She knew all about heartache when it came to Logan Green. She let her hand rub up Seth’s chest. God, he was lovely. It felt so right to be near him, but she was worried that her near lover was about to become her gay bestie, and damn it if her heart wasn’t breaking all over again. This might be the last time she got to hold him like this. The first and last.
His hand came up and covered hers, holding it to his heart. “Logan’s not gay. God, not even close. I can’t tell you how many women we managed to run through after he decided his sex drive was worth risking his moms’ wrath. Sometimes two and three at a time.”
She started to pull away, but he tightened his hand. “Don’t. You want me to start being true with you? You’re going to have to handle the damage. I didn’t share those women with him because I was secretly hoping he’d do me instead. Not even close.”
He didn’t sound like a man who was lying. He pulled at her other arm, gently forcing her to wrap him up. A low growl came out of his mouth. Nope. He didn’t sound like a man who wasn’t interested in women.
“But you do care about Logan?” She was trying not to think about how good this felt. And she was definitely not thinking about what it would be like if Logan walked into the room and took up position behind her. Nope. That was not a vision running through her head at all.
“I love him, Georgia,” Seth replied, his words a long confession. His hand rubbed against hers in long strokes. “If I was wired that way sexually, I would have been all over him, but it’s not like that. Sometimes I think it would have been easier that way. Did you ever have that one friend who being around them was like the most peaceful thing in the world? A friend where you didn’t have to be anyone except the person you are deep down? I’ve tried to come up with a hundred different words for it. I’ve called him my brother, my best friend, but it’s not exactly right. He’s my soul mate and I’ll never kiss him. I don’t want to. But I want to share a life with him, and that makes me wrong for a lot of people.”
Georgia blinked back tears. Damn. What he hadn’t managed with his seduction play, a few aching words had done in a heartbeat. Because she had never had a friend like that. She’d grown up surrounded by prep school girls who wouldn’t let her forget her mother had stripped for a living and she was a piece of trash. She loved her sister-in-law, but she still held back, a little piece of her worried that she could wreck something special for her brothers.
You wrecked everything, her mother had said. They’d been the last words she’d said to Georgia. She’d only been five, but she could remember them. She’d wrecked everything by being born because her mother hadn’t wanted to be a wife. She’d wanted to be a lover. Carrying Georgia had ruined her body, and she couldn’t stand to look at her.
But with Seth, she’d felt like she could help. Seth was the first person she’d felt at peace with, and she suddenly knew that she couldn’t give him up no matter how smart it would be to do so.
“Do you really want me, Seth? Do you think you could care about me?”
He turned, flipping around and hauling her close like a shark who had finally scented just a little sweet blood in the water. Ruthless bastard. It was deeply sexy, and she really needed to call that therapist because her body was already singing again. “I am crazy about you, Georgia. I have been crazy since the moment I saw you and that’s true. I want you so bad it hurts, and I want to give you everything you need.”
But she couldn’t be everything he needed. “And if Logan can’t be brought around?”
“Then I’ll be satisfied that we tried.” He hugged her close, his forehead rubbing against hers. “Georgia, I’m going to be so good for you, baby. I’ll take care of you. I won’t let you down.”
She sighed, all of her girl parts singing a happy chorus in her body.
If we’re going to do this, you guys are going to have to get with the diet and exercise program.
And she had to stop talking to her various body parts.
He was just about to brush his lips against hers when she heard the door open and the sound of a smoke detector start to go off.
Logan stood in the doorway, a steaming, smoking pan in his hands. Her nose was assaulted with the scent of ruined bacon. “I think I killed the kitchen.”
He went a little pale as he noticed how close they were standing. She started to pull away, but Seth dragged her close again, not putting an inch of distance between them. “I’ll come in and start opening the windows.”
Logan turned back around and groaned. “Dude, put that shit away. What’s wrong with you? You’re a billionaire and you can’t buy towels that cover your junk? You know they make them extra big now, but no. You like slapped a washcloth over it so the girl couldn’t miss it. Do you think I don’t know that play? Fuck, man, I invented that play.”
She’d been totally wrong. Wow. Seth’s rather intensely large and totally erect male member was poking out of his towel.
Told you.
She watched as Seth and Logan started back down the hallway, pushing and bumping each other like toddlers at play.
Yeah. This was going to be a ton of fun.
Chapter Six
Logan looked up at the sheriff’s department like it was a damn mountain he was about to climb.
He was dressed in his khakis and boots, a Stetson planted on his head and his stomach somewhere around his knees. He didn’t want to walk into that building. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.
What the fuck did he think he was doing? He wasn’t this guy anymore. He’d never really been. He’d been a dumbass kid playing at being a hero, and he’d figured out real damn fast that heroes didn’t exist. He’d found out just how flawed he was. He’d learned how easy it had been to break Logan Green.
“It’s really scary, isn’t it? I’ve heard it’s haunted by like a ton of ghosts and shit.”
He turned, and there was the woman he’d first mistaken as Georgia. Blonde hair, blue eyes, but definitely more slender and willowy now that he was looking at her. She had a big black bag at her elbow, one of those quilted things Georgia used to carry, but there was a more worldly look to this woman. Georgia, when she thought no one was watching, always looked so fucking innocent.
The way she had this morning when she’d looked up at Seth like he was Superman and he’d just rescued her from certain death.
What the fuck game was Seth playing? He should have walked out the night before, but Seth knew how to work him. He was staying until he heard the plan. He was staying because he couldn’t do anything else.
“Not a big talker, then? We’re going to get along so well.”
Well, this blonde could be as annoying as Georgia. “You must be the new receptionist.”
She groaned a little. “Yuck. He shoots, he fails. Office manager. I’m the office manager and all-around, one-stop lawyer shop. I find it’s the best way to meet new clients. I can help process them in, and by the time they actually make it to the cell, I usually have them on retainer.”
Logan looked down at her. Had Nate lost his damn mind? “Nate hired a lawyer? I thought we had an injunction or something.”