Page 78 of Defensive Desire

I chew my pancake slowly, the char on the edges scraping against the roof of my mouth. Everything tastes like burnt sugar and bad timing.

Logan’s hand slides under the table, fingers brushing against mine. A silent offering, and usually, I’d squeeze back.

This time… I pull my hand away, pretending to reach for the syrup instead despite my pancakes already swimming in it.

I feel his confusion in the air between us, but he doesn’t ask again.

I think he knows not to.

I finish my pancakes quickly and rise from the table. “I’m gonna go take a shower.”

I don’t look at him when I say it. I can’t.

“Okay,” he says, voice low and a little rough.

I walk down the short hallway, the wooden floor cool beneath my bare feet. The bathroom door shuts behind me, but it doesn’t mute the thud of my heartbeat or the ache that’s started blooming in my chest.

I grip the sink with both hands.

My reflection in the mirror looks like someone else. I don’t know what scares me more. That Logan might be traded…

Or that he didn’t tell me.

That I was laying in his arms all night, kissing him like a woman who finally feltsafe…

And he didn’t say a word.

I close my eyes.

How can I trust him to stay… When I didn’t even know he might be leaving?

Chapter Eighteen

Logan

Emma steps out of the bathroom wrapped in one of the old towels we keep stacked on the back of the door, her hair piled on her head in a messy knot, cheeks flushed from the heat of the water.

She looks… better. Softer.

The tightness in her shoulders seems to have eased, and she’s humming some off-key tune under her breath as she rifles through her bag for clothes.

I lean against the bedroom doorframe, arms crossed, watching her with cautious relief.

Maybe it really was just a bad night’s sleep. God knows I’ve had those lately. Maybe I imagined the tension this morning…

Wouldn’t be the first time I got caught offside.

“Feeling better?” I ask, voice light.

She glances at me with a half-smile. “Much. Hot water works miracles, even up here.”

I nod, letting myself breathe a little easier. “I was about two seconds from coming in there to check on you. Thought you might’ve drowned.”

Emma laughs.

It's a little too loud, too fake… but hey, after the way she pulled back from my kiss this morning, right now, I’ll take it.

“Sorry. I just zoned out in there for a minute.”

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