Page 135 of Sapphire Sunset

“With all my hookups, yeah.”

“What was it?” Connor asked.

Slowly, Logan brought their lips together. The kiss wasslow, tender, and long. Then, finally, he broke, but didn’t pull away, theirnoses almost touching. “No kissing,” he whispered.

If Logan hadn’t been holding him in his arms, Connor mighthave wilted right there. Even so, he had to glance down to catch his breath,and that’s when he saw them. Little diamond-shaped flecks in a skin of ruggedbrown. And some tell-tale stripes where Logan had pulled the hot glued sidesapart.

“The boots!”Connor cried.

Eyes twinkling, Logan nodded. “I’ve been waiting for you tonotice all night.”

“How did you find them?”

“They were on the side of the road right where you threwthem.”

“You kept them all this time?” Connor asked.

“Yep.”

“Logan, they’re the—”

“The wrong size. I know. They’re fucking killing me.”

“They were only for display. You weren’t supposed toactually wear them. I didn’t even know what your size was.”

“Yeah, I figured that when I put ’emon today. I wore long jeans to cover up that the tops stop at my ankles. And Ibrought another pair of shoes in my truck.”

“But you were waiting for me to notice them,” Connor said.

“Yep.”

“Well, we should get you out of them so your feet don’t killyou tomorrow.”

“After this song,” Logan said, pulling Connor close. “Afterthis dance,” he whispered.

The dance turned into another, then finally, a quick trip toLogan’s truck where Connor slid his boots off and gently wedged his giant feetinto a pair of comfortably fitting tennis shoes. Then they were back inside intime for the line dancing class. Connor found himself a natural, maybe because hisweight was low to the ground and most of the moves were in the hips, and becauseLogan snuck up behind him every now and then and put his hands on his hips asif to steady him, but Connor figured it was just an excuse to draw them close.And he didn’t mind at all.

Then, once they were sweaty and tired, it was time to hitthe road, time to curl up against Logan’s body as they took to the traffic-freenight highway with the windows down and the warm night air blowing over themboth. And the luxury of being silent and unhurried and on their way to a placethat had started to feel like home for them both.

Instead of the shower, they took to the bathtub this time,where the attention they paid each other’s bodies felt less like a rush toward orgasmand more like languid extensions of their kisses. Deep, hungry kisses of thekind that Logan had reserved for someone special, someone like him.

All the next morning, Connor pretended to focus on work, onemails and the gathering of proposals from outside security companies, checkedin on the security team to see if they’d found any footage of Rodney’s movementsafter his break-in. They hadn’t yet, but the review was ongoing. But mostly,Connor was watching the clock. The effort didn’t distract him. It gave a largerstructure to his day, an end point that made him feel focused and directed.

And when the hour finally came, he found Logan out on thepool deck, supervising a joint training session between the lifeguards and thesecurity staff. It sounded like the lifeguards were teaching the security agentshow to recognize the signs of a swimmer in distress. Since Logan wasn’t the onedoing the talking, Connor felt comfortable pulling him away by one arm.

“Everything okay?” Logan said.

“Yeah, one thing.” Connor leaned in and brought his lips toLogan’s ear. “It’s been twenty-four hours,” he whispered. “And I love you too.”

He gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. When he withdrew, hesaw Logan beaming, a twinkle in his eyes, fighting a desire, it seemed, to pullhim in for a lip-lock right there.

“Back to work, Mr. Murdoch,” Connor said.

Logan grunted and nodded, but it looked like he was savingup a burst of passion to unleash on Connor later that night when they werefinally alone.

22

Logan’s newest hire was twice the size ofLogan, a giant Pacific Islander named Keoni Hale. As Connor squeezed himselfinto the new camera monitoring room after both men, he felt like a pebblecrushed between two boulders. Logan and Keoni had worked together years beforeat a rowdy music venue where, to hear Keoni tell it, they’d subdued more than afew dozen brawls with minimal broken bones.

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