Mr. Dangerously Sexy

by Stefanie London

  “Fine. Let’s head off. Are we driving?”

  “I thought we’d walk. It’s only a block or two.” His eyes lowered slowly, caressing her every curve, until he reached her feet. “Unless your heels are too high.”

  “Never.”

  They walked through the office, neither one saying much until they’d made it outside. The sun hadn’t yet set, so the air was balmy and pleasant on Addison’s bare arms.

  “Sometimes I think you choose your outfits to torture me,” he said as they walked toward the restaurant.

  “Spoken like a true narcissist,” she said, smirking. “Not everything is about you.”

  The street was still busy with office workers, suited men and women bustling in all directions around them. The traffic trudged past, steady but slow. Addison dodged a woman charging past in the opposite direction.

  “I suppose your dumb boyfriends might fall for those quippy lines,” he said. “But I know better than that.”

  Her lips curled into a smile but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of admitting he was right.

  “Keep convincing yourself of that.”

  “Look me in the eye and tell me I’m wrong.” His hand snaked around her waist as he guided her out of the path of a couple coming in the other direction. “Tell me you don’t think about me when you wriggle into those tight little dresses.”

  She resisted the urge to melt against him, but instead concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Her heels clicked against the pavement. “Is it wrong to want some appreciation?”

  “Not if you own it.”

  “Fine. I like it when you look at me.” She’d gotten hooked on his attention from the moment he’d seen her not as a child, but as a woman. “So sue me.”

  “How about we have a drink before things get litigious?”

  They pulled up in front of the restaurant and Addison cursed Renee under her breath. The restaurant screamed “date” with its intimate tables for two and gentle candlelit atmosphere. She was hardly going to be able to concentrate on keeping carnal thoughts from her mind in this setting.

  “After you.” He held the door for her.

  They were seated right away, at a table tucked into the back corner of the dining area. No doubt Renee had requested it. She made a mental note to give her assistant a few “guidelines” on booking an appropriate location for a work dinner. Because that’s what this was—work.

  Yeah right. And you think he needs to stop bullshitting himself.

  “This seems...” Logan scanned the room. “Cozy.”

  “I did not suggest this to Renee as an option for dinner. I simply said the dessert menu looked good.” She shook her head. “That’s what I get.”

  Logan appeared unconvinced, but he didn’t say anything further on the matter as the waiter arrived to take their orders.

  “I’ve arranged to have Aiden help me at your place tomorrow,” he said as the waiter left. “I trust him to keep the situation under wraps. We’ll do a sweep of the apartment and change the locks. You can be there to supervise, if you like.”

  “You’re inviting me to my own house,” she said drily. “How considerate.”

  “It has to be done this way.” Logan rolled his shoulders back and she tried not to stare as the soft sweater stretched across his pecs. “So, was that a yes or a no?”

  “Yes, of course I want to be there.”

  If she was there, she’d be able protect her plans. She could convince Logan she was perfectly capable of handing her laptop over to Rhys by herself, which would give her time to dump the files onto a USB and wipe them off her computer.

  Maybe you should come clean and tell him?

  Sneaking around was hard work, but she knew what Logan would say. He’d try to convince her to stay, and she didn’t want to be vulnerable to his influence the way she’d been to her father’s all those years ago.

  Her dad hadn’t wanted her anywhere near the business at first, hoping to shield her from the dark side of his world. But doing her father proud by joining the family business was the only wish she’d had as young girl. Then precious Logan had come along and taken up residence by her father’s side. She should have hated him for that. She’d wanted to hate him on some level.

  But her brain and her heart never seemed to agree where Logan was concerned.

  “You got serious all of a sudden,” he commented, his eyes searching her face.

  “I was thinking about Dad. I can’t believe it’s been two years.”

  “Sometimes I walk into your office hoping I’ll see him behind that desk.” Logan’s voice was almost lost under the sound of conversation from the adjacent tables. “It’s like I forget he’s gone, just for a moment.”

  “And then it all comes rushing back, doesn’t it?” She swallowed at the sudden lump in her throat.

  “Yeah.”

  Logan hadn’t talked much about his feelings over losing her father, but she knew he’d taken it as hard as she had. Over the years she’d gleaned bits and pieces about Logan’s past; she’d learned that he’d lost his mother like she had. That he’d left the military and that he didn’t get along with his father, but she wasn’t exactly sure why. If she pressed him for more details, her questions were usually silenced with a glare sharp enough to cut bone.

  “Sometimes you sound just like him,” Logan said. “Especially when you jam the copier and swear at it as if it can hear you.”

  “He hated that damn machine.” She smiled at the memory.

  Her father had generally been cool, calm and collected...but not when it came to technology. A self-confessed Luddite, he’d eschewed the internet when it had first come along, had refused to get a smartphone and had a tendency to break things out of frustration when he couldn’t figure out how to operate them.

  “I was sure I’d turn up at the office one day to find that he’d taken a baseball bat to it.” The candlelight caught Logan’s dark eyes, the flame reflecting in their depths.

