The Hometown Hoax (The Hoax Series) (16 page)

“The whole box?” she asked, feeling lightheaded and drunk with lust.

“Only if you ask nicely.”

She grabbed the box from the bathroom and was still struggling to open it when she rejoined his side. With one hand holding the box and the other hand trying unsuccessfully to tear it open, she was too preoccupied to stop Logan when he unceremoniously stripped her of her capri pants and panties.

“Give me that,” he said, taking the box and ripping it open in one quick motion. In another second he had a foil packet opened and tossed to the floor. As she watched him roll the condom onto his erection, she bit her lip, anticipation building.

When his hands were free, he spun her around and held her back against his chest for a moment, kissing her shoulder. He caressed her breasts and whispered in her ear. “I couldn’t stop imagining this earlier. Seeing you in downward dog…”

He bent her forward until her hands held her up on the bed, then ran his hands along her spine as he stood behind her. Tapping the inside of her ankle with his toes, she spread her feet apart knowing that’s what he wanted.

He groaned and touched the backs of her thighs like he had earlier, adjusting her position, then eased into her heat. Tessa closed her eyes and let her head drop, enjoying the feeling of Logan moving inside of her. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t do this with him again. But damn. He was worth the heartache later.

He pulled out slowly then drove into her fast, hitting hard and deep. She called out her pleasure as he repeated the motion over and over. When his hand slipped around her waist and found her hot center, rubbing circles on her sensitive skin, she lost control. Her body trembled with his touch. As he sped up his pace, she moved against him until she couldn’t hold back anymore. Calling out his name, she tumbled over the edge of euphoria into oblivion. A moment later, he followed her.

As they lay on her bed in each other’s arms, she couldn’t stop her thoughts from going back to her family’s plan and deviousness. She was still mad that they’d interfered with her life, but their actions had led to her current post-orgasm contentedness. A tiny part of her was happy they’d fixed her up with Logan. But she’d never admit that out loud.

Chapter Sixteen

T
essa sat cross-legged in front of the roaring fireplace, enjoying the dancing flames and the heat radiating from the hearth. They’d planned on a bonfire tonight, but Mother Nature had other plans and shortly after dinner, the sky opened up above them. Rain hadn’t stopped pouring down since.

She didn’t mind so much. Less chance of spiders inside meant she had an easier time relaxing. Or she would’ve been more relaxed if she hadn’t found out about the matchmaking scheme earlier. The sting of her family’s betrayal still hadn’t worn off fully.

Currently, they were playing a round of poker. She didn’t have it in her to join the fun, because it didn’t feel fun right now. It felt like she was an outsider looking in, the same way she’d always felt. Here she had this amazing family, as Logan had pointed out, and yet she never felt like she could enjoy her time with them because she didn’t fit in. She was the one who didn’t want to live and die in town, the one who wanted to paint and travel. The one who looked at the lake and saw colors and textures, not fish.

A cheer went up from around the table as Logan won another hand. Part of her wanted to go sit by his side and cheer him on, but doing so would only prove to her family that they’d been right in setting them up. The last thing they needed was encouragement. Even though her family pissed her off with their newest trick, she couldn’t deny that she missed them so much it physically hurt.

In the city, she’d been so busy painting and pitching her art to galleries that she didn’t have time to think about everyone back home. But being here she’d instantly felt the connections she’d been missing. Her family was awesome in every way, except when they were meddling in her life.

Maybe she’d been too hard on them this week. Maybe she’d gotten overly upset because she knew they were right. Logan was a good match. He was amazing. If she’d met him in the city, she’d be head over heels for him.

“Tessa, would you mind grabbing me a water? I hate to get up from the table in case I break my winning streak against Travis.” Logan peered over his shoulder, giving her the look that told her he’d asked for water, but was currently picturing her delivering it naked. The thought made her need a glass of cold water too—dumped over her head to cool her off so she could think straight.

“Sure,” she said, rising from the floor. She quickly grabbed his drink from the kitchen then wandered over to his side at the table.

He pushed his chair back and pulled her down onto his lap, wrapping his free hand securely around her waist. “Thanks, sugar.”

“Logan, don’t,” she whispered. She wasn’t into showing public displays of affection as it was but certainly wasn’t into it with the guy she was supposedly cheating on her boyfriend with.

“What? They already know about us.”

She tried to wiggle away, but he held her tight and whispered in her ear so only she would hear. “Keep wiggling on my lap and I won’t be able to stand from this table without giving your family an eyeful I’d rather be for your eyes only.”

Heat flashed through her and she stilled. His hand settled on her upper thigh, below the level of the table where her family would see. It was enough that they’d see her sitting on his lap, they didn’t need to see him touching her body too.

