Page 46 of Perfect Persuasion (Love’s Second Chance #2)

He stared. It felt like minutes ticked by with him just staring at her, his expression impossible to read, his eyes dark and unfathomable.

Her nervousness asserted itself once more and she began to wonder if maybe she’d made a fool of herself in doing this.

Maybe Logan was perfectly happy with their current arrangement and a dinner like this would be an unwanted complication for him.

“Say something,” she said finally, a plea even to her own ears.

“I don’t know what to say.” Logan seemed rooted to the spot, gently swaying and patting Julie’s bottom. “No one has ever done anything like this for me before. That you remembered my birthday at all amazes me. Even I forgot about it.” He paused. “I’m stunned.”

She wasn’t certain she liked the sound of that. “In a good way or a bad way?”

“In a good way, sweetheart. In a very good way.”

His words sent a rush of warmth throughout her body. “Why don’t I get the bassinette so she can be out here with us and we can eat?” she suggested, trying her best to avoid looking like the lovesick idiot that she was.

Without waiting for Logan’s response, she swept past him and clipped into the living room, retrieving the bassinette.

Before returning to the kitchen, she took a deep, steadying breath and reminded herself that she didn’t want to seem too eager.

If there was a foolproof way to scare off a man, it was certainly to appear too eager.

And she was trying to catch Logan, not scare him off.

When she returned to the kitchen, she found Logan in the midst of stealing a chocolate chip cookie from her cooling rack. He swung around when she entered, the cookie poised halfway to his mouth, a look of comic sheepishness on his handsome face.

“That’s dessert, you know,” she informed him tartly, depositing the bassinette on the floor by the kitchen table.

“Hmm.” A sexy grin curved his lips. “I was hoping you were dessert.”

Simple words, but they stole her breath, made her heart beat in triple time. Shameless images filled her mind. “My doctor says it’s a go, so maybe I can arrange that,” she said, breathless.

“Oh I can definitely arrange that.” Logan took a bite of the cookie, closing his eyes in culinary-induced ecstasy. “Christ, Claire, you make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. How do you do it? I could eat nothing but these for the rest of my life and never get tired of them.”

She laughed. “Of course, you might not be able to fit through doors anymore.”

He joined in her laughter, popping the rest of the cookie into his mouth.

“Julie, your mommy makes the best cookies in the world.” Swallowing the cookie, he continued to address his daughter in a serious tone.

“You know, I would let you taste it, but you don’t have any teeth yet.

I guess that means Daddy will just have to eat them all. ”

“After Daddy eats the dinner Mommy spent all afternoon preparing,” Claire said pointedly.

“After that,” he agreed, leaning down to drop a kiss on Julie’s cheek. “We would hate to disappoint Mommy.” Crossing the room, he gently placed their daughter into her bassinette.

Julie immediately began making noises of protest.

“If we want to eat at all, we’ll have to hurry,” Claire said, rushing to the oven to remove the roasting pan containing her apple cider chicken.

She recognized the sound Julie was currently making as the precursor to the deafening Wail of Hunger.

A quick glance at the clock confirmed that she would have about half an hour before Julie would demand to be fed.

She closed the oven door with her knee as she hefted the roasting pan into the air.

“Can I help you with anything?” Logan asked solicitously. His voice was right behind her. She jumped and set the roasting pan on the stovetop with more force than necessary.

Logan’s hands settled on her waist and he pulled her back against his body.

She could feel every tantalizing inch of his hardness against her.

Including his arousal. He pressed his face into her neck and kissed the spot behind her ear he knew drove her wild.

His hot breath fanned against her sensitized skin. She turned her face and their lips met.

Before she even realized it, he spun her in his arms and their bodies were flush in earnest. The kiss deepened, intensified.

It struck her that she should have done this weeks ago.

She should have taken a chance and showed him how she really felt.

A relationship between the two of them would either work or it wouldn’t but she would never know for certain unless she was completely honest with him.

It was time to tell Logan that she loved him.

