by Anna Durand
"Alex?" Logan said.
He jerked like he'd forgotten we were in the room. Forcing a smile, he shuffled to the desk and retrieved a thick envelope from one of the drawers. Alex held it out to Logan, stretching across the desk. "Your payment. I added a bit extra for the trouble Falk caused you."
Logan rose and accepted the envelope. He slid it into the inside pocket of his jacket without bothering to open it.
"Don't you want to count it?" Alex asked.
"I trust you."
Had he paid Logan cash?
"I'm exhausted," Alex said, rubbing his neck, his face pinched. "If you don't mind, I'll have dinner in my room tonight. Please stay. You've had a long trip, and I'd like to speak to you both in the morning when we're all well rested."
Logan and I assured him that was fine.
Alex told us to eat anything in the kitchen that we wanted, then he left us.
We ate a quiet meal in the kitchen, seated on stools at the island, making ourselves ham sandwiches from the ingredients in the refrigerator. Alex had bought the most expensive version of everything. The food was delicious, but I still endured that lingering melancholy. It had softened a bit, becoming a background unease rather than a cold knife-edge of fear.
Logan watched me like I was a suspect under surveillance.
I supposed that was how he showed his concern.
We went upstairs a little while later, to the same bedroom where we'd slept the night before last. Jeez, we'd taken a whirlwind international holiday, and I'd barely seen Cairo or Cyprus. I mumbled something to that effect, not really expecting Logan to hear or respond.
He did, of course.
Grasping my upper arms, he asked, "What's wrong, leannan?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm wiped out from double jet lag. I never got used to the time zones over there, and now I'm back here but still not in my usual time zone."
He kissed my forehead. "You need rest. Let's get in bed."
Despite his statement, he didn't look like he thought a good night's sleep would cure whatever bothered me. We undressed and climbed into bed naked. I fell asleep within seconds.
But I woke in the middle of the night, afflicted with a sudden need to feel Logan. Sure, his body was spooning mine, but I needed more.
I flipped over and peppered kisses on his face and lips until he woke up.
"What is it?" he mumbled. He squinted into the darkness broken only by the faint glow from the windows.
"Make love to me. Please."
"Now?"
"Yes. Please, Logan, I need you."
He rolled me onto my back, with his body on top of mine, and made love to me. Sweetly. Slowly. Like he was memorizing my body, my responses, the sounds I made. The feel of him inside me, the pressure of every leisurely thrust, distracted me from everything else in the entire world. When Logan loved me, nothing else mattered.
My climax swept over me like gentle swells on the ocean. I gasped and clung to him, reveling in the sensations of the sweetest release I'd ever known. He pushed inside me twice more before sagging on top of me, his face in my hair.
I debated whether to speak but decided no words could do justice to the way he'd made love to me tonight. It meant everything, feeling him fill me, wrapping myself in the warmth of his body, knowing he wanted to be here, now, with me.
But for how long?
He turned onto his back and pulled me half on top of him, his strong yet tender fingers caressing my hair.
I drifted off again, but that single thought gnawed at me in my dreams.
For how long would I have Logan?
Chapter Thirty-Three
Logan
In the morning, Alex joined us for breakfast in the dining room. He had made the food himself. I hadn't seen any of his "servants" since we got back from Cyprus, but I didn't ask what had become of them. Not my business. I did wonder if he'd hired those people strictly to convince us he was fine. Still, Alex seemed himself again today. He blethered with us about nothing of importance, and of course, flirted with Serena.
Let him flirt. Serena didn't want him.
After breakfast, we left. On the flight home from Montana, I showed Serena what Alex's envelope contained. Her eyes flew wide, but she regained her composure swiftly and didn't even gasp when I handed her one of the hundred-dollar bills from inside the envelope.
She held the bill between her thumb and forefinger and sniffed it.
"What are you doing?" I asked with a chuckle.
