Mad enough to marry (18 page)

That thought had her struggHng finally to break free of Logan's lap, but his arms only tightened around her. She settled back against his chest for a moment, forced to close her eyes against the sweetness of that close embrace.

She must be out of tears, right? But she squeezed her eyes tight anyway, unwilling to take the chance that he would guess she could be so silly, so weak, as to cry over him.

As it was, he had to find her and all this weepiness, this neediness, fooHsh.

She'd confessed that Gabby called her cold-hearted.

She'd apologized to Logan for messing things up between them.

Oh, God. He must be embarrassed for her. She was embarrassed for herself.

Now desperate to regain her dignity, she pushed away from his chest and tried drying her face with her palms. ^Tm fine now," she said. **You can let me go."

"You're fine now," Logan repeated slowly, something unfamiUar coming to life in his eyes. "I can let you go."

A httle spooked, she made to move completely off him, but was once again caught, his hands gripping her arms. "Yeah, fine." She swallowed, even trying on what felt like a weak smile. "Sorry that I did the tear thing all over you, but I'm really okay."

His nostrils flared and his palms seemed to bum against the flesh of her arms.

Spooked again, she looked away. She had to clear her mind, think of Gabby, reaUze that Logan's embrace, Logan's heat wasn't necessary to her. "Just tired," she mumbled again, more to herself than him. "Tired but fi—"

"Shut up," Logan said. "For once just shut up." Then he yanked her forward to take her mouth.

Elena's brains scrambled. The kiss was devastating. No persuasive softness, no seductive brush of lip on lip, just his mouth pushing hers open, seeking her tongue, her taste. Her nipples tightened in a rush. A shudder raced down her back, goose bumps ran the same path. Oh, she needed this too.

She leaned into the kiss, there was no helping herself, taking his desire as she'd taken his comfort, with her heart open.

But then she found herself jerking back, some self-protective instinct still breathing inside her. / can't. Her feet scuffed against the polished hardwood floor, trying to find purchase. / can*t do this now.

Not when her emotions were riding so close to the surface. Not when her heart was so willing to let him in.

She pushed against his chest, half rose. 'I've got to get up."

With one quick movement, he tumbled her back into his arms. "No. I won't let you back away from me again."

Th^« was something implacable beneath the hoarse softness of Logan's voice. Her gaze shot to his and she saw it there, too, a sharp intent under all the molten gold.

**Don't you see I need you too, Elena?" His fingers were gripping her arms at the elbow, but he gently stroked the inner skin with his thumbs. "I've missed you."

"But—"

"Let me." His eyes were burning hot, his gaze like fire on her mouth. "I have to have you. I have to have you now.''

Elena hesitated, she needed him, wanted him so much too. But it was probably too much! Too—

The thought went unfinished as he rolled and put her beneath him. Her skirt was shoved up her thighs

as he came between her legs, his body heavy, heated. Doubt was drowned in desire.

He rocked against her, making more room for himself, making her dizzy with wanting him with only that small movement. His hands brushed her hair from her face. The gesture was a tender one, but Elena could feel the tension in his fingers. Need was driving him, she knew it, and an answering pulse started throbbing between her thighs, low and deep.

He lowered his head and kissed her again. Elena's eyes drifted shut. The kiss was softer this time, leashed ruthlessly back, but her body was compelled to lift to his nonetheless, her pelvis tilting to find its match. The deep pulse between her legs pounded. Gentle, hard, soft, demanding, no matter how he asked, her body was insisting she comply.

Stop. She thought the word, it was a command to herself after all. There might be no way to prevent herself from acting on the urge to do this with him, but she could stop herself fi*om letting her passion rage. That would be her undoing.

That would be his way into her soul.

She forced her eyes open as he lifted his mouth. His face was bare of any expression but need, the angles of his jaw and cheekbones sharper, almost lethal-looking. Elena's heart jumped, then raced as he slid down her body to explore her neck with his mouth.

There was a stubble of golden beard on his cheeks and chin and he rubbed them against her, following their path with his tongue. Heat shot through her

body, and Elena forced a half-choked breath into her lungs, trying to hold on to her control.

