The Hot Brother (Romance Love Story) (Hargrave Brothers - Book #5) Read online

  “I’m sure he’ll survive the trauma of his name. Besides, it’s adorable,” she argued.

  “You don’t get to name the horses on our imaginary farm. Unless they’re all girls,” I teased.

  She huffed and pulled me toward the truck by my hand. “You know, Logan, adventures can happen right where you are. You don’t always need to go flying off across the globe for something interesting to happen to you. Trust me.”

  I paused in helping her up into the cab. She arched an eyebrow at me, and I kissed her. I’d been all over the world, running away from my memories of sterile hospital rooms and a thin, pale woman dwarfed by the tubes and machines that had kept her alive long enough to say goodbye. Never had I been so afraid to admit what I wanted than when I looked into the hazel eyes that looked quizzically back at me.

  “Some of us aren’t strong enough to have our adventures chosen for us, Heidi. I’ve spent a lot of years picking my own adventures and dictating exactly what my life was going to be.”

  “And yet, here we are, after knowing each other such a short time, having an unexpected adventure together. You make the exciting things in your life happen. That’s why I have your pictures. I didn’t know you, but your work made me want more from my life.”

  She winked and hopped up into the cab and let me shut the door for her. I wondered if she had any idea that she’d done the same for me. I’d been content to photograph the wrongs I saw in the world. Heidi wouldn’t settle for anything less than righting the wrongs she saw. Maybe it was time to up my game and catch up to her.

  14. Heidi

  Meeting Logan’s activist friend had been a disappointment, to say the least. I thought I’d been given the chance to make a real difference. Instead, it was another bureaucracy that ended up back with the very same officials who had refused to take me seriously when I’d given them samples of tainted water and soil, eyewitness accounts of trespassing, and written letter after letter about the dwindling numbers of waterfowl.

  I’d had a romantic fantasy about Logan and people like him swooping in and taking out big business and the villains scheming in dark rooms filled with cigar smoke. In reality, the guerilla activists did exactly what I’d done. They documented changes, provided evidence, and tried to get law enforcement interested enough to do something.

  All that time, I’d already been doing exactly what the exciting people were doing. I chuckled, imagining myself tied to a tree, or jumping out of a plane, or blocking logging trucks. It wasn’t as romantic as I’d thought it would be, but I still didn’t want to go back to my desk, hidden away from life.

  “What is it?”

  “I want to go back up in a helicopter. I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun.”

  “Back over the park? What do you think we missed?” Logan asked.

  I flushed. I hadn’t told Logan about the access road I’d glimpsed through some trees that entered from the far side of the park. I wanted to go back, but I didn’t want to do it for him, or for anyone else. I’d been backpacking before, and I knew I could register with Candy, our part-time front desk receptionist. My pulse sped up as I started a mental checklist of everything I needed to pack.

  “When do you go back to work?” I asked.

  Logan shot me a quick glance as he pulled away from the intersection we’d been stopped at. “Why?”

  “I have work to do, too, Logan. I’ve loved this escape with you, but I need to get myself together and decide what I’m going to do with my life,” I laughed. And it had been wonderful. Just peeking at him out of the corner of my eye as he drove down the road, I wanted to unbutton his shirt and run my fingers through the dark curls there. Every time I thought about touching him, a shiver ran through me, and I ached to feel him inside me again.

  I wanted him more than I thought possible, moving inside me in a hot, wet line while I dug my fingernails into his muscular body. He turned down the quiet back road that led to Doc Seale’s animal clinic, and my hand went to his thigh, unbidden.

  Logan glanced at me, and something in my face made his eyes go dark and carnal as he saw the need and desire I felt. He turned onto a gravel turnout and stopped the truck, while I undid my seatbelt and slid across the bench seat to kiss him.

  “Don’t know why you were so far away to begin with,” he growled as he crushed my lips to his.

  “To prevent this, I think,” I chuckled breathlessly when I pulled away. “We have to get to the animal clinic.”

