“Angel, listen to me carefully. He only said something to indicate to me that he’s been watching you. I don’t know for how long.” He stopped and looked at her hard. “He did say one other thing . . .”
His voice trailed off and he looked at her more thoughtfully, as if debating whether she could handle the rest. Crystal straightened her spine and spoke in a calm voice, “Mac, whatever he said, I have a right to know.”
He remained silent. However, he seemed to give in to the inevitable because he responded, “He said he intends to show you what happens to a whore. He intends to teach you a lesson.”
“Oh God!” Her hand flew to her mouth. She felt sick. She spoke in a quivery voice, “I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
Mac placed his palm on the back of her head and gently pushed. “Angel, put your head down and take deep breaths. Can you do that for me?” She nodded and did as he said. He was stroking her hair in a soothing motion. She felt some relief from the rising panic immediately. When she had herself back under control, she said in a stronger voice, “I’m okay.” He pulled his hand away slowly, as if reluctant to do so. She rose up and came face-to-face with him. He looked so concerned for her that without thinking she leaned forward and kissed his angular cheek. Lifting away from him, she said, “Thanks for being here.”
He nodded. “Do you want to call Mollie and warn her?”
“Good idea,” she replied as she pulled her cell phone out of her purse. “She’s staying with a friend tonight, but I’ll fill her in so she can take precautions.”
Several minutes later, Crystal hung up and smiled over at Mac. “She wants to make sure I’m not alone tonight, either.”
“No way in hell am I leaving you tonight,” he said as he stood. “Now, let’s go see that movie. I am not letting that asshole ruin my evening with the prettiest girl in town. Besides, I am very much looking forward to sitting in a darkened movie theater with you.” He rose to his full height, took her hand, and pulled her up off the bed. Like any handsome Prince Charming, he said, “Will you accompany me this evening, my lady?” he asked, in a Prince Charming sort of way.
She quickly responded, “Indeed I will, kind sir.” And she curtsied.
They both laughed, dispelling the tension, and left the bedroom arm in arm.
Crystal was having the time of her life with Mac. They had gone to see a movie, and much to her surprise, he had picked a comedy. They laughed themselves silly. She hadn’t laughed and had such a good time with a man in . . . well, ever. They were back in his black Blazer and on their way home, but he turned down a different road.
“Mac, where are we going? Aren’t we going back home?” She looked over at him in puzzlement.
“Oh, angel, the evening is not yet finished. After all, Cinderella, it’s not midnight, is it?”
He looked over at her for a brief moment, not wanting to take his eyes off the road, but she saw mystery in his and something else pooling in their depths . . . hunger? But for what? Crystal wondered, or perhaps the correct word was, for whom?
She finally said, “Well, my debonair prince, where are you taking me on such a lovely evening as this?”
“Now that would certainly spoil my lady’s surprise, would it not?” The corner of his lips quirked up along with one eyebrow questioningly.
“Yes, I suppose it would, and I certainly wouldn’t want to spoil it. Shall I close my eyes, too, so your surprise will be complete and untainted?” She laughed, fully expecting him to laugh, too. However, he only whispered lustfully, “Yes, close your eyes. Trust in me to tell you when. Will you trust me, Crystal?”
She spoke breathlessly, “Yes, Mac, I trust you.” And she continued to show him how much by closing her eyes.
Mac hadn’t expected the conversation to take such a turn. Nevertheless, he couldn’t let the opportunity to observe Crystal in such a way go b
y. She was beautiful, especially when she laughed. She made him feel like the luckiest man on earth when the smiles were directed toward him. He had taken her to a comedy for two reasons. He wanted to take her mind off the jerk who had called earlier, and he wanted to see her laugh. Who would have thought that laughter from a woman could make a man hard as granite? Well, not any woman . . . only his Crystal. Hearing her in the movie theater made him glad that it was dark; he would’ve made a spectacle of himself if it wasn’t. Hell, he was so horny by the time they had left that he knew if he took her straight home, he’d have her stripped down and on the floor and been inside of her within seconds. So the thought struck to take her to Gibby’s bar. As appealing as it was to take Crystal in such an abandoned way, he didn’t want her to think he had no finesse at all, that he was no more than a rutting bull, even though that was damn close to the way he felt at the moment.
As they turned the next corner and were traveling down the street where the bar was located, he glanced over at Crystal to see if her eyes were, indeed, still closed. They were, and she was now resting her head on the back of the seat. Her hair fell down past her shoulders, giving him a perfect view of her slender, delicate neck. He might well have been a vampire in some other life, because the need to taste her pulsing vein with his tongue and bite her pale ivory skin there, marking her as his, was almost overpowering.
He pulled into the parking lot to the bar and drove around to the back, so they could enter through the private entrance. He stopped the SUV and put it in Park, but he did not turn off the engine. He looked over at Crystal again; this time a slight smile curved her peach-colored lips. He leaned over her to murmur seductively, “You turn my insides to jelly and my outside to iron, angel.”
He wanted to soothe her, mesmerize her into doing as he wished. She started to open her eyes, but he touched each lid with his forefinger and said, “You trusted me to say when, and I have yet to do so.”
She remained quiet and kept her eyes closed. He caressed her hair with his fingers, stroking her silky tresses. “So soft and baby fine.” He trailed his hand down her hair to smooth one finger over her neck. He touched the pulse beating in her throat; it seemed to quicken under his fingertips. He leaned in to her closer still, breathing in her scent. “Your smell drives me mad at night. It’s as if you’re lying right next to me, and I dream hot, erotic dreams of you.” His voice grew raspier with the fever that was running through his veins, a fever only she could cool.
He bent his lips to her pulse and licked the length of her protruding vein. “Do you want more? Would you trust me with your body?” She nodded her acceptance. “Mm, yes, I want more of you, too, so much more. I want to know all your secret spots, the ones that cause your blood to pound hot in your veins and have you quivering with need. I want you begging beneath me . . . for me.”
With that he bent and tasted her sweet ivory neck, arched up toward him like an offering to a god. He tasted her soft skin and sucked her into his mouth. Then he bit her, lightly, branding her as his woman. He lifted his head, looking down at her pliant body, and groaned, “Open your eyes, angel. If we stay out here much longer, I will have you beneath me, where you belong, which would bring me infinite amounts of pleasure, but having sex in my truck isn’t how this night is supposed to go.”
She did then, as he bid. She looked at him finally, her body burning with need. Her chest was heaving like she had just run a marathon. She looked into his eyes and saw that it was the same for him. It pleased her and she wanted more. More of him, more of his touch, she wanted him to appease the hunger that he had created. Instead she said, “Mac, the things you do to me, it’s positively not becoming of a lady.” She tried for lightness, but it seemed to fall flat.
“Angel, I want you any way I can get you.” He did smile then, albeit lecherously, but it was a smile nonetheless. “Having you completely willing and quivering underneath me will suffice . . . for now.” He turned the engine off and opened the door. “Come on, we’re here.”
As he came around to her side to open her door, she asked, “Where is here?”