Gage and Logan bellied up with laughter at Brandi’s comeback.
“I doubt it. Little chicks like you pass out fast.”
“Don’t instigate something you have no business following through on.” Brandi went from carefree to moody in an instant.
“Okay, children, that’s enough. Grab your drinks, leave the bottle of Jose on the counter and let’s go out back.” Marilyn easily diffused the tension in the room with her gentle demeanor. “Gage, will you give me a hand? Amber, grab those plates would you please?”
“Thank goodness for that save. Why do you two seem to have a problem with each other?” Gabriella whispered to Brandi.
“I don’t know. He rubs me the wrong way.”
“I can see that. But could you please mellow out, at least for the rest of this afternoon? It’s nice to have all of us here together. The last thing we need is you and Blaze pissing each other off.”
“Fine. I will stay out of his way. But Gabbie, he better stay out of mine because I can’t promise what I might do if he doesn’t.” Brandi walked off.
“What was that all about?” Logan snuck up behind her.
Gabbie was still shaking her head. “I have no idea. They hardly even know each other. None of us really know Blaze at all—except for his brother.”
“I don’t know. He seemed pretty vague about his injury. Do you know what’s up with that?”
“I don’t. All I know is that he is still running his company in Manhattan. But he is moving back here and taking on some secret position. It will be interesting to see how he likes it here.” She grabbed onto Logan’s arm and squeezed it, sending awareness through his body.
“You’re thinking that because of me?”
“Yes.”
“I haven’t made up my mind yet, Cinderella. There’s still plenty of time.”
“I think you’ve made up your mind, you’re just not telling me. You’re wooing me by taking me with you on your fancy trip and then you will let me down gently.”
Logan’s gaze leveled on her, watching her golden flecks enlarge as her eyes stared back into eyes. What was she trying to tell him? Is there something he was missing? Did her proposition to have sex really have more to do with her having real feelings for him than just satisfying a simple craving?
“Is this about the other night at my house? Is there more to that story than you’re letting on?”
He saw the flick of her eyes quickly look away before looking back to him. “No,” she whispered. “I am legitimately scared to have sex with men.”
Standing this close to her, her smell was imploding in his nostrils along with the smell of the charcoal grill. It was enough to almost give him a hard-on right there. The way she tilted her head and whispered the word ‘sex’ had him leaning in close enough to see the faint hint of purple lace underneath her blouse. With her hand still on his forearm, his other hand came up and touched the delicate skin of her neck, right above her blouse and the purple lace of her bra.
Her skin was every bit of soft as it looked. He saw her breath catch in her throat as his fingertips grazed her succulent skin. His gaze traveled up her face, first to the lips he absolutely wanted to kiss again. He lingered there, recalling their kiss from that night. His eyes roamed past her nose and all of her freckles, up to her tiger-eyes.
There was arousal in those eyes. There was also surprise. Before she could say anything, there was one thing he was dying to know. “What I don’t understand is why you aren’t afraid to have sex with me? Why did you ask me to sleep with you?”
Chapter Thirteen
It had been an awkward ride home when the three of them left the barbeque. Brandi complained non-stop about how rude Blaze had been to her. The funny thing was he had only been short with her. To Gabriella he had been charming. His personality hadn’t been stereotypical of the ‘strong and silent bodyguard’ at all. But for whatever reason, Brandi had his number.
It had reminded her of Gage and Amber’s relationship. In the beginning, Gage hadn’t liked Amber because of a prior instance when they had met before. Every time they ran into each other, Gage had been an ass. But come to find out that had been because he had been fighting his attraction to her the moment she’d stepped into his office.
Brandi had filled the quiet space in the truck with her banter about Blaze on the way home that night. Gabbie had stayed mostly quiet the entire ride home, having been able to only think of Logan’s fingertips trailing along her skin and his comment about sex. What had that meant? She couldn’t fathom what she must have asked him. Yep. Definitely had too many drinks that night. It was the only plausible explanation as to why he would make any type of comment about her asking him to sleep with her.
She was embarrassed. She hadn’t wanted to look him in the eye.
A few times on the way home she had silently watched him drive out of the corner of her eye. Twice, with her breath caught in her throat, she watched Logan turn his head in her direction and study her, but he had remained quiet. She didn’t dare turn her head and return his gaze.
Sleeping with Logan.
This was a whole new concept she hadn’t thought about before.
She kept pushing her brain to the limit trying to find—trying to conjure up some tidbit of conversation about her asking Logan to sleep with her. With him in such close proximity to her—for God’s sake she could smell him—she’d had a difficult time wracking her brain for this particular conversation.
It had been the night the chef had ditched her, and she had gotten drunk at his house. She knew it. It was the only thing that made sense.
But obviously
