Off Limits (Sparks in Texas Book 4) (5 page)

“I just got out of a relationship where I
basically had to shut away a big part of who I was. I spent years
denying my needs in the name of love. When Jane left, I swore I
wouldn’t do that again. Wouldn’t pretend to be anything other than
the man I am.”

“I’m not asking you to change. I would never
do that. I’m not even asking for a relationship, Logan. Just a
hookup.”

Her words were a lie. He knew her well enough
to understand that. But Lacy knew him, too, which was why she knew
exactly what to say right now to diffuse the situation. She thought
that by convincing him the stakes were low, he’d give in.

Logan forced himself to look at Lacy and he
recognized something that he should have seen right from the start.
Something that had been there for years.

Lacy loved him. She had always loved him.

And he’d ignored it. First because she’d been
too young and because she’d been Evan’s sister, and then because
he’d been in love with Jane. Seeing it now only drove home exactly
how high the stakes were.

That realization gave him the strength to say
the hardest words he’d ever uttered. “It’s not going to happen,
Lacy. Ever.”

Her eyes narrowed with anger and frustration.
“Because of that stupid promise?”

He shook his head. He owed her the truth.
Total honesty. Even if it did shock her.

His sex drive was too strong for her. And
right now, it was on system overload. He’d spent the last few years
of his life playing Missionary Man and feeling like an ogre for
wanting more. He couldn’t go back to that. Not even for Lacy. He’d
explode.

“No. Because I’m not going to lay you down on
my bed and make love to you like I’m Prince fucking Charming. If I
took you to my bed, I’d fuck you hard, Lacy. Tie you down. Clamp
your nipples. Gag you. Spank your ass with my hand, my belt. Take
your mouth, your pussy, your ass. I’d make demands I would expect
you to obey and if you didn’t, I’d punish you. I couldn’t just love
you, Lacy. I’d claim you. Body and soul. That’s what I would want
from you.”

Her mouth gaped, but no sound emerged.

“I need to leave, Lacy. Now.”

“But—”

“Have you ever been tied up?”

She shook her head.

“Fucked in the ass?” His question was
deliberately crude. He needed to make her see reason.

Again, she shook her head. “But I—”

“You need to get out of this truck while you
still can. While I can still let you.”

“Logan—”

“Now!” he shouted.

Lacy jerked at the anger in his voice, then
slowly slid across the seat and reached for the door handle. Her
chest rose and fell rapidly, no doubt with fear.

Maybe now she’d give up on this schoolgirl
crush and turn her attention toward a nice man who could give her
everything she needed, who would put her on a pedestal and treat
her the way she deserved.

He couldn’t be that man. He had tried for
Jane and it had nearly killed him.

She slammed the truck door behind her. Logan
started the engine, ignoring the way his hands trembled. He waited
until she’d entered her building and then he pulled away from the
curb.

In the past, it hadn’t been difficult to say
goodbye to her, to watch Lacy walk away. Now, it took every ounce
of strength he had not to follow her inside.

* * *

Nine years earlier…

“Y’all played really good tonight,” Lacy
said, leaning against Logan’s truck.

Logan lifted an amp and placed it in the
truck bed. “Thanks. What are you doing out here?”

“Waiting for my cousin, Paige. She’s my ride.
She’s inside flirting with some guy. Thought I’d give her space to
work.”

Logan laughed. “That’s real nice of you.”

“Was sweet of y’all to play a song for my
birthday.” Lacy hadn’t been able to take her eyes off him all
night. She loved watching him knock out a deep beat on the
bass.

“Not every day our girl turns eighteen.”

She sighed. The older Logan got, the more he
treated her like a kid sister. It was starting to get annoying.
“So, I was thinking maybe you could give me my other present.”

Logan’s forehead crinkled. “I’m sorry, Lace,
but I didn’t buy you anything.”

She grinned and stepped closer. “No, nothing
like that. You said you’d kiss me when I turned eighteen.”

His confusion grew. “I did? When?”

“That day on my back porch when I was crying
because Missy had kissed Bucky.”

The light went on. “That’s not exactly what I
said.”

