by Mari Carr
Off Limits
Sparks in Texas, Book 4
By Mari Carr
Off Limits
Copyright 2016 Mari Carr
Formatted by IRONHORSE Formatting
Smashwords Edition
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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According to the bro code, enacted by Evan Sparks and Logan Grady years ago, sisters are out. However, Lacy Sparks isn’t about to let a silly boyhood pact stand between her and the man she’s wanted for nearly twenty years.
She’s waited long enough. Logan thinks she’s too sweet to give him what he needs. He’s about to learn as far as Lacy’s concerned, in bed or out, nothing is off-limits.
Dedication
To Liz Berry and M.J. Rose
For their belief in me and my stories
Table of Contents
Prelude
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
About the Author
Excerpts from the Sparks in Texas series
Other Titles by Mari Carr
Prelude
One year earlier…
“Closing time,” Lacy Sparks said, gently tapping on Logan’s shoulder. He’d been looking down at his beer so long he had almost forgotten where he was.
“I thought maybe you’d found a way to sleep with your eyes open,” she teased.
He glanced up at her, and then let his gaze wander around the restaurant. He was surprised to find the place empty. Where the hell did everyone go?
Her cousin, Macie was behind the bar, wiping the counter and he could hear Sydney in the kitchen, washing dishes. Lacy had already cleaned the dining area and he hadn’t noticed them doing any of it.
“Sorry.”
“No problem. I’ll walk you home,” she offered.
Logan wasn’t drunk. Not even close. After all, he’d nursed the last still-full beer for over an hour. But he wasn’t going to turn down the offer of company. Especially Lacy’s. She was one of the reasons he’d returned to Sparks Barbeque tonight. He’d been here earlier with her brother, Evan. His best friend since first grade, Evan had picked him up after work and declared they were going out for happy hour. His friend had been hell-bent on cheering him up. After all, Logan had just gotten dumped. For the first time.
Logan had dated lots of girls, but in the end, he’d always been the heartbreaker because none of them had captured his affections. Until he met Jane.
He should consider himself lucky. Not many men made it too the ripe old age of thirty-three without ever having their hearts ripped out. Of course, the more he thought about it, the more he realized it wasn’t his heart Jane had just tromped all over. It was his pride. His heart had walked out of the relationship about six months ago.
He and Evan had eaten dinner, kicked back a few beers and then Evan had dropped him off at his place. Logan had taken one look around the quiet apartment and then walked the two blocks back to the restaurant. He preferred noise to silence, and there was something very soothing about Lacy’s Uncle TJ’s off-color stories, Macie’s boisterous laughter, and the sweet way Lacy kept stopping by to check on him. When you were with the Sparks family, it was easy to forget what ailed you. The pressure that had taken permanent residence on his chest since Jane moved out last week lifted when he was here.
“Logan?”
God. He shouldn’t have bothered coming back. He was shitty company. “Sorry,” he repeated.
Lacy reached out to clasp his hand, giving it a quick, comforting squeeze. “You ready to go?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but shouldn’t I be offering to walk you home?”
She grinned. “I live five blocks from here and I walk myself home every night. Besides, your place is on my way.”
Logan reached for his wallet, but she waved off his money when he tried to pay for the beer. “It’s on me.”
“Lace.”
Rather than fight about it, she simply pulled her jacket on and walked to the front door leaving him no choice but to follow. “Night, Macie,” she called out.
“Night, y’all,” her cousin replied wearily. It had been a busy night at the restaurant and they were obviously pooped.
Once they stepped out onto the sidewalk, Lacy obviously decided to take the bull by the horns. “I know you’re upset about Jane. If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m a pretty good listener.”
There was no debating that. While he’d been Evan’s friend growing up, once they became adults, Lacy had stopped being the kid sister and became a friend in her own right. She was one of the most upbeat people he’d ever met. An eternal optimist. Logan liked the humor and positive energy that seemed to surround her all the time.
“I’m not sure there’s much to talk about. The breakup had been coming for a while. Not like it was a total shock.”
“Another man?”
He didn’t bother to lie. Logan nodded. “Yeah. Some old boyfriend from back home. Apparently they’ve been chatting on Facebook for nearly a year.”
“Fucking Facebook,” she said with a grin.
The joke worked. He laughed, but didn’t bother to say Jane’s flirting over social media had very little to do with what really broke up the relationship. And it certainly wasn’t anything he could explain to Lacy. Not fully anyway. God only knew what she’d say if he went into all the gory details.
“This is probably one of those things that’s best left alone. Rehashing it won’t make it better. I just need to figure out where to go from here.”
“So, I’ll change my offer. If you ever want to hang out and not talk about it, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks.”
