Big Girl Panties (16 page)

“What you encouraged her to do is start dating,” Amanda retorted.

“Which is what everyone should be encouraging her to do, you included,” he reminded her.

She sighed in vexation. “Why do you think I keep taking her to your games?”

“You and I both know you aren't taking her to my games to get her involved with any of the guys from the team. Besides, she doesn't need a baseball player. She needs a nice average guy who can be there for her.”

Her temper resurfaced, and she became disinclined to continue matching wits with him. “Oh! You are impossible. What she needs, and wants, is Logan, and he's about to crack. Can't you see that?”

“And can't you see that it's starting to take its toll on her? You've been on this crusade for months and it's making everyone miserable, including us. I know him. He's not going to change. He would've made his move already. And did it ever dawn on you that what they have right now, a solid friendship, may be even better than what you so desperately wish for them?”

“I think you're wrong.” She made a timid attempt at self-righteous bravado, knowing it was futile.

Chase waited for her eyes to lock back on to his.

“And I think this business ends today. As of right now, your illustrious matchmaking career is over. Am I making myself clear?” he told her, hoping but doubtful that she was going to follow his order. His lips were on hers before she could answer.

They settled back down and silence resumed. The comfortable kind, signifying that harmony had been restored. She was lying on his chest, her ear over his heart. She listened to it beating, steady and solid. His hand absently stroked up and down her back as he waited for sleep to reclaim him.

“Chase?” she asked with an edge of apprehension.

“Hmm?” he replied drowsily.

“Am I getting . . . you know.” He was going to make her ask for it and win the ultimate battle of control. Her body slightly tensed.

His hand on her back stopped rubbing. He opened his eyes and smiled, thoroughly pleased. He delighted in her sometimes bashful inability to say the word, as if she was somehow embarrassed by its mere suggestion. It never happened when she was using it as a tool to excite him. It always occurred when she needed it most or felt she deserved it. He finished the question for her.

“Spanked?”

Her voice was a tiny squeak of anticipation. “Yes.”

He released a masculine sigh, his hand drifting downward to rest possessively on her behind. “No, baby, not tonight. It doesn't feel right. I just want to hold you. Besides, I can't think of any better punishment for your behavior this evening than to deny you exactly what you want.”

Chapter Thirteen

C
hase Walker, unbeknownst to any of them, had inadvertently created a monster.

Amanda did follow Chase's order and stopped the push of nonstop invites, but only because she realized she no longer needed to extend them. Holly had become a permanent fixture in all of their lives, but Logan's in particular.

Holly had taken her conversation with Chase to heart and decided to heed his advice. If Chase was right, and by all accounts he was, what good would it do her to pine after Logan? It was a losing proposition no matter how she looked at it.

After the night at McDuff's, Holly knew throwing herself at Logan was out of the question. She knew nothing about seduction. And he certainly didn't show any interest. If anything, he was like an overprotective big brother. At best it would be an awkward, bungled attempt that could only end in disaster, even if by some chance it was successful. And she had no intention of putting in jeopardy the kind of friendship that had created such an amazing bond between them. It was time to get her house in order.

Chase's approval and support was like a tonic, and Holly was eager to find other sources. After the night at the bar, Holly felt empowered. When she took Glen's phone number, she knew she would never call him, but it was of little consequence. With the bartender's interest came a feeling of desirability, something that was all new to her. She began to view herself differently, as well as the world around her. Her smile came easily. She had a newfound pride in her appearance and eagerly began searching out ways to explore and enhance her femininity. She wanted to learn about fashion and develop her own style, and with Amanda's help, she did so. She shopped with the intention of learning how to exploit her hard-won assets. She would never have Amanda's exotic beauty, so she opted for well-put-together cuteness. Her clothing became sassy, colorful, and carefree. She went to one of cosmetics counters at the local Macy's and let them spend hours playing with her face, leaving the store with every single product they applied and tips on how to achieve the look herself. She felt the overwhelming desire to charm, and given her quick wit, being charming came relatively easily.