“Mmm.” His arms tightened around her. “You taste delicious.”

She smiled against his lips. “You taste like chocolate chip cookie.”

“Also delicious,” he murmured.

“Mmm.” It was Claire’s turn for a nonverbal response. Being in Logan’s arms, with his skillful lips on hers, was sweet.

“I love your vanilla perfume,” he whispered, kissing her neck again. “It makes me want to lick every inch of your skin.”

“That sounds promising.”

He looked up at her, his eyes serious. “Thank you. This birthday dinner is the best gift anyone could have given me.”

I love you , she wanted to say. It was on the tip of her tongue, but it stuck before she could release it.

“Why don’t we eat?” she suggested instead, extricating herself from his arms.

Logan stowed the last dirty dinner dish inside the dishwasher and closed it with a barely audible click.

Sighing, he began rummaging through the all but empty cabinets for some plastic wrap for the leftovers.

By his fourth cabinet, he was more than just a tad annoyed.

By the eighth cabinet, he was shoving things around and closing doors with a bit more force than necessary.

By the tenth cabinet, he’d finally located the elusive plastic wrap.

He turned to the kitchen table, his thoughts churning restlessly.

His mind was made up, had been ever since he’d walked into the kitchen and seen the place settings.

It was now or never. Derek had given him a pep talk before he’d left the house, which hadn’t really made sense at the time, but did now.

He must have been in on Claire’s birthday surprise.

Logan didn’t know that he liked the idea of Claire conspiring with Derek, but given the results, he thought it wise not to complain.

Besides, Derek was right. Now-or-never time had definitely arrived.

Since Claire’s father had given him a similar, though slightly more threatening pep talk at the hospital, Logan had been able to think of little else.

He lived for the time he spent with Claire and Julie in the evenings, which never seemed to be enough.

He hadn’t wanted her to move out of his house, but the only way to keep her from doing so was to flex his custodial muscles.

And that would have caused an impregnable rift between them.

So he had let her pack up his daughter and move back here, to her sister’s old house.

It was a lovely old house, Logan thought now as he prowled around the kitchen.

But it wasn’t home. There was a reason why all the cabinets were virtually empty.

Looking at the spartanly furnished but clean kitchen, he knew he didn’t want to spend the next eighteen years of his life making evening visits here.

It sure as hell wasn’t where Claire and Julie belonged.

He wanted Claire and Julie with him, under the same roof. To achieve that, he had to take action.

He was going to tell Claire he loved her.

He hadn’t prepared a speech. Hell, he hadn’t even known that he was coming here for this.

But here he was, cooling his heels in the kitchen while Claire breastfed Julie, and the night seemed perfect.

Her gesture had moved him. That she had remembered his birthday at all amazed him, but that she would go to the extreme lengths of cooking him a surprise dinner floored him.

It also gave him hope. Even if she didn’t return his love, Claire still must harbor some sort of warm feelings for him. He could discern from the events of the evening that she still desired him, at any rate.

The dinner they’d shared had been exquisite.

Claire was a talented chef and the chicken had been delicious.

Naturally, the best part was simply being with his family and knowing that Claire wanted him there, in her life, in their daughter’s life.

Just the idea of he, Claire, and Julie as a family made his gut clench and his eyes burn.

For so long, he had wanted to belong to a family, first as a foster kid no one wanted, later as a man leading a lonely life.

No, he’d never thought of himself as a family man before.

But he liked the idea of waking up every morning next to Claire, raising Julie together, first steps, high chairs, dolls, kindergarten, soccer games.

He wanted it all, forever. He wanted Claire in his life forever. Now he was seeking a more official role.

Husband.

He’d proposed to her before and it had been off the cuff, totally unprepared, totally unromantic.

And she had refused. Here he was again, preparing to do the same thing.

He didn’t have a ring, of course, which put a kink in his plans, but he was hoping that Claire would overlook that minor flaw.

After all, his first proposal had also been sans ring.

Then again, the first proposal had been met with a sound refusal.

Damn it.