“You’re killing me, baby.”

  “I wanted you.” She looked up at me, meeting my eyes head on. “I wanted you, and I hated that I wanted you.”

  “Why?”

  “Men like you don’t date women like me. You fuck them, you lead them on, but you don’t show them off at your side. They’re dirty little secrets. Women other employees talk about at the water cooler,” she shocked the shit out of me by saying, and I grabbed her wrists gently, kissing the tips of her fingers before speaking.

  “I’m not like that, Aubrey.”

  “My dad was,” she quietly admitted and shrugged. “My mom worked for him. They got… close.” She rolled her eyes, and I pulled her closer, wrapped my arms around her. “When she found out she was pregnant with me, he made her quit. Set her up in a cute little house with promises of taking care of everything and leaving his wife.”

  “Please tell me he did,” I gritted, anger flooding my veins. My girl’s father was an ass. The way she had run from me after our tryst Halloween night made sense now.

  “He did. For a couple of years. I think my mom really believed he would leave his wife one day. I don’t even think his wife knew he had a secret little family on the side,” she shared emotionlessly.

  “What happened?” I asked, dreading the answer.

  “He left us. From one day to the next. No warning, no conversation. It was like we were just yesterday’s newspaper. He left a check on the kitchen table.”

  “Fuck.” I kissed her forehead. “Baby—”

  “She ripped it up.” Her fingers ran through my hair, the feel of her warm hands relaxing, obviously helping to distract her. “She didn’t want anything from him. Instead, she moved us to Beech Grove. We lived with my grandma for a year while she figured out a way to raise me on her own.”

  “I would never—"

  “I know.” The conviction in her voice made my chest puff up with pride. “I want to see where this goes, Logan, I do. I just… I’m not very good with the dating games and rules.”

  “There are no rules between us because we aren’t playing a fucking game, Aubrey. You’re mine, and I’m yours.”

  “Just like that?” She laughed humorlessly, trying to back away, but I didn’t let her. “What will people say about you screwing your secretary or—"

  “I could give a fuck.” My hands tangled in her hair. “You’re mine.”

  “Logan—” I didn’t let her say another word.

  I kissed her, taking her mouth passionately.

  I was already on edge for her body. My soul aching to have her heart as well as her body. She didn’t know what she had just done by opening up, telling me about her family. She had placed the final nail in the coffin.

  She was it for me.

  For me to cherish and protect, until I freaking perished off the face of the damn earth.

  Chapter Five

  Aubrey

  Seduction would never be my middle name.

  I was an idiot.

  Spilling everything the way I had was far from sexy. And sexy had been what I had attempted. Talk about crash and burn.

  I had never talked about my parents to anyone other than Lena. She was the one person I spoke to about them. Yet there I was, spilling and talking, my heart bleeding in front of the most amazing man. Completely making a mess of the moment.

  “There are no rules between us because we aren’t playing a fucking game, Aubrey. You’re mine, and I’m yours,” he said, and I couldn’t help but shake my head.

  “Just like that?” I sounded trite, and I couldn’t help it. I wanted to believe in every word he was saying. “What will people say about you screwing your secretary or—”

  “I could give a fuck,” he growled. Growled! Damn, it was sexy. His hands tangled into my hair, tilting my head up, his eyes piercing mine. “You’re mine.”

  “Logan—" I breathed but couldn’t say another word. His mouth crashed on mine, and I was just along for the beautiful ride of his kiss. His kiss alone would destroy me, ruin me for anyone else. I didn’t want there to be anyone else. The thought flitted through my head, and a strange comfort and warmth fell over my chest.

  As crazy fast as everything was happening between us, Logan Knight and I were right. Feeling that and not letting it freak me out did something to me. I kissed him back just as fiercely until we both pulled away, our breathing coming in heavy pants.

  “Take my shirt off,” he ordered, his eyes hooded, flashing with something deliciously dark.

