Never Let Me Go: The Complete Set (9 page)

“I need to be where you are for the time being. It’s that simple.” I pulled her against me. “This feels right to me. Does it feel the same to you?” I hated feeling insecure, I wasn’t used to it, and I didn’t like it.

“Of course, it does. You feel like home to me, Logan. When I saw you in the lobby the other day, my heart almost leapt out of my chest. I don’t want to be without you any more than you want to be without me.”

Who the hell was I anymore? Gone was all the bravado and the rules I normally had. I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed with her all day. I didn’t even care about work, which was very much not like me. I should be worried, but I wasn’t.

“Come on, let’s go and weed through your clothes and find what you can’t live without. Let’s start with suits shall we?” She kicked her heels off and padded into my huge walk-in closet.

I followed her in and started making piles on the racks.

“What about this one?” She held up one of my favorite suits with a huge grin. it was the one I had been wearing when we met.

“I think yes.” I leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“I think yes, too.” She beamed at me.

An hour later we had piles of clothes set aside to be packed up.

“Do you have boxes or anything?”

“For what?” I asked.

“Um, packing.” She looked at me like I was crazy.

“I hire people for that, Kitten. I haven't packed a box in as long as I can remember. The only thing I will pack is enough clothing to see me through until the boxes come.”

“Sometimes I forget how rich you are.” She shook her head.

“Yep, that’s me, Mr. Moneybags,” I teased her.

“Well, then what are we going to do with these piles of clothes until they get packed up?” She gestured to the stacks, piles, and racks.

“Move them to the living room for now. I have better plans for the bed.” I grinned wickedly at her.

“I seem to remember you saying something about wanting to pack me full of something.” She giggled and swayed her hips.

“I think we need food before we can get to that, don’t you?” I went to the kitchen to peruse my stack of take-out menus.

“Do you not have any food in the refrigerator?” She opened it up and found only milk, orange juice, and coffee creamer. “Really, Logan? This is all you have in here? How do you survive?”

“I eat out.” He shrugged.

“All the time?”

“Yep. I don’t really cook, and I let my housekeeper go about seven months ago. So no, I never make food in this apartment.”

She laughed softly and took my hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“To buy some food so I can make dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow.” She gave me an exasperated look.

We walked to the grocery store a few blocks away because there was a break in the rain and Grace wanted to stretch her legs.

“Do you love it here?” she asked as we walked hand in hand. New York in the fall was one of my favorite times of year. Not too cold, not too hot.

“I do, but I’ll love being in Chicago just as much.”

“Oh yeah, and why’s that?” She rolled her eyes, expecting a cheesy response.

“Because you’ll be there.” I stopped and pulled her into my arms, stealing her breath away with a kiss.

“What am I going to do with you?” She grinned up at me.

“I think the question is what would you do without me?” I kissed the tip of her nose and we continued on to the store.

“What do you want to eat tonight?” she asked as she grabbed a cart.

“I don’t really care. I’m not picky about food.” I took the cart while she walked up and down aisles and threw things in.

She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and pondered between two flavors of ice cream.

“Get them both.”

“We don't need both, we’ll only be here another day or so right?”

“Kitten, just get them both, you obviously want them.” I took them and put them in the cart.

“God, you are so bossy.” She sighed and continued with the shopping.

“We’ve been over that fact before,” I said dryly.

“I didn’t say that I didn’t like you being bossy.” She kissed my cheek and sauntered off down the aisle.

“Has Brooke made up her mind about coming to Chicago?” she asked, and I could tell by her tone she hoped the answer was no.

“Jealous, are we?”

“No, not jealous. Just curious.” She gave me a bland look as though she was trying to prove the point.

“No, she has not made up her mind yet. I promise you’ll be the first to know when she does.” I grinned.

“Ass.” She stuck her tongue out at me.

Back at home, Grace was in the kitchen chopping things and stirring pots. I wasn’t sure what she was making, but it smelled amazing.

“Can I help?” I leaned against the counter.

“Nope, but you can help with breakfast tomorrow if you want. This meal is all me.”

“Okay, have it your way.” I left the kitchen, and went to the small office I had in the apartment.

I had a mountain of work that I hadn’t gotten to when I was actually at the office. Seeing it all made me feel like I needed someone to take over for me. That thought was quickly squashed as soon as I got into it. There were three emails from the small record label I had acquired in L.A. All of them wanting to know what I thought of the artist they were considering signing. I looked over the information they had sent and fired off a quick approval. I could see the potential and knew that there was money to be made there.

Next there were countless emails from my sister and a few from my mother. Both wanting to know why I wasn't returning their phone calls and text messages.

I sighed and dialed my mom’s number.

“Logan? What on earth have you been doing that you can’t call your mother?” she scolded.

“Hello to you, too, Mother. I’ve just been busy.”

“You haven’t been at work.” She shot back.

“No, I haven’t.” God, I hated that she was checking in on me. It’s not like she even cared when I was growing up.

