Never Let Me Go: The Complete Set (16 page)

“Where are you staying right now? I can’t imagine you want to sleep in your bed,” Mom asked.

“I stayed at Grace and Faith’s last night, but that’s not a permanent solution. I can’t go back home. There are too many memories right now.”

“You’ll stay with us.” Mom got up and put her arms around her husband and her daughter. “Like your dad said, we’ll figure this out together.”

The one thing you could always count on in the DeLeo family was that we always had each other’s back. No matter the situation, we were always there.

I met Logan for lunch after leaving my family at the restaurant.

“You look tired.” He brushed his thumb across my cheek.

“I am. It’s been a long day already, and it’s only lunch. I just came from my parents’ place, and we got Hope squared away for the time being. She’s going to move in with them for a bit until her and John figure this mess out.”

“How do you feel about it all today? Do you think she should leave him for good?” He put an arm around me.

“I honestly don’t know. I know she still loves him, of course she does, but it’s hard for her to see past what he did at the moment.”

“That’s understandable. How do you feel about everything we talked about last night?”

“Solid.”

“Good.” He snaked a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a kiss. Have you given any more thought to moving in with me?”

“What’s your rush?” I looked up at him.

“No rush, I just want to wake up with you every morning. I feel like I wasted so much of my life without you, and now I want to make up for lost time.”

“Stop saying things like that. It makes it so hard for the logical part of my brain to win in this argument.”

“Maybe you should let it win then. Maybe the illogical part of your brain has your best interest at heart.” He kissed me.

“Ask me again in a month. Give me some more time to get used to the idea. I just told you I loved you. We’ve only really been together for like a month and a week. Let’s play it safe.”

“Fuck safe. Kitten, I love you, and I want you in my house, in my bed. I want you wherever I am all the time. I hate being away from you. It kills me. Knowing you’re sleeping somewhere else when you could be in my arms.”

“There you go again, saying all the right things.”

“Think about it the next few days, okay?”

“Okay, I can at least do that.”

“Thank you. Now let’s go eat, I’m starving.”

“Busy morning of conquering worlds and taking souls?” I laughed.

“Yeah, something like that.” He grinned. “Mostly I just thought about you and how nice it was to wake up with you in my arms.”

“Oh no, don't start that again.” I playfully slapped at his arm as we walked into the restaurant.

“No one’s starting anything, just telling the truth.” He gave me his best innocent look.

“I think I could eat everything on the menu.” I perused the selections. I hadn't eaten breakfast, and it was catching up with me.

“You know, if you move in with me, I’ll make sure you eat breakfast every morning.”

“Logan,” I warned, giving him the evil eye.

“Kitten, you can’t blame a guy for trying can you?” He winked, and my heart melted into a puddle at my feet. I was screwed.

LITTLE BY LITTLE, I WAS
moving Grace into my apartment. A few drawers for her clothes, a whole rack in the closet, and half my bathroom. She was none the wiser. Shaileen’s wedding was two weeks away, and I was trying to talk Grace into going shopping with me for some fabulous clothes for the trip. I hadn’t told her we would be going somewhere else after the stop in California. My plan was to take her to see her sister Charity in England, and then a special stop at a secret location.

“Logan.” She rolled her eyes at me before glancing back at the computer on the desk. “I have plenty of clothes, and I don’t have time to go shopping today anyway. There are literally a million things I need to get done if you want me to take off two whole weeks.”

“Make time, Kitten. Life’s too short to spend your whole day in the office.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “This, coming from you?”

“What can I say, I’m a new man since I’ve been with you.” I leaned over her desk and kissed her. “Say you’ll come.”

She looked like she wanted to complain and tell me no, that cute little furrow appeared between her brows. “Fine, you wore me down. Besides, an afternoon with you sounds far better than what I had on the schedule for the rest of the day anyway.”

I was around her desk with my hands pressed flat on the wall behind her chair in a split second. She was effectively trapped between me and the wall. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

A flush crept up her neck, making me want to scrap the plans for shopping and bring her to my apartment instead.

