Tossing the Caber (The Toss Trilogy) (9 page)

“You make me insane, Diana. It’s the middle of the afternoon and it felt like midnight. The whole world was dark except for you.”

His words washed over her like a caress.

He drew a deep breath and blew it out. Leaning into the SUV he took hold of the seat belt and pulled it down across her body, running the back of his hand in a diagonal stroke from collarbone to hip. When it passed between her breasts she bit her lip to keep from moaning, but she couldn’t stop her body from arching slightly in response. His hand clenched tight as it left her hip.

“I don’t know if I can stand to drive another forty-five minutes like this.” He closed her door and got back in the Jeep. Both his hands were fisted as they rested on the steering wheel. He took another deep breath. “Diana, we’re not stopping for anything. If we don’t get back to town soon, I’m likely to pull over and take you in the car.” He turned his head to face her. “May we go to your condo? It’s a lot closer than my place.”

Diana nodded. She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes. “Just hurry, Logan.”

The Jeep hurtled through the afternoon sunshine, it’s movement smooth and swift. She heard him swearing softly under his breath, but her mind was not functioning too well. At least, it had little interest in anything going on around her. Instead, her considerable powers of concentration were focused completely on her own internal landscape of desire. She wanted him, and she was going to have him.

Deliberately, she silenced the small voice in her brain urging caution. Making contact with reality would have meant pulling back, and she didn’t want to. As long as she stayed focused inward, nothing existed for her but Logan…his hands, his lips, and the feelings he caused within her. When she spoke again, urgency vibrated in the soft words.

“Hurry, Logan.”

Logan arrived in front of Diana’s condo less than thirty minutes after pulling back onto the road. He looked at Diana again. He didn’t think she’d moved once, yet her body sent out waves of desire that were killing him.

He opened the passenger door, and released her seat belt, taking her hands in his. She opened her eyes and gazed at him with such open need, it was all he could do to ask for the key and lead her to her door. Cars whizzed by on the street, dogs barked, children laughed. Neither one of them noticed a thing.

Logan opened the door and scooped all five feet ten inches of her i
nto his arms. With adrenaline running through his veins, she felt lighter than he expected. Breathing in the scent of her, he carried her into the bedroom and set her on her feet in front of the satin covered bed.

She smelled like flowers, sunshine and summer heat. He tried to draw her closer for another kiss, but her hands pushed his arms aside. Her lips touched his for an instant,
then she stepped back, away from him. Pushing off her shoes, she pulled off her shirt and shorts, stripped off bra and panties, and moved toward him again. She was naked in his arms before he could speak.

So he wrapped
his hands around her arms, and held her away from him, looking at her for a long moment. “Beautiful. You are so beautiful.” He pulled her to him and slid his hands up and down her spine, over her back and hips. She had a mole on her left hip—he couldn’t see it yet, but he felt the tiny bump, circling his fingertip around it as he tasted her mouth. She pressed against him and he deepened the kiss, drawing her even closer, relishing the silken texture of her skin.

She began to move in response. Her hips pushed close against him, rocking against his erection. He shifted to lift her into his arms, but she wiggled out of his embrace, dropped to her knees and slid off his stoc
kings and shoes. Then she stood, pushing his hands away when he tried to hold her, and undid the buttons of his shirt, pushing it off his shoulders and tossing it aside. Running her soft hands over his biceps, she brought her cheek to his chest and inhaled, as if she wanted to breathe him in.

Then she stepped back, sat on the edge of the bed, and
let her gaze roam over him. “You look like a Greek statue.”

He felt himself swell and knew the tartan wouldn’t hide it.

Her wide, dark eyes focused lower, and she smiled.  “What do you wear under that?” Her hands begin to move towards his knees.

He froze in place, holding his breath. Soft hands touched the outside of his thighs and slid under the tartan up to his waist. She hooked the
waistband of his knit boxers and drew them slowly down. He kicked the shorts aside and waited. She slid her hands under the tartan again, running them up and down the outside of his thighs. He tensed in anticipation, but she only caressed his buttocks, then stopped.

