by Kait Nolan
She’d been wrong. Completely, unutterably wrong.
She’d known being with Logan again would be good. Their chemistry had never been in question. But this…this had been…explosive. Full of pent-up passion and a need that somehow transcended the physical. One that, now she’d had him again, only felt keener.
And that scared the shit out of her.
As if sensing her shift in mood, Logan roused himself, lifting up enough to look into her face. As his hazel eyes searched hers, she wanted to curl in on herself. She felt exposed, as if he could see into her, to all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities she tried to pretend she didn’t have.
Without releasing her hands, he brushed his lips over hers. “Tell me you’re not going to run away now.”
Her fingers flexed in his, wanting to push him away, to hide, because part of her did want to run. “This wasn’t why I came over here.”
His lips quirked. “Wasn’t it?”
At the amusement in his voice, she scowled. “You distracted me. With your abs and your towel.” God, she still wanted to trace the lines of his six pack with her tongue. Later. There’d be a later now, for sure.
He grinned full-on at that. “If that’s what it takes to get you into my bed, I’ll make it my standard uniform.”
Confused by his playfulness, she frowned. “You had the chance to get me into your bed before. You didn’t take it.”
One hand gently stroked through her tangled hair. “You weren’t really here for me then. You were tonight. On some level, anyway. You brought me dinner.”
He sounded way too pleased by that. “Sean and I made too much food. I thought you deserved some for helping us out today.” And, okay, yeah, maybe she had wanted to test out those aphrodisiac recipes for herself. But they hadn’t even touched the food yet.
He kissed her again—the kind of kiss that said he wasn’t through with her yet—and rolled off, padding into the bathroom to take care of business. Over the sound of running water he called, “Did she say yes?”
Still feeling exposed, Athena grabbed up one of his shirts from a hamper that looked liked clean laundry and slipped it on. “So fast, I’m not sure they even made it to the chocolate soufflé.”
“Good for Sean.” Logan padded back into the bedroom, sliding his arms around her waist and trapping her hands against his chest. “I am sorry I thought he was your ex. He seems like a good guy.”
“He is a good guy.” Athena waited a moment to see if he’d continue with the apologies. “You’re not going to apologize for getting all in my face about it?”
He sobered. “It’s how I feel. You deserve so much better than you got. I couldn’t just stand by when I thought you were making a mistake.”
Scowling, she thumped him on the shoulder. “I’m still a little pissed at you for thinking I’d take Jayson back. I’m not that stupid.”
“I’ll apologize for that. It was the jealousy talking.”
Appeased and wanting to lighten the mood, Athena smirked. “I suppose I’ll forgive you, if only because jealousy looks good on you.”
Logan didn’t take the cue. “Look, Athena, I know you aren’t looking for anything serious.”
She tensed. Why was he doing this? Why did they have to define things right now? They’d had sex. Stupendous sex. Sex she really hoped they’d have again. Soon. Couldn’t they just leave it at that?
But he was still talking. “I won’t lie to you that I am hoping for the serious. It’s how I’m wired. But I won’t push you. I know your life is in upheaval right now, and you’re not ready to make any decisions.”
His pause felt pregnant with quintuplets. He was making too many concessions to what he actually wanted.
“I feel like there’s another ‘But’ hanging out in there.”
His hands laced behind her back, pulling her closer against his still gloriously naked body. But it didn’t quite distract her from the seriousness of his expression. “I’m willing to roll with the casual because now that I’ve had you again, once isn’t going to be enough. But I’ve got one major requirement. As long as we’re getting naked together, we’re not getting naked with anybody else. I don’t share.”
Some of the tension leeched out of her. “I can live with that.”
Smiling, he bent to rub his nose against hers.
Athena stared up at him, flummoxed. “Did you…just give me Eskimo kisses?”
“I can fondle your butt if it’d make you feel better,” he offered.
“It might.” That, at least, made sense to her.
He slid his palms over her backside, then back up again beneath the tail of the shirt until he cupped one cheek in each hand and squeezed. “There. Are you ready to show me what you brought for dinner?”
“A meal that, if it does its job, will make your putting clothes on again completely superfluous.”
“I like the sound of that.”
She cleaned up and they headed downstairs, where she began warming the food.
“It was better fresh.”
“I’m sure it’ll be amazing either way.” Logan, sadly having donned a pair of jeans, slid his hands over her hips and nibbled at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. “So was dinner the only reason you came by?”
Athena shivered, bobbling the spear of asparagus she was trying to plate. “No. I came to talk about your cooking school proposal.”
His lips stilled and he straightened, turning her to face him. “It was just an idea. I didn’t intend to pressure you or make you feel like I wanted to use your celebrity to my benefit.”
The idea of that almost made her smile. Almost. “I think you grossly overestimate my celebrity. Notoriety maybe.” Because that thought did too much to dim the buzz of arousal she had going on, Athena shook it off. “But no. I think it’s actually a good idea.”
“You do?” His genuine surprise bemused her. She was so used to seeing his easy confidence.
