“Does this mean you accept my job offer?” he asked.
“Not as it stands.”
He tensed but didn’t let her go. “How so?”
She smiled, feeling confident. “I don’t want to work for you. I want us to be partners. I’ll sell my house in Richmond and use the proceeds to buy a stake in Falcon Foods.”
He relaxed and chuckled. “Is that what we’re calling our company?”
Our company. The words sang through her. “It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“You bet your sweet ass it does, but I’ve got my own clause to negotiate.”
Her heart skipped a beat in spite of the warm humor in his voice. “What sort of clause?”
“I want to make it legal.”
“O-kay.” She drew the word out. “Usually, this sort of thing includes contracts.”
He bent his head close to her, his nose along her temple, and whispered, “I mean I want to make us legal.”
23
Logan’s breath stuttered in and out, too fast yet too shallow to keep from getting lightheaded.
“Hold up a cotton-picking minute.” Jessica pressed a hand against his chest and pushed him away a few inches. The cloud cover had thickened and the raindrops came faster, keeping her expression a mystery. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
Nerves fired from his stomach and up his throat, making his voice tight. “In my roundabout, nervous-as-hell way . . . Yes. Will you marry me?”
The ping of raindrops off the truck filled the silence with a musical quality.
Throwing her arms around his neck, she shouted, “Yes!”
The word echoed back from the valley.
“Thank the Lord,” he muttered.
“No, thank our fathers.”
He chuffed and shook his head. “It’s amazing how the universe seems to work things out. If I’d known years ago this estrangement with my father would eventually bring me you, I would never have resented him so much.”
“But then you wouldn’t have gotten in trouble and met that chef, planting the dream of your own restaurant.” Her logic couldn’t be faulted. “And, if my father had been nurturing and more understanding, I would never have arrived in Falcon primed to break free and discover what would truly make me happy.”
“You’re saying our paths crossed at exactly the right time. That it was fate. No matter how logically you present it, you can’t deny you are a romantic at heart.”
Her grin flashed white. “I’m an onion, Logan.”
“Stinky with dry skin?”
She giggled. “No. Layered.”
“I plan to spend the rest of my life peeling you—starting with your clothes.” He kissed her lightly. “Although if we’re going with romantic food comparisons, I’d liken you to a mess of turnip greens.”
“Withered and a putrid green?”
“Darlin’. You obviously haven’t had a good mess of greens. No, freshly picked, greens are bitter.”
She wiped a raindrop off her forehead, her eyes slits. “Not a promising start, Mountain Man.”
“Then you cook them down, and over time they lose all the bitterness and become rich and flavorful with a hint of spice.”
She tossed her head back and laughed. Lightning streaked overhead. A few seconds later, thunder vibrated the air. “All right, enough with not-very-romantic food talk. Let’s go home before we catch cold.”
His logical, bossy-pants woman was back, and he loved her. He opened the truck door, and she climbed straight to the middle of the bench seat. When he opened his door, the overhead light illuminated her face, trusting and happy. He tried to smile in return.
He slid next to her, but she stopped his hand on the ignition. “What’s wrong?”
“Your father pulling up in a damn Mercedes with a chauffeur. I can only imagine how you grew up in Richmond.” He tapped the steering wheel with a forefinger. His old-fashioned farmhouse with the long porch was quaint, charming even, but it would never qualify as luxurious.
She wound her hands around his biceps and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I love our house, the memories you have there, the ghosts of all your ancestors walking the land. I feel close to Ma-maw there.”
Their house. “I’m glad, because I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
“You need the forest. I’ll give you all the love you can handle, but I can’t give you the peace you find in the woods.” No resentment colored her voice.
While he’d grown to understand her vulnerabilities, she had obviously been learning his. He weaved his fingers through hers and laid a kiss on the back of her hand. “I have the feeling I’ll need to head out into the wilderness less often with my own wild woman at home.”
He pointed the truck toward home, taking the rough track as fast as he could. The rain fell steadily now, turning everything around them gray and white. They laughed and ran through the puddles to the front door of the old farmhouse. He tugged her up the stairs. He’d worry about the trail of rainwater in the morning—or whenever they made it out of bed.
The playfulness was gone. Frantic hands tore at clothing. He kissed her. She kissed him. Tongues wrested for control. Finally, her naked body fell into his, and he swept her into a cradle hold and laid her on his bed. Shedding his underwear and pants, he held himself over her, the tips of her breasts against his chest, curling his toes.
She scratched her nails down his back, the sensations heightened by the winding emotions of the day. Raw pain, guilt over letting her down, relief, joy. He wanted to seal the promises they’d made in the most elemental way possible. She wrapped her legs around his thighs with a similar desperation.
He slid inside of her in one smooth stroke. She gasped, her back arching. He held himself still and brushed her hair back from her face. Her eyes reflected the same pain and joy, the same thrill for the future. A future they would face together.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
“What about the seafood?” Jessica strode to the front of the restaurant, her heels tapping as she checked things off on her e-tablet. The man beside her took two steps to her one.