For as obvious as Logan’s affection was, her family did a remarkable job of ignoring it, almost as if they knew that by drawing attention to it, it would end. Or maybe they were too busy basking in their success to point out the obvious. Together, Tessa and Logan played a few hands, with her input into what cards to keep. Every time, they’d lost. After the fourth failure in a row, she twisted on Logan’s lap to face him.

“I think I should go back to the fireplace. You were winning before I joined you. I’m apparently bad luck.”

“You’re not bad luck,” James said, sounding surprisingly supportive. “For me. Stay. Cuddle with Logan.”

“I’m not cuddling,” she said shifting to stand.

Logan held her still. “Stay. I’m sure our luck will change.”

Will it?
Would anything change for them in the near future?

“I’ll pull up a chair and sit beside you instead, okay?”

He nodded and she moved a chair from the other side of the table as the game continued. Logan did better without her input, not that she noticed. While he collected his winnings, she picked up her phone. She’d gotten a bad signal all day, but finally she was showing three bars instead of one. Clicking over to her email, she checked her inbox. The program searched for a few seconds then loaded four new messages—two newsletters for clothing she couldn’t afford, a cell phone bill, and one from the last gallery she’d been waiting on. Her heart pounded in her ears. Fingers trembling with hope and anticipation, she clicked open.

Thank you for your inquiry about placing your art with our gallery, however…

Her eyes blurred and she couldn’t see the rest of the words. She didn’t need to—another rejection. This one stung worse than the others. It had been her top choice and the one she’d waited the longest to hear back from. The one she’d pinned all her hopes on to come through in the end.

“Are you okay?” Logan asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. “What’s happened?”

“It’s nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.” Couldn’t talk about it. The pain of rejection stabbed her in the gut and she feared if she began talking about it, there’d be no stopping all the things she’d been trapping inside from spilling out.

“If that finance guy of yours in the city has said something to make our Tessa-bear this upset, I might take a trip into the city to kick some ass,” her dad said, sitting forward with a concerned look on his face. He was always a mild-mannered man until someone messed with his family.

“Dad, please. Be serious.”

“I am serious.”

Her brother and Travis agreed.

“Don’t let some guy treat you like crap,” Sally said.

“You’re too good to let someone make you this upset,” Mary added.

Martha nodded. “You tell that boyfriend of yours you don’t need him anymore. You’ve got Logan now.”

“It’s not that.” Did they think she was so weak and pathetic that she couldn’t live without a man by her side? A man was a choice in her life, not a necessity. Well, Richard had been a bit of a necessity since his whole purpose was to protect her from her family’s nagging and meddling, which hadn’t worked out quite as planned.

“You tell him to take a hike then we’ll go get your stuff.” Her mom continued talking with everyone else as if Tessa wasn’t even there. “We’ll have her settled back into her old room by Monday.”

“I’m not moving back,” she said. The talking continued around her. “Would you listen to me? I’m not moving home. I didn’t get dumped.” Her voice rose with her annoyance level.

“Tessa, don’t get upset. They’re worried about you,” Logan said. She was pretty sure he was trying to comfort and support her, but all he did was support her family instead of the woman he claimed to care about.

“It wasn’t from Richard. There is no Richard,” she said, louder than before. They stopped to stare at her. “It was from a gallery I hoped would want my art, but like every other gallery, they said no. Happy now?”

Faces gawked at her from around the table and it felt like a full minute before anyone spoke.

“There’s no Richard?”

“Is that what she said?”

“That’s what I heard.”

They all spoke at once, and none of them even seemed to have heard the part about her broken dreams. Irritation built inside her, each comment strengthening her anger.

“Did you make him up?” Sally asked.

“Why would you do something like that to us?” Mary asked, having the nerve to sound hurt.

“Why did you lie to us?” her mother asked, her voice trembling.

Something inside Tessa snapped. “Did any of you even hear me say the last gallery I applied to rejected me? Do you only care I made up some stupid boyfriend?”

“Why did you lie to us about Richard?”

“Because I didn’t want you guys to fix me up with anyone or nag me to move home. Seemed my plan failed on both accounts because there’s no stopping you. So here’s the truth. My glamorous art career consists of painting murals on shop windows because no one will hang my art in their gallery. And I don’t have a boyfriend. I haven’t had time to meet anyone because I’ve been too busy trying to earn enough money to pay rent. Satisfied?”

Tessa rose from her chair and walked out the door leaving them behind in a stunned silence. The truth was out and tomorrow they’d hound her even more to move home, but at least she didn’t have anything to hide anymore. Of course, that also meant she couldn’t hide from the truth either. Speaking it out loud had somehow made it more real.

Her life in the city wasn’t all she’d dreamed it would be, but living in Cutter’s Creek wasn’t what she wanted either. So where did that leave her?

L
ogan looked around the cabin surprised to find it empty. He needed to find Tessa, talk to her, make sure she was okay. Her family meant well, he knew that, but they came off all wrong.