"I've never seen a hundred-dollar bill before, much less touched one. I wondered if it smells different from a ten or a twenty."
"Does it?"
"Not really." She held the bill out to me.
"It's yours. You earned it when you shot Falk's low-rent thug." I took out a stack of bills and offered them to her. "Actually, you earned half of my fee. I couldn't have accomplished my mission without you."
"Oh please." She thrust her hundred-dollar bill in my face. "Take it. The money is yours, Mr. Bond. I came along for the ride, that's all." She craned her neck like she was trying to peer inside the envelope. "I'm feeling very nosy, so I'm going to ask. How much did Alex pay you?"
"Twenty thousand dollars."
"Holy shit." She ripped the stack of bills out of my hand and stuffed them, along with the first bill, into her bra. "I'll take your money after all. You can afford to pay me."
"But you're priceless."
"You're sweet even when you're full of shit."
I kissed her. "Take a moment to count your money while I use the bathroom."
Setting the envelope on the table, I headed for the lavatory. When I came back a few minutes later, Serena was lying on the sofa, asleep. I could use a lie-down too, but I'd settle for a chair. Disturbing Serena just so I could sleep beside her wouldn't be right.
I picked up the envelope I'd left on the table.
The flap was up, and I could see the bills inside it. Some were crumpled.
Serena had returned the bills she'd stuffed in her bra.
I dropped onto the chair beside the sofa and propped my feet on the coffee table. My gaze gravitated to her, lying there asleep, her lips forming a faint smile. She'd been agitated yesterday, but today she seemed like her usual self. I slouched in my chair so I could rest my head against its back, and I watched her sleeping.
*****
We went home and went back to work. Monday morning, I wore a kilt as usual, and Serena aimed a sexy smile at me when I strode up to her desk. Though we talked for a few minutes, I still had the feeling something was bothering her. I asked, and she avoided answering. The lass was clever at evading my questions, but she had to realize I was even better at figuring out what she was doing. That probably explained why she never lied to me outright.
Every day, we would have lunch together, sometimes at a restaurant, sometimes at her desk or mine, sometimes in Evan's office. He had taken an extended leave of absence so he could spend more time with his wife, since Keely would have the bairn any day. After that, Evan planned to stay home with his wife and child for six weeks, possibly more. He was a billionaire, after all, and didn't need to work. Taking care of his new family would give him plenty to keep himself busy.
As for me, I was bored out of my skull again.
I liked the company, and I liked the other employees, but I still couldn't figure out what on earth I was meant to be doing. The guards kept watch. A complex, state-of-the-art security system—designed by Evan, of course—monitored everything the guards couldn't and hunted for unusual signals or whatnot. I didn't even try to understand it. I was a hands-on sort of man, not a circuits and code sort.
What was left for me to do? I'd asked myself, and Evan, that question ever since the day I'd agreed to work at Evanescent.
One thing made the tedium worthwhile. I could see Serena anytime I wanted.
Several times a day I told my assistant, Delilah, that I was going on a "secur
ity survey" of the building. I doubted she believed my story for one second, but nonsense was the only excuse I could think of to get out of my office and visit the top floor. I usually found Serena at her desk, scrutinizing papers or emails on her computer screen. Occasionally, she wouldn't be there. After a few days, she stopped getting irritated when I would call her mobile phone to find out where she'd gone. One day, I was leaning my hip against her desk, the one she wasn't sitting at, when I called her.
"Yes, I'm alive, Logan," she said before I could utter one syllable.
"Where are you, Serena? I need to kiss you. Or shag you in the copy room. Your choice."
"This is a workplace, Logan, not a brothel," she said. "I'm in the building, and that's all the information you're getting out of me. If I tell you exactly where I am, you will run down here and seduce me."
"You love it when I do that."
"True, but it cuts into my work productivity rating."
"Fuck productivity. My cock is so hard I'm in agony. You'd be doing a good deed by tending to my medically necessary needs, Nurse Carpenter."