“Keep that up, and we won’t make it out of the limo,” she said breathlessly, her cheeks pink.

“Keep what up?” I asked innocently.

“You know exactly what you’re doing to me, Mr. Smoldering Sex Appeal. Not that I don’t enjoy it.” Her hands grazed my biceps on the way to looping her arms around my neck.

I leaned in, my lips a breath away. “You want it, Kitten. I can feel it.”

She closed the distance and her fingers laced themselves in my hair, pulling my face to hers. Our lips parted in unison, a sigh escaping hers.

Just as I was about to haul her to her feet and spread her out over the desk, someone coughed behind us.

“Am I interrupting?”

I turned to find Faith smirking at us.

“If I said yes, would you leave?” I countered.

“Depends on if Grace said yes, too.” She laughed.

“What can I do for you Faith?” Grace scooted out from under me looking only slightly annoyed to be interrupted.

“I was coming to see if you wanted lunch, but I can see you’re not hungry.” The smirk was back.

“Actually, we’re going shopping,” Grace grimaced.

“Shopping, really?”

“Yes, Logan seems insistent.”

“I am insistent.” I kissed her. “In every aspect of life,” I whispered in her ear. I was rewarded with a full body shiver and a heated look.

“Well, you kids have fun while the rest of us slave away in the office.” She left with a grin and a wave.

Once we were in the limo, I scooped her up onto my lap. “How was your day?”

“Better now.” She snuggled against me, letting out a contented sigh.

“See, playing hooky is good sometimes.” I twirled her hair around my fingers.

“Seems like I’ve been doing that a lot since I met you.” Her lips brushed mine.

“Nothing wrong with playing as hard as you work.” I nipped at her lip.

“I like to play.” She looked at me through her lashes and all but purred the words.

“Do you now?”

“Very much.” She undid a few buttons on my shirt and leaned down to lick at my skin.

“Kitten, don’t start something you can’t finish.” I fought to maintain control, but it was quickly becoming a losing battle.

“Hmm?” Not paying any attention to me, she continued.

I gripped her hips.

The car stopped, and I groaned.

“What’s that saying about delayed gratification?” She winked and slid off me before the driver opened the door.

“Evil woman,” I growled and slapped her ass as we walked up to the department store.

“Tell me you don’t love it.” The heat in her stare would burn me alive from the inside out.

“Come on then, before I do something crazy and drag you into a bathroom.” I sighed and grabbed her hand.

Our first stop was to the formal wear section. Shaileen was having a very over-the-top wedding, which was not at all surprising. So, Grace and I would both need something.

“Do you have a color in mind?” She fingered a silky pink dress.

“For you? Yes, I want you in emerald green. I’ve been thinking about you in a slinky green dress for days.”

“How slinky are we talking?”

The sales woman came over, and I gave her my suggestions before letting Grace have her say.

I sat in the ‘boyfriend chair’ by the entrance to the dressing room and scrolled through my phone.

Grace emerged from the room in a gown that took my breath away. Mermaid cut with a plunging back and a sweetheart neck.

“Wow.”

“Good wow?” She did a turn in front of the mirror.

“Very good wow.” I got up and walked around her. “I don’t think you even need to try anything else on, nothing could be better than this.”

She blushed. “It’s so not me. This is a ‘Faith’ dress. She would pull it off so much better.”

“Do you not see yourself in this? You fucking own it.” I kissed her neck from behind her. “I want to do very naughty things to you in this dress, Kitten. Very naughty.”

“I..I guess we found the dress then.”

“We did. Now go get changed and meet me in the suit department. I need to look at fabrics and then we can hit up the lingerie section.”

“Lingerie?”

“I have some ideas I’d like to see come to life,” I said in even tones.

Grace gave me a heated look before returning to the dressing room.

I COULDN’T CATCH MY BREATH
. From the second he had come into my office, he had stolen my concentration. Now I couldn’t think about anything but him. He stood in front of me wearing a charcoal grey suit looking all kinds of sexy. The man did ungodly things to a pair of dress pants, it should be illegal to look so good.

