Playing with Temptation (12 page)

“Also fondly known as tits and ass,” Logan said, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

She grinned at him, because it was well known that the owners, Ted and Adam, had used the initials of their names as a double entendre and to deliberately compete with that
other
restaurant chain that featured skimpily clad waitresses. “I take it you’ve been there?”

“Maybe a time or two,” he admitted and gave a boyish shrug. “For the beer and wings, of course.”

“Yeah, sure.” She rolled her eyes. A guy like Logan would undoubtedly enjoy the
visual
aspects of T & A’s and the tight, clingy uniforms the girls wore. “I have to admit that the skimpy shorts and super snug, low-cut tank tops were great for getting nice, big tips.”

He smirked. “For me, tipping was all about personality and service.”

She pointed her fork at him and called him out on his fib. “You are so full of shit.”

“Okay, maybe a little.” Done with his entire breakfast—where did he put everything in that lean, tight stomach of his?—he pushed his empty plate aside. “If you were my waitress and you bent over in that scanty uniform, I probably would have emptied my entire wallet out on the table.”

His gaze, now hot and hungry—and not for food—dropped leisurely to the scoop neckline of her red lace top that showed a discreet amount of cleavage, since she didn’t like wearing anything too revealing at the shop. The top wasn’t overtly sexy, but she quickly realized her mistake in selecting this particular garment with the stretch knit fabric when she felt her breasts respond to his heated stare.

“Eyes up
here
, mister,” she instructed humorously while trying not to squirm in her seat as her lower body tingled, too.

Oh-so-slowly, he lifted his gaze back to hers. “Your nipples are hard,” he pointed out shamelessly, making her face flush at his brazen comment. “But I digress. I still want to know about the necessity that led to you opening Sugar and Spice.”

She hadn’t realized how far she’d veered off from the question he’d originally asked, and just how much she’d revealed about herself in the process. He’d been so easy to talk to, and genuinely interested in knowing about her past, that it was like talking to someone she’d known a long time and trusted.

Trust wasn’t something she gave easily, especially to a man, yet she’d given it to Logan as if he was a close confidant and someone she
could
trust.

Not wanting to ponder that realization too deeply, she sat back in the booth and instead rerouted her thoughts to what he wanted to know. “Like I said, the tips at T & A’s were decent, but I was just making ends meet, so when one of the waitresses I worked with asked me if I wanted to make some good extra money on the side doing in-home Passion Parties for women, I decided to give it a shot.”

One of Logan’s dark brows lifted with male interest. “What’s a Passion Party?”

“It’s basically an in-home, private presentation of sex toys and products for women, but in a fun, party-type atmosphere where girlfriends can let loose, have drinks, play a few sexy games, and check out the merchandise without having to walk into an adult toy store,” she said and grinned. “And let me tell you, after they’ve had a few cocktails and the toys and products are being passed around, it would get wild and crazy, and these women wanted to buy one of everything.”

He chuckled. “Sounds like my kind of party.”

“Actually, I did some parties for men, usually around Valentine’s Day, so they could buy stuff for their wives or girlfriends for gifts. And good Lord, I could easily make a couple of grand in commission in one night because these guys wanted their partners to have great sex and multiple orgasms with them. I was making so much money that I was able to quit working at the restaurant, and after a few years of working at this full-time and saving everything I could, I decided to open Sugar and Spice—the store
and
website.”

He looked very impressed. “So, you found your niche.”

She nodded. “I did.”

Before he could reply, June came by their table. “Can I get either of you anything else? More coffee?” she asked, lifting the fresh pot she held in her hand.

“No, thank you,” Raina said, placing a hand on her full stomach.

Logan shook his head. “I think we’re good, June. Just the check.”

“Got it right here.” She pulled a slip of paper from her apron pocket and set it on the table. When Raina automatically reached for the bill, the older woman quickly snatched it away and pushed it toward Logan. “You’re stepping up your game, remember?” she said pointedly to him.

“Yes, ma’am,” he drawled politely, the corner of his mouth twitching with laughter. “Though I’d
planned
to pay for breakfast,” he said in his own defense.

“Good, because that’s what you do when you take a nice girl out on a date,” June said, then winked at Raina, and Logan didn’t argue that they weren’t linked
romantically
. “He might be a bit rough around the edges, but if the sweet, caring way he treats his sister and cute little niece is any indication, he does have some redeeming qualities you don’t want to overlook.”

Raina tried very hard not to laugh at just how serious June was about them as a couple. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good. I hope to see you again.” June picked up their empty plates and headed back toward the kitchen area of the restaurant.

Logan glanced across the table at her. “Ready to go?”

“Umm, no. Not yet.” She quickly checked the time on her phone. They had about fifteen minutes before they had to leave, and she decided since she’d pretty much just given him her life story, and way more than she’d ever intended at that, it was his turn to share. That and she truly wanted to know more about Logan Cruz and the man he’d become.

“I want to know what
your
motivating factor was for joining the military,” she said, remembering Dean’s comment about him being a former Marine. “Following in family tradition?”

“No.” He tipped his head to the side, his expression wry. “Definitely out of necessity.”

“Sounds like a familiar theme between the two of us,” she teased lightly. “What was the necessity?” she asked, repeating the same question he’d posed to her.

Logan hesitated for a moment, thinking about his response and modifying before he replied. “I needed a steady income to help support my sister, and joining the military ensured that, considering there weren’t many high-paying jobs in the small town where we lived in Iowa.”