He appreciated her kindness, but he didn’t see himself taking her up on the offer. Logan was getting out of a three-year relationship. He needed time to recover and to get his shit together. Looking at Lacy tonight, Logan felt something he didn’t want to put a word to, simply because it would be too dangerous to acknowledge.
Once they reached the front of his apartment, he paused. “I really don’t mind walking you home, Lacy.”
She smiled, and then reached up on tiptoe to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “It’s Maris, Logan. I’ll be fine. Night.”
He watched as she walked away, not turning toward his front door until she was completely out of sight.
The second Lacy was gone, the heavy feeling he’d managed to keep at bay in the restaurant, re
turned, along with a new one.
Fuck it. He called it by name. He felt tempted. By Lacy Sparks. It was going to be a long night.
Chapter One
“This isn’t Vegas.”
Lacy rolled her eyes as Macie repeated the same sentiment she’d been muttering all night. Damn woman had been bemoaning the fact they were holding their cousin Sydney’s bachelorette party in boring old Maris, Texas, instead of Las Vegas for about six weeks now.
“Yeah. That’s totally not getting old, Mace,” Lacy said with a sigh. “Besides, I think Sydney is handling the disappointment just fine.” She lifted her chin toward the bar, where Sydney was giggling her fool head off while sporting a short white veil, jeans and a “Kiss Me, I’m the Bride” t-shirt covered with guys’ signatures in Sharpie. She was drinking blowjob shots with three sexy ranch hands who were only too happy to celebrate with the tipsy bride-to-be.
“I bet she’d trade those three farm boys for male strippers any day of the week.”
Lacy laughed. “This is Sydney’s party, not yours. I suspect she’s perfectly happy right here. We’ll go to Vegas when you get married.”
Macie tipped back her beer. “That’s small comfort. I’ve done a thorough accounting of the stock around here and I’m fairly certain I’m never getting married.”
Lacy found it difficult to argue with her cousin. Macie had cut a wide swath through most of the available men in Maris. Not that Macie was a slut. Quite the contrary. She was very discerning when it came to her lovers. However, she was an equal opportunity dater, which meant she didn’t turn down many requests to go out. Only a handful had ever gotten a second date. “Maybe you should widen the search, check out some neighboring towns.”
Macie simply rolled her eyes. “Already done that.” Then, as so often happened with her cousin, Macie spotted a “squirrel” and changed topics. Shiny things constantly distracted her, too. “It’s good to see Coop out tonight.”
Lacy glanced toward where the rancher was sitting alone, nursing a beer. “Wonder how he’s doing.”
“Considering his wife died of breast cancer three months ago, I’m going to go out on a limb and say shitty.” Macie rose from her seat. “And since the pickings around here are so slim, I’m going to give up on getting lucky and go buy that man a beer. Looks like he could use some cheering up.”
Hank Cooper had always been a regular at Sparks Barbeque, the restaurant Lacy and her cousins operated, stopping in for lunch at least once a week. However, since his wife Charlotte’s death, he’d become even more regular, sitting at the bar with a sandwich, plate of fries and a beer nearly every single night as Macie held court.
While Macie was a terrible cook, she was one hell of a bartender. Lacy was pretty sure that, while people originally came for the delicious food Sydney and Jeannette prepared, they returned because of the fun Macie provided.
Lacy lifted her beer for a drink as her cousin walked away and took the opportunity to survey the bar. It was the first time she’d had five minutes to herself since they began this crazy adventure. Her boisterous cousins and several of their girlfriends had surrounded her all evening as they ran through the typical checklist of bachelorette insanity, complete with tequila shots and raunchy sex toy and negligee gifts. Then they started playing some silly game that Paige had found online, where Sydney had to find guys who fit certain characteristics to sign her t-shirt. She’d found men with tattoos, piercings and facial hair quickly, and had her pick of the litter on men wearing cowboy hats and boots. So far, she’d had no luck on finding a male prostitute or a transvestite—Macie’s additions to the list, items she insisted Sydney would have found easily in Vegas.
With the exceptions of Sydney at the bar and Macie sitting with Coop, most of their party was now out on the dance floor, shaking their booties, completely oblivious to how many cowboys currently stalked them. Lacy didn’t blame the guys. She’d always thought her cousins were beautiful women—inside and out. When they were out together in a pack, like they were now, they tended to turn more than a few heads.
Several men got bold and attempted to break into the circle, hoping to pick one of the women off and get her away from the others. It looked like one guy had just about managed to capture Adele’s attention before she shimmied back into the fold. Obviously tonight’s unspoken theme was chicks before dicks. Which suited Lacy fine, because there wasn’t anyone here she was interested in hooking up with.
A slow song started playing and most of the girls headed back toward the table. Only four of them made land as the rest found dance partners and stayed on the floor.
