I would do anything for Eloise. I hated that right now that meant swallowing my pride and possibly telling Logan the truth. How long did I think I could keep it from him?
“Thanks for listening.” I smiled. Meg was always there for me.
“Anytime. Call me if you need me. Or I can drive over too, if that helps. I can be there when you tell Logan the news.”
“I think this is something I have to do on my own. But I appreciate it. Really. You’ve been here every step of the way for Eloise.”
“I always will.”
“Good night.”
“Night.”
I hung up, finished my glass, and put the rest of the bottle back in the fridge. It would have been easy to get drunk. Easy to try to drown out the memories and the feelings resurfacing all over the place. Damn it, Logan. Why now? Why today?
I still had so much on my mind and wondered if talking things over with Megan had only increased my agitation instead of calming it. I had a full day of taking care of a sick little girl in the morning. I needed to get some sleep. I crawled into my bed and turned out the light.
I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes just letting my mind wander. Hoping that it might lead me to drift off to sleep.
I jerked straight up when I heard pounding on the front door.
“What in the hell?” My spine prickled with fear. Was it Logan? Was he back for Eloise?
I grabbed my phone and clutched it in my hand as I shuffled to the front door. Whoever it was, I didn’t want them to wake up Eloise.
I looked through the window. Brad.
I yanked the door open. “Brad, you scared the shit out of me. What are you doing?”
He walked inside, running his hands through his hair. He paced frantically.
“Don’t do it. Don’t do this.”
“Do what?” I stared at him. I’d never seen him unraveled like this.
He took my hand and dropped to his knee. I gawked.
“Get up, Brad. What are you doing?”
He reached into his back pocket and I thought I was going to pass out. I reached for the couch. “Please, Brad. Don’t do this.”
He ignored me, holding a ring up in the dim room. “Marry me. I know you don’t love me like I love you, but marry me. You can’t trust him. You never could. You never will. Marry me and I swear I’ll take care of you and El for the rest of our lives.”
He tried to push the band to my knuckles. I shook my head.
“Brad, no,” I whispered. “This isn’t how this works.”
He hung his head. “But if you’d just give this a chance. I can keep you safe from him. Keep Eloise safe.”
And then it hit me. In the most insane intense moment. Brad’s proposal was out of spite or jealousy. I’m not sure what. Desperation, and maybe a dash of love. But he couldn’t protect me from Logan. No one could protect me from Logan. That man had been rooted under my skin and in my heart since we met. He had shattered me before, and he could do it again.
“I don’t need you to keep me safe from Logan,” I whispered, tugging Brad to his feet. “He’s Eloise’s father. She is his little girl.” Speaking the words made everything clear and bright.
“You’re going to do it, aren’t you? Let him hurt you again.” Brad threw off my touch. There was no way to comfort a man whose proposal had just been rejected. He tore open the door. “He’s going to leave you, Cassie.”
I shook my head. “You don’t know that.”
Brad shoved the ring in his front pocket. “You could have had everything.”
I took a step toward him, but he closed the door in my face. “I’m sorry, Brad,” I whispered, but he was gone.
Eleven
Logan
It was pitch black. I couldn’t even see my nose in front of me. It made my heavy breathing louder. In the distance I could hear the gunfire. It was much closer than it should have been.
I was covered in blood. It wasn’t my blood, though. I was in the middle of surgery. It was an artery clamping to stabilize the patient for airlift. One minute I was under the bright lights of our surgical tent and then the next, everything was black.
It had been a bomb. I didn’t know what type or how it was detonated. Only, it was close enough to knock me back and cover me in debris.
As I came to, I realized I was covered in various trays of clamps, lights, as well as the whole operating table. I felt around ground looking for the soldier I had been working on.
I finally reached far enough that I touched flesh that wasn’t mine. The stretching sent a horrible burn up my left leg. What the fuck had happened. I didn’t have time to worry about me. The patient would bleed out if I didn’t see to his wounds.
Scrambling around, I found one lamp still working face down in the dirt. Flipping it over, I illuminated a section of the tent, or what was left of it.
I realized there was shooting closer than I realized. Half the tent had collapsed on top of us, and the other half was open and ripped to shreds.
I saw the streak in the night sky. I heard the men shouting next to me. The streak was another incoming missile. It all happened in an instant, but it seemed like slow motion. I lunged forward not caring about the ripping pain in my leg. I covered the soldier with my body.
“Cover!” the men yelled around me.
“Don’t let me die,” the kid under me cried.
“I won’t. I won’t leave…”
The sound of the second blast woke me. I bolted upright in my bed. I was drenched in sweat, and the ringing in my ear was so loud I wanted to scream.
I gripped the sheets hard as I struggled to regain my breath and calm my heart. Finally, it started to pass, and I wiped the drenched hair off my forehead. I peeled the blankets from me and crawled out of bed.
It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the night, there was no going back to sleep after that. Instead, I headed to the bathroom, slipped into some workout clothes, and headed outside to run. It was the best way to forget the nightmares. To exhaust myself so much I didn’t even have the energy to think.
