Logan grins. "So, you remember my single piece of furniture, huh?" He winks, and I know he's talking about the bed.
The bed from that night.
"You can come by and see it whenever you want, you know."
I huff my breath out in disgust. "You're delusional if you think that would ever happen again."
"Oh please, keep pretending you haven't thought about it, cute stuff." He taps the desk with his knuckle and then looks up at me in this over-the-top suggestive way that brings a flush to my cheeks. "I mean no one would have to know, darlin. Might make working together go a little easier."
I roll my eyes, trying to subdue the grin threatening to spread across my face. "Oh, very romantic, Logan."
"Who said anything about romance?"
I can feel my face getting hotter by the second as I start to lose my hold on my thoughts and as they begin to drift to all the dirty fantasies I've been having about him.
Suddenly the room itself begins to feel warmer and smaller the longer I spend in it alone with him
"I need to go," I say, shaking my head and starting towards the door.
"Hang on." He reaches out and grabs my arm.
I try and ignore the feeling of heat and buzzing electric current on my arm where he's touching me as he steers me back around.
"Are you going to be like this every time we meet, because if so, I'm done." I mutter, crossing my arms over my chest.
He grins. "You wouldn't, not with what it would mean for your research group funding."
"Try me."
His grin falters for just a second. "Fine. No, Doc, I won't be."
"Good." I can feel my own smirk on my face, feeling this momentary feeling of triumph.
"Will you?" He's shrugging his jacket off and draping it over the back of his chair.
I frown at him. "Excuse me?"
"Be all moody and clearly sexually frustrated like this every time we need to be together for this project?" Logan starts to casually unbutton his dress shirt, and button after button reveals more and more hard muscled chest and etched lined ink of his tattoos.
"No, I- What are you doing?"
He shrugs. "Oh, I have a free hour so I was going to head down to the gym. What?"
He's trying to act like it's the most natural thing in the world for him to be taking his shirt off in front of me in his damn office. He reaches for his belt-buckle and smirks at me.
Goddamn him. He's trying to tease me and get a rise out of me, and I'm pissed because I know it's kind of working.
That fucking cocky smirk is right back on his face, and I feel my cool dropping. "Oh please fuck off."
I turn my back as he starts to lower his pants, if only because I feel like I should, even if part of me is dying to see Logan in just his boxers.
Get a grip, lady. I mutter to myself.
"OK, you can look now," he says sarcastically. I turn and find myself almost disappointed that he's actually wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt.
"Listen, you know Peyton will probably treat you better if you let her know you can stand up to her."
"I didn't come here to play power-games." I sneer.
"Can I be honest?" He says with that infuriating grin on his face. I shoot him a look, and he rolls his eyes. "Fine, I'm gonna take that as a yes. You're a pushover, Quinn."
"I am not!" I huff at him, feeling the heat bloom up through my chest.
"Yes you are!" His eyes flash at me and his voice is booming, and I find myself taking a step back from him.
"Fine. Whatever."
He smirks at me. "See?"
My lip curls as I glare at him. "Did you just fucking yell at me to make a point?"
Logan nods his head at me. "Look, I'm just saying you should stick up for yourself more often, put up more of a fight."
"You know what, Logan?" I sneer out. "Don't think for one second that just because we- just because of what happened, that you know anything about me."
"What, like that you were up for that team leader position at the hospital and you got pushed out by someone far less qualified than you?" I narrow my eyes at him and he grins. "Yeah, I heard that story."
"It's a bit more complicated than that, Logan."
"Ok, so she sucked his dick for the job? Yeah, heard that story too. Look I'm just saying you should be more assertive."
"What, like I should have blown him too?"
A dark look flashes across his face and his jaw tightens for a second. "Fuck no, I'm saying if you just stood up for yourself a bit more, that shit never would've happened to begin with."
"Says the guy keeping secrets from his best friends and fighting in weird underground boxing matches?"
"Not everything is what it looks like on the outside, you know."
