No Stranger to Danger (15 page)

Logan fell into her and kissed her back, wrapped his arms around her and breathed her in with every gasp of air, pulled her into him, and God help him, but if he didn’t stop now he didn’t know if he would be able to.

Logan tried with all the will he had left to pull back from her, but Mara wouldn't let him go. She held tight, her soft skin against his, the beating of her heart pulsing between them as she kissed him.

Mara slipped her fingers into the top of his pants, and with a pull, unbuttoned them as she dropped to the floor and turned around, her back to the bedroom. His eyes flared at her touch there, and her fingers inside his pants unraveled him to his core. She gave him a little yank toward the bed.

He didn’t hesitate.

Logan took her in his arms and buried his head in the curve of her neck, tasting her skin as he pushed her backward into the dark until her back met with the bed. His hands squeezed and raked up the backs of her legs, over her ass, and then back down as he gripped her thighs and tossed her backward onto the mattress.

Logan came over her, climbing above her body, and Mara squirmed on her back until they were in the center, then reached to tug his pants down around his hips, her fingers scraping across his skin, hardening him to a point of pain. She didn’t have much success removing his clothing under his weight and gave up to rake her nails up his back, under his shirt, mewling and tossing her head in frustration.

"Take it off," she whispered.

Logan growled against her skin as he lifted himself on one arm and pushed the towel open to fall to her sides. He gazed on her breasts a moment and bent to take one nipple into his mouth, palming her other breast as he drew her in further.

Mara gasped in pleasure, her neck curving back on the bed. Logan let her breast go and reached up to coil his fingers in her loose hair, forcing her head back as he kissed her, a little cry spilling into his mouth. He slipped his fingers down to her panties and groaned against her lips at the wet heat between her legs.

He could take apart his weapon blindfolded, put it back together blindfolded—but when it came to seducing his ex-wife in the dark of a bedroom, he lost his calm. His fingers trembled, the
need
to touch her ridding him of all composure. It had been so long—too long—since he had been with her or any woman.

Logan could not stop the urgency thrumming through him and grasped the thin, lace front of her panties in his fist and dragged them roughly down her legs. Mara kicked her legs free.

"Hold on to me," he rasped between hot open-mouthed kisses as he came above her again and took her knees, pressing her legs apart as far as they would go.

Logan shoved his pants down just far enough to free his cock, and in the same instant he sprang free, he pressed himself into her. He clenched his teeth against the wet heat scorching him, drawing him in.

Mara cried out and gripped her hands on his sides as he drove into her with a powerful thrust of his hips. Her hot, wet sheath surrounded him completely, as deep as he could go. He lost all control then, if he'd had any to begin with.

He took her savagely, hammering against her, taking a fistful of her hair and pinning her to the bed with it as he had so wanted to do. She squeezed around him, moved her body against his in perfect rhythm. Logan ran his hands down her side, down her leg, urgently gripping her to him as his thrusts became faster. He bent his head to her neck, tasting the sweet, soft curve again, gripping his fist into her hair tighter and taking her mouth with his.

Logan raised himself above her on his forearms. The glaze of pleasure in her eyes was his undoing, and he felt himself spiraling into climax. Logan buried his head into her hair and let out a cry of pleasure as he rocked against her.

Mara's hips moved under him a moment more, and he felt her shudder, too, as his pleasure thrummed through him until its last. He laid there a moment, absorbing her, and he closed his eyes, wondering what he had just done.

Any way he looked at it, this couldn’t spell anything good for either of them.

Now what?

He gazed down on her.

I love you.

I wish things had gone differently.

Neither of which could he say without at the same time offering empty hope, without offering something he couldn’t give her.

"That was good," he rasped near her ear as he pulled himself from her body. He rolled to his side, his chest rising and falling with labored breaths.

Mara turned her head to look at him, drawing her legs together and turning on her side. "That was good. That's all you have to say after you
fucked
me?"

 
Logan cleared his throat and lifted himself from the bed, walking around the end and pulling up his pants, trying to right himself as much as possible with his cock still thickened. Mara pressed herself up with her elbows bent behind her and watched him incredulously.

She didn’t say anything more.

And he didn’t know
what
to say.

Logan cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I'm just
gonna
go back downstairs and … check things. Set up some more precautions." Mara narrowed her eyes on him, and he looked away, ignoring her confused stare.

Her panties were still looped around one thigh and her towel bunched under her back, her hair tangled and pooled haphazardly against the pillow behind her. He swallowed hard, knowing if he didn’t leave this moment he would be back between her legs in the next.

A hot ache for her began anew, and Logan looked away quickly. He started to say something else, but didn’t know what, so he quickly ducked from the room and closed the door behind him. Somehow, the barrier between them made him feel safer, no matter that the door wasn’t locked, and even if it were, it wouldn’t stop him if he really wanted back in.

