Mad enough to marry (9 page)

He nodded shortly. "As I said before, you were too young."

But despite how long ago it was and despite how much more cynical she was now, her memories of her feehngs that night were crystal-clear. New to Strawberry Bay, she'd gone to a party with a girl from the apartment building next door and the girl's group of friends, all of them seniors at the local CathoHc high school.

There had been dozens of cars outside a big home in Logan's part of town. Several students from Straw-

berry Bay High had attended the party too, including one tall and—to her starry eyes, anyway—suave Logan Chase. He'd found her standing in a comer and charmed her with talk and then dancing and then they'd found an isolated spot in the darkened backyard.

Remembering that, a blush, fierce and hot, rose on her face.

*'It was hormones." She sounded hoarse.

He laughed.

Already embarrassed by the situation and those memories, the sound jabbed her, right where she felt raw and tender. Her temper flared, and without thinking she flew at him—^to push him out, to slap him, who knew? He caught her by the shoulders, then slid his hands down to imprison her wrists.

She glared up at him, her body thrumming with anger, her breathing fast and shallow. "Let go of me.

His face was hard and set, all good humor, any kind of humor, had vanished. "Pretending it was something else won't make it less true, Elena. Neither will being angry with me."

She wanted to deny her anger, but it was too late for that. "Nobody falls in love like that," she said instead. "Nobody falls in love that quickly."

"I knew the instant I saw you. L..recognized you, even though we'd never met."

She wrenched from his grasp and half turned away from him. "I don't know why you bring it up now. That was years ago."

**You know exactly why Fm bringing it up. Because I don't think you should belittle or underestimate what Gabby and Tyler might feel for each other."

*'You don't know them."

"You're right." His voice was soft. "But how about you? Are you so sure you know what's in their hearts?"

"Of course." Her hand flew out in a dismissive gesture. "Anj^way, young love doesn't last, right? And passion dies too."

"Love, maybe. Passion?" His hand clamped down on her shoulder. "Why don't we test your theory?"

She was spun toward him even before his meaning sank in. Her spine stiffened and she opened her mouth to fling a cutting comment his way. But the look in his eyes stopped her, taking her breath. Their golden color molten now, his eyes mesmerized her as they drew nearer and nearer. She closed her own to avoid the spell.

And was bewitched by his lips instead.

It was a sweet kiss for a moment, gentle, but then she felt as if his mouth lit her on fire. A flaming shudder rolled down her spine and he jerked her close. She shuddered again, and his hands tightened then- grip on her shoulders.

His tongue slid inside her lips. Elena welcomed it with a moan. Suddenly she had to get closer to him, she had to know if his heat matched her own, so she pressed herself against his chest and twined her arms around his neck.

He groaned deep in his throat, and she felt the sound with her body as much as she heard it. It told her he was affected too, that he was already edging, as she was, toward the brink of control. Almost wild.

Wild.

The word hit her brain like an icy blast. She threw herself back, out of his arms. Finding herself shoulders-to-wall once more, she leaned into it gratefully, panting.

Logan's chest rose and fell with his own ragged breathing. Staring at her, he shook his head. ''What is it you do to me?"

She tried dredging up a scathing response. '*It was your idea," was the only thing she managed to get out.

'*Yeah." He shook his head again, then sucked in a long breath. "Me and my bright ideas."

Trying to banish the hot desire still rushing through her body, Elena closed her eyes. But instead of finding relief, she only found memories. It had been just like this the night they'd met, too. Out in the privacy of the darkness, he'd taken her in his arms.

She'd been kissed a couple of times before, an inexperienced—and face it—almost repulsive press of lips and unpracticed thrust of tongue from fourteen-and fifteen-year-old boys. But Logan had kissed her like a man, a man with experience, his mouth at first gently seductive.

Then as now, it had been Elena who had almost inmiediately flared into heated desire. Elena whose passion had rocketed through her body. In one single

moment she'd awakened, come shockingly alive, become a woman in the sense that she experienced a woman's needs. And also knew the man who could fulfill them.

She hung her head. **You should go."

'*Yeah." He didn't move.

