Take Me

She opened her menu, and Travis wondered at her sudden change in demeanor. Any other woman would have eaten up the attention she was getting, but Lily seemed unsure of how to deal with it. He should have kept his mouth shut, but he leaned across the table and reached for her hand.

“Attention isn’t a bad thing, you know,” he said, not quite sure why he was trying to make Lily feel better but all the same certain that he had to try.

Lily stared at her hand in his and blinked uncertainly. “All my life I’ve wanted to be invisible,” she said softly. “No,” she corrected, pain radiating from her, through his hand, with her words. “I have been invisible. Who wants to look at the fat girl unless they have something mean to say?”

“Lily, you’re not fat,” Travis said, realizing that he wasn’t just saying it to appease her. He actually meant it.

She pulled her hand away. “I told you to stop making fun of me. Why won’t you stop?” she pleaded.

Travis shook his head. “I’m serious, Lily. You look beautiful.”

“Yeah right, whatever,” she said, and he could tell she was trying to be strong, but the break in her voice gave her away.

A band started playing, and Travis decided there was only one way to break the tension. Getting up, he held out his hand. “Dance with me.”

After a moment’s uncertainty, Lily let him help her up and walk her over to the dance floor. He pulled her into his arms, feeling her tense and stiff against him. He let his fingers play in her curls, thrilling at the soft, silken strands. As he had hoped, the lulling music worked its spell on Lily, and he felt her muscles soften.

Her body eased against him, the dress flowing against his legs, and he had to work to keep himself from growing any harder than he already was, sure that he would scare her away if she could feel the thick bulge in his jeans. Thank God they weren’t relaxed fit; otherwise, his c**k would be liable to attack Lily right there on the dance floor. After the way she had teased him in the bathtub he had wanted to tie her to the bedposts in their hotel room and do every possible thing he could think of to her lush, responsive body.

Trying to shake the incredible image of bondage games with Lily from his mind’s eye, Travis made himself focus on how well they moved together, he and Lily. Her curves were the perfect foil for his taut strength.

Over her shoulder he saw lust in the eyes of’ the other men. He wanted to wear a badge, something to declare, “She’s all mine.”

The song ended, but he didn’t want to let her go. He again started to wonder what was wrong with him, but then he realized he just didn’t care anymore.

If this was how right wrong felt, he couldn’t believe how much time he had wasted fighting it.

He smoothed back a lock of Lily’s hair, brushing it past her ear, watching it flow over her shoulder. Every part of him wanted to kiss her, to take her earlobe between his teeth, to taste the soft, sweet-smelling skin on her neck, to go lower, to caress the top of her br**sts with his tongue…

Lily’s stomach growled and broke the spell. She pulled back and giggled self-consciously. “I guess my stomach knows when it’s time for dinner, no matter where I am in the world.”

Travis’s midsection grumbled loudly, and he grinned. “Did you hear that?” Lily nodded and bit her lip in that sexy way again. “Look what you’ve started.”

Lily led the way back to the table. “Everything looks so delicious,” she said, as they opened their menus,

“and I don’t even know what the words mean.”

Travis laughed and it felt good. And long overdue. He motioned for the waiter to come over. “We’ll have what they’re having,” he said, pointing to the couple sitting behind them. “And a bottle of Chianti.”

Lily smiled at him, and Travis’s stomach flipped over. Probably just hunger pangs, he told himself, but suddenly he wasn’t so sure.

Their food was served, and it looked and smelled better than any meal Lily had ever had. She wanted to dig in and devour the gnocchi in front of her, but her usual insecurities reared yet again. What if he thought she was a pig? Even though he had said she wasn’t fat—like she’d believe that in a million years

—the last thing she wanted to do was remind Travis of how big she was, not when she had The Dress on, anyway. So instead of digging into the gnocchi, she took one dainty bite of the pasta and had to stifle the groan of ecstasy when it melted on her tongue. She put her fork down and dabbed at her lips with the napkin.

“Something wrong with your food?” Travis asked, his brow furrowed with concern.

“Oh no,” she said, “it’s incredible. I’m, um…”

“What? You’re starved, right? Eat up.”

Travis slurped in a bite of angel-hair pasta, and some sauce landed on his chin. Before she realized what she was doing, Lily reached over, wiped the sauce off with her middle finger, and licked it off.

Travis groaned. “There’s only so much a man can be expected to take. Do that again, and I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

Lily looked at her licked-clean finger and started. “I didn’t… wasn’t…”

Travis grinned. “I really wish you would, you know,” he said, then returned to his pasta with gusto.

What is that supposed to mean? Lily thought as she looked at him, confused by absolutely everything that Travis had said to her since he had apologized for his surly behavior when they sat down.

The smell of pasta and fresh-baked bread and sweet red wine wafted beneath her nose, and her stomach grumbled again, even more insistently this time. Watching Travis enjoy his food while she was using every ounce of will to ignore hers, she couldn’t help but think, Why can men eat as much as they want? Why do I always worry about eating in public? Who am I trying to impress? Travis? He’ll never be impressed by me, so why am I depriving myself of the best food I’ve ever seen?

Lily looked around the restaurant at the other diners, who were very much enjoying their dinners, and made up her mind. She was in Italy, and she was going to make the most of it. Reaching for her fork she took a bite of gnocchi, then another. A soft moan of delight escaped her lips, and when she looked up from her plate, she saw Travis watching her intently, his green eyes glittering in the candlelight.

Forcing the fearful fluttering in her belly to stop, she said, “Do you want some?”