Simply Scandalous (Simply Series Book 2) Carly Phillips (new books to read .txt) 📖

“I wish we were.” She bit her tongue the minute the words escaped her lips. “I mean, that’s too bad.”

He grinned. “Not really. This way I get a rain check.”

Catherine opened her mouth to argue and this time he sealed his mouth over hers, cutting her off.

At least for now.

*     *     *

After following Catherine’s directions, Logan pulled up in front of a quaint house painted in a light shade of gray. The sun bathed the home in light, now that the rain and clouds of the day had dissipated. The half-hour drive had passed quickly. Cat had talked during the entire trip and Logan now knew all about her sister, Kayla, her husband, and their soon-to-be expanded family.

Catherine obviously loved her sister, and despite her complaining, he sensed she liked her sister’s husband. He also believed Catherine rambled out of nervousness because she didn’t want to discuss the possibility of seeing each other again.

She didn’t believe they had any sort of future, and Logan intended to prove her wrong.

In Catherine, he detected a deep sense of longing for the hearth-and-home type of life her sister now had, even if she’d never admit it aloud. He recognized Catherine’s yearnings because they echoed needs and desires he never realized he’d had. Until Catherine.

“Well, we’re here.”

Resting his arm over the steering wheel, he turned to look at her. “Yes, we are.” He noticed her hand on the door handle and grinned.

“Going somewhere, Cat?”

Her blush would have charmed him if she hadn’t already had him well in her grip. “Inside?” she said.

“Without a word?” Teasing her came naturally, if only because she took it so well.

She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“Say so long,” he instructed her.

She shook her head. “I have no idea why I let you fluster me,” she muttered. “No one flusters me. Not even Nick.”

“Who’s Nick?” he asked, hating the sound of another man’s name on her lips.

“My chef. And close friend. We went to culinary school together. He’s been teasing me since he was shorter than me, and after I kicked him in the shins the first time…”

“He never tried it again?”

Catherine laughed. “Of course, he did.”

“And this Nick. He’s a…”

“Friend,” she said softly and seriously as if reading the tone in his voice. “An engaged friend. He hasn’t made a move since we were kids.”

He met her steady gaze and knew he’d been right. She’d understood and sought to reassure.

He appreciated her for that. He’d never succumbed to jealousy before but wasn’t surprised his first time involved Catherine Luck because no woman had ever affected him the way she had.

She uncrossed her legs. “Goodbye, Logan.” She looked away, and before he realized her intent, had pulled on the door handle.

“Cat, wait.”

She released it and turned. Her green eyes were suspiciously damp. “What?”

“Goodbye’s too final.” Myriad words were on the tip of his tongue, but goodbye wasn’t one of them. She’d be seeing him again, whether she believed it or not.

She drew a deep breath. “It was fun, but…”

“It was more than that.”

She shook her head. “It can’t be.”

“Why? Because my name’s Montgomery?”

“That’s one reason.”

*     *     *

Catherine didn’t dare name anymore. Otherwise, she’d risk admitting her real feelings and the fact that she was dangerously close to falling in love with a man she’d just met.

Love at first sight didn’t exist. Once she got out of this car, she’d remember that.

“This is the modern world. Class differences don’t exist.”

Tell it to the judge, she thought but refused to utter the words aloud. Logan had gone so far out of his way to distance himself from his family and their way of life that Catherine knew he believed what he said. He just didn’t realize what would happen when two worlds like theirs collided.

Besides, she had no doubt that once he got back home, all she’d be to him was a distant memory. “Can’t we just say it’s been fun…”

“And I’ll see you around?” he jumped in, finishing for her.

“Something like that.”

He grinned, and she knew she’d dug herself in deep. “Sounds good to me. I’ll pick you up Friday. We’ll have dinner in Boston before driving back to the beach. Maybe this time the weather will be nice, and I’ll get to show you some of the more special spots hidden away from prying eyes.”

He’d gotten the best of her and he knew it. “You’re too literal,” she told him.

“I’m honest,” he shot back. “And you led me to believe you valued that quality.”

“I do,” she whispered.

Nothing like her own words to sway a wary heart, Catherine thought. Unsure of what else to say, she gripped the door handle tighter.

“Then believe me when I say I want to see you again. There’s something too strong between us to just let it go.”

Her heart began a rapid, pounding beat inside her chest. He was good with words—hers, his, it didn’t matter—because he was even better at getting past her defenses and making her believe in the impossible.

She glanced outside and saw her sister’s husband, Kane, walk out the front door. Probably making a routine check on a suspicious car in front of his house, Catherine thought wryly.

She had no desire to introduce these two men and endure Kane the detective’s probing questions later. “I have to go.”

“Friday?” he asked. “You owe me breakfast,” he said when she remained silent.

She gazed into his eyes. His honest eyes. She’d opened up to him, and she trusted him. The only person she was fighting here was herself.

A smile tugged at her lips.

“You’re wearing my favorite sweats and I’d like to collect them in person.”

He was persistent, she’d give him that. He had no way of knowing she’d already made up her mind.

“Call me,” she said, and before he could respond, she opened the door and slipped out of the car, slamming it behind her.

“Ball’s in your court,” she murmured aloud.

If he was truly interested, he’d have to make the effort. She wasn’t coy nor was she playing hard to get. She just wanted to know