VINA IN VENICE (THE 5 SISTERS) (5 page)

“That’s why I never get asked out for a second date,” she finished for him.

He hadn’t meant to hurt Vina, but the hollowness in her voice told him that he had.
  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, that came out all wrong.  Being shy around men isn’t a
fatal
character
flaw;
you just need more practice, that’s all.
  What I’m proposing is that along with the dance lessons, we can go out o
n a few dates.  It might help you pinpoint
where things…fall apart, and I could help you work through it.”

“You’d really do that for me?”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” Travis said, practically choking on the lump of guilt that was stuck in his throat.  He didn’t like deceiving her, but the end justified the means…didn’t it?

***

Vina
absently disconnected the call.  She wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the proposal Travis had just presented.  Who ever heard of going on
practice
dates? 
Then again, she could use all the help she could get.  Her last several dates had been disasters and she hadn’t gotten up the nerve to accept another one since
…well, she couldn’t remember when. 

It really was sweet of Travis to volunteer his time to help her out, especially when she knew how difficult it was for him to get away from work.  What she wouldn’t give to find a man like Travis Malone to love her.
  Well, not
exactly
like Travis.  The man had some serious commitment issues.  Vina knew for a fact that most of his relationships, if you could call them that, did the big crash and burn after a couple of weeks.

Still, Travis was utterly gorgeous and had a heart of gold
, at least where family and friends were concerned.  She doubted any of the women who had briefly shared his bed held such a high opinion of him.  It sounded cruel, but it was their own fault for thinking
they could change Travis. 
He was always upfront with the women he dated, and made it perfectly clear he wasn’t interested in a long term relationship. 

It never ceased to amaze Vina when they continued to pursue him, long after he’d
lost interest and moved on to someone else.  Some of them had even been jealous of
her
relationship with Travis, which was ridiculous because
he’d never once tried to push the boundaries of the
ir
friendship.  Besides, based on his taste for tall, leggy blondes,
Vina wasn’t his type.
 

Not that she
wanted
to be add
ed
to the length
y list of girlfriends, Vina told herself.  And if there were times when she tried to imagine what it would feel like to be kissed by Travis, it was only because she was curious as to what all the fuss was about.
 
G
etting romantically involved with
him
would be
like jumping from a plan
e
without a parachute
.  S
ure,
it felt heavenly while your head was still in the clouds, and
the free fall was exhilarating
, but eventually the ground
wa
s going to rise up to meet you. 

No,
Vina trusted Travis with her life, but she wasn’t foolish enough to trust him with her heart. 
After all, y
ou
can
’t put paper in a shredder and expect it to come out in one piece
, now can you?
    
  

Chapter 3

Thirty years old and he couldn’t remember ever being nervous at the prospect of spending the evening with a beautiful young woman.  So why was he suffering from a bad case of the jitters
now?  Vina had been to his house more times than he could count
.  She’d
even spent the night in one of the guest rooms on several occasions
, although that usually resulted in a frustrating and restless night for him. 

Lights bounced across his living room wall
when
Vina turned into his driveway
, flicking off a moment later
.  Travis tilted his head,
mentally tracing her movements by the sound of
her soft tread as she climbed the stairs to his deck
. 
He heard her shuffle across
the
deck, and then t
wo dull thuds when Vina kicked her shoes off just outside the sliding glass door
.
  She paused for
second
, as she always did, and breathed in the scent of the ocean before pushing the screen door open and slipping inside.

His pulse accelerated
when she spied him and angled a warm smile his way.
  What was it about this woman that made his heart pound
and his breathe come up short?
  Granted, Vina was beautiful, but he’
d dated a lot of
women
who were equally beautiful and much more sophisticated.
  The sultry
femme fatales
he usually spent time with were
tall and thin; sheer elegance from the tip of their painted toe nails to the top of their glossy
,
bleach-blonde roots.
 

Vina was down to earth
.  She was
…
real
. 
Maybe that
’s
what he found so appealing
about her
; there was no pretension in anything she said or did, no hidden agenda, no cold calculation in her approach to their relationship.
  And
there was no need for
pretense on his part either, no practiced lines or forced
compliments to be doled out at regular intervals
.
  Vina neither wanted nor expected to be flattered,
which was a source of amusement for Travis
,
because
even the smallest of compliments brought a rush of color to her cheeks.

His eyes made an appreciative sweep over her curvaceous form. 
She looked exceptionally lovely today in a pair of
snug blue jeans
that emphasized her narrow waist and
the
womanly flair of her hips.  The stretchy knit sweater that hugged her generous breasts was
the same shade of
dusty rose
that colored her lips
.  I
t made him ache to touch her
in a way that had nothing to do with friendship and everything to do with satisfying his need to possess Vina and make her his own
. 

She
was
n’t
wearing
any
make-up
and had pulled her long hair back into a ponytail, making
her
look younger than her twenty-five years.
 
The women Travis dated would have been mortified to be seen without their faces painted
or
dressed in
such casual attire, but to him, Vina looked as
luscious and ripe as a Georgia peach
.  A
nd every bit as mouth watering.
 

It drained every ounce of will power to
let
go of her
after
accept
ing
the warm hug she gave him
.  E
very male hormone in his body begg
ed
him to keep Vina locked
in his arms
and
kiss her senseless
, but
the last thing he want
ed
to do was scare her off
.
 
For his own peace of mind, Travis moved away from her
to put some distance between him
self
and temp
t
ation
.