Silk Scarves and Seduction (16 page)

Bo closed her eyes and imagined herself in her dress. It was a fairy tale princess of a dress—silk and tulle and lace. She could see herself wearing it. But what she couldn’t see was herself walking down the aisle to stand in front of two hundred people while she said her vows to David.

When she tried to make herself see the groom, his face just wouldn’t come to her. She knew what he looked like—dark hair, dark eyes, one of those sweet, boy-next-door smiles that drove women nuts. Bo adored his smile.

But his face just wasn’t clear. The only face she could see clearly was Logan’s. Bo groaned and buried her face in her hands. “What am I doing?”

But Bo had absolutely no clue. David’s marriage proposal had been spur of the moment, said almost jokingly. Bo’s response had been given in the same tone.
Sure
,
I
’
ll marry you
.
You
’
re easy to be around
.

He was. She didn’t feel as on guard with him, though she suspected part of that was because he just couldn’t get in close enough to hurt. She hadn’t really been that serious but then he showed up the next day with a ring. His dark brown eyes had been gentle and full of understanding as he said, “I know we were mostly joking…but…” his voice trailed off and he pulled the ring out of his pocket. “I want to marry you, Bo.”

Bo had said
yes
. At the time, she’d meant it.

Now? Now she just didn’t know. She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t know what she wanted. She didn’t know who she wanted.

Liar
.

Who she wanted? His face was as clear to her as her own. More. Those pale brown eyes, that hard mouth that felt so good against her own.

Logan.

Bo wanted Logan. She’d always wanted him. Had daydreamed about him for as long as she’d known him. He’d been her first crush. He’d been her first love. He’d also been the first man she’d ever run from. Okay, the only man she’d ever run from but that man could get inside her skin, inside her head. Logan would get close to her. He was already in her heart but if she let him, he’d get under her skin, inside her soul and she’d never get him out.

Somebody getting that close was dangerous. And losing somebody who got to her like that?

“You’re not ever going to sleep if you keep this up,” she mumbled. Sleep seemed even farther away than before. Thinking about Logan definitely didn’t instill calm, soothing thoughts. She had a deep, throbbing ache between her thighs—she felt too hot, too itchy and too restless. The smooth, silken sheets felt rough and scratchy against her skin and the loose T-shirt she wore felt too tight.

Frustrated, she kicked her way free of the sheets and covered her eyes with her forearm. The cooler air helped just a little but that aching deep inside just got worse. It was a feeling she was familiar with. She’d been dealing with frustrated arousal for the past four years. Experience told her that nothing would help.

Well, one thing might. But that wasn’t an option. As tempting as it might be to throw on some clothes and go find Logan, it just wasn’t an option.

“Go to sleep,” she mumbled to herself. She flopped onto her belly and pressed her face against the pillowcase. It felt cool against her skin. It took a concentrated effort to pull her thoughts away from Logan and think of something else. Not her wedding, though. That was almost as bad.

Instead, she daydreamed. Thought about Mist. Thought about the assignments she had coming up. Slowly, the tension in her muscles dissolved and the exhaustion started to weigh on her. Half asleep, she rolled onto her back. Half-formed dream images danced through her mind and when Logan’s face appeared in the darkness, she smiled. “You don’t ever leave me alone, do you?”

At first, he thought she was awake.

It wouldn’t change his plans even if she was awake but it would be easier if she slept. But when she looked at him in the shadows, her eyes were cloudy with sleep and unfocused. She sighed a little and he watched the shallow movements of her chest. Her nipples pressed against the T-shirt she wore, hard and erect. His mouth watered a little and he had to stop himself from bending over and taking one nipple and then the other into his mouth.

Not here. Wasn’t going to do it here.

He held still until her eyes fluttered closed again and her breathing slowed again. Once he knew she was really asleep, he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a cloth.

She was going to kick his ass for this. Hell, if he knew anything about Bo’s temper, he wouldn’t be surprised if she called the cops on him and had his ass thrown in jail for a day or two, make him sweat.

Logan was fully aware how risky this was. It was completely wrong and if he got caught, he could lose his job.

But none of that stopped him. Because if he didn’t, he was going to lose Bo and that just wasn’t acceptable. Logan was desperate, he didn’t see too many options open to him so he was going to do this and damn the consequences. As long as Bo realized what an awful mistake it would be to marry David, he didn’t care what she did.

Her body tensed a little when he slid an arm under her shoulders. He murmured into her ear and she cuddled into him, pressing her cheek against his shoulder.

“It’s for the best, Bo, I swear.” Quickly, he grabbed a few of her things and tossed them into the bag he’d brought. Then he wrapped the sheet and one of her blankets around her. He lifted her in his arms and five minutes later, he had her tucked inside the front seat of his car. He’d parked just before the bend in her drive, out of view, and he’d been waiting three hours now for her to settle down and go to sleep.

