Blame It on the Cowboy (23 page)

“One question,” he said.

“Yes, I have been stockpiling cat shit,” Jimena answered right off.

He made sure his scowl deepened. “That wasn't the question. I want to know if Reese packed to leave.”

Jimena suddenly didn't look so smart-assed. “She's always packed and ready to leave. Now, if you're wanting to know if she
will
go, that I can't say. You should ask her. Then you should ask her to stay.”

He already had. Apparently, he was a lot better with business deals than he was with Reese.

“By the way, should I bring Crazy Cat back here since she belongs to Cassie and Lucky?” Jimena asked.

They already had Crazy Dog, five cats, two kids and another on the way. It seemed cruel to add another fur-critter, especially one with the worst temperament in the kitty kingdom. Still…

“Keep that cat at the office as long as you're working for me. But when you leave, part of your clearing-out duties will be to bring the cat here, understand?”

Jimena nodded, turned, but then as quickly turned back around. “Is it okay if I have sex with your friend Jason?”

Logan was about to groan, then say okay, but he rethought that. “Only if Jason agrees.” Which he would. Jason liked the call-girl-looking, smart-mouth type.

Jimena gave a fake laugh, shot him the bird and went inside. Just as Reese was coming out.

“Is everything okay?” Reese asked. She had no doubt heard and seen the interaction between Jimena and him, but Logan figured her question had more to do with his earlier interaction with Helene.

“Helene and I were just talking,” he explained. “I suppose you could say Jimena and I were just talking, too, but it never quite feels like conversation with her.”

“I know what you mean.” She stayed back. Again, probably because she'd seen him with Helene and wasn't sure what was going on. Reese looked as if she were debating either fight or flight.

“Helene thinks it's too soon for me to get involved with you,” he relayed. “I believe she's wrong.”

“And if she's not?”

Because she still wasn't coming closer to him, Logan went to her. He slipped his arm around her waist, brushed a kiss on her forehead. “We don't have to push things between us. There's no timetable. We could continue to see each other, and if it's too soon, then it shouldn't take us long to figure that out.”

He figured this was the part where she would just remind him that she wasn't a stayer but rather a leaver. But Reese made a sound that could possibly be of agreement. Good. He was making some progress even if, in the back of his mind, he was wondering if progress was just a mistake.

“I should go back in,” she said. “Lucky and Cassie want to say their vows as soon as the guests clear out. I can help with that. Better yet, Jimena can help with that.”

She kissed his cheek. So chaste. The kind of kiss that longtime couples gave each other, but it still packed a wallop. Maybe Reese wasn't capable of giving him chaste kisses.

Logan followed her in, but he didn't get far when he spotted the guest who was coming into the sunroom. Delbert Clark. Since Delbert was no longer doing business with McCord Cattle Brokers, Logan didn't have a clue why he was there. He certainly hadn't been invited.

“I need to talk to you,” Delbert said the moment he laid eyes on Logan. But Logan realized Delbert wasn't just looking at him. He was looking at Reese.

Hell. What now? If Delbert was going to demand that he break up with Reese, then it was going to be a very short conversation. Logan didn't usually dig in his heels when it came to repairing a business relationship, but in this case he'd make an exception.

“This isn't a good time,” Logan said, stating the obvious.

Delbert glanced around as if seeing the party food and guests for the first time. Clearly, he had something else on his mind. “Sorry. I didn't know, but this can't wait. Can we go somewhere and talk in private?”

Logan wanted to say no, but it was Reese who motioned for him to follow her into the family room. It wasn't exactly private since someone could walk in at any moment, but maybe that meant Delbert would say his piece and leave. But he didn't jump right into anything. He just stood there, sweat popping out on his forehead and the veins bulging on his neck.

“You need to call off your mother,” Delbert told Reese.

Reese shook her head when he didn't add more. “I haven't seen my mother in days,” she said at the same moment Logan asked, “What are you talking about?”

“I'm talking about your mother screwing me over, that's what, and I want it to stop.”

“You think I can control what my mother does?” Reese asked. “What
did
she do?”

Still nothing from Delbert to explain. He didn't start talking until after several huffed breaths and some pacing. “You know she called me and said I should quit doing business with Logan because you're bad news, because you could end up hurting me and my own business.”

Reese nodded. “And you did break ties with Logan.”

Now Logan huffed and folded his arms over his chest. “I'm guessing Vickie did something else. Something more than just bad-mouthing me and playing on your narrow little mind.”