  “Mmm. We need to get farther off this road, so no one else sees you naked.”

  I gasped and pulled away from him. “I’m not getting naked in your truck.”

  He tugged at the waist of my jeans.

  I gulped. “I’m not saying I don’t want to. I’m just saying it isn’t going to happen.” I gasped again as he thrust his hand between my panties and skin, and I rose to my knees so he could push his hand farther down between my legs.

  “Don’t worry. This is kid stuff, and since you missed out on it as a kid...” He let his voice trail off as I worked my jeans down to below my butt and leaned forward, kissing him as his fingers stroked over the most sensitive part of me.

  “We don’t have time,” I panted then gave up speaking as he shoved my pants down to my knees and laid me back against the seat. I helped him get my pants off, and they fell to the floor of the truck as I tugged his shirt out of his Wranglers, and he undid his belt and jeans one-handed and pushed them down far enough to free his cock. I lifted my hips and he laughed, a husky, guttural sound that made my thighs tremble in anticipation.

  He slid his fingers out of me and sheathed himself in me in one slow stroke that nearly undid me before we started. I was frantic for him and terrified we’d be caught by police who patrolled the area, but it only heightened my pleasure. I pulled his fingers into my mouth, biting and sucking them as his breathing became ragged and his thrusts intensified.

  The truck rocked as he thrust hard and fast into me, his feet planted on the door, the windows fogging up around us. I braced against the passenger door and tilted my hips up as far as I could, until I couldn’t hold back any longer. I screamed and spasmed around him, and he sank his teeth into my shoulder and came inside me. My muscles clenched and squeezed down on him, holding him inside as I felt him throb and fill me up.

  His heart pounded against my chest as we rested, and he chuckled softly into my ear. “My God, woman, what you do to me.”

  I didn’t respond, but I felt my heart beat in time with his and had the first dawning of hope that this was the way my life would be from now on.

  “Do you ever think you’ll find a reason to stick around?” I heard the words escape my mouth and cringed. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t supposed to come out of my mouth. Forget I said anything.”

  Instead, he raised himself in a push-up position over me and regarded me thoughtfully, his eyes dark and brooding. “Do you ever think you’ll find a reason to leave?”

  My mouth opened and shut wordlessly. My life was here. Everything I knew was in Texas. Even the mother I avoided speaking to seemed to cling to me like ivy, eating away at me even as it pulled me down and obscured the sunlight.

  “I’m warming to the idea, but it’s pretty scary. Everything about me is Texas.”

  He slid free of me as I made a sound of complaint and pulled up his boxers and jeans. “Even more reason for you to go out there and show the rest of the world that amazing things come from Texas.” He reached down and tossed me my pants, half inside out with the panties hanging from them.

  I groaned and righted them quickly while he chuckled at me.

  “Logan, what I want to do with my life, I can do here. I have almost enough saved for a down payment on some land, and I like being here, except for my shitty job and no friends.” He scowled, and I amended my statement while I struggled into my pants. “Okay, few friends.”

  “Sounds like normal life to me, I guess. But if you don’t have a lot of people to leave behind, and you hate your
job anyway, why stay?

  “Because right now the person suggesting I leave is the same one who’s going to leave with or without me, and if that happens out there,” I flung out a hand, “then I’ll be stuck out there, with nothing and no one. Because if you decide you don’t like me, you’ll just leave. And I’d rather stay here than return ashamed, with my tail between my legs, begging my shitty old life to take me back.”

  Logan’s eyes went wide, and his face colored a deep, beet red. I slid back to the far side of the tuck and stared at the foggy window blindly, and he rolled it down without a word. I wiped my nose on my sleeve and fought back tears of embarrassment.

  “You didn’t deserve that,” I sniffed. “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re damned right I didn’t,” he growled. He kept his voice low, but it frightened me. “I haven’t even had the chance to show you that I’m not that kind of man, but considering how long I’ve stayed out here, and how much longer I was willing to, just to avoid a forty-minute drive to see you, you’d think I would get a little benefit of the doubt.”

