Las Vegas Nights: At Odds with the Heiress

His gaze swung in her direction. “I never left.”

“You weren’t here when I came to get water.”

“I stepped outside to talk to Lucas.” He gestured with his cell phone. “I didn’t want to disturb you.” As he spoke, he narrowed the distance between them. “Is your jaw still sore?”

He’d moved within reach and before she could question the wisdom of her actions, Scarlett pressed herself against his strong body. She wrapped her arms around his waist and felt him tense. But when his hands touched her shoulders, it wasn’t to push her away but to gather her still closer.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’re safe.”

And for the first time in a long time, she knew she was. Letting someone take care of her wasn’t comfortable for Scarlett. She’d developed a deep and wide streak of distrust not long after reaching puberty. The older brother of one of her fellow actors had cornered her in a dressing room and stuck his tongue down her throat. Afterward he’d threatened to say she’d come on to him if she told anyone what had happened. She’d been twelve years old at the time and was just beginning to understand what it meant to be a woman.

“I’m not always strong,” she told him, her voice muffled against his shoulder. “Usually I’m terrified that what I’m doing is completely wrong.”

Logan stroked her hair. “You’ve sure fooled me.”

“That was the idea.”

* * *

Logan drew Scarlett toward the couch. They sat together in the middle with little space between them. Scarlett snuggled against his side and her lips curved into a dreamy smile when his arm came around her shoulder. It was a serene, domestic moment, unlike their normally tempestuous encounters. The invasion of her home had cracked her shell, knocking her off her game.

For the first time he didn’t question whether this was honest fear or just a performance to make him sympathetic toward her. He’d seen her acting range. She could transform herself into whatever played into a man’s fantasy. Since he’d criticized the way she dressed, he’d noticed her wardrobe had become more professional. Was she donning another costume, one designed to win him over? Did she even comprehend what she was doing? Or was it second nature to her?

“You’re a hard woman to read, Scarlett Fontaine.”

Tonight, she’d been as rattled as he’d ever seen her. So much so she couldn’t bring herself to tell him she was afraid.

Her sigh brushed his neck. “I hate to admit it, but you bring out the worst in me.”

He was silent a long moment. “Why is that?” He asked the question, not expecting she’d tell him the truth.

“I guess I want too much for you to like me.”

Her declaration caught him off guard. Had she recovered her equilibrium? Was this an act? She’d been prickly when he’d told her he wasn’t going to take advantage of her. She hadn’t appreciated his chivalry. And she’d been right to say that few men would’ve let her go to bed alone. Sitting alone out here with nothing but an unlocked door between them was a harsh test of his willpower.

“Why do you care what I think?”

“Because I like you and I know you don’t approve of me.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Why do you care what I think?”

“There aren’t a lot of people who don’t like me.” She huffed out a small laugh. “I know how that sounds, but I’ve always had a knack for winning people over.”

“I’ve seen you in action many times.”

“I can hear it in your voice. You don’t approve of how I behave.” She sounded grumpy.

Against his better judgment, Logan found her dismay charming. “Does it occur to you how ridiculous it sounds to say you want me to like you when you’ve been provocative and difficult at every turn?”

“I’m simply responding to your scorn.” She flashed him a baleful glance. “Call it self-preservation.”

Hadn’t he been just as guilty of provoking her? “Should we call a truce?”

“And have you lose interest in me because things become boring between us?” Her green eyes had regained some of their wicked sparkle. “Half the reason you find me so attractive is because I keep you guessing.”

“You’re sure I find you attractive?”

He’d no sooner uttered the challenge when her hand curved across his thigh. His muscles twitched in response and her lips arced impishly. That she was touching him to prove a point was the only thing that kept him from flipping her onto her back.

“If you knew all my secrets,” she said, “you’d find me deadly dull.”

“I can’t imagine that’s possible.”

To hell with his earlier stance on not taking advantage of her in a vulnerable state. There was only so much temptation a man could take. And the pressure behind his zipper demanded that he give up the fight.

