“Tyler? Jeez. The oracle of domestic bliss got to you, huh?” Rocco laughed.
“When do we meet her?” Xander asked.
“When you can prove you’re not going to intimidate the hell out of her.” Logan pulled up and turned to glare at the three of them as they stopped alongside him. “She’s different,” he breathed in deep. “And she’s special. So leave her alone.”
His three buddies appeared to be struck dumb. They stared at him, not saying anything, not doing anything.
Finally Xander moved, waving his hand in front of Logan’s eyes like he was a zombie-bot. “Who are you and what have you done with Logan?”
Logan laughed, shoved his cousin out of the way and started running again. Was it really so unbelievable that he might find a woman he could care about? That he could commit? Did no one think it possible?
You’re not the kind of guy a girl marries.
He accelerated instinctively as his brain tossed that bitter memory at him. Seemed his ex wasn’t the only person to think that. And in seven years nothing had changed.
Yeah, well. Fine. Who wanted to get married anyway? Not him. This was just to get them through the vulnerable patch while Connor sorted out his takeover and swept their father’s old transgressions back under the carpet. They had to ensure that all the Hughes business entities appeared secure and successful. More than successful. Unbeatable.
That was the one thing Logan hadn’t achieved in his first career. He’d failed in skiing. And he’d destroyed Connor’s chances years before.
He sure as hell wasn’t getting in his brother’s way this time.
“Is she going to the party?” Xander asked.
“Yeah, like that’s not intimidating?” Rocco snorted.
“We don’t have to stay long.” A brief appearance, for the photos.
“When do you head out there?”
“Late Thursday night. Promised Connor.” The pace was punishing, but the questions felt worse.
“If you wanted to irritate Rex, you could always go dine at St. Clair,” said Rocco.
Logan pulled up again, stunned. Rocco wanted him to go to his family’s restaurant? Be seated by the mother Rocco hadn’t spoken to in over a decade? The step-father he loathed. The half-brothers he didn’t know. Because while Logan hadn’t seen his father in recent years, Rocco had been thrown out when he was little more than a kid. “You wouldn’t mind?”
Rocco lifted his shoulders in a shrug that wasn’t quite careless. “I never mind seeing either Bill or Rex bothered.”
Yeah, Rex, Logan’s father, loathed Rocco’s stepfather almost as much as Rocco did. But for totally different reasons. For Rex it was all about money and land, not bullying.
“You’ll be there to see Rex?” Logan asked, even more stunned.
Rocco hadn’t been back to Summerhill—to the compound—for almost as long as Logan.
“Not ‘til Saturday,” said Rocco. “In time for the Rex-reaction.”
“But I’m there Friday,” Xander said.
“So am I,” Hunter added. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. So I can come to St Clair’s.”
“What?” Logan ruffled his hand through his hair. “But you don’t have to come at all...” Logan trailed off.
Xander, Logan’s cousin, struggled with Rex too. And ordinarily Hunter made it a point never to return to the same place, unless it was Manhattan.
“And miss meeting the fiancée properly? Miss seeing you stare down Rex? Miss the party of the century?” Rocco laughed and smacked the palm of his hand on Logan’s shoulder. “We’re never missing all that.”
“You’re crazy, it’s gonna be a nightmare.”
“I love nightmares,” Hunter said blandly.
Yeah, he probably wasn’t joking. Logan looked at each of his friends.
Silent, they stood by him. Even when he didn’t deserve it.
“Screw this snail speed,” he said, suddenly breaking into a sprint. “Let’s push it.”
There was no sign that Min had woken when he got back to his apartment. Her bedroom door was firmly closed. It was still closed when he emerged from his bedroom twenty minutes later, showered and dressed.
Hungry, he wondered what she’d like for breakfast. He didn’t know what any of his ex-lovers had for breakfast, he generally spent the time he had with them more usefully. Yeah, ordinarily with a sizzle like this, Logan would have fucked her five ways already. None of this sleeping apart and lame innuendo. But he’d made the decision. He wasn’t buying into her predetermined view of him, wasn’t making a hard-out play for her.
Instead, he busied himself in the kitchen and tried not to think about her. About the upcoming trip. About any of the crazy mess he’d created. It would all be fine if he kept it fun.