“Would this have anything to do with the woman in the trench coat who accosted you in the lobby of your office building?” she said, her tone was brisk.

My fingers gripped the phone in my hand. “First of all, she did not accost me. Second of all, she is none of your business. Is this why you called? If so, I need to go.”

“Logan.” Her tone was icy.

“Mother, have a pleasant evening. I’ll phone you next week when things settle down a bit.”

“Your father spoke to Jared this morning. Were you planning on telling us you were relocating to Chicago?”

“No, I wasn’t. Since when do you even care where I live?” I hated that she brought up my father, as though he was supposed to have some significance to my life. Neither of them ever cared enough to find out anything about my life unless it directly affected them.

“I care because I won’t let some gold digging whore work her way into your life the way you let…”

I interrupted her. “Shut up! This has nothing to do with
her
. You don’t know Grace, or the way we feel about each other. I will not sit here and listen to you call her a whore. She is anything but.” I slammed the phone down hard enough to crack it.

Grace appeared a moment later. “Logan? Are you okay? I thought I heard shouting.” She looked concerned and a little scared.

“I’m fine,” I said tightly. My temper was still up, and I didn’t want to take it out on her. “Give me a moment, okay?” I rose from my seat and kissed her lightly before going out to the balcony.

Leave it to my mother to ruin a perfectly good evening. I gripped the metal railing and looked out over the city. Gradually, I relaxed. A few minutes later, I turned around to find Grace watching me from the living room, a nervous expression on her face.

I opened the slider and walked in.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly.

“I am now.” I pulled her against me, inhaling her scent. She always smelled like flowers.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She brushed her lips against mine before pulling back to look me in the eye. I could feel her anxiety.

“No, I really don’t.” I pulled her in tighter.

I WASN’T SURE WHAT HAD
upset Logan, but I didn’t like that he wouldn't share it with me. I made up my mind that tonight I would get him to open up to me. I couldn’t stand the wall between us. I needed him to trust me. If whatever this was we were in was going to work, he had to trust me.

“Dinner is almost ready. If you would like to join me in the kitchen, you can set the table.”

“Your wish is my command.” He kissed my knuckles. “What are we having anyway?”

“Tortellini in homemade sauce and sautéed veggies.”

“Sounds heavenly.” He followed me into the kitchen.

“So, tell me what that was all about?” I broached the subject again.

“Grace.” His tone held a warning.

“No. Sorry, but I’m not going to let this drop. If you want me to be a part of your life, you need to let me in.” I stood my ground, a hand on my hip. I was going to be strong about this, even though I felt like jelly on the inside. Confrontation was not my thing. I needed him to understand me, to get that we needed to be open with each other.

He raked a hand through his hair and glared at me. I knew I was painting him into a corner, but I didn’t really care.

“Look at it from my perspective, please. I’m an open book. You know all there is to know. You, on the other hand, I know almost nothing about. Every time I ask you something, you shut me down.” I let some of my frustration out.

He sank onto one of the barstools on the other side of the big island. “I do want to let you in. It’s hard for me. I’m not free with myself the way you are.”

“You think it’s easy for me to be free with myself? It’s not. It’s a battle with myself sometimes. But I have to trust you, I need to trust that you won’t crush me.” I forced myself to look him in the eye so he could see how serious I was.

“I never want to hurt you, Kitten.”

I nodded. “You need to give me something here, Logan.”

“What can I do?”

“Start with that phone conversation. Who were you talking to?”

He sighed. “My mother.”

“What made you so upset?”

“She made insinuations about you that I didn’t appreciate. My mother and I have a very complicated relationship.”

“I see.” I stirred the sauce in the big pot on the stove.

“I don’t want her to ruin anything. She always does.”

“She can't ruin things if we don't let her. Thank you for telling me.” I smiled.

“It’s not going to be easy with me, Kitten, I want you to know that going in. I’m not easy, nothing about me is. You're going to have to work at this with me.”

This bit of honesty was what I wanted. I needed it. “I’m willing to work at it, as long as we’re both on the same page about it.”

The look in his eye changed, shifted to heat, a slow smolder. He was up and around the counter in a moment, and I felt myself being lifted onto the island.

His lips grazed my collarbone. “I want to be what you deserve.”

“You already are,” I whispered. His arms circled me, one hand on my thigh, the other behind my neck.

“Kitten, where are your panties?” he growled as his fingers slid along the smooth skin of my upper thigh.

Thank goodness for skirts. “Um, I didn’t wear any today.” I was not thinking clearly. His fingers traced little circles on my skin.

“Good lord, what am I going to do with you?” He pushed my skirt higher.

“I can think of a thing or two,” I panted as he closed in on the one place I wanted him to be.

“What about dinner?” he whispered against my lips.

“Dinner? It can wait. I think we have more pressing matters to attend to.” I gestured to the front of his pants. It was apparent that he was enjoying himself as much as I was. “Let me just turn off the burners.” I hopped off the counter and turned off all the knobs and put lids on everything.