Reclaiming the initiative, Logan grasped Diana’s wrists and pulled her to her feet. He backed up to the armchair and gathered her onto his lap. Wrapping one arm tight
around her, he cupped her breast with his hand. Softness threatened to spill through his fingers as he rubbed his thumb across her nipple.  It was already pebble hard. When he bent his head to take it into his mouth, she fisted a hand in his hair, and arched against his lips and teeth, whimpering with need.  He flicked the hardened nipple with his tongue, and her hips began to rock on his lap.

The movement began to unravel Logan’s self control. If she didn’t stop, he was lost. He powered himself up from the chair with Diana in his arms and laid her on the bed. Kicking the kilt aside, he looked back toward the bed. Unbelievable.

She had freed her hair. It spread out on the satin quilt like waves of dark silk. With her eyes locked on his, she licked her lips and opened her legs wide, hips still thrusting in sync—it seemed—with the pounding of his heart. She was wet and ready, glistening, moving as if he was already inside her. His slow seduction plan shot to hell, he moved onto the bed, covered her mouth with his and positioned himself to slide slowly into… a barrier.

Shocked, he yanked his head away from her lips. “Damn! What kind of game is this?  You’re a virgin.”

chapter
ten

With an agony of desire screaming through her body, Diana looked at Logan’s stunned face. She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you dare stop now. Please! Take me.” She thrust her hips towards his with mounting insistence, letting him see the desire on her face and the plea in her eyes.

For a long moment, he just looked at her. She kept arching against him in a steady rhythm, holding his eyes with her own.

Then he smiled, but his eyes were grim. “Yes, ma’am.” She felt his muscles gather, and with one strong thrust he broke through.

She cried out, tensing against the burning pain, but only for an i
nstant. Then desire pushed discomfort aside and her hips began to move against him again.

Still, he waited. “You okay?”

“Yes. I need you, Logan.”

At last, he began to move, and she matched him stroke for glorious stroke. She was immersed in sensation, buffeted by her need for him.

The tension in her body spiraled upward, and broke in a series of powerful contractions. Dimly, she felt Logan’s release. Then the weight of his body collapsed upon her, and she smiled with smug satisfaction. Her limbs felt like lead; it seemed only fair that his should, too. Her hips continued to rock, but the movement was slower, almost sedate, and she gloried in each trembling aftershock. A few moments later, he shifted off her, spooning her against him with his arm around her waist.

It was easier to breathe now, but she missed his weight anyway. Snugged up against him, she curled her arms to her chest, holding tight the sense of belonging Logan had given her. She closed her eyes and drifted in an incredible sea of sensation, her body lethargic and oh, so content, her mind still vague and unfocused, the same words running through it that she had kept there all during the long ride home.
I want you, I want you, I want you.
And, in the background of her mind, somehow, the echo of those words came back as
Forever, forever, forever
. She slipped from a sweet sunny fuzziness into sleep.

When she woke, Diana left her eyes closed for a moment, picturing again how Logan had looked in nothing but his kilt. Broad shoulders, massive arms, flat corded stomach…

Muscles contracted deep inside her. The warmth of his body caressed her skin.

She stretched, bringing her hands behind her head and arching her neck as she sighed in contentment. Her body felt a little stiff, so she reached toward the head of the bed,
closing her eyes as she shifted her hips, stretching each side of her spine in turn. Marvelous. Then a strong hand cuffed her wrists and pinned them above her head.

Her eyes flew open, and she smiled the slow, seductive smile of a sa
tisfied woman. “Hello, Logan.”

He was looking at her as if he’d never seen her—or any other wo
man—before.

“What?”

“I thought I must have been hallucinating, but it was real, wasn’t it?”

“Not just real. Phenomenal, wonderful, fantastic.” She smiled again. “You are incredible, Logan.”

“I’m incredible? I did nothing. It was all you. How could you have been a virgin? You’re so hot, so passionate.” As he spoke, he ran his right hand down from wrist to thigh with tantalizing slowness, edging her left side with fire. She writhed as his hand traveled the same path back, and desire began to build once more. But he released her wrists and removed his hand from her body. “Tell me. I really want to know. How could that be?”

She pulled her arms down and shrugged, missing the touch of his hand. There was no way she was going to start talking about her lonely adolescence. “It isn’t hard to be a virgin if you’ve never met a man you wanted…and could trust.”

