Collin cupped my cheek, his thumb swiping over the whisker-burn there. “You look lovingly worn out.” He grinned. “Tell me everything.”
Even at four in the morning, the short waves of his midnight hair were combed to perfection. His blue eyes glimmered with excitement as he settled into the seat and waited.
I wanted to let it all spill out. The dancing, the lack of conversation, my insecurities, Logan’s stamina, and the ache that now plagued my stomach. I glanced across the limo, and a flashing headlight illuminated the whites of Seth’s eyes.
Motherfucker. He was Collin’s lover, not my best friend. I couldn’t share the details of my one-night stand in front of him. Yet one more way he’d wedged himself between Collin and me.
I flattened my hand on Collin’s thigh, staring at it. “It was nice.”
His arm stiffened around me. He knew I wasn’t going to talk, and he knew why. When I looked up at him, he was staring at Seth with a pensive expression. He lowered his lips to my ear and whispered, “Fair enough. But I want to hear it all when we get home.”
I nodded then narrowed my eyes at the strange look on his face. “What?”
“Bet you didn’t think about the races once tonight.” He rubbed the cleft on his chin. “Or about your sexy elevator ride with Mr. Mysterious.”
He was right about that. Logan had successfully owned every part of me, all the way down to the thoughts in my head.
“No, I didn’t.” I glanced at Seth, and he shut his eyes, a smile curling the corner of his mouth. I really didn’t like him knowing about my run-in with Evader.
Collin slouched deeper into the seat, pulling me against his chest with an arm around my back. “Sounds like tonight might’ve soothed that ache you’ve been nursing.”
A testament to how well he knew me. Not once had I mentioned my anger after the encounter with Evader. Hell, I could barely acknowledge it myself.
Evader. Just thinking his name sent a shiver through me. And that was what confused me. When I thought of Logan? Same damned shiver. I refused to pine for two men. I didn’t want two men.
I wanted one. The one. A companion, a lover, someone to hold me at night and kiss me awake in the morning. Someone to fight with. Someone to fight for me.
I wanted legendary love. Love intensified to its highest power. The kind that would fill the vacancy in my heart with a simple touch, a thought, a broody glare.
But my circumstances didn’t allow that kind of relationship. So I filled the emptiness with sex, with the hope that maybe it would bring…something more, like a one-night stand with fire and fight.
Which I’d found with both Evader and Logan.
But did either of those nights soothe the emptiness?
I was pretty sure I just traded one ache for another.
17
Kaci
The next morning, I tried to keep the limp out of my strides as I stepped off the elevator on the executive floor. The Timex watch was a heavy weight in my hand, and my toes pinched in the godawful heels. But I was hiding much more than that. Like the hickies around my nipples, the red marks on my ass, and the soreness between my legs. A very good soreness.
Smiling to myself, I rounded the next corner with a straighter spine and a raised chin. My gait relaxed, my poise smoothing into confident professionalism.
The cute, blonde assistant, Alicia, gave me a smile and a “Morning, Mrs. Baskel,” which I returned as I entered Trent’s wing. Despite the pangs in my body and the dragging weight of no sleep, I felt remarkably alive, my skin zinging with wild energy. Once I delivered the watch, maybe I’d leave for the day, take the bike out, and embrace this invigorating attitude at a hundred miles per hour.
I’d like to embrace Logan at that speed.
Oh wait. I kind of already did.
But if I really let myself fantasize, the man beneath Evader’s helmet would be Logan, and the hundred-miles-per-hour embrace would be on a BMW S1000RR. I sighed.
At the end of the corridor, I knocked on the pretentious double doors and stared down at the watch in my hand, its mystery still locked inside. I’d just left the I/T floor, where Raj Kannan told me in his heavy Malayalam accent, “Metal fused together, Mrs. Baskel. I open it and casing will break.”
And Trent would know I’d tampered with it. What kind of message did it hold? My God, what kind of message needed to be delivered in such a cryptic way?
I checked my watch, adjusted the phone where it sat out of sight in my bra, and knocked again. The bastard better be in there. He’d told me—demanded—a ten o’clock meeting.
The door swung open. Inside, the noble Chicago skyline emblazoned the back wall of windows, creating an ironic backdrop for the slithering smile that greeted me.