Guarding Raine (Security Ops) (28 page)

“I . . . no. That is, André introduced me to most of them. A few—” Her voice broke off when his finger dipped into the valley of her cleavage. “A few I’d met . . . before.”

“There was an older man last night you were talking to.” His voice was expressionless, completely at odds with the liberty his errant finger was taking. “He had his hand planted on your arm the whole time.” He paused a heartbeat before adding almost soundlessly, “I didn’t like it.”

She remembered. She hadn’t enjoyed the feel of his hand on her bare skin, and had moved away as quickly as possible. “I’ve had to learn to handle myself in a crowd like that.”

Mac’s gaze was on the journey his finger was taking as it trailed inside her suit and skated over one nipple. Then his eyes returned to hers. “I didn’t like it,” he repeated flatly. Nor did he like the accompanying sensation of jealousy. It had been an emotion so unfamiliar that it had taken him a while to identify it. Jealousy was an unproductive emotion, a dangerous one. Jealous men acted rashly; they made mistakes. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake with Raine.

He hoped he wasn’t making one now, by allowing her to stay in her home. He’d weighed all the risks as he’d lain awake last night, and again this morning. He thought it would be fairly safe. After all, Raine wasn’t alone out there—she had him. She wouldn’t be hurt as long as she followed his orders. It still would be a while before the fence would be completed and the gates operational. But if this mess escalated, he’d remove her despite her protests.

His thoughts scattered when he felt her small hand on his chest. He reached over and removed her sunglasses. She could never hide her emotions from him if he could see her eyes. His stomach clenched when he read the desire simmering there. Her nipples stood up under the thin material of the swimsuit. He touched them, and she shuddered. He smiled slowly. She was innocently responsive to him, and she couldn’t disguise her reaction. The thought filled him with a purely male satisfaction.

He bent over her and pulled the swimsuit off both shoulders. Then he stopped, caught indecisively between pleasurable choices. He wanted to kiss her pretty breasts, but he tortured himself first by just looking at her. When they’d made love last night it had been too frantic, almost out of control. Today he wanted to take his time, to find all the secret places on her body that responded to him. Leisurely, he cupped one breast, enjoying the way it filled his palm. It was delicate, just as she was, and warmed by the sun. When he put his lips to her nipple and rolled it with his tongue, she made that little whimper in the back of her throat that had an immediate, electric effect on his groin. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as leisurely as he’d planned.

He moved closer to her, and she wriggled her arms free of the swimsuit straps so they could roam freely over his broad torso. The hair on his chest rasped her fingertips as she combed through it. She traced the muscles that defined his chest, then circled the nipples. She lost her breath as he raised his head and removed her swimsuit. Her eyes flew open, and she watched him stare at her with frank appreciation. There was something a little pagan about being stripped bare in the sunlight for a man’s enjoyment. No, not just a man, she corrected herself fuzzily. Macauley. His hand began sliding up one thigh, across her stomach and down the other. Long, soothing strokes. But there was nothing soothing in the wake of fire left in his path.

Her hand went to the waistband of his trunks, and one finger dipped inside. Stroking his belly with that one finger, she asked huskily, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

His eyes were slitted with pleasure. “You do the honors.” Her gaze flew to his, and he knew in that moment that she had never undressed a man before. But before he could berate himself for pushing her, he saw interest light her eyes. She was intrigued by the prospect. He lay back on the towel and watched her.

As fascinating as his invitation had been, Raine didn’t quite know how to go about carrying it out. Her fingers went to the waistband of his trunks and then faltered. She glanced at his face uncertainly. What she saw there was encouraging. His eyes were hooded, his nostrils flared. He was finding pleasure in just watching her undress him. The knowledge gave her courage. Her hands again pulled at his trunks, and this time he lifted his hips to aid her. The action put the long, hard length straining inside the suit just inches from her mouth.

Her lips parted, and she hesitated. Then slowly, she released his throbbing manhood from the material encasing him and pulled the trunks down his muscled legs. He kicked fire of them.

Raine stayed where she was, half bent over him, unable to move. There was something particularly sexy about a man who would lay back and let a woman enjoy his body. He had neatly reversed their positions, and despite her unfamiliarity with the role, she wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.

