Mad enough to marry (20 page)

God, no—^he wasn't in love with her. That had been the virus talking and now he*d made a nearly complete recovery.

As she'd said, his attraction to her had been about proximity and that damn past of theirs. Questions about it had lingered in his mind for years and seeing her again had brought them to the forefront.

It was natural that he'd been compelled to uncover the truth. And yeah, her kisses were as brain-twisting as he'd remembered. Elena in bed was as extraordinary as he'd always fantasized.

But she was trouble, with a capital *T," and that was not for a man who, after years of entanglement had broken free to seek a simple—^with a small **s"— Ufe. Elena made him crazy, and he savored sanity, thank you very much.

A pounding on his door roused him from his thoughts and his seat. He opened the door to find his father on the other side. Only for an instant. In the next breath, Jonathon Chase pushed his way into the apartment.

**Laura," he called out. *'rve had enough. It's time for you to stop this nonsense and come home."

Logan's eyebrows lifted. **She's uh, not here, Dad."

Jonathon sputtered a moment, then blinked. **Well, where is she?"

Ruining Gabby and Tyler's pre-prom moments wasn't something Logan would allow. **She'll be back soon." Then he held up his beer. **Would you like one?"

His father grunted and waved a dismissive hand, then dropped to Logan's couch. He was nattily dressed in his usual Saturday golf attire.

Logan sighed and sat on the other end of the couch. *'How was your golf game today. Dad?"

'*Don'task."

"Ah, well." Logan tried to dredge up some sympathy, though the only thing he thought golf was good for were those low-voiced TV commentators. They'd lulled him into some of the best afternoon naps of his life.

Jonathon sank back against the couch cushions, his fingertips drunrniing a rhythm on his kneecaps. "How long will she be?"

Logan shrugged. "Don't know."

Jonathon frowned. "What the hell is going on in her mind?"

"Don't know."

Frowning deeper, his father rose to his feet to pace around Logan's living room. "I resent the way things are turning out in this family."

Logan just sipped from his bottle of beer.

"Your brother's married—^I like that. But the rest, your mother and you, Logan, are confusing me."

"Why don't you just ask Mom, nicely, what's going on?" Logan suggested.

"I don't want to know what's going on! I want my life back, just the way it was."

Logan had some sympathy for that position until his father rounded on him. "I need you back at Chase Electronics."

Logan looked down at his beer bottle. **Oops. Empty." He stood up and escaped to the kitchen, thinking maybe he could stay in there awhile. It was always easier to avoid rather than confront his father.

Stalling, he opened the refrigerator and considered offering his dad a square of the Ume gelatin and shredded carrot salad that sat, quivering with neglect, on the top shelf.

Bad idea, Logan decided. One bite of that and he might not want Mom back.

Then he heard the apartment door open.

**Jonathon!" his mother said.

*'Laura."

The exchange of names was followed by a long, long silence. Fingers crossed, Logan walked out of the kitchen, hoping to find his parents in a reconcili-atory embrace.

Maybe then his Ufe could get back to normal.

But instead of forgiveness, understanding or even arguing, he found his parents in what appeared to be a stand-off. They were staring at each other, stony-faced.

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose, frustration and annoyance starting to pound like a headache in his brain. Breathing deeply, he tried to think good-natured, easygoing thoughts. Sunmier picnics. Kites flying in the sky. Puppies, kittens.

Only cauldrons of fire and pitchforks came to mind.

He inhaled another long breath. "Look who's here. Mom." When that garnered no response, he tried again. **Dad, Mom's back."

"This must stop," Jonathon finally bit out. His gaze moved from Logan's mother's face to Logan. "Today. This stops today."

"What?" Logan asked.

Jonathon pointed at his wife. ''You are coming home." Hien he pointed at Logan. "And you are coming back into the business."

Logan stared at his father, the flames in his mental cauldron leaping high to become a raging inferno. "What did you say?"

"I expect you back at your desk on Monday morning, 8:00 a.m. sharp."

Those flames rose higher, twisting and crackling, consuming in one instant a lifetime of laid-back diplomacy. "That's it," Logan said, stalking toward his parents. "I've had it."

ffis father blinked. ' *Logan?''

