Homecoming: The Billionaire Brothers (12 page)

With the sun beating down and an ocean wind ruffling his brown hair, Logan Harrington looked content.

The clench of her heart convinced her once and for all that she’d done the right thing in bringing him to Sanctuary. She’d always enjoyed her monthly check-in call with Penny Little, the caretaker of the Harringtons’ vacation home, and getting the news of the slow-paced, friendly island.

When Logan collapsed in that board meeting, his older brother had decreed an enforced vacation was in order. At once, Jessica had felt a tug on her heart telling her to whisk Logan away to Sanctuary Island.

He could heal here. That was worth the discomfort of answering a few probing questions.

With that in mind, she led them left on Main Street, away from the town square. The clusters of houses grew sparser the farther they walked, the quality of the road deteriorating from smooth pavement to rough gravel over the next mile. She kept an eye on Logan, whose main form of exercise was generally accomplished naked and horizontal, but he didn’t appear to be struggling as their walk stretched longer. In fact, a healthy color bloomed in his pale cheeks for the first time in weeks.

And still he didn’t ask his question.

Relaxing a bit, Jessica thumbed in the changes to her GPS map that would take them on the longer route past the stretch of public-access beach along the eastern edge of the island. Her advance prep on this place had turned up an interesting tidbit about why it was called Sanctuary Island, and she wanted to check it out firsthand.

In strangely companionable silence, they crested a small hill lined with loblolly pines. At the top, they paused to get their breath back and stared out over the vista spread at their feet.

From the break in the trees atop their hill, the ground sloped down in a tangle of wax myrtle and sorrel to the edge of a wide salt marsh. Dark green patches of tall cordgrass waved in the breeze and the scent of salt hung heavy in the air.

Jessica’s heart leaped as she caught movement from the corner of her eye. Grabbing Logan’s elbow in a reflexive gesture of excitement, she couldn’t stop herself from pointing and bouncing like a giddy child.

“Look,” she whispered. “Can you believe it?”

Logan followed the angle of her arm, eyes widening as he saw what she was pointing at. “Huh. Looks like some farmer’s ponies got out of the barn.”

Jessica shook her head, gaze locked on the small band of rangy, shaggy horses grazing lazily among the cordgrass. “They’re wild. The entire island is a wild horse sanctuary—there are no fences anywhere, and all the residents look out for them.”

“That’s insane.” Logan stared down at the horses with a perplexed smile. “Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a horse that didn’t have a mounted police officer on its back, or a carriage for tourists strapped to it.”

“They’re beautiful.” Jessica sighed, caught by the indefinable air of freedom the feral animals exuded. These were no tame pets, taught to take sugar cubes from a little girl’s open palm. These horses lived in the open, survived the harsh winds of winter and the tearing storms of spring, foraging for food along the island’s shores.

“You’re beautiful.”

Logan’s quiet voice startled Jessica from her reverie. She glanced up to find him staring at her, rather than the view. The open appreciation in his dark blue eyes sent a wash of pleasure drenching through her body.

He’d complimented her before, with a wink and a smirk or a cheerfully leering grin, and she’d easily brushed it off. This felt different. Honest. Real, in a way that should have been terrifying, but wasn’t.

“Thank you.”

She’d been right to bring them here, where magic sparkled in the sea air and rode the hot rays of golden summer sunlight. Jessica could feel her heart, the heart she’d carefully encased in layers of ice years before, beginning to melt as she watched a gangly young colt kick up its spindly legs as it gamboled through the meadow, annoying its mother.

And with every breath, she was deeply, achingly aware of the man at her side. She didn’t need to look at him to feel the moment when he lifted his hand to smooth a lock of red hair torn loose from her ponytail by the wind off the water.

The skim of his fingertips over the shell of her ear stole her breath, and everything low in her body tightened as if he’d plucked a string. Desire, the sharp, dangerous kind she’d forsaken a long time ago, heated her from the inside out. Reckless with it, drunk on the salt spray and the freedom of the wild horses, Jessica said, “I’m ready to answer your question now.”

*   *   *

Logan felt the way Jessica’s pulse fluttered under the sensitive pads of his fingers. From their closeness? Or from her obviously deep-seated fear of showing him anything personal about herself?

