The Fan

by Velvet Vaughn

  Satisfied that she had each person’s complete and undivided attention, she proclaimed, “I want to thank you for coming to see me tonight. Thank you, Daddy.” She started with him and went around the table, thanking everyone by name, while the table broke out in laughter. Once she finished with the individual kudos she raised her hands in the air. “Okay, let’s eat our happy meals.”

  Logan smiled and helped her back into a seated position in her chair. He didn’t have the heart to tell her she was the only one eating her favorite treat.

  After everyone finished their burgers and fries, they drove home with Bella chatting happily the entire time, replaying everything that had happened in the play.

  Fiji danced at her feet when they arrived home. She picked him up, said goodnight to Dan, and let Logan guide her to her room. Her mouth never stopped running.

  To think, he once wondered if she could even speak.

  Bella climbed on the stool and perched in front of her Barbie vanity. Logan ran a pick through her silky black locks, tugging lightly at the tangles. The corkscrew curls didn’t appreciate being straightened and they popped back into little ringlets. He. smiled.

  “I gots the biggest cweering section of all the kids, didn’t I, Daddy?”

  “You sure did, baby.”

  Isabella giggled. “I know!”

  As he was tucking her into bed, she was tired but kept talking through her yawns. He figured she'd just drop off in the middle of a sentence. “Daddy?”

  He arranged Fiji next to Bella on one side and Cinnamon on the other. “Hum, baby?”

  “Don’t Jade like me anymore?”

  Damn. He thought he'd steered her from her relentless questions on why Ms. LaRossa, the very married Ms. LaRossa, hadn’t attended like she promised she would. “She likes you, Bella. She just…got busy.”

  “But she told me she'd come to see me.”

  Logan seethed again at their temporary next door neighbor. Too many people had disappointed Bella in her short life. He should have known Jade was too beautiful to be trusted. He blamed himself for his daughter’s sadness.

  “Don’t worry about it, baby. Think of all the people who did come see you.”

  She nodded, closed her eyes, yawned and kept on chattering. Then like a light bulb burning out, she dropped off right in the middle of her prattle.

  Logan watched her sleep for a while, the curve to her little pink bow lips, the black lashes casting shadows over her rosy cheeks, her tiny body inflating and deflating with her steady breaths. She was so precious and he would do his best to never let anyone disappoint her again. That included their sexy next-door neighbor.

  Leaning down, he kissed her forehead and tucked the covers around her small body. Fiji looked up from his spot next to her and Logan patted his head. The dog yawned mightily and sighed before resettling in for a night of sleep.

  Logan carefully rose from her bed and flipped off the light. He stood in the doorway watching his daughter as she slept. A shaft of moonlight cut through the window, casting her in an ethereal glow. His precious angel.

  He pulled the door closed silently.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jade dropped her luggage by the front door, deposited the stack of mail and big brown package on the hall table and stumbled to the couch, her hands reaching out to break her fall. She sank into the cushions with a loud sigh, exhaustion and sorrow draining every last reserve of energy.

  She'd just arrived in Bloomington after catching the redeye from LA—three weeks later than planned.

  She still couldn’t wrap her mind around what happened. Three people she knew and had once loved were dead.

  First Kyle, then Sid and Nora.

  The deaths of her assistant and agent were almost too much to comprehend. After their argument when she'd ordered the chauffeur to pull over so she could jump out, the limo carrying Sid and Nora had barreled through a guard rail and plunged into Marina del Rey on the way to Sid’s yacht. Several onlookers tried to help but both Sid and Nora drowned before they could be saved.

  The driver’s body was never recovered.

  Jade shuddered, remembering the horror of walking into the morgue. The acrid, antiseptic scent of formaldehyde and alcohol. The absolute quiet. The clicking of her heels on the concrete floor. The flickering of a fluorescent bulb in the overhead light, sputtering and blinking, on the verge of joining all the people below and dying. The tinny sound of steel as a door opened and the tray pulled out. The metallic chink of the zipper ripping the ugly black body bags open so she could identify her agent and her assistant.

