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  out a breath and relaxed into him a little. “You’ve read your press, right? You know they call you a hard-ass.” She lifted her hand and touched his face. “But they’re wrong.” She pressed her face to his throat and inhaled him in, like maybe he was her air and she needed more. And when her hands slid around his waist, beneath his shirt, and up his back, he knew he was a goner.

  12

  RAINEY WAS LOST in Mark’s kiss when her phone vibrated.

  Mark groaned.

  “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I have to look.” She pulled out her phone and eyed the text from a number she didn’t recognize.

  Are you up for a walk on the beach and dessert? Cliff

  One of Mark’s big hands cupped the back of hers and his thumb hit delete.

  “Hey. Maybe I wanted dessert.”

  “I’ve got your dessert,” he said, moving her backwards until the couch hit the backs of her knees and she dropped into it.

  Following her down, he took both her hands in one of his and slowly drew them up over her head, pinning them there as he pressed his lower body into hers before hooking one of her legs around his waist, opening her up to him.

  She moaned and he breathed out her name as he cupped her breast, his thumb gliding over her nipple, causing her to arch up into him like a puppet on a string.

  His mouth nipped at her ear, her jaw, then finally, oh God, finally, her mouth, and when he started to pull away, she whimpered.

  “Shh,” he murmured, and then her clothes were gone, and their hands were fighting to rip off his. He tackled the buttons on his shirt, shrugging out of it, revealing a torso and chest she wanted to rub her face against like a cat in heat. His short hair was mussed, his mouth wet, his eyes at half mast, a sexy heat to them that said her pleasure was his. She pushed him and then followed him to the floor, straddling him.

  “And you say I have to be in charge,” he murmured, chuckling low in his throat as his hands went to her butt. “You have a serious queen bee issue—Jesus!” he gasped when she slid down his body and licked him like a lollipop. She couldn’t fit him all in her mouth but she gave it the old college try, and given the rough, raw sounds coming from him and the erotic way he writhed beneath her, she was doing more than okay. After a few minutes, he gasped, “Rainey, stop. I’m going to—”

  She didn’t stop. Swearing, he hauled her up his chest and rolled them again, pinning her beneath two hundred pounds of very determined Latino sex god. “You don’t listen very well.”

  “Maybe I just wanted you to wrestle control away from me again.”

  He laughed roughly, then sank his teeth into her lower lip and tugged. “Rainey?”

  “Yeah?”

  “We’re done playing.”

  “About time.”

  He produced a condom, then slowly entwined their fingers and drew her hands above her head, then he kissed her long and deep and hot. When they eventually tore apart to breathe, he stared down into her face. “Still mad I deleted Cliff’s text?”

  “Cliff who?”

  With a smug smirk, he kissed her again, then slid into her. Pleasure flooded her, so intense it arched her back and had her crying out, clutching at him. The teasing and fun vanished in a blink, replaced by something so intense she could hardly breathe. Mark’s eyes were dark and sultry, and she reared up to press her mouth to his. He took control of the kiss, making her melt into him all the more as he buried himself in her over and over, deeper, harder, faster, the entire time holding her gaze with his, letting her see everything she did to him.

  It took her right over the edge. She was still quivering when he grabbed her hips and thrust one last time, holding himself tight against her as he came hard.

  When she could think again, she realized he’d lain down beside her and was holding her close, running a hand over her heated, damp skin, waiting while she caught her breath. His wasn’t all that steady either. It was her last thought before she drifted off to sleep, comforted by the sound of his heart beating wildly against her ear.

  RAINEY WOKE UP entangled in a set of strong, warm arms. Dawn had come and gone. The sun crept in the window, highlighting the form of the man lying next to her.

  His eyes were closed, his decadently inky black lashes brushing against his cheeks. His dark hair was tousled, his jaw shadowed by a night’s beard growth.

  They hadn’t slept much. Damn testosterone. In spite of herself, the need for him had called to her, over and over again.

  It’d been an amazing night. She could replay every touch, every moan he’d wrenched from her, each moment of ecstasy.

  And there’d been lots.

  The sheet rode low on his hips and she soaked him up, the broad shoulders and wide chest tapering to that stomach she still, after licking every inch of him last night, wanted to press her mouth to. His chest was rising and falling steadily, but as if he sensed her perusal, he drew in a deep breath. The arm he had curled around her tightened, drawing her in closer. “Mmmm.” The sound rumbled up from his chest as a hand slid into her hair. He had an obsession with her hair, she’d noticed, he loved touching it, burying his face in it.