Her gaze stayed glued to the tips of his shoes. *'Someone needs to be sensible."

*'Let's take a vote as to which one of us it should be." There wasn't even a hint of laughter in his voice.

Elena swallowed. "Has it ever been Hke that for you again?" She should hate herself for asking.

"Elena..."

Logan's hesitation, as well as his regret and frustration, clearly communicated themselves to her. It was as if that one kiss had reopened—or reforged— a channel between them, an intimacy that would take more than a hundred kisses, more than a hundred touches, to build with anyone but him.

"No, it's not been like that," he finally answered. "Not before. Not after."

Her stomach clenched. She lifted a hand, but then let it drop. What did it matter that stirring old embers ignited new flames? Not only was she afraid to be at the mercy of such a reckless fire, there was also no time in her life for a man. Particularly no time for this man, who wasn't her type and—^more to the point—she wasn't his.

Suddenly exhausted, she thunked the back of her head against the wall and closed her eyes. "Good night, Logan."

For a moment, silence was the only response, but then he muttered. "Oh, to hell with it," she heard him say, and dien she sensed his movement. He was finally leaving. Her tension released in a quick, quiet sigh.

That ended in a gasp when she found herself in his arms again. He swept her forward and crushed her against the hard wall of his chest. Then he kissed her.

No soft seduction this time. No gentle persuasion. This was the demanding kiss of a mature man who knew what response to expect. As she had feared, Elena promptly gave him that response, she couldn't help herself, her Ups opening beneath the pressure of his. Her craving for Logan surged with the surge of his tongue into her mouth.

Heat flooded her body. To press her lips harder to his, she went on tiptoe and the movement caused her breasts to rub along his chest.

He made a choked sound, slanted his head to take the kiss at another angle, and then he shifted his hand to cup her breast. In a rush, her nipple tightened against his pahn.

Dizzy with desire, she tilted her hips and felt him, hard and ready, against the cradle of her body. His hand left her breast and she protested, but then let the sound die as he jerked up her T-shirt.

With the fingers of one hand speared through the hair at the back of her head, he bent her back over his arm and lifted his mouth. His eyes liquid gold, he stared down at what he'd uncovered. Over the edge

of her lacy black bra, the tops of her breasts lifted with each of her harsh breaths.

Need built with each fast, heavy thud of her heart. Lost in excitement, she didn't think twice about lifting one hand from Logan's shoulder to find the front clasp of her bra. His arm went steely beneath her, his pupils dilated, black consuming the gold, and his response only pushed her own excitement higher.

Impetuous, impatient, she twisted the clasp and the cups of the bra sprang apart. She brushed them away from her skin.

He seemed to drink in the sight of her bare breasts. '*So beautiful."

Desire crashed over her again, raising goose bumps on her bare skin, raising her nipples to tighter points. He bent his head and took one in his mouth.

Elena closed her eyes, arching to lift herself to him. He sucked, and an intoxicating, paradoxical mix of relief and rising need shot through her.

She needed this, she needed more.

Weaving her hands through his hair, she could only hang on while he simultaneously tortured and pleasured her. It was fire, the strong suction of his mouth, the soft, sure swipe of his tongue against her nipple. It was ice, when he left that breast cooling in the air as he moved to the other.

She moaned, and he left off Ae gentle suction to suck more strongly. Her fingers bit into his scalp and he bit gently at her nipple.

Hct pulse pounded harder. She felt it demanding and impatient at the apex of her thighs. Maybe he

heard it, because his hand slid down her bare midriff to the waistband of her jeans.

Elena helped his progress. She tore at the snap, unzipped her pants herself, almost sobbed when his fingers brushed against her lower belly. His hand inched beneath the elastic of her panties, and then his fingers reached to finally find where she was hot and slick.

Lifting his mouth from her breasts, he groaned. '*Elena." Her name was like a sigh before he kissed her again. His tongue slid inside her mouth. His finger slid inside her body.

They both moaned.

It was so good. Elena felt her inner muscles clasping him, felt his finger slide deep, then almost pull out, then slide even deeper. She felt as though she would die if she didn't have more. Have it all.

