One Night With Her Ex: The One That Got Away / The Man From her Wayward Past / The Ex Who Hired Her. Kate Hardy
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me,’ muttered Logan.
‘Next time, call me when you’re coming to visit,’ countered Evie. ‘And I will. They’ve been circling one another all week. Best show in town. Mind you, that’s what Max says about us.’
‘Evangeline, do you and Max have any distance between you whatsoever when it comes to your personal lives?’
‘Some.’ Evie held up her forefinger and thumb an inch or so apart and turned her head so that she could see his eyes. ‘We’re friends who work together. We’re in each other’s face all day and we know what’s going on in each other’s lives. There’s no lust. It shouldn’t bother you.’ Apparently she could see that it did. ‘You shouldn’t let it bother you,’ she said firmly, and brought his hand up to her lips and pressed a quick kiss to the knuckle of his thumb.
Eventually, the MEP crowd thinned. Max kept smiling but seemed somewhat preoccupied. The swaggering Kit had ambled over to the snooker tables in the far corner of the room and started playing. Money was changing hands. Kit looked as if he was working towards finding trouble. Logan eyed the rest of the sharks over by the pool tables. He wouldn’t have to wait long.
‘Ready to go find something to eat?’ Max asked them, with a swift glance in Kit’s direction.
‘Your call,’ said Logan, for it was Max’s party. ‘He coming too?’
Max shot him a sharp glance.
Logan shrugged and raised an eyebrow. Acknowledgement, if that was what his brother wanted. An innocent question if not.
‘I—ah.’ Max glanced Kit’s way again and this time the other man turned around and caught his eye. Long glances were exchanged before Max turned away. ‘No. I don’t know what I’m doing there. Probably not a good idea to do it in front of you two.’
‘Stay here, then,’ offered Logan. ‘See if your pool-hustling friend wants to grab a bite to eat with just you and then stumble around all you want. Who’s going to see?’
Max laughed tightly. ‘He’ll see. Lord, I’ve got no experience with this. None.’
‘Chances are Kit knows that,’ offered Evie.
‘You don’t mind?’ asked Max gruffly, and his question wasn’t just for Evie. Max was looking at Logan with something that looked a lot like pleading.
‘It’s your call,’ he said again, not knowing what other assurances to give his brother, and hell would freeze over before he started dishing out advice. ‘I’ll run with whatever you want.’
Max glanced back towards Kit again, and that was enough for Logan. ‘We’re going. You’re staying. Not sure I ever want details.’
‘Amen to that,’ said Max and with a wry nod he headed towards Kit.
Evie tucked in beside Logan as they left the pub. She put her hand in the crook of his arm and every time her shoulder brushed his Logan felt tension leave his body. It was the most relaxed Logan had felt in over a week. ‘What do you want to eat?’ she asked him.
‘Thai?’
‘Perfect.’
Even the way she said perfect was perfect. Evie embraced the now better than anyone else he knew.
‘Damn, I’m glad you’re here,’ she said, bumping his arm this time and making Logan grin. ‘What brings you here? Apart from me.’
Cocky. Entitled. And damned if he didn’t love that about her too.
‘I came because of Max too. I just wanted to be here when the civic centre decision came through.’
‘Good for you,’ she said. ‘Good for me. How long can you stay?’
‘I have a morning flight to Perth. I need to be back in London in three days’ time.’
Evie stopped abruptly. ‘One day? Not even that?’
‘Work’s a little crazy right now. I’m sorting it.’
‘Why didn’t you say so earlier?’ Evie’s hands were on her hips, her eyes telegraphing irritation. ‘We could have left that pub an hour ago. You could have been in my bed by now. Where’s your brain?’
Nowhere close by.
There was a shadowy shopfront doorway just a few steps away and Logan took full advantage of it, pulling Evie into the darkness along with him and backing her up against the wall. He’d been holding back all evening, knowing that the eyes of people she worked with were on them. Never undermine the boss’s authority. Golden rule of business, so he’d packed his need to stake his claim on her away and kept his hands and his mouth to himself for the most part.
But there were no work colleagues watching them now.
Threading his fingers through hers, Logan brought Evie’s hands above her head and leaned in to capture her lips in a kiss so deeply consuming that he feared he might forget his own name.
Though there’d be no forgetting hers.
Evie moaned, deep down in her chest, and her fingers closed tightly over his.
A gasp from Evie as he moved on from her mouth and set tongue to that little V between shoulder and neck. A whimper from him as her body arched in search of his. Hands at her waist now, gathering her close.
‘Logan, please. Let me take you home,’ she whispered, with her hands in his hair and her mouth to his temple. ‘Please, before I come apart. There’s food in the fridge, I can feed you if you’re hungry, just—the things I want to do to you—I don’t want an audience. Just you.’
Logan groaned and loosened his hold. ‘Hire-car keys are in my front pocket,’ he told her and groaned anew when she found them. ‘I swear the car’s around here somewhere. Back the other way.’
So they went back the other way and found the car and Evie drove them home. He didn’t touch her until the door of her apartment shut behind her. He didn’t dare. And then he dropped his overnight case by the door and looked at her and then she was in his arms and sanctuary was his along with salvation.
He didn’t want to have to take control tonight; he’d never be able to maintain it. But she didn’t ask it of him, just got busy with the removal of his clothes until it was skin on skin and hunger driving them, no room for any other edges between them this time.
Too many stairs to make it to the bedroom and the sofa was right there, soft and wide and the cushions could go and he could be on his back with Evie sliding over him, right there, for ever there.
Owning him heart and soul.
LOGAN left before dawn. ‘Got to be in Perth this morning,’ he whispered against her lips and Evie opened sleep-heavy eyes and smiled, because although he was dressed in a business suit and tie, the conventional clothes, he still had sex god stamped all over him as far as she was concerned.
‘Do come again,’ she murmured and fell back asleep in the time it took him to cross the floor and reach the stairs.
When she woke again, she woke alone, but the memory of last night stayed with her. Of Logan’s acute pleasure and her own, and the memory made her stretch lazily and smile and roll over into his side of the bed just so that she could close her eyes and breathe in the scent of him on her sheets. She scrubbed her face against the pillow, ran her hand over the not-so-smooth-any-more sheets.
‘Morning,’ she murmured. Wherever he was.
And she wondered how long it would take him this time, before he returned to her again.
Easy enough to give a man his freedom if Evie’s heart weren’t truly in it and they were simply