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He got to his feet and walked toward her. When he stood less than an arm’s length away, he reached around her to pitch his napkin. “But redheads who like blueberry ice cream most of all.”
Skyler laughed and realized that despite his corny lines and cocky self-assurance, she liked him. He was good for a laugh.
And for kissing.
As if he could read her thoughts, Logan pulled her to him and lowered his lips to hers. Beyond the blueberry flavor coating her tongue, she tasted the vanilla. Something about the mixing of flavors sent a burst of heat through her and had her hands finding their way up his chest. Even through the fabric, she could tell he had the kind of chest that made covering it with a shirt a crime.
She moaned into his mouth at the thought, and that seemed to toss fuel on the fire beginning to blaze between them. Logan pulled her even closer, so close that she felt his arousal. If she’d thought she was buzzing with desire before, that had been nothing compared to the zing that went through her now.
His hands ran up her ribs and brushed the underside of her breasts. She gasped, but another kiss captured her surprise.
The sound of a car starting barely registered, but when light suddenly illuminated them, Skyler startled enough to end the kiss and take a step back from Logan. Right as loud music filled the night air, Skyler realized the car belonged to Mari and she’d gotten a good show as she left work for the evening.
Skyler spun away, turning her back toward Mari’s car. Not that it mattered. Her face was likely flaming enough to light up the night more than Mari’s headlights.
As Mari took off, letting the darkness settle again, Logan walked up behind Skyler. Trying to gather up some common sense, she didn’t give him the opportunity to pull her to him again.
“I need to get back before India and Elissa call out the cavalry.”
He didn’t argue but rather took a step back and extended his hand toward the sidewalk, inviting her to proceed ahead of him. She took a shaky step then another. Her nerves continued to buzz even though Logan didn’t make any attempt to touch her. How crazy was it that she already missed the feel of his hand around hers, the warmth of his body pressed against hers?
Still, crazy or not, she couldn’t get the idea out of her head as they walked past businesses closed for the night. The closer they came to the music hall, the more she slowed her pace, knowing that when they reached the hall, that would be the end of being with Logan. And despite the fact they were little more than strangers and he was too cocky for his own good, she couldn’t deny he made her feel like no man ever had, daring and wonderfully nervous and...alive.
She might have lost her mind, but she didn’t want to lose that other Skyler quite yet. It was her birthday, after all, and it was time she gave herself a present. As they reached the narrow opening between Tumbleweed Books and Rand’s Western Wear where the city had built a tiny park, Skyler stopped walking.
“Something wrong?” Logan asked.
For a long moment, she said nothing, just stared at the sidewalk while an argument took place in her head. Her normal, sensible self said her day had been filled with enough excitement already and it was time to return to real life. But an increasingly loud voice told her that it felt good to really live, that it was still her birthday and she should enjoy it to the fullest.
“Skyler?” Logan sounded concerned this time, and that sealed the deal.
She grabbed the front of his shirt with both of her hands and dragged him into the darker confines of the little park. She pushed him up against the side of the bookstore and captured his lips with hers, filling her senses with him.
Logan wasted no time returning the kiss, spinning so that her back was against the wall. He pressed his body close, every bit as eager as she was. His hands slid under her shirt and skimmed along the sensitive skin of her sides and then up her spine.
Skyler somehow gathered enough brain cells together to realize they had to go somewhere or they were going to end up naked against the side of a building. That thought half scared her, half excited her even more than she already was.
“Do you want to come back to the inn with me?” She breathed the words against his mouth. They sounded as though they were coming from someone else, certainly not careful-to-a-fault Skyler Harrington. But she couldn’t deny she wanted this man and she wanted him now.
Logan’s mouth moved from her lips, up her jaw to her ear. He captured her earlobe with his teeth, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to make her arch against him. “My motel room’s closer.”
Something low in her belly, lower even than that, screamed yes. But Skyler hesitated, a sliver of the person she really was trying to assert itself.
Logan moved away enough that she could look up into his eyes. He lifted a hand and smoothed her hair behind her ear in a surprisingly tender gesture. He probably didn’t think anything of it, but that simple movement tipped the scales away from caution toward total abandon.