It was late, nearly one a.m. and he had a good three-hour drive ahead of him. The coffee in the thermos tucked under his seat was still piping hot and strong enough to keep him awake for the next twenty-four hours, had he been inclined to sleep.

Sleep wasn’t an issue, though, not right now. He’d had the pleasure of committing a major felony with his eyes wide open and his mind completely clear. He kept waiting for some voice of reason to speak up. Like the voice that piped about the illegality of this whole damn idea. But if that voice had much of anything to say, it was drowned out by the louder, adamant demand that he not let another day go by with her wearing David’s ring on her hand.

It was a cool, clear night. Stars shone bright in the moonless sky and the air drifting in through his partially open window smelled of honeysuckle and hayfields.

All in all, Logan figured it was a great night for kidnapping.

By the time he exited the highway, the sky in the east was just a little bit fainter. Four a.m. and hardly a car in sight. He got to the turn-off in record time. Gravel crunched under the tires and next to him, Bo moaned softly. She squirmed around a little. The faint light coming off the dash was just enough for him to see her make a face and then her features smoothed out and she sighed, settling back into sleep.

Don
’
t wake up
, he mouthed. He’d driven this road a hundred times but usually not before dawn. The road sloped off to the right and some twenty feet down lay Lake Cumberland, stretching on for miles and miles. The twists and turns in the road required attention and he figured it would be hard to pay attention to the road if she woke up and started pounding on his head with her fists.

So her sleeping for the next twenty minutes would be good.

For once in her life, though, Bo made things easy on him. She not only slept the next twenty minutes, she didn’t wake up when he opened the door, came around the car and lifted her out. She cuddled into his chest, turning her face toward him and nuzzling him.

The feel of her in his arms, all sleepy warm and soft, made his gut go tight with need. If he laid her down on his bed and stripped away the T-shirt she was wearing, he could run his hands over that amazing body, fill his hands with her breasts, grip her hips and hold her still while he rocked against her.

If he went down on her, would she come awake with a moan?

She had before. Logan had vivid, almost painful memories of that one night. He’d woken her up just like that, licking and nuzzling her soft, sweet pussy. She had been climaxing when she awoke. The look in her eyes was sleepy satisfaction and a dreamlike, dazed pleasure.

Hunger hit him like a punch in the gut. Hard and vicious.

He carried her up to the porch and had to shift her weight around so he could unlock the door. The inside of the cabin smelled like cedar and wood smoke and some of that potpourri crap that one of Dustin’s girlfriends had brought.

The cabin wasn’t one of those luxury deals, although Dustin and he had fixed it up a lot since it had passed to them. The plank wood floors were new, the couch was overstuffed and comfortable enough to fall asleep on and the fireplace was huge. The deck in the back faced toward the lake and there were a couple of Adirondack chairs alongside the hot tub.

He wanted to see Bo in that hot tub. His dick throbbed and he tried to focus on something that didn’t involve Bo naked.

Of course, images of Bo naked had been intruding on his thoughts for more than a decade now. Stopping that process was going to be hard.

The mattress was lumpy. Bo shifted around and tried to find a more comfortable position, still clinging to sleep. The pillow… She smacked it at with her hand and reality intruded just a little more. A funny smell. Lavender and vanilla. She opened one eye. Then the other.

At first she didn’t understand what was in front of her. A golden wall—the warm, mellow gold of wood. She could smell cedar somewhere under all that vanilla and lavender. She slanted her gaze upward and saw a window with panes of sparkling glass framed by simple, sturdy, dark blue curtains.

Her head felt kind of funny, her memories of the last night all fuzzy. She was trying to process everything going on but her head just didn’t want to work.

A hand on her hip from behind. Bo yelped and drove her elbow back as hard as she could. It connected with a hard stomach and she heard a muffled “Ooph” as she scrambled out of the bed.

She spun around and stared in shock. It was Logan. His hair was rumpled, his lids low, gaze sleepy. He was dressed. Bo looked down at herself and saw that she still wore the long, plain white T-shirt. She blinked. Looked back up at Logan. He was still there.

Bo tried rubbing her eyes and looked back. He was
still
there. “What the hell is going on?”

“Morning, Bo.”

She snarled at him and went up to the bed and kicked one of the bedposts. Pain shot up her leg, just a little more proof that she wasn’t dreaming. “Don’t
Morning
,
Bo
me, you jackass. Where in hell am I?
What
am I doing here?”

He rolled out of bed and came around the foot of the bed. Yeah, he was still dressed but the shirt was unbuttoned. The plain blue cotton framed a hard, muscled chest and Bo realized her mouth was watering. He reached out toward her and she backed away. “You’re at the cabin.” He kept coming and when she backed into the wall, he reached up and planted his arms on either side of her, pinning her in place. “Remember the cabin I told you about?” he murmured. He lowered his head and nuzzled her neck. “I told you about it at least once. Right before you hung up on me.”