Blame It on the Cowboy (11 page)

Logan groaned again. “I won't discuss that with you.”

“There's something you should know.” Jimena took out her own phone. “I've been seeing a guy. Elrond Silverman. He's not the right letter of the alphabet, but sometimes I let that slide.”

Logan didn't have a clue what that meant, and he could possibly be dealing with someone who was mentally unstable.

“Elrond worked for you,” she added.

“So? A lot of people work or have worked for me.”

She nodded and came closer, holding out her phone screen for him to see. “Last night, we got a flat tire when we were in Elrond's car, and this was in the trunk.”

Logan figured there was absolutely nothing on the screen that he wanted to see. But he was wrong. The first thing he noticed was the porcelain tit. One that he recognized because it was a perfect match to the one Helene had given him.

Of her own right breast.

Hell. Had this Elrond stolen it?

Logan tried to remember the story Helene had told him about it, but all he could recall was that she'd said it had gone missing.

“Does it look familiar?” Jimena asked.

It took him a moment to realize she wasn't pointing to the boob but rather to what was next to the boob.

A clown suit complete with a big red nose.

CHAPTER TEN

R
EESE
FELT
THE
flutter in her stomach when she saw the man in the doorway of the café. But the flutter fluttered away when after her initial glance she realized it wasn't Logan but rather Lucky.

“Glad I caught you before you left,” Lucky greeted.

Since she already had her purse in her hand and had been going to the front door to lock it, he'd barely caught her in time. Even if she hadn't been there, it wasn't as if she would be hard to find since Reese had managed to keep her apartment at the Bluebonnet Inn.

“First, I'm pleased you're staying,” Lucky continued. “Logan needs someone to keep him off-balanced a little.”

She wasn't so sure of that at all. “There's nothing going on between Logan and me.” Something she'd been saying to Bert, Sissy Lee and Sissy Lee's brother when they brought up that Logan was the reason she was staying on a while longer.

Lucky made a sound that he didn't quite buy that. “All right. I'm glad you're staying, anyway. I heard about Chucky. You know if he bothers you again, all you have to do is tell Logan or me.”

For some reason that put another flutter in her stomach. Not a sexual one this time but a warm unfamiliar feeling. “Thanks. I'm not used to people having my back.”

“Well, your friend Jimena seems to be looking out for you.”

No more flutter. Just confusion. “How do you know Jimena?”

“Ah, hell.” He groaned. “I just figured Logan had told you that she paid him a visit earlier today.”

“I haven't spoken to Logan since last night.”

Lucky tried to dismiss her words with a shrug. “I'm sure he'll tell you about it when you see him.” Reese wanted to hear about it now, but Lucky just continued talking, and it wasn't about her friend. “Cassie and I are excited about you doing our engagement party.”

Reese nodded. “Cassie called this morning, and we talked about that. She said she was looking at the end of next month.”

“Uh, could you do it sooner? Like maybe the end of
this
month?”

“Sure. That works out better for me, anyway.” In case she decided she needed to get out of town.

The end of the month was only two and a half weeks away, and at first Reese thought the short notice was what was causing that funny look on Lucky's face.

“And maybe don't fix anything with bacon or coffee,” he added.

It was a strange request, but maybe Cassie simply didn't like those things. “No problem. Since Cassie wanted a brunch, I could do—”

“We'll need to make it an afternoon or evening party instead. Will that be a problem for you?”

She shook her head, and maybe it was the shaking that caused Reese to connect the dots. “Is Cassie pregnant?” Judging from the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, Reese wished she hadn't asked.

Or guessed correctly.

“You can't tell anyone,” Lucky insisted. “Not yet. Cassie and I need to figure out a way to tell the girls first. And we don't want to do that before Mia's birthday party. We don't want to take anything away from her special day.”

“I understand, though in this town nothing stays secret for long,” she reminded him.

“Yeah,” he said without hesitation. “But don't even tell him.” Lucky tipped his head toward the glass front door where Logan was standing.

Reese felt another stomach flutter. Logan had finally come. It was about time. She figured he must have heard by now that she was staying in town, and after the warning she'd given him about them landing in bed, Reese figured he'd either run for the hills…

Or run for her.

She was hoping for the latter.

