Logan's Woman (2 page)

Her suite had a balcony and the skies were
clear. Since there wasn’t any place that she could think to hide
her suitcase that he wouldn’t know, she decided on the most random
and probably most risky place there was.

She shoved open the balcony door and looked
around. There were curtains on both side, and on the left side of
the door, there was enough space by the stone wall that you
wouldn’t be able to see the suitcase if she shoved it close enough
to the railing.

That’s exactly what she did. She didn’t think
there was going to be any bad weather, and if there was, her
suitcase was weather-proof, X-Storm Under Armor, custom made at the
request of the cousin that had set up the account for
her.

At the thought of all the help her
cousin had given her and was still prepared to, she thought of
Preston with a smile on her face. He
was
distant, to their blood relations.
But he was always around, always teasing her.

She’d been an only child and he had been the
same as a big brother whenever he visited.

Hopefully soon, she would be able to see him,
her father would be safe in office, and everything would be back to
normal without the threat of his enemies.

With that thought in mind, she made sure there
were some things set in front of her suitcase, closed the balcony
door, grabbed her backpack, and walked out of the door. Hopefully,
the hotel owner wouldn’t be around on her way out. She really
didn’t feel like dealing with him, and she had a lot of shopping to
do.

---------------------------------------------------------

“Who is that?”

“What is she doing here?”

“Why is she so frumpy looking?”

“What do you think she washes her hair
with?”

“Is she married?”

Logan walked out of the hardware shop to a
bunch of women whispering to each other not-so-quietly. He shook
his head when he got a look at their faces.

The group of women were notorious for starting
rumors, speculating about everything and everyone, and making it
their business to know who and what was going on in their small
town in Texas.

Logan didn’t mind, as long as they kept their
rumors away from him, but felt sorry for their newest
victim.

“I bet she has a child -- a runaway from an
abusive boyfriend!” Millicent, the youngest, said. She didn’t
bother to keep her voice down. Logan stuck around the hardware
door, listening bleakly for some reason he didn’t know.

“A boyfriend? Why not a husband?” May asked,
intrigued. She was the oldest, and probably the slowest, of them
all.

“Well, having a child out of wedlock
is scandalous indeed. Only a women with a dark past like
that
would come to a town
like
this
,”
supplied Molly, nodding smartly.

“Oh, smart thinking! And I bet her
mother...”

Logan shook his head, walking past
them.

They noticed him in an instant. “Logan! Oh,
Logan, come here!”

He almost didn’t listen to Mildred’s excited
call, knowing nothing good came from talking to her or anyone in
that group.

“Don’t be such a mean-hearted man,” she
chastised, waving him over.

“What do you want?” he asked
indifferently, barely turning his head to look at her as he slowed
his gate down the sidewalk. He really wanted nothing more than to
climb into his truck and get back to his ranch. He had fences to
mend before the cold weather started to hit them, and he couldn’t
risk one of his cows getting out,
or
getting cut up while trying to escape.

“Come look at her,” two of them whispered,
while the other four nodded their heads fervently before looking
over their shoulders.

Logan was about to ignore them and get on his
way to his ranch when a glare caught his eye. He put his hand up,
but paused mid-way when a store bell chimed and out
walked...someone.

Or something.

Whatever was walking out of the door wasn’t
human -- it couldn’t be.

Nothing that beautiful and pure could be human,
it just wasn’t plausible.

Her hair was golden wheat in the
sunlight, catching every single ray and drawing vibrant colors,
causing her hair to almost shimmer around a face too perfectly and
elegantly shaped, it was an amazement that she wasn’t somewhere in
heaven. Her lips were lush, bow-shaped and looking as kissable as
anything else ever had. Bright blue eyes, surrounded by pale lashes
and thinly arched eye brows, were barely visible under her bangs,
but nothing could detract from how strong and utterly beautiful
they were. She had on sweats and a sweatshirt, but that did
nothing
to stop his
imagination from running rampant. Her hips were curvy, and even
with the sweatshirt on, you could tell she had amazing breasts,
enough to fill his hands and then some. Her shoulders were
straight, standing as tall and proudly as she could, yet she was
tiny -- at least compared to him.

His hand dropped to his side, yet he couldn’t
make his eyes leave her. The door to the store she had just walked
out of closed, and the six bickering woman were oddly quiet as they
looked between the girl and him with bird-like eyes.

Unconsciously, not knowing what he was doing,
Logan took a step forward.

The breath had been sucked out of his lungs. He
swore that all of the blood he contained in his body dropped to his
groin, and everything except the woman was washed in darkness. He
was completely and totally unaware and unguarded. If someone had
come up to him and punched him, he probably wouldn’t have noticed.
In fact, someone could have stabbed him and he would have stayed
completely still, eyes locked on the blonde.

Her eyes met with his.

Yeah, talk about someone punching him in the
stomach.

Just looking at the woman knocked his breath
out.

And, for some reason, it made him
furious.

Her big blue eyes were locked on him, just as
his were. Innocence and fear were plainly visible, and a rough
growl tore through his chest before he forced himself to turn away
from the woman, and stalk to his car, which was fortunately on the
opposite side of where she was.

The gossiping women were in a large
uproar now, demanding he come back to speak to them and even
telling each
other
over their friend’s voices assumptions about the
incident.

