The Real Thing (4 page)

Raine dropped the dishtowel on the counter and went over to where her bag sat on the floor.
Listening to make sure the shower was still running, she quickly undressed and changed into her pajamas. They were little more than a snug little tank top and skimpy pair of shorts, but huddled beneath the blanket, Logan wouldn’t be able to tell what she was wearing.

She just
finished
making up the bed when the shower turn
ed
off
. She quickly jumped under
the
blanket and pulled it up to her chin.
It was silly
to be so modest
,
especially since
she’d been in movies wearing less clothing than she had on now.
But
that was with a camera crew and an actor she knew, not some guy she’d just met.

Logan barely glanced her way when he came out, though. He’d
changed, too,
trading in his
jeans and
button-up shirt
for a pair of dark blue pajama bottoms and
a long-sleeved
T-
shirt.
S
he watched in silence as he stoked the fire,
then made up his own
bed on the floor.
When he was done he turned off the light without so much as a good night.

Raine
rolled onto her side. She
thought she’d be tired enough to fall asleep right away, but the couch wasn’t nearly as
soft
as a bed
,
and no matter which w
ay she laid
,
she couldn’t get comfortable
. She
p
unched her pillow
and turned onto her back again.

Logan swore.
“
Just go to sleep, would you?
”

“I can’t. This couch
is as hard as a rock.
”
She threw back the blanket and
got to
her
feet. “
I
f you’d just taken me into a hotel
like I asked
, we’d both be sleeping right now.
”

She
tried to straighten the blankets, but all she did was make
more of a mess o
ut
of
them.

“You can leav
e any time you want, you know,” Logan said tersely.

Raine
whirled around to face him. He was lying on his back,
his arms behind his
head
.
She
glared
down
at him.
“You
’
ve got to be the
most annoying
man I’ve ever met. First, you almost run me down. And
instead of apologizing,
you
tell me I’m an idiot for standing in the road trying to get your attention. Then y
ou don’t even try to dig
out
my car. Nor do you take me where I want to go
because you don’t want to drive a few hours out of your way, even though I offered to pay you
. I
nstead, you drag me off
to
this
cabin where there’s no heat, b
arely any hot water, and no bed.
I—
”

“
Dammit, t
hat’s it
,
” Logan
growled.

Raine took a nervous step back
as he got to his feet and came toward her
, dark eyes glinting in the firelight.
“What are you
—
?”

The
words turned into a startled gasp as Logan grabbed her arm,
then sat down on the couch
and yanked her
over his knee. For a mom
ent, she was too stunned to do anything but lay there. When she finally pushed herself up, he pushed her back down.

“What
the hell
do you think you’re
—?
”

A
sharp smack
landed
on he
r ass. Oh
.
My. God.
Th
e bastard was actually spanking
her!

She craned her neck to glare at him over her shoulder. “Let me up right now.
”

“
Not until we get something straight.
” Logan
smacked her on the opposite cheek, harder this time.
“
I’ve had it with you and your
I-think-I’m-better-than-everyone-else attitude.
You’ve done nothing but complain since I picked you up,
and I’m sick of it.
”

His hand connected with her butt again, coming down on the tender skin where her shorts had ridden up. She probably would have blushed if she wasn’t busy thinking about how much the spanks stung. Ouch!

“I saved your life. If it weren’t for me, you’d be sitting in that stupid little car of yours freezing to death. You’re nothing but an ungrateful, stuck-up snob.”

“And you’re a rude jackass.” She yelped as he delivered another, even harder
smack
.
“
L
et me
up, damn you.
”

But Logan ignored her
demands and her struggles.
Instead, he tightened his hold around her wai
st and spanked her even harder.
It didn’t help that her skimpy shorts had ridden up
even more so that every smack landed on her
bare
ass cheeks
.
Damn, they
stung!

S
he
reached back with
one hand to
shield her poor derriere
, but he
pinned
her wrist
against
her back
without missing a beat
and kept spanking her.
She squirmed as heat spread over her ass, but it was impossible to escape the spanks. When he finally let her up, she was going to…

Logan jerked her to her feet before she could finish the thought. Instead of slapping his handsome face like she should have, she reached back with both hands and cupped her stinging ass cheeks.

She glared up at him.
“
I can’t believe you spanked me.
”

“And I’ll do it again if you don’t stop acting like a spoiled
brat,” he ground out.
“
I came up here for some peace and quiet, not to babysit some self-centered movie star.
Now, go to bed
and
let me get some
damn
sleep.
”

Raine stood there with her mouth open. Her butt was still stung and she massaged
it
through her shorts
.
She
’d never
been spanked in her life.
Not only had it hurt, but it had been embarrassing as hell. Which was probably why he’
d done it. His way of
taking “the self-centered movie star”
down
a peg or two.

