The hotel room.
“What. Did. You. Do?”
“I fixed a problem. I am keeping you and Brandon Willis’s family safe from that story by giving the papers a better one.”
“How the hell is this better than murder?”
“It’s a secret marriage of one of the most scandalous, richest men in the world. Most importantly, it’s current and provable.”
“Provable? It didn’t happen. Unless you...”
“No!” Julie shook her head and set a calming hand on his arm that didn’t do a damn thing to calm him. “Everything is fake. I’m not after your money or anything. This is only to help you.”
“Help me?” He clenched his jaw. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“Logan, I know you’re upset, but—”
It was his turn to grab her and turn her around to lead her back in the direction of the hotel. “Today is over,” he said.
Julie was quiet and she kept up with his pace. Maybe she did feel bad, but Logan could barely control his rage. He’d allowed her to follow him around. He’d told her the truth when it went against every instinct he had. And this was what he got in return. She wasn’t his friend. She wasn’t going to be his girlfriend.
She was his family’s employee. Their needs would always go against him. He thought that lesson would’ve been slammed into his head by now, but somehow he still managed to be surprised by their bullshit.
But not anymore. He wasn’t going to be used by anyone, and he wasn’t taking any more of their shit. Not from Robert, not from Alex, not from Nathan, and sure as hell not from Julie.
Julie had known this wasn’t going to go over well, but she refused to be sorry. She’d thought it over carefully and had weighed the options. Curtis had agreed that he’d drop the story and hand over the evidence if he could get a convincing photo and enough to run the story. And once one paper had enough to run the story, all the papers would go full steam ahead.
She hadn’t told any of the brothers about her plan, so there was four Farrells’ worth of rage she had to deal with. But if she had wanted to ask permission, she would’ve had to tell them about Brandon Willis, and that was a betrayal of Logan’s trust that she wasn’t prepared to face.
This was for his own good. He might be upset now, but he would come around soon enough. He was going to have to.
After a long, awkward, fast-paced and silent walk, Logan pulled her into the hotel lobby. “I can walk myself,” she said softly, hoping no one overheard them.
“You can walk yourself but you might run into a tabloid photographer and start accidentally posing,” he bit out.
Okay. She deserved that. “I think—”
“Don’t think,” he snapped. “Just keep walking.”
She hoped she’d have time to talk some sense into him once they stopped at the elevator, but of course there was another couple waiting, and she kept quiet for the ride up. Then they reached their floor and he was right back to pulling her along. They were so close to the room, though. Once there, they’d have privacy, and he’d have to stop long enough to listen to her reasoning. She mentally prepared her argument once more, but she never had a chance to get it out.
The second the door was open, Logan pushed her inside even as he covered her mouth with his. She gasped in surprise and he took full advantage, sliding his tongue in as his hands roamed over her back and down lower. His fingers slid down until he touched bare thigh and then slid back up, this time beneath her dress, until he cupped her ass.
The sudden shift was confusing, but as she pulled back to ask him what the hell was happening, he pushed her back until she was flush against the door and his body was pressed tightly into hers.
“Logan—”
He kissed her again, playing with her lips with his tongue and even his teeth, applying just enough pressure to balance her on the edge of pain and pleasure. She let out a small moan; he hooked a hand under her knee to lift her leg up and around his waist. At this angle, she was a little too low, but she could still feel the very obvious evidence of his arousal pressed against her lower stomach.
He bent to kiss and bite her neck, pushing his jacket that she still wore out of the way to give him better access to her shoulder. Julie’s head fell against the door, and she tried to fight through the haze of arousal. This wasn’t right. He was mad at her. Furious. What the fuck was he doing? Punishing her?
Then the hand left the jacket to slide down her body and up the already bunched up skirt. “You want this,” breathed Logan against her neck as his fingers pushed past her panties and into her. She was already wet, and he gained easy access. She held onto his shoulders to steady herself as her knees started to shake.
She tried desperately to clear her mind. “I—”
“You played me, Julie.” His thumb brushed her clit and she jerked in his arms. “You lied to me and used me.”
She groaned as a tremor shot through her. Damn it. If he kept this up, she was going to orgasm in his arms, and that would definitely limit her ability to reason with him. “I helped you.”
He doubled his efforts on her clit, and this time her legs gave out, but his other arm under her leg caught her and held her up. “You used me, and now I’m going to use you too. Do you have any idea what you do to me?” He finally took his hand away from her and grabbed her wrist to lead her palm to feel his hard cock through his pants. “That’s been hard ever since I’ve met you, Julie. But I stayed back. I kept my goddamn hands to myself. Because you were better. You were better than me, better than my fucking family, and better than all my shit. At least you used to be.”
Julie snapped and she ripped her hand away. “Fuck you, Logan.” She pushed him off her, and even though he was probably twice as strong as her, he backed off. If she didn’t have the door behind her, she might’ve fallen, so she stayed where she was for a moment. “It’s not my fault you put me on a pedestal, so don’t get pissed at me when I fall off it.”