A flash of anger went through Delbert's eyes, but it cooled as quickly as it had come, and he cursed. “She's blackmailing me.”

Logan glanced at Reese to see if she had any idea what was going on, but she just shook her head again.

“I had sex with Vickie,” Delbert finally said. “I didn't know who she was, but she came on to me when I was in a bar. I made the mistake of leaving that bar with her.” He groaned, scrubbed his hand over his face and then looked at Logan. “She said I was to do what she told me to do, or else she'd tell my wife.”

“Let me guess—Vickie filmed your one-nighter?” Reese asked.

“Filmed with audio,” Delbert explained. “And the images aren't blurry, either. Vickie said she'd give me the video if I severed business ties with Logan and told him I was doing that because of you.”

“And Vickie wanted even more after that,” Logan finished for him.

“Yeah. She wanted me to contact even more of your business associates and get them to blackball McCord Cattle Brokers. She must have a hard-on for you, Logan, to want to screw you over like that.”

“She wants money,” Logan corrected. “Vickie figures if she hurts my business enough that I'll pay her off. I won't.” He was also guessing that this was Vickie's way of punishing Reese, of showing Reese who was in charge.

And it was working.

The color had drained from Reese's face, and she was probably about to launch into some apologies. “This isn't your fault,” Logan told her, not that she would believe him, but he had to try. “But this is
your
fault,” Logan said to Delbert.

“I know.” Another groan. “I just need you to help me. Maybe Reese can help me get that video.”

“Vickie probably made multiple copies and has stashed them in hard-to-find places,” Reese said. “This is one of her favorite cons, by the way, and it won't end with these first demands. She'll want money from you and lots of it. And she'll keep wanting money.”

“So, how do I stop her?” Delbert asked.

Logan and Reese exchanged glances, and since he figured Delbert was going to need it, he gave him a pat on the arm. And he told Delbert exactly what he was going to have to do to make this mess, and Vickie, go away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

O
NCE
AGAIN
HER
mother had ruined things. Not just for Delbert, either. And Vickie would keep on ruining things because that's what she did. Heck, she'd even ruined Cassie and Lucky's wedding for Reese since Reese hadn't been able to think of much else other than their conversation with Delbert.

Thankfully, Cassie and Lucky hadn't seemed to notice. Hard to notice anyone being distracted, though, when they were clearly so much in love with each other.

The informal wedding itself had gone off without a hitch. The rain had held off. There'd been a cool breeze, and the only talk had been of the happy couple and the life they were building together. Perfect, in fact.

There it was again.
Perfect.
The word that seemed like a pipe dream to Reese. Perfection just wouldn't happen with her mother around and her own past always haunting her.

“We won,” Logan said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

For a second, Reese thought she'd missed something he'd said, and maybe she had, because that's when she realized Logan had pulled to a stop not in front of the Bluebonnet Inn but in the parking lot of the McCord building. The rain that had held off all day was now sliding down the windshield.

“We won,” she agreed. “But this won't be the last of it.”

“It will be if Delbert goes through on filing those charges against your mother.”

Yes, and while Delbert had hesitantly agreed to do just that, he might change his mind when he realized this would cost him his marriage. Of course, it would end up costing him that, anyway, because even if he paid and paid and paid, Vickie liked to tear apart people's lives.

“Even if Vickie's locked up, she'll find a way to cause trouble,” Reese continued. Mercy, she was pure gloom and doom, and here less than an hour after attending a wedding.

“Tell you what,” Logan said. “Let's quit thinking about Vickie right now, and get out of this truck before it starts raining any harder. It'd be nice to get inside and stay put while this storm moves through.”

“Does this mean you want me to spend the night here with you?”

“Is that a trick question?” he asked.

“No. We just hadn't discussed it, and I thought with everything going on—”

Logan put an end to what she was saying with a kiss. He managed to rid her of her breath and her doubts in one swoop.

Apparently, she was staying the night.

“Wait here for just a couple of seconds until I get the back door unlocked,” he told her, and he hurried out of the truck. There was a small awning just above the door, but he still got wet. Logan didn't hurry to unlock the door, though. Instead, he must have gotten a call because he looked at his phone screen.

Reese got out, too, and ran toward Logan just as he opened the door and got them inside.

“It's Chucky,” Logan mouthed, keeping his phone pressed to his ear so he could hear whatever the man was saying.

Of course. There was no way Chucky was just going to slink away from this.