She caressed his muscled thighs, skirted his straining manhood and stroked his belly. Then her fingers trailed downward again, closer this time, but still avoiding his hard length shyly. He withstood the teasing trail of her fingers for long minutes, feeling himself grow thicker and harder with each pass. Finally he groaned, “Raine.”

Her eyes met his.

“Touch me,” he begged huskily. “C’mon, baby, you’re driving me crazy. Or don’t you want to?”

“Oh, yes,” she breathed, allowing her fingers to close around his hardness at last. “I do want to.”

A strangled moan was her only answer as she gave in to the temptation of his body and explored him as intimately as he had her the night before. Then she bent her head and whispered her lips against the velvety tip of his manhood in a kiss as light as butterfly wings. Again and again she returned there, until Mac’s flagging control demanded an end to her play.

He snaked an arm around her waist, tumbling her on top of him. Then he captured her mouth in a deep, wet kiss that spoke of his eroding patience. One hand went to her bottom, pressing her more firmly against him, and she squirmed beneath his touch, wanting to be even closer. He stroked a finger between her legs, finding the proof of her readiness in the moist dew at her entrance. She bucked against him at the touch, and his last thought of leisurely lovemaking went up in smoke.

He pulled his mouth away from hers and reached for her beach bag. Dumping the contents, he found one of the foil-wrapped packages he’d tossed in there. She took it from his hand. Their eyes meeting, she opened the packet and moved so that she could put it on him. The action spoke of bone-shattering intimacy, and she knew she was trembling.

He pulled her astride him when she finished, and she blinked at the unfamiliar position. “This time you control it,” he rasped. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You haven’t,” she whispered, even as she experimented with the position. She fitted him to her carefully.

“I could. It doesn’t take much with you to make me lose my head, and I don’t want to be rough with you.” His breath hissed out when he felt her ease down on him slowly. He could feel sweat pop out on his forehead.

She absorbed another inch of him and then another. He could feel her delicate inner muscles pulse in adjustment. When she’d accepted all of him, he heard her gasp at the sensation, and his hands went to her hips. He held her steady as he surged upward, and her gasp became a cry. The rhythm of his thrusts was wildly intoxicating, driving him deeper and deeper within her. Raine gave herself up to the abandoned energy. Her knees clasped his hips tighter and tighter, until the ultimate explosion wrung a cry from her lips. She fell forward, and he lifted within her one more time. Then the tiny convulsions inside her triggered his own climax, and his hands gripped her hips as he drove upward one last time.

They lay depleted of energy in the aftermath, Raine still sprawled above him. The rush of the surf on the sand and the balmy breeze from the ocean combined with the privacy afforded by the rocks and dunes to create an intimate, private cocoon. Mac finally stirred, turning on his side and slipping out of Raine’s softness. Nothing would have given him more pleasure than to remain buried inside her, sinking into sleep even as they were still joined. But the protection was fast losing its effectiveness, and there was no way he was going to allow himself to put her at risk again.

She made a murmur of protest, but he pulled her close to him and she contented herself by laying her head against his chest.

“Are you all right?” he asked in a low voice.

She raised her head slightly to look into those ice blue eyes. They hadn’t changed color, but they weren’t cold now, and they weren’t expressionless. They were filled with concern for her, and a faint glimmer of regret. “You could never hurt me,” she whispered, brushing her lips across his. “Never.”

He remained unconvinced. His eyes held hers and he said deliberately, “I’m afraid I’m going to be too rough, and that you’ll . . .” He swallowed hard and said thickly, “I don’t want anything to remind you of that night. I’d never forgive myself if anything we did triggered those memories for you.”

“The rape was a long time ago,” she said, softly but firmly. “And I’ve come a long way since then. But nothing you could do would ever remind me, Macauley. Nothing.” His concern for her brought an aching tenderness, and she somehow knew that he had given her what he had no other. She wanted to give him something in return. So she gave him the truth. “In my nightmares, I always saw the outline of his shape looming over me. Shadows blending into shadows. But now if I wake from one, I remember the way you looked that first night, bending over me. Your shoulders were broad enough to block out the moonlight, but I wasn’t afraid. Not of you, Macauley. Never of you.”

