Chapter 1 #3
There was no way Logan Grady was leaving here tonight without the knowledge that she was an experienced, available, and completely fuckable woman who was more than capable of keeping up with him in the bedroom.
She refused to take one more second of his condescending pats on the head that made her feel eternally eight years old.
He took her in his arms, maintaining a polite distance that she instantly broached.
He stiffened briefly as she pressed her breasts firmly against his chest. His hands rested lightly on her waist, the touch platonic, boring.
She didn’t follow suit as she wrapped her hands around his neck, letting her fingers play with his hair. It was even thicker than it looked.
Lifting up on her tiptoes, she lightly ran her lips along his neck. Logan’s hands tightened, and for a moment, she expected him to push her away. Instead, he surprised her, letting his fingers drift around her back until he’d managed to split the difference between touching her waist and her ass.
Then he used his grip to tug her closer, letting her feel his erection pressed against her stomach—and it occurred to Lacy her plan was backfiring.
She hadn’t anticipated Logan returning her touches.
In her mind, she would leave him hot and bothered, his punishment for failing to acknowledge her as a woman.
So much for that idea.
Her pussy clenched and her nipples tightened when his hands drifted even lower, his palms molding themselves to her ass.
Unable to resist, she glanced up and found him looking at her curiously.
“How much have you had to drink?” he asked.
“Not much.”
Not enough.
She’d been relatively sober when they’d stepped on the dance floor, but now she felt wasted, her legs stumbling, barely able to hold herself upright under his sensual touches, and her brain was fuzzy from a system overload of arousal.
She kept one hand in his hair as the other traveled along his chest, her fingers digging into the muscles she found along the way. She didn’t stop until her hand rested on the buckle of his belt, less than an inch away from his cock.
His hands tightened on her ass and she released a soft sigh.
“You know what you’re doing?”
She nodded, though she wasn’t so sure anymore. Originally, she’d thought she was seducing him. Now it felt like he was seducing her. And she was responding to it.
He left one hand on her ass as he lifted the other to the side of her neck.
He lightly ran one fingertip along the neckline of her top.
The shirt dipped low, revealing a healthy amount of cleavage.
Macie had taken one look at her when she’d arrived at the party and wolf-whistled at what she’d jokingly referred to as Lacy’s hootchie-mama shirt.
Logan paused when he hit the cleavage. “Nice shirt.”
For the first time in her life, it felt like Logan was looking at her.
And really seeing her.
Reaching up, she grasped the hand still hovering above her breast and pressed his palm against it.
She didn’t have a clue where she’d found the outright boldness, but opportunities like this had been too few and far between.
She couldn’t run the risk of Logan finding another girlfriend and moving her in for three long-ass years before she took her shot.
He squeezed her breast roughly. The touch sent a jolt of electricity along her spine and straight to her pussy.
“Lacy,” he whispered, his hot breath sweet from the soda he’d been drinking. “I—”
The song ended and another couple jostled against them as they left the dance floor. It forced them to break apart before he could finish his statement.
Rather than continue, he grasped her hand and led her back to the table. Mercifully, Evan hadn’t returned. God only knew what her brother would have done if he’d caught sight of her and Logan fondling each other on the dance floor not three minutes after he’d reminded them of the bro code.
The waitress was at the table with their bill.
Logan handed her his credit card. She resumed her seat, her legs still unsteady.
It had only been a dance, but it had shaken Lacy to the core.
She’d had sex before and she’d certainly experienced desire, but what she felt now seemed eons away from mere want.
She was ravenous, predatory. Her whole body ached with a need so intense it took her breath away.
She searched for something to say, but her brain wouldn’t function. Words wouldn’t form.
Evan returned before she could gather her wits. “Hey, I gotta run. Eryn’s got a fever.”
“Is she okay?” Lacy asked, concerned about her adorable little niece.
“She was tugging at her ears earlier, so Annie thinks it’s probably an ear infection. We’re out of baby Tylenol and Annie asked me to pick some up on my way home. I need to get going. Do you mind driving Lacy home, Logan?”
Logan shook his head, but it seemed pretty clear that he wasn’t exactly pleased by the prospect. “Not at all. I’ll take her. You need to get home to your baby.”
Logan’s chilly expression went through her like a bucket of cold water. While his body had responded to her—and really, what guy’s body didn’t react when a woman threw herself at him?—it was obvious he didn’t want to be alone with her.
Unfortunately, she was stuck without a car. She’d ridden to the party with Amanda and Brandi, but had elected to stay when Evan said he’d drop her off.
“Great. I’ll catch you guys later,” Evan said as he passed the waitress on her way back to the table.
“I can call a cab,” she offered.
“Don’t be silly.” Logan signed the credit card slip, and then gestured toward the exit. “You ready?”
She nodded, draping the sweater she’d brought with her over her arm as they stood to leave.
It was early spring in Texas, which meant warm days and chilly nights.
