Back in Bliss

  His hands tightened as if he wasn’t willing to let go, but he blinked those green eyes once and then twice and slowly let her down. He scrubbed a hand across his slightly scruffy hair. It had grown out since she’d last seen him. And she could see the tendrils of a tattoo peeking from under the white of his shirt. The ink was new, too. But the cold look that hit his eyes was par for the course. “What are you doing here, Georgia? Aren’t you supposed to be in New York?”

  Well, that answered one question. She’d left without telling him where she was going, and it had always been in the back of her head that maybe he’d changed his mind and he would look for her. Oh, she’d known that all he had to do was ask her brothers, but she’d never been particularly rational when it came to him. She’d had the fantasy that he might be looking for her. He’d known where she was, and she’d not even gotten a call to make sure she was okay.

  It was time to try to get back some dignity. She took a quick step away from him and let herself settle into her armor—a carefree smile and blank eyes. Just another rich bitch who knew how to put a man in his place. Thank god Ben had opened the checkbook yesterday or she would be in her Macy’s bargain-basement clothes. Somehow having designer duds on felt like a shield. “I’m working. I do that, you know. Shouldn’t you be back in Dallas banging whatever sub Julian Lodge tells you to?”

  Damn, that seemed to be a direct hit. His eyes flared momentarily, and a low growl came from the back of his throat. “There’s the bitch. Nice to see you again. Heard you had a cozy job boffing a billionaire. He seems to be keeping you right nice, girl. Must be some kind of skills you have.”

  Well, that was the pot calling the kettle black. She happened to know for a fact that he really did have sex on the job. She’d heard endless stories about just how great a Dom he was from the women of The Club. “I’m his assistant.”

  Those gorgeous lips went faintly cruel as he looked her up and down. Before, she’d felt warmth from him, but now there was only a cold assessment. “I bet you assist him a lot, baby. I bet you assist him with blow jobs and hand jobs, and just about any other job a woman of your type can handle.”

  A woman of her type? Bubbleheaded and dumb. He’d never had a whole lot of respect for her smarts. “Because I don’t have a brain in my head. I must only be good for a cheap screw.”

  He chuckled, but there was no humor to the sound. “Hey, I never said you were cheap. I always expected you would be quite expensive.”

  Bitterness welled. This was the way it was between them. If he wasn’t kissing her like there was no tomorrow and rushing in to save her life, they tore each other up. She’d gone along with it because it seemed to be the only way to get his attention, but she was so tired of it. She was tired of hurting, tired of aching inside over what she couldn’t have. She took a long breath and sank to the sofa. “Well, that just shows what you know about economics, Logan. I’m sorry I said those things to you. I was caught off-balance. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  He moved across the room. She only knew he was moving from the sound and, of course, he moved away from her. She heard the sound of glass hitting glass and a short swallow. “What are you doing here, Georgia? I’m only going to ask once more. Why the hell are you in Bliss?”

  No apology. No “let’s meet in the middle and find common ground.” “I told you.”

  “You’re working for some asswipe billionaire.” The reply came out draped in suspicion, and then he cursed under his breath. “Seth. Fuck me. You’re working for Seth. God. What a cluster fuck.”

  “How do you know my boss?” She glanced around the cabin. Cabin? Hah. It was a mansion, a gorgeous monstrosity of wood and glass. That was Seth. He didn’t do things by half.

  Logan’s red-rimmed eyes caught hers. “Boss? Seriously, Georgia. I know Seth. You’re sleeping with him. Seth has never had a female assistant before. He’s always hired dudes because he didn’t want the distraction.”

  Logan fumbled a little, the first real sign that he’d had too much to drink.

  “You should sit down.” What the hell was she going to do now? She couldn’t stay here with Logan. And was he right about the male assistants? At first she’d kind of assumed that Win had gotten her the job. She’d asked him if he wouldn’t mind being a reference. Two days later, Stark Software had called and said they’d heard she needed a job.