“Delivered straight from the gulf coast this morning for tonight’s special,” Alvin Taylor said in a melted-chocolate voice. Jessica had poached the Montgomery Industries veteran to run the new restaurant in Tuscaloosa and tasked him to put together a prospectus for other possible locations around the southeast.
Her father, of course, had been furious. A small part of her snickered and rubbed her hands in satisfaction at gigging her father in a small way, but mostly she was happy to give Alvin the promotion he deserved but would never receive at Montgomery Industries. Being in his late fifties and black were two things the man would never overcome with hard work.
“You happy with the hires?” she asked.
“Hard-working and sharp. Mr. Wilde’s menus aren’t terribly complex, but they are unusual. And delicious. My wife had already had to let my pants out.” He laughed a full-bellied laugh that set both workers and customers at ease and would flavor the atmosphere of Virginia’s, named after Jessica’s ma-maw. Exactly how Logan’s laid-back charm made Adaline’s the draw it was.
The front door opened and the late morning sunshine highlighted a tall, jeans-clad, ball-cap wearing man with killer biceps. A thrill that she hoped never got old zinged through her body, making her hyper-aware of her skin rubbing against the inside of her clothes.
She shed the professional, serious persona of CEO of Falcon Foods and hugged her husband of two months around the waist. He dipped her over the back of his arm and gave her a deeply romantic kiss. When he let her go to greet Alvin, she wobbled in her heels.
“How’s it going, Alvin?” Logan held out a hand. Alvin vigorously shook it with a grin that squinted his eyes into nothing.
“Fine. And, yourself, sir?”
“Call me Logan, for pity’s sake. You can call Jessie Mrs. Wilde if you want. She’s the one in charge. I’m just
coming by to see when she will be returning to me.” He snagged her around the waist and whispered, “I miss you.”
Alvin drifted back to the kitchens, leaving them alone except for two of the wait-staff prepping the tables for the lunch crowd on the far side of the room. They sent their bosses side-eyed glances.
Jessie turned to Logan and locked her hands behind his neck. “I was going to head home after the lunch rush. The first two weeks have gone even better than I imagined.”
“That’s because you are amazing.”
She rolled her eyes. “Please. You don’t need to butter me up to get me into bed.”
With his forefinger under her chin, he tilted her face to his. His expression didn’t hold an ounce of tease. “I mean it. You really are amazing. Virginia’s is spectacular. Adaline’s has never run smoother with you handling the inventory and orders. I’ve loved having time to experiment with new dishes.”
“Summer football practice starts soon.”
“Yep. I love that too. But not as much as I love you.”
He kissed her again. With a deep, shuddery breath, he broke away and skimmed his lips along her jaw. She turned her head, searching for his mouth.
“I suppose we could head on home. Alvin has everything under control.”
“Damn straight.” He brushed her now chin-length mass of red waves back and laid a kiss behind her ear, breathing deeply. “I’m not going to make it back to Falcon. We might have to find a dirt road.”
The animal in her roared with approval. The out-of-control passion would have sent her running away at one time. Now, she gloried in the tempest and not only encouraged but instigated their wild encounters.
After Jessica told a grinning Alvin she was heading home, Logan pulled her out the front door into the bright early summer sun and steered her toward the classic Porsche. “Don’t we need the truck to . . .” She waggled her eyebrows.
She slipped into the low-slung seat, and he bent over her in the opened door. “We might have to get creative. What do you say?”
She tipped her face to his and smiled, her heart near to bursting with excitement, love, and laughter. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pressed her lips against his. “I say, let’s get a little crazy, Mountain Man.”
Ready for more fun in SWEET HOME ALABAMA?
Check out MELTING INTO YOU…
Warning: Contains a grumpy, tattooed hero, a free-spirited heroine, and a second chance at love in this sexy addition to the Sweet Home Alabama series.
Why does Lilliana Hancock hate him? And why is she the only woman Alec Grayson can’t stop thinking about? The taunts she hurls in his direction only heighten the buzzing sexual tension coursing between them. But it’s her passion and loyalty that has him longing to kiss and make up.
Hancocks are known to hold a grudge, and Lilliana is no exception. Her current target is Alec Grayson. The man took her virginity in college and doesn’t even remember the momentous event. While it’s obvious Alec carries a burden of grief from his past, Lilliana can’t find it in her heart to relish his pain. Instead, she fights the urge to soothe him in the most inappropriate of ways.
There’s no avoiding one another in small town Falcon, Alabama. Lilliana’s scheme to turn her family home into a B&B to fund her dream of being a respected Southern artist puts her at odds with the town’s building inspector—Alec Grayson. Their paths are on a collision course that will either blow up their hearts or entangle them forever.
Melting Into You Excerpt
“Your face looks terrible,” Lilliana said.
“It looks worse than it feels. It’s my shoulder that’s killing me. And I think I bruised my ribs.” Alec rotated his shoulder and raised his arm, the movement painful but doable. Nothing torn or dislocated, just wrenched. “A couple of days, and I’ll be all good.”
