Jealousy bubbled up inside Travis at their easy informality. "Giuseppe?"
Lily shrugged one pretty shoulder. "I called him to ask about restaurants while you were getting dressed."
"I told the bella signora"--Lily blushed and Travis wanted to punch Giuseppe in the mouth--"that she would find much, how do you say, romance, at Diletto."
At the mention of romance, Travis grunted and stalked out onto the sidewalk, making a mental note to give Lily a much overdo lecture on the dangers of flirting with strange men, especially strange men named Giuseppe.
Lily's tinkling laugh spilled onto the narrow street. Holding her arms out wide, she spun in a circle. "I'm in love ...whee!"
Her hair flowed around her shoulders, and her delight was more potent than the twilight. Travis hated how he was holding his breath, waiting to find out who she was in love with. If she said Giuseppe, he was going to lock her in the hotel room for the next five days. Or better yet, he'd put her back on the airplane and send her home. Now why hadn't he thought of that before?
"Who are you in love with?" he grumbled, when she didn't finish her sentence.
Giving him an impish grin, she moved down the lane. "With Saturnia, of course," she called out.
Travis admired the sway of her hips, thinking how impossibly right she looked in Italy. But it wasn't a case of the country making the woman.
Tonight, Lily's presence made Italy come to life.
He tugged at the front of his jeans, which were suddenly tight and uncomfortable, and ran his fingers through his hair. What was happening to him? If he didn't know better he'd think Janica had cursed the dress with some sort of lust potion that was messing up the normal lines of communication between his brain and his dick.
He followed after Lily, down the curving streets, down into the valley below. A wide smile lit her face as she turned and pointed to the restaurant. "This is it! Diletto. Giuseppe said it means 'delight' in English. Isn't that the perfect word to describe this restaurant?"
Travis raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Obviously, Lily didn't know that many people thought that the word "dildo" derived its origin from the Italian word. He decided to keep the knowledge to himself. For the time being.
He did have to admit, however, that the interior of the restaurant was a cut above. The walls were stucco, tinted with a golden yellow; the floor tiles looked perfectly ancient, seemingly worn with the soles of millions of Italian feet.
She glided inside and the maitre d' immediately approached her, kissing her hand and touching her far too much for Travis's liking. None too gently, he shoved the man aside, taking his place at Lily's side. She was just opening her mouth to say something, but Travis was sure that whatever she said would be misconstrued by this lusty Italian as, "Please come back to my hotel room."
"We would like a table for two," he said, placing a possessive hand around Lily's shoulders. She shot him an irritated glance and tried to shrug his arm off, so Travis held her tighter.
I'm only doing this to protect her from depraved foreigners, he told himself. Not that he minded the feel of her breasts pressing up against his chest, however.
The maitre d' eyed Travis with laughter in his eyes, and for what seemed like the hundredth time since landing in Italy, Travis had to restrain from decking a guy. What he wouldn't give to be back in the United States, where no one looked twice at Lily.
Or did they?
Lily's round warmth was pressing into him, and it felt good. Really good. She was shapely, without being too round. Voluptuous, but not surgically enhanced, like so many of the women he had bedded. And he knew for a fact that the curves of her body fit his better than anyone else's ever had. No, he thought with some dismay, it wasn't impossible that men back home would find Lily attractive. After all, he had impossibly high standards, and he couldn't keep his hands off her.
Confused by his wayward thoughts, Travis let Lily escape his grasp as they were led to a small round table in the center of the room, where the scene was obviously set for romance. He had been hoping for a private table in the corner. Instead, they were center stage.
But instead of being embarrassed by being seen with Lily, Travis was jealous of every man in the room who dared ogle her. Something they all were currently doing.
"This table is perfect," she said, and in her glee she bestowed a kiss on the maitre d's cheek.
Didn't she see how the man was leering down the front of her dress? Didn't she have any sense of personal boundaries? Travis was furious at Lily for being so free with her sexuality, for kissing another man while she was out with him . Travis vowed that from this point forward, he was going to be so charming that she wasn't going to look at anyone else.
He pulled out her chair and roughly shoved her into it, ignoring her cry of, "Hey!"
So much for charming, he thought with a grimace. He'd obviously have to try a little harder.
"You wanted to eat, so let's eat," he said, picking up a menu and opening it with a thwap on the table.
His incredibly unwitty banter wasn't going to win him any points either.
Lily glared at Travis across the table, her bountiful breasts heaving with anger. "I won't let you do it," she said, her words stiff and cold as she shoved back the chair to stand up.
The maitre d' hurried over to help her up, but Travis shot him a look that said, "I'll cut your balls off if you come over here again," and the man stopped dead halfway across the room.
Travis slammed the menu shut. "You won't let me do what?" he asked, his voice as sharp-edged as hers, even as he cursed himself for losing grip of every smooth move he had in his arsenal.
"I won't let you ruin Tuscany," she replied, dripping ice with every word.
He opened his mouth to protest, but he knew he was going to make the situation even worse if he said another word, so he shut it.
"I don't know what you have against me, Travis," she said, standing across from him, her hands pressed hard into the table, her breasts swaying provocatively toward him. He forced himself to concentrate on her face and not her incredible nipples as she said, "I don't know what you've always had against me, why you feel you have to treat me like I'm beneath you."