  Doing as he ordered, still straddling his thigh in nothing but my panties, I slipped my hands beneath his black dress shirt. His body felt like a furnace.

  Hot. Solid. Strong.

  When I slipped the shirt off, the muscles beneath his skin flexed and bunched, and my mouth watered.

  “Play.” My eyes jumped up to his, and it was as if he had never taken his eyes from me. “You wanted to play, bumble bee. As long as you stay where you are, you can play,” he allowed, and it thrilled me.

  Freaking thrilled me. Taking in the sight in front of me, I felt like a kid at a candy store. I didn’t know where to start.

  I licked the line of his muscular neck.

  I nipped the roundness of his bicep, lightly dragging my teeth against his skin.

  The taste of his skin was unique and addicting.

  I leaned lower, flicking my tongue against his pebbled nipples. Kissing my way back up to his collarbone.

  “You have freckles,” I noted, licking and kissing the spots that marred his perfect skin before his deep curse vibrated through his throat. “I like touching you.”

  His hands gripped my waist tightly, pushing me down to the hardness of his thigh, and I moaned. The sensation of my clit against him felt too good, wetness soaked through my panties.

  “Grind me, baby.” His voice was like gravel, thick and rough, making shivers run down to my sexy heeled toes. Logan’s face moved closer and out of sight in the crook of my neck. My hands moved on his shoulders.

  “Rub that pretty clit down, Aubrey. Soak my thigh with that sweet honey.”

  “Logan,” I panted, loving the dirtiness of his words.

  “You have no idea what you do to me,” he kept whispering. “You make me feel like a damn caveman. The idea of anyone ever watching you come undone like this, of anyone else looking at what’s mine, baby, you gotta know it drives me crazy.”

  “Only you,” I moaned, my hands gripping as I dry-humped his knee. It should have embarrassed me how wet and needy he had me.

  “Hell yeah, only me,” he rasped. Raising his knee a little higher, his hands on my hips moving me back and forth like a ragdoll. “More. Don’t stop.”

  “Logan.”

  “You’re close, aren’t you?” I could feel the power in his body, and it was like an aphrodisiac. Tense and on edge, somehow not losing his control as he let me rub against him. “I can feel it. I can see it.” My hands moved to the back of his neck as I tilted my head back, silently pleading for his mouth on my skin, “You know how many times I’ve fantasized about you this last month?” he whispered hoarsely against my flesh. “I’m powerless to you, Aubrey.”

  “I’m—” But I couldn’t get another word out when I felt his tongue take a swipe of my neck.

  “Come. Come for me, my dirty bumble bee. Give me that honey, so I can lick it up after.” He groaned, and I flew apart.

  Fireworks and stars burst behind my eyelids as pleasure and adrenaline flowed through my veins. I could hear his deep murmurs behind the buzzing in my ears. Telling me how beautiful I was. Telling me how he wanted to taste me. In the fog of pleasure, I felt him pick me up and placed me on the bed. He kept telling me sweet things, and I could almost have sworn he said he loved me.

  “What?” I asked, coming back to life, the buzzing slowly fading from my ears.

  “Shh…” He nuzzled his face against my knee as he hooked his fingers on the sides of my ruined panties, gently pulling them down my legs. Taking my shoes off, one at a time, kissing the tops of my feet before his body loomed over me and he made love to me.

  All night long.

  *

  I stepped out of the elevator, my heart lighter and fuller than it had ever been. I was in love.

  Real love.

  Logan wasn’t just an amazing lover. He was honest and kind. Funny and sweet. He was everything I hadn’t let myself wish for. Not after Dad had left and never come back. Not after my first serious boyfriend had treated me like crap and cheated on me. Not after I had let my standards drop lower and lower because I felt like I didn’t deserve someone amazing in my life.

  Logan Knight was everything, and I was going to tell him. I wasn’t scared. I was excited. I knew he felt the same way. This thing between us might have happened crazy fast, but it was right. Nothing better.

