Off Limits (Sparks in Texas Book 4) (2 page)

A slow song started playing and most of the
girls headed back toward the table. Only four of them made land as
the rest found dance partners and stayed on the floor.

“Damn. It’s a total meat market out there,”
Amanda said as she and her girlfriend Brandi returned, along with
Jeannette and Gia, who, unlike the rest of their cousins, had
steady boyfriends.

“Tell me about it. I’m pretty sure at least
three different guys tried to grope my ass during that last song,”
Gia added.

Amanda laughed. “Yeah. I saw that. One was my
ex, Chuck, who’s actually here with his girlfriend, Paula.”

“Wait. You dated Chuck? Or Paula?” Jeannette
asked, clearly thinking Amanda had misspoken.

Amanda waved away Jeannette’s confusion with
a grin. “Chuck, but that was way back in two thousand and straight.
And believe me, if I hadn’t already realized I was into girls way
more than guys, Chuck would have pushed me into full-fledged
lesbianism.”

Gia tossed Chuck a dirty look as he did some
sort of obscene bump-and-grind dance with Paula. “It’s a dick move
trying to feel up one woman when you’re with another.”

“It’s late in the night.” Brandi reached for
a pretzel. “The drunker these rednecks get, the more hands they’re
going to grow.”

“We should have gone to Vegas.” Amanda
wrapped her arm around Brandi’s shoulders to tug her closer.

“Not you too,” Lacy said. “I just managed to
talk Macie off that ledge. Besides, you were both cool with this
plan.” Amanda, Macie’s best friend all through school, and Brandi
were currently saving up for their wedding. It was one of the
reasons why they’d all elected to stay local for the bachelorette
party rather than travel to Sin City.

Of course, the main reason was the
restaurant. They would have had to close the place down this
weekend if they had all ventured out of town, and that was
something they only did on Thanksgiving and Christmas. They’d
managed to get tonight off because Uncle TJ, along with Lacy’s
aunts and her mom, had volunteered to man the place during the
dinner shift so they could go out.

Money was tight for all of them, so they had
decided to stick with the tried-and-true bachelorette party,
venturing to the only local nightclub in town, Cruisers. Given its
close proximity to the highway, there was always a chance of
meeting someone new, but tonight’s crowd was nothing more than the
usual faces.

Brandi pointed toward the front door. “That
was before the guys decided to crash the party.”

Lacy glanced up then scowled as her cousin
Tyson and her big brother, Evan, made their way toward the table.
As her Uncle TJ liked to joke, a person couldn’t shake a stick in
Maris without hitting a Sparks. That was certainly a true
statement. Sometimes Lacy enjoyed having such a large, close-knit
family. Sometimes she felt like the only privacy she ever got was
in the bathroom.

Then she realized Evan and Tyson weren’t
alone. Jeannette’s boyfriends, Luc and Diego, as well as Evan’s
best friend, Logan, were there as well.

“Couldn’t fit the groom in the car?” Gia
asked sarcastically.

Sydney’s soon-to-be husband, Chas, appeared
to be the only fella who hadn’t decided to crash the party.

Tyson looked unapologetic as he sat down next
to Gia. He raised his hand to call the waitress over and asked for
a round of beers as the other guys claimed the rest of the empty
seats. Luc and Diego instantly flanked Jeannette, and she was
clearly delighted to see them as they each took a turn kissing
her.

“You gals have been here for three hours. We
decided you were probably hitting the breaking point.” Tyson looked
around the bar as he spoke, no doubt doing a cousin head count.

“And what breaking point is that?” Gia
asked.

“Either too drunk to make smart decisions or
not drunk enough to deal with all the wasted cowboys. Figured it
was time for reinforcements either way,” Evan explained.

“It’s a bachelorette party, Evan,” Lacy said,
all too familiar with her big brother’s tendency to take
overprotectiveness to new extremes. “You can’t just barge in here
like this. You’re lucky Macie hasn’t seen you yet. She’ll flip
out.”

Lacy made sure to maintain eye contact with
her brother as he studied her face, letting him see how much his
presence annoyed her. Unfortunately, her anger was lost on him. The
cop in him was trying to visually assess how much she’d had to
drink. She was the first to look away in disgust. “You’re pissing
me off.”

