“It’s too big,” Zoe said with a frown. “There’s no way it’ll fit.”

“It’ll fit,” Logan said, reassuringly. “I have done this before.”

Her expression was clearly skeptical as she gazed down at his hands from her perch on the counter. “Not with me, you haven’t.”

He grinned suddenly. “You know, anyone else hearing this conversation would not think we were talking about baking a pan of brownies.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “You’re a perv, and I still say that’s too much batter. It’ll overflow in the oven and make a mess. Or worse.”

Logan dipped a spoon in the bowl and ate a heaping bite of the batter. “We don’t have to bake them.”

“Oh my God! Stop that. You’re going to die from salmonella poisoning!”

He chuckled. “That’s not likely. I’ve eaten worse things.”

Climbing onto the counter, wearing one of his shirts and a pair of boxer shorts that she’d swiped from a brand new pack in the drawer since he clearly only ever went commando, Zoe frowned at that. “Like what?”

Logan cocked his head to the side but didn’t answer immediately. “Usually stuff on a dare,” he said.

Lie. She knew it instantly. Why he’d lie about something like that she didn’t know, but her radar had gone off and it was rarely ever wrong. You’re here for a week, having a hot and unbelievably steamy affair with a guy who looks like he belongs on the cover of one of your books. Shut up and enjoy it. Ride it, and him, out for as long as you can, Zoe.

The little voice in her head wasn’t wrong. The thing with Logan was temporary, a fling. They didn’t owe one another anything. Still, it bothered her, not the subject of the lie, but that he’d lied at all. If there was one thing she’d learned, it was that if a man lied about the little stuff, he sure as hell wouldn’t have any qualms lying about the big ones—like wives, kids, jobs, not being able to come to the dinner party and meet her friends because of a work emergency. Okay, so that one had only happened one time, she reminded herself. But still. Lies were evil. They spread and crept and always came back to bite you in the ass even when you thought they were done. They were the herpes of relationships. Bad analogy. Don’t think about The Herp with a guy who has just had every single non-gross appendage inside you.

Realizing that her own internal monologue was likely to drive her crazy, Zoe decided to take a breather and let her brain catch up with the rest of her. If it possibly could. “I should probably head back,” she said.

He looked utterly crestfallen, like a little boy who was told he couldn’t play with a new toy. “I thought you’d stay tonight…and that I’d make you breakfast in the morning since you’re going to be too weak to crawl out of my bed.”

Her brain might have been calling him a liar and questioning everything he said, but at those words, her body told it to shut the hell up. Heat rushed through her, her nipples pebbled beneath the borrowed t-shirt, and all she wanted to do was wrap her legs around him and feel him hot and hard inside her again. She was already sore. Her inner thighs felt like she’d done three spin classes back to back without the padded seat. None of that seemed to matter. She wanted him. Instantly, intensely, undeniably—the need was like a living thing inside her that just took over.

“Convince me,” she said.

“Not until we have some sustenance… I’m not as young as I look,” he said and placed the overflowing brownie pan in the oven.

Clenching her thighs together to ease the ache that had materialized there with nothing more than a promise from him, Zoe glared at him. “You’re a tease, Logan.”

He moved closer to her, his big hands on her thighs, kneading muscles there that had been overworked mostly by him. “Not me. I make good on all my promises, Zoe, especially when it comes to satisfying you.”

God, his hands were magic. His fingers dug into aching muscles with just enough force to make it hurt and feel good all at the same time. She bit her a lip as she groaned. “I don’t think satisfying is an appropriate term for what you do.”

He kissed her neck, then licked, making her shiver. “Mind blowing? Earth shattering? Epic?”

“Egotistical,” she shot back. It lost some of its heat since she was shivering on the countertop of his kitchen island in borrowed underwear. Her own were lost somewhere in the mess of his office. Please, she thought in a split second of sanity, don’t let his brothers be the ones to find them.

His hands moved from her thighs up to her hips, his thumbs dipping below the waistband of the borrowed boxers. “Am I entitled to be?” He kissed the side of her neck, his teeth nipping just a little bit. Then he whispered, “Maybe just a little bit?”

Yes. Dammit. He was. In addition to the fact that he had the most perfect cock she’d ever seen, he also knew how to use it. And those traits rarely went hand in hand. Then there was his mouth. The things he could do with his tongue were illegal, immoral, and irresistible.

“Stop fishing for compliments,” she said sourly. “Your ego is inflated enough already.”

“It’s not…not really,” he said softly. “I like joking with you. I like watching you get that spark in your eye when you’re just on the verge of getting really mad and then making you laugh.”

She liked it too. Too much. “You know this is just a fling, right? I can’t stay here. You can’t go to the city with me. Saying things like that, thinking about each other that way is only going to cause problems.”

He stepped closer, pulling her to the edge of the counter until she had no choice but to lock her legs around him or go crashing to the floor. “You see a problem and I see a challenge. Things can work if you want them to.”

“It’s complicated.”

He frowned then. “Is there someone back home that you—”

“No. Lord no. I haven’t been on a date in so long I don’t even know how to act on one!”

