Rainey's Song

Readers: I apologize for taking so long with this chapter but work/school must come first--at times. As always, thanks for the feedback and interest. Happy reading!

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"This is a bad idea."

Gray sunlight trickled through the blinds on the window behind Lyn Viglio's desk, making a bar-pattern against Aidan's blue t-shirt. He stared hard at Lyn as she took in his reaction to her request—an unbelievably unreasonable request in Aidan's opinion.

Lyn, despite her diminutive size, had a backbone of steel and she returned Aidan's dark gaze with a steady one of her own. "Aidan, I really don't see what the problem is," she said, tapping the end of a black ballpoint pen against the stack of photos he'd handed her when he came in.

Aidan sighed, running a hand over his face. He felt like hell and was sure he looked it. He hadn't slept the night before. He'd been too busy listing all of the reasons why he couldn't be attracted to Rainey. When his alarm finally went off at 7am, he'd gotten to nine—she was too young, he was too old, they worked together...sort of—before he realized that it wasn't doing him any good. The attraction was there; it was like something haunting him, an addiction that he couldn't shake.

The hell of it was that he couldn't figure out *why.* What was it about her? He'd known women who were much more beautiful, ten times more outgoing and just all around more sexually appealing in every sense of the term.

Rainey was nothing like them. And that's what intrigued him; her purity was what made him want her.

'You're a sicko,' he told himself. She was just a kid. It was no wonder she was so innocent and pure. The world hadn't had the chance to tear her down. She'd never been in love, never known the depths of passion—that much he could tell from the frightened look in her eyes when he'd touched her.

God, when he'd touched her...

When she'd left him alone in his car on Saturday night he was sure that she had no idea how close to pulling her down beneath him he'd been or how much he'd wanted to palm those full breasts. Feel her nipples harden to taut little beads beneath his touch.

Swallowing the knot of frustration forming in his throat he shifted in his chair. This desire he had for her, it was just carnal and lust-driven. There was nothing behind it. There couldn't be. He didn't even know her.

Just wanted her so damn much that he hadn't stopped aching for her since Saturday. It was Monday now and when he'd gotten into his car to drive to work this morning he'd sworn that her smell still floated in the air. He'd driven with the windows down even though it was raining.

That was when he made the decision to stay away from her. He knew he couldn't control himself when he was around her, so it'd be better if he just didn't see her for a while. He could email most of his work to Lyn and have a courier drop off his photos. When it was absolutely necessary that he come to the office he'd make morning visits since Rainey usually worked in the afternoons.

It could work, he told himself. He could get over this drugging, frightening need he'd seemed to develop overnight. It would just take some time.

"Aidan are you even listening to me," Lyn's voice cut into his thoughts, and the favor, the hideously ironic favor, she'd just asked of him slammed back into his face. His plan *would* have worked if it wasn't for what Lyn was proposing.

He started shaking his head in denial. "No, I haven't been listening at all. I've been thinking about what a bad idea this is."

Lyn stopped tapping the pen and steepled her hands on the table, regarding him over the point made by her short fingers. "All I'm asking is for you to tutor Rainey. Show her the ins and outs of what it is to be a freelancer. I want her to get an idea of what goes into putting a whole story together from beginning to end." She pursed her lips. "Give me one good reason why it's such a bad idea and I'll drop it."

Aidan swore silently. He could give her half a dozen reasons why it was a terrible idea as well as a dangerous one. For him as well as Rainey. But they were reasons that didn't really fit into the confines of the workplace. All he could come up with was, "It'll interfere with her classes. You know how my schedule is, Lyn. I can't drag her around with me when she has school all day." He breathed a sigh of relief at the valid argument, but the smile Lyn gave him made him wary.

"Have you really been out of college that long, Aidan?" The dumbfounded look he gave her was proof enough that he was confused. Lyn sighed and rolled her eyes skyward as if Aidan were a child to whom things had to be explained slowly and simply. "Her spring break starts today. She's out of school for two weeks so you can, as you put it, feel free to drag her to as many remote locations as you want. Unless," she looked at him with a smug smile, "you have any more *good* objections."

'Damn,' Aidan thought.

