A New Plan

Skyler Harrington is a planner. After the tumult of her childhood, she’s built a life for herself in Blue Falls, Texas, that’s comfortable, predictable, safe. The last thing she needs is to go gaga over a rodeo cowboy. It felt great to let her hair down with sexy Logan Bradshaw, but she’ll be happy if their paths never cross again.

A surprise pregnancy is something neither expected. Skyler has no intention of letting her baby grow up the way she did, with an unreliable father. She’s willing to raise their child alone, but Logan is determined to prove there’s more to him than being a devil-may-care risk taker. He’s daddy material!

Opposites attracted, didn’t they?

Skyler closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. Images of Logan played through her mind. She didn’t have to admit it to her matchmaking friends, but he was pretty dang hot. Tall, with strong, wide shoulders, a naughty smile and dark hair that was made for a woman’s hands to run through.

Logan Bradshaw was only here visiting and would be gone soon. But India had thought Liam was going to be gone in a matter of days, too. Instead, he’d moved his business from Fort Worth to Blue Falls and proposed marriage.

Skyler laughed under her breath before she caught herself.

“What?” Elissa asked as she put the SUV in Drive.

“Nothing.” But as she stared out the window at the coming twilight, Skyler almost laughed again at the idea of Logan asking anyone to marry him, especially someone as opposite to him as her.

Dear Reader,

It’s time to return to the lovely tourist town of Blue Falls, Texas, to find out which unsuspecting local resident is in the sights of matchmaker Verona Charles. Last time around, it was boutique owner India Pike in Her Perfect Cowboy, and she certainly didn’t mind finding her true love in Liam Parrish. And with so many yummy cowboys in town, it would be a shame not to find the perfect woman for at least one of them.

So when Verona meets bull rider Logan Bradshaw, she immediately knows he’d be perfect for one of India’s best friends, Skyler Harrington. Only one problem—Skyler, who owns the Wildflower Inn and likes things just so, can’t imagine a worse match for herself. There’s a little too much of the rootless wanderlust that she’d grown up seeing in her father. But even though she knows Logan isn’t the guy for her, she can’t deny the incredible physical attraction between them. And as she gets to know him, she begins to wonder if he can change and become someone she could love and be loved by.

At first, Logan actually agrees with Skyler that he’s not a settling-down sort of guy. But when a night of passion leads to Skyler getting pregnant, he begins to wonder if it’s time to stop his wandering ways and be a responsible father. As he gets to know Skyler better, he realizes the baby isn’t the only reason he’s thinking Blue Falls just might be his new home.

Happy reading,

Trish

Having the Cowboy’s Baby

Trish Milburn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trish Milburn writes contemporary romance for Harlequin American Romance and paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne. She’s a two-time Golden Heart award winner, a fan of walks in the woods and road trips, and is a big geek girl, including being a dedicated Whovian and Browncoat. And from her earliest memories, she’s been a fan of Westerns, be they historical or contemporary. There’s nothing quite like a cowboy hero.

To my mom. Even though she was never able to read my books, she did love a good cowboy story. We watched many a Western together when I was a kid, and she still watched Bonanza, The Big Valley and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman every day until her passing. I miss you, Mom, and I hope you’re watching lots of Westerns in Heaven. Maybe you’re even riding a horse of your own.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Excerpt

Chapter One

Skyler Harrington smoothed her new cream-colored pencil skirt as she took her seat at the corner table at La Cantina. She pointed at the enormous platter of nachos that sat on the table between her and her two best friends, India Pike and Elissa Mason. Elissa was in the midst of grabbing a nacho laden with beef, sour cream and gooey cheese.

“Glad to see you all waited for me,” Skyler said.

India nodded toward Elissa, who was now stuffing said nacho into her mouth. “She threatened to start gnawing on her arm if we didn’t get something to eat pronto.”

“What?” Elissa said around her food. “I was starving. You try unloading a truckload of shrubbery and see if you’re not hungry.”

She had a point. While each of them owned her own business, Elissa’s plant nursery required more physical labor than India’s clothing boutique or Skyler’s inn.

“Plus,” Elissa said as she pointed another nacho at Skyler, “you were late.”

Skyler’s forehead scrunched as she reached for her phone to check the time. It was exactly one minute after six, and she knew she’d been at the restaurant more than a minute already.

Elissa laughed.

Skyler lifted her narrowed gaze to her friend, who was teasing her yet again about her preference for being places on time, or better yet, early. “I don’t know why I’m friends with you.”

Elissa smiled. “Because I’m so lovable.”

“That’s debatable.”

“You let her get you every time,” India said.

“One of these days maybe I’ll figure out what she finds so funny about my punctuality.”

“You call it punctuality, I call it inability to go with the flow,” Elissa said.

“I can go with the flow.” It made her twitchy, but she could do it. “I’m not as big of a stick in the mud as you seem to think.”

“Oh, really? When was the last time you really let go and didn’t plan your day out to within an inch of its life?”

Skyler opened her mouth but then couldn’t think of an answer that wouldn’t prove Elissa’s point. “I have a lot of responsibilities, people depending on me.”

“And we don’t?”

“Hey, I’m not that different from India.” At least India before Liam Parrish strode into town with his cowboy boots, a Stetson and two very long legs. India’s well-ordered life had gone topsy-turvy in two seconds flat. Not that Skyler blamed her. Liam wasn’t just good-looking. He also was a really good guy and would become the closest thing Skyler had to a brother when he and India got married in a few weeks.

Skyler grabbed a nacho and scraped most of the toppings off of it back onto the platter.

“You’re getting rid of all the good stuff,” Elissa said.

“A little goes a long way. Now I’ll actually be able to taste the chip.”

Elissa rolled her eyes. “Can’t even eat a nacho without overthinking it.”

“I’ll remind you of that when your arteries get clogged with cheese.”

Elissa just smiled, stuffed another nacho in her mouth and mmmed her taste buds’ appreciation.

Skyler didn’t know whether she wanted to throw something at Elissa or give in and eat a heaping nacho herself.

After the waitress took their orders, Skyler turned her attention to India before Elissa had the chance to start bugging the living daylights out of her again.

“So how are the final plans for the wedding going? Is there anything else you need me to do?”

India’s eyes lit up at the mention of her upcoming nuptials, causing Skyler’s heart to warm. After everything she’d been through, India deserved to be happy.

“I don’t think so. You’ve done so much already, both of you.”

“It’s not every day your best friend gets married to the hottest guy in town,” Elissa said.

On that point, Elissa and Skyler could agree.

“I wish it was tomorrow,” India said.

Skyler smiled. “That anxious to make an honest man out of Liam?”

India laughed. “If there was more to do between now and then, I’d be fine. But the waiting might kill me. You know what would really help?”

“What?”

“Another project.”

India and Elissa exchanged a look that made Skyler nervous. “Why do I feel like I’ve missed something really important?”

“Your thirtieth birthday is two days away and we haven’t planned what we’re going to do,” India said. “That would keep my mind occupied.”

“It doesn’t take that long to look up movie times in Austin,” Skyler said.

India raised an eyebrow. “I think the occasion calls for more than a movie.”

“I happen to quite like watching Jeremy Renner and his awesome arms.”

“Well, I can’t argue with you there,” Elissa said. “But India’s right. We can do a movie anytime. I was thinking of something more exciting.”

“Of course you were.”

Elissa sighed and leaned back in her chair. She glanced at India. “I told you she wouldn’t be up for anything interesting.”

The sudden overwhelming urge to prove her friend wrong rose up in Skyler. “Fine. You know what? You all can plan whatever you want, and I’ll do it.”

Elissa barked out a disbelieving laugh. “Yeah, right.”

“Really. I’ll let you plan the whole thing.” The moment the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to call them back and pretend they were never uttered. But if she backed out now, she would never, ever hear the end of it. Blast Elissa for causing her emotions to override her common sense.

The smile that spread across Elissa’s face told Skyler she’d just made perhaps the biggest mistake of her life.

“Is it Christmas?” Elissa asked. “Because it feels like Christmas.”

“Don’t gloat,” India said, but she looked like she was having a hard time keeping from smiling, too.

Skyler really knew she was in trouble when their food arrived and Elissa didn’t immediately attack her quesadillas. Instead, she was scrolling through something on her phone.

Skyler picked up her fork and stirred the contents of her taco salad. “You know it’s rude to have your face buried in your phone when you’re with other people, right?”

“This is important business.”

“A mulch emergency?”

“I’ll have you know I’m doing research, with a little help from Verona.”

Skyler stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth, warning bells clanging in her head. “Verona?”

“Yes, you know, my aunt.”

Skyler narrowed her eyes. “I don’t trust you or your aunt.”

“Why not? You have to admit she got it right with India and Liam.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I want her anywhere near my personal life.”

“Verona does more than matchmake, you know.”

