by Ella Frank
What-the-fuck-ever. She could think what she liked. He wasn’t here to impress her anymore. Making his way around to the other side of the table, Tate pulled out a chair and sat down, placing his coffee cup in front of him.
“At least you’re on time today,” were the first words out of her mouth.
“Jesus, do you ever say anything nice anymore?”
She looked at her tailored dress and pretended to brush a piece of lint off of it, and then she glanced back at him. “I can. I just don’t want to. Besides, don’t crawl all over me for stating the damn truth. ”
“Why? What did I ever do to you that was so bad, Diana?”
Aiming a look at him that should have made his balls shrivel up and die, she leaned over the table and placed her hands on top of it. “Gee, let me think. Letting our marriage fall apart.”
“That was not my fault alone, and you know it.”
Sitting back in her chair, she shrugged and crossed her arms. “You were always pigheaded, Tate. You never take responsibility for anything.”
“Bullshit. I take responsibility for every goddamn action I make.”
“Oh, I know you take credit for leaving. That’s the easy part. But what about the reason why? You never admit to any fault when it comes to the why,” she sneered.
“Excuse me?”
“The fault, Tate. You never took any blame for what was your fault. It was only due to your laziness that we ended up where we are, and you know it.”
“Lazy? How can you sit there and say I was lazy? I worked two jobs the entire time we were together.”
“Lazy when it came to us. You just didn’t give a shit. Then, you quit. Just walked right out the damn door. You didn’t even care that your family loved me, that I loved them.”
Tate ran a frustrated hand over his face. Where was Logan’s brother? Sighing, he dropped his arm down onto the table. “Funny, in that entire sentence you never once said that you loved me or that I loved you.”
Unexpectedly, Diana reached across the table and clasped Tate’s hand. “But you did, didn’t you?”
Tate looked into the eyes of the woman he thought he’d once loved, and all he could think of were blue eyes, glasses, and a stubbled jaw.
“Whatever I did or didn’t feel burned itself out long ago.”
“And now you feel nothing?”
Tate considered her question carefully, trying to gauge her angle. “Am I supposed to?”
So quietly he almost didn’t hear her, Diana whispered, “Maybe, if you tried.”
Just as he was about to pull his hand away and ask her if she’d forgotten she was engaged, the conference room door opened and in walked Cole followed closely by—
Logan. What the hell?
Both of them looked as formal and businesslike as they possibly could.
Immediately, Tate saw Logan size up the situation. Those eyes he had just been imagining zoomed in on the hand that was covering his own, and as Tate removed his, Logan’s eyes lifted and locked with his.
“We’re sorry we got held up,” Cole stated. “Mr. Morrison, it seems your lawyer is running late.”
Diana let out a snort of laughter that had everyone turning to face her, and Logan then tilted his head to the side studying her for the first time as one would a petulant child.
“Is something amusing, Ms. Cline?”
Under Logan’s direct stare, Tate watched Diana straighten her spine and lift her chin. “No. Is there a reason you’re even here? I was under the impression you were only needed if Mr. Madison wasn’t available, and clearly,” she stated as she turned to Cole, who Tate only now realized was staring at him with a pensive look on his face, “he is.”
“Oh yes, I’m here for a reason,” Logan announced as he unbuttoned his suit jacket and brushed it aside to slide his hands into his pants pocket.
And yeah, Tate thought, he knows exactly what he’s doing to me.
Tate felt his palms sweat as he stared at the man squaring off with Diana, and he wondered for a split second just how far Logan’s outrageous behavior extended. Would he really say something to her just to gain the upper hand?
“I’m here for Mr. Morrison. I need him,” Logan stated and moved toward the conference room door. When he reached it, he looked back over his shoulder to Diana, who was completely ignoring him, and promised in a voice that seemed to have a direct link to Tate’s cock, “His lawyer wants to speak to him. Don’t worry, I’ll send him back to you as soon as he’s done,” and then he left.
Tate’s erection noticeably throbbed between his legs, and he was curious about how exactly Logan expected him to get up and walk out after the sensual threat he’d just heard in his voice. Several seconds passed, and it wasn’t until Cole moved to stand beside Diana that Tate looked up at the blond guy and saw him raise his brows.
“Your lawyer’s waiting for you.”
Tate nodded silently, understanding that both Cole and Logan were not referring to Mr. Branson. He looked to Diana, who aimed daggers back at him, and finally having gained some control of his body, Tate pushed back from the table. “I’ll be back in just a minute then.”
Cole inclined his head but said nothing as Tate hurried around the table and made it out the door, walking toward the office where his lawyer was waiting for him.
* * *
As soon as the knock sounded on his office door, Logan yanked it open and stared at Tate. Without a word, he stepped aside as the man walked inside. Turning to watch him, Logan lightly pushed the door closed as to not disturb the thick silence that had engulfed them. As he made his way over to the man with his back to him, Logan’s palms itched to slide into Tate’s jeans pockets covering that perfect ass. That ass which is soon going to be mine.
“You came to me,” Logan murmured from where he stood behind Tate, not yet touching but close enough that his suit jacket was brushing the material of Tate’s clothes.