When Logan placed his hand against her lower back lightly, she knew she wouldn’t need the extra layer for warmth.
He’d lit a fire inside of her that was going to take a few rounds with her vibrator to smother.
He helped her into his truck, the door panel plastered with the Grady Furniture logo, before circling to the driver’s side.
She hadn’t spoken a word to him since leaving the dance floor. Lacy feared she’d open her mouth and beg him to fuck her—right here, right now—in the parking lot of Cruisers. So she kept her lips pressed shut. Clearly he wasn’t interested in following through on what they’d begun on the dance floor.
Logan fiddled with the radio as he turned onto the highway and stopped when he found a country station.
“Haven’t heard this one in ages,” he said as Glen Campbell’s “Gentle on my Mind” played.
She loved the song too and tried to concentrate on the music, but all she could think about was Logan’s hand on her ass, on her breast.
He lived in a studio apartment above his shop on Main Street, while she had a smaller place three streets over.
For the past few years, she hadn’t lived or worked more than a mile away from him.
They saw each other almost daily, simply because they occupied the same small space and shared similar friends and interests.
And while she fantasized about him a little bit too much, for so many years she’d never indulged the idea that they’d have anything more than a platonic relationship because, number one, he had been dating Jane, and number two, that stupid bro code thing was apparently still in effect.
Lacy had just about convinced herself that her actions on the dance floor had been ill-advised when Logan pulled up in front of her apartment building, parked, and turned the truck off.
In fact, she opened her mouth to apologize to him for sending the mixed signals and for coming on so strong.
However, the words “I’m sorry” never came. Because the second her lips parted, Logan covered them with his own.
Five years earlier…
“Lacy? What the hell are you doing?”
“Walking home.” She was still in a fury, and not even Logan’s arrival was enough to calm her down.
He pulled over to the side of the road in front of her. “Get in the truck,” he called out through the open passenger window.
“I’ll get the seat wet.”
“I don’t give a damn about that. Get in.”
She climbed into the front seat of his truck and gratefully accepted the jacket he handed her. Until that moment, her rage had been keeping her warm, helping her ignore the cold rain. Now that she was inside, she was struggling not to shiver.
“It’s pissing down, getting darker by the minute, and you’re two miles out of town. I almost didn’t see you. How the hell did you get out here?”
“I was on a date.”
Logan hadn’t put the truck back in drive. Hadn’t bothered to start moving again. “A date?”
“With Bucky Largent. We got in a fight on the way home and I told him to let me out of the car. He did.”
“That fucking asshole.”
“Wasn’t raining at the time.”
“Doesn’t matter. He knows he left you out here. Did he come back?”
She lifted her hands in a silent duh. “Would I be sitting here if he had?”
“Guess that depends on how pissed off you were.”
“Not that damn mad.” She sighed. “You’re right. He’s a fucking asshole.”
“What happened?”
“We went to Cruisers together. I excused myself to go to the ladies’ room and when I came back, the jackass was kissing someone else.
I told him to take me home. We got in a big fight on the way to town and I decided I’d rather walk home than spend one more second with the idiot.
He stopped. I got out. He spun tires when he pulled away.
Big dramatic scene. And now I feel like the idiot. ”
“Didn’t realize the two of you were a thing.”
She shrugged. “We weren’t really. We’ve gone out to dinner a few of times. Gotten pizza and watched movies at my place once. Tonight was our fifth date. And our last.”
“I didn’t think you liked the guy.”
“When did I say that?” she asked.
“That day you were crying. When you told me that Missy kissed him.”
She laughed. “Jesus. I was thirteen, Logan.”
“Sounds like your first impression was the right one.”
Lacy couldn’t argue with that. “Yeah. I guess it was. Thanks for stopping.”
He looked at her incredulously. “As if I’d right drive past you.”
They chatted for a little while about the weather and a Christmas concert Ty’s Collective was going to play. It took her a few minutes to realize Logan wasn’t headed back into town.
“Where are we going?”
“Pit stop.” She didn’t question him. After all, he’d saved her from a very long, very wet walk home. It wasn’t until they turned onto the lane to Bucky’s house that she figured out what Logan intended.
“Uh, Logan—”
He raised his hand to cut her off. “Won’t be a minute,” he said as he put the truck in park outside Bucky’s house.
Lacy watched as he got out of the vehicle, walked to the front door and knocked.
The front porch light turned on as Bucky walked out.
Though she couldn’t hear a word that was said, she could read the body language just fine.
Clearly Logan was explaining a few things to Bucky, who still seemed to think he was in the right.
The conversation ended when Logan punched Bucky in the stomach.
Bucky didn’t bother to return the favor.
Clever man just remained bent over at the waist as Logan walked away.
“You hit him?” Lacy said when Logan returned to the truck.
“I didn’t like some of the things he was saying about you.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m not repeating them. Stay away from him. He’s an asshole. Find yourself a nice guy.”
Lacy smiled. She already had.