Carole Mortimer - Tall, Dark & Gorgeous

‘You said yourself that he didn’t, that he couldn’t know how he felt about her after only three weeks of knowing her,’ Logan reminded her. He had known his mother for thirty-five years—and even he wasn’t sure that he loved her!

Margaret was his mother, yes, and as such he knew he should respect and protect her, but love…? He wasn’t sure.

Darcy gave a heavy sigh. ‘I thought this broken engagement was what I wanted, but now that it’s happened—I just can’t bear to see my father so unhappy!’

‘Better a brief unhappiness now than a lifetime of it,’ Logan assured her.

Darcy tilted her head to one side as she gave him another of those considering looks. ‘You really never have been in love, have you?’ she stated evenly.

‘I simply doubt that it’s a basis from which to build a lifetime relationship,’ he dismissed hardly.

Darcy gave a start of incredulity. ‘What other basis is there?’ she gasped.

‘I have no idea—I’ve yet to see a successful relationship!’ Logan claimed scornfully.

His mother said her marriage to his father had been happy, but Logan had been too young himself when his father had died to be able to judge the truth of that statement. And Margaret’s second marriage had been like a battlefield.

No, he had decided long ago, if he ever took the drastic step himself of getting married—and he couldn’t conceive of a situation where he ever might!—then it most certainly wouldn’t be because he believed himself in love with a woman. Love made you vulnerable, left you completely exposed to the whims and fancies of the other person. It was not a feeling Logan ever wanted to experience for himself!

A cloud marred Darcy’s creamy brow. ‘I find that very sad.’

And she did look sad. So much so that Logan found he didn’t like being the cause of that sadness. ‘Hey,’ he chided teasingly. ‘We aren’t here to discuss how I see love and marriage. It’s your father you’re concerned about, remember?’

Not the right thing to say, Logan decided as he saw her sadness deepen. But she had been getting too close, asking him questions he would rather not answer.

‘I really would like to talk to your mother,’ she decided firmly. ‘Do you think it could be arranged?’ She looked at him with clear grey eyes.

Not by him it couldn’t! His mother was definitely not someone he would like Darcy to meet.

‘For what purpose?’ he probed guardedly.

Darcy looked perplexed. ‘To be honest, I have no idea. It’s strange, but somehow I feel the fact that we both love my father gives us a bond of some kind…Can you understand that?’ She looked at him questioningly.

Maybe. But—‘Have you forgotten that my mother has broken her engagement to your father?’ he reminded her. ‘Hardly the act of a woman in love!’

‘But that’s the whole point. I need to know why she broke their engagement,’ Darcy persisted. ‘If it had anything to do with me—’

‘Even if it did, what can you do about it?’ Logan insisted, still not sure himself that he believed his mother when she said she wouldn’t marry Daniel Simon, the man she professed to love, if it meant damaging his relationship with his daughter. Because if he believed that, he had to believe her regret concerning their own relationship too. And he wasn’t sure he could do that…‘My mother is a woman not easily swayed by the needs and wants of others.’ He replied.

Logan didn’t like the way Darcy was looking at him now, knowing he must have given away too much of his own resentment and bitterness towards his mother.

But after Margaret Fraser had rung him this morning to inform him she had ended her relationship with Daniel Simon, Logan’s one thought had been to let Darcy know it was over, too. Darcy had responded predictably by going straight to her father. Daniel Simon was the one who had altered the scenario by going away in the manner that he had. Now Darcy, after expressing deep loathing for his mother, was asking to meet her. Logan wasn’t sure he would ever understand women…Correction—most women, he had found, were all too easy to understand; it was his mother and Darcy who were enigmas!

Darcy continued to look at him determinedly. ‘Will you introduce me to your mother, or do I have to find some other way of meeting her?’

‘Why can’t you just accept that it’s over?’ Logan demanded. ‘And be grateful that it is!’

‘Will you?’ she persisted stubbornly, totally ignoring his words.

He stood up abruptly. ‘No, I will not!’ he roared. ‘Why can’t you just leave the situation alone? My mother will carry on acting, your father will get over his disappointment, and you—’

‘I won’t rest until I’ve talked to your mother!’ Her eyes flashed up at him.

Logan stared down at her frustratedly for several long seconds. She really was the most stubborn—

As stubborn as he was himself…?

Probably, he acknowledged ruefully, his anger starting to fade. If Darcy really was serious about meeting his mother—and it appeared she definitely was!—then wouldn’t it be better if he were present when the two met?

Most definitely!

‘Okay,’ he conceded frustratedly. ‘I’ll speak to my mother some time tomorrow and see if she’s willing to meet you. Will that satisfy you?’ It was as far as he was willing to go, so it had better suit her!

Darcy’s answer to that was to smile.

At which point Logan felt that sledgehammer hitting his chest, again totally taking his breath away!

‘Thank you, Logan,’ Darcy said with warm gratitude before standing up. ‘Can I get you some more coffee?’ she offered politely.

‘Coffee…?’ he echoed in what sounded like a strangulated voice.

She turned from filling the kettle, brows arched. ‘Unless you have to leave now?’

Normally she was very tired when she returned from working in the restaurant, but tonight she was too hyped after the evening’s activities to be able to go straight to bed, and would need a couple of cups of coffee and a short read before feeling she would be able to sleep. But obviously Logan hadn’t had the same stimulus.

He did look rather grim, however. No doubt because of her determination to meet his mother. But she couldn’t help that, felt it was something she needed to do.

Although, in the last few minutes, she had had to do some revising of her earlier opinions concerning Logan’s relationship with his mother. She had assumed Logan didn’t want her father to marry his mother because he wasn’t good enough for her. Logan’s comments since arriving back here implied something else completely; he didn’t like his mother. Which to Darcy was awful. How could he not like his own mother? And if Logan didn’t like her, what chance did she have of doing so…?

‘Logan?’ she prompted worriedly as he still made no effort to answer her. Just stared at her with those dark blue eyes…

He stepped forward, standing only inches away from her now. ‘What the hell is it about you?’ he muttered angrily.

Darcy gave him a startled look. ‘What?’

Logan shook his head self-disgustedly. ‘Every time you smile I want to kiss you.’

Her eyes widened even more, and she was too stunned by the admission to step back as he pulled her effortlessly into his arms, anything she might have wanted to say dying in her throat as Logan’s mouth claimed hers.

He might feel an urge to kiss her every time she smiled, but every time he did she melted! Her legs became like jelly, the soft contours of her body melded into his much harder ones, her lips parting invitingly as the kiss deepened.

Her hands moved up to grasp the width of his shoulders. Not that she was in danger of falling; Logan was holding her much too tightly against him for that to happen. She just liked the feel of Logan, the hard strength of his body, the caress of his hands against her.