TAKE A CHANCE (Chance Colorado Series) (15 page)

“It’s perfect. I can so imagine sitting here on a porch, lulled by the babble of that stream, sipping my morning coffee. Why didn’t he finish building it?”

Logan chuckled and squeezed her hand. “That’s easy. Because in the spring, after a snow-heavy winter, that stream turns into a rushing river and the whole of this flat valley is waterlogged for days. You’d need to be wearing hip waders while you sat on the porch sipping coffee. Assuming your porch hadn’t washed away, that is.”

“Okay, then,” she conceded. “That sounds like a pretty valid reason for not continuing to build here. But what a shame.”

“Yeah, it was just too unpredictable to try for anything permanent here. But it’s also too great a spot to abandon completely. That’s why Grandpa decided to plant his trees here and scatter the benches and tables. Sort of his version of an outdoor, waterproof family room. Even in the summer, the quick afternoon storms that roll in can swell that stream if it rains hard enough.”

As if on cue, thunder rumbled in the distance as the gathering clouds rolled toward them.

“Speaking of storms.” Logan gave her hand another squeeze and pulled her back toward the trees. “Guess we’d better get packed up if we don’t want to get caught in one. I was concerned this would happen if we stayed too long.”

There was nothing that quite matched a summer storm in the Rockies. When Allie had first moved to Texas, it had caught her by surprise how long it could take an approaching storm to reach her. But here in the mountains, storms moved fast and the speed with which this storm approached left no doubt as to where she was. By the time they reached their blanket, the first fat drops of rain had begun to splatter down.

Thunder shook the ground and Logan grabbed the blanket, scattering the remains of their lunch.

“Leave that stuff!” he ordered, and grabbed her hand as he turned to run.

He urged her toward the shed, their steps picking up speed as lightning crackled across the sky.

“We’ll wait it out in here,” he said as he spread the blanket over a bale of hay at the back of the shed.

He sat down and held out his hand in invitation for her to join him on the makeshift seat.

A loud clap of thunder sent her scampering to his side. His arm slipped protectively around her shoulders and they huddled together, watching the storm that raged outside. In spite of the intensity of the weather, she felt safe here next to Logan.

Alone, together, his arm snug around her, it was the fulfillment of a dream she’d harbored for as long as she could remember. If only this interlude could last forever. If only she could turn off her brain and simply exist in this one perfect moment. Simply accept and enjoy it for whatever it turned out to be.

But even as the wish skittered through her mind, Allie knew she had never been good at turning off her brain. She was now, as always, her own worst enemy. Already her inner harpy dragged the reality of the moment to the forefront of her thoughts to intrude on her enjoyment.

The bliss she felt evaporated completely as a trickle of water rolled down her forehead and into her eye, its sting demanding her attention. She wiped it away, realizing as she did just how soaked they’d gotten in their race to the shed.

Her hair was dripping wet. A glance down confirmed that her white shirt had turned all but transparent as the rain had plastered it to her skin. And her face? The dark brown smudge on her hand where she’d wiped her eye left no doubt that her mascara was likely smeared everywhere on her face but where it belonged.

If anything, she must resemble a half-naked, waterlogged raccoon.

Picturing that description, Allie fought the urge to giggle as best she could, but the whole situation struck her as beyond ridiculous. Here she was, cowering in a horse shed with the man of her dreams, waiting for some of the most spectacular lightning she’d seen in years to pass them by. The rain beat down in great, heaving sheets, hammering against the tin roof like a million tiny fists. Thunder reverberated in the ground under her feet and rumbled up in her chest. And yet, in spite of the best Mother Nature had to throw at them, she still managed to focus her worry on how awful she must look.

All too soon, the giggle refused to be stifled any longer.

“You okay?” Logan asked, his arm tightening around her shoulders as he looked down at her.

“I’m fine. As long as you don’t count being an idiot as a problem.”

“You’re not an idiot.”

“No? Then what would you call someone sitting here in the middle of a storm like this, stressing over how awful she looks?”

“Normally I’d call that person a typical female.” With his free hand, Logan stroked a thumb and forefinger over her chin. “But in your case, I’d have to make an exception.”

“What kind of an exception?”

Her breath caught in her throat when her eyes met his, and she felt herself transfixed, unable to break the connection between them.

“In your case,” he said, his voice low and husky as his thumb traced a path over her lower lip, “I’d call that person beautiful.”

“Beautiful?”

She echoed his compliment on a barely audible breath, unable to remember anyone ever calling her beautiful.

Electricity tingled through her body, but it had nothing to do with the lightning that streaked across the sky. His head dipped closer and his eyes held hers as if he’d ensnared her in some ancient magic spell. She held her breath, not even daring to blink for fear any movement on her part would break the spell that had fallen over them.

Was he going to kiss her, just as he had in every one of her dreams?

His lips brushed against hers, and she had her answer.

It was like that night on the stairs at the Hand, when she’d thought he was going to kiss her. It was like every dream, every fantasy she’d ever had, all rolled into one.

Only better. Much, much better, because, this time, his kiss was real. It lingered, his lips barely touching hers, his warm breath mixing with hers until she didn’t know which of them breathed in or out.

Her imagination, even at its best, had never been half this good. This was the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced in her whole life and he was hardly even touching her.

His breath feathered over her cheek as his lips hovered a hair’s distance above her skin, tracing a path to her ear.

“It would be so easy,” he whispered.

Easy?

