Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3)

by Mallory Crowe

  Fuck. He came inside the room and slammed the door. Julie stood at the sink and turned around, toothbrush in hand, to stare at him. He didn’t say anything as he took off his shoes and went back to the bed.

  Julie went back to brushing her teeth and, a second later, she emerged from the bathroom area. “Was that my phone?”

  “Yep.”

  Julie frowned and dabbed at her wet hair with her towel. “Is everything okay? I feel like I walked into the bathroom and everything was fine and now you’re pissed.”

  “Yep.” He knew he was probably being a dick, but he didn’t want to talk and she was normally good about reading those moods.

  “Okay then.” She came back into the room and took a seat on the bed closest to the windows. When she sat, the short pajama shorts rode farther up her legs.

  Logan tried not to stare.

  “I didn’t realize you were into dogs,” she said.

  “What?”

  Julie pointed at the TV. Apparently he had stopped on a show with home videos of pets doing funny things. A dog on the screen leapt from the ground to a chair to a table and then to the counter, where it started to chow down on the food, and Julie let out a laugh. “I’m seeing a whole new side to you. Have you ever had a dog?”

  He was about to tell her that the show wasn’t on purpose, but she was looking at him and smiling and he didn’t want to correct her assumption. “Walter wouldn’t let me have a pet. He would’ve freaked if we brought one home. Nathan begged him for years for a dog.”

  “Were dogs too messy for Walter’s carefully crafted life?”

  “Too out of control. Walter didn’t like things he couldn’t control.”

  Julie nodded. Apparently he was confirming what she already knew about the bastard. “That’s a shame. We had this family dog growing up and she was amazing. A collie mixed with German Shepherd. She was so pretty and patient. Shed fur like crazy, but besides that she was perfect. It was nice to have a friend that was on my side no matter what.”

  Logan nodded. This all seemed to support his mental picture of Julie. The perfect girl next door with the perfect dog. Hell, he wouldn’t be surprised at this point if he found out the local forest animals helped her with chores a few days a week. “Is she still around?”

  “Oh no. I think we got her when I was five years old. She lived a long life for a dog, though.”

  “And you don’t have a dog now?”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You’re on an indefinite trip with me. That doesn’t sound like a loving dog owner.”

  “I’ve been too busy. I was in school and then I was bouncing between jobs and then I was getting my consulting-based company up and running. If I get this business off the ground, I’ll be based out of one office and I’ll have a few assistants who can handle the big traveling things. Trips like this would be the exception to the norm.”

  “Not a lot of billionaires getting released from prison and in need of babysitting.”

  “Usually the billionaire’s father is working to get them off charges, not framing them.”

  Logan let out a bitter laugh. That was true. “I can’t really get too mad at the guy. I was the perfect patsy.”

  “You can’t get mad at him? He was a horrible, horrible person. Hell, I’m mad at the bastard.”

  Logan frowned. “It’s weird to hear you swear.”

  It was her turn to laugh. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. You’re too...sweet for cussing.”

  She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “Sweet? If you remember, I’m the same woman who gave you a porn list.”

  “Ah, yes. The porn list. But you only gave it to me to keep my computer from getting a virus. That’s pretty sweet.”

  “I also offered to get you a hooker.”

  “Yeah. Probably one of those high-class ones who doesn’t have a pimp.”

  Julie smiled at him even as she shook her head. “Fine. You’ve got me. I’m a really sweet girl who cusses like a sailor. Sorry to disappoint.”

  Logan looked over at her. She was naturally pretty no matter what, but when she smiled, her face took on an entirely different light. As though she was glowing. “You couldn’t disappoint me.”

  Her face fell and he knew he’d said too much. Before she could ask anything else, he tossed the remote onto her bed. “You can watch TV. I need to shower.” He stood and went to the bathroom. Even though his cock was already hard, he kept the shower short. It was one thing when they were in different rooms, but the idea of jacking off while she was right there just seemed...off.

  The towels that were too small for Julie barely did anything for him. But they got the job done and he put his pants back on. If they got an early start tomorrow, they could finally get some new clothes for him. He picked up the T-shirt and went back into the room. Julie was still on the bed. She sat with her back against the wall and her legs folded in front of her, still watching the dog show.

  “I thought you’d pick something else.”

  “I told you I like dogs.” She looked over at him with a smile, but her expression immediately faltered. “No shirt?”

  “I’m doing you the courtesy of not sleeping naked.”

  She was quiet and he looked over to see her staring intently at the television and biting her bottom lip. Maybe the naked jokes weren’t the best idea.

  He got back on the bed and tried to get back to their comfortable silence, but he kept seeing Julie glance in his direction out of the corner of his eye. “Are the dogs boring you?”

  “It’s a commercial,” she said, outing the fact that he wasn’t watching the show either. Finally she picked up the remote and turned off the TV. “What’s up with the tattoos?”

  So that’s what was bothering her. “Are you one of the prudes who hates guys with tattoos?”

  “Are you one of those tattooed guys who gets all offended when asked the most basic questions about his ink?”