“You cook?”
He turned at the sultry whisper speak. There she was, looking as skeptical as ever. And as quirky. Instead of the jeans there was a floor-length black skirt and another ancient looking tee. Also black. The junior Morticia Addams look only not as slinky. Maybe she’d hoped the bagginess would be unflattering, but the black highlighted her luminous skin. Soft. The tips of his fingers tingled with the memory of her pulse hammering beneath them.
A spark smoldered in the emerald eyes she trained on him, and her honey blonde hair was loosely braided into that long rope. It hung over her shoulder, like a freaking beacon. Calling him to grab hold and use it to pull her close.
He didn’t. But he smiled.
“No need to look so amazed,” he said, adding a smug eyebrow flash for emphasis. “I’m a whizz.”
She eyed the greens he’d put into the blender with disfavor. “Tell me you have food that you can actually chew.”
More whisper.
His muscles bunched. “You’re not a fan of the health shake?”
“I like to g-get my teeth into something.”
Oh bring it on.
“Seems I’m not the only one who can do innuendo.” He slapped the lid on the machine and flicked it on, happier than he’d felt in ages.
Yeah, less than a day in his company and Min was feeling his influence. Bad influence. “You’ve been for your run already?” She changed the topic once he switched the ear-splitting blender off, trying not to ogle the guy in his black and gray tee. She knew he regularly ran with his friends, it was in the schedule Ty emailed her and right now Logan looked like he’d recently showered, all fit and full of stamina.
And she shouldn’t be thinking stamina and shower and Logan all at once. She was hot enough. Did the guy have his aircon set to desert temps at all times?
“It would appear so,” he answered mock solemnly. “We can do better than this conversation wise.”
“We don’t need to c-converse unless we’re on show somewhere.” She warily took the glass full of lime green liquid he held out to her.
“Wrong. We need to work.” He raised his glass in a mock toast. “You need to mastermind our social media strategy now I’m part of a glamorous, aspirational couple.”
“Glamorous?” She choked before she’d even sipped the slime. “You c-c-can be the glamour.”
“I think you should work to get us a magazine spread, like your other client wants,” he mused.
He had to be kidding. “I thought you wanted to disappear from celebrityville?”
“I have to prove my boring monogamous commitment first. To make it believable.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
He was mocking her. Deliberately trying to bait her. She turned her back on him and walked towards the hallway. “Show me where I’m to work.”
“In my office.”
She stopped in her tracks and swivelled her head to give him a narrow-eyed glare. “Where are you going to work?”
“In my office.” he chuckled and held up his hand before she could open her mouth. “I’m out a lot.”
Not enough. Hell, she’d had to lock herself in her bedroom last night and she’d hardly slept a wink thanks to the outrageousness of the situation. Of
Logan. The attraction she felt for him was appallingly close to uncontrollable. But just because it had been a while since she’d been with a guy, there was no reason for her to turn nympho. Especially not for a man so wilfully wicked. She knew what these spoilt types were like—the ones who’d never heard the word ‘no’. Yet she was ridiculously aware of her reactions to his presence—her heart sped up and her skin heated and moisture seeped into secret places…
She took a long sip of the bright green liquid and swallowed. And screwed up her face. Good lord that was horrendous.
“You don’t have a real office, like in an office b-building?” Because she couldn’t work in the same room as him. “Where does Tyler work?”
She’d met Tyler at a networking meeting six months ago when she’d first arrived in New York. Min had been heading to hide in the bathroom because of a speaking gaffe and nerves. Tyler’s wife had been in there with an early-pregnancy nausea and Tyler had been hovering outside and was so anxious he’d asked Min to check on her.
She’d felt instant empathy with the protective man, and instant trust with the woman giggling over her predicament in the bathroom. They’d spent the rest of the meeting together, Min relaxing enough to speak easy. So when Tyler had needed someone good with social media for Logan, he’d called her. Until tonight Min thought that meeting had been the most fortunate of her life.
She’d been so wrong.
“He’s here when I need him to be and that’s a few hours most weekdays. Spends most of his time at the company HQ. At home otherwise.”
Home. That’s where she’d go, if it weren’t for the jackals at the door.