Reese made a zipping motion across her lips for Lucky. A motion that she prayed Logan hadn't seen because he seemed suspicious when he came in.

“Engagement party stuff,” Lucky explained to his brother. “Did you get some of those meetings rescheduled?”

“No. I've got to leave tonight for Dallas.”

Reese hated to feel disappointed by that. She should just hit herself in the head with a frying pan. It would be less painful than all this second-guessing, fluttering and fantasizing she was doing about a man she could never have.

“What about you?” Logan asked Lucky.

“I've got to head over to the school right now for Mia's program. Apparently, the pre-K did picture poems complete with painted macaroni borders.” He grinned. “Bet you never thought you'd hear me say something like that, huh?”

From all accounts, Lucky had been a serious player so it probably was a surprise that he was now attending school programs and talking about macaroni art projects. Still, it seemed to suit him, and he appeared to be happy. If not a little shaken by the news of Cassie's pregnancy. She wondered how Logan and the rest of his family would take it.

Wondered, too, why Logan was here.

He certainly didn't pull her into his arms and drag her to the floor after Lucky left. Not that Reese especially wanted him to do that…or maybe she did…but it didn't look as if he had kissing, sex, floors or flutters on his mind. And she soon remembered why.

“Did Jimena really visit you?” she asked. She also locked the front door so that no one else would come wandering in.

“She did. She threatened to cut off my dick and roast it.”

Reese groaned. “She doesn't mean it. And she had no right. I'll call her and set her straight.”

“No need. That wasn't the only reason for her visit.” He took out his phone and showed her a picture. “Jimena texted this to me so I'd have a copy.”

It took Reese's brain a moment to make sense of what she was seeing A porcelain boob and a clown suit.

“Please tell me Jimena got that boob from the Dumpster,” Reese said.

Logan shook his head. “She found this in the trunk of her boyfriend's car.”

“Elrond,” Reese provided. Then she knew the reason for Logan's look. And the reason he'd come. He wanted to find out if she knew anything more about this. “You believe Elrond was the one with Helene that night?”

“It's not just possible, it's highly likely. After all, Helene was the one who hired him. I didn't have any dealing with him or the rest of the crew who redecorated the building.” Muscles flickered in his jaw.

Obviously this was bothering him, and Reese couldn't let it bother her that he was bothered. After all, he had a right to know if this clown had indeed been the one who'd had sex with the woman Logan had intended to marry.

“What will you do if you find out he's the one?” she asked.

He shook his head, put his phone away, and that was apparently the only answer Logan was going to give her. “So, what made you decide to stay in town?”

Reese was thankful for the change in subject but probably not as thankful as Logan was. “I'm surprised you don't know that from the gossip.”

“I heard a couple of theories. One was that you wanted to give me food poisoning for trying to run you out of town. Another was that you were too broke to leave. The dark-horse gossip was that you were pregnant with either my baby or the clown's.”

Even though she hated to be the center of that much speculation, of any speculation, really, Reese had to laugh. “The clown's? When and where exactly was I supposed to have slept with the clown?”

He lifted his shoulder. “The gossips didn't exactly connect that thread.”

And never would because a thread didn't exist. “Well, I'm definitely not pregnant, and I'm not flat broke. And as for the food poisoning, I only do that when I'm really pissed off at someone.”

Of course that last statement was a joke, but Logan didn't crack a smile. In fact, it seemed to frustrate him.

“I can't stay long,” he said without taking that frustrated stare off her.

“Yes, you're leaving for Dallas. When will you be back?” She tried to make that sound like a casual question. She failed big-time.

“A couple of days. Maybe more. You're not flat broke?” he tacked on to the end of his answer.

She shook her head. “Please don't make me show you my wallet and bank statement.” Again, another attempt at a joke, but he still didn't smile.

“Why did you stay, then?” he asked.

Mercy, no matter what she said to that, it would require some soul-baring. Something she wasn't ready to do just yet. Reese couldn't tell him that she'd stayed because of him. That would send Logan running.

“Maggie's uterus,” she lied. That poor woman's anatomy was getting a lot of buzz.

He nodded, mumbled something she didn't catch, but Reese certainly
caught
the next thing Logan did.

