“Before we arrive at our home.” He winked at her and she groaned, pulling her skirt down.
“Logan, I was serious about that. I don’t want to be dependent on you. I want to take care of myself.” She whined.
“You do take care of yourself, what’s the harm in letting me pick up a few tabs? Plus there is no point in paying two rents when you know that there is no way I’m going to let you out of my bed.” He raised one brow as his blue eyes pierced into her.
“I know you can, but I want to. I need to. I’ve never been allowed to take care of myself before, I need to know that I can.” She adjusted her shirt and sat back across from him.
“This is really important to you, huh?”
“Yes, very.”
“Alright, well then I’m going to charge you rent. And utilities. Might even charge you for groceries too.” He smiled at her, teasing.
“I know you’re playing around right now, but that’s actually a fantastic idea.”
“Caroline,” Logan rolled his eyes and started to protest.
“No, I’m serious. If we are going to live together, I have to pay rent.” She crossed her arms over her chest, demanding with both her words and her pose.
“Your father just cut you off and you don’t have a job, how do you plan on paying your rent?” He looked amused and she could instantly see flirty ideas crossing his mind on how she could pay him.
“I’m going to get a job. I’ve actually already been looking into places and submitting my designs. I really want to illustrate books, magazines, anything.” Caroline told him as the car pulled to a stop in front of their luxury apartment building.
“How did I fall in love with someone so stubborn?” Logan kissed her forehead as they climbed out of the car.
“You love it.” She teased back.
“I do love her.” He replied.
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“Holy cheese whiz, am I dead? Is this my heaven? Let me see the closet.” Aralia Gatti, Caroline’s oldest and best friend, breezed past Caroline into her new home the moment she opened the door.
“Hello to you too, Aralia. It’s not like I haven’t seen you in over a month.” Caroline laughed and closed the door behind her friend.
“Babe, we are cradle to grave friends. A month is nothing. Now, I was asking about a closet?” She popped her hands up on her curvy, Italian hips.
“Come on,” Caroline chuckled and motioned for her to follow as she walked over toward the hallway that led to the bedroom.
She was still getting used to the layout herself, the penthouse took up the entire top level of the building and had a full view of the entire city since the outer walls were floor to ceiling glass.
“Girl, my apartment would fit in your bedroom. Look at that bed!” Aralia ran up to it, turned, and tossed herself backwards onto the extra large, king size bed covered in a plush comforter, and dozens of pillows.
“Like any of this is new to the one and only Aralia Gatti? Your parents had the biggest house in all of the Hamptons when we were growing up.”
“Yeah, but once you live in this city you forget about space. You just get used to rubbing elbows with everyone, including your walls.” Aralia laughed and pushed herself up on her elbows.
“Come on, sit, tell me everything about Greece. And when I say Greece, I actually mean rockstar.” She grinned.
“Logan is amazing,” Caroline plopped down on the bed next to her friend, smiling.
“I don’t even know how to describe it. Turner was sweet and kind, but he wasn’t exciting, you know? Logan is all of those things, but he is edgy. I can’t read him like I can most people.”
“Since when can you read people? Hate to break it to you, babe, but you’ve never been known for your street smarts.” Aralia teased.
“That’s true, you win that title.” Caroline relented.
“He sounds amazing, plus if he lets you live here, well he is a rock god.” Aralia hopped up out of the bed and swung open the doors to the walk in closet, pulling items off the rod to see them.
Caroline followed slowly, leaning against the door to the closet.
“He isn’t letting me live here. I’m renting half the space.”
“What? Doesn’t he own this penthouse?” Aralia gave her a confused look as she put a green dress back on the hanger.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to just sponge off of him. I want to take care of myself so I told him he has to charge me rent.”
“You’re an odd duck, Caroline.” Aralia laughed, walking up to her and squeezing her upper arm.
Caroline just shrugged and followed her friend out of the bedroom and back into the open floor plan living room. Aralia had never been one to sit still and Caroline always found herself trying to catch up. Her bouncy, small frame was tiny yet curvy, and she commanded the attention of any room she entered just with her confidence and bright smile.
Caroline had no idea why Aralia had chosen to stay single for so long, plenty of men were vying to be not only a one night stand, but more. She turned them all down, preferring to flirt and keep things casual, never letting anyone into her life for long. Caroline could only think of a small handful of times that she had noticed Aralia be serious, or sad, because most of the time she was bubbling over with energy.
“Are you ready for happy hour?” Aralia asked her, picking up her clutch that she had tossed on the counter when she walked in.
“Yeah, let me just pull on some heels.” Caroline finished getting ready as the two girls planned to head out to meet Aralia’s cousin, Caroline’s other best friend, Jacqueline Russo.
CHAPTER THREE
“Caroline! I missed you!” Jacqueline hopped off the bar stool and tossed her arms around Caroline’s neck.
“I missed you too, Jackie!” Caroline wrapped her arms around her friend, calling her by the nickname she normally went by rather than her full name.
“Jackie, you should see her new place. It’s insane. Like imagine your house growing up, multiplied by two, and fifty stories up in the air.” Aralia slid onto a bar stool as all the women found a seat.