  “You’re right, and I’m not arguing with you. But you’re the one who said the moment you get here, you can’t wait to leave. What if the next thing you can’t wait to leave is me?”

  He huffed, and the truck bounced as he sped along the old road. “Well, right now, it is you I’d like to get away from.”

  I flinched, and tears escaped between my eyelids.

  “But since I’m not going anywhere, I think we can assume I’m capable of making decisions that aren’t based in anger.” He cleared his throat. “Of course, when it comes to you, I don’t seem to think all that clearly anyway.”

  I scoffed and wiped the corners of my eyes. “Have you gone to bed with a lot of women after such a short time?” I asked. “Out of pure curiosity, of course.”

  “I have gone to bed with women after less time. I’ve never spent the night with, or showered with, or tried to talk a woman into moving, who I wasn’t the actual and publicly accepted boyfriend of.”

  “Are you my boyfriend? Because I’m not really comfortable with calling a grown man ‘boy.’ I like lover. Lover is a pretty good title.”

  “It is until we are introduced to each other’s parents.”

  I gasped and laughed loudly. “Wow, you are so right about that,” I giggled. “Okay. How about, partner? You could be my partner.”

  “My brother is my partner. Again, a little weird during introductions.” He sighed and glanced over at me. “Future husband.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” I blurted.

  “Well, I haven’t proposed, so I’m not officially your fiancé, but I am going to marry you, so future husband.”

  “I’m suddenly more comfortable with boyfriend,” I muttered. But I had to turn out the window to hide the stupid grin that was splitting my face.

  “You like it, I can tell. Future husband it is.” He snickered, and I shook my head.

  “You’re ridiculous.”

  “You like it,” he retorted.

  I didn’t bother to argue with him. I was too busy trying to stay in my seat when I felt like floating.

  “Can I introduce you at the clinic?” he asked teasingly.

  “No!” I sputtered out a laugh. “Just give me a little while to wrap my head around things.” I shifted in my seat and gasped as a sharp pain stabbed me in the back.

  “You okay?” His face was concerned, but I reassured him that it was just from having sex in a confined space. I adjusted my position in the seat and tried to ignore the raw ache between my hips. It was an occasional pain I’d dealt with for a few months, and I usually just toughed it out unless Aleve was readily available.

  “I guess I have to work on my sex-posture,” I scoffed. “Either that, or at the ripe old age of twenty-four, I’m too old for kid’s stuff.” My grin grew until it was almost painful. “Forgive me?”

  “Nothing to forgive. We all have things to fear, Heidi. I just never want you to be afraid of me. I get out in the world. I don’t sneak off in the middle of the night and leave someone behind to catch the rent; you know what I mean?”

  I nodded, my face pulled into a pout. “I feel like I need a redo on the truck sex. If I’d just kept my mouth shut, I wouldn’t have ruined the fun.”

  Logan reached over and tugged on my knee, coaxing me into the middle of the cab next to him. I undid my seatbelt and slid into his side, and he put his arm around me. I snuggled in, then laughed abruptly as he wrapped the seatbelt across my lap.

  “I know what kind of driver I am without the distraction of your body right next to me.”

  I put my head on his shoulder and marveled at how nicely I fit into his side. We turned the corner and entered the gravel parking lot of the clinic. It was a brown building with a green metal roof that almost blended into the forest behind it. The rustic look of the place was carried inside and probably why I felt so at home there. Doc Seale had made his clinic a retreat for animals, with special sections for dogs and cats, and even fake wooden trees with pegs to perch on for birds.

  Unfortunately, there was no “fawn section,” and we had to go out back to the livestock pens to retrieve Honey, because the dogs in the kennels had upset him with their barking. He was up on all fours when we saw him, and his tawny, white-spotted coat had already started to grow back in where they’d shaved it back to give him stitches.

  Where there’d been a gaping, raw-edged hole was a neat row of staples. Honey looked miserable in the little cone around his head to keep him from worrying at his wound, and Logan made a sound of sympathy and reached a finger through the kennel bars. I was astonished when Honey not only limped forward, but kissed Logan’s hand in quick little flicks of his tongue.

