All relevant stuff, and if she were anyone else, Logan would leap on the change of subject. But since he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, if something was upsetting her, he wanted to get to the bottom of the issue and fix it.
“If he is and he’s smart, he’s posing as a guest or other employee. Otherwise, it’s too incriminating. So our best shot at learning his identity is the information we pulled off Kantor’s computer and the analysts back in Washington, D.C., wading through all the dummy corporations and DBAs until we find this guy. But that’s not what’s bugging you. Spit it out.”
She paced, fists clenched. “I don’t think waiting is the answer. It’s taking too long. Darcy’s time is running short. I need to talk to Adam.”
Logan’s blood ran cold. “Your stepfather?”
“Of course.” She scowled, as if that was obvious. “He’s former FBI, and I told him a bit about this case before we left so that—”
“You
what
?” He charged toward her. “Does he know that you’re here?”
Tara lifted her chin, daring his anger. “Yes.”
“With me?”
She hesitated, then admitted reluctantly, “Yes.”
Fuck!
He’d assumed in bringing Cherry to Fantasy Key that his mother’s killer couldn’t touch her here. But Adam Sterling was now a wealthy man with former FBI connections. If anyone could do her in under this kind of security, it would be Adam.
“You’re
not
calling him.”
She bristled. “Despite what you think or want, you can’t tell me what to do. If I want to talk to my stepfather, I will.”
He shook his head, staring at her with a silent vow to do
anything
to enforce his will. No way was she giving that dangerous bastard more access to her or any more information that might help him to harm her. But he didn’t want to put more wedges between them now, before she wholly trusted him.
“You won’t. Bocelli wouldn’t want you to. Neither do I. Technically, Adam is no longer FBI.” It was a good excuse, thank God.
“You never have been, yet here you are.” She scowled at him, mouth gaping open with confusion. “What is your issue? Adam can help us. I told him about the case because he has so much experience.”
“And you didn’t tell me this earlier? Why the hell not?”
A blaze of fury suddenly darkened her eyes. “Don’t you
dare
go there. If one of us is keeping secrets, it’s you. Or were you going to tell me about your little bet with Thorpe?”
Logan closed his eyes.
Fucking Xander
. Why would he tell Cherry about that? She was taking it the wrong way. “It wasn’t a bet; it was a last resort. You’re not a game to me, but Thorpe was going to assign you to another Dom. Enacting that club rule was the only way I could prevent that.”
Tara didn’t look moved. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and raised a ginger brow. “Except talking to me. If you had, we might have been able to work it out. If so, I would have told Thorpe that I didn’t want anyone else near me.”
As many times as he’d tried to tell her about the reasons for their breakup, she was going to pin this on him? “Baby, I could have talked to you all day. There was no fucking way you were going to give me an inch at that point. I threatened your safe little world and that heart you’ve been trying so damn hard to protect from me.”
A flush crawled up her fair skin. “Look, you left me at sixteen because someone had threatened me. I get that. But instead of talking to me about it, you made the decision to leave me.”
“I kept quiet for your safety.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t learn. You waltzed back into my life and bet Thorpe that you’d collar or marry me in a week, again without talking to me.”
“Collar
and
marry, just to be clear. And I explained my reason to you. Do you need me to repeat it?”
“Yeah, you explained
after
I caught you, not before you made the deal. Why, so you’d have extra time to ensnare me. Why not just come clean when you dealt with Thorpe?”
Logan felt his ire mounting. He wasn’t perfect, but he’d always had her best interests at heart. “I don’t think I ever made any secret of the fact that I love you and want a future with you. What I said to Thorpe is irrelevant between us.”
Tara looked like she was about to cry, but blinked back tears. “But you didn’t ask if that’s what
I
wanted.”
“You’re still clinging to your pain, like it’s a life jacket, so that you don’t let yourself love me back. Please, baby, don’t do that. I know I hurt you. I’ll apologize every damn day if I have to. But I want you to push past the fear and think about our future. Deep down, you trust me with your body and your safety, or I wouldn’t be here now. I have to believe that your heart can’t be far behind.”
She paled.
Bull’s-eye!
Now if she’d just stop being stubborn, picking fights, and admit how she felt, they could move forward.
“So when does your deal with Thorpe expire?”
He clenched his jaw. Where the hell was she going with this? “Thursday night.”
“In less than three days?”
“Yes.”
“I hope you’re prepared to miss strutting down Dominion’s halls in your leather pants, because if you think for one damn minute that I’m going to stand here like a brainless twit while you decide my whole life without ever once asking me what I want, you’re out of your fucking mind.”
So quickly that she had no time to scramble away, Logan grabbed Cherry’s wrist and pulled as he backed onto the bed and threw her facedown across his lap. Without pause, he slapped one firm cheek of her ass, barely covered by one of those little sheer dresses. She gasped, and before the sound even died, he smacked the other cheek.
“I don’t like you throwing out f-bombs. Do it again, and I’ll spank you more.”
“Fuck you!”
“Cherry, Cherry, Cherry . . .” He sighed with regret.
Even so, he couldn’t deny that this feisty side of her had him revved up. She wanted this spanking—wanted him—but her fear and her pride wouldn’t let her admit it. She was angry, and maybe she had every right to be. Maybe he should have handled his invocation of the club rule differently, told her in advance of his plans, and given her the opportunity to resolve it without involving Thorpe. But she would have only freaked out. She’d still been engaged to Brad at the time. She hadn’t been ready to hear that he wanted a lifelong claim on her.
But he’d concede that maybe he should have told her sometime between then and now.
