Landing the Lawman (The Hills of Texas Book 5)

by Kadie Scott

  “Got it in one,” she said. At least things had settled back down. Well, not the nipples, but her heart was back to a regular pace.

  “Want me to take that?” Logan asked.

  “No. I’ve got it.” She sent Scott the bartender a quick smile before carrying the tray back to their table.

  “Was he bothering you?” Logan asked as he walked beside her.

  Carter frowned. “Who, Scott?”

  “You know him?” She could see Logan trying to put the tattooed mountain man and her together as friends in his head and failing.

  “We just met.”

  He frowned. “And you already know his name?”

  “Sure. He’s going to come join us when he gets off work in an hour.” Carter set the tray down on the table. “I did say first round on me, right?” She grinned as the others teased her about making happy hour very happy.

  “Is that a good idea?” Logan asked in a low aside as she handed out drinks.

  “It’s just one round, fuddy duddy. Live a little.” She picked up a glass and a lime and stuffed it into his hand.

  “I meant the bartender.”

  “None of your damn business.” Oh, dear.

  She never swore at work. Maybe she was more upset by this Brian thing than she thought. She refused to look at Logan and see the judgy eyes to match the voice.

  What did he care about her personal life anyway? “Bottoms up!”

  She toasted the others at the table, who were watching the two of them with wide-eyed interest. In unison, they all licked the salt, tossed back the tequila, then bit their limes. Logan, too, surprisingly. Then he put his glass down on the table with a hard pop, snagged her by the elbow, and, with an “excuse us” directed to the table at large, dragged her out to the balcony where they were suddenly alone in the quiet evening. Alone and quiet compared to the inside at least. The street below them continued to be packed with people bustling by.

  “Okay. Talk to me. What’s going on?” Logan demanded.

  He didn’t let go of her arm, the warmth of his hand against her bare skin penetrating deep and spreading from there.

  What would he do if she pressed her body to his and—

  Wow. That tequila was working fast. At least, she hoped that was the alcohol talking and not some horrible underlying realization that she was thirty, single, and with a one-night stand with Scott as her only foreseeable prospect.

  Carter wanted to cross her arms, again to hide nipples that seemed to act like homing beacons where Logan was concerned tonight but backing down wasn’t in her nature.

  She plunked her free hand on her hip and stared him down. “Nothing is going on.”

  “This isn’t like you.”

  “You don’t know me well enough to say that.”

  “Yes. I do,” he insisted with a scowl. Getting in her face. “You’re not the fuck-the-questionable-looking-guy-you-just-met type.”

  “Scott’s perfectly nice—”

  Logan gave her a little shake and she stopped talking. “What was that phone call about?” he asked again. “Who is this friend who got engaged?”

  Carter tipped up her chin, totally meaning to tell him to back the hell off.

  Instead, she found herself confiding. “My ex-fiancé.”

  Logan stared at her, seeming to be studying her face. “Brian?”

  Carter blinked. “You remembered his name?”

  His lips flattened in what appeared to be irritation. With her? Or himself for remembering? He still didn’t let go. “Of course. The guy who was going to make you quit the job you love. It made an impression.”

  Carter blinked again. Was that what her relationship with Brian had looked like from the outside? She didn’t particularly care for that image.

  “Do you still love him?” Logan asked in his usual blunt way.

  When her body was on high alert thanks to the man in front of her, it made it difficult to answer that question. But… “No.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  Did she really have to spell it out for him? If anyone could understand her situation, she would have assumed Logan, with an ex-fiancée of his own, one she suspected he’d never got over entirely, would be the guy who got it. “I guess a bruised ego, a little bit of loneliness, and…” A spark of devilry, or maybe resentment that he was making her face her own demons right now had the next words tripping off her tongue. “Sometimes a girl just wants to get laid. It’s been a while.”

  Logan froze, his grip tightening on her arm.

  “You want to get laid,” he repeated slowly.

