A Winter Sabbatical (Books We Love holiday romance) by Cheryl Wright Page B

a t-shirt, and she
could feel his arousal push against her, even through the thickness of her
jeans.
    Without warning, Travis stopped. He pulled
back and looked at her. It was as though time stopped. He didn’t utter a sound,
not a single sound, just stared into her eyes.
    Marissa was stunned. What was wrong with
him? Didn’t he want her? Then it hit her – he felt sorry for her. Well, she
wouldn’t have it!
    She reached out and shoved him away, and
Travis landed flat on his back on the carpet.
    Marissa stood up, and stood over him with
her hands on her hips. “Don’t you give me your damned pity, Travis Johnston. ” Her hair was dripping all over him, but too bad.
He deserved it. “If you think I’m going to put up with that rubbish, then you
can just forget it.”
    Travis lay speechless, looking up at her as
he brushed water off his face.
    “Go home. I don’t want you here.” Marissa
turned and walked out of the room, not waiting for his response.

 
    Travis sat on the floor feeling like a
scolded child.
    What should he do now? He didn’t want to
leave, but Marissa certainly wanted him to.
    Had he really pitied her? He didn’t mean
to, but maybe she was right. What did she expect anyway? The situation was not
to be taken lightly. Jeremy had practically died in her arms.
    No wonder she was traumatized. What he had
to do now, was decided how to help, and pity obviously wasn’t the way to go
about it, if Marissa’s reaction was anything to go by.
    Travis jumped to his feet, suddenly
remembering his pancakes.
    Burned to a frizzle. Not that he expected anything different. He should never have tried
to kiss her. It was too soon. Oh hell! – he’d made
love to her, too. Good one, Johnston.
    Travis threw out the ruined pancakes, and
began another batch.

 
    “I thought I told you to go home.”
    Travis turned to find Marissa standing in
the doorway, hands on hips. From the day he met her, he knew Marissa was a
strong willed woman, but this was ridiculous.
    “I’m not going anywhere. If you don’t want
to be with me,” he flipped the last two pancakes over, “Then you leave.” Travis turned his back on
her to tend his pancakes.
    He heard her indrawn breath, but chose to
ignore it. He lifted the tray of warm pancakes from the oven, and added the
last two, placing them all in the oven again. He turned around, but Marissa was
gone.
    Music. He could hear music. He followed the sound to the lounge room,
where he found Marissa listening to Patsy Cline’s heartbreaking version of Crazy .
    Was that how she felt? Lonely? And did she really think he’d leave her? Leave her for somebody new?
    Travis shook himself. He was acting crazy
himself. It was just a song. Wasn’t it?
    He stood across the room, watching,
waiting, wanting her reassurance. As though she sensed his presence, Marissa
turned and looked at him.
    Travis didn’t speak, but Marissa seemed to
understand his concern at her choice of music.
    “Blues,” she said, as though that answered
everything.
    Travis stepped forward, but Marissa put up
her hands defensively as Patsy Cline’s voice faded out.
    Willie Nelson suddenly came through the
speakers singing Blue Skies.
    Great,
just great, Travis thought, the Blues just keep rolling on.
    Marissa rifled through her CD’s. Was she
looking for more depressing songs to make her miserable day even more miserable?
    He had to do something. This was absurd; he
couldn’t let her go on like this. Is this what she did when she was alone? No
wonder she was always so unhappy. That, amongst other things,
anyway.
    Travis covered her hand. “Let me,” he said,
noticing the trickle of tears down her face, but saying nothing.
    She had a good selection of music, mainly
Blues and Country and Western. He wanted something with a bit more oomph to it
–something that would be mood altering.
    “Ah-ha!” He took it out of the box and put it the drive to play it. “One of
my favorites – I want to be a