Page 114 of Logan
I snap my mouth shut, horrified at my near slip. Liam narrows his eyes, leaning forward.
“He what? Help me out here, Sloane. Are there mitigating circumstances? Maybe the situation was forced on you?”
“Forced on me?” I shake my head.
“Yes. If it’s a manager who threatened your job or another employee who acted against your will.”
I shake my head again.
He didn’t identify Logan. He doesn’t know it’s his brother. He can’t read his name tag in the video.
“No.” The denial bursts out of me, heated and instinctive. “It wasn’t like that.”
Liam slumps back in his chair, looking pained. “Even if that’s true, if this man is your superior, it’s an abuse of power. You could walk away with a reprimand, maybe a short suspension. But you have to give me his name.”
I stare at Liam, the weight of an impossible choice crashing down on me. I could save myself, my job and my reputation. All I have to do is throw Logan to the sharks. It’s no more than he deserves for leaving me to face this nightmare alone.
But even as I think it, I know I can’t do it. Can’t betray him like that, no matter what it costs me. What we did was reckless and wrong, but it was ours. He’s mine. I love him. I can’t just serve him up on a silver platter to save myself.
“No,” I say, my voice barely a whisper. I clear my throat and try again, putting all the conviction I can muster into the word. “No. I won’t give you his name.”
Liam closes his eyes, looking pained. “Then you leave me no choice. As of now, you’re suspended without pay, pending a formal hearing. I’ll need your key card and access badges.”
I stare at him, uncomprehending. This can’t be happening. In the space of ten minutes, my entire world has crumbled to ash and dust.
Chapter Thirty-Three
LOGAN
Istep off the company plane after spending a grueling day in Dallas, my legs stiff and my back aching from hours of tense negotiations.
I roll my shoulders, trying to ease the knots of tension, as I stride to the sleek black car already waiting for me.
Dad will be pleased. I stopped that fucking weasel Thomas from wriggling out of the deal he signed, but the victory feels hollow. I’m going on forty-eight hours with a measly two hours of sleep snatched between endless meetings and two cross-country flights. My head throbs, feeling like it’s about to explode.
I glance at my watch as I slide into the cool leather backseat, the faint scent of lemon and leather polish doing little to soothe my frayed nerves.
I switch on my phone. I need to cancel the rest of mymeetings for today and go home to collapse face-first into bed, to let blessed oblivion take me for a few precious hours.
I sigh at the thought. The work will only pile up in my absence, a teetering mountain of urgent demands and looming deadlines. I already canceled all my morning meetings to take this last-minute trip, and those issues aren’t going anywhere.
I also have a daunting stack of unread emails waiting for my attention, no doubt multiplying like digital rabbits during the time I was in the air.
My phone beeps.
Liam
Need to see you as soon as you land.
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose, and ask the driver to take me to the office instead.
I step into the elevator and press the button for the executive floor, my finger hovering for a long moment over the number that would take me to her.
There’s nothing I want more than to go to her right now, to drink in the sight of her, to assure myself that the memory of her warm and willing beneath me wasn’t just a fever dream.
The last thing I wanted was to rush off to Dallas after what happened between us, to leave her with nothing but a lingering ache between her thighs. But I couldn’t ask Dad to send someone else in my stead because I wanted to stay tangled in bed with a girl I had no business touching.
It’s ridiculous. He would never understand.
