by Fawn Lowery
Don’t read too much into this, a tiny little voice inside her warned. He’s only giving you a ride to the hotel.
They arrived at the hotel much too quickly. She wasn’t ready to say good night or to go to that empty hotel room alone. For a second her thoughts somersaulted.
It’s all because I presented myself to him as if I was a giant prize on a silver platter, she reminded. Suddenly she wanted to be as far away from him as possible.
“Thank you for the ride,” she said, turning toward him in the hotel lobby. “I can find my way from here.”
“I’ve no doubt that you can,” he replied reaching out his hand to grasp her left elbow. “But I can’t leave you here in the lobby. Rachel would kick my ass.”
Tia laughed suddenly at the thought of tiny Rachel raising a foot to his oh-so-sexy butt.
“And besides, I’ve been waiting for almost six years to talk to you,” he added, ushering her into the elevator. “Which floor?”
Tia reached a hand to the instrument panel and poked the number for the seventh floor. Rachel had remarked that she was staying on a lucky floor, but Tia merely shook her head at her fated observation. She didn’t believe in signs—or any of the other nonsense Rachel claimed to live by.
Tia took the room key from her purse as the elevator doors slid open only to feel Logan’s warm fingers against hers as he slid it from her hand.
“Which room?”
“Seven-ten,” Tia answered. Her nerves had begun to jangle. She glanced at Logan beneath the fall of her lashes as he led the way down the hall. He had been waiting six years to talk to her? Holy cow! Was she going to have to live the nightmare of Senior Prom all over again?
He opened the room and held the door for Tia to enter. Momentarily it was slamming noisily behind them. Tia strode into the room, tossing her purse on the bureau beside the portable TV, her back to Logan. A part of her dreaded turning around and facing him. He must think she was such a fool—giving herself to him and then disappearing for six years.
His hand was hot on her back then his arms spanned her waist and suddenly she found herself turned into his embrace. In the next instant he was driving his mouth down hard against hers, crushing her lips in a passionate kiss.
Pure joy sang through her veins dissolving the tension she harbored. Her arms instantly circled his neck and she pressed her breasts into the solid wall of his chest. God! How she’d dreamed of being in his arms, of kissing him, of feeling his flesh against hers. The urge to shed her clothes was almost overwhelming.
“Get your things,” Logan whispered, dragging his lips from hers. “You’re coming home with me.”
Chapter Three
The bedroom was large and spacious, dimly lit by a shaft of silvery moonlight peeking in through the gossamer curtains at the floor to ceiling windows. Tia could just make out the large four-poster bed in the center of the room as Logan led her toward it.
His hands were on her light cotton sweater, pulling it from her shoulders, then his hands searched out the zipper in the back of her dress and quickly pulled it down, urging the garment down her body.
His mouth closed over hers as he pulled her against his chest. The feel of his body leaning into hers sent her senses reeling. Even though he still remained fully dressed, there was an erotic assault on Tia’s nerves just knowing that beneath the expensive fabric of his dress shirt lay warm, male flesh soon to meld with her own. She raised her hands and began opening the buttons running down the front of his shirt. All the while, his mouth was feverishly assaulting her lips. It was hot and demanding—relaying the sexual message she had longed to hear.
He helped her finish releasing the buttons on his shirt, threw it aside, then pushed Tia down on the bed, pulling off her dress as she sank amidst the softness of a plush coverlet. Clad only in bra and panties, she peered through the dim moonlight at him as he stripped off his pants and underwear.
He came to her hot and needing, naked and oh-so-very male! A moan of total abandon leapt from Tia’s throat as she wrapped her arms around his bare shoulders and welcomed his length atop her body. The unmistakable firmness of his erection pressed into her abdomen.
“I told myself that we’d be together again…one day,” he whispered, pulling his mouth from her lips. He rained tiny hot kisses across her cheeks, her forehead, then onto her arched throat. “Oh, Tia. The waiting has been almost unbearable.”
His words lodged in her brain. Was she dreaming that he was speaking everything she had been hoping to hear for as long as she had been in love with him? But then he hadn’t confessed he loved her—yet.
His hands traveled across her breasts, releasing her bra. His mouth found her nipples and suckled each in turn, nearly driving her wild. His lips kissed a moist path from her breasts onto her belly, then lowered to follow his hands as he pushed down her panties.
“Oh, God!” Tia murmured.
“Your body is exquisite,” Logan said. He paused and pulled back, resting on one elbow. He gazed down at her shimmering silhouette in the silvery moonlight. “I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve dreamed of having you here—in my bed.”
Were her ears deceiving her?
His hands caressed the length of her body as he kissed her mouth, delving his tongue inside to taste her sweetness. His palm grazed her flesh, lightly inspecting, pressing hotly against her skin. She felt on fire, awakened once more to Logan Summerfield’s power over her. His fingers found the dense mat of brown hair and began stroking her sensitive folds.
She pulled in a quick breath as his probing fingers slid inside her body, then pulled out, only to slide back in again. She lost all sense of reasoning and when she felt the urge to spread her legs, giving him full leisure to her crotch, she did so without a second’s hesitation.
