Mad enough to marry (13 page)

The small lamp on the floor of the near-empty Uv-ing room was glowing, but its Hght was only enough to warm the night-time shadows. She glowered at Logan, hoping that if he couldn't see her displeasure he would at least feel it. '*You're going to pay."

'T've been counting on it.*'

Ooooh, he was still laughing at her. **You better be careful. There's no one to come to your rescue. Gabby's spending the night at a friend's."

**I know." The laughter was absorbed by a new, very male heaviness in his voice. **Why do you think I was downstairs? I didn't want to risk you getting by me tonight, not when we have a chance to be alone."

Elena swallowed, the fight inside her dying. When they had a chance to go to bed together, he meant. Both anticipation and nervousness rippled through her. **Oh, Logan."

He reached out to cup her cheek in his palm. '*We don't have to. I really didn't mean to rush right into that—^into it." His thumb caressed her mouth. "But this httle feature packs a wallop when you want it to. I'm so homy I can't see straight."

**Logan..."

**Hell, I'm sorry to be crude.*' His laugh sounded a bit rueful now. **Maybe I should go along to my own apartment."

**Don't you dare," Elena heard herself say. And she was glad, so glad.

He was here, half-naked, and hers...at least for the night. Only an idiot would send him away now. Except—

**Do you...do you have a condom?" she whispered, feeling herself go hot all over.

Without a word, he sUd both hands into the front pockets of his jeans to pull out a wealth of foil-wrapped packets.

A nervous giggle popped out of her mouth, even as her face went hotter. "So many?"

He levied close, his voice low and sheepish. '*The truth is, I didn't want my mother to find them. It's my entire stash."

She'd forgotten his mother! **Oh, Logan. Your mother—"

*'Won't hear or know a thing. Her bedroom is on the opposite side of my apartment from the bedrooms in this one."

Elena hesitated. *'I don't know. I'm not sure if I can forget—"

*'Why don't you let me worry about that?" He stuffed the condoms away and drew her near his naked chest. One hand tilted up her chin and he brushed his mouth against hers. Back. Forth.

She shivered. **There's something else," she said against his mouth.

''Nothing." He hugged her, turning her cheek against his chest.

Elena couldn't help but shift her head to put her lips to his hot flesh. He smelled deUcious, and she skimmed the tip of her nose over his chest, mmming in appreciation. There was something else, she thought vaguely. Something to think about, to tell him. Something she needed to do...?

Her head lifted, only to find his mouth waiting for hers. The kiss was gentle, a beginning, a slow exploration knowing that there was time for everything tonight.

Still, despite the pleasure running through her and the ratcheting level of desire in her blood, that last thought continued niggling at her.

"Logan—"

"Shh. Don't talk. Don't say another word." His mouth came down on hers, hard, deliberate, delirium-inducing.

Elena let him have her.

Chapter Nine

JLogan didn't want Elena to say anything at all. Talking could lead to trouble. Talking could lead to stopping.

And if he was going to retain any shred of male dignity, he had to get her naked and get inside her. He'd manage foreplay—^hell, he'd been fantasizing about foreplay with Elena for days, weeks, months— but he had to get on the straight track to satisfaction or else.

Or else this nice little case of lust he had going would transform into a roaring, howUng beast he didn't know how to leash.

He didn't even know what to call the feeUng, but Elena brought it to snarUng Ufe inside him.

Taming it the only way he knew how, by feeding

its hunger for Elena, Logan slid his tongue deeper into her mouth. At the same time, he pulled her shirt from the waistband of her skirt. His hands were shaking, his fingers like clumsy paws, but he managed to unfasten the tiny buttons marching up its front

Her moan was soft and sweet when his palms skimmed her bare shoulders as he drew the shirt away. Needing to catch his breath, he lifted his head and looked down, only to lose all his air again. Wearing a short dark skirt and a lacy white bra that half bared the plump mounds of her breasts, Elena looked like a French maid fantasy come to Hfe.

Standing in the dim room before him, her eyes were wide pools and her mouth was reddened and swollen from his kisses. She looked exotic, erotic, like every dark desire and every dark need he wanted to pretend wasn't inside a civihzed man like himself.