He walked back outside, peering into the darkness for any hint of where she could be. All vehicles were accounted for. She would never brave a walk along a trail in the dark. Not only was she smarter than that, but she’d be too afraid of seeing spiders lurking nearby to risk it.

Near the water’s edge, a pinpoint of light beckoned him like a lighthouse.

A sliver of moon hung in the clear, star-filled sky now that the rain had stopped and the clouds had blown away. Even from here he could see the reflections off the calm surface of the lake and knew the light he saw was Tessa, probably with her sketchbook open and working.

He rifled through his bag for a minute until he found the small box he needed, then wandered toward her. Taking a seat on the dock next to her, he stared out at the lake, unspeaking. She was sketching, and from what he could see it was another amazing scene. He hated to interrupt her while she worked, but he also couldn’t allow her to be unhappy and alone.

He placed the small box on her knee. “I got you a little something in town.”

She glanced down to the gift and reached for it, hesitating for a second before opening it. She rubbed her thumbs over the little colored sticks through the window in the packaging. “These are great. But why the gift?”

He shrugged. “When I first saw your sketches they reminded me of this picture I saw once. The artist had drawn scenic landscapes like you and used pastels. I thought you could try them. Might be a fun change from your usual pencil work.”

“This was nice of you,” she said, meeting his gaze. Even in the low light, he could read the range of emotion in her eyes tonight. “Thank you, Logan. This is so sweet of you.”

“You’re welcome.”

When he peered into her eyes, he felt as if he could see her soul, as if the wall she kept up around everyone else was suddenly invisible and she let him in fully to know the real Tessa, not the girl she wanted people to see, but the woman she was on the inside. When she looked at him with this expression, he would hike up Kilimanjaro if she asked. He’d do anything to make her feel better, to take away her pain, and to make her keep looking at him like this, with this look of…love in her eyes. Or maybe that was how he looked at her.

“If it’s any consolation, they were all sorry to hear about the gallery,” he said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “I think they were in shock to learn about your fake boyfriend.”

She didn’t speak, just sketched.

“I’m sorry the gallery said no. Was it one you wanted?”

Sniffling, she wiped her nose with a tissue and nodded. “Yeah. I should’ve known there was no way they’d want me. I’m out of my league. I mean, who am I anyway? Nobody.”

“That’s not true. Your work is great. It’s the city that sucks.” His chest ached for her. If only there was something he could do to take her pain away, to ease her self-doubt, restore her faith in herself. Maybe he could help, in some small way, because at least he understood life in the city better than her family could. He’d lived and worked there. He’d been chewed up and spit out too. He’d had his dreams squashed like a cockroach. If anyone understood her right now, it was him.

“I know how it feels to pin all your hopes and dreams on the opportunity you see in the city only to have them fall short and leave you crushed.”

“Yeah? How?” Her hand continued to move over the page, filling in little details. Every stroke of her pencil brought the picture to life more and more. Even if he hadn’t been seeing the moment firsthand, her picture would’ve completely captured the mood and tone of the scene before him.

“This gym teacher job in Cutter’s Creek isn’t my first time in the classroom. I was a teacher in the city for a few years too. I loved working with the kids and seeing them get better at sports and have a healthy attitude, but at the end of the day, I still felt dissatisfied with life. I didn’t like having to follow a set of guidelines that weren’t my own. Showing up at school early, staying late, filling out report cards, none of it was my thing. The only stuff I enjoyed was when a parent would come to me to ask advice about how to help their kid be healthier or improve at a sport they loved. I felt energized to make a plan for them.”

He paused to clear his head. Thinking back about his time in the city, it was still hard to deal with the overwhelming disappointment. For a place he’d called home his whole life, he felt little love for it.

“I’m not sure I see the connection. Seems like you had a good thing.” She put her book on the dock beside them and followed his gaze out to the lake.

“I finally realized the stuff that made me the happiest was the stuff I only got to do once in a while. So I made the choice to quit teaching and become a personal trainer instead. I figured if what I loved was creating a health plan for students, then I should do that full-time. Sort of like how you know you love art and want to do it full-time.”

“Is that when you opened your gym?”

He sighed. How many times had he asked himself if there was something different he could’ve done to keep the gym running? “I used my entire savings to open my gym in this space around the corner from my place. I figured it was a good location—near lots of residential housing and there wasn’t a huge brand name gym within a few blocks, and the rent was almost affordable. So I went for it. But I could never figure out how to get a steady stream of people through the doors. I’d get a few, but not enough to bring in the rent check each month. I tried advertising and different hours. I added more services and tried to create an option for everyone, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t compete with the bigger gyms. Even though they were farther away, it didn’t matter. Eventually, I was out of money, out of options, and out of energy.”