Take Me

  With a man who looked remarkably like a priest.

  And Travis seemed to be playing the groom.

  Which made sense, she supposed after a moment's confusion, since she was clearly playing the bride.

  He blew her a kiss, and Lily beamed and blew him one back. He reached out with his right hand and caught it, then pressed his hand to his heart. The elder presented her to Travis, and when Travis took her hand, the crowd cheered again, the noise level rising tenfold.

  "They don't mess around with their festivals, do they?" Lily said with a grin. "This looks just like the real thing, doesn't it?"

  Travis looked stunned, and Lily was pleased that she had surprised him in the beautiful gown. Finally, he managed, "You look beautiful, Lily. The most beautiful bride in the world."

  "You say the sweetest things," she teased. "What a fun game this is. I love your sash."

  She let the bright red, orange, and yellow striped silk tied around Travis's waist slide through her fingers. "Were you worried when they started to undress you?" she asked, but right then the man playing the priest raised a flag, and the crowd silenced.

  The man began speaking. Lily couldn't understand a word he said, so she let herself relax into the perfect evening with the man she loved. She squeezed Travis's hand, and he squeezed hers back. Shivers ran up and down her spine at the look in his eyes, like he wanted to eat her up and worship her for the rest of time. Marriage was the furthest thing from her mind. She might have been in love with Travis most of her life, but they had spent less than a week together. Still it was fun to play make-believe.

  The lyrical foreign language washed over Lily like the warm breeze that held essences of olives and sweet sunflower petals. With Travis's hands holding hers she knew the deep contentment she had been searching for her whole life. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply of love, of life.

  The crowd cheered again, and Lily opened her eyes. She wanted to sing out her pleasure for the whole world to hear. Giving in to a spontaneous urge, Lily unthreaded her hands from Travis's, lifted her veil, and pulled his mouth closer, her hands wrapped into his thick, soft black hair.

  She felt his grin without even seeing it. Their lips touched, and flames exploded. She tasted his lips with the tip of her tongue, and he groaned. In an instant, he was devouring her, and she was sinking into him, body and soul.

  Gasping for breath, Lily murmured against Travis's lips, "Let's get out of here."

  Travis looked into her eyes with such intensity it seared her soul.

  She licked her lips suggestively. "I'm not sure they were exactly looking for a live sex show up here, do you?"

  Travis grinned. "Is that what we're doing?"

  Lily ran a finger down his cheek. "Kiss me like that again, and I'm pretty sure that's what they're going to get."

  Travis threw his head back and laughed, the beautiful sound echoing off the centuries-old stone buildings. The priest took a step forward and took each of their hands in his. The crowd silenced to a hush.

  Lily's breath caught in her throat at the power that coursed through the mock-priest's hand into hers. Suddenly, everything seemed so serious. Several of the men who had dressed Travis joined them on the stage, holding violins. Three men played a haunting melody while the fourth sang the poignant lyrics. Even without being able to understand the language, Lily knew the song was about the truest kind of love.

  "What a beautiful song," she said to Travis, hardly able to believe that they were getting such a wonderful serenade on the spot like this. Travis didn't reply, but stared holes into the men, and Lily's pulse raced a bit faster.

  "Are you okay?" she whispered.

  Travis blinked hard and seemed to surface again. "Fine," he said, and Lily didn't want to ruin their perfect evening by probing too hard, so she turned her attention back to the mesmerizing music.

  The elder who had dressed her stepped out from behind the priest and handed Lily a thin green glass vase. Lily looked at the vase with surprise.

  "Is this our door prize?" Lily asked Travis.

  Travis shook his head. "I think we're supposed to smash it to the ground."

  Lily gasped and held it to her chest. "No! I don't want to. How else will I remember this day?"

  Looking serious again, Travis said, "I doubt that's going to be a problem."

  Lily tilted her head at him in puzzlement, but before she could get a good answer out of him the priest placed Travis's hand over Lily's on the vase, raised their arms high into the air, then let go.