I ran. I ran past the park. I ran past the high school where I played football. I ran harder and faster. I ran until the tension eased and I forgot how horrible the dreams were. I spotted my favorite mom and pop bakery, The Sweet Tooth. When was the last time I was here? The door jingled when I walked inside. I knew I was a sweaty mess, but I felt a hell of a lot better than when I first hit the pavement. I bought bagels and a doughnut with pink sprinkles for Eloise. I was not above bribing her to like me.
I tucked the bag under my arm and jogged to Cassie’s house. It was close to the downtown square. I unlatched the white picket gate and walked up the front steps. I inhaled. This needed to go better than it did yesterday.
I didn’t want to force a paternity test. I didn’t want to have to fight off fucking Brad. I wanted my daughter. And I wanted my woman back.
I hesitated for just a second outside the door. I listened in. I could hear the TV. I was relieved I at least wasn’t waking them up. I knocked.
I could hear Eloise's soft voice call out, “Mommy, there is someone at the door.”
I waited and wondered if one look through the peephole and Cassie had decided to keep it closed.
“Cass, I know you're in there. Come on, open up,” I called through the door.
I heard the lock slowly turn and the door opened. Instead of Cassie, however, it was little Eloise at the door.
“Mommy’s in the shower,” she said peeking around the door.
I bent down to her level.
“Hi, Eloise. Do you remember me? I’m Dr. Stone. I came to see if you are okay,” I explained. “How are you feeling?”
She shrugged.
“That good?” I grinned. “I brought you a doughnut too.” I revealed the sprinkle treat out of the bag.
Her two brown eyes lit up the size of dinner plates when she saw it.
“Eloise, what are you doing? You know better than to open the door,
” Cassie scolded as she rushed to her daughter's side. She was only wearing a towel. The water dripped from her shoulders and along her collarbone.
I let my gaze linger on her dripping wet body, her breast bursting to come out from the towel wrapped around her.
“What are you doing here?”
“Don’t you want to let me in?” I urged. “I’d hate Brad to see you standing there like that. Me standing here like this.”
She pressed her lips together. “Brad won’t be stopping by.” Her hand kept a firm hold on the door.
“I came by to check on Eloise and I brought breakfast.” I held up the bag.
I saw her determination waiver.
“Mommy,” Eloise said from behind her mother. “He has pink doughnuts. Please.”
“Fine,” Cassie conceded, stepping to the side to let me pass.
“Just so you know,” she added as I walked into the room, “we don’t normally eat things that are ridiculously sweet or with artificially food coloring. It’s not good for her.”
“Megan?” I asked.
Cassie shrugged. “She is El’s godmother.”
“Yes well, I hope you are sticking to actual medicine for her cold and not that voodoo witchcraft she is no doubt concocting at her farm.”
“What’s voodoo?” Eloise asked her mom.
“You can explain that,” Cassie said to me, “While I go put something on.”
I watched her figure as she walked away. Her hair was much longer now and left little drips in her wake. It was like breadcrumbs begging me to follow.
Instead, I met the eyes of the little girl still waiting for her answer. I walked with her over to the table, and she sat down. Taking out the doughnut, I put it on a napkin in front of her. I stared at her. This was my daughter. My child. One I had made with Cass.
The moment took my fucking breath away.
Eloise nodded her head between enormous bites of doughnut. It must have been true that Cassie didn’t give this kid much sugar the way she was wolfing it down.
“No school today?” I asked.
Eloise shook her head. “Mommy says I’m too sick.”
“That’s right. Rest.” Cassie waltzed into the kitchen, wearing the shortest shorts I had ever seen paired with a floral tank top. She was still drying her hair with the towel as she walked our way.
Cassie didn’t even give me so much as a glance as she leaned over me and reached into my bag for a bagel. I took the moment to inhale her sweet scent. Every muscle in my body was itching to take her in my arms and sit her on my lap. But there was a child in the kitchen. And things were awkward as hell.
Where did we go from here?
Cassie didn’t seem as affected by our closeness, and instead sat in an empty chair dabbing her bagel with cream cheese.
“Did you know Mommy a long time ago?” Eloise asked, looking between the two of us.
It was the first time Cass’s eyes met mine since I walked through the door. That color blue used to keep me up at night. In that look more was spoken than could ever be put in words.
“We used to be good friends, sweetheart,” Cass answered.
“Did you go somewhere?” Eloise asked.
“Man, you like to ask a lot of questions,” I said with a soft laugh as I rubbed my beard.
“That’s my El. Never satisfied with just one answer,” Cassie said looking lovingly at her little girl.
“Well, I joined the Army. It’s part of the military. I was a doctor for a group of guys that traveled all over and had special missions to capture the very worst bad guys.”
I pulled out the dog tags I still had around my neck. Eloise stood and came over to inspect them. I took them off so she could hold them in her hand.
“Are you still in the Army?” Eloise asked.
I shook my head. “No. I got hurt pretty badly. And I had a chance to come back to Evans Mill with Dr. Winters.”
“Do you have a bionic leg?” Eloise asked suddenly excited.
I looked at Cassie surprised at her vocabulary.
“No. I still have all my arms and legs.” That wasn’t the case for most of the men I treated.