“You said you needed me. How could I refuse that?”
Isn’t that the fucking truth? Logan thought, looking at the back of Tate’s head, wanting to remind himself that this man was his.
When he’d walked into the conference room and seen Tate’s ex wife with her hand over Tate’s, Logan had felt a moment of—
What? Jealousy?
But as quickly as it had surfaced, it disappeared because Tate had looked up at him, and the eyes that had met his own had been full of want, full of need, and full of everything he himself felt, and it had all been directed at him.
So, Ms. Cline can go fuck herself.
Raising his hand, Logan brushed his fingers on Tate’s shoulder where he trailed them down his arm until their fingers met and interlaced.
“I do need you,” he confessed so close to Tate’s hair, that his breath made the curls shift. “I’ve never been so distracted in my life, thinking about you in there with her.”
Tate turned, and as Logan stared into the dark eyes hooded with desire, he lifted their hands.
“Look how far you’ve come? Holding my hand and everything?”
Tate’s mouth curled up on the sides as he took Logan’s other hand in his. “I want to do a lot more than holding hands. And look at you, finally admitting you’re jealous.”
“I did not.”
“Yeah, you did.”
“Hmm, so tell me more about what you want to do,” Logan said.
He stepped in close until Tate’s legs hit the desk, and he settled, allowing Logan to maneuver between his legs. Bringing their hands around his waist, Logan placed Tate’s palms over his ass and sighed when he felt him squeeze and bring him closer. Removing his hands, Logan placed them on Tate’s chest.
“I can’t stop thinking about coming to your place tonight after work.”
Logan rubbed himself between Tate’s legs and fingered his hair. “And?”
“And”—Tate chuckled—“you know why.”
Logan pressed his lips to Tate’s. “Yeah, but I want you to say it.”
; “Do you?”
“Yes. Tell me you’ll be mine, that I can finally have you.”
Tate blinked, and this close, Logan thought it was astonishing that he’d never noticed how thick his eyelashes were before.
“Yes, you can fucking have me. I want to be yours.”
Logan threaded his fingers through Tate’s hair and tilted his head back, so he could take his mouth. As Tate’s lips parted, Logan eased his tongue inside, and he could taste the hazelnut and the lingering hint of tobacco as they seeped into his senses and rolled into the deliciousness that was Tate.
The hands on his ass increased in pressure as Tate stood up from the desk and his body brushed directly against Logan’s, ripping a raw groan from them both as their lips parted. Tate then lifted one of his hands to cradle Logan’s cheek as he pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, and in that simple moment, Logan knew that he’d never experienced such perfection in his life.
As his mind spun and his brain kicked into overdrive, Logan didn’t hear the door to his office push open. He didn’t hear Cole’s wife, Rachel, as she knocked on the door, but as she stepped inside, he did hear a soft laugh, which had him pulling his mouth away from the one that was still clinging to his and turning to see Mrs. Madison with a woman he didn’t know.
Just as he was about to greet Rachel, Tate moved out from behind him, obviously realizing it was no one that they—
“Tate?” the woman beside Rachel questioned incredulously.
Logan turned to the man beside him who looked as though he’d seen a ghost and thought, Okay, scratch that. Apparently, it is someone Tate knows.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Tate stared at the two women standing in front of both him and Logan. He knew that he had to say something, but he found himself ironically incapable of speech. One minute, he’d been in the middle of the best kiss he had ever received, and the next, he was standing in front of—
My sister.
“Tate?” the all-too-familiar voice questioned again.
This time, Jill stepped around the other woman, who Tate didn’t know, and moved closer. “Oh my God! It is you.”
Tate swallowed several times and ordered himself to, Speak, speak. Open your mouth and fucking speak!
But nothing happened, and Jill continued, “But you were just…just…were you kissing him?”
Yes, I was definitely kissing him, Tate thought, but still nothing left his brain via his mouth.
Finally, Logan spoke up, “Excuse me? Who exactly are you? Rachel, what’s going on?”
But before Rachel—whoever she was—could answer, his sister took another step toward them, and Tate saw her mouth open and shut several times as though she, too, had lost the ability to speak. Jill, however, found it again, much quicker than him.
“I thought you were meeting with Diana, and instead, you’re in here, kissing a…a…”
“A man,” Logan added dryly. “I’m a man.”
“Is this who you’re dating? Does Diana…does she know?”
Jill’s voice had risen to a high-pitched shout, and the questions she was demanding answers to were hitting Tate with the force of a sledgehammer. Still standing mute and apparently immobile, Tate watched Logan take a step toward the two women.
“Look, I don’t know what is going—”
“Wait,” Tate finally spoke up.
Logan looked over his shoulder, and the expression on his face was one of concern. But he also appeared as if he figured this was the moment Tate would take to lie and deny everything. That was the problem. Tate didn’t want to deny one damn thing, and as he stood there, he’d been trying to work out exactly what it was that he did want to say.
Taking a fortifying breath, he stepped forward until he was shoulder to shoulder with Logan, and he looked down at Jill. “This is my sister, Jill. Jill, this is Logan, and yes, he is who I’ve been dating, but he is not the reason I left Diana. That was over a long time ago, months before I even met Logan.”
