Mad enough to marry (11 page)

She hadn't slept a wink the previous night and she'd been distracted all day long.

At noon, she'd run from her day job to the high school for a meeting with the senior prom committee. What a waste of time that had been. She couldn't recall a thing they'd decided and she was going to have to remember to abase herself to the ferocious secretary of the conmiittee to get a copy of the meeting minutes ASAP.

For all she knew, she'd volunteered to chaperon, and she'd promised Gabby she'd do anything but that.

Now, here it was, a beautiful May evening, and she was no nearer to a decision regarding Logan. She hesitated at the bottom of the steps leading to the Victorian's wide front porch. Something told her he'd want to know her decision the instant she walked inside.

If only she wasn't such a lousy judge of men! Following the disaster with Logan, she'd steered clear of boys until her senior year in high school. Then she'd spent a few months dating one of those bad-boy types—^no coincidence that he was the exact opposite of Logan—^but he'd abruptly stopped calling when

her grandmother had died and she'd taken on the responsibility of her sister.

Four years later, a burgeoning relationship had fallen to ruins when the man realized Elena didn't have time to play corporate girlfriend, let alone corporate wife.

After that, men hadn't seemed worth the trouble. She'd been a busy woman with a little sister to raise. The men she met never paid any attention to Gabby and they'd hardly seemed interested in Elena herself. They'd only seemed focused on the way she looked.

But Logan...Logan seduced her with his canng.

It frightened her, because his support and strength sounded so appealing. What if she came to depend upon it and then he left her?

And leaving her was exactly what was going to happen. He'd suggested they get close so that they QO\M finish things between them, after all.

Would that really work? Could she spend time with him as a way to achieve a clean ending? It sounded risky, but there was the fact that Elena's best friend was married to his brother. If she and Logan didn't do something about the ever-present tension between them, there would be stressful social situations for years to come.

A warm breeze blew across her face. It smelled like gardenias and it instantly brought to mind Annie's wedding. They'd both carried bouquets of the fragrant, creamy-white flowers, and, as maid of honor, Elena had paraded toward the altar, feeling almost bride-like herself in a long satin dress. She'd dared to

peek at Logan, standing as best man beside his brother, and for a second or two she'd let herself imagine it was her own wedding and she was walking forward to join her life to his.

Oh, that was such a dangerous sort of imagining! And she had to admit she didn't think these fantasies would go away unless she took drastic measures.

Suddenly resolute, Elena placed her foot on the bottom step. Okay. She'd tell him yes. She'd go along with this crazy plan because it sounded marginally better than going crazy wondering what could have been night after night.

His plan seemed the only way she could regain control of her life.

Still, her heart jumped with each step she ascended. The front door was ajar and she pushed it open, suddenly eager to see—

Logan. Logan's arms wrapped around another woman.

She froze, trying to absorb the scene in front of her. It was Cynthia Halstead, Logan's long-time girlfriend. Supposedly they'd been broken up for months, but right now Cynthia appeared to be smiling and weeping at the same time.

A happy woman.

Logan looked up, spotted Elena.

A dead man.

He murmured something to Cynthia, then dropped his arms. **You're back," he said.

Elena lifted her eyebrow. Slowly. It was really, really important to play this well, she told herself, even

though this was the same rat who supposedly wanted her to fall into his arms. **Is that a problem?"

His eyes narrowed. '*No. No problem at all. Cynthia and I were just saying goodbye."

Elena shifted her gaze to the other woman and smiled at her. A genuine, pleased-to-see-you smile.

She hoped.

**Hi, Cynthia. You're not leaving on my account, I hope."

There were still happy tearstains on the blonde's cheeks. She glanced at Logan, back to Elena. '*Oh, no. I've got to get home. Immediately."

Short of video footage showing people fleeing from tornadoes, Elena had never seen anyone move so fast. One moment Cynthia was there, the next she was just a memory of unfairly long legs and Shalimar perfume.

Wearing a bemused expression, Logan looked off in the direction she'd taken. *'Cynthia was never one for confrontation," he murmured. *'We have that in common."

Elena thought of glaciers. The frozen tip of Mount Everest. An ice pick through Logan's heart. Oops. She shouldn't care that much about him, right?