“What about your parents?” she asked, her gaze filled with a sweet and kind interest.

“They died when I was eight and my sister, Emily, was six,” he said, still feeling a pang of sorrow in the vicinity of his chest when he really thought about his parents’ death. “Their car was hit by a semitruck on the highway late one night when they were coming home from a dinner date, and it killed both of them instantly.”

She sucked in a horrified breath. “Logan…I’m so sorry.”

“It was definitely a tough time,” he said, unwilling to lie or be macho about such a painful loss. “Both my mother and father were only children, so the only living relative who could take us in was my grandma Betsy, who raised us on her own until she passed away. I was twenty at the time, and my sister had just turned eighteen, and I was making a little over minimum wage working at an auto shop in town. Even at full-time, I barely made enough to support myself, let alone my sister, too. It just made sense to me to join the military and send home my salary to make sure she had everything she needed, and for me to be able to save for the future, too.”

That was the short, succinct version, and he’d deliberately left out a whole lot of details that didn’t seem necessary to the conversation. Like the fact that he’d been engaged at the time to a very
sweet
girl—his high school sweetheart—and had been adamant about not marrying her until he knew he could give them a financially secure life.

Joining the Marines had been twofold—in helping to provide for his sister and to give Logan the opportunity to save up enough money to make sure that he and Charlotte wouldn’t have to scrimp and save and go into debt up to their eyeballs in order to be able to buy a house and start a family. His plan had been smart, strategic, and logical…but he’d
never
expected to have his fiancée and best friend betray him just a few months after he’d been shipped off to Afghanistan.

The incident had changed his whole mindset about love. He’d been angry and bitter, and while he’d eventually buried the pain, he knew it had affected his relationships with women going forward, and especially the ability to trust them enough to allow his emotions to get involved, which hadn’t happened since Charlotte. His membership at The Players Club assured that he could keep things light and fun and uncomplicated, so long as he was the one in control and the woman he was with knew exactly what to, and what not to, expect from him. He was all for hot sex and mutual pleasure, but that had been the extent of his involvement with the opposite sex for the past six years.

“How long were you in the military?” Raina asked, bringing his mind back to the present.

“I spent six years in the military and served four tours of duty during that time, including three of them in Afghanistan.” For him, once he’d discovered Charlotte’s deceit, there had been nothing left to leave the military for—no fiancée, no future with a wife and family, and it had been much easier to just remain in the service for those six years and keep building up his savings.

“You grew up in Iowa,” she mused out loud. “So what made you move out to San Diego once you were out of the Marines?”

“My sister, Emily. She met a guy while I was in the military and ended up marrying him. His name is Pete and he’s one of those IT geeks,” he joked, though he was truly impressed by his brother-in-law’s intelligence. “Supersmart and a wiz at software design and applications, and he was offered a high-level position at a company here in San Diego with a six-figure salary. They moved and loved it here, and since we have no family left in Iowa, it was an easy decision for me to follow them and settle down here, too. Besides, who in their right mind is going to turn down gorgeous beaches, warm weather, and winters without snow?”

“Not me,” she said with a laugh. “That’s exactly why I moved here, too.”

Raina glanced at her phone, and a startled look transformed her features. “Damn, those fifteen minutes went by way too fast. Now we definitely need to get going so I’m not late opening the store.”

“Let’s go then.” He tossed a generous tip onto the table and paid for the bill at the register, then walked with Raina out to his black Chevy Camaro.

His hand automatically went to the small of her back, the tips of his fingers touching her lightly yet in a way that was familiar. When he’d decided to take Raina to breakfast, it had been a deliberate attempt to get to know her better, but he never would have anticipated all the things she’d shared with him about her past. Deeply intimate things that showed her in a whole different light and made him like her even more for being such a fighter and a survivor.

She was fierce and strong and independent, yet it was the glimpses of vulnerability he’d seen when she’d talked about the situation with her mother and father and how she’d been banished from her own home that cracked open a piece of his own heart and made him want to be the kind of man who’d take care of her the way she deserved and never hurt her.

Yeah, that was a huge revelation for him, but he had to admit that the possessive, protective streak wending its way through him had nothing to do with the unknown force stalking her and everything to do with the urge to make her completely and utterly his. The impulse was insane, but there was nothing he could do to change the way he felt.

And quite honestly, he wasn’t sure he wanted to, either.

A
s soon as
Logan pulled out of the parking lot of the restaurant, his cell phone rang. Raina watched as he checked the caller ID before slipping on his Bluetooth earpiece, then answered the phone.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he said in greeting.

The affectionate endearment, along with the warm tone of his voice, startled Raina.

“I know it’s been a while since I’ve seen you,” he went on, a smile on his lips as he drove toward her store—one hand on the wheel and the other on the gearshift. “I’ve been busy with work.”

The realization that he was talking to a woman, and so sweetly, too, made her chest tighten in a way she didn’t care for at all. She’d never thought about him having another woman in his life that he was intimate with, even if she was a “friends with benefits” perk. Despite having sex at the club and Logan seducing her on her dining table last night, it wasn’t like the two of them were exclusive—for all she knew, he could be a player who juggled a few females at a time depending on who and what he was in the mood for. But damn if the slow burn in her belly didn’t feel a whole lot like
jealousy
, and she was so
not
the jealous type.