I grabbed my cap from him and put it on. “Nope, I’m going to eat some chocolate, not answer my phone, and be a hermit for the night.”
He smirked. “Then I’ll smuggle some champagne and chocolate back home for you.”
I shrugged. “So, where to first?”
“The jewelry store. I had a pair of cufflinks on order that just came in. If I’m going to wear a tux tomorrow I’d like to wear the new ones.”
“Wow, fancy. Now I’m really glad I’m not going.”
He grabbed his keys off the wall beside the garage door. “Why?”
“I don’t have anything that nice. I would feel totally out of place.”
“You have some incredible dresses from what I’ve seen. Not that I would let you wear them out in public.”
Let me? I rolled my eyes. Overgrown ape.
My lips pursed and I tried to change the subject. “They’re okay. Not as dressy as what you would wear to something like that.”
“It’s a mindset. You go, you talk. Some people make it out to be a little more than it is. It’s just a dress-up dinner that people get together and network at. Plus, I get to drum up some money, every once in a while, for other clinics that aren’t as fortunate as ours is.”
I climbed in the Lexus with him. “What do you mean?”
He looked over at me as I was buckling up. “Well, Aiden’s money helps our clinic and the hospital he funds, but there are some other places that also need charity. Especially the outreach centers downtown.”
“Oh, do you know those places too?”
“Yeah, I do some volunteer work for them sometimes. Well, I did anyway. Not recently. I’ve been a little busy.”
He pulled out of the garage slowly.
“Too busy with your girlfriends?” I asked petulantly.
He hit the brakes hard and put the car into park. His hand came around to my jaw and turned it to him.
His blue eyes flashed at me and he scowled. “Kaitlyn, I don’t want to talk about that with you. I don’t have a girlfriend. I haven’t had one in a long time. I’ve dated and enjoyed the company of a few women over the last year but it’s been fairly tame.”
I blinked at him. “Fairly tame?”
He chuckled, “Yes, fairly tame, and that’s all I’m going to say about it. Hey, I’m not Brock but I’m certainly not a saint. I was mad yesterday and shouldn’t have said anything. Can we just leave it at that?”
I nodded. “We’re not dating, so you don’t have to explain.”
His eyes dropped down to my mouth. “For some reason, I feel like I do.”
“Well, old man, you don’t.”
“You can be really sassy sometimes,” he mumbled.
“Maybe. My grandmother always said my temper was horrendous.”
He shook his head and blinked. “Kate, you don’t even cuss. I mean I’d love to hear you cuss in a certain situation. But I can’t imagine you being too scary when you’re mad.”
I scrunched my face up at him. “What situation?”
He cleared his throat and arched his eyebrow. “What? So, what do you do when you’re mad?”
“I’m terribly mean and I do cuss when I’m angry.”
“Riiight,” he smirked. “You’re a terrible liar. Let’s go do this and see how mad you get if the other team wins.”
He pulled out of the driveway and drove toward the security gate.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He sighed. “Have you ever even flipped anyone off?”
I took my camera out of my back pocket. I switched it to selfie mode and held it out to the side so that it would capture him too. I flipped the camera off and snapped.
Logan started laughing. “What was that for?”
“Oh, that was my response to your earlier text. I’m showing you mine. I’m sending it over now. You can have me flipping you off while sitting beside you.”
I hit the button and heard his phone ping.
He shook his head. “You’re playing with fire woman.”
I grinned. Right now, I think I could handle it.
Chapter Seven
The football game was wrapping up on the third quarter and I was finishing my jumbo hotdog. I had a feeling half of it was on my face at this point. Logan had gone to the restroom and to grab napkins that I had inadvertently forgotten.
The team was better than I had anticipated. I hadn’t realized that I would like watching arena football as much as I did. Both teams had a good following it seemed, so there were a lot of people packed into the building.
We had some great seats about midway up on the fifty-yard line. The guy next to me and his six friends had been extremely verbal. He also had some horn that he blew every time our team scored. I felt like my eardrum was permanently deaf starting in the first quarter. The group behind us had been drinking the entire game. I suspected one of them had even spilled a drink at one point because the smell of alcohol was very prevalent.
Logan had a beer and some nachos after halftime and was still thinking about getting a hotdog before we left. One thing I had discovered today was that the man had an unlimited appetite.
Earlier, we had picked up his cufflinks at the jeweler. They were beautiful black squares with a small diamond set in the middle of each. While we were waiting, I had looked in multiple cases filled with settings of all type. I wasn’t much of a diamond fan necessarily but there was something about looking at all those sparkly settings that made me smile. It was like looking at hundreds of twinkling stars thrown across the displays.
There had been a few pendants that I liked, but they cost more than what I had paid for my car. Logan had even pointed out some things that he thought were nice. For a guy, I had to admit, he had some really good taste.
After the jewelry store, we had gone to pick up one of his suits then he had dropped off an envelope to a clinic downtown.
