Sinful
Tangled Images - Mack
Mack Winston was minding his own business as usual. His thoughts were focused inward, mostly on career choices and disappointments, but he whistled carelessly, unwilling to let anyone witness his concern. The day was snowy and cold, getting colder by the moment, and his nose felt frozen. He was distracted enough not to care.
But the second he entered the family-owned bar he saw them, all three of his damned older brothers and his two sexy sisters-in-law, huddled together at a single tiny table. They looked.conniving.
They'd been working on him lately, trying to cheer him when he didn't want them to know he needed cheering. It irritated him. He liked being known as the carefree brother, the fun brother. It suited him.
Since it was early and the bar was not yet open, they glanced up at him when they heard the door close. Then they did a double take. The women suddenly smiled, and their smiles were enough to make the slowest man suspicious. And despite his brothers' ribbing, he wasn't slow.
Mack's whistling dwindled. He thought about making a strategic retreat, but then Zane, only three years his senior, called out, "Ha! A lamb for the slaughter! What perfect timing you have, Mack."
Cole, the oldest brother and the most protective, shook his head, looking somewhat chagrined that Mack had shown himself at this precise moment. Chase, the second oldest and the quietest, glanced at Mack and snorted. Both their wives looked as if an enormous problem had just been solved. Whatever the problem, Mack knew he didn't want to be the solution.
Zane grinned. "I tried to save you, honestly, but I'll be out of town."
Cole rolled his eyes. "You're too damn willing, Zane. It unnerves me."
Chase merely snorted again. His wife, Allison, patted his arm. "You were never even considered, honey, so relax. There's no way I want the female masses of Thomasville ogling your perfect body. You're a married man now, and that means I'm the only one allowed to ogle."
Mack backed up two steps.
Sophie, Cole's wife, now seven months pregnant, ran over to Mack and latched onto his arm. "You understand, I couldn't let Cole do it. Not that he would have, anyway. You know how reserved he is. But my God, it would have started a riot! Can you just imagine how the women would react to Cole?"
Mack didn't know what she was rambling on about, but he almost smiled anyway. Sweet Sophie harbored this absurd notion that Cole was perfect, and that every female he met wanted him in the most lascivious manner imaginable.
Mack had to agree that in many ways, his older brother did border on perfection. Cole had pretty much raised him and Zane, with Chase's adolescent help, after their parents' deaths, and he'd done a great job of it. But Cole was so over the top in love with his wife that he no longer even noticed other women. They could riot all they wanted, and Cole wouldn't care.
Both Cole and Chase had only recently married, and Zane swore Mack would be next, that the Winstons had somehow been cursed or blessed, the two remaining bachelors still uncertain which it was. Oh, their brothers felt blessed, and the sisters-in-law were wonderful. It was just that Zane didn't ever want to marry, and Mack didn't want to marry anytime soon.
He'd been very cautious around women ever since Chase had unexpectedly succumbed, proving the virus to be very real. Of course, Mack had been shunning the dating scene for other reasons as well. While he was in college, his studies had taken precedence over everything else. Well, everything except one very sexy, very enticing woman - who hadn't wanted a damn thing to do with him. There were still times when he dreamed of her, and someday he hoped to meet a woman like her, one that could turn him on with just a look. But until then.
Sophie's hand tightened on his arm, and Mack tried to step away. He didn't get very far. Though she looked small and delicate, Sophie had a grip like a junkyard dog hanging onto a prized bone.
Zane sauntered over, his eyes glinting with humor. "I still think I'd have been the best choice. But you know I'm going out of town for that convention, so that leaves you, little brother."
Mack swallowed, eyeing each relative in turn. "What exactly does that leave me to do?"
Sophie squeezed a little closer, and her tone became cajoling. "Why, just a little modeling."
His brows shot up. "Modeling?"
"Yes."
Chase snorted again.
"All right." Mack decided enough was enough. "Sophie, turn me loose, I promise not to bolt. Zane, I'm going to flatten you if you don't stop grinning. And no, Chase, there's no need to snort again. I already gather this isn't something I'm going to enjoy."
