The original draft of Long Tall Drink had an extra chapter that very few people got to read. I heard from a few folks, well okay, more than a few, who wanted more. Being that it's Valentine's Day and that last chapter was rather romantic, I thought what better time to share it than now. So without further adieu, I give you a Long Tall Valentine. Enjoy!
Ray stood behind Travis, admiring his cowboy’s reflection in the mirrored wall of the elevator that carried them effortlessly upward. Golden sun-streaked hair, brushed neatly back from his face, curved over the collar of his jacket in a gentle wave. Ray itched to run his hands through the silky strands and twine them around his fingers, muss them up. Nothing looked better than Travis in the morning with tousled hair -- especially after they’d made love and his skin was flushed, eyes soft and heavy-lidded.
Those incredible eyes gazed back at him in the mirror -- the secrets they held still not completely revealed. A single dimple capped a crooked grin on that ruggedly handsome, tanned face. And that unique, kinetic force that defined the man vibrated in the small confines of the elevator, ratcheting Ray’s desire for him up another notch. It sometimes amazed Ray that there seemed to always be another level to reach.
He could barely wrap his mind around how much had happened since that black day in April four months ago -- the day he’d almost lost Travis forever. But Travis lived and everything changed. He and Travis had come stampeding out of the closet with guns blazing. Well, to their ranch hands, anyway. It had been a frightening thing to do, but at the same time, liberating beyond measure. For the first time in his life, Ray had been able to breathe freely.
While not everyone had been accepting, Ray had been surprised by how many were, or who didn’t seem to care one way or the other. Just as Dot had predicted, they’d lost a couple hands and a regular buyer, received the occasional sneer in town, but the violence and destruction of his ranch and the Ford Creek reputation Ray had feared all his life never came to be.
“What?” Travis asked, his voice a soft seductive growl.
He stood tall, confident and commanding, looking every bit the dashing aristocratic rake, in his tailored black silk tuxedo. Travis always looked incredible no matter what he wore -- or what he didn’t. Actually, he looked best in nothing at all as far as Ray was concerned.
“Sweet mercy,” Ray’s voice was a hoarse rumble deep in his chest. “You are gorgeous.”
Travis’s grin morphed into that dazzling, magazine cover smile as the elevator came to an imperceptible stop and the doors whooshed quietly open. He reached his hand back for Ray’s and when their hands were firmly clasped, Travis led him out into the hall. Life really couldn’t get any better, Ray thought.
“That was the best wedding I’ve ever been to,” Ray said as they reached their hotel room door. His first crush, Gregory Reeves, had looked incredibly jubilant standing at his man, David’s side, with dancing eyes and an unshakable smile. It was the kind of happiness that ran bone deep and cast the whole world in a warm, golden glow. The bond Gregory and his partner shared was unmistakable, visible to the naked eye. And one Ray found himself hoping he and Travis might some day share.
It was good to see Gregory after so many years. He still looked like a surfer, but had filled out and was no longer the lanky teen Ray remembered. He was still handsome. Nothing would change that. But the man had nothing on Travis. Gregory’s husband was also a handsome man -- dark where Gregory was light -- and they were absolutely perfect together.
Travis slid the card key in and out of its slot. When the green light flashed he pushed the handle down and opened the door as he said, “That was the only wedding I’ve ever been to.”
Ray entered the room behind Travis and shucked off his tux jacket. He tossed it onto a chair near the entrance, then grabbed Travis by the waist and spun him around so they faced each other. He slipped his hands beneath the lapels of Travis’s jacket and shoved it off his shoulders, pushed it down his arms until it ran out of real estate and fell to the floor.
“Something I’ve been dying to do all night,” Ray said with a lascivious smile as he pulled the knot of Travis’s bow tie loose.
Travis chuckled and said, “Why don’t you grab a couple beers so we don’t get thirsty.”
Ray let his hand glide provocatively across Travis’s abdomen as he moved away and walked over to the mini fridge. He retrieved two cold bottles, turned around, and stopped dead in his tracks.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Travis, his cowboy, his lover, was down on bended knee looking up with an expectant expression on his face and an excited, inner light glittering in his eyes. One hand rested on his knee, clenched into a fist. A rush of warmth spread throughout Ray’s body, his pulse kicked up a notch, and he suddenly felt breathless.
