Temptation in Texas: A Christmas Special (4 page)

Well, he’d figured that one out quickly. She nodded
her head, wincing a little.

He took a single step forward and even though she’d
just had an amazing orgasm only minutes before, she felt a wave of
heat land between the juncture of her thighs. Sex with Logan was
always hot, but sex with a pissed-off Logan?
Off the freaking
charts, hot
. It would be different if she was actually afraid
of him . . . but she wasn’t. She’d learned long ago that when he
was pissed-off, he could bitch and yell like a pro, but he
never
hurt her.
Ever.

The worst that ever happened was that he’d strip her
naked and sink inside . . . maybe grasp her too tightly while he
was doing it, sometimes so forceful he’d bring her
almost
to
the edge of pain. She admitted in the beginning of their
relationship, she’d been more than a bit apprehensive about his
temper. But now?
Just the opposite.
She got butterflies just
thinking about it.

And now, she stayed on the bed, waiting for the
explosion that was about to happen.

“What were you thinking?” He took another step and
then stopped in his tracks, running his hand down his face in a
move that screamed frustration.
“Fuck me
. I think I’m
getting it, babe, and it’s even worse that what I already know
about, isn’t it? You’re too goddamn careful with our money to get
just one estimate, right?”

Feeling as if being careful with their money was a
huge sin, she nodded her head again.

“And since I’ve been out of town . . . that guy was
probably the last one, is that what you’re saying?”

She wasn’t actually saying anything. He was figuring
it out without much input from her at all. But at his question, she
nodded her head once again.

His mouth clamped into a rigid line as he sucked in
oxygen through his clenched teeth. “How many?”

She tried to moderate her breathing as liquid heat
pooled between her thighs.
This was it;
he was about to
lose it.
“Three,” she whispered, her heart hammering in her
ears.

The explosion was instantaneous. “
Three?
You’ve had three fucking men in this house? You trusted three
different men to waltz inside, give you a fucking estimate and then
just turn around and leave? Did you even once stop to question what
could have happened? All it takes is one fucking lunatic, babe.
One
. You get that? How many fucking times do I have to tell
you that it’s not safe out there?” Without skipping a beat, he took
four steps until he stood at the end of the bed, glowering down at
her. “What’s it gonna take? Am I going to have to take you to work
with me every day to keep you safe? Am I going to have to drag you
out of town with me every time I go? What the fuck was in your
head? Do you know how fast somebody could have raped and murdered
you? Do you? Do you not seriously get that there are bad people out
there? Predators. The world is full of fucking predators. How many
times do I have to tell you that?
Jesus Christ
. . . you see
it on the news. You read about it on the internet—”

Suddenly, his words came to an abrupt halt and his
body froze as if a horrendous thought had just occurred to him. His
torso became a solid wall of steel and his gaze became pointed
chips of ice. “Where, exactly did you find these guys?
And do
not fucking tell me ‘the internet’!”
he shouted.

Lauren attempted to breathe evenly
. Damn it
.
What answer had he left her to give?
Of course
she’d found
them on the internet. Well, two of them, anyway.

At her silence, he began again, a bit more softly,
but no less threateningly, “Lauren—”

“Yes?” she whispered, her eyes staying glued on his
since he was acting like a rabid animal.

He leaned down, his hands landed on the footboard and
clenched so tightly that his knuckles showed white. “Did you find
them on the internet, baby?” he asked in a tone that Lauren knew
was costing him.

She licked her lips. “Julie and Gibson recommended
that guy from today,” she offered, referring to their next-door
neighbors. “They really liked him.”

Her answer didn’t seem to appease him. A long moment
passed as they did nothing but stare at each other. A tic began in
his cheek and when he spoke it was little more than a snarl.
“What about the other two?”

Her heart began pounding so viciously she could
barely breathe
. She couldn’t put it off any longer, and when she
answered, he was going to pounce
. Her stomach flipped with a
strangely provocative shiver of anticipation mixed with agitation,
and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t maintain eye
contact. Glancing down, she saw that her thighs were quivering
under the sheet.

