Logan's Woman (4 page)

This was one of those times.

Logan stared at her. “No.”

“No? Why not? You have plenty of room in that
ole ranch house of yours and I bet you could use some help around
the ranch.”

He shook his head. One, he had no desire to
have the blonde on his ranch. Two, Darla was insane. Three, he
already had enough ranch hands that he didn’t need any other help.
It would look bad for both of them if he just suddenly let a
beautiful new blonde woman stay at his house. Not only would it
tarnish her reputation, it would make her look bad in town.
Especially since she was staying at a rundown hotel and his house
was anything but. She would look like a gold digger, just like his
last wife.

“Logan, c’mon! She seems like a sweet heart.
She can’t be staying at that hotel for months on end. It just isn’t
right.”

“It’s her own problem,” he said, outwardly
indifferent but inwardly agreeing. “She chose to stay there, so she
can deal with it. If she wants to leave then she can. I won’t be
putting my leg out for her though. She’s a stranger.”

Darla sighed, shaking her head.

“Your mother would take in people all of the
time. Why can’t you just this once? I don’t think anyone except
your handyman’s have been there in years. You don’t even let
businessmen over!”

“Why would I let them over, anyways?
They all act like they have saddles stuck up their asses,” he said,
annoyed. In all honestly, though, he had no idea why he hated
people coming to his ranch. Maybe it was Christina, his ex-wife’s
fault. After he’d found her in bed with another man, she’d tried to
strip him of his money
and
his ranch’s title.

He pushed the thoughts away and stood up,
putting a five on the table for the coffee he’d poured for
himself.

“Now, listen here, Logan,” Darla said, raising
a finger to his face, which was almost one and a half feet higher
than her head. “Your mother put a good name to that ranch, and she
would have loved that you would let a travelling woman stay with
you as an act of kindness. There used to be all sorts of people
running around that ranch, and now there is no one. I won’t let up
bugging you about this until you invite her over for dinner, at the
least. She is a sweet girl, I can tell that much. Our new Claire
doesn’t deserve to put up with Gerry and his ever-peeking eyes. Do
you imagine that he’s rummaging through her things right this
moment? It’s been reported in the past,” she said firmly, now close
enough that she was stabbing her nail into his chest.

Logan looked down at her, letting her words
sink in.

Then he shrugged, wrapping an arm around her in
a short hug and kissing her forehead. “I’ll think about it,
Darla.”

“Oh, you better! Because I won’t
leave you alone about it until you
do!
” Then she stomped away, into the
kitchen.

Amused at her antics but not at her intentions,
he pushed his hat onto his head and walked out of the diner,
debating with himself mentally.

Chapter 3

It was a week before Claire and Logan saw each
other again. She only made trips during the day when it was almost
noon, hoping she would get a glance at the dark cowboy, and hoping
that she could avoid him as well. She couldn’t explain her
reasoning and she really didn’t want to try. Claire was content to
just get a glimpse of him and then go back to the hotel.

There wasn’t anything else do to.

She avoided the diner and Darla, and avoided
the six bickering women that always managed to find her and ask her
questions. It took a couple of days for her to learn their route,
but when she did, she never saw them again. The pharmacy had her
pills ready for her at the end of the week, and she’d made sure to
stay use the false identity she’d gotten from her cousin. When the
pharmacist had asked why the names on the prescriptions were
different, she explained that she had a relative nearby that had
recently been diagnosed with anxiety and Claire was there to get
the pills for her so she could save the relative an hour-long
trip.

It was a poor lie, but it had worked. He hadn’t
really cared that much, either, though. It had been two days since
she’d taken her pills. Claire was just ringing up at the pharmacy
counter when the door opening and a breeze catching her skirt made
her look over her shoulder.

For a second, she didn’t notice who was in the
door. But when she did, she double-took and met the intense, heated
stare of Logan.

She swallowed, quickly shoving the prescription
bag and receipt into her backpack, which was sitting on the
counter.

“Hello, Mr. Marshal!” the pharmacist greeted.
“I got that prescription ready for you right here. How is Jessie
doing?”

Jessie?

Logan came up beside her, close enough that it
seemed he didn’t even notice she was standing there. He did though.
She could feel his eyes on her as she packed up her things and
tried to make a getaway.

“She’s doing alright. Her colic has gone away
so she should be good soon. Just a bit more resting and she should
be good to ride.”

Uhm, ride?

Despite herself, Claire looked at him with
dubious eyes.

Logan caught her look and surprisingly said
something to her. When he spoke to her, lowering his mouth close to
her ear, she shivered. “She’s my new mare. I got her overseas and
the poor handling on her trip gave her colic.”

Claire nodded, not hearing a word he was
saying. She was more focused on the fact that his hot breath was
feathering across her cheek and ear. Her fingers wrapped around her
backpack strap tightly and she struggled to hide how affected she
was by him.

He straightened and grabbed the bag that the
pharmacist set on the counter.

“Thanks, Charlie. I’ll see you
later.”

“Alright! If you need anything, you know who to
call.”

Logan tipped his hat at the Charlie, and kept
eyes with Claire. Her breath caught at the intense look in his eye
and then, before she could do anything, he left them.

Claire was silent for a second, nerves on fire
and her mind working overtime to sort out her thoughts.

