Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,5

her scent. She wore an exotic fragrance that smelled like flowers heated by the sun. Logan tried thinking of some response to what she'd just said, but his head was suddenly spinning again.

She could tell that too. Her eyes rolled. '*Uh!" She spun away.

He reached out, grabbed her wrist.

Elena froze. A tremor ran down her back then her head turned slowly toward him. She looked at his

hand on her, then looked at his face. * 'Let go of me,'' she said.

"No," he answered. Her arm was quivering against his hand and Logan didn't know if it was outrage or embarrassment or some combinatic«i of both. He hauled her closer, so that only the narrow wooden counter separated them.

Her breath was coming so hard and so fast that her astounding breasts were heaving against the cotton of her shirt. Staring at the sight, his brain whirled again and she almost used his distraction to pull away, but then some instinct deeper than lust made his hold tighten possessively.

*'I don't want your pity," she said again.

'*Pity," he repeated. '*You don't know how much I wish I was going to do this out of pity." He crowded closer to the counter, getting closer to her.

That flush was running up her neck again, past her mouth, over her cheeks. Her chin lifted. **Why is it then?" she hissed. "Don't tell me. I can guess. It's—"

"Don't." It was his turn to say the word. "You're in the kissing booth and I'm buying one kiss. Hell, Elena. Let's just leave it at that."

He bent his head. He hadn't kissed her in eleven years, since she was sixteen and he was eighteen. He hesitated now, because the memory of those kisses wasn't something he was quite ready to relinquish. The reality of kissing Elena couldn't be as good as he remembered.

Her body was trembling again and her eyes were

snapping blue fire, but she wasn't trying to get away and he knew he couldn't get away with retreating from this kiss. Hell, it had been leading to this for the past few months, ever since they had met again. It was probably plain good sense to get it over with.

He covered her lips with his.

She inhaled sharply at the contact and he froze. Her body shook, and he dropped her wrist to cup her shoulders with his palms. He sUd his tongue between her lips. Not into her mouth, just between her soft, full, how-could-he-have-forgotten-their-decadent-taste?lips.

She inhaled sharply again, unwittingly drawing in his tongue, and Logan's senses, instead of whirling like the dervishes he expected, heightened. Focused.

From her throat came the tiniest of moans, the sound vibrating against his tongue. Her flower-scent bloomed around them and he tasted her desire in the heat of her mouth and in the way her tongue slid against his, as if she had to know its texture, too.

All his muscles tensed, every one, everywhere, going rock-solid. He pressed her mouth harder, took the kiss deeper, and even though he felt his blood rush through his body and his heartbeat jump to unpwece-dented speed, his mind remained crystal-clear, as if to sear this new kiss in his memory.

His eyes opened, and he saw hers as languid slits of blue, like pieces of hot summer sky. He saw it all in them: the attraction, the arousal and then he saw something else.

Vulnerability.

Oh, hell.

Blood pounding and every nerve howling in protest, Logan broke the kiss, slowly but surely easing Elena away. He knew she was staring at him, but he refused to meet her eyes. Instead, he concentrated on getting his breathing back to normal, while one hand slid into his pocket.

Just that morning he'd met a friend and traded his Beemer for a well-worn pickup and some big-billed cash. He pulled the wad of bills out now and looked at them, the numbers on the comers making as little sense to him as the advanced calculus formulas had in college. Bhnking, he focused harder, found the one he wanted, pulled it free.

Still without looking at her, he dropped it in the fishbowl. Grover Cleveland's face fluttered to the bottom.

He turned to go.

*'Wait."

Reluctantly he swung back and looked at Elena. She was completely recovered, he was relieved to see, except for the sHghtly swollen appearance of her lips. Her blue eyes were back to their usual cool and the one brow she raised was just as confident and saucy as always.

*The senior prom committee thanks you," she said.

Logan released a silent sigh, immediately understanding the remark's