“
Lauren
,
answer me!”
he roared, his
voice reverberating across the room in a cacophonous echo.

She couldn’t retain a reflexive jerk but continued to
look down at her lap. “They had really nice, professional
websites,” she said softly, feeling her insides tremble and her
nipples pebble in advance of full-fledged desire.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds—

She stiffened her shoulders and glanced up; he was
already on the bed. Moving as quickly as a predator scenting fresh
meat, he crawled on top of her on all fours and then straddled her
thighs. With a quick movement, shoving the covers away, he grasped
her by the hips, and that quickly, she found herself flat on her
back underneath him.

Her breathing went haywire; a coil of sexual need
rocketed through her system.

He wasted no time kneeing her legs apart and pushing
between her thighs. He hung over her, a scalding, menacing look
transforming his features while he grabbed her wrists, manacling
them above her head with one strong hand. Grasping her chin, he
lifted it and stared down at her. “Something’s got to be done about
this bullshit,” he hissed with shocking, sinister intent. “You
do not
know how to follow my goddamn instructions, do
you?”

“I try,” she offered weakly between panting breaths,
arousal moistening her thighs.

He shook his head as if he didn’t believe her for a
second. “It’s almost like you set out to see how far you can test
me.”

“No, I don’t.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath but when he
opened them again, the dark brown orbs were no less intense. “Are
you purposely trying to get yourself killed?”

Dear God, he was so damn handsome when he was
pissed
. “No.”

“Well, what the fuck?” He took three deep breaths,
his nostrils flaring, as he seemed to try to get himself under
control. “You knew how this would go down when I eventually found
out. Are you trying to drive me out of my mind? Is that it?”

She shook her head, holding his gaze.

With a movement that sent her senses into a tailspin,
he lowered his torso and pushed the ridge of his cock flush against
her naked opening, pressing down hard, grinding against her as he
rasped, “What the fuck are you trying to do to me?”

Oh, shit. Breathe, Lauren. You have to concentrate
on the damn conversation.
But what was she supposed to say?
She’d already explained about the damn man-cave so she stayed
completely still and waited, desperately trying not to return his
grinding movements with her own.

“You. Have. To. Start. Using. Your. Head,” he
demanded, biting the words out one at a time.

Lauren knew she should stop arguing about this. She
wasn’t going to win and she was dying to get to the good stuff
anyway. But for some reason, she couldn’t keep her mouth closed. “I
wanted you to have the new space. It would have been nice.”

“Not an acceptable reason. You understand me?” His
eyes narrowed and a certain look came over his features that she
didn’t appreciate as he continued, “Let’s go over this again, okay?
What do you do when someone knocks on the door and you don’t
recognize them?”

A spike of anger rose to the fore, clouding her
desire. “Logan . . . you’re slipping into that tone again. I’m not
a child.”

He ignored her as if she hadn’t spoken.
“You don’t
open the goddamn door, that’s what you do,”
he hissed. “And
unless there’s a fucking emergency,
nobody
comes through the
door that you don’t know. You damn sure don’t schedule any bullshit
like you did today, when I’m not home. Understand me?”

She blew out a breath and attempted with everything
she had not to roll her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

His hands tightened as he accused in a snarl, “You
don’t sound sorry.”

“I am,” she said with a tiny touch of sarcasm that
she couldn’t contain.

He recognized it and very obviously didn’t care for
it. His hand moved from her chin up into her hair where he clenched
his fingers around her scalp.
“Bullshit.
You’re not getting
it.”

“I get it,” she answered back, her chin firming.

“I don’t think you do. You want a demonstration? You
want to know how if would feel if you were being sexually
threatened? Show you what it would be like to have no control over
the situation?” His mouth twisted and his hand clenched more
tightly. “Have no goddamn control
at all?”