Logan's skin was hot, his emotions were hot, there was more heat crackling along the edges of his voice. "Dad, I admire you, I love you, but you're acting like a jackass and I'm not putting up with it anymore. Give up this ridiculous idea of yours. I'm not going back to Chase Electronics. I am going to proceed with my own business and my own hfe. I expect you never to bring up me working there again."

"Logan..." his mother started.

"And you!" He'd never before raised his voice to his mother. "You're mad at Dad. Well tell him why, for God's sake. Tell him what you want— demand it. Because he sure as hell isn't going to figure it out by himself."

They spoke at once. *'Logan—"

''Furthermore, I am not Dear Abby and this is not the Lonely Hearts Rooming House." He took hold of one of their arms in each hand and directed them firmly toward the door. ' 'Go home. Dad. Take Mom with you. And don't drag me into this again. I have my own problems."

His temper still running high and hot, he opened the door and—gently—threw his own parents out.

It felt danm good.

For something like five seconds. Then there was a hesitant knock on his door.

Gritting his teeth, he opened it an inch. His mother was peering at him.

"I need my purse," she said, an apology in her voice.

He merely swung the door open silently.

She hurried inside, shooting him a half smile. "I'm sorry, Logan. I know I put you in the middle and it was wrong of me." Lifting her purse from the coffee table, she looked at him again. "But you're right, you know. I told you that we need to demand what we want, and then I didn't do it. I've always made things much too easy for your father. I don't want him to get away with that anymore."

Logan ground his teeth together. "Don't tell that to me. Mom. Tell that to him."

She nodded, once, then headed for the door. "I intend to. But I hope...I hope you take your own advice, dear."

Logan frowned. "What are you talking about?"

**rm no Dear Abby either. But look in your closet. I know you said you didn't need it anymore, but I hung something there that might provide some inspiration."

Elena inspected her image in the mirror. The dress she'd borrowed from Laura Chase was more sophisticated than a prom dress, and its strapless bodice and full skirt were the same color of blue as her eyes. She'd swept her hair into what Gabby called an *'updo," then sifted through her jewelry box to find a sparkUng necklace and matching earrings of faux sapphires.

The chic dress made the jewels—and Elena herself-—much more elegant than they could be alone. She wondered what Logan would think—•

No! She was supposed to be forgetting him.

It wasn't as if she imagined he was having trouble forgetting her.

Though once upon a time she'd probably beUeved that a man couldn't wipe her from his mind, it would have been before her father had left. Certainly before the senior prom, when Logan had blithely walked away. Every man she'd ever rebuffed since—and okay, maybe her initial prickly attitude toward them was always a test of sorts—^had never bothered to persist, only confirming her mistrust.

And then, of course, two nights ago Logan had blithely walked away for the second time.

Curling her fingers into fists, Elena checked the clock. With a few more minutes before she had to

leave, she might as well wipe a small task from her own mind. Telling Logan that she and Gabby were moving out the next day would be her first step in moving on from him.

The phone rang several times before he picked up. *'Yeah, what?" he said abruptly.

**Um, sorry to bother you," Elena replied, suddenly regretting the impulse to call. '*!...! wanted to let you know that Gabby and I will be packing up and moving back to our house tomorrow."

**Fine, fine." He sounded harried.

She told herself the casual dismissal didn't hurt. *'Well, then. Thanks again."

A distant, strangled noise came over the phone.

Elena hesitated. "Are you okay?"

There was a pause and then he spoke, his voice clear now, but no less rushed-sounding. "Fm busy. I had to run out for something and now Fm in a hell of a hurry. You caught me straight from the shower."

Naked. She thought of his big body with its hard, sleek muscles. She thought of the ways he'd used it to make love to her, sometimes gentle, sometimes so passionate that she shivered just thinking about it.

Swallowing hard, she tore the mental image into a thousand tiny pieces. "Well, Fm sorry. Fll let you—"

"No, no. Fm glad you called. I wanted to tell you something."

It was Saturday night. He had just showered.

He was going to tell her he had a date, she thought.

