She ran her fingers through the soft weave of a plush rug sample and thought about the sensual pleasure of running her hands through Travis’s hair. Regardless of what happened with him, even if he reverted to his usual superior behavior with her and never looked at her with lust in his eyes again, she didn’t regret one single second in his arms. The memories of his loving would be the perfect antidote to lonely nights in her apartment with only cable TV as her companion.

At the same time, Lily wasn’t naive enough to think that this job didn’t come with strings attached. But right then, lost in her own creative heaven, she decided she wasn’t going to care.

Lily could hardly believe that she was going to furnish the beautiful Tuscan-style villa. This was her chance to make her mark in the design community. Regardless of how her private life was going, she wasn’t going to blow her one big professional opportunity. Under no circumstances was she going to go crawling back to Albert at Barker’s.

Her cell phone rang. She reached into her purse and looked at the number on her caller-ID screen.

“Janica?”

“Lils, why didn’t you tell me you were going to Tuscany?”

Lily blinked in confusion. “Tuscany? I’m not going to Tuscany. Who told you that?” Her call waiting beeped. “Hold on a sec, honey, I’m going to get the other line.”

“Lily, it’s Luke. I wanted to congratulate you. Whatever you did with Travis, it worked like a charm.”

Glad that her best friend couldn’t see her blushing through the phone as the clear vision of riding Travis’s c**k in a stranger’s swimming pool popped into her head, Lily said, carefully, “You mean because he hired me to decorate one of his clients’ houses?”

“So that’s why you’re going to Italy?”

Lily held the phone away from her ear and looked at it like it was speaking in foreign tongues. “Why is everyone talking about my going to Italy?”

Travis emerged from behind a tall stack of rugs, looking darkly dangerous and handsome as sin. He took the phone from her ear, closing it with a quick snap. Lily gulped for air and put a hand out to steady herself.

“Because we’re leaving for Rome tomorrow. That’s why.”

A thrill shot through Lily at Travis’s words. Travis wanted to take her to Italy? Just the two of them?

Visions of walking with him hand in hand through olive groves, on ancient streets danced in her head.

Don’t be silly, she reprimanded herself as she worked to tamp down her fanciful imagination. She composed her face into a mask of professional politeness, wanting to show him she wasn’t a complete fool who fell for his every line.

“Travis,” she said through tight lips, “while I greatly appreciate you handing me this incredible decorating job, I’m afraid it doesn’t give you license to mock me at every available opportunity.”

Travis took a step closer, and she backed into the pile of rug samples. “I’m not making fun of you, Lily,”

he said, his voice quiet, his tone intense.

Willing herself to be strong in the face of such undeniable maleness, she burst out with, “Yes you are.

You have been either making fun of me or just flat out ignoring me since we were kids, and I am sick to death of it!” She pointed a finger at him and took a step in his direction, deciding not to run from him for once. “Either you respect me as a business partner or I’m going to have to walk.”

Lily thought she saw a flicker of admiration in Travis’s eyes as he studied her for a long moment. All I needed to do was stick up for myself all these years? she thought, with no small measure of surprise.

Lily was unable to believe that it could have possibly been as simple as that.

But when Travis grabbed her outstretched finger and pulled her close to him, she knew that it wasn’t going to be quite so simple at all.

“Nobody is going to walk,” he growled. “I’m taking you to Italy on a buying trip. It’s business,” he added, but even he didn’t look one hundred percent convinced.

“Oh,” she said, upset that she couldn’t come up with a more interesting response. She felt herself melting into Travis’s gaze, and she knew his lips would be coming down on hers any second. But before she let herself fall under Travis’s spell again Luke’s words sounded loudly inside her skull.

“Women make it too easy for Travis to have them. And dump them. Whatever you do, Lily, you need to make him work to be with you. But first you’d better decide if that’s even what you want.”

Travis had pulled her close enough that she could feel his erection straining toward her. She had certainly proved that she could make his penis hard. But, she mused, perhaps that was the easy part? The only problem was, she could only think of one way to make life difficult for Travis.

And while she knew it was exactly what Travis needed to knock him down a peg or two, Lily hated the impact it was going to have on her on sexual satisfaction.

Deciding she either had to bite the bullet, or she’d lose her nerve, Lily pressed the full length of her body against Travis. She smiled at his swift intake of breath, working hard to ignore the tremors of lust that filled her. Leaning into him, she whispered into his ear, “On second thought, Travis, the trip sounds fine.”

She felt his spine stiffen at the word “fine” and fought back a giggle. Were men really and truly so easy to control?

“I do have one condition, however.”

Travis’s hand came around to caress the curve of her hips. “Anything,” he said, and she knew he was never going to see the blow coming.

Pulling back to stare deeply into his incredible sea-green eyes, she said, “I want our relationship to be purely…” She let her words drift off and licked her lips.

Travis leaned in to kiss her.

“Professional.”

He leapt back as if she were on fire.

“Excuse me?”

“If you have a problem with my stipulation, I’d be happy to forgo the trip,” she bluffed.

Travis looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Fine with me.” he said, clearly disgruntled by the turn of events. “If you want purely professional, you’ll get purely professional. The airport limo will be picking you up at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. Don’t be late.”

He threw her cell phone to her, and she barely caught it as he turned and walked out of the showroom without another word. Lily wasn’t stupid. She knew there would be hell to pay for her making Travis feel like a fool. She was shaking after their showdown, but the truth was, after besting Travis like that she felt so good she wanted to scream with joy.