Overwhelmed by You (Tear Asunder 2)

“I like him. I mean he has the potential for being Haagen Dazs quality and he’s really nice.”

“Nice? Kat, nice? You know what nice means.”

We both said at the same time. “He lacks—Need. Infatuation. Craving. Excitement.”

I sighed. “Yes. But I had that and look where it led me.”

Emily nudged me with her shoulder. “What happened between you two?” All I’d told her was that Ream and I had become friends when she’d been down in Mexico but then we ruined it by sleeping together. “You guys have been at each other the second you’re in shouting distance. Not today though. Something’s different and I have to say it was nice you guys not throwing insults at one another.” Yeah, Ream wasn’t being an asshole. “Kat, he asked about you all the time when we were away. I’d catch him looking at me when I was talking to you.” She took my hand and squeezed. “Is there a chance you guys can—”

I shook my head, interrupting her. “We’re way past salvageable. Besides, I like N.I.C.E. It’s stress free and I may not have the fire burning between my legs, but he treats me good.” And my nerves aren’t set off like live wires gone wrong. “So, enough about me and lack of mind blowing sex … has Logan proved himself over the last eight months? Or does he need some tips?”

Her eyes lit up. “No tips required. I swear he has a book hidden somewhere on how to drive your woman wild. I thought I’d go crazy with all the girls at the concerts and stuff, but Logan never looked at another woman.”

“That’s because he knows I’d chop off his balls if he did.” He may have saved Emily from sicko Raul, but that didn’t make him immune to my wrath if he ever hurt my bestie.

“He told me, Kat.” Emily clasped her hands on her lap and wrung them together. “What happened to him after I left Mexico?”

Damn. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to hear this.

“I had to know. I get that he was trying to protect me from it, but it’s about trust and growing together. I think he understood that…” a slight smirk played at the corners of her lips “…after I tied him to the bed while he slept.”

I laughed because seriously, imagining Logan tied up … well, he’d have been pissed. Scary pissed and all the sexiness in the world wasn’t going to cover up Logan’s fury at being restrained.

Emily bit her lower lip. “Ah, yeah. It wasn’t pretty. I stood on the far side of the room and was worried he’d escape the ropes with the way he yanked on them. When he stopped and became calm … well that freaked me out too.” Her voice lowered and I saw her eyelids fill with tears. Emily went on to tell me what happened to Logan. I was shocked and disgusted, and by the end we held one another as she choked back sobs. Emily was good at being strong when she needed to be and could neatly tuck her emotions away inside a gift-wrapped parcel. She’d open it up eventually, though, not like me. I’d hide the present and whatever was inside would stay buried … except anger. I liked to tear that present wide open.

I pulled back and softly wiped her tears away with the pad of my thumb. “I should have known,” she continued. “God, when he came back I hated him when I should’ve been giving him everything of myself.”

“Emily. You didn’t know. None of us did.” Shit, if that happened to Logan I was afraid to find out what Emily had gone through in Mexico.

“Deck knew.” Emily sniffled. “Logan made him swear to never tell me, but Deck warned me, Kat. I was more concerned about me. God, everything he did was to save me.”

“You both suffered. What’s important is that you found one another again. You’re happy and you deserve it more than anyone.”

“You know I watched him on stage and fell in love with him all over again every single day. Even after all that happened, I feel lucky. You know, I’d go through it again just to be with him. Is that crazy?”

Wow. “No. That’s love. And love is a little crazy.”

She bumped my shoulder. “I missed you like hell.” We’d never been separated longer than a few weeks at a time since we were kids, and despite our texting and phone calls, it had been lonely without her here. “Now why the dark circles under your eyes?” I wasn’t going to tell her that the lack of sleep was from thinking about the guy downstairs who tilted my world on its axis. “I saw the way he looked at you.”

God, bestie’s knew everything. And damn it, my heart started racing at the mere mention of his name … Ha, she hadn’t even said his name, just alluded to it. Christ.

“Are you really going to be okay with him living here? He’s said some real nasty things to you, Kat.” Called me a bitch and a whore to be exact. “I hardly spoke to him the entire trip, you know. Okay, well, he seldom spoke to anyone when he was around, which was rarely. He’d take off all the time and not even Crisis knew where he went. But that bullshit he pulled with bringing that girl Lana to your coming home party … I swear the guy deserves a gold medal for best dick moves.”

Yeah, he did.

Emily didn’t say anything for a minute and neither did I.

“Still, if you weren’t seeing Lance, I’d say just fuck him and get it out of both your systems.”

I burst out laughing. Those were my exact words to her when I told her to fuck Logan. “So not happening. We detonate the second we touch.”

“Yeah, in flames.”

“No, into shrapnel.”

Emily said quietly, “I never saw him with a girl. Well, I mean like romantically or sexually or … well, you know what I mean.”