Page 96 of The Lost and the Found

Hayden

We didn’t talk muchin the morning.

Logan woke before me, despite us having gone to sleep the same time, but that didn’t mean I was well rested in the morning. By eight o’clock, I was already up, and even with the late night, I couldn’t go back to sleep.

Since Logan couldn’t miss work again after taking Monday off, he was already dressed by the time I made my way to the kitchen. “Can you drive me home?” I asked quietly.

I felt him tense from where he stood, his back turned to me. “Why don’t you stay here? We can talk when I come home from work today. I mean, all of your stuff and schoolwork is here.”

His tone was casual enough. But I knew he wanted to talk about last night. To reassure me that it wouldn’t happen again. But how could he reassure me that I wouldn’t ever see myself in the place of one of his exes? In the place of those he left behind.

“Please. You told me you would drive me home in the morning.”

He looked at me then, and I tried not to flinch from the hurt I could see swimming in his dark eyes. “Baby, I don’t want to let you go.”

I softened my smile. “You’re not. I’m just going home. I haven’t been there in so long that it’s starting to feel like I don’t live there anymore.”

“Then live here.”

A small laugh came out of my throat. “What?”

“Move in with me.”

I shook my head. “We barely know each other. Don’t you think that’s a little too fast?”

“No, I don’t. I want you here with me all the time. I want to take care of you. I hate the thought of you going back to that apartment, with the heater problems, and the run-down neighborhood, and even that kid, Kenny.”

“I can’t move in with you.”

“Why not?”

Because you don’t love me, I didn’t say. Instead, I said, “Because it’s too fast. We barely know each other.”

He took a step toward me. I resisted the urge to move back. I knew better than to run away from a predator. “But I do know you, baby. I know you’re too good for me, I know you’re smart and independent, and you don’t need me, but I can’t let you go.”

I shook my head a little. He was wrong. I did need him.

Perhaps a little too much.

His eyes roamed over my face. I didn’t know how I looked, but then Logan shot me a small smile. “I know what kind of breakfast you like, and I know how you sleep at night.” He lowered his voice, his eyes turning hungry. “I know how to get you off, and that there will never be another man for you.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. We haven’t even had sex yet, and you want me to move in.”

“That could be rectified soon enough,” he answered gruffly, talking another huge step toward me.

I scoffed and folded my arms across my chest. “Don’t be an asshole.”

His shoulders sagged a little then. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

I shook my head. “I just want to go home, Logan.”

“You are home.”

“I’m not moving in with you.”

It was his turn to shake his head. “That’s not what I meant.” He was standing right in front of me then. Logan grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest. “Don’t you feel that? You are home, baby. Just like I am.”

My eyes burned and I had to look away. This was too much. It was just too much for me to handle. Couldn’t he see how vulnerable he was making me?

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