  “He remembers you,” I chuckled.

  “He’d better. We went through a lot, getting him to you. You should come say hello to him.”

  I smiled but kept my distance. “I’ll have lots of chances to be around him. You guys just enjoy your reunion, and I’ll go find Doc. I need to make sure we get all the instructions for his care.” I watched Logan sit down next to the kennel door, completely enraptured with the little animal inside. “It’s a good thing he’s young enough to forget how nice you were to him. If he decided all people were like you, he wouldn’t last long in the wild, even if he and momma stay in the park.”

  Logan glanced at me. “You didn’t name the mother?”

  “I barely met her, Logan. I’m sure if the guys haven’t already named her, she’ll have one before they get released.” I ducked into Doc’s office and waited for him to give me the rundown of treatment and when to schedule a final checkup and staple removal before Honey and his mom got released back into the park.

  Ten minutes, five pages of instructions, and one job offer later, I went back to find Logan. He was sitting on the floor with a cute little blonde vet technician, with Honey in his lap. He glanced up at me, then at the girl mooning over him and Honey.

  “Time to go, babe?” he asked as he gently maneuvered Honey back into the kennel.

  “Yeah… babe. Want to go get the truck and pull it around back so we can get Honey loaded up?”

  Logan hid a sheepish grin and strode quickly toward the safety of the front of the clinic, and I stifled a laugh. My little stab of jealousy didn’t surprise me. Of course, women looked at Logan. I couldn’t keep my hands to myself long enough to drive from lunch to the pet clinic. The little hard pit of disappointment that he hadn’t made himself unavailable was weighed down even more by my realization that I didn’t expect him to. Men who looked like him didn’t have to have a sense of loyalty to anyone but themselves. My father had taught me that lesson long before Logan came into my life.

  Red lights came into view at the big bay door of the barn and a male vet tech I didn’t recognize guided Logan into position so they could load up the kennel and strap it down securely. I climbed up into the bed and focused on Honey, ignoring Logan and his little blonde shadow the best I could.
I was just hopping down when I saw her hand him a piece of paper, and his eyes met mine. I shook my head and looked away. What right did I have to say anything when we’d only just met?

  Why had I believed him when he said he wanted to be together forever?

  15. Logan

  I tossed the paper the girl at the clinic gave me without looking at it and steeled myself as I got in the truck, ready to square off with Heidi. I didn’t even blame her for being mad. I knew how it looked, and she already had an ugly picture of how men treated their women from her dad. I wished for the thousandth time in ten minutes that I’d noticed the woman at my shoulder. I’d snuck Honey out to pet him to say goodbye in a way I knew I wouldn’t get another chance at.

  When I saw the look on Heidi’s face, I didn’t want to look up at the girl. When I finally did, my heart sank. The tiny blonde with the push-up bra and the heavy eye makeup was the worst possible woman to have ogling me with my new girlfriend looking on.

  The cab was unnaturally quiet, but I wasn’t about to be the one to break the silence. I couldn’t explain my innocence without sounding like a liar, and she’d already made up her mind about what she’d seen anyway.

  I rolled down my window and tried to imagine my bad mood blowing away in the wind, but it wasn’t my mood that was really the problem. I glanced sideways at Heidi. Her face was calm, but it didn’t make my feel any better. The last time I’d seen a woman that calm when the chips were down, I was about to hear the worst news of my life.

  As if it had a mind of its own, the truck was pulled over, and I turned the key in the ignition. I still didn’t know what to say, but I knew I would rather go out in a screaming match than have this silence one second longer.

  “Could you please talk to me?” I asked. My hands were on the steering wheel, clutching it so tight I thought it would snap off in my white-knuckled fists.

  “What do you want me to say?” Her voice was quiet, defeated, and my stomach lurched.

  “Anything that doesn’t suggest you’re dying or that you hate me.”