The quiet of his voice was contradicted by the agitation in his eyes. The calm before the storm—only she didn’t understand why he was so upset when she was offering him plenty of money to help her.
She shook her head no this time. “We’ll stretch the planning out. As long as it takes before…”
Before Grandma forgets us all.
She didn’t have to say the words, she saw his understanding in the tightening of his jaw.
In the silence that fell, she was aware of every breath he took as he stood a mere foot away. Every beat of her own heart reverberated through her body. The fresh shower scent of him that seemed magnified by the heat of his anger inundated her senses, scrambling her thoughts.
He shifted closer still, and when his hands rose to grasp her arms, she flinched. He noticed, though it didn’t stop him. Neither did she. His work-roughened grip was definitely setting off alarm bells, but they had nothing to do with fear.
“We don’t even like each other,” he said, his voice low as his gaze bored into hers.
She lifted one shoulder, dropping her focus to the neckline of his faded T-shirt. “Well…I wouldn’t exactly say that.”
“I would. And engaged people are usually in love.”
The husky whisper ramped up the butterflies already panicking in her stomach. His fingers flexed against her skin before he skimmed one hand down her arm, tracing calloused fingers along the inside of her wrist. Her breath hitched at the trail of heated sensation burning along her skin.
“They’re expected to hold hands,” he continued. But instead of threading his fingers with hers, he slid his arm around her waist to tug her body tight up against his. “Get close.” His head dipped until his breath feathered over her lips. “Kiss.”
Oh, God, yes please.
Chapter 4
‡
The whole damn thing was meant to make Joy rethink her idiotic idea. When her body trembled against his and she wedged her arms up between them, Logan figured it worked, that he’d jolted her common sense to attention. But then she made no move to stop him when he lowered his head.
Instead, she closed her eyes.
Damn it all, he didn’t stand a chance in hell of keeping his mouth off hers now.
Her lips were soft and pliant beneath his. She let him explore for a moment, her only reaction the fisting of her fingers in his shirt right above his pounding heart. He couldn’t tell if she was being passive, or holding back.
He ran the tip of his tongue along the seam of her mouth, testing her response. A hint of coffee and something sugary on his taste buds made him suck lightly on her bottom lip. She uttered a small sound of surrender before sliding her hands up to the back of his neck to lock him close as her head tilted and her mouth opened beneath his.
Definitely holding back—but not anymore.
He slipped his tongue inside to twine with hers and explore every bit of her intoxicating, sweet heat. He tightened his hold around her waist, holding her captive as he bent her over his arm in an attempt to delve deeper.
She stumbled back a step, and he followed, until one of the barn’s large support beams brought them up short. Logan pressed her up against the solid wood with the entire length of his body. The move freed up his hands, and he slipped them beneath the hem of her curve-hugging V-neck shirt. Soft skin teased his fingertips, tempting him higher, until his hand spanned her ribcage, right up against the underside of her breasts.
Joy made no move to stop his advance. She met every thrust and parry of his tongue while raking her fingers through his hair. The scrape of her nails against his scalp sent tingles down his spine. Desire exploded, pulsing through his body to settle in his groin with an insistent throb.
When he trailed his lips along her jaw, to the hollow of her neck, she arched her head back and to the side to give him unrestricted access. Logan pressed his hips into hers, letting her feel his arousal as he sucked at the sensitive skin below her ear, his unshaved chin scraping against her neck. She whimpered, and her denim-clad thigh slid up against the outside of his, until her hips cradled his erection.
Geezus. It’d been so long, he’d take her right here against the beam if she’d let him—and with the way she was now pulling at his shirt, he didn’t doubt she would. As her hands skimmed the bare skin of his back, reality slammed into him, and he shoved away.
Joy’s eyes flew open, green now eclipsed by brown, and full of unbridled desire.
Sonofabitch. If she kept looking at him like that—
Desperation made him yank his shirt back down. “Didn’t figure any of that into your little plan, did you?”
The sneer extinguished the heat in her eyes. Her already flushed skin deepened to crimson while she copied his movements and covered the temptation of the flesh he’d exposed
at her waist. All the while she stared at him, a bit wide-eyed as she fought to catch her breath.