When Susie walked into the dining room, she saw Nathan forcing himself on Crystal and thought - This is not an appropriate ce for sex y. She cleared her throat loudly and said, "Excuse me, but do you want to take this upstairs? Some people have to eat at this table!"


    When Nathan heard Susie''s reprimand, he took a step back, and his face turned red, and as he let go of Crystal, she began to weep uncontrobly. When Susie saw this, she was embarrassed. "I have to go check on theundry!" she eximed, and she disappeared down the hallway.


    "P-P-Please," Crystal begged. "Just drink your tea and leave me alone."


    Nathan looked at Crystal and sighed. At the moment, there was nothing attractive about her at all anyway, so he agreed with her request and began to drink his tea.


    The doorbell rang, and Susie rushed out of theundry room to see who was there, but there was no one there when she opened the door. She looked down, and when she saw a bouquet of flowers on the step, she smiled and picked it up. There was a note on it that said, "For Crystal."


    Susie brought the flowers into the dining room and handed them to Crystal. "These are for you," she said. "But I don''t know who sent them. I''m so excited! Open it up!"


    Crystal looked at Nathan nervously, and he gave his head a grim nod as if to say, "Do as she says." Thus, she nervously opened the package.


    The flowers were bright pink on the outside, but their interiors were much darker. Susie touched one of them and said, "They''re so beautiful. What kind of flower is it? Do you know?"


    "I don''t know," Crystal admitted. "They must be from Eric, though."


    Susie frowned and looked around the room. "That is very kind of him," she said. "But what happened to the Juliet roses he gave you yesterday?"


    Nathan: "I threw them away while you guys were making my tea. The flowers in your hand are Begonia-Riegers. They are from Germany, and they are not from Eric. They are from me. If you want flowers, I will send you flowers every day, but you will not ept them from anyone else. Is that clear?"


    "Clear!" Crystal replied. Nathan watched as she casually put the flowers in a vase. He thought about how their beauty ented her beauty, and he felt a stirring in his loins. He got up, walked over to her, and put his hands on her hips. This public disy of affection made Susie ufortable, so she quickly returned to herundry.


    Nathan leaned forward, and he helped Crystal arrange the flowers. He is very good at it - thought Crystal, and she asked him if he had been professionally trained. He said he hadn''t been, and she asked him if he was ashamed of his skills.


    "I am not," Nathan replied.


    Crystal: "Then why haven''t I seen you do anything like this before?"


    "I have many talents, and you have only seen a fraction of them." Nathan leaned forward and kissed her neck. "Would you like to see what else I can do?" he asked seductively.


    Suddenly, Crystal''s internal rm bells began to go off like crazy. "I don''t!" she cried. "In fact, I can''t! I think I am too sick to see anything like that! I think I just now caught your cold!"


    Nathan smiled and rubbed her head. "Then we should be sick together," he suggested. "Is there any more tea? If so, you should have some."


    "Maybe there is!" Crystal eximed, and she pushed him away so that she could run into the kitchen to pour herself a cup of tea. After drinking the tea, Crystal didn''t know if she should go back to the dining room. She did know, though, that she couldn''t go to the reunion partyter that night. Thus, she sent Judy a message telling her that she would not be attending out of politeness.


    That night, Nathan took Crystal to see his older brother, Arnold. Arnold lived in a ce where there were many loaded guns, and his position wasplicated. He was surrounded by many bodyguards, all of whom had a military background. Nathan said he was more powerful than his brother, but Crystal wasn''t sure if she believed him, not based on what she saw as they pulled into the driveway. When Arnold came out to greet them, he was dressed entirely in camouge, and his ck military boots were stained with dust. This led Crystal to believe that he had just returned from the training ground.


    The first time they''d met, he had not been wearing a military uniform, and she was impressed, now, by how it entuated his manly physic. Standing akimbo, he radiated arrogance and authority.


    Arnold seemed like a hard person to talk to. Thus, Crystal didn''t even know how to say hello to him. When Nathan went to high-five him, though, she managed to whisper, "Hey, I''m Crystal."


    Arnold gave her a sideways nce. "Yes," he said. "We''ve met before. Anyway, make yourselves at home."


    Crystal''s face turned red from embarrassment, and she didn''t say a word as Arnold led them into his home. Although Arnold''s vi was notvishly decorated, everything he did have was of immense worth. Once they were inside, he looked at her and said, "Why don''t you look around? I need to talk to my brother. Alone."


    Crystal nodded, and as she walked away, she heard gunshotsing from behind the house. Curious, she walked in the direction of the sounds. Out behind the house, she found a shooting range and about twenty or thirty soldiers with drawn weapons. As she approached, a handsome boy about her age turned and smiled. He was one of the few boys there not wearing camouge, so he stood out in his white T-shirt, ck bullet-proof vest, and ck ripped jeans. His hair was short, he had a ck pendant pinned to his right earlobe, and she could make out the writing on his tag: "Peter Vance."


    Suddenly, Peter grabbed a gun, aimed, squinted, and hit the bull ''s-eye with a bang. Show off - thought Crystal, and when she realized that he was showing off for her, she giggled. What would Nathan think if he saw this? He would be furious!


    When the boy saw that he had Crystal''s attention, he grinned and shot off a few more bullets. Each one hit the bullseye, and his peers cheered him on enthusiastically. There was one woman amongst them, though, who wasn''t so impressed.. Once the smoke had cleared, sheughed and said, "You got lucky, Peter. Don''t let it get to your head!"