He could just flat out refuse to do it but Lyn would want to know why and there really wasn't a valid answer that he could give her. So he sat in silence.

Lyn, taking his stillness for anger at his being thwarted said, "Okay, if you don't want her in your hair all of the time then..." she waved a hand vaguely in the air, several silver bangle bracelets sparkled in the sunlight. "...just have her transcribe the tapes of your notes from any interviews you do. You're always talking about how you have trouble meeting deadlines because you can barely read your notes. Or, have her help you with developing some of your photos for the next issue. Just make sure she gets an idea of what it's like to work on a story this size."

He felt a twinge of hope spark to life at Lyn's suggestion. If that's all she wanted, he could pass a few words of advice on to Rainey, as quickly as possible, when he was in the office and drop off a few tapes for her to transcribe. It could work. Relieved at the prospect that his plans hadn't been completely destroyed, he rose to leave. "Alright, I'll do it," he said quickly before he could change his mind.

Lyn smiled and stood to walk him to the door. "I knew you would. This is really going to do you both a lot of good. Rainey can get experience and you can hone your skills." With a pained grimace, Aidan tried not to think about the connotation Lyn's last sentence held if taken out of context. He ended up balling his left hand into a fist to keep the thought at bay.

"Sure," he said tightly, "I'll drop off some tapes later on today and..."

Lyn cut him off, her brow furrowed. "That's not going to work, Aidan."

"Why not?"

She rolled her eyes. "Look, I know you're getting up in the years," she said sarcastically, "but you really need to work on your observation skills. Rainey doesn't have a computer here," she said slowly. "Hell, we can barely make room for her on the draft table when crunch time really hits."

"Well, what are we supposed to do," he asked. "You said to have her do some tapes for me, so how's she supposed to..."

Again, Lyn interrupted him. "Not to state the obvious but, you work from home. You have a computer at home," she ticked off items on her fingers as she listed them. "Your tapes are at home. Your notes are at home. Therefore..." she trailed off giving him a look that said, 'Fill in the blank.'

He was already shaking his head at her. "No way. I'm not taking Rainey to my apartment."

Lyn let out an exasperated breath, but Aidan cut her off before she could argue. "I'm not doing it, Lyn. I barely have the time to *mentor* her," he said, stressing the word sarcastically. "There's no way I can ferry her around with me, too. You're going to have to find someone else to baby-sit."

His hand was on the doorknob when Lyn asked in a quiet voice that he'd heard his mother use a thousand times when she was laying on the guilt trip, "How long have you been freelancing with Rhapsody Swept, Aidan?"

"Two years," he said, knowing exactly where she was going with the question.

Nodding slowly, she idly played with the collection of bracelets on her wrist. "And it was me who gave you a chance back then, wasn't it? Fresh from college with barely any experience, but I saw something in the writing sample you submitted and I took a gamble on you. Rainey," she said, looking up into his face with a serious expression, "she reminds me of you. Only she needs someone to prod her into letting go. Her writing is exceptional now, considering that she's a college freshman, but there's something underneath all of that that if she can find a way to let it out, she'll be spectacular." She paused, taking in Aidan's tense stance. "I'm asking you, as your boss and as your former mentor, to help her find herself as a writer."

He closed his eyes and said a silent fervent prayer. Damn Lyn for pulling the 'I gave you a chance when no one else would' card; he couldn't say no to that. And he couldn't say no when Lyn spoke of Rainey's talents--all the beauty hidden just beneath the surface—not when he'd thought the same thing about her himself. Swearing quietly, he ignored the look of triumph on Lyn's face when she knew she'd won.

"Now that we have that settled" she began, opening her office door, "let's see if Rainey's here yet. I asked her to come in early so we could..."

"She's here," Aidan asked. "She knew about this?" He stood in Lyn's way as she tried to move past him.

"No," she said. "I just called her last night and asked her to come in early today. I mean, I wasn't even sure if I could convince you to do it." She smiled at the perturbed look on his face and patted his hand. "Although I was pretty much certain that I could." She tried to peer around his shoulder to see into the outer office. "Aidan, will you move it," she said, pushing at his arm.