Without having Amanda to fight against, Logan hoped to resume the comfortable camaraderie that he and Holly had previously enjoyed. He was still preoccupied with her, but it had a new dimension. He relished the new positive aura that surrounded her as each day brought with it the promise of the new and interesting things she would discover about the person he had helped her become. He wanted to be caught up in the rush of her realizing all she had accomplished.

But Logan was also having trouble accepting the attention Holly had begun receiving from other men. Her new self-esteem drew people to her. He was quick to tell her all the reasons every man wasn't right for her. Her response to his mostly unwarranted assessments was to become defensive. With Holly not willing to tell him how she really felt and Logan not willing to acknowledge he felt anything at all, they unintentionally started to build a battlefield.

Holly had developed a giggle Logan knew was false. She batted her eyelashes at men who admired the view. She engaged in playful conversation with would-be suitors, even when Logan was standing right next to her, never failing to mention that Logan was nothing more than a friend. She wouldn't give out her phone number, but she took a few, determined to prove to him that she knew how to handle her own life, with the added pleasure of seeing how much it irked him. All of Logan's attempts to get Holly to tone it down were met with the shrill, bogus, silly laugh he was rapidly learning to despise.

But worst of all, she began to back-talk him while she trained. She questioned his judgment, debated his choices. She chatted more, and it took the focus away from getting what he wanted done in time. It quickly soured any sense of accomplishment he felt on her behalf. He was so frustrated with the whole mess, he unintentionally complained to Chase one day, right before the playoffs. To his total surprise, Chase was less than sympathetic, an attitude only made worse by the fact that Amanda had once again forsaken him in favor of spending time with Holly.

“Project hit the skids, Logan?” Chase snickered. “Not working out the way you planned?”

“Not exactly,” Logan admitted reluctantly.

Chase chuckled sarcastically. “And you're surprised by this? Logan, I gotta tell ya, you're a tool sometimes, a full-on tool.”

They'd been friends a long time, and Logan owed Chase a lot. But this was getting personal. “Care to explain that?” Logan tried to keep from sounding as angry as he felt.

Chase released the bar from the lateral pull-down machine, the weights banging together with a loud clang. He grabbed his water. “You want it both ways, man, and you just keep getting farther and farther away from either of them.” When Logan clenched his jaw and pursed his lips together, Chase took a deep breath. “You are so adamant about how she's not your type, how you're just doing your good deed for the day, yet you've spent more time with her than with your last five girls combined. Saying no to spending time with her never enters your mind. It's like you don't want her, but you don't want anyone else to want her either. What exactly are you looking to accomplish here? Want to see what you can get her down to? Waiting for her to become anorexic? The perfectly formed Stepford model, perhaps? So far from a real, feeling person that she eats, sleeps, and lives at your gym? So you can show her off to your friends and say, ‘Behold my creation'? Oh, and one last thing: the look on your face when she flirts with anyone else, guys who don't care about that extra twenty pounds . . .
priceless
.”

Logan opened his mouth to protest, and Chase held up his hand. “And don't blame Amanda. You and Amanda both created this mess, and I only know one thing. I want my wife back.”

Logan gave a disgusted bark. “I wasn't even going to say that! I was going to say how proud I am of her and how I feel like this is somehow my fault! So why don't you just shut the hell up and take your wife back? Don't you have ways of getting her to cooperate? Isn't there a paddle or a riding crop somewhere with her name on it?” Logan only marginally regretted his words, even though he knew the blow would be considered low. Yes, the Walkers' extracurricular activities were common knowledge, and even sometimes around him they were playful. Those activities were also private and usually not up for discussion, not even with Logan. But Chase had struck a nerve. When exactly
did
Holly become such a touchy subject? Probably around the same time Logan started recalling some joke she told, hours after the fact, and laughing again. That would have been right around the same time he began noticing the faint scent of her sweat mixed with CK One, even when she hadn't been at the gym all day. When he would smile just thinking about the little things she did that were so damn delightful, like the way she would worry her lower lip as he explained something new that they were going to try that sounded extreme. Or the way she would silently bitch out a weight machine with hands waving and fingers pointing when his back was turned, completely unaware he was watching the whole scene taking place in a mirror. The same mirror where he caught her pretending to maniacally stab him multiple times in the back with an imaginary knife while he was picking up the weights he was going to hand her next. That was the same day he admitted that he just enjoyed working more on the days when she was training, or at least he had up until recently, before she became a stark raving vixen. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the same time he stopped wanting to see other girls, opting instead to fantasize about what it would be like to feel Holly writhing and moaning beneath him, wrapping her legs around him while he took her over and over again. One thing was certain: it was time to admit he was in trouble when it came to Holly Brennan. But when Logan returned his attention to his friend, ready to issue an apology, Chase was merely stroking his chin, as if examining his options.