Logan continued listening on the way up the stairs, turning on lights as they climbed, and by the time they made it to the loft, Reese didn't have to ask if it was bad news because she could tell from his face that it was. Logan confirmed that by not saying anything until they were inside.

“You're sure you want to do that?” Logan asked the man, but she couldn't hear Chucky's response.

Several seconds later, Logan hit the end-call button, put his phone back in his pocket. He also poured them drinks and had a long sip before he continued.

“Chucky says if Helene files charges against him that he'll copy old newspaper articles about Spenser O'Malley and plaster them all over town.”

Her breath vanished again, but this time it wasn't from one of Logan's kisses. Chucky really knew which wounds to go after so he could hurt her the most. And what with her mother trying to ruin Logan, it pretty much killed what little festive mood she had left from the wedding.

“Spenser.” Reese sank down onto the nearest chair. She really didn't want all of that brought out in the open again. Especially since it would be gossiped about.

“I think Helene was having second thoughts about those charges, anyway,” Logan commented. “She's worried how it'll look when everyone learns she told Chucky you were here.”

“Is that what she said to you when she was talking to you on the porch?” she asked.

“Among other things.” He had more of that drink and sat down across from her. “Helene and I are not getting back together. Ever. You don't have to worry about that.”

Good. Because she had enough to worry about, and apparently so did Logan.

“What else did Chucky say?” Reese pressed.

Logan took a long, deep breath. Probably not a good sign. “Chucky says he'll start rumors that I could have saved my parents but that I was drunk when I got to the scene of the accident.”

The profanity flew out of her mouth before Reese even knew she was going to say it, and she slammed her glass on the coffee table. “That little shit. I want to go after him. I want to rip off his dick and beat him senseless with it.”

She was halfway to the door before Logan reached her. He caught onto her arm and whirled her back around. Reese was certain that the anger was visible in every part of her body, but Logan managed to look a lot calmer.

“Dick-ripping?” he questioned. “A little extreme, more like something Jimena would do, but thank you for the offer. I did notice, though, that you didn't get pissed when Chucky threatened to slime you, only when he turned that potential slime on me.”

“Because he's going after you because of me.” She still didn't have control of her voice. It was too loud, too shrill.

“No, he's going after me because he's greedy and wants money. And he believes this is the fastest way to get it.”

That was true, but it didn't help that situation. “So, what do we do?”

He kissed the tip of her nose and stepped away so he could get her drink. “We wait him out. Chucky wants money, and he loses the chance of getting that money if he spills all.”

Reese knew that was true, but the idea of waiting sickened her. “This is such a mess. Not just what Chucky is trying to do to us, but what Vickie's trying to do to Delbert.” She sighed. “At least Delbert and I did something to get ourselves into hot water. You didn't.”

She saw Logan flinch just slightly, and the only reason she caught it was because Reese had her attention nailed to him. It was still a sore subject after all these years, but she hadn't heard any gossip about the accident.

“It's ironic that a vehicle killed both your parents and Spenser,” she threw out there. Reese went with a hunch. “You think you should have been able to save them?”

He turned now, avoiding her gaze. “Do you think you should have been able to save Spenser?”

“Of course. In a perfect world, Spenser would have lived, redeemed himself and went off to live a happy life.” Reese paused. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up.”

The words had hardly left her mouth when Logan turned, slid his hand around the back of her neck and dragged her to him.

“I'm tired of talking,” he said, and he crushed his mouth to hers.

* * *

L
OGAN
HADN
'
T
INTENDED
for the kiss to be foreplay. He'd just wanted to end the discussion, and the most pleasurable and fastest way to do that was just to kiss Reese. Of course, anytime he kissed her was pleasurable, but this particular kiss did double duty.

He didn't want to think about his parents' car accident, Spenser O'Malley, Chucky or anybody else. He only wanted to be with Reese tonight, and if he kept kissing her, that just might happen.

Outside, the storm kicked up, the wind and rain slapping against the windows. Since the back wall of his loft was about 70 percent windows and glass, it seemed as if the storm was right inside. Inside him, too, but Logan put all of that raw emotion into the kiss.

Reese staggered back, and for a couple of really bad moments, Logan thought she was calling a halt to this so they could keep on talking. But she was only catching her breath. Once she'd gulped in some air, she came right back to him, and she kissed him with as much emotion and intensity as he'd kissed her.