“Oh,” she said sitting back down to her doughnut. “Mr. Hines has a bionic leg.”
“He is the third-grade teacher at her school,” Cassie explained. “Sometimes he comes over for dinner.”
I looked over at Cassie with a raised brow. She gave me a look, daring me to ask. First Brad. Now Mr. Hines. Just how many men were after Cassie?
I struggled to hide the jealousy that was boiling between my skin.
“He is in his late sixties and lost it to diabetes,” Cassie finally added. “He lives all alone and in our neighborhood.”
I smiled at the wave of relief that washed over me. I couldn’t help but notice the satisfying blush my smile brought to Cassie’s cheeks. She may have been pissed as hell with me, may have hated my guts, but she was still just as attracted to me as I was to her.
“El, can you go brush your teeth? And then it’s time for medicine.” I listened to the patience and sweetness in Cass’s voice.
Eloise licked the last sugary crumbs from her fingers. The little girl obediently got up and walked down the hall.
“How is her fever?” I asked as I watched her walk away.
“It’s a little better, but not much.”
“Is she drinking?” I asked.
“Yes, Dr. Stone, she has been drinking, but not much.”
I sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that. I can see you know what you are doing.”
“I’m actually a little glad that she finally ate something, even if it was a doughnut.”
“Not eating? Is it because her throat is too sore? We could ride to the office if it would make you feel better. Check for strep.”
Cassie gave me a soft smile before shaking her head. Eloise came back into the room, and we dropped the conversation.
“Mommy, I’m sleepy.”
“Why don’t I put on a movie and you can curl up with a blankie?” Cassie suggested.
I followed them to the living room and watched as Cassie snuggled Eloise on the couch and started a movie with unicorns and princesses. She turned to me.
I glanced at my watch. “I should head to work. It’s getting late. I can’t let Caleb take all the patients.” I grinned.
Cassie grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the first room around the corner. It looked like a guestroom and office combination. She closed the door behind me.
“Look, I thought about things last night,” she blurted out.
“Things?”
“You know exactly what things.” She put her hands on her hips. “This. You.”
“Our daughter?” I pressed. I didn’t want to take steps backward. That girl was mine.
Cass closed her eyes. “Yes, I thought about Eloise.”
There was a little girl in the other room who had my DNA. A little girl who had my eyes and my love for sweets. Standing in front of me was a woman I was falling for all over again.
I cupped the side of Cassi’s face, drawing her closer to me.
“Logan,” she whispered.
It was as if our skin burned. Touching her brought it all back. The moans that came from her throat. The wild sex kitten. Her hunger for me. Our love for each other. I stroked her cheek.
My mouth covered hers and I kissed her hard. I wanted to be slow and gentle. Build back up to where we left out, but the nearness of her drove me crazy. My tongue danced with hers. I sucked and bit the corners of her lips. She had the most fucking edible lips I’d ever kissed. I wanted to drink her. Taste her.
Her body pressed to mine as she wrapped her soft palms to my neck. She purred against my tongue.
My fingers slipped to the hem of her shorts. There was barely any fabric covering the smoothness of her ass. I toyed with her skin, until my full hand palmed her ass. I squeezed and Cassie hissed.
I spun her toward the wall, kissing her fiercely. I missed this. I
missed her. My hands roamed her body. Exploring under her shirt. Raking her bra out of the way. Her nipple pebbled against my thumb.
“Shit, Cass,” I groaned into her throat.
Her hands shirked my shorts to my thighs. My cock was hard and swollen. It bobbed at attention. I pressed my shaft to her stomach.
“Logan,” she whimpered.
“I know.” I pressed my forehead to hers as I slipped my hand between her legs. She sighed as I pushed my fingers inside her pussy. She mewed as I began to pump my fingers against her slickness, drawing circles around her clit and wedging them back inside her. She ground her hips into the pressure and I added another finger.
Her nails dug into my shoulders. I kissed her neck and behind her ear, remembering how this felt. How perfect her body was. How perfect her sounds were. How everything about Cassie was everything I always wanted.
“I want to make you come,” I growled. “I want to make you feel good. I have so much to make up for.”
Her head fell back to the wall. “It’s too much,” she whimpered.
But her body was already vibrating, and she panted quietly, while I fucked her with my fingers. My eyes locked on hers. “Just be really quiet,” I teased.
Her mouth crushed mine as she came in my hand. She sucked against my lips and grunted silently as the orgasm raged through her. I’d never been so fucking hard in my life. My cock was solid and bulging as I rubbed the pre-cum against her stomach. But not now. This was for her.
Her blue eyes fired. “That wasn’t supposed to happen,” she snapped.
“Come on, babe. We’re good together,” I argued, trying to kiss her, but she turned her cheek. I kissed her temple instead. “We’ve always been good at sex. So good, we made a baby.” I winked.
She glared at me.
I hung my head. “Sorry, too much.”
She fastened her shorts and I pulled mine to my hips. It was going to take a while before I’d be able to walk out of this room.
She huffed. “Sex isn’t the answer.”
“It’s not?” I cradled her jaw again, kissing her roughly. She purred into the kiss.
Sinful Whispers (An Evans Mill Romance Book 1) Page 6