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly at the words. She gave him such gifts so sweetly, without reservations. She left herself vulnerable with such offerings. Most people kept a little something of themselves in reserve, so as not to risk too much. She apparently had never learned that lesson. Her words seeped into him, seeming to fill the huge void that had become his life in recent years. The knowledge was scary, but too damn tantalizing to resist. And even then she wasn’t done.

Her hand stroked his jaw tenderly. “I love you, Macauley O’Neill. Nothing will ever change that.” She pressed her mouth to his when he would have spoken. Kissing him slowly, she drew his bottom lip into her mouth and ran her tongue across it. “I don’t expect anything in return. My love is a gift, freely given.”

He spoke anyway, around the huge knot her words had caused to form in his throat. “You don’t have one ounce of self- preservation, do you? You picked a hell of a guy to give your love to, Raine. A broken-down ex-soldier who’s lost his soul.”

“I did pick a hell of a man to give my love to.” Her inflection changed the meaning of his words. “Don’t you worry about me. I think I can survive one Macauley O’Neill.”

Her words made a mockery of his concern, even as they highlighted it. Maybe she was right. Maybe he should stop worrying about keeping her safe from him.

Maybe it was time to start worrying about how
he
was going to survive without
her
.

Chapter 14

“Wow, that’s some remodeling project going on out there.” Sarah prowled to the front window. “The fence is sure going up fast. And what in heaven’s name happened to your porch? It looks like you let a barbecue get out of hand.”

Raine joined her friend at the window. “The fence is ugly, isn’t it?” Her voice was flat. There would be an intercom system, Mac had informed her, linking visitors at the gate to the house. No car could gain access to the drive unless someone in the house pressed the appropriate button. “I feel ridiculous. It’s going to look like something from Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous. But after the fire last week, Mac didn’t leave me much choice.”

Sarah frowned. “You had a fire on the porch?”

Raine nodded. “Luckily for me, Mac was here. He helped put it out before too much damage was done.”

Sarah’s concern was momentarily waylaid by her insatiable curiosity. “Mac was here? What was he doing here at night? Or need I ask?”

Turning away from her friend’s inquisitive gaze, Raine crossed to the sectional and dropped down on it. “I had no car, remember? And never will have that particular car,” she added in an aside. “The insurance adjuster called yesterday, and it’s been totaled. So on top of everything else, I have to go car shopping.”

“And?” Sarah prompted.

Raine sighed. “Mac offered me a ride to André’s dinner that evening. We hadn’t been home long when a car roared up the driveway. The occupants threw some sort of bottle torches up on the porch and took off again.”

“Someone did this on purpose?” Sarah seemed to sway a little before sinking weakly into a chair. “Did you at least get a good look, so you can identify them?”

Shaking her head, Raine explained, “They wore ski masks.”

“Raine, this is getting scary.” Sarah’s pretty face was full of worry. “I don’t know how you can stand this. First the letters, then the accident and now a fire. I would be a gibbering idiot by now if I was in your place. How do you bear staying here alone? Especially at night?”

Hoping her cheeks reflected none of the heat she felt in them, Raine simply murmured, “I’ll be all right.” Darn it, she wasn’t good at lying, especially to her best friend. Aside from Mac’s instructions to keep his role here secret from her friends, she now had her own reasons for keeping the information to herself. Her relationship with Mac was too new and much too tenuous to share with anyone else, even someone as close to her as Sarah was. Especially since Raine was so uncertain just what the relationship entailed.

Dubiously, her friend peered at her. “You don’t look all right. You’re flushed. And how come you’re not painting today? Has all this affected your work? I would be a nervous wreck with all that’s been going on.”

“Actually,” Raine said brightly, glad for the subject change, “I happen to be finished. André was thrilled when I called and told him. As a matter of fact, I’m expecting him to come by today so we can discuss how we’re going to transport my paintings to the gallery next week.”

Sarah looked stunned. “I don’t believe you.” She shook her head wryly. “You manage to complete all the paintings in spite of being terrorized for months, and I can’t work if I so much as get a hangnail. Sometime you’ll have to let me in on your secret.”

“It’s a relief to know everything is ready,” Raine confided. “At least at my end. André can be pretty demanding, and if I was behind schedule at all he’d have me pulling my hair out. At least now it’s all in his hands.”

