Page 18 of Trick or Trouble
“Let me see your hands,” she demanded.“Are your fingers crossed?”She tried to get behind him, but he spun around to block her.“You do have your fingers crossed, admit it.”Giggling, Darcy took the opportunity to reach out and tickle his ribs where his six-pack was on delicious display through the clingy sweater.
Logan grabbed both her wrists and held them above her head in one big hand, then proceeded to return the favor.“Tickle me, will you?I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too.”
“I don’t have a dog.That was Dorothy.I’m the wicked witch, remember.”
Darcy squealed until he finally took mercy on her and lowered his mouth to steal her laughter.
“Not the wicked witch, the good witch of the East,” he murmured, and kissed her again.
She wrapped her arms around his neck while he thoroughly, sweetly, explored her with a tenderness that made her eyes water.“Logan,” she whispered, “this is crazy.We hardly know each other.”
“You’re right, it is crazy, but you’ve put a spell on me, little witch.I can’t seem to let you go, although I tried.”
She stiffened in his arms.Radar on.“You’re right to let me go,” she agreed, her open emotions shrinking like a slug discovering salt.“I’m nothing but a messed-up bunch of trouble, and I truly can be a witch.I’ve been told that before.”She tried to pull back, but he wouldn’t allow it.
“By who?”His voice was intense, probing.
Her eyes dropped and wouldn’t look up; she couldn’t make them.“It doesn’t matter who it was,” she whispered.“I’m not worth the effort of trying to sort me out.You should get out while you can.Run—even.”The snark she tried to insert didn’t come off as she’d hoped.Pitiful and weak was more like it.
“Whoever told you that was a fool.I’m going to wait while you get your things together, and then I’ll take you to Holly’s, where I’ll fix some dinner for all of us.”He lifted her chin gently.“You don’t need sorting out, Darcy, you just need to be loved and accepted.”
She opened her mouth to speak but was at a loss for words...again.She needed to get off this runaway train.“Y-you said you were going to spank me, so why should I go with you?Besides, I haven’t done anything wrong; I was defending myself because I felt threatened.”
“You lied about me,” he pointed out, his eyebrow shooting up.
“I had to for the police to come and get me.”She tossed her head.“All part and parcel of defending myself,” she quipped.
“Because of my occupation as a therapist?”
“Yes,” she snapped.“You shocked me, I had to get away.I don’t need someone to tell me everything that’s wrong with me and what I need to do to change.”She shivered, and her voice dropped to a whisper.“I had that once and almost didn’t make it out of the relationship.The girl he married after me wasn’t so lucky; she committed suicide.”
Logan sat down in the recliner and pulled her gently onto his knee.“Thank you for telling me that.I will never spank you without a clear reason why, and you understand that reason implicitly.Now that I know you felt threatened, I understand why you left and why you did what you felt you had to.”
Darcy stared.Was this man for real?“So..., you won’t spank me tonight?”
He slid her a sexy grin.“I didn’t say that.If you want me to spank you, of course, I would.”
A blush crept up her throat, and the words spilled out without her consent.“I...I could come to dinner and see if you’re a decent cook or not.After all, I make the meanest grilled cheese this side of the Mississippi...hands down.”
“I’ll see your grilled cheese and raise you braised chicken with cream and chive cheese garnished with sliced avocado and bacon on toasted sourdough.My mother taught me well,” he added smugly.
Her eyes narrowed.“You’re on, mindjerk.Let the cooking wars begin.”
The moment the words left her mouth, insecurity suddenly reared its ugly, rented head.She’d never been able to evict it completely, no matter how tall she built the wall of sarcasm.What the heck was she doing?This was no casual dare.Logan had just found a chink in the wall that she’d worked so hard to create.A chink that could have her bleeding secrets—the ones she didn’t want anyone to know.He would soon see that she wasn’t smart enough, or sexy enough, or even capable of holding the attention of a man like him for long.
“Are you sure you don’t want out?It’s not too late, you know.I’ll even concede you the winner.”Her laugh was brittle, a little forced, and beneath her teasing tone, her chest was tight with the fear that he’d suddenly agree.
She wanted this, she realized.The part of her that wanted to be loved and appreciated warred with the battle-scarred version of herself.She didn’t want him to take the escape offer she’d just handed him and walk away.
She held her breath, accepting defeat and wishing for the moon at the same time.