  The feel of the cold metal can beneath her hands as she leaned over and puked her guts out.

  Why? Why was this happening to the people she was closest to in the world?

  Jade forced the unpleasant thoughts away. She felt infinitely older, as if she'd aged forty years. Although Sid and Nora both turned out to be completely different from what she thought, she'd cared for them once. Kyle, too.

  She closed her eyes and sighed. Her life was in complete turmoil.

  Her parents begged her to stay with them in Florida. They originally wanted to fly out for Kyle’s funeral to comfort her but she assured them she didn’t need support. She didn’t want her dad traveling with his heart condition. Besides, they had never cared much for Kyle and when they found out about his cheating, it was all she could do to keep her dad from coming out and killing him with his bare hands. She loved them dearly but she needed to be somewhere no one knew who she was, what she was, where things weren’t expected of her.

  Where she didn’t have to put on a mask and pretend to be someone she wasn’t.

  She propped her feet on the coffee table and toed off her black heels. She needed a glass of wine. Forcing her limbs to move, she stood and padded to the kitchen, too tired to turn on a light. Her hand knocked against the front of the refrigerator and a white piece of paper fluttered like a butterfly to the ground.

  A butterfly.

  Closing her eyes, she whispered, “Oh no.” Bending at the waist, she picked up the handmade invitation from Isabella to attend her day care production. She'd missed it by a good two and a half weeks.

  What did it say about her that she'd completely forgotten about the play? The thought of Isabella being upset with her absence, that she hadn’t even given a reason for her disappearance, was almost too painful to bear. The child was trusting and precious and Jade completely blew her off. It didn’t matter to a three-year-old that it was unintentional, all she would know was that Jade made a promise she didn’t keep.

  It seemed there were expectations no matter where she fled. And the mask she wore with Logan was the most painful of all.

  #

  Logan shifted the baby monitor in his hand. The portable device kept him close to Isabella, let him hear if she needed him. He headed to the basement to work out.

  He kept his body trained as if he were still a SEAL. After a quick warm-up, he started each session with a three to five mile run on the treadmill. Most nights he could no longer run outside since he couldn’t leave Isabella alone and Dan was frequently away on assignments. Although his brother was home tonight, it was too late to lace up and hit the streets.

  After he finished his run, he followed with one hundred and fifty pushups, five hundred sit-ups, fifty pull-ups and then capped it off with a long swim. Every other day, he threw in weights.

  He was halfway through his push-ups, wearing only a pair of black cut-off sweats. He would finish with a swim and since he didn’t turn on the outside lights, he usually swam in the nude.

  He thought he heard a light tap against the sliding glass door that led to the deck. He really hated having to stop his workout, but he couldn’t see outside into the darkness. Pushing off the ground, he grabbed a towel and mopped sweat from his face. He padded to the CD player and turned down the already-low music. He swiped his water bottle and headed for the door.

  Who would be out at this time of night? His boneh
ead brother probably forgot the security code again since they changed it weekly.

  Flipping on the outdoor floodlight, he was startled to see Jade standing on the other side of the glass with an awkward smile and a tiny wave. He stood staring like an idiot, a million things running through his mind.

  Not a one of them good.

  He wanted to ask her how she could kiss him with so much passion when she was a married woman. How she could come apart in his arms and feel no guilt? How she could beg him to make love—no not that—have sex with him when a husband waited for her.

  But most importantly, how she could break his little girl’s heart?

  And how she could always look so damn sexy she took his breath away?

  Her confused frown snapped him from his thoughts. Great, he'd been staring. Gritting his teeth, he stabbed the code into the security system and slid the door open.

  “Hi.”

  He grunted.

  She looked nervous. “Um, can I come in for a minute?”

  No! He didn’t want her inside his domain. “I thought you moved out.”