She glowered at his broad back.
She
was leaving
first thing tomorrow whether it was snowing or not. Then she
was going to stop
at the first town she came to
and report Logan McBride
to the cops
for assault. He wouldn’t think
putting her over
his knee had
been
such a
good idea when he was rotting in a jail cell
.

Raine
woke up
the next day to find
Logan gone and the blankets that had made up his bed neatly folded. A
quick look around confirmed
she was alone.
She
flopped back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. What happened last night had to have been a dream. Logan McBride hadn’t done something as Neanderthal as put her over his knee and spanked her.
But as
the
images
came flooding
back, she
knew
it hadn’t been a dream. The son of a bitch
had
spanked her.

She glanced at the bathroom door and saw that it was ajar. Was he
in his studio
?
She
listened
to see if he was moving around in there,
but
didn’t hear anything.
Maybe he was out chopping wood. She hoped
so
.
S
he didn’t want to see him before she left.
And she was leaving, snow or no snow
.

Tossing
aside the blankets, she hurried to the bathroom, grabbing her bag on the way.
She stripped off her shorts and T-shirt, then
pulled on
the
jeans and
sweater she’d worn last night. She wished she had a heavy jacket to wear, but she hadn’t thought to bring one. At least she’d packed
sneakers
. They weren’t as good as snow boots, but they were
better than
sandals.

She opened
the door a crack,
listening
to see if Logan had
come back
, but
she didn’t hear anything
except t
he sound of the fire crackling. Slinging her over her shoulder, she made a beeline for the front door.

It
swung open
just as she got there. Logan looked as stunned to see her as she was to see him. He recovered first
, stepping inside and closing the door behind him.
She
brushed
past him
.

“Where
the hell are you going?”

She swung open the door
, then she turned to look at him.
If it had been a
scene in a
movie, the effect would have been dramatic, but all it did was let in a gust of frigid
cold
air that made her shiver.

“I’m leaving
.
”

He snorted. “I’m not taking you anywhere until
this snow stops.
”

She lifted her chin. “I’ll walk.”

He
looked
at her incredulously. “Are you insane? The nearest town is
sixty
miles away.”

Her hand tightened on the doorknob. “
I don’t care.
I
’d rather walk sixty miles in a
blizzard than stay here with you
five more minutes
.
”

Raine stepped out onto the front porch and slammed the door behind her
.
Almost immediately, she regretted her decision. It was snowing even harder than it had been the night before, and the clothes she had on
didn’t offer any more protection than her silky dress.
She couldn’t go back inside after
such a dramatic exit
, though. Not unless she wanted to put up with Logan’s snide comments.

Knowing she was all kinds of foolish for even thinking about trudging sixty miles in a snowstorm,
Raine hiked her bag up higher on her shoulder and started
walking.

Logan
s
tar
ed
at the door in disbelief. No one in their right mind would go out in a snowstorm like
this
. The little fool was going to freeze to death. But if she
was
stupid enough to try to walk
sixty miles in a blizzard
when there was a perfectly warm cabin right here, she deserved to freeze. Which was unlikely, of course.
S
he’d be back in five minutes.
Hell, she probably wouldn’t
even make it to the end of the driveway befor
e
she
turned around.

He shrugged
out of his coat
and
hung it on the peg beside the door. The idiot woman was going out in a blizzard wearing jeans and a
sweater
because he
’
d spanked her last night.
Okay, so maybe he’d overreacted a little
by putting her over his knee.
But she’d deserved it. People in
Hollywood
might put up with her crap, but
there was no
way he was going to
stand for it. E
ven if she threw a tantrum by going out in the snow.

He went
into the kitchen
to
see if
the coffee he
put on before he’d gone outside earlier
was done.
It wasn’t.
He
leaned back against the counter while it finished brewing
, then poured some into a mug and sipped it while he waited
for Raine to come through the door.
The silly
woman
probably didn’t even know
which direction
the
town was, even if she could walk
sixty
miles.
She’d be back any minute now.

But five minutes turned into ten,
then fifteen,
and Raine
still
hadn’t come back. Of its own accord, his gaze went to the unused mug he
’
d set out for
her before going
outside,
and his hand tightened around his own cup.
Dammit to hell.

