“That explains why you’re all so pale,” CJ commented. Bricker didn’t respond. In fact, his attention had settled on the woman in line in front of them. He was staring at the back of her head with a concentration that seemed weird to her. Trying to distract him, she asked, “So what happens when you guys are out in sunlight too long? Do you break out in a rash or something?”
“Or something,” Bricker said evasively, and urged her forward as the customer in front of them suddenly took her cart and left the line. CJ thought the woman must be going back to find something she’d forgotten, but she simply pushed her cart to the next line and took up a position there.
CJ pursed her lips, and glanced between Bricker and the woman, wondering if the shopper had sensed his concentrated glare on her back and left because he was making her uncomfortable. She’d barely had the thought when the next customer in front of them suddenly took his few items off the conveyor belt and walked to another line as well.
“That’s weird,” CJ said with a frown as Bricker started taking the items she was holding and setting them on the conveyor belt. “Both customers just up and moved to another till.”
“People are weird,” Bricker muttered, pulling out his wallet to retrieve what looked to be a company credit card.
“Yeah, but the guy would have been next to be rung up. He already had his stuff on the belt,” CJ pointed out, eyeing the man with curiosity. As tall as Bricker, but with arms as big around as her thighs and covered in tattoos, the guy didn’t look to be the type who might be intimidated by someone glaring at him.
“Maybe he’s here with his wife and she ran back for something and he was afraid he’d get rung up before she returned,” Bricker suggested.
“I don’t know. He— Yes, that’s probably true,” CJ found herself saying, and was suddenly quite sure that was the case. In the next moment, she’d forgotten all about both customers and their unusual behavior. In fact, she found herself oddly unconcerned about anything as the cashier finished with the customer in front of them and started to ring up their order.
“Damn,” she murmured as they stepped outside moments later and she saw Mac and Decker sitting on the hood of her car. “I forgot I locked the doors. I should have given them the keys so they could sit inside with the air conditioner on.”
“Yeah,” Bricker murmured, some concern in his own voice. “They shouldn’t be sitting out in the sun.”
He began to move more quickly then. The man had long legs and was moving so fast she would have had to run to keep pace with him. Deciding she wasn’t in the mood for that, she let him run ahead with the shopping bag.
CJ was still a good distance back when Bricker reached the other two men and Mac took the bag. She saw him riffle through it, and pull out the shirt she’d picked. Her steps slowed and her eyes widened, though, when he then stripped off the shirt he was wearing.
She’d recognized that the man was well put together when he was wearing the T-shirt, but without it . . . Good Lord in heaven, Mac was beautiful, his chest wide and sculpted in a way one wouldn’t expect from a geeky scientist type. He was a marble statue come to life and she definitely felt heavy disappointment when he covered up all that male beauty with the new shirt she’d picked out. That disappointment turned to shock, though, when Mac followed that maneuver with suddenly pushing down the pajama bottoms he’d worn since she’d first met him. CJ stopped walking altogether, her eyes nearly falling out of her head when he then stepped out of them, leaving him only in the polo shirt and tight white boxer briefs that revealed more than they covered.
“Oh, my God,” she muttered, and turned abruptly to walk back to the store entrance. She could feel that her face had gone hot with embarrassment, and peered around to see if anyone else had witnessed Mac Argeneau stripping in a parking lot. Much to her amazement, no one had. Part of it was because she’d parked at the back of the lot, a habit she’d taken up several years ago to get in extra steps during her day. The other part was just human nature, she supposed. CJ had come to realize through her years as a detective that people just weren’t very observant anymore. They walked around with their cell phones out and their gazes locked on them, even when walking to their cars in a busy parking lot. They didn’t know what they were missing. The man shirtless had been a wonder, but without his pants and in only a pair of tight boxer briefs and his shirt . . . well, CJ had never really thought of the male body as beautiful, but Mac’s was. It was a sight she wouldn’t soon forget. She was quite sure it was burned onto her retinas.
Shaking her head, she risked a glance back over her shoulder, and was just in time to see Mac pulling on the new jeans she’d picked out. CJ turned forward again at once.
Taking deep breaths, she kept her gaze forward until she reached the covered area in front of the store entrance, and then she stopped and turned back the way she’d come to see what was happening now. She was more than a little surprised to see that not only was Mac now fully dressed, including socks and shoes, but that the men were less than half a dozen steps behind her and closing quickly.
