Chapter 7 #2
“Hello, darling.”
Liana wanted to groan. “Hi, Artie,” she said to her agent. His fake British accent was too much for her before she’d had coffee.
“Am I getting you up?”
She yawned. “I was awake. What’s going on?”
“I got an urgent call from Milan yesterday. They want you to come back ASAP to redo a few things that didn’t come out exactly the way Vogue wanted. How soon can you get there?”
“Two weeks. Not one minute before.”
“But, darling, they’re having a cow. You can’t hold them off that long.”
“Watch me.”
“Liana . . .”
“I haven’t had a long vacation in five years, Artie. I’m not going back to Milan. If they want to send someone here, I’ll give them half a day. But that’s it.”
“They can hold you in breach of contract—”
“I fulfilled that contract down to the letter. It’s not my fault their two-bit photographer couldn’t get it right the first time.”
Artie sighed dramatically. “All right, darling. I’ll let them know.”
“Don’t you dare give anyone this number, Artie. Do you hear me?”
“You made that perfectly clear before you disappeared.”
“Anything else?”
“There’s an intriguing little tidbit floating around that I’m not quite ready to tell you about, but it’s something that’ll definitely interest you. I’ll call you as soon as I know more.”
Liana couldn’t have cared less about the intriguing little tidbit. She was on vacation. “That’s fine.”
“Listen, Liana. . . there’s a situation I could use your help with.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you remember Jessica Stone? You worked with her on last year’s swimsuit issue? Goes by Jessie?”
“Sure. She’s a sweetie.”
“Yes,” he said, sounding relieved. “She is. She’s run into some trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“She’s got a seriously over-zealous fan. The cops are involved now and everything.”
“That’s too bad. I hate to hear that.”
“I knew you’d understand, since you’ve had a few crazies in your time. So here’s the thing: she could really use a place to lay low for a while until this blows over.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“You’ve never had any trouble with the press up there in Little Rhody. Do you know of anywhere she could hide out up there? Just for a couple of weeks to give the police the chance to nab this guy?”
Liana thought of Travis and North Point, but he had enough on his plate with the vandalism. He didn’t need a troubled model on the property to add to his worries. However, she knew if she asked him, he’d find a place for Jessie.
“She can’t go home to her apartment in New York because the guy has turned up there, and she’s estranged from her family. Wherever I send her, I’d like her to have someone there she knows—”
“I’ll make a phone call,” Liana said, exasperated. “That’s the best I can do.”
“Thank you, darling,” he said, sounding relieved. “I told Jessie you’d help us out if you could.”
“You already told her you were asking me?”
“Well, um, I had to do something to reassure her. She’s been a total wreck since the creep started showing up at her house.”
Liana held back a groan. How could she not help the other woman now? “I’ll get back to you.”
“You’re the best. I’m sorry to have bothered you on vacation, darling. I’ll wait to hear from you.”
Liana hung up the phone and tried to shake off the stress that came with hearing his voice.
Any time she heard from him it meant more work.
Struggling models would love to have her problems. She knew that.
But after ten years of the breakneck pace she had kept, she was too tired to care what Artie or anyone else thought of her.
She had earned this break, and nothing was going to cut it short.
Especially since she was in the midst of a fling with the sexiest man in the world.
The thought made her giggle with nerves and anticipation and excitement. Checking her watch, she realized Travis would still be in his meeting so she decided she’d talk to him about Jessie when she saw him.
She brewed a pot of coffee, ate a container of strawberry yogurt, and perused the morning paper before she took a long, hot shower.
She took extra care with her hair and applied the tiniest bit of makeup.
Her body hummed with tension when she wondered if this might be the day.
Surely, he wouldn’t keep up this resistance act for much longer when he knew they only had two weeks.
Or would he? His unpredictability made him that much more appealing to her.
With another nervous giggle she put on some of the sexiest underwear she owned even as she wondered if he would see it.
She tugged on a floral skirt along with a button-down sleeveless top and slid her feet into pink flip-flops.
By eleven she was ready and sat down to watch a TV talk show.
She stared at it without seeing much of anything because a tall, dark, handsome man occupied her every thought.