Shaking his head, he huffed out a breath. “I don’t understand that. How can you not have men lined up at your door?”

“I’m fat.”

He blinked in surprise, then laughed. “You’re a bigger girl than some, not as big as others. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Women ought to be different—ought to come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors. But while I’d like to be a nice enough guy to say I’m sorry that other men don’t see what’s right under their noses… I’m not. I kinda like having you all to myself.”

And he did it. He said just the thing she needed to hear. Somehow, that only made her more nervous. Every lying sack of shit she’d ever dated in her life had done just that. She’d been buttered up behind closed doors, flattered and complimented, and then if they ran into people he knew out in public she’d be introduced as a friend or a co-worker. “What’s wrong with you?”

Logan cocked his head to one side. “I don’t follow.”

“You’re good looking, ridiculously so, you have a body to die for, a penis that’s porn worthy, and you have this good ol’ southern boy charm that has to make panties just melt. And you say all the right things and do all the right things, and men like you just don’t exist. It can’t be real. So what’s wrong with you? What ugly secrets are you hiding behind this too perfect exterior?”

He stepped back from her and let out a heavy sigh. That was all the confirmation she needed. There was something off about him, something that didn’t add up, and she needed to get out before it bit her in the ass.

Hopping down from the counter, she said, “I should go back to my cabin. Today was nice. Better than nice. But I don’t think it can happen again.”

Zoe cursed as she realized that her shoes and what she’d managed to gather up of her clothes were still in his bedroom. Turning, she headed in that direction to get her things. She’d return his t-shirt and boxers later. No she wouldn’t. That was a lie. She’d hold onto them and kick herself in the ass later while she snuggled in her lonely bed with them.

As she reached the bedroom door, Logan was there suddenly, planting his big hand on the door frame and blocking her way. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” she shot back. He wasn’t offering her anything, he sure as hell wasn’t giving her any information to work with. And her gut instinct was never wrong. Maybe he wasn’t a player, but he was still a liar and she had no room for that in her life, even it was for only a week.

“Don’t walk out on me like this,” he urged. “I have secrets, Zoe, but everyone does. I promise you, there’s nothing about my secrets that would ever be harmful to you. They’re just mine to keep.”

It was so tempting. As close as he was to her, she could feel the heat from his body seeping into hers. He was so big that standing next to him actually made her feel small and delicate when she was either eye to eye or towering over most of the men she knew.

“I’ve been lied to. A lot. And I don’t want that, not even for something short term. If you can’t be honest—”

“I am honest,” he insisted. “I’m not married. No wife. No girlfriend. I’m not on drugs or a criminal. I don’t have six kids and four baby mamas out there. There is nothing that I’m keeping from you that should keep us from being together while you’re here.”

* * *

Except for the fact that you turn into a bear.

Logan knew that would be a deal breaker for her. Recalling the intense fear she’d suffered the night before, he didn’t question it for a second. Hell, he understood it. The first time he’d turned into a bear he hadn’t known what the hell was going on. Because they’d had different mothers and only his father was a shifter, his older brothers hadn’t known whether he’d be like them or not until it happened the first time. So, they’d kept it quiet, hiding their differences from him. And now he was hiding it from her.

She was leaving in a few days. Burdening her with the kind of secret he had put her at risk and put his family at risk. It’s not like she’s your mate.

His bear roared inside him, the sound deafening inside his head. The protest was loud and clear. Whatever Logan was thinking, the animal side of him had already made up its mind. Zoe was it for him.

He backed away from her suddenly. It wasn’t something he’d planned on. It sure as hell wasn’t something he’d been expecting. Reeling from it, scared shitless by the realization, he didn’t know what to do.

“That’s the quickest back pedal I’ve ever seen,” she said softly. “I should definitely go.”

Realizing that he’d made a huge mistake, Logan shook his head. “It’s not like that… If you think for a second that I don’t want you—”

“I think you’ve had me,” she said. “And now I think you’re reconsidering whether or not it’s worth putting up with me in order to get laid again!”

“That is not what this is!” he denied hotly. “If all I wanted was a piece of ass, I could have gotten that long before you showed up.”

She threw her hands up. “We’ve known each other less than a day! Am I supposed to believe that there’s some sort of mystical connection between us?”

Fuck. That’s exactly what it was. But if he tried to tell her that she’d just get madder and accuse him of lying to her. And then he’d get mad. It wasn’t a good idea. He needed to talk to Barrett. He needed to talk to his brother and figure out what the hell he was supposed to do.

Logan sighed and shoved his fingers into his hair. “Stay here. Please. I’ll go. I need to talk to my brother, Zoe. My secrets— they’re not just mine. They affect people beside me. I’ll tell you everything, but first I have to tell him.”

She stared back at him, her dark eyes full of doubt and questions. But after a moment, she sighed and then nodded. Relief flooded him. He’d go find Barrett, and while he was off doing that, his Zoe would be waiting for him in his house, his bed, wearing his clothes. He wanted to mark her, to put his scent on her. She was his and that was the end of it for him.