Her unspoken prayer was heard. Travis laid her down on the floor. "This dress has got to go," he said. Before she realized it, his fists were curled around the collar at her neck and he was ripping the dress clean down the middle.
Underneath the linen atrocity, Lily was stark naked. She had stripped off her sexy underwear along with her sexy dress.
"On second thought," Travis said, "you can wear that dress as often as you like, as long as you promise to be smooth and naked beneath it."
"I hate that dress," she said as she reached for Travis to pull him down to her.
"Me too. Ugliest thing I've ever seen."
They laughed together, but when he laid his heavy weight on her, their laughter faded away. Lily sucked in her breath as sticky cream smeared onto her breasts from his shirt.
Travis ran his hands between their bodies. "Uh-oh," he said, "looks like someone has gelato all over her."
"Do you like gelato?" Lily murmured huskily.
Travis smeared the chocolate around her puckering areola. "That depends."
"On what?" Lily held her breath as Travis bent his mouth over her breast.
"On how it's served."
His words were hot against her flushed skin. Lily arched up into his mouth, but instead of sucking her nipple into his mouth, he gently pushed her back into the soft carpet and lapped chocolate off the undersides of her breasts.
"Mmm," he said, rearing up over her. "You should taste this."
He swept his tongue inside her mouth. Lily sucked the chocolate off his tongue and he groaned.
"More?"
Lily nodded, her heart beating so hard she was afraid it might leap out of her chest altogether. I love you. The words pulled at her insides and sat on the tip of her lips unsaid.
Travis licked ever-narrowing circles on the soft flesh of her breasts, until her tight nipples were the final bit of chocolate surprise. "I always save the cherry on top for last," he said with a wicked grin.
Nearly incoherent with need, Lily watched Travis's lips surround her nipple. She closed her eyes as his teeth lightly raked over the sensitive tips. He sucked one peak hard into his mouth.
"More," she moaned.
Cupping her breasts between his palms, Travis showered loving attention on both nipples at the same time. He ran his tongue through the deep valley between them. Light stubble raked Lily's inflamed skin.
Having never felt so safe before, Lily reached for his hand and tried to put it between her legs. Travis looked up from her breasts, his pupils dilated, his breath coming hard. "Is that sweet pussy of yours feeling neglected?"
Unable to form words, she nodded.
Barely above a whisper, he said, "Let me see."
Lily spread her legs so that he could see how wet she was. Travis leaned down over her cunt, so close that his breath teased her something terrible.
"Oh my," he said, running his index finger down the length of her lips, "you are wet, aren't you?" Travis brought his finger to his mouth and sucked her juice in. Tilting his head to one side, he raised an eyebrow. "Hmm. Needs a little something."
Lily gasped as he spread her legs wider and spread cold gelato onto her vagina.
"Now that looks like the kind of dessert I like. I'd better eat you up before it melts."
Lily closed her eyes and held her breath as she waited for Travis to lick the chocolate cream from her cunt. None of her fantasies could have ever prepared her for this kind of loving. Somehow she had found a lover who knew what she wanted before she knew herself.
His tongue, warm and broad, curved into her, then up and over her swollen clitoris. Again and again he stroked her cunt with his tongue. His face was buried firmly between her thighs, his hands cupped and squeezed her ass.
The orgasm hit her full force, and Travis responded to her spasms by plunging two fingers in and out of her while sucking her clit into his mouth.
"Your mouth, oh God..." Lily never wanted it to end.
Travis's fingers continued to work their magic as he reared up over her, biting and sucking her breasts, tonguing her nipples. His mouth worked up to the pulse point in her neck and shivers ran though her. The tail end of her first orgasm merged into another.
"Good girl," Travis said, as her muscles squeezed his fingers with renewed vigor. In an instant his head was between her legs again, and he was licking and sucking everywhere at once. Lily grabbed his head with her hands. She wrapped her legs around his neck and ground his mouth and teeth and tongue into her pussy.
