Time Out

10

AFTER WATCHING MARK coach the girls to a hard-earned win, Rainey went home and made brownies. Then she drove to the Welcome Inn Motel.

She wasn’t quite sure what her goal was.

Okay, that was a big, fat lie. She knew exactly what her goal was. She was just conflicted about it. She’d watched Mark on that bus with those girls, completely out of his element and still completely one hundred percent committed.

It’d made him so damn attractive. Too attractive. Sitting in her car outside the motel, she called Lena. “Tell me to turn around and go home.”

“Where are you?”

“Never mind that. Just tell me.”

Lena cackled, the evil witch. “You’re at Mark’s,” she guessed.

“Yes,” Rainey said miserably.

“You’re wearing good underwear, right? Something slinky?”

“Lena.” She thunked her head against the steering wheel. “I’m just here to deliver brownies as a thank-you.”

“Uh-huh. And I’m the Easter Bunny. You should know that I put a condom in your purse the other day. Just in case. Side pocket. Magnum-sized. Ribbed for your pleasure.”

“Oh my God.”

“’Night, hon. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“There’s nothing you wouldn’t do!”

“Well, then you’re in for a great night, aren’t you?” Lena laughed and disconnected.

Rainey stared at the pristine black truck in the parking lot, sticking out among the beat-up cars and trucks around it. They weren’t friends. They weren’t having any sort of a relationship-hot sex aside-and yet…

And yet…

Somehow it felt like both of those things were happening in spite of themselves. She wasn’t here to give him brownies. She and every single one of her hormones knew that. But she was already dangerously close to not being able to keep this casual. She wasn’t good at going with the flow and letting things happen. Not when she knew in her heart that she could feel much more than simple lust for him.

That she already felt more.

And what if she gave in to it, what then? She’d have to deal with the consequences when he left-and he would-and she didn’t have a game plan for that.

But then there was the fact that no matter what she threw at him, he managed it. Handled it. Even fixed it. She thought about earlier, how he’d managed to coach the girls to a strong win. How they listened to him. They talked to him.

A part of her wanted him for that alone. The rest of her wanted him because he was sharp and fearless and intelligent.

No, you want him because he oozes testosterone and pheromones.

Oh, yeah. That, too.

Blowing out a breath, she got out of her car and walked into the lobby, telling herself she was just going to give him the brownies and go.

Casey and James were in the lobby, reading trade magazines and newspapers, drinking beer, watching soap operas with the woman behind the front desk.

“Hey, Rainey, I smell chocolate,” Casey said, pouncing on her brownies like he was starving, making her join them.

James showed her the calluses on his hands from all the hammering he’d been doing. Casey had a nice gash across his forehead after he’d apparently walked into a two-by-four on the job. The talk slipped to coaching the teens and Casey grinned. “Man, as many women as Coach always has throwing themselves at him, it’s been fun watching him have to work at getting the chicks to like him.”

Rainey’s bite of brownie stuck like glue in her mouth at the thought of how many women loved Mark.

“You’re an idiot,” Casey told James.

“No, it’s okay,” Rainey assured him. “I’m perfectly aware of his reputation.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” James said earnestly. “It’s not like he’s a male ho or anything, I swear. It’s just that…I don’t know…he’s sort of bigger than life, and women are curious, you know? Most of the time, he doesn’t even pay any attention to them leaving their phone numbers and panties on his hotel room door.”

Rainey stood up, not needing to hear more. “So…where is he?”

“In his room making calls and doing some work,” Casey said. “But he’s grumpy.”

“Huh,” Rainey said. Join the club. “Think brownies’ll help?”

They all looked at her like she was crazy, and she sighed. “Right. He can get anything he wants. Why would brownies help?”

“Um, Rainey?” Casey smiled gently. “We meant that no, the brownies won’t help, but you will.”

Two minutes later Rainey knocked on Mark’s door, heart hammering in her throat. This was ridiculous, using brownies as a ruse to see him. So ridiculous. She turned to go, which of course was the exact moment the door opened. Walking away, she closed her eyes.

“Rainey.” Even in that not-close-to-happy voice, the sound of her name on his lips made her nipples hard. Slowly she turned to face him. He wore a pair of Levi’s and nothing else, half-buttoned and almost indecently low on his hips, revealing the perfect cut of his chest and abs.

And dammit, even his bare feet were beautiful.

