Mary Wine

it just wasn’t fair.

not a bit. everyone else had sighed over the bride, delighted in the scent of fresh flowers and felt deep, moving emotion as the minister issued the words that joined the couple in wedlock.

contemplating the shoreline, loren tried to remind herself that she always felt depressed at weddings. so why did she let herself get roped into attending this one?

why didn’t particularly matter at the moment. stepping off the porch she moved onto the beach. her shoes sank into the sand, and reaching down, she pulled them off her feet. tucking the shoes under the railing, loren set off again, smiling as her bare toes sank into the tiny grains beneath her.

the night wasn’t a total loss—amanda sure did know how to pick a spot. the reception was being held with a half-mile stretch of private beach for a backdrop. music spilled out the open doors of the banquet hall, but as she put more distance between herself and the party, the sounds of the surf took dominance.

it was nothing but a self-centered indulgence, but loren was in the mood to answer temptation’s call. the night was perfect, the breeze lazy, and no one else was in sight!

perfection.

but time was not on her side tonight. turning around, loren set herself back toward her social responsibilities. another round of small talk and she could escape before the guests’ blood alcohol levels rose too high.

she made it just two steps before she saw him. maybe it really shouldn’t have surprised her to find another person on the beach.

there was just something surreal about her companion. nothing but moonlight spilled over him but her eyes picked out his features.

he stood surveying the surf, his body seemingly at ease.

sensation crept up her spine as she noted the sheer size of him. his arms, like his chest, were coated with thick muscle. even the denim of his jeans betrayed the fact that his legs held the same level of fitness.

it wasn’t just his size that captured her attention. there was something not quite tame about him. the way he stood looking out to sea didn’t betray that fact—it was an increasing urge she felt to seek shelter.

loren shook her head to dispel her foolishness.

if half a glass of champagne was going to her head this much, it was past her bedtime.

maybe tapping into her emotions was unethical, but at the moment rourke really didn’t care. he was sick of the protocol. everyone seemed to have an idea on just when

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and how his psychic sense should be used. what they all missed was the fact that it was

a part of him. sometimes a man’s discipline just couldn’t hold back his nature.

it was her fault anyway. the way she moved was far too erotic. it wasn’t so much the dress she wore, but the way her body moved beneath the fabric.

there was a twist and sway to her hips that begged for closer inspection.

reaching out further, rourke tapped into her emotions. a smile lifted the corners of

his mouth. she was watching him, running her eyes over his body as she considered the desire that was rising up inside her own.

turning his head, he caught her eyes. hers widened slightly in surprise, but she brought her emotions under control before he caught the physical signs that her body could give him. but he felt them anyway.

caution was coursing along her nerves as she noticed his interest. the battle she was waging for control, rourke intended her to lose. once she discarded the mantle of respectability that her morals were demanding, they could share what promised to be a searing passion.

loren was never touching another glass of champagne as long as she lived!

she was practically drooling over the man. with her luck tonight, he probably could see it written across her face. grinding her teeth together, loren tried to pull herself together enough to walk back to the reception.

the way he stood there watching her made the idea of crossing his path disturbing. moving her eyes over his form, she marveled at the strength of the man. it floated on the air. it wasn’t just his body, it seemed to be deeply rooted inside his being. her skin was sensitive to the magnetic pull. her entire body was pulsing with a need that loren had spent years banishing.

fascination replaced her misgivings as loren watched the way he moved.

silently. his body moved across the shoreline with a confidence that confirmed his strength. loren found herself watching his approach with a intensity that refused to allow her practical instincts any chance to be heard.

with fluid grace, he came closer. tilting her head back, loren caught a glimpse of the most startling emerald eyes just seconds before he pulled her body into his with a single movement and his mouth settled onto hers in firm ownership.

her senses rioted as the sheer volume of impulses overwhelmed them. too many points of contact sent their signals racing along her nerves into a brain that was struggling to sort them into logical order.

his body moved hers as it pleased, turning and surrounding her flesh as his lips engaged in an assault that demanded complete compliance.

the intimate invasion forcing her to yield as his tongue sought her own.

twisting and thrusting, he took her mouth in the way that his body promised to follow. his hips thrust against her, showing her the proof of his intentions.

“wait… we can’t do this!”

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“i think we can.”

his voice held as much iron as his body did, the deep, determined tone settling over her ears. her own inability to deny the truth of her mutual interest caused true fear to rise up inside her.

loren sighed as her fingertips became ultrasensitive. her hands traveled across the shirt-covered expanse of his chest. she ran her hands back and forth over his chest as her fingertips delighted with the hard muscle they found. longing sprang up as she tried to force her brain to function.

