Now she could be doing that with another man she insisted was only a friend.
His stomach coiled at the thought. He stared out the windshield at the deserted parking lot and listened to the eerie silence. His fingers tapped absently against the steering wheel as he went over his options. He’d made a mistake. He allowed his feelings to get in the way, and now she was taking advantage of the situation. He almost laughed out loud when he suddenly realized the sad picture he made. The mighty “man of steel” was really a poor chump sitting in the parking lot of a woman’s apartment building, waiting for her to show up from a date with another man.
Shards of ice ripped at his heart as he reigned in his emotions and took control. This was the last time his lady would make a fool out of him. He’d been going easy on her. Allowed her to play the game by a different set of rules so she felt safe.
Now they'd play by his rules.
He pushed the uneasy thought out of his mind that she was really in cahoots with her father. Could she be using him? Could she be so clever that even he had been fooled? As he gunned the engine and pulled out of the lot in a roar of screeching tires, he realized how much he wanted to believe in her innocence.
His first action was to find out where Harrison Edward Weston III lived.
And God help the man if Chandler was there.
Chapter 10
Chandler’s eyes flew open when she heard the pounding on the door.
She groaned and buried her head deeper into the cushions on the sofa. The tired springs creaked under her shifting weight and warned her that accommodating strangers for the night was something it was usually not required to do. She’d already fallen off the couch twice, finally discovering a comfortable position around dawn, and felt like she only grabbed fifteen minutes of precious sleep before the pounding had begun. Or maybe it was her head.
For a moment there was silence. She breathed a sigh of relief and tried to drift back, but the door suddenly vibrated under the insistent pounding of a fist. She struggled to open her eyes and glanced at the clock on the mantle. 6:00 AM. Saturday morning.
Someone was insane.
She muttered under her breath about Harry’s rude friends and fell off the couch for the third time. Tugging down the hem of the Giants T-shirt she borrowed, she padded barefoot to the door. The banging grew more intense, and she saw the wildly shaking door trying to withstand the power of the person behind it. She unlocked the chain and threw the door open, glaring behind tousled waves of hair.
And collided with a pair of icy gray eyes.
His gaze roamed over her figure, taking in her shirt and bare feet, her sleep rumbled hair and the surprise on her face. He stepped inside and shut the door gently behind him. The click of the latch echoed in the silence. Fighting the urge to run like hell and not look back, she blurted out, “How did you find me?”
She hadn’t thought it was possible but he managed to look even more terrifying after her question. His voice was soft when he spoke, contradicting the hardness in his eyes. “I called in a few favors to get Weston’s address. I’m sure you thought you were safe since his number is unlisted. Then again, you don’t know me as well as you thought, do you, Chandler?”
Her response was never heard. At that moment a door banged open and Harry stepped in the hallway dressed in a pair of boxer shorts. One hand rubbed his head as he stared at them through sleepy eyes. He looked from Logan’s tightly coiled figure to Chandler’s defensively crossed arms, then made his way towards the kitchen. “Oh, good, you’re finally here.” He reached for the coffee pot. “I see you found me earlier than I expected. Now maybe I can get some sleep.”
Chandler nervously glanced at her tower of testosterone and winced. He was going to attack Harry and it was all her fault for playing games. “Logan.” She laid her hand on his arm. His muscles jumped beneath her touch. “Please listen to me. Nothing happened here last night. In fact, the whole story is really bizarre if you’d just listen to me for a few moments.”
She heard the splash of water as Harry filled the coffee pot. His cheerful voice echoed through the hallway. “I love Chandler to death, but I have to admit she can be a handful at times. She was so upset last night we didn’t get to bed until after one.”
Logan took a step toward him. Chandler threw herself in front of his towering figure in order to save the life of her friend. Harry’s cheerful words continued drifting in the air amidst the sound of bubbling coffee. “She’s never spent hours analyzing another man’s actions before. When she found out you weren’t home last night, I thought she would have your head on a platter.”
Harry ignored Chandler’s strangled words of protest at his discussing her private feelings in front of the cause of her distress. “Now, my guess is you showed up at her apartment to wait for her and therefore missed her call. Of course, she didn’t believe me, and chose to rant and rave about the games you insist on playing in this relationship. A call on your Blackberry may have saved the situation, but she needed to prove a point. She only called your home number.”
Logan’s brow shot up.
Hot color rushed to her cheeks as she glared at the spot where Harry’s voice drifted from the kitchen.
Harry continued. “So, I surmise you assumed she tried to con you while she had an affair with me. I assure you, this is not true. She gives me enough trouble as a friend, let alone a lover.”
Chandler opened her mouth to yell, then promptly closed it at Logan’s threatening stare.
“She spent the night on the sofa and I slept in the bedroom. She locked her keys in the car at the restaurant last night, so she bunked here. When she called and found you weren’t home, she assumed you were trying to teach her a lesson by making her wait for a call that would never come. Of course, she wouldn’t have made it home by nine thirty anyway. She pushed our reservations back by an hour.”
Chandler closed her eyes in defeat. Her best friend had sold her out. She was going to kill him.
The cabinet door banged. Mugs clunked on the table. “You’re welcome to join me for a cup of coffee before I get myself together, but I’d probably advise you to go somewhere and talk. I’m sure both of you learned your lesson about challenging each other, and I really hope I never have to find myself in this situation again; awaiting the arrival of a man whose only ambition is to tear me limb from limb.”
Harry stepped from the kitchen so he was in full view. The two men studied each other for a while. Harry waited. Logan assessed. Chandler held her breath and berated herself for getting involved in such a primitive male encounter. She felt like a prey between two predators.
“I can firmly assure you, Weston, that you’ll never be put in this kind of position again.”
Harry nodded. A twinkle of amusement lit brown eyes. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Chandler looked from one to the other and shook her head in disgust. “The two of you are acting ridiculous,” she said. “You’re both speaking as if I’m not in the room and I resent it.”
“Go get dressed,” Logan ordered. His eyes narrowed at her current attire.
“But I want to explain—”