Kim turned to look at him.
“I wanted to get as far away from him as possible, so I bummed a ride with someone”—Travis gave a half grin—“on a private jet to L.A. I stayed with a college buddy while I looked for work. I was so angry that when I heard of an opening for stunt work, it appealed to me. I got the job because I’m the same size as Ben Affleck. I was shot twice for that man.”
He smiled at her. “I succeeded and I proved that I was able to support myself. But I’d made it in the physical world by performing stunts. I was good at it, but I could see that my body wouldn’t last, so I quit. And besides, it was no life for . . . for you.”
“Me?” She blinked at him.
“Of course for you. I told you that my life has always been about you.”
“But . . .” She’d thought he was saying one of those things that all men do. She hadn’t taken it literally. “So what did you do?”
“My plan was to join a law firm. I was hired by a nice, conservative place in northern California. I thought I would work there for a year or so, then
I’d return to Edilean to see you again. I wanted to know if there could be anything . . . adult between us. And if I had a year or two of legal work under my belt, maybe I could get work in or around Edilean.”
Kim caught her breath, but said nothing.
“Everything was right on schedule until my mother stole millions out of one of my dad’s accounts. He came to me in a rage and said he was going to kill her.”
Kim gasped.
“He didn’t mean it literally, but I knew he’d make her so unhappy she’d wish she were dead. I knew exactly where she’d gone: the town where she and I had been the happiest.”
“Edilean.”
“Right. And knowing that, I knew my hope of seeing you again anytime soon was gone. I knew my dad. He’d have me followed and when he did, he’d find my mother.”
“So you went to work for him.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t plan to stay with him forever, did you?”
“I didn’t think that far ahead. It seemed that one moment I was on my way to obtaining my lifelong dream—since I was twelve, anyway—and the next I was working eighty hour weeks for my father. I didn’t have time to sleep, much less think.”
“But you had time to see shows of my jewelry,” Kim couldn’t help saying, and there was anger in her voice. “If I meant so much to you, why didn’t you say something to me? ‘Hi, Kim. Remember me?’ It could have been anything. I didn’t know your last name and I searched for you for years. I—”
Reaching out, Travis pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair. “How could I come to you? You were doing so well. You were a rising star in the jewelry world. I had an Internet alert on you and it seemed that every day you achieved something new. While I . . . I was still my father’s puppet. I needed to prove myself as a man.”
“And in bed?” she said and more venom than she meant came out.
“Yes,” he said. “I had to prove myself there too. It’s one thing to have a girl teach you how to ride a bicycle but quite another for her to teach you what to do in bed. ‘Now where do I put this big thing?’” he said in a falsetto voice.
Kim couldn’t help laughing, then she pulled back and looked at him. “Did you break me up with any men besides Dave?”
“No, but I kept a close eye on them.”
“What does that mean?”
Travis shrugged.
“What did you do?” she demanded.
“A few background checks, that’s all. Nothing invasive. When I saw that they were much less successful than you, I relaxed. You would scare the hell out of them.”
“Thanks a lot,” she said. “You make me sound like I wield a sword and ride bareback.”
“I like the image.” His eyes were laughing.