Madison realized Shane just said the wrong thing with the sudden fury that tightened Logan’s body and turned his jaw rigid. Shane also swallowed, but stood his ground. Logan took a step forward and grabbed Shane by the front of his shirt and yanked him closer until their noses nearly met. Madison groaned and wiggled herself in between them, facing Logan. He was forced to let Shane go but kept glaring at him. Shane lifted his hands in an ‘I give up’ sign and walked away whistling a chirpy tune.
Logan’s furious gaze captured Madison’s, still standing against his body.
“You seem to have double standards, but then I should not be surprised. You are a woman after all.”
“What the devil are you talking about?”
“I am not allowed to touch another woman, yet you can’t wait to throw yourself at my brother!”
“I didn’t throw myself at him!”
“Oh, I imagined the tight hug and kiss then did I?”
She shook her head and sighed heavily. “I don’t know why you still fight against it, Babe. It is inevitable you know.”
“What?”
“You and I.”
She went on her toes and pulled his head down with her hands around his neck. She rubbed her lips over his, softly from side to side before she pressed harder and caressed the seam of his lips with her tongue. He gripped her by her shoulders and pulled her higher and tighter against him and took charge of the kiss. Or rather he thought he took charge, but Madison gave as good as she got and she demanded even more. He growled against her lips when he ended the kiss, softly kissing her once, twice. He looked into her eyes and watched the anger flash when his words registered.
“Oh I agree, but Wildcat, hear me and hear me well. It is and will only ever be sex. Don’t confuse my possessiveness as anything more. It will never happen.”
She pulled away from him and stared at him pensively for a long while. She nodded and turned, flinging over her shoulder.
“I guess I’ll have to take the ultimate step then.”
He didn’t like that cryptic statement and thundered after her.
“Madison, come back here! What are you talking about?”
She turned at the elevator and pressed the button before she looked at him. “Ask me again tomorrow night. I might just be angry enough by then to tell you.”
Madison had no intention of playing the friendly pilot or chauffeur that night and Logan realized it the moment he got on the chopper with Daphne Schultz, a socialite that has been chasing after him for years. When he took her call he just ended another with their forensic specialist, who identified serious interventions that were tampered with on the offshore oilrig in the Gulf. Clearly his mother was squeezing tighter to prepare for the final blow. It was enough to strengthen his resolve that he did not want more from any female than the release they could offer him sexually. Hence, he accepted her invitation to join her at the opening show of the Annual Texas Welfare week.
Madison did not bother to get out of the chopper to open the back doors as she normally did when he took dates out. She paid no mind to his wave of his hand that she should switch off the helicopter so the wind thrush did not upset his dates’ hairdo.
He stalked over and nearly ripped the door off the hinges. She barely looked at him and he gritted through his teeth.
“Don’t push your luck, Madison! Switch off this damn chopper!”
“Yes sir.” Still, she avoided his eyes that swept down her body.
“What the hell are you wearing?”
She looked down at her body and shrugged. “Clothes, I imagine.”
“That is not damn clothes! Definitely not something you wear whilst on duty!”
She glared at him. “In case you forgot, Mr. Dalton, Tuesday night is my off night. So in effect I am not on duty, I am merely doing you a favor!”
“You are testing my patience, woman! You deliberately wore this damn short to irritate me.”
“Don’t you think you are rude to your date, sir? She seems to be getting slightly annoyed back there.”
He glanced behind him, having totally forgotten about Daphne. He cursed and swung back to her. “Switch off the damn chopper!”
He hardly had Daphne settled on the seat and the powerful engine of the helicopter kicked to life. He was still closing the door when it lifted off the ground. He cursed silently and glared at Madison, who blatantly ignored the two of them in the back.
She pushed the helicopter to high speed and Daphne clutched at his arm with a shriek.
“I see you need a reminder on what is acceptable for flying one of my aircrafts, Miss Phillips.”
Immediately the speed reduced and Daphne relaxed, but used the opportunity to slide closer to him and pushed under his arm to drape her over his left side. Her one leg slightly hooked over his knee.
“You have such strong arms, Logan. A woman could spend hours very happily in them.”
That had Madison’s head swung around and her mouth compressed in a thin line. His eyes met hers and he raised a sardonic eyebrow. He watched her eyes narrow when he dropped his hand on Daphne’s shoulder and the other on her knee, stroking it softly.
Madison nearly strangled in the fury that bubbled up in her throat. He deliberately touched the woman, taunting her with his strong hand caressing her knee.
She swallowed what she was about to say and landed the helicopter on the strip the controller just drawled in her ear. The picture of his strong hand around the beautiful brunette’s knee was painfully edged into her mind.
There were shuttles that took the guests straight to the Conference centers from there. Madison watched Logan assist the tall beautiful Daphne into the shuttle. She emitted a small shriek of frustration and for the first time since her arrival, felt like crying.
He never kept his promise to come back and took care of her need. They spend a lot of time at the office and only left the office late at night. It was the first time she felt threatened by one of his dates. The first time he deliberately touched and caressed another woman in her presence.
