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for it since day one. What did you call it? My little crush on the pretty cook?”
    “You fell too fast.”
    “Maybe I’m just a better judge of character than you.”
    Diego didn’t take the bait. Instead, he started walking once more. “Yeah. Maybe you are. But I can’t help thinking we’re missing something. I don’t think we’ve got the whole picture on Jeannette Sparks.”
    “Yeah. I’ll admit I didn’t realize she thought so poorly of herself. Even though she’s quiet, she exudes this subtle strength. I know she believes she’s shy, but sometimes I don’t think she is. It’s more like…” Luc struggled to find the word.
    “Fear,” Diego supplied. “She’s afraid of something.”
    Until Diego spelled it out, Luc had missed it. Now, he realized his friend was right. “Yeah. She is.”
    “I’m not going to let her keep hiding.”
    Luc was very familiar with this Diego. The set of his jaw, the determination in his tone. When Diego put his mind to something, he didn’t fail. Luc felt the unease and uncertainty he’d experienced ever since he’d first laid eyes on Jeannette fade.
    Diego felt the same pull, the same desire.
    Together, they’d do whatever it took to make her theirs.
     
     

 

Chapter Two
     
    Jeannette stared at her reflection in the mirror and cursed herself for being a fool. She’d given in to Diego and Luc in a moment of weakness and had spent every minute since agreeing to this ridiculous plan second-guessing it. She’d woken up last night in the midst of a full-blown panic attack so severe, she wondered if she was having a heart attack.
    She had called Luc this morning to cancel, expecting him to be the easier man to bail on. He’d simply told her to dress as Diego said, insisting they would be there to pick her up at eight. No amount of pleading or attempts to reason on her part would sway him. Then, it got worse when Diego had taken the phone from Luc. She shivered as she recalled him saying in that sexy voice, “Stop wasting your breath. And leave the top three buttons undone on that silky blouse you’re wearing for us.”
    He’d disconnected before she could continue the argument. Not that she would have been able to after that command. Her nipples had gone tight and she’d actually felt light-headed for a few minutes after hanging up.
    Now it was five minutes to eight and the panic attack was back. Her breathing was thready, her chest tight and, despite the pains she’d taken with her makeup, she looked pale. And terrified.
    She glanced at her blouse, extremely uncomfortable by how much skin she was showing. Ordinarily she wore shirts that covered her chest. All of it. With three buttons undone, she was revealing way too much cleavage. She buttoned one of the buttons, then a second, studying the result. While Nervous Nettie felt more at ease this way, tonight was about shedding that miserable skin.
    She unfastened the buttons again.
    And jumped when her doorbell rang. She hadn’t heard their truck pull into the driveway.
    “What the fuck are you doing, Jeannette?” she asked her reflection, making no move to answer the door.
    A few seconds later, a loud knock came. They weren’t going away.
    She walked downstairs, fighting like the devil to calm her trembling. She hadn’t gone out on a date in fifteen years. Had she really thought this feeling of utter terror would be better than the depression she’d suffered lately?
    She stood behind the door, her hand on the knob, unable to turn it.
    Somehow, Diego knew she was there. “Jeannette. Open the door, angel.”
    She twisted the knob, and then stood back as Diego and Luc stepped inside. “I, uh, I…”
    Diego tilted his head. “Take it easy, baby. It’s just me and Luc.”
    She felt like a fool, so she raced to recover, to escape his all-seeing gaze. “I just need to grab my purse from the living room.”
    They followed her into her tiny house. Penny lifted her head from her position on the back of the