Skyler entwined her fingers through his and followed the part of herself she’d never known existed, the part that had gone through with jumping out of that plane, the part that would likely disappear with the morning light. But that was still hours away.
“Lead the way.”
Chapter Four
The music and laughter coming from the music hall faded as Skyler allowed Logan to lead her off of Main Street onto Seven Hills Avenue. Her heartbeat thundered louder and harder with every step they took away from the music hall, her friends, safety in numbers. Her step faltered as they came within view of the Country Vista Inn, a little strip of a motel frequented more by cowboys and road-maintenance crews than tourists. It wasn’t a dump, just not the Wildflower Inn. The Country Vista served its purpose, giving people a place to sleep.
Or something else.
Logan stopped and spun her into his arms. “Don’t think too much.”
“I don’t know. I—”
He halted her words by capturing her mouth with his and overwhelming her senses with pure, undiluted desire. She felt that kiss zing along all of her veins like a hit of some intoxicating drug she was powerless to resist. As Logan started walking backward without breaking the kiss, her feet followed. When he finally broke the kiss, her body buzzed with need as her thoughts swirled like a hurricane in her head.
When they reached the door to his room, her common sense made one final desperate attempt to stop her. But the moment Logan slid his key card through the reader and opened the door to his room, allowing her to see the king-size bed, she was lost.
Logan led her inside and locked the door behind her. In the next moment, he backed her against the door and kissed her again. This time his hands slid down her ribs to rest on her hips. When he pressed closer, Skyler gasped at his obvious arousal. Logan chuckled against her lips as his hands untucked her T-shirt. When the callused texture of his palm made contact with her skin, she recaptured his mouth.
She’d never wanted to have sex so much in her life. Logan could consume her right now, and she wouldn’t care. In fact, she’d welcome it.
The next thing she knew, Logan grasped the bottom of her shirt and quickly pulled it over her head. Before she could catch her breath, he lowered his wet, warm mouth to the swell of her breast above her bra. She grabbed the hat still on his head and tossed it onto a chair in the corner, then ran her hands through his hair, pulling him closer.
Logan unsnapped her bra, allowing him to nudge the fabric aside and capture her breast in his mouth.
“Oh, yes.”
She felt him smile against her, probably because it was obvious she’d never done anything like this before. But then he flicked the sensitive tip with his tongue, and her eyes closed as she pressed her head back against the door. As Logan shifted his talented mouth from one breast to the other, Skyler’s legs shook.
“You need to get off your feet,” Logan whispered in her ear. Then he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. He lay her crossways on the mattress, then followed her down.
She realized she’d lost her bra when Logan captured one of her breasts again, then wrapped his arms around her to lift her closer to his mouth. Her hands gripped the back of his shirt, pulling it up so that she could run her hands over his naked flesh.
Her body warmed even more as she ran her fingers across all that taut skin over well-defined muscles.
Logan lifted himself and smiled down at her. “Let me help you with that.” Without breaking eye contact, he unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside as if he didn’t care whether he ever saw it again.
Forget a crime. It would be a sin to cover up that chest. Every woman was turned on by different parts of a man, and for her it was definitely chests and arms. And Logan’s were perfect—tanned, toned, with the kind of muscle definition that came from hard work rather than pumping iron.
Logan’s mouth quirked up at one end. “Like the view?”
Skyler licked her lips. “Yes.”
Logan smiled wider as he lowered himself to her mouth, kissing her deeply as his hands went to the top of her jeans and slipped the button free. Her breath came faster as he lowered her zipper and slid his hand inside the top edge of her panties.
A five-alarm fire started in her middle and flashed out to the tips of her extremities in the blink of an eye. Unwilling to wait any longer for what her body craved, Skyler found the top of Logan’s jeans and mimicked what he’d done to hers. When she slid her hands inside to cup his naked hips, Logan growled against her lips.
He rolled away only long enough to pull off his boots and rid himself of the rest of his clothing. Then he made quick work of making her every bit as naked as he was.
Mercy, he was gorgeous, from head to toe. And gone was their relatively slow progress. She shocked herself by watching his every movement as he ripped open a foil package and sheathed himself. If possible, she grew even hotter and needier at the sight. She found it difficult to breathe, as if her lungs were as stunned by the view before her as she was.
