Lawful Attraction

  Crush, Book 8

  Elouise East

  Copyright © 2021 Elouise East

  LAWFUL ATTRACTION (CRUSH SERIES, BOOK 8)

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, Elouise East. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the internet or by any other means, electronic or print, without premising from Elouise East.

  The unauthorised reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Please purchase only authorised electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights and livelihood is appreciated.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All products and/or brand names mentioned are registered trademarks of their respective holders/companies.

  Publisher: Elouise East

  Cover Design: Maria Vickers

  Editor: Maria Vickers

  Beta Readers: Emma Brown, Mike Van Eimeren, Jess Waugh-Bacchus, Tammy Basile

  Contents

  List of characters (alphabetical order)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Five months later

  Out of the Frying Pan Teaser

  Books by Elouise East

  About Elouise East

  Lawful Attraction

  When Logan witnesses something he shouldn’t, something personal, he can’t help himself and checks in on the guy, even though he saw the evidence himself that the man could take care of himself. As a police officer, he feels the need to protect everyone he can, especially when he’d been unable to protect his own brother. This need often overshadows everything else, including his sense.

  What Bastien does for a living has no bearing on his personality or morals. He does what he needs to do to live, even though it was a far cry from his privileged, wealthy upbringing. He’d gladly turned his back on that when his parents had thrown him out. Taking an offer of a night out from a so-called friend, he’s placed in a precarious situation he never asked for. Luckily, the police save him. Then he finds evidence of someone stalking him. He’s scared and asks Logan for help, not realising the repercussions of that request.

  Being unable to protect Bastien tears Logan apart, and their lives intertwine from that moment on. Logan needs to find the stalker before it’s too late. He will do everything in his power to ensure he doesn’t let someone down again.

  Read on to find out how one decision, one word, one action can alter the course of several people’s lives.

  Author note

  If you would like to see any potential triggers for this book and any other books I’ve written, please go to this link on my website: https://elouiseeast.com/triggers

  Dedication

  You are worth more than you believe

  List of characters (alphabetical order)

  Alice, Logan’s sister

  Amanda, therapist

  Analise, Bartender at Crush, Kade’s girlfriend, Friends with Crush group

  Asher, Childminder, Sean’s boyfriend (Instant Desire)

  Ava, Police officer, Samuel’s sister

  Barry Jamieson, antique dealer

  Bastien, Stripper, Make-up Artist and Jewellery maker, only child

  Brandy, bouncer at the Bone Yard

  Brooke, antique dealer

  Bryan, Chief of Police, Logan’s boss

  Casey, Paramedic, Logan’s brother, Luke’s boyfriend (Life Support)

  Cassidy, dancer at the Bone Yard

  Charlie, Bartender at Crush, Josh’s boyfriend (First Kiss)

  Claire, Logan’s sister, Robert’s wife

  Cody, dancer at the Bone Yard, Bastien’s friend

  Colton, Woodworker, Ioan’s boyfriend (A Crush for Christmas)

  Deacon, photographer, Bastien’s occasional boss

  Emory, dancer at the Bone Yard

  Eric, Actor, Samuel’s boyfriend (Love Scene)

  Ethan, Architect student, Eric’s brother, Friends with Crush group

  Ginny, Tom’s girlfriend

  Henry, police officer

  Ioan, Carer at nursing home, Colton’s boyfriend (A Crush for Christmas)

  James, Logan’s brother

  Joey, Police officer, Friends with Logan and Ava, Kade’s police partner

  Josh, Charlie’s boyfriend (First Kiss)

  Kade, Police officer, Friends with Logan and Ava, Joey’s police partner

  Kat, forensic pathologist

  Kenzo, Retired Army, Veteran Centre volunteer, Zak’s boyfriend (Covert Strength)

  Liam, Logan’s brother, Penny’s husband

  Logan, Detective Sergeant, Siblings: Liam, Alice, Claire, Casey, James, Parents: William and Christine

  Luke, Personal Trainer, Casey’s boyfriend (Life Support)

  Max, Interior designer, Trent’s boyfriend (Primary Seduction)

  Miles, music operator at the Bone Yard

  Mrs Graham, Winona Conrad’s neighbour

  Nolan, bartender at the Bone Yard

  Rafferty, owner of the Bone Yard

  Rebecca Jarrod, victim

  Reed, dancer at the Bone Yard

  Samuel, Lawyer, Eric’s boyfriend (Love Scene)

  Sean, Architect, Asher’s boyfriend (Instant Desire)

  Simon, crime scene photographer

  Tom, Owner of Crush, Ginny’s boyfriend

  Trent, Teacher, Max’s boyfriend (Primary Seduction), Samuel’s brother

  Van, dancer at the Bone Yard

  Winona Conrad, victim

  Zak, Woodworker, Kenzo’s boyfriend (Covert Strength)

  Chapter 1

  Logan

  A pain-filled groan reached his ears, and Logan Taylor’s protective instincts flared, halting him in his tracks as he wandered in the direction of home. He tilted his head, trying to gauge where the sound was coming from. The deep sound echoed again, and he stepped closer to an alley next to The Bone Yard, a strip club near the centre of Cambridge. There was no decent lighting in the area, and the moon was hiding behind the clouds, only sending shafts of light as it peeked through.