  His other hand slid down her back and gripped her butt, squeezing. She arched into the touch and felt herself practically purr with contentment.

  And hence the danger. The sleeping portion of the night had given her a sense of intimacy—a fake intimacy. It’d brought contentment, warmth, affection. She didn’t want to feel those things for him, but just like when she’d been a love-struck teenager, it’d happened. Only this time she’d known better.

  This could be fixed, she hurried to assure herself. She just needed a time-out. Now.

  He stirred when she slipped out of bed, opening his eyes. “Rainey.” His voice was low and rough from sleep, and he was lying in her sheets like he belonged there, long sinewy limbs at rest, eyes warm and getting warmer, heating all her parts equally.

  “You need to stop giving me orgasms,” she said.

  “Aw, you don’t mean that. Come here, I’ll show you.”

  She actually took a step toward him before stopping short. “Oh my God. I think I’m actually addicted to you—”

  This sentence ended with her letting out a startled scream because suddenly she was airborne. Mark had risen from the bed and tossed her to the mattress. He followed her down, crawling up her body. They were both naked, and at the contact, she arched up and moaned.

  His smile was pure trouble.

  “Oh, no,” she said, scooting backwards. “I’m going to work.”

  He grabbed her ankles and tugged.

  She landed flat on her back, legs spread wide, held open by him. “I’m not playing,” she said, having to try real hard not to be turned on. “We’re having another car wash today, and I have a staff meeting about the formal dinner and auction next Saturday. Busy day,” she said, breathless from just the way he was looking at her. “And besides, you wanted a day to day, right? Well it’s a new day and I have plans. Gotta go.”

  “I think I’m missing something,” he said, slipping his hand into her hair, tugging lightly until she looked into his eyes. “What’s the real problem here?”

  “The problem is that I have thirty minutes to get into work! Let go.” She attempted to leave the bed, but he merely tightened his grip, pulling her to him until their faces were so close that she could feel his warm breath on her lips. She could see the heat in his eyes, and also a curiosity. Probably the man had never been kicked out of a woman’s bed before. “It’s nothing personal,” she said.

  “Bullshit.”

  She sighed. “Okay, you’re right. It’s personal. It’s just that…remember when I said I had to instigate or I’d get screwed up?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, it happened anyway. I’m screwed up.”

  “What are you screwed up about?”

  The fact that I’ve fallen in love with you… She fought to get free and rolled off the bed. “I have to go, Mark. Don’t make this hard
er than it is.”

  “I’m not making this anything,” he said, sitting up, watching her from inscrutable eyes. “That’s all you. If things veer off the path of your plan in any way, you panic, like now. Things happen, Rainey. You know that.”

  “Hey, you’re the one with the plan,” she said. “The plan that can’t go more than a day in advance. I’m not even sure why, except that it leaves you open in case something better comes along.”

  “Is that what you think?” He caught her before she could grab her clothes—damn he was fast—and pulled her back to his chest. “Rainey, there’s no one else. Not while we’re…”

  “Having all the sex?” She crossed her arms, doing her best to ignore that her butt was pressed into his groin. But then he stirred. Hardened. “Are you kidding me? Now?”

  With a sigh, he let her go. “I can’t help it. You’re naked. And hot. I’m hard-wired to react.”

  They both looked at his erection. A little part of her wanted to push him back down to the bed and jump him.

  Okay, a big part of her.

  “I’m seriously late,” she said. “We can finish this tonight.”

  “Can’t. I’m flying to New York after the car wash, doing some press. I’ll be gone three or four days.”

  “Oh,” she said, hopefully hiding her disappointment.

  “I’ll see you when I get back,” he murmured, watching her body with avid attention as she gathered some clothes.

  “Can you make plans that far out?”

  “Ha ha.” He pulled out his phone and opened his calendar file, flipping through the days with his thumb. “Shit. Five days. I’ll be back Saturday, just in time for the auction and the big games on Sunday.”

  “That’s almost a whole week,” she said. “I might find another non-fixer upper by then. Gotta leave my options open.” She went into the bathroom, carefully avoiding the mirror and her rosy oversexed complexion as she got into the shower. When she went back into the bedroom to dress, she didn’t look at Mark’s oversexed self either, still naked and sprawled out on her bed, working on his phone. She grabbed her purse and turned to the door, only to be forced back around by Mark’s firm hands on her arms.

  “Lunch,” he said. “Today.”

  “Can’t.”

