Catherine couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing.
Emma sniffed. “I know you’re there, Logan, and speakerphones are so rude. Have I taught you nothing about class and refinement?”
It was Logan’s turn to laugh. “Everything I learned, I learned from you. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to pry?”
“I was just having a nice conversation with Catherine, wasn’t I, dear?”
Catherine bit down on her lower lip. “Yes, ma’am. But you should know I stayed because of the storm. Nothing happened last night.” She crossed her fingers behind her back as she spoke.
Logan’s steamy gaze met hers. “Liar,” he mouthed as he lowered himself beside her on the bed.
The distinct masculine scent of spicy soap and aftershave aroused her in an instant. She pulled the sheet up around her, but the effort was too little too late. He’d already seen it all—and more.
“Well, of course, nothing happened. I raised my grandson to be a gentleman. And you’re every inch the perfect lady. For him,” Emma added. “Now, I’ve got to run. I’m hanging up now, bye.”
Logan hit end on Cat’s cell and they both laughed aloud.
“I wonder if she learned her lesson,” Catherine asked.
“Doubtful. You wouldn’t believe the last plan she had in mind for us.”
“Us?”
He nodded. “Emma had a plan before there even was an us. She was born to scheme.”
Catherine grinned. “Apparently so. But she also had a strong influence on your life and your character.”
“Tell me how you figured that out,” he said wryly.
“Well, aside from the obvious, I’m observant.” She glanced around her again at the room in which the Logan Montgomery, bachelor, lived.
“Almost everything here is your distinctive personality. The wood furniture is old but masculine, like the brown and tan color scheme. The wood’s not polished, it’s worn and comfortable. But there are items in here that you’d never have chosen on your own. Touches I’d bet Emma supplied.”
He grinned, obviously amused. “Such as?”
“Well, there are the little things. That throw rug by the bed? It adds warmth to the room. The tray with your keys on the nightstand? I bet you’d just toss your keys on the dresser. You’d never think of buying a pewter tray. And those antique books and the shiny marble bookends? A gift,” Catherine said, fairly certain she was correct.
At least, she hoped she was. She preferred to believe his grandmother had supplied the decorative touches than to think he made a habit of bringing women to his cottage on the water.
“You’re partially right. Emma bought the rug and the antique books.”
“And the rest?” she asked, holding her breath.
“A beautiful woman with too much money to spend supplied the bookends and the pewter tray.”
A twisting jealousy churned Catherine’s stomach and she didn’t like the feeling. “Well, she’s got good taste,” she admitted grudgingly.
“She should. Her feisty grandmother taught her everything about having a decorative eye. Grace was a fast learner,” he said, laughing.
“You’re a jerk.”
He eased himself beside her. The mattress dipped beneath his weight. Before she could think, he leaned forward and brushed a warm kiss over her lips. “But I’m a lovable one.”
He was right. “You’re an arrogant jerk,” she said, refusing to let his ego swell.
“So Grace says.”
“How often do you see her?” Catherine asked.
“Not enough. But we check in once a week, usually Sunday nights. I like to make sure she’s not getting into trouble, and she likes to keep up on life in Hampshire. Even if she won’t admit it out loud, she misses her friends here. She even misses certain members of the family.”
“You and Emma.” It wasn’t a difficult guess for Catherine.
“And Mother. Believe it or not, she and Grace have this bond. It’s Dad she can’t stand to be around.”
“Maybe she’ll come home one day.”
He shrugged. “A lot of things would have to change.” His gaze met hers, zeroing in and not letting go. “But you never know. Miracles do happen.”
A tingling sensation took hold, and Catherine breathed deeply. His potent scent made her stomach curl in response. “What time is it?” she asked.
“Ten.”
“Wow!”
“I take it you’re not used to sleeping in?”
“What can I say? You wore me out.”
He grinned. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Reaching behind her, she grabbed for her pillow and playfully hit him on the shoulder. “You would.”
“I also kept my first promise.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”
“Since it’s morning, we’ve had more than one night.” His boyish grin disarmed her defenses.
For a woman who didn’t believe in much, he was awfully close to making her believe in the promises he made. We could have more than one night, Cat. The man believed in miracles. How could she discount that?
But her mother had trusted her father’s promise that he’d stick around—and he had, long enough to make two children as soon as biologically possible before disappearing for good. Logan wasn’t a man like her father. Thanks to his grandmother, he was grounded in reality. Any man willing to take on the commitment of a mortgage and a run-down house knew how to settle down and grow roots.
Not that she was foolish enough to expect anything long-term from Logan Montgomery. Or so she told herself. But Catherine feared if she spent much more time with him, she’d begin wanting just that.
“The sun’s out,” she said inanely. “I really do need to get to my sister’s.” Out of here. Back to reality. Where her practical sister and her know-it-all cop husband could give her a good mental shake and remind her why she could not believe in the fantasy she had begun to weave.
“I was thinking we’d go out for breakfast and I could drop you off after.”