  Placing his feet carefully so as not to make his presence known before he wanted to, he moved further into the mouth of the alley. The sounds continued but changed in tone, becoming more pleasure than pain, and Logan’s heart raced as the darkness closed around him, hiding his presence from the carnal get-together.

  He was tempted to appear and break up their little party because it wasn’t safe, but instead, he chose to check to ensure it seemed consensual, then leave them to it. It wasn’t the best place to attend to their needs, but as long as no one bothered them, they’d be fine.

  Approaching slowly, breathing through his mouth to reduce the stench of the rotten garbage, he stayed in the shadows until he reached where the noises were louder.

  “Just fuck me already! Harder!” The voice had a musical lilt to it but was strained as if stretching for something just out of their reach.

  Rhythmic knocking began, and a second deeper and hoarser voice groaned, “Fuck, yeah. That’s it. Take it all.”

  Logan ignored his inconvenient hard-on and peered around the large rubbish bin that was currently hiding his position. The sight took his breath away, taking his cock from semi-hard to fully erect in less than a second.

  A slender guy was bent over something, one of his elbows resting on the top of it while the other hand pressed against the wall in front of them as a large man rammed into him. The guy being fucked had his head dropped back, his face towards the sky, which curved his spine and stuck his ass out further. The bigger guy groaned again, speeding up, to which the smaller one appeared to agree.

  Goosebumps ran across Logan’s skin, which had nothing to do with the chill in the air and everything to do with wanting to be closer, to see more, to be part of it. The thought shocked him but not enough to remove his focus from the two before him. He parted his lips and licked them as a muffled tortured groan filled the alley, flowing over him.

  “Fuck, yes! I’m gonna come. Let’s fill this ass.”

  The idea the larger man was going to pump his seed into the slender one had Logan’s breathing increasing, light-headedness overtaking him as he stared through the darkness. Bracing his hand against the sticky wall, he took in all the information he could about the scene before him.

  A brief flash of moonlight gave him the opportunity to see the smaller man in more detail, and he saw the man push back a little and wrap his hand around his cock. The shadows returned and had Logan cursing silently.

  “Oh, fuck, yes! Yessss!”

  He could just about make out th
e jerks of the smaller one’s body as he released, and Logan clenched his fists and bit his lip to stop himself from following the man over the edge.

  “Fuck!” The larger man shouted his rapture to the sky and held himself tighter to his partner for a second before grabbing the base of his cock and withdrawing, smacking the ass of the other, the sound reverberating through the alley. “That was fantastic. Thanks. I needed that.” He took off the condom and threw it aside.

  “Glad to hear it because you’ll never get it again. No one slaps my ass without permission, asshole.”

  Logan braced himself as the acidity in the man’s voice registered. Narrowing his eyes, he concentrated on the body language of the two men as they righted their clothing.

  “No need to be like that, Black. You know I didn’t mean no harm,” the larger man said.

  “Yeah, well, I have to work tonight, and if I have a handprint on my ass, some people, my boss included, aren’t going to like it,” the man called Black snapped, standing fully upright now that he was dressed. The bigger man apologised, but Black swiped his hand through the air. “No, it’s not okay. If I lose money because of you, I’m sending Rafferty after you.”

  “Oh, come on, Black,” he whined.

  “Go home, Trevor.”

  The bigger man, Trevor, hesitated, then leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the other man’s cheek before trudging towards Logan, his shoulders as low as his head. Logan stepped back against the wall until the man passed, and his steps faded into the night, then Logan peered around the edge of the bin again. Seeing Black standing with his hands on his hips, staring at the ground had Logan stepping out of his hiding place and confronting the enigma before him.

  “That wasn’t the safest choice, you know,” he said into the silence.

  “Holy fuck! Don’t do that!” Black pressed a hand to his chest and blew out a breath. “Jesus. You scared the shit out of me.”

  “Just imagine what could have happened if I had been another man wanting to take something from you that you didn’t want to give.”

  Black rested a hand on his cocked hip and tilted his head. “What? You mean a gang bang? Yeah, let’s get to it!”

  Logan shook his head, not knowing how to take the words. Was he saving face, or did he really like the sound of it? “I would choose a better place next time if I were you. You might get into trouble you can’t get out of.”

  “Thank you for your opinion. I will keep it in mind. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get to work.” Black grabbed a bag from the ground and lifted it over his shoulder, then strode past Logan towards the main road, calling, “Besides, trouble is my middle name.” He winked, and Logan watched him go, then followed, wanting to make sure he was safe, at least as he exited the alley. He stood on the street, staring as Black headed for The Bone Yard, then the man threw a wave over his shoulder before entering.

