Chapter 10 #3
Because Ares believed Logan had cheated in his last game.
With a sigh, Logan took off his tux coat. He even rolled up his sleeves to reveal both forearms. “Satisfied?”
A hard nod from the guard who’d done the talking. His gaze shifted to her. “Now you.”
“She’s not taking off her dress,” Logan snapped. “Nice try, jackass.” He rolled down his sleeves. Shouldered into his tux coat. Then he was in front of Charlotte. “Okay, sweetheart, you’ll have to ditch that favorite knife.”
Her eyes widened. Had he truly just sold her out that way?
He bent before her. His hands went to her dress. He began to lift up her dress.
“Logan?” Her hands clamped around his shoulders.
He lifted up the dress even more, until he revealed the knife she’d strapped to her thigh. His fingers skimmed along her inner thigh, and sure enough, heat poured through her veins. She bit her lip because she almost moaned, right there, with the guards watching them.
He unhooked the strap and tossed both it and the sheath toward the lady with the tray. In a fast show of dexterity, the woman lunged forward. Both items landed on her tray.
“Done,” Logan said. His hand still lingered against Charlotte’s thigh. He looked up at her.
“We’re not done,” the guard huffed. The talkative one. Maybe an inch shorter than the other guy and with a neatly trimmed beard along his jaw. “We are not done until I search her.”
She saw Logan’s face harden. Uh, oh.
Another little caress of his fingers against her thigh.
Then he let the dress fall back into place.
He rose, putting his body in front of hers as he turned to confront the guards.
“Have I not shown good faith?” Logan inquired.
A very polite tone. With Logan, she’d learned that polite often equaled dangerous.
“Did I not surrender my weapons without an argument? Did I not let you pat me down?”
“You did but—”
“And I just took away my Charlotte’s favorite knife. We will be collecting that when we depart, by the way. Not like I can let her leave her favorite one behind.”
Good to know. She was attached to that knife. It had been her dad’s.
“She has no other weapons on her,” Logan concluded.
She did.
“Where would she hide them?” Logan asked. “You just saw her legs, and the bodice of her dress is far too tight for concealing anything.”
She craned around his body to glimpse the guards.
They both looked suspicious as hell.
“We have to do the search,” the chatty one insisted.
“No one but me is touching Charlotte tonight.” Logan tilted his head back and stared at a camera that had been positioned near the top of the elevator’s closed doors.
“Hear that, Ares? It’s a non-negotiable point.
Either we’re cleared now or we leave. Really doesn’t matter to me.
Actually, on second thought, it does matter.
” A nod. “I’d rather leave. I’d rather go back to the limo and fuck Charlotte on the way home.
That is going to be way more fun than anything you have planned at your lame-ass, private—”
The elevator doors opened.
“Oh, look at that, would you, darling?” Logan exclaimed as he reached back for Charlotte’s hand.
Whenever he holds my hand, I will always remember reaching for him in the dark.
Her fingers curled around his.
There was…security in his hold. Comfort. Trust?
“I believe those open doors mean that Ares wants us to come on up. The search is over.” Logan guided her past the guards. “Don’t go losing that knife,” he warned the woman. “I’ll be super pissed if it vanishes.”
Charlotte entered the elevator. So did Logan. He turned back to the watching group.
“The brass knuckles, too,” Logan added, as if it was an afterthought. “Family heirloom, you know? My dad knew how to take care of business back in the day.”
The doors slid closed.
Logan didn’t even push a button. The elevator just began to rise on its own. Or, more likely, because Ares had control of the elevator system.
“He owns the whole building?” Charlotte asked. She retreated until she was against the rear wall.
“He does. For the moment.” Logan pursed his lips.
“It would make a lovely addition to my portfolio, don’t you think?
” Deliberate words. He’d turned and was closing in on her.
“I’ll see if he feels like gambling it away tonight.
” He put an arm up near her head. Flattened his palm against the wall. “You’re gorgeous.”
“Logan?” He had a predatory look in his eyes. His face was intent. His desire? Obvious.
“Gorgeous. And you are very much mine.” His mouth claimed hers in a ferocious, demanding, hot kiss.
Her lips parted beneath his. Her hands grabbed for the lapels of his tux. She gripped them hard, and she kissed him back with a full fury of lust. The kiss was for show, she got that. Logan was sending a message to Ares. An Ares who had to be watching through a camera in the elevator.
Logan had warned her that it was showtime, and well…
They certainly had to put on a good show.
A moan slid from her, only for the sound to be greedily swallowed by his mouth.