Irresistible Attraction: Scenes of Passion / Midnight Seduction / Beyond Control

Babe? She didn’t say it, but the look she was giving him nearly made him laugh out loud.

He poured the lemonade, handed glasses to Mr. and Mrs. Stanton, and then patted the couch next to him.

Slowly, she approached. Slowly, she sat down. And he draped an arm around her shoulders. “Mags and I discussed it in the kitchen,” he told her parents, “and we decided that you should know the truth.”

Mr. Stanton nodded. “That would be appreciated.”

“Last night I asked Maggie to marry me,” Matt told them. He could feel disbelief radiating out of Maggie, and it was all he could do not to laugh.

“What?” said Mrs. Stanton.

“What?” said Mr. Stanton.

“Matt!” said Maggie.

He shut her up with a quick kiss. “It’s no secret that I’ve been crazy about her for years,” he told them, then looked at Maggie. “Right, babe?”

The Stantons—all three of them—wore identical looks of shock. Matt knew not to kiss Maggie again. If he did, they’d all fall out of their chairs.

Mrs. Stanton looked at Maggie. “But…”

“She said yes,” Matt said, squeezing her shoulder.

“I said no,” she countered, elbowing him in the ribs.

“Obviously, we’re still working it out,” he said quickly, putting his hand on her knee, and sliding it up her smooth, bare thigh. His shorts looked good on her. “You can understand her hesitation. She’s not sure if this is the real thing or if she’s just on the rebound.”

“I see.” Mr. Stanton was staring at Matt’s hand, still moving north on Maggie’s thigh.

Out of desperation, Maggie grabbed Matt’s hand and held it tightly. But that was, of course, exactly what he’d wanted her to do, since it looked as if she’d taken his hand intentionally, instead of in self-defense.

“We’ve decided the best thing to do is to live together, see how it goes,” Matt said.

Her parents, of course, were appalled.

“You must know that we don’t approve.”

“I realize that, sir,” Matt said solemnly. “But I want Maggie and I’m afraid if she goes back home with you, she’ll never make up her mind.”

Hey. Maggie shot him a look, but he refused to look at her. The muscle in the side of his jaw was jumping, though. Matt was clenching his teeth to keep from laughing. He actually thought this was funny! She squeezed his fingers, wishing she actually had nails to dig into him.

Her father shook his head. “Well, decision making’s never been her strong suit,” he said ruefully.

They were talking about her as if she were a horse being sold or a child or a… a… houseplant.

“I can make up my mind quite easily,” she said hotly. “In fact, there’s absolutely no decision here. This is ridiculous and…”

And she stopped, suddenly realizing that if she said no, she’d end up going back home with her parents.

They were all watching her, her parents with anticipation, Matt with one eyebrow lazily lifted, his expression carefully bland. But his eyes were sharp and he was watching her as if he were trying to read her mind.

What would he do if she said yes? Wouldn’t that scare him to death? She smiled, imagining his frantic backpedaling as he tried to keep her mother from pulling out her Polaroid camera to snap an engagement photo to send to the society page of the Shore Line Times.

Matt watched Maggie smile and realized that she was actually considering saying yes. The shock value would be tremendous—it would blow her parents right out of the water. Come on, Mags, say it.

Except, God, he’d have to tell her the truth about where he’d been, what he’d been doing these past three years. If they were going to get married, he’d have to tell her all that, and more—Whoa, Stone, slow it down. This was fiction. This was acting. This was not real life.

Still, he leaned toward her. “Say it,” he whispered.

She stared at him.

“Say it,” he repeated. “Come on, Maggie. Marry me.” He slid off the couch onto his knees on the floor in front of her and brought her hand to his lips as the audience—her parents—watched in undisguised shock. “Please?”

Maggie couldn’t believe him. Oh, overacting! she wanted to shout. God, she hated improv because she was never really sure how the other actors wanted her to respond. Now, did Matt really want her to say yes, or did he want her to say no? Or was he too caught up in the drama of the scene even to think rationally?

Didn’t it occur to him what would happen if she actually said yes?

She looked down at Matt, still waiting on bended knee like some kind of fantasy husband-to-be. Damn him for making her wish this wasn’t just a game. She almost smacked him.

“This is silly,” she said. “Matt, get up off the floor. We have to tell them the real truth.”

Whatever he was expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. Matt covered a laugh with a cough. “The real truth.” He pulled himself back onto the couch. “Oh, you mean the real truth.”

She looked at him expectantly, innocently, waiting for him to take the lead. Which of course he couldn’t take since he had no idea what she had in mind.

She threw him a bone. “The Internet thing,” she said, “www.VegasWedding.com?”

He almost completely lost it, and he covered by kissing her. In front of her parents.

“God, I love you,” he said, with so much emotion in his voice, she almost believed him, too.

Her father cleared his throat. “What Internet thing?”

“You don’t have to go to Las Vegas anymore for a quickie wedding,” Matt explained to her parents, taking her cue and running with it. Were they actually going to believe this? “You just go online and visit the Web site, and you can actually get married in a virtual ceremony.” He kissed Maggie’s hand. “We did that last night.”

“Is it legal?” her mother asked.

“Absolutely,” Matt said. “They send the marriage certificate in the mail. It takes a couple weeks, though, because they, you know, laminate it first.”

Her father looked as if he were going to protest, and Maggie cut him off. “Dad, I’m twenty-nine years old.”

He nodded. “You are. I think your living here is a mistake, and I think rushing into marriage with someone you haven’t seen in ten years is also a mistake. We would like it if you came home. That’s what we came here to say. That and we love you.” He looked at Matt. “And if you hurt her, I’ll make you wish you were never born.”

He stood up, and held out his hand for Matt to shake, then gave Maggie a hug. “This is the biggest barrel of crap I’ve ever heard,” he whispered to her. “But your mother believes you. You just decide whether or not you’re going to marry this guy, and you do it fast, you hear me?”

Maggie nodded, and he kissed her cheek. Her mother hugged her, too, and then they were out the door.

Matt put his arm around her as they watched her parents drive away. “How about another kiss for show?” he asked, nuzzling her neck.