The Summer Cottage (3 page)

He’d complimented her before, with a wink and a smirk or a cheerfully leering grin,
and she’d easily brushed it off. This felt different. Honest. Real, in a way that
should have been terrifying, but wasn’t.

“Thank you.”

She’d been right to bring them here, where magic sparkled in the sea air and rode
the hot rays of golden summer sunlight. Jessica could feel her heart, the heart she’d
carefully encased in layers of ice years before, beginning to melt as she watched
a gangly young colt kick up its spindly legs as it gamboled through the meadow, annoying
its mother.

And with every breath, she was deeply, achingly aware of the man at her side. She
didn’t need to look at him to feel the moment when he lifted his hand to smooth a
lock of red hair torn loose from her ponytail by the wind off the water.

The skim of his fingertips over the shell of her ear stole her breath, and everything
low in her body tightened as if he’d plucked a string. Desire, the sharp, dangerous
kind she’d forsaken a long time ago, heated her from the inside out. Reckless with
it, drunk on the salt spray and the freedom of the wild horses, Jessica said, “I’m
ready to answer your question now.”

*   *   *

Logan felt the way Jessica’s pulse fluttered under the sensitive pads of his fingers.
From their closeness? Or from her obviously deep-seated fear of showing him anything
personal about herself?

Deciding it didn’t matter—they had a deal—Logan ruthlessly squashed any potential
guilt and said, “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. The first question. And I’ve
decided to dive right in, because that’s how I roll.”

Her heart kicked again, although her finely sculpted features remained impassive.
Fascinated by the dichotomy, Logan dropped his hand to the side of her neck where
he’d be best able to track the data of her heart rate.
Human lie detector,
he thought absently, although he didn’t truly expect Jessica to lie. She might not
be thrilled to share her history, but there was a rock-solid core of honor to Jessica
that he knew would keep her from welching on their deal.

“Well?” Her voice was firm, even bored, but the tickle of her pulse against his fingers
told another story.

“So eager,” Logan murmured, low and heated, just to see if her heart rate would jump.
But instead it seemed to smooth out into a steady, slow rhythm. He frowned, and a
smile curved Jessica’s perfect lips.

“Yes, sir.” She was the picture of demure professionalism, blinking wide green eyes
up at him.

Dropping his hand with a muttered curse, Logan stepped back. “Balls. I can’t do the
seduction thing when you remind me that you’re technically my subordinate.”

Her smile faded. “I know.”

Logan jammed his hands into the pockets of the track pants. “The way you boss me around,
I forget sometimes.”

“You sometimes forget to pay attention to anything that isn’t related to the company
or your gadgets.” Jessica shrugged, wandering over to perch on a fallen tree trunk
by the side of the path. “Someone needs to look out for you.”

“It took me a while to realize that’s why you’re so damn bossy.” Logan ran his fingers
through his hair. “How many times did I fire you that first week? And since? But you
never go.”

He didn’t mention the glow of warmth it gave him now, every time he pushed her away
and Jessica pushed right back. In Logan’s experience, people left. They couldn’t freaking
wait to leave, which was why he preferred to spend his time with the fascinating puzzles
in his lab rather than socializing.

Jessica was different. She never courted his interest, never tried to intrigue—and
yet, effortlessly and inevitably, the enigma of Jessica Bell had captured Logan’s
attention.

“I don’t go because you have no power to fire me,” she reminded him with relish. Man,
she loved to hold that over his head.

“And apparently, even at my most deliberately obnoxious, I don’t have the power to
make your life miserable enough to quit.” Once it had sunk in that he couldn’t fire
Jessica and make it stick, he’d pranked her mercilessly for a week.

He’d rigged her desk drawers to stick, then pop open at irregular intervals. He’d
fiddled with her ergonomic office chair so that whenever she sat down, the seat sank
to the lowest position. He’d reprogrammed the calendar application on her tablet to
randomize the date and time of every event she entered. And when none of that fazed
her, Logan got really creative.

“Remember when you convinced the entire security staff that I was a stalker and should
be barred from Harrington Tower?” Jessica sighed reminiscently. “Good times.”

