The Billionaire's Kiss (Scandal, Inc)

by James, Avery

  When Logan returned, he was wearing a tuxedo, and Callie had to stop fussing with her dress to admire him. The suit accentuated his shoulders and his thin waist. He looked like a movie star preparing to head down the red carpet. It too her a minute to realize that he had even shaved. He crossed the room and stepped behind Callie, reaching up to pull her zipper all the way up her back. He looked at her in the mirror as he helped her straighten the dress.“You look even more beautiful than I had imagined,” he said. He wrapped his arms around her and clasped a necklace around her neck, three pearls strung on a thin gold wire.

  Callie ran her fingers over the necklace. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  Logan leaned in and pressed his lips against the back of her neck, sending a wonderful shiver up and down her spine. He ran his hand over her hip and spun her around to plant a kiss on her lips. His kiss was firm but tender, and he held her in his arms, looking into her eyes well after the kiss stopped. “It doesn’t even begin to compare to you.” He pulled back and offered his hand. “Come on,” he said, “your party is waiting.”

  ***

  As they approached the house, Callie listened to the sounds of the band playing inside the house. The sound of brass, the trumpets and trombone, playing swing floated through the open windows over the dull roar of the crowd talking and dancing. With each step Callie took toward the house, she felt like she was stepping back in time. “How did you?” she asked as Logan led her up the steps to the veranda. “There must be two hundred people here, and where did you find a band?”

  “I called in a few favors,” Logan said. “And I may or may not have closed the bar for the night and bussed everyone in while we were away at Polo.”

  “Why would you do that?” Callie asked.

  “For you,” Logan said. He was still quieter than normal, more reserved. Was this why he had been acting to strangely all day? “I wanted to give you a day worth remembering, the day you wanted from the beginning.” Logan stopped before the door and motioned forward. “Obviously, we had a few hiccups on the way, but we’re here now. Do you remember anything from your dance lesson?” he asked.

  “I remember feeling wonderfully dizzy,” Callie said. The sensation had been partly caused by spinning around a ballroom with Logan, and partly caused by just being with him.

  “Then you’ll feel right at home,” Logan said. As he led her inside, the crowd parted, leaving them a clear path to the ballroom floor. They walked through the hallway slowly, and Callie looked over the crowd, feeling a bit nervous about having so many people see her dance. Logan cleared his throat as they entered the ballroom, and the band shifted right into a waltz. “Try to keep up,” he said, swinging Callie around and leading her out to the middle of the floor.

  At first, Callie kept her head down and tried to follow Logan’s feet, but she kept missing steps. “Look here,” Logan said, reaching up and raising her chin, “and just dance with me.” His blue eyes glinted in the dim light and Callie did as he said, following his lead. Soon, she forgot all about her footwork, and she danced back and forth across the room with him as other couples started to make their way onto the floor. With each step, each beat and breath, she felt the whole scene fade away from her, until she felt like only she and Logan were in the room. She watched the way he looked at her as they danced. It wasn’t so much looking at her as it was looking with her, and she felt like they were locked together, suspended in time as they danced.

  “Logan, I need to tell you something,” she said.

  “Not yet,” Logan said, spinning her around, “let’s savor this moment.”

  “I love you,” she said.

  Logan’s pupils dilated and his gaze hardened. He stopped dancing and held his hands on her hips. He looked like he was in pain. Callie could hear his strained breaths as she waited for him to say something, anything in response. She watched his lips, pictured the words forming in his mouth. She knew how he felt. She just needed to hear him say it.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said. “Actually, meet me in the study. There’s something I need to tell you, and I don’t want to do it here. Just give me a minute.” Before Callie could say anything, Logan turned and walked off the dance floor. As she stood there, wondering what had just happened, the band started the next song, a swing tune. Even more people flooded onto the dance floor, crowding Logan out of sight.

  Callie tried to follow behind him. She made it about five steps before stopping. She couldn’t believe what she saw: Veronica Jones leaning against the wall, grinning. Callie rushed over to her and nearly lunged at her. “What the hell did you do?” she shouted.

  “I haven’t done anything,” she said, “yet.”

  “I don’t know what you think you’re accomplishing by being here, but I promise you, if try to do anything to Logan, I will make it my mission in life to make you miserable.”

  “Ooh, I’m shaking in my Louboutins,” Veronica said. She rolled her eyes and yawned.

  “You’re lucky I have somewhere to be,” Callie said.

  “Hopefully it’s far away from here,” Veronica replied.

  Callie shook her head, pushed through the crowd and headed to the hall. She didn’t want to waste another minute on Veronica. Once she was outside the ballroom, everything would be better. She pushed the heavy wooden door open and stepped out into the hallway. It was cooler in the hallway and quieter too. The muffled sounds of the band still echoed, but the front of the house, and the hallway to the study, were dark and still. Callie’s heels clacked on the floor as she headed into the darkness. She slid her hand along the wood panelling to find the entrance to the study. Once she found it, she held her breath and opened the hidden door. She looked back down the hall one more time and let herself inside.

