“I sure hope you weren’t just about to raise your hand to your own daughter, Maurice. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Her father shook Logan’s hand off, and had the good sense to look embarrassed, before he took a step away.
“Of course not. I’m not a monster. She just…Fuck, you don’t know what it’s been like. She’ll be the death of me with her unreasonable demands and—”
“I don’t think wanting the best for a beloved horse is being unreasonable, Maurice.” Logan interrupted her father, and when the man looked all set to erupt again, Logan held his hand up to stop him.
“Calm down. I’m well aware I haven’t been around, and I apologize for that. I haven’t been the best of friends to either you or Georgina since Elena passed. I know that.”
Lindsey’s heart cramped painfully in her chest at the way he said his wife’s name. To be loved that fiercely just once…Instead, she faced an uncertain future. Marry Kevin Montgomery to enable her to come into her inheritance and have any chance of getting back into her father’s good graces, or refuse, lose the inheritance, and fear being ostracized for good. While she could just about cope if she never saw her father again, the thought of being estranged from Mama…No, she couldn’t live with herself if that happened.
“I don’t blame you for that, Logan, not at all.” Her father’s surprisingly contrite voice shook her out of her angst-filled musings. It was so unlike him that she was pretty sure she must be doing goldfish impressions. Sure enough, Jenkins, too, looked at her father as though he’d grown six heads in that instant.
“The fact remains that you weren’t here, and you have no idea what it’s like to raise a willful daughter.” Lindsey flinched as both Papa and Logan focused their attention on her. Logan was only five years younger than her father, but it might as well have been twenty for the difference between them. While drinking too much, coupled with the passage of time, had weakened her father’s once-strong jawline, Logan’s seemed cut from granite.
There were no jowls, no thickening middle or receding hair line, and where her father’s remaining hair had gone completely white, only streaks of grey marred Logan’s full head of black hair. She curled her fingers under to stop herself from the overwhelming urge to reach up and brush back the strand of it which kept falling over his eyebrows. She didn’t have that right. Logan did it himself, the biceps in his arms flexing with the movement.
He’d rolled the sleeves of his shirt up while he had been working on Millie, and while the once-pristine material was now streaked with dirt, and dust marred his strong forearms, it just served to reiterate his masculinity. The worn denims hugged his slim hips, lovingly outlined the bulge in his groin, and accentuated his strong thighs. She hadn’t realized she was openly ogling him until Logan cleared his throat, and she hastily wrenched her gaze up and away from his groin. Heat flared her cheeks when Jenkins coughed to hide a very obvious smile, and as for Papa, he looked between Logan and her with a deep frown.
It wouldn’t do for him to suspect anything. As it was, the brief flare of answering heat in Logan’s eyes as their gazes briefly connected made her sit back down on the hale bay with a rather inelegant thump. The ghost of a smile kicked up Logan’s full lips at her inherent clumsiness, and Papa just glared at her.
“You will marry Kevin. After all, you had plenty of time to find someone else, and you need to get married. You’re lucky he’s interested, what with your…” He made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat, as he gestured to her face, and Lindsey hid her mortification behind the curtain of her hair. Always the same with her father, but it hurt doubly so to have her dismissed as ugly so cruelly in front of Logan.
“Maurice, that’s enough. I’ll admit I haven’t got a clue what the fuck is going on here, but any man would be fortunate to know Lindsey. She’s a—”
Her father’s cruel laugh stopped Logan mid-sentence, and she didn’t need to look up to sense his discomfort at the route this conversation was taking.
“My daughter is many things, but if I wouldn’t call any man taking her on fortunate. Besides, the only young ones sniffing around have been after her inheritance. No, she needs someone older and experienced to take her in hand. Kevin can do that for her. Far more importantly, he has his own money, and he’s a business associate of mine who’ll invest in our joint venture. This is what I want, and she’s going to marry him, whether she wants to or not. She is just being stubborn, and she owes me this.”