Catherine bit down on her lower lip. She’d regret this later, but he deserved something kind from her. “Tell you what. Give me a few minutes to shower and I’ll fix you something here. Then you can take me to Kayla’s.”
“That sounds good.” He leaned closer. His lips were in kissing distance again and she waited. “But the cupboards are bare,” he said softly.
“I wish we were.” She bit her tongue the minute the words escaped her lips. “I mean, that’s too bad.”
He grinned. “Not really. This way I get a rain check.”
Catherine opened her mouth to argue and this time he sealed his mouth over hers, cutting her off.
At least for now.
* * *
After following Catherine’s directions, Logan pulled up in front of a quaint house painted in a light shade of gray. The sun bathed the home in light, now that the rain and clouds of the day had dissipated. The half-hour drive had passed quickly. Cat had talked during the entire trip and Logan now knew all about her sister, Kayla, her husband, and their soon-to-be expanded family.
Catherine obviously loved her sister, and despite her complaining, he sensed she liked her sister’s husband. He also believed Catherine rambled out of nervousness because she didn’t want to discuss the possibility of seeing each other again.
She didn’t believe they had any sort of future, and Logan intended to prove her wrong.
In Catherine, he detected a deep sense of longing for the hearth-and-home type of life her sister now had, even if she’d never admit it aloud. He recognized Catherine’s yearnings because they echoed needs and desires he never realized he’d had. Until Catherine.
“Well, we’re here.”
Resting his arm over the steering wheel, he turned to look at her. “Yes, we are.” He noticed her hand on the door handle and grinned.
“Going somewhere, Cat?”
Her blush would have charmed him if she hadn’t
already had him well in her grip. “Inside?” she said.
“Without a word?” Teasing her came naturally, if only because she took it so well.
She opened her mouth, then closed it again.
“Say so long,” he instructed her.
She shook her head. “I have no idea why I let you fluster me,” she muttered. “No one flusters me. Not even Nick.”
“Who’s Nick?” he asked, hating the sound of another man’s name on her lips.
“My chef. And close friend. We went to culinary school together. He’s been teasing me since he was shorter than me, and after I kicked him in the shins the first time…”
“He never tried it again?”
Catherine laughed. “Of course, he did.”
“And this Nick. He’s a…”
“Friend,” she said softly and seriously as if reading the tone in his voice. “An engaged friend. He hasn’t made a move since we were kids.”
He met her steady gaze and knew he’d been right. She’d understood and sought to reassure.
He appreciated her for that. He’d never succumbed to jealousy before but wasn’t surprised his first time involved Catherine Luck because no woman had ever affected him the way she had.
She uncrossed her legs. “Goodbye, Logan.” She looked away, and before he realized her intent, had pulled on the door handle.
“Cat, wait.”
She released it and turned. Her green eyes were suspiciously damp. “What?”
“Goodbye’s too final.” Myriad words were on the tip of his tongue, but goodbye wasn’t one of them. She’d be seeing him again, whether she believed it or not.
She drew a deep breath. “It was fun, but…”
“It was more than that.”
She shook her head. “It can’t be.”
“Why? Because my name’s Montgomery?”
“That’s one reason.”
* * *
Catherine didn’t dare name anymore. Otherwise, she’d risk admitting her real feelings and the fact that she was dangerously close to falling in love with a man she’d just met.
Love at first sight didn’t exist. Once she got out of this car, she’d remember that.
“This is the modern world. Class differences don’t exist.”
Tell it to the judge, she thought but refused to utter the words aloud. Logan had gone so far out of his way to distance himself from his family and their way of life that Catherine knew he believed what he said. He just didn’t realize what would happen when two worlds like theirs collided.
Besides, she had no doubt that once he got back home, all she’d be to him was a distant memory. “Can’t we just say it’s been fun…”
“And I’ll see you around?” he jumped in, finishing for her.
“Something like that.”
He grinned, and she knew she’d dug herself in deep. “Sounds good to me. I’ll pick you up Friday. We’ll have dinner in Boston before driving back to the beach. Maybe this time the weather will be nice, and I’ll get to show you some of the more special spots hidden away from prying eyes.”
He’d gotten the best of her and he knew it. “You’re too literal,” she told him.
“I’m honest,” he shot back. “And you led me to believe you valued that quality.”
“I do,” she whispered.
Nothing like her own words to sway a wary heart, Catherine thought. Unsure of what else to say, she gripped the door handle tighter.
“Then believe me when I say I want to see you again. There’s something too strong between us to just let it go.”
Her heart began a rapid, pounding beat inside her chest. He was good with words—hers, his, it didn’t matter—because he was even better at getting past her defenses and making her believe in the impossible.
She glanced outside and saw her sister’s husband, Kane, walk out the front door. Probably making a routine check on a suspicious car in front of his house, Catherine thought wryly.
She had no desire to introduce these two men and endure Kane the detective’s probing questions later. “I have to go.”
“Friday?” he asked. “You owe me breakfast,” he said when she remained silent.
She gazed into his eyes. His honest eyes. She’d opened up to him, and she trusted him. The only person she was fighting here was herself.
A smile tugged at her lips.