That desire, that need, they were the beast, and as he looked at Elena it flexed its claws, digging deep, part-pleasure, part-pain.

**Take it off," he heard himself say in a harsh voice. He didn't trust himself to touch her right now.

*'Logan..."

She was getting ready to talk again. He sucked in a quick breath, trying to keep control. ' Take your bra off."

Then she smiled, secret, seductive, and it stroked the wildness inside of him. "All right." Her hand lifted to toy with the front clasp of her bra.

He couldn't look away. His focus narrowed to her slim, scarlet-tipped forefinger and the tiny circles it

was making on the bra's fastening. A flick of her thumb and she would spill out of those lacy cups. A flick of her thumb and he could let her spill into his palms or into his mouth.

*Take it off,'* he whispered hoarsely.

Elena smiled again. "I will. Soon."

Fisting his hands at his sides, he shook his head. *'Don't tease me."

She gave him a look through her sweep of lashes that said teasing was exactly what she wanted to do. Logan dug his nails into his palms, holding on, holding out against the need to touch, grab, take. Desire burned like hot breath over his skin as he tried to find an ounce of the urbanity that usually defined him.

She wouldn't recognize the man she made him into. He didn't recognize himself. But it was too late to pull back.

The electronic beep of a watch alarm penetrated his consciousness. Frowning, Elena stilled.

*'Oh, no," she said, touching the watch on her wrist. **I knew there was something I had to tell you."

Blood pounded through his body. "Nothing's going to stop what's happening here."

*'Just a postponement," she said breezily, then turned away.

*'Elena!" He lunged for her, and missed, thank God, before he could scare the hell out of her and embarrass himself.

She bent over her tote bag that was sitting on the floor by the front door. Though Lx)gan had stopped himself from grabbing her, he couldn't stop his gaze

from climbing the length of the back of her thigh, the round curve of her butt. Then it dropped down the sweep of her spine and around to her breasts, their weight confined by tiie bra.

He wanted them free.

**Elena...''

She straightened and he tried to pretend what he saw in her hands wasn't there. But, hell, there was no denying that she was clasping that damn shoebox-crib that held her eggs-assignment.

''No." He shook his head. "Not tonight."

Her lips twitched as her eyes opened wide with innocence. "It takes just a few minutes to feed them and put them back to sleep."

The beast was clawing at him, demanding even louder to be released. "Unless you want a plate of scrambled eggs before sex, Elena, you will very, very carefully put that box somewhere safe and sound."

She smiled again, then tossed the box, not even looking to see where it landed.

Startled, he took an automatic step toward it himself.

"Don't bother," Elena caUed softly. "Gabby's babysitting for me tonight."

His gaze jerked back to her face. "Then the interruption—"

"Was payback." She made a big show of yawning, ending with a dainty pat of her hand over her mouth. "For that."

Payback. Teasing.

Torment.

She had no idea of the man or the mood she was playing with. It should have checked him, that naivete, but instead it only goaded him further.

*'No more games," he said flatly, holding out his hand. "Come here."

Elena stilled, a frown between her arched eyebrows. She looked apprehensive.

Good. Someone had to take care, and, after all these years, he knew it wouldn't be him. He'd avoided her, avoided this very situation, since she was sixteen years old. He'd sensed then the reckless wild-ness lurking inside him. The wildness only she seemed to bring alive.

Eleven years ago, it had scared the hell out of him and he'd not wanted to scare the hell out of her. But they were years older and way, way past the stopping point now.

**Come here."

Elena slowly moved toward him.

'It's all right," he reassured her. And it was, now that she was coming closer. He could keep the beast at bay as long as he had her near and as long as he knew he would have her soon.

When she was an arm's reach away, he was able to gently draw her close. The driving need inside him subsided from a roar to a purr and he reveled at the feel of her bare skin against his. He rested his cheek against the top of her head. **It's all right," he repeated, reassuring them both.

Then he edged her away and gently unfastened her bra. Without even looking at her breasts, he brought

her back against his bare chest and drew the undergarment away.

