Taste: A Love Story (27 page)

“It’s good trouble.” Travis moved past her. “Goodnight guys.” He glanced back toward the bar. “’Night, Makenna.” The words hung between them for a beat, and then he was gone.

Makenna stood staring after Travis, then sat down and said nothing.

Before Logan could get up and lock the door behind Travis, Kara came through the front door.

“I know this is a bad time, that you’re closed and probably tired, but I needed—” Kara stopped when she saw Makenna and Sage. “Oh. Hi. How’d everything go tonight?” she asked.

“Great.” Sage looked at Makenna who was already collecting her things.

“We were just leaving.” Sage pulled her bag from behind the bar.

“Right, I’ve got to get home.” Makenna slid past Logan and left out the front.

Sage was right behind her and Logan turned to lock the door.

He followed Kara back into the bar and closed the blinds on the three windows. She was clearly upset and he thought it best to wait her out.

“I’m trying to find myself.”

Logan turned and tried not to look confused.

Kara laughed.

“I guess I shouldn’t have started with that. Eloise had her birthday party today.”

“Oh, that’s great. How old is she?”

“Three.”

“So, you must have hung out after the party?” Logan was trying to make conversation until he could figure out why she’d shown up at 11:30.

“Jake said I hide and that I only do things or associate with people my parents approve of.”

Ah,
Logan thought,
now we’re getting somewhere.

“Do you want some tea? I can see if we have some in the back.”

“I don’t want tea.”

“Okay, well I’m sure Jake doesn’t know what it’s like dealing with the press or all the other crap. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I don’t want to talk.”

“Right. Sure, come here.” Logan took her into his arms.

“I need you. I’m at your door again, Logan.” She looked up at him. Her eyes told him exactly what she meant, but he needed to clarify before he made an ass out of himself.

“What does that mean, Kara?”

“It means so many things, and I don’t want to figure them all out right now. I just want you to find me, Logan. See me.”

She put her hand on his chest, and he stopped.

“Make your move, Logan, or I will.”

He smiled at his own words being thrown back at him in a much sexier voice.

“Well, normally I would say ladies first, princess, but I think I’ll take this one myself.” On the last breath, he kissed her.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“L
ast chance to call this off.” Logan held her as they stumbled into the kitchen.

“This is a bad idea, right?” Kara tugged at his shirt. “Take this off.”

“Probably one of our worst.” He pulled his shirt over his head.

“Oh dear God, it does go onto your chest.” Kara ran her hands up his tattooed arm, along his collarbone, and down his stomach.

Logan unbuttoned her blouse. “Kara, things are great right now and I don’t want you to do this and then regret . . . Oh Jesus”—the silk blouse fell off her shoulders—“forget it. Best idea I’ve had in a long time, maybe even ever.”

He backed her up until they hit the wood counter of his kitchen.

“I want you to know that I recognize the cliché here, that I cook and I’m getting ready to devour you on the kitchen counter. I get it and while I’d love to lay you down and love you all over my actual bed, I never seem to leave this damn place, so kitchen counter it is.”

With that, Logan swiped his arm across the counter and sent steel bowls and tomatoes flying. He pulled her in and his body pulsed, as his breathing became urgent. His hands dug into her sides as he lifted her onto the counter and then reached behind her to knock the last couple of bowls out of their way. Gently laying her back, he slid her body up the counter and removed her jeans. As he ran his hands up her bare, long legs he realized she’d been eating. Her body was glowing. It was nourished and so damn sexy, he thought he was going to lose his mind. He undid the buttons of his jeans and hoisted himself onto the counter. Slowly crawling her body, he kissed soft skin he recognized from a distant memory, now fresh and different. Kara’s hands went into his hair, caressing and then pulling. He could feel her need as he kissed his way past her stomach, to the dip in the center of her chest.

She sighed and reached for him. “Logan.”

“Right here, princess. At your service.” He gave her a wicked smile, still hovering over her body.

Kara laughed. “Get up here.” She tugged on his hair.

“Hang on, I just got to one, well two, of my favorite parts.”

He teased his way around her body and slowly brought her from playful to near crazy. The things the man could do with his tongue, she thought as her hands clung to the sides of the wooden counter. Logan moved as if he had all the time in the world, as if they were on some tropical island instead of the massive counter in the middle of his kitchen. He met her eyes, smiled and her body hummed. She couldn’t take her eyes off him.

“I . . .” was all that came out as he took her mouth again and finally pressed his body against her. Resting his weight on his forearms, Logan moved her hair out of her face, held her, and continued kissing her lips, pulling, dipping. He moved to her neck, behind her ear, and then he bit her earlobe. He seemed to know exactly what she craved.

“You remember me,” fell out of her mouth, breathless.

Logan’s gaze locked on hers.

“There are some things a man never forgets. Your body, what turns you on and has you panting my name. Yeah, I’m never going to forget those things.”

“I . . . I don’t pant.”

Kara didn’t have time to say anything before he was gone again, kissing her hip bone, the back of her knees, and then he slowly removed the only thin strip of silk that was left on her body. Her body lifted toward him as he kicked off his own jeans and remained suspended in some sort of plank above her. Kara was never a fan of structured exercise, but if what Logan was doing actually was a plank, she could certainly get into that. He kissed her again, and then they slowly slid together. As he began to move, she felt as if her entire body might simply melt into him.

