hives?'
'Well, there's that.' He sighed. 'I watched you come down that mountain today. You put your life on the line for me, and I realized something.'
'That you're a selfish SOB?'
His smile was weak. 'That, too. You're a great catch, Lily. I should have-'
She put her fingers gently over his lips. 'Don't.' Even though they went back a couple of years, they'd never been a real couple, partly due to his women addiction, partly due to her own commitment issues. In fact, they hadn't been together at all for some time, and looking at him now, she felt a softness, a genuine affection, but not the heat. Not a single spark. 'I came to tell you that I'm sorry you were hurt. Get better, Pete, soon. But when you do, stay off my cliffs.'
He stared at her for a long moment. 'You're really over me, aren't you?'
'Quite.'
He smiled as his eyes closed. 'You'll change your mind. You have before.'
'No, I won't.'
His smile dissolved and he opened his eyes. 'It's that skier you were with today, isn't it?'
She scrambled for the denial, just a little too quickly. 'I've only known him a few days.'
'Days, years, minutes. Doesn't matter when it's the real thing.'
'Like you would know the real thing if it bit you on the ass.'
He laughed, then grimaced in pain. 'Yeah. But you're the real thing, Lily. I'm just an idiot. Be happy, babe.'
'You, too.'
'I will, soon as you get out of here so I can get the pretty nurse on duty to come make me feel better.'
Lily laughed, kissed him goodbye, then drove back to the resort, feeling each and every ache and bruise. She went to her apartment and took a hot, hot shower, thinking sleep would cure her. Then she proceeded to stare at the ceiling while the clocked ticked off the minutes. Then the hour.
She didn't want sleep. She wanted…
Logan.
She'd told Pete he wouldn't recognize it if it reared up and bit him, and she'd always assumed the same thing about herself. She didn't want to recognize it because the real thing didn't fit into her life.
Love, if it existed, was a pain in the ass. It obligated. It forced a responsibility for someone else's feelings. It disappointed.
But lust…now lust was right up her alley.
She found herself in front of Logan's room.
Yeah, lust worked.
She hadn't seen him since Pete's hair-raising, ulcer-inducing rescue, and given how he'd looked at her after, as if he wanted to both shake her and kiss her and not in any particular order, that was probably a good thing. She'd needed her cool up there today, had needed to be in calm control despite how scared she'd been. She didn't know if she was feeling slightly smothered by his intense reaction or just overwhelmed by the strong emotion implied by it.
She lifted her hand to knock, then lowered it again. What the hell was she doing? Already she could hardly separate the sex they'd had with how mushy he made her feel.
She thought that sounded like a fine idea, and got to the end of the hallway. She stopped. Swore. Then paced back and stared at his door. Drew a deep breath. She was here for great sex. Just great sex. Sounded good. Sounded great.
Too great. Again she turned away, but suddenly the door opened and Logan stood there, bare-chested, wearing low-riding sweatpants and nothing else. Behind him, the room was dark, the bed mussed as if he'd been tossing and turning.
'No.'
She smiled softly and wished he'd smile back. Wished even more that he'd grab her and hold on, touching her, kissing her, until her day was nothing but a memory. 'You said no matter how late, right?'
'You tuck Pete into bed?'
Her smile faded. 'I went to the hospital, yes.' She paused. 'Do you think there's something going on between Pete and me?'
'It doesn't matter what I think.'
She cocked her head and studied his beautiful body, hard and tough, his eyes, dark and unreadable. She spent most of her life not caring what people thought of her, but with him, she found she cared. 'Actually, yes, it does matter what you think.'
'Why? I'm just a guest.'
'You're more than just a guest to me.'
'But this is just fun. Isn't that right, Lily?'
Trapped in her own web. She went a little cold inside. 'Look, if I'd had a prior commitment with someone else, I would never have agreed to whatever this is that we're doing for the next three days. You'd better tell me you know that.'
He tunneled his fingers through his hair, his raised arms delineating all the corded sinew in his biceps and shoulders. And as if she was still on that mountain precipice, hanging with her life in the balance, everything within her quivered with awareness and anticipation. But she'd had enough excitement for the day, more than her poor body could take. Done with this, she turned away, determined that this time, her feet would take her back to bed. Her own.
'Lily.'
Her feet stopped. Turned her.
'You do stuff like that all the time at home.'
'I know.
He might have said more but she stepped back to him and put a finger over his lips. 'Sorry enough to make it up to me?'
'Yeah. Let me show you.' Keeping his eyes on hers, he pulled her over the threshold, then shut the door. The lock clicked in like a bullet.
Logan had meant to resist her, he really had, but one look into those challenging eyes and it'd been over. They didn't even make it to the bed. Instead, he slid his arms around her and she came hard against him, holding his face so that she could rain kisses over it. Staggered by her show of need and his own clawing hunger for her, he pressed her up against the door, freeing up his hands to do what he pleased.
And what he pleased was to take them both to the same mindless place they'd gone last night. She wore a long, loose sweater over leggings. Wrestling the sweater off, he tossed it over his shoulder then dropped to his
