“La amate?” Max said.
“Si,” Travis nodded, “sempre. Grazie,” he added when Max removed his hands from Vina’s shoulders. “Enjoy the Ball,” he said to the others before curling his arm around Vina’s waist and sweeping her away.
“Travis, wait,” she protested as he whisked her through the crowd. “I have to apologize to Stefana and…and…” Oh, God, she didn’t even know Stefana’s fiancé and she’d claimed to have slept with him…twice!
“There’s no need for apologies. For a few minutes there, you threw us all for a loop. But the more you…elaborated on our relationship, the clearer it became that you weren’t referring to Rico.”
“R-Rico?”
“Stefana’s fiancé,” he hustled her through the arched doorway and into the warm night air. “Even though it cast me in a rather shady light, your passionate appeal prevented her brothers from launching into their own list of reasons why she and Rico shouldn’t marry.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said such horrible things about you.”
Travis stopped abruptly, his dark eyes nearly invisible despite the glowing lamps littered along the walkway. “Why did you do it then?”
“Because I…I…”
“Forget it,” he said brusquely, “we’ll talk about it when we get back to the privacy of the Palazzo.”
Vina didn’t know whether to be excited or apprehensive about being alone with him. He didn’t sound very pleased about the things she’d said, but she could hardly fault him for that. She only hoped…no, she wasn’t going to set herself up for another fall. Whatever happened, she would have to deal with it.
***
Fully expecting an unhappy confrontation with her brothers, Stefana had begged Travis to go with her and Rico. He would have preferred to offer his moral support in the presence of her parents, but she insisted her brothers were less likely to openly verbalize their disapproval if they were in a public place. Part of their objection would no doubt have to do with Rico’s age; he was ten years older than Stefana. The fact that he’d been married once before wouldn’t sit well either.
As they’d approached the three men and their female companions, Travis immediately dismissed either of the women as the one he was looking for. He’d spent a lot of years waiting for Vina, years in which he’d become familiar with every curve, every mannerism, the shape of her eyes, her lips, the elegant neck and slender shoulders. With Rico in front of him, his view was partially obscured, but it only took a moment to find her.
Simply put, Vina was breathtaking in an off the shoulder ivory gown. The gown itself was simple; the only splashes of color were the red roses made of silken material sown in a seemingly haphazard manner onto the long, flowing skirt. It fit snug as a corset on top, emphasizing the perfection of her breasts and small waist, and hugging the gentle flare of her hips. The material was gathered in the back, forming a bustle of sorts that billowed out behind her.
She’d swept her hair up, although she’d opted not to powder it as most of the other women had done. On her face was an elaborate mask made entirely of gold that glittered whenever she turned her head. One side was shaped like a delicate butterfly wing, the intricate pattern adorned with oval jewels that Travis realized were opals once he got a closer look. Not that he’d paid much attention to the precious gems or anything else after Vina marched over and proceeded to rip his character to shreds.
Stealing a glance at her somber face as the gondola carried them to the Palazzo, Travis couldn’t suppress a smug smile. Good. The little tyrant deserved to flounder in a bucket of guilt after the things she’d said, at least until they reached his suite. Only then would he allow Vina to explain herself, although he’d already come to the conclusion that she’d done it out of sheer desperation. Travis knew a lot about that; he’d felt pretty desperate himself over the past week.
Vina was silent during the ride to the Palazzo. She didn’t say anything as he helped her from the gondola and remained tight-lipped on the short walk to their floor. She didn’t even protest when he led her to his suite and opened the door, stepping back to allow her to enter first. Meekly following him into the living room, Vina shook her head when he asked if she wanted to sit on the sofa, choosing instead to stand before him like a criminal bravely awaiting her sentence.
“It’s almost midnight,” he said. “Time for the masks to come off. These,” Travis peeled his mask off then gently divested Vina of hers and set them on the coffee table, “and the masks we’ve been wearing ever since we arrived in Venice.”
Vina’s eyes widened. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“I mean, we’ve both been holding out, hiding our emotions, allowing misunderstandings to snowball and using it as an excuse not to talk about how we feel for each other.”
“There hasn’t exactly been an opportunity to talk,” she pointed out. “We haven’t spent more than a few hours together for the past week.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I never should have let it continue.”
“I didn’t think you wanted to be with me,” Vina said so softly and with such heavy traces of despair, it sent shards of pain slicing straight through him.
“I’m sorry for that too,” he replied, “because it couldn’t be farther from the truth. What makes our relationship so unique and special is that we’ve always able to talk openly and honestly. We’ve divulged things that we would never tell anyone else because we trusted one another implicitly. We shared everything; our hopes and dreams, our fears and insecurities, no matter how trivial or silly they seemed. But we’ve lost it, Vina. We let it slip away, little by little, and I want it back. I want what we used to have together.”