Her phone rang nearly two hours later and she answered it listlessly.
“Madison speaking.”
“I’ve decided to stay over in Dallas tonight, Miss Phillips. You can go back to the Ranch and pick me up here around ten in the morning.”
“You’re … spending the night …” she stammered. Not believing what she just heard.
“That is what I said. You can go back to the Ranch.”
Madison did not know how she got back to the Ranch. Her mind swirled with images of Logan and Daphne in bed. She could not believe how much it hurt just thinking of him in another woman’s arms. For the first time since her Grand pops’ death she cried herself to sleep.
It took a moment for Madison to realize the sound that woke her was her landline ringing. She grabbed the receiver and mumbled sleepily.
“Maddy! Wake up!” Shane’s loud shout shook her out of her sleepy haze immediately.
“I’m awake. What’s the matter?”
“We have to get to Mesquite. There is a major blow out at the rig there. Ask Logan what he wants me to bring with.”
She was already up and gathered her pilots’ suite from the cupboard. She froze and the hurt slithered down her spine.
“He’s … not here.”
There was dead silence. “What do you mean he is not there?”
“He decided to stay over in Dallas.”
Shane cursed a blue streak when he heard the hurt in her voice. “Is he staying at our penthouse?
“I don’t know. He didn’t say. He … told me to … pick him up at the … airport in the morning. Madison had to swallow hard to keep the tears back.
“We’ll pick him up on the way. I’ll be there in five.”
Madison was already waiting for him when he arrived less than five minutes later. Her eyes were red and swollen and it was obvious that she had been crying. He cursed and felt like murdering his brother. What made it even worse
was the fact that he was not at their penthouse but at Daphne’s house. He did not know how to tell Madison that they were picking him up there and just handed her the coordinates.
She circled over the area and could not keep the tears from trickling past her eyelids. Logan spent the night with Daphne at her house. An imposing two storied house in one of the elite suburbs in Dallas. Her heart was meritoriously broken in two. She lowered the helicopter on an open area on the back lawn. He came running across the lawn immediately, still fastening his shirt. He had ample time to get dressed since Shane phoned him, so only dressing when they landed were testimony what had kept him busy till now.
“You better find another pilot, Shane and fast. I want to be gone by the end of the week.” Madison’s voice was so soft he had to lean forward to hear what she said and he cursed again.
“Maddy … maybe this is not how it seems.”
She gave a short sarcastic laugh. “I’m afraid it is exactly as it seems. Just do it Shane, because I am leaving on Sunday, whether you have someone or not!”
Shane’s lips pulled in a straight angry line when Logan got in at the front. His eyes were immediately drawn to Madison who totally ignored him. His one foot was still dangling outside when she bore upwards.
“Dammit, Madison! I’m not even in yet!”
“Unfortunately the fire couldn’t wait for you to finish your … tryst on your own time! We could have been at the site already if we didn’t have to … to … make this detour!”
He cursed and glared at her, willing her to look at him, but her eyes were adamantly glued to the horizon. He glanced back at Shane and sighed when he was met with even more hostility. He cursed his impulsive decision to make it appear as if he spent the night in Daphne’s arms. He cursed out loud when he saw Madison surreptitiously wiping her cheek.
“Wildcat, I …”
“Shut up, Logan! Just … shut up.”
The last words were swallowed with the lump in her throat busy strangling her. Logan drew his hands through his short hair and wiped his eyes.
This damn woman was going to be the death of me yet!
He had every intention of sleeping with Daphne, but knew before they even landed at the airport that it was not going to happen. He could not drench up any desire for the beautiful brunette. The only picture that filled his mind was of his Wildcat walking past him in her seductive naked glory. The only reason he stuck to his decision to go home with her was to make a point to Madison. That what they had was just sex.
Only now … he himself was not so sure it was all there was anymore! Her obvious upset and tears clamped around his heart and he wanted to hold her tight and soothe her.
He wished he could rip the cap that was pulled down low over her eyes from her head so he could see her eyes. Madison adamantly refused to even glance his way and he sighed again.
“What do you know of the blow out, Shane?”
“What do you think? It has to be her!”
“I know that, little bro. I want to know how bad it is. Was anyone hurt?”
Shane took a moment to get his own anger under control. Anger at the atrocious treatment of Logan against Madison and anger against their mother. A woman that had no compunction to cause fires and blow outs that could take lives.
“So far two serious injuries. A Derrick man and a Roughneck. Both were on the rig floor when she blew. Then some with only minor burns. It seems there was a pressure build-up in the boreholes. They estimated there was a blockage and with the amount of pressure that was build up in the well, the hydrocarbon was ejected nearly 60 meters the air. As you know the hydrocarbons on this site were highly flammable and contained methane and propane which is why you spend the extra money to safeguard against this sort of explosion.”
“It exploded?”
“Yeah … the engineer said he has never seen the likes. It was as if there was a match that lit the gas in the air.”
“Maybe there was … even with gas blow out and the friction, the added release valves and depressurizing at the top of the boreholes, it should not have exploded. Someone rigged that borehole to explode.”
