Time Out & Body Check: Time Out / Body Check

After refusing to let him drive, Rainey dropped him and the guys off at the rec center and promptly vanished. Mark took James and Casey back to the motel, and for the first time since they’d arrived, neither had a word of complaint about where they were staying. Compared with Pepper and her family’s trailer, they had a palace, and James and Casey seemed very aware of it. The three of them ordered Thai takeout, and afterwards, Casey and James wanted to go out.

“Is there a club around here?” James asked. “We need some fun, man.”

“I’ve got just the thing,” Mark said, and drove them to the town’s community theater.

James eyed the marquee and groaned. “No. No way. The last time a chick dragged me to the ballet, I fell asleep and she wouldn’t put out after because she said I was snoring louder than the music. I’m not going in there and you can’t make me.”

“Consider it cultural education,” Mark said, and gave him a shove towards the entry.

“This is about him getting laid,” James whispered to Casey. “And how is that fair?”

“Dude, life’s never fair.”

* * *

AT THE BALLET, Rainey sat with Jacob on one side, Lena on the other, surrounded by coworkers and friends. As the lights went down and the music began and the dancers took the stage, she could feel the tension within her slowly loosening its grip.

Mark wasn’t going to show. Good, she thought. A huge relief hit her.

And the oddest, tiniest, most ridiculous bit of disappointment…

The lights dimmed even further, and Jacob slid his arm over the back of her chair, like he was stretching. But then his fingers settled on her shoulder. She waited for a zing, a thrill. But nothing happened. Relax, she ordered herself. He was cute. Nice. Normal.

His face nuzzled in her hair as he pulled her a little closer, but though she wished with all her might, she felt no zing, and definitely no thrill. When Mark so much as looked at her, her nipples hardened.

“You smell fantastic,” Jacob said, and his hand nearly brushed the outside of her breast.

Her nipples didn’t care.

Straightening, she pulled away with regret. “I’m sorry, can you excuse me a minute? I need to…” She waved vaguely to the exit and rose, stepping over Lena. On the other side of Lena was Rick, and on the other side of Rick sat…

Mark.

Oh, God. When had he showed up? She managed to get past the man without making eye contact, then found her way to the lobby to gulp in some air. A smattering of people were walking around looking glazed. She wondered if they were having a panic attack as well. Bypassing the bathrooms, she beelined straight for the bar. “Wine,” she told the bartender, and slapped her credit card down. “Whatever you have.” It didn’t matter. She rarely drank wine because it tended to relax her right into a coma but she could use a coma about now. What was wrong with her that she’d been in the presence of two perfectly good guys in two days, and neither had produced a zing?

And just knowing that Mark was in the building had her so full of zing, her hair was practically smoking. The wine came and she gulped it down. “Another, please.”

* * *

MARK CAME UP behind Rainey. He looked at the two empty wine glasses in front of her and read a new relaxation in her body language—which was quite different from the body language she’d sported when she’d run out here—and smiled. “Better?” he asked.

Her shoulders stiffened, but she didn’t look at him. “Go away.”

“Can’t.”

“Why not?” She waved at the bartender, but he didn’t see her, so she sighed. She had her hair up tonight, but a few golden-brown tendrils had escaped, brushing the nape of her neck.

She was heart-stoppingly beautiful to him, and just looking at her made him ache. He ran his finger down that nape and was rewarded by her full body shiver. Encouraged, he put his mouth to the spot just beneath her ear, smiling when she shivered again and sucked in a breath. “How’s that not-a-date date with your non-fixer-upper going?” he asked.

“I think it’s me.” Looking morose, she propped her head on her hand. “I’m the fixer-upper.”

Hating that she felt that way about herself, Mark swiveled her bar stool to face him. Her mascara was slightly smudged around her eyes, making them seem even more blue. She’d nibbled off her pretty gloss. She was wearing a little black dress, one strap slipping off her shoulder. Running a finger up her arm, he slid the strap back into place and left his hand on her. “I think you’re perfect,” he said softly. Beautiful, and achingly vulnerable, and…perfect.

She went still, then sighed and dropped her head to his chest, hard. “Now who’s the liar?” she whispered.

With a low laugh, he tipped her head up and stared into her glossy eyes. She was half baked. “I mean it,” he told her. “You don’t need to change a goddamn thing.”

Her gaze dropped from his eyes to his mouth, and her tongue darted out to lick her dry lips. The motion went straight through him like fire, heading south. She stood up, her hands on his chest now, but he didn’t flatter himself. She needed him for balance. Her high heels, black with a little bow around the ankles that he found sexy as hell, brought her mouth a lot closer to his. Her fingers dug in a little, fisting on the jacket of his suit.

He placed a hand on the small of her back, holding her to him, right there where he liked her best, when she murmured his name and sighed. “I’m going to instigate now.”

His heart kicked. “Instigate away.”

Just as their lips touched, a low, disbelieving male voice spoke behind them. “Rainey?”

They turned in unison to face Jacob, who was holding Rainey’s shawl in his hands. Mouth grim, eyes hooded, he handed her the shawl, gave Mark an eat-shit-and-die look, and walked out of the theater.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE BARTENDER BROUGHT Rainey a third glass of wine. She looked at it longingly but pushed it away. “All I want to know,” she said to Mark, “is why. Why are you so hell-bent on sabotaging my dating life?”

Mark couldn’t explain it to her. Hell, he couldn’t explain it to himself. But apparently it was a rhetorical question because she began a conversation with her wineglass, something about men, stupidity, and the need for a vacation in the South Pacific. While she rambled on, Mark texted James.

* * *

Lobby. Now.

* * *

Mark then stole Rainey’s keys from her purse, and when he saw James appear, he shifted out of earshot of Rainey. “When the ballet’s over, take Rainey’s car back to the motel.”

“Do we have to wait until it’s over?”

Mark handed him Rainey’s keys. “Yes. I’ll retrieve her car for her later.”

James looked past Mark to see Rainey sitting at the bar. “What’s the matter? Is she sick?”

“Indisposed.”

James knew better than to try to get information from Mark when Mark didn’t want to give it, but it didn’t stop a sly smile from touching his lips. “I take it you’re not going to be indisposed too.”

Mark just looked at James, who sighed and left.

Mark turned back to Rainey, still seated at the bar, still talking to herself.

Nope, not to herself.

There was a guy seated beside her now, smiling a little too hard. “Hey, gorgeous,” he said, leaning in so that his shoulder touched Rainey’s bare one, making Mark grind his teeth. “How about I buy you another drink?” the slimeball asked.