Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,37

draw her closer against him. "Why are you feehng like the fly?"

Its short life span? Could she truly survive spending tune with Logan again? She breathed in his woody, deUcious warmth and raised her gaze from his strong throat to his mouth, and then to his eyes. "You're sure this is the way to end things between us?"

"I'm sure," he answered, but his voice was distracted as his gaze narrowed on her mouth.

Elena swallowed. **You're sure this isn't going to make things between us only more complicated?"

'I'm sure," he murmured, his mouth descending.

She frowned. Was he listening? Did he even know what he was saying? **Are you sure you're willing to be slave to my heart?" she tested, knowing that should wake him up.

*l'm sure," he said against her mouth.

He hadn't been listening obviously, but the kiss was a fine answer. All uncertainty drifted away in the sensation of his tongue slipping between her lips. She stretched upward, pulling him closer at the same time. They stood plastered together, mouth to mouth, pelvis to pelvis, and if Elena had carried a white flag, she would have been waving it with all her might.

He tore his mouth away from hers. '*No." His head shaking, he pushed her a couple of inches away. **It shouldn't go like this. I thought we'd have dinner and then a movie cm- something..."

She wove her fingers through his thick, dark-gold hair. Oh, it was so good to be able to touch him at will. She could do that now, she didn't have to hold herself back, and it was the sweetest of liberties. Her smile felt as if it could light the world. '*Okay."

He cocked his head. **The dinner or the movie or the something?"

She smiled wider. ''Okay."

He groaned and grabbed her close again. "You know, it's too good. Imagine it. This big house and just you and me."

She rabbed her cheek against his chest. '*And Gabby."

*'And Gabby," he repeated.

**Yoo-hoo!" A voice warbled through the front door that wasn't completely closed. **Lo-gan! Logan!"

ELcna. and Logan sprang apart. She glanced at him. **And, um, who else?"

He frowned. **Would you believe...my mother?"

Chapter Eight

l-/Ogan considered barring women from his house. But it was too damn late, because they'd akeady wreaked havoc on his whole day. First Cynthia, then Elena—^who admittedly wreaked havoc on him no matter where she was—and now...now his mother.

He set her matching pieces of luggage at the bottom of the staircase leading to the upper floors and studied her habitually serene face. *'Mom, not that I don't love you and everything, but why are you moving in with me?''

She smoothed her silver-blond hair away from her face, then straightened the sleeve of her silk blouse so it rode the edge of her platinum-and-diamond watch. **I explained that to you. I can't Uve with your father right now."

As much as he sympathized with the sentiment, his mother still wasn't making sense. *'Sure, Mom, but there are hotels. Your house in Hawaii. That new resort just outside of town."

His mother's chin firmed. Strange, he'd never seen her look so stubborn. **Are you saying I'm not welcome here?"

**Jeez, Mom, of course not." He mentally rolled his eyes and tried not to look at Elena, who was standing above him on the landing. God forbid he tangle with another prickly female today. **It's just that my apartment isn't very big and Elena and Gabby are in the free one for the time being."

His mother lifted her manicured hand in a movement that was at once languid and commanding. *Take them up, Logan, dear."

Cursing inwardly, he regathered her suitcases and started up the stairs. He passed Elena on the landing and bared his teeth at her in what he hoped his mother would mistake for a smile. *'This is your fault," he muttered.

**How could you say no?" she whispered back. * *She' s your mother. ''

He didn't care if she was the mother of all mankind. If it had been left up to him, he would have seen her settled in the penthouse suite at the Bay Inn. But while his mother had been explaining she'd left the estate and wanted to move into the Victorian, Elena had been looking at him with those wide blue eyes of hers. He'd thought of all that she'd done for

her little sister, and he'd been loathe to shrug off his mother and her problems.

Except, danm it, now they were his problems too, and they were going to impact his plans for Elena.

He kicked open