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Until her very respectable fiancé turned out to be the bastard—was that a word that anyone used anymore?—son of a business rival. How fucked up was that?
He had to wonder sometimes if fate was just having a massive laugh at his entire family. His dad had certainly stirred up some bad karma in the business world over the way he stabbed associates in the back and undercut rivals. And, of course, in his personal life he’d slept around on his wife, had affairs and lied to them all.
Was he any better? Logan wondered. He tried to be the charming and kind person that his mother was. Tried hard to balance his ruthlessness with a softer side, but it wasn’t all that easy.
“Dude, you’re bringing me down by standing in the shadows and brooding,” Leo said, coming over and taking one of the drinks from his hand. “It’s a party. Even a workaholic like you should know what that is.”
“That drink was for someone else,” Logan said, taking a swallow of his own. At least Leo would prove a distraction. His youngest brother and he had always been competitive with each other. If Leo had been born earlier, closer to his own age, Logan had often thought that Leo would have challenged him for the CEO position of the family company. Instead he’d struck out on his own and created a business that was quickly expanding.
“No one was going to want to drink with you until you lost that dour expression,” Leo said.
“You are so annoying,” Logan responded. “Why are you such a little prick all the time?”
Leo raised his eyebrows at him. “Because you’re such a big one. Everyone else gives you leave to be an ass, but since I’m a lot like you, I know better than to feed that need. You need someone to cut you down.”
He smiled. “As do you. You know there’s a company I’ve been hearing about that does American-made leather goods that’s gunning for your market share.”
“That little Etsy shop owner?” he asked.
Logan nodded. Danni Eldridge was making all sorts of waves in the business community and one of the board members at Bisset Industries had forwarded Logan a prospectus recommending they invest in her company. He’d turned it down. They weren’t going to buy a company that would put them in direct competition with Leo and his niche of the leather goods market. Leo’s company had started out small and his online presence had grown it into a multi-million-dollar business.
“Danni Eldridge is a fad. I know because I grew my business from Instagram followers by showing consumers a lifestyle they wanted. It takes a lot of acumen, determination and drive to turn that into a real business. I don’t think she’ll last,” Leo said.
“Fair enough,” Logan said.
“I thought you were getting drinks for both of us,” Quinn said, coming up to them.
“I stole yours,” Leo said. “I’ll grab you a fresh one.”
As Leo turned away and left, Quinn grabbed Logan’s hand, pulling him toward the bonfire. “Dance with me?”
“Yes.”
Quinn had noticed Logan talking to his brother. Given Logan’s mood tonight, and the fact that Mari had mentioned they’d almost had a fist fight earlier, she thought it would be a good idea to interrupt. And she was glad she had. Dancing with Logan was almost as good as sex. And about a thousand times safer for her heart and soul.
Or so she’d thought until Toby and his band slowed things down with the ballad that everyone said he’d written for Adler’s mom after she’d died. It was the love song he’d never written when she was alive, and it spoke of love and longing. It was a sensual bluesy-sounding song that had Quinn pulling Logan into her arms and closing her eyes.
His hands fell naturally to her hips and he pulled her close enough that she felt the brush of his chest against her breasts as she twined her arms around his neck. It had been over three years since she’d danced with anyone. She just felt like she was too old to go clubbing. That had to be the reason why every touch of Logan’s hand was sending tingles all through her body.
His legs brushed against hers. Since it was hot and summery, she’d dressed in a flirty little sundress instead of her typical khakis, so she felt the brush of his thigh against her bare skin. He wore a pair of Bermuda shorts, so it wasn’t skin-on-skin—thank God for that.
He swayed with her to the music, their bodies finding a natural rhythm, the one they’d always had. No matter how out of sync they’d been emotionally, physically they’d always just had this link. This bond that had been hard to shatter and break.
Quinn knew that a smart woman would turn and walk away. Go back to her hotel room and work or do something else—anything else. But under the full summer moon, she didn’t want to do the smart thing. Her entire life had been about following the practical path and, for this one night, she knew she wanted to be impulsive.
To follow her hormones or her lust-filled self and indulge in everything Logan was offering. Just pretend that she could sleep with him and walk away unscarred even though deep inside—Shut up. She pushed the logical, thinking part of herself to the back of her mind.
She wanted something fun to remember about this night, a night when the people she loved were hurting and struggling to make sense of something that was hard to wrap their heads around. But then, August Bisset had always thought he was above the rules everyone else followed and he’d never really worried about those he wounded with his actions.
Her eyes met Logan’s and she saw the hurt and pain in his eyes, the need and want as well. He didn’t want to talk, and that said everything. He wasn’t processing this at all; he needed to forget and she needed to remember. She wanted a night of passion without the pain that had always followed when they’d been a couple in college. She wanted a night that could just be about this feeling of rightness they’d always had physically.
And she was going to take it.
She didn’t care if she regretted it the next day or if there were consequences. She’d deal with them. She would have regrets either way.
She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. Not the tentative way she had earlier on the beach chair, but in a way that saidTake me. Take me now.She undulated against him in time to the music and it took Logan a split second before he reciprocated.
His tongue tangled with hers as his hands cupped her butt and lifted her more fully into his body. They danced until the music stopped and then Logan raised his head and looked down at her.
