Logan (Carolina Reapers 4)

Ignoring my earlier instructions to walk back to the end and use the stairs, I jumped from the catwalk, landing in front of Delaney.

Our eyes were locked in a conversation that our mouths needed to get in on. I took the step that separated us and hauled her into my arms, hooking one arm behind her back and the other under her knees as I carried her down the small path between rows. She felt so damned right in my arms.

“Now, that’s worth three hundred grand,” Langley muttered into the microphone.

I had no doubt that Axel would be all over his wife in the next five minutes. The next auction started, but we crossed into the back room, where the accountants were set up.

Persephone was settling up, shaking her head at Cannon as they ran a card.

“You bought me for three hundred thousand dollars?” I questioned Delaney as I set her on her feet.

“Right. About that…” She cringed.

“What? You didn’t mean it or something?” Fuck, if this was all out of some sense of guilt I’d never recover.

“No! I did!” she retorted, her eyes flying wide. “I just don’t want to talk about this in front of everyone.” She tilted her head toward the accounting table.

“So you purposely bought me?”

“God, you sound like a horse,” she muttered.

“Delaney!” I snapped, nearing the end of my self-control. She had my heart on a tightrope.

“I bought you on purpose,” she admitted, setting her paddle on the table. “But I kind of need you to...loan me three hundred thousand dollars.” She flashed a cringey smile.

I stared at her, trying to get my brain to catch up to my heart. “Does this mean you want me?” I whispered.

“That’s your question? I ask to borrow three hundred grand, and that is your question?” She wrung her hands.

“Delaney, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the money. You can have whatever is in my accounts, my investment portfolio, my house, my cars, whatever the fuck you want. None of it matters if I don’t have you. So if you’re telling me that you want me, then here.” I yanked my wallet from my back pocket and held it between us. “Just put me out of my misery, either way.”

She swallowed, then reached for my wallet. Her eyes dropped as she opened the leather. “Which card?”

I pulled my black card free and handed it to her.

She turned, standing next to where Persephone was signing her paperwork at the next accountant. “I’d like to buy my date for three hundred thousand on this one.” She handed over the card.

An older man looked around Delaney to quirk a brow at me.

I nodded, and he ran it.

“Because the first million wasn’t enough?” Persephone asked with a tilted head and a smile.

Delaney sucked in her breath.

So much for being anonymous.

I signed my receipt, and before Delaney could say a word, I lifted her into my arms and carried her out of the room.

“I can walk, you know,” she said with a shy smile, but she looped her arms around my neck.

“When you walk on your own, you tend to walk away from me, so I’ll keep you right here if that’s okay with you.” I climbed the stairs up to the second floor, then carried her to the farthest corner—where we’d be out of earshot of the auction.

“This is where we first kissed,” Delaney said as I set her down. She adjusted her dress even though it wasn’t out of place.

“Talk,” I begged.

“Logan,” she whispered, then pursed her lips.

“You just bought me for three hundred grand, don’t you think you should use it?”

“Well, technically the dates are supposed to occur this summer, not tonight, and really, you’re the one who bought yourself.” She shrugged.

“Delaney!” God, I was going to fucking lose it if she didn’t clue me into what she was feeling.

“You really donated the million?” she asked quietly, leaning back against the book rack. This was the narrowest aisle, where we could barely fit side by side without touching.

“I wanted to make sure you had your wing back.” Now I was the one shrugging.

She crumpled, her face distorting as her shoulders heaved with a sob.

“No, baby, no,” I whispered, closing the distance between us and cupping her face so I could look in those emerald green eyes I’d been dreaming about for weeks. “Don’t cry.”

“But you did it anonymously!” A tear slipped from her eye, and I swiped it away with my thumb.

“I didn’t need you to know it was me. I just needed you to be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” My heart cracked open a little further with each tear that tracked her cheek.

“I had this plan, and now you…” she shook her head.

“What plan?” I asked softly, stroking her cheeks over and over, memorizing every detail about her in this moment just in case it didn’t go the way I was scared to hope it would.