Slowly, waiting for her to protest, to escape his embrace, he bent his head. Their lips met easily, in perfect sync.
He moved his mouth over hers gently, dragging out the pleasure, making his own heart race with the effort to hold back. What had happened on the mountain only whetted his appetite for more. This had nothing to do with Jesse. This was about scratching an itch. Or at the very least, proving to himself how far she was willing to go. He wanted her.
Clothes drifted away in a sensual ballet. Skin heated. Voices hoarsened with desire. His and hers.
This time Bryn was the one to call a halt. Pale but calm, she slipped from the bed and donned her robe.
“I want you, Trent. But not like this. Not with mistrust between us.”
Before he could summon a response, the shrill shriek of the smoke alarm sounded. For one crazed split second, he actually thought about dragging her down on the bed and saying to hell with it.
But the memory of his father jarred him to reality.
He rolled from the bed, groaning and cursing, and shoved his legs into his jeans. “This isn’t over,” he said.
Bryn knew her blood pressure must be through the roof. To go from desperate arousal to anxiety to fear so quickly made nausea swim in her stomach.
She found Trent and Mac in the kitchen. Trent was swearing a blue streak, and Mac presided over a ruined skillet than contained the charred remains of what must have been eggs.
Trent climbed on a chair to disable the smoke alarm. In the resultant silence, the three adults faced off in an uncomfortable triangle.
Bryn had the misfortune to giggle.
Trent glared and Mac chortled. Soon all three of them were laughing hysterically.
Trent was the first to regain control. “Good God, Dad. What in the hell were you doing? I thought you were sound asleep.”
Mac’s expression was sheepish. “I was hungry. And nobody will let me eat anything decent. So I was making an omelet…with whole eggs…and butter.” He puffed out his chest and tried to face them down with bluster.
“I would have helped you,” Bryn said mildly. She took the pan to the sink. “And since when do you know how to cook?”
“Since never. Hence the fire.” Trent dropped into a chair.
Mac raked at the tufts of white hair standing in disarray all over his head. “It wasn’t actually a fire,” Mac muttered, sulking. “I went to the bathroom for just a second, and when I came back…”
“That one’s a goner.” Bryn gave up and tossed the ruined cookware in the trash bin.
Trent rubbed his forehead, where almost certainly a killer headache was attacking him. He’d not had the best half hour. Bryn felt his pain.
He looked up at both of them. “God knows I don’t want to leave you two here alone, but please promise me you’ll behave until I get back.”
Bryn hugged Mac. “We’ll be fine,” she said, yawning suddenly. “Let’s all get some sleep.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that any sexual overtures on Trent’s part would not be repeated…at least not tonight.
There was an awkward moment in the hallway after Mac escaped to his quarters, but Bryn evaded Trent’s gaze and slipped into her bedroom with a muttered good-night, closing the door behind her with a sigh of relief. Perhaps it was for the best. She didn’t understand Trent’s motives. And until she did, self-preservation was the order of the day.
Perhaps understandably, she overslept. She awakened to the sound of a car engine fading into the distance. Already it was clear to her that things were not the same. The house seemed empty with Trent gone. He’d always been a force to reckon with, and the world was oddly flat in his absence.
Instead of moping and trying to analyze the situation, she forced herself to get up and face the day. When Mac appeared in the kitchen, he was chipper and energetic in contrast to her aching head and troubled thoughts.
He ate his egg-white omelet and plain toast without complaint. As Bryn picked at her oatmeal, he cocked his head. “I told Trent this morning to leave you alone so you would stay.”
She felt her cheeks heat. Surely…
Mac went on. “I let him know that if he didn’t have anything nice to say to you, he should keep his damn mouth shut.”