Pursuit (8 page)

Logan spread his legs out, lifted his hands behind his head and laced his fingers together as Lauren laughed into the phone.
"No, that's true. I don't know the first thing about basketball. Now football . . . I'm your girl." She paused. "Yes, sir. You, too. I'll see you in a few days. Goodnight."

Logan sat back against the couch cushions, his temples throbbing, and watched as Lauren walked toward him with a beer in one hand and a Diet Coke in the other. He leaned in and took the bottle, as she sat down in the chair that was at a ninety-degree angle to the couch.

****

Lauren couldn
't read the hooded expression in Logan's eyes, but it made a quivery feeling run down her spine. "I'm sorry I'm not ready yet." She indicated the shorts and t-shirt she was wearing.

He seemed to ignore that statement.
"So, you're going out of town?" he asked in a voice that sounded casual . . . too casual.

"
Yeah," she said as she sipped her drink.

"
Where?"

"
Los Angeles."

"
When?"

Lauren took another drink while she digested his terse, one-syllable questions.
"Friday."

"
You're leaving for a business trip on Friday? When will you be back?"

"
Sunday night, late."

"
What's up with the weekend travel?"

She licked her lips and maintained a casual tone.
"A couple of things. One . . . we got some good airline rates and two, the clients we're working with requested tickets to this particular Lakers game."

"
So, why you?"

"
Why not me?" She took a sip and raised her eyebrows at him with a challenging smirk. "You don't think a girl can handle it?"

He twisted his head from side to side as if relieving tension.
"That's not what I meant at all."

She shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, I don't know what to tell you," she replied neutrally. "I fly to different regions of the country fairly often. My job title is discretionary, if my bosses want me to wear a different hat, I wear a different hat."

"
I thought you said your job was boring and tedious."

That almost sounded like an accusation to Lauren, as if he
wanted
her job to be boring. "It is boring and tedious. It's boring about seventy-five percent of the time, and for me, traveling is tedious. But a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, you know?"

"
Yeah." He took a drink and set the beer on the coffee table and then leaned back and laced his hands behind his head, the same pose he'd been in earlier.

He didn
't look happy, but there wasn't a damn thing Lauren could do about it. It was a fact. She didn't like to travel, but she did like to eat. Her job paid well and she planned on keeping it. But she tried to steer the conversation away from her and onto him. "Do you travel much?"

"
Not usually," he answered flatly.

"
What, like, a couple of times a year?"

"
About that," he said.

"
Lucky you."

"
So, you don't care for basketball?" he asked, his tone colored in neutral shades.

"
Not really. Football's my game."

"
So why do you have to go?"

"
Ostensibly to make sure John doesn't promise the farm after he's had too many beers. But they like me to interact with the clients, as well."

"
The clients being men?" He asked in an almost bored tone, a tone that Lauren didn't believe for a second.

"
This trip will be comprised of men, but they aren't always." She spoke the truth, and why not? There wasn't anything she could do about it.

Lauren felt the impact of her answer hit Logan as his nostrils flared and a subtle tension corded the muscles in his neck. As she assimilated the hostility that he tried unsuccessfully to hide, her nerves shifted restlessly. Thank God she was only messing around with this guy, and didn
't see him as a husband prospect. She didn't see him as a husband prospect, right? That would be
insane
. Heidi was absolutely right, a guy like this was only meant to be enjoyed, and Lauren had absolutely no intention of trying to tame him. She doubted she'd have any success even toning him down.

He was just so freakin
'
male.

As she sat in silence, trying damn hard not to be titillated by his purely male responses,
because that was just wrong,
he stood to his feet in a rush of movement and grabbed her by the hand.

Lauren almost lost her grip on the can she held, and he took it from her and slapped it to the coffee table next to his beer. With one hand wrapped around her wrist, he leaned down to take her mouth, but Lauren reared back from him, caught off-guard by his sudden move and her inappropriate sexual response to it.

He stopped the forward motion of his head and his eyes caught and held hers. He bared his teeth and Lauren sucked in a breath. There was a warning in his eyes, and Lauren had the unmistakable feeling this was about to be an exercise in dominance.

His, over her
.

A shivery feeling hit the pit of her stomach and moisture bloomed between her legs, much against her will.

He lifted the hand he had wrapped around her wrist until it was mid-air and he took one step forward, propelling her backward, while his eyes, raging with an inner fire, held hers imprisoned. His expression was stamped with authority, and although Lauren's nerves were jolted, she couldn't deny that his aggressive force was intoxicating.

Dangerously so;
she could barely breathe
.

"
Did you just turn down my kiss?" His question was a challenge, and Lauren struggled to understand his exact purpose. He was lethally intimidating, standing over her with his height and strength, and yet, no part of her was afraid that she couldn't control the outcome of this encounter.

She just needed to decide how she wanted this to play out, and she needed to decide quickly or there wouldn
't be a decision to make.

With her mind in a whirlwind of indecision, she shook her head infinitesimally. At her action, he took another two steps and pushed her against the wall. His stance was dominant, one sinewy thigh wedged between her legs as he stared down at her.
"Lift your mouth to mine," he ordered.