“Paddling her into submission would never work. That's the one thing I didn't consider when I married her. The fact that she likes it almost more than I do. How the hell am I supposed to control that?” Chase gave Logan a grin and they both relaxed.

“I hate that fucking giggle. It's like Holly knows it pisses me off,” Logan griped, returning to the original matter.

Chase joined in with a gripe of his own. “My wife is right, isn't she? This isn't just a game for you anymore. You
do
have a serious thing for her, don't you? Damn. I hate it when she's right. She's never going to let me hear the end of it.”

“And the way she talks to me when she trains now,” Logan said, truly injured. “She read a couple of books and suddenly she's an expert on fitness. Everything's a debate. You know I hate that shit. I went to school for six years. I have a master's, for Christ's sake!”

Then a lightbulb went off above Chase's head.

“You need to spank her.”

Logan laughed so hard he nearly choked, appalled by his friend's audacity. “Are you crazy?” he said scathingly. “That caveman approach might work for you, but all it'll get me is a ride in a police car.”

Chase shook his head. “I'm not talking about beating the woman here. But Holly's only doing all these shenanigans to get your attention. I say, give her some. Plus it'll serve as a small reminder of just what happens to little girls who insist on messing with the big boys.”

Logan shook his head as well. “She's not so little. And you're making her sound like a child who needs to be controlled.”

Chase smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Well, she is sort of acting like one, now, isn't she?”

“Maybe it's from all the time she's spending with your wife.”

“Maybe, and heaven help you if that's true; Amanda has it down to a science. But either way, the brat in her is now present and accounted for. And you sound like you're running out of options. If you don't get a handle on this soon, she's going to walk all over you.”

“You make it sound so reasonable,” Logan said, slightly awed. “And that is actually frightening. I really liked you better before you were liberated, by the way. When you kept all this shit to yourself.”

“You know,” Chase remarked casually, as if Logan hadn't even spoken, “the way you are when it comes to self-discipline and all that crap, I always thought you'd be a natural at convincing a naughty girl she wants to behave. You are totally missing out.”

“I'm not sure this is such a good idea,” Logan said, far from convinced but presuming that seducing Holly wasn't such a good one either.

“I guarantee, after it's over, you'll both feel better,” Chase told him reassuringly.

“I've never spanked a woman in my entire life, Chase.”

“Trust me. You're going to love it. And who knows, maybe she will, too.”

Chapter Fourteen

W
ho was it who said the dumbest plans are hatched from the most reckless of decisions? If it wasn't Logan, it should have been. By the time Holly showed up for her next workout, he was so pumped up by Chase, he had to hold back from grabbing her as soon as she walked through the door. He assumed the stance of a lion getting ready to spring, waiting for his prey to make its final mistake.

She made that mistake within the first ten minutes.

After Holly's warm-up, Logan retrieved eight-pound dumbbells from the rack and brought them over to where she was standing. “Okay, let's start with some alternating lunges combined with hammer curls.”

“You have what, a million dollars' worth of equipment here, and you have me doing more lunges again?” Holly commented drily. “And not for nothing, but I can really handle ten-pounders.”

Logan said nothing and instead dropped the weights and grabbed her arm. He swiftly sat on the nearest bench and, tugging, sent her sprawling over his knees. Before she had an inkling of what was happening, he began spanking, never speaking a word, then stood up, taking her with him, and set her back on her feet.

Promptly, Holly slapped his face.