“I’ll say it is,” Sarah replied. “I think I noted his fine hand in the articles that made the newspapers a few days ago. I was a little surprised he would play up the fact that you’d been threatened the way he did. At least, I assume he’s the one who told the journalists about that.”

“You assume right,” Raine said dryly. “And I wasn’t pleased about the publicity, either. Mac was furious with him.”

Sarah looked at her knowingly. “Mac, again, hmm? Funny how his name keeps cropping up. Are you sure there isn’t more here that you’d like to talk about?”

Raine cursed her careless tongue. “I mean, after all the security measures he’s implemented around here, he thought it was pretty careless of André to make the threats public. He’s afraid it will attract the wrong kind of attention.”

Sarah shrugged. “Well, it was typical André, I must say. I don’t envy your working with him. His fussiness would drive me crazy— although, I have to admit, he gets results. Actually, I may be looking for a new agent myself.”

“You’re dropping Vanessa?” Raine was surprised. Vanessa Bancroft had represented Sarah for years. Raine had never heard Sarah express dissatisfaction with the woman’s work before.

Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m thinking about it. I really didn’t do as well as I should have at my last exhibit. And she doesn’t market me as aggressively as André does you. I’d like for her to work more closely with Harold than she does. If she would keep after him I’m sure he’d sponsor another show for me soon.”

“I didn’t realize you were ready for another exhibit.”

Sarah got up and strolled to the window, peering outside. “Well, I could be if I had something to work toward. Anyway, I haven’t decided for sure whether to replace Vanessa. I’m just thinking out loud.”

Raine mulled over Sarah’s words, troubled. She wondered if the real reason behind Sarah’s dissatisfaction was money. She seemed to have chronic financial problems, despite the fact that her sculptures were starting to command respectable prices. Raine suspected that Sarah handed over a great deal of money to her brother, who wasn’t too motivated to make any of his own.

“Speaking of money—” Sarah spoke over her shoulder “—when was the last time you spoke to Greg?”

“Sometime last week, I guess. He came over and I signed some papers. Why?”

“Because I was in his office yesterday.” Greg was also Sarah’s accountant. “And he seemed very weird to me.”

Raine smiled slightly. “He always seems weird to you.” Sarah lacked the patience to deal with the man’s shy eccentricities. But she’d always been pleased with his work.

Turning to face her, Sarah continued, “No, I mean even weirder than usual. He was real distracted. I kept having to repeat myself, which was annoying. But then I happened to ask if he’d seen you, because I hadn’t talked to you last week, and he got . . .” She shrugged. “Very strange. He practically snapped my head off, which isn’t like him, and he didn’t want to talk about you at all, which is
very
unlike him.” She cocked her head curiously. “Did you two have a fight or something?”

Frowning, Raine shook her head. Darn it, until the craziness in the past few weeks, Greg
had
seemed okay about the two of them remaining only friends. She definitely was going to have to talk to him soon. However uncomfortable the scene might be, he was a dear friend of hers and she didn’t want a void to develop between them.

She belatedly answered her friend. “We didn’t have a fight. But I think there might have been a misunderstanding. I’ll have to call him.”

“You’d better,” Sarah agreed. “The poor man probably won’t be able to function until you do. Well.” She sighed, looking out the window one last time. “I’m beginning to lose hope that the men putting in that fence are ever going to take their shirts off. And if I don’t miss my guess, that’s André’s car coming up the drive. I guess I might as well go home and do something productive.”

“Talking to me isn’t productive?” Raine teased as she walked her friend to the door.

“Oh, very,” Sarah assured her. “But, unfortunately, it isn’t getting my latest sculpture done, so I’m going to take a lesson from you and get down to some serious work.”

“I’ll call you,” Raine promised.

“Hi, André.” Sarah greeted the man poised on the porch as she swept by him. “Bye, André.”

André barely batted an eyelash at Sarah’s whirlwind departure. “I’m afraid I received some rather distressing news today, Raine,” he began without preamble.

Immediately a knot formed in the pit of her stomach. It was obvious that something had unsettled him. His usual urbane manner seemed almost flustered, and Raine couldn’t remember ever seeing him in such a state.

“What . . . what it is it?” Dread laced her words. “Is it another threat?”