  “I’m glad I managed to inherit such great qualities from him,” she said with a laugh.

  “You got plenty from him, Addi. Your fiery spirit, your ability to think on your feet. And your fierce loyalty, you definitely got that from him.”

  Fierce loyalty. Would he still think her loyal when she up and left?

  “Got that snarky quick wit from him, too,” Logan added.

  For a moment he looked lost. Haunted. It was an expression she saw on his face occasionally—when his mind drifted to dark things that he never wanted to talk about. Now he looked so much like that lost twentysomething boy who’d turned up at her father’s office with a chip on his shoulder and a permanent scowl. She’d realized later that he was scowling at himself, not at those around him.

  “I know you think I’m a pushy bastard, but I won’t ever stop trying to protect you.” Logan gazed at her with an intensity that made her heartbeat kick up a notch. “I sat with your dad at the hospital, watched him fade away, and I promised him I would keep you safe. You were more precious to him than anything in the world.”

  She blinked back the tears prickling her eyes. God, she missed her father so much it hurt her to breathe. People kept telling her that time would heal all wounds, but she found that grief came in waves. Like an ocean of longing and pain lapping at her—sometimes gently and other times with the ferocity of a tsunami.

  “I haven’t kept many promises in my life, but I won’t break that one. No matter how much you hate me for it.”

  “I don’t hate you for it,” she said. “I just want to live my own life.”

  The urge to open up to Logan, to unburden herself of the secret, tugged at her again. But it wasn’t the right thing to do. She might trust him with her body and her safety, but she certainly didn’t trust him with her dreams, or her heart.


  * * *

  LOGAN REACHED FOR the glass of scotch that the waiter had delivered. The single ice cube bobbed in the rich amber liquid, clinking against the glass as he raised it to his lips. The smoky warmth soothed him, quieted the demons. He had no idea why he was getting into this with Addison now, but some part of him felt the need to connect with her on a deeper level than their usual to and fro.

  She took a sip of her wine. “On the upside, no further contact from my stalker.”

  She tried to make light but Logan cringed inwardly. Keeping the second email to himself was the right decision, at least until they had a plan in place that would make Addison feel safer.

  “Call me crazy, but some days I want to be the girl who falls in love with a guy at the grocery store and then grows old with kids running around her feet.” She opened her mouth as if she was about to say something else, but then she snapped it shut as their food arrived at the table.

  “Why do you think you’ll find Mr. Perfect at the grocery store?” he asked as he tucked into his pasta.

  Addison blew on the steam curling up from her dish, her glossy lips pursing in a way that made Logan shift in his seat. Those lips had been at the center of many a fantasy of his. They were perfect—full, ripe. Naturally pink.

  “I don’t know.” She stuck her fork into the mound of spaghetti and twirled. “Isn’t that the kind of thing you see in the movies? The girl is picking out the perfect orange and then she turns and bumps into the man of her dreams. It’s sweet.”

  “It’s fiction.”

  “And I can’t indulge my imagination? It’s better than reality.”

  “Reality isn’t all bad.” At least not the reality of their night together.

  Damn, it’d been so good that he couldn’t go three minutes without his mind drifting into fantasyland. If only he could take Addison to bed and stay there. Forget about his job, forget about his promises. Forget about everything but the silken feel of her skin under his palms.

  “Reality is complicated.” She sighed. “And I don’t like complicated.”

  Which was exactly why they’d never work as a couple. He was the definition of complicated—fucked-up family, abandonment issues and a hero complex. Not exactly a rom-com catch.

  Not exactly a catch by anyone’s standards.

  He cleared his throat. “Me either.”

  “Why do we make things hard on ourselves, Logan? And I mean the royal we, as in people in general.” Her tongue darted out to capture the sauce clinging to the corner of her lip. “For example, we had sex and now both of us are dancing around it like it’s some big bad thing.”

  Logan raised a brow. “We are?”

  “Yes, we are. Tell me, did you consider coming into my room last night?”

  He contemplated lying, but Addison was always good at seeing through his poker face. “Yes.”

  “But you didn’t. Why not?”

  Because I’m worried that I’ll fuck things up and dishonor the promise I made to your father.

  A strand of golden hair had escaped her updo. It fell against her cheek, catching the candlelight and looking like spun gold. Everything about her was so perfect, so angelic. It would be wrong to inflict his messed-up life on her.

  “Well?”

  He sighed. “I’m trying to preserve our relationship.”

  “And why would sex make that difficult? Are you planning on using me and then shacking up with someone else...again?” Her lips were pressed into a flat line.

  God, if ever there was an opportunity for him to take something back, that would be it. The shock of losing Daniel had driven a crack right through him. It’d formed a gaping hole so dark and so ugly that he’d filled it the only way he knew how. With drinking and sex and running away.

  Only he’d run away emotionally, rather than physically. He’d pushed Addison away—horrified that she might finally see how vulnerable he was deep down—by finding someone else to share his bed. Someone he didn’t care about.