“Damn. It’s a total meat market out there,” Amanda said as she and her girlfriend Brandi returned, along with Jeannette and Gia, who, unlike the rest of their cousins, had steady boyfriends.
“Tell me about it. I’m pretty sure at least three different guys tried to grope my ass during that last song,” Gia added.
Amanda laughed. “Yeah. I saw that. One was my ex, Chuck, who’s actually here with his girlfriend, Paula.”
“Wait. You dated Chuck? Or Paula?” Jeannette asked, clearly thinking Amanda had misspoken.
Amanda waved away Jeannette’s confusion with a grin. “Chuck, but that was way back in two thousand and straight. And believe me, if I hadn’t already realized I was into girls way more than guys, Chuck would have pushed me into full-fledged lesbianism.”
Gia tossed Chuck a dirty look as he did some sort of obscene bump-and-grind dance with Paula. “It’s a dick move trying to feel up one woman when you’re with another.”
“It’s late in the night.” Brandi reached for a pretzel. “The drunker these rednecks get, the more hands they’re going to grow.”
“We should have gone to Vegas.” Amanda wrapped her arm around Brandi’s shoulders to tug her closer.
“Not you too,” Lacy said. “I just managed to talk Macie off that ledge. Besides, you were both cool with this plan.” Amanda, Macie’s best friend all through school, and Brandi were currently saving up for their wedding. It was one of the reasons why they’d all elected to stay local for the bachelorette party rather than travel to Sin City.
Of course, the main reason was the restaurant. They would have had to close the place down this weekend if they had all ventured out of town, and that was something they only did on Thanksgiving and Christmas. They’d managed to get tonight off because Uncle TJ, along with Lacy’s aunts and her mom, had volunteered to man the place during the dinner shift so they could go out.
Money was tight for all of them, so they had decided to stick with the tried-and-true bachelorette party, venturing to the only local nightclub in town, Cruisers. Given its close proximity to the highway, there was always a chance of meeting someone new, but tonight’s crowd was nothing more than the usual faces.
Brandi pointed toward the front door. “That was before the guys decided to crash the party.”
Lacy glanced up then scowled as her cousin Tyson and her big brother, Evan, made their way toward the table. As her Uncle TJ liked to joke, a person couldn’t shake a stick in Maris without hitting a Sparks. That was certainly a true statement. Sometimes Lacy enjoyed having such a large, close-knit family. Sometimes she felt like the only privacy she ever got was in the bathroom.
Then she realized Evan and Tyson weren’t alone. Jeannette’s boyfriends, Luc and Diego, as well as Evan’s best friend, Logan, were there as well.
“Couldn’t fit the groom in the car?” Gia asked sarcastically.
Sydney’s soon-to-be husband, Chas, appeared to be the only fella who hadn’t decided to crash the party.
Tyson looked unapologetic as he sat down next to Gia. He raised his hand to call the waitress over and asked for a round of beers as the other guys claimed the rest of the empty seats. Luc and Diego instantly flanked Jeannette, and she was clearly delighted to see them as they each took a turn kissing her.
“You gals have been here for three hours. We decided you were probably hitting the breakin
g point.” Tyson looked around the bar as he spoke, no doubt doing a cousin head count.
“And what breaking point is that?” Gia asked.
“Either too drunk to make smart decisions or not drunk enough to deal with all the wasted cowboys. Figured it was time for reinforcements either way,” Evan explained.
“It’s a bachelorette party, Evan,” Lacy said, all too familiar with her big brother’s tendency to take overprotectiveness to new extremes. “You can’t just barge in here like this. You’re lucky Macie hasn’t seen you yet. She’ll flip out.”
Lacy made sure to maintain eye contact with her brother as he studied her face, letting him see how much his presence annoyed her. Unfortunately, her anger was lost on him. The cop in him was trying to visually assess how much she’d had to drink. She was the first to look away in disgust. “You’re pissing me off.”
However, he wasn’t. Not really. Lacy loved her brother more than words could say and in truth, she was sort of glad he was here. Not because she liked him hovering—that really did drive her up the wall—but because where there was Evan, there was Logan.
Lacy was delighted to see him out tonight. Since his breakup with Jane nearly a year earlier, he’d maintained the “stay-at-home” lifestyle he’d picked up with his ex, refusing to jump back into the dating scene.
Instead, he spent most of his time working. He owned his own furniture business and was a genius when it came to crafting beautiful things from wood or refurbishing precious antiques. He sold both in his store on Main Street, just two blocks away from the restaurant.
Glancing around the bar at the other men, Lacy realized that Logan would always be the yardstick by which she measured every man. So far, no one had ever come close to her ideal.