Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,36

not a good time to think again of weddings and Logan.

She stalked across the foyer toward the stairs and tried to pass him.

He caught her arm. * *rm telling you, she came over to inform me of her engagement."

**Because you certainly don't read the engagement announcements in the newspaper," she said, proud of the cool control in her voice.

**C)f course I don't read the engagement announcements in the newspaper." He blinked. '^Engagements are actually listed in the newspaper?"

'*How should I know?" Unless she'd been reading those particular pages every Sunday for years, searching for Logan's name. Always holding her breath, always expectiDg to find a box with a studio photo of him and an insipid blonde proclaiming their imminent marriage.

Elena looked down her nose at his hand on her arm. *Tlease release me."

*'No."

She tugged. ''Yes."

His jaw tightened and so did his hold on her. *'No."

"Yes."

"No."

'*Yes.'* Their little skirmish might be childish, but still she was glad that she didn't yell, that she didn't

scream, that she kept her voice ice-cube cold. **Let

go."

'*Not until you admit you're jealous.*'

She stiffened. ''What?''

**You're mad that you came home and found me hugging another woman. You're jealous of Cynthia."

**Jealous of that washed-out, stuck-up, stick-figure blonde?" The cold inside Elena was melting fast and she couldn't seem to stop it. **Don't flatter yourself."

He grinned. "I do find it flattering."

Years of hard-wcMi control and hard-edged iciness were on the verge of evaporation. She muttered something.

*'What?" he asked, humor still glinting in his eyes. ''What was that?"

She clung to the remaining slivers of her dignity. *'A very bad Spanish curse word."

He grinned again. **It occurs to me that you wouldn't be so mad if you hadn't come home intending to agree to my plan."

She twisted out of his now-relaxed grasp, then took a tiny step back and widened her eyes in disbeUef. *'Are you still talking about your begin-it-to-end-it plan? Come on, doesn't that sound just a little bit nuts to you after a good night's sleep?" She hoped he assumed she'd slept the slumber of a peaceful baby.

"Maybe, if 'beginning' was at issue," he replied. In the blink of an eye, he reached out to circle her waist with his palms. "But we're already hip-deep, don't you think?"

If she could think at all, she might think she was

in big, big trouble. But Logan's hands slid down to those hips he'd mentioned and when she put her own hands up to fend him off, they didn't do more than rest against his chest. She breathed him in and it was the scent of his expensive aftershave and sawdust and maybe just the slightest hint of...Shalimar.

Remembering she should be mad, she scowled up at him. **Tell me the truth. Are you still seeing Cynthia?"

He shook his head. **No. Cross my heart and hope to woric for my father again. Like I said, she stopped by to tell me about Nicky."

Elena bit her bottom lip, trying to keep her mind on the subject and off his hands. His fingers were splayed across the curves of her bottom, while his thumbs were making lovely, attention-demanding circles just to the inside of her pelvic bones.

She was wearing a long skirt of thin cotton and now she wished she'd worn something thicker, heavier—armor perhaps—that would better protect her from his touch. *'You need to stop that," she said hoarsely.

His nostrils flared. *'Stop what?"

**I can't think."

**That's the idea, honey. I've decided we've both been thinking too much all these years."

But those years had taught her lessons, too. She was much, much warier now. "Even if I do agree to this plan of yours, we first have to negotiate the terms."

He laughed. **You're making it sound like a surrender."

**It isn't?" She lifted an eyebrow. **Or is that point number one, no surrender?"

His eyes narrowed and his laughter abruptly died. 'I'm not following you."

''Yesterday you said you wanted to 'know' me. What does that mean, exactly?"

He shrugged. "That you stop avoid—^hell, that you stop running from me. That you talk to me."

"That's it? No sex?"

Laughter once again warmed his golden eyes. "I'd agree to that, Elena, but we'd both probably make a Uar out of me. However, I'm not obligating you to a single thing you don't feel like sharing with me—^and that includes your body. But I do want some of your time. I'll be content with where things go from there."

"Things" would go straight to sex. She grimaced. "Why is it you sound like the spider?"

"I don't know." His fingers flexed against her backside to