That brought Lindsey’s head up. Logan looked ready to say something else, but her father wasn’t done yet.
“Anyway, that’s none of your business, and if you want a snowball’s chance of getting paid for this fool’s errand you’ve done tonight”—he glanced at Millie as though she was the devil incarnate—“then she’ll need that inheritance to meet your fee, ‘cause I sure as fuck am not going to pay for it.”
Lindsey flinched, not daring to look at Logan. Surely he would be furious.
* * * *
Logan had just about enough of this shit. Still reeling from the realization that Lindsey seemed as good as engaged—in which case, what the fuck had she been doing at the club?—witnessing first-hand the way her father completely dismissed his daughter’s concerns was hard to stomach. As was the way Lindsey shrunk in on herself, her earlier brief attempt to assert herself against her father nothing but a distant memory now.
Clearly she expected him to erupt, too, but she was in for a surprise.
“There is no need. Tonight was free of charge.” Her head came up at that, and she blinked away tears as he continued. “Millie is important to Lindsey, and we’re old friends. I don’t charge my friends.”
A silent tear ran down Lindsey’s cheek and Logan wanted nothing more than to cross the distance between them, take her into his arms and kiss that moisture away. That need floored him completely, and meant he stayed put and shoved his hands into his trouser pockets instead.
“Well, that’s very generous of you, Logan, isn’t it, Honoraria?” Her lips tightened at the use of her name but she didn’t correct her father. “Don’t just sit there, thank the man for his generosity, as misguided as it is.”
With Maurice’s attention focused on Logan, he missed the glare Lindsey threw toward her father, before she fixed her expressive eyes on him.
“Thank you, Sir, for everything you’ve done tonight.”
Logan pulled in a sharp breath at the intonation she put on that title. Delivered as it was in the slightly breathy voice of hers, it shot straight to his cock, and it took every ounce of will power he had to stop himself from hardening where he stood. If her father noticed the effect his daughter’s words had on Logan, he didn’t let on. Jenkins’s deepening grin and the slight widening of his eyes told another story. He seemed to know exactly what was going on here.
Clearing his throat, Logan eventually responded.
“You’re very welcome, lit…I mean Lindsey.”
Her father looked as though as he’d just been made to suck on a lemon at hearing Logan address Lindsey by her preferred name. As for his little bird? She seemed to be fighting a blush under his quiet regard, clearly having caught his almost slip.
“Good, that’s settled, then, and to show my appreciation, please join us tonight at the ball. We’re holding a little get-together to announce and celebrate Honoraria’s engagement to Kevin Montgomery, and…what?”
Logan shook his head, not having managed to mask his shock at that news.
“You’re marrying your only daughter off to Kevin Montgomery? The Kevin Montgomery? Are you mad?”
Maurice blinked twice and then smiled, a grotesque excuse of a grin that didn’t reach his eyes.
“You’ve heard of him, I see. I guess you would have.”
Logan swore again, while Lindsey had gone so pale he couldn’t be sure she wasn’t going to pass out on him.
“Nothing good, Maurice. You cannot be serious.”
“I am perfectly serious, I c
an assure you. Kevin is a business associate of mine, and he’s helping the estate to get back on its feet. We haven’t had much luck lately.”
Logan couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Is that what you call your drink and gambling habit, Maurice?” Lindsey gasped and Logan wished he could spare her this, but this needed to be said. He’d heard the rumors, of course, but he hadn’t wanted to believe them, until he’d seen the empty stables for himself. Clearly, Maurice was in deep financial trouble, but that didn’t give him the right to use his only daughter as a bargaining chip. The thought of Lindsey with Kevin Montgomery turned his stomach.
“Logan, like I said before, this is none of your business. Now, you are more than welcome to attend the ball. I know Georgina would be overjoyed to see you again. It’s been far too long, but my business affairs and most especially my daughter are none of your concerns. You, Honoraria, your mother is looking for you, hence I came here. You’re always hiding at the stables after all, and she’s worried sick because your bed hasn’t been slept in all night, so you will come home with me right now. Logan, it was nice to see you again.”