  "I think this is our cue," Travis said with an air of foreboding that made Lily shiver with sudden unease. Looking Lily in the eye, he said, "On three. One, two, three."

  The pretty vase smashed onto the stage before them into a million pieces, and the cheers were deafening. Lily stood frozen, like a statue. The townspeople lifted her and Travis off the stage while throwing brightly colored confetti everywhere. When her feet touched solid ground again, she reached for Travis.

  "What just happened up there?" she asked in a shaky voice.

  Travis's voice was a low rumble. "I'm not sure you want to know."

  Fire shot into Lily's eyes. "Tell me what happened, Travis."

  With a sigh, he said, "My Italian is pretty rough."

  "Stop stalling."

  "You and I were just ...''His words fell away again, but Lily was pretty sure she could finish the sentence for him.

  "Married."

  She expected him to pull away from her, to go running off down the hill. The Travis she had always known would have been on the next plane to the farthest place he could get to. Away from her. Even if it was just a pretend marriage for one night in Italy, she knew he had to feel caged. Trapped.

  Lily stiffened every part of her body to try and steady herself for his rejection. So when Travis pulled her into his arms and kissed her like a man kisses a woman he's in love with, it took a few seconds for it to sink in.

  "I love you, Lily."

  Lily held on to him for dear life, shell-shocked. "I love you, Travis."

  In the past week her life had, somehow, changed from a boring late-night TV show to a glorious old black-and-white film, where she was the gorgeous star with the to-die-for hero lusting after her. But although it was amazing and wonderful, it was also weird. Not to mention terribly hard to comprehend, as if she were going to wake up any minute, and it would have been no more than a ridiculous dream.

  She heard her name being called out, more and more frantic each time.

  "Lily! Lily!"

  Oh no, she thought, I knew this was a dream! A really, really lifelike dream, but unreal nonetheless.

  Travis's arms were strong and warm around her. His lips tasted of sugar and lemons. Was it possible to taste in dreams, she wondered? And then there was a small hand on her back, and Lily knew that she wasn't dreaming.

  Even so, she had just been woken up with a splash of ice-cold water.

  Two very familiar voices beamed through the happiness-filled, lust-laden haze clouding her synapses.

  Janica and Luke had come to Tuscany.

  And she had a sinking feeling that she knew why.

  Project Save Lily had begun.

  "LUKE?" Travis stared at his twin with equal parts disbelief and distress.

  His brother's usual smile was gone, replaced with a grim stare. "Travis." Luke's voice was clipped and filled with unmistakable disapproval. And, if Travis wasn't mistaken, a fair measure of loathing.

  Travis scrambled for something to say to his brother who had traveled five thousand miles to surprise him in Tuscany.

  "What are you doing here?" It wasn't exactly gracious, but it was all he could manage at the moment. After all, he had just gotten married to Lily in a spontaneous Italian ceremony. Considering the changes he'd been through during the past several days Travis was amazed that he was still standing. Over Luke's shoulder, Travis could see Lily talking to a small dark-haired girl.

  His worst fears were realized. "J
anica?"

  Lily's little sister spat his name. "Travis."

  He barely resisted taking a step back. If the look in Janica's eyes was any indication, the little sprite was gearing up to kill him. Slowly and painfully.

  Janica advanced on Travis. "What was going on up there on the stage?"

  Lily grabbed Janica's arm and tried to pull her away from Travis. "I'll explain everything to you guys later. Right now Travis and I have to--"

  This time Luke was the one taking menacing steps toward Travis. He poked him in the chest. Hard. "You'd better explain this right now, 'cause I'm itching to break something on you."

  Travis felt like he was falling deeper and deeper into a hole that he hadn't seen until it was too late. He looked at Luke, his twin's anger palpable. Janica speared him with a glance of ultimate fury. And then there was Lily.

  Travis badly wished he could read the look in Lily's eyes. Was she angry? Was she sad? Had she wanted to marry him? What did she want him to say?

  For the first time in his life Travis was at a complete loss for words. He didn't know what he should do. He didn't know what he should say.

