Driving Her Crazy by Kira Archer

hanger, so close to his favorite body parts.
    “Well then, it wouldn’t hurt you to jazz things up a bit.”
    Oz straightened, his body going rigid in a knee-jerk reaction to the probably unintentional meaning behind her words. If he wanted to make a good impression, he was going to have to play dress-up and pretend he could hob knob with his “betters.” He’d already known that, so he knew he was being overly sensitive. In fact, if he could have gone out and bought a new suit, he would have. He agreed with everything she was saying.
    But it stung coming out of her mouth.
    “Here,” she said, loading his arms with an assortment of slacks, shirts, ties, and something he thought might be a sweater-vest.
    He held it up. “Really?”
    “Okay, maybe not that.” She took it back and tossed it on the table. “Go try on the rest.”
    He let out a long, suffering sigh but did as Her Highness commanded. And damn, but her choices were pretty decent. More than decent. He looked good. In clothes he never would have chosen for himself. Maybe she was on to something with her whole personal shopper idea. She’d chosen something really great for that girl, too. If that’s what she really did for a living, it somehow seemed a little less frivolous after seeing the smile light up that girl’s face. Cher had made her happy, had really helped her. Maybe that should be something he applauded instead of mocking.
    Thirty seconds after he tugged the first shirt on, she called impatiently from the waiting area. “Let me see!”
    “What?”
    “Come out so I can see?”
    “What am I, five?”
    “Oh, be quiet and come out here.”
    He chuckled. She drove him nuts but she was fun to rile up.
    “Nathaniel?”
    “Oz!”
    She groaned and he laughed harder.
    “All right, keep your shirt on, I’ll be right out.”
    A sudden image of Cher slowly removing her shirt hit him like a fist to the gut and he shook his head to dislodge it. But he couldn’t help wondering what a woman who was so determined to be in control of everything would be like if she were driven so crazy she lost all control. Then again, she didn’t seem to have any control over her own life. That belonged to her family. Maybe that’s what made her fight so hard for control of everything else. She was a walking contradiction in more ways than one. If he tried to figure her out he’d probably have an aneurysm.
    “Nathaniel!”
    “Oh, my God woman, hang on!”
    He finished getting the tie on and took a good look at himself in the mirror. He’d tried on a few different options, but this was his favorite, by far. Surprising, actually. He stepped out of the dressing room and walked toward Cher.
    She straightened from where she’d been leaning against a counter holding watches, her mouth dropping open momentarily before she snapped it shut again.
    Heh . The lady must like what she sees. Oz stood a bit straighter, his thumbs trailing along the waist of the close-fitting, charcoal slacks, making sure the lavender shirt was tucked in all the way. Cher’s eyes followed every movement of his hands. Interesting.
    He ran his hand down the dark purple tie to flatten it against his chest, plastering the material to what he knew were a great set of defined abs. Lavender and purple. Not colors he’d ever in a million years be caught dead in. Colors? Was it two different colors or did it count as different types of the same color? Ah hell, he didn’t know. But he had to give it to her, it looked great, judging by the sudden heat in her eyes.
    That heat…it triggered an answering burning in him. It also scared the hell out of him. They had no call feeling anything for each other but grudging tolerance. Nothing good could come of heat . Besides, if he was seeing what he thought he was seeing it was only because he was all dressed up and fancy like one of her pretty New York boys. And that just wasn’t the real him.
    It was also just as likely she wasn’t feeling anything at all