He lifted her tank top up, revealing her flat stomach. Leaning forward, he ran his tongue across her belly button. Robin closed her eyes and moaned. Tonight felt different. Logan’s touch made her tingle with desire, not hunger, like the other night.
She wasn’t thinking about her unfaithful thoughts, she just wanted to love her husband. Wanted his touch more than she needed her next breath. And Logan wasn’t about to disappoint. His fingers danced across her breasts, the tips teasing her nipples until she wanted to beg for his lips. And when he locked eyes with her, Logan knew what he needed to do next. His tongue lashed her diamond-hard nipples until Robin cried out his name.
His free hand slipped between her legs, stroking her through her pants. She was wet, her desire leaking from her panties. Robin didn’t have to wonder if Logan felt her need.
“These have to go,” he said as he pulled her yoga pants down in a swift motion. Next, her panties were around her ankles. Logan made quick work of taking them all the way off so he could spread her legs and dive face first into her wetness.
When his tongue touched her throbbing bud, Robin moaned. As he deepened his kiss and sucked her pearl, she screamed his name and clutched the back of his neck. “Yes, yes,” she moaned as he licked and sucked her into submission. The orgasm attacked her senses and made her bones feel like gelatin.
Logan looked up at Robin’s sated face. She purred and opened her arms to him. Logan eased into her embrace and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Robin brushed her lips against his and ground against his hardness.
“Make love to me,” she moaned as she gripped his ass. Logan plunged inside her, thrusting deep and slow. Robin mirrored his movements, sucking him inside her valley while their satisfied groans filled the air.
Robin felt her connection with Logan return. Their hearts beat in sync, their heat burned with the same intensity. She hadn’t felt like this with him for a long time. This sex wasn’t just physical. There seemed to be a spiritual awakening, like back in the day. Before she second-guessed every touch. Before she wondered if he had been with another woman and made her scream.
This moment made her realize that this was her man, as he’d always promised he would be.
“My God, I love you,” she cried as she reached her climax. Logan held her against his sweaty chest and kissed her cheek.
“I love you more,” he said. “My candy girl.”
Chapter 14
Logan took a deep breath as his phone blared his wake-up song. He could smell Robin’s delicate lavender scent. He had to open his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Nope. His wife was in his arms and he didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to think of the real world of bullshit waiting outside the door.
He had that meeting with HR. He had to get a judge to prove that he wasn’t a father and hope that the fallout from all of this wouldn’t put his career in jeopardy. Things hadn’t changed so much where Logan thought that the black surgeon wouldn’t be dragged through the mud because of these lies.
What would this mean for his patients whom the hospital wanted to use those horrible drugs on? Yeah, staying in bed with Robin would be the best way to forget about everything that was waiting for him.
The song continued, getting louder, and Robin turned over to face him. “I know you’re not sleeping,” she said, her voice sounding like a warm drizzle of honey.
“Still trying to keep this same energy. If I move, then it means the real world is actually real.”
“When have you ever hid from hard things, Logan?”
He tilted his head to the side and looked in her eyes. He saw something that he’d been missing. She believed in him. That gave him everything he needed to face what was on the other side of the door.
“What time is it?” Robin asked as she yawned.
“Five after six.”
“When’s your meeting?”
“Nine.”
“Good. I’ve got time to feed you. How does oatmeal, eggs, and chicken sausage sound?”
“Where are the grits?”
“Oatmeal is healthier. But since you didn’t balk at chicken sausage, I guess I can whip up some grits with no butter.”
“That’s just wrong.”
She thumped his bare shoulder. “I have something better. A plant-based substitute. Tastes just like butter, and if it fools you, then I won’t have to get compared to Nina when it comes to cooking.”
“Y’all do her so wrong. Maybe if someone taught her how to make grits,” he quipped.
“Sounds like you just volunteered. Good for you.” Robin rolled out of his arms. “If you want to take a shower, there are fresh towels in the bathroom.”
“I’ll take a long shower, if you join me.” He offered her a randy wink.
“Then I guess you don’t want to eat. You have to drive back to Richmond and you know how rush-hour traffic can be.”
“Can I see you tonight?” he asked as he rose from the bed. “At our place?”
“Um, I tell you what, if you have Liam come over with his information, I’ll be there.”
“I can do that. But let me go on the record and say that having that guy be the reason you’re coming over has me feeling some kind of way,” he said.
Robin got out of the bed and touched Logan on the shoulder. “We’re not where that’s even remotely funny.”
“Sorry.”
She pinched his shoulder. “And that’s why you’re showering alone. I’ll get breakfast started.” Robin glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. “Knowing my sisters, they are going to be here sooner, rather than later. You need to get it together.”
He nodded toward the bathroom. “This is me, getting it together.”
* * *
Robin darted down the stairs and started cooking breakfast for Logan. As she boiled the water for grits and heated the pan for the chicken sausage, Robin couldn’t help but smile. This used to be study time for the couple. When she was getting ready for the bar exam, Robin would cook and Logan had flash cards.
As they drank coffee and ate eggs, he made sure his wife was ready to pass her test. It worked: Robin had passed the Louisiana bar, the Virginia bar, and the South Carolina bar with her husband’s tutoring and support.