“I wish…” Vina stopped and shook her head, sorrow etched in her beautiful features. “I wish it was that easy, Travis, but too much has changed. I can’t go back to being just your friend, and I’m not sure why you’d even want me to after the way I behaved tonight.”
“Actually, the issue isn’t so much what you said about me, but why you said it.”
Vina stared him, her eyes twin pools of raw, swirling emotions. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“Tell me,” he pleaded softly.
Several seconds ticked by before Vina finally nodded and started to speak.
Chapter 14
I want it back. I want what we used to have together.
Vina couldn’t erase those words from her mind. If only it was that simple; if only she could rewind time and stop that first kiss, that first sexual awakening, that first moment when her heart opened the door and invited him in. But it was impossible, and now Travis was waiting for an explanation that she didn’t want to give. It meant exposing herself to even greater pain and she wasn’t sure she could take much more.
Maybe she hadn’t lost him to Stefana, but she’d lost him just the same. Even the strong bond of friendship they’d shared over the years couldn’t be salvaged. It would be too awkward…too heart-wrenching to keep up the façade that she wasn’t madly in love with him. Cutting all ties with Travis was going to hurt, but seeing him with other women would be infinitely worse. She wasn’t that strong.
And if what he said was true, if Travis wanted to resume the relationship they’d had before, he wasn’t going to let her walk out of his life without a fight. Unless she came clean and admitted how she felt about him. He’d have no choice but to let her go then. Oh God, she didn’t want to do this.
But you have to. Just…take a deep breath and tell him the truth.
“I don’t really have an explanation,” she admitted, her voice thick with emotion. “At least not a good one. It was purely selfish. I didn’t give any thought to Stefana’s feelings…or yours, only my own. I used things I know about you and deliberately twisted the truth to make you look bad.”
Travis quirked one brow. “Like elaborating on what a womanizer I am?”
“Well, you are!” her chin jutted up defensively. “You don’t exactly have a good track record wh
ere long term relationships are concerned. Okay, so the part about using women and discarding them…”
“Heartlessly discarding them,” he repeated Vina’s verbiage.
“I admit that was uncalled for, but…”
“And just for the record, I have never been unfaithful.”
“I know,” she mumbled, genuinely contrite.
Travis crossed his arms. “And as far as I know, you and I have only slept together once.”
“No, it was twice; the first time was when I had that horrible headache and the second was the night you…uh…drank a little too much.”
“Yes, but nothing happened the night you had a headache. I’m not proud of getting drunk, and I’m not trying to excuse my behavior because of it, but you must know I didn’t plan on seducing you.”
Vina blinked. “You didn’t plan…?” What was he talking about? “Travis…what do you think happened that night?”
His arrogant expression slipped a few notches. “Well, I…I’m not sure how we ended up on floor, but it must have gotten pretty heated because of the rug burn and bruised hip, and because…” his voice trailed off.
“Because?”
“Your hair was splayed out on the carpet and you had the look of a woman who has been thoroughly kissed. I remember thinking how incredibly beautiful you were and how much I wanted to make love to you. I know things got out of hand, and I’m sorry if it wasn’t all you’d hoped it would be.” Travis stopped talking, his eyes moving past her to stare vacantly at the wall for a few moments before he continued. “The truth is, I don’t remember anything past that point.”
“Is that why you acted so strange the next morning?”
“I was ashamed of the way I’d taken advantage of you, and disgusted with myself for being so inebriated that I had no memory of what I’d done. And then when you told me it was regrettable…that it was over and done with so there was no need to dwell on it…” he shook his, expelling a defeated sigh. “I knew I’d blown any chance I had with you.”
Vina groaned. “Oh, Travis, I wish you’d told me all of this a week ago! You were so quick to agree we weren’t compatible as a couple, I thought you’d just been waiting for the opportunity to call it quits.”
“And I thought you said we weren’t compatible because of my lousy performance the night before.”
A giggle escaped before she could stop it. “I’m sorry,” Vina giggled again when Travis scowled at her. “You weren’t lousy. You weren’t anything at all.”
“That doesn’t sound like a compliment,” his scowl became more pronounced.
“Travis, nothing happened that night. Apart from some very passionate kissing on the floor, that is.” Vina enlightened him about the chain of events, starting with how he’d wound up on the floor in the first place.
“So we didn’t…?” he asked, looking tremendously relieved.
“No, you were sound asleep when I hauled myself to bed.”
Travis grinned. “Things might have turned out very differently if you hadn’t gotten up before I did the next morning.”
