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He chuckled. “That’s not exactly what I was hoping you’d say, angel.”
She blushed and looked away. “I’m sorry. It’s just . . . I need time to think about all this. Between you and Trent, I mean.”
He tugged a lock of her hair until she was looking at him once more. “Are you worried that you’re in love with us both, Crystal? Or is it that maybe you only care for one and not the other?”
She slapped a hand over her face and groaned. “I don’t know. You are both so wonderful. I can’t imagine not being with the both of you. Saying that makes me feel guilty. Isn’t love supposed to be one-on-one?”
Mac shook his head. “Hell, sometimes it feels as if Trent and I are one person.” He winked and added, “We sure fell for the same woman, at any rate.”
Crystal placed her hand on his cheek and said, “Give me time to figure this out, okay?”
“I think I can handle that,” he murmured.
Crystal kissed him lightly and replied, “Thank you.”
“I’ve got other ways for you to thank me,” he groaned, as he took her mouth as if it were for the last time. Shit, for all he knew, it just might be.
11
Two days later, Crystal shook with stress as Trent stood in the bedroom of her apartment, watching her freak out over just the right outfit to wear around people with more money than she would ever see in a lifetime. And every time she told herself it shouldn’t matter whether they were rich, she realized she was only deluding herself. Of course it mattered! It wasn’t as if she could go to a dinner with Trent’s parents wearing shorts and a T-shirt.
“Pick something!” Trent shouted.
Crystal looked at the slate-gray slacks and cream-colored silk blouse, her current choice, in the mirror, standing this way and that, then she asked, “What do you think of this one?”
“I think that one looks as nice as the last thirty you tried. You’re much too worried about this dinner.”
Crystal snorted and whirled around to glare at him. “Your mother saw me in your T-shirt and nothing else, Trent. They all three saw me kiss the daylights out of you. It was one heck of a first impression!”
Trent’s eyes turned a deeper shade of blue as they roamed over her body from head to toe. “I liked you in my T-shirt, baby, and I truly enjoyed the kiss.”
Crystal wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot pole. She whipped back around and looked once more into the mirror. “This will just have to do. I don’t really have anything much better without looking overdressed. My wardrobe needs some work, I’m afraid.”
Trent crossed the minefield that used to be her bedroom, and pulled her back against the hard length of him. “My mother will see you as a beautiful woman who has managed to enrapture her son. Stop worrying, Crystal. You don’t need to make yourself into anything you’re not, simply to please my family.”
Was she so transparent? How was it possible a man she’d only just met could see her so clearly? The entire time she’d been married to Richard he’d never been able to figure her out.
Still, she wasn’t quite ready to be so easily read, so she lied. “It’s not that. Your mother is clearly more refined than I am, and I don’t want her to think I’m some floozy who would go to bed with any Tom, Dick, or Harry.”
In the mirror, she watched with fascination as Trent’s sexy mouth tilted sideways. “I’m quite glad you’re no . . . floozy. As I remember it, you were rather willful. Not to worry, though. I’m quite confident I will soon make you more . . . biddable.”
Crystal wanted to smack him, and if he wasn’t currently palming her breast through her silk blouse, she would have. As it was, she was forced to make a small verbal protest.
“Look, you domineering control freak, your accent makes it sound like you said ‘beddable,’ and whether you said ‘biddable’ or ‘beddable,’ neither is going to happen if you don’t quit with the attitude.”
“Domineering control freak?” he asked, his mouth kicking up at one corner, making him look entirely too devilish.
“Yes. You’re most certainly that.”
“I see.” Still standing behind her, his gaze wandered the length of her in the mirror, and Crystal’s flesh tingled to life. “In that case, I’d have you. Now.”
Have her? He wanted to make love? “We can’t, Trent, we’ll be late,” she protested, only half-caring.
“Do as you’re told, Crystal, and turn around.”
In a flash, her body went up in flames at the sudden command in his voice. Geez, she loved hearing that tone from him, so aggressive and so male. It was hot.
She hesitated a moment too long, and apparently Trent decided to punish her for her lack of speed with a swat to her bottom. Instinct had her crying out, surprised by the act. “Trent!”