“What, she’s giving you tourist suggestions? I’ve lived in Texas my whole life. Pretty sure there aren’t that many places of interest I’ve not been to.”

Elissa waved off her concern. “Hush. Eat your salad.”

Knowing that short of snatching Elissa’s phone from her there was nothing she could do, Skyler refocused her attention on her meal. Her stomach growled in response. She’d been so busy during the day that she hadn’t taken time for a real lunch, nothing beyond the bag of apple slices she’d snagged from her fridge on the way out of her apartment that morning.

Sure, since her apartment was located at the inn, she could have gone to get something else to eat or ordered something from the kitchen, but a staff meeting had led to several phone calls, which had flowed into going over a contract for fresh produce. The next thing she knew, it was time to leave to meet her friends for dinner.

When Elissa set down her phone, the satisfied smile on her face didn’t bode well for Skyler.

“What do you have up your sleeve?”

“Who, me?”

Skyler slowly rested her fork on top of what was left of her salad. “You shouldn’t try to sound innocent. You’re not very good at it.”

Elissa shrugged. “Who wants to be innocent anyway when there’s so much fun to be had?”

“I’m afraid to ask what kind of ‘fun’ you have in mind.”

“I wouldn’t tell you, anyway.”

“Um, it’s my birthday.”

Elissa finally looked up after she took a bite of her dinner and swallowed. “And birthdays include surprises.”

“You know I’m not a fan of surprises.” They’d rarely turned out well in her experience.

Surprise! Your dad’s gone to Alaska to fish.

Surprise! He’s back again with no warning and who knows for how long.

Surprise! Your mom had a heart attack and died.

“You’ll like this one.”

Skyler doubted that and considered booking a last-minute vacation for one to the Caribbean.

“And no, we’re not letting you weasel out of this, so stop trying to concoct a way to do just that.” Elissa gestured toward Skyler’s head as if she knew exactly what she was thinking. She probably did.

“Sometimes it’s highly annoying that you know me so well.”

As Elissa and India laughed, Skyler felt like kicking herself all the way to El Paso and back for giving them just enough rope to hang her with.

* * *

SKYLER WAS ON the verge of asking Elissa again where the devil they were going when she spotted a sign on the side of the road just as Elissa started to slow down. Hill Country Adventure Sports.

“Please tell me this isn’t our final destination, that you’re delivering plants or something.”

Elissa glanced at her from the driver’s seat of the SUV. “Nope, this is the place.”

Skyler turned halfway to look at India and Verona in the back. “Tell me she’s kidding.”

India shook her head. “It’ll be fun.”

Skyler looked from one friend to the other, wondering if they’d been body snatched. Because the Elissa and India she knew wouldn’t go this far. “Are you smoking crack? There is no way I’m jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.”

“Yes, you are,” Elissa said as if Skyler was being silly. “You only live once.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to live beyond today, thank you very much.”

“They’re not going to push you out without a parachute, dear,” Verona said.

“It’s tandem diving,” India added. “You jump with an experienced diver who is trained.”

Elissa took her hand off the steering wheel long enough to wave away Skyler’s concern. “They’ve done this a million times.”

“All it takes is one time when it doesn’t go as planned.”

Elissa shook her head as she parked next to a long building that contained an office and several hangar bays for small planes. “I knew you were a compulsive planner, but I didn’t know you were a chicken.”

“I’m not. I’m sane.”

Ignoring her protests, everyone else got out of the car and headed toward the office. She wondered what they’d do if she flatly refused to budge. It was her birthday, damn it. She ought to be able to choose what she wanted to do and not do. And skydiving was way up on the “not do” list.

But the longer she sat in the SUV, the more fidgety she grew. Hurtling through thin air was definitely not on her bucket list, but she didn’t like that the mere thought of jumping could get the better of her either. She wanted to believe she could do anything even if she chose not to, but she’d given her friends permission to take this decision out of her hands. Big mistake, but one she was going to have to swallow.

She cursed under her breath as she opened the door, shut it none too gently and closed the distance between her and her so-called friends.

“I’m so sorry,” said Jesse Bradshaw as she got close enough to hear him speaking to Elissa, India and Verona. “I must have caught a stomach bug. I can’t dive today.”

Oh, hallelujah, birthday wishes were granted!

“That’s too bad,” India said.

“Man, we’ll never get her out here again,” Elissa said before she noticed Skyler.

Something was off about her friends’ responses to the news that Jesse was sick, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“She can still go up. My cousin will just be the diver, not me.”

Skyler fought the urge to run all the way back to Blue Falls. “I didn’t know you had a cousin, Jesse.” She scanned the area but saw no one else but the pilot, next to a small red-and-white plane on the tarmac, and the jet-fuel delivery guy.

“Yeah, he’s in town visiting. I just called him a few minutes ago. He’s on his way. He wasn’t expecting to have to dive today.”

“Oh, I don’t want to put anyone to any trouble,” Skyler said.

“It’s no trouble.”

The sound of a pickup heading toward them on the gravel entrance road drew everyone’s attention.

“That’s him now,” Jesse said.

A red pickup truck that looked like it had seen better days, better decades, rolled to a stop next to Elissa’s SUV, leaving a cloud of gravel dust in its wake.

When the driver stepped out of the truck and strode toward them, Skyler thought there had to be some mistake. This guy looked about as much like a skydiver as Verona did. With worn jeans, scuffed boots and a dark brown cowboy hat, he would look more at home on a cattle drive. When he nodded at her friends and said, “Hello again,” Skyler definitely knew something was up.

“This is all a big joke, isn’t it? I’m being punked.”

“Well, that’s not usually the reaction I get from the ladies,” the guy said as he stopped a couple of feet away, his lips stretching into a mischievous smile.

Skyler gave him a raised-eyebrow look before shifting her attention to the other three women. “Seriously, what is going on?”

Before they could answer, the guy laughed. “Don’t worry, I don’t dive in the boots.”

She glanced at him. “Just the hat?”

“Nah. I’d lose it as soon as we jumped.”

“Lucky for you, there won’t be any jumping today.”

“But we’ve already paid for it,” India said.

“Then I suggest you get your money back.” When Skyler glanced at Jesse, he had an apologetic look on his face.

“I’m sorry, but there’s a no-refund policy on the deposit unless canceled by inclement weather,” he said.

Skyler sighed heavily as she looked up into the bright blue sky devoid of clouds. You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day, unless, of course, you were hoping to avoid plummeting to your death.

“Come on, Jesse,” the still-nameless cousin said. “You can allow the refund.”

Surprised by his siding with her, Skyler met his eyes. “Thank you.”

“Ah, come on,” Elissa said. “Everyone I know who has done this has loved it. Heck, Jesse jumped with McKenna Parks’s eighty-seven-year-old grandpa last week, and the old guy is ready to go again. Right, Jesse?”

Jesse, to his credit, looked uncomfortable being put in the middle of their disagreement. But he nodded. “He wanted to go back up as soon as we hit the ground.”

She knew Elissa was daring her, effectively taking away any nonchicken way of backing out of the dive. Skyler shifted her eyes to Jesse’s cousin. “Just how many dives have you done?”

He smiled. “Enough.”

For a moment she let herself appreciate how that smile only added to how good-looking he was. Good-looking, ha! The man was three-alarm fire, drop-dead gorgeous.

She snatched her gaze away from his. She did not need to be thinking about dropping dead, or about how Mr. No Name looked good enough to lick up one side and down the other. Her face flamed, and for once she was glad to have fair skin and red hair. It made blaming the flush on the sun totally believable.

The guy leaned close and used a faux whisper to say, “Don’t worry, beautiful. I promise you’re safe with me.”

She wondered how many times he’d used that line. Because the cowboy was a flirt and most likely a class A player.

The longer she stood there with everyone looking at her, the more she had to fight fidgeting. She closed her eyes for a moment and pulled together all the fragments of her courage. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

It was smart to face your fears, right? At the very least, she could stick her tongue out at Elissa after it was over.

“Just give me a few minutes to suit up, and I’ll give you the ride of your life,” her dive partner said.

Skyler glanced at him in time to see him wink. She’d never admit it out loud, but she felt that wink all the way to her toes. She shook her head and rolled her eyes as he walked away. When Jesse followed him, Skyler spun toward her friends.

“So, what do you think?” Verona asked.

“What do I—? This isn’t one of your matchmaking schemes, is it?”

Verona’s eyes widened. “How could it be? We didn’t find out about Jesse being sick until we got here.”

Skyler wasn’t buying it. She wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but she got the distinct feeling it was more than it appeared on the surface.

“For the record, I know you all are up to something.”

“But you’re going through with the dive, right?” India asked.

“Do I have a choice?”

“No,” Elissa said with a boatload more cheer in her voice than the occasion called for. “We’re giving you the experience of a lifetime.”

