“None of your business,” I snapped, wrenching my arm from his grip. He was the exact person I didn't want to see. “Leave me alone!”
I took a step away from him and toward the beach. A blast of wind caught me as I left the relative safety of the patio, and I stumbled. Part of a tree whizzed down the beach, spraying pieces of leaves as it bounced like a child's ball across the sand.
Suddenly, I was up and over Logan's shoulder. He carried me as if I weighed nothing, pushing through the wind, rain, and my thrashing with ease. His shoulder was hard and warm under my stomach as his arm pinned me to him. I was furious. Furious that he was rescuing me when I didn’t need saving. What I needed was to be saved from him.
I kicked and punched Logan, screaming into the storm for him to put me down. I hated that he thought he was helping me when all I wanted to do was forget about him and the trouble he was causing me. I hated him. He opened the door to the hotel and stumbled inside. The danger of the hurricane diminished as he carried me inside the safety of the door, but my emotional fury was just getting started. He was a dead man.
Chapter 19
Logan set me down carefully in the hallway, dodging a well-aimed smack from me. He leaned against the door, his broad shoulders heaving as he caught his breath. I stood on shaky legs, fury pouring from every atom of my being.
“What the hell did you do that for?” I shrieked at him. I would have run back out into the storm, but he was effectively blocking the door.
“What the hell did I do that for?” he repeated, his voice incredulous. His white t-shirt was soaked with rain and clung to him like a second skin. I could see every muscle of his torso outlined in wet gray. There was what looked like grass tangled in his honey curls. He was a hot mess. A hot mess that I needed to avoid. “You were out in a fucking hurricane! Did you not see the tree hurtling down the beach?”
I glared fire at him and crossed my arms. “I was fine! I didn't need you to come rescue me!”
Logan straightened from the door, coming to his full height. Every muscle popped out of his shirt at me, and his eyes held a dangerous darkness I had never seen before. I hadn’t realized just how big he was, how strong and intimidating he could be, until that very moment.
“You ran out into a hurricane,” he enunciated carefully. There was power and danger in his tone that gave me goosebumps. “That's how people die in these storms. What the hell were you doing out there?”
“That doesn't give you the right to pick me up like a child and carry me inside!” My voice shook with uncontrolled rage. He was close enough now that
I could feel the heat radiating off his wet skin. My own hair was dripping water down my spine.
He loomed over me. There was something beautiful and dark in his eyes that held me captive and kept me from running. “Damn it, Olivia!” Logan growled. Frustration reverberated off every syllable. “I was worried about you!”
“Why?” I asked with a sneer. “If I got killed out there, you would get my company for a song. No more Olivia problem. You already have most of my employees anyway.”
“I had nothing to do with that!” he shouted, anger making his voice break. “I haven't done jack shit to your company!”
“Liar,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes. He stepped back as if I had struck him. He took a deep breath, visibly trying to calm himself.
“Everything you hate was done by my father. I don't want your company.” His brown eyes were flames, and my soul was the moth. I couldn't have escaped from his gaze if I had been blinded. He moved close enough that those eyes were all I could see. “I want you.”
I blinked twice. That was not what I was expecting. His words startled and excited me, but before my brain could analyze and process them, his hand was around the back of my neck and his lips were on mine.
His mouth was hot and insistent as he pressed it against mine. I fought for a moment, but his grip was too strong and his kiss too sweet. It was a kiss I had craved for two years and had tried to convince myself I could do without. I wanted to give in to him completely, but I was still too angry to budge even an inch. Instead, I just stood there like a statue as he kissed me. I was furious and turned on beyond anything I could imagine. After a moment, he pulled back and searched my face.
“What was that for?” I surprised myself with the amount of venom in my voice. His kiss had sent want scorching down into the very marrow of my bones, but I needed someone to be angry with, and he was the closest person. He had hurt me. His eyebrows came together above those beautiful eyes. Hope fell as he saw something in my expression that disappointed him.
“Forget it,” he mumbled, releasing me and looking away. His shoulders hunched and he moved to leave, but I wasn't about to let him get away that easily. He couldn't kiss me like that and just run away without an explanation. I grabbed his shoulder and spun him back to face me. He frowned, his brown eyes filling with heartbreak. I looked deeper, trying to understand what was going on. Passion and something sweet burned deep within their coffee and caramel swirls. The black of his pupils threatened to suck me into their depths and made my heart melt and core heat. His kiss had awakened a deep need, and my body was responding without letting my brain get a say in things.
Without thinking, I put my hand on the back of his neck and pressed my mouth into his. He didn't hesitate, kissing me back with a need that matched my own. He pushed me up against the wall. Our tongues interlocked as we found the valve for the sexual tension that had been building between the two of us for the past two years. My body responded to his every touch with a fervor I couldn't contain. Didn't want to contain. I wanted it to consume us both.
Logan's grip tightened around my waist, drawing me in to him. I arched my hips, wanting to press every inch of my body to his. His body was hard, hot, and responding to mine in the most obvious of ways. I was sure steam was coming off both of our wet clothes with the heat we were generating. My fingers tightened into his golden curls, squeezing water out of them as I held him greedily closer to me. He tasted so good, I was sure I would never get enough.
Logan wasn't holding back. One hand threaded into my hair and he tangled my wet tresses around his fingers. The other cupped my breast through my soaked shirt. Everything in my world was lost to necessity. I needed Logan more than anything I could possibly think of.
As if on cue, we both broke apart for a moment, gasping for air like we had both forgotten how to breathe. To be honest, I couldn't remember breathing before our kiss. His lips had stolen all of my brain power, and I was surprised that my heart had managed to beat on its own without my brain supplying the stimulus. I thanked God for autonomic functions.
I stared up into his fathomless brown eyes. Gold swirls and amber highlights pulled me ever deeper into his soul. All that I could see was his warmth and desire. It terrified me because I knew I was reflecting the same things. I wanted him. I had wanted him for the past two years and had almost convinced myself that I didn't.
I thought of bolting. There was too much emotion, too much history, and too much baggage to even be thinking of kissing him again. But I wanted to kiss him again. I wanted to do so much more than just kiss him. Everything about our relationship was wrong. But everything in my body was telling me that this was right. That we were right. That we had always been right, and that I had been doing my damnedest not to see it.
“Logan?” I whispered. The storm and my own heartbeat were the only things I could hear. It felt like the hurricane was still raging around and through me. I loved him and hated him. I wanted this so badly, yet I knew I should run. I was shaking under his hands as I tried desperately to sort out my emotions and come up with a plan. If I had a plan, then I could be rational. I wouldn't get hurt again.
His face was unreadable as he searched mine. I wanted him to push me away and hold me close at the same time. My conflicting emotions and thoughts spun around me like raindrops in the wind. I had hated him for so long. The realization that I actually wanted him instead was still a foreign idea. It wasn't anywhere close to my usually rational self, and that frightened me.