“I’m not ready to make any major career decisions. I don’t have any kind of offers to even entertain right now. For better or worse, I need to lay low while the scandal blows over. This allows me to do that and still cook, which I need to do to stay sane. And—” She skimmed her fingers over his bare chest. “I hope it means you and I will be spending more time together.”
“As much as you want. Naked or otherwise.” He caught her hand and stilled it over his heart. “There’s something here, Athena. We didn’t get a chance to explore it before, and maybe right now is crap circumstances, but I think we owe it to ourselves to see what it is.”
She didn’t know what she’d do if he was right, if this turned out to be more than a casual affair. Her next career move wouldn’t be here. She knew that much. But that was a problem for another day. She’d hit her max of what she was capable of handling.
“How about we start with the food and go from there?”
He smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
Chapter 10
On the Friday before Memorial Day, the long, wooded drive down to The Misfit Inn was already lined with vehicles. People were headed toward the house with coolers hauled between them, camp chairs over shoulders, and picnic blankets tucked under arms. Logan could already hear the musicians tuning up out back for the inaugural performance of the season. For something that had been impromptu entertainment last summer during Flynn’s initial stay, Jam Night had become The Place To Be on Friday night in Eden’s Ridge as soon as the evenings turned warm. Local musicians from near and far gathered together for a few hours of improvised music, and the townsfolk and guests made a party of it. Logan had enjoyed the hell out of the ones he’d attended.
But as he made his way down the crushed-gravel drive, unfamiliar nerves skated over his skin, like that time during his sophomore year of high school, when he showed up at Homecoming with Anna Beth Alton in the wake of her dumping the most popular guy in their class. Stupid to feel that mix of excitement and dread, but there it was. The wondering how everybody would react. Because he was
with Athena now. Except, he’d promised to roll with the casual, and he had no idea what she’d told her family about them or how he was supposed to treat her in public.
Circling around to the grassy space behind the house and spa, where the stage had been set up—really just strands of cafe lights strung up in rows over the patch of lawn where the musicians had clustered their own chairs—he looked for his woman.
His woman. He liked the sound of that a helluva lot. He wondered if Athena went for a little caveman possessiveness.
Flynn caught his eye and lifted a hand in a wave. Logan jerked his head in acknowledgment, but continued to scan the clusters of people, searching for Athena. Not finding her, he headed into the house.
She was, of course, in the kitchen, her hair put up in one of those messy buns. He wanted to kiss her nape, watch her shiver before taking all that tawny hair down and losing his hands in it. But there were people everywhere, including a huge chunk of her family.
“Now don’t get mad.” Kennedy held up her hands in peace.
Uh oh. Logan quietly shut the door behind him, so as not to interrupt.
Athena glanced his way before turning her attention back to her sister, arms crossed. “You realize that prefacing anything with that statement automatically primes me to do exactly that, right?”
“It’s a good thing,” Kennedy promised.
Athena just narrowed her eyes and waited. Logan edged his way around the kitchen toward her, ready to intervene or mediate should the need arise.
“It’s just that Celeste and I put together a website advertising the cooking school.”
“And?”
“Well, we attached it to the inn’s website and the chamber of commerce. It just went live day before yesterday.”
“Like we talked about. Again, not seeing what it is I’m not supposed to get mad about. Unless you used the video.”
“No, of course not. It’s just—we had the booking system already live, so we could test and make sure it worked right before doing the big advertising push. Athena, the whole series is already sold out.”
Athena’s expression froze. “What do you mean already sold out? How can you even have a series? I haven’t decided what I’m teaching yet.”
“We set it up as to be determined. You said you wanted four weeks, one class a week. We didn’t think it would fill up that fast. But how awesome is that? Less than forty-eight hours and just on your name alone! It’s proof this was a great idea.”
A muscle ticked in her jaw. “And when is this first class allegedly supposed to be?”
Kennedy winced and Logan automatically took a step closer to Athena. “Next week.”
“Next week! How am I supposed to be ready to teach classes next week? I haven’t got a menu, we haven’t figured out the logistics of setting up cooking stations—”
“Actually, we have. We’re borrowing all the hot plates from the home ec class at the high school,” Pru interrupted.
“Hot plates.” Athena breathed the word like a curse and passed a hand over her face.
Her shoulders bunched as she struggled to hold on to her emotions. Logan wondered if anybody else realized it was fear, not temper, that was simmering. Edging into her space, he kept his voice low. “Take a minute and breathe.”
Her eyes snapped to his, and he could see she was drowning, panic and fury warring for dominance. Logan couldn’t stand it. Taking a risk, he tugged her in to comfort and calm. Expecting her to lash out, he was almost as surprised as everybody else when she wrapped her arms around him and snuggled in, pressing her face to his shoulder.
“Next week,” she whimpered, her voice muffled against his chest.
Logan kissed the top of her head. “You’ll do just fine. Come out to the farm tomorrow. We’ll go through the fields, see what’s peaking. Once you know what you have to work with, you’ll be fine. That’s a big part of farm-to-table, right? Rolling with whatever’s fresh.”