“I could have handled canoeing, maybe a wad of dollar bills and a strip club, but no, you all give me the skydiving cowboy and a potential coronary.”

“You’re in perfect health,” India said.

“And that skydiving cowboy is yum-my,” Elissa added.

“I don’t care what he looks like as long as he keeps me from going splat against the ground. And just so you know, if I die, I’m coming back and haunting all of you at the most inconvenient times.”

When skydiving cowboy came back outside, followed by his cousin, he looked more skydiver than cowboy. With the Stetson gone, she was able to see more of his short dark hair, angular jaw and dark eyes. If she’d met him somewhere else under different circumstances, he would have definitely caught her eye.

What was she doing? She had to concentrate on surviving the next hour, not lusting over this guy who probably got laid more than carpet. Reluctantly, she followed him toward the plane, her stomach churning.

“So what did they convince you to do?” she asked.

He glanced at her, genuine confusion in his expression. “Jump out of an airplane?”

She stopped walking halfway to the plane. “You met them before, right?”

“Yeah, yesterday at the café. Why?”

Skyler shook her head. “Never mind.” She glanced back in time to see her friends smiling ear to ear. “I am going to kill them.” She didn’t realize she’d said the words loud enough for anyone to hear until her diving partner laughed.

“Killing’s over too quickly,” he said. “Payback’s better.”

“You know, you’re right. And I can be very creative.”

His mouth quirked up at one edge. “That right?”

The innuendo caused her skin to tingle all over, and that only made her more determined to find the perfect payback for her friends. But first she evidently had to throw common sense to the wind and take a literal leap of faith.

The next few minutes went by in a blur as they boarded the plane, the pilot took off and they geared up for the dive. As they approached the designated point for the jump, Skyler felt as though she might throw up.

“It’s okay. Once you’re out there flying, you’ll forget all about the nerves.” He sounded so casual and relaxed, as if hurling one’s self from an airplane was no big deal.

“Somehow I doubt that.”

“Trust me.”

“Trust you? I don’t even know your name.”

“Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine,” he said, mischief in his voice.

“You have a line for everything, don’t you?”

“Yep.”

“Well, at least your honesty is refreshing.” She glanced toward where another guy slid the side door open to reveal nothing but sky. She swallowed hard as cowboy dude moved up behind her and did whatever it was he had to do to connect their gear together.

“Logan Bradshaw,” he said, his voice rumbling in her ear.

“What?”

“My name, Logan Bradshaw.”

“Oh. Skyler Harrington.”

Her heart leaped into her throat as he urged her toward the open doorway.

“Ten seconds,” the other guy said.

Oh, Lord.

“Well, Skyler Harrington, you and I are going to go out after this is over,” Logan said.

And then he pushed her out the door, and she greeted her birthday with a scream.

Chapter Two

At some point Skyler stopped screaming and realized that the sight before her was nothing short of awe-inspiring. All her fear wasn’t gone, maybe just on hold as she scanned the world spread out below her.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Logan said over the sound of the wind rushing past her ears.

All she could do was nod as she picked out familiar landmarks, the cluster of buildings that made up Blue Falls, the water tower painted with bluebonnets and the words Blue Falls, Wildflower Capital of Texas.

Despite her fear, an incredible sense of freedom washed over her. As her eyes took in the distant hills, the spots of green vegetation the drought hadn’t yet battered into submission and the glittering surface of the lake, she was stunned by a world she took for granted every day. Up here there was no responsibility, no pressure, no expectations. Hopefully Logan had all of those under control. It was a bit like an out-of-body experience, an away-from-earth experience that was nothing like being in an airplane.

“I’m going to pull the parachute,” Logan said, reminding her that she was, in fact, plummeting toward earth.

She cried out when the parachute deployed, jerking against her.

“It’s okay. Look up.”

After she managed to get her heart rate to slow a fraction, she looked up and saw the width of the white parachute catching air and slowing their descent. That’s when she remembered what Logan said right before he pushed her out of the plane. He probably thought he was cute, that she would melt at his interest. Well, all she was interested in from Logan Bradshaw was him getting her safely to the ground.

Gradually, the world below grew in size until it no longer resembled a collection of miniatures. Logan guided their parachute toward an area devoid of trees and other obstacles. Their speed seemed to increase the closer they got to the ground, and Skyler tensed.

“Relax,” he said.

“Easy for you to say.”

“This isn’t my first time.”

Now, why did she immediately imagine him in bed when he said that? Good grief, she didn’t even like him. She’d never been one to go for guys who were so full of themselves that there was no room for anyone else.

Maybe if he got a personality transplant...

She spotted India, Elissa and Verona in the distance, and she hated the idea of having to admit that she’d liked the dive despite the pulse-racing fear of a deadly altercation with gravity.

“Here we go,” Logan said as the ground raced up to meet them.

Before she could take another breath, her feet touched terra firma.

“See, all in one piece,” Logan said, laughter in his way too sexy voice.

“Wonders never cease.” She should really thank him. He had, after all, kept her safe while giving her an experience like none she’d ever imagined. But he was just so cocky about it. And damned if a little sliver of her didn’t find that attractive. She had to get away from him as soon as possible.

“How was it?” Elissa asked as she and the others hurried toward where Logan was unhooking Skyler from her gear.

“It was okay.”

Logan snorted.

Skyler looked at him, not even trying to hide her annoyance. “What was that for?”

He met her gaze and refused to look away. “You enjoyed it.”

“How do you know that? You couldn’t even see my face.”

“I can tell when someone is enjoying herself.”

There it was again, enough innuendo to make her blush.

“Your face is all red,” Elissa said, teasing.

Skyler jerked her gaze away from Logan and focused on her friend. “Well, I didn’t put on SPF 8 billion today. I wasn’t expecting to be so danged close to the sun.”

“I saw the Ice Cream Hut is still down by the lake,” Logan said. “Not a bad choice for a first date, don’t you think?”

“Date?” Verona’s eyes widened with totally uncontained glee.

“Yeah, the deal was that I get birthday girl safely to the ground, she goes out with me.”

Skyler’s mouth dropped open as she spun toward Logan, her hands on her hips. “I did not agree to that. You made your pronouncement a breath before you shoved me out of a plane. I don’t know you from Adam.”

“Isn’t that what dates are for, getting to know each other?”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Elissa said.

“There will be no date. It’s my birthday, so here’s a crazy thought. How about I pick how I spend the rest of the day and who I spend it with?” She eyed the other women. “And I’m not sure any of you are on that list.”

With that, she stalked toward Elissa’s SUV. If she didn’t fear her skin being burned to a crisp by the time she got back to Blue Falls, she’d walk.

Not that she had any confidence that walking those miles was going to do anything to erase cocky, full-of-himself...sexy Logan Bradshaw from her mind. Yet another reason her friends deserved one whale of a payback.

* * *

“I’M SORRY she’s so cranky.” Verona shook her head as she glanced at Skyler’s retreating form.

“No worries.” He watched as Skyler stalked away, her jeans showing off her shapely backside. “She’ll come around.”

He didn’t think he was the world’s best catch or anything, but he liked to have a good time. And if anyone was in dire need of a good time, it was uptight Skyler Harrington. It had taken him only one look at the gorgeous redhead to know he wanted to be the man to get her to loosen up a little and enjoy herself.

“Maybe we can help a little bit with that,” said the taller, dark-haired woman, the one who seemed to be more prone to teasing Skyler. Elissa, that was her name. “We’re having a surprise party at the music hall tonight. You should come.”

“Sure, sounds like fun.” He eyed the SUV where Skyler now sat staring out the windshield instead of in his direction. Even from this distance, he could tell she was as rigid as a telephone pole.

When all the women had left, he finished gathering the gear and tossed it into the back of Jesse’s pickup truck. He slipped into the passenger seat.

“Feeling better, cuz?”

Jesse glanced over at Logan’s knowing tone. “Listen, you don’t say no to Verona Charles. Not if you don’t want her matchmaking mojo pointed in your direction.”

“So that’s what this is all about? Setting me up with Skyler? Why all the secrecy? When have you known me to not want to go out with a beautiful woman?”

“That was their crazy idea, not mine. After you left the café, Verona asked a lot of questions about you. I guess you passed her test, because that’s when she started talking about setting up a way for you two to meet without Skyler getting wind of it.”

“Because she wouldn’t have gone along with it.”

“Bingo. She’s not your normal type.”

Logan stretched his arm out along the back of the truck’s bench seat and stared at his cousin. “And what type is that?”

“Just looking for a good time.”

“Part of me thinks I ought to be offended.”

Jesse laughed.

The last thing Logan needed was to get involved with a woman who was more the settling-down type. His skin itched just thinking about it.

“So, what are you doing the rest of the day?” Jesse asked as he parked next to Logan’s old truck.

“Going to check out the arena at the fairgrounds, get the lay of the land.”

