She knew she couldn’t resist Travis. But she also knew that Luke would crucify her if she didn’t at least stick to part of the plan. Steeling all of her soft feelings, she prepared to do battle.

Travis gently kissed the top of her head. “That was some amazing orgasm, wasn’t it?”

Lily couldn’t believe how smug he sounded. As if he thought that all he had to do was be near her, and she’d explode into a million pieces. Tamping down on the truthful part of her that said that was precisely the case, she said, “It was fine, Travis.”

In his shock he let go of her, and she swam to the side of the pool.

“It was fine?” he said through clenched teeth.

Lily shrugged. “Yeah. It was fine.” Looking up at him all innocence, doing her darnedest to pretend that she was worldly and had sex with men in strangers’ pools all the time, she said,

“Oh, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, Travis. I really did like it, you know.”

He followed her out onto the flagstone patio. ” You really did like it? What the hell does that mean?”

Ignoring the racing of her heart—who was she to mess with a man like Travis?—she said, “Any towels out here?”

He reached beneath the seat of a wood bench and threw a towel at her. Pinning her with his green eyes, he said, “You loved what I did to you. Don’t try to deny it.”

Lily kept her expression as bland as she could, but inside she was incredulous. Luke seemed to be dead on target with his brother. Travis wasn’t sure if she had actually enjoyed herself with him. She had come all over the place, and he actually thought that she might have faked it.

Wow.

It was hard for Lily to believe, but it seemed that, for the first time in her life, she had the upper hand with Travis.

Letting her mouth curve up into a small smile that barely hinted at the secrets inside her woman’s mind, she got dressed, ignoring his words completely. “I’d really like to get started on the project now. Could you please take me back to Barker’s so that I can leave a note of resignation and pick up my car?”

Lily fought back a laugh as he stalked up the path to his car. Following behind him, her hips swaying to a new, all-female rhythm, Lily thought that maybe, just maybe, her life wasn’t quite as predictable as she had thought it to be.

“It was fine. “

“I liked it.”

“I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, Travis.”

Travis pulled up to the curb in front of the store and stared straight ahead as Lily fiddled with the seat belt. He could feel her big blue eyes on him, making him feel things he never wanted to feel. He was ten years old again and on the playground trying not to cry, trying not to be a big baby just because he didn’t have a mom anymore.

“Thanks for this opportunity, Travis. I won’t let you down.”

He grunted, knowing she was waiting for him to say something. Finally, she gave up, saying, “I’ll be in touch in a few days once I’ve done some research at the design center downtown,” before slamming the door.

Travis intended to burn rubber as he peeled away from the curb, but his foot wouldn’t obey his command. Instead, he watched Lily walk up the short pathway to the front entrance of the store, hating how turned on he was by the sway of her hips.

Utterly disgusted with himself, he peeled out from the curb and broke at least ten traffic laws on the way back to his office in the trendy South of Market area.

A new receptionist sat at the front desk. When he walked in she stood up in all of her twenty-year-old blond-and-nubile glory.

“Mr. Carson?”

Travis nodded and gave her his most devastating smile. “And you are?”

“Megan. Your partner hired me.” She shook her blond hair over her shoulder and stuck her chest out slightly, her ni**les perky beneath her thin silk shirt.

Travis shook Megan’s hand and waited for the usual rush to come from touching a beautiful young woman. He held her hand a few seconds longer than normal and looked deeply into her blank brown eyes.

Nothing.

Dropping the girl’s hand like a pile of hot coals, Travis bit out, “I need two first-class tickets to Rome for Wednesday.”

If he couldn’t fight Lily’s lure, he was going to have to do the next best thing.

He was going to have to drown in her until he was completely, totally sick of licking her, kissing her, sliding in and out of her incredibly tight pu**y.

Until he never wanted to touch her again.

Chapter Five

The next morning, Travis made a beeline for Janica’s design studio. If he was going to take Lily to Italy, he wanted her to look good. Apart from her red suit and Janica’s dress, Travis couldn’t remember ever seeing Lily in something that didn’t make her look frumpy. So he needed clothes. Incredible clothes. And from what he had seen during the fashion show, even though she was just starting out in the business, Janica was going to be one of the best.

He found her J Style studio in a refurbished warehouse ten blocks from his office. As the blocks dropped off, the neighborhood grew seedier. Travis paid a homeless man twenty dollars to watch his Jag and rang the bell.

Janica called down through the voice box. “Who’s there?”

“Travis.” She didn’t buzz him in, so even though he’d known her since she was in pigtails, he said, “Travis Carson.”

“You’re kidding me,” she said, and he would have grinned at her reaction if he weren’t so stupefied by what he was doing. “What are you doing here?”

“Let me in, Janica,” he growled.

The buzzer sounded, and he opened the thick metal gate. It slammed shut behind him as he made his way up the concrete steps to the second level.

Janica leaned against the door, scowling at him. “What do you want?”

Travis had always admired Janica for sticking up for her older sister. Even though she was a perfect size two, Travis had the sense that Janica wasn’t the kind of woman who disrespected women larger than she.

On the contrary, she seemed to go out of her way to make them look beautiful, as was evidenced by the line of plus-sized clothes Travis saw hanging from a rack by the window.

“What are those?” he asked, ignoring her biting question.

She gave him a triumphant look. “Lily was such a hit at my show that I’ve been asked by a local boutique to design an entire line of clothes for plus-sized women. Real women, like Lily. Not like those plastic uberidiots you always date.”

Her stance was tense. She looked ready to spring and strangle him at any moment, the bear cub who would do anything to protect its mother.