“Loud enough for you?” I panted, feeling completely spent.
I felt his grin against my skin, and then he touched my chin, turning my head so I could meet his gaze over my shoulder. There was a ferocious hunger there I knew all too well. “Not nearly. And we’ve got all afternoon to blow the roof off this place.”
I shivered at the thought. “You’re insatiable.”
He nodded and pressed his nose against mine. “I can’t get enough of you.”
“You’re blaming me,” I teased. “You’re just randy.”
Logan’s body shook with amusement, the movement causing lovely sensations of friction inside of me. “I wasn’t like this until you.”
I snorted. “I don’t believe that.”
His expression grew serious. “Believe it.”
An excited shiver rippled over me. I was stunned that I made him feel that way. Not knowing how to react, I turned my head to avoid his gaze. His hands now rested on the counter in front of me, barricading me against him and it. My eyes traveled over them and caught on the tattoo on his right forearm. I circled my fingertips over it. “You never said what it means.”
He rested his chin on my shoulder. “Cole gave me it. I asked him for a tattoo and he asked me to trust him enough to choose one for me.” He sighed heavily. “It’s the Celtic symbol for justice.”
A smile pulled at my lips. “He believes you did the right thing by Shannon.”
“He would.” Logan huffed. “Of course he would.”
“He wants you to be at peace with it.” I kissed my fingertips and pressed them to the tattoo. “I knew I liked him.”
“I was pissed at him when he did it.”
“And now?”
“I’m trying to make it fit me.”
I turned my head slightly to lock gazes with him. “You don’t need to try. It already fits.”
His reply was the sweetest kiss anyone had ever given me.
CHAPTER 23
“So I’ve joined the summer program at the library and the summer program at Meadowbank Swim Center,” Maia announced.
It was the day after planning Maia’s sweet sixteenth with the girls and things felt like they were moving very fast. I felt like I was trying to swim out of this crashing, joyous wave, while Logan and Maia were content to keep me there… seeing as they were the wave. Apparently, after all my protestations, there would be no taking things slowly for my sake or Maia’s. Maia didn’t want to go slowly, and Logan certainly didn’t.
Already the pair of them were in my kitchen eating the pasta I’d put in front of them. It was as if we’d traveled back in time to a few weeks ago, only now, every time I looked over at Logan, he stared back at me with undisguised heat in his eyes.
I swear I’d blushed more around that man in the last seventy-two hours than I had in the many combined embarrassing moments of my childhood.
“Swimming?” Logan said.
Maia nodded. “I used to like swimming when I was wee, and I need some kind of exercise.”
“Good idea, then.”
“And the library?” I said, smiling.
She grinned at me. “They have a great YA program.” She shrugged, seeming a little shy. “I thought I might meet some friends there. You know… better ones.”
“Best news I’ve heard all day,” Logan said.
Maia looked down at her plate, a small smile of pleasure on her lips. It appeared she’d caught my disease – a state of overwhelming happiness whenever Logan MacLeod was pleased with us. She shrugged. “I thought it would keep me busy this summer.”
“Speaking of busy, Joss has sent me another manuscript. I just sent her the last one back.” I shook my head, still spinning in amazement at her. “How does that woman write so fast when she has three small children?”
Logan smiled over at me. “Don’t start the hero-worshiping just yet. I’ve been over there when she’s writing and it’s all Braden. He gives her a few hours a day, finds some way to distract the kids.”
I sighed at the thought of Braden Carmichael. “I’ve never seen a man so in love.”
Logan cleared his throat, and I looked over at him. He glowered at me. “No need to be hero-worshiping him either.”
I struggled to contain my laughter, my fight only made worse when I looked over at Maia and found her grinning mischievously at her dad. “I can see why Grace likes him, Dad. I mean, he’s a wee bit old and all that, but the man has presence.”
I snorted, losing my struggle. “A wee bit old and all that. Maia, the man is only in his forties.”
“That’s old to me.”
“Oh, how you will change your tune when you’re my age and approaching your forties.”
“You’re only twenty-eight, Grace.”
“A few weeks ago you said that was old.”
“It is. But there are levels of old. I’m pretty sure Dad wouldn’t want you if you were Braden’s age.”
“Wrong,” Logan said, scooping up some pasta. “I’d want her any way I could get her.” He said it with such casualness before popping food into his mouth.
There was nothing casual about the words, however, or the intent behind them. I stared at him, my lips parted in surprise as I struggled to draw breath in quite so easily as before.
Sensing my gaze, Logan looked over at me and then at Maia. “What?”
Maia pressed her lips together at his obliviousness to the significance of what he’d said. She cocked her head and gave him a condescending smile. “You’re adorable, Dad.”