At his threat, every bit of anger she was feeling was
reduced to ashes as pure, all-consuming sexual arousal rippled
through her midsection and wouldn’t let go. A taboo thrill sent
chills down her spine . . . her shame-filled fantasy come to life.
One she’d never shared with him
. She tried to regulate her
breathing and look contrite all at the same time, so that he
wouldn’t know what she was thinking, but her mind was racing a mile
a minute. She could stop him now if she spoke up. But if she didn’t
stop him and he continued with this, would she panic and want him
to stop? And then the truth hit her. She could
always
stop
him. She always had control of every sexual situation. The only
reason he dominated her in bed
and
out of it was because she
allowed him to do it.

She was still trying to form a neutral response to
his question when the opportunity to answer was taken away from
her. Moving his hands to her hips, he lifted her from the bed,
using a forceful movement to flip her over with one clean action,
so she landed on her stomach. Finding herself face down, a hint of
anxiety radiated through her system as she registered that his
touch held an air of detachment.

But then her brain kicked in.
Logan experiencing
detachment while touching her?
Not freaking possible. Nope, she
wasn’t buying it. The realization saved her from fear. She wasn’t
scared, she was aroused and her excitement had damn sure kicked up
another notch. She tried to rear up and look behind her, but he
pushed her face into the pillows.
“Don’t move a fucking
inch.”

Sensation rippled down her spine as she felt him rear
back from her and strip the clothing from his body, all the while
holding her head pressed against the pillow. He wasn’t holding her
so she couldn’t breathe; there was no question in her mind that he
knew she was capable of maintaining her oxygen intake. She tried
not to smile.
God, she loved this man
.

He came back behind her and roughly shoved her legs
apart. At the same time, he pushed a brawny arm under her stomach
and lifted her onto her knees. Her pulse rate kicking up, her mind
in a whirlwind of glorious sexual anticipation, she felt him come
between her thighs and butt up against her exposed flesh.

His cock was as hard as it always was when he was
ready, and without skipping a beat, he plunged inside her with a
single, forceful stroke, a stroke so hard that it almost made her
think he’d been holding out on her all these years. A powerful,
all-encompassing wave of heat slammed through her as she felt her
body soften and receive him.

He growled menacingly in response, undoubtedly
feeling her slick heat. Pulling out slowly, he slammed back in and
held that position with a force that was making her see stars. He
folded his body down over hers and put his mouth to her ear.
“You’re not supposed to be enjoying this. You’re supposed to be
scared shitless.”

“I’m scared,” she lied through a pant. “I swear to
God, I’m . . . terrified.
Please don’t stop.”
Holding her
breath, she felt his moment of hesitation before he groaned out
loud and took another stroke.

Electricity hit her spine and she pushed back against
him, wanting nothing more than to experience his continued strokes,
the strokes that she’d come to crave like nothing else on
earth.

He moved in and out, and then stopped again when she
was almost to the brink. Grasping a handful of her hair, he lifted
her head off the pillow and growled into her ear, “Do you have a
clue how much I love you? Do you have any fucking idea what it
would do to me if anything happened to you?”

Lauren heard shades of agony in his voice and remorse
hit her instantly. “Babe, I’m so sorry.” She
had
fucked-up.
It was true that she’d been careful and checked out the three
companies before letting them come to the house. She hadn’t taken
any undue risks. But she knew Logan would never see it that way.
She knew in her heart that he’d rather have no Christmas present at
all than to feel the angst she’d put him through. And that hadn’t
been fair to him. She’d always known how Logan operated. If she’d
wanted a different kind of husband, she should have married someone
else.

Just the thought made her queasy.

Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to wrap her
arms around him and stare into his eyes while they made love. She
began wriggling underneath him, attempting to roll over.

Her struggles had an immediate effect. The arm that
he held wrapped around her waist gripped her more tightly, his hips
pushed against her more forcefully. “Don’t even think about getting
away.”