Finally, she fell limp. Travis rained kisses on the inside of her thighs, wet with her arousal and his saliva and chocolate gelato. He ran kisses down her legs, behind her knees, down her calves. His warm hands massaged the soles of her feet. She was too exhausted from her two incredible explosions to do much more than groan with pleasure.
Lily relaxed and enjoyed the sensuous magic of Travis's massaging hands. At long last, she opened her eyes. He was kneeling between her legs, his gaze roving over her large breasts, her pink, wet pussy lips.
Somehow, when he looked at her like that she forgot to be embarrassed. She felt like the most beautiful woman in the world.
And he loved her.
Her heart had been in his hands for so many years. And now he had offered her his heart. She reeled from it all. The only way she was going to make it through the night in one piece was if she concentrated on all the things she wanted to do to Travis.
"Too many clothes," she murmured, her voice coming from somewhere far away. Travis smiled at her, his heart in his eyes. Something new and wonderful burst to life inside her.
"Come here, big boy," she said, ready for her turn to play with a hard cock and some chocolate gelato.
On all fours, Travis came up over her. While Lily undid the buttons of his shirt, they loved each other with their mouths. She tugged his shirt down his arms, then ran her hands over the hard planes of his chest.
"You are so beautiful." She would never get enough of him.
How could a man this perfect love her?
The thought assaulted her, backhanded. Her hands stilled on his chest.
Travis picked up on her emotional shift right away. "Sweetheart?"
The sound of his voice brought her back to the present. Hoping to cover her tracks, she teased, "I can't wait to taste my first chocolate-dipped cock."
Her words mobilized Travis, who took matters into his own hands by stripping off his pants. Naked, he stretched out on his back. Lily wrapped her hand around his penis, marveling at how beautiful every inch of Travis was.
Travis urged her to go ahead with her culinary plan. "If you're gonna dip me, Lily, you'd better do it fast."
A thick bead of precome emerged from the head of his shaft, backing up his statement. Lily eagerly licked him clean.
Her eyes crinkling, she reached for the carton of gelato. "Delicious, as always, but you were right. Tonight definitely calls for a special Italian touch."
Lily smeared gelato up and down Travis's shaft. His hips tightened beneath her hand. "You like that, don't you?"
Travis squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.
"Well, then, how about this?"
Starting at the dark, springy hair at the base of his shaft, Lily licked Travis up. He was the best chocolate ice cream pop she had ever tasted. She tortured him with her tongue, cleaning up every square inch of his cock. For her final touch, she opened her mouth wide and took him all the way.
"I can't stop--" he cried, as hot come shot down her throat.
Lily readily gulped him down, thrilling in such intimacy with the man she had always and would always love. She continued to suck, even after his strong spurts had stopped.
His muscles went lax, and Lily levered herself up onto her elbows, putting her chin in her palms.
"Delicious," she said, smacking her lips together.
Weakly, Travis said, "Need. To. Shower."
Lily got to her feet and helped Travis up. He pulled her to him and kissed her softl
y on the lips. "You blow me away." he whispered.
"Ha-ha," she said, but Travis refused to go along with the pun.
"I'm serious, sweetheart. I've never felt like this before."
His eyes were deep green and so full of love that tears sprang to Lily's eyes. "Me either."
12
AFTER AN INCREDIBLE SHOWER they fell, exhausted, into the soft down bedding. Within seconds, Lily was asleep. Lucky girl.
Sweet girl.
His girl.
He kissed her forehead, and she snuggled closer to him. He wrapped his arms even tighter around her.
Now that everything was so clear, Travis almost had to laugh at what a fool he had been for so many years. Everything pointed, so obviously, in the same direction.
Straight toward love.
Love.
It was the most incredible sensation, one that he never thought he would feel again. The last time Travis remembered feeling so safe, so complete, was when he was ten running around with Luke and Lily on the playground playing pirate ship. His mother hadn't gotten sick yet. That little boy hadn't had any idea of the depths of pain that he would go through.