  The room was dark, save for the small pool of light that shone from a lamp on Hank’s desk. The dim pool of light accentuated the shadows on the bookcases and in the far corners of the room. “Logan?” Callie called. “Logan, where are you?” She looked around, hoping that he’d be in one of those corners or sitting in a chair, but it was useless. He wasn’t there. She looked around the room for any sign of him, but there was nothing. Where the hell was he? She walked over and sat down behind the large, mahogany desk.

  In the middle of the desk, under the warm light of the lamp, sat a plain white envelope, addressed simply, “Callie.” She reached forward and tore it open, ripping a corner off the letter in the process. She unfolded the paper and started to read. I don’t know how to say this… A chill ran through Callie’s body as she read the rest of the letter. Logan was gone, and he wasn’t coming back.

  ***

  He hadn’t planned on coming back to the bar, but like a homing pigeon who could fly thousands of miles home, he had instinctually headed there. The great open space of the dining room was quiet and empty, and he didn’t bother to turn on any lights but the one behind the bar. She loved him. She loved him, and he had run. Deep down, he had known how she felt, but hearing her say it was something different entirely.

  It was better that he had left instead of explaining things. More fitting. She’d hate him for what he did and move on with her life to spite him. At least she’d have closure. Her anger at him would probably motivate her to new professional highs, while he could lapse back into the prodigal son everyone else expected him to be. Logan knew this was what had to happen, and yet a small part of him wanted to find and run off with her.

  Maybe that’s why he left the front door to the brewery unlocked. Maybe it was why he wasn’t surprised when the door opened, and Callie stepped inside glaring at him from across the room. He looked at her one more time in her long black dress. Her hair was still up, and every last detail of her makeup was perfect. She looked beautiful.

  Something about that moment reminded Logan of the first time he saw her, not the afternoon at his father's mansion, but nearly a year earlier, when he had been at her sister's wedding. For a moment, he thought he had dreamt her up, that there was no wa
y she could be real, but she was. He hadn't been able to keep his eyes off of her, but when he found out who she was, he knew better to keep his distance. Logan laughed to himself. Apparently his first impulse had been right.

  But that was in the past, a pleasant memory. Logan hung his head over his drink again, watching his reflection warp in the glass. He knew that had to do was start a fight and get her to leave. It was for the best. Soon enough, Veronica would leak the tape to the press, and Logan's life would be turned upside down. He couldn't do that to her. He couldn't let her throw away her life and join him in his downward spiral just because he liked her. A fake fight. That was all he had to do. How hard could it be?

  "You," Callie shouted from across the room. "Where did you go? I spent an hour looking for you at your party."

  "I had to leave. I just couldn't be there." Logan gestured to the empty bar.

  "And you didn't think maybe I would want to come with you?" Callie asked. She walked over to his side but didn't sit down.

  "You wanted to experience Newport glamour. Well, there's nothing glamorous about this."

  "Stop pitying yourself. What is this all about?" Callie said. "Is this about the bill passing? You've been acting so weirdly ever since you got the news."

  "No, it's not that,"Logan said. He couldn't bear to look at Callie.

  "What aren't you telling me? Is this because I told you I love you? I'm not taking that back, and I'm not going to hide from the truth. I love you, Logan. You're a better man than you give yourself credit for, and I won’t let you break up with me simply because you don’t believe in yourself.”

  Logan felt a lump in his throat. He hadn't expected her to say that again. He just wanted to scoop her up in his arms and kiss her and tell her he felt the exact same way. Instead, he choked out one final attempt at getting her to leave. "I can't, Callie. I just can't do this. I wish I could explain. I wish I had a better answer. You deserve better. You deserve someone who can be there for you. You should go..." Logan felt like his chest would collapse as he waited for Callie to respond. It's almost over, he told himself. He wasn't prepared for what came next.

  "Get over yourself, Logan. You lost your mother, and you think that you're the only person in the world who's gone through tragedy. Stop using it as an excuse for your bad decisions."

  Logan felt a surge of anger. Was that really how she felt? Like he was hiding? He was doing this for her. He had spent he past month with her doing everything in his power to become a better man, to be the man she needed, and now she was calling him a coward? If she only knew how much this hurt and how much he loved her. She just wasn't listening, and he could feel his blood pressure rising. He had just wanted her to leave and move on with her life, but if she wanted a fight, he'd give her a fight. He cleared his throat and glared at her. Maybe he was mad at himself for putting them both in this situation, or maybe he was upset with her for attacking him like that. Either way, he felt his temples throb as he tried to calm himself down, as he tried to hold back from giving in to the urge to yell back at her.

  "I'm not just going to stand here and let you push me away because you're afraid. If you just stopped for one second and thought about what an ass you're being, maybe you'd understand." Callie softened her tone, spoke lower. Logan could hear the exasperation in her voice. "You've been sneaking around and lying to me ever since their bill passed," she said.

  "You're one to talk," he snapped back. He had been doing all of that to protect her. Couldn't she connect the dots? "You lied to me from the moment you got here. If you want to talk about sneaking around and not telling the truth, let's start with you. I was honest from the start. If you had even given me a little bit of trust, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

  "Trust?" Callie said. "Trust? I was sent here against my will because your own father didn't trust you enough to leave you alone for a month. You have to gain trust, Logan. You have to earn it. It's not just given to you because you're somehow special."

