The Billionaire's Kiss(83)

Callie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. A dozen different emotions had knotted themselves up inside her. She was elated and confused, relieved and worried all at the same time. She felt so many emotions but had only one thought. “Logan,” she asked, “what happens now?”

He grinned. “Now I can get you in as much trouble as I want, and no one will care.”

“‘I think I’ve had enough trouble for one day,” Callie said. She looked over her shoulder at the mansion. “What did you say to get us out?” she asked.

“I didn’t say much,” he said. “I just wrote a very large check.” Logan motioned towards the path back off the grounds, looking for any hint of the security guards who had so kindly escorted them out of the house. “Now, let’s go before I have to write another.”





Twenty One

Logan swirled the wine in his glass as looked out toward the ocean. Halfway through dinner, he already felt like the evening was slipping away from him. He hadn’t planned on Jack turning everything around so quickly. There were so many things he had wanted to tell Callie before the bill passed. He had wanted to tell her how much she meant to him, but mostly he had wanted to ask her again to stay, but the bill had passed and the opportunity was gone. “So what happens now?” he asked. “Your job is done. Do you simply disappear in the night?”

“Don’t say it like that. I’m still trying to process everything. It all just happened so quickly. I mean, there’s still the cleanup work to do with the whole sex tape thing, and then there are my responsibilities back in DC. I just want to forget about all of it for a while.”

Logan placed his glass down and leaned in over the table. “Have you thought about staying?” he asked.

Callie sighed. “I’m sure I can stick around for a few days,” she said.

She was being pulled in a dozen directions all at once. Logan could see it. He just hoped that his pull would eventually win out. “That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I mean for good. Like I said before. It doesn’t have to be Newport. We could move anywhere and start a life together, just you and me.”

“I know,” Callie said. “I just, I don’t know what to do. When things started, everything was so much easier. This was fun and… easy, and it didn’t mean much, and now everything has changed.”

“Now it’s miserable and hard?” Logan said. He grinned at her. “I know what you mean. Things got serious. You should stay. It doesn’t have to be forever, just long enough for us to figure out what this all means.”

“You know I would if I could,” she said.

“Why can’t you?” he asked.

“You don’t understand what it’s like to work for my sister,” Callie said. “I just can’t take time off for myself. No one does.”

Why was she so afraid of her sister? Logan wondered. It just didn’t make any sense to him. “The way you explained things to me, it sounded like you were a partner in the business.”

“I am, but she founded the company. It’s her baby.”

“She’s about to have an actual baby, you know the kind that poops and cries and needs its bottle constantly,” Logan said.

“Sounds a lot like some of our clients,” Callie said. “I get your point, but that’s why I have to go back. I have to run the company.”

“Will it burn to the ground if you’re not back immediately? I mean that. Will literal flames consume the building and burn it to the ground?”

“No, of course not,” she replied.

“Then stay for a little while, or do you enjoy following every single order your sister gives?”

“Of course I don’t,” Callie said.

“So stand up for yourself. Do what you want to do. Stand up for yourself. You are brilliant and quick-witted and tough, and yet you bend over backwards to accommodate her every dictum.”

“Logan. I’d do almost anything for you,” Callie said.

“But not that,” he said. He shook his head. “Don’t do this for me. Stand up to her for yourself. You go toe to toe with powerful men and women every day.Why not her?”

“I wish I could,” she said, “but I just can’t. Look, can we talk about something else?”

Logan could see the frustration in her eyes, like she wanted to tell him something more. He wasn’t going to sit around and spend the rest of his life waiting for her to decide whether or not she wanted to be with him. “I would do anything for you,” Logan said, “absolutely anything.” He paused for a moment and searched for the right words to explain the ache he felt deep in his chest. It was like he already missed her even though she was right there with him. He felt like he was watching a storm roll in off the bay and that there was nothing he could do to stop it. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before,” he said quietly. The hesitation in his voice spoke louder than his words.