“You said you’d kiss me on my eighteenth
birthday if nobody else had. Well, I’m here to tell you I’ve been
kissed by a bunch of nobodies.”

“Forget it. That’s not what I meant and you
know it.”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t want to forget
it. You promised.”

“Be reasonable, Lacy.”

“It’s my birthday. Please?”

Logan glanced around the dark parking lot.
The community dance had wound down. Most people had gone home, and
now there were only a few folks left inside, cleaning up the
mess.

“Fine.” He leaned forward and placed a quick
buss to her forehead. “There. Happy birthday.”

She lifted one shoulder in a dismissive
shrug, not bothering to hide her disappointment. “Whatever, Logan.
I was hoping to finally get a kiss from someone who knew what he
was doing, but obviously, you’re as clueless as every other guy
I’ve ever kissed.”

He moved toward her, caging her against his
truck as his hands rested on the roof of the Chevy. “You think
taunting me will get you your kiss, little girl?”

She hadn’t really expected it to work until
he moved. Now, she wasn’t so sure. “Yeah. I do.”

“Your brother is going to kick my ass for
this.”

“I won’t tell,” she whispered a mere second
before his lips touched hers.

Lacy didn’t possess blinders when it came to
Logan. She had watched him far too closely her entire life. She’d
seen him kiss other girls, seen the way he cupped their faces,
pulled them close and took control. Hell, she’d seen him do a lot
more than kiss them, though she certainly wasn’t going to tell him
about that.

He didn’t do any of that with her. The kiss
was sweet, gentle, and excruciatingly boring. His tongue touched
hers only once, a brief stroke, and then he pushed away.

Then he practically dared her to complain
with serious eyes that said she wouldn’t get anything else from him
tonight. Her heart refused to add the word “ever” to that
thought.

Logan didn’t think she was ready for him. But
one day, he would change his mind about that. She’d make sure he
did.

“You look like shit, man.”

Logan glanced up from the paperwork on his
desk to find Evan leaning against the doorjamb in his police
uniform. He’d been sitting in his office for the past three hours
and he’d managed to accomplish nothing.

Instead, he replayed the scene with Lacy from
Saturday night over and over, torn between whether he should kick
his own ass for kissing her or for driving away without fucking
her. Now it was Friday and he was no closer to putting her out of
his mind than he had been when he’d climbed into bed that night.
He’d been sporting an almost constant erection; his dick pissed at
him for denying it the treat of sliding into Lacy’s hot, tight—

He shoved the fantasy away as Evan
frowned.

He should not be thinking about fucking Lacy
while her brother was there. Shit, he shouldn’t be thinking of
fucking her, period.

“I didn’t think you were all that torn up
over Jane leaving.”

Mercifully, his friend had misinterpreted his
expression. God help him if Evan ever found out what he was really
thinking about.

“You should have taken my advice,” Evan
continued. “Found yourself a pretty girl and gotten laid
Saturday.”

“I’m not ready.”

“Jesus, man. It’s been a year.” Evan leaned
forward. “You know there’s a woman out there for you, right? One
who is better suited to you than Jane was. She fucked you up, man.
Made you think things that aren’t true. There’s nothing wrong with
liking your sex rough. Even Annie and I have been known to do some
kinky role playing.” Evan wiggled the handcuffs that were hanging
from his belt. “These aren’t just for bad guys.”

Logan shrugged. “Spare me the details about
your unnaturally happy marriage. You found a good one. And yeah, I
know that old adage there’s someone for everyone, so I don’t need
the clichés. I’m not pining over Jane. I’m simply being a realist.
The chances of me finding that woman in Maris is…”

Logan’s words drifted away as he struggled to
finish a sentence that no longer felt true. So much of his thoughts
this week had been consumed by the idea that Lacy actually might be
exactly what he was looking for. He shut the idea down when he
recalled the look in her eyes as she’d climbed out of his
truck.

“You’ll find her,” Evan reassured him. “But
hiding in your office isn’t going to help. You haven’t met me for
lunch or happy hour once this week.”

He hadn’t met Evan because both of those
weekly events took place at Sparks Barbeque. Logan wasn’t ready to
see Lacy yet. And he was sure as shit she didn’t want to see
him.