“That was one of my favorites. I spent hours doctoring the security feed to show you
sneaking into my private lab after hours. First time I ever missed a deadline for
Miles.”

Miles Harrington, in his capacity as CEO and president of Harrington International,
had not been pleased when Logan failed to appear at the quarterly meeting of the shareholders.
In his capacity as the eldest Harrington brother, Miles seemed to enjoy pointing out
how much Logan’s pranks looked like the pigtail pulling of grade school romance, to
the untrained eye.

“That was the last of the pranks, come to think of it,” Jessica realized.

“And it was the start of your campaign to transform me into a healthy, well-adjusted
human being.”

“Not that you make it easy.”

With an evil grin, Logan flopped down in the grass, careless of staining the new workout
gear. “Why would I make it easy for you to turn me into Miles when it’s so much more
fun to be me?”

He tilted his head back to catch the unfamiliar warmth of the sun on his face, and
caught Jessica’s troubled gaze.

“You know I don’t actually want to change who you are, right? I want you to take better
care of yourself. There’s a big difference.”

Equal parts uncomfortable with and delighted by her show of concern, Logan stretched
his long legs out in the grass until his sneakered foot nudged hers. “And you’re so
dedicated to my health that you’ve agreed to answer whatever question I pose, no holds
barred. So here it is.”

She crossed her legs as elegantly as if she were wearing a couture gown instead of
spandex pants and a sweatshirt. Without his human lie detector trick, there was not
a single crack in her poised, professional façade. “Hit me.”

Suddenly, all Logan wanted in the world was to shatter that mask of calm indifference.
To make Jessica Bell react with passion. So he ditched the softball question he’d
planned to ask about her parents, and went straight for the throat.

“Why are you so determined to keep me at arm’s length?”

She froze for an instant, only a heartbeat, before opening her mouth. Too quickly.

Logan shook his head. “And don’t give me that canned stuff about professionalism.
I want the real answer. Because we’d be explosive together, Tink, and you know it.”

The hot red flush that bloomed along her cheekbones set off a battery of triumphant
fireworks in Logan’s chest. Passion!

Of course, when she spoke, her voice was precise and calm, edged with enough acid
to sting. “What I know is that you’re spoiled. You’re a wealthy, uncommonly intelligent
man entirely too used to getting what you want. Maybe I turn you down just to help
you get accustomed to hearing the word
no.
”

Logan blinked, genuinely taken aback. “What makes you think I get everything I want?
And I noticed your little evasion there, by the way. Don’t expect me to let that slide.
I want a real answer.”

“To which question?” Jessica asked tightly.

“Both! All!” Logan clenched his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching for
her. “I don’t see how you can consider me spoiled when I’ve lost everyone that ever
mattered to me. Just because I have the sense to read the pattern and limit my desires
to those that are attainable—like casual sex, alcohol and my work—that doesn’t make
me spoiled. That makes me a realist.”

Jessica fell out of her prim pose on the log, her lithe limbs going loose and appealingly
awkward as her laser focus zoomed in on his face. “Logan.”

It was all she said, his name, but it felt brand new, as if she’d never said it before.
Or never so intimately. Heat constricted Logan’s chest, threatening to spread downward
to his groin.

Hastily drawing his legs up to rest his arms on his knees, he said, “But this isn’t
about me. I’m pretty sure deflecting the question onto me and my inner workings violates
the spirit of our agreement. So unless you want to call for a helicopter to come pick
me up from this godforsaken rock…”

Jessica narrowed a glare at him, her breath coming sharp and fast. Tension strung
out between them, taut as a wire. Greedy for more of the real Jessica Bell, the passionate
woman instead of the perfect assistant, Logan did what he’d do with any experiment
that began to show signs of success. He pushed it further.

“I know you have the company’s chopper pilot on speed dial,” Logan taunted, standing
up and dusting himself off as if he were on the point of heading back to the cottage
to pack. “We could be landing at the Wall Street heliport before nightfall.”

Jessica sprang to her feet, going toe to toe with him. “We’re not leaving Sanctuary!”

“Then answer the question!”