  Smooth, Bradley.

  “No, not yet. Can I come in?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “I really need to talk to you.”

  “I really need to finish my workout.”

  “I won’t bother you,” she insisted. “I’ll wait until you're done.”

  He shrugged nonchalantly and relocked the door, punched in the security code. He was hanging on to his temper by a thread. He needed to power through his workout, take his frustration out on his body, not on the very female one that smelled exotic and spicy and too damn tempting.

  “I’ll be done in ten minutes.”

  #

  Jade sat in one of the overstuffed chairs flanking the room. Logan’s downstairs was a man’s paradise. Besides the impressive work-out equipment was a pool table, ping-pong table, several arcade games, a nice bar and big screen TV. She bet he spent most of his time down here.

  She focused on the room so she wouldn’t look at him. Okay, one look, out of the corner of her eye. Good grief, how could she have forgotten the sheer beauty of his body in just a few days? The man was a physical specimen.

  Noticing a beam of light spilling from the sliding glass door, she headed in that direction instead of using the front door or climbing the stairs to the upper level of the deck off the back of the house. She knew it was late and that Isabella had probably been in bed for hours, but she didn’t want to wait one more day to justify her absence. She needed to explain why she missed the play and clarify Kyle’s appearance at her house.

  When she stepped onto his patio and peeked inside the glass door, her heart stopped beating. He'd been face down on the floor doing push-ups, his biceps bulging and coated with a fine sheen of sweat. He had muscles on top of muscles. She must have watched him do one hundred before she gathered the courage to knock. Now he'd just finished another set and plopped to the floor for sit ups. He rocketed through them and finished quickly. She counted five hundred.

  Surely that was all. But no, he padded to a steel bar and pulled himself up. He proceeded to rip off fifty chin-ups without a pause, making them look effortless. When he dropped from the bar, he grabbed a white towel and mopped the sweat from his body. She would give anything to be that towel.

  No wonder the man had the body of a Greek god. He honed it to perfection. He picked up Bella’s baby monitor and walked forward. She prayed that her tongue stayed in her mouth. Drops of moisture gleaned in the dark hairs on his chest. She needed to lick the drops off, seeing as how her mouth had just gone desert dry.

  His low, gravely voice jarred her from her trance and she met his eyes. His gaze was narrowed, threatening.

  “I need to get a swim in so whatever you came to say, make it fast.”

  Hostility. Okay. She understood that. The last time she saw him, Kyle had been sprawled on top of her chest like a cheap bra.

  “I need to clear up a few misunderstandings.”

  “I’m not the one who needs any explanations,” he informed her gruffly as he crossed his arms, the walkie-talkie clutched in his fist. He obviously meant his daughter. Again, her heart squeezed knowing the girl thought Jade blew her off.

  She nodded in understanding. “I missed the play.”

  Logan’s eyes narrowed even more until they were mere slits in his handsome face and he shrugged nonchalantly. “Isabella had plenty of people in her personal rooting section. People who promised her they would attend.” Pause. “And those who couldn’t called to let us know,” he added with malice.

  Jade's nostrils flared and her hands balled into fists. She knew he was mad at her for disappointing his daughter but she was trying to apologize, gosh darn it. She forced the anger down and gritted out between clenched teeth, “I will apologize to Isabella tomorrow.”

  He studied her with assessing eyes and then inclined his head. “Good enough.” It was a clear dismissal. He turned and walked away.

  She hurried to catch him and grabbed his arm. Mistake. The feel of the rock-hard muscles made her want to lose herself in his arms again, feel them wrap around her, keeping her safe and protected. She tamped down the carnal images.

  “Will you give me a second here,” she said. “I waited so I could speak with you. It’s the least you owe me.”

  He spun around so fast she gasped and almost lost her balance.

  “Owe you?” he mimicked. “Owe you? Lady, I don’t owe you a damn thing. I wasn’t the one throwing myself at you like a ten-dollar hooker while being married.”