“I’m not hiding. I’m just…busy. I’ve got a
lot of work piling up. I guess the stress is getting to me.”

Evan accepted the excuse easily. “Busy is a
good problem to have. Means money. You’ll come through. You always
do.”

“Yeah. Thanks. Hey, did you need something in
particular or did you just stop by to nag me?”

He expected Evan to laugh. Instead, the man
stepped into the office and plopped down in the chair opposite his,
the desk between them. “Actually, I’m on patrol. Thought I’d take a
second to stop in and thank you for taking Lacy home the other
night.”

Logan swallowed heavily, forcing a casual
tone to his voice. “No problem.”

“Did she seem okay to you after the
party?”

Logan wasn’t sure how to respond. Did Evan
know something? Lacy sure as hell wouldn’t have talked to her
brother about what had happened. Had one of her neighbors seen
them?

“Yeah. Why?”

Evan shrugged. “She’s been really quiet since
then. I thought maybe she was getting sick, but it’s going on too
long. She’s got dark circles under her eyes and Macie said she’s
been snapping at them at work. You know as well as I do Mary
Sunshine is never in a bad mood, so I’m worried. Wondered if she
said something to you, if something happened at the bar that pissed
her off or if someone bothered her.”

Logan shook his head. “She didn’t say
anything. I’m not sure what could have happened,” he lied. He knew
what was ailing Lacy. It was the same thing that was making him
irritable as fuck.

“Yeah, okay. I might talk to Tyson, see if he
can talk her into going in for a checkup. Maybe she does just have
a touch of something.”

There wasn’t a damn thing Dr. Sparks could do
for her, but Logan nodded as if it was a solid suggestion. He’d
avoided the restaurant since Saturday because he suspected he was
the last person Lacy wanted to see. As such, he’d holed up here,
moving between his apartment upstairs, down to work, and then back
again. Unfortunately, he was starting to run low on food. He would
have to venture beyond the front door eventually.

Evan’s walkie-talkie crackled. “Guess I
better get back out on the road. Call me this weekend if you want
to meet up for a couple of beers.”

“Will do.” Logan rose as Evan left, debating
what to do now. He hated knowing exactly how much he’d upset Lacy,
but he was at a loss over how to help her. The best thing he could
do for her was to keep his distance.

His phone beeped and he glanced at the screen
to find a text from Lacy.

Coming by in a few. Bringing lunch.

He considered texting back and telling her to
stay away. However, as always, his gut overrode his brain when it
came to Lacy.

He simply tapped in two letters.

OK

His cock thickened at the thought of her
arrival, so he forced himself away from the desk. Time to hit the
workshop and start working on a new piece. Hopefully he’d manage to
lose himself in the project enough to ward off this fucking
erection. His brain needed all the blood it could get if she was
coming by to talk.

Work was always a good distraction for
him.

Logan closed his eyes and sighed. Work hadn’t
distracted him once since Saturday night.

He closed his eyes and recalled his first
kiss with Lacy. She’d been eighteen, beautiful, vivacious and just
discovering her sexuality. She’d dared him to kiss her and he’d
been just weak enough to give in. Somehow, he’d managed to keep the
kiss fairly platonic and push her away that night, but it had been
a damn close call.

Great. Now, he wasn’t just obsessing over
Saturday night, he was recalling things he’d managed—just barely—to
forget.

He was fucked.

Lacy stood outside Grady’s Furniture with her
bag of takeout and tried to calm down. She’d spent the entire week
in a state of constant horniness.

After Logan kicked her out of his truck, she
had spent two days in a fury. He’d pushed every hot button in her
body, told her in no uncertain terms all the ways he wanted
her—ways she wanted to be taken—and then gone into that
frustrating, protecting-you-for-your-own-good mode that drove her
insane.

He had pissed her off enough that she’d
actually decided she was finished with him. She wasn’t going to
keep begging the dumbass to acknowledge that she was fucking
perfect for him. If he couldn’t figure it out on his own, then
screw him.

The anger waned around Monday afternoon, at
which point, her hormones kicked back in. She was lightheaded and
dizzy from the never-ending, pussy-pulsing arousal she felt every
time she thought about Logan’s assertion that he would claim
her.