  She’d been surprised it was for the CEO, but Win had powerful connections. When she’d thanked him, he’d sworn he had nothing to do with it. She’d just thought he was trying to make her feel better.

  “I’m fine,” Logan rumbled back at her, but he took the seat across from her anyway. “This just makes my day complete, sweetheart. I get to come back to the scene of all my crimes. What fun. Where the fuck am I going to stay now?”

  He really could be a giant asshole. “Please stay here. I’ll leave tomorrow.”

  “You’re not going anywhere, Georgia,” Seth said as he dragged in her suitcases and slammed the door behind him. “Except to bed. I apologize for the behavior of my friend. He’s actually civilized when he’s sober.”

  “Yeah, you don’t know me that well anymore, man.” Logan just sat there, looking at her, his eyes blank like she wasn’t really there.

  All in all, it wasn’t how she’d thought a reunion between them would go.

  “I know him. We met in Dallas.” Georgia stood up and wondered if she could find a hotel nearby. Did they have a cab that could pick her up? “We don’t exactly get along.”

  Seth set down the suitcases and met her halfway, a gentle smile on his face. He was Logan’s opposite. He was all civilized good looks where Logan was a massive hunk of man meat. Seth was manly, but he was a metro tiger where Logan had never once left the wild. “You looked like you were getting along pretty well from where I was standing.”

  There wasn’t a hint of jealousy in those words, and Georgia sighed inwardly. Nope. Why would he be jealous when he didn’t want her, either? “We have a bit of a history.”

  He reached out for her hand. He did that a lot. He was a touchy-feely guy. “I brought you here to meet him, Georgia.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “Because he’s my best friend and you’re…you’re perfect.” He kept his voice low as though he didn’t want Logan to hear.

  Emotions rolled through her but mostly it was all confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  He pulled her close and, for the first time, wrapped his arms around her. “It means I think you can help.”

  She shook her head. “He doesn’t want my help. Not now. Not ever.”

  And yet it was so obvious Logan needed someone’s help. He sat there, his shoulders squared, but his eyes were old and tired. What the hell had happened to him? He was young. Younger than her, but there was a weariness to him that made her want to hold him, to lift him up.

  “I came back to help him because I’m worried that if I don’t break through his barriers, I’m going to lose my best friend,” Seth whispered in her ear.

  “Did you know I knew him?”

  He shot back, his eyes wide. “How would I have known that?”

  She’d never mentioned him. “You brought me here to set me up with Logan? Seth, I’m so sorry. He doesn’t like me.”

  “But I like you.” His eyes strayed back to where Logan sat.

  Something fell into place. She’d talked endlessly about Chase and Nat and Ben. Once she’d realized Seth wouldn’t judge her, she’d felt so free to talk about how much she admired what they had and the odd relationship of theirs. She’d been so sure he liked her. Like really liked her. She’d been so sure they were connected, but he’d put her off.

  Her mind went back to that moment in the limo. She’d leaned over and tried to press her lips to his. All night long, he’d held her hand and showed her off like she was something other than his assistant. She’d felt like a princess that night, and he’d been the one making it happen. For the first time since she’d left W
illow Fork, she’d forgotten she loved Logan and she’d known she had fallen for Seth.

  And he’d turned her away, his lips finding her forehead instead of her mouth, and suddenly the words he’d said to her made a weird kind of sense.

  It’s not time yet, love.

  “Seth?”

  “I want to try,” he said, pulling her close. “I grew up with him. This was my heaven, Georgia. Please. Give it a try for me. If it doesn’t work out, we can go back to New York and I won’t ever mention it again. Please. I just wanted the two of you to meet, to see if there was any attraction there, and you two were like a volcano. I had to walk away because I wanted to join in but I thought I would scare you.”

  She sagged against him. Damn. It was everything she could want and nothing she could have. She felt tears forming in her eyes and wished she’d taken Win up on his offer to leave New York, but no, she just couldn’t leave Seth. Whom she loved. Seth, who needed a ménage with a man who couldn’t stand her despite the fact that she couldn’t get him out of her head.

