The Real Thing (11 page)

Raine hadn’t done something as
simple as
cook dinner alongside a guy since she’d made it big and bought her Hollywood mansion. It was one more thing she hadn’t realized she missed.

“I read the review that critic
in the
Times
wrote about your watercol
ors,” she said as she cut the tomatoes.
“For what it’s worth, I think he’s crazy.
Your watercolors are
beautiful.”

Logan gave her a wry smile. “You’re the only one who thinks so
. But who knows?
Maybe when word gets around that you bought
one, I’ll sell a few more.”
He
set the salmon steaks on the stove’s cooktop grill.
“You didn’t have to go along with that whole publicity
picture thing, you know.
I appreciate the gesture,
but
I’m sure you’d rather not have any more people taking your picture.”

“I’m happy to do it.
Besides, I’m used to having my picture taken.
”
She cringed as
soon as she said the words. “I didn’t mean that to come out as stuck
-
up as it sounded.”

He chuckled. “It didn’t sound stuck-up. You were just stating a fact.”

She scooped up the tomatoes and dropped them in the bowl with the other salad fixings.
“
H
ave you done a lot of paintings since
you’ve gotten back?”

“Some.
”
He gave her a sidelong glance.
“In between watching your movies.”

She blinked
.
“I thought you didn’t watch
movies. Or
television.”

He shrugged.
“I
don’t, but I made an exception
.”

For some reason, his words pleased her. “I’m flattered.”

He
turned one of the
salmon
steaks over, then the other. “They were good, by the
way.
I especially liked the western you played in.
”

T
he
simple
compliment meant more to her than any review she’d ever gotten
, and for a moment, she was too stunned to speak. “Thank you.”

She set the bowl of salad on the table as he took the salmon steaks from the grill.

“Seattle’s a long drive from Vancouver just to buy a painting,” he
said after they’d both sat down

S
he concentrated on cutting the fish with her fork.
“Actually, I was hoping to see
you.”

He lifted a brow. “
Really?
That’s surprising, considering
you didn’t say two words to me before you
left the cabin.”

Raine frowned down at her
plate.
She hadn’t e
xpected him to be so blunt.  “I…
I was uncomfortable with what had happened up there
.
Not with the sex,” she hastily added when she saw him stiffen. “
W
ith what happened before it
—t
he spanking. That was completely new for me, and my first instinct was to be outraged.
But after I got back
to LA, I thought about it and…
I made some discoveries about myself.”

“What kind of discoveries?”

She picked up a forkful of salmon and chewed before answering.
“In my world, you have to always be in control of everything and everyone
.
Until I met you, I never realized how stressful that can be.
Or how good it can feel to give up
some of that
control to someone else.”

He
took a swallow of beer.
“So, how
’
d you discover all of this?”

“I co
uldn’t get the spankings out of
my head
.
I’d find myself daydreaming about them, even fantasizing about them.
”
Raine looked at him from beneath her lashes. “It’s
not just the spankings that turn me on
, though. It
’s letting you take control.”

She held her breath, waiting for him to say som
ething, and when he didn’t, she let
out a groan. “
I shouldn’t have said anything. Now you think
I’m a
weirdo?”

He reached out to cover her
hand. “
I don’t think you’re a weirdo.”

“You don’t?”

“No, I don’t.” He rubbed is thumb
back and forth.
“You’re not the only woman in
the world who gets turned on by playing the sub
missive and being spanked. It’s more common than you might think.”

“I know that. It’s new to me, though. I’ve never gotten spanked before.”

His mouth twitched. “So you said that first night.”

Raine
regarded him over the rim of her glass as she sipped her wine.
“
What about
you? Did spanking me turn you on
, too
?”

He chuckled, the sound deep and sexy.
“As I tend to remember, we did have the most amazing sex right after that, so
yeah,
spanking you turn
ed
me on.
Hell, just
talking about it has me excited.”

Heat pooled between her thighs at the smolder in his eyes.
“How excite
d?”

He took her hand and guided it under the table to the sizeable bulge in his jeans
.
“Does that answer your question?”

Raine
could have told him it did, but instead she leaned forward and kissed him
long and slow on the mouth. Logan was the first to pull away, his breathing ragged.

“What do think about me spanking you again?” he asked huskily.

Her pulse skipped a beat. “Now?”

“Unless you’d rather finish dinner first?”

She moaned against his mouth. “I don’t think I can wait that long.”

He chuckled and kissed her again. “I was hoping  you’d say that.”