  So, in a moment that would live on in his nightmares for months, he fell back into his usual modus operandi: He made a joke out of everything.

  Forcing his muscles to ease up, he chuckled and waved his hand in the air. "We were just messing around up there," he said, effectively dismissing not only the marriage ceremony between him and Lily but their entire relationship.

  Lily's mouth fell open. Then closed. He was dying, couldn't she see that? Didn't she know how hard it was for him, to love her, need her so much, so quickly? He wished they could be alone to try and figure out how to get through this, how to deal with making their relationship public. But instead of pulling her away from Luke and Janica, Travis stupidly filled the silence with more garbage. "We were giving the locals a good show, right, Lily?"

  He didn't look at her to see if she nodded or not. He couldn't bear to. Not right then. Travis had felt so calm during the ceremony, even after he realized that it was for real. But that was when he'd been able to pretend that it was just the two of them, that no one knew them. That no one was going to judge Lily for being lush and round. She was so beautiful to him, but he knew firsthand how important bones and angles were when it came to treating a woman nicely. Just because he had faced up to being a shallow excuse for a human being, didn't mean that his friends and coworkers would behave the same way. If anyone said anything to hurt her ...he couldn't stand to even think about it. And even though he knew that Luke and Janica loved Lily for who she was, just seeing them made all of his fears rise up. He didn't have a plan in place, and this was all happening so fast that he couldn't hack it under the pressure.

  "But she's wearing a wedding dress," Janica said. "And you were kissing her like..."

  Travis forced a snort, and in that moment he hated himself far more than anyone else could have, even as he said, "So we got a little carried away. It doesn't mean anything."

  The minute Lily walked away, Travis felt as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest.

  It didn't mean anything?Had he actually said those words? But she would understand, wouldn't she, that he had been put on the spot by their siblings? That he hadn't known what else to say?

  Travis badly wanted to run after her, but even if Janica hadn't been standing directly in his path, he knew he couldn't. Right then everything he said was wrong, and he'd just make it worse. But Lily loved him enough to give him another chance, to let him explain later. Didn't she?

  "You go after her," Janica said to Luke. "You're taller so you can find her in the crowd. I'll stay here and deal with this prick."

  Luke shot Travis one more deadly glance, then plunged into the crowd where Lily had disappeared.

  Travis ran his hands through his hair and girded himself to deal with a protective sister who was out for his blood. And rightly so.

  LUKE RAN through the crowds after Lily, confusing her several times with other women in white wedding gowns. "It's like the Twilight Zone for weddings," he muttered as he slowed down his pace to let an elderly lady walk past him. "I'm losing her," he said, impatiently scanning the crowd for a flash of red hair. Up on the steps above the square Luke saw red curls. He couldn't believe the joke his brother had just played on Lily. Innocent, naive Lily. Luke felt like scum of the earth for ever suggesting that she continue her relationship with Travis. The minute he had found out about their one-night stand he should have told her to stay away from his twin.

  Their whole lives Travis had been no good where women were concerned. What had possessed him to think that Lily could ever play the same kind of game that Travis played?

  A flash of white on the stairs disappeared behind the trunk of an old cypress tree. And that was where Luke found Lily sitting on a tree stump, staring blankly off into the distance.

  As his footsteps pounded up the old stone steps, Lily looked up with surprise, hope etched into the lines of her face. It was painfully obvious to Luke that she wanted Travis to be the one coming after her. The next time Luke saw his twin he was going to pound Travis's face in until he did such permanent damage that no girl would ever want to look at Travis again.

  Lily forced a wobbly smile. "Luke," she said, standing up to give him a hug. "I can't believe you and Janica came all this way. It's so nice to see you," she said, but Luke had a feeling that she wasn't the least bit happy he and Janica had come to Italy.

  "I'm so sorry, Lily," he said, as he gently rocked her in his arms.

  To his great surprise, Lily pushed out of his arms and stared at him. "There's nothing to be sorry about."