“Well,” Charlie started, leaning
across the counter. “I think
he
”--he stabbed a finger at Logan’s
receding back --”likes
you
.” He turned that finger to Claire
and she tried not to laugh nervously at the smartness in his
voice.

“He never pays any attention to the girls
around here.”

Claire bit her lip, looking at her backpack as
he continued to talk.

“You must be mighty special, Ms.
Brady.”

His laugh rang in her ears while she almost ran
from the pharmacy.

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

Logan climbed into his pickup, setting the
prescription on the passenger seat and turning the key in the
ignition. The encounter with Claire had been...shocking.

Even now, five minutes after, his
body was still affected and raging with desire. He shouldn’t have
bent to her ear. His mind had been screaming at him not to, his
common sense almost beating him into the dirt, but he hadn’t been
able to stop himself. Her hair had been down around her shoulders,
so long that it reached the small of her back. The soft strands had
literally
glown
and
it had been hard to keep from touching them.

He leant his head against the seat, letting out
a hot breath. God, the way she’d smelled. When her scent had caught
him, he’d immediately thought of soothing waterfalls and jungles
and happiness. His eyes closed.

Claire was gorgeous. He tried to be angry at
his attraction to her, but he simply couldn’t. For a week, he’d
wake up and had found a reason to go into town. She looked like she
was an early riser and he would find a reason to go into almost
every store, just to get a glimpse of her and ask if she wanted to
come to dinner.

When he’d seen her in the pharmacy, though,
thoughts of dinner had immediately been replaced with thoughts of
taking her to his bed and exploring every inch of her body. He
wanted to know what she liked, what would make her moan or whimper
or scream.

The whole entire week, the more
he
didn’t
see her,
the more he wanted to see her.

Naked.

On black silk sheets.

With her hair spread over
his
pillows and
his
hands caressing her
body.

Seeing her in there had been the worst thing
that could have happened, but also the sweetest. Speaking no more
than twice to her had made him want her more , at least that’s what
he assumed. An desire this quick was unnatural, but he hated how
set against it he had been in the beginning.

His talk with Darla had made him
think.

Claire was beautiful. She was new. She was
going to leave soon. He had no ties to her at all, and no reason to
be worried about their reputations if she was going to be gone soon
anyways. Logan hadn’t had a women in his bed since his ex-wife had
been found with another man.

If he had no ties with Claire, he
didn’t have to worry about her cheating on him or trying to cling
to him afterwards. And he
knew
she felt the same way as he did – what did she
have to lose in acting on it?

A little romancing, some movies and
dinner, and he could have her for the time that she was here. He
would make it apparent that he wanted nothing
but
their shared pleasure, and that
was it. Anything else was off-limits.

The thought had only been an idea, but that was
before he’d seen her reaction to him. Now he desperately wanted to
act on it, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

Right now.

He turned off the truck and slammed the door
shut, intent on finding her before she retreated into the run-down
hotel she was staying at.

It was getting dark out, so not many people
were on the streets.

He walked along the sidewalk with his hands in
his pockets, looking into the stores or down allies, until he began
to think she’d already gone to the hotel for the night.

There was always tomorrow, he told
himself.

Between angry at himself and frustrated that
he’d missed his chance and would most likely have to wait another
week, he turned towards his car.

“Get
away
--”

Logan heard the shuffling and the muffled
struggles.

Claire’s voice.

He turned in the direction that he’d heard it
from and ran, but not far.

What he found was the epitome of disgusting. A
fat, short figure had Claire pressed against the outer wall of the
pharmacy. No one was around except the three of them.

Claire saw him, and he could see the shine of
tears in her eyes from where he stood.

Gerry didn’t notice him coming from behind
until Logan had a large hand wrapped around his throat,
squeezing.

“I don’t think she likes that,” Logan said
softly, slowly pulling Gerry back from her as he tightened his grip
around the fat man’s neck. Gerry’s eyes were wide and his bulging
face was red and splotchy.

“No, you don’t un-- understand! She came --
onto me. Yeah she came onto me!” he gasped out, pointing a finger
at Claire, who was on the ground, curled against the wall. Her
shoulders were shaking and her head was lowered.

Logan was furious. Using one hand to hold the
fucker still, he brought his other up and grabbed his hair. With
barely any exertion, he slammed Gerry’s face into the wall beside
him, pressing him there. “It didn’t look like that to me,
Gerry.”

“I -- I swear it, Logan! I didn’t do anything
wro--”

Logan rammed his knee up Gerry’s middle, moving
the hand that had been around the man’s throat to cover his mouth,
also blocking his nose.

He could feel rage boiling inside of him. It
was so hot and strong, he felt burned by it. His fists were ready
to beat into Gerry and everything breath the guy made was a
countdown to how many he had left. Logan growled, hating the sound
of Claire’s soft cries from behind him.

“Fucking touch
any
one like that again, and I will put
you so far under that even the Devil won’t know where you went.
Understand me?” he snarled, shoving his face harder into the brick
wall. Gerry whimpered, trying to nod. Logan didn’t let him.
“
Do you
?”

“Yes, yes! Just -- Just let me go,” he begged,
starting to sob.

Logan let him go, and Gerry slumped to the
ground.

He knelt in front of him and said
softly enough that Claire couldn’t hear him, “The only reason you
aren’t dead right now is because Claire is here. Next time I see
you, though, I
will
finish this.”