Clamping her mouth shut, she turned back to the window, the beautiful sights around her blurring behind an image of Travis’s face above hers, watching her intently as she came, his green eyes black as a moonless night.

Chapter Seven

Travis gritted his teeth as Lily turned away from him again to look out the window. He wasn’t particularly interested in getting the silent treatment for the next five days. Maybe after she got a few hours of sleep Lily would be her normal self. The only problem was that Travis hardly knew what “normal” Lily was anymore. Normal Lily was supposed to be a wallflower who didn’t have an ounce of guts. But from the first moment she had stepped onto the fashion runway on Saturday night, Lily had become a new woman to him.

Travis cursed himself for his rash decision to hire Lily to decorate his clients’ house. If he hadn’t been so wrapped up in the need to sink into her again, if he hadn’t had to prove to himself that he could make her come—he could make anyone come until they went blind with pleasure, how could he have possibly doubted himself?—he could have thought straight and done the smart thing by dropping Lily back out of his life. As it was, he had definitely been thinking with the wrong head.

When he had decided to take Lily to Italy, he had planned to screw her brains out for five days straight.

He’d intended to keep her mouth filled with his cock, his hands full of her incredible br**sts, and both of them so exhausted that they never even left the hotel. He could have cared less whether or not they found rugs or tables or couches. His client’s house could be a barren wasteland at this point, he was so focused on doing Lily.

He still couldn’t believe that she had actually shoved him onto the toilet in the airplane. He could tell by the way she had responded to his kiss that she wanted it as much as he did. The things he was planning to do to her in that small cubicle… But then she had to ruin everything by growing a spine. Or, he thought with a rueful smile, at least a small part of a spine.

How could one woman—Lily, no less—be messing so badly with his mind?

Travis searched the rolling hills and pink-tinged buildings for clarity, but no answers were forthcoming. All he knew was that as soon as they got to the hotel he was going to take a quick shower and head straight to the nearest bar. If he was lucky, he would meet some pretty young Italian girl who could clear his mind with a few hours of meaningless sex.

It wouldn’t be meaningless with Lily, a voice in his head said, and Travis started in his seat. He shot a glance at Lily to see if she noticed his sudden movement; but, thankfully, she was leaning back into the seat, her eyes closed, her breathing soft and even.

Of course sex with Lily had been meaningless, he told himself.

Just because he wanted to watch her eyes change color as she exploded beneath him, just because he wanted to hear her say how much he had pleasured her didn’t mean that sex with her was any more important than his last affair with… whatever her name was had been.

Just because he’d never felt so complete with any other person, not even his brother Luke, didn’t mean that he needed her. It didn’t mean that he suddenly wanted to be her friend. And it definitely didn’t mean that he was going to keep his dick in his pants for five days. If not Lily, someone. Although, he asked himself, Why not both?

The limo pulled up outside their hotel, the sumptuous Villa Rossi. Their driver opened the door and reached for Lily’s hand to help her out, but when he saw that she was fast asleep he turned to Travis with a smile.

“The signora is beautiful when she sleeps, no?”

Travis narrowed his eyes at the driver, making it perfectly clear that the sleeping beauty was all his, staring him down until the driver stepped away from the door and went to the trunk to remove their luggage.

Travis slid close to Lily’s soft, sleeping form and he brushed a red curl away from her face, unable to keep from touching her.

“We’re here,” he said quietly, not wanting to startle her, not when she looked so peaceful, and yes, beautiful, too.

Sleepy blue eyes opened, and Travis couldn’t resist bending forward to steal a kiss. His lips touched hers, and something warm spread through him. Her tongue slipped into his mouth, and the pit of his belly hurt with lust and something else. Something he didn’t want to examine. Ever. More thrown off by this warm feeling than he wanted to admit, he pulled away just as Lily’s arms wrapped around his waist.

“Travis,” she whispered against his lips and reached for him, but he moved out of the way just in time, before she could weave her magic spell around him again, before he stopped being able to think clearly.

Before he did something stupid like beg her to make love to him again like only she could.

Scooting out the door, schooling his face into a mask of impartial politeness, he held out a hand for her.

Lily looked confused by his abrupt change of demeanor for a moment, but as she became fully awake her confusion was replaced by a swift burst of anger.

“I can get out of the limo all by myself, thanks,” she spat at him as she lowered one round leg, then the other, to the golden gravel outside the villa. Without waiting for him, she pushed open the heavy carved wood door and walked into the gleaming tiled entryway, her hips swaying provocatively.

“When did she learn to do that?” Travis was angry at everything and nothing at the same time. She wasn’t supposed to be so sexy.

Travis saw the driver admiring Lily again and shot a well-aimed scowl at him. He tipped the man an amount barely enough to be courteous after all of that ogling, then grabbed their bags himself, brushing past a whey faced bellboy. By the time he reached the counter, Lily was checking in.

“I believe you have a reservation for Lily Ellis,” she said, gracing the good looking older man behind the counter with a sexy smile.

” Buono,” he said, giving Lily a slow perusal, stopping at her br**sts for much too long.

She smiled back, all innocence. Travis snorted. She was so naive she didn’t even know that she was being hit on. These Italian men would have her on her back with her legs spread wide so fast she wouldn’t even see it coming. The image of her beneath some foreigner sent fire shooting through his gut.

She flicked her hair over her shoulder, and Travis watched as the Italian’s eyes refocused again on her incredible br**sts. One thing was clear: He had no choice but to protect Lily from these prowling, skirt-chasing Italians.

And the only way he could do that was if they thought that she belonged to him. Travis was mulling over how he was going to pull off the necessary protective measures without angering Lily even more when fate stepped in. Looking slightly embarrassed, the man behind the counter shook his head. “Signora Ellis, I am afraid I do not have any reservation under that name.”