Thumping
the mug
down on the counter
, he strode into the living room and grabbed his coat.
He put it on, then
jerked open the door
, praying she was outside on the porch pouting. But
Raine’s slim figure was nowhere in sight
.
She
obviously
walk
ed a hell of a lot
faster than he’d given her credit for. Swearing under his breath, he
jogged
over to his
SUV
. He
only hoped to God
she wasn’t dumb enough to stray from the road
, or he’d never find her.

Leaving Logan’s cabin had been a really, really stupid idea.
Raine
had never been so
cold
in her life.
Not only was there the falling snow and the biting wind to contend with, but there were also the drifts, which were up to her knees in some places.
She’d
freeze before she made it
ten more feet.
And it
would be Logan McBride’s fault.

She swore as she struggled through the deep snow.
If
that
C
ro-
M
agnon had
taken her to the spa like she
’
d asked
him to,
none of this would have happened
.
She
’d
be getting a massage right now
.
But no, he
had to
take
her to that shack he called a cabin.
And if he hadn’t acted like
a
damn
caveman
and spanked her simply because she’d told the truth about a few things, she never would have left. Instead, she’d be sitting on the couch in front of the fire, curled up with
her
eReader
and a mug of hot chocolate. Damn him
!

S
he ducked her head and blinked back tears as a gust of wind almost knocked her off her feet.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a silver Denali slow alongside her.
Figh
ting the urge to run over to the
truck, she lifted her chin and determinedly continued on her way, refusing to acknowledge
Logan’s
presence. There was no way she was goi
ng back to that cabin with him.

He
reach
ed
across and open
ed
the passenger door.
H
er resolve weakened a little as
she felt a blast of warm air
hit her.

She slowed her steps. Sixty miles
was a long walk
. It was even longer when you couldn’t feel your feet.
B
y coming to get her,
Logan
was
all but
admitting
he’d been
wrong. It could even be construed as an apology
. Maybe she wouldn’t report him to the cops for assault after all.

Raine
came to a halt.

The
SUV
stopped, too
. She
climbed in without a word. Ignoring the handsome man beside her,
she
put on her seat belt, then sat
there
huddled in the seat
as she tried to keep
from shivering
.
She wasn
’
t going to give
Logan
the s
atisfaction of knowing how cold
she was.

She waited for him to tell her how stupid it’d been to
leave in the middle of a snowstorm, but he was silent as
he
turned the truck around and drove back to the cabin.
His tightlipped expression told her everything she needed to know. He was pissed he’d had to come get her. She supposed she couldn’t blame him.

There was no way she’d ever admit it, but it had been dumb as hell to think she could walk sixty miles in a snowstorm. If Logan hadn’
t come after her, she probably wouldn’t have made it ten more minutes before succumbing to hypothermia. She knew she should thank him, but her pride wouldn’t let her.

When they got back to the cabin, Logan came around to open the passenger door for her, then grabbed her bag.

“Get out of those wet clothes
and into the shower
wh
ile I make you something hot to
drink,” he
ordered
after
they
got inside.

Raine didn’t argue.
Her jeans were soaked. Unfortunately, she hadn’t brought any other clothes with her, except for the
dress she’d worn yesterday
.
Which left the tank top and shorts she’d slept in the night before.

With a sigh, she picked up her bag and went into the bathroom to
shower and
change. When she came out, Logan
was waiting for her in the living room.
His gaze
lingered on her bare
legs
before he cleared
his throat
and
held out the mug in his hand.
In his other hand was a bowl with a spoon sticking out of it.

“
I made you cocoa
and some oatmeal.
Wrap yourself i
n a blanket and sit in front of
the fire. That should get you warmed up.”

Her fingers brushed
Logan’s
as she took the mug
, and the contact sent a
surprising
little tingle through her
. Hoping to hide her shock, she
sipped the hot liquid hastily.
It burned her tongue, but she barely noticed.
By the time she lifted her head to thank him,
he
’
d
set the bowl down and
gone into his studio
, closing
the door.
She sat on the
couch and
wrapped t
he blanket around her.

The
combination of the
roaring fire
, mug of
cocoa
and bowl of oatmeal
worked wonders, and within ten minutes
her brush with hypothermia was
a distant memory
. She wiggled her toes under the blanket, relieved she could actually feel them again.
She
rested
her head
back on the couch
and closed her eyes.
If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was at that fancy
, expensive spa in Mountain Ridge.
While
the
cabin
didn’t have any
of the amenities
the
spa
had
, it
had
the privacy she
wanted, if not the company. But i
f she and Logan stayed out of each other’s way,
they should be able to
make it
through
the snowstorm without killing one another.