She nodded but didn’t look up.
“You can test whatever you want. We’ll get you some guinea pigs,” he promised.
“I’d probably do better with your pigs than the people.”
He tipped her chin up so she had to look at him. “It’ll be fine.”
Holding his gaze, she inhaled a long breath and let it back out. “It’ll be fine.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“It’ll be fine because you are a badass chef. Say it.”
“Seriously?” When he just arched a brow in expectation she sighed. “I am a badass chef.”
“Damn straight.”
He felt some of the tension drain out of her. She popped up to her toes to brush a kiss over his cheek. “Thanks, Farmer Boy.”
When she let him go, everybody was staring, which told Logan everything he needed to know. Athena likely hadn’t filled them in about squat. Well, they’d have to be told something now.
Ignoring them all, as if the subject of the cooking school was closed, she hefted a tray and nodded to Ari. “C’mon. We’ve got apps to serve.”
Not bothering to hide her Cheshire Cat grin, Ari grabbed the second tray of hors d’oeuvres and followed.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Kennedy managed to pick her jaw up off the floor. “Who is that and what did she do with my sister?”
“Dude, you’re, like, the Athena Whisperer. I don’t think I’d have believed it if I hadn’t just seen it,” Xander said.
Logan resisted the urge to shoot him the bird. Barely. “Don’t be a jackass. This whole project stresses her out.”
Pru settled on one of the bar stools and folded both hands over her belly as she studied him. “You’re good for her.”
He’d have felt better if she said it with some kind of a smile rather than that neutral, assessing look that set up an itch between his shoulder blades. Was this what his clients had felt like back in grad school? “Then why don’t you sound entirely happy about that?”
“I’m just worried about what happens down the line.”
He heard the unspoken, “when she leaves.”
He’d thought about that. Of course, he had. But if he’d waited until things were settled, he wouldn’t be a part of the decision to stay or go. He wouldn’t have a shot. At least this way, he’d factor in. Hopefully as a weight on the “stay” side of the scales.
“I’ve just got to be patient and hope things work out. Hope and patience are kinda the watch words of a farmer.”
“Well, I for one am pulling for you,” Kennedy said. “She’s…I don’t know. Softer, somehow, around you.”
“Oh God,” Xander said, “don’t let her hear that.”
Did none of them understand the gooey marshmallow center beneath that prickly exterior? He started to say something, then thought better of it. Athena had been vulnerable with him. She trusted him. If she didn’t feel the same ease with her family, it wasn’t his place to intervene.
“We’ll see.” Logan jerked his head toward the door and music that had started up. “I’m gonna go find a spot to listen.”
Outside, he swung by the drink station and plucked a beer out of the big, iced bucket of drinks. The music was lively, with a bluegrass edge tonight. The lawn was covered with people, some familiar, some not. He’d been in Eden’s Ridge for nearly six years now, and it continued to amaze him that there were new people to meet in a town this small. Then again, everything seemed small compared to his hometown of Memphis.
Skirting the edges of the crowd, he found a tree to prop up and watched Athena circulate, offering appetizers from her tray, exchanging brief moments of conversation with people enjoying her food. She wasn’t as bad with people as she thought she was. When it was the food being judged instead of her, she was in her element. Confident and in control. Logan thought about what she’d told him about her father, about what it was like growing up in the wake of his overdose. Something like that cast a helluva long shadow. Would her professional woes be just as bad?
Lost in thought, he did
n’t notice her approach until a hand snaked around his waist from behind and a lithe body pressed itself against his back. “Want to get out of here, away from the crowd?”
Logan’s body stirred. She’d said the same thing last summer at Kennedy’s wedding. He didn’t have to be asked twice. Without a word, he laced his fingers with hers and they melted into the darkness, skirting the perimeter of the property until they found the trail down to Opal Springs.
As they picked their way down the path, the music and voices muted.
“This feels delightfully familiar,” he observed.
“I’ve had an itch to come back here with you,” she admitted. “This was the first real opportunity.”
“I can’t count the number of times I thought about that night. About wanting a repeat. About wanting you.”
“What a difference a year makes, huh?” In the faint trickle of moonlight through the trees, he caught the flash of her smile.
“Why did you pick me last year?” He hadn’t meant to ask it and regretted the words when she stumbled. He reached out to steady her. “You don’t have to answer.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s a reasonable question.” She took her time, waiting until they’d made it to the water’s edge to answer. Because she needed that long to gather her thoughts? Or because the springs felt like the place for secrets and whispers?
“I liked you. We have chemistry. And, honestly, I wanted a distraction. Kennedy’s wedding was…hard. I’m happy for her and Xander both, thrilled they finally sorted out their crap. But the whole thing just felt a little hollow for me because Mom wasn’t there to see it. I needed something to chase away the bittersweet. You more than fit the bill.”
“I enjoyed the hell out of being your distraction.”
He’d hoped his sincerity would make her smile. But her expression was sober as she turned to face him. “It started out that way this time, too. I was hurting and I wanted to forget for a while. I came back to you. And that was an asshole thing to do.”