  The soft tone should have been a warning to her. He only spoke that way when he was seriously angry or about to pounce on a stupid witness.

  “Yes.”

  Logan Cartez didn’t have any right to be angry. This was her life, and he was just a friend. Even if he was hot, smart, and sexy-as-sin.

  “With Scott the bartender who you only met ten minutes ago?” The lawyer was in full force in that statement.

  “What? He’s good-looking. He’s interested. He seems like he’d know how to give a girl a good time.” She left out the part about being more interested in Logan than Scott. He didn’t need to know that.

  A dangerous light entered Logan’s eyes, his jaw going hard, only she managed to ignore that. Featherweight that she was, the tequila was starting to warm her and loosen her up from the inside out.

  “You have any better ideas?” she demanded.

  “Yeah. I do.”

  A shiver cascaded down Carter’s spine at the heat in Logan’s eyes. Who knew dark eyes could show so much? His gaze traveled over her face, lower, pausing at her breasts, then back up to settle on her lips, which she had the sudden urge to lick. Only his stare held her in a trance, frozen, waiting for what he’d do next.

  Nothing, a voice whispered. He’s not looking at you any old way. This is wishful thinking.

  A gasp hissed from her as, abruptly, Logan grabbed Carter by the hand, practically dragging her back to their table.

  Disappointment spiked inside her. Like the friend he was, no doubt he was taking her home to lick her wounds in private and not make a stupid, impulsive mistake.

  Damn.

  *

  “Carter got news from home,” he told his team, still holding tight to the woman who’d driven his control right off a cliff. “Nothing that’s an emergency, but I’m going to drive her back to her place.”

  With his free hand he gathered up both their suit jackets and her purse and pulled her toward the stairs. Luckily, she didn’t resist.

  “Sorry, Scott,” she called out from behind him. “I got news from home and have to go. Maybe I’ll swing by and say hi tomorrow.”

  Logan shot the bartender a warning glare, only to have the man grin back as he polished a glass. “I’m off tomorrow, but working Saturday,” Scott called back.

  “Great—”

  Logan yanked her around the corner to the stairs.

  “That was rude. I promised him a shot,” she said, still behind him.

  Saying nothing to that, Logan tugged her out of the building, down the sidewalk to where he’d managed to get primo parking, and tucked her inside his car. He got in his side and deposited her purse and jacket on her lap, laying his own jacket neatly on the back seat. Carter huffed and crossed her arms, staring sightlessly out her window.

  Good. Because if she said one more word about sleeping with a total stranger, he’d lose it.

  Four blocks along, she straightened in her seat. “You need to take third all the way down,” she said.

  “I’m not taking you to your place,” Logan muttered.

  “Then where are we going? The firm so I can get my car?”

  He should be hesitating about now, given what he had in mind. The smart move was to do exactly that. And then avoid her until this stupid attraction thing disappeared.

  Except not a single part of him wanted to walk this back. “I’m taking you to my place.”
>
  Carter swung her head around to stare at him. “Why? Afraid I’ll go back to my one-night stand once you leave me alone?”

  Logan flexed his fingers around the steering wheel. “No.” Yes.

  “Don’t worry. You were right and I’m not the one-night-stand type.”

  So, she was coming to her senses. Good. However, now that he was on this path, no way did he want to turn around.

  He rolled to a controlled stop at the light and turned to face her, taking in the loose tendrils of black hair that had escaped her careful updo and caressed her neck, her pink, plump lips that he’d been obsessing over lately if he were honest, and the blue eyes he could drown in. “I’m taking you to my place so you can get laid.”

  “What!” Carter’s eyes flew wide and the luscious bow of her mouth dropped open.

  For the first time since he’d met her, Logan allowed his gaze to linger on her mouth, picturing all the things he wanted to do with it while he went hard and heavy at the mental images. Things, if he was honest, he’d been not letting himself fantasize about for a long damn time.

