Chapter Twenty-Six

Jade woke with a congested head and swollen eyes. She'd slept like a rock, not waking up once during the night—a first since the deaths of Kyle, Sid and Nora.

Last night’s events came rushing back at her…trying to apologize to Logan and ending up arguing. Jumping in the pool to give him a piece of her mind and ending up bawling her eyes out. How embarrassing.

She hadn’t been able to cry since Kyle’s accident. Oh, she was an actress, so she eked out a couple of tears at the service, but they weren’t the cathartic, soul-deep tears that meant she'd acknowledged the death and was learning to come to terms with the loss. But seeing the one man she knew for such a short time but still felt like her anchor in an unstable world look at her with sympathy, all the grief she'd bottled up bubbled over and exploded in a sobbing rush. She didn’t know how she knew Logan would hold her, comfort her, she just did.

And he did.

Beneath all the tough guy bravado beat a heart of a genuine hero. Glimpses of that kinder man escaped periodically, especially around Bella, but there would be no denying it now. When Jade had needed him most, he'd come through.

She knew it couldn’t have been easy for him. He was mad, no, irate with her. He burst into her bedroom, intent on saving her from an unknown assailant and instead found her in bed with another man proclaiming to be her husband. Then she disappeared for three weeks, missing his daughter’s play without giving an explanation.

Although she had legitimate reasons for everything, he still had a right to be angry. Instead he comforted her and held her and made her feel safe.

Men like Logan Bradley didn't come along often. Every instinct she had screamed for her to grab him, hold tight and never let go. But how could she do that when she was keeping a secret from him? She needed to find a way to tell him, one that wouldn’t drive him away. She wanted him in her life—he was her white knight.

Before she came clean about her career, she had something extremely important to do…apologize to Isabella for missing her play.

The numbers on the clock read nine. Logan would be at work and Bella at day care. She would have to wait a few hours before she could explain to Bella about her absence and hope the little girl would forgive her.

#

Jade waited until Logan’s SUV pulled into the garage before she approached his house. She couldn’t tell if Bella was in the backseat because of the tinted windows.

Dressed in a royal blue sleeveless shirt and flowered skirt, Jade rang the doorbell, a bouquet of wildflowers from the garden behind her back. It took a few minutes before the door swung wide. Logan looked startled to see her and he shoved open the screen door. He looked gorgeous in a white oxford shirt, a red patterned tie loosened around his neck and black dress pants.

“I’m sorry, I know you just got home from work,” she said.

“Come in,” he invited, pushing the screen door wide. He stepped back to allow her to enter and the woodsy scent of his aftershave assailed her senses. Her knees weakened and she had to force her feet to move away from him. She was here to see Bella, not attack Bella’s gorgeous dad. But she did have to thank him.

She spun to face him, and caught him ogling her behind. A shiver of awareness hummed through her body and slammed into her gut when his eyes met hers. Heat and desire burned hot and heavy. She wanted him like she'd never wanted anyone or anything before.

Bella. She was here for Bella. “I didn’t want to wait any longer to apologize to Isabella.”

“She isn't here. I had a late meeting. My brother and my business partner took her to dinner.”

It took a minute for his words to infiltrate her lust-fogged brain. She loved watching his lips move. She could still feel them on her mouth, against her neck. She wanted to feel them again. Everywhere.

“Jade?”

“Hum?”

“I asked if you wanted something to drink.”

He was looking at her funny. She realized she'd been staring far too long at his lips. Judging from the look on his face, she didn’t affect him the same way he did her.

“Sure.”

He headed for the kitchen and she followed. “What’s your pleasure,” he asked over his shoulder.

You. Naked. “Red wine?”

“Coming up.” He tugged the loosened tie over his head and draped it over the back of a chair. A quick snap of his wrists and his shirt cuffs rolled to expose strong, chiseled forearms. He reached for two wine glasses and the shirt pulled taught against his muscular shoulders. She personally didn’t know there were that many muscles in the human back. Each one of Logan’s were pumped and defined.

And when did she become a butt-woman? Logan’s was absolutely perfect. She wanted to squeeze it.

What was her problem? Beautiful people were the norm in her career. She'd shared second billing to Brad and George and Leo. Two seconds in this man’s company and she wanted to tackle him to the floor and have her wicked way with him. He was a tough guy on the outside but a marshmallow on the inside.

And she was rapidly becoming very fond of him.

#

Logan watched Jade drink the wine and it was all he could do to stifle a groan. When she licked a drop from the corner of her mouth, he almost dropped to his knees and begged to let him use his tongue to remove the liquid. What possessed him to invite her in for a drink? Everything about her aroused him and he could not afford to lose his head. He needed to push her away far and fast.

“I’ll let Bella know you stopped by.” From the arch in her eyebrows, she caught his clear dismissal. He appreciated the look of confusion. He didn’t quite understand his actions himself.