She laughed loud enough anyone around her must have wondered if she'd lost her mind. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Honestly, Logan, stop saying things like that when I'm with other people."
"Cannae do that. Besides, aren't you the lass who ordered me to fuck you on the balcony of the Conrad Cairo hotel? Anyone could've seen us there, and Falk Mullane heard us."
"Yes, I did that," she said, still whispering. "And I don't care if strangers see or hear us, but having my co-workers know is another thing altogether."
"Where are you? I need to see my woman, and feel you, and taste you."
She hesitated for only a second. "Accounting."
Aye, she always gave up and told me.
"They have a file room, don't they?" I asked.
"Yes. But why—Ohhh no, Logan. Absolutely no, no, no."
"Absolutely yes. Stay there. I'm on my way."
I sprinted to the elevator, but it was grinding its way up from the first floor. Since accounting was only two floors below me, I sprinted down the stairs instead, taking them two at a time. When I burst through the stairwell door, breathing hard and sweating, three women who were waiting for the elevator gawped at me. One yelped. I smiled and slowed to a fast walk as I rounded the corner into the hallway that led to accounting.
When I pushed through the glass double doors, I was still breathing rather hard.
A wall separated the waiting area from the employees behind it. A waist-high counter let the woman seated behind it see and talk to anyone in the waiting area, but I was headed for the door that said "employees only." The woman behind the counter shouted something when I barged right through the door.
Serena was standing next to one of the dozen desks in the room, talking to the gray-haired woman seated behind it. When Serena noticed me, her face took on the exasperated but aroused look she reserved for me alone.
To the gray-haired woman, I said, "Melody, love, you look bonnie as ever."
Melody smiled and shook a finger at me. "Don't sweet talk me, Logan MacTaggart. I won't give you any of my homemade potato salad today. It's all for me."
"Keep the salad. I have other needs at the moment." I nodded toward Serena. "I'm borrowing Serena for a few minutes. We need to evaluate the security features of the file room. Evan's orders."
My cousin had ordered no such thing, but the good part about working for family was that they'd let you get away with murder. Not literally.
Well, maybe under the right circumstances...
"Go on," Melody said. "We were just gabbing, anyway."
I bent to kiss her cheek. "If I weren't already taken, I'd be asking you for a date."
She pointed at me while looking at Serena. "You've got your hands full with this one, don't you?"
"I sure do," Serena said. "But I can handle him."
We made it halfway to the file room door when Serena's phone rang. Someone needed her help. Someone always did. With Evan on leave, Serena had taken over many of his duties, becoming a sort of substitute CEO. She couldn't do everything Evan did, but she filled in on as many tasks as possible. Evan was busy worrying about his wife.
After finishing her call, she told me, "I have to go. Sorry, but how about a rain check on the file room sex?"
"You can't leave me. I'm bored to tears."
"I don't see you crying."
"They're stealth tears." I slung an arm around her waist and pulled her close, ignoring the raised eyebrows from everyone in the vicinity. "Don't leave me to do paperwork. I'll get cuts all over my fingers."
She bit her lip. Her face, her entire body, seemed to wilt. "You really don't like your job, do you? I suppose after Cairo it's hard to go back to a mundane life."
"What are you on about?"
"Nothing." She pretended to shake off her dark mood with a smile, but I wasn't convinced. "It's fine, never mind."
She kissed me and walked away.
I gave up and went back to my office, where I pretended to know what the fuck I was doing. Mostly, I tried to figure out what Serena had meant by going back to a mundane life. Had she meant she missed the excitement of hunting down antiquities thieves? Or did she think I missed it?
As the days went on, Serena's melancholy moments became more frequent. I tried to pretend I'd suddenly decided to like my job, but Serena didn't believe me. I was an expert at deception, yet somehow, I couldn't fool her. So I stopped talking about work at all, which left me with not much of anything to say.
