Run the Risk
could have gotten your stuff for you, but since you’re
here anyway—” she took his arm and began hauling him back toward the store “—you
may as well give me a ride home when I’m finished.”
    That attitude was so different from what she’d expressed back
at the apartment that his suspicions darkened. Was she hoping to protect him
from Rowdy?
    He said only, “Glad to.” And he freed his wrist from her grip
so that he could put a hand to the small of her back.
    The rain from the night before had ramped up the humidity, but
it also left behind that stirring breeze that plastered her skirt to her legs.
The skirt kicked up with each hurried step she took.
    “Stop staring,” she said. “You’re embarrassing me.”
    He’d been about to ask her why she was rushing him, but she
effectively sidetracked him. “I find it hard not to watch you.”
    “Why?” she asked.
    Before, he’d studied her to make her aware of him, not out of
any real intimate interest of his own.
    Now…her every move enthralled him. He needed to see her body,
to touch her all over. At every moment, some part of his brain churned over the
body hidden from him. In a very short time, he’d become obsessed.
    “You have long legs,” he mused aloud.
    She missed a step, then moved ahead of him, out of his
reach.
    Knowing he had her on the run, Logan smiled. “Slim hips,
too.”
    She charged forward, grabbed a cart and shoved her way down an
aisle. Hanging back a little, aware of the concentrated way she resisted any
sway to her walk, Logan watched her.
    Suddenly she stopped and turned to glare at him.
    And it was a glare of pure fire, taking him by surprise.
    “Stop it,” she ordered him, “or leave.”
    Mesmerizing, that small sign of her temper. “You asked me to
give you a ride home.”
    “Yes, but if you can’t behave in a civilized way, I’d rather
walk. In fact, I like walking. It’s good exercise and—”
    “Forget it, honey.” Logan put his arm around her and started
her forward again. “I’ll pretend you’re not hiding a sweet body, okay?”
    Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. She clung to the cart,
almost using it for support as he urged her down the bread aisle.
    As she shopped, Logan stayed attuned to their surroundings, but
he no longer felt the scrutiny of prying eyes.
    Come out, you bastard, Logan
thought to himself. Come out so I can get to
you.
    But he didn’t see Rowdy Yates anywhere around, and he didn’t
feel that burning gaze, either. His disappointment would have been more
pronounced if he weren’t so fascinated with Pepper. The no-nonsense way she
shopped, how she moved, even her junk food choices were a source of
interest.
    Add to all that her awareness of him, which he felt in
spades.
    Even in the middle of a grocery store, that damned sexual
chemistry arced between them, live, hot and alarmingly real. Possibly the most
real thing he’d felt in two long years.
    * * *
    “T URN IN HERE .”
    Logan glanced at her. “What?”
    “I need to go to the department store, too. Turn in here.” He’d
been silent too long, and she didn’t know if it was because he’d sensed her
brother’s nosiness, or his curiosity about her body that kept him brooding.
    Neither possibility boded well for her peace of mind.
    As he pulled into a parking spot, she opened her seat belt.
Already preoccupied with thoughts of her brother and his domineering presence,
she said, “You don’t need to wait. Thank you for the lift, but I’ll walk the
rest of the way after I’ve finished.”
    Before she moved an inch, he caught her arm in a gentle but
unbreakable hold. Far too seriously, he said, “I don’t mind waiting.”
    He had such big, strong hands, but she couldn’t imagine him
ever hurting her. “What happened there?” She nodded at his left hand, braced on
the steering wheel. The nail gun had left behind some grisly bruising.
    As if he’d forgotten the injury, he looked at it. “I screwed up
at work, that’s

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