“What time do you expect her back? I brought these for her.” She held out the bouquet of fragrant wildflowers. They looked handpicked, probably from the garden he'd seen her tend to many days this summer. He'd been so preoccupied with her killer body, he hadn’t even noticed them in her hand. He grabbed a large plastic cup covered with the logo of a fast food restaurant and filled it with tap water.

“Best I can do vase-wise,” he explained.

Jade brushed past him to deposit the flowers in the tumbler. He caught a whiff of the flowers and her and lust sucker punched him in the gut. He clenched his fists so he wouldn’t reach out and pull her against his aroused body. She took her time arranging the blooms and sap that he was, he didn’t move. He just kept breathing in her scent and tangling himself deeper and deeper into her web.

Crossing his arms, he leaned against the counter and feigned disinterest when she faced him. Her smile died and he wanted to grab the butcher knife and stab himself with it for putting that wounded look on her face. Instead, he pinned her with his meanest stare, hoping to send her scurrying away, out of his reach. It had worked on many a recruit and had been known to send men fleeing from SEAL training.

But did she turn tail and run? Hell, no. She crossed her arms and leaned a hip against the counter, matching him stare for frosty stare.

“Was there anything else?” He didn’t mean for it to come out so rough, but she was killing him here.

Her tough mask slipped and her gaze skittered away. His heart plummeted to his feet. Please, don’t cry again. If she started bawling, he would feel like a first-class ass, be forced to touch her, hold her, comfort her. And then he would probably do the unthinkable and kiss her.

“I, um,” she cleared her throat and refocused on him. “I wanted to thank you for last night. For listening and everything. It meant a lot.”

“I’m sorry again for your losses.” That sure didn’t sound very tough guy. Especially when his voice softened.

She noticed the breech in his armor and pounced. “I hadn’t cried at all until last night.” She gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Lucky you got to be there for the water works.” Her cheeks flushed pink and her voice wavered, obviously still hurting. Only a son-of-a-bitch would send her away now.

He looked at his watch, the universal sign for “this conversation is over." “If that’s all, I need to jump in the shower.”

Hey, his mom was a first class bitch, so he was entitled.

Mouth pursed in frustration, she spun to go when something on the kitchen table caught her attention. Eyes narrowed in consideration, her head tipped to the side. Reaching out, she pulled a note from the stack of mail he'd deposited there earlier. The bright picture on the front almost blinded him.

Charlotte’s daily postcard. He groaned.

She flipped it over and read the note, her eyes frightening little slits.

“That’s a felony, you know.”

Feeble yes, but hey, it was a crime to tamper with someone else’s mail.

She smacked the postcard against his chest. “Arrest me,” she growled. “All that time you were calling me an adulteress when your girlfriend was conveniently away on a vacation.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

She smiled mockingly. “No? Then what are all of these?” She reached around behind him for the box of incriminating evidence. Charlotte had sent enough to paper all the walls in his house. And four others.

“Bella liked the pictures,” he said weakly. “She dug them out of the trash.”

Jade gave him a look that said, “Yea, right.”

He sighed. “I have never lied to you. The woman is a friend of my aunt’s. I went out with her once—before Bella—as a favor to my aunt and that’s it. End of story. She is not my girlfriend. There is no relationship. I will not be seeing her again.” No need to mention the little slip of actually having sex with her.

Jade paused from reading one of the postcards she pulled from the box.

She really was a nosy little thing.

Pinning him with a disapproving gaze, she held one of the cards in front of his face. “It sounds like Charlotte didn’t come to the same conclusion.”

She flipped the card over. “I quote, ‘I dream of you every night, of making love to you again.’” She glared at him.

Damn it, men didn’t blush but his cheeks were on four-alarm fire. “Last time I checked, sleeping with someone doesn't constitute a relationship.”

“It does if you don’t tell the other person.”

“I never implied in either words or actions to that woman that we had a relationship. In fact, I flat out told her that I was not interested in one.”

“Yet you slept with her.”

“She threw herself at me.”

Real mature comeback, Bradley. The whiny tone made it all the more pathetic. Why was he defending his actions to Jade, anyway? It was none of her business who he did or did not sleep with.

She opened her mouth, probably to tell him exactly what a jackass he was. He couldn’t help it.

He kissed her.

A man can only take so much.

Her eyes rounded, startled. He grabbed her and pulled her against him. Postcards went sailing through the air and scattered across the floor. Her palms touched his chest, whether to push him away or not, he would never know. She melted into him, her body molding to his. The kiss was a frantic mating of lips and teeth and tongues. His hands slipped under her skirt. Jeez, another thong. She would seriously give him a heart attack.

Never breaking the kiss, he grabbed her and spun around until her back hit the wall. She wrapped her legs around his waist and they both moaned. He couldn’t get enough of her. He grasped her head between his hands and tilted it for deeper penetration.

He ripped his mouth free, dragging in a breath of air as he trailed kisses down her neck.

And then as soon as it started, he broke the kiss and walked away.