“Listen,” he said finally, “I should’ve cut off Vivi when I had the chance. Won’t happen again.”
“You’re right. In six weeks I’ll never see those people again. Even if I did, I can fend for myself. You’re not my keeper.”
“Still—”
“Chalk it up to a bad night.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be that way.”
“What did you expect, Logan?” she shot back.
“Not what happened. I didn’t think things would go downhill like that.”
With an acidic tone, she replied, “Then we’re even. I didn’t expect your coworkers’ wives to share the juicy tales about your past love life. Awkward doesn’t begin to describe it.”
Logan took his eyes off the road to shoot her a glance. “They wouldn’t dare.”
“Those people couldn’t wait to show me how insignificant I am. Just another one of your conquests. Here today, gone tomorrow.”
His grip flexed on his steering wheel. “What the hell do they know about us?”
“Logan, there is no us .”
He went quiet. He took his foot off the gas as they eased up to a red light. “Now I get the rumors.”
She said nothing.
“I want to think of us as…‘us.’”
“Trust me, you really don’t.”
He let out an exasperated breath. “Haven’t you thought once about that night? Am I the only one who sees where this can go?”
She stared at her lap. “What if I have? It doesn’t change my situation. I’m not at a point in my life where I can have a relationship.”
“So you keep saying,” he said angrily.
“Then why are we discussing it?”
Logan punched the gas when the light turned green. Because I can’t let it go .
As he pulled off the main roads onto Allison’s street, he braced for an argument. He wasn’t disappointed.
She swiveled to him. “You’re supposed to drop me off at my car. At work .”
“I saw some issues with your security system. Thought I’d fix them.”
Her face went white. “It wasn’t installed correctly?”
“It’s fine. It works. But I can make it better.” I can make a lot of things better .
Concern creased between her eyebrows. “I thought I ordered the top of the line.”
“To an extent. There are software updates I can access and download to enhance what you have.”
Her hands curled around her purse. “How long will it take?”
“Not long. Believe me you’ll feel a lot safer when I’m finished.”
After a few tense moments she murmured, “Alright.”
At least that got him into her apartment. After that the options were endless. He’d take her on her bed, the couch, the floor if they didn’t make it that far. It seemed like forever since he’d touched her skin. She’d become an addiction, and nothing except having her naked in his arms would satisfy this need.
He managed to calm his raging hard-on long enough to park, grab his laptop from the backseat, and follow her upstairs.
As she unlocked her three deadbolts, he experienced a swell of protectiveness. It bothered him that she needed this level of security to make her feel safe.
“What do you plan to do?” she asked, tapping in the code to silence the alarms.
Something totally inappropriate . While she hung up her coat, his gaze traveled her hourglass contours. Damn. “I need to set up my laptop and download the software updates.” He explained the procedures as he went through the motions. He’d rather be doing a different motion, like gliding his hips between her thighs.
He wiped his forehead. He logged into his office account using his personal password. Nothing happened. “Does the building have wi-fi?”
She rolled her eyes. “They don’t guarantee anything beyond heat and plumbing. Sometimes that’s too much to ask.”
“Not helpful.” He really needed to get in touch with his Realtor tomorrow. He didn’t like her living in this hole. He tried accessing a wireless network via several accounts until one let him through. “Looks like ‘babydaddy9’ saved the day.”
“How nice of him,” she said dryly.
The USB port on his computer allowed him to save the data to a thumb-drive and insert it into a portal on her home system. But it only accepted a partial upgrade. He considered his options. “I might have to do some of this the old-fashioned way.”
“Meaning?”
“Hard-wiring.” He removed the panels from her systems, saw the tangle of yellow, red and blue circuits. “We need to cut the electricity.”
She edged back. “Why?”
“Certain wires transmit to our company routers for remote accessibility. I need to re-rig your system.”
She frowned. “Sounds complicated.”
“Nah. Just a few tricks I learned from the bomb squad.”
“Seriously?”
He chuckled. “Defusing bombs wasn’t my gig, but I’ve hacked into telephone wires and broken into armored cars with less. This is cake.”
“If you say so.”
He sensed her nervous tension as she led him to the fuse box in her hall closet. She pushed aside two coats then rearranged a stack of sealed moving boxes to clear the way. It struck him that she was all packed and ready to go. She could leave town tomorrow. He didn’t like it.
“You’ve been here six weeks and haven’t unpacked?”
She brushed off his remark. “Non-essentials. No need.”
He thought about her sparse furnishings, her bare walls, the lack of anything personal in this space. “Why not?”
Pink arcs crested her cheeks. She didn’t meet his eyes. “You never know when you’ll have to pick up and leave at a moment’s notice.”
“No, I don’t know. Why do I get the impression you’re used to living out of a suitcase?”
“I travel for work,” she said irritably. “Wherever the job is, I go.”
“How can you do that? Just drift from place to place without anyone knowing where you are or where you’re going?”
“Practice.”
Her sharp reply left him wondering what was really going on. “Don’t tell me you do this by choice.”
“You do what you have to do.”
He didn’t believe her. No one lived like this, without friends or family or home, for no good reason.