  Luke didn't know what the right words were. He gestured down to the square. "But what about what Travis did?"

  Lily shook her head at him, her mouth in a tight line. "Travis didn't do anything to me. We both did this together. He was right. The mock-wedding didn't mean anything. We were messing around, having fun in Italy."

  Her words were firm, but Luke felt in his gut how hard it was for Lily to act so nonchalant in the face of Travis's less-than-gentlemanly behavior.

  Linking her arm in his, she started them back down the steps. "Let's get back down to the square. There's a big party going on tonight, and if I'm not mistaken, I'm at the center of it."

  Luke did as she wished, but as he stole a sidelong glance at Lily's composed face, he couldn't help but feel that she was more hurt that she let on. He had to let her confide in him in her own time, he knew that.

  But at the same time, Luke got the sense that Lily was really and truly changed by everything that happened since the fashion show. No longer weak--not that he had ever thought her weak, soft maybe, but full of caring and love--she carried herself with an inner poise that he had never seen in her before.

  Luke was confused by Lily's sudden changes. She had always been the one person he could count on just to be. He told himself that it had been a long flight, and he supposed he was suffering from the effects of travel and the beginning of jet lag. Maybe things would even out and go back to normal once he got something to eat and closed his eyes for a few hours.

  JANICA ADVANCED ON TRAVIS. Between clenched teeth, she said, "You are the lowest of the low. How dare you mess with my sister like this! If we weren't in public, I'd kick you in the balls so hard they'd be black-and-blue for a month!"

  Travis backed up and almost knocked over a couple in the middle of a passionate embrace. What the hell was he going to say to Janica? Worse, what the hell was he going to say to Lily?

  His marriage to Lily did mean something; he didn't want to pretend it didn't, but he'd been so completely thrown off by Janica and Luke's appearance, he'd choked.

  Plus, there was one other uncontestable fact. Based on his rough translation of the Italian language, he and Lily had just been legally wed under an antiquated law.

  Janica poked him in the chest. "Don't you even have anything to say for yourself?"

  T
ravis swallowed and nodded, trying to find his footing in the mess that he'd created for himself. "Yeah, I've got something to say. But Lily's the one who needs to hear it." He looked over Janica's shoulder at Luke and Lily, who were making their way through the square.

  Janica crossed her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. "This better be good, or I swear I'm going to make the rest of your life a living hell."

  Travis held his breath as Lily and Luke got closer and closer. He was sure Janica had plenty of ideas for the kind of tortures that a man would never want to endure. But, frankly, right now he was more scared of Lily's response to what he had to tell her than he was of the little she-devil with the big claws who was burning a hole into him with her hatred.

  Unable to stand it another minute, Travis pushed through the crowd. Ignoring Luke, he grabbed Lily's free hand and said, "We need to talk."

  He didn't know what he had expected from Lily--tears maybe? Accusations?--but certainly not a raised eyebrow and the steady voice that said, "Okay. Go ahead."

  Trying to tune out Luke and Janica, who were huddled protectively around Lily, Travis took her other hand in his and said, "According to Italian law, you and I are married."

  Lily's blank expression never wavered. "For tonight's festival, maybe."

  "It's no joke, Lily. We're legally wed. The ceremony was binding."

  Lily swayed back on her feet ever so slightly, and although Luke reached out for her, Travis pulled her closer to him. Lily is mine now, not yours, he thought as he glared at his twin. Luke was going to have to get used to the fact that he came second now. His twin had had his chance all these years as Lily's friend, but it was Travis who loved her like a woman.

  "But I thought it was all just for fun up there." Her voice was faint.

  Travis squeezed her hands. "The Festival of Weddings is special." He stared into her eyes, willing her to read his apology for what he had so stupidly said in front of Luke and Janica. He wanted to be alone with her, to explain his fears, to say that he still loved her. But everything was too raw, and he didn't feel like he could say "I love you" to Lily in front of their siblings.

  Lily blinked several times, and he thought he saw the sheen of unshed tears in her eyes. "So, you're my husband now?"