“i can’t do this.”

pulling his head up, rourke considered the female in his arms. he could smell the passion on her body, feel it seeping into the pores of his skin.

at the moment the sand beneath them would serve just fine. the panic in her voice was the only thing causing him to question his purpose.

searching her thoughts, he considered what he found. if she had a boyfriend at that reception, her feelings didn’t run very deep. no, her concern stemmed from the strength of her own arousal.

lowering his mouth again, rourke took possession of her lips. he captured the moan that escaped from her as she lost her battle to ignore their mutual attraction. her body leapt as passion ignited inside it. her hips twisted into his as her hands moved over him in blatant invitation.

thoughts simply refused to form. loren couldn’t stop her hands and she didn’t try. he just smelled so very male. it was intoxicating in its intensity. his body was so hard. she was craving it. her fingers clawed at his shirt searching for the skin she could smell.

“come with me.”

he pulled her by their joined hands a full thirty feet before her mind cleared enough to offer protest. digging her feet into the sand, she pulled him to a halt.

“right here is fine with me.”

“no!” this time the sounds from the wedding reception intruded on her reckless behavior with stinging awareness. loren thrust her passion aside, grabbing at the control she’d somehow lost.

“i can not do this.” forcing each word out, loren used their truth to steady her resolve.

“whoever he is, i’d say it’s time to break it off.”

“it’s not that simple.”

“the truth is always simple. it’s when you start to deceive yourself that things get complicated.”

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their hands were still joined. loren stared at his flesh as it imprisoned hers and lamented the facts that would limit her to this last taste of him. what her body demanded just could never be.

“i agree, but some things are just not meant to happen.” the longing in her eyes caused rourke to hesitate before replying. maybe she was afraid of breaking up with the guy.

“i won’t let him hurt you.”

one quick step and a simple twist broke the hold on her hand.

moving further away she turned to survey her companion. forcing her eyes to take in the aggression in his, she coupled it with the harsh lesson that life had taught her long ago. men always manipulated women to suit their needs. this one was no different. he’d protect her ‘til he became bored, then she’d be on her own.

“i can take care of myself.”

“no, honey, what you need only i can take care of.” an angry flush burned her face as loren had to fight off the warmth spreading through her body in response to his words. sex, even hot sex, wouldn’t solve anything.

it would just complicate her life.

taking a closer look at him, her eyes noted the precise neatness to his dress. simple jeans and a flannel shirt but the shirt was pressed to perfection while his black hair was clipped to razor shortness. the stance of his body betrayed a level of alertness rarely found in the civilian male.

coupled with his strength, loren identified exactly what manner of predator she’d attracted tonight. a seal, a ranger or maybe even a marine special operations. his eyes still glittered with the conquest he fully expected to make of her.

well, there was always one way to deter this kind of man.

“i’m married.”

* * * * *

she never remembered saying good night to her hosts. loren had crawled out of her car and made it up the stairs to her bedroom before she felt the grip of her encounter releasing her. sinking onto her bed she stared at the reflection in her mirror. it had been a really long time since she’d been so incredibly stupid.

that was the last time she’d listened to her body when it came to a man. lying back, she sent her fist into the pillow. frustration was gnawing away at her flesh as she tried to remind herself just what listening to it would get her.

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still…she was doing better tonight than when she was sixteen.

tonight she was taking frustration to bed instead of a husband. the security of that idea let loren slip into sleep. yes, sexual frustration was far better than the unpredictable nature of a man.

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his hands were shaking so badly that dr. frank rinehart couldn’t make out the lab report anymore. he didn’t need the computer-generated words to reinforce his rising panic. despite the regular county-required drills, they just weren’t ready to cope with a medical disaster of this magnitude. the possible number of infected victims was spinning his brain out of control.

“doctor?”

frank forced his eyes up to the men waiting. he shoved his hands into the pockets

of his lab coat to still the increased tremor his current company inspired. several of them were restlessly pacing the confines of the conference room. their leader stood deathly still as he waited for his information.

“yes…well, we cannot be certain ‘til we grow a culture but…

maybe it might be best if you sat down.” black brows slanted over a piercing green glare in response.

“no, i suppose that won’t be necessary. we must begin quarantine immediately. if this is ebola tai forest, the possibility for contamination is immense.”

“how complete a quarantine do you suggest?”

“anyone on your team and anyone you gentlemen might have engaged in relations with.”

rourke flashed his eyes over his men. they had been back on american soil less than twenty-four hours. most of that time they’d spent in the air. the negative looks he received told him none of his men had found time to engage in anything as of yet. that left just him.

damn! why had he been so hot to get into her pants anyway?

he’d been tighter before, that didn’t explain why a simple walk on a beach turned into an encounter that was still wedged in the back of his mind.

“why” didn’t matter at the moment.

“define ‘relations’, doctor.”