Deciding it didn’t matter—they had a deal—Logan ruthlessly squashed any potential guilt and said, “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. The first question. And I’ve decided to dive right in, because that’s how I roll.”

Her heart kicked again, although her finely sculpted features remained impassive. Fascinated by the dichotomy, Logan dropped his hand to the side of her neck where he’d be best able to track the data of her heart rate.
Human lie detector,
he thought absently, although he didn’t truly expect Jessica to lie. She might not be thrilled to share her history, but there was a rock-solid core of honor to Jessica that he knew would keep her from welching on their deal.

“Well?” Her voice was firm, even bored, but the tickle of her pulse against his fingers told another story.

“So eager,” Logan murmured, low and heated, just to see if her heart rate would jump. But instead it seemed to smooth out into a steady, slow rhythm. He frowned, and a smile curved Jessica’s perfect lips.

“Yes, sir.” She was the picture of demure professionalism, blinking wide green eyes up at him.

Dropping his hand with a muttered curse, Logan stepped back. “Balls. I can’t do the seduction thing when you remind me that you’re technically my subordinate.”

Her smile faded. “I know.”

Logan jammed his hands into the pockets of the track pants. “The way you boss me around, I forget sometimes.”

“You sometimes forget to pay attention to anything that isn’t related to the company or your gadgets.” Jessica shrugged, wandering over to perch on a fallen tree trunk by the side of the path. “Someone needs to look out for you.”

“It took me a while to realize that’s why you’re so damn bossy.” Logan ran his fingers through his hair. “How many times did I fire you that first week? And since? But you never go.”

He didn’t mention the glow of warmth it gave him now, every time he pushed her away and Jessica pushed right back. In Logan’s experience, people left. They couldn’t freaking wait to leave, which was why he preferred to spend his time with the fascinating puzzles in his lab rather than socializing.

Jessica was different. She never courted his interest, never tried to intrigue—and yet, effortlessly and inevitably, the enigma of Jessica Bell had captured Logan’s attention.

“I don’t go because you have no power to fire me,” she reminded him with relish. Man, she loved to hold that over his head.

“And apparently, even at my most deliberately obnoxious, I don’t have the power to make your life miserable enough to quit.” Once it had sunk in that he couldn’t fire Jessica and make it stick, he’d pranked her mercilessly for a week.

He’d rigged her desk drawers to stick, then pop open at irregular intervals. He’d fiddled with her ergonomic office chair so that whenever she sat down, the seat sank to the lowest position. He’d reprogrammed the calendar application on her tablet to randomize the date and time of every event she entered. And when none of that fazed her, Logan got really creative.

“Remember when you convinced the entire security staff that I was a stalker and should be barred from Harrington Tower?” Jessica sighed reminiscently. “Good times.”

“That was one of my favorites. I spent hours doctoring the security feed to show you sneaking into my private lab after hours. First time I ever missed a deadline for Miles.”

Miles Harrington, in his capacity as CEO and president of Harrington International, had not been pleased when Logan failed to appear at the quarterly meeting of the shareholders. In his capacity as the eldest Harrington brother, Miles seemed to enjoy pointing out how much Logan’s pranks looked like the pigtail pulling of grade school romance, to the untrained eye.

“That was the last of the pranks, come to think of it,” Jessica realized.

“And it was the start of your campaign to transform me into a healthy, well-adjusted human being.”

“Not that you make it easy.”

With an evil grin, Logan flopped down in the grass, careless of staining the new workout gear. “Why would I make it easy for you to turn me into Miles when it’s so much more fun to be me?”

He tilted his head back to catch the unfamiliar warmth of the sun on his face, and caught Jessica’s troubled gaze.

“You know I don’t actually want to change who you are, right? I want you to take better care of yourself. There’s a big difference.”

Equal parts uncomfortable with and delighted by her show of concern, Logan stretched his long legs out in the grass until his sneakered foot nudged hers. “And you’re so dedicated to my health that you’ve agreed to answer whatever question I pose, no holds barred. So here it is.”

She crossed her legs as elegantly as if she were wearing a couture gown instead of spandex pants and a sweatshirt. Without his human lie detector trick, there was not a single crack in her poised, professional façade. “Hit me.”