  “If you want to get a better look, now’s the time.”

  Julie bit her lip again as she considered his offer. Then she twisted on the bed to stand. “Okay. Show me your tattoo, please.”

  He rolled his shoulders back to stretch out the words on his chest as much as possible. The words were clear enough that she should’ve been able to read them anyway, but the Old English style lettering had a lot of details that were better viewed up close.

  “Privileged Survivor,” she read softly. “What does it mean?”

  “It’s stupid.”

  “I still want to know.”

  “It symbolizes my past, being privileged, and my future, being a survivor. Now I’m a combination of the two.”

  Julie reached her hand out and then stopped mid-air and tried to pull away, but Logan reached up to hold her wrist. “It’s okay,” he assured. She then hesitantly closed the distance and ran her fingers over the ink in his skin.

  “It feels so...normal.”

  “It was done a long time ago.”

  Her fingers went the entire length of the tattoo, from one side of his chest to the other. Logan had to suck in a breath as he clenched his fists to keep himself from pulling Julie on the bed with him.

  “Why is it so good?”

  The corner of his mouth hooked up. “Because I didn’t want a bad tattoo.”

  “You know what I mean. It’s not like there are professionals in there.”

  “There are plenty of professionals. Just not professional equipment. But since I had an unlimited amount to spend on commissary, I had a lot to bargain with. We did one letter, or parts of a letter, at a time for about a year until it was done.”

  Julie shook her head. “That’s a lot of work for a tattoo.”

  “I needed it. I needed something that made me look like one of them and not like a playboy who pissed off his daddy. This was worth every penny. You sound like you disapprove.”

  “No, I approve. You look good.” Her eyes widened. “I mean, it looks good on you. The tat
too is well done. The lines are—”

  “I got you,” he said, putting her out of her misery. An adorable pink color crept up her neck and filled her cheeks and he realized she was blushing. Maybe she was more into tats than he thought... “So you have any?”

  “Any tattoos?” She let out a little laugh. “No...”

  “Why is the thought funny? Are you too much of an upstanding citizen to ever mark your body?”

  “There you go thinking I’m sweet again. It’s not that. I actually always told myself that if I got my own business up and running and profitable, I’d get a tattoo to celebrate.”

  “And how long have you been a successful PR rep?”

  “About a year.”

  “So why wait?”

  “Well, the idea of a tattoo is all well and good, but going through with it is another thing.”

  “Scared of a little needle?”

  “A little needle that stabs me a few thousand times? No. That part I’m fine with. Actually choosing something I wanted to be on me for the rest of my life seems impossible. Everything was too overdone or too abstract or too girly or too masculine. And then I have to figure out where it would go on me. So it’s still on my list, but I’m waiting until I have a better idea of what would work.”

  “Julie, I need to ask you something.”

  Her brows drew together. “Sure.”

  “Why are you still touching me?”

  She jerked her hand away from him, but he caught it before she even made it a few inches and pulled her hand back to him until her palm was flat against his chest. “Why are you touching me?” she countered.

  “I’m touching you because I want to. Your turn to answer.” He’d been so focused on staying away from her, he’d never noticed her reaction to him. He’d assumed the stares were because she was curious about him. But after seeing her eyes darken as she ran her fingers over those stupid words that had so much meaning to him, he hoped in a way he hadn’t wanted to hope that he wasn’t the only one who had to suffer through this inconvenient obsession.

  “I’m touching you because—”

  “Honest answer only.”

  She glared at him and started to pull her hand away, but he held firm. “I’m touching you because I’m exhausted and not thinking straight.”

  Shit. She was right. Even if she did stare at him for a few seconds, that didn’t mean anything. He was just stretching because he wanted her to want him so badly. Because if she wanted him too, that would make him feel as if he wasn’t a complete piece of shit.

  “Fine.” He dropped her hand and stood; Julie had to step backward to give him room. “I need to go out for a bit.”

  He could see the concern plainly on her face. “Hold on. Let me get my—”

  “I need to go out alone. I’ll be good. Promise.”

  “I’m not trying to babysit you. I care about you and—”

  Something in Logan snapped. He couldn’t just stand here and pretend like nothing was happening and listen to her say that she cared about him. He stepped over to her in one long step, and with a hand on either side of her waist, he pulled her close as he crushed his lips to hers. She immediately gasped in surprise; he took full advantage as he slid his tongue into her mouth. He’d been fantasizing about kissing her for days now. He wasn’t going to hold back now that he was here.

  She would hate him after this. She wouldn’t talk to him or look at him or joke with him the way she had grown used to, so if he was throwing everything away for this one kiss, he was going to make it damn well worth it.

  Except Julie didn’t slap him or kick him or struggle to get away at all. She tentatively set a hand on his shoulder as she tilted her head to give him better access.

  Keeping one hand on her waist, Logan wrapped the other one gently along the back of her head, careful to avoid the bruising on her neck, as he deepened the kiss. Julie moaned as she fell fully against him. The friction of her body against his sent his mind into a completely new primeval state. He backed her up against the bed, leading her down and on her back. He didn’t break the kiss as he pushed her so just her calves were hanging off the mattress and one of his knees pushed between her thighs.