Lauren inhaled raggedly and lifted her chin only a fraction of an inch.

His hand tightened around her wrist and he growled low in his throat,
"Lauren."

Lauren felt the exquisite pleasure of her name rasped in his fevered voice and knew her acquiescence was imminent. She couldn
't even fight it anymore. She lifted her face and waited.

At her act of submission, she felt his tension come down a notch.
"Don't push me like that again."

"
I didn't push you," she denied. "You took me by surprise, that's all."

With one hand still controlling her, he wrapped his other arm around her middle and lifted her until she felt his hard arousal pushing into her stomach, threatening her sanity. His gaze was pointed as he held her eyes captured with his and he hissed out in an accusing voice,
"You've been taking me by surprise since the moment I met you."

His mouth came down over hers and with a force that took her by storm, he thrust his tongue into her mouth and began kissing her as if he
'd never let her go. The thought both terrified and elated her, and as she hung in his arms as he ravished her mouth, it flashed across her brain that she'd never again be exactly the same person she'd been before she met him. And that was the part that terrified her, because she didn't want to go back to that time, she didn't want to think about being without him.

As he kissed her, he kept her off-balance, his touch changing between punishing and adoration and then back again just as swiftly.

She turned her head to catch her breath, and he quickly began stripping her, and within seconds, he was holding her against the wall, naked and aching for him.

"
Tell me you want my kiss."

The demand stunned Lauren, and helpless, she gave him what he wanted, both because it was the truth and because she felt how badly he needed to hear her say it.
"I want your kiss."

His sinewy muscles tightened against her.
"Logan. Say my name."

"
Logan," she repeated. Her heart turned over at the look reflected from his eyes. "I want your kiss, Logan."

He leaned down and kissed her again, his tongue going deep and stroking her, mimicking the sex act before ruthlessly pulling away and making another demand.
"Don't flinch from me again, you understand me?"

Lauren shivered in his hold and as he let go of her only long enough to adjust his pants and slide on protection, he said in a softer tone,
"Lauren?"

"
You took me by surprise," she repeated softly.

"
I'd never hurt you." He lifted her up and Lauren felt the head of his arousal at her opening. "My God,
you have to know I'd never hurt you."
He pushed in an inch and then stopped, his face etched in lines of tension. "You drive me insane. You're driving me insane, woman." With that, he pushed all the way in with one strong stroke and Lauren moaned as pleasure, hot and sweet, slid down her spine and wrapped around her entire body.

****

Logan impaled her completely, and felt her tight, silky femininity enclose him. He stilled inside of her, finally feeling halfway human now that he was inside of her once again. He closed his eyes and let her softness ease the beast inside of him that was trying to break free.

He
'd felt damn fine when he'd knocked on her door tonight, but that had been shot to hell as soon as he'd heard her damn phone conversation.

And there wasn
't a fucking thing he could do about it.

It had only been two weeks since he
'd seen her for the first time. Two weeks.
She wasn't his
. He didn't own her or her time. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't impose his will over her. He had to fucking remember that.

If he tried, she
'd kick him out of her life faster than he could say,
'tag, you're mine.'

Oh, but he planned on it. Yeah, he planned on saying it before too much longer. He
'd try to wait as long as he could, so she wouldn't figure out how insane he was about her.

Jesus Christ
, he
was
insane.

He
'd never felt like this before, ever.

What the fuck was she doing to him?

Maybe he needed to stay away from her. Maybe her trip out of town would be a good thing. She was getting too deep into his system and he needed some time to think about all this shit.

But he
'd think about it later.

For now, all he could think about was her wet, tight pussy clenched around his cock. Oh yeah, he
'd think about all that other shit later.

Right now, he was in fucking heaven. He had her exactly where he wanted her; her inner muscles were clenched around him and all he wanted to do was fuck her and fuck her good. He began to move.

****

Logan began pumping into her and the pleasure was so intense that Lauren had no control when the back of her head fell against the wall.

He adjusted their position. He let go of her hand and lifted her higher, wrapping his arms around her thighs and holding her open to him. When he sank in again, Lauren knew she'd never felt anything like it before. She had nothing even remotely close to compare it to. He was big, and he was macho, and he knew
exactly
what he was doing. He controlled her like a marionette on a string and she just went along with the flow.

He pushed in and out and Lauren lifted her head for his lips.

He accommodated her immediately. His tongue sank in and with a rhythm that held her in its grip, he slid in and out of her mouth as he slid in and out of her body.

Within moments, Lauren couldn
't control it anymore and knew she was coming. Starbursts began exploding in her head, and when he pushed in one last time, and hissed out his pleasure from the back of his throat, Lauren exploded into spasms of ecstasy.

****

On Thursday night, the night before she had to go out of town, Lauren sat beside Logan in a booth at the same Mexican restaurant they'd eaten at on their second date.

He held his hand on her thigh but there was no question that he was on a short fuse. And there was no doubt in her mind as to why. Lauren had no clue what to do about it or if she should even care. She had enough to worry about just dealing with her job. There was a glass ceiling she was always pushing against, men hit on her so much of the time that it sometimes bordered on sexual harassment, and she was putting in way more hours than she cared to think about.