She abruptly quit putting it off and called Logan and waited.
"Where you at?" he questioned without any preamble, instead of answering with a simple hello. Lauren heard the sound of his voice and as always, it sent pleasure all the way to her toes. Would she ever get used to his caveman-like grunts? He never spoke in complete sentences. Everything was so basic with him.
"I dropped the clients at the airport," she tried to sound matter-of-fact but wasn't sure she'd pulled it off.
He must have heard something in her voice. "And?"
She took a shuddering breath. "Please don't go off half-cocked."
Three long seconds passed before he answered neutrally, "Okay."
"My car broke down," she announced on a deflated sigh.
"Are you with the car now?" His voice was suddenly all terse, very business-like.
"Yes. On the shoulder of the road."
"Okay, that's good. Do me a favor, baby." His voice gentled and wrapped around her like a caress. "Look around you. Where's the closest place with a lot of people?"
Lauren held the phone to her ear and swiveled her neck. "There's a McDonald's across the street."
"Can you cross the street safely?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Grab your purse, switch on your flashers, and get over there and then call me back. Do it now."
Logan forced himself to breathe slowly and steadily as he went to meet her. He knew she was safe; there wasn't any reason he should be panicking. He focused on that calming thought as he drove up to the McDonald's some twenty minutes later. He walked into the fast-food restaurant, and found Lauren sitting in a booth, reading on her cell phone. She glanced up with a look he couldn't read when he came to stand over her.
He attempted not to touch her, just to prove to himself that he could, but it was out of his control. He leaned down and planted a kiss on her lips.
He stood back to his full height and studied her. She looked a little shell-shocked. "I didn't see your car."
She frowned. "They towed it."
"What? You couldn't stop them?"
"No. They said it was in the way and someone might hit it and get hurt. I didn't want to argue because they might have been right."
He gave her a look and tilted his head toward the door. "Let's go."
Lauren followed him to his truck. He started the engine and then leaned toward her and tilted her chin up. "Are you okay?" He ran his eyes over her but he couldn't make out what was making her hold herself so stiffly.
"Yeah, just waiting." Her voice sounded resigned and he didn't care for her loss of animation.
"Waiting for what, babe?" he asked, as gently as he could while he inhaled the fragrance of her skin and tried to absorb the calming knowledge that she was indisputably safe.
"Waiting for you to start yelling," she responded softly.
Guilt pierced him. "What makes you think I'm going to yell?"
She watched him, studying his features. "You want to, don't you?"
He tried like hell to lie to her, but he couldn't. "What I want to do is strangle your boss."
A tiny hint of a smile lifted her lips and she leaned over and kissed him on the lips. "Thank you."
She was thanking him? "For what?" he asked, the pleasure of her touch fucking with his brain just like it always did.
"For not taking this out of my hide," she said, cutting her eyes to his.
Logan felt the arrow in his groin, just where she'd aimed it. "Oh, darlin', just wait 'til I get you home."
The rest of the week flew by for Lauren. Logan took care of everything that had to do with her vehicle. He arranged for a rental to be delivered to her, and he handled the dealership that was working on her car.
Lauren had to admit, it felt nice to have him take care of her that way. Sure, she could have handled it herself if she'd had to, but why not let him? He expected her to let him do it, and she was busy with other things, so she let him handle it.
The days passed in a blur of work and Logan, and by the beginning of the following week, she had her car back.
She also had another dinner meeting scheduled, and she was forced to break the news to Logan when he texted her and tried to confirm where they would meet that evening.
I'm going to be busy until late. Maybe tomorrow?
What gives?
Dinner with clients.
He didn't text back right away and Lauren knew he was thinking about what he would type. His texts always came back swiftly, and this time it didn't. She knew he was upset, but there wasn't a lot she could do about it.
When he finally sent a message, it was a simple question. Is ten tonight okay?
God, she wasn't going to get any sleep at all and decided to tell him so. I kind of need some sleep.
