Moonlight on Nightingale Way (On Dublin Street 6)

He chuckled and nodded before leaning across the table. “This place is a bit pretentious. Why don’t we just cut to the chase and go back to my flat?”

I blinked at the suggestion. There was no denying the heat in his eyes. Apparently I wasn’t paranoid. “Pardon?”

“I mean I can buy you another drink if you want, but I just thought why waste some of the night, right?”

A few months ago I probably would have quelled my inner outrage, stuttered and blushed and somehow got myself out of the situation, apologizing like it was all my fault. Anything to avoid confronting the truth of it.

Therefore I could only blame Logan’s influence for forging past my fear of confrontation and asking straight out, “Are you telling me you’re only here on this date to get laid?”

Colin shrugged and nodded, like it was obvious. “Chloe knows I just like fun. Nothing serious. I’m sure she told you that… no?”

I grimaced. Yes, I was definitely going to kill her. “No. She did not.”

“So… this isn’t a hookup? You don’t want to go back to my place, then?”

Somehow I managed to refrain from throwing my drink in his face. He hadn’t even given me five minutes of conversation before deciding he wanted nothing more from me than a quick bang in the sack. As far as I was concerned, his way of doing things was just a glorified form of masturbation.

I gathered my purse and jacket and gave him a tight smile. “No. I’m afraid it would only be a disappointing experience for the two of us.” I stood up and stared down at him with a gleam in my eye. “I only enjoy the really dirty stuff, and I have to be able to know and trust a man before I’ll let him do absolutely anything he wants to me in bed.”

I sashayed out of the bar, leaving him staring after me with his mouth hanging open, and I laughed as I stepped out into the night air. I glanced back over my shoulder at the bar and shook my head, still grinning. I didn’t know what came over me in there, but I liked it.

Not enough to stop me from killing Chloe, however.

That momentary triumph of making Colin feel like he’d just missed out on something exciting dissipated as I walked home.

I was back at square one.

Chloe, in her infinite wisdom (not!) had put me there. Thinking about it, I realized exactly what she was up to. She had made it perfectly clear she thought Logan was the best candidate for me (as usual, not listening to a word I said) and had set about attempting to prove this by setting me up on another bad date.

All Chloe had done was proven that I could no longer trust her to help find me a decent date.

I’d barely put a step onto my landing when Logan’s door flew open. Staring at him wide-eyed, I waited for him to say something. Instead he just glowered at me. Still in a mood, I see.

“All right, then,” I said, and walked sedately over to my door. My heels made a helluva noise, echoing around the stairwell. It must have been what alerted Logan to my return.

“You’re early,” he grunted as I put my key in the lock.

“I am.”

“Why?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of his voice at my ear. I glanced over my shoulder, and sure enough he was almost pressed against my back. “Just because. Dad.” Angry, I pushed open my door and stepped in, hoping he would take the hint and piss off.

I was to be disappointed.

Logan caught the door and ushered me inside. “Did he do something to you?”

“Where is Maia?” I said, as he shut my door behind him.

“She’s sleeping. I’ve locked her in.”

“Oh good,” I said, walking away from him. “If there’s a fire, at least her chances of escape are narrower.”

“She can unlock it from the inside,” he said through gritted teeth as he followed me into my kitchen.

“Logan, I am not in the mood for whatever this is.” I reached into my fridge for a bottle of wine.

The wine was promptly pulled out of my hands, and I grunted in annoyance as Logan set about opening the bottle and pouring me a glass. He slid the glass along the counter toward me with so much aggression I was lucky there was any wine left in it. “Speak,” he demanded.

I grabbed the glass and moved away from him so I could take a somewhat calming sip.

“Grace,” he warned.

My answer was a filthy look before I put the glass on the counter and started to unbutton my jacket. This was my house after all. I could make myself at home. “I don’t know if you realize this, Logan,” I snapped as I jerked open my buttons. “But I don’t actually have to tell you anything about my life.” I threw my coat at a stool that sat in the corner of the room and turned back for my glass.

The silence from Logan made me look at him.

His gaze was on my body, and I couldn’t quite work out what the sudden darkness in his eyes meant.

“Logan?”

“Is that what you wore?” he choked out. “For him.”

I glanced down at my dress. It symbolized all the hope I had been feeling about tonight and Colin, because it was the sexiest thing I had in my wardrobe, and I didn’t wear it for just anyone. It was a black satin calf-length dress that fitted me like a second skin. It had thin straps and a sweetheart neckline that revealed more cleavage than any of my other dresses. I was wearing a sexy push-up bra that did wonderful things to my modest cleavage.

I’d pinned my hair up to show the dress off at its best.

Although it was far less revealing than the clothes I’d seen Logan’s women wearing, I suddenly felt quite exposed with him looking at me like that.