He was holding a cell phone to his ear and his iPad in his hand. At her thorough inspection of his body, he arched a brow and tossed the iPad to the small desk. Still holding her gaze, he said into the phone, “I have to go, something just came up.”

Without waiting for a reply, he disconnected and tossed the phone to the desk as well.

It immediately began vibrating, but Mark ignored it, eyes locked on her.

Fighting the twin urges to squirm and/or jump him, Rainey forced herself to stand there, cool and calm as could be. Because suddenly she accepted what she’d come here for.

Him.

She’d come here for him, any way that she could get him. “You busy?”

He didn’t bother to answer that one, just leaned against the doorjamb.

Her eyes traveled the breadth of his shoulders down his bare torso, along the eight pack to the narrow silky trail of barely-there hair that vanished into the opened button fly of his jeans, and she felt her entire body respond. Was he wearing underwear? Because she couldn’t see any… The thought of him commando under those jeans gave her a serious hot flash. Her brain tried to signal a warning that she was in over her head but she told herself she’d worry about the aftermath later.

Much later. “I brought brownies,” she said. “I’m-sorry-for-being-an-ass brownies.”

“My favorite,” he said. He stepped back and gestured her in ahead of him, kicking the door closed.

She set the brownies on the desk next to his phone and iPad, then slid her hands to his biceps and turned him, pressing him back against the door.

His eyes went from unreadable to scorching as he permitted her to maneuver him. “You have plans,” he murmured.

“Turns out that I do.”

“Does it involve instigating? Or that TLC you promised me?”

“What if it does? What do I get in return?”

His smile was slow and sure and so sexy her bones melted. “Babe, you can have whatever your heart desires.”

If only that were true, she thought, and stepped into him anyway, plastering herself to that body she dreamed about every night as she covered his mouth with hers.

The kiss ignited like a rocket flash. Not that this surprised her. Everything pertaining to Mark seemed to burn hot and fast. Frustration, lust…

His mouth was rough, hot and hungry on hers as he pulled her closer, taking control. She heard herself moan, kissing him with helpless desperation. If dessert was her usual drug of choice, it’d just been replaced because she couldn’t seem to get enough of him.

Apparently feeling the same way, he gripped her hips, then slid his hands up to cup and mold her breasts. “I don’t know exactly what your plan is,” he murmured silkily. “But if it isn’t me stripping you naked and then licking every square inch of you, you need to stop me now.” His mouth got busy on her throat as his talented hands slid beneath her shirt, gliding up her belly, heading north.

All she managed was another moan, squirming a little, trying to encourage his hands to hurry. Obliging, he pushed up her shirt, tugged down her bra and ghosted the tips of his fingers over her nipples, leaving her body humming, throbbing for more.

His lips left hers for the barest breath. “Rainey.”

“Yes.” God, yes.

“Yes what?”

“Ohmigod, you and the dirty talk!”

He nipped her jaw. “Tell me,” he murmured, voice husky. “Tell me you want me to strip you and lick you all over.”

He wanted to hear the words from her, she got that. And in her daily life, she always had plenty of words, but he scrambled her brain. Plus, talking dirty felt…well, dirty. She nearly laughed, but Mark wasn’t laughing. He was waiting for an answer with that same simmering intensity he gave to all aspects of his life, emitting a raw sensuality that made her feel sexy, so damn sexy. And he was like a drug, an addiction. A seductive addition… “Yes, I want that,” she said. “What you said.”

She’d have sworn his lips twitched, the smug bastard. “The stripping?” he asked.

“Yes, and the other.” Please to the other!

“I can’t remember what that was,” he said.

Liar. He was such a liar. “I want the licking too,” she whispered, and pressed her face to his chest.

He slid one arm around her waist, and lifted his other hand to run it down her hair, the gesture possessive and protective at the same time. “Anything else?”

“You really want me to say it?”

“Yes.”

“Gah,” she managed, and burrowed in even tighter, realizing she was nuzzling his chest, her nose pressed against a flat male nipple. He sucked in a breath through his teeth, nothing more than a low hiss that was the sexiest sound she’d ever heard. She opened her mouth on him, tempted to bite him, but as if he guessed her intent, he wrapped his hand in her hair and tugged lightly until she looked up at him.

“After all we’ve done together,” he said in amused disbelief. “How can you still be embarrassed?”

“I don’t know!” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Can’t we just do it?”