“intercourse definitely, but any manner of exchange of bodily fluids could account for contamination.”

rourke cast his eyes over his men again. they shook their heads before they began

to move restlessly about the room again. his own body was screaming with tension but control was something he’d learned to pull deeper than most. if his unit was contaminated he’d move them out immediately before the symptoms began to surface.

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it was damn poor luck that cal worth didn’t collapse until he’d made it off the base. now rourke faced the problem of getting his man out of a civilian hospital before any word leaked out to the public.

“get worth onto the bird and stand by.”

“yes, sir!”

“that man needs to stay right here. you can’t remove him, it’s against the law!” rourke’s men didn’t bat an eye as they carried out their orders.

the door swung

shut behind them as the doctor sputtered out his protests.

“this is now a classified matter, dr. rinehart. we have procedures to deal with this. i’m sure you can agree that it would be best to remove a possible threat of this nature from such a major metropolitan area.”

“yes. but can you be certain of a complete containment?” the doctor posed a good question. not knowing her name was going to prove a bit tricky. rourke could still feel her. his mind held the link necessary for him to track her down, but if the local law enforcement decided to challenge him on removing her, then rourke would rather not be distracted by the amount of his attention he’d need to utilize his tracking abilities.

“there is one exposed civilian.”

“i can have the police pick them up immediately. with a disease this deadly i do not suggest any delay.”

the doctor was already reaching for the wall-mounted telephone. rourke frowned

as he considered the complications of tracking someone through the los angeles area. there was just too big a population. risking possible exposure of his psychic abilities, much less the fact that he operated with a team of rangers, was just not advisable. the civilian population would not receive that sort of information very well.

it might be wise to try a more conventional route first. the local detectives might be able to track her down in a reasonable amount of time. the doctor’s hands shook as rourke gave him a description, and the physical reaction only reminded him of why he didn’t want to deal with civilians during this quarantine. there was no point in getting nervous until they had positive proof that there was a direct threat to their lives.

“wait a minute, i was at that wedding last night. it was one of our residents here who got married. but i don’t recall just whom you are describing. there weren’t many single women at the wedding.”

“she claimed to be married.”

the doctor flashed him a scathing look. rourke really didn’t care. the passion hiding inside that woman was hot enough for him to feel twenty feet away. her husband was clearly a fool.

“well, still there are only two women that fit this description.

one of them is pregnant and the other i don’t believe is married.”

“how pregnant?”

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“advanced.”

“it’s not her.”

rourke smiled. so the little vixen lied to throw him off the track? well, that could make a quarantine together rather interesting. after all, he had already contaminated her. any repeats wouldn’t change a thing.

“maybe i should call for a guest list. this just isn’t loren’s style.”

“it would be quicker to have the woman brought in for identification.”

“she’s already here. but i’m certain it’s a waste of time. loren is very clear about her views on men.”

despite the doctor’s confidence, the man began moving toward the door as he spoke. rourke followed on the man’s heels. if this loren was his woman then he intended to close this issue immediately. the fewer eyes that set on him the better. keeping a low profile was essential to his unit’s survival. taking a civilian with them was going to produce a huge security question. rourke would deal with that just as soon as he found her. if the doctor could provide the information to finding her then it would prevent anyone else from becoming involved.

reaching one of the hospital’s elevators, the doctor punched the top floor before turning to face rourke again. the man’s eyes held a critical look again. rourke sent him

a piercing one back. the civilian world didn’t have a clue as to the details of his life and therefore was not equipped to judge his actions. forming any sort of permanent attachment to a woman could have deadly results for her. he rarely learned very much about his partners because a little information spilled into the wrong ears could get them killed.

“carol, page loren.”

“she’s inbound now. eta is two minutes.” the nurse never looked up but fired off her information as she continued to wrap a paper gown about another doctor’s chest. her assistance was clearly needed as the man stood with his gloved hands held straight up into the air to prevent them from becoming contaminated.

two other doctors stood nearby in similar positions. they faced another set of elevator doors as they waited for their incoming patient.

“you’ll want to move back.”

“i know what a trauma center looks like, doctor.”

“yes, i imagine you do.”

the red light above the doors flashed in warning. the waiting teams snapped to attention as they awaited their duties. the doors of the elevator opened in a violent motion as a man’s body came falling across the threshold. the obvious victim of a powerful kick, the paramedic tumbled over his own body as his partner was left to the struggle their patient was intent on waging.

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the close quarters of the elevator didn’t allow for the waiting doctors to lend any assistance to the battle. with the body of the first paramedic sprawled in the doorway, the waiting doctors couldn’t get to their patient. struggling with the enraged patient, the second paramedic brutally flipped her charge over before using her body to pin him to the stretcher. her partner regained his feet and pulled the entire struggle from the

elevator, allowing the waiting teams to assist her.

“are you all right, loren?”