Maybe they both had some things to work out tonight, and Logan was thinking the bed was a good place to do that. Of course, that was his hard-on talking again, but for once maybe that idiotic part of him was actually making sense. At least this couldn't complicate things because their lives were already beyond complicated.

Logan pushed that thought aside, too, and pulled her to him. Not that he had to do much pulling. Reese was already in the mode of having her body pressed against his. His hard-on thought that was an excellent notion, too, but there was something in his brain that kept telling him to slow down, to enjoy the moment, because with Reese he never knew how many more moments like this he was going to get.

So, Logan slowed the pace. Since it was already at frantic, it wasn't easy. Still, he took his time, savoring her taste and the way she felt in his arms. Savoring her.

Man, she fired up every inch of his body, and he'd quit trying to figure out why. It probably didn't make sense to her, either. He wasn't the perfect man for her because she would always be worried about what people thought. About what people would find out to hurt them. But for this moment, it was perfect.

She
was perfect.

Logan brushed some kisses on her neck, then lower to the tops of her breasts. It did exactly what he'd intended it to do. It got her hotter. Did the same to him as well, and without breaking those kisses, she started maneuvering them toward the bed.

He didn't resist, but he continued to keep things slow. Tiny steps. Big, long kisses. So that by the time they did tumble onto the mattress, Reese knew that he meant business. A different kind of business since it was usually a frantic grab-and-get when they were with each other.

“You don't have to make it nice for me,” she whispered.

“I'm not. This is for me,” he whispered back.

Reese stopped a moment, her gaze meeting his. The lights weren't on, but a well-timed lightning bolt let him see her face. She was questioning this. And Logan knew why. For lack of a better word this was intimate, and they weren't just swept up in the moment. They could decide whether to stop or not, but the decision would be made not with hard-ons and arousals but with their heads.

Scary shit.

Logan braced himself for Reese to cut and run, and she probably thought about doing that. But she didn't. Her mouth came back to his, and she kissed him. Long, slow, deep.

He eased up her loose cotton dress, slipping it off. Her bra, too, so he could lower those kisses to her breasts. She made a silky sound of pleasure, took what he was offering, and she slid her fingers into his hair. He stayed there a moment, pleasuring her. Pleasuring himself, too, before he took the same slow pace to remove her panties.

His hard-on made itself known then. The brainless wonder wanted to dive right in, but Logan fought the urge and did something else he'd been wanting to do. He kissed every inch of Reese. By the time he worked his way back up to her mouth, she was panting. And grabbing at his clothes.

Logan let her grab, and he tried not to wince when she fumbled, and fumbled, and kept on fumbling with the zipper of his jeans. Since he didn't want this to be a hand job, he finally helped her. Got his eyes uncrossed, too.

The condom was an issue since Reese tried to help with that, as well. Obviously, she'd reached her threshold for long and savoring and just wanted him inside her. Logan and his hard-on were all for that, but he still tried to hang on to the moment by entering her slowly.

That lasted a heartbeat.

Reese turned, flipping him on his back, and she got on top of him. The pace was anything but slow. It didn't take her long to find the right rhythm, and since she was clearly hell-bent on finishing this too fast, Logan caught onto her hips to help her.

She looked amazing on top of him. Not like something from a porn movie, more like one of those sensual scenes where everything seemed graceful and choreographed. Of course, that was probably influenced by the fact she was fucking his brains out.

Thanks to some more lightning, Logan was able to see her face when she climaxed. Amazing. Watching her was almost better than having a climax of his own.

Almost.

Logan would have liked to watch a little while longer, but his hard-on had had enough. He caught onto Reese, pulling her down to him, and he let his hard-on finish what it'd started.

* * *

L
OGAN
FIGURED
IT
was the sound of the storm outside that triggered the storm in his head. The dream came just as real as it always was.

He was on the mental hamster wheel again, going through images so familiar that he didn't need the dream to see them. Just like all those other times, he fought the skid on the road, fought everything inside him that tried to claw its way to the surface.

The fear.

The sickening dread of what he would see as he ran to the tangled wreck.

Tonight was no different. He pulled Claire to the side of the road. Protecting her. And then he was on the hamster wheel again, hurrying back to his parents. Realizing he'd made a mistake by not calling for help the second he'd spotted the wreck.

Just like every other dream, his mother turned and looked at him, the life already leaving her eyes. But she said something. This time, though, it was different. Logan didn't just hear the words in his head; he saw them form on her lips. Barely a whisper. But it was more than loud enough for him to hear.