Guarding Raine Part 54

gets easily agitated. I'm sure seeing the porch and hearing about whathappened last night rattled him."

Returning his gaze to the road, Mac shook his head.

"Greg Winters is not a young man. I'dbet he's older than you. And ifyou want to know the cause of his agitation, look in the mirror."It took Raine a second to grasp his meaning.Then she swung her head to look at him."Me? Why would I fl.u.s.ter him? I'm about as threatening as a housefly."

"I didn't say you threaten him, Raine. But you do bother him. Surelyyou're not so naive that you can't figure out why?"When she didn't answer, he sighed."C'mon. He hangs around you as much as he can, looking like a lovesick puppy dog. He comes up with excuses to leave his office when he should

be working and runs out to see you. What do you make of that?"

He could tell by her frown that she was uncomfortable with his pursuit of the subject.

"We're... just friends. Greg knows it will never be more than that,

and he's accepted it. He and I have talked about it before."

"You may have talked about it, but I wouldn't be too sure about his acceptance of that fact,"

he replied.

"He was gibbering because he couldn't figure out where I came into the

picture, and he didn't like the thought of you going anywhere at all with me."

Her brows lifted.

"You mean you've had words with him, too?"

"He hasn't been as anxious to slit my throat as Kla.s.sen is,"

Mac said thoughtfully, "Although knowing that I'm going to spend the

day with you probably has him harboring some homicidal thoughts toward

me at the moment."

"You know, O'Neill, that suspicious nature of yours can be a real pain."

He resisted the urge to remind her that his suspicious nature was also quite possibly going to keep her alive.

He pulled into the parking lot of a drugstore.

"You'd better come in with me,"

he said.

He didn't want to let her out of his sight.

He'd been outside talking to the men when he'd identified Winters's carcoming up the drive, and had entered the house only moments after Rainehad shown the man to the den.

He'd felt like a spy as he hung around outside the room, but he'd beenloath to leave the two of them completely alone.

Especially after what Trey had discovered in the man's apartment.

With the idea of picking up some sunscreen, Raine obediently accompanied Mac into the drugstore.

She wandered away from him and selected some sun block.

Then she picked up a daily paper, took her items to the counter and paid for them.

She opened up the paper as she waited for Mac to finish his shopping.

When she got to the arts and entertainment section, her own face stared

back at her.

Local Artist Threatened was the headline above the picture.

Shegroaned mentally.

Darn Andre for giving that information to the press!

She should have known it was too sensational for the media to ignore.

No doubt she'd have to field yet another phone call from her father

when he got hold of this.

She knew she wouldn't have to warn him to keep this news from reaching her mother.

Lorena never saw a newspaper that Simon hadn't screened first.

Raine shot a look at Macauley, who was heading for the checkout

counter.

Surrept.i.tiously, she replaced the paper before joining him.

There was no need to call the article to his attention.

It would only serve to elicit another nasty remark about Andre.

She joined him in line, and Macauley put his selections on the counter,

pulling his wallet out to pay.

For the first time Raine looked at what he was buying, and slow heat suffused her cheeks.

The clerk rang up the box of condoms in front of her without a second

glance.

But Raine couldn't stop her gaze from flying to meet his~ Tiny twin reflections of herself shone in his dark gla.s.ses.

She remembered how carefully he'd protected her that first time and,

more enticing, she remembered just how hot it had been last night, how out of control.

There hadn't been time, or thought, for protection.

There'd been nothing between them, and a flashback of his velvety hardness inside her made her mouth tremble.

Something wild leaped inside Mac as he read the look on her face.

Her expression was tantalizingly, innocently transparent.

His blood began to pound as he read her thoughts.

Never before had he failed to protect his partner.

Not when he was a randy teenager, little more than a walking hormone,

and never as an adult.

Last night had been a first for him in that respect, and the lapse was disturbing.

It was bad enough to realize he'd lost control so easily that he'd

never given protection a second thought.

But that wasn't what had his jeans growing so tight now.

No, that particular discomfort was due to the exquisite memory of how

tightly she'd sheathed him, and how mind-blowingly fantastic it had

felt to take her without anything between them.

It was that memory, and not the concern over lack of protection, that had kept him awake for hours after she slept.