Jill Shalvis - Time Out

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.

A PART OF Mark had been braced for Rainey to grab her purse and walk out of his motel room.

And out of his life.

He’d fully expected it. Hell, he deserved it. But she let him pull her in, even pressed her face to his throat and inhaled deeply, and relief flooded him. Knee-knocking, gut-squeezing relief. “Rainey-”

“I don’t want to talk about it. You’re not sticking around, we’ve never made each other any promises. There was no plan, so there’s no reason for me to try to back you into one now.” Her cell phone vibrated. “It’s Lena,” she muttered. “Probably apologizing for being a bad wingman.” She opened her phone. “It’s too late to help me now, I-” She broke off and came to immediate attention, straightening up. “Sharee?”

Mark watched the furrow across Rainey’s brow. Her hair was wild, probably thanks to his fingers. Her make-up had smeared beneath her eyes a little and she had a whisker burn down her throat. Lifting his hand, he ran a thumb over the mark.

“Sharee?” Rainey said. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

Mark shifted in closer and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, her eyes dark with concern, and surprised him even further when she leaned into him as she listened. “I’m coming right now,” she said. “Stay in a lit area-Hello? Sharee? ” She stared at her phone. “Dammit, her battery died. I’ve got to go.”

Mark was already grabbing a shirt and keys. “I’ll drive.”

RAINEY’S NERVES WERE in her throat as she picked up her purse. She’d never heard Sharee upset before. Pissed-off, yes. Pure bravado, often. Upset and scared, no. “She’s at the high school,” Rainey told Mark. “She got dropped there after shopping with friends. Her mom was supposed to get her but isn’t there yet and Sharee said those boys are there, the ones I kicked out of the rec center last week. They’re harassing her because she’s the one who told me who they were.”

Mark opened the door for her, then followed her out. “Oh, you don’t have to-”

“I’m driving,” he repeated in that quiet but firm voice she’d heard him use in interviews, on the teens, and on his players. It was a voice that brooked no argument while at the same time instilled confidence and a belief that everything was going to be okay.

She wanted to believe it. They moved through the lobby. The guys were still there and waved at them.

“The walk of shame,” Rainey murmured.

Mark’s hand slid warmly to the back of her neck. “They won’t say anything.”

“Are you kidding? Look at me.”

He pulled her around to look at her, and his eyes softened. “You look like you just-”

“Rolled around in bed? Had an orgasm?”

An affectionate smile crossed his face. “Or three.”

She smacked him lightly in the abs-which didn’t give-and he grabbed her hand, holding her at his side as they continued to walk.

True to Mark’s word, Casey and James didn’t say a thing, but that was because Mark was giving them a long look over her head, which she managed to just catch. She waited until they were outside heading to his truck. “What did you threaten them with?”

He slid her a glance. “You were standing right there. I didn’t say anything.”

“Uh-huh.”

He smiled. “Push-ups. Laps. Sitting their ass on the bench. Pick one.”

“They’re grown-ups. You’d do that?”

“I don’t care how old they are, their asses are mine.”

She shook her head and laughed. “You sound like a dictator.”

“I am.”

“And you like it? All that power?”

He just shot her a look.

Yeah. He liked it.

They stepped out into the cool night. Rainey reached into her purse for her keys while Mark caught sight of her car and went utterly still.

Someone had spray-painted Bitch across the trunk.

“Huh,” she said. “That’s new.” And unwelcome. And more than a little unnerving.

“The boys?” Mark asked, hands on hips, grim. Pissed off.

“I don’t know.”

Mark pulled out his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling the police. We need to make a report.”

“Later. We need to get Sharee first.”

Not looking happy, he took her hand again and led her to his truck. As they drove, the moon slanted into the windshield at an angle, giving her only peeks at the man beside her. He took two calls and made one, though she missed out on eavesdropping because she was busy demon-dialing Sharee, who wasn’t answering.

Mark slipped his phone away and continued driving with single-minded purpose, fast, but steady. In his zone. He pulled into the high school parking lot, where they found Sharee huddled on the front steps. Rainey ran out and hugged her. “You okay?”

Sharee allowed the contact for a brief moment before pulling back. “Yeah.” She looked around uneasily. “I think they left.”

Mark was alert, his eyes missing nothing as he scanned the lot, his posture both at ease and utterly ready for anything. “Let’s get out of here.”

Twenty minutes later, they pulled up to the trailer that Sharee shared with her mom.

It was dark.

Rainey turned to face the girl in the backseat. “Sharee-”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, getting out of the truck. “Thanks for the ride.”

Mark got out with her and looked at Rainey. “Stay here.”

Before she could say a word, he’d engaged the locks and walked Sharee to the door. He waited there, keeping both Rainey and Sharee in sight until lights were on in the trailer. Then he came back to his truck and drove Rainey to the motel, where they met a police officer and filed a report about her car.

Then Mark followed her home and saw her to the door just as he had Sharee.

But the smoking hot kiss he laid on her was hers alone.

THE NEXT DAY Mark poked his head into Rainey’s office and surprised her. “Hungry?” he asked.

It was late afternoon and she’d worked through lunch. She was starving. “Maybe,” she said. “Why?”

“Thought we’d go get dinner.”

A date? She wasn’t sure what that meant, not that it mattered. “I can’t. I have plans.”

Nothing about his body language changed. He was too good for that. But she sensed that her statement hadn’t made him happy. “Plans?” he asked.

“I’m going to my parents’ house.”

“Are you taking a date with you?”

No. She’d decided she couldn’t be dating while she was doing…whatever this was that she was doing with him. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone else. She barely had the mental capacity to handle Mark, much less another man as well.

And…

And the truth was, she didn’t have the emotional capacity either. Mark was currently using up all she had. “Would that bother you?”

“Hell yes.”

Odd how that made her all soft and warm inside. “I’m not taking a date to my parents,” she said quietly. “My plans to date are temporarily on hold.”

He closed her office door behind him, then came around her desk and hauled her up to her toes, kissing her until she couldn’t remember her own name. “Good,” he said, and was gone.

RAINEY’S PARENTS LIVED in a small, modest home in an area that had been spared the fires but not the economic downturn. Here, the houses were tired, the yards were tired, everything was tired. In addition, thanks to the drought, they were under strict water restrictions. The grass hadn’t survived but there were potted wild flowers on the porch, which made Rainey smile.