  He had made love to me. Slow and sweet, rough and hard, all throughout the night, and either way it happened, I knew the difference. He had made love to me. He was proving who he was, and I couldn’t wait to tell him exactly what it meant to me.

  What he meant to me.

  I felt almost giddy, and even though the feeling was foreign to me, I was going to bask in it. I finally got it. I got why people wanted to fall in love. Why they wanted more than themselves and a small handful of people in their everyday lives that meant something. Logan Knight hadn’t just banged my brains out; he had broken down walls I had built a long time ago.

  After leaving me exhausted in bed, he had gotten an email and said he had to meet someone downstairs. I was half asleep, so I wasn’t paying much attention. As I walked toward the lobby, just passing the bar, my eyes searched for him. I stopped to call him, my phone in my hand, as I looked up before pressing dial, and I stopped.

  Everything stopped.

  My eyes locked on his back. Everything around me faded away, and I went cold.

  There, in plain sight, Logan was holding a beautiful blonde.

  Not just any blonde. She was stunning. Lithe with full hair and a great smile, designer clothes that dripped class and money like a second skin. Not only was she in his arms, he was hugging her. The sight felt like an ice pick through my heart.

  There was an obvious familiarity between them. The way she smiled up at him, like he had put the stars and moon in the sky for him, created a tight knot in the middle of my throat, and I stumbled, putting a hand on the wall.

  From the shadows I watched them talk and laugh. They sat close, and it was obvious nobody around them existed. They were in their own world.

  It didn’t make sense.

  The Logan I had spent the week with had looked at me that way. Like he clung to every word. He had been attentive and sweet. Had acted like I was the best thing since sliced bread.

  He had completely fooled me.

  Was this a game to him? Trick me into thinking he was one kind of man, nothing like the men in my life, only to what? Keep me as his dirty little secret? His plaything?

  Ask him, a voice chimed in my ear, and I wanted to. I wanted to go right over to him and ask who she was, what it meant. What the hell we were doing. Had I misunderstood the entire week? Every word and comment he had made had hinted at a future. Ask him. I took a step forward, but then I stepped back.

  I couldn’t.

  If I did, I would make a bigger fool of myself than I already had.

  I only had one other choice. I had to figure out what the hell to do now.

  Chapter Six

  Aubrey

  I was on auto pilot.

  After seeing him in the lobby with the gorgeous blonde, I had turned around and gone back to our room.

  Somehow, I hadn’t lost my mind. I had held on to the numbness to push through. I’d held on to it as I packed and looked at the room where I had given him all of me. Sure, we had banged in Lena’s guest room, but here in the hotel, I had given so much more than my body. I’d given him my heart with both hands. I was an idiot.

  When he had returned to the room a mere hour before our flight, I had tried to act like nothing was the matter, but he was too perceptive for his own good. I finally had to break and lie, telling him I had a headache. He reacted like the man I was in love with. The one who didn’t exist, because that man wouldn’t go and meet a woman and do God only knew what.

  Logan was sweet and kind and generous as he pampered me, trying to help with my headache.

  And that hurt even more. Experiencing his overabundance of sweetness and now realizing it didn’t really exist. That it was as phony as a three-dollar bill. It only threw a stone to the numbness I had been holding on to, because I knew it was all an act.

  He had a woman in Texas.

  Was I the one in California? Or was I just the one in Beech Grove? Did he have one in every city? The thought made me my stomach twist into knots.

  Finally home, the numbness turned into something else. Building a wall around my heart this time was harder than before. Thankfully, with the excuse of a headache turning into a migraine, I managed to convince him to drop me off at my place. Walking inside, I dropped my luggage in the living room and went directly to my bedroom. Taking the bedding off and putting it into the wash. Trying to wash away the night he’d shown up and I’d stupidly taken a chance.

  More than a night. His words played in my head, and I tried to shake them away. We had been more than a night. We had been a business trip where he could conveniently use me to get his dick wet.

  Nothing more.