'^Confrontation?" she scoffed. **What on earth are you talking about?"

*'Confronting you. You're angry."

"Not at you." At herself. For being so stupid, so stupid, to think for one second that her luck with men, with Logan would change.

Logan cleared his throat. "Cynthia came over to tell me she's engaged to Nicky LeGrand."

"Uh-huh." The day that former debutante Cynthia Halstead married Nicky "Let Me Care for Your Lawns" LeGrand was the day that Elena married... married... Now was not a good time to think again of weddings and Logan.

She stalked across the foyer toward the stairs and tried to pass him.

He caught her arm. * *rm telling you, she came over to inform me of her engagement."

**Because you certainly don't read the engagement announcements in the newspaper," she said, proud of the cool control in her voice.

**C)f course I don't read the engagement announcements in the newspaper." He blinked. '^Engagements are actually listed in the newspaper?"

'*How should I know?" Unless she'd been reading those particular pages every Sunday for years, searching for Logan's name. Always holding her breath, always expectiDg to find a box with a studio photo of him and an insipid blonde proclaiming their imminent marriage.

Elena looked down her nose at his hand on her arm. *Tlease release me."

*'No."

She tugged. ''Yes."

His jaw tightened and so did his hold on her. *'No."

"Yes."

"No."

'*Yes.'* Their little skirmish might be childish, but still she was glad that she didn't yell, that she didn't

scream, that she kept her voice ice-cube cold. **Let

go."

'*Not until you admit you're jealous.*'

She stiffened. ''What?''

**You're mad that you came home and found me hugging another woman. You're jealous of Cynthia."

**Jealous of that washed-out, stuck-up, stick-figure blonde?" The cold inside Elena was melting fast and she couldn't seem to stop it. **Don't flatter yourself."

He grinned. "I do find it flattering."

Years of hard-wcMi control and hard-edged iciness were on the verge of evaporation. She muttered something.

*'What?" he asked, humor still glinting in his eyes. ''What was that?"

She clung to the remaining slivers of her dignity. *'A very bad Spanish curse word."

He grinned again. **It occurs to me that you wouldn't be so mad if you hadn't come home intending to agree to my plan."

She twisted out of his now-relaxed grasp, then took a tiny step back and widened her eyes in disbeUef. *'Are you still talking about your begin-it-to-end-it plan? Come on, doesn't that sound just a little bit nuts to you after a good night's sleep?" She hoped he assumed she'd slept the slumber of a peaceful baby.

"Maybe, if 'beginning' was at issue," he replied. In the blink of an eye, he reached out to circle her waist with his palms. "But we're already hip-deep, don't you think?"

If she could think at all, she might think she was

in big, big trouble. But Logan's hands slid down to those hips he'd mentioned and when she put her own hands up to fend him off, they didn't do more than rest against his chest. She breathed him in and it was the scent of his expensive aftershave and sawdust and maybe just the slightest hint of...Shalimar.

Remembering she should be mad, she scowled up at him. **Tell me the truth. Are you still seeing Cynthia?"

He shook his head. **No. Cross my heart and hope to woric for my father again. Like I said, she stopped by to tell me about Nicky."

Elena bit her bottom lip, trying to keep her mind on the subject and off his hands. His fingers were splayed across the curves of her bottom, while his thumbs were making lovely, attention-demanding circles just to the inside of her pelvic bones.

She was wearing a long skirt of thin cotton and now she wished she'd worn something thicker, heavier—armor perhaps—that would better protect her from his touch. *'You need to stop that," she said hoarsely.

His nostrils flared. *'Stop what?"

**I can't think."

**That's the idea, honey. I've decided we've both been thinking too much all these years."

But those years had taught her lessons, too. She was much, much warier now. "Even if I do agree to this plan of yours, we first have to negotiate the terms."

He laughed. **You're making it sound like a surrender."

**It isn't?" She lifted an eyebrow. **Or is that point number one, no surrender?"

His eyes narrowed and his laughter abruptly died. 'I'm not following you."

''Yesterday you said you wanted to 'know' me. What does that mean, exactly?"