He bent down and captured her mouth in a slow kiss meant to satisfy his need for deeper intimacy with her. She moaned beneath his lips and twisted her body until she was sliding backward. Unwilling to be parted from her even for a second, Logan broke off the kiss and scooped his hands beneath her ass, repositioning her with her spine flat on the couch, his weight crushing her into its soft cushions.

“Are you okay?” he asked noticing her slight wince. He pushed a hair away from her face and eyed the spot where the intruder had hit her. “If your jaw is hurting, we should stop.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Logan wasn’t convinced. “You’ve swelled up a bit where he hit you.”

“I’m fine.”

“Really?”

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

As fierce as his desire was for her, Logan wasn’t about to rush the moment he’d been fantasizing about for weeks. No matter how deeply lust sank its talons into his groin, he intended to explore every inch of her skin, taste each sigh, absorb the entirety of her surrender.

He applied gentle kisses to her parted lips, causing her to murmur in encouragement. With his weight pinning her, she had little hope of wiggling and driving him mad with provocative movements, but her hands were free and she used them to her advantage.

After ruffling his hair and tracing his spine, she tightened her grasp on his shirt and pulled it free of his pants. Braced against the first touch of her skin against his, he kept up the slow seduction with his lips and tongue. She sighed as her palms connected with his lower back. Logan couldn’t prevent the instinctive twitch his body gave as she raked her long nails up his sides.

Ignoring the heat blazing between them, he cupped her cheek and licked at her lips, running his tongue along her teeth before flicking her tongue. Beneath his palm he felt her facial muscles shift and knew she was smiling. He kissed her nose, a grin of his own blooming at her heartfelt sigh.

“Why so impatient?” he teased, taking her plump lower lip between his teeth and sucking ever so lightly.

Her nails bit into his back. “Because five years of foreplay is too long.”

“Five years?” Carefully avoiding her bruised jaw, he nuzzled the soft skin below her ear, inhaling her smooth, fresh perfume and the sharper tang of her earlier stress. If nothing else reinforced his need to take his time, this reminder of what she’d been through tonight did. “Is that what we’ve been doing all this time?”

“Of course.” She adjusted the angle of her head to grant him better access to her neck.

“How do you figure?”

“You don’t seriously think all that animosity between us was anything other than frustrated sexual energy, do you?”

He knew what it had been on his part, but was surprised she admitted to being similarly afflicted. “Are you saying you’ve wanted me this whole time?”

He tried to make his voice sound shocked, but ended up fighting a groan as she found a way to free her left leg from beneath him. By bending her knee, she was able to shift his hips into the perfect V between her thighs. Her intimate heat pressed against his hip even through the layers of fabric between them. Breath rasping in and out of his lungs, he held perfectly still to savor the sensation.

“Of course.”

He believed her because whenever they touched, the walls tumbled down between them. And in this place where they communicated truth as easily with words as they did with their bodies, he was in serious danger of falling hard.

Was that why he’d doubted and taunted her all these years? Because he suspected that if they had a civil conversation he might have to face just how crazy he was about her? All her flaws became insignificant. All his misgivings seemed to be paranoia.

“Make love to me, Logan,” she pleaded when the silence dragged on too long. “Don’t make me wait any longer.”

“I want nothing more,” he admitted. “But let’s take it slow.”

“Slow?” She didn’t look happy.

“Slow,” he confirmed. “You’re worth savoring. Relax.” He reclaimed her lips and soothed her with soft, romantic kisses. “We have all night.”

* * *

Scarlett put her impatience aside and let Logan set the pace. The ache between her thighs didn’t abate, but neither did it intensify as they exchanged a series of slow, sweet kisses. The give-and-take of his lips against hers was comforting and the fog of desire dissipated from her mind, offering her a chance to enjoy the feel of his strong body where it pressed against hers and the subtle cologne he’d applied for their date tonight. She concentrated on relaxing her muscles, ignoring the hunger needling her. Logan was right. They’d waited this long. Why rush it?

His kisses did unexpected things to her emotions. Lighter than soap bubbles, joy pushed outward from her center. Logan made her feel like no other man ever had. Cherished. Appreciated. Understood. The excitement she’d expected to feel as his body mastered hers was tempered by the need to relish every second of their time together.