They got out of Jesse’s truck and stopped at the back of Logan’s.

“You still enjoying riding?”

“Nothing like it.” Sitting astride a bucking bull was so far from his go-nowhere, do-nothing childhood existence that he’d latched on to it the first chance he’d gotten. He dreaded the day when his body prevented him from doing it anymore. Riding bulls was kind of like skydiving—exciting, pushing the edge. They both gave him that sense of freedom he craved as much as air and water.

“Adrenaline junkie-ism must run in the family.”

Logan snorted. “Maybe yours.”

“Maybe just our generation.”

Logan let the conversation drop, even though he could have easily pointed out that his siblings seemed content to follow in their parents’ unadventurous footsteps. That Jesse’s dad had shown the first daredevil tendencies when he’d left North Dakota and joined the air force. And then instead of coming back after his stint was over, he’d gone off to Texas and started flying small planes for executives and vintage planes for air shows. Of the four Bradshaw kids in the older generation, Uncle James was the only one who “got away.” He still hadn’t heard the end of it from the rest of the family in North Dakota.

Just as Logan still heard about his own defection every time he called home. He loved his parents, but that conversation got really damned old.

He shook his head to clear the unwanted memories. “Well, I’ll catch you later.”

“I’ll see you at the rodeo if not before then.”

Logan thought about inviting Jesse to Skyler’s shindig at the music hall, but he kept quiet. As out of character as it might be, he was considering not going. Sure, he’d taken a doozy of a fall off a bull the previous weekend, but he didn’t think he’d hit his head so hard that he was suddenly avoiding beautiful women. But he got the distinct impression that Skyler Harrington wasn’t just any beautiful woman.

She was way too much trouble personified. Even if she was hot as a firecracker.

* * *

“NOW, SEE, WE’RE NOT all bad,” Elissa said as she walked out of the movie theater next to Skyler and India.

Skyler eyed Elissa as her friend shifted to walking backward in front of her. “Yes, this is more of what I had in mind in the first place.” A giant movie screen with Jeremy Renner’s fabulous arms on full display and a tub of buttery popcorn—what wasn’t to like?

“Although why you’d prefer your movie boyfriend over an actual living, breathing hottie, I have no idea.” Elissa shrugged.

“Maybe because my ‘movie boyfriend’ doesn’t think he’s God’s gift to women.”

“Aw, come on, what’s wrong with a little flirting?”

Skyler reached the SUV and stood with her arms crossed. “What was it India said when you were pushing her toward Liam so hard? Oh, yeah. ‘Then you go out with him.’”

“I think India’s probably glad that I didn’t take her suggestion.”

“Sorry, but she’s right about that,” India said.

Elissa hit the key fob to unlock the doors, and Skyler chose to sit in the back this time. She eyed Elissa when her friend slid into the driver’s seat.

“You and Verona aren’t going to be satisfied until you’ve paired up everyone in Blue Falls, are you?”

“Once again, the surefire way to keep Verona pointed away from me and my personal life is to shift her in other directions.”

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus.” Skyler met India’s eyes when India glanced into the back. “Tell me again why we’re friends with her.”

“Half price on landscaping supplies?”

“Drat. I guess I have to keep her.”

All three of them ended up laughing. There was no sense in staying irritated with her two best friends in the world. After all, it wasn’t as if she had to worry about Logan Bradshaw anymore. Being a lifelong resident of Blue Falls meant she knew everyone who lived in the area, and Logan didn’t. He was only here visiting his cousin and would be gone soon.

But India had thought Liam was going to be gone in a matter of days, too. Instead, he’d moved his business from Fort Worth to Blue Falls and proposed marriage.

Skyler laughed under her breath before she caught herself.

“What?” Elissa asked as she put the SUV in Drive.

“Nothing.” But as she stared out the window at the coming twilight, Skyler almost laughed again at the idea of Logan asking anyone to marry him, especially someone as opposite to him as her.

Opposites attracted, didn’t they?

She closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. But that didn’t keep images of Logan from playing through her mind. She didn’t have to admit it to her matchmaking friends, but he was pretty dang hot. Tall, with strong, wide shoulders, a naughty smile and dark hair that was made for a woman’s hands to run through.

“You okay?” India asked.

Skyler’s eyes popped open, and she hoped she hadn’t made some sort of embarrassing sound. “Yeah, just tired. You know, the stress of jumping out of a plane and all. And so you know, I’m going to think up something really creative to get you all back.”

“A lot of people say skydiving is the best thing they’ve ever done.” India sounded so serious that Skyler figured Elissa and probably Verona were the driving force behind the matchmaking. No surprise there.

“Oh, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the whole convincing-Jesse-to-fake-being-sick thing.”

India’s eyes widened. “How did you figure that out?”

“Verona is not as sly as she thinks she is. And neither one of you seemed overly surprised when Jesse said he spent the morning hurling.”

India smacked Elissa on the shoulder.

“Ow!”

“I told you I wasn’t good at lying.”

“Turns out we didn’t have to be.”

When they got back to Blue Falls, Elissa didn’t head to the inn. Instead, she pulled into an empty parking space next to the Blue Falls Music Hall.

“Come on, girls. No birthday is complete without a little dancing.”

Part of Skyler wanted to protest, to go back to the inn and end the day with a glass of wine on her balcony. But despite her friends’ shenanigans, she’d still had a good time with them today. She might as well end the day with a little dancing before she returned to the inn and got sucked back into work.

But when they stepped inside, Skyler considered asking Elissa to take her home. The place was wall-to-wall people, many of them obviously cowboys in town for the upcoming rodeo Liam had organized.

And right in the middle of them stood Logan Bradshaw and his cocky smile. That man was walking, talking trouble, and Skyler fought the urge to turn on her heel and leave. She did shift and eye her friends.

“What?” Elissa said. “It’s a small town, and not like there are a lot of places to go at night.”

“You know I don’t believe for a minute you had nothing to do with him being here.”

“Is there a problem with me being here?” The rumble of Logan’s voice close behind her made Skyler’s nerves hum.

He had the kind of voice that could coax the clothes off a woman. Heck, she halfway wanted to start tossing articles of clothing right there in the middle of the music hall. Like she’d thought, Trouble with a capital T.

She took a step away from him before she turned to face Logan. “No. It’s a public place.”

He wore a knowing grin that told her he didn’t believe her nonchalance any more than she believed her friends hadn’t invited him here.

But why was she fighting it so hard? It wasn’t as though this was going to be a fall-in-love-forever match. It was her birthday; why shouldn’t she dance with a sexy man?

“You here to drink and socialize or do you actually know how to dance?” she asked.

He smiled and extended his hand. “Why don’t you come with me and find out?”

Skyler hesitated a moment, feeling as if she was playing with a white-hot fire, before she placed her hand in Logan’s and allowed him to lead her through the crowd to the middle of the wooden dance floor.

When he spun her into his arms, she’d swear her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t as if she’d never danced with a man, even good-looking ones, but there was something crazy intoxicating about Logan. It felt a little as if he’d fritzed her common sense and she didn’t mind. Who knew there was a little hidden part of her that wanted to throw all her normal caution out the window and live free and wild for a night?

“So, do anything else adventurous today, birthday girl?” Logan guided her through the dancing couples without taking his eyes off her.

“No, jumping out of a plane pretty much used up my adventure quota for the year. That and dancing with perfect strangers.”

His lips quirked up at the edge. “You think I’m perfect?”

She cocked her head to the side a little. “You’re full of yourself, aren’t you?”

“I live life to the fullest. Nothing wrong with that in my book.”

“So you make jumping out of planes a habit, then?”

“When I can. That and deep-sea diving, backpacking, rappelling, riding bulls.”

She looked up from where her gaze had been resting on the third button down his shirt. “You’re here for the rodeo?”

“Didn’t the hat and boots give it away?”

“It’s Texas. Those don’t exactly qualify as unusual.”

“True.”

So he was in Blue Falls for the rodeo. At least now she knew when he was probably leaving town. If she ended up flirting a little, no harm done. She wouldn’t have to worry about backpedaling later. He’d be off to some other rodeo risking his neck.

She glanced to her left in time to see Liam and India dance by in the opposite direction. Neither of them paid her any attention, wrapped up as they were in each other. The music hall could empty out around them and the music stop, and they wouldn’t notice. A pang of envy squeezed her middle. Despite the emotional ups and downs of her parents’ marriage, she couldn’t deny that there was a hidden romantic streak in her that wanted the kind of love Liam and India had, the kind that was pure, honest, that you didn’t have to worry about. The kind that wouldn’t up and disappear one day.

“You okay?”

Skyler jerked her attention back to Logan. “Yeah.” She forced herself not to explain, or she might start babbling.

“So your friend and Liam are together?”

“India, yeah. They’re getting married soon.”

“Another one bites the dust.”