Logan sat forward searching for the fire they should have been able to see in the distance already, and sighed in relief when he could only see a black cloud of smoke on the horizon. Shane also noticed it and slapped Logan on the shoulder.
“Now I am glad you overrode our resistance and had all those additional measures installed on this well. It seems the fire is already under control.”
“Yes, the minute there is a fire the chemical is released in the air so it must have contained the fire almost instantaneously.”
Logan turned to Shane. “Have they found out anything more on her financials? How strong is she monetarily? Any loans? Does she own all the shares?”
“She is nearly broke, which is probably why she is doing something this desperate. She sold forty percent of her shares a year ago to an investor, Rodney Davell and ten percent to a guy by the name of Vernon Miller a few months ago. We are still looking into that. She also applied with Phillips Financial Bank for a sizeable loan.”
“Which she won’t get if she doesn’t offer something as collateral. She probably offered her shares. I doubt Bill Phillips would approve such an application. If she has no cash flow, her shares does not offer that much collateral. He didn’t strike me as the type of man to accommodate such a risky loan.”
Madison winced when she realized the Dalton’s must have met her father at some stage.
“Have you been able to get hold of her?”
“Yes, she will be in Dallas on Saturday. Do you want to meet her somewhere in Dallas or at the Ranch?”
Logan sat pondering the options, his eyes on Madison’s profile. He noticed she was biting her bottom lip between her teeth and he reached out to gently pull at her lip and she snapped at him, glaring at him at the same time.
“Don’t touch me!”
He winced when he noticed her puffy, red eyes, even in the dim lights of the helicopter’s dash lights. He sighed and rubbed his neck.
“Let her come to the Ranch. It’s time she realized what she’s missed out on all these years.”
Chapter Thirteen
Madison took the helicopter down carefully and did all the necessary post flight checks, knowing they would be there a while. The Daltons jumped down and ran towards the well where there was still a small fire burning. The black smoke was so thick you could hardly see ten meters in front of you. Madison took her earphones off, unsnapped the safety belt and slumped back in the seat.
She startled in fright when the door was suddenly pulled open. Logan reached up to draw her out and into his arms. She struggled but he tightened his hold around her body. He ripped the cap off and threw it on the seat behind her.
“Let me go! I don’t want you to touch me!”
“Don’t! Stop!”
His arms tightened even further around her and she gasped for air he held her so tight. Her eyes were globes of fire when they met his.
“I didn’t sleep with her, Wildcat.”
“How would I know that and even if you didn’t you had every intention to! Damn you, let me GO!”
She intensified her struggles which resulted in his arms tightening around her again.
“I didn’t even touch her, Madison!”
“I don’t care! Do you hear me! I don’t care anymore! Let me go!”
The tears streamed unhindered down her cheeks and belied her passionate plea. Logan winced. His voice was hoarse when he whispered against her lips.
“Don’t honey! Don’t say that and please stop crying!”
His lips closed over hers and he kissed her tenderly, taking her sobs into his mouth. He stroked her back tenderly and groaned, pushing his tongue past her resisting lips and kissed her deeply. He pressed her supple body tight against his and she gasped at the hard length of him searing against her soft stomach. She could not deny her need for him and wrapped her arms around his n
eck and kissed him back, her tears salty on their lips.
He ended the kiss and stared into her eyes. He lifted his hand and tenderly wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“I swear I didn’t touch her – apart from what you saw in the chopper.”
She shook her head and tried to push him away. “I don’t want to hear this!”
“Well, you’re going to, whether you like it or not! But not here and not now. We’ll talk when we get home.”
He pulled away and caressed her lips with his thumb. “Now, promise me you will stay in the chopper.”
She nodded and he leaned down to take a hard passionate kiss before he turned around and jogged away.
It was late Friday afternoon before the Daltons were satisfied the blow out was under control and they headed home. She was an emotional wreck. Even though Logan claimed he didn’t touch Daphne, she kept seeing him running towards the chopper buttoning his shirt. Her heart ached, for that matter her whole body ached and she cursed him over and over.
She came to the realization during the time she was forced to immobility that she never loved Andreas. She caught him having sex with another woman and it did not affect her even a tenth as it did just imagining Logan with Daphne. Logan Dalton … consumed her heart
Logan looked at her frowning face all the way to the Ranch and sighed when she stubbornly refused to look at him. The moment they landed he was out of the chopper and strode towards Shane’s SUV with long strides.
“Shane … remember what I asked you to do.”
“Maddy, he told me he didn’t sleep with her! Surely then …”
She shook her head, her eyes smoky. “I realize Sunday is too soon, so I’ll stay until Friday next week.”
“Do you really mean that?”
She nodded. “Please don’t tell him.”
Shane shook his head. “Sorry Maddy. Technically you work for him and I will not keep something like this from him.”
She looked towards the SUV where Logan just climbed into the driver seat. She nodded in that direction.
“You’re about to be left behind.”
Shane cursed and set off at a run, cursing as far as he went.
The Wildcat that Tamed the Tycoon Page 13