The Texas Billionaire's Baby by Karen Rose Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

knew that more than anyone.
    “Maybe not. But I feel something when we’re in thesame room, just like I did back then. In fact, this close, I know exactly what I feel.”
    What should she do? She hadn’t been involved seriously with a man since Logan. After the date rape, she couldn’t think about “serious,” though she’d tried over the years…tried without success. Counselors had told her she’d find a satisfying relationship when she found a man she could trust. But she never had.
    Was Logan saying he wanted to kiss her? Should she let him?
    He laid his hands on her shoulders, maybe just to see how that would feel. It was a contact that was almost chaste, a contact that could be comforting. Yet it wasn’t chaste or comforting.
    “Why did you ask me to work with you on the day-care center?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the truth.
    “I told you, you’re an expert. I wanted your input.”
    “The real reason.”
    He cocked his head as if to say at one time she never would have questioned him. “I really did want your ideas. But I guess I also wanted to see what would happen if the two of us were together in the same room, without Daniel.”
    “Did you get your answer?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    His hands tightened slightly, but she felt no sense of panic.
    “Why did you agree to work on the project?” he asked.
    “I guess I wanted to see what type of man you’d become.”
    “You couldn’t tell from our sessions with Daniel?”
    “Daniel was a buffer. You could hide behind fatherhood.”
    His eyebrows quirked up as if he definitely didn’t like her conclusion.
    She added, “You could concentrate on Daniel and not give me a second thought.”
    “Did you want a second thought?” he returned quickly.
    “As impossible as it is, I already told you what I want.” She had returned to Sagebrush hoping for his forgiveness. Now…since she knew about his father’s stroke, it really seemed impossible. How could she tell him why she’d really left when it would change forever how he viewed his dad and their relationship?
    Logan’s gaze searched hers. He must have seen the corner of her mouth quiver because he focused there. “Dammit, Gina.” He bent his head and before she had time to think, to protest or to back away, Logan Barnes was kissing her with more passion, more heat than he had when she was eighteen.
    At first she stiffened, ready to run. Then she told herself to relax. This was Logan. To her surprise, she wasn’t panicking. She wasn’t imagining she was somewhere else. In fact, she was enjoying his kiss. It swept her back into the dream of romance that she’d given up.
    Yet this wasn’t a dream and she doubted if romance was on Logan’s mind. When he put his arms around her to hold her tighter and his tongue slid into her mouth, she balked, put her hands on his chest and pushed away.
    He released her. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have done that but I wanted to see—” He swore.
    She felt almost dizzy…breathless…and completely unnerved, too. “A kiss has to mean something, Logan. That one didn’t. It was some kind of test. If we want toheal what happened between us, we have to do it with talking, not acting on a remnant of attraction that will only embarrass us both.”
    “Heal what happened between us?” Logan asked incredulously. “How would we ever do that? It was as if our breakup had a domino effect. How do I heal the fact that my father had a stroke and I was powerless to help him—and you weren’t here for me when I needed you?”
    “Are you saying you don’t want to try to tear down this wall between us?”
    Instead of answering her, he asked, “What do you know about walls?”
    She realized he was merely taking a stab in the dark. “I know they protect us. Things happen, Logan. Things hurt us when we least expect. We want to keep ourselves safe. That’s why we build walls.”
    He didn’t respond, just ran his hand over his face then stuffed his