  Nothing less.

  Liar, a voice whispered in my head, but I quickly shook it away.

  Last time, when it wasn’t the real thing, I had let myself break. I feared, knowing I had fallen head over heels for Logan, what I would do. I was determined not to break. I had been determined not to let a man have that kind of power over my emotional state of mind.

  This time, I needed a plan of action.

  My savings account was close to nothing, and though my bonus would help, I didn’t want to be brash. I had been down that road the year before.

  Sitting in my home office, I pulled up my computer and started updating my resume.

  Logan

  Dallas had been amazing.

  Our last night there had been incredible. We were finally on the same page. I had all but exhausted her when I had left to meet my sister Willow downstairs. I had cancelled dinner plans with her to spend every moment I could with Aubrey. I had tried to explain that to Willow, and thankfully, she had been more than understanding. Nonetheless, she was determined not to let me leave the state without at least a short visit.

  We had talked, and I was glad I had seen her. I could tell she was lonely in Dallas. She had stayed in Texas after she graduated from Baylor University, but it hadn’t been the experience she’d thought it would be. I had a feeling between that and her curiosity about Aubrey, I would be hosting a long-term house guest soon in Beech Grove, and I found I didn’t mind the idea. I wanted my girl to meet my sisters.

  When I had returned to the hotel room, Aubrey wasn’t feeling well. A headache, she had said. But something about a sadness that flashed behind her eyes when she thought I wasn’t paying attention felt off. Like she had somehow put her defenses back up and was holding me at arm’s length. I tried to take care of her, but she told me she needed space, so I dropped her off at home. The next day, I had stopped by her place to check on her and spend the day, since it was Sunday, but she wasn’t home. She didn’t answer my calls or texts either. None of them marked as read.

  So, I waited.

  Monday came and passed, with nothing from her other than a text saying she was feeling under the weather and wouldn’t be able to make it in. Then, before the day was over, I got a call I didn’t see coming.

  A call that made no sense.

  With only one person to answer me, I went straight over to her house to see what the hell was up with my bumble bee.

  Chapter Seven

  Aubrey

  “I think you should talk to him.” Of course, she would. Lena had come over to try and cheer me up like the bestie she was. We were sitting in my bed, our backs against the headboard, my head on her shoulder.

  “And I think I know what kind of answer he is going to give me,” I retorted, my stomach squeezing.

  “Bree. Logan Knight is not your dad.”

  “Trust me, I know. But you didn’t see them, Lee.”

  “Babe—”

  “No. I… I saw him. She was beautiful. Stunning. And the way he looked at her…” I couldn’t keep talking because I would burst into tears, and that was the last thing I needed to do. My eyes were already puffy and swollen from crying myself to sleep the last two nights in a row.

  “Either way, you need to talk to him,” she gently pushed, and I knew she was right.

  “I know.” And I did.

  I knew I was being childish hiding from him. Hiding from his knocks on Sunday morning, peeking through a window at his strong build. He had come over with coffee and bagels, and I had pretended I wasn’t home.

  He had called.

  He had texted.

  All of which I had immaturely ignored.

  “I close my eyes, and I see him.” My voice broke, and I sniffed.

  “Oh, Bree.” She stroked my hair as stupid tears rolled down my face.

  “I love him, Lee,” I whispered in a broken hiccup, resting my head on her shoulder, picking imaginary lint from my comforter.

  “You think, maybe you should tell me that?” Both Lena and I looked up. He stood in the doorway of my bedroom

  He was a sight for sore eyes. At a glance, he looked good enough to eat. In one of his dark suits, dark grey shirt beneath with the top two buttons undone. It was completely unfair for him to look so dang good while I looked like poop.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, pretending to be angry.

  Because that’s all it was. Pretend.

  I could see how my mother could have done what she had done. Taken any little bit of attention or scrap of time my dad could ever offer. I was looking at the man who owned my heart and knew how easily you could take so little from someone you would want everything from.