Travis didn't want to deal with twenty years of pain, but as Lily slept in his arms, he knew it was long past due. He had wasted so much of his life hiding from anything that made him yearn for happiness, safety, comfort.
And most of all, love.
Travis had vague memories of his childhood, memories that he wished he had been able to hold on to. Wrestling with Luke. Staying out at the playground so late that their mom had to come hunt them down with the threat of no dessert if they didn't get into the kitchen and wash up immediately for dinner. Having his first crush in the first grade on a cute little girl named Lily. Trying to convince her to play doctor with him behind the bushes in second grade.
And then, out of the blue, his worst nightmare had come true and his mother had left them forever. At ten years old, Travis hadn't understood what breast cancer was. But he understood too well that his mother had deserted them.
Forever.
He remembered listening to Luke cry in the middle of the night on the bottom bunk in their bedroom. He remembered his dad coming home late from work and having too much to drink. But apart from that, Travis couldn't remember feeling anything at all.
Nothing, that is, apart from an emptiness that hadn't gone away until he'd kissed Lily for the first time at the fashion show.
The other kids at school had left him alone, everyone except for Lily, who kept trying to invade his space, who kept trying to get him to admit his feelings, his hurt to her. She was his friend, she'd said, and she knew he was sad. Having already lost both her parents by then, he supposed she felt it was her duty to reach out to him and Luke. She offered comfort and understanding, and with Luke, it had made the two of them closer, like brother and sister, even after all these years.
But Travis had thought that Lily was trying to expose him as weak, as a coward. Couldn't she see that he had to stay strong? If he hadn't been there to hold his brother and father together, what would have happened to his family?
So from that day forward, he shut her out in any way he could. He ignored her. He turned away from her when she needed him. He let her down again and again until one day she stopped trying to talk to him. Of course, the fact that she was bigger and more insecure than everyone else made his job all too easy. But still, she was always on his radar screen. He even knew that she had watched him tongue the cheerleader beneath the bleachers and knew that her adoration of him had been a turn-on, even as he tried to convince himself that she meant nothing to him.
Lily snuggled in tighter to him and sighed softly. Travis smiled into her hair and stroked one soft shoulder. He hated to admit how awful he had been to Lily all these years, but by God he was finally going to own up to it. Could he ever make it up to her?
By a sheer stroke of fate--some magic, maybe, that was sewn into the seams of the dress Lily wore at the fashion show--he had finally been able to see past his own idiocy, and he and Lily had finally come together.
Lust had broken down the door, letting love saunter right on in.
I'm finally doing something right, Travis told himself as he lay with Lily in his arms, looking out the large window at the Tuscan moon. Sure, he was still scared. Who wouldn't be?
But he'd just take it one day at a time. With Lily by his side.
Travis smiled and closed his eyes. Lily's soft, even breathing lulled him to sleep.
EVERYTHING ABOUT the next two days was perfect. They found endless treasures for his client's house, and as Lily grew more confident in her decorating skills she began to lead the buying trip. Tips from vendors led them to little towns and old farmhouses. Between meetings with unique craftsmen, they pulled the car off into deserted valleys and made sweet love.
On Sunday night they drove their rental car back into the village and found the streets blocked off at the bottom of the hill. Travis parked the car. He and Lily got out, and she pointed to the large banner strung between buildings.
"Festivale di Matrimonio."She clapped her hands. "Oh, Travis, it's the Festival of Weddings that Giuseppe told us about! Do you think anyone will actually be getting married?"
Travis shrugged and grabbed her hand. "Let's go find out."
Beautiful music streamed down the streets of Saturnia. There were musicians on every corner. Locals were dancing in the street, so Travis and Lily joined them, spinning and twirling and laughing. The sun was beginning to set, turning the hills and the stucco buildings to gold.
Travis felt utterly content. "We should stay here forever."