Desperate to get him naked, her naked, them naked together, she tore her mouth away from his. *Tlease, Logan."

Please, Logan. The words echoed loudly in her head. Please, Logan, She'd said that years ago, too. Her heart slammed against her chest.

'Tlease, Logan," she said again, now even more desperate. *Tlease, stop. Stop.''

He froze. Then he backed away from her until she was left standing without his touch as support or seduction. His breath was coming hard and fast and he looked dazed. Maybe that was why she wasn't embarrassed to be facing him with her shirt pushed up, her bra pushed aside, her jeans g^ing.

Maybe she wasn't embarrassed because she was still wanting him so very, very badly.

But she'd had to ask him to stop. She'd had to. For eleven years the scales had been unbalanced, because she'd begged him then, too. Please, Logan, she'd said. Please.

But he hadn't hstened.

So this time she'd forced herself to disengage from him. She'd had to turn the tables...balance those scales. She'd halted what was happening tonight because eleven years ago he'd been the one to insist she stop.

When she would have made love with him that night so long ago, when she'd begged him to, Logan had said no.

Chapter Six

A couple of evenings later, Elena felt satisfied enough with her attempt to balance the scales between herself and Logan that she managed—barely—not to scream when Gabby came through the door with a bag of groceries and the information that she*d invited their **landlord" to dinner.

He'd accepted.

Apparendy noticing her dismay, Gabby made a face at Elena. *'Come on, don't be mad. You should see how pitiful and hungry he looked."

'TU bet," Elena repUed drily. Pitiful and hungry was the way she'd expected him to look after she'd told him to stop touching and kissing her two nights before. Instead, he'd gone aloof, his expression in-standy turning to a rich-boy cool that she'd been trying to emulate for years.

With a flare of teenage touchiness. Gabby spun and stomped toward the kitchen. "It's my night. If I cook, I get to invite who eats."

Elena bit back a retort. The fact that Logan had accepted the invitation meant she could only accept the inevitable and grit her teeth through the meal, anyway. To do less would be cowardly, and she refused to give him that. She'd just have to keep her distance... and keep him distant from her and her innermost emotions.

She knew now diat the man wasn't, couldn't be, her friend, though he wasn't her enemy either. He was nothing to her, so that's all he should know of her and get from her... nothing.

No cowardice—and no kisses, either.

While Gabby made her old standby, spaghetti and meatballs, Elena set the card table for three. She refused to be ashamed of the rickety table or even of their usual paper napkins, but she folded them neatly under the forks and checked the water glasses for spots before setting them down.

A knock on the door made her jump. "I guess that's Logan," she said out loud.

Gabby was tossing a green salad and looked over, her eyebrows going up as she realized Elena wasn't planning on answering the door herself.

"He's your guest," Elena said defensively.

Gabby rolled her eyes, then abandoned the salad to head for the front door. Within seconds, Logan was inside the apartment, his smile as easy, as attractive as always.

His gaze found Elena. '^'There you are,'* he said.

She dropped into one of the folding chairs and slouched, stretching out her legs to cross them at the ankle. A nonchalant pose. *'You need something?"

'*On the grounds that it may incriminate me..." One comer of his mouth quirked into a self-deprecating smile that some women might consider charming.

Hmphf. Leave it to him to go cute when she was working so hard to freeze him out. Without another word, she jumped to her feet and hurried into the kitchen.

**Let's get this show on the road," she grumbled at Gabby. She swiped the salad bowl off the counter and marched with it to the table. Gabby followed with a deep pasta bowl filled with a pile of steaming spaghetti.

Logan sniffed appreciatively as Gabby passed, then held her chair as she sat. He headed toward Elena next, but she whipped into her own seat as if she hadn*t guessed his intent.

When he laughed, as if he knew her intent was to avoid his nearness, she gnashed her teeth and snapped at Gabby to pass the salad. Okay, she was acting childishly, but her defenses were the only thing between Logan and losing her pride.

If he guessed the fevered dreams she'd been having every night since she'd asked him to stop, he'd probably laugh even harder.