Half of him wanted to pull her hand back to his forehead, wanted her to continue soothing him. While the sane half wondered why in hell had he come to her in the first place. He hadn’t needed anyone to take care of him for years.
“Shouldn’t you get checked out at the ER?”
Feeling like an idiot, he tried to push himself to standing, his teeth clenched against the pins and needles pain shooting through his arm. “Sorry I bothered you. I’ll head home.”
“For goodness sake, that wasn’t code for ‘get out.’ Lay down.” She slipped a hand around his neck and eased him to prone, her hair brushing his cheek. He turned toward the soft caress, but it was gone, her voice growing distant. “Don’t move.”
He’d lost the will to leave. Closing his eyes, he disassociated from the various parts of his body throbbing with pain, his mind wandering in a state of limbo where time didn’t exist. Warm water on his cuts and the smell of disinfecting soap brought him back to reality.
“You’re awake. I wasn’t sure,” she said softly. “Open your mouth.”
Beyond arguments, he obeyed. She put two pills on his tongue, and he swallowed with cool water she offered through a straw. Tipping his head to the side with the palm of her hand, she continued to clean his face, her touch gentle. After dabbing some sort of antiseptic-smelling ointment on his cuts, she ran fingers through his hair and massaged his scalp.
How long had it been since someone had touched him like this? Like they cared about him and not his money or his name. Maybe his mother when he was a kid, before football became the family obsession. None of his girlfriends had ever soothed his football-related injuries. They preferred him dressed up and escorting them to the city’s hotspots, not wallowing in pain.
“I thought you hated me.” His lips felt numb, his ears stuffed with cotton. Her hands stilled, and he cursed his tongue.
“I don’t hate you,” she said quietly, but in his head, the words echoed into his chest, disintegrating the tight bands squeezing his heart. He didn’t realize how much he had been bothered by the thought.
“I don’t know why I came here. Did you have plans tonight?”
“Yeah, a hot date with my Chinese food delivery boy.” The humor and sarcasm in her voice made him want to smile, but his lips refused to obey.
“I didn’t want to be alone.” He tried to stop the admission, but couldn’t. His eyelids were heavy, but he forced them open. Colors ran together, and the cogs in his brain moved slowly. His tongue felt thick, his words slurring. “What’d you give me?”
Check out MELTING INTO YOU…
Also by Laura Trentham
Sweet Home Alabama Novels
Slow and Steady Rush, Book 1
Caught Up in the Touch, Book 2
Melting Into You, Book 3
Historical Romance
Spies and Lovers
An Indecent Invitation Book 1
A Brazen Bargain, Book 2
A Reckless Redemption, Book 3
A Sinful Surrender, Book 4
A Wicked Wedding, Book 5
A Daring Deception, Book 6 (Coming Soon)
Contemporary Romance
Highland, Georgia Novels
A Highlander Walks Into a Bar, Book 1
A Highlander in a Pickup, Book 2
A Highlander is Coming to Town, Book 3
Heart of a Hero Novels
The Military Wife
An Everyday Hero
Cottonbloom Novels
Kiss Me That Way, Book 1
Then He Kissed Me, Book 2
Till I Kissed You, Book 3
Christmas in the Cop Car, Novella 3.5
Light Up the Night, Novella 3.75
Leave the Night On, Book 4
When the Stars Come Out, Book 5
Set the Night on Fire, Book 6
About the Author
I’m so excited to share the SWEET HOME ALABAMA series with you! While Falcon, Alabama is fictional, I was inspired by my own hometown in Tennessee. This was my first small town series and I loved revisiting all my characters and the town as I updated them for rerelease. I hope you enjoyed your visit and who knows…There may
be more Falcon coming in the future!
I was born and raised in a small town in Northwest Tennessee. Although, I loved English and reading in high school, I was convinced an English degree equated to starvation! So, I chose the next most logical major - Chemical Engineering- and worked in a hard hat and steel toed boots for several years. Now I live in South Carolina with my husband and two children. In between school and homework and soccer practices, I love to get lost in another world, whether it's Regency England or small town Alabama.
SLOW AND STEADY RUSH and CAUGHT UP IN THE TOUCH both received TOP PICKS from RT Book Reviews and a STARRED review from Library Journal. KISS ME THAT WAY, Cottonbloom Book 1, won the Stiletto Contest for Best Long Contemporary and finaled in the National Readers Choice Award. THEN HE KISSED ME, Cottonbloom Book 2, was named an Amazon Best Romance of 2016 and was a finalist for the National Excellence for Romance Fiction. TILL I KISSED YOU, Cottonbloom Book 3, is a finalist in the Maggie contest. LEAVE THE NIGHT ON, the latest Cottonbloom book, was named an iBooks Best Book of the Month and a Recommended Read from NPR. AN INDECENT INVITATION and A BRAZEN BARGAIN were both finalist for the 2014 Golden Heart® Award.
I love to hear from readers! Come find me:
[email protected]
www.LauraTrentham.com
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NOTE: This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CAUGHT UP IN THE TOUCH
Caught Up in the Touch: Sweet Home Alabama Page 26