The pumpkin spice cafe

She laughed a little, her voice breathy when she spoke. ‘Thanks, it’s such a long way,’ she teased. She smelled sweet like French vanilla spiked with vodka. He wanted to bury his face in her neck and get drunk on her.

He took her hand and nearly dragged her into the alley between the bar and the café. It was dark and he could barely make out the shape of her, but he could feel her, hear her surprised gasp when he took her face in his hands.

‘I haven’t stopped thinking about kissing you all week,’ he rasped.

He could just make out her lips tipping up before she pressed them against his, soft and sure. ‘Me, too,’ she murmured between kisses. ‘It’s all I think about.’

‘Damn,’ he groaned as he ran his hands up her sides, bunching the fabric of her tank top in his fists. The cardigan she’d thrown on against the fall chill hung open in the front and he ran his hands inside over the dip of her waist, brushing against the underside of her breasts. ‘I like this shirt.’

Jeanie giggled, burying her face in his neck. ‘You like this plain white tank top?’

‘So much,’ he groaned when her breath ghosted across his skin. ‘It’s my favorite plain white tank top in the whole world.’

Her breath caught as he tugged her closer, her body pressed against his. Then her hands were in his hair, her mouth on his again and he was lost. Lost to sensation, to the taste of her, the feel of her in his arms. Lost to anything that made sense. Lost to Jeanie.

He grabbed her ass and hoisted her into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist, deepening the kiss. God, she was perfect, soft and warm, and just as keyed up as he was, her kisses wild, like getting to him was more important than anything else.

‘I’ve wanted to do this since I met you,’ she gasped. ‘When I saw you carrying those big crates and your forearms were doing that sexy flex thing and I wondered if you could carry me.’ She spoke the words in between kisses along his mouth and neck and along the shell of his ear.

‘Sexy flex thing?’ His voice was strained, husky and deep.

‘Yeah, you know. The forearm thing.’

He didn’t know the forearm thing, but the fact that Jeanie had pictured this from the start made him harder than anything else. He backed her against the wall, and she groaned into his mouth.

‘Anytime you want to wrap these sweet thighs around me like this, I’d be happy to carry you,’ he rasped.

She laughed, the joyful sound of it filling the dark alley. Suddenly everything came into focus.

The dark alley. The brick wall he had her trapped against.

Jesus, he was groping her in a dark alley. What the hell was wrong with him?

He pulled away, putting her gently on the ground. ‘Sorry ... am I hurting you? This is ... we should...’

Jeanie blinked at him, desire still written across her beautiful face, clear even in the darkness. ‘Go up to my apartment?’

Logan’s heart stuttered.

Up to her apartment. Her apartment, where that tank top could end up on the floor, and that beautiful expanse of skin he’d gotten a peek at in the bar could grow until he saw everything, kissed everywhere.

Her apartment, where they’d wake up together tomorrow morning and he’d have to sneak out the back door like he was ashamed of her, when he definitely wasn’t, but isn’t that how it would seem?

Her apartment, as much as she seemed happy here, he still wasn’t convinced she’d stay in for long, and then he’d be heartbroken all over again.

Up to her apartment. The words were fraught, the whole idea of getting in deeper with Jeanie was still too big a risk to him. Wasn’t it?

The sudden crash from behind the buildings saved him from having to decide to follow his brain or other less helpful parts of his anatomy.

‘What was that?’ Jeanie’s eyes grew wide in the dark, her grip on his arms tightening.

Logan cleared his throat, shaking the feel of Jeanie’s body from his fingertips. ‘Probably just raccoons. I’ll go check.’

‘I’m coming with you.’ She grabbed his hand, letting him walk ahead as though she was afraid of what they might find.

They turned the corner to find the trash cans tipped, neatly tied garbage bags spilling out into the alley. Logan took out his phone and aimed the flashlight at the destruction. No raccoons.

‘Must have run off.’ He shrugged.

‘I don’t know...’

‘You don’t know what?’

Jeanie stepped around him, inspecting the trash bags. ‘This is the third night in a row they’ve been tipped.’

‘Okay, persistent raccoons.’

She shook her head. ‘But the bags are never torn open. Wouldn’t they tear open the bags to get to the food? Why would they just tip them over and then leave?’

Logan grabbed a bin and righted it. ‘That is strange. Could be neighborhood kids. Halloween mischief or something.’

‘It’s only the nineteenth. Kinda early for mischief, isn’t it?’

He tossed the garbage bags back in and slammed the lid. ‘Maybe it’s another ghost.’

Jeanie gave him a faint smile, but the worried crease lingered between her brows.

‘You don’t think Mac would do it, do you?’ she whispered the question like the man might hear them through the brick wall of the pub and the noise of the crowd inside.

‘Why the hell would Mac tip your trash bins?’

‘A

‘I’m go

‘She just thought maybe he was trying to scare me off. So he could buy the café and expand. It kinda makes sense.’ She looked small under the yellow light of the back door, defeated.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m pretty confident it’s not Mac. He wouldn’t do something like that.’

She shrugged. ‘Maybe not. I still just feel like...’ She let the thought trail off, forcing a smile onto her face again. ‘Never mind.’

‘You feel like what? What’s the matter?’ Let me fix it. Those dangerous, tempting words tore through him. Those words got him into so much trouble before. Let me fix it. Let me convince you to stay. Let me fool us both into thinking you belong here.

‘No, it’s nothing.’ She smiled bigger, faker. ‘You’re probably right about the raccoons.’

‘Right, okay.’ He shifted on his feet. The moment had passed, the moment that had him pressing Jeanie up against a brick wall, desperate to get closer; and now he didn’t know what to do.

‘I should probably get some sleep,’ Jeanie said after another strained moment between them. ‘Early day tomorrow.’

‘Sure, of course.’

She reached up and planted a kiss on his cheek. ‘Thanks for investigating the noise.’

‘You go

‘Not necessary.’ She waved his idea away. ‘I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me and some silly raccoons or teens or whatever. No big deal.’ Every word out of her mouth only served to convince him that she wasn’t okay at all, but what else could he do? Demand she let him spend the night? Wasn’t that the exact thing he’d just been trying to avoid?

‘Call if you need me, okay?’ His voice was gruffer than he pla

Her gaze snagged on his, their dark-brown depths trapping him. ‘Okay.’

‘I’m serious, Jeanie. Weird noises, anything. Call.’

She nodded, her fake smile slowly transforming to genuine. ‘I will call. I promise.’