Take Me (Take Me 1)

As the tables were cleared, Lily’s heart raced faster and faster. A grand procession announced the arrival of the wedding cake—a glorious concoction at least three feet high, decorated in pinks and blues.

“Oh my God, Lily, look at that cake!” Janica gaped in amazement and elbowed Luke. “I want one exactly like that at my wedding,” she said to him, but Luke was busy watching Lily’s face. She looked sad and tired and different. Luke couldn’t pin down what it was about her that had changed. There was a new strength in her certainly, but that wasn’t it.

Was it love?

Luke cast a glance at his brother and shook his head. How could she possibly be in love with Travis?

Why were people always attracted to the people who were the worst for them?

Janica was still making noises about how glorious the cake looked, and he grimaced, wishing she would be quiet for once. She had been chattering away since they’d boarded the airplane in San Francisco.

He’d always thought that she was spoiled rotten, walked all over Lily, and was far too cute for her own good. Between her looks and Lily’s endless support, Janica had never worked for anything. The world had always been handed to her on a silver platter.

Luke shook his head in consternation. For once he wished somebody would hand Lily love on a silver platter. Too bad that Travis didn’t seem to be up to the task.

The townsfolk called out for the cake to be cut. Travis brushed a lock of hair from Lily’s face, and she trembled at his touch. He so badly wanted to say, “Do you still love me?” but instead he said, “Looks like it’s time to cut the cake, sweetheart.”

Lily visibly flinched at his endearment and an ice pick pierced his heart. He held his hand out to her, praying that she wouldn’t reject him. When she put her soft hand in his he was struck, yet again, by what an incredible woman she was. And he was about to lose her.

Just days after finding her.

They walked together to the center of the table, where the cake stood in all its glory, waiting to be devoured by all the newly married and remarried couples in the piazza. The silence between them was painful, and Travis desperately wished he could think of something to say to ease her tension.

“Nice-looking cake, huh?” he said. Without looking at either him or the cake, still staring straight ahead, Lily nodded. Travis felt like a bumbling fool.

“I wonder if everyone will get a piece,” was her reply, and Travis felt like they might as well be discussing the weather. She was a million miles away, and it killed him.

The priest handed them an oversized silver cake cutter and wrapped both of their hands around it.

Travis’s heart beat wildly as their bodies pressed together, and Lily’s heat seeped into him. He wanted to throw her over his shoulder and lock her in the bedroom with him. He knew he didn’t have the right words to show her how much he loved her, but he could worship her with his body.

And then she would know.

In one fluid stroke they cut the cake. The cheers were loud and raucous, fueled by copious amounts of local wine and good food.

“Bacio, bacio, bacio!” the townsfolk sang.

“Bacio, bacio, bacio!” Louder and louder, the words became more insistent, more passionate.

The chanting was impossible to ignore. From the deep red flush across Lily’s cheeks Travis knew that she had already translated the word into English. Vowing to do at least something right that night, Travis turned Lily in his arms until she was so close to him that he could smell the sweet grappa on her lips.

“I love you, Lily,” he whispered. She sucked in a breath and struggled to escape him, but Travis refused to let her go. Threading his hands through her hair he captured her lips, leaving no doubt in any bystander’s minds about his possession of his new wife. Wanting to pour everything in his heart into the kiss, he loved her lips like he had loved her body so many times in the past week. Lily took her breath from his body as he tasted every inch of her sweetness. His lips a hair from her hers, he whispered,

“You’re mine, all mine,” then took her mouth again tenderly in a final kiss.

Lily’s eyes grew wide, and this time when she tried to escape his embrace he let her go. Off into the night she fled. Travis tried to keep his face steady. But the crowd was clamoring for cake and more wine, and the music had started up again, so no one seemed to notice that anything was wrong with the groom.

No one, that is, except Janica and Luke.

“What is going on here?” Janica asked Luke as they sat stunned by the kiss they’d just witnessed. “I used to think that black was black and white was white, but now I don’t know what to believe.”

Luke ran his hands through his hair, making them stand up on end in a particularly rakish way. In his logical way, Luke laid out the facts. “All we know so far is that they got married, and evidently it’s legally binding.”

Janica snorted. “You’re forgetting the most important part. Men!”

Luke looked confused and not a little disgruntled. “And what’s that?”

“The kiss!”

This time Luke snorted dismissively. “You’re reading too much into it. It was just a kiss. They didn’t even want to do it. They had to do it.”

Rolling her eyes at his cluelessness, Janica said, “Give me a break. Even I couldn’t miss the heat between them. They practically lit the table on fire.” Poking Luke with her index finger, she said, “And don’t you dare try to argue with me when you know I’m right.”

“Okay,” he conceded, “maybe they have some chemistry, but that doesn’t mean that Travis has changed.

You know he can’t commit to one woman.”

“But what if he has changed?” Janica said, “There was something in that kiss.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “Something that I don’t think anyone here can deny.”

“You’re being too romantic,” Luke said, obviously unwilling to see what she had seen so clearly.

Janica looked up at the moon, trying to figure out what it was about the kiss that got to her so much.

With a snap of her fingers, she said, “I’ve figured out what it is.”

Luke already looked unimpressed. “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

Her eyes bright, she said, “Travis was pursuing Lily, not the other way around.”

Luke started in his chair. “Are you sure? I mean, Lily’s the one who’s always had a crush on him.”