The Summer Cottage by Lily Everett Page A

combat Logan’s insomnia actually seemed to be working.
     He slept less than she did, but he reported an unprecedented string of nights filled
     with uninterrupted sleep. She was cautiously optimistic about that, and every time
     she remembered Logan’s confession of how much better he slept when she was around,
     a warm glow filled her chest.
    All in all, apart from the surprise addition of their shockingly good sexual relationship,
     this trip to Sanctuary was going exactly according to her original plan.
    Except for one thing.
    Perking up when she heard Logan pad barefoot into the kitchen behind her, Jessica
     kept her gaze on the steady motion of her knife over the cutting board. “Dylan came
     down to the cottage while you were in the shower.”
    “Hmm,” Logan said, sliding his arms around her waist and hooking his chin over her
     left shoulder to press a hot, open-mouthed kiss to her jaw.
    Jessica shuddered, her unruly body immediately pushing back into the circle of his
     embrace, desperate for more of what it had gotten so alarmingly accustomed to in only
     a few short days. Struggling to maintain her focus on both her objective and the sharp
     knife in her hand, Jessica stiffened her spine. “Yes. He invited us up to the big
     house for dessert.”
    “I’ve got all the dessert I need right here.” With unerring accuracy, Logan nipped
     the soft, sensitive spot beneath her ear to make her jump, then soothed the sweet
     sting with his tongue. Jessica bit back a moan and laid the knife down before she
     cut off one of her fingers.
    “I told him we’d be there,” she said, and immediately felt the way Logan tensed before
     dropping his arms. He moved casually to grab a glass from the cabinet beside the sink,
     and Jessica watched him go to the fridge and fill it from the jar of green, vegetable-laden
     protein smoothie he’d become hilariously addicted to.
    “And if I don’t feel like socializing?” Logan finally faced her, kicking the refrigerator
     door shut behind him.
    Logan never felt like socializing. At least, not with his brother or the nice new
     family Dylan appeared to have stumbled into.
    “Dylan said he had something important to tell us,” Jessica pressed, determined not
     to let it go, or to let Logan sidetrack her, this time. “It’s only dessert. When was
     the last time you sat down with your brother—either of them—for long enough to catch
     up?”
    “Catch up?” Logan sneered and sipped at his drink. “Are we in a race now?”
    “Catch up on what’s happening in each other’s lives!” Jessica pressed her lips together,
     trying not to let her frustration show through in her tone. “We’re here. Dylan’s here,
     along with a woman and teenaged boy who have become very important to him. I don’t
     understand why you don’t want to spend time with Dylan. You seemed to get along fine
     the day we arrived, when you were giving him advice about how to go after the woman
     he loves.”
    “It’s not that Dylan and I don’t get along…” Logan put his glass down without finishing
     it and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I prefer not to get in too deep with
     personal relationships. I’m better with theory, abstract problems and mechanical puzzles.
     You know that.”
    Jessica kept her tone even with an effort. “So when you go to bars and pick up your
     one-night stands, that’s okay.”
    Logan shrugged, a cynical twist to his mouth. “Sure. Nothing about that is especially
     deep. Or personal.”
    “But it takes people skills. You can’t simply grunt while pointing at your groin,
     and expect women to follow you to your car.”
    With a sardonic twist to his mouth, Logan drawled, “Not exactly, but if I grunt and
     point at the car, and the car is a chauffeured Bentley…”
    “That is pathetic,” Jessica told him bluntly. “I’m embarrassed and ashamed for you,
     and for every empty-headed, shallow woman who slept with you for a ride in a