Suddenly, all Logan wanted in the world was to shatter that mask of calm indifference. To make Jessica Bell react with passion. So he ditched the softball question he’d planned to ask about her parents, and went straight for the throat.

“Why are you so determined to keep me at arm’s length?”

She froze for an instant, only a heartbeat, before opening her mouth. Too quickly.

Logan shook his head. “And don’t give me that canned stuff about professionalism. I want the real answer. Because we’d be explosive together, Tink, and you know it.”

The hot red flush that bloomed along her cheekbones set off a battery of triumphant fireworks in Logan’s chest. Passion!

Of course, when she spoke, her voice was precise and calm, edged with enough acid to sting. “What I know is that you’re spoiled. You’re a wealthy, uncommonly intelligent man entirely too used to getting what you want. Maybe I turn you down just to help you get accustomed to hearing the word
no.
”

Logan blinked, genuinely taken aback. “What makes you think I get everything I want? And I noticed your little evasion there, by the way. Don’t expect me to let that slide. I want a real answer.”

“To which question?” Jessica asked tightly.

“Both! All!” Logan clenched his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching for her. “I don’t see how you can consider me spoiled when I’ve lost everyone that ever mattered to me. Just because I have the sense to read the pattern and limit my desires to those that are attainable—like casual sex, alcohol and my work—that doesn’t make me spoiled. That makes me a realist.”

Jessica fell out of her prim pose on the log, her lithe limbs going loose and appealingly awkward as her laser focus zoomed in on his face. “Logan.”

It was all she said, his name, but it felt brand new, as if she’d never said it before. Or never so intimately. Heat constricted Logan’s chest, threatening to spread downward to his groin.

Hastily drawing his legs up to rest his arms on his knees, he said, “But this isn’t about me. I’m pretty sure deflecting the question onto me and my inner workings violates the spirit of our agreement. So unless you want to call for a helicopter to come pick me up from this godforsaken rock…”

Jessica narrowed a glare at him, her breath coming sharp and fast. Tension strung out between them, taut as a wire. Greedy for more of the real Jessica Bell, the passionate woman instead of the perfect assistant, Logan did what he’d do with any experiment that began to show signs of success. He pushed it further.

“I know you have the company’s chopper pilot on speed dial,” Logan taunted, standing up and dusting himself off as if he were on the point of heading back to the cottage to pack. “We could be landing at the Wall Street heliport before nightfall.”

Jessica sprang to her feet, going toe to toe with him. “We’re not leaving Sanctuary!”

“Then answer the question!”

Something flickered in her gaze, a lightning flash that ratcheted the tension even higher. Logan wanted to taste the sneer that twisted her gorgeous lips. “It’s a ridiculous question. Have you honestly never considered that I turn you down because I’m not sexually attracted to you?”

The challenge snapped between them like a rubber band drawn tight. Everything in Logan’s blood leapt, speeding through his body and propelling him forward a step until they were close enough to share breath.

If she retreated or faltered, Logan told himself, he’d leave it alone. But Jessica never backed down for an instant. She tilted her head up a centimeter, heated defiance vibrating through her taut form, and Logan lost his always-tenuous grip on healthy, well-adjusted behavior.

“Let’s test that hypothesis,” he rasped. He wrapped his arms around her slim, arched back and seized her mouth in a deep, hungry kiss.

Chapter Four

The imprint of Logan’s strong fingers branded Jessica’s back with heat, his arms like ropes of fire binding her to him. She gasped, but not in surprise.

She should be surprised, she understood dimly through the maelstrom of desire his lips and tongue stoked in her body, but she wasn’t. They’d been heading toward this kiss ever since they first met. The only surprise was how long they’d held out.

Logan kissed the way he did everything else: with an intensity of focus and dedication to skill that made Jessica feel like the only woman in existence who’d ever gone weak in the knees at the taste of his mouth.

Of course, that wasn’t anything like the truth. The memory of exactly how diligently Logan had practiced his kissing technique was enough to stiffen her melting spine. She pushed out of his arms, shuddering at the brush of her clothes against overheated, sensitized skin. “That’s enough.”