"Nonsense!" Allison, his other meddling sister-in-law, whom he adored to distraction, leapt to her feet to join Sophie. Mack felt sandwiched between feminine resolve. He assessed their wide-eyed, innocent stares warily.
With a sigh Cole came to his feet, too. "Sophie has some harebrained idea of offering a new line of male lingerie at her boutique."
Male lingerie! Mack stiffened and again tried to back up. The sisters-in-law weren't allowing it.
"It's not lingerie, Cole," Sophie insisted in a huff. Since her pregnancy had gotten under way, she huffed more often. "It's loungewear. And it's very popular."
Mack's head throbbed the tiniest bit, "Loungewear?"
"Yes, you know, like silk boxers and robes, and -"
Zane leaned forward. "And thongs and lace-up leopard print briefs and leather skivvies and -"
Allison slapped her hand over Zane's mouth. "Women appreciate those nice things on a man."
Zane, Mack, and Cole all stared at Chase, who immediately started to bluster, while frowning at his wife. "Oh, no. You can forget those thoughts right now! That's just an assumption on Allison's part. You wouldn't catch me dead in any of that goofy stuff."
Disappointed, they all returned their attention to Mack. He looked around at their expressions, which varied from amused to resigned to hopeful, and he shook his head. "Hell, no."
Sophie glared at him. "You don't even know what it is that I want yet."
"Honey, I don't need to know. If it involves this.this. male loungewear , I want no part of it."
Her eyes narrowed in a calculating way. "All I need you to do -"
"No."
"- is to let the photographer get a few pictures of you in the clothing to advertise it in a new catalogue."
"No!"
"Because there's no way I can afford to hire a real model, who would probably have to come all the way from New York or Chicago , and I have the feeling you'd look better anyway."
Well, that was a nice compliment, but.he shook his head. "No."
Zane pried Allison's hand away. "Not as good as I'd look, but as I said -"
Three voices yelled in unison, "Shut up, Zane!"
Zane only chuckled.
Sophie continued, her voice coercing, her eyes wide, "This is a great opportunity for me, Mack. The photographer is a friend of mine, willing to do this cheap for the exposure it'll bring the studio. I'm getting a special deal here. It'll only take two or three days -"
"No."
"- so it won't really interfere with your schedule or anything -"
"Damn it, Sophie -"
"- and Valentine's Day would be the perfect time to advertise the new line."
Mack groaned.
"So it's all set, then. And Mack, I really appreciate it." She gave him a sideways, very calculating glance. "You can consider this payback for all those study sessions with me for your college science classes."
He felt doomed. He could only mumble, "Unfair, Sophie."
She batted her pretty blue eyes at him and said, "You'd never have passed anatomy without me."
Cole's mouth fell open. "All those late nights she helped you study, it was for anatomy ?"
Mack rolled his eyes. "Just female reproduction. That stuff's confusing."
Zane roared with laughter, and this time Chase and Allison joined him. Cole, still huffing, pulled his wife possessively to his side while Mack groped for a chair and fell into it.
"Well, hell." He looked to the heavens, but all he saw was the ceiling of the bar. He supposed there was no help for it at all.
He tilted his head toward Zane. "You'd actually have done this if you weren't going out of town?"
"Are you kidding? The women will love it. You'll have so many new dates, you won't have time to be in a funk."
"I'm not in a funk."
Chase snorted.
Rubbing his brow, Mack tried to ignore them all. He knew Zane probably would like to flaunt himself a little. He was a born exhibitionist and wallowed in the female attention heaped upon him. But Mack wasn't that way - at least, not as much so as Zane. There'd been only that one woman he'd ever wanted to wallow with.
He glared at Sophie and said, "I'm not wearing anything stupid."
She glared right back. "I wouldn't carry anything stupid at my boutique!" Then she softened. "But don't worry. There'll be a selection available, and you and the photographer can decide together which things to photograph. Other than a few definites that have to be in the catalogue, you can pick and choose."
"Gee, thanks."
Sophie handed him a card that read "Wells Photography," and listed a downtown address. She gave him a huge hug and kissed his cheek. "Be there Friday at two o'clock, okay?"
At least that gave him two days to get used to the idea. Or rather, two days to dread it.
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