His chest rose and fell with his deep breaths; his clenched jaw told her that he wasn’t nearly done saying what he wanted to say. But then he abruptly turned and started to walk away from her. What the hell? He dragged her all the way here, did...whatever the hell he did to her against the door, and now he was just going to walk away? “I seem to remember that you didn’t keep your hands off me.”
He turned and faced her again, this time with rage burning behind his eyes. “I walked away from you! Do you have any idea how hard it was to not climb up on that bed and fuck you in all the ways I’ve been imagining?” He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I haven’t been with a woman in a long fucking time, and you better believe my imagination is pretty damn good.”
She stepped forward, refusing to be intimidated by him. “Oh no. The big, bad Farrell is making threats. You know what, Logan? You’re a spoiled rich boy with daddy issues. All I did was try to stop your stupidity from hurting you, your family, and everyone involved with the whole thing. In fact, the only person who’s going to be hurt by my little stunt is me. So please stop playing the victim and show me some gratitude.”
“Gratitude? Every reporter in the country is going to know where I am now and my face is going to be everywhere. How the fuck am I going to get anything done?”
She scoffed. “Please. You have all the money in the world and a family who would throw every financial and manpower resource you could possibly need at you if you just asked. So I’m sorry that I helped you. I’m sorry I don’t hate your brothers the way you so obviously do for no reason. Sorry I’m apparently so sexy you can’t think straight. Please, let me remove temptation so you can think. God forbid you see my ankles and forget how to control yourself.”
“Damn it,” he muttered, and a second later, he was back on her. But this time he wasn’t just punishing her. She was mad, too, and she gave as good as she got. She bit his lip and gripped his shoulders as hard as her fingers would allow. His hands came under her ass and lifted her off t
he ground and against him until his hard cock was right against her wet cunt.
Even through the layers of clothes, Julie rubbed against him, trying to get more...get all of him. Logan turned with her still in his arms, and his long legs got them to the bed in record time. They fell onto the bed together, and they seemed to be in a frantic race to get their clothes off. She discarded his jacket as he pulled off his shirt. She unbuttoned his pants as he started to work the zipper at the back of her dress, and then they once again separated to pull off their shoes as quickly as possible.
He reached under her dress to hook his fingers in her panties; she leaned back, lifting her hips to allow him to remove the small barrier. The last barrier for her. Was she really going to do this? Allow him to use her? Or was she using him at this point? Everything had become so hazy, but right now, with his fingertips trailing back up her leg, going back wasn’t an option. She wanted this with a ferocity she didn’t even know existed. Now was her chance to have something she never dreamed was possible.
Like capturing a fire. For one small second, this was going to be hers. “Come here,” she breathed.
He came up to her, kissing her hard and fast as he slid his fingers into her once more. “You’re so wet for me,” he breathed into her lips.
She arched her hips toward his hands, wordlessly telling him she wanted more even as she ran her palms over his shoulders and back, feeling the ridges and planes of his muscles. He kissed down her neck again, but this time there was no jacket in the way. And her dress, which was already loose from being unzipped, easily fell over her shoulder. As he found a nipple with his mouth, his knee pushed between hers and parted her legs. And then he freed his hard length from his open jeans.
Julie caught her breath as she waited to see what he would do next. Keep teasing her breasts or push right in?
No. She wanted him now. No more teasing. No more fighting. She parted her legs farther and arched toward him until his cock just brushed her clit.
And then he adjusted his cock and slid inside. As ready as Julie thought she was, she still had to brace herself as he slid fully inside her. He tensed in her arms and held himself stock-still above her. “Julie...”
No. No talking. She wanted this so bad, and all he needed to do was... “Move,” she pleaded.
Then he did. Letting out a primal groan, he withdrew and thrust back in in a steady, strong motion that had her curling her toes as she ran her foot up the side of his leg to wrap her own around his waist.
His thrusts came harder and faster, and all she could do was hold on as each one sent her higher and higher. Logan dominated her from the inside out. He held her hips down for his invasion, and he bit her neck as he pounded into her. Everything about this man was a turn-on right now—his groans, the bite of his fingers in her hips, and that intoxicating, unending pounding of their joined bodies. The full body and mind fucking sent Julie over the edge in no time. She held him impossibly tight and returned the favor as she bit his shoulder to muffle the scream of her orgasm.
As the aftershocks were still taking over her body, Logan came hard within her. His grip tightened to a nearly painful level as he went stock-still and bit back a groan. When it was over, the tension slowly creeped out of his muscles, and they both tried to catch their breath.
“I’m still mad at you,” said Logan finally, even though he made no motion to move off her.
She let out a laugh. Of course he was. “That’s okay,” she said, still breathless. “I’m still right.”
He didn’t say anything, but he ran his fingers along the side of her body. “It’s too late to change anything now.”
She wanted to say something uplifting. Tell him it was never too late or something like that. But in this day and age when data flowed in fractions of seconds, it really was too late to stop what she had started. She tried to think of something to say. Should she give him a compliment on his skills? Or change the subject completely by asking if they should find somewhere to eat lunch? She ran her hand up his back and tried to memorize the sensation.