“Okay, maybe I pant a little.” She was fighting for breath and he smiled, eyes hazy as if he recognized her again. He wanted to tell her something, but instead he moved one last time and they were both gone.

“Do you remember the first time we . . .” Logan paused as if he wasn’t sure how to say it.

“Had sex?” Kara added, shifting into him and smiling into his shoulder.

“Yeah.” He laughed and pulled her closer, balancing them both on the counter he would never look at the same way again.

“It was my first time, of course I remember it.”

“Which I still don’t understand. How did you make it to twenty-one without someone . . .”

“Have you seen my life? Not a lot of college guys clamoring to be a part of that mess.” Kara kissed his shoulder.

“Well, I didn’t know your mess.”

“And wasn’t that so wonderful?” She leaned against his chest and with each passing moment, the present was outdoing the past.

“I guess it’s all how you look at it. We were in sort of a bubble.”

“It was a great bubble, and that night in your tiny little apartment was the most spontaneous thing I’d ever done. I’d only known you forty-seven days.”

“You counted?” He’d wanted her from week one, but even he hadn’t counted.

“Sure, when I was berating myself for being reckless.”

Logan laughed.

“I got over it though. Turned out I really liked sex, so thank you for that.”

“You sure did. And you’re quite welcome. I’m sure you’ve gone on to bigger and better things.” They both laughed.

“I’ve actually become well versed in ‘me’ time.”

Logan nearly rolled off the counter at the thought of Kara and—Christ, he’d never run that particular fantasy.

“I . . . you got me. I’m speechless. All sorts of great new images are flooding my mind, but I can’t find my words.”

“What? It’s perfectly natural to . . . help yourself in that department. Besides, I gave up on group play once my parents pulled me away from . . .”

“From what?”

“From the sunshine.” Kara sat up and slid off the counter.

He joined her and jumped back into his jeans. As she buttoned her shirt, he turned her to face him. “I’m sorry, Kara.”

“For what?”

“For not seeing what all that did to you. I was so busy being pissed that you weren’t who you said you were, I never thought about you.”

“We were young and why would you? I did lie to you.”

“True.”

She swatted him and pulled her jeans up.

“Could we revisit the sex thing for a minute?”

She laughed. “Sure.”

“Since metaphors seem more comfortable here, when was the last time you had . . . group play?”

Kara busied herself as if she was avoiding his question.

“I’m hungry, are you hungry?” she asked.

“I am. I’ll make us something. Kara?” He lifted her chin and their eyes met. He knew her answer before it came out of her mouth.
Holy shit!

“Stop looking at me that way. You don’t understand my life and when I left Paris I decided it was easier to shut down.”

“I’m not looking at you any way.” But he knew it wasn’t true. He tried to erase the pity from his face, but that was what he was feeling. In what world did a woman so full and breathtaking hide herself away like that?

“And don’t do that stupid Hallmark movie scene where you tell me you’re honored.”

Logan belly laughed and she joined him.

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” He pulled out two pans.

“I’m not embarrassed.”

“You look a little pink in the cheeks there, princess.”

“Shut up. Make me something to eat, farm boy.”

Logan was more than a little stunned that he was the only person Kara Malendar felt comfortable sharing the deep, hidden shiny parts of herself with. It was indeed an honor. A brilliant sunrise kind of honor, but there was no way he was going to tell her that.

“So, this self play”—Logan decided to move on for both of their sakes as he came back from the walk-in with butter and cheese—“are spectators allowed to watch?”

She laughed and threw a mushroom at him as he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into him. Right before he kissed her for the hundredth time that night, a feeling washed over him, the one men write stupid poems and love songs about. He took to her mouth deeper and ran one hand up the side of her body, under her blouse, to the warm, well-loved curve of her breast. She reached up and took hold of the back of his neck and Logan didn’t care anymore if she was going to destroy him; it didn’t matter. He wanted to touch the sun, feel her warmth. That was all that mattered. Men throughout history had made the same stupid mistake and he was going to join them. He just hoped what he had to give would be enough.

By the time they pulled apart again, the butter had softened. They made grilled cheese sandwiches. Logan swore by his blend of cheeses, thick crusty bread, and a grainy mustard Travis made in-house every week. Kara’s version was her take on brie and granny smith apples, with the fig jelly the restaurant had on hand for their charcuterie.

“Nice to see you in the kitchen again.” Logan popped the last piece of grilled cheese into his mouth.

“Well, it’s a great kitchen.” Kara smiled and sipped her wine. “It’s beautiful, so personal. Not exactly the school kitchens, huh?”

“You mean the assembly line from
I Love Lucy
?”

Kara laughed. “It so was. Remember when that guy—I don’t remember his name—fell asleep during the browning butter demonstration?”

“Victor!” Logan added laughing.

“Dear God, no one ever fell asleep in class again.”

“I’m pretty sure it took him a week to get that butter out of his hair. Remember he had that long ponytail that Madame kept telling him to—”

“Tuck up, tuck up,” they both called out, now tearing up with laughter.