“This is going to sound corny, but I’m honored. Truly, I am.”

Diana looked away. Through the window she could see the limbs of trees, their leaves shining in the warm afternoon sunlight. This conve
rsation was beginning to embarrass her. Besides, if they kept talking she’d wind up saying things she preferred to keep to herself.
Don’t spoil it.

She chose to distract him. Rolling to her side she ran her hand over the hard planes of his chest, past his hip and down his thigh. She saw his eyes darken. As she began to retrace the path he stopped her by laying his hand over hers. His voice was throaty and deep. “Diana, touch me.” She hesitated a moment, then took him into her hand. Almost immed
iately he expanded even further. Delicately, her fingertips glided over his hard shaft and lingered on the soft, swollen tip with its intriguing opening. So soft and so hard…velvet over steel.

He groaned as she continued to touch him softly, exploring. Reac
hing out, he took her by the shoulders, squeezing her to him as if he would crush her and spoke against her lips before taking them with fierce passion. “You destroy me, Diana.”

The words barely registered, as desire raged again.

Diana awoke in Logan’s arms. Daylight was fading fast. He smiled at her and gently brushed back a strand of hair that lay across her face. “Get up, Diana. Go take a shower. I’m taking you to dinner, then I’m bringing you home and tucking you in bed, alone. You’re going to be sore enough tomorrow as it is.” He sat up, bringing her along with him. “Come on, get up.”

She was hungry, Diana realized.
Ow. And getting stiff. She eased herself from the bed and moved toward the bathroom. Stepping into the shower, she stood who knows how long, letting the water sheet over her body. She felt too peaceful to move. The door to the shower opened and Logan stepped in.

“You’re exhausted. Here, let me.” Ignoring the bath puff hanging there, he squeezed body shampoo into his hand. Distributing the soap on both hands, he massaged it over her entire body from neck to toes.

Once again lost in a rosy haze of sensuality, Diana delighted in his touch. Pushed gently back beneath the showerhead, she stood, passive, water streaming over her face and hair as he soaped and rinsed himself. He rubbed them both dry with a fluffy towel and wrapped it around her, then took her by the hand.

She followed him into the bedroom and allowed him to seat her on the cotton sheet covering her bed. Cotton sheet? She looked up at him. “You took off the quilt?”

He stroked a hand down her wet hair. “I’m afraid we messed it up.”

She nodded, understanding. “Not a problem. It won’t be cold t
onight.”

He chuckled, a deep satisfied sound that warmed her stomach like brandy in front of a roaring fire. “Just sit still and let me dry your hair.”

Somehow he’d found her wide-toothed comb and hairdryer. With more skill than she expected, he carefully combed the tangles from her hair with one hand as he plied the hairdryer with the other. She enjoyed the sensation of Logan tending her, but her brain was still in neutral, and she kept it there. She could think later. Right now, all she wanted to do was feel.

Finished, he pulled her to her feet. “Get dressed.” He began to put his own clothes back on. “We’ll stop by my house, I’ll lose the kilt and feed Spud, and then we’ll see about getting some food into you.”

Diana would normally have bridled at being ordered about, but she felt too cared-for to mind. She slipped into panties and a bra, pulled on a simple jersey knit sundress in a deep sapphire blue, and accompanied Logan to the Jeep.

Logan pulled his gaze back to the road. Diana was so beautiful, sitting there beside him in a simple blue dress, face free of makeup, eyes still slumberous from lovemaking. Something in his chest swelled, making breathing difficult. He wanted her again. Already.
Soft and slow and sweet. Still fully content, his body thoroughly satisfied, he wanted her. How could that be? What magic had she woven that he felt such bone-deep peacefulness and yet wanted? He remembered the softness of her skin beneath his lips, and heard the whisper of a sigh.

That wasn’t memory. Turning his head, he saw Diana watching him. “Is everything all right?”

She smiled, wide and slow. “Everything is perfect.”

Those lips, so soft and full, made
his own ache to kiss her. He turned his attention back to the road. “Hungry?”

“Ravenous.”

“Ever been to Bartinelli’s?”

“
Mmmmm.” The erotic sound of her voice echoed the moans from this afternoon.