Tate watched his sister’s eyes widen, as she seemed to take in the information he’d just supplied her with, and then she shook her head. “What?”
“This is Logan—”
“I heard that part, Tate! What are you thinking?” she demanded and spun on her heel ready to leave. “Where’s Diana? Does she know?”
Tate lunged forward and gripped her arm, spinning her back. “You don’t need to—”
“Don’t fucking touch me,” she hissed at him with so much acidity that Tate literally dropped her arm as though it had burned his hand. She glared at him and then shifted her glare to Logan, who was standing deathly silent beside him. “This is disgusting. Mom and Dad will never forgive you for this.”
“Jill,” Tate warned, his breathing stuck somewhere inside his chest, knowing exactly how well this would not go over with his family. As he watched her march out of the office, he called after her, “Jill!” but it was too late.
She was now standing out in the middle of the law firm in front of Diana and Cole, who had apparently come out of the conference room to see what all the noise was about. Diana looked at her best friend, his sister, before raising her eyes to meet his.
That was when Tate felt someone move up beside him, and without turning, he knew it was Logan because Diana’s eyes moved to him, and a scowl crossed her features. Slinging the strap of her purse over her arm, she walked forward and clasped his sister’s arm. When they both reached him, she laughed in a way that was both as ugly as it was spiteful.
“Good luck explaining him to your family, Tate. They already hate you for what you did to me. They’re going to hate this even more.”
Tate knew she was right. Introducing Logan to them was going to be a nightmare, one they were going to have to deal with sooner rather than later.
“This is for me to tell them,” Tate told them both, “not you.”
Jill looked away as though she couldn’t even stand the sight of him.
Diana cackled like the witch she was turning out to be. “Well, we’ll just have to see who gets there first.”
“Diana,” Tate cautioned, becoming more and more pissed.
She completely ignored him, turned to Logan, and said in a voice dripping with malice, “So, do you fuck the exes of all your clients? Or just the men?”
“Diana!” Tate shouted and got in her face. “Stop it.”
Narrowing her eyes, she didn’t back down one bit. “Fuck you, Tate. Oh, hang on,” she said, making sure to spread her venom as she moved past them with his sister in tow, “maybe he can do that.”
* * *
Logan stood in the middle of Mitchell & Madison with all of his coworkers, including Cole, staring at him and the man standing beside him. It didn’t bother him in the slightest that they knew he was seeing Tate, but never had he blatantly displayed his personal relationships before. Then again, this was his first.
“Okay everyone, show’s over, go back to work. Tate, can I see you in my office, please?”
Logan moved to his door, and glanced inside to see Rachel sitting on his couch with her lip caught between her teeth as she stared at him with an I’m-so-sorry look plastered all over her face. Logan winked at her and tried for a smile, letting her know it wasn’t her fault, as he stepped aside to let a traumatized Tate walk back into his office.
Standing, she glanced in their direction and indicated she was going to go and almost ran out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her. As it clicked shut, Logan turned to face Tate, who was still silent and looked as though he was in shock, which he probably was considering everything that had just happened.
Logan was just about to suggest they sit down when Tate turned and grabbed his hands.
“We need to go and see my parents.”
Wait…what? Logan thought as he looked at the desperate expression on Tate’s face.
Tate nodded manically as he clutched Logan’s hands, and then he started talking rapidly.
“Yeah. We’ll go there now,
my mom is home, and she can call my dad. We can sit down, tell them how we met, and that this is all good, that we…you know…that this is…”
He trailed off, and Logan felt his own anxiety starting to swirl and race through him. Meeting parents? Meeting family? Family that won’t like me because of who I am? No, thanks. He’d already had one of those in his life with his own father.
Plus, are we really that serious that we have to jump into this right now? Tate is just nervous, he is rushing things, he is—
“I want to tell them, Logan. They need to hear it from me—the right way, not the distorted, warped version that she’ll tell.”
Okay, so apparently, Tate is very coherent.
Logan took a step back and rested up against his desk. Removing his glasses, he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Tate, I don’t know. I’m not good with families. I don’t think you need me there.”
Tate stepped toward him and reached out to touch his shoulder. “Of course you need to be there.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Logan stared up into the brown eyes now staring at him with confusion.
“I don’t understand.”
Glancing away from that all-too-knowing stare, Logan said once again, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“What’s not a good idea?” Tate demanded, his voice so loud that Logan knew it could be heard outside of his office.
Standing, so they were on equal footing, Logan put his glasses back on and slid his hands back into his pockets for something to do. Suddenly, the whole day looked totally fucked-up. “I just don’t think we’re at that stage yet. I mean, I get you need to tell them. But they don’t need to meet me.”
Tate blinked several times and almost staggered back from him. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Letting out a sigh, knowing this was not what Tate wanted to hear right now, Logan raised a hand and stroked his chin. “No.”
Tate launched himself at him before Logan even had a moment to counter it. He shoved him so hard in the chest that Logan stumbled back and landed on the desk.