Skyler stiffened involuntarily. She shouldn’t be surprised he had such a dim view of marriage. Hadn’t she thought as much about him earlier? She forced herself to relax, at least as much as she could in her current situation.

“You know Liam from the rodeo circuit?”

“Yeah, we’ve crossed paths a few times. Was surprised to see he’d moved to the little town where my cousin lives.”

“Probably no more surprised than Liam and India were.”

The song ended, but Logan didn’t let her go, instead pulling her along with him as the next song began. “That’s enough about other people. Let’s talk about you, Skyler Harrington.”

“What about me?”

“Like what you think about me.”

Skyler laughed, unable to help herself.

“Look at that, she can smile.”

“I smile.”

“You had me wondering earlier today.”

“I don’t typically smile when I’m scared half out of my mind.”

He leaned closer, robbing her of breath. “Come on, admit it. You liked it.”

She was tempted to deny it, but then again, why? “Okay, fine. It was beautiful.”

“So are you.”

“I’m guessing these smooth lines usually work for you, don’t they?”

“That’s not a line. It’s the truth.”

When she looked up into his dark eyes, she believed him. Flustered, she lowered her gaze back down to the blue checkered shirt he wore. “Thank you.”

Her nerves sizzled as Logan’s arm slid around her and eased her closer. As the last strands of another song faded, Logan leaned close to her ear.

“I think I owe you an ice-cream cone.” It was the most innocent of sentences, but the rich timbre of his voice that close to her ear made her go all gooey inside. He had her thinking things that were totally out of character for her.

“They have ice cream at the bar.”

“I was thinking we ditch the crowd and walk down to the Ice Cream Hut.”

Why did everything that came out of this man’s mouth make her think of writhing in sheets, sweaty skin and tangled limbs? For heaven’s sake, he was talking about ice cream.

For just the two of them.

Under the stars.

When she looked up at him, her eyes focused on his lips. His full, oh-so-kissable lips. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She sounded breathless, probably because she was.

“Why not?” He said it close enough that she could feel his warm breath brush against her cheek.

She swallowed hard, searching for words that refused to form in her brain. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

Logan smiled. “Do I make you nervous, birthday girl?”

“Yes.” Great, the power of speech came back in time for her to embarrass herself.

“You know what I think?”

She shook her head, unable to look away from him.

“I think it’s been very rude of me not to give you a birthday present.”

“You don’t even know me.”

Something flickered in his eyes, something that made her hyperaware of everywhere his body touched hers.

“I know enough.”

And then those lips of his came closer and closer until they captured hers.

She knew she should resist, but she couldn’t. When he deepened the kiss, Skyler decided that this was the best birthday ever.

Chapter Three

He’d died and gone to sensory-overload heaven. Logan pulled Skyler close, splaying his hand along the small of her back. What he’d meant to be a playful kiss went deeper because he suddenly couldn’t get enough of the taste of her. Her curves fit nicely against him, and his blood pumped faster at the thought of seeing all those curves the way they were meant to be seen.

She broke the kiss but didn’t back away. He took that as a good sign, that and the drugged look in her eyes.

“Hey, everybody!”

Skyler jerked back a step as her attention spun toward the stage. Her friend Elissa stood at the microphone.

“We’ve got a big birthday in the house tonight.”

“I’m going to kill her,” Skyler said under her breath.

He leaned close to her. “You said that already.”

She glanced up at him. “Well, this time I mean it.”

“We’ve got a special surprise for Skyler Harrington if she’s not too busy,” Elissa said, eliciting a few laughs from the crowd.

He chuckled, too, at the teasing look on Elissa’s face.

Skyler thumped the back of her hand against his upper arm. “Cut it out. You’re already on my list.”

“Depending on the list, I might want to be on it.”

Skyler’s fair skin betrayed her as a blush crept up from her neck to her cheeks.

“You’re even prettier when you blush.”

“Hush.” The way she said it with her gaze averted made him believe that she actually liked the compliment but didn’t want to admit it.

He’d never claim to be an expert on women, but he couldn’t help thinking that Skyler just might be worth the effort to learn more. She may try to hide it, but he got the feeling there was an entirely different Skyler Harrington simmering below the surface.

Movement at the edge of the stage turned out to be another woman carrying a birthday cake complete with lit candles.

“Okay, everybody together now,” Elissa said, then launched into a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

Even as Skyler’s cheeks flamed redder, Logan joined in. Thank goodness it was a short song or Skyler might actually combust. As the song ended, everyone clapped and Skyler was urged to the stage. She walked as if she were heading to the gallows. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or wrap her in his arms and hurry her away from the crowd that was making her so uncomfortable.

Well, wasn’t that a gallant thought, so unlike him. He wasn’t a jerk when it came to women, but he’d never been a knight in shining armor either.

Gradually, the crowd filled in the space between him and Skyler as she accepted a piece of cake and was surrounded by her friends. After a couple of minutes, the music started up again and he made his way to the bar. He’d barely gotten his beer and turned around to see if he could spot Skyler in the throng when Verona stepped up next to him.

“You and Skyler seemed to be having a nice time,” she said.

“We were.”

“That’s good. She needs a night where she can loosen up a little.”

Logan didn’t respond beyond a grunt that indicated he’d heard her.

“You think you’ll be staying long?”

“Just till the rodeo’s done.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. Blue Falls is a nice place to settle down. You could ask Liam about that. He seems to like it.”

“I’m not much of the staying-in-one-place type, ma’am. Can’t make much money riding bulls if you don’t go where the bulls are.”

“I guess not.” Verona sounded as if he’d shot the air out of her very pretty balloon.

He glanced in her direction to find her scanning the crowd. He got the oddest feeling she’d stricken his name from a list and was already seeking out a new potential mate for Skyler. And damned if that didn’t make him angry.

Not for himself. What he’d told her was the truth. He was just annoyed on Skyler’s behalf. If she was the least bit like him, she didn’t like other people trying to carve out her life for her. Before he slipped and told a woman old enough to be his mother to mind her own business, he took another swig of his half-finished beer and set it on the counter behind him.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Before Verona could respond, he pushed his way into the crowd, intent on finding Skyler. The night was young, with plenty of time for more dancing and hopefully a few more kisses.

But by the time he made it to the middle of the dance floor, he noticed she was no longer near the stage. He searched the faces around him and finally spotted her heading out the front door as if the place was on fire.

Something told him he should let her go, that if he followed her, he would be getting in over his head. That thought was still repeating in his mind as his feet carried him toward the exit.

* * *

WHEN SKYLER STEPPED outside the music hall, she inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, what felt like the first true breath she’d taken since arriving. Between the crush of people, kissing Logan and then having every eye in the place turned toward her, she’d felt more and more of her breath stolen with each passing moment.

She still couldn’t believe she’d kissed Logan, someone she’d met only hours ago, right there in the middle of the dance floor. And it wasn’t just a peck either. It’d been a mind-melting, blow-her-shoes-off type of kiss. Whatever else she might say about Logan Bradshaw, the man could kiss. When his arms had pulled her close against his hard body, she’d wanted much more than kissing. Honestly, her body still hummed with that insane longing. For a crazy moment, she’d wished she was the type of carefree person who could indulge her yearnings without thinking it to death.

“Making a getaway before they spring another surprise on you?”

The sound of Logan’s voice sent a little extra jolt to that hum within her, kicking it up a notch.

She glanced toward where he stood leaning back against someone’s pickup truck. “That obvious, huh?”

He held up one hand with his thumb and forefinger nearly together. “A touch.”

“Did they send you out here to drag me back in?”

“Nope. I’m chasing you because I still intend to buy you that ice-cream cone.”

“I just had cake. The last thing I need is ice cream.”

“Don’t tell me you’re worried about your figure. Because from where I’m standing, you’re an entire ice-cream factory away from having to worry about it.”

Though it wouldn’t be visible out here in the half light of the parking lot, Skyler’s face heated at his compliment. Despite the fact that compliments probably rolled off his tongue easily because he had a lot of practice, there was a ring of truth behind his words. It might be a line, but it wasn’t a lie, at least not from his point of view. That made her stupidly happy.

Logan pushed away from the truck and walked slowly toward her. “Come on, you know you can’t resist the siren call of ice cream.”

Skyler laughed. “You’re used to getting whatever you want, aren’t you?”

Logan smiled, and it made her heart do a funny little flip.

“Good things come to those who go after them.” He leaned toward her and lowered his voice to a whisper. “And just so you know, right now that good thing isn’t the ice cream.”

“What is?”

His eyes took on a wicked gleam, the kind of wicked that tempted you to do things you’d never normally consider, not outside of your imagination, anyway. “I think you know.”

Her breath caught trying to escape her lungs. He was going to kiss her again, and oh how she wanted him to do exactly that. Only he didn’t. Instead, he slid his fingers through hers and started leading her down the sidewalk.