Logan rested his head against the door a moment and heard her soft curse on the other side.

What did I just do
? he asked himself again.

If he had a good, strong bottle of whiskey, and he wasn’t in his present circumstances, he would drink the whole bottle and then maybe some more.

However, he was quite certain that Mara's affect would still be stronger on him than any amount of whiskey.

Chapter Sixteen

1200 hours, Saturday

Outside Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Logan blankly went downstairs, running his hand through his hair and tousling it.

He hoped he hadn’t just made a mistake.

He
didn't make mistakes.

Until anything involved Mara, then he became a world-class moron.

The day was still early, and he couldn’t ignore the threat out there. He hoped there would be time to revisit unspoken words and unhealed wounds between them, fresher ones he had just opened by fucking her. He hoped he could think clearly enough to find what to say.

He
hoped
they would remain alive to have those words.

Logan muttered a curse as he passed through the living area. He could still smell her on him, her sweet scent. How the hell was he supposed to live with that all day? How was he supposed to function?

Logan stopped in the dining area where his bag spilled open on the table. There were still things he needed to do to prepare them in case all Conyers's men showed up en masse.

Weapons had been placed by the windows and ammo spread between the rooms. The door, as Mara had discovered earlier, had an alarm of sorts, but that was all. Logan picked up a bag from the floor by the table and pulled
detcord
and C-4 from the pack. He began to rig the explosives with detonators, setting each to the side as he finished them.

After a half-hour, Logan set the last detonator on the table and went to the kitchen sink to wash the C-4 residue from his hands, running water over his palms. He glanced around, to the counter where the medical supplies for his wound were, and shook the water from his hands before he grabbed the rubbing alcohol. He poured it over his palms, again rinsing with water when he finished. Logan dried his hands, standing there a long moment with water dripping from his fingers.

He could secure this cabin and arm himself to the teeth—but if he couldn’t secure his heart, his mind, and his damn dick from Mara, they would end up dead anyway.

What he had done was inexcusable. But damn him, he wanted to do it again.

****

Mara rested her chin on her knees where she sat in the leather U-shaped seat by the window in the master bedroom. Logan was below in the yard, walking the perimeter. He stopped to listen every few minutes and had stayed away since he had left the bedroom, she suspected more so because he regretted what they'd shared.

She didn’t regret it. She was an adult, too, and she could have stopped him had she wanted him to stop. It hurt that he regretted what they had done so soon though.

Sex with Logan brought on a menacing horde of feelings she would rather have ignored, and had not expected. Not entirely. When she had gotten the surprise of her life a mere week ago, she had thought all feelings for Logan far behind her, too deeply buried to ever resurface. She'd managed to trick herself into believing she'd forgotten about him for years, and all it had taken was one look to make her remember the hurt. One kiss to make her remember his love. The passion they had shared, raw and hard, deep and endless. Well, she had once thought it endless.

Maybe it was.

Mara shut her eyes hard and bit her lip. She breathed in deeply through her nose and out through her mouth.

And then, her eyes flared open and she growled. That shit never worked to calm her down. She raked a hand through her hair and mentally shook herself. What Logan had done to her earlier still ravaged her senses.

Although she'd found release, she wanted more. She wanted him, and she never wanted him to leave her again.

Her stare followed him as he looked over the drop, into the ravine where they had hidden the body away.

The Tennessee mountains were dark and gray, swaths of wispy clouds wrapping between peaks in the distance. A low rumble shook the heavens, and Logan looked over his shoulder in the direction of the storm closing in. Mara leaned back from the window, waiting a moment so he wouldn’t see her. She peeked back and found him staring up at the clouds. A moment later, he walked on, out of sight.

She relaxed a little and looked out over the trees, watching a black-faced chickadee sitting high up in a pine that grew off the side of the cliff as the little bird ruffled out and fluffed his feathers. A gentle peck began to hit the window, one after another as the mist became a drizzle and the drizzle became a steady rain.

Thunder rattled the window, and Mara shivered, turning her stare up to the dark ceiling. The door downstairs opened and closed, and Mara heard Logan place his door alarm.

She pulled herself from the seat. Why was she nervous suddenly? As if she hadn’t once been married to the man she had just had sex with? Like they hadn't ground their bodies together and fucked like animals before.

Mara turned from the window and slowly made her way downstairs, and though she tried to look completely at ease, when their stares locked, it was everything but ease between them.

Tension and passion.

Hurt and fear.

Mara closed the space between them, brushed the short wisps of hair from Logan's eyes before she came up on her toes, and kissed him lightly.

"We don’t have to figure it all out now," she said.

He growled at her, and Logan wrapped his arms around her, his lips sinking into hers for a deeper kiss—

The clanking of the little alarm and a loud squawking voice tore them apart. Logan whipped in front of her and lifted his sidearm at the door.

