When You're Ready (Ready #1)(44)

“After a few months with all those emotions running rampant, I just became numb. The only thing I held together was my career. It’s always been a type of solace for me. Like I said, following a random stranger home from a bar requires a lack of feeling, and that was me.”

He laughed for a brief second, and I could hear the pain echoing in the sound.

We pulled into the driveway and he shut off the engine. Grasshoppers chirped in the nearby bushes, and the dozen air conditioners that lined the street hummed in unison. Summer was coming to Virginia and the air was growing more humid with each passing day.

“What Declan said,” he started to say before I cut him off.

“Logan, it doesn’t matter,” I tried to assure him.

“It does matter. I need you to know. I haven’t been a saint. I can’t even count the number of women I’ve slept with and used to avoid my own pain since my divorce. Declan was my only friend who supported that type of behavior. He was my enabler, and he has been for the majority of my life.”

He looked defeated, dejected.

I didn’t know what I had to say to make him understand. I didn’t care what he had done or who he’d done it with. As hard as it was for me to picture, I didn’t even care if he and Declan were out picking up bar trash the night before we met. He was mine now.

I didn’t judge him for anything. We both had pasts. Yes, they were vastly different from each other, but they were still baggage with both carried into this relationship.

Just like in the garden, words failed to show the depth of my feeling at that moment. So I leaned across the seat, looked in those gorgeous blue eyes, and kissed him. It was a kiss completely opposite of the frenzied passion we had just shared. This kiss was slow, meaningful, and was meant to be savored.

When he walked me to the door that night, his mood was lighter and happier as if a heavy weight had been lifted. I seriously think he had been waiting for me to run for the hills and every time I didn’t, he became a bit more secure. Logan could hold his own and walk circles around anyone when it came to anything remotely sexual, but a two-sided relationship was new territory for him.

As we reached my front door, I turned, my lips curving into a smile.

“Sure you don’t want to come in?” I teased.

“Temptress.”

“Ok, don’t say I didn’t off−” Before I could finish my sentence, his mouth was on mine, our tongues twirling together in a punishing rhythm. His arms wrapped around my waist pulling me closer, as I coiled mine around his neck.

His lips left mine, trailing kisses over my chin, down my neck and then up to my ear. His voice low and seductive, he whispered, “Find another night for Maddie to spend with Leah or your parents. Because the next time we’re alone, you’re mine.”

Chapter Ten

~Clare~

“Clare Elizabeth Murray! You little slut!” Leah nearly screamed as we made our way through the aisles of one of our favorite clothing stores.

It was a Monday morning, and I was enjoying a few hours to myself while Maddie was at preschool. Leah had the night shift today, so she and I decided a little retail therapy would be nice. Leah searched the clearance rack, her long blonde hair pulled to the side in an artfully designed braid that would have taken me hours to create. Today she wore a short summery dress that made her look like she’d just stepped off a runway in Paris. God, I hated that woman.

“Leah, would you freaking shut up! I think China heard you!” I scolded.

“News flash! They probably heard you moaning in the back of that car Friday night!”

I groaned, completely embarrassed. The store clerk was seriously trying to ignore our conversation but I could hear her muffled giggle behind the rack of clothes she was pretending to sort.

“Okay, we are done talking about me. Let’s talk about you and how you totally bailed Friday night. And don’t tell me it was to go to some lame cemetery,” I said, changing the subject and calling her out on her one-nighter.

She opened her mouth and shut it again, speechless. What the hell? Leah was never speechless. Like never. She always had something to say about everything. Sometimes I wish she came with a muzzle.

“We went to the cemetery. He’s working production on this film, apparently that’s his true love. Acting is just something he fell into ‘cause he’s got a pretty face. But that’s it. He took me home.”

“You are a goddamn liar, Leah.”

“Am not,” she said. I could tell she was lying by her sudden interest in a ridiculously ugly dress. There was a reason it was on the clearance rack. There was no way Leah wanted to buy it. She was avoiding me.

“Are too.”

“Am not!” she repeated.

“Are too,” Annoyed now, I said, “Oh my God. Are we children again? Have we reduced ourselves down to Maddie’s age now?”

She looked at me, trying to give her best poker face. Problem was, Leah didn’t have a poker face. She was usually an open book, willing to tell anyone virtually anything. Sometimes I wondered if her thick skin came from being raised by an alcoholic dad, but she always brushed it off and said this was the way God made her.

“You mean to tell me you left a bar with a Hollywood celebrity who is hotter than f**k, which by the way, if you tell Logan I said that, I will kill you, and you didn’t sleep with him? That’s like your ultimate fantasy!” I confronted her.