Around noon we went to a pub around the corner from the football arena. Although I hadn’t been hungry for much more than an appetizer, Logan had a burger, two beers and a stack of french fries. Where he put all of it was a good question. He was tall and had a lean, muscular build that didn’t seem to have an ounce of fat on it according to his picture from the morning. In fact, since knowing him, he seemed to have lost weight rather than gaining it. How he did this, given the amount of food he had consumed, was a mystery.
He had taken a picture or two of us eating which I found a little odd. In my limited experience, it didn’t seem like men did that sort of thing a lot. I had always seen couples out in public where the women were taking the majority of pictures, not the other way around.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket.
Incoming picture from Logan.
I nearly choked on my food when I opened the attachment
It was of his abs and he had his jeans unbuckled. I could see a fine trail of hair leading down his abdomen and disappearing underneath a pair of red boxers. One of his fingers was hooked around the edge of the waistband and it looked like he was pulling the material down.
How one man could be so well defined was beyond me. He ate the amount of food that would feed two grown men and yet he was still in great shape from what I could see. He had great abs, and the beginning of a V shape where his stomach met his hips.
Logan: Want to see more?
I chewed slowly and finished my bite of hotdog.
Did I? What was he doing? It wasn’t that I was completely ignorant of the male body. I wasn’t a total idiot, but this was Logan and we seemed to be headed into the “not just friends” zone.
I licked my lips and tasted a bit of mustard.
There was a furious drive down field for our team and it was playing out in front of me. I wasn’t paying attention though. I barely heard the noise of the people around me as they stood up to cheer. Gone, was the roaring of the crowd and the smell of the beer. Only his question remained.
I sent him my reply.
Kate: Yes.
&n
bsp; A couple of minutes went by without a response.
Logan: Come up the stairs. We’re leaving.
My eyebrow arched and I nervously bit my lip. For some reason his response sent a shiver up my body. Were we leaving because he didn’t like my answer or were we leaving because he did? Maybe I was just making this more complicated than it had to be.
Was this friends with some sort of picture flirting benefits?
I stood up and made my way up the stairs. I heard the final buzzer behind me, ending the third quarter and a huge cheer filled the arena. Logan was standing outside the door with his arms crossed over his chest and feet spread apart. He was smirking like I had told him something funny.
But his eyes. That was something altogether different. His eyes burned into me with an intensity I had never seen in a man. None that had ever looked at me. Those eyes were feral with hunger and he was looking at me like I was on the menu.
Play it off as a joke. He’s probably just being playful again. Right?
I looked to the side wondering if I could escape.
Logan growled. “Kaitlyn, let’s go. We’ve got some exploring to do.”
I blinked and stopped a couple of feet from him.
“Uhm, really?” I squeaked.
“Hmm,” he rumbled, and stepped forward to grab my arm.
He turned and started walking quickly down the long corridor toward the exit to the parking garage. I half jogged to keep up with his long stride.
I threw my half-eaten hotdog in the trash as we left.
“Uhm, we forgot napkins,” I said, and held up my fingers.
He stopped and turned me toward him outside the doors. I wiggled my fingers at him.
His hand grabbed them and he stuck one in his mouth to suck on it. I could feel his tongue move over the tip right before he nipped it with his teeth. He repeated the same action on my other finger.
It was the most sexual hand washing I’d ever had.
“Glad I didn’t get one,” he said. “Tasting the mustard on you is so much better. You forgot a spot on your lip.”
I tried to reach up but he halted my hand and hauled me in by my waist. His face dipped down to mine and he sucked at the side of my bottom lip. I could feel his tongue gliding over it before he nipped and let me go.
He pulled me along toward his car that was parked in a corner space on the opposite side. When we reached it, he undid the locks and opened the back door. I didn’t have a chance to ask why before he was manhandling me into the back seat. He followed in after me.
I slid over to the other side wondering what he was doing. He closed the door behind him, then turned to look at me.
The backseat, which previously looked like it was roomy when I had checked out the car earlier, was suddenly very small.
He tilted his head and looked at me.
“Would you like to see more now?”
Licking my lip, I sucked in a huge breath. “Would you believe me if I said I was joking?”
He shook his head slowly from side to side. He still had an intense look on his face.
I looked through the back window. “There will be hundreds of people coming through here any moment.”
He didn’t say anything and kept looking at me.
My teeth gnawed at my lip.
His hand slowly made its way up my leg and around my waist. He gently pulled me to him until our legs were tangled up and his chest was against mine.
My hands went around his shoulders and I looked up into his eyes.
“Kaitlyn, I’d like to show you more. Not here but I wanted to show you what your tiny “yes” did to me. It was highly naughty of you to say.”
I breathed out slowly. “Okay.”
“I’m surprised but I think you’re curious. If that’s the case, then I would like to help you explore. I just don’t want you to be scared by any of it. The thing is, I can’t stand the thought of anyone else helping you for some reason. Tell me you understand.”
“I think so.”
He looked down at my mouth. “Good. Give me your hand.”
