Logan held her close, whispering words into her ear that bordered too close to loving endearments. She wanted to tune them out, deny their existence, but her traitorous body melted with each of his murmured breaths. He gave one last pump and came, his muscles quivering and his rugged features an open canvas of ecstasy and…love. The moment was raw in its intimacy. The most beautiful and uninhibited display of emotions she’d ever witnessed.
It scared the shit out of her.
Only sex. It’s only sex. She silently and frantically repeated that mantra over and over while Logan reached for her hands and gently unknotted the stockings. Once she was free, he kissed her wrists and rose from the bed. She watched him disappear into the bathroom, her dazed mind whirling with a million disturbing thoughts. By the time he returned, sans the condom, she still hadn’t sorted out the chaos cycling through her mind. She eyed him warily as he approached, fully expecting him to jump back into his clothes and leave her to figure out things in solitude. He didn’t. Instead, he ambled to the other side of the mattress and climbed beneath the quilt before wrapping his arms around her waist and spooning her.
“I’ll leave before the sun comes up.”
Her logical side wanted to balk at the idea of him staying, even while her body and her heart settled with a warm glow. Tomorrow she would remind herself what a terrible idea this was. But for now, the illusion of love and forever was too potent to resist. She stared into the darkness until the steady beat of Logan’s heartbeat lulled her to sleep.
Chapter Ten
As promised, Clarissa woke alone in her bed. Even while she felt relief at not having to sneak Logan out beneath her coven sisters’ unsuspecting noses, a strange emptiness sat in the middle of her chest. She touched the pillow that still bore the indentation of Logan’s head. Without stopping to think about what she was doing, she rolled onto the pillow and rested her cheek in the shallow depression. Logan’s scent surrounded her in a sensual, comforting cocoon. She closed her eyes, wishing she could stay there for the rest of the morning.
A cold, wet nose wiggled beneath her elbow, breaking her from the momentary spell. She frowned down at Izzy. “Let me guess. That’s your way of saying you need to go out for a potty run.” Sighing, she scrambled from the sheets and slipped on her black silk kimono robe before scooping up Izzy and hurrying downstairs. Once outside, she gingerly settled the puppy on the first available patch of lawn and patted its rump encouragingly. “Okay, do your thing.”
Izzy did the mandatory sniffing of a few grass blades before squatting. A ridiculous sense of pride washed over Clarissa, and she stuffed her hands in the pockets of her robe to keep from snuggling Izzy when the puppy looked up at her with those droopy eyes and lolling pink tongue. “All right, I admit it. You did good. Keep it up, and you and I just might become best friends for the few days I’ll still be around.” She shot a quick look over her shoulder to ensure no one had overheard.
After she was reasonably assured Izzy’s potty break was finished, she carried the pup back inside the house and headed to the kitchen. Gloria and Peach seemed to be the only ones up and about. While Gloria blended what looked like an incredibly unhealthy amount of butter into the mixing bowl resting on the counter, Peach provided a running commentary courtesy of the morning paper in between slurping down what was probably her fifth cup of coffee. As if they’d perfectly choreographed the move, both women stopped what they were doing and eyed Clarissa while she made tracks toward the coffeepot.
Clarissa set Izzy on the floor so she could remedy her caffeine deficiency, and the puppy immediately occupied itself chewing the toe of Clarissa’s slipper. Obviously this shoe fetish Izzy had didn’t bode well for the future state of everyone’s footwear. Taking a cautious sip from her steaming mug, she turned and noticed that Gloria and Peach were still staring at her. To say they were giving her a complex would be a major understatement. “What?”
Peach’s eyebrows scrunched behind the frame of her bifocals as if she were trying to figure out some baffling mystery. “You were smiling just now.”
Gloria nodded her exuberant agreement. “It’s true. And weird, considering you don’t do smiles this early in the morning.”
Clarissa opened her mouth, fully intending to point out how ridiculous that statement was, but Peach snapped the newspaper shut, her expression sliding closer to one of deep suspicion. “You’re also glowing.”
Glowing? Somehow Clarissa resisted the urge to shove up the sleeves of her kimono to check if her skin was indeed radiating after her night with Logan. Wouldn’t it be just her luck that her magic would rat her out like that? She quickly racked her brain for a good lie to throw Peach off track. “Hm, must be my new body lotion.” Tucking her hair behind her ear, she shuffled closer to the work island, being careful not to step on Izzy. She nodded toward the untended mixing bowl. “Whatever you’re working on smells delicious.”
The compliment managed to do the trick of changing the subject and distracting Gloria. The cook reached for the nearby bottle of vanilla extract and effortlessly whisked several drops into her creation. “I’m experimenting on different frostings for Jemma’s wedding cake. Right now it’s a tie between the raspberry vanilla and the white chocolate hazelnut.”
Clarissa’s stomach growled, apparently putting a vote in for both. Grimacing, she plunked her coffee mug down and went in search of the loaf of bread so she could make some toast. While she dug the mason jar of Gloria’s homemade apricot ginger preserves from the fridge, Peach resumed reading the paper out loud to anyone who cared to listen.
“They’re predicting rain this weekend. Won’t happen though. Those moron meteorologists and their fancy-pancy computers wouldn’t know the weather if it bit them in the ass. Plus my arthritic knee isn’t acting up. That’s all the predictor I need.” Giving an assertive cluck of her tongue, Peach flipped to the next page. “Well, hell. Looks like there’ve been two more spontaneous coma cases. At this rate, it’s turning into a damn epidemic.”
Clarissa twisted the top off the preserves and frowned. “Spontaneous comas?”
Peach angled the paper in Clarissa’s direction. “The latest two casualties are no one I’m familiar with. Whole damn thing is plenty weird.”
Her curiosity winning out over her rumbling tummy, Clarissa ignored the toast still waiting for its topping and instead picked up the newspaper, quickly scanning through the lead story. According to sources at St. Joseph’s hospital, they were indeed dealing with an odd and completely unexplainable series of comatose cases that’d hit a scattering of Savannah residents within the past few days. Other than their present medical condition, none of the patients appeared to have any common linkage, which only had the doctors further baffled.
“I bet the government’s behind it,” Gloria offered as she scraped a spatula around the edges of the bowl.
Peach snorted. “You’ve been sniffing too much oven cleaner. Obviously it’s aliens. Those damn ETs have finally figured out mutilating cows is getting them nowhere, and they’ve decided to move up the food chain.”
Gloria stopped blending the frosting ingredients, her eyes growing huge. Clarissa sent Peach a look of warning. “I really doubt it’s aliens. Or anything else you need to worry about. So how about we put aside the conspiracy theories for the time being?”