She searched frantically for something to say but came up empty. Was she being totally nuts, walking off into the night with a stranger without telling anyone where she was going? But it was as if a part of her that never revealed itself was in charge, telling her to enjoy the moment, the feel of his strong hand wrapped around hers, the high of having a good-looking man showing interest in her.

Sure, she went out from time to time, less than Elissa but more than India ever had, but this felt different. Electric and breathless and exciting. She had a good life, one she enjoyed, but this type of excitement never made an appearance in her safe, ordered life. She’d never known she yearned for it. Part of her still believed none of this could be real, that she had to be dreaming.

When they reached the Ice Cream Hut, Logan led her to the window. “Get whatever you want.”

Mari Brewer, the teenage daughter of Larena Brewer, the inn’s head chef, saw Skyler first. Then her eyes widened when she spotted Logan. It seemed to take a good bit of effort for her to shift her gaze back to Skyler.

“Hey, happy birthday. Sorry I couldn’t make it to the party.”

“Thanks, and don’t worry about it. I just made a quick getaway.”

“Don’t blame you.” The way Mari looked at Logan, it was obvious she would have chosen time alone with the hot guy over a building full of people, too.

“Blue Falls is growing on me.” Logan placed one hand along the lower part of Skyler’s back but propped the other forearm along the ledge outside the serving window. “Seems every woman I meet here is pretty.”

Mari smiled and laughed a little.

“Cut it out,” Skyler said, and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “We’re here for ice cream, not for you to hone your flirting skills.”

Instead of behaving, Logan leaned closer to the window and Mari. “Sorry, beautiful, but I think she wants me all for herself.”

Skyler rolled her eyes. “You are impossible. Mari, can I get a scoop of blueberry, please?”

“Sure.” Mari looked at Logan. “And for you?”

“Vanilla.”

When Mari turned to scoop the ice cream, Skyler faced Logan. “Vanilla, really? You don’t seem like a plain vanilla sort of guy.”

He shrugged. “Maybe I’m sweet enough without all the fancy flavors.”

Skyler snorted. “Sweet is not the word that comes to mind.”

“Then what word does?”

Skyler accepted her ice-cream cone. “You can just keep wondering about that one.”

A stream of words scrolled through her mind, but three stood out brighter and bolder and truer than all the rest. Sexy...as...sin.

But he knew that, so she wasn’t about to pad his ego by admitting her thoughts out loud. Instead, she left him waiting for his ice cream and headed toward one of the benches that sat next to the lake. The moon was rising, its reflection glittering on the surface of the water.

When Logan joined her, he sat close enough to put his arm around her. Part of her told her to shift away, but that was the part that was always so careful. Though she couldn’t explain it, tonight she wanted to pretend she was someone else, someone who wasn’t so wrapped up in the “right” way to do everything.

“This is nice,” he said after several moments went by.

She took a deep breath of the cooler night air. “Yes, it is.”

“More your speed than jumping out of airplanes?”

She smiled and glanced at him. “Understatement of the century.”

“Bet you never expected to enjoy it.”

She refocused on the water and really thought about it. Skydiving wasn’t something she would have done on her own, too many things that could go wrong, but was she glad she’d been forced into it?

“No. I still get nauseated when I think about actually doing it, but the view was incredible.”

He bumped his shoulder into hers. “See, not so bad living a little.”

“I live just fine, thank you.” She took another bite of her ice cream, hurrying to keep it from melting down the sides of the cone and all over her hand.

“That right? So what do you do on days when you’re not jumping out of planes?”

She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I own the Wildflower Inn.” She pointed across the lake at the lights of the inn.

“That right? How many beds there?”

Skyler looked up at Logan just as he licked his ice cream. Good grief, that action made her sizzle all over. “Um...” What was she trying to remember? Oh, yeah, number of beds at the inn. She imagined Logan lying on one of those soft fluffy beds.

The lights on the Ice Cream Hut went out, cloaking Skyler and Logan in darkness. It was enough to jerk her out of her careening thoughts, ones so unlike her it was as if she’d suddenly discovered another personality inside herself.

“Thirty,” she finally remembered to say. “Well, thirty rooms. Some are singles, some doubles, a mixture.”

Logan chuckled. “I do make you nervous.”

“Yes.” Way to go, admit it again, give him even more ammunition. Make yourself look like more of a ninny.

Unable to sit still, she jumped to her feet and walked toward the garbage can to toss her trash.

“What, you don’t like cones?” Logan asked.

“No. I like to eat ice cream out of them but don’t like the cones themselves. I know, weird quirk.”

“We all have them.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s your quirk?”

He took the crunchy last bite of his cone, chewed slowly, making her nervous as he watched her without answering, then swallowed. “I like redheads.”

She laughed. “And blondes, and brunettes.”

He got to his feet and walked toward her. When he stood less than an arm’s length away, he reached around her to pitch his napkin. “But redheads who like blueberry ice cream most of all.”

Skyler laughed and realized that despite his corny lines and cocky self-assurance, she liked him. He was good for a laugh.

And for kissing.

As if he could read her thoughts, Logan pulled her to him and lowered his lips to hers. Beyond the blueberry flavor coating her tongue, she tasted the vanilla. Something about the mixing of flavors sent a burst of heat through her and had her hands finding their way up his chest. Even through the fabric, she could tell he had the kind of chest that made covering it with a shirt a crime.

She moaned into his mouth at the thought, and that seemed to toss fuel on the fire beginning to blaze between them. Logan pulled her even closer, so close that she felt his arousal. If she’d thought she was buzzing with desire before, that had been nothing compared to the zing that went through her now.

His hands ran up her ribs and brushed the underside of her breasts. She gasped, but another kiss captured her surprise.

The sound of a car starting barely registered, but when light suddenly illuminated them, Skyler startled enough to end the kiss and take a step back from Logan. Right as loud music filled the night air, Skyler realized the car belonged to Mari and she’d gotten a good show as she left work for the evening.

Skyler spun away, turning her back toward Mari’s car. Not that it mattered. Her face was likely flaming enough to light up the night more than Mari’s headlights.

As Mari took off, letting the darkness settle again, Logan walked up behind Skyler. Trying to gather up some common sense, she didn’t give him the opportunity to pull her to him again.

“I need to get back before India and Elissa call out the cavalry.”

He didn’t argue but rather took a step back and extended his hand toward the sidewalk, inviting her to proceed ahead of him. She took a shaky step then another. Her nerves continued to buzz even though Logan didn’t make any attempt to touch her. How crazy was it that she already missed the feel of his hand around hers, the warmth of his body pressed against hers?

Still, crazy or not, she couldn’t get the idea out of her head as they walked past businesses closed for the night. The closer they came to the music hall, the more she slowed her pace, knowing that when they reached the hall, that would be the end of being with Logan. And despite the fact they were little more than strangers and he was too cocky for his own good, she couldn’t deny he made her feel like no man ever had, daring and wonderfully nervous and...alive.

She might have lost her mind, but she didn’t want to lose that other Skyler quite yet. It was her birthday, after all, and it was time she gave herself a present. As they reached the narrow opening between Tumbleweed Books and Rand’s Western Wear where the city had built a tiny park, Skyler stopped walking.

“Something wrong?” Logan asked.

For a long moment, she said nothing, just stared at the sidewalk while an argument took place in her head. Her normal, sensible self said her day had been filled with enough excitement already and it was time to return to real life. But an increasingly loud voice told her that it felt good to really live, that it was still her birthday and she should enjoy it to the fullest.

“Skyler?” Logan sounded concerned this time, and that sealed the deal.

She grabbed the front of his shirt with both of her hands and dragged him into the darker confines of the little park. She pushed him up against the side of the bookstore and captured his lips with hers, filling her senses with him.

Logan wasted no time returning the kiss, spinning so that her back was against the wall. He pressed his body close, every bit as eager as she was. His hands slid under her shirt and skimmed along the sensitive skin of her sides and then up her spine.

Skyler somehow gathered enough brain cells together to realize they had to go somewhere or they were going to end up naked against the side of a building. That thought half scared her, half excited her even more than she already was.

“Do you want to come back to the inn with me?” She breathed the words against his mouth. They sounded as though they were coming from someone else, certainly not careful-to-a-fault Skyler Harrington. But she couldn’t deny she wanted this man and she wanted him now.

Logan’s mouth moved from her lips, up her jaw to her ear. He captured her earlobe with his teeth, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to make her arch against him. “My motel room’s closer.”

Something low in her belly, lower even than that, screamed yes. But Skyler hesitated, a sliver of the person she really was trying to assert itself.

Logan moved away enough that she could look up into his eyes. He lifted a hand and smoothed her hair behind her ear in a surprisingly tender gesture. He probably didn’t think anything of it, but that simple movement tipped the scales away from caution toward total abandon.

