‘Are you saying that yours was?’
Accustomed to being surrounded by people who devoured gossip about him, and usually knew more than they let on, Logan found himself wondering if she was being straight with him. He’d had every psychological game played on him by women trying to make their position in his life permanent that he immediately questioned her sincerity.
Was he really so jaded?
Because there was nothing in Cassidy’s expressive green eyes to suggest that she was anything other than sincere.
‘Behind many closed doors life is different from that which we present to the world,’ Logan said. ‘Mine was no different.’
In fact, when their doors were closed they’d lived a powerless childhood filled with nasty, unspoken grievances between his parents.
‘Did you want to talk about it?’
No, he didn’t. But somehow her soft invitation drew something out of him. ‘My father wasn’t quite the man the history books make him out to be. Behind closed doors he had a constant string of affairs. It didn’t matter if a woman was married, single, an acquaintance, or if she worked for him, the only prerequisite for him to sleep with her was that she be attractive.’ He gave a snort of disgust.
‘It was fortunate that cell phones with cameras weren’t around during the height of his glory days or it would have been much worse. As it was, the press dined out on the rumours of his exploits for long enough to make my mother check into a Swiss rehab facility for three months. That was the year Leo was diagnosed with leukaemia and my father’s response was to head to a hotel with five international strippers.’
‘Oh, wow, that’s...’
‘Water under the bridge,’ he said starkly, wondering what had possessed him to reveal so much to her. He stepped back, hoping the physical distance would sever the moment of intimacy that had developed between them.
‘I can see now why you don’t want to be King,’ she said softly. ‘Why you don’t want to be likened to your father, but it doesn’t always have to be that way.’ The look she gave him was full of a sympathy he’d never needed. ‘If you live congruent to your values and want something different you’ll be perfectly placed to create it.’ She gave him a faint smile. ‘Didn’t you say that we don’t have to be defined by our past?’
Yes, he had said words to that effect and having them fed back to him made him realise that in this instance he might not practise what he preached. Since he wasn’t given to sentimentalising any aspect of his life he had never given it much thought, and he didn’t particularly want to now.
‘It’s poor form to throw a man’s words back at him,’ he growled. Particularly if those words made sense.
Putting his water bottle down, he came at her again.
She danced out of his way with grace and skill. ‘If it’s worth anything,’ she parried, ‘I agree with your mother. I think you’ll make an amazing king.’
Logan’s heart kicked hard behind his ribcage. Her words did mean something but he was unwilling to explore exactly what that was either.
‘Are we here to spar or to talk?’ he challenged.
He didn’t give her a chance to respond, forcing her back off the mat with a series of manoeuvres he was careful to keep controlled and smooth.
Sensing that he was holding back, she ramped things up with a look of determination he couldn’t help but revel in.
Logan fended off her jabs, deliberately flinching as her foot connected with his ribs.
Immediately contrite, she stopped. ‘Oh, no, did I—?’
Taking full advantage of her caring nature, he flipped her so that she landed flat on her back with her delicate wrists pinned above her head, his thighs straddling her slender waist to lock her beneath him.
‘I win,’ he breathed. ‘You’re well and truly pinned now.’
Cassidy raised her hips beneath him, but that only served to have him press her more firmly into the mat, which was when their sparring session turned to something else entirely.
Both of them went still, Logan’s eyes locked on her lips as he leaned over her, Cassidy’s eyes dark and uncertain as she gazed back at him.
The demanding ache in his groin pushed at him to do what he had wanted to do since he’d seen her completely undone in his apartment. Take her and damn the consequences.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, her fingers flexing beneath his hold.
His body throbbed with a powerful hunger that fogged his brain, his fingers burning with the desire to grab the belt at her waist and yank her dobok open so that he could feast on her high firm breasts.
If she made one move, gave him the slightest indication that she wanted this as much as he did, he’d—he’d what? Kiss her? Forget that she was his employee? He’d returned to Arrantino to put out the fires created by his brother’s scandal, not to create one of his own.