Wow. I should be so afraid of what I feel for him, but I’m not afraid. I’m excited.
He called at noon to say he was on his way to pick her up.
“Where are we going?”
“How about a walk in the rain?”
“I’d love that,” she said, surprised to realize it was another thing she’d never done with a man.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He came to the door ten minutes later wearing shorts, flip-flops, and a burgundy North Point jacket.
When she opened the door for him, he handed a second jacket to her.
“What’s this?”
“Your own North Point jacket. I can’t have you catching a cold and ruining your vacation, not to mention our fling.
” He pressed her against the wall to kiss her.
“I’ve been waiting for that all morning,” he said when he finally pulled back from her.
“I thought those meetings would never end. All I could think about was you.”
Her heart pounding with excitement and desire, she ran her hands over the light stubble on his face. “I couldn’t wait to see you either.”
His eyes became even darker as he dipped his head for another kiss. With what appeared to be enormous effort, he finally stepped back from her. “Do you have a hat or sunglasses or something you could wear to hide your face? I want to take you into Newport, but I don’t want to blow your cover.”
“I can wear my Red Sox hat.” She went into her room to get it. By the time she had donned the hat, pulled her ponytail through the back of it, and put on the jacket he had given her, she hardly resembled one of the world’s top models.
“Very cute,” he said with a smile.
“Before we go, I have something I need to ask you. It’s a big deal, but I don’t want you to feel obligated—”
He stopped her with a finger on her lips. “What do you need, sweetheart?”
She told him about Jessie and the trouble she was in with a stalker. “She’s a really nice girl, a Southern belle type, but a sweetheart. I hate to think about her being afraid in New York.”
Travis held her gaze as he reached for his cell phone.
“Hey, Beck,” he said. “A friend of Liana’s needs a place to hide out for a week or two.
” His face curled into a smile. “Yes, another model. Jessica Stone.” Laughing, Travis said, “No, I’m not messing with you.
What’ve we got available in The Tower?” He paused to listen.
“Can you ask housekeeping to get it ready? I want you to handle this personally. Whoever’s giving her grief is not getting near her on our watch.
” Pausing again, he said, “Thanks, Beck. Keep me in the loop.” He stashed the phone in his pocket and returned his attention to Liana. “All set.”
“Thank you.” She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him softly.
Against her lips, he said, “Any friend of yours. . .”
“This is the last thing you need with everything that’s going on at North Point.”
“It’s no problem. Beck will take care of it. I’m sure he’s over there reveling in the ‘other duties as assigned’—babysitting a supermodel.”
Liana snickered. “Let me just call my agent to tell him it’s all set.”
“Give him Beck’s cell number.” Travis wrote it down for her.
After giving a relieved Artie the good news, she followed Travis to his car. “Where’s Dash today?”
“Home with Beck. I can’t trust her to behave in public.”
The rain came down even harder as they drove into Newport. He glanced over at her. “Is this too much of a downpour for you?”
“It won’t last. By the time we get into town, it’ll be a light rain.”
Sure enough they stepped out of the car into drizzle. The humidity was thick, the cobblestone streets slick, and the sidewalks largely deserted of the usual crowd of tourists.
He pulled her hood up over her head and took her hand. “Looks like we’ve got the place to ourselves.”
“Fine by me.”
They wandered through the quaint, colonial City by the Sea, stopping to look into shop windows, venturing into a few stores, and enjoying a lone guitarist performing under an awning in Brick Market.
“How about some lunch?” he asked after they’d wandered for an hour.
She pursed her lips thoughtfully and then ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “New England clam chowder.”
Fixated on her mouth, Travis nodded in agreement. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”
“Oh, you know what I want,” she smirked.
With his hands on her face he replaced her tongue with his.
When he showed no sign of ending the kiss, Liana pushed gently on his chest to remind him of where they were. She smiled at the expression on his face.
“Sorry,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Lost my head for a moment there. That’s what you do to me.” He hooked an arm around her and crossed the street to find her some clam chowder.
After lunch, they strolled back toward the car. When they reached Washington Square, he tugged at her hand and led her to the box office at the Opera House.