However, he wasn’t. Not really. Lacy loved
her brother more than words could say and in truth, she was sort of
glad he was here. Not because she liked him hovering—that really
did drive her up the wall—but because where there was Evan, there
was Logan.

Lacy was delighted to see him out tonight.
Since his breakup with Jane nearly a year earlier, he’d maintained
the “stay-at-home” lifestyle he’d picked up with his ex, refusing
to jump back into the dating scene.

Instead, he spent most of his time working.
He owned his own furniture business and was a genius when it came
to crafting beautiful things from wood or refurbishing precious
antiques. He sold both in his store on Main Street, just two blocks
away from the restaurant.

Glancing around the bar at the other men,
Lacy realized that Logan would always be the yardstick by which she
measured every man. So far, no one had ever come close to her
ideal.

In addition to his creative talents in the
woodshop, he used to play bass in Tyson’s Collective, her cousin’s
bluegrass band. He could beat out one hell of a rhythm on the bass.
What was it about musicians that made them so freaking irresistible
and hot?

Plus Logan wasn’t hard to look at. At all. He
was six-one, with chestnut-brown hair that he wore just a touch too
long, which gave him a permanent just-rolled-out-of-bed look that
never failed to send her thoughts straight to sex. In addition to
that—and his muscular arms and his chiseled jaw and his five
o’clock shadow and his great ass—were his eyes. God. Logan had the
most striking blue eyes she’d ever seen. They were ice blue, so
light and piercing, she got lost in them.

Like now.

She blinked rapidly when she realized Logan
was speaking to her. She hadn’t heard a word he’d said.

“Lacy? Did you hear me?”

“Um. Sorry. Music is too loud,” she lied.

“I said I finished fixing your chaise lounge.
Wondered if you wanted me to deliver it to your place sometime next
week.”

She had found a gorgeous chaise at a flea
market a month earlier. Picked the thing up for a song, but it had
a couple loose legs and the upholstery had been torn. She’d driven
it straight to Logan’s store and asked him to fix it for her.

“That would be great, but I can come get
it.”

He chuckled as he leaned closer. “You were
lucky you got the thing to me the first time. Still can’t believe
you managed to strap it to the roof of your car.”

“It was too big for the trunk.”

“I’ll drop it by in my truck. It’s not too
heavy. Figure the two of us can get it up the stairs to your
apartment on our own.”

She nodded, delighted by the prospect of
having Logan in her apartment alone. Not that it would make one
iota of difference in the way he treated her.

To Logan, she would always be Evan’s kid
sister, which made her off-limits. The two idiots had actually made
some sort of vow about it back when they were sophomores in high
school. Evan called it their bro code, like that cliché wasn’t old
and tired.

Of course, Lacy knew their promise to not
bang each other’s sisters all those years ago had had absolutely
nothing to do with her, and everything to do with Logan encouraging
Evan to keep his hands off
his
sister, Rachel.

Rachel had been a year older than Logan and
Evan, and growing up, she’d been the Maris High School It Girl.
Every guy in the school—and Amanda—had been in love with her. And
Rachel had been in love with at least half of them. Unlike Macie,
Rachel had been a bit less discerning when it came to sex, and
she’d gotten one hell of a reputation by the time she’d hit senior
year.

Lacy suspected Logan initiated the bro code
as his attempt at managing to keep at least one boy out of Rachel’s
pants. And Evan, because he was a good guy, had agreed to keep his
hands off. Then he’d solicited the same promise from Logan.

She figured Logan hadn’t even had to think
twice before agreeing. After all, at the time, Lacy had been the
annoying eight-year-old who hovered around them like a gnat that
they constantly had to swat away. They had both been totally
oblivious to the fact that even then she’d been in love with
Logan.

Logan had eternal dibs on her heart. He had
been her first crush, her first love, and the man to occupy every
sex dream she’d ever had. When she’d kissed her pillow in eighth
grade, she pretended it was him, and she had at least three
notebooks she’d accumulated during middle and high school that were
filled with her name and his.

Mr. and Mrs. Logan Grady. Logan and Lacy
Grady. Logan + Lacy. LG heart LS.