He reversed their positions, pressing her against the door now, and she promptly lost her train of thought because she could feel his every inch.

Every. Single. One.

He kissed her, sweeping his tongue over hers in a slow, languid stroke that melted her bones. She ran her hands up his sides and down again, sliding them into the back of his loose, low-slung jeans, and…

Oh, yeah. Commando.

She tried to get closer, and it still wasn’t close enough. She’d have climbed inside him if she could, and she let out a low sound of frustration and need and desperation. His lips left hers for a bare second to whisper her name soothingly before hungrily devouring her again, until her entire body was trembling. Breathless, she tore her mouth free. “Mark, I can’t… I can’t stand up.”

Almost before the words were out of her mouth, he lifted her and carried her to the bed. Then he stripped out of his jeans, shoving them down his thighs and off, his eyes never leaving hers.

At the sight of him, she gulped.

“Did you change your mind about the stripping or licking or…” His mouth curved, though his eyes remained serious. “Other stuff?”

“No.”

He put a knee on the bed, then crawled up her body, looking bigger and badder than she remembered, and with a momentary bout of nerves, she scooted backwards.

He immediately stopped stalking her. There in the middle of the bed on his knees, gloriously naked, gloriously hard, he went still. “You have all the power, Rainey. You know that, right?”

She didn’t feel like that at all. This had started out as a way to have him, knowing that it wasn’t real. For keeps. Even if she had any of the power, he was way too in control for her tastes. To even the playing field, she pulled off her shirt, then felt better when his eyes glazed over. She wriggled out of her jeans and panties, soaking up his appreciative groan. He was kneeling between her legs when he took one of her feet in his big hand and kissed her ankle, her calf, and then the inside of her knee.

At the soft sigh that escaped her, he looked at her from those smoking eyes. “Good?”

“So good. Don’t stop.”

“I won’t.” He set her foot flat on the bed, her knee bent, affording himself a front row center view of ground zero. “Mmm.” The sound rumbled from his chest, and he slid his hands beneath her bottom and tugged her to him. Then he put his mouth on her, sending her flying with shocking ease.

When she’d stopped shuddering, he pushed up on his forearms. “I like that expression you’re wearing.”

“The one that says I no longer have a thought in my brain?”

“You have a thought. You want me inside you.”

“More than my next breath.” She hesitated, then admitted the rest of that truth. “There’s a condom in my purse.”

His smile was slow and sure and sexy as hell. “Brownies and a condom.”

It took him less than ten seconds to locate it. And then he positioned himself above her and filled her in one smooth stroke, making her gasp and clutch at him. Her eyes closed involuntarily at the sensation of him pressing deep, so deep that she cried out from the sheer perfection of it, and then again when he stroked his thumb over her. “I’m-I need-”

“I know. I’ve got you.” And he did. He brought her to another shattering climax, staying with her through it, then when she could open her eyes, she found his, black and scorching on hers. Still hard within her, he leaned over her, thrusting deep, sending her spiraling again, and this time he followed her.

RAINEY LAY THERE staring at the ceiling, sucking air, trying to get her breath back. Mark appeared to be in the same state. After a minute, he rolled to his side and pulled her in close, fitting her against him so that she could feel the after-shock when it ran through his body. It caused the same tremor within her, so strong it was almost another orgasm-from nothing more than knowing she’d given him pleasure.

With a low, very male sound of satisfaction, he ran his fingers over her heated skin. Thriving on the touch, she had to fight the urge to crawl under the covers with him to fall asleep in his arms.

Definitely, she needed to go.

Sitting up, she slid off the bed and began to search for her clothing, not missing the irony-she’d told him to stop interfering with her life, and yet she’d been the one to bring them to this point. The naked point. Which was about as deep into the interference of one’s life as it got. At his soft chuckle, she looked up.

Mark was still sprawled across the bed, arms up behind his head, feet crossed, casual as could be, seeped in the supreme confidence of someone who didn’t have to worry about whether or not he looked good naked.

Because he did.

So good.

So.

Damn.

Good.

“Why are you laughing?” she asked, wearing only her bra and one sock. “And where are my panties?”

He sat up, the muscles of his abs crunching and making her mouth go dry. In one fluid motion, he was off the bed and handing her the panties.

She reached for them, but with a wicked smile, he held them high above her head.

“Give me,” she said.

“Don’t you mean please give me?”