Logan felt a burn in his chest. Great, because
he had noticed a new girl in town, he was going to be the talk of
it for weeks, probably months. He could feel her eyes burning into
his back as he twisted the key into the ignition, and despite
himself, turned in time to see her eyes lowering to the ground and
her shoulders curling.

It was hard to tell himself that he didn’t care
whether she was upset by the rude “welcome” or not, but he
managed.

He didn’t know this women, and he had no
intention to.

And he also swore not to say a word to her if
he saw her again.

Nothing good could come out of an attraction
that strong. His first wife had been proof of that.

Bitterness seeped through him and he started
down the road, to the one solace he had ever had before.

Chapter 2

Claire was shocked to her soul.

What the hell had just happened?

One second she had been walking out of the
pharmacy, the next she’d been thrown into a whole new world of
grey.

A grey so vivid, it was like silver, wrapping
around her body and heart, tugging at her desires. His eyes had
been surrounded by thick black lashes, and set above high
cheekbones that were perfectly aligned with an amazingly strong
jaw.

Her heart had stopped, then went
right into overdrive. She had barely gotten time to look at him
when he’d been storming away, but what she’d seen had been enough
to pique her curiosity
and
her normally submissive desires.

His body was perfection. Tall, nearly a foot
higher than her, with wide shoulders that she could picture herself
cuddling against in front of a fire with a book in her hand, and
long legs encased in dark jeans. She could bet he hadn’t been
aiming for a fashion statement in those dark jeans and brown cowboy
boots, but damn she could barely keep herself from swooning. He’d
had on a brown Staten to match his boots, so it had been hard to
see the color of his hair, but she’d seen the back of his nape and
knew he had black as midnight hair, or a very dark
brown.

He was beautiful. Dangerously, enticingly,
beautiful.

And off limits. Her shoulders dropped slightly.
Even if he wasn’t, she obviously wasn’t his cup of tea. The way he
had stared at her while leaving as a good enough testament to
that.

Pushing her hair back off her shoulders, she
was just about to go into an adjoining store, but was stopped by
six old women, all with white hair, and all with wide, watching
eyes.

She grimaced.

“You and Logan have met, haven’t you?” asked
one, while another came forward to peer up at her.

“Logan?” She was confused, and backing away
from them.

“Oh, yes, yes. Logan Marshal! Of
course you know him,” cooed a different old woman, patting her
hand. “But what on earth did you do to make him so angry? I’ve
never seen him look at a woman like
that
before.”

Her brows lowered, confused. These old women
were fluttering around her, touching her hair, asking her questions
after the main speaker did, and she was expected to know what she’d
done to piss off a virtual stranger?

Claire’s face started to flame. She backed away
from them. “Uh, listen --I have things that I need to get
done...”

They waved their hands at her, laughing at her
feeble attempts to get away.

“Hush, dear. We just want to have a little
chat.” The way that was said to her instantly put her on guard. One
of the women’s eyes, in the far back of the group, was sly. Like a
cat waiting for milk, she thought with instant guard.

“I can’t. Sorry,” she said evasively, before
going into the store and praying that they stayed outside of the
store.

They did, and walked down the sidewalk with
their voices hushed. She felt as if she’d just made big mistake and
she had no idea what to do about it.

She paid attention to what she needed for her
stay here, instead of going over what had happened. It was over and
she couldn’t do anything about it.

Claire had always had an aversion to
hotel pillows. Something about how stiff and
used
they were bugged her.

She’d realized on her way here that she’d have
a problem full-out shopping. The elevator at the hotel was broke,
and she would have to walk up the stairs. She couldn’t do that with
hands full of bags, and plus, she wanted a least one free hand to
fend off Gerry if he came up to her, which she had no doubt he
would since he’d tried while she was leaving.

There were shampoo bottles at the hotel that
she could use, so she had decided to make this trip about pillows
and bedding. She would eat out tonight and then get food tomorrow,
and then shampoo’s and conditioner's the next day.

She also decided that it was a good idea that
she was spreading out her shopping. If she was lucky, a lot of
people wouldn’t notice her single-trip days and no one would be
aware that she was even here.

Except for the man...she had a feeling that he
had noticed her.

A lot.

Her face heated again as she went through the
isles of the bed and bath store, looking to see if they would have
her favorite brand of pillows. Of course, though, they didn’t. The
brand that she liked was expensive, one her father always had to
order in for her.

She picked the best she could, trying to hide
her disappointment. She asked the store owner if she could hold the
pillows for her while she went out to dinner. It would be smarter
to eat and then purchase them, so that she wasn’t carrying around a
bag of pillows while she tried to find a place to eat.

Nodding to herself as she began out of the
small, cozy store with lower ceilings and carpet floors, she was
shocked at how late it had gotten.

When she’d began her shopping and private tour
of the small town where everyone seemed to know everyone else, it
had been bright with the sun still in the sky. Only two hours later
and it was starting to set.

She looked to the sky, and her eyes widened. It
was so beautiful. The blues of the sky had been replaced by soft
purples and oranges, and the lines of clouds streaked across the
skies like flags. The sun was a deep red and it took her breath
away.

Feeling warm inside, almost forgetting about
why she was there in the first place, she started to walk around
again, looking for a diner and sometimes at the sky. The darker it
got, the more violet it got.