I'll let you sleep.
Would he let her sleep? Lauren had no idea. The guy could burn the candle at both ends when he wanted to. Still, she did want to see him and she loved sleeping next to him. You want to come to my house?
He replied in two seconds: Sure.
Okay. See you at ten.
Lauren set her phone down and wondered what she'd just opened herself up for. He was always volatile when she got home from meeting with clients. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that he'd go ballistic on her ass once again.
Her stomach muscles clenched just thinking about it.
She did need sleep, but God, she was a lucky girl.
Lauren was totally wiped out when she pulled into the parking lot of her apartment at nine-thirty. She hated never-ending work days like the one she'd just had. She was so tired and already dreading the next day so much that all she wanted was a bed and a pillow.
As she was getting out of her car, Logan pulled in after her. As she gathered her things and pushed open her door, he came around and held her it open. There was no mistaking the grimace on his face. "I was trying to beat you here."
"Why?" she asked as she began walking up to her apartment.
"Obviously, I didn't want you walking around in the parking lot by yourself at night."
Lauren wasn't surprised. She knew him pretty well by now and this was just another example of his method of operation.
As she unlocked her front door, he stood to the side. "Why don't you gather some things and we'll go back to my place." The way he projected the words could have been a question, but somehow, Lauren knew it wasn't.
But she truly didn't care where they slept. She was completely neutral on the idea and decided to let him have this one if it would expedite getting some sleep. "Okay. I'll just be a minute . . . or you can go on and I'll meet you there."
"You think I'm going to let you walk in the dark by yourself just so I can get home a few minutes earlier?"
Well, hell no, what had she been thinking? "Okay, I'll only be a minute."
As Lauren gathered her stuff, throwing everything in the cosmetics bag that she'd learned to keep handy, she heard him in the living room, surfing through television channels. It didn't take long for her to gather her work clothes for the morning, and she came out of the bedroom ready to go.
"We're going to leave your car here. I'll drive you back in the morning." He didn't take his attention from the television as he made that statement, but nevertheless, Lauren got the idea his focus was solely on her; she felt the subtle tension that held him so stiffly.
She debated on how to handle him. It niggled at her that every time she gave him an inch, he tried to push for a mile. Did he think that she didn't notice what he was doing? But at the same time, she didn't care one way or the other, in fact, she'd probably rather ride with him. She was tired and didn't feel like driving, and her apartment was centered between his house and her work, so she wouldn't be losing time in the morning.
"Then why are we even going? We should sleep here, it'll be so much easier." She turned as if the decision was made, and dropped her floral bag that held her things just inside her bedroom door. Then she went and sat by him on the couch as if she were settling in for a while.
Lauren fully expected him to go commando on her ass, because slowly and surely, he was always pushing her to stay at his house. But he didn't. He was sneaky about it, damn him. And maybe he was actually telling the truth?
His muscles tensed as he turned to face her. "I've got another couple of hours of work I need to finish tonight and I need to be at the house to do it."
She leaned back farther in her seat. "Then why didn't you tell me to meet you there in the first place?"
"I thought I'd be finished before now. And time slipped away and I forgot to text you again."
Lauren studied him as his perfectly reasonable words sank in. He picked up a strand of her hair and proceeded to annihilate her heart even more when his voice gentled. "But if you're too tired to come with me, just rest here and I'll go get my laptop and stuff and be back in half an hour. I should have brought it all when I left the house."
Just when she thought she had this guy pegged. "Logan . . . "
His hand slid from her hair and his thumb swirled around her jaw. "What, baby?"
"I'll probably be asleep when you get back . . . you know, too tired to . . . "
Her words trailed off as his fingers caressed the line of her cheekbone. He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "That's fine. I want you to sleep. But you're okay if I come back and finish my project and then sleep here with you?" As she watched him, he added, "Just sleep, okay?"
She reached out with trembling fingers and laced her fingers with is. "You want to just sleep with me?"