I lifted it up for him and he took it in one of his. He watched my face carefully as he slid it down his body to his crotch. He hesitated for a moment then placed my hand on his jeans.
I inhaled sharply. He was extremely hard. I could feel his member pressing against his jeans. The heat was seeping through the material and I felt him twitch.
His mouth came down on mine slowly as I gasped. He took his time kissing me lightly and running his tongue along my bottom lip. My mouth opened more for him and he groaned as he dove in deeper.
My hand, still on his crotch, pressed against him.
He growled against my lips. “Kate, be careful. There’s only so much of that I can take.”
I snatched my hand back but he grabbed it and put it flat against his chest.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t know what it is about you Kaitlyn.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. My instincts are telling me to put you up in a hotel but I just can’t seem to do it. I’m being selfish.”
His face looked conflicted as I stared at him. Part of me wanted him to be selfish if it meant spending time with him like we had today. The other half, and likely my more rational half, told me to take heed of his mercurial moods. Heartbreak was always written between the lines of uncertainty.
I looked away from him.
His hand reached up to tuck some hair behind my ear. “Let’s go get your car. I would like to see what’s going on with it and make sure it’s going to run.”
Back to reality.
The conversation had turned serious again. The whole situation I found myself in was confusing and apparently, it was just as confusing to him. He was right, it was time to move away from the moment and concentrate on tangibles.
He turned to get out of the car and let out a frustrated growl. “Fuck.”
He swung back and was suddenly pressed against me again. His mouth found mine and he savagely swept his tongue between my lips.
I could feel his heart beating rapidly against me and the feel of his lips on mine made me lose complete thought. My hands slid up the back of his neck.
He slowly pushed me over onto the seat and I whimpered. One of his hands squeezed my hip, the other gently started to massage my breast.
My back arched when his lips moved down to the sensitive spot below my ear. It felt like lightning bolts were shooting through my hips and into my belly.
I let out a small moan and my leg involuntarily lifted up on his thigh.
He raised his head up and his eyes swept my face. He was breathing as hard as I was.
“More,” I whispered.
He chuckled, kissed at my jaw and the corner of my mouth. “Car, home, food. A movie. Maybe a new game. Safer for you. Possibly.”
I nodded, completely under the spell of his gaze. I had no idea what he was talking about but I hoped it involved more kissing. He was an incredible kisser and he made me feel things that I most definitely wanted to explore further.
He gave me a small smile. “You’re beautiful you know.”
“So are you,” I whispered.
He frowned and looked away. “Let’s go.”
* * *
I drove my car back from the shop. It was exceptionally better. The fact that it wasn’t making odd noises and had a lot more pep was a miracle.
Logan had been talking about it with the mechanic before we left and I didn’t understand a word of it. I wasn’t sure what they had done to it. I did hear that they had put new tires on it and had installed new brakes. Which became apparent at the first intersection I came to. It stopped, like immediately, without the normal hard pressure I was used to applying. No squeaking, no noise.
I felt guilty about it, knowing that Logan had paid for it and I hadn’t even touched his house. The house seemed to be in good order, so I wasn’t sure what I was supposed
to clean, but I was willing to wipe down everything and put in the effort if he felt it needed more cleaning.
I stopped at the hardware store before I went back to the house. I had a plan for making the place look a little more like a home instead of a place he just slept at.
I was in the garden department when Logan texted.
Logan: Where are you? Is the car okay? Are you stuck somewhere?
Kate: At the hardware store picking up a couple of things. Car is great.
A few minutes passed.
Logan: If you need hardware, I have some here.
I chuckled and rolled my eyes.
After the backseat incident today, he hadn’t said much on the drive to the shop. Almost like it never happened. My assumption was that he meant it to be flirtatious and friendly but not going beyond that. I may have shocked him and I wondered if my own behavior seemed too friendly.
He seemed to be blurring some lines that were confusing as hell. I liked him and he knew it. My lack of understanding or experience about relationships and the flirtatious games people played was now a problem dealing with a situation like this.
My phone beeped. Incoming picture from Logan.
Ahh gawd. He was killing me.
I cleared my throat and hesitated in opening it. Then another text came in from him. I waded in with caution and pressed the messages.
The picture was of him at the island in his kitchen. Only his chest was in view and he had his shirt off. In front of him, was a bowl of strawberries.
I smirked.
At this point, I was kind of getting used to these partially clothed displays. It was still shocking in a way and the displays of nudity made my body tingle in ways that I liked. I had seen plenty of men with their shirts off, but unlike those pictures, this was a man that I knew and was living with. The differences were very acute.
Logan: Strawberries for dessert?
I was sure there was some dirty joke in his question somewhere, but I couldn’t fathom what it was.
Fine, if he wanted to play that game again then it was time to enter the playing field.
There was a bathroom close so I stepped over to it and left my cart outside.
I went to a stall and thought about what I wanted to send. I pulled my shirt down over my shoulders just enough to where he could see the tops of my breasts peeking out from my lace bra and snapped a picture.
Break (Lakefield Book 3) Page 7