Chapter 4 #2
It occurred to Logan that perhaps it was Tyson who needed the distraction. Logan had been walking around with his head up his ass for so many months, he’d failed to see Tyson was facing his own struggles as well.
“You miss Harley?”
“Is that really a question?”
“I’m sorry, man. Didn’t realize how rough it was on you. I miss her too.” He really did. Though her departure had been easier for him. He’d always hung out more with Evan than Caleb, Harley, and Tyson—who had been inseparable for most of their lives.
“It’s alright. Let’s face it. You took a double hit. I mean, Jane took off just a few weeks after Harley.”
“Yeah, I guess I did.”
Tyson placed a friendly, comforting hand on Logan’s shoulder. “Believe me, there are plenty of other women out there who would be lucky to have you. Jane didn’t deserve you.”
“Uh. Am I interrupting?”
Logan glanced over his shoulder to find Lacy standing next to him with her purse over her arm.
Great. From the look on her face, it was clear she’d heard Tyson’s comments and now she thought he’d been sitting here crying in his beer over Jane.
“No. You’re not,” Logan said, standing. He needed to get her out of here. Set things straight. “You ready?”
“You two going somewhere?” Tyson asked curiously.
“He fixed my chaise. We’re taking it back to my place,” Lacy replied. The happiness she’d shown when he had first arrived at the restaurant was gone, replaced by uncertainty.
“Need any help?” Tyson started to stand.
“No,” Logan said quickly. “It’s light. We can manage.”
He placed his hand at the base of Lacy’s spine and guided her to the door before Tyson could insist.
He continued to propel her toward his truck even though she appeared to be dragging her feet. When he opened the door, she paused. “If you’d rather do this another time…”
Logan shook his head. “Get in the truck.” He didn’t make it a request and he didn’t bother to make it sound nice. He’d spent a week waiting for the moment when he’d get her alone again, and he wasn’t wasting the opportunity on misunderstandings.
As always, Lacy responded to his commanding tone, which didn’t help his already painful erection.
He’d stopped trying to beat the fucking thing down the second they got out of the restaurant.
Now he was wondering how the hell he could walk around to the driver’s side without limping.
God help him if anyone in the restaurant was looking his way.
It was bound to be obvious what was troubling him.
Logan climbed behind the steering wheel, adjusting his dick before he did himself an injury. Lacy’s eyes twinkled briefly and she opened her mouth—no doubt to give him shit for his condition—before she sobered up again and remained quiet. He hated seeing her upset.
“Don’t.”
She tilted her head, confused. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t think what you’re thinking. I’m not still hung up on Jane.”
“No one would blame you if—”
“I don’t miss her.”
Lacy didn’t appear to believe him. “Logan—”
“I don’t miss her, Lacy,” he said more resolutely. “The breakup was long overdue and I think I’d mourned the end of that relationship before it was even over. She and I were wrong for each other. It’s over. I swear.”
“Really?”
He could read the doubt in her tone and he didn’t blame her. Three years was a long time to live with someone. And he hadn’t helped himself by holing up inside his shop for a year after it ended, not bothering to date anyone else.
“She has nothing to do with us.”
Her smile grew. “There’s an us?”
He closed his eyes, wishing she didn’t befuddle him so. She had him talking in circles, saying everything wrong. “For now.”
His response didn’t dim her enthusiasm. “Now works for me.”
His lids opened at the sound of her shifting on the seat. She was wearing a short skirt that she lifted just enough to show him that she wasn’t wearing panties.
Logan had never considered himself the jealous type, but knowing she’d been flitting around that restaurant all day like that had his vision going red. “You worked like that all day?”
She laughed. “Good God, no. My Uncle TJ was in there. How awkward would that be? I took them off and stashed them in my purse just before I came to meet you at the bar.”
She was too adorable for his own good. “I like the idea of you dropping your panties whenever I show up.”
“Logan?”
“Yeah.”
“Can we go now?”
He made no move to start the truck. “In a hurry?”
The dirty girl reached between her thighs and ran her finger along her slit. Logan watched, spellbound, as she raised one very shiny finger to him. “Yes.”
He started the truck, using the five minutes it took for them to get from the restaurant to her front door to control himself.
Foolishly, he’d agreed to the no-penetration rule, as if that somehow kept him true to his promise to Evan.
He hadn’t just broken the damn vow to his friend; he’d shattered it and was currently dancing barefoot on the shards.
When they arrived at her place, he took a steadying breath and forced himself to calm down. He’d sworn to himself when he loaded up the chaise and left his shop, he wouldn’t touch her tonight. He’d slowly extricate himself from whatever this was.
Lacy was halfway to her front door before he could find the voice to call out, “Forgetting something?”
She looked over her shoulder, finding him standing at the end of his truck bed. “Oh. Yeah. The chaise.”
From her heavy-lidded eyes, Lacy had expected him to drag her upstairs and let the games begin again. He was sorely tempted.
Logan lowered the back of the truck and slid the chaise out. It wasn’t that heavy. Lacy helped him guide it down then held on to the light end, leading him to her door and up the stairs to her apartment.
He’d been in her place once before three years earlier, when he, Tyson, Joel, Walt, and Evan had helped her move in.
He had spent the day lugging furniture, placing it here, there, and then back to here as she directed their movements and changed her mind every five seconds. Logan hadn’t been back since.
Once she opened the door to her apartment, he followed her in and whistled. Damn. The place had been nothing more than white walls and a few hand-me-down pieces of furniture last time.
“You like it?” she asked, setting the chaise down just inside the door.