Belatedly André seemed aware of the effect his greeting had had on Raine. “No, nothing like that. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you that way. Let’s go in and sit down. Together we can get this latest development ironed out.”

Mac appeared in the doorway just as they’d both been seated. “Your mother’s on the line, Raine. Do you want to call her back or take it now?”

She bit her lip, torn, then shook her head. “I’ll have to call her back.”

But André disagreed. “No, go ahead and take the call, Raine. I seem to have upset you, and that was the last thing I meant to do.” He flicked his fingers dismissively. “As I said, we have something to discuss, but you and I will get it taken care of. Get your call out of the way first.”

Raine hesitated, and then said, “All right, I’ll just be a minute. And then you can tell me the whole story.” She brushed by Mac, giving him a warning look. “Be nice,” she said in an undertone. He cocked an eyebrow at her.

“So, O’Neill,” André said, as soon as Raine was out of earshot. “What a surprise it was to come here today and find your men back, working on yet another job for Raine.” He gave a thin smile. “It almost makes one think you keep busy finding new ways to spend her money.”

Mac leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms. “You don’t think her security is worth spending money on?”

“Oh, of course. It’s also a situation you can milk for all it’s worth. A vulnerable woman living alone, one with a rich, overprotective father.” His tone was meaningful. “That must seem like a dream come true for a man like you.”

“A man like me.” Mac’s voice was thoughtful. “And what kind of man would that be, Klassen?”

“A very desperate man, perhaps. It seems rather odd the way you keep popping up in Raine’s life. Each time something happens to frighten her, coincidentally, you’re able to use the new incident to sell yet more security measures.”

Mac clapped his hands slowly, sardonically. “Very good, Klassen,” he said in mock admiration. “The best defense is a good offense, right?”

The man flushed. “It makes as much sense, I would say, as the accusation you leveled at me the last time we met.”

“In your mind, maybe.” Mac gave a feral grin. “I’m a bit harder to convince.”

Raine came in, interrupting the verbal duel. “I apologize again for the interruption, André.”

The man switched his attention from Mac to her and inquired politely, “How is your mother, Raine? Her health is stable, I hope?”

She nodded. “She’s doing fine. But I think you better tell me what happened to disturb you so.”

He sighed. “Well, this morning I called the gallery I’d reserved for your showing to go over some details and was shocked to learn that they had a break-in last night. Nothing was taken, but there was quite a bit of broken glass and paint thrown all over. Naturally, with our exhibit coming up so rapidly, I’m concerned about how quickly the owner will be able to repair the damage. I’ve already begun checking with some other galleries in the area. Of course, at this late date, it would be difficult to reserve another. Not to mention the problem with the publicity and invitations.”

“You’re saying the show may have to be postponed?” Mac asked.

André looked horrified. “Certainly not! There is entirely too much riding on this particular exhibit for us to postpone it. I’m afraid our only hope lies in the owner making the gallery presentable by the time we need it. You can be sure that I’ll be in constant contact with him in the time remaining.”

Raine was certain that he would. If nothing else, the owner of the gallery would make sure it was ready just to get André off his back.

“I’m still worried about security measures at that gallery, however,” André fretted. “After all, what would have stopped those vandals from breaking in and doing all sorts of damage to any works inside? Or stealing them completely? I just wish there was time to find another reputable gallery.”

“Did you talk to the owner about security measures?” Mac asked.

“He assured me, of course, that they had adequate protection. He seemed to think his alarm system and the quick response of the police saved the place from a looting. But I’m not completely convinced. At any rate,” he said, switching his attention to Raine, “we’ll follow the same procedure as always when it comes to transporting your works. You’ll supervise the actual loading, of course. We’ll probably be pressed for time due to the amount of work the gallery will be having done. So if you can have everything ready to go at a moment’s notice, that will be a big help.”

Raine agreed. After going over several more points with him, she saw him to the door. Mac hadn’t moved from his position in the doorway, stepping aside only to let them pass. When she had bid goodbye to her agent, she came to stand before him.

“Okay, let’s have it.”

He looked at her silently.

“C’mon, Macauley, I know you well enough by now to know that something is bothering you. So out with it.”

He surveyed her lazily. “Think you know me pretty well?”