Because he’d said he would, Logan whacked Tara’s ass twice more and held down her squirming form, trying desperately not to think about how badly he wanted inside her.
Damn. He’d bet she was dying to call him twenty kinds of asshole and let loose on him, but the spanking had curbed the worst of her tongue. They both needed to be a bit more calm.
The moment he let her up, she jerked to her feet, rage spitting from her eyes. “Don’t do that again. I’m not one of your club bunnies, waiting around for your discipline.”
“Don’t discipline you?” He stood slowly, walking toward her, crowding her personal space, almost proud when she stood her ground. “I came back into your life because I’m a Dom. Guess what? I’m still a Dom. I’m always going to be one. And I’m going to bet that, even though you’re spitting mad, your pretty little pussy is dripping wet.”
She gasped in an offended breath. “That’s low.”
“But true.”
Suddenly, she cocked her head, tightened her little fists, and glared at him through eyes narrowed with purpose.
Uh-oh
. What the hell was going through her head now?
“Okay, so I’m wet. I admit it. Just because you get me hot doesn’t mean that you get to decide the rest of my life. I won’t let you use my desire against me.”
Is that what she thought? Hell, he adored Cherry because she was smart and compassionate, kind. She showed the world a roaring tiger willing to fight for injustice and those weaker, but underneath that front, she was vulnerable.
No matter what he did, he managed to push her buttons. She put protective walls between them. Yeah, he could stand here and argue with her. He might actually win the battle. But he was in this fight to win the war. If that meant that he needed to back off and let her have more control, he’d do his best to stifle his need to dominate and give it to her. Because at the end of the day, he wanted her by his side because she wanted to be there. Not because he’d coerced her.
“Then help me. I keep fucking this up, and that’s not my intention. If you think I’m trying to use your desire against you to decide your life, then take control. I’ll step back. If, after this mission, you tell me to go away, then fine. I’ll go away and I won’t come back.”
Tara recoiled, her brown eyes wide and startled. Her mouth gaped open, but silence followed for a long moment until she finally said, “Thank you.”
“But not until I’m convinced that you know the difference between me trying to lead you around by your pussy and me trying to bond your heart to mine, Cherry. When I’m sure you know
exactly
how much love you’d be giving up, I’ll give you all the space you want.”
With an angry jerk he hoped to hell communicated that he meant business, Logan tore off his shirt.
Chapter Seventeen
W
ITH unblinking eyes, Tara watched Logan peel the tight black T-shirt from his body, revealing an incredible work of masculine art to her slowly. Her helpless gaze caressed the bulges of his shoulders, lingered on his meaty biceps, devoured the tight slabs of his pectorals, widened at the sight of his rippling abdomen above low-slung jeans. And the sight of that tattoo crawling up his ribs in Japanese transfixed her. Though it had to have hurt like a bitch, it was oddly beautiful on his bronzed skin.
It didn’t matter how many times she looked at Logan. Each and every time, she melted. Her heart stuttered. Her blood warmed, while her fingers itched to touch him all over. Now his gaze snared her attention. Stark and midnight blue, that stare he locked on her rooted Tara to the spot with its intensity and savagery. He was like a powder keg. Tara had a suspicion that she’d already set him off and that his fuse was burning down toward the inevitable explosion.
He reached for the snap on his jeans and flicked it open. Tara’s gaze darted down nervously as anticipation sliced through her. She shivered, swallowed.
“Nervous?”
“You won’t hurt me,” she stated with a lift of her chin.
“Ever,” he vowed. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you, Cherry.”
That fact was stamped all over his demanding stare. She backed up a step.
His low laugh resonated through her, daring, challenging—sexy as hell. “Going somewhere?”
No. Behind her a step, two at most, Tara knew she’d find her back against a wall. But in front of her was two hundred pounds plus of determined male willing to do whatever necessary to make her whimper, beg, and surrender.
The prickly part of her nature reared up. He wasn’t going to pleasure her into giving up her anger. At least not yet, damn it. She had a point.
Because sometimes the best defense was an offense, Tara crossed her arms over her chest and put on her best glare. “Why are you trying to intimidate me?”
Logan shook his head. “Baby, I’m just trying to get you to keep still so that we can . . . chat. Believe me, I’d rather not play games.”
“I’m not. You are. I’m trying to tell you how I feel and—”
“I heard you. You’re pissed because I don’t tell you everything. Got it. So now I’m trying to communicate.” He shrugged. “If you’re sure you’re ready, I am.”
As angry as she was, as much as she felt a tinge of worry that she’d pissed off the big, bad Dom inside him, she couldn’t very well tell him that she wanted to know everything, then refuse to hear him. “I can handle it and I’m listening. Shoot.”
“Kneel.”
She raised a cool brow but her heart stuttered. “Excuse me.”
“You said you weren’t playing games. Don’t start now. You heard what I want.”
“Why? You’re playing domination games with me.”
He shook his head. “If you extend me trust, baby, I’ll puke up every dirty little secret I have.”
And all she had to do to hear them was kneel. That went against her independent grain. On the other hand . . . she had an image of him, towering, ruthlessly male, demanding, cradling her head in his huge palm as he guided her lips to all the hard inches of his thick cock and told her to suck. God, why did that arouse her?
No, she’d play it his way for now, but as soon as she got on her knees, she wanted answers.
He trapped her gaze in his as she slowly went to one knee, then the other, then sat back on her heels, her palms sweating, and held her breath, feeling like a concubine waiting at her master’s feet for his pleasure. And that feeling didn’t bother her in the least.