“The matinee has already begun, sir,” the ticket agent said.
“That’s all right.” He slid a twenty across the counter. “We’ll take two.”
“Travis, what’re you doing?” Liana protested. “We missed the beginning.”
He didn’t answer her as he pushed open the door to the darkened theater and guided her into the back row ahead of him.
Except for another couple sitting close to the front, they were the only people in the theater.
Travis took off his jacket and then helped with hers.
“It’s freezing in here,” she shivered against the chill of the air conditioning.
He grazed her breasts. “So it seems.”
She swatted his hand away from her sensitive nipples. “Stop it,” she whispered with a nervous giggle.
“No,” he said against her ear, sending a shiver through her. Unbuttoning the top two buttons of her blouse, he slid his hand straight into her bra and muffled her gasp with a deep, probing kiss.
The action film was loud otherwise the other people in the theater might have heard her moan when he pinched her hardened nipple between two persistent fingers. He reached down to open the front clasp on her bra along with another button on her top.
“Travis,” Liana warned, grabbing his hand.
He dipped his head to lave at her exposed nipple.
“Oh my God,” she whispered when she felt his hand on her thigh. Before she had time to wonder what he would do next, he tugged at her panties.
“Lift up, sweetheart,” he whispered against her neck.
“No!” she hissed.
“Yes,” he insisted, pulling harder at the scrap of fabric as he plunged his tongue into her mouth to quiet her protests.
As if she were outside herself watching someone else, Liana lifted her hips and felt her panties travel down her legs.
With a victorious grin, he twirled them around one finger before he pushed them into his pocket and went back to kissing her.
Liana thought she would go mad wondering what he planned to do with what he had uncovered, but he appeared to be in no rush as he kissed her senseless and played with her bare breasts. “Travis, come on,” she whispered franticly. “Let’s go to your place if you want to do this.”
“It’s more fun here.”
“No, it’s not.”
He rendered her mute when his hand returned to her thigh, this time easing her legs apart.
“Travis…”
“You said I could branch out.”
“Not in public!” she snapped.
He glanced around them. “Who’s looking?”
“But—”
“Shh,” he whispered as his fingers explored her. “Relax.”
Liana’s mind went blank when he stroked her and kissed her with long, deep thrusts of his tongue that mimicked the movement of his fingers.
As her body began to quicken with excitement, her face went hot with shame over how much she was enjoying it.
When she came apart against his hand he kept his mouth tight against hers to stop her gasps from escaping into the suddenly quiet movie theater.
Still breathing hard, Liana uncurled her toes and relaxed into him.
“I thought you said that doesn’t happen easily for you,” he whispered.
“Usually it doesn’t.” She glanced at him and then pushed him away from her. “You don’t have to look so smug.”
“Who’s smug?”
“Give me back my underwear.”
“No. I like knowing you’re naked and ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“Whatever I think of next.”
“I can’t walk around without underwear.”
“Sure you can.” He buttoned her shirt, grabbed their jackets, and took her hand. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
In the lobby, she pulled free of him and went into the rest room.
Her image in the mirror was startling—red face, swollen lips, and abraded cheeks where his whiskers had rubbed against her sensitive skin.
She looked like a common trollop, but she felt divine.
That was the only word for it. Refastening her bra and straightening her clothes, Liana shivered from the air conditioning and the sensation of being naked under her skirt.
“You wanted a fling,” she whispered into the mirror as she attempted to restore order to her hair and face, knowing she would never forget the most erotic encounter of her life. And their fling had only just begun.
Standing before the men’s room mirror, Travis splashed cold water on his face.
“Who do you think you’re kidding?” he asked his reflection in the mirror.
You’re not going to last another day without her in your bed.
He took a deep breath to calm his agitated body.
After putting all his efforts into pleasing her, he pulsated with unfulfilled desire that could only be spent on her.
In three days, Liana had managed to invade his thoughts, fill his dreams, and fire him with a kind of passion he’d never imagined he possessed. For all his talk about other women, there had never been another one he wanted the way he wanted her. Maybe it was time to shift this fling into high gear.