“What the hell does it look like I’m doing, Raymond Ford?” The smile in Travis’s voice shone as bright as a summer sun at high noon. “I’m asking you to marry me.”
Ray heard the words, but couldn’t quite connect the thought to action. Travis wanted to marry him? Travis Morgan, the man who’d spent the last eighteen years of his life drifting with the wind? Ray could never have guessed that Travis would be the marrying kind. Let alone the staying around kind. Ray certainly hadn’t thought marriage would ever be for himself. Didn’t see how it could ever be in the cards. But now… Now the most incredible man he’d ever known was down on his knee gazing up at him with so much love and desire in his eyes, Ray felt like his heart would explode if it swelled any more.
Travis turned the fisted hand over and rolled his fingers out like a blooming flower. There, in the middle of his open palm, were two silver bands. And Ray’s gaze locked on them, hypnotized.
“Any time there, Ray,” Travis prompted. That deep resonant drawl washed over Ray in a gentle, erotic wave. “Don’t leave a man hanging.”
Yes! “But… Montana…”
Travis scrunched his nose and scoffed. “The state doesn’t get to tell me who I spend the rest of my life with.”
Ray blindly placed the beer bottles on top of the fridge, missing on the first try, then strode forward and dropped to his knees before Travis. He cupped Travis’s face with both hands and kissed him with enough force to knock him to the floor. Ray sprawled over Travis and let his lips and mouth and tongue answer what his voice wasn’t yet able to.
Ray broke the kiss and sat up, impatiently tugging at Travis’s shirt. The buttons were too much to deal with, so he yanked it roughly over Travis’s head. He stared down at Travis’s lean, defined chest and smooth, flawless skin, marred only by an angry jagged scar on the lower left side of his torso. A permanent reminder of how close he’d come to losing the man forever. He traced his fingers gently over the rough skin, and then Travis captured his hand, drawing his gaze.
“Hey,” Travis said softly. “I’m still here. Not going anywhere.”
“Don’t ever do anything like that again, Morgan,” Ray said solemnly. He’d never felt so terrified and helpless in his whole life; never wanted to experience a day like that again.
Travis shook his head and smiled. He brought Ray’s hand to his mouth and placed a light kiss on each knuckle. “I believe I’m still waiting for an answer, Ford.”
Ray reclaimed his hand, pulled his shirt over his head and carelessly tossed it on the floor so he could feel skin against skin. Travis was here and always would be, which was a damn good thing because Ray had never wanted anyone as badly as he wanted this man.
Ray reached for the zipper of Travis’s silk slacks. “And I believe there was something I was about to do first.”
Travis laughed and grabbed Ray’s left hand. “No sex before marriage.”
“Little late for that, cowboy,” Ray teased.
“Then answer me.”
“You already know the answer.”
Travis gazed up at him, his eyes flashing as he opened his hand again. Ray looked to the rings. The bands were wide, simple, polished to a bright sheen with smooth beveled edges. And perfect.
“They’re engraved,” Travis said in a breathless voice.
Ray lifted one ring from Travis’s hand and turned it to see the inscription. My cowboy. My love.
His throat tightened. He could barely swallow.
Travis lifted his other hand, fingers spread. “I say yes.”
Ray slid the ring onto Travis’s third finger, and suddenly the room seemed brighter, the air lighter, and Ray felt as if he might float away.
Ray barely heard his own voice when he said, “I say yes.”
Travis released a breath of air Ray hadn’t been aware he’d been holding, and slowly slipped the matching ring onto Ray’s wedding finger. Ray’s vision blurred as he stared down the silver band -- a symbol of what they meant to each other, what they shared, and what would be a constant reminder to always put that first. Cherish it. Cherish each other.
Travis wrapped the ring-clad hand in his and pulled Ray down, taking his mouth in a tender, passionate kiss.
“I love you, Travis Ford,” Ray whispered when they broke for air.
Travis laughed, low and deep in his chest. “I love you, too. Ray Morgan. Now quit talking and show me how much.”
* * *