He marched across to where Lindsey was still sitting on that hay bale, and yanked her to her feet by grasping her elbow none too gently. “You best have a shower before you see your mother. You reek of horse and sweat, girl.”
Lindsey murmured something under her breath, but she dutifully followed her father, eyes downcast to the ground. Seeing her this dejected made Logan want to punch something, but now was not the time to voice his objections. He’d received an invite to the ball. That would give him plenty of opportunity to scout out the lay of the land as it were, and most importantly see what Lindsey really thought of this Kevin. If she was truly happy to marry that slime ball he wouldn’t stand in her way, but if he even sensed as much an ounce of discomfort on Lindsey’s side, he would do…He wasn’t exactly sure what he would do, but he would think of something, that was for sure.
* * * *
Several hours later and dressed in the obligatory monkey suit, Logan pulled up outside the impressive country house and fought a wave of nostalgia. The last time he had been here to attend an event had been with Elena by his side. That had been a week before she’d discovered her first lump.
With a wary sigh, he exited the car and gave his key to the hovering valet. No expenses appeared to have been spared for this ball and that thought brought that itch back with a vengeance.
With Maurice as strapped for cash as he would appear to be, he would surely not be able to afford to do all this, which must mean that Kevin Montgomery was footing the bill. It didn’t bode well for any possible intervention Logan might be able to offer, if Lindsey would even welcome his interference. Then again, why had she been at the club, allowing herself to be auctioned off the eve of her engagement party, had she not wanted intervention of some sort?
Why did she frequent the club at all, especially in disguise, and seem to have gone to great length to create a persona for herself that was as a far removed from Lady Honoraria Callan-Brannan as it was possible to be? Not that he necessarily blamed her for that.
Most folks in the community valued their privacy and kept their kinky side separate from their everyday life. It was the lucky few who could openly embrace both sides without fear of repercussion in their professional life, though attitudes were slowly changing.
Peyton, Master Pedro’s fiancée, had worked wonders at raising the publicity of Club Spectrum, and attendance had never been higher. It was, after all, how he had found the club once he was finally ready to re-enter the scene, and Jonas’s sponsorship had placed him firmly in the inner circle. It should have been enough to indulge himself, until he had spotted Lindsey doing her very best to avoid him. While it had taken him a while to realize why she looked so damn familiar, and even longer to decide to get the bottom of her odd behavior, the die had been cast.
As he gave the butler his name and entered the lion’s den, he might as well admit the truth to himself. He hadn’t scened with anyone else at the club, apart from the odd knife play/scribing demonstration and talk he had given on one of their information events, because they hadn’t been Lindsey.
He shouldn’t want her, but god help him, he did, even more so after everything he’d learned tonight. Lindsey was a puzzle and no freaking American gangster type was going to get to unravel her secrets.
Logan stepped through the wide-open double doors and into the once-elaborate ball room as the butler announced his name. A quick glance confirmed what he already knew. Signs of neglect were everywhere that even the multitude of flower arrangements and low lighting couldn’t hide. They would have been better off shutting up this room and holding a much smaller get-together in one of the less formal rooms in the great house, in his opinion.
Before he could fully take in his surroundings, Georgina Callen-Brannan descended upon him, and he schooled his face into a mask of polite interest to hide his shock.
Georgina had once been a truly beautiful, vibrant woman with curves to die for, but this mere shadow of her former self looked much older than her fifty years, and while her smile remained the same, the inherent sadness in her brown eyes brought a lump to his throat.
“Logan, it’s so good to see you again. It’s been too long.”
He dutifully bent over her outstretched hand to drop a kiss on it, and then pulled her in for a hug. After a moment’s hesitation she hugged him back, and if she clung to him for a fraction longer than was proper, and with a desperation that brought that itch between his shoulder blades back tenfold, neither one of them acknowledged it.
