Taylor crept into her bedroom and found Travis lying on her bed, clothes on, shoes off and fast asleep.
Dropping down on to the mattress next to him she stared at his beautiful face, dead to the world, so peaceful, so serene, every chaotic aspect lost to the world of sleep.
She tried to reconcile the image before her of a sleeping man with the picture painted for her by her mother just moments earlier.
Travis had been desperate, in pain, unsure of where to turn or who to cling to but through the murkiness he had come looking for her and she couldn't help but smile at that fact whilst reaching out and smoothing a finger over the perfect pink skin of his cheek
He'd been accused of having sex with a girl not old enough to consent. The thought of that twisted and turned in Taylor guts, what he must have gone through when the police arrived, what he must have thought as he sat alone in a police cell, it must have felt as though life couldn't get any worse for him in that moment, having everything he had worked so hard for brutally torn away from him and through no fault of his own, but little did he know he had the worst still to come, the fact that his own mother believed every bad word and accusion that was hurled at him, even through he had a mountain of evidence proving his innocence must have cut him to his core.
Taylor had known him for just a few short weeks but when her mother explained the story to her, confirming without doubt that she believed Travis and trusted his version of events Taylor had been relieved that for at least once in this whole sorry mess he had known that he had been believed, even if it was by Taylors mother and not his own.
Taking a finger, she traced the outline of his plump lips, remembering how they had felt pressed against her skin just the day before. He was beautiful and precious but the people that should be telling him that were too busy telling him everything that was wrong with him to notice.
Suddenly Travis' eyes began to flutter open and for a second he lay there, silently looking up at her and then a smile lazily stretched over his lips
"Hey you" his voice was husky from sleep but also drenched in the emotion of his recent breakdown.
Pushing himself up he didn't take his eyes from Taylors
"Did your mom tell you I cried on her earlier?" he was joking, trying to make light of it, trying to work out if she thought less of him now she knew how easily he had cried into a strangers arms but she didn't find any humor in the situation at all as she fixed him with a serious gaze
"Travis, don't take this the wrong way..." she noticed his jaw tense as he awaited what he obviously thought was going to be bad news but reaching out she took his hand in hers and then pressed a kiss to the swallow tattoo that adorned the back of it "I really hate your mother"
He released the breath he had been holding in a short, loud laugh, always blown away by how blunt and unapologetic she could be
"She has her reasons Tay, or at least she thinks she does"
Taylor just shook her head
"Nothing justifies the way she treats you, don't ever let her convince you that it does, okay? "
And there it was, that look that Travis had come in search of, the deep pools of concern in her eyes as she searched his face, every look letting him feel just how precious he was to her and just like that he was overcome by the urge to repay it, to show her that no matter how he had protested against her in the beginning, she had broken her way in to his heart and was filling his mind.
Lifting his hand, Travis caressed Taylors cheek bone with his thumb
"I told your mom some things about me..." her nod told him Sinu had filled her daughter in on the grimey details "And does that change anything? You know, between you and me, this, whatever this is"
"Well it explains some things" she looked down at their hands that were still joined and marveled at how tiny hers looked tangled up amongst his "It explains why high school girls were such a problem for you, I thought it was because you were a judgemental dick but it wasn't, you had a legitimate reason to be concerned but I'm 18 years old Travis, anything we do is legal. Not that I think for a second you did anything that wasn't legal, my mom says she trusts you without doubt and my mom is a great judge of character"
Travis smiled, relishing in the fact that someone believed him so easily, he didn't have to protest or lay down evidence, he said he didn't do it and Sinu and Taylor saw him enough to see that he was telling them the truth, they accepted it, just as easily as breathing and he realised then that if he let himself that's how easy it would be for him to fall for Taylor.
"You're so beautiful, do you know that?" he pressed a soft kiss to her lips and in the true Taylor style that he loved so much she replied
"Of course I do, I do have mirrors you know" and before he could laugh or comment on her boldness her lips were on his and her arms were around his neck, pulling him to her as she moved to straddle his hips
"Mom went in to town to pick up some things for dinner" she returned to kissing him before he could reply and he dropped his hands to cup her ass, pulling her as close to him as he could, understanding what she was offering him
Pulling away from her briefly he rested their foreheads together and tried to catch his breath
"This morning you sent me a picture of what you were going to wear under your clothes for school"
"I did" she drawled seductively as her fingers moved from his hair to the top button of her shirt, popping it open before moving on to the next one, Travis' breathing becoming labored once more as she popped button after button revealing more and more flesh to him
"I put these on this morning with only one thing on my mind, you taking them off of me tonight" As the last button opened she moved her hands back to his neck and reignited the kiss, the feel of his excitement pressed hard against her core causing her to move slowly back and forth against it providing them both with the most blissful form of friction
"Are you sure you want this?" his voice was hesitant, scared she would back out but unable to blame her if she did, he brought baggage and chaos and if she just wanted someone pretty to make her feel good then he wasn't that guy
"I want it, I want you" and she kissed him firmly "God I have been desperate to have you ever since I first saw you" again she kissed his lips "I want you on me, in me, with me" she said letting him know that this was more than just a physical act that she was offering to him, she was offering him her, all of her
"It won't be easy Tay, my mother"
"Fuck her! If she can't see what an amazing man you are then she doesn't deserve to have you as her son, just like you don't deserve someone like her as your mom, but Travis promise me one thing"
"What?"
"That this is the last time I'm on you, desperate to show you my lingerie and you bring up your mother. I want your mind and your hands on me, not her"
Travis laughed and shook his head as he slowly peeled the purple shirt over Taylors shoulders and down her arm, the sheer black bra that lay beneath pushing him over the edge of the parapice on which he'd been so precariously balanced
Their lips quickly found each other as soft cotton, hard denim and metal belt buckles were discarded, hot flesh touched hot flesh and lustful words filled the burning room, speaking of what they hoped was the beginning of something unaware that in reality it would be the beginning or everything