Sighing, she thought about the drama she and Logan had to deal with now. Was she ready to believe that her husband hadn’t betrayed her? Though last night had been magical, she couldn’t help replaying that woman outside of her house saying those things about her not being able to give Logan a child. Hearing that coming out of Kamrie’s mouth made her feel like she’d been telling the truth about her affair with Logan.
But he made it seem as if he hadn’t been the one to share her deepest fears with that woman. Was it possible that this was some big conspiracy, as Logan said? But why would anyone be that cruel just to bring him down?
What if Logan was right and this was something deeper than ending his marriage?
Robin stopped in midstir of the grits. Why would anyone want to launch a personal attack on him like this?
And why did I fall for it? Robin thought. We didn’t come this far for him to do something like this. But what if it isn’t a conspiracy? She started stirring the grits with fury. She wanted to get rid of this feeling that Logan was still lying to her. That he was living a double life and deceiving her. Would he do that? Could he do that? Had she been wrong all of this time?
“Hey,” Logan said as he walked into the kitchen, shirtless. “What did those grits do to you?”
Robin looked up at her man and smiled. Maybe that’s why she’d passed the bar, because he had always been shirtless when he held up those flash cards. He always had a great chest.
“Was thinking about some stuff and got caught up. The grits are almost done,” she said as she spooned some of the plant-based butter in the pot. “Why don’t you have a shirt on?”
“Because I know how you like looking at my chest.” Logan crossed over to her and brushed his lips against her neck.
“
If you don’t want a burnt breakfast, you’re going to have to keep those lips to yourself.” Robin lowered the heat on the grits, then turned to face her husband.
“I’ll risk it,” he said, then kissed Robin slow and deep. She wrapped her arms around his neck and lost herself in the sweetness of his mouth.
Logan broke the kiss and stroked Robin’s hair. “This kitchen is too small.”
“Too small for what?”
“To put you up on the counter and have you for breakfast.” He ran his index finger down the center of her chest.
Robin smacked his hand away. “One-track mind.”
“Maybe we can cook something up together in our kitchen tonight.”
“You do realize that my sisters are coming here and they’re expecting me to be balled up in an emotional hole cursing your name?”
“So, what do you think the reaction is going to be?”
Robin shrugged. “They’re going to have their thoughts, as they always do. But I have the final say. It’s my life. Still, you might not want to be here when they arrive.” She turned back to the grits.
“Good point. Since I keep a suit at the hospital, I’ll go straight to the meeting, then reach out to Liam. Maybe he got some information from this nurse he met in Atlanta.”
“Liam is a really good friend to do this research for you and help clear your name.”
“According to Liam, I’d better make this work.”
“He’s always been smart. Glad you kept him as a friend.”
Logan snorted. “He’s lucky too. Had the nerve to have a crush on you.”
Robin fixed his plate and grinned. “You’re mad because the man has good taste?”
He took the plate from Robin’s hand and nodded. “I had already put the word out that Robin Richardson was my woman. And I mean it, to this day.” Just as Logan leaned in to kiss her, the doorbell chimed.
“Oh shit,” Robin gritted. “I knew they were going to be early, but damn.”
“Want me to go out the back door?” he asked as he looked longingly at his plate.
“No, let’s do this now.” Robin headed for the front door and, not surprisingly, saw her sisters and a gorgeous man with blue-green eyes standing there. He was big and looked like he’d kill anyone who laid a hand on Yolanda Richardson.
“Well, good morning,” Robin said when she opened the door.
“Please tell me you have coffee,” Yolanda groaned.
“Wait,” Robin said. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
Yolanda rolled her eyes and Alex stifled a laugh. The man extended his huge hand. “Charles, ma’am,” he said.
Yolanda sucked her teeth. “She knows who you are. Are you going to invite us in or not?”
“I have company and I don’t want to hear y’all’s mouth. But I do have breakfast waiting.”
“Who’s here?” Alex asked as she brushed past her sister and started toward the kitchen. Robin grabbed her arm.
“Again, Alex, I don’t want to hear a word!”
When the Richardson sisters entered the kitchen, Robin closed her eyes and waited for the explosion.
“Oh my fucking goodness,” Yolanda exclaimed. “What are you doing here? And where is your shirt? Robin, are you sleeping with this guy?”
“You mean, my husband?” Robin said. “What kind of question is that?”
“One that needs answering, because I swear you were just crying about this asshole less than twenty-four hours ago,” Alex said, then turned to Logan. “Can you put on a damned shirt?”
He spooned his grits into his mouth and shook his head. “Good morning, ladies,” he said after swallowing.
Yolanda snapped her fingers. “Charles, why don’t you kill him?”
“It doesn’t work like that, Yolanda,” Charles said. “Is he a threat to you?”
“Yes.”
“Yolanda!” Robin exclaimed. “Stop it!”
Logan pointed to the stairs. “I’m going to grab my shirt.”
Charles headed out of the kitchen and crossed into the living room.
“What the hell, sis?” Yolanda asked.
“My husband and I are going to work things out because there’s a lot going on that . . .”
