Revealing the Diane Collier Erotic Romance Collection (10 page)

By Wednesday, she berated herself for her lack of self-control.

By Thursday, she was telling herself that she hated him and he’d used her.

By Friday, she knew that she had to see him to get it all out in the open.

Friday afternoon and she was building up a good head of steam.
So what if he didn’t want to be friends with her any more.
So what if he’d only used her.
So what if he thought she was a nasty cheap slut now.
The least he could have done was come over and tell her to her face.
It would have been the decent thing to do.

Dropping her laptop and handbag on the table, she changed into comfortable shoes and stepped out of her kitchen door.
She marched around the pool area and unlatched the inter-leading gate.
She needed to confront him and get it over with, for once and for all.
She’d apologize for her part in leading him on, but he could most certainly have come over to see her.
Enough was enough!

Tapping her knuckles lightly on kitchen door, she waited for him to open up for her.
When the door finally opened, she was shocked to see another woman standing there.

“Yes?” came the cool enquiry from the tall blonde within.

“Hi, is Travis in?”

The smile on the other woman’s face was less than friendly.
The raised eyebrow made Lee feel like she was intruding on something.

“Trav?
No.
No, he’s not here at the moment.
He’s gone to pick up some stuff for our dinner.” Again her smile was cold, reminding Lee of some kind of cold, vicious reptile.
Something that would have no problem eating it’s young.
“I can tell him you were here if you like.
If you tell me your name.”

“Lee.
Could you tell him Lee came around please?”

“Of course.”
Lee didn’t believe her, but turned and walked away, back to her own home.
Travis didn’t appear at all that night.

The following morning, Lee was sitting yawning, staring vacantly at the half-filled coffee mug on the table in front of her when she heard a tapping on the kitchen door.
She looked up, squinting into the early morning light and through the glass panels she could see it was her one-time friend and neighbor, Travis.
He looked awful.

She slid her feet back into her slippers and walked to the door to let him in.
Without saying anything, he walked to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup.
Taking a quick sip of the hot liquid he turned to face her.

“I hear you met Lexie.”
Statement.

Lee went back to her chair and sat, holding her mug in both hands. “If by Lexie, you mean the blonde that was at your house last night, then yes.”
She tried to keep all the emotion out of her voice but wasn’t sure she managed.

Travis groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.
Lee could see the lines around his eyes and mouth.
He looked exhausted.

“Come and sit down,” she said to him, pointing to the chair opposite her.

When he was sitting, he propped his elbows on the table in front of him and looked at her intently.
“I think we need to talk.”

Lee nodded.
“If you want to, I’m okay with that.”

“Lexie is my ex-wife.” He’d told Lee all about finding her in bed with her boss and the resulting divorce.
“After I left here last weekend and did my first night shift, I came home to find her parked in my driveway.
I don’t know how she found out where I live, but there she was.
Obviously I wasn’t thrilled, but she was in a state.
Turned out her boyfriend had cheated on her and then kicked her out.”
Lee couldn’t help but smile at this – Karma was wonderful. “She had nowhere else to go and I let her stay with me for the week until she found her own place.”
He sighed heavily and Lee could only imagine how he felt.
“Also, you must know about all those bush fires recently?
It’s kept us all on the go, on high alert, the whole week.
Thank god it’s all under control now.”
He rubbed his face again, wearily and looked at her.

“I’ve been trying to get to see you all week, but with the fires, Lexie clinging and making her problems into a drama and being so exhausted, I just didn’t get the chance.”
He reached over to take her hands in his.
“I’m sorry Lee.”

Lee’s eyes were glistening with moisture.
She felt like she’d been through an emotional wringer this last week, and to find out that it was all based on her own assumptions and imaginings was the biggest relief.
She looked at Travis.

“You look shattered.
Have you managed to get any sleep?”

“Not nearly enough.
Lexie made sure of that.”
He grinned wearily at her.
“I’m off for the next week.
She’s gone now, hopefully for good.”

Lee felt relief at that.
She didn’t know if she was up to competing with Blondie for Travis’ affections.
She saw that he’d already finished his coffee and stood, taking both cups to the sink.
She walked back to where he sat and took his hand, pulling him to his feet.
“I’ve hardly slept all week myself.
Come and lie down with me and try and rest.”
She led him to her bedroom and pulled the bedcovers back.

Travis had let her lead him, without speaking, feeling barely able to think.
When he stepped into her room, he knew that this is where he needed to be.
He should have been here, with her, all week long, not babysitting his ex-wife.
He was filled with a peace and serenity that he’d always felt in Lee’s presence, but never before recognized.

“Do you mind if I have a quick shower first?”

Lee smiled at him shyly.
“I’ll even come and scrub your back if you like.”

“I like.”
Travis tried not to leer at her, but probably failed.

As he stepped under the stinging hot shower spray, he pulled her into the glass cubicle with him.
Skin to skin, covered with the spray, he held her close, burying his face in her hair.
She smelled like springtime, something flowery and sweet and she fit within the circle of his arms perfectly.
He could feel her small breasts pressing against him and he felt his manhood spring to life.