  “That explains the cocky behaviour,” he muttered, shoving his hands deep into his pockets, wincing as the fabric tightened against his groin, and continued his walk home without a backwards glance. It was nearing eleven in the evening, but the traffic was still tearing by as if it was rush hour, the splash of the puddles merging with the other night sounds that had been surprisingly absent in the alley.

  Logan shook his head, dispelling the images once more. He had no doubt he would bring them out in the shower later and get off, but for now, he needed to be able to walk home respectably. Being a police officer brought with it certain expectations, and he couldn’t be seen to be walking around with a tent in his jeans.

  ****

  Logan rubbed his face with both hands, trying to ease the throbbing behind his eyes, and rested his elbows on his desk. This case was a shitstorm, and there was no way of making it any better. No evidence had shown up, no witnesses, nothing. More often than not, these were his regular cases. It wasn’t as easy as how it was portrayed on TV. The evidence didn’t show up at a convenient time and blow the case wide open. Most of the time, they spent hours and days and weeks digging into every little, tiny detail with nothing coming from it.

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t get any last night after all the bar trawling I’m sure you did,” Ava said with a grin.

  The scene from the previous evening flashed through his head, and his heart sped up. “I didn’t, I’ll have you know. Not every night is for finding a release.” Ava’s eyebrows rose. “It’s not!”

  Ava Walker had been his partner since she graduated as a police officer five years prior. She was fast-tracking herself to detective by working with him, and they found they worked well together. It didn’t hurt that they both had large, sometimes overbearing, families, therefore, had a lot in common. She looked a lot like her brothers, but that was where the similarities ended.

  It also helped that they were now family. Well, kind of. Logan’s brother Casey had started a relationship with Ava’s brother Luke. The family dinners had suddenly become a lot larger when they considered the eleven children, four parents and didn’t even include the partners and younger children.

  “Has forensics come back to you about the Bridgen case yet?” he asked instead of debating his lifestyle.

  Ava shook her head, her long brown hair swaying from side to side from the ponytail she pulled it into nearly every day. “No, not a word, but I’ll chase them up again this afternoon.”

  “I don’t know how they expect us to close cases when they can’t get the bloody results to us,” Logan grumbled. He leaned back in his chair, resting his head against the back and staring at the ceiling.

  “—the woman is clearly trying to cause trouble when there isn’t any. How she expects us to find her stalker when she doesn’t give us any information, I don’t know. I’m not going to put her off checking up with me, though, because she’s got tits like melons. I could get lost in them. Fuck, yeah.” The man groaned, then laughed with several other people joining in.

  Logan knew who it was—Henry Ether—and he didn’t expect anything less from the asshole who treated all women as second-rate citizens and anyone different as a bug under a microscope. He also knew the guy hated smaller cases and often tried to refuse them. Their chief had no problem giving them to him anyway, but Logan knew Henry’s attempts at finding the culprits usually ended up with nothing.

  He shook his head and slid his chair back towards his desk again. “That asshole is going to go too far one day. He’s going to ignore the wrong person and end up with no job,” he muttered.

  “I don’t know how the chief puts up with him,” Ava said.

  “Yeah, you do.” Logan rolled his eyes. “He has no choice in the matter.”

  Henry was the chief’s boss’s son, so there was unlikely to be any firing of the man, even if he didn’t do a good job. He might get transferred, but nothing else. The idea had merit. Logan might suggest that to the chief when he saw him next.

  “All I hope is that the woman is careful. If she thinks Henry is looking out for her, but he isn’t, then she might take risks she wouldn’t if she was looking over her shoulder all the time.”

  Ava was right as usual. The thought dropped a ball of lead into his stomach, and he closed his eyes briefly, wishing he was anywhere but within hearing of that asshole.

  “Taylor! Walker! You’re up!” their chief yelled from the door of his office. “Homicide.”

  Logan grimaced but shoved away from his desk, checking that his phone and keys were in his pockets, then grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. They jogged down the cubicles and out of the station into the drizzle, carrying on until they reached Logan’s car. He peeled out of the car park and headed towards the address that Ava had immediately brought up on her phone.

  “There’s not much information on here. Woman, late twenties, found on her living room floor. The neighbour looked through the window after the victim hadn’t opened the door for their appointment and saw her.”

  “Wonderful.” Logan clenched his hands around the steering wheel and dropped his neck to the side, a crack easing the tension before repeating on the other side.

  They raced their way through the streets until they reached the relevant house, then pulled up at the kerb. Both exited quickly, showing their badges to the police officers on the scene before heading up the path through the well-maintained garden of the detached bungalow. It wasn’t a house he would’ve expected a woman in her late-twenties to own unless it had been an inheritance, but he knew better than to stereotype.