“Lemonade or peach tea?”
“Lemonade, please.”
He looked as if he wanted to say something more, but stopped himself. He picked up the pillow, tucked it tenderly beneath her head and smoothed her hair over it. “I won't be long.”
The door closed after him, and she slid down beneath the duvet, shivering in the cool sheets. She stared up at the ceiling fan, and struggled to comprehend what was happening to her.
And if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
Chapter 13
Boyfriend. He was Raine Cameron's official boyfriend. He rolled the word around in his mouth, trying it out Sure, it was just a cover, but what a kick-ass cover it was. What better cover for a bodyguard than the role of jealous, possessive new boyfriend? No one would think twice about him hanging all over her. They'd take one look at Raine's gorgeous tits, her soft pink lips, her glowing eyes, and assume that he was madly in love with her. Who could blame him?
He felt giddy and wired as he padded barefoot through her house. He pulled the small bag of equipment out of the top shelf of the coat closet where he had stashed it, stopped and listened carefully for sounds of movement from upstairs. Nothing.
He opened up his kit, sorting through Colbit beacons of various sizes and ranges. One slid unobtrusively into an unused pocket of her wallet. Another screwed into her pen. He ripped open the seam of the lining of her purse with his penknife and slipped one into the hole. He took out the sewing kit in his case, sewed the hole deftly shut and stitched another one into the hem of her raincoat.
That was enough for now, along with the cell phone. He could get more creative and ambitious later on, when he had the time and the privacy. He winced as he caught sight of himself in the mirror in the foyer. He sure didn't look like an official boyfriend. Wild hair, beard shadow, bare chest. Smelling of sweat and sex. One of his ex-lovers had once told him that he would be really handsome if he could manage to be a little less scary looking. When he demanded to know what the hell she meant by that, she'd hedged and stammered, regretting the thoughtless statement. Finally she said she thought it was his eyes.
The relationship hadn't lasted much longer. In fact, now that he thought about it, that might have been the very last night He stared at his eyes in the mirror. They looked pretty much like they always did, if a little more bloodshot and shadowed man usual. Raise hadn't complained about them yet, thank God.
He padded into the kitchen and proceeded to build four massive sandwiches with the same methodical attention to detail that had made him such an excellent thief, spy and techno nerd.
Hot damn. Official boyfriend. He had never voluntarily sought the title from anyone in his life. He'd always been brutally honest with his lovers about his preference in keeping things light. He liked sex just fine, but he could rarely be bothered with the rest of it Jesse had teased him about that Teased him hard, like he thought it was a real problem, though they usually ended up laughing about it. Jesse had thought that Seth's difficulty with trust and bonding with women was because of his relationship with his mother, blah blah, snore, zzzzz. Jesse had been heavy into psychobabble for a while. College had that effect on some guys who had more brains than were good for them. Usually Seth had managed to tune him out.
He braced himself for the burning stab that came along with thinking about Jesse. It didn't happen. Or rather, the feeling was there, but different. More like a hand pressing down hard on his heart. A hot, hard ache. Almost... bearable.
He'd enjoyed a whole lot of women, some of them very thoroughly, but as soon as they invited him to Mom and Dads silver anniversary bash, or whatever, he was outta there. Which was doing them a favor, really, since it always went to hell anyway. Inevitably the day arrived when he opened his mouth, let whatever he was thinking come out of it, and kaboom. Screaming, tears, and scenes that ended with go to hell, you rude, insensitive bastard. Doors slamming, tires squealing, and him standing there with his dick in his hand, back to square one. Big bummer.
The hell of it was that he never quite knew what exactly had set them off. It was a mystery.
God, what an idiot. He was a wild animal, dreaming about being domesticated. He stood in front of the refrigerator door, mustard dripping off the knife and onto the floor. Stupefied by the realization that he would say anything, do anything to keep this woman close to him. He was even willing to meet her parents. He stared at the splotch of mustard on the floor tile, transfixed. He would even put on a big show for them. Lie about his background, clean up his language. He would suck their goddamn toes, if that was what it took.
He was losing it. This wasn't about a cover, and he didn't even need Jesse to tell him so. He was terrified of wrecking this thing. It was so tenuous, so fragile. And it was all that was holding him together.
He shook that alarming thought out of his head, and gathered up plastic spoons and napkins. He stopped. Montserrat had liked candles. Chances were there were still a few of them floating around. He'd seen her loading up her witchy candelabras all the time.
He found five crimson candles in a kitchen drawer, along with a box of matches. He shoved it all under his arm, loaded himself up and carried it all up to the bedroom. Raine had fallen asleep, one hand cradling her flushed cheek. Her plump, childlike cherry-red mouth was slightly open, lashes sweeping the bluish shadows under her eyes. She was so beautiful, and she looked so exhausted. The protective tenderness that rushed through him made the plate of sandwiches shake.
He laid it on the bedside table, sank to his knees and lit a candle. He dripped hot wax onto the plate and set the candles in it. He liked them. Like a little wine-red grove of trees. They smelled faintly of honey, just like she did. He stroked her hair with his fingertips, hating to wake her. “Hey” he said softly. “Sustenance.”
“What?” Her eyes fluttered open. She looked dazed.
“It's your new boyfriend,” he informed her. “Bearing dinner.”
She propped herself up on her elbows, saw the candles. Her smile of delight was so bright, it hurt. She was so easy to please. He had to look away for a second, blinking away a stinging dampness in his eyes.
She gasped when she saw the plate of towering sandwiches. “Good God. Who's going to eat all that?”
He grunted, amused at her innocence. “Don't worry about it. I'll polish off whatever you don't want.”
Not since Jesse had been too little to forage for himself had he prepared food for someone else. Breakfast stuff and sandwiches were pretty much the extent of his culinary repertoire, but Raine seemed to enjoy it They feasted, sitting cross-legged on her bed. She got around an entire sandwich, and watched, fascinated, as he devoured the other three. Then he got the bright idea of feeding little pieces of brownie to her by hand, but that backfired on him because it was a flaming turn-on to place crumbs of fudgy cake in her soft mouth, to feel her hot tongue greedily licking off the crumbs and glaze, to watch the pleasure blooming on her face.
“Sugar orgasm,” she moaned. “Give me another piece, quick.”
“Cheesecake or fudge?”
“I want to finish with the fudge, so make sure that's the last piece you give me.” She opened her mouth, accepting another mouthful. “Who would have thought that such a strange day would end so well?”
He tucked another gooey crumb between her lips, and his whole body tightened as she licked the chocolate off. “Are you referring to the sex, or to the brownies?” he asked.
Raine stretched and smiled in a way that made his cock swell up again, poking dangerously close to the opening of his unbuttoned jeans. “Why? Are you feeling insecure and competitive?”