Vina’s breath hitched at the husky tone of his voice. She started to ask what he meant, but there was no need for clarification; the hunger behind his dark eyes made it blatantly obvious. A low moan vibrated in her throat when he cupped her face in his hands and slowly lowered his head, torturing her for a few agonizing moments before pressing his lips to hers. Warmth flooded her body, accompanied by a tingling sensation that emanated from deep in her abdomen and surged outward.
“Now,” he murmured against her mouth, “tell me why you said those things to Stefana.”
“I didn’t want you to marry her,” Vina replied in a breathless whisper.
“Why not?”
“B-because she doesn’t love you.”
Travis drew his head back. “You mean, she doesn’t love me like you do.”
Vina tried to look away but his hands still framed her face. “Travis, please…”
“Say it, Vina. You’re in love with me. That’s why you spent the past week with the Andollina brothers; not because you were attracted to any of them, but because it was too difficult to be around me, feeling as you do. And you confronted Stefana because you knew she didn’t love me, could never love me the way you do.”
The truth. Isn’t that what she’d promised herself…to tell Travis the truth so he would be forced to let her go? Except…he wasn’t acting like a man who wanted to be just friends, despite what he’d said about wanting what they used to have together.
A small ray of hope illuminated her heart, flickering for a moment before fear stamped it out.
“Yes,” she spoke softly, her eyes misting with tears. “I love you, Travis.” She brought her hands up flat against his chest to prevent him from pulling her closer and added, “But I don’t want to be.”
“I don’t understand.” Travis kept his voice steady, but she could tell it wasn’t without a monumental effort. She knew him so well; the slight narrowing of his eyes, the way the muscle in his jaw flexed, the loose grip on her arms that tightened almost imperceptivity. All signs that Travis was battling his emotions, signs Vina never would have noticed if there wasn’t such a powerful bond between them.
“Vina?”
She swallowed hard, only partially dislodging the lump in her throat. “I’m…scared, Travis.”
“Of loving me?”
“Not of loving you, of loving you too much. Of being devastated when you toss me in the same discard pile as all your other ex-girlfriends. Of losing you, knowing that I could never love anyone the way I love you.” Travis’ soft laughter sharpened the dull ache in her chest. “Please don’t make fun of me,” she choked out.
“You don’t get it, do you, sweetheart?” Gathering her in his arms, he planted a tender kiss on her lips. “Vina…you are the reason there’s a discard pile, as you call it. The reason I’ve never been serious about any of those other women is because my heart already belonged to you. I’ve waited so long…a lifetime, it seems, to say this to you. I’m madly in love with you, Vina Moore, and have been for years.”
Her heart fluttered wildly, pounding so furiously she was surprised he couldn’t feel it against his chest. “You…you really mean that?”
“I’ve made so many mistakes over the past few weeks. I tried subtle seduction before we even left, and then used your jealousy of Catrina to coax you into staying in the cabin with me. And when Stefana pleaded with me to act as her cover so she could meet with Rico, I agreed to do it. I had this foolish notion that if you believed Stefana and I were spending time together, it would force you to admit how you felt about me. The one thing I didn’t try was simple honesty.”
Vina drew in a shaky breath. “I don’t know what you want from me, Travis. You say you’re in love with me, but when we got back to the suite, you told me you wanted our friendship back the way it used to be.”
“I am in love with you, and I do want our friendship back. I want it all, Vina. I want to be your friend, your soulmate, your lover…”
“I want that too, Travis, but how can I be sure you won’t get bored with me after a few months like you have with all the other women you’ve dated?”
His smile broadened as his gaze slid past her. “Maybe this will convince you.”
Vina’s insides trembled when Travis strode across the room and grabbed up a small box that looked as if it had been carelessly tossed onto one of the chairs. She made a desperate appeal to herself not to breathe life into the hope that it was a ring because it could just as well be earrings, but her foolish heart refused to listen. It was pounding like a sledge hammer against her ribs, and her lungs failed her completely when he returned and proudly held the box up in front of her.
“Do you remember the day we picked out our costumes? I noticed you admiring the jewelry and when you went back to try on a gown, I had the sales lady slip this behind the counter.”
What little air was left in her lungs was expelled with a d
isillusioned whoosh before he’d even flipped the lid open. The jewelry she’d been looking at was well crafted, but it wasn’t real. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings – they were all merely props; creations meant to accessorize the more elaborate costumes. Not only was it a reproduction of the real thing, it was fashioned after the ring that the infamous Lucrezia Borgia was rumored to have worn; a type of pillbox ring that carried a liquid poison in a small cavity in the bezel.
“You bought me a poison ring?” she asked, tormented by the notion that Travis perceived it as symbolic of their relationship. “This is supposed to convince me that you’re in love with me?”
VINA IN VENICE (THE 5 SISTERS) Page 19
