Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  In the parking lot, Travis handed his rental car keys to one of Liana’s bodyguards, who would follow them. The other bodyguard got in next to Liana’s driver. Photographers with long-range lenses recorded her every move from a roped-off area. They had gone crazy when they realized who was with her.

  When they were settled in the backseat, Liana turned to Travis. “I can’t believe you’re here. How did you know where to find me?”

  “I asked your mother.”

  Liana raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised she told you. The last time I saw her she wasn’t too happy with you.”

  “Suffice to say I had to use a considerable amount of charm to get her to tell me what I needed to know.” He reached for her hand. “How’d you get so tanned?”

  “It’s fake.”

  He ran a hand over her arm as if to see if the tan would rub off. “Wow, it doesn’t look fake.”

  “You know what the best part of the fake tan is?”

  “I can’t imagine.”

  “No tan lines.”

  He swallowed hard, and his eyes never wavered from hers.

  “Travis . . .”

  He kissed her hand. “We’ll talk, sweetheart. When we’re alone.”

  Thrilled to see him, Liana realized she had been dead inside without him. Just a few minutes with him, the feel of his hand wrapped around hers, and hearing him call her sweetheart brought her right back to life. He was her life. That was suddenly so obvious she wondered how she ever could have questioned it.

  “I never had any idea how hard you work,” he said after a long period of silence during which neither of them was able to look away from the other.

  “How long were you up there watching?”

  “A while. How do you hold a position for so long?”

  “Painfully,” she said with a grimace. “I’m aching from head to toe at the moment.”

  He shook his head with dismay. “And you have to do it again tomorrow.”

  “Not until noon, thank God.”

  “As least you’re in a beautiful place for all this torture.”

  “Have you been here before?”

  He shook his head. “Luckily, I’ve been to South America a couple of times, so I had a passport, but I’ve never been to Europe.”

  “Never?” she asked, her eyes wide with amazement.

  “We can’t all be globe-trotting supermodels.”

  “You could’ve been,” she teased, remembering their discussion about how well he wore an Armani tuxedo.

  “I’d rather live out of the back of a Pinto.”

  They shared a smile that warmed Liana all the way down to her tired bones. “How are Beck and Jessie doing?”

  “They got married the day before yesterday at North Point. It was very sweet and touching, just the two of them, me, and a J.P. We all wished you were there.”

  “Just think,” she said with a dreamy smile, “they’re married because of our fling.”

  “They got their happy ending. Will we get ours?”

  “I hope so.” She squeezed his hand. “I really do.”

  The driver pulled into the palm tree-lined driveway at the Hotel Duques de Medinaceli in downtown El Puerto de Santa Maria, and the driver and bodyguard got out of the car.

  Travis stopped her when she started to go out the door the Spanish driver held for her. “I came right from the airport in Jerez to find you. I need to see about getting a room.”

  She reached for his hand. “No, you don’t.”

  “I don’t want to be presumptuous, especially after the way we left things the last time.”

  “You’re not being presumptuous. Get your bag, and come with me.”

  As she led him through the luxurious hotel, the bodyguards followed at a respectful distance. “Do you know what I love about Europe?” she asked.

  “What’s that?”

  “Everything is so old. In this very city is the palace where Christopher Columbus waited for King Ferdinand’s approval of his journey to the New World. It makes me realize just how young our country really is compared to the rest of the world.”

  He gazed at her with eyes full of love.

  Her cheeks heated from the intensity of his expression. “What?”

  “I missed you,” he said. “I missed you so much.”

  “I missed you, too.”

  At the doorway to her suite, Liana held Travis back while the bodyguards opened her door and checked to make sure the rooms were secure.

  “We’ll be right next door, Ms. McDermott. Let us know if you wish to go anywhere.”

  “I’ll be staying in tonight. Please relax and enjoy your evening.”

  The larger of the two bodyguards gave Travis a suspicious once over. “You, too. We’ll see you in the morning.”

  When they had walked away, Travis released a sigh of relief. “Christ, I thought he was going to demand a body cavity search.”

  Liana laughed as she closed the door. “You were the one who wanted me to have security.”

  “Not to keep you safe from me.” He sobered all of a sudden. “Although, that might’ve been a good idea.”

  “Travis,” Liana whispered as she finally allowed herself to do what she had wanted to do since he first appeared on the beach. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her face against his chest. “Tell me why you’re here.”

  He held her tight against him. “First things first,” he said, tilting her chin up to kiss her lightly.

  Combing her fingers through his hair, she skimmed her tongue over his bottom lip.

  Travis groaned, lifted her off her feet, and devoured her. “Liana,” he said when they came up for air, “I’m sorry. I screwed things up so royally. I was an idiot. I was so afraid of losing you that I drove you away, thinking somehow that would be easier. But it wasn’t. It was awful. I love you so much—”

  “Shh,” she said, silencing him with another passionate kiss.

  “Is it too late for us?”

  “No, it’s not too late.” She winced when she moved her sore neck.