He caught my eye in the mirror. Fuck. The smolder was in full effect. Desire coiled in my stomach like a snake ready to strike.

“This will be the one,” he said to the man standing next to him. You have all my measurements on file.” He stepped down from the pedestal and gave me a quick but thorough kiss before going back to change. I felt a little lightheaded.

The lingerie department had pretty much everything you could think of or imagine. And it appeared that Logan had a very extensive imagination.

“Satin,” he whispered into my ear.

“What?”

“I have a thing for satin.”

The snake coiled tighter. I could hear my blood rushing in my ears.

“I also like those garter belts and bras that push you up so I can get my hands on you faster. You have your assignment, have them charge it to my account. Meet me downstairs when you’ve finished.” His lips crushed against mine. I was panting when he pulled away.

“Don’t keep me waiting too long. I’m feeling impatient today.” He gave me one last look before heading off toward the elevators.

I walked through row upon row of sexy things. I was not the sex kitten; that was Faith. I was out of my element.

“You look like you need some help.” A well-dressed woman approached.

“I guess you could say that. I need to find some things, all in satin.”

She gave me a knowing look. Logan had just left so there was no mistaking why I was here. “Follow me, we have some amazing pieces.”

She led me to a section with shiny satin barely there lingerie on small hangers. This appeared to be where I needed to be. The thought of wearing any of this made me anxious. It brought back memories of Scott. Wearing things for him and having him tell me I couldn’t pull them off. It had damaged me.

I gave myself a mental shake and reminded myself that Logan was nothing like Scott. They couldn’t be more different. Instead of giving into the anxiety, I pushed it away.

I let the woman, Stacey, start a dressing room and fill it with more things than one person could ever wear.

The last thing I tried on was a black satin set. A balconette bra, thong, garter belt, and black silk stockings. I stared at the stranger in the mirror. Where had this person been for so long? I was looking at a woman who oozed confidence, a person who actually felt sexy. I ran my fingers along the soft silk of the stockings and tried to imagine how Logan would react seeing me in this. I shivered as I thought about his lips pressed against the exposed skin of my breasts. The snake coiled tighter in my stomach. I would be wearing this one out. Knowing that it would be under my clothes to surprise Logan was getting me hot and bothered.

“Stacey, I’m going to wear this out if that’s okay with you?” I stuck my head out the door.

“Let me just clip your tags, and you’ll be good to go.” She winked.

“I’ll take the other things, too, charge it to Logan McFadden’s account please.”

“No problem, we’ll have them wrapped up and sent over with your other purchases. Enjoy your evening.”

In the past, I would have been mortified by this experience, but today it made me feel bold and sexy.

I found Logan leaning against a wall on the phone. He was gesturing with his hands, a smile on his face. God, he was sexy. And all mine. He wanted me, no one else. My heart leapt into my throat.

He caught me staring, and his smile broadened. He came and kissed me on the cheek.

“Smith, I’ll call you later, my girl just came down.”

My stomach did a little flip. I slid my arms around him and pulled him in close, inhaling his scent. This was home for me now. This man who loved me more than I deserved to be loved was where my heart lived.

He brought his lips to mine and slid his tongue along my lower lip as he grabbed my ass with both hands.

“Logan! There are like a billion people in here.”

“Fuck if I care,” he murmured and went back to the kiss.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” I tugged him toward the door.

After we got into the limo, I was on him, hiking my dress up enough to straddle his hips. I was ravenous for him. Like I had been starving all my life.

He ran his hands up my legs and sucked in a strangled breath as he felt the silk of the stockings. I stopped him before he could discover the garters. “Uh uh, you have to wait until we get home.”

“Home?” He gave me an odd look.

“Yeah, the apartment.”

“You realize you just referred to my apartment as home right?” He brushed a thumb over my lips.

“Um…” I didn’t know what to say. Like everything else, Logan had made me crave something I had been adamant I didn’t want.

“Did you mean it?” He looked at me intently, searching for the truth.

“Yes,” I whispered before burying my face into his chest. I wanted to be with him every day, to wake up with him. He was right, this was better.