Spotting the Walmart bag Mac was carrying, CJ asked, “Do you want me to unlock the car so you can stow your bag in there?”
Mac shook his head. “Thank you, but no. I’m done with these,” he assured her, and proceeded to drop the bag in the garbage bin next to her, before offering her his arm. “Shall we?”
CJ eyed his offered arm with distain. “What do I look like? An old lady who needs help crossing the street?” Snorting, she walked around him and into the store, leaving the men to trail her as she made a beeline for the men’s section.
What followed was the most amusing couple of hours CJ had enjoyed in quite a while. Justin Bricker was an enthusiastic shopper, choosing items and insisting Mac try them on for them to judge. Unfortunately, Bricker’s taste ran to floral-patterned short-sleeve shirts, and Mario Brothers–themed T-shirts. These he liked to pair with orange or green shorts or joggers. CJ had to bite her lip several times to keep from laughing at Mac’s irritation as Bricker pointed out his finer qualities in the horrid outfits. Things like while the floral pattern might be a bit much, the blue flowers did bring out the color of his “gorgeous silver-blue eyes.” Or that maybe the orange shorts were ugly and far too tight, but they did show off his fine legs and generous “package.” A comment that had embarrassed her enough that CJ had decided the fun was over and it was time to intervene. She’d taken over the picking out of outfits then, selecting several nice plain T-shirts in solid colors without sayings, images, or comments on them, and a few dressier shirts both long- and short-sleeved also in solid colors. She’d also picked jeans rather than shorts, and a pair of black dress pants. Bricker had said his skin was sensitive, after all, so pants were probably better than shorts for him. It was certainly better for her not to be staring at his bare legs in shorts.
Mac liked everything she selected. He didn’t seem to want to try anything on, and she—more than happy to speed this shopping trip along—didn’t suggest he should. She also left the underwear shopping to him. They hit the shoe section after that, and then the pharmacy section to pick up personal items before taking everything up to check out.
The lineup was even worse than it had been when she and Bricker had purchased the clothes Mac was now wearing. CJ resigned herself to waiting, but glanced around as they did. Like Bricker and Decker, she had been on the alert the entire time they’d been shopping. Not expecting trouble, just keeping an eye out for it. They were doing the same now, but as CJ took note of the other shoppers in line, she couldn’t help noticing the looks the other female shoppers were giving the men. It made her take a real good look at the three of them.
They were all tall, all well-built, and all good-looking. But while Justin and Decker were looking dangerous and sexy in black T-shirts, black jeans, and black boots, Mac was more approachable in the jeans and shirt she’d picked out.
Even so, CJ thought as she examined them, they were all incredibly . . . hot. Almost unnaturally so. Seriously, there was just something about them . . . She looked each man over more slowly, trying to figure out what it was. Each was handsome, sure, but they were all also pale. Not sickly looking as Mac had appeared that morning, just pale like someone whose skin had never been touched by sun. That pale skin was flawless though. The pores so tiny they weren’t visible. Each had dark hair, but in slightly varying shades. Each was tall too, and well put together with wide shoulders and slim hips. Still, their attraction seemed to stretch beyond that. It was almost irresistible.
Like they were charmed, CJ thought suddenly, and smiled crookedly at the thought. She’d read a story once about a witch who had created a charm that made her irresistibly attractive to the opposite sex, and that was what had just popped into her mind. It was like they each had a charm like that fictional witch had possessed.
“Ridiculous,” she muttered to herself, and turned her attention to watching the people around them again until it was their turn at the till. Despite the amount of time it had taken them to shop, Mac hadn’t bought much: a pair of dress pants, a couple of pairs of blue jeans, several T-shirts, two short-sleeved dress shirts, one long-sleeved dress shirt, running shoes, and sport sandals. He’d also bought deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, bar soap, and shampoo. That was about it, though, and once they were being rung up, it didn’t take long. Thanks to the shoeboxes they ended up with five bags to carry.
“You shouldn’t be bogged down with bags if you’re on bodyguard duty,” CJ pointed out, taking the bag Decker automatically reached for. When he nodded and stepped back, she took another bag, leaving the other three for Mac to carry, and they headed out of the store.
“I’m hungry,” Bricker announced as they stepped outside.
“Funny you should say that,” Mac commented as he and CJ followed Bricker into the parking lot with Decker at their back. “I was just thinking we should take CJ to lunch to thank her for bringing us shopping.”