Mad Enough to Marry - By Christie Ridgway Page 0,52

suppressed a little smile. How could she resist him? 'Is that a compliment?"

He laughed again, and inched her away to look down at her face. Then he sighed. **Has anyone ever told you you're mind-blowing beautiful?"

She bit her bottom lip.

*'Of course they have." Logan rolled his eyes. *'You make me mad, not stupid."

"Logan—"

**Shh." Framing her face with his hands, he leaned down and touched her lips with his.

Elena felt a wash of that traitorous, honey-hot melting. "Logan..."

*'Shh." He kissed her again, just as lightly. "One night with you was not enough for me, do you understand? The party is not over, the fat lady has an entire Wagner opera left to sing, and the itch is definitely still driving me to distraction."

He was not helping. "But Logan—"

"Don't you deserve some pleasure?" He tapped her nose with one long finger. "I can promise that, I think."

Pleasure was one thing, she thought desperately, but there was that inevitable pain to follow it. ' T don't have time for a...a..."

"A boyfriend?" His smile could charm her heart out of her chest. Hadn't it already worked with the pants off her body? "I think we're too old for that, don't you? But Elena, honey, I could be your lover."

* 'Maybe I don't have time for one of those, either,'' she said, but she was akeady so dam soft and he was so right about the pleasure. So much pleasure. When was the last time she'd indulged herself with anything that felt so good?

*'You let me worry about your time." This kiss was long and demanding and told her that he already knew she'd surrendered. '*You let me worry about that."

Chapter Eleven

Logan had never been a moody man. Just as he'd told Elena, he'd always been an even-tempered, good-natured, glass-half-full type of guy.

Those thoughts only made him swing the sledgehammer he was holding in both fists with more force. He hadn't planned on gutting so soon the tiny downstairs bathroom that had been added in the 1950s then redecorated in the 1970s, but yesterday, hitting something had become an imperative. The bubblegum-pink tile liberally embelUshed with stuck-on fluorescent flowers and peace signs made a perfect target.

Tile shattered and fell at his feet. He smiled at it grimly, swung again.

Elena had told him over a week ago that she didn't have time for him. Damn her, she'd been right.

A woman with nothing less than two jobs, a night class, a sister to raise and volunteer duties for the upcoming senior prom apparently didn't have time to sleep either. He didn't think she'd been to bed in three days.

She'd certainly not been in his bed.

The night after they'd first made love, he'd managed to talk her out of immediately ending this...this...this thing between them and talk himself into her bed for some very quiet and tender lovemak-ing after Gabby was safely asleep. He'd promised her pleasure and holding firmly to the beast's leash, he'd managed to make good on it.

But he'd seen her only five times since. Kissed her twice. Hell, he spent more time with his mother than he did with his lover.

Pitiful. He swung the sledgehammer again.

Compounding that, he had the feeling that Elena was relieved to be so busy. Oh, she claimed to be sorry she couldn't see him, but he saw the wariness that Ungered in her eyes and in her voice and he knew that she was more comfortable blocking him than being with him.

It irritated him. A feehng which went perfectly with his sexual frustration. Not to mention the resentment he felt at how she so carefully maintained her emotional distance too. He'd told her weeks ago that he wanted to know her, but she continued ducking every personal question he posed.

A movement in the hall outside the bathroom caught his eye. Elena. He instantly tossed down the

sledgehammer and leaped over the threshold to nab her.

She accepted his kiss, her mouth softening, but then she pushed away, laughing. "Hey, hey, hey. A woman needs to breathe now and again."

He pulled her back. **Not as much as I need this." He drew her onto her toes and persuaded her into the kiss this time, starting soft and gentle and working into hard and demanding. When they were both breathless, he lifted his head and looked down into her dazed face. He smiled. 'Tell me you're staying home tonight."

**Better yet, tell me you're staying with me tonight."

"Logan." She fi*owned at him. "Remember, your mother—"

He cut her off with another long, drugging kiss. "We'll