Logan lowered himself to the bed and pulled her beneath him, nudging her legs apart with his knee. He kissed her again, his tongue dancing with hers and making her wonder how she’d ever made it through a day without being kissed like that.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he trailed kisses across her cheek toward her ear.
“I’m not sure. I feel like I’m going to burst into flames.”
Logan gripped her hips and pulled her up to press against his erection. “The feeling’s mutual.” He teased at her opening for just a moment before he plunged inside her, filling her as she’d never, ever been filled before.
A new wave of desire surged through her, prompting her to move against him, yearning for more. His hands splayed against her hips, he pulled her body to meet his as he drove into her again. Without thinking, Skyler wrapped her legs around him and captured Logan’s mouth, kissing, tugging, biting until she had to throw her head back in order to get enough air into her lungs. She gasped as Logan increased his pace, and she began meeting each of his thrusts with ones of her own.
Vibrations started deep within her, and she dug her hands into Logan’s hair. She didn’t need to say a word for him to know she wanted to increase the pace. With each stroke, she felt herself getting closer to the pinnacle. Her breath came faster as she bowed up against Logan’s straining body.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she said before she reached her peak.
Logan, who must have been hanging on to his own release with tight reins until she found hers, made one final stroke, then went rigid all over. He cried out as he found completion, then collapsed half on, half off her. He sucked in great gulps of air.
They didn’t speak. As the raging desire and physical bliss faded and Skyler was left with listening to the breathing of a near stranger next to her, she wondered if she truly had gone insane.
* * *
LOGAN FELT THE moment Skyler began to think too much, when she started slipping back to the woman she’d been before she’d made the decision to take a chance and live a little. Well, he couldn’t have that, because if he had his way, the night was far from over for them.
He wrapped his hand around the curve of her hip and rolled her to face him. “Stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Thinking.”
“I can’t.” Her voice held a hint of panic at the edge.
“Well, I have a cure for that.” He pulled her closer, draping her leg over his hip as he captured her sweet mouth with his. She still tasted like her blueberry ice cream.
He sensed a moment of resistance in her before she caved and ran her soft fingertips up his chest. Her hand stopped moving when she reached the puckered skin on his left pec. She leaned away and ran her finger along the slash.
“What happened to you?”
“A bull I was riding didn’t particularly like me.”
Her mouth fell open on a little gasp. “A horn did this?”
“Hazard of the job.”
She looked up at him, and his breath caught. Even in the dim light and with her hair tousled, she was stunning. He hadn’t lied—he did love redheads. He’d dare any man to see Skyler Harrington and not want to take her straight to his bed.
“You’ve got a death wish, don’t you?”
He smiled. “Not at all. I very much like living, especially right now.” Before she could speak or think any more, he ran his hand along her jaw and into her hair and brought her tasty mouth to his again. No matter how much he kissed her, he couldn’t seem to get enough. He never lacked for female companionship, but it had been a long time since he’d craved a woman as he did Skyler.
The mere touch of her hands skimming along the skin of his chest drove him wild, and he rolled her onto her back. As he slid home again, one word echoed in his head. Perfect.
* * *
SKYLER PULLED THE cover over her shoulder as she gradually came awake. Why did the air-conditioning feel so cold? And why was it running so loudly? She opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times. It took a few seconds for the confusion to fade enough for her to realize what she was looking at—a motel air-conditioning unit.
She froze as another cog slipped into place, the one telling her that the reason she had awakened chilled was the fact that she was still naked. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her breathing. Bad move. Closing her eyes only gave her a blank screen on which to replay what had happened with Logan. She’d had mind-blowing sex, twice, with a man she’d met that morning.
She glanced at the clock. Correction, yesterday morning. It wasn’t her birthday anymore, so that meant it was time to get her temporarily insane self out of this room and away from Logan Bradshaw and his delectable body.
Somehow she was able to calm her panic enough to listen to his breathing. Slow, steady, definitely asleep. She held her breath as she eased out from under the covers and carefully retrieved and put on her clothes. When Logan stirred in his sleep, she stopped dead. She made the mistake of looking at him. His bare chest tempted her to crawl back into bed and wake him in a way he would be sure to appreciate. The way the sheet rode low around his hips caused her to lick her lips at the memory of him making love to her.
