She needed to keep whatever barrier between them she could for as long as she could, because she knew that whatever he was going to tell her when they finally did talk about what happened was going to break her heart.
Not to mention that things were going to be awkward at work. She was going to have to take the job with Alejandro’s start-up just so that she didn’t die of embarrassment every day she walked into the office.
She could kick herself for wanting that kiss. For letting herself have it, for knowing what it felt like now that she wasn’t going to get another.
When the car pulled up to the front of Logan’s house, Stella didn’t wait for anyone to open the door for her. She just bolted out, ignoring Logan calling her name. A member of the house staff opened the door, and she ran up to her room, hoping she could get in there before Logan came looking for her. She got turned around in her panic, but managed to make it in there before she caught sight of him.
She grabbed her pajamas and made her way into the bathroom, making quick work of taking off her dress and hanging it up on the back of the bathroom door. She removed all the bobby pins holding her hair in place, then pulled it back in a simple ponytail.
Once she was undressed, she stared at her reflection, at the special lingerie she chose for the evening, as if there was ever a chance that Logan was going to see them.
She was an idiot. She barely recognized the woman staring back at her in the mirror.
She pulled on her tank top and sleep pants, then went back into her room and sat down at her desk. She opened her laptop, took a deep breath, and got right back into it, quickly getting into a groove.
The only thing that pulled her out of it was a light knock on the door.
Stella swallowed. It wasn’t like she could pretend she wasn’t there. “Come in,” she said quietly, halfway hoping Logan wouldn’t hear her.
He did. Of course he did.
He walked in, still mostly dressed from the evening. His tie was undone, and his hair was messy in the way it always got when he’d been running his fingers through it due to stress. Stella knew it was probably too much to ask for them to both go to sleep and pretend like that kiss hadn’t ever happened.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before the silence became unbearable.
“We can just pretend like it never happened,” Stella said, standing up because she didn’t know what to do with herself. She twisted her hands nervously behind her back just to give herself something to do while the words spilled out of her mouth. “It would’ve been awkward to correct Maureen, and I got a little caught up in the holiday romance of it all.” She was desperately trying to play it off as nothing, but Logan wasn’t buying it.
Instead of looking relieved that she was giving him an out—like she thought he would—his whole body went rigid.
“You want to pretend like it never happened?” He sounded more disappointed than she expected.
A faint hope flared in her chest, but Stella didn’t dare feed it. “You don’t?”
He licked his lips as he looked at her, his eyes blazing with lust, something that he’d never directed at her before. He walked over to her, making her whole body zing with anticipation.
“No,” he said, stopping right within her personal space, pressing his chest against hers and cupping her face. “I don’t want to forget that it happened. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I want to kiss you again, and I want to keep kissing you. I’ve been thinking about it for months, and now that I know what it feels like…I don’t want to stop.”
Stella was breathless. She couldn’t formulate words, couldn’t think of anything to say other than, yes, please.
“You have this freckle,” he continued, his voice low and deep in a way that sent an anticipatory shiver down her spine. He brushed the backs of his fingers across her neck, making goosebumps bloom across her skin. “Right here. I can see it when you wear your hair up, and all I want to do is brush my lips across it and kiss you there. Drives me crazy.”
Her knees went a little weak, like jelly beneath her. But that was okay, because Logan snaked his arm around her waist, holding her up and pulling her close. He leaned in and pressed his lips right on that spot, planting a kiss where he’d wanted to, making her run her fingers through his hair. She gently scratched her nails along his scalp, and his moan reverberated across her skin.
He kissed his way along her neck, her cheek, and finally reached her lips. It started slowly, then got more heated as she forgot where she ended and he began. The kiss was orders of magnitude above the one they’d shared at the party.
That was tinder, and this was a flame.
Stella’s whole body was on fire for this man; she couldn’t get enough.
Logan held on tightly, his hands roaming everywhere.
Stella clung to him, not believing that this was finally happening. He tasted so good—like cannoli—and his stubble left behind a delicious burn on her skin.
With a quiet moan as Stella nibbled on his bottom lip, he picked her up and placed her on the desk, giving her somewhere to sit as he kissed his way across her chest. He sucked and licked and lingered, sure to leave marks, but Stella didn’t care. She just leaned back, resting her hands on the desk to give him full access to whichever part of her body he wanted. She managed to pop a button off of his shirt as she gripped it, and his laugh against her skin was heaven.
His fingers moved along the hem of her tank top, pushing up, up, up until he was cupping her breast, his thumb flicking over her nipple.
Stella moaned and leaned back further, pressing her hand against something cold and metallic.
Later Stella would tell Logan that he kissed her senseless, and that’s why it took her so long to recognize where the loud, horrible beeping that echoed through the room was coming from.
“What is that?” he said, confused, pulling his lips from her skin.
Stella looked around, her mind too foggy to make the connection. “Oh my god! My laptop!”