“You’re wearing my favorite sweats and I’d like to collect them in person.”
He was persistent, she’d give him that. He had no way of knowing she’d already made up her mind.
“Call me,” she said, and before he could respond, she opened the door and slipped out of the car, slamming it behind her.
“Ball’s in your court,” she murmured aloud.
If he was truly interested, he’d have to make the effort. She wasn’t coy nor was she playing hard to get. She just wanted to know he was serious before she allowed herself to get in any deeper.
Problem was that Catherine was in way over her head already.
* * *
“The Logan Montgomery? You slept with the Logan Montgomery?” Kayla’s voice seemed unnaturally loud in the small bedroom.
Catherine cringed. “Would you stop saying it like that? And what do you mean the Logan Montgomery?”
Her sister reached for her phone lying on a table beside the bed. She opened the screen and began to scroll through a news app. “It’s in here somewhere. On the front page of TMZ…”
“Hold on.” Her sister was beyond intelligent. She read fiction, literature, and medical journals, but…“You’re reading gossip columns? Stop the world, I want to get off.”
A red blush stained Kayla’s fair skin. “Ever since the doctor said bed rest, I feel trapped. I go through books like they were water. I’ll read anything, including online sites about celebrities,” she admitted.
Catherine sat on the edge of the bed and patted her sister’s hand. “What’s it like to live in the common world?” she teased. Kayla was smarter than any person had a right to be and she had an incredible memory. Although she had access to the Internet, she loved the library and could spend hours reading material of interest to no one else in the world.
“Very funny. Aha. Here it is. Take a look.”
Knowing she wouldn’t like what she saw, Catherine accepted the cell anyway and found herself face-to-face with a close-up shot of Logan, taken at yesterday’s Garden Gala. Even at a distance, his good looks were enough to take her breath away. But the memories of their intimate moments, the sound of his deep voice, his warm hands on her body, him inside her… They were enough to melt her heart.
“Read the article,” Kayla said.
Catherine shifted her attention again. “Favorite Hampshire son, Logan Montgomery, scion of Judge Edgar Montgomery and his wife, Annette, is rumored to be ready to announce his candidacy for mayor of Hampshire. Although the delectable bachelor firmly denied the story, Judge Montgomery told this reporter to stay tuned—as if any of us need an additional reason to keep an eye on this perfect specimen. Too bad for us single working girls, he’s destined to be snapped up by…”
Catherine tossed Kayla’s cell on the bed. “I can’t read any more of this.”
“Oh, my God! You’ve fallen in love with him. In one night?!” Kayla eyed her through narrowed eyes.
Catherine shook her head. No way she’d admit those feelings, not even to herself. She couldn’t leave herself that exposed, open, raw… “What am I going to do?” she wailed and tossed herself across the foot of Kayla’s bed.
“You could start by cleaning yourself up.”
Catherine rolled over and glared at her brother-in-law who stood in the doorway.
“Go away,” the sisters said at the same time.
“You know you only say that when she’s around,” Kane said to his wife.
Catherine grinned. “At least I make you suffer, too, McDermott.”
“Before you two get started, can I get a word in?” Kayla asked.
Catherine sighed. She’d met Kane right after he’d slept with and used her sister. At least that’s what Catherine had believed, and though Kane had proven himself since, the sparring and bickering from the early days remained a part of their relationship. Catherine held a grudging respect for the detective—stemming from his devotion to her sister—though she’d never admit it aloud.
“Go ahead,” Catherine said to her sister.
Kayla turned to her husband. “Cat needs a place to think…”
“I do?”
“And she’s going to be staying here until she settles some things.”
“She is?” Kane asked. From the narrowing of his eyes, the thought didn’t please him.
Catherine grinned. “I am,” she said and folded her arms across her chest. Until Kayla said the words, Catherine hadn’t realized how badly she needed her sister’s advice or how much she didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts.
She glanced at Kayla, tucked safely under the covers, her large stomach protruding through the sheet. She was due in a matter of weeks and there was no place else Catherine wanted to be when the baby came.
Kane walked over to his wife’s side. “Don’t you have work at home?” he asked Catherine.
“I can drive home, get my laptop and play catch up from here. No parties until next weekend. Our new manager is handling Saturday’s affair. I’ve got Sunday. So, it looks like I’m here to stay.”
“Swell,” he muttered, only to be greeted by Kayla’s narrowed gaze. “I mean, make yourself at home. But no redecorating while you’re here.”
“A man who doesn’t like animal prints has a fundamental problem relating to life,” Catherine told him. “They add warmth…”
“That’s what live pets are for,” Kane muttered.
“All my accessories are fake. I’m a strong believer in animal rights. But if it’s a pet you want, I can stop by the pound…”
“I’m leaving,” he said to both sisters.
Catherine grinned. “That was the plan. But seriously, Kane, thanks for the place to stay.”
“You’re welcome.” He graced Catherine with a genuine smile.
“I appreciate it. I could really use the company,” Kayla said. “And I love you.”
Simply Scandalous (Simply Series Book 2) Page 9
