After all, she was just Lily.
And Travis would never dream of sleeping with just Lily. She was sure of it. He had made a mistake on Saturday night, one that she was sure he would never deign to repeat.
Wanting to cry, but forcing a smile back onto her lips, she said, “You’re right, Travis. I would really like to see the property.” Digging for something at least partially professional to say, she observed, “From what I can see through the windows, there are some wonderfully mature trees on the acerage.”
Inwardly she rolled her eyes. Wonderfully mature trees. Like she really cared about the trees. All she wanted to do was get away from Travis before she did something really stupid like throw herself at him.
The back of the house was dotted with olive and lemon trees. Travis pointed to the far right of the property, toward a thick grove of oaks. “There’s something you’ve got to see back here.”
Stepping carefully down the winding path in her heels, Lily gasped with pleasure when she saw what the trees were hiding. “What an incredible pond,” she said, taking in the reflection of the red-gold sunset on the surface of the water.
“It’s not a pond,” Travis said, “it’s a swimming pool.” Travis shrugged off his jacket and kicked off his leather shoes. Sitting on the edge of a large, flat rock he folded up his Armani suit’s pant legs. “Let’s relax for a minute by the pool before we head back.”
Lily was about to say no, but something inside her told her to go for it. In the past forty-eight hours her life had gone from lackluster to crazy to simply unbelievable. First making love to Travis, now being hired to decorate a villa in San Francisco. Surely sitting by the pool with the man she had lusted after her whole life paled in comparison to all that.
She sat on the rock and slid her feet out of her shoes.
“Why don’t you take off your stockings?” Travis asked innocently. “Feel the grass under your feet.”
Lily shook her head. She couldn’t do that. Travis would see her big, white legs and immediately start thinking about elephants.
Travis raised an eyebrow. “Afraid that I won’t be able to keep my hands off you?”
Something churned in Lily’s gut at Travis’s taunting. She’d show him. If it killed her, she was going to make him so hot he was screaming for release. And then she’d leave him cold and desperate for her.
“No, you’re right. I’d like to feel the breeze on my bare skin,” she said, working hard to pitch her voice in a sensual manner. After all, the sun was almost down. Didn’t everyone always say that sunset was the most flattering time of day?
She pulled up the hem of her skirt and unhooked one side of her garter.
“Do you need any help with that?” Travis asked nonchalantly.
Lily forced herself to reply as carelessly. “Not unless you want some help with your pants.”
Trying to still her trembling fingers, she unrolled her stockings down her thigh. As unbelievable as it might have been that the prom king was lusting after the original wallflower, Lily knew it with every fiber of her being. Now was the time for what Luke had instructed her to do: She needed to whip Travis up into a sexual frenzy, then leave him before he got the upper hand.
Could she do it?
Lily looked up at Travis from beneath her lashes, and what she saw in the green of his eyes took her breath away.
He wanted her.
Badly.
Licking her lips, she said in a husky voice, “Is your offer of help still good?” In less than a second, he was kneeling at her feet, his hands on hers at her knees. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, laughing softly at the new feeling of feminine power that was coursing through her.
“Don’t forget, my pants are next,” he growled. With painstaking slowness he slid the silk stocking off her leg. With every inch of skin that he uncovered he lightly nipped at her skin until wetness soaked her panties.
She bit her lip to stifle a whimper of pleasure. Somehow she needed to act like she was doing him a favor
—at least that’s what Luke had said she needed to do—but it was so incredibly hard to think of that when Travis was touching her, kissing her.
With one of her legs bare, he gently massaged the arch in her foot. “Oh God, yes,” she said, and Travis surprised her by coming up to seduce her with a hot kiss.
His mouth tasted like sweet lemons and sunshine. She blinked uncertainly when he pulled away from her, but before she could protest she was lost in the sensation of his fingers on her skin as he reached under her skirt to undo the clasps on her other garter. He freed the silk from its binding and began the delectable task of sliding it from her other leg. With every nip of his perfect white teeth on her skin, Lily felt herself melting further and further into him.
“Your turn,” he said, getting to his feet. Standing before her, she could see his enormous erection jutting out from beneath his expensive navy blue trousers.
Lily reached for his leather belt with shaking fingers. She undid the clasp, then her fingers were on the top button of his slacks. She popped open the button and unzipped him, letting his pants fall to the ground.