Take Me (Take Me 1)

Because even though she’d had a major crush on Travis since they were ten, she had never fooled herself into thinking that she could ever be a part of his life.

They were so different. She was soft and couldn’t help but look for the good in everyone. He was all harsh, unforgiving angles. She was quiet, afraid to speak up because she knew people would laugh at her dumb ideas. He was a storm that erupted in a hundred different ways, assailing any- and everything.

Looking up into his eyes, she saw the storm beginning anew. Taking a step back from him, warring with her own anticipation, Lily said, “I should probably start doing some research this afternoon. After turning in my resignation at Barker’s, of course.”

Quitting her safe job would be the next-riskiest thing she had ever done—right behind being a sexy queen on the runway and seducing Travis, of course—but it made her smile to think about telling Albert that she quit and was never, ever going to buy a single thing for her clients in his store.

Yeah right, like she’d ever be able to stand up to Albert, even though he deserved it. She really was letting her imagination get the best of her. Although Lily wished she had enough guts to tell Albert what she thought of him, she knew she’d meekly hand him a letter of resignation and let him browbeat her. Oh well, at least a man who had treated her like dirt wouldn’t get any commissions from her.

Travis moved toward her, shaking her out of her thoughts. She started, feeling like a gazelle being stalked by some big wild thing. He must have seen the panic in her eyes at being so close to him in such a sensuous bathroom, because instead of cornering her he ran a hand through his jet-black hair, and said,

“I’d like you to see the property before we go.”

“Why?” Lily asked, increasingly suspicious of his motives. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him to touch her, of course, it was in fact just the opposite.

She desperately wanted him to touch her. And she was sure that she wasn’t going to be able to pull off the ruse of being unaffected by his touch like Luke had told her to do. If Travis so much as ran one finger down the side of her face, she was going to start pleading with him to take her right there, right then, heedless of the consequences.

Travis gave her a coaxing smile. “Just like you said when we walked in, I’ve always felt that it’s important for a designer to see how the inside of the house interacts with the environment surrounding it.”

Lily narrowed her eyes, trying to read between the lines on Travis’s face, but it was completely, professionally blank. Suddenly she felt foolish. Here he was giving her the biggest opportunity in her career, and she was being distrustful and apprehensive about it.

What a fool she was. He hadn’t even mentioned their night together. Why did she think he would ever want to touch her again?

After all, she was just Lily.

And Travis would never dream of sleeping with just Lily. She was sure of it. He had made a mistake on Saturday night, one that she was sure he would never deign to repeat.

Wanting to cry, but forcing a smile back onto her lips, she said, “You’re right, Travis. I would really like to see the property.” Digging for something at least partially professional to say, she observed, “From what I can see through the windows, there are some wonderfully mature trees on the acerage.”

Inwardly she rolled her eyes. Wonderfully mature trees. Like she really cared about the trees. All she wanted to do was get away from Travis before she did something really stupid like throw herself at him.

The back of the house was dotted with olive and lemon trees. Travis pointed to the far right of the property, toward a thick grove of oaks. “There’s something you’ve got to see back here.”

Stepping carefully down the winding path in her heels, Lily gasped with pleasure when she saw what the trees were hiding. “What an incredible pond,” she said, taking in the reflection of the red-gold sunset on the surface of the water.

“It’s not a pond,” Travis said, “it’s a swimming pool.” Travis shrugged off his jacket and kicked off his leather shoes. Sitting on the edge of a large, flat rock he folded up his Armani suit’s pant legs. “Let’s relax for a minute by the pool before we head back.”

Lily was about to say no, but something inside her told her to go for it. In the past forty-eight hours her life had gone from lackluster to crazy to simply unbelievable. First making love to Travis, now being hired to decorate a villa in San Francisco. Surely sitting by the pool with the man she had lusted after her whole life paled in comparison to all that.

She sat on the rock and slid her feet out of her shoes.

“Why don’t you take off your stockings?” Travis asked innocently. “Feel the grass under your feet.”

Lily shook her head. She couldn’t do that. Travis would see her big, white legs and immediately start thinking about elephants.

Travis raised an eyebrow. “Afraid that I won’t be able to keep my hands off you?”

Something churned in Lily’s gut at Travis’s taunting. She’d show him. If it killed her, she was going to make him so hot he was screaming for release. And then she’d leave him cold and desperate for her.

“No, you’re right. I’d like to feel the breeze on my bare skin,” she said, working hard to pitch her voice in a sensual manner. After all, the sun was almost down. Didn’t everyone always say that sunset was the most flattering time of day?

She pulled up the hem of her skirt and unhooked one side of her garter.

“Do you need any help with that?” Travis asked nonchalantly.

Lily forced herself to reply as carelessly. “Not unless you want some help with your pants.”

Trying to still her trembling fingers, she unrolled her stockings down her thigh. As unbelievable as it might have been that the prom king was lusting after the original wallflower, Lily knew it with every fiber of her being. Now was the time for what Luke had instructed her to do: She needed to whip Travis up into a sexual frenzy, then leave him before he got the upper hand.

Could she do it?

Lily looked up at Travis from beneath her lashes, and what she saw in the green of his eyes took her breath away.

He wanted her.

Badly.

Licking her lips, she said in a husky voice, “Is your offer of help still good?” In less than a second, he was kneeling at her feet, his hands on hers at her knees. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, laughing softly at the new feeling of feminine power that was coursing through her.