  This was why he would never deserve her. No matter how many times he atoned for his sins.

  “No,” he said. “I won’t be repeating that mistake.”

  “Good.” She sighed. “Look, I know you’re attracted to me. I’m attracted to you...why are we dancing around it so much? It’s not as if I’m expecting you to give me the white picket fence dream. I know that’s not you.”

  “Because you deserve the guy at the grocery store. You deserve the happy ending.”

  “That can wait. Besides, we agreed that we wouldn’t get emotionally involved. No expectations, remember?”

  Under the table he felt something brush his leg. Her foot was tracing a line up the inside of his pants. Was she going to take it further? Right here?

  “Right now I want a different kind of ending.”

  Holy shit. Logan almost knocked his drink over when her foot migrated into his lap, nudging his cock until it stirred. He was hard in an instant.

  “Addison,” he said, his eyes darting to the table next to him. The other diners appeared to be none the wiser of their little game. “If you keep that up I’m not going to be able to get out of this restaurant without poking someone’s eye out.”

  She continued to rub him, and his cock swelled in response. “We can slip out the back.”

  His mind whirred. “Out the back?”

  “Into the alley.”

  “It’s not safe, and if it is safe that means they’ll have cameras.” He shook his head, trying to separate rational thought from the part of his brain that wanted the pleasure she was offering. “I’m not sharing you with anyone.”

  “Boring,” she teased. “You’re always so sensible.”

  “One of us has to be.” She didn’t know that he was balancing on a knife’s edge. “I’m not going to risk you getting mugged with your skirt up around your waist, either.”

  “That would be quite a story.” A smile quirked on her lips. “But I bet we don’t make it home before you start tearing my clothes off.”

  “You think I’m that weak?”

  “No. I think I’m that good at pushing your buttons.”

  “Those are fighting words.” He reached under the table and captured her foot. The silk stockings that covered her legs were smooth in his palm. “You want to fight me, Addison?”

  “Very much so.” Her eyes were wide, dark. Excitement lit her cheeks.

  He rubbed his thumb over her ankle, tracing the delicate bone in circles. “What’s the wager?”

  “Full control for the next three days. If I win, you’ll fix up my apartment and then leave me to my business unless I ask for your protection.” She folded her hands neatly on the table. “And you have to tell everyone at work that I’m a better boss than you are.”

  A smile twitched on his lips. “And if I win?”

  “You can boss me around as much as you like. I’ll do anything you want without complaint.”

  Her words rocketed through him, scorching him from the inside out. “Anything?”

  “Whatever your wicked heart desires.”

  8

  ADDISON’S THUDDING HEARTBEAT filled her ears as she waited for Logan to take the bait. His hands were on her foot, rubbing her calf, while she slowly stroked his cock.

  She hadn’t intended to seduce him in a restaurant full of strangers when the evening started, but something about the way he’d opened up...it had gotten to her. He might not be her “grocery store guy” like in the movies, but he cared about her on some level. That much she knew. And if she wasn’t expecting a happily-ever-after from him then what was the harm in indulging in a long-held fantasy? Especially if she could use it to her advantage by getting him out of her apartment.

  Even last night—torn as she’d been about the way he was be
having—she knew damn well that if he’d walked through her bedroom door she would have welcomed him with open arms. Her body craved him, and so long as she kept her heart locked up, that wasn’t a problem. Addison was sick of being at the mercy of Logan’s whims—he wanted her, then he pulled away. Hot, cold, hot, cold.

  Like a goddamn Katy Perry song.

  So it was time for her to take charge.

  “No expectations?” he clarified.

  “Only that I’ll win.”

  “Doubtful. I hope you know it’s dangerous to give full control to a guy like me,” he said. “You never know what I’ll do with it.”

  Ain’t that the truth.

  “I want to take a few more risks in my life,” she replied. “I’m tired of being the good girl.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Fine.”

  “Fine?”

  “I accept your dare.”

  “Good.” She reached for her wine and then drained it in one long gulp. “I just need to use the restroom before we go.”

  When she returned, they abandoned their half-eaten meal and Logan threw some bills onto the table. A thrill ran through Addison’s body as they wove through the now-crowded restaurant. Logan’s hand landed possessively at her waist, his presence radiating behind her.

  Nobody gave them a second glance, and that made her all the more excited. Like they shared a secret. A naughty secret.

  Addison wasn’t usually the instigator of such things. The two times she’d slept with Logan it had been spontaneous, driven by some deeper emotion that had fought its way out. With other men—the few there had been—she’d let them take the lead because she’d always been a little anxious, a little unsure. But with Logan she felt powerful and sexy and fierce.

  She felt safe.

  He would never harm her, not physically. Even if she gave him full control. He would never push her to do something she didn’t want to do. Knowing that, she could make this bet. Though she was confident she’d win.

  After all, if she could get him hard as stone with just her foot, then she could bring him to his knees when all her faculties were at her disposal.