Pursuit (2 page)

Lauren flinched away from him, the back of her head hitting the wall.
"You can't kiss me!"

"
I can't?" he asked, far too dramatically.

"
No!"

His brows came together and he tipped his head to the side a bit, as if they were sharing a joke.
"Too soon?"

Her heart continued to crash against her breastbone
. "Yes!"

His thumb swirled over her chin in a caress as he peered at her intently.
"So when? You want to come to my house tonight?"

Holy shit!
She couldn't believe he'd just asked that question. She knew what he wanted, of course, and she felt a huge burst of disappointment. But just to make sure she wasn't about to blow him off unjustly, because he was crazy-freakin' hot and she for damn sure didn't want to blow him off if he didn't deserve it, she asked, "What for?"

His eyes narrowed and he frowned as if he were trying to come up with a suitable answer.
"How 'bout for coffee? I know you like coffee." He smiled as if he'd just come up with the most brilliant statement ever.

"
Coffee?" she asked with deep sarcasm.

"
No? Not coffee? You're not buying that one? How about food? I could feed you."

"
You want me to come to your house for coffee and food?" Lauren knew she needed to leave now. "You're just hilarious, aren't you?"

"
What do you want me to tell you here, sweetheart?" He looked her over seductively, his attention focused entirely on her.

"
You're real smooth, aren't you?" she asked harshly.

He shrugged his shoulders.
"You started it, hon. You were the one watching me."

"
So does this approach usually work for you?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.

He shrugged.
"Can't say I've ever cornered a woman in a coffee shop before."

"
So I'm the first? I'm flattered."

"
You don't need to feel flattered. Every man out there is thinking the same thing I am." He tilted that damn arrogant head toward the room behind them.

Rolling her eyes, she said,
"Great. Thanks. I need to get back to work."

He ignored that and asked,
"Are you married?"

Her eyes narrowed and her mouth tightened.
"You wouldn't still be touching me if I were."

"
Ahh. A woman with scruples. I like that."

"
Yes, well,
so happy
you're pleased." With a knot of disappointment in her stomach, she attempted to shrug him off again but he wasn't having it.
"I've got to go."

"
And I'll let you go. In about ten seconds. So. No husband. No boyfriend?"

Lauren began to get light-headed under his unrelenting questioning. She shook her head, prepared to give him one more chance.
"I don't have a boyfriend."

"
A lover?"

Lauren gasped and rolled her eyes at his over-the-top question.
"No."

"
Looking for one?"

Damn it.
She knew it
. He wasn't interested in her. He just wanted to
do
her. She'd given him the benefit of the doubt, but he'd blown it. Such a pity. She raised a single eyebrow and prepared to shoot him down. "You offering?"

"
Mm-hmm."

She shook her head back and forth and cut her eyes heavenward before focusing back on him.
"I don't think so."

He was smiling again, the bastard. Instead of noticing that she was trying to blow him off, he was grinning as though they were about to have babies together. He opened those gorgeous lips and asked,
"You don't think it'd be good?"

Jesus,
this guy thought he was God's gift to women. She looked him over, up and down and then shook her head. She had a momentary feeling of regret, but nothing good could come from an encounter like this one. She stiffened her spine and prepared to sound firm and confident, tried to sound as if she had untold experience and that he didn't match up. She opened her mouth to speak, and was proud of herself when her words came out smooth and crisp. "Nah. You're too good-looking. In my experience, good-looking men have no clue what to do in bed. And sorry,
honey
. I've got no interest in teaching you." With that, she pulled her arm from his fingers and walked away.

****

Logan watched her rigid little back and the gentle sway of her butt as she left the building and a hot coil of need filled him. He abruptly knew that what he was feeling couldn't be appeased by anyone else anytime soon. He lifted his hands and cracked his knuckles as if preparing for a fight.

Oh, fuck yeah. Game on.

****

At work the next afternoon, Lauren
's friend and co-worker, Heidi, invited her out for drinks with the usual group of women. They were going to a pub around the corner where they often went for happy hour. "You look great today. How you manage to pull off that casual look but still appear so professional is beyond me," Heidi complimented, or complained, Lauren couldn't tell which.

Lauren continued to stare at the numbers in front of her.
"Thanks, I'm just glad they let us wear jeans. That's how I pull it off. But I can't go. Not tonight. I've got a couple of hours to put in on the Beaumont project. The figures just came in and I don't want to be here all weekend so I'm going to get a jump start on them."

Heidi looked put out.
"You're going to wrinkle up and your vagina will atrophy if you never use it, you know."

Lauren glanced up from the document on her screen, not quite believing she
'd heard her friend correctly. Seeing the coolly disapproving look on Heidi's face, Lauren burst into laughter. "That's ridiculous. You come up with a lot of crap, but that about makes the top of the list." Lauren turned back to the work she needed to finish but she continued to speak with a distracted tone. "You think I'm menopausal or something? I'm kind of young for that."

"
There are more causes of atrophy than menopause, you know. Lack of estrogen for one. Have you ever heard of the saying
'use it or lose it'?"
Heidi seemed intent on goading her, but Lauren continued to study the chart on her screen. "I'm serious, if you don't
do it,
your estrogen levels will drop."