He shrugged. "That you stop avoid—^hell, that you stop running from me. That you talk to me."

"That's it? No sex?"

Laughter once again warmed his golden eyes. "I'd agree to that, Elena, but we'd both probably make a Uar out of me. However, I'm not obligating you to a single thing you don't feel like sharing with me—^and that includes your body. But I do want some of your time. I'll be content with where things go from there."

"Things" would go straight to sex. She grimaced. "Why is it you sound like the spider?"

"I don't know." His fingers flexed against her backside to draw her closer against him. "Why are you feehng like the fly?"

Its short life span? Could she truly survive spending tune with Logan again? She breathed in his woody, deUcious warmth and raised her gaze from his strong throat to his mouth, and then to his eyes. "You're sure this is the way to end things between us?"

"I'm sure," he answered, but his voice was distracted as his gaze narrowed on her mouth.

Elena swallowed. **You're sure this isn't going to make things between us only more complicated?"

'I'm sure," he murmured, his mouth descending.

She frowned. Was he listening? Did he even know what he was saying? **Are you sure you're willing to be slave to my heart?" she tested, knowing that should wake him up.

*l'm sure," he said against her mouth.

He hadn't been listening obviously, but the kiss was a fine answer. All uncertainty drifted away in the sensation of his tongue slipping between her lips. She stretched upward, pulling him closer at the same time. They stood plastered together, mouth to mouth, pelvis to pelvis, and if Elena had carried a white flag, she would have been waving it with all her might.

He tore his mouth away from hers. '*No." His head shaking, he pushed her a couple of inches away. **It shouldn't go like this. I thought we'd have dinner and then a movie cm- something..."

She wove her fingers through his thick, dark-gold hair. Oh, it was so good to be able to touch him at will. She could do that now, she didn't have to hold herself back, and it was the sweetest of liberties. Her smile felt as if it could light the world. '*Okay."

He cocked his head. **The dinner or the movie or the something?"

She smiled wider. ''Okay."

He groaned and grabbed her close again. "You know, it's too good. Imagine it. This big house and just you and me."

She rabbed her cheek against his chest. '*And Gabby."

*'And Gabby," he repeated.

**Yoo-hoo!" A voice warbled through the front door that wasn't completely closed. **Lo-gan! Logan!"

ELcna. and Logan sprang apart. She glanced at him. **And, um, who else?"

He frowned. **Would you believe...my mother?"

Chapter Eight

l-/Ogan considered barring women from his house. But it was too damn late, because they'd akeady wreaked havoc on his whole day. First Cynthia, then Elena—^who admittedly wreaked havoc on him no matter where she was—and now...now his mother.

He set her matching pieces of luggage at the bottom of the staircase leading to the upper floors and studied her habitually serene face. *'Mom, not that I don't love you and everything, but why are you moving in with me?''

She smoothed her silver-blond hair away from her face, then straightened the sleeve of her silk blouse so it rode the edge of her platinum-and-diamond watch. **I explained that to you. I can't Uve with your father right now."

As much as he sympathized with the sentiment, his mother still wasn't making sense. *'Sure, Mom, but there are hotels. Your house in Hawaii. That new resort just outside of town."

His mother's chin firmed. Strange, he'd never seen her look so stubborn. **Are you saying I'm not welcome here?"

**Jeez, Mom, of course not." He mentally rolled his eyes and tried not to look at Elena, who was standing above him on the landing. God forbid he tangle with another prickly female today. **It's just that my apartment isn't very big and Elena and Gabby are in the free one for the time being."

His mother lifted her manicured hand in a movement that was at once languid and commanding. *Take them up, Logan, dear."

Cursing inwardly, he regathered her suitcases and started up the stairs. He passed Elena on the landing and bared his teeth at her in what he hoped his mother would mistake for a smile. *'This is your fault," he muttered.

**How could you say no?" she whispered back. * *She' s your mother. ''

He didn't care if she was the mother of all mankind. If it had been left up to him, he would have seen her settled in the penthouse suite at the Bay Inn. But while his mother had been explaining she'd left the estate and wanted to move into the Victorian, Elena had been looking at him with those wide blue eyes of hers. He'd thought of all that she'd done for