Her accusation snapped his mind back to attention, mostly because the validity of what she was saying made him feel like the smelliest piece of garbage in the gutter. The room spun, as she said, "I wasn't kidding when I told you I was through with your attitude. I may have agreed to share a room with you for the next five days, but I absolutely refuse to let you stomp all over the most glorious--"
"I'm sorry."
The words were out of his mouth before he knew they were coming. Lily's mouth opened and closed several times, but at least she stopped saying all of those things that were wrenching at his gut. It was easier to apologize to her than to deal with her accusations.
I've always treated her like she's beneath me?
"I'm sorry, Lily," he said again, fumbling over himself to get her to sit back down. "I promise I'll stop being such a jerk. It's just..." He gestured around the room. "It's just that all of these men are staring at you in that dress, and I can't stand it because I know that they want to--"
"They are?"
Lily looked around the room in surprise, her anger replaced with surprise.
Travis breathed a sigh of relief that he had turned her attention away from what a raging jerk he was. He said, "Every single one of them, Lily," and she sat back down while biting her lip in a show of disbelief.
"Like who? Show me who."
Thank God she's not leaving, he thought, as the fist unclenched in his gut. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the maitre d', then the waiter beside him, then gave up, and said, "The whole lot of 'em, Lily. Every last man in here wants to strip you out of that dress. The minute you walked in the door they started wondering what your breasts would feel like in their palms, how it would feel to have your legs wrapped around them while they--"
"Okay, Travis," she int
errupted, her face pink, her eyes bright. "I get it. You don't have to say anything more. Let's try to have a nice dinner, then get some sleep so that we can get some work done tomorrow."
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 cock 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 breasts 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...I 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?"
Travis nodded, so she scooped up a forkful of pasta and held it out across the table. He wrapped his long, tanned fingers around her hand, sending a jolt of awareness up and down her spine. His eyes burning into hers, he put his mouth around the tongs of the fork and pulled the pasta onto his tongue. Lily could practically feel his warm lips suckling at her nipples.
But no matter how swept away Travis's touch made her feel, she had to remember that Travis had many lovers. Lily couldn't fool herself into believing she was special. And judging by the beautiful clothes in his luggage, he had one stashed away nearby.
Abruptly, she pulled her hand away and set it down on the plate with a clank. "I'm tired," she said. "If you don't mind, I'm going to call it a--" But before she could bid Travis a good night and get away from the hot promise she read in his eyes, a gorgeous young Italian stallion approached the table.
"Bella signora, will you honor me with a dance?"
"Me?" She fought the urge to look over her shoulder to see if the young man was talking to a woman behind her. And then she remembered. I'm wearing The Dress. Evidently its magic powers hadn't worn off quite yet.
Gracing the stud with a wide smile, she held out her hand to him, glad for the excuse to get away from Travis.
"The bella signora," Travis interrupted with a sneer, "is otherwise occupied right now."
If Lily hadn't been so confused by the show of masculine rites going on between the two men, she might have been able to laugh at how Travis was obviously flexing his biceps.
It was just her luck, she cursed, that Travis had picked that particular night to become possessive of her. Especially when she had already decided that she was not, under any circumstances, going t
o give in to her body's demands, no matter how much she wanted to feel his heavy weight pressing her down into the mattress. Besides, since she was nearly positive that he had an Italian lover stashed away, Lily wasn't about to miss out on her one chance to dance with a sexy foreigner. Sure, his shoulders weren't as broad as Travis's, his brown eyes didn't have the smoldering heat that Travis's green eyes did; but all that aside, he was definitely the second-cutest guy who had ever asked her to dance.
Ignoring Travis, Lily let the young man lead her to the dance floor. The stud held her close, pressing the firm lines of his body against hers, but Lily was hardly able to pay attention to him; not when Travis was staring holes into her back, not when she would rather have been in Travis's strong, warm arms.
As if from a distance, she saw herself dancing with the gorgeous foreigner, his hands moving down her back, and knew, without a doubt, how proud Luke would be of her. Travis has never had a woman taken away from him, Luke had said. At the time, Lily hadn't thought that she would be the first one, but now she hoped that when Travis saw how interested this guy was in her, he would begin to want her even one-tenth as much as she wanted him.
The warm chords of the classical guitar reminded her of that fateful night at the fashion show. It seemed like a lifetime away, a life where she was the invisible girl hiding in the corner, and Travis was the larger-than-life pirate who could ransack an entire ship and never once notice her for all the gold and silver blinding him. There in Italy, in The Dress, Lily felt that girl slipping away. It was frightening to lose the person she had always been; but the joy she felt at emerging from her cocoon, even if it had taken thirty years, was so great she wanted to sing it out to the whole world.
Caught up in a sudden rush of joy at the new colors that she saw before her, she pulled the Italian closer and relished the sensations of hard male muscle against her soft curves. He wasn't Travis, but he was life, and right then, that was the most important thing.
The song changed from soft and slow, to pulsing and intense. Lily followed the lead of her partner, melting into him. He moved so well and she was feeling so alive, so brand-new. She was in beautiful Tuscany, in the arms of a well-built Italian man at least five years her junior.