  Suddenly, he grinned, feeling as though a giant boulder of limitations had been lifted. “Only if you want to.”

  “Only if I—”

  A car honked behind him, and Logan faced forward, sending his Jaguar into the intersection.

  “Tell me now, if you don’t want this, Carter,” he said. Matter of factly, as though he was discussing plans for lunch. Back in total control. “I’ll be honest. I’ve wanted you for a while now, so this getting laid plan works pretty well for me.”

  Beside him, Carter squeaked, or maybe choked, and Logan couldn’t hold back another grin. Just seeing her this speechless was worth the moment. It’d be more worth it if she decided to give in and go with this. Only… she’d never given any indication that she wanted him like that.

  “But we’re… friends,” she said.

  “Yeah.” He blew out a heavy breath. “I don’t see why scratching an itch should change that.”

  Probably a stupid idea, but right now wanting was in charge. He waited, holding his breath, every part of him needed to guide the car utterly still, to see what she’d say next.

  “You want to sleep with me?” Her voice had gone all husky and low, doing things to his already hard length.

  That wasn’t a no. Or a brush off. Or a letdown. He’d make sure he got a yes before anything went too far, but she wanted him. He was sure of it now.

  “Yes,” he answered. “Though I was thinking more like fucking.”

  She blew out a long breath. “Wow.”

  “Are you interested?” he asked.

  He glanced over to find her watching him with an inscrutable expression, blue eyes almost navy in the half-light of dusk outside and the dim lighting inside the car. “Yes,” she whispered.

  Hell, yes.

  “This isn’t a pity thing, is it?” she suddenly demanded.

  Shit. Definitely not.

  The lights weren’t kind, and there wasn’t a single place to pull off to the side, or he would’ve stopped the car and kissed her smart mouth to show her he wanted this. But he couldn’t.

  However, shock factor seemed to be working for Carter, so he reached for her hand and pulled it across, to place it over his cock, straining uncomfortably against his zipper. “What do you think?”

  He sort of expected her to jerk her hand back. She did gasp, the sweet sound making his shaft twitch against her hand. Only then she turned the tables on him, her touch going soft and teasing, tracing him through the thin material of his suit pants. Logan groaned, unable to stop his hips from bucking up to meet her. She managed to circle the sensitive head, even through his clothes, then clamped down hard, squeezing him like a vice.

  Holy hell.

  “I think…” she said in her sexy-as-sin, husky-laden voice. “You should drive faster.”

  Air punched from his lungs and roiling a combination of need to lose himself in this woman, relief that she’d said yes, and a fist-pumping urge to celebrate, better than any courthouse win, surged through him.

  Thankfully, he’d decided to live downtown, close to work. In fact, most days he walked. He’d only brought the car today to go to the courtroom.

  “Only one more block.” If they could make it that far.

  When exactly he had lost his ever-loving mind, he’d figure out later. After.

  Chapter Three

  I’m going to have sex with Logan Cartez.

  It didn’t take long to get to Logan’s place. He parked, opened her door, escorted her upstairs via the elevator, and let her into his apartment.

  She’d been here before of course. Just last week, in fact, but took a moment to explore and give herself time to gather some much needed control.

  She smiled and shook her head. As always, she thought of this as the sterile room. It smelled of leather and cleaning fluid. Modern furniture in soft grays with pops of color on the walls and in matching pillows. Carter held in a snort. Thanks to a hired decorator. No men of her acquaintance bothered with decorative pillows for a couch. Even ones that were just basic navy.

  Then again, she’d been raised with rough-and-tumble cowboys. Decorating wasn’t exactly in their wheelhouse. She took in the view, which was her favorite part about his apartment—a fantastic northern facing scene of the capital building, its pink granite façade and iconic dome lit by spotlights, the Texas flag flying proudly outside.

  Carter moved on, skin prickling, knowing Logan stood just inside the room, watching her. Why didn’t he say anything?