Taking her hand, he tugged her to her feet and
led her
up the stairs to the loft-like
bedroom
. Decorated in warm earth tones and light-colored wood, it was strong and masculine like he man who slept there. Not that she noticed much of the decor, of course, because Logan pulled
her into his arms and kissed her gently on the mouth. She parted her lips under his, sighing with pleasure when she fel
t his tongue glide along hers.

He threaded his hands in her hair, tilting her head back so that he could trail
kisses down her neck before moving b
ack up to her ear. She
shiver
ed
as
his hair-roughened
jaw
brushed against her skin. God, she’d missed him.

Murmuring something she didn’t catch, he slid his hands down to cup
her breast
s.
At his touch, her nipple hardened beneath the silky material of
her top, and she let out
another moan as she arched against him.

She grabbed his head with a moan and
guided his mouth back to hers.
H
e happily obliged, kissing her thoroughly
as
his hands
slid underneath
her
fluttery
top
to
cup her breasts
through the silky material of her br
a. Needing to feel skin on skin,
Raine
pulled away and lifted her top over her head.

Logan’s gaze
immediately
dropped to
her rounded breasts, now hidden only by a demi-bra
. The glint in his eyes froze her in place and instead of taking off her bra like she meant to, she stood there on display for him. He reached out and palmed
a breast in each hand,
teasing her
nipples through the material with his thumbs.
They hardened under
his ministrations,
sending tingles of
electricity
through her,
and she
suck
e
d in a breath.
She twisted both hands behind her back to try and undo th
e clasp, but he intercepted her,
holding her wrists firmly in one hand
while he
continued to
torment
her with the other.

She growled, struggling to free herself, but it did no good.

He squeezed her nipple through her bra. “You’re supposed to be giving up control, remember?”

She remembered.
But God, it was hard. Especial
ly when Logan bent to suckle on
her satin-covered breasts.
Her nipples hardened almost painfully, and she bit her lip to keep from begging him to stop. She didn’t really want him to, anyway. Because while what he was doing was pure torture, knowing he controlled her pleasure was also arousing as hell
. If he wanted to, he could spend the whole night
playing with her breasts just like this
, and she couldn’t do anything about it.

But to her relief, he didn’t. She almost sobbed when he finally
released his hold on her wrists
to
un
clasp her bra.
Her breasts spilled into his hands, relieved to be free. He
massaged them gently
, his thumbs grazing her extra-sensitive nipples
before
he
lowered his head
to take
one stiff peak in his mouth.

Raine m
o
a
ned
, her hand finding its way into his thick hair to pull him close as she arched against him. It occurred to her that she probably shouldn’t be taking the lead like this since he was supposed to be in charge, but Logan didn’t chastise her
. Instead,
he swirled his tongue around one nipple, then the other until she was dizzy from it.

When he finally came
up for air, she was
the one who was breathing hard
. While
she steadied herself with a grip on his shoulders
, he went to work on her jeans. He had them unbuttoned and over her hips before she could think. He was very good at getting her
naked, she thought as she stepped out of her pants.

As
he got to his feet,
Logan
ran his hands back up her long legs to the curve of her hips.
I
t
wasn’t
fair
that
he should be so overdressed when she was
n’t wearing anything but a barely-there pair of
panties
. She
reached for the buttons of his shirt
, but he caught
her wrists
and fixed her with a stern look.

“Uh-uh. I’m in charge here.”

She lifted her chin. “You can still be in charge if you’re naked.”

“Later,” he told her.

Raine gave him a pout, but didn’t protest when he urged her back on the bed. While she liked where this was heading, she hadn’t forgotten about the spanking he’d promised her. Had he?

She opened her mouth to ask when he dropped to his knees in front of her. Maybe that spanking could wait.

She held her breath as she waited for him to slide of
f
her panties, but instead, he bent to kiss her through the thin material. She caught her lower lip between her teeth, stifling a moan.
He was determined to drive her crazy, wasn’t he?

And drive her crazy, he did. Raine hadn’t even reali
z
ed it was possible for a guy to lick her through her panties, but
Logan had a very talented tongue. He glided along her satin-covered folds so many times she lost count—not that she was counting. Then, he found her clit and made little circles through the material. She clutched the blanket in her fists, sure she was going to scream in
frustration if he didn’t take off her panties and bury his face in her pussy.

When he lifted his head, she thought that’s exactly what he was going to do.
But he
only eyed her hotly.

“I think it’s time for that spanking
, don’t you?
”

Raine
blinked up at him. He wanted to spank her
now
?
But what about the orgasm
she was on the verge of?