  “Can’t? Or won’t?”

  “Can’t. I have a meeting. And won’t. I need a little space, Mark.”

  He stared at her as if it hadn’t occurred to him that she wouldn’t want him.

  “Tell me you’ve been turned down before,” she said.

  “Sure. In fifth grade Serena Gutierrez said she’d go out with me, but then I found out she’d also said yes to five other guys. She broke my heart.”

  Hands on hips, she narrowed her eyes. “Something past puberty.”

  “I was dumped right before my high school prom and had to go stag.”

  “Yes, and you ended up with three dates once you got there,” she reminded him. “Three girls who were also solo.”

  “Oh yeah,” he said with a fond smile.

  Whirling, she headed down the hallway to the front door.

  “Okay, okay,” he said on a laugh, following her. “I’ve been dumped plenty. I work twenty-four/seven, and I travel all the time. I don’t have a lot left to give to a relationship. Women don’t tend to like that.”

  “Hence the day-to-day thing?”

  “Don’t fix what isn’t broke,” he said.

  Right. She nodded, throat tight. “Good idea.” Too bad it was too late. She was already broke. “Goodbye, Mark,” she said softly, and walked out the door.

  MARK STARED AT the closed door and felt cold to the bone. That hadn’t felt like an “I’ll see you in five days’’ goodbye. That had felt like a goodbye goodbye.

  Which meant he’d messed up. It’d been a while since he’d done that, and even longer since he’d faced a problem that he had no idea how to fix.

  Needing to try, he yanked the door open and stepped onto the porch, just in time to see Rainey’s taillights vanish down the road.

  “Damn,” he muttered, and shoved his fingers through his hair. He was the biggest dumbass on the planet.

  A female gasp interrupted his musings, and had him turning to face a woman standing on the next porch over. She was in her forties, looking completely shell-shocked as she stared at him.

  “You’re…naked.”

  Shit. Yes, he was. Bare-assed naked, giving her the full Monty. With as much dignity as he could, he turned to go back inside, but the door had shut behind him.

  And locked.

  Mark once again faced the woman, who let out a low, inarticulate sound at the sight of him. “I’m going to need to borrow your phone,” he said.

  13

  MARK WAS SITTING out front of Rainey’s town house with the neighbor’s towel around his hips when Rick drove up and honked.

  “Shut up,” Mark muttered as he walked to the car.

  “Watch the towel, man, these are leather seats.”

  Mark flipped him off.

  “Aw,” Rick said with a tsk. “Rough day already?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. Ever.”

  “I bet.” Rick drove off with lots of grinning and the occasional snicker, which Mark ignored.

  They went to the motel so Mark could get clothes, and then to the construction site, where he spent the next few hours compartmentalizing. Swinging a hammer, wielding his phone for Mammoth business, and…thinking about Rainey dumping his sorry ass.

  Don’t go there....

  Late afternoon he left the construction site and headed to the rec center for the car wash. Casey and James helped staff members set up but there was a lot of chaos, and for that Mark was glad because it gave him something to do other than think too hard. His softball team straggled in one by one, dropped off by parents or riding in with friends who had a license, and for a minute, Mark’s spirits rose. The girls would annoy him in no time flat, taking his attention away from himself.

  They weren’t in their uniforms today. Nope, they’d come dressed as they pleased, which was hardly dressed at all. Bikinis, low-riding shorts, tight yoga pants…the combination made his head spin. “Okay, no,” he said. “Go add layers. Lots of them.”

  When he turned around, Rick was standing there, holding two sodas. “You do realize that they’re not your million-dollar guys, being paid to be bossed by you, right?”

  “You brought me here to clean up their act and make players out of them.”

  “No, I brought you here so your players could clean up their act.”

  Oh, yeah. Right. “Well, we’ll kill two birds with one stone.”

  Rick shook his head and offered him one of the sodas. “You look like hell, man. So how did you end up the one dumped? And has that ever even happened before?”

  “What part of I don’t want to talk about it don’t you get?” He let out a breath when Rainey came out of the building wearing denim shorts and a tee, and…

  Mark’s ball cap.

  She was finally wearing his ball cap. Ignoring the pain in his chest, he looked her over as indifferently as he could manage. A ponytail stuck out the back of the hat, her beat-up sneakers were sans socks, and she looked every bit as young as his softball team. Across the parking lot, their gazes met. Hers was wary, uncertain, vulnerable, and… hell.

  Sad.

  He imagined his was more of the same, minus the vulnerable