Logan pulled her to him and kissed her.

It happened so fast she didn't see it coming, but Reese didn't need to see anything to feel it. With just a touch of his mouth to hers, the man could perform some magic, and the flutter turned instantly into a sweet spot of pleasure. She felt as if she were melting sugar in a really hot pot.

He didn't exactly experience the melting, though. Logan seemed to be angry. Maybe with her, maybe with himself. And that anger went into the kiss. He probably soon figured out, though, that when kissing, the anger just made it all seem more intense. More urgent.

Reese figured once they had to break for air that it would be the end of it. That Logan would say he was sorry and that it wouldn't happen again.

He didn't.

He went right back to her mouth for a second round, this one deeper and even longer than the first. The problem with deep, long and intense was that everything revved up. Not just the kissing but the body-to-body contact. Logan snapped her to him, her breasts landing right against his chest.

All in all, a really good place for them to be.

Reese's nipples especially liked the idea because they tightened and hardened. The rest of her body, however, started to soften. Everything below the waist preparing for something it wasn't going to get.

When oxygen became an issue again, Reese was certain it was time for Logan's apology and departure. But no. His arm tightened around her, and with a clever little adjustment, he had their midsections aligned in just the right way for her to feel his erection.

Oh, man.

That wasn't a good thing to feel. Her body was already whining for Logan, and that didn't help. It especially didn't help that Reese already knew that Logan's cleverness didn't just happen with his kisses. He could do marvelous, wonderful things with his erections.

She broke away to give him a second to rethink this. Their gazes met, held, and Reese thought maybe she could regain her footing now that he wasn't kissing her. But without breaking the eye-lock he had with her, he slipped his hand beneath her top and touched her.

Reese made a sound. Way louder than it should have been. All pleasure. It was too schoolgirl for her to react this way to a simple hand on her bare skin, but her sound and reaction were a drop in the bucket compared to what he did next. Logan turned her, lifting her in the same motion, and sat her on the counter.

He probably didn't notice the plate of scones sitting there.

It was incredible what he could do with just a few deft shifts of their bodies. Since this part of the counter was table-high, it gave her the perfect height for him to step between her legs. All the while kissing her, touching her and generally making her crazy.

Of course, she'd felt all of this that night in the hotel, but Reese realized now the tequila had dulled things more than quite a bit. She was getting a full dose of Logan without the boozy haze.

“How far are we taking this?” she managed to ask.

“Not far.”

He was lying, delusional or else he had no concept whatsoever of what
not far
actually meant. Because somehow he made their new counter position work so that his erection was now in the V of her thighs. Some well-placed pressure, some more kisses, his hand sliding over her breast, and Reese no longer cared if he took her right then and there.

She didn't even care that she was sitting on a plate of scones that would give her a greasy stain on the butt of her jeans.

What she did care about was more of everything Logan was giving her. She found herself wiggling to get closer and closer until the only way for more closeness to happen was for her to unzip their jeans and go at it right here amid the scone crumbs.

And that might have happened if she hadn't caught the movement from the corner of her eye.

Logan must have seen it, too, because he let go and moved in front of her. However, he was clearly too late.

Bert, Maggie, Sissy Lee and three people whose names Reese didn't know had their faces pressed against the window. Unless they'd all been struck with a sudden bout of blindness, they'd just seen Logan and her kiss each other's lights out.

* * *

A
CCORDING
TO
THE
hottest gossip that Logan had heard, Reese was definitely pregnant with his child. Of course, that gossip had been fueled by what folks had seen through the window of the Fork and Spoon. So far, the gossip hadn't made it to any of his business associates, but if it did, well, Logan didn't want to go there. He wasn't exactly a celebrity, but that kind of talk could hurt.

Something he'd known right from the start.

That meant he should just make a clean break with Reese and start dating someone. Someone who could help the gossip die down so he could go back to his normal life.

If his dick could laugh, it would have laughed at that.

For reasons he would never understand, his dick wanted Reese. His mouth, too, and while he hated to let stupid parts of him like that rule his life, it was as if the other parts no longer had a say in it. That's why Logan had decided to go ahead and have an affair with her. That would make his dick and mouth happy, and if he fucked her enough, it might burn this heat to a crisp.