No, it was sex. Making love was something you did with someone you actually cared about, not a stranger who’d probably done this same thing with countless other women. Thank goodness they’d at least been safe about it.
Even though she knew she should go, her feet weren’t getting the message. Instead, she stood and watched him sleep. The part of her that had led her here, the part that likely wouldn’t exist outside this room, whispered that she’d done nothing wrong. That she deserved to enjoy herself, to revel in the feel of a man’s body pressed close to hers. And Logan’s had felt like nothing she’d ever imagined. If she let herself, she could get used to that feeling.
But it wasn’t real. This wasn’t her, and he would be gone in a matter of days.
That’s what India thought about Liam.
She shook her head to clear away the thought. Logan was nothing like Liam. India’s fiancé was a hardworking father and business owner. Logan had that carefree adrenaline-junkie vibe. Chances were he wouldn’t live to be an old man. That scar across his chest was evidence of that. Nothing but pure sexual hunger had brought her to this room, because other than the physical desire, they were absolutely nothing alike.
Her common sense slammed back into her as if it had taken a short vacation, and suddenly she needed to get far away from Logan Bradshaw as quickly as possible. She pushed aside one final surge of yearning and slipped out the door into the night. Before anyone who might recognize her noticed her, she hurried across the lit parking lot to the dimmer sidewalk that led back toward Main Street.
With each hurried step away from the motel, she scolded herself more for her incredible lapse in judgment. She’d just had sex with a near stranger, twice! She wanted to get home, take a shower and go to bed. If she was supremely lucky, in the morning she’d wake up and this would all be nothing more than a hot, steamy dream.
As she neared downtown, she slowed as her thoughts spun. How in the world was she going to face Elissa and India? Why hadn’t she gone back to the music hall as she’d intended? Dealing with their matchmaking attempts would have been more bearable than telling them she’d gone off to the Country Vista to have sex with her skydiving partner. Wondering why she hadn’t heard from them, she stopped walking and pulled out her phone. When she saw she had twelve unanswered text messages, she remembered she’d put her phone on silent during the movie and had forgotten to change it back. If only she’d had the ringer on, maybe the texts would have kept her from making the biggest mistake of her life.
She scrolled through them.
Elissa: Hope you’re having a good time with Mr. McHottiePants.
Elissa: Smooch, smooch, smooch.
India: Ignore her. Call if you need us.
Several more followed in the same vein before India’s final message:
Where are you? Are you ok? Let me know.
She glanced across the street toward the mostly empty parking lot of the Blue Falls Music Hall and knew she couldn’t face seeing either of her friends tonight. With a deep breath, she texted India back.
Fine. Sorry, forgot to turn the ringer back on. Tired, heading to bed.
Just as soon as she walked the mile and a half around the lake to her apartment. If she made it without someone seeing her and setting the local gossip mill ablaze, she’d officially be the luckiest woman in all of the Hill Country.
She hurried toward the walking path that circled the lake. When she passed the Ice Cream Hut, she couldn’t help but remember how Logan had teased both her and Mari as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Damn her hormones—it probably was. She imagined him buying an ice-cream cone for a woman in every rodeo town he rolled into. Tears pooled in her eyes, and that made her even angrier. But she wasn’t angry at Logan. He hadn’t claimed to be anything he wasn’t. No, she was angry at herself. She’d let her body trump the orderly, precise thought process that had gotten her through years of upheaval and allowed her to become a successful businesswoman.
She increased her pace, wanting to be home more than she could express. Her anger grew, extending to her friends. They’d pushed her to the point where she’d fallen prey to Logan’s good looks and smooth talking. All the way back to the inn, she concocted countless ways to get back at them. But that would mean admitting what had happened. And by the time she unlocked the exterior door to her apartment that wouldn’t necessitate her walking through the inn’s lobby, she’d decided she was keeping her one-night stand to herself. That shouldn’t be a problem, since she couldn’t imagine Logan caring enough to deliberately cross her path again. He’d had her, and most likely he’d be on to the next woman who caught his eye.
That last thought kept reverberating in her head as she made straight for her bathroom and took a shower. Why did it bother her so much?
Because she wasn’t one to give even her body so easily. She’d lost control, and if there was one thing she couldn’t bear, it was to not be in control of her own life.