“Why are you smiling?” Logan asked, drifting his lips across her eyelids and down her nose.

“I’ve never necked on the couch like this.”

“Never?” Surprise peppered Logan’s question. “I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s true. Necking is something you do with your boyfriend on your parents’ couch or in the back of your boyfriend’s car.”

“Seems to me you had both a boyfriend and access to a couch and car.”

“I wasn’t a normal teenager. For one thing, I didn’t go to regular school. I had tutors and studied between scenes. For another, my boyfriend at the time liked partying with friends and hitting the club.” Not kicking back and hanging out alone with his girlfriend.

“Oh, right, you were dating that boy-band reject back then.”

Hearing Logan’s derision, Scarlett wished she’d kept her mouth shut, but now that the door was open, she might as well step through.

“We started dating when we were fifteen.” Lost in girlish, idealistic fantasies about love, she’d relished their role as America’s sweethearts, but their private interaction wasn’t nearly as romantic as their public one. “After being fired from That’s Our Hilary because my image was becoming too sexy and getting offered nothing but vampy bad-girl parts, I tried to clean up my image by trotting out this vow of chastity until I got married.” The armies of paparazzi following them had eaten it up. Reacting the way any normal eighteen-year-old boy would, Will had dumped her.

“You’re a virgin?” Logan did a lousy job hiding his amusement behind mock surprise.

“Don’t be absurd.” To punish him, she rotated her hips and rubbed her pelvis against his erection. His eyes glazed with satisfying swiftness. “After Will and I broke up, I discovered celibacy wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.”

“So, you’ve never necked on a couch before,” he prompted. “Anything else I should know about?”

Too much. But those things would have to wait until she had a better handle on what was happening between them. “One revelation per day is all you’re going to get.”

“At this rate, it’ll take the rest of my life getting to know you.”

His offhand remark created a vacuum between them. Scarlett kept her eyes lidded and her breath even as she said, “It never occurred to me that you’d let it take that long. You’re so impatient when it comes to getting answers.”

“Some things are worth waiting for.”

It wasn’t like Logan to be cryptic, but Scarlett had no chance to question him further. His lips returned to hers with more intensity, and she knew the time had come for serious play between them.

When she’d dressed in the lounge suit, she hadn’t planned on Logan’s strong, sure hands smoothing over her curves, but now she was glad she hadn’t slipped into her underwear first. As bare beneath the hot-pink fabric as the day she was born, Scarlett knew the instant Logan’s fingers discovered her secret.

“Scarlett,” he groaned her name as her nipple tightened against his palm. “What you do to me.”

She arched her back and bared her throat for his lips and tongue. After working her into an unsteady mess, he glided his mouth across her collarbone and deposited gentle kisses in the hollow of her shoulder. His chin nudged along the edge of the fabric as he dusted his lips across her breastbone and worked his way toward her cleavage.

The zipper of her lounge suit surrendered beneath the downward pressure of Logan’s fingers. She gasped as cool air washed across her bare skin, but his lips skimmed over her ribs, warming her once more. Desire rushed through her as Logan finished unfastening the jacket and laved her quivering stomach. Sensation lanced straight to her hot core, leaving her head spinning.

Impatience clawed at her, but the man refused to move at the speed she so desperately craved. Now, instead of kissing her lips and neck, he was paying entirely too much attention to her abdomen, rib cage and the ticklish spot just above her hipbone.

“Logan, there are other parts of me that are hungry for your attention.” She tugged on his shirt, urging him to stop ignoring her breasts.

“Are there, now?” He kissed his way upward. “And what might those be?”

“My breasts are feeling very lonely.” She gathered them in her hands and offered him their aching fullness.

With a smile he licked around one nipple. “They are so beautiful, I was saving them for later.”

She was half-mad with the anticipation of having his mouth so close but just out of reach. “Not later,” she insisted as his tongue flicked one sensitive button. “Now.”

“Whatever you say.”

She had never imagined that ordering him to do what she wanted would be so thrilling. A moan ripped from her throat as he pulled her nipple into his mouth and sucked. Scarlett sank her fingers into his thick black hair and held on tight as an ocean swell of pleasure pushed her out of her depths.