His hands tensed on the steering wheel. 
Food, Carmichael, she needs food.
He concentrated on the road. “Glad you agree.” Whew. Far from getting her out of his system, the interlude at her condo had spawned a need that made what went before look like mere infatuation. It would be damn easy to lose his head completely over this woman.

When they were seated, Logan leaned toward Diana and reached for her hand, holding it gently. He wanted her to feel cherished. That was a bit of a surprise. He’d always been a considerate lover, gentle when ge
ntleness was called for, but this tenderness had a new quality to it. Must be because she’d been a virgin.
My first virgin
. He gave her hand a squeeze and smiled. “This place is a favorite of mine as well. Do you eat shellfish?”

She nodded. “I usually get the scallops—they do them beautifully.”

Excellent. “Would you be game to try my favorite meal here? It has scallops in it.”

Diana smiled. “That would be perfect. I feel too good to want to think. Why don’t you excuse me for a moment, and order while I’m gone? This is a night for good surprises.”

More startled than he wanted to show, he nodded. “Fine, I’ll do that.” She was certainly a different person away from the office. He watched the sway of her hips as she walked away from their banquette, and kissed the lazy contentment of his body goodbye.
Not so peaceful now, are we Carmichael?
She was the best surprise he’d ever had.

Dinner was outstanding, as he’d known it would be. They began with an appetizer of tender, perfectly fried calamari with a spicy dipping sauce. Fifteen minutes into their meal, the calories must have hit her bloodstream, because Diana lost her slumberous look and became more alert. As conversation ranged far and wide, Logan tried to find a way to bring it back to his topic of interest—Diana and her unexpected virgin
ity.

Finally, speaking softly at their corner table in the dimly lit resta
urant, he simply asked. “You changed the topic when I asked you this before, but maybe you’ll be willing to tell me now. How is it a woman as beautiful as you was a virgin? Surely men pursued you when you were in college.”

Diana pushed the last of her pasta—with scallops and shrimp in a de
licately seasoned cream sauce—around with her fork. To Logan, she appeared hesitant, but not upset. “What I told you earlier was the simple truth.”

“But surely you dated men in college.” If she hadn’t, the men had all been blind fools.

“Not as often as you imagine. I was very focused on my studies and my sport.”

“What sport was that?”

“Basketball. I love the game, and I’m a fair player. But my friend Sally Johnston—you met her at the shelter—is a real star. Team captain. She gave me a lot of coaching.” She flashed a self-deprecating smile. “I did make varsity, but my primary contribution was keeping the bench warm.”

Logan refilled her glass of Chablis. “So no time for men?”

“No.” She smiled wickedly. “I left that to Sally. There was one man my senior year. He gave me quite the rush, but I wasn’t particularly interested.”

“I can’t imagine that he gave up easily.”

A wry smile quirked Diana’s lips. “No, he didn’t. William was the company representative for a manufacturing firm. He made a serious attempt to sweep me off my feet. Then he vanished from my life without even a goodbye the day my father contracted to do business with a rival company. Daddy’s business was what William wanted, not me.”

Seeing the slight shadow in her eyes, Logan held out a forkful of New York cheesecake. “Try this.”

Watching her luscious lips as she accepted the dessert, he smiled and pitched his voice to caress. “Clearly William was an unmitigated idiot—thank God.”

Sliding closer, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. His tongue slipped inside her mouth—not possessive, but sensuous and pe
rsuasive—stroking the roof of her mouth, her lips, her tongue. Her head fell back onto his arm, and stayed there as he lifted his mouth from hers. “Yum. You and cheesecake—an unbeatable combination. Let’s try that again.”

He saw her lips curve upward. “
Mmmm. Let’s.”

Riding home beside Logan, Diana enjoyed the sweet anticipation of being in his arms again. As they strolled toward the door of her condo, her heart rate accelerated.

“I hate to have this evening end, Diana.” Logan kissed the palm of her hand, held securely by his strong fingers. “It’s been a magical day.”

The rhythm of her breathing picked up. “It doesn’t have to end yet.”

“Yes it does. You need rest and so do I. Give me your key.” Unlocking the door to her condo, Logan drew her inside.