All of a sudden Min was sure of it. For some reason this party, this trip, bothered him and he wanted her there. But she couldn’t figure why.
“Why do you want to take me? I could make this hell for you.” Her words flowed smooth as her anger started simmering. “I could stand up in front of everyone and say how fake this engagement is, that you’re coercing me by threatening to ruin my business.”
“But you won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“You have a fear of public speaking.”
“Maybe I’ll make a placard and w-w-wear it.”
“With nothing underneath?” He looked hopeful.
“I’m serious. You’re playing with fire here.”
“My favorite thing to do.” To prove that point he flicked the gas element on and set a wok over the flame. With quick movements he tossed in the vegetable strips.
Min’s mouth watered at the sizzle and scent. And the whole hot-guy-cooking? Total fantasy. But the party thing?
Nightmare.
“This is a win-win situation,” Logan said as he expertly wielded the high heat. “I’ve already explained that.”
“What do I win?” She was not going with him.
He studied her, seeming to assess how serious she was.
Very.
“Alright,” he turned back to the wok. “If you come with me this weekend, you act the fiancée, then we end the charade sooner.”
She stilled. “How much sooner?”
He shook his head, shrugging a little. “Couple weeks? The paps should have lost interest by then. We can work something out.”
Her heart hammered again. This had to be good, though. “But I thought this was all about timing?”
“It is. This weekend, next week. They’re crucial for my brother. Past that… I think we can get away with it.”
“And that’s what you get out of it? Some kind of show for your family?”
But wasn’t he the guy who didn’t care about what others thought?
He sighed, resting the wooden spoon as he glanced at her. “My father’s formally handing over the family empire to my brother Connor. I need to be there and look pleased about it.”
That checked her. “But you’re not pleased?”
“I’m over the moon. Can’t think of a better person to run the place than Con. I just don’t want to have to be there. But it’s all about impressions. Public impressions.”
That seemed to be a weighted comment. She watched him, waiting for more. But now he wasn’t meeting her gaze—was so concentrated on the stir-fry.
“Connor runs the company?” she asked, picking up a lone piece of red capsicum that had avoided the pan, and nibbling on it.
“Has done for years. My father thinks he does, but Connor has it sewn up. Thank goodness.”
And why did that sound so bitter? “Are you close?”
Logan glanced at her sideways and chuckled. “Don’t worry, it’s not a case of the second son usurping the first. Connor is the person I’m closest to in the world. I owe him everything.”
He did? Min wondered how. But her question hadn’t been about his brother so much, as his father. But Logan seemed to have missed that. Not close then.
“It’s not for my parents that we’re going. Not even for the resort and the damn share-price of the damn clothing company. It’s for my brother. He’s worked too hard to have it wrecked now. So we go celebrate. Unity.”
Her curiosity spiked higher. “What are your parents like?”
“Don’t worry about them, I’m not.” He piled the noodle and veggie mix into two bowls. He lifted a bowl, stabbed a fork into the center of the sauce-slicked noodles and held it out to her. “Now, come watch a movie with me.”
She looked warily at him.
“Not that kind of movie,” he winked. “You’ve seen enough of that for one day, right?”
Heat beat into her cheeks. But his plan to divert the topic had worked.
He chuckled as he picked up the second bowl. “Don’t apologize. Let’s just call a truce for tonight, okay?”
The guy wanted a truce? For the first time since the orgasm-episode she looked properly into his face. He looked tired. There was a faint edge of weariness around his eyes that smote her heart. Instantly she inwardly mocked herself—was she really concerned about his welfare now?
“I wasn’t going to apologize.” She perched on the far end of the sofa in the office.
He grunted, a half laugh as he pointed at the screen. “You okay with this?”
“Sure.”
She’d thought he’d be action, or borderline inappropriate comedy, but this was a retelling of a Shakespeare play. She felt his eyes on her and determinedly didn’t pass comment. That’s what he was expecting, right? He was deliberately challenging the stereotyped view she had of him. And fair enough.
Because maybe she’d been wrong about him. Maybe she’d been narrow and jumped to conclusions before she’d even met him properly.
And yet he seemed to spend so much of his time and energy living up to those exact rumors. He was a total contradiction.
“You study this one at school?” he asked, sprawling back into the sofa in a far too attractive fashion.
Min kept her eyes on the screen, so not going to check out the length of his legs or the way his tee was riding a little high on one side, exposing a hint of tanned, taut abdominal skin. “Uh huh.”
She was tongue-tied.
“It’s always been my favorite.”
“Why?”
Logan cocked his head as he looked at the screen. “His last play? Ending the ‘rough magic’?” he looked thoughtful. “The old magician trying to make everything alright for the one he loved most in the world?” He drew in a breath. “I dunno…”
A father’s love? She grimaced at her own stupid attempt to understand him. It didn’t matter. All she had to do was get through this weekend. Make the most of the game.
Then she’d be out of here.
But to her absolute disappointment there was no kiss goodnight after the film. No inappropriate comments or touches. Nothing.
No satisfying any of her sexual hungers.
And she just knew that was deliberate. It was so obvious from the sly way the sexy bastard grinned at her. Like he knew just what she wanted.
And how much she wanted it.
So she flounced to her room.
She suffered the most sleepless night ever, tossing and turning, hot and damp as she remembered the feel of his mouth on her. The way his hands had pressed so firmly, the way he’d sucked and stroked his tongue in those long, lush licks. There’d been nothing in the world more pleasurable for her before that moment. She ached for another orgasm. Wanted more of that intense attention. She wante
d more of everything. It was all she could think about.
Which, she suspected, was exactly what he wanted.
It was three in the morning when it finally dawned on her. The weekend at Summerhill? She was going to his childhood home. Meeting his parents. At a party. It was insane. What was she going to do—turn up there and stutter her way through the formal introductions? Look like a wreck in her ripped jeans and ugly slippers?
She was nothing like his usual women. Nothing like the kind of woman he’d get engaged to for real.
Yet he was insistent. Too used to getting what he wanted. She was going, or he was killing her career. It was crazy. He was crazy.
And there was that tiny part of her that was too damn curious. And the big part of her that wanted him to try to make her beg. She still wanted to best him.
But she sat bolt upright. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it the best she possibly could.
But she needed help. A lot of it. As soon as it was six in the morning, she pulled on jeans and a loose shirt. She tip-toed to the office, but saw Logan’s bedroom door was open. Was he out running already?
She hoped he was doing a mini-marathon today.
She quickly dealt with a couple of status updates and scheduled some interaction for later in the day. Then she texted Sabrina—Blake’s fiancée, crossing her fingers that the woman wouldn’t mind such an early wake-up.
She got a text back in less than two minutes.
Twenty minutes later she grabbed the baseball cap and sunglasses and jammed them on, hoping it was too early and too dark for the paparazzi.
She swept past the security guy on the desk downstairs before he could say anything and thanked all the stars because she snagged a cab right outside.
Good thing too. She had no time to lose.
An hour and a half later her phone rang. Min glanced down at the screen. She’d been holding it in her hot little hand, knowing this was coming. She inhaled deep and touched the screen. “Hel—”
“Where the hell are you?” Logan barked.
“At the… salon. Relax, I haven’t run out on you.” She’d asked Sabrina to give her the number of her beautician. Sabrina had gone one better and called the stylist herself and pulled in a favor. Which was why Min was now there so early, feeling stupidly celeb-tastic.