blow his cover sky fucking high just because he felt like it.

Not only had he learned that Travis was interested in men – the kiss they shared was a dead giveaway – but he also learned that Travis was married. Married for fuck’s sake. It was the biggest secret Gage could’ve possibly imagined stumbling upon, so the instant he learned that Travis was still legally married after ten years, he did what he did best: he investigated.

And what he uncovered paved the road to Kylie.

Since the first time he heard her sweet Texas twang and saw the sexy glint in her baby blues, Gage had wondered what the hell she ever saw in a man like Travis. She was the exact opposite of the type of woman Travis got mixed up with these days – at least from the ones Gage had seen him with at Club Destiny.