She closed her eyes again and tried to separate herself from the dangerous craving by imagining she was watching the two of them from a distance. The rangy, golden-haired man, his body over the woman's. She was panting a little, sure, but it was all right, because the man's mouth was drifting lower, toward the V of the woman's collar. Who wouldn't pant?

His tongue painted something wicked and wonderful against the pulse at her throat. Elena jolted, her eyes flying open. Logan's head lifted and she saw that his pupils were large black pools. His mouth was wet and his breath was loud in her ears.

He caught her gaze. Held it. Elena tried to shut her eyes against him, she tried to find that protective distance again, but then his fingers curled into the edges of her blouse.

*'You do this to me," he said, his voice hard and guttural. *'Only you."

He tore the material apart. Buttons pinged, skittered, hitting the floor then dancing away. His fingers moved, fast and sure, to the clasp of her bra.

No hesitation, no trembling, nothing but needing. Having.

He bared her to him and sank lower to take her breast.

Elena's body bowed.

Distance, separation, none of it was possible. Not when his hands were soft on her, caressing, stoking

fires, then hard, no finesse at all as he tossed away the rest of her clothes.

It was raging now. Passion breaking free of the cage where she'd locked it so long ago. It didn't matter anymore what might break free with it. She couldn't think about that—couldn't think at aU.

Somehow, Logan's clothes were gone too. She knew she'd undressed him, she could even see a thin welt along his chest where her fingernail had caught him in her impetuous, impatient need. Shoving him to his back, she put her mouth there, licking the little wound until her tongue encountered the bump of his nipple.

She heard him groan, felt his body flinch. Without even thinking, she fastened her mouth over it and sucked.

Under her hand, his heartbeat thundered. It tripped up her own heart, then hers caught his rhythm and raced along with it.

Her mouth following her hand, Elena smoothed her fingers across his chest, then down. Her pinky brushed something hard, smooth, so hot that she jerked. But then it jerked, and she soothed it with her palm.

She stroked him, marvehng at the smooth skin, the heat. Her skin felt hot too, maybe hotter than his, she thought. Leaning over him, her breast brushed his belly, her tongue slid down his hard colunm of flesh.

In the bUnk of an eye, her shoulders thumped against the floor. It didn't hurt, there was no pain in

Logan's body over hers again, sliding down hers again, Ufting her knees tiien opening her to his mouth.

At the very first touch, pleasure burst. Elena choked on a scream, and then lost her voice altogether when he ignored the telltale shudders of her body and touched her again, tasted her again, over and over. Though she was still quivering from the first release, he held her hips and demanded she rise.

His fingers were hard on her thighs, his mouth insistent. This wasn't the good-natured, easygoing Logan. This wasn't the cool charmer who could make her feel sixteen by raising one amused eyebrow.

This was a man, demanding, insisting, stopping at less than nothing to expose a woman's every need, every secret, every secret desire.

Pleasure at that tightest of coils once again, her hips Hfted. His mouth slowed.

She tried digging her fingers into the cool wood floor. She tried breathing through her desperate anticipation.

"No one can make you feel tiiis way," Logan said, his voice coming from a long distance. '*No one but me."

Of course, of course! she screamed in her mind. No one had ever, ever made her feel this way.

**Say it," he demanded, his voice low and possessive. *'Say it."

Her mind scrambled, trying to understand what he wanted. Don't admit it, some worried voice said inside her. He wants everything.

But if he took that, if he took evetything, then she'd have nothing left.

Elena's gaze flew to him. He was sitting up now, his eyes trained on her face. Almost casuaUy, he reached down to where she was left throbbing and unsatisfied and caressed her with one finger.

Elena squirmed.

*'Say it."

She swallowed, trying to think.

He caressed her again.

She shivered, broke. "You," she said. "No one but you."

In one smooth move, he dropped down and she felt the soft, wet touch of his tongue. She shivered hard, once, shattered.

And then he drew up and drove his body inside hers, pushing through the waves of her release so that he was the release, he owned it, he owned her.