He followed suit, letting his gaze travel around the space.
Logan knew she had an eye for decorating and a knack for taking someone else’s trash and uncovering hidden treasures.
But seeing all her efforts put together like this…
“It’s beautiful, Lace. So homey.”
Her apartment looked like the kind of place where a man could come home, kick off his work boots and sink into the comfy couch with a beer.
He could spend hours just looking around at all the cool pieces she’d found.
While he knew most of the decorations in the place were flea market and yard sale castoffs, everything worked together.
More than that, it looked damned elegant.
Lacy was clearly pleased by his praise. “Thanks. You know, if you ever want to redesign your showroom, I’d be happy to help.”
“Is that your subtle way of telling me the place looks like hell?”
“Well…”
He chuckled. “I’d love your help. Keep intending to work on it, but I never manage to shift around more than a couple pieces before I get overwhelmed and give up.”
“I was thinking that if you added some funky artwork to the walls and maybe set it up like a house layout, it would show off your furniture better. Plus, I could add a few vases, knick-knacks, stuff like that, to add some color and some visual interest. I think it would make the whole place pop.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’d really like that.”
“Awesome. I’ll come by next week on my day off and we can draw up a layout. And then I’ll start hitting the sales looking for the pieces I’m envisioning. It won’t cost much. Promise.”
“Money’s not an issue. I suspect the investment will be worth it in the long run.”
“And you’d be helping me out too.”
“How’s that?”
She grinned as she waved around the room. “I’m sort of at maximum capacity for crap in here. This way I can still fuel my bargain-shopping addiction without crowding up my apartment.”
“I see. Speaking of, where’s this going?” he asked, pointing at the chaise. There didn’t seem to be a spot for it in the living room.
“My bedroom.”
Of course.
Logan blew out a long sigh. “Listen, Lace. I think—”
She stepped closer and placed her finger over his mouth. “You promised me three times.” She smelled like flowers and French fries; the combination was ridiculously appealing.
“We need to be practical about this.”
“Okay. So be practical. You said Jane wasn’t an issue. Is that true?”
He nodded though he wasn’t sure that answer was entirely accurate. While he wasn’t still hung up on his ex, he was struggling with the fallout, trying to find a way back to normal.
“And what do you think Evan would say if he found out?”
Logan knew the answer to that. “He wouldn’t say anything. He’d beat the shit out of me very quietly.”
“You’re best friends, Logan. He loves you like a brother. What makes you think he’d disapprove of us as a couple? Is it the age difference?”
He shook his head. “No. It has nothing to do with your age. We’re both consenting adults.”
“Then it’s the sex. I mean…the way we like to have sex.”
Logan didn’t reply for a long time. He had been terrified of scaring Lacy away with his sexual appetite, but rather than run, she’d responded to it.
With Jane, he’d worn the kid gloves at the beginning, introducing her to his desires slowly.
That technique had blown up in his face.
By the time he figured out they weren’t compatible lovers, he was in love with her, so he adapted, tried to hold back some of his stronger urges.
When the silence stretched too long, Lacy filled it. “You didn’t seem to have these hang-ups when it came to Yvette. What makes me different from her?”
He reared back. “Yvette?”
Lacy flushed. “I followed you one day. Watched you take her when her grandmother was out of the house.”
“That was nearly ten years ago.”
She shrugged. “I know.”
“You were just a kid.”
She scowled at his comment. The woman was touchy about him referring to her youth, but he’d spent too many years of his life seeing her as a kid. While that certainly wasn’t true now, the fact remained that she had no business spying on him at that age.
“I was seventeen and not entirely innocent.” Then she seemed to recall what she’d seen. “Of course, after that, I wasn’t innocent at all.” She laughed, but Logan didn’t find the humor.
“Jesus. You were too young to see that.”
“Maybe I was, but I’m not going to pretend it didn’t turn me on. A lot. Like a lot a lot.”
Logan ran a hand through his hair and forced himself to recall all the things he had done with Yvette. He had no idea which day she’d followed them, but any of them would have provided her with a fairly substantial education in kinky sex.
The knowledge certainly explained her interest in pursuing him, in her research on BDSM. He’d unwittingly exposed her to his true nature and the spark had ignited. Years ago.
He had no business being here.
“Let’s put this chaise in your bedroom. Then I need to head home.”
“What? Why? Are you pissed off I followed you and Yvette? Because—”
“No, Lace. I’m not pissed. I’m just coming to my senses.”
She fell silent for several moments. He let her sort through her thoughts, taking the time to get his own settled.
“I’m getting tired of chasing you, Logan. Sick of trying to force you to see something that’s standing right in front of you. You want to be blind? Fine. Be blind. I’m not in the mood to beg.”
She bent over and picked up her half of the chaise. He lifted his side and followed her to the bedroom, her words racing through his brain. Why couldn’t she see that he was trying to do the right thing?
They were halfway across the room when something on the bed captured his attention.
He put the chaise down and walked over to the mattress. “What the hell?”
Lacy followed him, picking up a thick butt plug and waving it around as if it was nothing more scandalous than a hairbrush. “I did some online shopping after the last time we were together. I was sort of hoping you’d educate me on all of this.”
“That was one hell of a shopping trip.”
In addition to the plug, there was a vibrator, a large dildo, nipple clamps, a crop and a jumbo-size tube of lubrication.
He’d met the woman of his dreams. And he’d known her his entire life.
Lacy sank down on her bed, letting her skirt ride up high on her thighs. “Guess I’ll have to find someone else to introduce me to—”
“Lacy,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Yeah?”
“Get undressed. Now.”