He wondered if she was really listening and realized her eyes remained steady on his. They were suspiciously damp. She was more than paying attention. She was digesting his words. He’d give her a few minutes in peaceful silence to take his words to heart.
Her fingers toyed with a tiny pendant at the end of a gold chain, drawing his attention to the pale skin visible between the open collar of the blouse she wore rolled up at the sleeves. The gap in the cleavage wasn’t something he could ignore, though he’d been trying for the past half hour.
What he felt for Catherine was greater than lust, even if his growing desire and overwhelming need to make love to her on the flour-coated kitchen counter threatened to make that statement a lie. And he intended to prove it to her.
Before he acted on need and not common sense, Logan rose to his feet. He had to get the hell out of here and home to an ice-cold shower. He doubted even the hour ride back to the beach would cool his desire.
He’d said what he’d come to say. He’d leave her alone with her thoughts and trust she’d come to have faith in him.
“You’re leaving?” Her voice broke the silence.
“I’d better. You have to work in the morning.”
She nodded, then headed out of the kitchen. She grabbed his keys from a side table and met him on his walk to the door. “Logan, you’ve been…”
“Don’t say it.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Why not?” she asked. Her nose crinkled in confusion. “You have no idea what I was about to say.”
“Right. And I’d like to leave it that way.” Before she tried for goodbye, see you sometime, or some other lame line he didn’t want to hear. He dug his hands into his front jeans pocket, slipping his fingers onto the twister from the chips he’d stuck inside. “But I do want to give you something before I go.”
She shook her head. “I can’t take anything from you.”
He grinned. “Sure, you can.” He pulled out the tie, then opened his hand palm-up and revealed his gift. He couldn’t have planned it better if he’d tried.
Jewels and money would turn Catherine off. He had a hunch this small gesture would mean much more.
“What’s that?” As she asked, her lips curved and it took all his self-control not to kiss her senseless.
“My ring,” he said and grinned. “Want to go steady?”
Catherine looked down at cookie twister in his hand. “What are you doing?”
“Hold out you hand.”
She did as he asked and he twisted the tie around her finger, nice and tight.
“It’s my ring,” he said, a grin on his handsome face.
If Catherine’s heart hadn’t already belonged to Logan Montgomery, it would now. Such a small token that meant so much. A gift from his heart.
How could she not accept it? How could she deny her own heart any longer, let alone his? She curled her fingers tight instead of taking it off like he probably thought she’d do.
His gaze followed the movement. “I’ll be calling you,” he said in a husky voice. “Later tonight.”
Her stomach coiled into a tight knot. “What if I said don’t go?” She reached out for his hand, locking their fingers together.
His touch was hot, his gaze hotter. “Then I’d ask if you were certain.”
That she wanted to be with him? Without a doubt. Certain she was doing the right thing? Well, maybe it was time to take that leap of faith. “I am.”
He cupped her cheeks in his hands and lowered his head, meeting her lips with his. The warmth and tenderness in his touch caused a spiraling heat and a tidal wave of emotion to surge through her. Desire and the urge to have him inside her rose as fast as her remaining doubts fled.
When she reached for the button on his jeans, he stopped her. “I didn’t come here for this.”
If his breathing hadn’t been ragged and his expression tortured—if she didn’t feel the hard, heavy press of his erection where their bodies met—she might have felt embarrassed or vulnerable. But Logan obviously wasn’t saying he didn’t want her.
“Are you afraid you’ll take advantage of me? I know what I want,” she said quietly. “I want you.” Her rapidly beating heart and the sudden liquid rush of desire attested to that.