"
That's pure bullshit," Lauren laughed, knowing that she'd be able to get back to work sooner if she'd take the time to humor Heidi for awhile.

Heidi tapped the back of Lauren
's chair and then crossed her arms over her chest. "Seriously, you need to do something. You hardly ever go out with us, and I know you haven't dated anyone since surfer boy."

The laughter died from Lauren
's lips. "Yeah, that was a mistake."

"
It's
always
a mistake to date a surfer. Nothing good can come of it. But since you come from the Midwest, you couldn't have known. But now you've learned the lesson. You'll always come second behind the most important thing in their lives. Waves."

Lauren nodded her head in pained agreement and Heidi continued,
"It's not like they can keep a job, because they'll quit at the drop of a hat instead of missing a strong south wind."

Lauren wasn
't so quick to judge them all as one and keeping half her concentration on her work and the other half on the conversation, she said, "I'm sure there are men who surf who also manage to hold down a job. Just because you and I got burned by a couple of bums, doesn't mean they're all bad."

"
Oh, trust me. They're
all
bad. You just hit on the key difference. Men who surf are just that; men who surf
once in a while
. Surfers are the ones who chase waves and don't give a shit about anything else, not really. Scott and Robert were surfers,
capisce?"

"
Yep. I see the difference."

Heidi studied her intently and turned the subject back to where it had been going before she got derailed.
"So how long has it really been since a man has touched you?"

Even though Lauren knew that her friend was asking how long it had been since she
'd had sex, she took the question at face value and immediately thought of the man at the coffee shop yesterday.
He'd touched her.
She
knew
he had because she'd felt it all the way to her toes. Her skin still tingled from where his fingers had locked around her arm. It was a pity he'd been such a douche and was only interested in one thing, because she couldn't deny that the thought had definitely been in her mind as well.

But unfortunately, she wasn
't a slut.

Damn
. Why wasn't she a slut?

Surely she could have learned to be one for him. That touch. That voice. That tall, hard body incased in boots and blue jeans. Holy hell, if there was any guy who warranted her becoming a slut, it was him. But she
'd let him go, and now she had no way of getting in contact with him again, even if she wanted to.

Heidi waved her hand in front of Lauren
's face and snapped her fingers. "Hey. Are you holding out on me? Not telling me something? You've been sleeping with somebody?"

"
No." Lauren grimaced and shook her head.

"
So what was the look for?"

"
Nothing." Lauren finally gave up and pressed a button to save her work and then swiveled in her chair to fully face her friend. "I met a seriously hot guy yesterday."

Heidi put her hand to her chest and dramatically acted as if she were about to fall to the floor. Then she sat down on Lauren
's desk and crossed her legs. "Spit it out."

"
There's nothing to tell. He was hot. We were at the coffee shop, we checked each other out, he followed me to the back of the store and proceeded to try to get me to meet him later for sex."

"
No fucking way!"

"
Oh yeah, he did." Lauren underlined.

"
You have all the damn luck! So what was wrong with him?" Heidi questioned.

Lauren
's mouth flattened in lines of a sulk. "You mean, besides the fact that he was an asshole who only wanted to screw me?"

"
Well, yeah, besides that. You going to blame him for thinking you're hot?"

"
Well, no," Lauren was forced to admit.

"
Well, what then?"

Lauren stared at her friend.
"Have you ever known me to just sleep with somebody for what . . . the relief of it?"

"
Yeah, the relief of it, and no, I haven't known you to. But I'm telling you." Heidi narrowed her eyes. "
Vaginal atrophy."

"
Shut up."

"
You
shut up. You need to get laid, Lauren."

"
I don't have his name or number or anything, even if I was as . . . non-discerning as you are." She gave her friend a look and Heidi only smugly smiled and nodded her head as if she fully agreed.

Lauren laughed,
"Yeah, I tried to put that nicely."

"
Well done, but next time, don't screw up so badly. If a dude's as hot as you're describing, you have to at least get his number, you know!"

"
All right. I hear you loud and clear. Maybe you can start giving me lessons on snagging a guy for . . . good times," Lauren joked, tongue-in-cheek. "But it will have to wait a few weeks, I have to get this project finished or I'll have no life and I'll be continually stressed about it," she hinted, trying to get back to work.

"
Blah, blah, blah." Heidi lifted a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "I know you're not serious about lessons so I'm not going to get too excited." Heidi looked put out and then changed the subject. "You know that new guy from Florida is hot for your tail, right?"

"
Hot for my tail?
Seriously, you'll never get married if you don't tone it down." Lauren studied her friend. "Nico? The guy in sales?" She made a face and shook her head. The guy gave her the creeps. "He already asked me out and I turned him down."

"
I want him if you don't," Heidi said.

"
Be my guest."

"
And I damn well
will
get married," Heidi argued. "Just because I act like a slut in front of my friends doesn't mean I'm stupid enough to do it in front of potential fathers-of-my-future-children."

Not missing a beat, Lauren said,
"That's good because guys have a built-in slut radar or something, you know that, right?"