“More,” she ordered as he switched to her other breast. “I need more.”

He soothed her with a single word. “Soon.”

But her need for him was escalating too fast and they both had too many clothes on. She grabbed ahold of his belt and tugged to get his attention. “This has to go.”

Unable to budge him, she hooked her fingers in the waistband of her own pants and eased them downward, knowing she couldn’t get them off but hoping he’d get the hint and help her.

“Not yet.”

But as he reached down to tug her hand away, she turned the tables on him and pulled his fingers across her mound.

“Yes,” she purred, parting her thighs still farther to encourage him to explore. She was rewarded by the slide of his finger against her moist heat. “Right there.”

Throwing her head back, she closed her eyes and centered every bit of concentration on the swirl of Logan’s tongue around her breast and the drag of his fingers at her core. She could feel tension invade his muscles and knew what he’d hoped to prolong was moving forward at its own speed, gaining momentum as it swept them toward their ultimate destination.

Her own body was tightening pleasurably. A smile curved her lips as she once again felt the downward drift of Logan’s mouth on her body. This time he didn’t linger at her stomach, but continued to move at a torturously slow pace to the place where she burned.

* * *

Logan eased her pants down her thighs. Blood pumped vigorously through his veins, clouding his vision. He blinked, needing desperately to focus on the exquisite body he was slowly baring—the large, full breasts, tiny waist and flat stomach. The jut of her hipbones and those long, toned legs. Absolutely gorgeous. And all his.

Tossing her pants aside, he settled between her thighs and cupped her round butt in his palms. Her eyes flew open as he set his tongue against her and drank in her essence. As demanding as she’d been a moment earlier, she melted like butter beneath his intimate kisses now. Her fingers clutched at his shirt, gripping hard enough to tear the seams.

He opened his eyes and watched her come apart. As she surged toward completion he experienced a rush of gratitude that he was here, giving her this pleasure. Her mouth opened as her entire body stiffened. His name escaped her in a keening cry.

As she drifted back to earth, he sat up and stripped off his clothes. He pulled a condom out of his wallet and sheathed himself. Any hope of taking his time was smashed by her parted thighs and welcoming arms. He lay back down, and angled his hips until the tip of his erection sat at her entrance. Her arms closed about his neck, her fingers playing with his hair.

“I need to feel you inside me,” she murmured, kissing his chin.

He dipped his head and kissed her soft lips, the contact tender and slow. When her tongue stole out to mate with his, he slipped into her in one smooth stroke and groaned. She clasped him in a snug embrace and the sensation was too much for words. But one stood out in his mind.

“Amazing.”

“Absolutely.”

Moving inside her was the single most incredible thing he’d ever experienced. Somehow she knew exactly how to shift her hips to achieve the ideal friction. Making love on the couch wasn’t ideal, but their shared laughter as they jostled for leverage and strained to pleasure each other with lips, hands and movements made the moment completely perfect and totally theirs.

He’d never imagined feeling such a strong connection with any woman, much less the one who’d been a thorn in his side for five years. Maybe she was right. It had been simple sexual frustration. Once they satisfied their itch for each other, they could go politely on their way, never to take jabs at each other again.

Somehow the idea that he might never get another night with Scarlett filled him with anguish. He kissed her hard, grappling with the notion that his desire for her could ever be fully slaked. But if she continued to drive him crazy, what did that mean for the future?

He quickened his pace as control abandoned him. Scarlett matched his intensity, her expression tight with concentration as they drove together toward completion. As she began to peak, her eyes opened and locked on his. The smile that emerged on her passion-bruised lips speared straight into his heart. It wasn’t carnal or greedy in nature. It was heartbreakingly open. She’d offered him a glimpse into her soul and it was brimming with optimism and hope.

Logan buried his face in her neck to escape what he’d seen, but the image haunted him as he felt her body begin to vibrate. The bite of Scarlett’s nails against his back triggered his own orgasm. Muscles quivering, nerves pulsing with frantic energy, he thrust hard into her and let himself go. Together they crested, voices blending in perfect harmony.