Shocked puppy eyes met livid green ones. She didn't look turned on or even particularly chastised. She looked mad as hell. She reached around to rub her stinging backside. “Are you nuts? What was
that
about?”

Mortified, Logan rubbed his cheek, her handprint clear against his clean-shaven face. “Guess I didn't do it hard enough.” He tried ruefully to laugh it off.

“If you did it any harder, the only reason you'd be touching your face would be to help you spit your balls out.”

He was grateful she was willing to make light of what was easily one of the most embarrassing moments of his life. The next time Logan saw Chase, he was going to deck him.

Logan decided that at this point, honesty was the best policy. At least partial honesty. Having just manhandled the woman, he figured it probably wasn't the best time to tell her he found her attractive.

“You've been driving me crazy. If you want to start a man collection, I can't do anything about that. But you've been questioning my authority in this gym nonstop for weeks. And not even the usual wise-guy stuff. You're condescending, like I'm one step from being your pool boy. You may be new and improved, but that doesn't make you the educated expert. Even though I technically work for you, when you come through these doors, I am the boss.”

All the anger left her. She had been so busy trying to get him to notice her; she never realized she was turning into the kind of person she herself would get annoyed with. But worse than that, she was making him feel second-rate at his job after all he had helped see her through. It was unacceptable. Her shoulders slumped. “I just wanted to show you how strong I was getting. How grateful I am for all our hard work. I'm really sorry. I never meant to make you feel like that. I was just kidding around.” The gloomy little voice was back, and Logan felt like he'd just been slapped again. He did what he knew he did best: he opened his arms.

“Come here.”

She was hesitant to go to him, for more than one reason. Not only had he just assaulted her, but she wasn't sure a hug from him would be enough. She didn't want this friendship anymore; it wasn't working. She had never counted on becoming addicted to his touch, his very presence. All the attention from other men meant nothing to her, regardless of her pretended interest in it. They were just a measuring tool to compare against. And her being “new and improved” didn't mean anything to him. Holly was finally willing to acknowledge that she'd been doing this all for him—and all he'd been doing was his job. He told her she was driving him crazy, but not the kind of crazy that Amanda made Chase. The way Holly made Logan crazy was akin to her being a nuisance.

With her head down and feet that felt made of lead, Holly took the few steps over to him, filled with embarrassment and shame. As soon as she was wrapped in his arms, heard his heartbeat through his shirt, and smelled his Drakkar Noir, she started to cry. Logan held her tight as she struggled with the fact that she could never express to him precisely why he was the cause of her tears. Like a good friend, he'd kept his promise. He'd helped her break some bad habits. But who the hell was going to break her of
him
? She had to get ahold of herself. When he heard her hiccup several minutes later, he chuckled.

“Guess I can't charge you for this session, can I?”

She laughed weakly and looked up at him. “Guess not. But I'm sure there's something I could see you charged
for
.”

He cupped her face in his hands and tilted it up before smoothing the hair away from it. “I'm really sorry, Holly. I'm not sure when or how this got so out of hand, but I was out of line. Look, I'll make you a deal. No more challenging me during a session. Unless something is hurting you, you do what I say. In turn, if you want to try something new, you tell me before we get started. If it fits in with the plan, we try it. If it doesn't, I'll see if I can work it into your program for the next time.” He added as an afterthought, grabbing the side of his jaw, “And I say we implement a ‘hands-off' policy, because I think you may have shaken a tooth loose.”

Through her tear-filled eyes, Holly giggled. He knew that giggle. It was real.

“We have a deal?” He smiled at her.

“Deal,” she told him, her voice still shaky.

Logan looked down at her, her freckled upturned nose, her green eyes sparkling, lashes still wet. Then his gaze settled on her full rose-colored lips, parted ever so slightly to catch her breath until her stuffy nose cleared. He did the only thing he could think of, the thing he'd wanted to do for way too long. He kissed her.