  In a moment of sanity, he waited for her to scream or attack him, but all she did was wrap her arms around him, running her hands along the muscles in his back, as she rubbed herself against his thigh, letting out another moan of pleasure.

  Fuck, she was so beautiful. He kissed her harder, frantically, as his hands roamed along her body: along the side of her breasts, the curve of her waist, the flare of her hips. Then when he came back up, his fingers hooked in the bottom of her shirt and she pushed herself up to let him remove the shirt.

  Sweet Jesus, she wasn’t wearing a bra. Of course she wasn’t. She was going to sleep. No one wore bras when they slept. Something he’d remember if he’d been with a woman in the last decade.

  The reminder was sobering even as he kissed down her collarbone and into the valley between her beautiful breasts. He cupped each in a palm, more than enough to fill his hands, and pushed them together as he gave attention to each of the peaks as Julie let out these hot as hell little breaths.

  Her fingers wrapped in his hair as she continued to rub against his leg. He might have been celibate for too long, but he knew she was getting close. Even though he knew he was going to hell for this, he pushed harder against her, giving her what he knew she needed to push her over the edge.

  And when she came, he reached up and kissed her again, taking her scream into his mouth as he pressed her against him, reveling in the feel of her bare chest against his.

  As she came down from the climax, her head fell against the mattress and he pressed a gentle kiss to her neck. Julie was dead silent and she wouldn’t look at him, which told him all he needed to know about what just happened. What he already knew about what just happened. It was a mistake.

  He pushed himself off the bed and once again pulled his shirt on before he looked for his shoes.

  “Logan—”

  “If you want me to stay, you should seriously reconsider your closed-leg policy,” he bit out as he found the shoes. He couldn’t stay in this room for one more second with Julie sitting there mostly naked, just one arm hiding her breasts from him—which was futile considering the image of her beautiful topless body was already burned into his memory for all time. No amount of hiding could ever take that away from him.

  He found the car keys and the room key and two seconds later, he was out of the room. He paused outside the door and took a second. That was...bad. And kind of amazing. Fuck, she wasn’t supposed to want him. How the hell was he supposed to keep his hands off her now?

  That was bad. Very bad. Well, the orgasm wasn’t. That part was amazing. Julie didn’t even know what happened. One second she was having a completely innocent conversation with Logan and then she was touching him. Sure, he’d held her hand against him, but only because he’d seen her reach out first.

  All over a stupid prison tattoo. They were supposed to be ugly. It was shoddy work done on shoddy equipment done by guys who barely knew what they were doing. But on Logan, the words were so beautiful and strong. A strange representation of himself that she didn’t even know whether he was aware of.

  So not only had she compromised every work ethic she had, but now he was off on his own doing Lord knew what. All she could do was hope he didn’t get into trouble. She wasn’t the type to sit back and cross her fingers that everything would work out. She put her shirt back on and fell back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

  She should’ve stopped him. He would’ve stopped. There had been so many micro moments where he’d paused and given her ample opportunity to get out of it. But every chance she had to run away, she would pull him closer and continue the kiss.

  If Robert ever found out, she’d be fired in a heartbeat. This was the one condition he had when he hired her. Well, when he hired her for Nathan. He hadn’t technically told her to stay
away from Logan, but Julie knew it was implied.

  Even if it wasn’t implied, it was common sense. Don’t fuck clients. Rule number one in any business. And now she was dry humping one in the worst motel room she’d ever stayed at. What the hell was wrong with her? She couldn’t at least wait for a place that didn’t look as if it held a record for most crimes ever committed at a motel?

  Julie grabbed the pillow and held it over her face as she let out a small scream of frustration. Of course, then her neck reminded her that it hurt like a bitch to scream, and she threw the pillow back on the bed.

  Damn it, she was better than this. She was better than a crush, and she was better than her stupid hormones that were obviously working against her.

  It wasn’t as if it was that long since she’d been laid. Well, it had been a few years, but they’d been busy, distracting years. And she’d had her handy vibrator, which was much lower maintenance than a man. So why was it that Logan was the first man who ever tempted her?

  He was attractive as hell, sure. But so was Nathan, and she’d spent plenty of time alone with Nathan and never felt even the remote urge to rip off all his clothes and grind up on his leg.

  Was it the tattoos? She’d never been entranced by body ink like she was with Logan, but it really was good work. Not to mention his chest was a perfect canvas. If anyone should get a tattoo, it was someone with Logan’s body.

  So...was it just his personality? Did she really like him? How...high school. She was disappointed in herself. Disappointed that she’d let things get this far and that she didn’t even understand why it happened.

  Logan didn’t need a reason. He hadn’t gotten laid in years. Of course, once she started to do things like touching his chest without permission, he would assume he could take it a step forward. But she couldn’t be the woman who was going to scratch that itch. Things had gone on far enough and she needed to make it clear that nothing else would happen between them.