Alex waved her hands. “Nah, because you said he was sharing your personal business with that bitch who says he fathered her child. You keep going back and forth with that guy and you’re the one who ends up suffering!”
Robin folded her arms across her chest. “I’m going to do what I think is right for me and my future.”
“Really? That’s what you’re calling this thing?” Yolanda asked. “The DNA test says—”
“We don’t know that the DNA test is real and we’re . . . I’m not explaining myself to y’all because I love my husband and I believe . . .”
“What changed?” Alex asked calmly. “Why are you all of a sudden drinking the Logan Baptiste Kool-Aid?”
“Because I never did what I was accused of,” he said as he returned to the kitchen with a shirt on.
Yolanda lunged toward him but held back. “I swear if I wouldn’t get put out of my sister’s house, I’d punch you in your face.”
“Yolanda,” Alex said with a sigh. “Stop acting like . . . yourself.”
Logan crossed over to Robin. “I’ve got to go. Sorry to leave you alone with all of this.”
“I’ve been handling these two all my life. I’ve got this.” Robin leaned in and gave Logan a quick peck on the lips. Yolanda groaned.
“What in the Twilight Zone have we stepped into?” she asked.
“Are y’all hungry?” Robin asked.
“Is it vegan?” Alex asked.
“No.”
“Then yes,” she replied.
“And where the hell is the coffee?” Yolanda snapped.
* * *
Driving to the hospital, Logan wondered what was going on at Robin’s place. She was right about her sisters’ anger, but he hoped that he’d done the right thing by leaving her alone to explain everything. The truth behind everything that had happened in the last six months sounded like a plot from a poorly written thriller novel. And Alex was already suspicious of anyone who wasn’t born a Richardson. Yolanda was just mad and who knows what Nina thought. Hopefully, she wasn’t spending her honeymoon thinking about what was going on with her sister.
But he didn’t need to think about that. He had to focus on the meeting with HR at the hospital. Maybe someone would drop a hint as to why he was being systematically destroyed. For a change, traffic on the interstate wasn’t bumper to bumper and there were no accidents. Logan arrived for his meeting about thirty minutes early.
He dashed into his office and grabbed that suit he kept in the closet. While he was changing, Logan looked around his office and noticed that things looked as if they had been rifled through. Granted, he had taken some time off, but why would anyone need to go through his office when his patient files were all digital? After tying his necktie, he sat down at his computer and looked through his patients’ files. Two of his heart transplant recipients had been switched to the Cooper Drug cocktail since he’d been gone. Logan banged his hand against his desk, then changed the orders in the system to what he had originally prescribed.
Then he looked around to see what if anything had been taken from his office. The Cooper Drug files were the only thing he had in his office that would be valuable. But who had access to his office while he was on leave? Looking at his watch, he realized that he needed to head to the human resources department and do his investigation later.
Heading down the hall to the human resources office, he noticed the sideways glances from his coworkers and wondered what rumors were floating around the hospital about him. Had they been discussing Kamrie’s lie, forgetting all of the good that he’d done for the hospital, for his coworkers and patients? Was this what things had come to now? Dirty looks and hushed conversations when he passed by?
If he was discredited, d
id this mean he could be replaced by a doctor who would use the dangerous drugs and cost patients their lives?
How the hell am I going to stop this? Logan walked into the HR office and smiled at the receptionist.
“I’m here for a meeting with Clorinda Kelly.”
“Dr. Baptiste, right?” the woman asked.
Logan nodded. The woman rose to her feet and told him to have a seat. “Just got to make sure they’re ready for you.”
Logan sat down on one of the plush chairs in the corner of the office. He wondered who they were.
Before he could get somewhat comfortable, he was called into Kelly’s office. “Good morning, Dr. Baptiste,” she said. “Please have a seat.”
Logan looked around the room and saw the head of the cardiology department, the medical director, and a man who looked as if he was a lawyer. All Logan knew was that this wasn’t going to be an informal meeting. But he wasn’t going to show an ounce of intimidation.
Clorinda cleared her throat as she sat behind her desk. “Dr. Baptiste, we’re here because of allegations made against you by a female staffer and to inform you that we’re launching an investigation into the allegations.”
“Do I have a right to know who my accuser is?” Logan asked.
Clorinda looked toward the man who Logan had assumed was the lawyer and he nodded. “Nurse Kamrie Bazal. She told us that you made unwanted sexual advances toward her, and during the hurricane when the hospital was on the lockdown, you, um, sexually assaulted her. That resulted in a pregnancy. And you have denied that you are the father.”
Logan chuckled. “Because I’m not and everything you just described is a lie.”
“But in today’s climate, we have to take these allegations seriously and investigate it thoroughly.”
“So, what does this mean for me?” Logan asked.
Dr. Ryder Carter, the head of cardiology, cleared his throat. “Well, we can’t have you on staff right now. So, we’re going to have to suspend you during the investigation.”
Logan folded his arms across his chest. “And this is just about the accusation from Kamrie?”
“Wh-what do you mean? Isn’t that enough?” Carter stammered.
Won't Go Home Without You Page 14