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Ernie acted like he wasn’t asking for anything difficult. “Tell me where you were.”
Logan looked at him a long time before he eked out an answer, his voice tight and stiff with tension. “Classified.”
And it was. He wasn’t just using that as a bullshit excuse.
“No problem. Just paint the picture for me. Not a country or province. Just the setting. The woods? A dirt road? Jungle? Sweltering heat or dead cold of winter?”
Logan took a deep breath through his nose and held it in, only releasing it when he felt his lungs begin to burn. As a former SEAL, that was quite some time.
“Dirt road. Dust storm. Hoofing it out of—” He stopped. He couldn’t say.
“Tell me about the smells,” Ernie’s low voice prompted.
Hell.
Logan rubbed a hand down his face and braced himself. Then he took one more deep, cleansing breath, and pushed on. He knew with certainty that for the next few weeks Ernie would ask him to retell this story again and again. He stood and went to the pool table, racking the balls and began his story as he did.
“It’s a smell that never goes away,” he said as Ernie joined him. Ernie didn’t comment. He just picked up his cue and rounded the table, waiting for Logan to break.
Chapter 11
“You okay? You’ve been quiet the last few days,” Sam said as she hip-checked Logan.
They stood in the backyard at Jack and Kelly’s at another barbeque. The couple was famous for barbeques. Even at five months pregnant, Kelly seemed to bounce around the yard, loving her role as hostess and chasing after not only her own daughter, but the other kids at the gathering as well.
Logan nodded and smiled, but she didn’t buy it. She narrowed her eyes at him.
He wasn’t okay and she knew it. He’d seemed to be doing so much better but something was happening in the last few days and she was afraid he was sliding down hill.
“I don’t believe it, babe,” Sam said, knocking into him again.
“Babe?” He laughed as he raised a brow at her and hip-checked her back. The sound of the laughter coming from deep in his chest was genuine and it lightened Sam’s own chest in return. It felt good to hear that sound.
“Yeah, babe,” she said and smiled cheekily at him, happy she’d gotten a rise out of him. But, then he quieted and his gaze latched onto hers. Her breath caught in her chest as she waited to see what he would say.
“Shit’s just been getting, uh … a little more intense at the counselor. It’s just been a little tough lately.”
Sam slipped her hand in his and squeezed. “I think it’s pretty great that you’re doing that. That you’re putting yourself through something that has to be incredibly hard, to get better. It sucks that you need to, you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well.” Sam brushed her hair back and looked at him with rounded eyes. “If you think about it, it sucks that you have to fight this battle here, now, after fighting so many battles for us overseas. You did your part, you know? You should be able to come home and live in peace. Instead, you’re having to fight all over again to get your life back. It’s not fair.”
Hell if something didn’t catch in his chest, his throat. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was fighting … tears? Oh, hell no.
“You know I might not ever be one hundred percent again, right? I might not ever be able to go out in crowds or sit in a crowded restaurant and be comfortable. You get that, right?”
She nodded. “I get it. I’m okay with that.” Sam looked across to where Chad and Jennie were and nodded toward them.
“You know, Chad still has problems every once in a while. He has nightmares, things Jennie has to pull him out of.” Sam grinned at Logan. “She told me if I ever have to wake you up from a nightmare, I need to stand way across the room and call to you. She said it’s safer than trying to wake you while we’re lying in bed.”
Her words had the desired effect as Logan’s eyes darkened and sparked to life in front of her, his look heating in a heartbeat.
He tugged her hand closer to him, using it to turn her and pull her body flush to his. They hadn’t stood like this since that kiss in her office weeks ago, but her body recognized his immediately and warmed to it. Heck, warmed was an understatement. It melted and she fell into him, leaning against the hard planes of his chest, her thighs pressed to his.
“Do you want that, Samantha?” he asked and the growl in his voice, the way he used her full name and let it fall off his tongue, sent heat and moisture between her legs. It felt as though he caressed her from head to toe. “Do you want to lie in bed with me?”
“Oh God, yes,” she said and then gasped at how desperately needy and downright horny she’d sounded. She laughed nervously but he dipped his head to hers and brushed his mouth to her lips. His kiss was soft and light, teasing and taunting her.