Lily sighed with longing. "Wouldn't that be heaven? I'd miss Luke and Janica way too much, though."
Travis's heart skipped a beat. Luke. Janica. What were they going to think about him and Lily? He twirled Lily again to hide his conflict from her. In the past three days he had almost started to believe that he and Lily were in a safe cocoon where the rest of the world didn't matter. But if the mere mention of their siblings' names made him panic, what was going to happen when he introduced Lily to his friends and colleagues as his girlfriend?
She's my girlfriend, he thought, startled by the revelation. A hundred bells rang out, and Travis let the music of the bells carry his doubts away. Together, they ran up the narrow streets toward the festival, eager to witness whatever magic the Saturnians had for them on this beautiful night.
Colorful lanterns hung between buildings and from every window. The effect was dazzling, a thousand fireflies twinkling. Travis kissed Lily again and again as they made their ascent to the top of the street.
Their giggles fell away when they spotted the festival. White paper wedding bells mixed with the lanterns. Women in incredible wedding gowns held on to the arms of their men, dapper in dark suits and tuxedos with bright, colorful sashes.
Everyone was drunk on love, and the many stalls selling grappa and fruity pinot grigios didn't hurt any.
The bells sounded their final chime, and a band began to play. As couples took the floor, one after the other, Lily and Travis were swept up into the music. Together they twirled and laughed and kissed.
"I've never been this happy in my entire life." Lily nestled her cheek against Travis's lightly stubbled jaw. "I love Tuscany," she breathed.
"I love you," he replied, his breath blowing softly across Lily's ear.
Neither one of them noticed when the music stopped. They held tight to each other and swayed to the beating of their hearts. Travis looked up and realized that everyone was clapping and hooting and looking at him and Lily.
"Um, Lily," he said.
"Yes," she said, looking up at him with stars in her eyes.
"I think the locals are trying to get our attention."
Lily peeked over Travis's shoulder and blushed. "Why are they all looking at us?" But before he could reply, several women grabbed her hands and pulled her from his arms. They herded her off toward a grove of olive trees
with a white canopy between them. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Travis was getting the same treatment from the men.
"Now would be a good time to know some Italian," she muttered, as the women fussed and cooed over her. But she was willing to go along with their fun until they started to undress her.
"What are you doing?"
She didn't want to slap their hands away, but she had no idea what was going on, and it unnerved her. The days with Travis had showed her that she had a bold side, but that boldness didn't include getting naked with a bunch of strange women in the middle of a crowded piazza.
An old woman motioned for the others to cease their ministrations for a few moments. In her arms she held a white dress. Lily looked closer. "Of course," she murmured with a smile, "a wedding dress."
All of the women except her were wearing wedding dresses. She must have looked out of place. Smiling at the women, she hoped to make up for her earlier behavior. "Grazie." She pointed at the dress. "Bella."
New smiles on their faces, the women converged on her again. Her dress was removed, and the wedding dress was slipped over her head. It fit beautifully, layers of antique lace with corset strings in the back to mold it to her figure. Her hair was brushed and primped, her face was made up, satin shoes were slipped on her feet.
"I feel like Cinderella," she said and several women nodded their heads vigorously.
"Si,"they said, "Cinderella!"
The final touch was a thin lace veil. It lent a soft, shadowed, extraspecial glow to the entire evening for Lily.
The elder whistled, and the band began to play. Everyone in the piazza stomped their feet and clapped in time to the music. Lily was led out from the olive trees with pride by the women who had dressed her. She held her head high. She knew she looked beautiful, and she couldn't wait for Travis to see her.
She hoped he had his camera with him. She wanted to show Janica and Luke pictures when they got home. Otherwise, they would never believe her story of getting handpicked to be a part of the Festival of Weddings in the heart of Tuscany.
She felt a light buzzing across her skin. She knew Travis was watching her. She searched the crowd, but she couldn't find him. She hadn't thought to look at the stage in front of the church, however. Which was precisely where Travis was standing.