Page 68 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
She turned back to look at him where he stood frozen in the doorway. Her face fell. ‘Oh, God, is messiness like a deal breaker for you? I should have tidied up a bit more.’ She kicked a sweater under the bed and Logan tried not to wince.
He did like things to be neat, but that’s not what was causing his heart to race haphazardly in his chest.
He cleared his throat.
‘No, no. Sorry, that’s not it.’
She waited, watching him. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Couldn’t bring himself to admit that he was afraid she would leave. That she would find him and his life and his town lacking just like Lucy did.
He refused to let Lucy have that power over him anymore.
Not with this adorable, nearly perfect, messy, funny person standing in front of him, with her cheeks still pink and her lips still red from kissing him. He crossed the room and took Jeanie’s face in his hands.
‘Just trying to take this slow. That’s all.’
A relieved smile crossed her face. ‘Oh, good. I’ve tried to be neater, but it never really sticks.’
Logan shrugged. ‘I like you messy.’
She paused, her dark gaze meeting his, her smile even bigger now. Bigger and somehow more genuine. Happier. She hopped up into his arms and he caught her with a gruff laugh.
‘Thank you.’
‘What are you thanking me for, Jeanie?’
She shrugged and buried her face in his neck, her lips warm on the skin above his collar. ‘Thank you for saying that, for being here.’
He gave her ass a squeeze. ‘I wouldn’t be anywhere else.’
She made a little purring sound against him, and he shoved down the wish that she’d say it back, that she’d assure him there was nowhere she’d rather be either. She was here now, in his arms and he’d be an idiot if he didn’t take this chance to be with her.
He backed her up toward the bed and lowered her onto the mattress and seeing her there with her big brown eyes and her pink cheeks, watching her teeth dig into her bottom lip, snapped any control he had.
Taking things slow flew right out the damn window along with any fear that they shouldn’t do this.
Jeanie was already kneeling on the bed, unbuttoning his shirt, sliding her hands inside, tugging it off his shoulders.
‘This too,’ she said, lifting his undershirt and running her hands across his abs with wicked fascination. He pulled the shirt over his head, and she kissed his stomach eliciting a sharp gasp from his lips.
She grinned up at him. ‘These are really good abs,’ she said. ‘Like, I honestly didn’t know these were a real thing on real people.’
He huffed another surprised laugh, feeling his face heat under her appraising stare. Would he ever be able to predict what was going to come out of her mouth next?
She ran more kisses from his stomach up his chest to his neck, her fingers tracing their own path. Logan clenched his fists at his sides, wanting to grab her but not wanting to stop her, her light, soft touches along his body like torture.
By the time her hands were in his hair, tugging him closer and her mouth was on his, her tongue flicking against his lips, Logan had lost all sense of time and place.
His only thoughts were of Jeanie.
Jeanie’s lips on his.
Jeanie’s cinnamon-sugar taste.
Jeanie’s soft body pressed against his own.
These clothes had to go. He was tired of barriers between them. He didn’t want another frustrating make-out session. He didn’t want to be scared of this anymore.
He wanted skin, warm and bare against his.