Chapter Eight
Logan sat on the edge of the guest room’s bed, watching Stella as she tapped away at her computer, frantically trying to recreate the work she’d already done so that she could get back to where she was before they’d somehow managed to crash the whole system and lose any trace of her efforts.
The gist of it was—as Logan understood it through Stella’s increasingly panicked ramblings—that Stella had somehow managed to overwrite her backup with absolute gibberish, probably from when some part of her body had pressed against the keyboard repeatedly when Logan was trying to undress her.
He regretted the outcome of that fevered make out, but he didn’t regret actually doing it one bit. Maybe he should have, considering how much it was stressing Stella out.
She was wired, dark circles rimming her bloodshot eyes. She’d been up almost all night, apart from the 45 minutes Logan had finally convinced her to sleep around 5:30 in the morning.
They’d argued when she woke up, because she was insisting on postponing the vacation that she was supposed to leave for the day after next.
He refused to let her, and she dared him to try and stop her. He felt like he was going to rip his hair out dealing with this stubborn woman.
“You’re not going to be late for your vacation,” he insisted, again, for what had to have been the hundredth time.
Stella closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, the way she usually did whens she was tired of dealing with him. She wasn’t going to win this one no matter what she did.
“I can’t leave without this working.”
“Yes, you can. I asked you to do me a favor, and you did the best you could. Besides, it’s my fault—”
“If you say it’s your fault I lost the code again, I’m going to scream. It’s not. We both got wrapped up in what was going on, and technically my hand and…butt cheek were the ones that landed on the keyboard and completely borked the whole thing. So.”
Logan had to admit, he was a litt
le surprised that she was handling this so well. Especially considering she was willingly offering to give up a day or two of her time with her sisters, a trip he knew she looked forward to every year even before he understood its sentimental value.
“How are you so calm about this?” he asked.
“Because I’ve already made up my mind.”
He ran his hands through his hair, completely frustrated. “You’re not doing it.”
“I am. Do you think I could go off on vacation knowing I hadn’t finished this, leaving you in the lurch, and postponing the launch? I couldn’t do it.”
Logan was at the end of his rope. “Then take it with you, at least. If you want to do it, work on it on the plane, or at your rental.”
Stella scoffed. “Do you honestly think that would make me feel less like I was missing out? I’d be able to focus more here and get it done quicker anyway.”
“It’s not your responsibility.”
“It is. It became my responsibility when I agreed to help you.”
“Stella,” he sighed. He knew her so well, he just didn’t know how to make her see reason.
She sighed. “Please, Logan. I’m telling you that this is what I’ve decided to do. Respect my decision, and if you’re really that worried about it, stop arguing with me and let me use this time to do something productive, okay? If you don’t want me to lose time with my sisters, stop wasting the time I have now.” She tilted her head back and rubbed her temples.
She was exhausted.
“You need to sleep,” he told her.
Irritated, she replied, “What I need is to finish this.”
He stood and walked up behind her, rubbing her shoulders. He instantly felt her tight muscles relax under his touch. “Your brain is fried because you’ve been up all night. You need to rest and get sharp again. Whatever this project is worth, it’s not worth your health.”
“Logan,” she said, but he could tell he had her.
“At least sleep while we’re in the car? If you want to go and get set up in the office I won’t argue with you or try to stop you, but please, please get some rest.”
She bit her lip. “Okay. I’ll sleep, and then I’m going into the office later,” she said, like she was daring him to go back on his word and argue with her about it. “And you won’t be there, because you’ve got that charity thing to go to tonight.”
Shit. He had totally forgotten. His mother and brother were going to be there, and it was the whole reason why they were leaving this morning instead of later tonight.
“Parties two nights in a row?” he complained.
Stella stuck out her bottom lip, fake pouting as she looked up at him. “What a difficult life you lead.”
“We should probably leave soon,” he told her, sliding his hand across the back of her neck as he stepped away.
She clasped his hand before he could get too far. “Logan?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He brushed his thumb along the back of her hand.
“I still don’t regret it.”
He smiled and leaned in, giving her a soft, tender kiss. “Neither do I.”
* * *
True to her word, Stella slept in the car on their way back to the city, and she woke up and went right to the office, just like Logan knew she would. He’d gone out and gotten her something to eat, then hung around the office for a while answering emails, just so she didn’t have to be there alone (not that she’d been paying much attention to his presence anyway).
She eventually shooed him away to get ready for the charity gala he was supposed to attend later in the evening, but he stopped by the office again on his way there to drop off some dinner.
When he arrived, she was hard at work at her desk, right where he’d left her. He placed the Chinese he’d picked up for her on the edge of her desk. She was so focused she didn’t immediately see him, but she must’ve smelled the food because a few seconds later she looked at it, then looked up at Logan.