  A few pictures graced floating wood shelves and Carter paused. Logan as a young boy—scrawny with shaggier hair and an easier smile. He stood dressed in Sunday best with what she assumed had to be his parents. Christmastime maybe? They appeared to be outside an old-fashioned church with gleaming white wood siding and gorgeous stained glass windows.

  “Is this your family?” she asked, not turning to see him.

  She’d always wanted to ask. Why she did now, she had no idea? Buying time for common sense to reassert itself maybe.

  “Yes.” Logan’s voice sounded from directly behind her and Carter jumped with a gasp.

  When had he snuck up on her like that?

  Gently, he removed the framed photo from her hands and placed it back in the exact same spot it had been. The action brought him close enough that she could feel the warmth of his skin through their clothes. He put the photo down with a soft clink against the shelf, never taking his gaze from hers, his arm over her shoulder, making her feel surrounded.

  A band of excitement wrapped around her rib cage, restricting her air. So Carter held her breath.

  He brought his hand forward and trailed the back of his fingers down her cheek. She watched in fascination as his dark eyes turned brighter, swimming in shades of dappled gold.

  He softly brushed the tip of his finger over her bottom lip. “Do you want to walk away? Watch a movie instead?” he murmured, that low voice of his skating over her skin with delicious ease.

  She almost laughed in his face. Watch a movie? Now? After he’d touched her and told her he wanted to fuck her? Not that she wanted to stop anyway.

  Carter slowly shook her head, never taking her gaze from his, because she couldn’t. “I want this,” she whispered.

  If she was honest, she’d wanted this… with Logan… for a long time. Longer than she wanted to explore right this second.

  A flash of what she thought might be satisfaction lit his eyes, tugging at the corners of the always serious slash of a mouth. Suddenly, Logan dropped his hand and stepped back. “Take your clothes off.”

  A command, not a request. Usually, the independent woman in Carter would balk at a command of any sort, but damned if his taking charge right this instant didn’t do things that made her… hot.

  Watching him watch her, she lifted her hands and slowly undid the top button of her sleeveless silk blouse. Then another.

  Logan’s gaze, watch
ing with hooded eyes, traveled with her hands as she exposed more skin with each button.

  Just under her breasts, Carter paused, waiting until he raised his gaze to hers—both demand and question in his dark-brown eyes.

  “You, too,” she said.

  His silent question disintegrated behind purpose as he mimicked her own actions. His hands working at his clothes with efficient, maybe even impatient jerks. She’d always had a thing for his hands, with his long, blunt-tipped fingers and wide palms. Capable hands.

  For each button he undid, she undid one as well. They stared at each other, separated by feet of cool air, and she’d never been more turned on. The way he drank in her body was headier than any shot of tequila, and damned if she wasn’t loving every inch of skin he exposed.

  This is Logan.

  She should be freaking out, but it felt too right in this moment to be anything but turned on, and eager for more.

  The slide of zips as he undid his pants, and she undid hers sounded in the silent room. She’d never thought of that as a sensual sound, but she shivered now. With a soft smile, she let her pants slide to the floor. For once, the insecurities about her body—something every woman seemed to struggle with—didn’t pick at her, blessedly silent. Maybe it was the way Logan swallowed hard at the sight of her.

  Carter thanked her stars she’d worn her lucky lingerie—her way-too-expensive, beautifully matched set—for court today. Black satin tipped in sheer lace, matching panties, and thigh-high hose that didn’t need a garter belt to stay up.

  The skin over Logan’s cheekbones flared with color.

  With a boldness she wanted to revel in, Carter traced the lace-edged cups, then reached behind her and undid the clasp of her bra, then lowered her arms and let it slide to the floor to pool with the rest of her clothes.

  “Holy hell,” Logan muttered, sounding choked.

  Carter grinned, because even she had to admit that her breasts—heavy, pink tipped, and with nipples that could be a problem to keep concealed under clothing—were damn near perfect. Maybe her favorite feature.