A guttural moan came from Logan’s throat. He pulled his mouth from hers and began a heated assault on her breasts, licking, sucking and nipping at her sensitive nipples.
Climax bore down on Tia, but she didn’t want to cum by way of Logan’s fingers. She wanted to feel his body joined to hers—to have him thrust her to orgasm.
“Logan, take me now,” she rasped, her voice hoarse. She groped his naked flesh, urging his body atop hers. “Take me now.”
He didn’t hesitate, but hurried to lever himself atop her needing body. A quick stab between her legs and he slid inside her. He paused ever so briefly, as though realizing what was taking place, then he began to move, lunging in and pulling back, almost to the point of extraction then lunging in again.
A breath caught in Tia’s throat. Tears gathered in her eyes. Reality had taken a beautiful turn. She hugged Logan’s bare back, holding his body as tightly against hers as humanly possible. She never wanted to let him go. The wait to be with him had been too long.
She felt it then. Exquisite sensations raced along her limbs and made her heart flutter. She arched her back and panted through her mouth, so overwhelmed by climatic spasms that she quivered beneath the weight of Logan’s body.
His mouth suddenly found her lips and devoured them as he reached his own climax. He thrust madly into her body, striving wildly to reap every tingling sensation possible from the act.
“Oh, Tia! Oh, Tia!” he proclaimed, his breath hot and moist against her lips.
I love you, she wanted to say. I’ve loved you all my life. But she kept silent—hoping Logan would confess his love for her. A tiny tear squeezed out of her left eye and lay on her cheek when she realized he wasn’t going to speak the words she wanted so desperately to hear.
I’ve done it again, she thought. I’ve given myself to Logan again.
* * * *
Tia’s eyes flickered open. She stared at the ornate white ceiling with its elegantly carved cornices. For an instant she didn’t recognize where she was then it all came flooding back to her.
She was at Logan’s house.
In his bed.
The weight of a male arm lying across her chest became suddenly apparent. She lo
wered her eyes and inspected the tanned forearm with its sprinkling of dark hair, the large hand with the gently tapered fingers. Did he get manicures? She wondered, staring at his nails. She grimaced at the thought. Of course he got manicures. He was Logan Summerfield, one of New Orleans most prominent young attorneys—a trial lawyer. Criminal suits were his specialty. And why not? He was brilliant.
Or at least brilliant enough to get her into bed.
Anger flared inside her. How could she have let it happen? How could she have let Logan between her legs again?
I’m really hard up, she chided, feeling the urge to push his arm off her chest. He was crushing her breasts. And his warmth was all too noticeable. She turned her head on the pillow to look at him. Already she felt her senses wavering—and she’d only awakened!
“Morning.”
His voice was gravelly sounding, sleepy, and sexy as hell. Tia’s breath caught in her throat. How long had he been awake?
His arm moved, and his hand closed around her right breast.
“What are we doing, Logan?” she asked confused by her own willingness to sleep with him.
“You’ve finally come home,” he answered lightly.
Her body stiffened at his words. Did he mean that they had had their reunion—of sorts? She levered herself up in the bed, pulling the sheet over her naked breasts and baring the majority of Logan’s body.
“Why so modest?” he remarked, a slanted grin on his handsome face.
His dark hair was sleep-tousled and a hint of beard shone on his strong chin. And oh, that naked physique—her lower jaw suddenly dropped open and she could do little else, aside from stare at him.
“Six years ago when you were my prom date,” he began, levering himself up on one elbow and taking her left hand in his. He dipped his head and kissed her knuckles, one at a time, until Tia thought for sure he was about to take her again, this time without any participation on her part at all.
“I remember,” she managed to say. She tried to take her hand back but he refused to turn it loose.
He lifted his head and locked gazes with her. In the next instant he touched her face with his fingers, lightly caressing her cheek.
“That night with you was a life-changing experience,” he said, his eyes holding her gaze.
“Yes. It was,” Tia stated. She glanced away as anger rose inside her. Of all the stupid things to do—give herself to a high school jock—The swell of anger was so intense that she yanked her hand free of his and threw off the covers. How noble of him to bring it to her attention!
“Tia,” he exclaimed, a question in his tone.
“I should never have come here, Logan,” she said as she hurried across the floor to the bathroom. She managed to snag her dress and underwear off the floor before her eyes became so blurry with tears that she couldn’t see. “And that night was the biggest mistake of my life!” she threw at him as she slammed the bathroom door.
She threw the lock and leaned her back against the solid wood structure. How could she be so stupid? Twice in one lifetime!
After a few minutes, she dressed and washed her face, then inched the bathroom door open. There was no sign of Logan. She picked up her sweater and slipped on her shoes then turned to leave the room—only to come face to face with Logan as he stepped through the doorway.
“I’m going to talk,” he informed her. “And you’re going to listen.”
Chapter Four
She wasn’t quite certain she liked his authoritative manner, but she halted her feet anyway. A surge of something akin to sexual arousal wafted through her at the masculine sensuality of the man. He was dressed in a navy blue business suit with a white shirt and blue pinstripe tie. His face was clean-shaven and his dark hair neatly combed.