“You want me to beg?”

That smile spread slightly. “Nah. I just heard you beg plenty.”

“I did not beg.”

But she had. She so had.

Still grinning, still naked, he pulled her against him and pressed his mouth to her shoulder.

“My panties, Mark.”

Eyes warm, he handed them to her, and then suddenly it was like her brain disconnected from her mouth because she heard herself say, “Do I really have all the power?”

“After what we just did, you can doubt that?”

“I want the power to do something with this thing between you and me. Something more than just sex.”

He went still, and her heart stopped. “Or not,” she said. Feeling very exposed, she backed away. She shoved her legs into her panties and pulled them up. Then her jeans.

“Rainey-”

“No, you know what? That was leftover pheromones talking. Ignore it. Ignore me.” Oh, God. “I gotta go.”

He let out a long breath, then reached for her. “I thought you had me figured for a bad bet.”

“You are. A really bad bet, at least for me, because you operate day-to-day.”

And she operated long term. They both knew that. “I’m not a keeper, Rainey.”

There was something in his voice, something terrifyingly regretful and terrifyingly firm.

Did he not realize that to her, he was the ultimate keeper? Sharply intelligent, funny as hell, hardworking, caring… But she wouldn’t argue this, because as he’d pointed out, she’d already done her begging tonight. She went back to dressing, getting out of here her only plan. He’d told her that she had the power, but that was all wrong. He had the power, the power to stomp on her heart until it stopped functioning.

She turned to look for her shoes and bumped into his chest, which was a little like walking into a brick wall. “Excuse me,” she said.

“I want to make sure you understand.”

“I do.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “This isn’t just sex for me, Rainey.” He took her arms in his big hands to keep her from escaping and her belly quivered.

Stupid belly.

“I just don’t have anything to offer more than what we have right now,” he said quietly.

“Which is what, that day-to-day thing?”

“Yeah.”

Okay, she got that. Loud and clear. Sex was great. More than sex…not so much.

“Where does that leave us?” he asked, his eyes serious.

“In the same place we’ve always been,” she managed to say.

“So then… why exactly are we dressing?” His eyes were dark and focused on her breasts. “Because from here,” he said softly, “going back to bed looks like a great idea.”

“Because…” Hell. This was getting complicated. This had been all her doing, she should be fine. She wanted to be fine. But her feelings for him had deepened, and she was afraid. He was going to hurt her without even trying. “Excuse me a minute?” Vanishing into the bathroom, she locked herself in and whipped out her cell phone. “Lena,” she whispered when her best friend picked up. “I need your help.”

“What’s the matter?”

Rainey sank to the closed toilet lid and dropped her head to her knees. “I’m with Mark.”

“Nice.”

“No, I mean I’m with him with him.”

“Like I said, nice.”

“Listen!” Rainey lowered her voice with effort. “He fooled me!”

“Huh?”

“You said I should go for a guy who isn’t a fixer-upper, right? And I figured I was safe with Mark because he is a fixer-upper, the ultimate fixer-upper, actually. But I was wrong. He’s not a fixer-upper at all. I like him just how he is. And now I’m screwed.”

Lena laughed.

“I don’t mean that in a good way! Okay, well it was good, but you know what I mean!”

“Ah, honey. You’re afraid.”

Yeah. She was. So deeply afraid she’d fallen in love-madly, irrevocably in love.

“Look, I realize I’m speaking Greek when I tell you this,” Lena said. “But just enjoy the ride on this one.” She paused. “Pun intended.”

“But the plan was for this to be light!”

“Honey, you don’t always have to have a plan.”

Rainey sighed and hung up. God, what to do? Could she really just go with the flow and let this thing play out?

Yes, said her body.

No, said her brain. Hell, no. Because when he left, and he was going to, she’d be devastated. With a sound of frustration, she shoved her phone into her pocket, drew a deep breath, and stood up. Gathering her courage, she opened the door.

Standing there in the doorway, hands up over his head and latched onto the jamb, was six feet plus of pure testosterone wrapped in tough, rugged sinew.

They stared at each other for a long beat.

“She tell you to dump me?” he asked quietly.

“She told me to enjoy the ride.”

His smile was slow and sure and sexy. Damn. She pointed at him. “None of that or my clothes will fall off again. Move. I need space to think.”

He moved. He moved into her, sliding his arms around her and melting her damn knees.