“that will conclude our wrestling demonstration for this evening.” investigating her shirtfront, loren decided there weren’t enough buttons left to close her uniform.

“carol, you might want to call security. this guy’s family is coming en masse.”

lord, the stupidity of some of their city residents was amazing. shaking her head, loren headed for her locker before her pager went off again.

responding with her bra showing just didn’t appeal to her.

“so, she’s not married.”

dr. rinehart stared in fascination as rourke’s eyes glowed. there was an intent frown displayed on the man’s face.

“i just don’t understand it. loren doesn’t take very well to men.”

“she’s deadly at ten paces.” the second paramedic issued his comment as he came back through the doorway, leaving his patient to the care of the trauma room staff. the curses sailing out of the treatment room indicated the lack of gratefulness the youth had for his care.

“jim, you’ll need to call in another partner. i have to quarantine loren immediately.”

“for what?”

“that’s classified.”

stepping back, the paramedic stared at his face for a moment before his pager went

off and he looked back at the doctor with a raised eyebrow. loren came back into view

as the pager on her belt echoed her partner’s.

“i thought it was a full moon last week,” she grumbled as she tried to fix her uniform top.

“did you mean right now?”

loren looked at her partner like he’d lost his mind. the man was looking at dr. rinehart as he asked his question.

“do our pagers know any other time frame?” loren stared at her partner as he gave her a confused look. snapping his pager out

of his hand, she silenced the alarm the unit was issuing, wondering just how long jim intended to stand there staring at her.

“dr. rinehart says you’re off duty.”

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“excuse me?”

flipping her eyes about, loren pegged the doctor with them. she didn’t have time

for another of the medical staff’s games! being the only female life flight paramedic was getting a little old.

just how she’d missed seeing him, loren didn’t know. a man like that was not designed for blending in. he was standing with his arms folded over his chest and she found herself tipping her chin up to catch a good look at his face. her stomach dropped a full three inches as she found the green eyes. the corners of his mouth twitched up in

a grin as he watched her take him in. there was absolutely nothing friendly about that grin. it was pure intent.

“i believe you have…ah…met this man?” the obvious indication caused loren to bristle. the man in question was trouble. in big capital letters, but that didn’t mean she was going to sit there and let dr. rinehart critique her for inappropriate behavior!

“quarantine for what?”

“ebola tai forest.”

a curse slipped from jim’s mouth as he took a step away from her. loren would have liked to step away from herself as well. ebola tai forest was no laughing matter. one of the four strains of the ebola virus, the disease held an eighty percent fatality rate. add to that the fact that no one understood yet why twenty percent of the infected victims survived.

it wasn’t something los angeles county saw very much of. only a very occasional traveler was suspect. her eyes wandered over her company again as she noted the clear proof of his military training. the details were easier to see in the lighting of the hallway. the man’s body had been molded into a weapon. he was also a very likely candidate for transporting a disease like this across the globe. there was no point in asking him if he’d been in africa, the fact that he was standing in front of her confirmed that.

and the man had kissed her very deeply and very thoroughly. fluid exchange was the number one method of contamination.

“there are words to describe men like you.”

“nice to see you again, loren.”

nasty, dirty little words and loren truly felt that this man would wear them well. it was really too bad that she’d made that bet with herself about not swearing. tonight seemed like a perfectly appropriate time for cussing.

“i take it you will not deny your…ah…relations with this man?” forget swearing, loren was currently ready to begin with physical assault!

doctor rinehart could just be grateful that she intended to break his neck in a trauma room! jim was choking on his amusement and doing a very poor job of keeping the sounds to himself.

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“you know, i need to run now.”

loren watched her partner hightail it into the elevator. jim’s mouth worked as much overtime as she did. by shift change, every firehouse in the county would be making up their own version of her love affair.

“well then, i suppose i should leave you to this situation.” watching the doctor begin his trip back down the hallway, loren was left facing her green-eyed dilemma.

“dr. rinehart?” loren sent her voice after the doctor as he scurried away from possible infection. the man stepped between her and rinehart.

“i’m sorry, did we forget to mention that this is now a classified matter?”

“just how classified?”

whoever he was, he grinned at her question before letting his eyes inspect her. from the top of her head to the black toes of her boots, loren didn’t think he missed a single detail of her body.

returning to her face, his mouth settled into a smug expression of victory.

“classified is classified.”

“umm-humm. well, if that means you’re planning on disappearing without so much as an introduction, have a nice life. but if you were planning on inviting me along, you can call up my captain and explain this little vacation to him. i happen to like my job. a whole lot.”

“rourke campbell, and we’ll have plenty of time to get acquainted.”

“don’t bet on it.”

but he was. loren could see his eyes glowing with anticipation. the look on his face made her look closer to see if he actually began to lick his chops over her. well, it was a bet that he would be losing! it took a little more than sex appeal to get her pants off.