“Really? I have to come visit soon, although it makes sense. I mean you are dating freaking Logan Clay. I can’t even wrap my head around that. I had his Calvin Klein ad as the wall paper on my phone for like two years.” Jackie chatted.
“Please tell me you don’t still have that.” Caroline groaned, still smiling.
“My answer depends on if you look at my phone or not.” She grinned, teasing as Aralia signaled the bartender and ordered a round of cocktails for the three of them.
“Because that’s not mortifying at all.” Caroline replied sarcastically.
“Changing topics before either of you begins to inspect my phone, what are we doing for Christmas this year?” Aralia butt her way into their banter.
“My house is off the table this year.” Caroline shook her head.
“What? Why? You just moved into a gorgeous, freaking penthouse! That view is going to be killer when it snows.” Jackie protested.
“I’m not talking about here, I meant my folks in the Hamptons.”
“Well, hate to tell you, but we went there last year and your folks are kinda mood killers. Like serious wet blankets.” Aralia laughed.
“Not her mom.” Jackie turned to her cousin.
“That’s true. Elizabeth is cool as shit.” Aralia nodded in agreement.
“You guys are ridiculous. Let’s just pick somewhere else.” Caroline rolled her eyes at them.
“That’s fine, we can pick somewhere else, but my parent’s house is a no go this year too.” Aralia shrugged.
“Why not?” Caroline asked.
“Uncle Perv is coming for the holidays. Oops, I meant Uncle Marvin.” Both Aralia and Jackie burst into a fit of giggles and Caroline crunched up her nose.
After plenty of Christmas’ growing up, it was a well known fact not to go anywhere near their Uncle Marvin when he was drinking or he would get too frie
ndly, to a slightly creepy degree.
“Hate to burst your bubbles, ladies, but I’m out entirely. I might have met someone a few weeks ago. He wants to take me up to Vermont for the holidays with a bunch of his friends and their wives or girlfriends.” Jackie glanced between the two girls nervously.
“What! How am I just hearing about this now?” Aralia’s jaw dropped.
“Why haven’t we met him?” Caroline immediately started her interrogation, leaning in closer as she sipped her drink.
“You were out-of-town, and you are a lot of person to meet.” Jackie giggled and Aralia shot her a mean glare.
“Fuck, well there go our holiday plans, Caroline.” Aralia tossed up her hands, then signaled the bartender for a refill.
“Maybe not, Logan said his parents live up in Connecticut and we can go there for the week. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you coming along.” Caroline offered.
“When did this happen? When did I become the fucking third wheel?” Aralia took a large gulp of the drink that the bartender placed in front of her. She was only being partially serious, but she was still smiling at her friends.
“Caroline’s the one who went and ran off with a rockstar.” Jackie started to point fingers, laughing.
“Hey, you’re running off with a mystery man to Vermont. That’s pretty much the same thing.” Caroline retorted.
“Yeah, minus a few million dollars.” Jackie grinned.
“That reminds me, did you tell Jackie about your ridiculous living arrangements?” Aralia prompted, suddenly interested in the conversation and leaning back toward them.
Caroline slit her eyes at her friend, then glanced at Jackie and awkwardly grinned.
“It’s not ridiculous.” She shrugged.
“Don’t tell me you guys have separate bedrooms or something like that?”
“No, of course not!” Caroline laughed.
“You got a sex swing? He has a dungeon? Does he have a red room?” Jackie started firing questions, getting more and more ludicrous with each one.
“Will you stop?” Caroline laughed, “None of those things. I just am going to be paying rent. That’s it.”
Jackie glanced at Aralia with a confused look on her face, Aralia just nodded to confirm that she was telling the truth. She was smiling though, indicating how funny she found the whole situation.
“Did you miss the part where I said you’re dating a millionaire rockstar?” Jackie grabbed her drink and took a sip.
“I know, but I want to pay my own share. I don’t want him taking care of me.”
“Uhm, can he take care of me then? Sugar Daddy position is open and looking for willing candidates.” Jackie grinned.
“Yeah right, you’re dating mystery man now.” Aralia hopped in and Jackie shrugged.
“Never know who I would be dating, for a few million dollars that is.” All the girls burst out laughing, Caroline shook her head at her friends.
She knew that they understood and were just teasing her. The two cousins both had had their own identity crises over the years, maybe sometimes they still were. Coming from similarly wealthy backgrounds growing up, they knew what it was like to feel like they wanted to earn something on their own.
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“Hi Mom,” Caroline propped the phone up on her shoulder as she sat on the couch the next day with one foot on the edge of the glass coffee table as she painted her toes a deep blue color.
“Hey sweetie, it’s good to hear from you.” Her mother, Elizabeth Sanders, answered the phone.
“I was just calling to see how you were doing and to see if Dad has cooled off any. Is he still upset with me?”
“We’re doing fine, dear. I went to a luncheon earlier for the Hampton Shorefront Preservation Society.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh I don’t really know, just another charity to give a check to. They seemed a lot more interested in socializing then talking about the cause, so I doubt I will go to another one of theirs.”
“Did Dad go?”