My sisters went home a week after Serena and I came back from our adventure. We said goodbye to them at the airport, in front of Evan's jet.
When Kirsty hugged me, she whispered into my ear, "Don't let Serena get away. Whatever trouble you're having, work it out."
If it was that obvious we were having trouble, I'd better do something drastic to fix things with Serena.
"Don't worry," I whispered back to Kirsty. "I have no intention of letting her go."
"Good." She pulled back and kissed my cheek. "See you soon, Logie."
"What makes you think it will be soon? I live here, in America."
"Either way, I'll see you soon. And the answer will be yes."
Days later, I was still trying to puzzle out my sister's meaning. Kirsty and Isla loved to put on mysterious airs, but Kirsty also had an uncanny knack for guessing what other people would do, especially with family. Sometimes, I almost believed she could read minds.
Two weeks after we'd come back from our adventure, I reached a decision. Serena would tell me what was wrong. I drove to her house after work, like I did on every weekday. We spent weekends in my apartment, because she loved having sex in front of the big windows and in the enormous shower. I let myself into the house with the key she'd given me. With Chase away visiting his grandparents, we had the place all to ourselves.
I found Serena in the living room, sitting on the sofa with her legs tucked under her, sipping a glass of what looked like whisky.
"When did you start drinking alone?" I asked, sitting down beside her.
She shrugged.
I stretched my arm across the sofa behind her. "Are you missing Chase? Is that why you've been unhappy lately?"
"No. I mean, yes, of course I miss him. But no, that's not the reason."
"What is it, then?"
"I don't know. I feel like I'm..." Her gaze darted to me, and her eyes glistened with fresh tears. "Never mind."
"You can tell me anything." I took the glass from her and set it on the coffee table, then pulled her snug under my arm. "Please tell me what it is, mo chridhe."
She froze, not blinking for so long that her tears dried. "Why did you call me that?"
"Mo chridhe? You know what that means, I gather." I hooked a finger under her chin. "You are my heart, Serena."
"You mean it, don't you?"
My first impulse was to make a
sarcastic joke, but her stricken expression changed my mind. "Yes, I mean it. I love you, Serena."
"I love you too. Never thought I'd feel this way again, but I do."
"Why does loving me make you sad?"
"That's not the reason. Loving you is the best thing that's ever happened to me." She snuggled closer, looping an arm around me and pressing her cheek to my chest. "What we have, it's better than what I had with Rob. At first, I felt horrible for thinking that. But I've realized it's okay to love you more than I loved him. It doesn't diminish what I had with Rob. I'm sure he's up there in heaven thanking God I fell for a military man, not some pasty-faced wuss."
"But I'm not the sort of man any woman wants to marry."
"Yes, you are." She raised her head to gaze into my eyes. "You're no killer. You do what's necessary to protect the world from creeps like Falk and his henchmen. You're a hero, Logan."
I grunted. "That lot was hardly a threat to global security."
"No, but they were bad guys. Alex needed your help, and you saved him from a bad situation."
"That's not heroic."
"I think Alex would have a different opinion. When I talked to him yesterday, he said how grateful he is that you got the job done."
"You've been talking to Alex? Do I need to go to Montana and batter him?"
She laughed, without much enthusiasm. "No. He's lonely, especially since he found out about Reginald, and I think he needs a few friends. Like you and me."
Alex had known Reginald for a long time and trusted him. Betrayal from a friend... Aye, that had to be a hard blow.
"You should call him," Serena said. "Invite him to visit us."
I almost balked but realized she might have a point about Alex. "Maybe I will sometime. Tonight, I'm more concerned with you."
"Think I need a few days off. We both went back to work the day after we got home from Cyprus."
"Aye, we need a change of scenery." And earlier today, I'd suddenly had an idea that seemed like the perfect solution.
She sat up, pulling away from me. "What scheme are you concocting?"