  Logan bit down on his lip and tried to hold back, but he just couldn't help himself. "Is that what this is about? My money?" Logan asked. "Do you really think I wouldn't give it all back if it meant I could have a normal relationship with my family or a chance at even some small piece of happiness? Do you think I like being Logan Harris, fuck up bon vivant? You should leave, Callie. Go back to your family and your job and forget all about this. That's what you do, right? You make difficult situations go away."

  "Is that what you want?" Callie asked. "You want me to leave so you can wallow in misery and blame me for the fact that you're too afraid to take another step?"

  Logan could hear the pain in her voice, the trembling sound as she fought off tears. He couldn't look up at her. "What did you think was going to happen, Callie? Did you think you'd change me and tame me and that we'd get a house somewhere in the suburbs and have a few kids? This was never going to work out, and you know it. You knew it from the start. Well, now you can go. You had your fun. You let your hair down for a while and lived the good life. You'll have a great story for everyone back at the office." Logan looked up and saw the tears streaming down Callie's cheeks. Her eyes were bright red and just seeing her like that made Logan choke up. It was like she was looking right through him, like she knew what he was trying to do and hated him that much more for it. He cleared his throat and said, "This is what I do. You've had your fun, now it's time to leave. Go back to your life, Callie.”

  Callie reached up and wrapped her hand around the thin gold strand of her pearl necklace and pulled hard, snapping the necklace. She held it in her clenched fist like she wanted to throw it at Logan's head. She looked deep into his eyes, and it gutted him to see her in so much pain. She opened her hand and let the necklace fall to the ground. She turned and walked away.

  Logan wanted to jump out of his seat and run after her. He wanted to tell her that he loved her too, and that he just wanted what was best for her. He wanted to tell her that he didn't deserve her, and that in time she'd thank him for what he'd done. Instead, he leaned down and picked the broken necklace up off of the floor and slid it into his pocket. She was gone. Logan grabbed his glass and took a long, slow drink.

  Twenty Four

  Callie wasn’t sad. Sadness would mean locking herself in her bedroom with a bottle of wine and watching Audrey Hepburn movies all day. It would mean a hollow ache deep inside. It would mean crying and uncertainty, and that wasn’t what she felt at all. Callie was mad. She was angry. She felt like Logan had placed a smoldering ember deep inside her chest when he broke up with her that night. She felt it while she tried to work, tried to sleep, tried to pretend that Logan hadn’t deeply hurt her. The ember, that hot, glowing anger, made her want to find Logan and shake him for being such an idiot.

  She knew what he was doing and why he had done it. She tried to change his mind, but he had pushed her away because he thought he’d drag her down or get her tangled up in his scandal. She knew he was trying to protect her, but that didn’t excuse what he had done. It wasn’t his choice to make, and she was mad as hell at him, but she wasn’t about to sit around and pout. She just didn’t know what to do next. She couldn’t just show up at work after quitting, and she didn’t know how to apologize to Amy. She couldn’t go back to Logan, and she couldn’t admit that Amy had been right about him, so she just stayed in her apartment, stress cleaning every corner of her room and trying to find some way to put her life back together.

  By the third day, Callie had run out of things to clean, items to organize, files to color code. She had even stayed up all night reordering her books according to ISBN. Something needed something to change. She knew it. More than once, she had looked up after hours of sorting and stacking to find Charlotte shaking her head in the doorway. Charlotte hadn’t said much since Callie had returned, but Callie could tell she was worried. If she weren’t fast asleep, she’d probably be standing over her shoulder giving her that concerned look. Callie needed something to get her out of her apartment
and her mind off of Logan. She nearly cried out in joy when her phone rang shortly after sunrise. It was Vi. She jumped over to the phone and picked it up. “Hello?” she said.

  “Good morning,” Vi said. “I didn’t think you’d be awake at this hour, but I thought I’d let you know that your sister is about to give birth.” Callie could hear Amy’s shouts in the background.

  “Right now?”

  “Either that or she’s practicing for some cursing competition. You girls are always so prim and proper, but you swear like sailors, and I’ve known quite a few sailors.”

  “I’ll be over in a few.”

  “Aren’t you still in Newport?” Vi asked. “Amy said something about a spat between the two of you.”

  “I wouldn’t exactly call it a spat.”

  “Well, she didn’t either, dear,” Vi said with a laugh. Callie could only imagine what Amy had said. On second thought, maybe it was better if she didn’t imagine that at all.

  “I’ll be over soon,” Callie said.

  “We’ll be waiting for you.”

  Callie hung up and searched her room for an outfit, but had trouble finding anything suitable. Either she was overtired or her new organization scheme was not as brilliant as she had thought. She started pulling shirts and dresses off of hangers as she looked for the right outfit, after all, what do you wear when you need to congratulate and apologize to someone at the same time. Screw it, Callie thought. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt. She pulled her hair up into a bun and headed for the door. It wasn’t like she had anyone to impress anyway.