Skyler entwined her fingers through his and followed the part of herself she’d never known existed, the part that had gone through with jumping out of that plane, the part that would likely disappear with the morning light. But that was still hours away.

“Lead the way.”

Chapter Four

The music and laughter coming from the music hall faded as Skyler allowed Logan to lead her off of Main Street onto Seven Hills Avenue. Her heartbeat thundered louder and harder with every step they took away from the music hall, her friends, safety in numbers. Her step faltered as they came within view of the Country Vista Inn, a little strip of a motel frequented more by cowboys and road-maintenance crews than tourists. It wasn’t a dump, just not the Wildflower Inn. The Country Vista served its purpose, giving people a place to sleep.

Or something else.

Logan stopped and spun her into his arms. “Don’t think too much.”

“I don’t know. I—”

He halted her words by capturing her mouth with his and overwhelming her senses with pure, undiluted desire. She felt that kiss zing along all of her veins like a hit of some intoxicating drug she was powerless to resist. As Logan started walking backward without breaking the kiss, her feet followed. When he finally broke the kiss, her body buzzed with need as her thoughts swirled like a hurricane in her head.

When they reached the door to his room, her common sense made one final desperate attempt to stop her. But the moment Logan slid his key card through the reader and opened the door to his room, allowing her to see the king-size bed, she was lost.

Logan led her inside and locked the door behind her. In the next moment, he backed her against the door and kissed her again. This time his hands slid down her ribs to rest on her hips. When he pressed closer, Skyler gasped at his obvious arousal. Logan chuckled against her lips as his hands untucked her T-shirt. When the callused texture of his palm made contact with her skin, she recaptured his mouth.

She’d never wanted to have sex so much in her life. Logan could consume her right now, and she wouldn’t care. In fact, she’d welcome it.

The next thing she knew, Logan grasped the bottom of her shirt and quickly pulled it over her head. Before she could catch her breath, he lowered his wet, warm mouth to the swell of her breast above her bra. She grabbed the hat still on his head and tossed it onto a chair in the corner, then ran her hands through his hair, pulling him closer.

Logan unsnapped her bra, allowing him to nudge the fabric aside and capture her breast in his mouth.

“Oh, yes.”

She felt him smile against her, probably because it was obvious she’d never done anything like this before. But then he flicked the sensitive tip with his tongue, and her eyes closed as she pressed her head back against the door. As Logan shifted his talented mouth from one breast to the other, Skyler’s legs shook.

“You need to get off your feet,” Logan whispered in her ear. Then he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. He lay her crossways on the mattress, then followed her down.

She realized she’d lost her bra when Logan captured one of her breasts again, then wrapped his arms around her to lift her closer to his mouth. Her hands gripped the back of his shirt, pulling it up so that she could run her hands over his naked flesh.

Her body warmed even more as she ran her fingers across all that taut skin over well-defined muscles.

Logan lifted himself and smiled down at her. “Let me help you with that.” Without breaking eye contact, he unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside as if he didn’t care whether he ever saw it again.

Forget a crime. It would be a sin to cover up that chest. Every woman was turned on by different parts of a man, and for her it was definitely chests and arms. And Logan’s were perfect—tanned, toned, with the kind of muscle definition that came from hard work rather than pumping iron.

Logan’s mouth quirked up at one end. “Like the view?”

Skyler licked her lips. “Yes.”

Logan smiled wider as he lowered himself to her mouth, kissing her deeply as his hands went to the top of her jeans and slipped the button free. Her breath came faster as he lowered her zipper and slid his hand inside the top edge of her panties.

A five-alarm fire started in her middle and flashed out to the tips of her extremities in the blink of an eye. Unwilling to wait any longer for what her body craved, Skyler found the top of Logan’s jeans and mimicked what he’d done to hers. When she slid her hands inside to cup his naked hips, Logan growled against her lips.

He rolled away only long enough to pull off his boots and rid himself of the rest of his clothing. Then he made quick work of making her every bit as naked as he was.

Mercy, he was gorgeous, from head to toe. And gone was their relatively slow progress. She shocked herself by watching his every movement as he ripped open a foil package and sheathed himself. If possible, she grew even hotter and needier at the sight. She found it difficult to breathe, as if her lungs were as stunned by the view before her as she was.

Logan lowered himself to the bed and pulled her beneath him, nudging her legs apart with his knee. He kissed her again, his tongue dancing with hers and making her wonder how she’d ever made it through a day without being kissed like that.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he trailed kisses across her cheek toward her ear.

“I’m not sure. I feel like I’m going to burst into flames.”

Logan gripped her hips and pulled her up to press against his erection. “The feeling’s mutual.” He teased at her opening for just a moment before he plunged inside her, filling her as she’d never, ever been filled before.

A new wave of desire surged through her, prompting her to move against him, yearning for more. His hands splayed against her hips, he pulled her body to meet his as he drove into her again. Without thinking, Skyler wrapped her legs around him and captured Logan’s mouth, kissing, tugging, biting until she had to throw her head back in order to get enough air into her lungs. She gasped as Logan increased his pace, and she began meeting each of his thrusts with ones of her own.

Vibrations started deep within her, and she dug her hands into Logan’s hair. She didn’t need to say a word for him to know she wanted to increase the pace. With each stroke, she felt herself getting closer to the pinnacle. Her breath came faster as she bowed up against Logan’s straining body.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she said before she reached her peak.

Logan, who must have been hanging on to his own release with tight reins until she found hers, made one final stroke, then went rigid all over. He cried out as he found completion, then collapsed half on, half off her. He sucked in great gulps of air.

They didn’t speak. As the raging desire and physical bliss faded and Skyler was left with listening to the breathing of a near stranger next to her, she wondered if she truly had gone insane.

* * *

LOGAN FELT THE moment Skyler began to think too much, when she started slipping back to the woman she’d been before she’d made the decision to take a chance and live a little. Well, he couldn’t have that, because if he had his way, the night was far from over for them.

He wrapped his hand around the curve of her hip and rolled her to face him. “Stop.”

“Stop what?”

“Thinking.”

“I can’t.” Her voice held a hint of panic at the edge.

“Well, I have a cure for that.” He pulled her closer, draping her leg over his hip as he captured her sweet mouth with his. She still tasted like her blueberry ice cream.

He sensed a moment of resistance in her before she caved and ran her soft fingertips up his chest. Her hand stopped moving when she reached the puckered skin on his left pec. She leaned away and ran her finger along the slash.

“What happened to you?”

“A bull I was riding didn’t particularly like me.”

Her mouth fell open on a little gasp. “A horn did this?”

“Hazard of the job.”

She looked up at him, and his breath caught. Even in the dim light and with her hair tousled, she was stunning. He hadn’t lied—he did love redheads. He’d dare any man to see Skyler Harrington and not want to take her straight to his bed.

“You’ve got a death wish, don’t you?”

He smiled. “Not at all. I very much like living, especially right now.” Before she could speak or think any more, he ran his hand along her jaw and into her hair and brought her tasty mouth to his again. No matter how much he kissed her, he couldn’t seem to get enough. He never lacked for female companionship, but it had been a long time since he’d craved a woman as he did Skyler.

The mere touch of her hands skimming along the skin of his chest drove him wild, and he rolled her onto her back. As he slid home again, one word echoed in his head. Perfect.

* * *

SKYLER PULLED THE cover over her shoulder as she gradually came awake. Why did the air-conditioning feel so cold? And why was it running so loudly? She opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times. It took a few seconds for the confusion to fade enough for her to realize what she was looking at—a motel air-conditioning unit.

She froze as another cog slipped into place, the one telling her that the reason she had awakened chilled was the fact that she was still naked. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her breathing. Bad move. Closing her eyes only gave her a blank screen on which to replay what had happened with Logan. She’d had mind-blowing sex, twice, with a man she’d met that morning.

She glanced at the clock. Correction, yesterday morning. It wasn’t her birthday anymore, so that meant it was time to get her temporarily insane self out of this room and away from Logan Bradshaw and his delectable body.

Somehow she was able to calm her panic enough to listen to his breathing. Slow, steady, definitely asleep. She held her breath as she eased out from under the covers and carefully retrieved and put on her clothes. When Logan stirred in his sleep, she stopped dead. She made the mistake of looking at him. His bare chest tempted her to crawl back into bed and wake him in a way he would be sure to appreciate. The way the sheet rode low around his hips caused her to lick her lips at the memory of him making love to her.

No, it was sex. Making love was something you did with someone you actually cared about, not a stranger who’d probably done this same thing with countless other women. Thank goodness they’d at least been safe about it.

Even though she knew she should go, her feet weren’t getting the message. Instead, she stood and watched him sleep. The part of her that had led her here, the part that likely wouldn’t exist outside this room, whispered that she’d done nothing wrong. That she deserved to enjoy herself, to revel in the feel of a man’s body pressed close to hers. And Logan’s had felt like nothing she’d ever imagined. If she let herself, she could get used to that feeling.