  “Give it a chance,” Seth urged. “I’m sorry how it started. Do you know what happened to him? Do you know why he wouldn’t come home?”

  Walk away, Georgia. Walk away and save yourself. She had a deeply practical inner voice that she almost never listened to. Because it was boring. She was the dumbest girl ever. She was because she just kept getting her heart broken and then begging for more. And she wanted to know Logan. God, he’d pushed her away and she still wanted to know him. “No.”

  Seth leaned down and brushed his nose against hers. “Give us a chance. I will make sure you’re taken care of. Georgia, please trust me, baby. I’m not taking you back to New York as my assistant no matter what happens. I’m taking you back as mine. With him or without him. But I have to play this my way. I’m so sorry to bring you into a situation that makes you uncomfortable, but I still think it could work.”

  She shook her head, hating the tears that made her vision wobbly. “He doesn’t want me.”

  “He fell in love with a girl in Texas. When I met you, I was sure you could make him forget.”

  “I was in Texas. That was where we met, but he didn’t love me.” Except she’d thought he did. When he’d ridden in to her rescue, she’d been so sure he loved her. She would have bet her life on it.

  “Are you sure? Or is he the kind of man who would push away the woman he loves because he thinks he didn’t deserve her?”

  “What are you two talking about?” Logan asked, turning his head their way. In the low light, she couldn’t mistake the way his eyes narrowed. “If you’re going to fuck, you should go to the bedroom.”

  God, why did she love him? She was a masochist. She obviously hated herself. She needed therapy.

  “Stay,” Seth said, his voice aching.

  Go, that very practical side of her pleaded. You don’t need to know what happened to make Logan the walking human bomb he is. You can’t save him. You can’t save yourself and it would never work. You could never handle Logan, and Seth’s world would eat you alive. You think LA casting directors are rough on a girl, try Upper East Siders.

  “Stay with me. Stay with us. We need you, baby.” His lips brushed against her forehead.

  “Okay. I’ll stay.”

  She was the dumbest girl in the world.

  * * * *

  Logan watched as Seth returned, walking down the gorgeous hall like he owned it.

  Of course, there was a reason for that. He did. He owned every inch of this mansion. Hell, Logan was pretty sure Seth could buy the fucking world if he wanted to. He was smart. He’d always been so damn smart. Logan couldn’t keep up with him. And now Seth had Georgia.

  And he hadn’t missed the way that Seth had held her, bringing his head to hers like they were nestled together. Like they belonged. And they did. Georgia was rich. Seth was rich. Logan had to take a job watching a house to have a place to live.

  A house Seth had built and lived in, and for some reason brought him into because there was no way Seth hadn’t had a hand in this shit. Because, like he knew—Seth was smart.

  “So you’re fucking her?” It sounded way harsher than he meant it to, but he’d had a shit ton of tequila. He hadn’t meant to drink that either, but after a really uncomfortable talk with Nate that included one of his twins spitting up on him while Nate replaced his badge and gun, he’d needed it. Oddly enough, his anxiety at that moment in time had nothing to do with the job or having to walk back into the station house. It had everything to do with the kicking kid that had been placed in his arms like he had a right to hold anything that precious. Nate had just handed Zander over and gone about his business while Logan had been left looking into those completely innocent eyes and wondering if he’d ever get this—the sweet wife, the partner, the kids. Nate had a future right there in his hands. Two kids. Fuck. Nate had two kids and Logan hadn’t met them. The closest he’d come before today was standing outside Nate’s woefully small cabin and saying good-bye because he couldn’t stand looking in on a future that wouldn’t include him.

  But the future he’d just seen had hurt so fucking much more.

  Seth and Georgia. Damn, but they’d looked good together.

  And he couldn’t forget the way she felt pressed against him, her mouth open under his. She’d hesitated only the merest second and then she’d been all over him, her body softening like it should for her Dom. Damn. He was so drunk his cock shouldn’t work, but the minute he’d seen her, he’d come right to life.

  “You’re an ass,” Seth said flatly.