She should deny it, thrust him away, but instead she clutched at his shoulders, then slid her hands toward his hips as he buried his face against her neck. His body surged powerfully into hers.

"Elena," he said hoarsely. "So good. So right."

So right. Another wave hit her, unexpected and hard. Her body gripped his to ride it out and he stiffened, surged once more, deep, deep.

And became hers.

For the second time in her life, for the second time that day, she cried in Logan's arms.

She hid her tears against his shoulder, praying he would never know how weak he made her.

She was only one of fifty or so people in the high-school auditorium, all of them readying it for the upcoming senior prom. But Logan thought he could poll ten times that number of men and they would unanimously agree that the most eye-catching, the sexiest female in the place was Elena O'Brien.

She was his sexy female, and if he had his way, he was going to be her date to the dance Saturday night.

SmiUng smugly to himself, Logan strolled toward the ladder she was perched on. Large cardboard boxes surrounded it, as well as a scattering of tools, and Elena's totebag and purse. She was completely oblivious to his approach as she smdied a sheet of paper in one hand. In the other, she held a dinner-plate-size flower that aj^ared to be created from stiff, brightly colored fabric.

Coming up behind her, he found that by lifting his gaze he made it level with her glorious behind, briefly covered by a short denim skirt. CurUng his fingers around a leg of the ladder, he smiled again, appreciating the view.

'*Ricky Dodd, are you trying to look up my skirt again?" Elena suddenly hissed, without glancing away from the paper. "Because if you are I'm teUing your mother."

Look up her skirt again? Lifting an eyebrow, he ran a possessive finger from her bare ankle up the back of her thigh to the hem of the skirt, satisfied by her Httle yelp and the rush of goose bumps he left in his path. **Isn't one man enough for you?" he teased.

Her foot jerked back and he captured it just before it caught him in the gut. "Careful, careful, can't have you falling off the ladder."

She was glaring at him over her shoulder. "If I did, I'd fall right on top of you."

He grinned. "Promises, promises." At the exasperated purse of her delicious lips, he laughed and tugged Ughtly on the leg he held. "C'mere."

"Why?" Her eyes narrowed.

"So suspicious." He tugged again. "I want to kiss you."

"No." She shook her head. "Not a good idea. I have a lot of work to do here and kissing you distracts me."

Pleased, he smiled again. Then instead of bothering with more cajoling, he merely climbed up behind her. Standing on the rung below hers, their heads level, he turned her face toward him.

She made another murmuring protest, but he was getting better at ignoring her talk—especially when he was intent on her taste. Her mouth pucker-kissed his for a second, but then her lips softened. He teased their seam with the tip of his tongue until he felt her whole body sag and her mouth open.

She was hot and wet inside and...

Logan wrenched his mouth away and leaped off the ladder, then grabbed it to make sure his sudden movement didn't tip Elena over. "You're dangerous," he muttered.

Her cheeks were bright pink and her eyes sparked at him. "It was your idea."

*'Yeah, yeah, yeah." But he had to grin, because she didn't look as much mad as she looked... interested. He tickled the back of her knee. **When will you be done here?"

She slapped at his hand with the paper she held. *'Never, if you keep doing things like that."

He took an instant step back. ''Hands off, then. I want to see you tonight." Suddenly it seemed a much better idea to be alone when he brought up the prom. If any persuasion was necessary, he wanted to be able to use whatever measures came to mind.

Her gaze slid back to her paper, and he could see it specified the decorations for this part of the auditorium. "You're seeing me now," she said. "It's night."

"I want to see you naked."

"Shh!" Her head jerked up and she whipped it around, making sure no one had overheard his remark. Apparently assured that they were reasonably private, she frowned at him. "You saw me naked last night."

And it had been as wild as the night she'd cried in his arms and then tried to pull away from him. Just Hke that time, last night the heat, the beast inside him had clawed its way out and he'd unleashed everything he had on Elena. Controlling himself around her was more and more of an effort, and he was less and less successful at it.

He gently stroked her leg again. "Are you all right?"

Throwing him a frustrated look, she backed down