"What in all the blazes? Brian, get up here. Someone has broken into the cabin and tied the silverware to the door."

"Oh shit," Mara said, stepping in front of Logan and turning to him with wide-eyes. "Aunt Rose," she mouthed.

Logan's face fell. "Oh
no
," he
 
said, his voice fallin
g
with some disgust. He quickly tucked the M-9 into the back of his pants, out of sight, and made a face at the door.

His distaste for the woman had not lessened any, and Mara couldn’t blame him.

She whirled back around just as Aunt Rose stepped over the fishing line and in the door.

They all paused, looking between each other until Uncle Brian came up the steps carrying boxes. "Well, get in the door, Rose," he said. "It's raining out here."

Rose stepped inside, but not far, cocking her head to the side. "Mara, what are you doing here?" Her eyes glided up Logan, behind Mara, and flared gradually until she met his gaze and her mouth dropped open. She swiveled her stare to Mara. "Is that—" she started.

"Logan?" Uncle Brian said, pushing his glasses up his nose. He scowled at him.

Mara stepped forward, uneasily glancing to the C-4 on the table and hoping they wouldn’t notice what it was—or notice the various other weaponry around the house. "What are you doing here?" she asked on a nervous laugh.

Rose and Brian glanced between themselves.

"What are we doing here? We came to clean the place up for Tiffany's honeymoon. You know the wedding is in three days. Where have you been?" Aunt Rose asked, glancing back to Logan. She pinched her lips and narrowed her eyes on him. "Has he caused you any trouble?"

"Uh—" Mara stammered and glanced back to Logan. "No. I've just been busy."

"Well we got a call from the police. Your house was broken into, honey," Aunt Rose said. "Everyone has been worried sick." She fumbled to reach into her purse. "I best call the police department right now to let them know—"

"No!" Mara exclaimed and went to her aunt to grab the phone from her hand and tucked it back into the woman's purse for her. "I actually went on a business trip, and … I was out of the country until yesterday, but I had a house-sitter." She scratched her head. "Yeah, yeah, I wonder what happened." She gave her aunt a flick of her hand. "No worries, I will call the police station later. You know how travel can get you all off track." Mara cleared her throat. That lie sounded ridiculous.

Aunt Rose glanced down her and then over to Logan and smiled knowingly. "Well, that’s one mighty fine
souvenir
." Her knowing smile dropped into a scowl. "You know you shouldn’t let him use you," she whispered so Logan wouldn’t hear.

Mara's eyes narrowed, and that smile she constantly affixed in Aunt Rose's presence appeared. "You know what—" She stepped around Rose to take the boxes from Uncle Brian and set them on the table to hide the C-4 "—Tiffany would be much happier honeymooning elsewhere. There's a leak in the tub upstairs." She glanced behind to Logan. "And Logan just stopped by to help me fix it."

Rose's mouth fell open. "Oh, well that’s not good." She looked at Brian. "I thought they checked the place out last month." She turned back around. "Stopped by? I didn’t know you were around anymore."

Mara shrugged and widened her smile. "You know how things happen when you least expect them." Her eyes flared a little at Logan's touch on the small of her back, his fingers slipping down slightly further onto her backside.

"I've heard Brazil is a great place this time of year," Logan said.

Mara laughed nervously, the sound filling the room with awkward tension, and she blushed.

"Is it?" Rose asked.

Mara glanced behind her as Logan nodded, and she laughed again.

"Oh, you know what," Mara said. "You should get back home. I heard on the radio that there's a possibility of roads flooding."

"No," Rose said, clasping her breast. "Well then, be sure to call the police station and clear your disappearance up before somebody thinks you're dead." She laughed and snorted, then turned for the door. "Brian, get the cleaning supplies," she said, gesturing to the boxes as she started out.

A clap of thunder aided Mara's lie, and Rose gasped.

"Oh good heavens," she said, heading out into the drizzle. "We better hurry, Brian."

"Be careful," Mara called after them.

Rose glanced behind her. "You, too, hon." Her stare drifted to Logan before she hurried back to the car.

As the door shut, Logan's hand fell from Mara's back, and she turned around. He didn’t back away, but reached down to brush a strand of hair from her cheek.

Mara lifted a brow. "Brazil? Really?"

The smile he gave her melted her heart and caused a tight little stab that sent her mind to other places.

"I didn’t ever like your cousin very much," he said.

"What do we do now?" She cut her eyes to the door and crossed her arms.

Logan sighed. "Let them think what they want, but I don’t believe your aunt and uncle will cause us much trouble. Not before we're out of here."

"If we leave this place alive." Mara bit her lip in worry.

"Stop. Fear kills, always remember that."