She shivered.

He closed his eyes, savoring the smooth heat of her skin and the soft poke of her hardened nipples against his chest. His hands ran down her back, soothing, soothing, as the exotic scent of sun-soaked flowers rose off her flesh.

With the prize of her naked skin and her perfumed scent, the beast inside him quieted. Logan tugged on the ends of Elena's hair to coax her head back and he kissed her again. Gentle too, but thorough, his tongue exploring the undersides of her lips, then moving in to sweep across her own tongue.

Elena made small sounds at the back of her throat and moved her body restlessly, her tight nipples rubbing against his chest. Logan's body went harder, but her obvious, growing excitement gave him the power to keep his own desires in check.

If he took Elena out of control, he thought, he could keep himself under control.

He broke the kiss only to rain kisses down her throat. She bowed in his arms and he took the invitation for what it was—^he feasted on her breasts.

But slowly there, too. First licking around them, and under them, tickhng the crease beneath the plump curves with little flicks of his tongue. Elena clutched his head with her hands, and when her nails bit into his scalp he let his mouth move to her nipple and suck it inside.

Her body shuddered. He held her, his thumbs under

her breasts, his fingers splayed across her back and brought her to his mouth at his will. He was greedy in his enjoyment of her, sucking slow and gentle, then increasing the pressure to draw as much of her into his mouth as he could.

Edging away, he paused to admire. She looked dazed, her eyes half-open but almost all pupil. Her fast breaths caused her breasts to rise and fall, rise and fall, the tips berry-red and wet from his mouth.

**Please, Logan," she whispered.

He smiled, still calm because she wasn't, and sUd his thumbs up the curves of her lower breasts to brush over the distended nipples, back and forth. **Please what, honey?" Back and forth again.

She sUd her hands from his waist to his chest. His erection ached as she inched her way along his skin. **Just...please." The pads of her thumbs stroked across his own hard nipples.

He jerked. Her gaze on his face, she stroked again. Calmness fled.

'*Enough." He didn't recognize his own voice, but he recognized the impetus—^the beast—^that spurred him to lift her into his arms. *'Time for bed."

*'Futon." A little smile tugged the comers of her hps. *1 left the bed back at my house and only have a futon here."

Bed, futon, countertop, card table. It didn't matter what the surface was, as long as it was horizontal. He strode down the three-door hallway and shoved a door open with his foot.

''Cabby's room."

Groaning aloud, he spun and used his shoulder to push open the door across the hall. The room was dark, a sHce of moonlight the only illumination. The full-size futon was positioned left-center. Logan felt a brief pang of regret at the thought of his king-size mattress and box springs, but then he breathed in, he breathed in the scent of Elena that filled the room, and nothing else mattered but her.

He needed to touch her, get close to her, rub himself in her essence. It was an instinct, an obsession, the beast reasserting itself again, and Lx)gan's hands shook with its influence as he laid her down on her back. He immediately knelt beside her, determined to have her naked. Now.

She helped. It was as if she needed herself bared to him. In moments she was lying on the sheets covering the futon, her body uncovered.

Her body his.

Logan felt her hands at the buttons of his jeans and he brushed them away. ''Not yet."

The moonlight lent a silver edge to her creamy curves. Her navel was a shadowed, sexy dimple. He leaned over to test it with his tongue. She flinched, and he held her still with his palm flattened against her lower belly.

He tongued her navel again, the shallow penetration satisfying only in that it was another taste of Elena. She moaned and he praised the sound by edging his pinky into the curling hair at the V of her thighs.

The scent of hot flowers rose around him.

He felt her hand at his waistband again, and again he impatiently brushed it away. Didn't she understand? The only way to subdue the clamoring, ravenous need inside him was to give it litde tastes of her at a tune.

He took another, running his mouth down her thighs then shifting to gently bite the skin over her knee. She reacted perfectly, moaning with pleasure even as she instinctively edged away from the strange touch by drawing her knee up and out.

He did the same with the other knee.

And so did she.

Her open knees also opened her thighs. He stroked his palms up the insides of them, toward the tantalizing place that was his.