She should put a stop to this now. It would be simple enough to do. Just push him away and move to the other side of the shed.

Easy?

She was anything but easy. She should end this now and show him he was wrong.

Only problem was, she’d waited for this moment for most of her life. She didn’t want him to stop. Not now that he was this close.

His lips brushed against her neck and her breath caught in a little gasp as his feathered touch tingled through every fiber of her body. Before she knew it, her fingers had twined themselves in his hair as if they operated independently from her conscious thought.

“So easy,” he murmured again, just before his teeth grazed her earlobe.

She shifted toward him, her mouth seeking his.

The contact was exquisite. His lips, warm and tender, skimmed over hers in a slow tease, touching and withdrawing until she felt as if she could wait no longer.

She didn’t care anymore. Didn’t care what he thought of her. Didn’t care who knew what they were doing. Didn’t care what anyone in the entire world thought of either one of them. All that mattered was Logan and this moment with him.

“Logan? Allie?” A woman’s voice called to them, drawing closer. “You guys up here?”

Katie!

Recognition pierced through Allie’s need, shattering the lovely haze of desire that had cocooned them. They jerked away from one another and Logan was on his feet, backing away, putting distance between them.

A minute later, his sister’s head appeared around the edge of the shed.

“Oh, good, you guys are in here. I hoped you would be considering how bad that storm was. That’s why we brought the truck up here to check on you guys.”

“We?” Logan turned his head toward his sister for the first time since her arrival.

“Yeah, we. Look who finally got home this afternoon.” Katie’s face broke into a big grin as her companion joined her.

Ryan O’Connor.

Allie’s stomach felt as if it rolled, sending a weak-in-the-knees tingle through her whole body as the humiliation of her last meeting with Logan’s brother marched front and center into her memory. That was what she got for tempting fate by declaring how little she cared for what anyone thought of her or her actions.

Obviously, she’d been wrong. Obviously, she did care.

She only wished she didn’t.

* * *

It would be so easy…

This might be the first time in the history of his family when Logan actually was grateful to have his younger siblings interrupt him on a date.

Allie was a whole different level of woman for him. It would be so easy — much too easy — to allow himself to slip over the edge of just having fun, to pitch into the dangerous waters of a real relationship.

Without their even knowing it, Ryan and Katie had thrown him the life preserver he’d so desperately needed at the exact moment he’d needed it.

“Ryan! About time you came home.”

He kept his back to his siblings, grabbing up the blanket he and Allie had sat on as soon as she stood up. He shook it out and fumbled with folding it up, stalling, praying the bulge in his pants would subside before anyone noticed.

A glance in Allie’s direction confirmed that she looked as shell-shocked as he felt. Her skin blossomed with a dark, mottled red blush, as her fair skin frequently did. Whether that physical response was to what they’d been doing just before his brother and sister arrived or to Ryan’s presence, he couldn’t be sure.

She and Ryan had been an item in high school, at least according to Katie. And as annoying as his younger sister could be at times, she was rarely wrong when it came to town gossip, especially when that gossip concerned her own family members.

“It’s been a long time, Allie. How have you been?”

Ryan’s voice, always calm and quiet, held no hint of reproach. Maybe, if there had been something between him and Allie, it ended without any bad feelings.

“Fine,” she answered, her tone clipped and her skin staining an even darker red. “And you?”

Then again, maybe not, based on her response.

“Did you hear me?” Katie asked, tugging on the back of his shirt, pulling his attention away from whatever his brother replied. “Several of the streams are swollen as a result of that downpour and there are more clouds rolling in. I think you guys should ride back to the house in the truck with us.”

Logan nodded his agreement. Her suggestion did seem the safest choice. The horses they’d ridden were trained to follow along behind them and, after all these years, likely knew their way home as well as he did.

“I need to grab our lunch basket. We left it down by the water.”

Katie shook her head. “If it was by the water, it’s gone. The rain did its usual number on the lake out there. Ry and I had to hike in from the crest for fear of getting the truck stuck down here.”

That explained why he hadn’t heard the truck arrive. Well, that and his complete preoccupation with Allie at the time.

Meanwhile, the source of his earlier distraction stood near the back of the shed, her arms wrapped around herself, looking about as miserable as any one woman could.

“You okay?” he asked, knowing it was a stupid question even as the words left his mouth. Just looking at her confirmed that she wasn’t okay.

“Absolutely,” she lied. “I’m fine.”

She said she was fine, but everything else about her told him another story.

“And you’re okay with riding back up to the house in the truck?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she agreed, her eyes fixed on her feet as she nodded. “No problem.”

Right. No problem. Logan would be willing to bet serious money that Allie couldn’t tell a lie if her life depended on it. At the very least, she couldn’t do it convincingly.

He’d also be willing to bet that whatever was bothering her was more than simply what had passed between the two of them before they’d been interrupted. It had something to do with his brother.

Not that what had happened between her and Ryan all those years ago mattered. It didn’t. Not really. Not to him.

He was just curious, that was all.

He slipped an arm around her shoulder and gave her a little hug. “So, I’m guessing as first dates go, this one has kind of bottomed out at this point, right?”

Her wavering smile left no doubt as to her answer.

“I’ll make it up to you,” he said. “I promise. The next time will be better.”

“There’ll be a next time?” she asked, meeting his gaze at last.

“Absolutely,” he vowed, echoing her word choice back to her.

He slid his hand down her arm to catch her hand and lead her out of the shed and toward the slope where his brother and sister were already making their way back to the waiting truck.