Take Me

Travis was having a heck of a time keeping his eyes on the road. His hand kept wanting to move off the stick shift to Lily’s thigh. And the soft, slick bounty that lay beneath her skirt.

“Nothing is going on,” he insisted. “Look, you’re right, I’ve never seen your work. But Luke said you’re great and that you should open your own shop. So how about we’ll start with one room, and if my clients like it, we’ll see about the rest of the house.”

Lily studied him carefully for a long moment, and it took all the manliness he possessed not to squirm under her gaze. He held his breath, waiting for her reply. If she didn’t go for this, he had no idea how he was going to get her alone again.

And if he couldn’t get her alone, he couldn’t get her naked.

And if he couldn’t get her naked, he couldn’t make her come.

Travis had to make her come. That day. No one had ever questioned his virility, least of all himself.

Lily blew out a breath. “Fine. I’ll work with you.” Brushing back a springy curl from her cheek, she said,

“What styles do your clients like?”

“I think you’ll get an idea when you see the house.” He pulled into the long driveway and drove beneath thick canopies of hundred-year-old oak trees, parking in front of a huge Italian-inspired villa, high in the hills of San Francisco.

“Wow. What a beautiful house.” Lily stepped out onto the brick pavers that lined the driveway and walked toward the front door with her mouth hanging open. “You want me to work with you on this house?”

Travis smiled, pleased that she was so awed by his work. “Wait until you see inside. And the view.”

He opened the front door with his key, and they entered the empty house. “My God,” she said, her eyes wide. “This is straight out of the Tuscan countryside. I see murals and bright blue tiles. Mustard walls with a faux finish and soft fabrics. Rugs, the most glorious rugs atop the wood floors. And with the way the sun is setting through the oak trees…” Lily’s voice fell away. “This house is a perfect extension of nature.

From the outside, in, and back again.”

Not bothering to mask his surprise, Travis said, “I was thinking along those exact lines when I designed the house.”

Lily bit her lip, and the worried look came back. “There’s no way that I can get your clients what they need at Barker’s. Whoever furnishes this house should be combing through trunks of furniture shipped straight from Italy. The designer should probably even fly to Italy on a buying trip for textiles. The truth is, Travis, you’re wasting your time with me.”

Travis stared at her as the fading sunlight through the huge windows covered her in a soft, warm glow.

He had a hallucination of the two of them lingering over a bottle of Chianti in a sidewalk restaurant on cobblestone streets before he took her back to a villa and made love to her all night long.

Before he was wise enough to stop himself he said, “Quit your job. I’m hiring you to furnish this house.

It’ll be your first big commission.”

Lily spun around. “No,” she said, stepping backward toward the door. “I don’t think I could…”

“You can.”

“The entire house? Every room?”

Travis took another step toward her and spoke quietly, suddenly sure that she was the only person right for the job. Even though he’d pretty much gone out his way to avoid her for the past two decades, and certainly never thought that he’d become her champion, Travis found himself saying, “Go for it, Lily.”

Somewhere in the back of his brain Travis realized that working together on a long-term basis was completely at odds with his plan to take her just one more time and be done with her. Clearly, the hot sex they’d had after the fashion show had messed with his usual clear thinking in a serious way.

Squaring her shoulders, her look of doubt transformed into an excited smile. “Oh what the heck. I’ll do it!”

She held out her hand. Travis wrapped her long slim fingers in his own, and yet again he was surprised by how soft her skin was.

He couldn’t let her leave, not yet. Somehow he had to figure out a way to seduce her before leaving and make her think that it was her idea.

Still holding her hand, he said, “Do you want to see the rest of the house?”

Her blue eyes sparkled. “Oh God, yes.”

Travis smiled and headed into the kitchen, vowing that the next time she said, “Oh God, yes,” it was going to be from the spasms racking through her as he pumped hot and hard into her.

Lily could hardly believe the gift Travis had given her. She followed his trim, buff form from room to room, nearly salivating at being so close to him for so long. Now that she had accepted this job she would get to see more of him, wouldn’t she? At the same time she was a bundle of nerves, sure that at any second, the other shoe was going to drop. She wasn’t naive enough to believe that Travis asked her to come see this house because of her interior-decorating skill. Something else was going on; she just hadn’t figured out what it was yet. It likely had something to do with him punishing her for daring to think she was worthy of sleeping with him. If she had had any concern for self-preservation, Lily would have refused his offer to decorate the house and kept herself as far away from him as she could. But she couldn’t resist being so near to him.

Things were no different in high school when she had followed Travis around the halls, hiding behind her books. He always had his arm around at least one of the cute little cheerleaders, and Lily knew without a shadow of a doubt that she had been completely invisible to him. Utterly unimportant.

But still, she couldn’t keep from wanting him. As crazy, as irrational as her lust for Travis was, she had never been able to let go of it. And now that she had been given a taste, she wanted him for every meal.

She was as pathetic as she had always been.

As a teenager, stolen glances were all she could get. Why did she think it would be any different now?

Sure, she had come apart in his arms. Yes, his body over hers had felt so right. But that didn’t mean that things were any different than they had been in high school.

Luke’s plan from their Sunday brunch popped back into her head. She tried to accept her role in all of it, but she was having no better luck now than she had during brunch.

“Travis is lucky to have even gotten to be with you once, especially after the way he’s treated you.