Page 54 of The Rookie
“Here, take this,” Logan says, and I turn around to see him holding out a thick wool sweater. “Your clothes are soaked.”
“Thanks.”
I fumble with the zipper of my coat, my fingers frozen and barely functional. After a few moments of watching me struggle, Logan intervenes.
“Can I help?”
“Yes,” I say softly, and he pulls down the zipper of my jacket inch by inch. The whole time, I stare into his eyes, trying to read the dark expression on his face.
“What are you thinking?” I ask him, tilting my head to the side.
He meets my eyes for a second before peeling the coat off of my shoulders and kneeling in front of me to unlace my boots. “Come on, let’s get you out of these clothes. Then you can tell me why you were trying to steal my grandfather’s truck.”
Unexpectedly, I laugh. “I wasn’t trying to steal it. I guess I thought I’d call from the airport, and someone could come pick it up once I was in the air.”
“You really didn’t want to see me before you left, huh? Didn’t want to say good-bye?”
My heart squeezes painfully in my chest. I open my mouth to answer, but say nothing. What can I possibly say?
“Let’s just get you changed into something warmer. Then we can talk,” he says gruffly before standing and walking to the opposite side of the cabin to pour himself a drink. He keeps his back turned, either to give me some privacy or because he can’t even look at me. Probably both.
I look down at my wet pants and socks and slowly peel them off, then pull the wool sweater on over my head. It’s so big that it brushes against my bare knees. Even better, it smells just like him.
“All done,” I say meekly. As I step up behind him, he turns, chewing on a smile he tries to hide when I wave to him, my hands drowning in fabric. “It’s just my size.”
“You’re still shivering,” he says, stepping toward me and offering me his drink, some dark amber liquid, then he wraps a fleece blanket around my shoulders.
I accept the drink and take a sip. Whiskey. He laughs a little at the way I wince.
“I should’ve brought your namesake shandy instead,” he says coyly as I cough away the sting of the liquor. “You all right?”
“I’m okay,” I assure him, reaching out to take his big, rough hand. “I’m sorry for causing all of this trouble.”
“I don’t understand why you would just leave like that.”
The hurt in his voice almost breaks my heart in two. I never, ever want to hurt this man again. I close the space between us, close enough to feel his breath.
“I thought it would be easier,” I whisper as a stray tear runs down my cheek.
“For who?”
“For me.”
Logan surges toward me, capturing my mouth with his in a kiss unlike any we’ve shared so far. Our past kisses couldn’t possibly hold a candle to this one. This kiss—thisincrediblekiss—tastes like devotion and desperation. I can’t get enough of it.
Pressing onto my tiptoes, I wrap my arms around his neck just as he grabs my hips, yanking me against him with a growl. When his tongue brushes mine, I sigh into his mouth, all memory of the cold replaced by the fire of our touch.
What was life like before I stepped into Lost Haven? I can’t even remember.
“Logan,” I whisper against his lips between open-mouthed kisses.
His hands trail a path down my hips and over my ass to grasp my bare thighs, lifting me into the air and pressing me flush against him. Locking my ankles behind him, I chase the sensation building between my legs by grinding against the hard muscles of his abdomen.
With a groan, Logan lowers us onto the bed, and soon he’s pulling off the very sweater he tried so hard to get me into.
We can’t fight this anymore ... that much is obvious.
One by one, our clothes fall to the floor in a heap. The fire crackles faintly in the background, overpowered by the hammering of my own heart. Logan sits back to unbutton his jeans, surveying my naked body beneath him. He looks at me like he owns me, one hand running possessively down my body from my neck to my pelvis.
