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She smiled and turned in his arms, then pressed her hands against his chest. “You keep saying things like that, and I might just fall in love with you.”
Trent went still. The thought of having Crystal’s love made his chest tight with emotion. “I fail to see why that’s a bad thing.”
10
It’d been a week of not seeing Mac or Trent. She’d been too busy with work, and they’d been busy finalizing plans to open a new nightclub. When Saturday night finally arrived, Crystal was all but bursting with excitement. Mac had told her that he wasn’t about to wait another minute to see her, so they’d made plans to go to dinner and a movie. She wanted it to be special. She sifted through her closet and found a turquoise sundress that she hadn’t gotten the chance to wear yet. She slipped it on, letting the soft cotton glide down her body. It felt pleasantly cool to her heated skin. It had been an oddly hot summer so far, which was what made her opt to go braless. After all, she wasn’t what anyone would term chesty, and so going without a bra was neither obscene nor even obvious, much to her dismay. She walked to her bed, sat on the edge, then slipped into her white strappy sandals before heading to the bathroom to apply her makeup. She never wore much, just a pale peach lipstick and mascara to enhance her eyes. She hoped to make tonight memorable so she applied a light dusting of blush and some smoky gray eye shadow. She decided to leave her hair down so it swept her shoulders in waves. Right on time she heard the knock on the door announcing Mac’s arrival. Her stomach suddenly filled with butterflies, and her legs felt weak and shaky.
She left the bathroom, turned off the light, then walked on wobbly legs. Get a hold of yourself. You are going to be fine, and you are not going to make a fool of yourself. Maybe if she told herself that enough times, she would start to believe it. She was now wishing she had gone out on a few dates in the months since her divorce; maybe then she wouldn’t be so nervous. Although she had a feeling that a big part of her anxiety had to do with the man she was going out with. Mac simply made her insides turn to jelly. She reached the li
ving room and walked to the front door. She glanced one last time in the mirror that hung above the table there, and realized she had a “deer caught in the headlights” expression. She groaned, straightened her spine, placed a smile on her face, and asked, “Who is it?”
“The man of your dreams,” Mac said, in a deep, sexy voice that curled her toes.
She swung open the door and with a startled look said, “Johnny Depp is here! Where?” She stood on tiptoes to peek over Mac’s shoulder, pretending to search for her dream man.
“Very funny, angel.” He laughed.
“Who’s kidding?” She smiled hugely. She looked at him this time, really looked. He was wearing black trousers and a black V-neck T-shirt, and he had his hair combed so that it swept the tops of his shoulders in neat ebony waves. Lord, this man was lethal! “Come in, Mac. I’m just about ready to go. Just give me one more minute.”
She turned to retrieve her purse, but his hand snaked out, capturing her arm and pulling her up against his firm frame. He muttered, “You look good enough to eat.” His mouth came so close to her own that she could smell his sweet breath. Peppermint—she loved peppermint.
He whispered, “I wonder, do you taste as sweet as you look?” Then he tilted his head and gently touched his tongue to her bottom lip, inhaling her sweetness, the scent of her still managing to elude him. He lifted his mouth away, grudgingly, and growled, “Go. Finish whatever you need to do, or we’ll never get the hell out of here tonight.”
“You’re always doing that,” she managed to say at last.
“What?” Confusion clouded Mac’s dark eyes.
“Throwing me off balance.” She planted one hand on her hip and smiled.
He bent at the waist so that he was staring directly into her eyes and exclaimed, “In one more second I’m going to throw you over my shoulder, carry you to your bedroom, and quench my appetite with your sweet body.” His hand reached around and smacked her lightly on the rear.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she retorted, completely stunned that he’d just swatted her bottom.
“Try me, angel . . . please.” His voice was hoarse from desire, and his eyes were swirling with passion.
She turned from his heated stare and headed for the hall closet where her purse hung. She didn’t want to take the chance that he was serious, yet she wondered all the same what he’d do if he followed through with his decadent threat.
Damn, Mac thought, this woman was turning him into a Neanderthal. He raked his hand through his hair in an effort to gain some modicum of control. He paced the living room, trying to distract himself, but the phone rang.
“Mac, can you answer that please?” Crystal called from the hallway.
Mac quickly looked around the living room for the phone and located it on the table beside the couch. In two strides, he was picking it up and saying, “Hello?” He sounded harsher than he had intended, though. Silence. Mac said “Hello?” louder and with more strength this time.
“She’s not for you. One day real soon she’ll see what a mistake she made leaving me,” the shadowy voice on the other end growled.
“Look, asshole, I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but be warned if you come near her. I will personally take you apart with my bare hands. Do I make myself clear?” Mac’s entire body tensed with rage.
He was met with insane laughter. “Ah, that’s just it, Mac. You don’t know me, but I do know you. She’s my wife, and one way or the other she’ll come back to me. And when she does, I will have to teach her what happens to whores.” There was a pause, then: “By the way, what a lovely turquoise dress she’s wearing. I so enjoy when she goes without a bra. Great tits she has, don’t you agree?”
Then came the most depraved laughter Mac had ever heard before the line went dead in his hand. Mac quietly replaced the receiver and turned around. Crystal was standing there, her eyes wide and frightened. She had heard enough of his end of the conversation to determine the call was from her ex-husband. He didn’t say a word. He walked to the stairs and ascended them two at a time. When he reached the top, he paused at her bedroom door, turned on the light, and saw what he had already suspected. Her curtains were tied back and the shade was pulled up. He walked over to the window and peered out. He didn’t see anything suspicious, but he hadn’t really expected to. The caller was probably long gone by now. How the hell had the caller known who he was? He made a mental note to call Trent tomorrow. He pulled the shade down and then heard a faint voice say, “Mac, what’s going on?”
He turned around and spoke in a no-nonsense tone, “I want this shade pulled down from now on. Do you understand me, Crystal?”
She nodded. “But why?” She felt numb, for she feared she already knew the answer.
Mac walked to where she stood, took her soft hand in his, led her over to the bed, and sat her down on the edge of it. Crouching between her legs, he spoke in a comforting tone, “Your ex-husband just called. And he said something on the phone just now that leads me to believe he’s been watching you through there.” He paused and pointed to the window. He went on, biting out each word, “This guy is a sick bastard, and I don’t want you taking any chances, okay? Keep this shade drawn.”
She simply couldn’t speak past the lump of fear in her throat, so she nodded instead. Her ex-husband had been watching her? How many times had he seen her walk into her private bedroom to go to bed or change clothes? She shivered, and when she glanced over at the window, abruptly her entire body shook with chills. She rubbed at her arms, but to no avail. The fear was stealing all the warmth from her body. She felt an invasion of privacy that she’d never known before. Worse yet, she’d inadvertently put Mollie at risk. She looked back at Mac, who was still crouched in front of her, and said the first thing that came to mind, “What did he say?”