He stepped aside to let her pass, trying hard to ignore the intricate knots that his stomach began to tie when he heard Lyn call out to Rainey. Turning in the doorway he could see her across the room. She'd just come off of the elevator and was hanging her coat on the rack near the entrance to the office. Her back was to him as he watched her, but even so, he could imagine her face. Her eyes. Her smell.

His head began to pound.

Time. That's all he needed, but Lyn wasn't giving him any. Maybe if he had a little while to prepare himself he would be okay with the whole mentoring idea, but it was all falling into his lap in such rapid succession that he felt like he couldn't see straight. Then Rainey turned around, smiling down at Lyn. Her hair was down around her shoulders, falling in haphazard waves that made him itch to sink his fingers into them.

She saw him then, while his eyes were still burning with the need to touch her. Across the room, their gazes caught and held. He saw a look of uncertainty pass across her face as Lyn began to lead her toward him. Wariness was visible in the way she moved. Her hands fidgeted with each other and her eyes were darting around, she couldn't seem to decide what to focus on—her only consensus apparently being that she wouldn't look at him.

The pulse at his temple was beating with insane vigor and his palms were sweaty. It was like he'd regressed to being an unsure teenager, an inexperienced kid who'd never felt desire for a woman before. 'She's dangerous,' he thought. The words were an unconscious statement but, once formed, he knew it was true. His reaction to her was unsettling. She could get to him, he realized. And that was the one thing he didn't want in his life.

Vulnerability. He'd given that to someone else, a long time ago and almost hadn't made it through the aftermath of such a monumental mistake.

Rainey might still be a kid, he told himself, but he sure as Hell wasn't. Above all, he had control of himself and his own emotions. He had to. For both their sakes, he thought, as Lyn and Rainey came to a stop in front of him.

"So, Aidan," Lyn began, "I was just telling Rainey about your agreeing to mentor her." She paused, waiting for either one of them to comment on the situation.

Neither spoke.

On an exasperated exhalation Lyn tossed her short, black hair. "Oh, for the love of God," she exclaimed. "You're both acting like I'm asking you to hand over your right arm. I know you don't really know each other that well, but you'll get to and eventually you'll see that this is a good idea."

Rainey, who'd been staring at the floor up until then, turned to Lyn. "But...don't you think it's kind of unfair to...to Aidan," she asked, hesitating as she said his name. "I'm sure he's busy and he doesn't have time to come back and forth between the office and his apartment just to mentor me."

At her words, Aidan realized that Lyn obviously hadn't filled her in on the whole plan she'd strong-armed Aidan into agreeing to. Despite himself, he was curious to see Rainey's reaction.

"He said the same thing," Lyn flicked her thumb in Aidan's direction, "but, being the wonderful, forward-thinking editor-in-chief that I am, I solved that problem. So," she paused, giving them both a benevolent smile, "you're going to work with Aidan at his apartment. That way you can see what it's like to be a freelancer and you'll get an idea of how things come together both inside and outside of the office."

A look of horror crossed Rainey's face and Aidan almost smiled because he was sure he'd had the same expression on his face when Lyn revealed her plan to him earlier. Shaking her head, Rainey began an anxiety-driven protest. "No, I can't, Lyn. The mentoring I can do but..."

The sound of Lyn's phone ringing interrupted the protest. Hurrying past Aidan who still stood in the doorway, Lyn crossed her office and pulled the receiver from its cradle.

"This is Lyn," she said in her raspy, business-like tone. "Oh, Delilah," she said, sitting on the edge of her desk, "thanks for getting back to me. I'm having some trouble with the new printer and I need it fixed as soon as possible. I already talked to Bob over at the print shop and..." she fell silent as the woman on the other end responded. Looking up at Aidan and Rainey who were still standing in the doorway, she covered the receiver and whispered, "I want you guys to get started today. Aidan, just have her help you with your story about Seattle attractions." Signaling him to close the door, she went back to her phone conversation leaving Rainey and Aidan to stand in uncomfortable silence.

Rainey felt like she was going to die. And if the insane beating of her heart was any indication, it would be in a pool of idiotic mush right in front of Aidan. When Lyn had called her last night to ask if she would mind coming in early, she really hadn't minded. The phone call was actually a blessing to her muddled mind since she hadn't been able to think about anything but Aidan and the look in his eyes when he'd dropped her off on Saturday.