And the worst part about all of it was, he
didn’t have a clue.

Logan looked at her and, rather than noticing
she was now an available, attractive woman of twenty-seven, he
still saw the kid sister.

Of course, it wasn’t like Logan had been
looking around much. He’d been happily shacked up with Jane for
three years, then mourning her departure the last twelve
months.

There had been very few people in Maris who
hadn’t expected to hear wedding bells in Jane and Logan’s future,
so everyone had been shocked when Jane moved out. And she hadn’t
just vacated their apartment, she’d left town. Packed up her stuff
and hit the road.

Unfortunately, the rumor mill was precious
low on details about the breakup, apart from her moving back home
for another guy. Lacy suspected there was more. Evan, no doubt,
knew what had gone down between the couple, but he would never
betray a confidence and Lacy would never ask him to.

In the end, she realized she didn’t really
care why they broke up. She was just grateful as hell they had. For
so many years, she feared she had missed her chance with him.

The table became too crowded for her to
continue her conversation with Logan when the rest of the women
returned from the dance floor. Then Macie dragged Coop over to join
them.

Despite their protestations at the guys’
presence, Lacy had to admit the party was more fun with them there.
So much so, Sydney called Chas and asked him to come join them,
which he did.

It was safe to say Lacy was having one of the
best times of her life. She was surrounded by all of her favorite
people in the world. Lacy’s life was pretty simple, composed of
work, flea markets and yard sales, and home. Occasionally she
dated, but, like Macie, she wasn’t having much luck on the
boyfriend front. And since learning that Logan had broken up with
Jane, she’d turned down every single guy who’d asked her out—all
three of them—because in her foolish, stupid heart, she still hoped
that Logan would finally notice her.

So they drank, ate, talked, laughed and
danced the night away, and even the fact that Logan had headed to
the dance floor a couple of times with other women hadn’t dimmed
her enjoyment of the evening.

Eventually, the couples began to peel off.
Jeannette was the first to leave with her hot firefighters. Not
that anyone could blame her for being in a hurry to get home with
those two. While ménages were far from the norm, Lacy couldn’t deny
Jeannette, Luc and Diego fit together perfectly.

Sydney and Chas were the next to go.
According to a very tipsy Sydney, they needed to start practicing
for the honeymoon. Amanda and Brandi walked out with them.

Over the next hour, everyone else left, the
sober ones offering rides to those who had over-imbibed until it
was only Logan, Evan and Lacy left at the table.

“Slim pickings tonight, I’m afraid,” Evan
said as he slapped Logan on the back. It occurred to Lacy, her
brother had brought his friend out tonight in hopes of finding him
a girl. Or maybe just getting him laid.

It took all the strength she had not to jump
up and down, wave her hands around and shout “Yoo-hoo! I’m right
here.”

Logan shrugged. “I wasn’t really looking.” He
picked up his beer and took a swig, giving Evan a teasing grin as
he winked at Lacy. “Let’s face it. Hottest girls here tonight were
all related to you.”

Evan chuckled. “Bro code is still in effect.
I know all about you, you kinky bastard. She’s my sister.”

Lacy felt like kicking her brother under the
table. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell them she knew all
about Logan’s kinks, but both men would die if they realized
everything she knew. If they found out she had followed Logan one
afternoon about ten years ago and gotten one hell of a sex
education…

Gladys Winthrop’s granddaughter, Yvette, had
traveled from New York to spend the summer with her. Every redneck
in town had honed in on the city girl about ten seconds after she
crossed the city line. Strangers in Maris were few and far between
and when a gorgeous woman wandered into their midst, all the guys
took notice.

However, it was Logan who had the distinct
privilege of being the man to capture her attention. The two of
them had been inseparable that summer—and Lacy had wanted to know
why.

Then she’d found out. Oh man, had she found
out.

She had followed the couple as they left the
annual Fourth of July picnic at the public beach early and returned
to Gladys’ lake house. Peering through the bedroom window, Lacy had
seen Yvette on her knees, her hands bound behind her as she gave
Logan a blowjob. That ended when Logan picked her up, placed her
facedown over his lap and started spanking her. She might have
worried, if Yvette hadn’t been begging for more, her expression one
of total bliss.