But Logan spoke first. “I’m sorry I ruined your record.”
“My record?”
He pushed himself up so she could see his face. “I got between your legs.”
Julie snorted. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to joke or piss me off.”
He bent down and kissed her. “Both, I suppose,” he said once he came back up for air.
Well, that was sufficiently ominous. “What do we do now then?”
He finally turned serious. “I can’t go around doing a subtle investigation like I wanted. There’s going to be press crawling here within the day.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“I’m ready to sell my soul to the devil. It’s time to call my brothers.”
Logan looked out the window as another reporter snapped some pictures of the hotel across the street. The hotel he’d formerly been staying at was no longer a safe zone. Julie had thought ahead more than he was comfortable thinking about and had already reserved a room for them to easily move into.
The door behind him opened. He turned to see Julie coming in with a few bags of carry-out. Even though she was in the photo that had already hit all the gossip websites, the local news agencies had arrived first. The bigger outlets would be there soon. But he and Julie should be out of town within the day.
“What did Alex say?” he asked as she shut the door.
“He said he’s about to step on the company plane. He’s going to be here in a few hours.” She set the food on the desk. This room was smaller than the suite she had so sneakily booked. If the reporters were looking for one of the richest men in America hiding out in the hotels, they were going to scope out the suites first. Julie pointed out that even though it was difficult to get into a hotel’s reservation system, it was easy to wander up to any floor a reporter wanted to get to.
“Thanks to your absolutely zero input in food, I ended up with Chinese. And I ordered six different things. But, knowing your appetite, there will probably be no leftovers.”
Logan crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re being normal. I don’t like that.”
“I’m annoyingly normal. What can I say?”
Annoying, maybe. But Julie had never been normal. They’d just slept together and it wasn’t exactly under ideal conditions. Great—hell yeah. But he expected her to either slap him once they were done or jump him again or something. Not start packing her bags while moving them across the street.
“Do you want to, um, talk?”
“About the unplanned, ill-advised sex that your brothers can never find out about? No.”
“So you think it was a mistake?”
That seemed to startle her. “A mistake? No. It wasn’t a good idea and should probably never be repeated—”
“Doesn’t that make it a mistake?”
Julie ran one of her hands up and down her arm. She was out of that evilly hot white dress and was back in leggings and her flannel shirt. “A mistake implies that I’d want to take it back. Now stop trying to distract me. What did Alecia send you?”
“How did you know she sent the email?”
“We haven’t talked about it since this morning and now it’s mid-afternoon. Either she sent you the stuff or she’s flaking. So what did you get?”
Logan pointed to the computer on the desk. “Have a look for yourself.”
Julie sat at the desk and looked through the pictures. “Alecia couldn’t have used a proper scanner. I feel like they should give people classes on how to take a cell phone image that actually turns out.”
“I don’t think she’d be willing to send us better quality images of any of this, so it had better be good enough.”
Logan had looked at the file of photos dozens of times already. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but it was more than they had before. Whoever wanted Logan dead had done it efficiently and totally. They’d started by sending Willis picture after picture of the different
women he’d been with. Based on the outfits and locations, he was willing to bet Willis had gotten most of his girlfriends from the street corner.
But it was hard to be disgusted by the guy. As far as he knew, murder beat using prostitutes any day. They started out asking Willis to do small things. Alecia had sent every email Willis had gotten. He never replied to the emails, though. If they requested anything from him, it was to be dropped off in a public park. The kind of public park that might even have security cameras—which would be great, if all this hadn’t happened almost nine years ago.
“Did anything here catch your attention?” asked Julie.
“One of the emails mentioned that his rewards would increase. Think that means he was getting paid?”
“If you can get an eye on his bank statements, you could have an electronic trail,” said Julie.
Logan wasn’t nearly as hopeful. “Unless he was getting a pile of cash. Paying for murders isn’t always done through electronically trackable channels.”
Julie tightened her lips but didn’t confirm or deny his doubts. Instead, she started to type something and move the cursor around the screen.
He moved closer to get a better look. “What are you doing?”
“I’m forwarding this to myself and to Alex. The more people who have copies, the better. And now I want to get a timeline of when the emails started and see if there’s a pattern. Alex might know someone who can get us in touch with the police department there. If these are prostitutes, the cops might know them. Maybe we can track one of the girlfriends down.”
“You’re really trying to help me.”
She turned to look over her shoulder at him with a frown firmly in place. “Yes. I’ve been trying to help you from the second I picked you up. Where have you been?”
He started to pick through the bags and avoided looking at Julie. He’d heard her claims. And he’d believed them on some level. But even if she was willing to help, he never really believed she could. She was just one woman. A nobody, considering the world he came from. He grew up in a place where girlfriends and wives were all temporary, he was constantly compared to his brothers, and any request for help proved weakness. Surprisingly enough, his childhood in the lap of luxury had prepared him well for life in a maximum security prison.
Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3) Page 11