“It’s been way too long, I agree,” he murmured, offering her his arm to escort her back to where Maurice was standing next to Kevin Montgomery. The American said something to Maurice that made him laugh, and Georgina missed a step. Logan turned his back on the man to study the woman who had once been his wife’s best friend, and after glaring at her husband and Montgomery, she offered Logan a wobbly smile. It made him want to wrap her up in cotton wool, because it was Lindsey’s smile. She had her mother’s eyes and smile, and both women held the same sadness within.
“I suspect you’ve heard about him and Lindsey?” she asked, and Logan gave a careful nod.
“Maurice informed me last night. Lindsey does not seem too enamored with this idea?”
Logan knew he was fishing for information, and when Georgina sighed, he had his answer.
“She is young, and impetuous, and willful.” She patted his arm when Logan raised an eyebrow at her in mock surprise. “At least, that’s what Maurice sees. Personally, I think she is just scared witless, desperate for a kind word from her father, and doesn’t want to get married.”
“Not ever?” Logan didn’t even know why he asked that, let alone why her mother’s answer seemed to be of utmost importance to him right now.
Georgina shrugged her frail shoulders, and started walking toward the two men again. Logan adjusted his long stride to match her much smaller steps and bent his head to hear her quietly whispered words.
“Her father and I haven’t exactly been a picture postcard advertisement for happy marriage, so I couldn’t blame her if she didn’t, but she’s been in love with someone else for as long as I can remember.” They had almost reached the two men, and Logan got the distinct impression that he was missing something incredibly obvious here, as Georgina stopped walking again and squeezed his arm.
“Now, if that man was to ask her to get married…I think my baby girl would be the happiest woman in the world. What’s more, I think she would heal him, too, and—”
“Georgina, you’re monopolizing Logan.” Maurice interrupted his wife, and she bowed her head and smiled.
“Forgive me, husband, I haven’t seen him for a long time, so I—”
“Yes, yes, he’s here now, and I want to introduce him to Honoraria’s fiancé.” Logan’s simmering anger threatened to bubble over at the way Maurice ran roughshod over his gentle wi
fe, and ignoring the other man’s bluster, he took Georgina’s hand in his and kissed it again.
“Perhaps we can find some time later to reconnect, or I might pay a visit when you’re not entertaining,” he said. Lindsey’s mother gave him a truly genuine smile this time, and she nodded.
“That would be lovely, Logan. I’ve missed seeing you here.” The unspoken “and Elena” hung heavily between them, before she pulled her hand away and turned away to mingle with the other guests.
Taking a deep breath in, Logan turned to face Kevin Montgomery.
“No need to introduce us. We’ve met in the states.” The nasally twang grated on Logan’s last nerve, and he took the clammy hand the American offered in a handshake.
“Yes, do remind me, where was that, exactly?”
The pressure on his hand increased, and Logan squeezed right back, determined to get his point across. Beads of sweat broke out on the other man’s forehead, and he pursed his pudgy lips, before he eventually let go with a muttered curse.
Logan barely resisted the urge to wipe his hand on his trousers, and surreptitiously flexed his fingers. The man might be an overweight asshole, but he had a surprisingly strong handshake, and Logan had to remember how dangerous this guy was.
“The Kentucky Derby,” Kevin said, and grinned. The grimace made his jowls wobble, and the evil glint in the other man’s eyes should have warned Logan what was coming, really. “You declined a business suggestion, I recall.”
Logan narrowed his eyes and rolled his shoulders.
“Is that what we’re calling it now?” He couldn’t quite keep his disdain out of his voice. The bastard had wanted him to sign off on sub-superior sperm from his own stallion to pass it off of as the current champion’s, a transaction that would have earned Logan a tidy commission and meant millions of profit for this weasel, and with sudden insight, Logan realized whose horse was spirited away in Maurice’s stables.
Auctioned to the Gentle Dom [The Spectrum Auctions 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 5