  He picked her up and carried her to the high four-poster bed with red sheers draped over the posts. Tossed across the foot of the bed was his Stanford T-shirt.

  She noticed him staring at the shirt. “It’s a poor substitute,” she said, reaching for his hand to bring him down next to her.

  “You’re so tired, sweetheart,” he said, dropping soft kisses on her face, her neck, and the triangle of skin on her chest left exposed by her robe.

  She traced her finger over the stubble on his jaw. “You look exhausted yourself.”

  “I haven’t had a full night of sleep since you left.” He brushed the hair off her face. “I reach for you in my sleep, but I can’t find you. I wake up looking for you.”

  Pressing her lips against the inside of his wrist, she said, “I’ve done those same things. I never thought I could get used to sleeping with someone so fast. I dream I’m with you, and when I wake up alone, it hurts so much it takes my breath away. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up now and find out I dreamt this.”

  Overwhelmed, he dropped his head to her chest.

  She ran her fingers through his hair. “I love you, Travis.”

  A deep sigh rattled through him. He looked up at her with eyes full of love. “All the way over here, on that endless flight from Boston to Madrid, and then from Madrid to Jerez, the only thing I could think about was what I would do if you didn’t love me anymore.”

  She caressed his face. “I’ll always love you.”

  His kiss was full of love and hunger and passion.

  Liana put her arms around him, urging him on top of her. “Make love to me.”

  “That’s not why I’m here, Liana.”

  “I know,” she said, sliding her hands under his shirt.

  “Wait, sweetheart. We need to talk.”

  “We will,” she whispered against his lips. “After.”

  “I see you haven’t lost your enthusiasm for make-
up sex,” he said, kissing her ear and sending a shiver through her.

  Liana laughed softly and massaged his back. “It’s still the best kind—especially when you think you’ve lost the most important person in the world and then he suddenly reappears.”

  “I’m sorry for what I put you through, Liana. I lost my mind when we ran out of time.”

  “I know.”

  He rolled over and brought her with him. “What’s this?” he asked, reaching for the frame on her bedside table. “Oh . . . the night we met.”

  “I had all the negatives you got from Enid’s photographer developed, but there wasn’t one with a full view of your face. I was so sad about that. I framed that one of us dancing because it was the best one of you.”

  He put the frame back on the table and held up the page she had torn from the tabloid. “You kept this?”

  “It’s an amazing picture.”

  He smiled. “You were so mad when I did that.”

  “Not after I saw the photo. Now it’s just one of many beautiful memories.”

  Returning the page to the table, he put his arm around her, and ran his hand up and down her back. “I was wrong to pressure you to make a decision you weren’t ready to make. I know that now. I was just so desperate to keep you with me. I’m sure that’s not how it seemed to you that last night, but it’s the truth.”

  “Travis—”

  He brushed a finger over her lips. “Hear me out, sweetheart. I want to ask you something, but I don’t want you to answer me now, okay?”

  Her heart pounding with anticipation, she nodded.

  “Liana, my love, will you marry me? Will you live with me and have a family with me and work with me?”

  Her eyes filled, and her heart overflowed with joy.

  “Your mother is getting married at North Point on Christmas Eve. I want you to take the next few months to think it over, and when you come home for her wedding you can give me your answer.”

  “But, Travis . . .”

  He shook his head. “I realized after you left that I have no life at all without you, so we’ll do it your way. If you don’t want to get married, we don’t have to. I’ll visit you. You’ll visit me. We’ll work it out. But it occurred to me that I told you I wanted to marry you, but I never actually asked you. So now I have.” He kissed her softly. “I love you, and I’ll wait for you. No matter how long it takes. I’ll wait.”

  Touched to her very core, she whispered, “So what do we do for the next few months until my mother’s wedding?”

  “I’ll leave you alone so you can think.”

  “But the last ten days have been so awful, Travis. I don’t want to go months without talking to you or being with you.”

  He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “It’ll be different this time, sweetheart, because you’ll know I love you and I’m waiting for you. You’ll know you have me—any way you want me.”

  “I can’t believe you’re willing to do this.”

  “I don’t think you were even in the elevator when I realized what a terrible mistake I’d made by letting you go. After you left, I saw you everywhere. The emptiness was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. I love you. My dog loves you. She’s been so depressed since you left.”

  “Aw, my poor sweet girl. Who’s watching her while you’re here?”

  “Your mother.”

  “Really?”

  “Uh huh. It was part of the large package of concessions I had to make to get her to tell me where you were.”

  Liana laughed. “Made you work for it, did she?”

  “I suggested she consider law school when she finishes college. I also received a thorough ass kicking from your cousin, which included a threat to my life if I should happen to hurt you again. I’m quite certain she meant it.”

  “I can assure you she did.”

  “She’s not just a brat, she’s mean, too,” he said with a pout.

  “Oh, baby,” Liana said in little girl voice. “Did she hurt your feelings?”

  “She called me names. Bad names.”

  Liana dissolved into laughter.

