Take Me (Take Me 1)

Back home in San Francisco, Janica and Luke were holding a summit at her design studio. Thinking how good Luke looked in her domain, how nicely he filled up the empty spaces with his broad shoulders, Janica turned and fiddled with her espresso machine to hide her ridiculously lustful thoughts. He was her sister’s best friend, for God’s sake, and had known her since she was still putting bugs in her mouth. For all she knew, Luke had a crush on Lily. And why wouldn’t he? Lily was sweet, comforting, the best friend anyone could have. Janica’s heart sank even as she hated her petty jealousy. Resolutely, she made sure her fingers were still and calm as she poured Luke’s drink and brought it over to the cafe table in the corner.

“You probably know why I asked you to stop by,” she said.

Luke nodded and absently picked up his cup and blew on the hot drink to cool it off. “I’m worried about her, too,” he said.

Janica paused, not sure how to say what she needed to say without hurting Luke’s feelings. After all, Travis was his brother. “Um, the thing is that your brother is, well…”

Luke looked up at her and deftly finished her sentence. “A complete jerk when it comes to women?”

Color crept into Janica’s cheeks. “Exactly,” she said crisply, wondering where the outspoken version of herself had disappeared to. “And I wasn’t sure if you had noticed that…” She let her words fall away.

She didn’t want to make Lily look bad by saying that she had a crush on Luke’s unworthy brother if Luke didn’t already know.

Again, Luke came to her rescue. “Lily has a crush on Travis?”

“Bingo,” she said, and inwardly cringed. Bingo? What kind of moron said “bingo” when sitting so close to a truly hot guy? “I’m really worried about her. I don’t know how she’s going to make it through an entire week with Travis treating her like she’s not good enough to shine his shoes. Maybe,” Janica said, watching Luke carefully, “we should go to Italy.”

Luke’s face lit up. “Why didn’t I think of that? You’re a genius, Janica.”

Janica’s heart grew at least a full size bigger at Luke’s compliment. He had never really noticed her before. Sure, he had always been nice enough, but it was the kind of nice that you’d be to a puppy. Still thrilling from the genius comment, Janica grinned widely, and said, “Great! I’ll get online and make some plane reservations for tonight.” Too late, she realized that she was acting way too excited about going to Italy to save her sister. She couldn’t bite back a small bit of guilt over her other reason for wanting to go to Italy with Luke: Some alone time with a hottie like Luke would be sheer heaven.

Luke pulled out his Palm Pilot to check his calendar. “Tonight won’t work. I’m on call for the next forty-eight hours.”

“Can’t you switch with someone?”

He looked morose. “No, unfortunately I can’t. Everyone has already been on for forty-eight.” He rubbed his eyes and looked bleak. “My hours are crazy lately, which is exactly how I got Lily into this mess in the first place. Some best friend I am.”

Janica wanted to stroke his broad shoulders and tell him that he shouldn’t be so hard on himself, but somehow she kept the urge in check. God forbid Luke find out she had a crush on him. She’d never been a pathetic girl, and she wasn’t about to start.

“But I’ve got some time off coming to me. I could probably take a few days without it becoming too much of a train wreck at the hospital.”

“So I’ll book the flight for Saturday and we’ll get into Rome early Sunday night?”

“Sounds good. Call me with the flight info and I’ll meet you at the airport.”

Janica nodded, tense with anticipation. Funny how all of a sudden saving Lily from Travis’s evil clutches placed a very distant second to being close to Luke for several days.

Chapter Ten

Lily and Travis’s fiery lovemaking was the perfect jolt of caffeine for their first morning in Italy. After gulping down scalding espressos at a corner cafe, they hopped in the rental car that Giuseppe had hired for them and took joyfully to the streets of Saturnia. Travis had been to the region on buying trips in previous years, but the sun had never seemed so bright, the sky so blue, the espresso so perfectly bitter.

He wanted to show Lily the finest leather shop in the world, the ancient rug factory, the famous gelato stand outside the piazza. Beauty was a gift from him to her. At every turn she surprised him, her decorator’s eye finding the little touches that would make his client’s house a delight to everyone who entered. Any lingering doubts about Lily’s ability to decorate the entire house vanished as she found a hand-painted tiles for the kitchen, a whimsical fountain for the courtyard, and soft, sheer silks for the bedroom walls.

All day, Travis couldn’t resist playing a dangerous game with Lily’s hand soft and warm in his. His imagination overflowed with visions of their naked bodies slipping and sliding against the silks that hung around their very own master-carved four-poster bed.

Quietly, as he watched her run her talented hands over an ancient statue at his favorite wholesale landscape store, another puzzle piece slipped into place. What if he gave in to the way Lily made him feel?

Leo, the proprietor, said something that made Lily throw her head back and laugh. Her laughter washed over Travis, and he snapped back to attention, feeling left out of the joke and wishing he was the only person who could make Lily look so happy.

He slid his arm around her waist, and as Lily leaned her head on his shoulder, the proprietor conveniently left them alone with each other. “I swear,” she said with a sigh, “I’m going to move here.”

Travis smiled. “I’ve thought of that a time or two myself.” He mock frowned. “Don’t tell me Leo asked you to marry him.”

Lily giggled again. “Well… now that you’ve come right out and asked…” She kissed Travis on the cheek.

“Actually, he said I should be a model for one of these.” She gestured to a statue and blushed. “I know he’s a big ol’ flirt, but still…” Her voice drifted away, and she looked unsure of herself.

Not wanting anything to ruin her good mood, especially not her insecurities about the very body that he found himself having an ever-growing appreciation for, Travis made a show of inspecting the life-sized female statue in front of them. He ran his hands over the br**sts and grinned wolfishly.