Lee shifted her weight slightly, opening her legs to allow his growing penis to press against her damp hot core.
She was so glad he was back, so glad that it hadn’t been as bad as she’d imagined.
Her moisture was coating his rigid shaft and when he pulled away slightly and slid against her, he grazed her clitoris with the most delicious friction, almost sending her over the edge.

She lifted her head to look at him, and the expression of bliss on his face warmed her even more.
When he reached for her lips, to kiss her, she was in heaven.
He was sliding his tongue in and out of her mouth, keeping time with his cock sliding back and forth over her wet slit.
Lee’s breath was coming fast, her heart was racing.

“Trav,” she whispered urgently.

“Yes,” was his equally urgent response.

“Take me.
Now.
Here.”

He didn’t need any more encouragement than that and lifted her carefully.
As she clung to him with her arms and legs, he pressed her back against the cool tiles of the shower and his cock was nudging at her entrance, pressing against her, trying to enter her.
Lee flexed her hips back and forth, slowly descending down his thick shaft until he was, at last, buried deep inside her.
Neither of them could move for a while, despite both of them panting for air and each feeling like their heart was going to explode with the excitement.

“Shit!” he exclaimed at last.
“Don’t move at all.
I’m so close to exploding inside you now.”

Lee looked at him through glazed eyes and deliberately clenched her inner muscles, squeezing him tightly.
Release.
Squeeze.
Release.
Squeeze.
Travis groaned the sound loud in the small bathroom.
Lee’s clit was pressed hard against the base of his cock and each movement was making her throb more.
She too was on the brink.

“Move – now!” she urged him, wanting to complete what they’d begun and he did.
He pumped into her, slowly at first and then faster, each time grunting with the effort of holding back until finally she cried out with her climax.
As she pulsed around him, he exploded inside her.

Much later, dried off, warm and snuggled beneath her covers, they lay entwined in each other’s arms.
Travis was almost asleep when he heard Lee whisper near his ear.

“I love you Trav.”

“I love you too b
aby,” came his soft reply.

***

Sally sighed and rolled her eyes as she dropped the phone back into its cradle.
This is a disaster
, she thought to herself.
A calamity!
She tapped her short fingernails against the desk in frustration and sighed again.
She couldn’t see a solution to her current problem and it was frustrating the heck out of her.
If only she had a magic wand.
And knew how to use it.

Flicking her dark hair over her shoulders she let out a loud groan and stood up, almost toppling her chair over in the process.
Coffee.
She needed coffee and some time to think.
And a holiday.
She probably needed a long holiday somewhere exotic and exciting.
She was almost completely over this crap job and her currently crap life and a break was called for.

As she walked to the nearby coffee station she tried to work out how much leave was due to her and came up with a disappointingly small number.
She automatically greeted her co-workers with smiles, nods and small waves as she walked past them, but she was so deep in thought that she didn’t really register any of it.

Her mother was right.

As this thought crossed her mind, she came to a complete stop in the narrow passageway, almost causing an accident with her manager, Andrea, who had been following closely, also on a coffee mission.
After apologizing several times, Sally went back to her coffee task.

Working in a call center wasn’t the most ideal job for her.
She was mostly bored with smatterings of frustration and often fantasized about a more exciting career, day dreaming instead of capturing data.
Her talents were wasted in what she fondly referred to as Hell With Fluorescent Lighting.
She really needed to find a new career path, something that challenged and stimulated her mind.

Settling back at her desk, Sally narrowly escaped tipping her mug of coffee over her keyboard and decided to celebrate this small achievement by checking her emails again.

An email popped up and when she saw who the sender was, Sally groaned out loud making her neighbors glance her way in surprise.

She loved her mother, really she did, but the woman kept setting her up on blind dates.
She was deeply upset at the fact that Sally had reached the ancient age of twenty-eight without finding a suitable husband and producing a string of grandchildren for her.
A woman’s place was in the home, she told Sally frequently, not gallivanting around and working in an office.

The blind dates her mother dug up for her were mostly horrible.
Sally thought back.
There was the man, apparently wealthy, who’d declared his deep, deep feelings for her on the first and only date.
He’d wanted to start discussing their future before they’d even ordered dessert.
That had creeped Sally out immediately.

Then there was the guy who’d had such deep social issues that he’d only been able to speak to her through a sock puppet which he’d brought to dinner.
Dessert?
She hadn’t gotten past a starter.
When his sock puppet had leered down the waitress’s top, Sally had walked out.
No words were sufficient to cover that experience.

Another date had been with an accountant (smart and financially sound, according to mom) who had used a calculator to work out their dinner bill, informing Sally that she needed to pay for the whole bottle of wine since he’d only had water with his dinner.
There had been no dessert.
Unimpressive to say the least.

In the past five years or so, she’d dated dozens of men at her mother’s insistence and not one had made her want a second date.
She was now officially done.
She’d dated more than her fair share of freaks, losers and chauvinists.
It was time to stand up for herself and say No!
It was past time that she let her mother know that she wasn’t going on any more dodgy dates.