“I was serious when I told you that what happened between us on prom night changed my life.” He stared at her, reinforcing his words. “Despite what it meant to you—“
“You took my virginity—for God’s sake! What do you think it meant to me?” she railed, propping her hands atop her hips.
“I don’t recall forcing you.”
Tia swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.
He smiled slightly and his gaze traveled along her length. “Do you recall the evening differently?”
“Am I on trial here?”
“No.”
“Then why the cross-examination? Do you need to practice your courtroom tactics?”
She regretted being flip the moment the words left her mouth. She raised one hand and raked her fingers through her hair, disturbed by her own reaction to his words.
“Hardly,” he said. “The law firm is dong very well.”
“I’m thrilled for you,” she quipped. “But then, you were always good at whatever you set your mind to.”
He let out a long breath. “Are we going to stand here and exchange verbal insults?”
“I’m willing if you are.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “I don’t want to argue with you, honey,” he said, his tone sincere.
“I’m leaving,” Tia said. She strode past him, but he caught her by the wrist.
“I haven’t told you what I’ve been waiting six years to say, Tia. Won’t you give me five minutes?”
His tone nearly melted her heart. Five minutes hardly added up to a lifetime of heartbreak. She guessed she could spare him the time. But she’d be on guard. He was smart and cunning—she had found that out—again—last night.
“For six years I wondered if I’d gotten you pregnant that night,” he began, his voice low toned. “It was very irresponsible of me to have sex with you, Tia—despite the heat of the moment.”
“And I suppose that was my fault,” she put in.
“No. The fault belonged to both of us.”
“You kissed me first.”
“But you enticed me with your beauty.”
Tia jerked her head around to stare at him. There was compassion in the depth of his warm brown eyes—compassion and—
“You have no idea what I was feeling that night, Tia.”
“I think I might,” she growled. “In fact, I can recall it vividly.” Her cheeks suddenly flamed at the memory of how hard and long and hot his cock was. “Remember, it was my first time.”
He moved suddenly and grasped her by both upper arms.
“I should shake some sense into you,” he spewed, anger jumping to the fore. “I’m trying to tell you how it made me feel to take your virginity!” He glared at her for a moment, then he muttered a few choice cuss words under his breath and released her. Turning on his heel, he quickly disappeared through the outer room.
Tia was left standing in the center of the room, her feet braced, staring after him. What had just taken place? Or had she just found out how little she meant to Logan Summerfield?
Their relationship hadn’t been much before he asked her to be his date to the Senior Prom. In fact, they barely had a speaking acquaintance. She wasn’t included in his circle of friends, but they had most every class together since sophomore year. Tia had first become aware of him in grade school. Her parents had moved to New Orleans when she was in the fourth grade due to her father’s transfer. Even then, Logan was the cutest boy in class. Her family had stayed in town until senior graduation, when her father accepted another transfer, this time to Ohio.
She felt like the weight of the world had somehow fallen on her shoulders. Well, at least now she knew there was no use pining her life away over Logan Summerfield. All she had managed to do was lose her virginity and then six years later, hand over her self-respect to him.
“I’m such a loser,” she mumbled, looking round the bedroom. Where was her suitcase? Maybe Logan hadn’t brought it upstairs during their heated arrival last night. She let an agonized groan slip from her throat as she headed downstairs to have a look around.
It dawned on her as she descended the winding oak staircase that since she had given up her hotel room last night, she
’d probably be hard pressed to obtain a replacement with Mardi Gras in full swing.
“Holy cow!” she exclaimed, and immediately sat down on the stairs. “Rachel’s wedding is this evening.” How was she going to explain things to Rachel? “If I get out of this, I’m hightailing it back to Ohio and hiding myself behind the rows of computers and calculators in the office.” She took her cell phone out of her purse and punched in Rachel’s private number.
“You’re at Logan’s house?” Rachel exclaimed. “Congratulations on an epic scale, Tia. I’m proud of you.”
Tia rolled her eyes in exasperation as she listened to Rachel expound on the virtues of having sex with Logan.
“But, Rachel,” Tia interrupted. “I have to leave. We had a big fight.”
“About what?”
Tia thought for a moment. “I’m not sure.” It sounded too petty to admit that she had wanted Logan to say he loved her and when he didn’t utter the words, she got mad at herself for expecting the impossible.
“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right over.”
* * * *
“This is worse than Prom night,” Tia explained as she let Rachel in the front door of Logan’s house. She threw both hands into the air. “Maybe I’m just into screwing the guy—with six year intervals.”
Rachel giggled. “You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.” She set the large tote bag she carried down in the front foyer. “This is some palace,” she exclaimed, gazing around at the décor.
“Yes. It’s gorgeous,” Tia admitted, hardly in the mood to give Rachel a guided tour. “But I can’t stay here. And since I turned in my hotel key—“
“You’re shit out of luck, girl. There aren’t any rooms available in this town. For God’s sake. There are ten thousand tourists celebrating in the streets. You’ve no choice but to kiss and make up with Logan—at least until my wedding is over.” She winked at Tia. “And if you do kiss and make up—maybe you won’t want to leave.”