Her eyes widened in surprise, probably because the last time she’d seen him he hadn’t been wearing a tux. “What time is it?”
Logan looked at his watch. “Almost seven-thirty.”
Stella took a deep breath, leaned back in her chair, and scrubbed her hands over her face. Once she’d fully caught up to the present, she gave him a once over.
“I feel like a broken record, considering I said this to you just last night, but…wow. You in a tux is a hell of a combination.”
If his chest puffed up a bit because of the compliment, could anyone blame him?
Stella let out a cute, quick laugh. “Don’t go getting a big head over it.”
He grinned at her as she looked at the bag on the edge of her desk. “You brought me dinner?”
“It’s the least I could do, considering—”
“Please don’t start again,” she begged.
Logan held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not, I promise. How’s it going?”
She let out a long, tired sigh. “It’s…going.” She reached over and grabbed the takeout container. “China Chalet?”
He nodded as she opened it.
“Beef with asparagus,” she breathed. “My favorite. And you got egg rolls!”
“I did,” he replied with a smile.
Stella gave him an appraising look. “Thank you. You know, I really enjoy doting you compared to pain-in-the-ass you.”
Logan couldn’t help but laugh. “I expect you’ll still be seeing both of us, although one much more than the other.”
With a happy sigh and a smile, she stood and straightened his tie, then ran her fingers along the edge of his lapel, just like she did the night before. He caught her fingers in his hands and gave them a squeeze, then leaned in and kissed her.
The past day had been such a frazzled mess that it was nice to take a breather and reestablish their connection.
“We’re going to have to talk about this,” she said, her lips brushing against his.
“I know.” They had some big decisions to make, made all the more complicated by the fact that he was, still, her boss. “We can deal with it later, okay?”
She nodded, her nose brushing against his and making him smile.
“I should probably get going.”
She gave him another soft, sweet kiss and sent him on his way.
* * *
Logan met up with his mother and brother on the red carpet outside the gala. Drake quietly took him aside while their mother was chatting with someone. “How’s everything going with the coding? Did Stella agree to help?”
Logan decided it was probably not a great idea to tell him about the fiasco with the lost data—for multiple reasons—and instead went with, “She’s working on it now. It’ll be done in time, don’t worry.”
Having his brother bring the whole thing up brought the guilt back, tugging on Logan’s stomach, making it lurch. Here he was at a party, while Stella was back in the office, dead tired trying to catch up on the work she’d already done so she could get to the work she hadn’t done yet. Not to mention the whole trip postponing thing that he was definitely going to bring up again.
“Good,” he said with a solemn nod as their mother walked over to them.
She brushed some non-existent lint off his shoulder. “You look incredibly handsome.”
“Thank you, Mother,” he replied, leaning in and giving her a kiss on her cheek. “You look lovely.”
She reached up and slid her fingers along the hollows under his eyes. “You’re tired.”
“Yes,” he sighed. “It’s been a long couple of days.”
His mother raised her brow, expecting an explanation. He wasn’t about to go into detail and give her a chance to scrutinize what he’d been up to. She had always done an exceptional job of reading him, and without meaning to he might accidentally give something away that he didn’t want her to know. It was best to keep it simple.
“Well,” she said, patting his arm, “you’ll have some time to relax
over the holidays. In the meantime…” She looked down the press line with a mischievous glint in her eye. “Astrid is here.”
Logan had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Great, just what he needed, his mother badgering him about his love life. That was bad enough as it was; it was doubly worse when it involved a woman he had absolutely no interest in whatsoever.
“You should go over and say hello.” His mother’s orders were always framed as incredibly polite suggestions.
The very last thing he wanted to do was go over and talk to Astrid, just to have their picture splashed all over Page Six in the morning. He just wanted to walk the press line, mingle for the requisite amount of time, then get back to Stella. She’d work through the night if he didn’t stop her, and he didn’t want her working herself to death for him, deadline or not.
But of course, Astrid honed in on Logan rather quickly, and being the spotlight hog that she was, came over and embraced him as hundreds of camera shutters clicked.
She clung to him too tightly, her smile fake and her laughter forced.
For the life of him—even taking into account her family’s considerable portfolio—Logan had no idea why his mother was so hell bent on setting him up with her of all people.
“It’s good to see you, Astrid,” he said, stepping away to keep a polite distance. “But I have some business inside that I should attend to.” He gently wrapped his fingers around her wrists to remove her hands from his body, then he walked inside, not waiting for her to answer him.
He heard his mother calling after him, but he ignored her, pushing his way through the crowd to get to the bar. He didn’t want to deal with her right now, to talk about Astrid, or listen to her expectations for his love life. Especially not when his heart was in his office 20 blocks away, poring over code on a computer.
He needed liquor to steel himself for the likely endless, annoying night.
At the bar, he ordered a scotch. Neat.
As the bartender handed him his drink, Drake came up beside him.
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