Even though it was a stupid, fanciful thing to reflect on, she remembered the expression on his face and the intensity that made his eyes look so bright and vibrant against the shadowed planes of his face. It had almost been like he wanted her.

Dismissing the thought as foolish wishful thinking, she'd made the decision to just stop thinking about him completely. It was that dwelling on every single second—which she had done despite herself—that was going to be a problem. All she could do was think about him, wonder what he was doing, wish she could see him...and dread the moment when she actually would see him. It was worse because she never knew when he'd show up at the office and settle those blue eyes on her.

Those eyes. They were fixed on her now.

Once again, he was watching her as she thought about him. 'I've got to stop doing this,' she thought, passing a hand through her hair and absent-mindedly tucking a few tendrils of hair behind her ear. She licked her lips as he kept staring at her. Why wouldn't he stop?

Apparently, her wariness showed on her face because he blew out a short breath that was somewhere between laughter and exasperation. With a wry half-smile, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets, pulling the fabric tight across the groin of a pair of jeans that fit him snugly enough that she could see the contours of his slim waist and the quiescent strength of his thighs. A wave of unbidden heat flooded across Rainey's face and she quickly flicked her gaze away from him.

'Damn you, Lyn,' she thought viciously. Although she knew her tiny boss was just trying to help her get over her shyness, she'd picked the worst possible person to play the mentor. There was something about Aidan that made Rainey uncomfortable, made her feel like she'd do things she normally wouldn't when she was with him and that scared her. It wouldn't surprise her to find that he'd seduced a lot of women into doing things they didn't think they would. She definitely didn't want to be added to his list of conquests.

"I guess we'd better get going," he said hesitantly. "You don't have anything that you need to bring do you?"

Shaking her head, Aidan knew she had no idea the affect that the shifting of her loose, brunette mane did to his insides, the way his stomach seemed to be an ever-tightening knot of need.

"Just my coat," she said, and started toward the elevator heartily wishing with every step that she wasn't so aware of his form right behind her. 'Stop it, stop it, stop it...,' she yelled at herself but her body, damn it, seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to him.

After she shrugged into her jacket, Aidan punched the elevator button for the first floor and they rode down in silence. In the parking lot, he led her to his car and opened her door for her, waiting for her to settle in. As he rounded the car, Rainey realized that she was chewing her lip to rawness from anxiety.

Three or four deep breaths had her slightly settled by the time he got in and she turned her face away from him to stare out of the window. How was she going to make it through two weeks with Aidan? Just two days before, she'd already realized that too much time spent with him couldn't be a good idea, now here was fate and the resilient Lyn forcing them together in some twisted little mockery of a work situation. How the hell were they supposed to get any work done when they were both too on edge to even talk?

Rainey was never one to make the first move, at anything, but she couldn't take this amount of tension; it was making her feel like she was going to snap in two. It had to end. Allowing her eyes to slide shut she made a decision. It was a hard decision and it took all of her being, all of her concentration and willpower to come to—she decided to be Aidan's friend. And to do that, she'd have to talk to him, which meant starting a conversation to end this God-awful silence.

With a deep breath and a whispered prayer for inspiration, she turned to look at Aidan who seemed to have developed a single-minded interest in the Seattle traffic. Wracking her brain for something—anything—to say she lighted upon the first lucid conversation topic that popped into her head.

"So, Lyn told me that you're horribly disorganized."

Aidan's mouth quirked a bit at the edges and, to her surprise, she immediately felt the tension lessen just a bit. He didn't take his eyes from the road. "Lyn has a tendency to exaggerate." Tilting her head a little to the side she took in his profile, unconsciously allowing herself to enjoy the prominence of his cheekbones, the little shadow of stubble on his jaw, those dark blue eyes.

"Your eyelashes are longer than mine," she said before she had the chance to think about it. Embarrassment swept through her and she squeezed her eyes shut as she realized that she'd as good as admitted to staring at him like some lovesick little girl. The sound of his chuckling only made it worse.