Free Unguarded by Tracy Wolff

through and through. But that kiss last week had been anything but calm. Anything but collected. He’d dreamed about it the past several nights—had dreamed about her—and had woken up each morning hard and aching and desperate for her.
    It was crazy, he thought again as he slammed into his house and headed straight for the shower. Crazy how she’d gotten under his skin. Even crazier how he couldn’t get her back out again.
    So what was he supposed to do? he wondered, as he stepped under the hot water and let it beat out the tension in his shoulders. Was he supposed to chase after her like a puppy, hoping for a little of her time? Or should he move on, forget all about the fact that she made his mouth dry and his hands shake? It wasn’t likehe needed that kind of complication right now, anyway. Wasn’t like he wanted to fall for her. Walking away was definitely the smarter move.
    Yet smarter didn’t always equal best, and he couldn’t help wondering if this was one of those times. Closing his eyes, he shampooed his hair before letting the warm water sluice the suds away. That was the problem—from the minute he’d seen her at Robert’s party, he hadn’t been thinking clearly, hadn’t been on his game. And while he normally liked to just take things as they came—to fly by the seat of his pants—everything inside of him told him that wasn’t going to work with Rhiannon.
    For her, he needed a very detailed plan, much like the mock-ups he did for his novels before he actually started the artwork. He needed to lay down his battle strategy according to the rules she’d provided, sketchy as they were. Because if he’d figured out anything at all while he’d been running his ass off this week, it was that he wasn’t ready to see the last of her. Not even close.
    Turning the water off, he stepped out of the shower. Grabbing a towel on the fly, he headed straight for the phone on his nightstand, with only one thought in his mind.
    Game on.
    By the time he was done, Rhiannon wouldn’t even know what had hit her.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    â€œH EY, HAVE YOU BEEN holding out on me?”
    Rhiannon looked up from the plans she’d been finalizing for a sixtieth wedding anniversary to find Logan leaning against her doorway, an inquisitive look on his too-handsome face.
    â€œOf course I have—in every way possible.” She grinned. “So you’re going to have to be a little more specific if you want me to know what you’re talking about.”
    Logan raised one sardonic eyebrow, then reached behind him for a huge arrangement of tulips in a beautiful, crystal vase. “I was referring to these.”
    â€œOh, wow! They’re gorgeous.”
    â€œThey are.” He walked over and set them on her desk. “So, I ask again, are you holding out on me?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” She stared, puzzled, at the flowers. “Why are you bringing those in here?”
    â€œBecause they’re for you, Ding Dong.”
    â€œFor me?” She was dumbfounded as she stared at the gorgeous array of tulips. There were red ones and white ones, hot pinks, yellows, purples and oranges. A regular cacophony of colors that shouldn’t have gone together but did, beautifully.
    â€œWell, they certainly aren’t for me.”
    It had been so long since someone had sent herflowers, and such exquisite ones at that. Sure, Richard had given her flowers at the beginning of their relationship, but nothing in the past few years of their marriage, as they’d settled into a rut and he’d been more concerned with saving money than making her smile. And never had he sent her anything like these.
    These flowers looked like a party in a vase. Cheerful, whimsical, elegant—exactly how she’d always wanted to see herself but had never been able to.
    Rhiannon reached tentatively for the card, unsure she wanted to read it. There was