  He hadn’t seen his best friend in over a year, and yet the statement didn’t shock him. It was just the truth. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  Seth stalked toward him, a bottle in his hand. “Fine. I will. This fucking bottle cost twenty-five hundred dollars. Dos Lunas Grand Reserve. Did you like the tequila? It’s a luxury liquor. You must really like luxury.”

  He couldn’t help but laugh a little, but then he’d gone through a whole bottle of tequila. A wretchedly expensive bottle of tequila. “Tasted like tequila to me. Put it on my tab, asshole.”

  “And how about the gun?” Seth asked.

  Logan groaned a little. Yeah, he was sorry about the gun. “There was some trouble earlier. Someone was walking around. I don’t know. Maybe it was a deer or something, but they were making noise and I scared them or it or whatever off. I thought it had come back.”

  Seth stared down at him, looking way too much like a well-dressed father figure. Or any sort of male dude who would totally disapprove of him. Which these days included pretty much any male who met him. “You were mean to my assistant.”

  What the fuck was this game? “Your assistant? If she’s just your assistant, I’ll shove that bottle up my ass.”

  Seth’s mouth turned up, his lips curling in that son-of-a-bitch smile he’d used every time he’d come up with a brilliant plan when they were kids. “She has done nothing but help me with work.”

  “I’m not an idiot, dude. She’s…fuck. She’s the one woman I’ve connected with and she suddenly turns up here in Bliss just when I have to come home, and she just happens to be in the same house where I had to stay because it was the only place in town? Yeah. I see Seth Stark all over that shit.”

  Seth put the bottle down and crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s the one.”

  Seth turned and walked back to the kitchen.

  A growl started in the back of his throat. A vision of Seth fucking Georgia assaulted him. Seth could give Georgia all the shit she thought she needed. Fancy stuff. Designer stuff. All Logan had to offer her was dominance and hard, satisfying sex. God, he wanted to fuck her. The fact that she was in a bedroom in the same house that he was in had his cock straining. Six months of nothing and he was in some serious fucking pain. “You’re a bastard. How did you find out about her? How many people do you have spying on me?”

  He wouldn’t put it past Seth to have hired some “friends”
for him.

  “We talking true now?” Seth asked. He’d found a bottle of his own. Naturally the cabin came with a bar that would put most Manhattan hot spots to shame. Nothing but the best for Seth Stark and his honey girl. Cîroc. It looked like it was fresh out of the freezer, the blue bottle covered in frost. Seth poured a couple of fingers into what was almost certainly Waterford Crystal and knocked it back.

  True meant getting past all the bullshit. “Yeah, we’re talking true.”

  “Will you remember this in the morning?” Seth sat back, one elegantly clad foot over his knee.

  Logan rolled his eyes. “You think this a bender? This is a fun Saturday night for me, man.”

  Seth’s eyes narrowed down to slits of pure blue judgment. “I thought you stopped drinking.”

  “Drinking wasn’t the problem.” Fuck. Yeah, drinking was definitely the fucking problem now since he hadn’t meant to say that, to ever admit that.

  A long breath filled Seth’s lungs, and he sat back. “How bad did it get?”

  He didn’t want to have this conversation. He never wanted to have this conversation. He’d been avoiding it with everyone. No one knew except the doc and Hope and Sawyer. God, he had to apologize to Sawyer.

  “Logan?”

  “I’m going to bed.” But his feet didn’t move. His arms stayed right where they were, clutching the chair like it was the only thing solid in the world.

  “Are we done?” Seth didn’t look at him. His face was turned down, staring into that glass.

  “Tell me how you found out about Georgia.” He couldn’t walk until he knew.

  “I got a call from someone. I thought it was you because it was your number, and just for a minute, I got so excited because you don’t call me anymore. But it wasn’t you.”

  He sighed. “I’m never underestimating Kitten again. I knew I hadn’t lost my phone.”

  “She explained the situation and said Georgia needed a safe place to go.”

  “So you took her in thinking you could use her to get me to come home.” He could see exactly how that plan had gone through Seth’s mind.