I force out a harsh laugh. "That's my Dad's line, not yours."
"At some point, you are going to get bored of this whole ‘fuck you, Logan' thing, right? I mean there's no way it's healthy to be this much of a bitch all the time, Quinn."
I narrow my eyes at him, my fists clenching. "You want to see how healthy it is for you to call me a bitch again?"
Logan hoots. "Archer! Damn, looks like you do have a little fire in you, darlin."
I huff my breath out and go to push past him, when he grabs me by the wrists and spins me around, and I gasp as I fall against his chest, my heart hammering in my veins.
His smell and the heat of his body just invade my senses, as well as any sense of keeping my wall up as I find myself speechless and staring up into his eyes with my breath caught on my lips.
"A little fire suits you pretty well, you know." He growls, his eyes flashing at me.
"You don't know what suits me." I whisper, swallowing heavily as I find myself unable to look away from those deep eyes of his.
"Well we've got that jet to D.C. tomorrow for the meeting," He says quietly, his voice thick and low. "How about I show you exactly what would suit you at 30,000 feet?"
My breath hitches at the thought of Logan Dempsey "showing me exactly what would suit me", and I'm suddenly slowly leaning forward into him.
"What do you say, darlin," he winks. "Think we should join the mile high club?"
And just like that, the spell shatters, and I realize it's not some dream guy I'm inches away from kissing right here in his office.
It's Logan fucking Dempsey. The polar opposite of my dream guy.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
But I'm shoving the voice in my head aside and then pushing away from Logan. My wide, doe-eyed stare turning to a scowl as I realize how close I came to just making the mistake all over again.
"Looks like some things are exactly what they look like on the outside, Logan." I hiss, yanking my hand away from him.
I turn sharply on my heel and storm away before he can even open his mouth.
Chapter Seven
Logan
In a perfect world, it'd just be me and Quinn sitting on this plane tonight. Okay, in a perfect world we'd be doing a whole lot more than sitting, but I digress. In any case, a perfect world this is not, so instead I'm also stuck on my jet with two guys from our finance team and Peyton.
Quinn's turned away from me and looking out the window, and as I catch myself staring at her, I also find myself weighing out the risks of what's going on here. Whatever the nature of our, well, whatever this little train wreck of two people is, her even being around me is dangerous. Because of the fights, because of my past, and because of who I am. I'm like a fuckin magnet for violence, and it should go without saying that being around Quinn isn't a good idea.
Of course, neither is sleeping with her, for that matter.
She clears her throat across the cabin from me, and I suddenly focus and realize I've just been staring at her and she's busted me for it. There's a hint of a grin on her face, as if she's amused that she's caught me like that, but then she rolls her eyes and looks away. Peyton is talking to me about God knows what, and I frown as I realize her hand is on my arm just about the same time Quinn catches the gesture and scowls at it. I excuse myself as politely as I can, leaving Quinn, Peyton, and the finance guys to continue going over some of the finer points of the contract.
As amusing as it is seeing Quinn Archer get all jealous and angsty - and it really is - I need to clear my head, and it's tough going while cooped on a plane with her.
I step out of the bathroom in the back of the jet directly into Quinn. I freeze at the contact, feeling her body pressed against mine in the tight confines of the galley space by the back of the plane, and I can see her eyes go wide and her face go flushed as her breath catches in her throat.
She clears her throat. "Let me get by."
"Relax, I'm trying." But I'm not. At least, not that hard. I'm enjoying being this close to her too much, and I'm definitely enjoying the way I can see her pupils get wider and the way that adorable pink flushes across her cheeks.
Her mouth is half open, and she closes it with a snap as her eyes narrow at me. "Your little games aren't cute, Logan."
"What games?" I say as innocently as possible, trying and failing to hold back the grin on my face.
"Trying to rile me up. Those games." She hisses, her eyes darting toward the front of the plane where the others are sitting with their backs to us, as if she's worried how this might look with us being pressed together in the tight confines of the hallway.