His warm lips, so tenderly placed on hers, at first were a surprise to Holly, and her mouth formed a tiny “oh” before opening wider to receive his, and the kiss deepened. Her heart accelerated as he aggressively required more, his tongue darting across the corners of her mouth before delving inside, his hands working their way down her back to pull her closer. She allowed his tongue full access to her mouth before gently sucking at his lower lip, her hands looping around his neck, tightening, and without thinking she began to grind against him. He pulled away long enough to smile at her pout and take her hand, leading her over to the blue cushy mats, her heartbeat drumming louder in her ears with every step.

Then his lips returned to the soft skin of her cheek, her ear, her neck. Her hands began an exploration of their own, running from his shoulders down cut lats and delts to his taut buttocks and back again, increasingly daunted by the encumbrance of his clothing. She wanted to touch each and every inch of him, taste every part of him, cherish every moment of him. Impatient, Holly pulled the T-shirt from the waistband of his shorts in an effort to get to his skin.

Logan brought his mouth back to hers, having missed her kiss and wishing he had more than one set of lips. He grabbed the neckline of her T-shirt and gave a forceful tug, ripping it nearly in half.

“You can have mine,” Logan murmured into her mouth, and pulled again, ripping her shirt completely off. Her bra quickly followed.

“I'll take it,” Holly whispered back, leaving his lips just long enough to pull his shirt over his head, exposing his washboard abs, and triumphantly resuming her discovery of the spectacular physique that had obsessed her since she first saw it in his Facebook picture. His skin was smooth and warm, his mouth delicious.

Forcibly he brought them both to their knees and then laid Holly down, swooping his mouth onto hers one more time before making his way to the valley between her ample breasts, his thumb and forefinger toying with already hardened nipples, his hands gently squeezing the lush swells. He suckled, and her sigh bubbled over from his temperate nipping, her fingers traveling up his triceps and reflexively digging in.

He pulled himself away from her and stood. Holly watched, tingling with rapidly escalating arousal, as he pulled off her shoes and sent them flying through the air, landing somewhere in the main gym, before he kicked off his own and removed his shorts. She took in a breath and held it. He was superb, everything she'd ever envisioned, his thick sex already starting to spring up. He stared down at her and licked his lips. Her statue of David had come to life before her and its eyes were burning with desire.

Joining her on the mats, he laid her back down, hooking his fingers into the waistband of her spandex pants. Cool air rushed across an already damp mound as he pulled them off.

She lay before him, exposed and unabashed. Mindless of her imperfections, so consumed by sensations reawakening within her combined with her need to be touched by him again, he was able to explore her freely. Unfamiliar with intimacy combined with extra flesh, he caressed muscle over bones with soft cushioning to protect them, curves leading to valleys of supple, sweet-smelling skin. He felt his control start to fail, eager to taste her, his lips and tongue following where his hands led. Her womanly moans of gratification only pushed at that control, left him wanting more. When he reached the junction of her thighs, she drew her breath in sharply as he pulled back and with his fingers, mercilessly toyed around the velvety rim of what seemed to be her very existence. He inserted two digits inside her, his thumb remaining to tease the sensitive bud hidden just inside her folds. Holly's legs spread wide, her back arched, and her hands pounded on the mat where she lay as his strong manly fingers built a rhythm of slow, sure strokes and measured rubbing until it was clear she was about to come undone.

And then he watched. And felt. Her body stiffened and then lurched, she convulsed around his hand, and his name became an ongoing chant, two syllables on separate heaving breaths. She gave herself to the pleasure without inhibition, not caring that they were on a mat in a gym. She didn't care that the door was unlocked and that they could be interrupted at any moment. She didn't even care that she had stretch marks and love handles and cellulite—he was welcome to witness it all. When she said his name for the last time, in a languorous, spent coo, he felt his erection get painful. He straddled her at the legs, making his way up her rounded body with lavish kisses to her neck, feeling her fingers running through his hair and then coming to rest carelessly on his shoulders.

“Logan?” she said dreamily, vaguely recollecting where she was and what he had just done. “I think I may need some clarification on the hands-off policy.”

“Clarification?” he asked incredulously before capturing her mouth again with his own and spreading her legs with his knee. He picked his head up to look down at her face while driving forcefully into her. “Any questions?”