Something flickered in her gaze, a lightning flash that ratcheted the tension even
higher. Logan wanted to taste the sneer that twisted her gorgeous lips. “It’s a ridiculous
question. Have you honestly never considered that I turn you down because I’m not
sexually attracted to you?”

The challenge snapped between them like a rubber band drawn tight. Everything in Logan’s
blood leapt, speeding through his body and propelling him forward a step until they
were close enough to share breath.

If she retreated or faltered, Logan told himself, he’d leave it alone. But Jessica
never backed down for an instant. She tilted her head up a centimeter, heated defiance
vibrating through her taut form, and Logan lost his always-tenuous grip on healthy,
well-adjusted behavior.

“Let’s test that hypothesis,” he rasped. He wrapped his arms around her slim, arched
back and seized her mouth in a deep, hungry kiss.

Chapter 4

The imprint of Logan’s strong fingers branded Jessica’s back with heat, his arms like
ropes of fire binding her to him. She gasped, but not in surprise.

She should be surprised, she understood dimly through the maelstrom of desire his
lips and tongue stoked in her body, but she wasn’t. They’d been heading toward this
kiss ever since they first met. The only surprise was how long they’d held out.

Logan kissed the way he did everything else: with an intensity of focus and dedication
to skill that made Jessica feel like the only woman in existence who’d ever gone weak
in the knees at the taste of his mouth.

Of course, that wasn’t anything like the truth. The memory of exactly how diligently
Logan had practiced his kissing technique was enough to stiffen her melting spine.
She pushed out of his arms, shuddering at the brush of her clothes against overheated,
sensitized skin. “That’s enough.”

Logan’s eyes darkened to cobalt blue, his blown pupils tracking her every move like
a hawk hunting a field mouse. “No. One kiss is nowhere close to enough.”

Every sharp breath in was thick with the scent of him, male and aroused, and Jessica
swallowed against the temptation to slip back into his arms and finish what he’d started.

Dismayed, she snapped herself upright. She was dangerously, terrifyingly close to
breaking her cardinal rule of never mixing business and pleasure. She had to remember
what was at stake if she succumbed to Logan’s seduction. And in case that wasn’t enough,
maybe she could kill two birds with one stone.

If she answered his question as fully and honestly as he seemed to want, Logan would
finally understand why she would never, could never allow any intimacy with him. He’d
see how hopeless it was, and that he was better off sticking to his one-night stands
back in the city.

The thought gave her an odd pang in the region of her heart, but she ignored it.

“One kiss is certainly enough to prove the hypothesis,” Jessica said, taking refuge
in the dry, bland scientific language.

Logan arched a brow. “Or disprove it. You’re not going to argue that lack of sexual
compatibility is your reason, after kissing me like that.”

You kissed me,
she wanted to say, but the mischievous quirk at the corner of his mouth told her
that was exactly what he wanted. Rather than argue about who kissed who and how passionate
it had been, Jessica forged ahead. “You’re right, it would be pointless to claim I’m
not attracted to you.”

Desire flared sharply across his gorgeous face, his eyes never leaving hers.

Before he could take more than a step toward her, Jessica held up a hand. She needed
to preserve her distance if she had any hope of getting through this awful, humiliating
story. “The fact that my body reacts to yours does not obligate me to act on that
attraction.”

Throwing himself down to sit on the log she’d vacated, Logan was the picture of irritated
frustration. “You know it’ll be good between us. Why don’t you just give in? It’s
what we both want.”

Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. “Because what we want isn’t always good
for us, Logan. For instance, office romance. I know—from bitter experience—exactly
how badly an office romance can go.”

“That sounds like an interesting story.” His eyes sparkled with curiosity. “A story
that just might answer my question and fulfill your requirement for yesterday.” Jessica
nodded, her mouth suddenly uncomfortably dry.

“Okay then. Story time with Tink.” Without further ado, Logan reclined on the log
more fully, twisting his back like a bear scratching an itch as he found a comfortable
position. “Lay it on me.”

He looked oddly like the stereotype of a patient in a therapist’s office, fingers
laced together and resting on his chest. She watched them rise and fall with the steady
cadence of his breath, the expansion of his rib cage drawing her eyes to the lean,
mouthwatering V of his torso, and bit back a smile.