Her stomach lurched, buffeted by waves of pain and jealousy. '*I—"

'*My family is your typical Anglo-Saxon, coki-as-cucumbers-in-Jell-O crowd."

She bUnked. **Jell-0?"

'*Never mind." He mumbled a curse at a missing black sock, then spoke clearly again. **The point is, what I felt for you eleven years ago, Elena, was hotter, edgier, more passionate than any kind of male-female relationship I'd ever seen or experienced. I ran from it. From you. And kept running from both until you showed up in my world again."

'*You like things simple," Elena replied dully, not understanding why he wanted to rehash this now. '*Easy."

**But simple and easy doesn't always mean happy," he said. **Even though I thought it did. I thought it was smart to run from passion. I called it *the beast,' you know. But now, now I realize it's the best of what you release in me. It's what makes me feel alive."

'*What?'' Elena took the phone from her ear, stared at it, then brought it back. **What are you saying?"

**rm saying, open your door."

*'What?"

'*Open your door."

Still confused and going cold all over, Elena did as he said. And there he stood, in a black tuxedo, a cordless phone in one hand and a corsage box in the other.

She could only stare at him and try not to tremble. *'What...what are you doing here?" she finally said.

**We have a date, remember?"

He'd come back.

Turning his wrist, he checked his watch. '*7:00p.m. on the dot."

He was right on time.

*'I love you."

And he loved her. Oh! No! No, she couldn't let herself beUeve—

■'Go ahead, try to doubt me," Logan said, stepping forward even as she retreated. *'Go ahead and try to push me out of your hfe. But you won't get away with it this time, Elena."

'1 never pushed you out." She continued to scurry back, afraid to let him close, afraid that he would make her weak again and hurt her even more.

Then her back bumped against the wall. Suddenly his hands were empty except for a wrist corsage of white baby roses and gauzy, sapphire-blue ribbon. She tried to dodge him, but her reflexes were still slowed by the surprise of having him here. It took just a moment for him to capture her hand and then slide the flowers over her cold fingers and onto her arm.

They both stared at it and Elena tried to pretend that the rose petals weren't clearly shaking.

His warm fingers squeezed her cold ones. *'That was a long time coming," he said.

It was the soft note in his voice that finally woke her up. It was a soft, seductive, treacherous note that tried to slip beneath her defenses. It tried to make her not oidy feel sixteen again, but be sixteen again, when

love—^and Logan—^were fairy tales she still let herself believe in.

'*No," she said, whipping her hand free of his. She couldn't set herself up for another fall. She wouldn't. **I don't want this. I don't want to go to the prom with you."

Crossing his arms over his chest, he narrowed his eyes. **Too bad. Because I'll be damned if I'm going to let you go to the stupid dance alone and then hear for the next eleven years that I stood you up again."

She went from apprehension to outrage in a split second. *'I wouldn't—"

*'Oh, yes. Yes, you would."

Elena felt her face go red. She felt her whole body flame, as if the very pores of her skin were exuding long-suppressed Latin temperament. ''Cochino,"

His Hps twitched. ^'I'm going to assume that was a compliment."

He was laughing at her! Fueled by the thought, her temper leaped. *'Go away," she spat out.

His shoes seemed to find root in the floor as he regarded her with almost cUnical interest. **Never."

*'Logan —"

*'Never."

Panicky now, she stamped her foot and didn't even feel ashamed of the childish action. Then she yanked the corsage off her arm and held it high.

His hand instantly closed over her raised wrist. *'There. There's the Elena I've been waiting for."

She tried to wound him with a look.

It only caused his lips to twitch again. *'Go ahead," he said. *'Get angry. Get really angry."

She stamped her foot once more and tried to puD free of him. *'Why are you doing this?"

He brought her hand to his mouth, then brushed his lips across her knuckles. "So that I can see the real you, the fiery, passionate Elena that I love."

*'What are you talking about?" Frustrated tears were stinging the comers of her eyes and she'd rather die than cry in front of him. 'I'm mad at you!"

"Mad enough to marry me?"

Her heart jolted and her gaze jerked up to his.

His face was serious now and his golden eyes watchful. But he was teasing her. He had to be teasing her.