But it wasn’t real. This wasn’t her, and he would be gone in a matter of days.

That’s what India thought about Liam.

She shook her head to clear away the thought. Logan was nothing like Liam. India’s fiancé was a hardworking father and business owner. Logan had that carefree adrenaline-junkie vibe. Chances were he wouldn’t live to be an old man. That scar across his chest was evidence of that. Nothing but pure sexual hunger had brought her to this room, because other than the physical desire, they were absolutely nothing alike.

Her common sense slammed back into her as if it had taken a short vacation, and suddenly she needed to get far away from Logan Bradshaw as quickly as possible. She pushed aside one final surge of yearning and slipped out the door into the night. Before anyone who might recognize her noticed her, she hurried across the lit parking lot to the dimmer sidewalk that led back toward Main Street.

With each hurried step away from the motel, she scolded herself more for her incredible lapse in judgment. She’d just had sex with a near stranger, twice! She wanted to get home, take a shower and go to bed. If she was supremely lucky, in the morning she’d wake up and this would all be nothing more than a hot, steamy dream.

As she neared downtown, she slowed as her thoughts spun. How in the world was she going to face Elissa and India? Why hadn’t she gone back to the music hall as she’d intended? Dealing with their matchmaking attempts would have been more bearable than telling them she’d gone off to the Country Vista to have sex with her skydiving partner. Wondering why she hadn’t heard from them, she stopped walking and pulled out her phone. When she saw she had twelve unanswered text messages, she remembered she’d put her phone on silent during the movie and had forgotten to change it back. If only she’d had the ringer on, maybe the texts would have kept her from making the biggest mistake of her life.

She scrolled through them.

Elissa: Hope you’re having a good time with Mr. McHottiePants.

Elissa: Smooch, smooch, smooch.

India: Ignore her. Call if you need us.

Several more followed in the same vein before India’s final message:

Where are you? Are you ok? Let me know.

She glanced across the street toward the mostly empty parking lot of the Blue Falls Music Hall and knew she couldn’t face seeing either of her friends tonight. With a deep breath, she texted India back.

Fine. Sorry, forgot to turn the ringer back on. Tired, heading to bed.

Just as soon as she walked the mile and a half around the lake to her apartment. If she made it without someone seeing her and setting the local gossip mill ablaze, she’d officially be the luckiest woman in all of the Hill Country.

She hurried toward the walking path that circled the lake. When she passed the Ice Cream Hut, she couldn’t help but remember how Logan had teased both her and Mari as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Damn her hormones—it probably was. She imagined him buying an ice-cream cone for a woman in every rodeo town he rolled into. Tears pooled in her eyes, and that made her even angrier. But she wasn’t angry at Logan. He hadn’t claimed to be anything he wasn’t. No, she was angry at herself. She’d let her body trump the orderly, precise thought process that had gotten her through years of upheaval and allowed her to become a successful businesswoman.

She increased her pace, wanting to be home more than she could express. Her anger grew, extending to her friends. They’d pushed her to the point where she’d fallen prey to Logan’s good looks and smooth talking. All the way back to the inn, she concocted countless ways to get back at them. But that would mean admitting what had happened. And by the time she unlocked the exterior door to her apartment that wouldn’t necessitate her walking through the inn’s lobby, she’d decided she was keeping her one-night stand to herself. That shouldn’t be a problem, since she couldn’t imagine Logan caring enough to deliberately cross her path again. He’d had her, and most likely he’d be on to the next woman who caught his eye.

That last thought kept reverberating in her head as she made straight for her bathroom and took a shower. Why did it bother her so much?

Because she wasn’t one to give even her body so easily. She’d lost control, and if there was one thing she couldn’t bear, it was to not be in control of her own life.

She dressed in cool summer pajamas and crawled into her bed. She inhaled the familiar clean scent of it, ran her hand across the downy softness. Everything about it was better than the bed at the Country Vista Inn.

Except that she was alone. She tried to tell herself that she was perfectly fine on her own, that she preferred it that way. But as a tear finally leaked out and trailed down to her pillow, she admitted that she was lonely. Logan wasn’t to blame for what happened between them. Her friends weren’t either. It was the loneliness that most of the time she could convince herself was a figment of her imagination, the empty feeling that she rarely acknowledged. But as she lay in her bed alone, she let herself feel it. She let herself admit, if only to herself in the privacy of her own mind, that she missed the warmth of a man’s body next to her.

As she closed her eyes, she allowed herself to relive every moment, every touch she’d shared with Logan. Moments and touches that had for a short while made her forget that loneliness.

Chapter Five

Logan knew Skyler was gone even before he opened his eyes. The room was too quiet and the bed next to him too cool for her to still be there. He looked at the rumpled sheet where she’d lain. It wasn’t a surprise she was gone, but he had to admit it was a disappointment. Finding his way into her body again this morning would have been a great way to start the day. But he guessed he was lucky she’d stayed as long as she had, that she’d agreed to come back to the room with him at all.

If he were to place a bet, he’d say she was drowning in regret this morning. He wondered if he shouldn’t have pressed her so much, but then he remembered how she’d pulled him into that dark little park and kissed him as if her soul depended on it. She might not admit it, but she’d wanted what they’d shared just as much as he had.

Suddenly ravenous, he rolled out of bed, took a shower, dressed and headed for the Primrose Café. He’d worked up quite an appetite with Skyler. Maybe he’d even see her in town this morning and cause her to blush with a kiss in broad daylight. He smiled at that thought. If Skyler was regretting going to bed with him, maybe he should make it his mission to erase that regret. And get her right back in that bed. Whatever she might say the day after, they’d been good together. Who knew there was that much fire under the surface of Miss Prim and Proper?

When he stepped through the front door of the café, a quick survey of the room showed every table was full. A young waitress with a dirty plate in one hand and a coffeepot in the other stopped next to him on her way across the dining room.

“There’s still a couple of stools left up front,” she said with a nod toward the counter lined with stools.

She was probably in her mid-twenties with a long brown ponytail. He recognized the smile on her pink lips and the look of appreciation in her bright blue eyes. Normally he would have returned them as his thoughts shifted away from breakfast. But for some reason, in his mind the waitress’s face was replaced by Skyler’s.

Feeling a bit off, he nodded. “I’ll take a cup of that coffee when you get the chance.”

“Be right there as soon as I take care of the Chew the Fat Club.”

He watched as she headed toward the front corner of the restaurant next to the big picture window that had Primrose Café painted across it. Four old coots were deep in conversation, likely solving all the world’s problems. Logan laughed a little under his breath. There seemed to be a Chew the Fat Club in every small town in America. Those guys probably had a dozen grandkids between them and were here every morning drinking their weight in coffee. And by the way they smiled when the waitress approached, probably part of what they talked about during their morning get-togethers was the good old days when they’d been wild bucks chasing pretty girls.

Pretty girls like Skyler Harrington.

Logan shook his head and crossed to the stool at the end of the bar. He needed an entire pot of coffee to wake up and send his body and mind the message that it was a new day. His hot night with Skyler was done. He didn’t regret it, not one bit, but he wasn’t one to get too wrapped up in any one woman. He didn’t live the kind of life where that made a lick of sense. He slid onto the stool and grabbed a menu.

“Saw you at the music hall last night,” the pretty waitress said as she set an empty cup in front of him. He glanced at her nametag. Gretchen.

“Yep. Seemed like the place to be.”

“You know Skyler?”

There was more to her question than simple curiosity, and for some reason a voice in Logan’s head told him to tread carefully. What was up with that?

“Met her and her friends yesterday.” He pointed toward a photo on the menu. “I’ll have the Good Morning Platter with scrambled eggs.” Two eggs, bacon, sausage and a biscuit with gravy. His night with Skyler had left him with an enormous appetite this morning. That thought made him want to grin.

Gretchen jotted down his order and headed for the window to the kitchen. While her back was turned, someone slid onto the only remaining empty stool, next to him.

“Tell me I’m not going to have to sic the sheriff on you.”

He glanced over to see Skyler’s friend Elissa sitting next to him with a “Don’t mess with me, or I’ll eat you for lunch” expression on her face.

“Pardon?”

“The last time I saw or heard from Skyler, she was heading out the door of the music hall with you. Then, poof, she disappears. Doesn’t answer calls, doesn’t respond to texts, doesn’t contact me for a ride home.”

A twinge of worry hit him. “Have you tried her this morning?”

“Yes, but still no answer.”

Had something happened to her? Blue Falls was one of those small towns where you didn’t think anything bad ever happened, but the reality was that evil knew no geographic boundaries. “She was fine when I saw her last.” She’d felt fine, too, snuggled up next to him for warmth, her soft curves making him want to take her all over again.

“What time was that?”

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