“Your father has been very busy lately, sweetheart.”
“Is he busy now? Can I talk to him?”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Caroline felt as if she could see her mother biting her lip and frowning, trying to figure out how to tell her the bad news she knew was coming.
“Caroline, he’s just very busy.” She finally stumbled to find a few words to put together.
Logan walked into the room from the bedroom, freshly showered after getting home from a dinner with his new business manager. Walking up behind the couch where Caroline was painting her toes, he placed both hands on her arms and kissed the top of her head.
“I get it, Mom.”
“Caroline, don’t sound so hostile. It’s just not a good time.”
“I’m not being hostile. I’m going to spend the holidays with Logan’s family.”
“Okay, well that’s your choice. Hope you two have a lovely time. Love you, sweetheart.” With that, her mother hung up.
Caroline dropped the phone onto the couch next to her and let out an angry sigh. Turning back to her toes, she finished the last few to complete her impromptu manicure and pedicure.
“What was all that about?” Logan asked, dropping one leg over the back of the couch, quickly followed by the other on the opposite side of her.
He slid behind her so that her back was to his front and he could wrap his arms around her. She sighed and leaned back into his firm, large chest.
“She acted like I was the one choosing not to come home for the holidays. Dad still won’t speak to me, but of course Mom won’t just come out and say that. Instead, he is just so damn busy.” She groaned, complaining but also feeling tears begin to well in her eyes.
“Well, you know who isn’t too busy for you?” Logan said, his voice dropped lower as his lips grazed from her shoulder up to her neck.
She shivered as she tilted her head to the side to give him more access and he quickly placed soft kisses against her skin. He nipped lightly at her ear lobe and she felt a tingling shoot down to her toes and back up, pushing her body further backwards against him.
“Logan, I just painted all my nails. They are still wet.” She giggled, but her eyes were closing as her breath grew heavier.
“I like it when you’re wet.” He breathed against the skin on her shoulder blade, pushing her tank top straps down her arms.
“I’m serious! I’m going to get you all blue.” She wiggled her fingers in front of him, turning around to show him.
“Caroline Sanders, are you talking dirty to me right now?” He grinned, mischievously as he picked her up in one swift motion as he stood up from the couch.
With ease, he tossed her partially over his right shoulder as she laughed and kicked her feet, trying to get loose. He headed straight for the bedroom and gently tossed her backwards onto the freshly made bed. She looked back up at him, wide eyed.
“Logan, the blankets and sheets are white! Seriously, all of my nails are still wet! I just painted them and it’s not the quick dry kind.” She raised her brows and put her hands up to motion him away as she sat up.
“We’ll buy new blankets tomorrow.” He pushed her back down with his body as he climbed on top of her and pulled her up to the top of the bed as if she were the weight of a feather.
His mouth was on hers before she could protest again, and honestly, she couldn’t think of why she had been protesting the first time. Her hips instantly pushed up into his body, craving his closeness. He reached down to the bottom of her shirt and pulled it up over her head in one quick motion, then did the same with his own shirt.
Caroline grabbed at the buttons on his jeans, undoing them as he kneeled above her and watched her. His blue eyes were hooded and heat was radiating from his body just as much as it was from hers. Finally, freeing him, she shimmied out of her own shorts and wrapped her legs around him.
His lips crashed down on hers again and he reach
ed a hand between them to feel her. Satisfied with how ready she was for him, he slipped in with one long thrust as Caroline gasped and clenched around him. Anchoring her legs around him, she moved with him until he suddenly rolled them over, putting her on top.
Sitting up on top of him and arching her back, she rested her hands on his chest for support as his hands gripped her hips and moved her with his rhythm. Caroline dropped her head back slightly, her eyes closing, as she felt her body beginning to pulse quicker and heavier against him.
“Look at me, baby,” Logan commanded from below her and her attention snapped to him as she looked down into his perfect, deep blue eyes.
As if the eye contact was the last piece he needed, Logan rolled them back over so that he was on top and with a few final movements, Caroline began to shudder and moan as her toes curled. Logan was only seconds behind her as he wrapped his arms underneath her shoulders, grabbing them from behind and pulling her down onto him as far as possible. Grunting for a moment until he finally calmed down, his weight sagged against her as she felt his heartbeat slowing against hers.
Humming softly with pleasure, she gently raked her fingernails down his upper arms as he slid to her side and wrapped one arm around her. His eyes were closed and he almost looked like he was about to fall asleep, but she knew that he was just recovering.
“Logan?” She whispered, trying not to ruin the moment.
He lifted one brow, peaking over at her. A smile forming in the corner of his lips. Pushing himself up onto his elbow, he laid on his side and turned his body completely to hers.
“That was amazing, Caroline.” He leaned down, kissing her, then tracing a finger down from her jaw line to her collar bone, then down between her breasts and around her belly button.
“It was also very blue.” She pointed to the comforter below them.
Logan looked over where she was indicating, then turned around and looked at the rest of the bed. The white bedspread was now speckled with blue dots and streaks in random patterns. Their bodies both also had more than a few swipes of blue across random places. His face broke out in a wide grin.