Bodies trembling in the aftermath, they clung to each other. Logan’s chest pumped, drawing much-needed air into his lungs. Scarlett’s fingertips moved languidly up and down his spine, her touch soothing.

Damn. What the hell had just happened?

“Give me a second and I’ll move,” he muttered, his voice raw and shaken. He hoped she would credit the workout they’d just had for causing him to sound so unsteady. She couldn’t find out how his feelings for her had deepened until he could sort out what to do about it.

“Take your time.” Scarlett’s voice was maddeningly relaxed and calm. “I’m enjoying the feel of all this brawn.”

While his heart thumped hard enough to break a rib, Logan kissed her cheek and the corner of her mouth. “Why are you smiling?”

“Are you kidding?” She laughed. “When was the last time you tore someone’s clothes off and had sex on a couch?” Her finger dug into his ribs. “And don’t you dare tell me last week.”

“I did not tear your clothes off.”

“No,” she agreed. “You took way too much time removing them.” She framed his face with her hands and forced his gaze to hers. “Are you okay?”

“I’m the guy,” he reminded her, turning his head so he could kiss her palm. “I’m the one who’s supposed to ask that.”

She twitched her shoulders. “So ask.”

“Are you okay?”

“Never better.”

Logan kissed her lips. “You know, we really should get off this couch.”

“Don’t you dare.” Her arm wrapped around his neck, holding him in a tight vise. “I like it right here.”

“At least let me...” He shifted his weight off her and lay on his back, pinning her on her side between him and the back of the couch. “That’s better,” he said, pulling the conveniently placed throw over their naked, cooling bodies.

“It’s nice.”

With her cheek resting on his shoulder and her body a curvy miracle half-draped over him, Logan closed his eyes and wondered when he’d enjoyed such contentment. Usually he was a burn-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of guy. He spent most of his days overseeing his company’s massive operations here in Las Vegas and his evenings dreaming up better technology to keep his clients’ assets safe.

Taking time for a personal life had been a low priority. Sure, he dated. A guy had needs. But he wasn’t one to linger after a nice dinner and some satisfying sex. He never exactly bolted for the door, but he certainly didn’t stick around long enough to snuggle.

This experience with Scarlett was much different. He was at peace. Delighted to hold her in his arms until the sun came up, watching her sleep or talking. Was it crazy that they argued about everything but blended seamlessly the instant they kissed? Would their differing points of view eventually taint their lovemaking?

It was no surprise that Logan was already thinking in terms of endings. Didn’t he enter every relationship with an eye on how and when it would end? Perhaps it wasn’t fair to the women he saw that he perceived their time together as finite, but his perspective was realistic. Even nine-year relationships ended. That his fiancée could choose her career over him had struck a devastating blow. One he wasn’t going to let happen again.

And he needed to be more wary than ever because slipping into sleep beside him was the first woman since Elle who had the potential to catch him off guard.

Seven

Humming happily, Scarlett dived into the clear, cool water of the private pool located on the same floor as her private suite. She loved to swim, and tried to spend at least thirty minutes in the morning doing laps. If she had a little more time, she floated across the dappled surface and enjoyed the lush vegetation planted around the pool deck.

She ached in all sorts of muscles this morning. Making love on a couch was just the sort of thing she might have expected from Logan. Waking up to his soft kisses and hard erection had been a nice surprise. If she’d been asked to bet how he’d behave in the cold light of a Las Vegas dawn, she would have put her money on him returning to his impatient, bad-tempered self. And she would have lost every cent.

Not only did he wake up aroused. He was playful in the morning. And unexpectedly romantic. For a woman who was used to being treated like some sort of trophy, Logan’s willingness to make her coffee and feed her orange slices had given her hope that she wasn’t simply a conquest.

Her happy glow persisted through the rest of the morning. At noon she headed to her office, where reality intruded. The script Bobby had promised to send sat in the middle of her desk. She tore open the package and scanned the short note he’d included. Even though she’d already decided against auditioning, there was no stopping the excitement that rushed through her. New scripts meant new opportunities and so few had come her way in the past few years.