  “You think it’s funny?” He rolled on top of her and tickled her ribs.

  She screamed with laughter.

  A sharp rap on the door startled them into silence.

  “Ms. McDermott!”

  “Shit,” Travis whispered. “It’s your security.”

  “I’m fine,” she called out.

  “I need to see you.”

  Travis dissolved into laughter.

  Liana swatted at him as she got out of bed and reached for her robe. “Shut up.” She ran her hands through her messy hair and opened the door. “Hi there,” she said in a cheerful voice. “Sorry about the noise, but I’m okay.”

  The same big man who’d checked out Travis earlier peered around Liana to look into the room.

  From the bed, Travis smiled and waved at him.

  He scowled at Travis and returned his attention to Liana. “You’re sure everything’s all right?”

  With a glance over her shoulder at Travis, Liana said, “Yes, everything’s just fine.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Throughout that long, endless autumn, Travis lived for only one thing: the weekly postcards he received from Liana. They came from Madrid, Milan, the Bahamas, New York, London, and Paris, and all of them contained the same one-word message: THINKING. Travis tacked the cards up on the bulletin board in his office, and by the second week in December the board was nearly full.

  He had done his best during their long months apart to ignore the tabloid coverage of her every move. As badly as he craved the slightest detail, he was wary of tabloid lies. He refused to let gossip screw things up for them. Not after they had gotten this far. And in all his meetings with Agnes about her wedding, neither of them had ever broached the subject of her daughter or what had transpired between Travis and Liana in Spain.

  Four days before Agnes’s Christmas Eve wedding, an item in the Wall Street Journal caught Travis’s attention. His heart stopped when he read the headline: “Supermodel Liana McDermott Named Face of L’Élégance.” Travis read and reread the article that outlined the multi-year, seven-figure deal that would make Liana the cosmetic giant’s top public persona.

  Stunned by the news, he tossed the paper aside and sat back in his chair. “She’s not giving it up,” he whispered. “She’s not going to choose me.” Glancing up at the collage of postcards, Travis hurt like he never had before. He had been so sure. After their time together in Spain, he’d been so sure she would come home to him. “I can’t believe I was such a fool.”

  He thought he was ready to see her again. But as he watched her come down the aisle in a burgundy silk gown that hugged every curve, he realized he was utterly unprepared to see her and even more unprepared to say goodbye to her. The fake tan was gone, and she carried a bouquet of Christmas flowers as she went through her duties as her mother’s maid of honor. As a bridesmaid, Enid wore the same gown as Liana. Agnes, stunning in a beaded floor-length ivory dress, glowed with happiness.

  After a brief hello and a kiss to Liana’s cheek in the receiving line, Travis, who was there as Agnes’s guest, did his best to stay out of the way so Liana could attend to her mother. But right after dinner when the dancing started, she came looking for him.

  “What are you doing back here in the corner?” she asked with amusement dancing in her violet eyes. “My mother invited you to sit with the family.”

  “I didn’t want to be in the way.”

  Her eyebrows knitted with confusion. “You wouldn’t have been in the way. Will you dance with me?”

  He studied the hand she held out to him, wondering if he had the wherewithal to hold her one last time and then let her go if that was what she wanted. “Sure.” Taking the hand she offered, he followed her to the dance floor.

  Holding her in his arms and remembering the way she fit so perfectly against him made Travis breathless with longing. “
You look so beautiful tonight.”

  She smiled up at him. “This time I got to pick the dress.”

  “I like the color.”

  “I knew you would,” she said. “I missed you.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Something’s wrong.”

  He shook his head.

  With her finger on his chin she brought his eyes back to her. “I know you, remember?”

  “I remember everything.”

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  “You can’t leave your mother’s wedding.”

  Liana glanced over to where her mother danced with David. They were so caught up in their joy they might have been the only two people in the room. “I don’t think we’ll be missed.”

  Travis let her lead him from the dance floor and into his office.

  She shut the door and leaned back against it, zeroing in on the bulletin board full of postcards. “You kept them all!” she said with a delighted smile.

  He shrugged.

  “What’s wrong, Travis? Have you changed your mind about us? Did I take too long to think about it?”

  “No.”

  “Then what is it?”

  He reached for the folded newspaper on his desk and held it up for her to see. “This. This is what’s wrong.”

  She crossed the room to take the paper from him. “Oh,” she said, wincing. “You heard about that, huh?”

  “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth. “I heard about it.”

  “And you think I’ve chosen my career over you.”

  “Haven’t you?”

  Liana put the paper down on his desk and walked over to look out the window. “After you left Spain, do you know what I did first?” She turned to him. “I called my agent and told him that as of the twenty-fourth of December I’d be retiring from modeling.”

  “But what about—”

  “Wait, Travis. It’s your turn to hear me out.”

  Frustrated, he ran his hands through his hair and leaned back against the desk.

  Liana went to him and rested her hands on his chest. “I was so relieved to see you in Spain—that you had come all that way to see me and to fix things between us. . . ”