  Now it was Jade’s turn for anger. “Throw myself at you? Oh, give me a break. I did no such thing. And ten-dollar hooker? Very original line. Even if I were a hooker, you could never afford me. And listen here, I’m not—hey!”

  Logan had latched onto her upper arm and was towing her behind him as he marched to the door. He turned off the security, opened the door, practically shoved her outside, shut the door behind them and reactivated the alarm.

  “What do you think you are doing?” she asked incredulously.

  “My three-year-old daughter is asleep upstairs. Your shrill bark could wake the dead.”

  Instantly contrite, Jade started to apologize. “I’m sorry. I forgot…shrill bark?” She fisted her hands on her hips. “I do not have a shrill bark, you over-muscled, gigantic, testosterone filled brute!”

  His lip twitched ever so slightly. Then a look of smug anger filled his face. He bent over until his face was level with hers. He whispered softly, “Adulteress.”

  Jade couldn’t help it. She reared back and slapped him. As far as comeback lines went, it fell a little short.

  He stood upright but she didn’t think it even fazed him. Meanwhile, her hand throbbed. She thought she might have broken a pinkie. He just kept staring at her with a mix of disgust, anger and something else she couldn’t name. Desire maybe?

  Or was that just her wishful thinking?

  Although he was the one who put in an intense workout, she was breathing heavy. She couldn’t believe she resorted to violence. She'd never hit another person in her life. Even Kyle when he'd pissed her off or Sid when he switched contracts or Nora when she accused her of murdering Kyle. This man brought out something from deep down inside her, something primal. She looked at the ground, sucked in a deep breath and then met his gaze again. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hit—”

  “I think you had better leave. Now.”

  “Not until I’ve said all I came to say.”

  “Get off my property or I will forcibly remove you from it,” he growled, baring his straight white teeth. “I have never in my life raised a hand to a female, but if you don’t leave right this instant, I can’t guarantee there won’t be a first time.”

  Jade glared back at him. Although he was huge and solid and frowning at her like she was the devil, she wasn’t the least bit afraid of him. Instinctively she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. At least not physically, no matter
what he said.

  She had her doubts about her heart.

  She needed to suck it up, admit her mistakes, beg for forgiveness. She usually didn’t struggle with her temper, she just always gave in. For some reason, she was able to allow her true personality to surface around this man—the passionate, caring woman whom she usually tamped down. The woman she loved. She didn’t love Juliet LaRue.

  “Look, I’m sorry I hit you and I am so sorry I missed Isabella’s performance.”

  He shifted his weight from one leg to another and glanced at the pool, obviously where he would rather be than standing with her.

  “I had to fly to California to attend my ex-husband’s funeral.”

  Logan’s brows lifted in surprise. Obviously she shocked him.

  “He was the man you saw the other night. He came here to try to get back together but I sent him away. He was killed in an automobile accident the next day.”

  Logan looked contrite. “That’s a tough break. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Ours was never an easy marriage,” she said cryptically. “So what you thought you walked in on the other night was not what it seemed. I wanted to correct your misinterpretation but I was just so surprised to wake up and find Kyle in my bed. I was all out of sorts.”

  He held his hands in the air. “I don’t need an explanation. It was no big deal. I saw someone breaking into your house, I went to investigate. End of story.” He turned and headed for the pool.

  Jade huffed in annoyance. “Would you stop doing that,” she said as she ran to catch up with him. “It is considered rude to just walk away from someone when they are apologizing.”

  He laughed harshly and kept walking. “Apologizing? Is that what you were doing?”

  She scurried in front of him to block his path. He simply slipped his hands under her arms, lifted her out of the way and dropped her to the ground. He sidled past her and kept on his course.

  “I’m not leaving until you accept my apology.”

  “Fine,” he called out and tossed a hand in the air. “Apology accepted.” He unlocked the gate around the pool and walked inside.