by Ashlee Price
Chapter 4 – Mia
“I think we’ll be able to help you, Mia.”
“Really?”
I knew that I was beaming. How could I not be? I had a feeling that once I had Logan on board to help, there was no way that I was going to fail. My job and the home for all of those animals was going to be intact. I don’t know how I was so sure that he was going to be able to fix everything, but I just had a feeling that it was going to be okay.
“Yes, I think you’re right. It would be a shame for the city to lose such a place, and I think that our PR expertise is just what you need. All you need to do is let people know how great you are, and you will be filled up in no time.”
I hadn’t been so happy in a long time. It was all I could do not to jump into his arms. When he said that he would send someone out in a couple of days to take care of everything, free of charge, I was unable to fight the urge any longer. I had to hug him, and before I really knew what I was doing, my body propelled itself into his arms of its own volition. His eyes were surprised when I pulled away a moment later, but not before feeling every hard inch of him that I pressed against me.
“Sorry, I was a little too enthusiastic just then, but you don’t know what this place means to me. I know that your help will make all of the difference, Logan.”
Again I was saying too much, and I wished that I hadn’t. A strange look crossed his face, and I was about to backtrack on most of it, but he just kind of stopped and then smiled.
“I know how much this place means to you, Mia. That’s why I’m going to do this all personally. I will make sure that your sanctuary is never shut down. I will do my best, Mia.”
“Thank you, Logan. I don’t even know what to say.”
I was still so close to him that when I looked up into his blue eyes I was lost in them again. I thought of how easy it would be to lean in just a little bit and kiss him. My body was on fire from just a touch. What would it feel like if he put his lips on mine? I was sure that it would be more than I could handle. More than that, it was the last thing that I should have been thinking about. I was supposed to be over the moon about the promotions, not the man.
“You don’t have to say anything, Mia. What you have said and shown me here will guarantee the sanctuary stays open. The world needs more passion like yours in it.”
I was glad he ended things there before I had a chance to say something stupid and embarrass myself even further than I already had. I put a little distance between us, sure that it was going to help me think a little better. The evening had gone better than I could have imagined, but I was still worried about the way he had felt against me. I shouldn’t have been thinking so hard on it, but as we got back in his car to go back to where I was parked at the company, I knew that working with Logan was going to be a challenge. I had taken on the task and with him taking on his side personally, I knew there were going to be many moments where I was stunned to silence by the way he made me feel when he was next to me.
The silence in the car reached epic heights, and I was sure I was going to go crazy when he finally said something.
“I would ask something from you, though, Mia, to seal the deal and all.”
“Of course, Logan, anything.”
“Would you go out with me?”
“Sure. I think it would be nice to go out and celebrate. I can’t tonight because it’s so late, but the next time that you’re free, I would love to go out with you.”
He tried to tell me that it wasn’t what he meant, but it took me a few moments to realize that he meant something more than a celebratory drink or meal. He was talking about an actual date, and I still wasn’t too opposed to the idea. The last real date I’d had was with Ryland, and it had left much to be desired. I knew that going out with Logan would be far better. Logan was a man, and though Ryland tried to be one, he just wasn’t.
“Good. I think that we’re going to have a good time working together and getting to know each other.”
I was already enjoying his company, and I actually didn’t want to go home. I would have agreed to go out with him right then if he’d had the time in his schedule. I knew he was busy, but he assured me that he would call and let me know when.
“Okay, Logan. I look forward to your call.”
There was a time that I thought he was going to kiss me. Logan’s blue eyes were on me and I couldn’t seem to shake them. They were focused on my lips and I licked them nervously with the attention. He was so intent on looking at me that I was not even aware that the car had stopped. It was only when the driver opened the door that I looked out into the night and realized where we were.
“Thank you for all of your help, Logan. I can’t wait to see you again.”
I stopped myself, hoping that I hadn’t said the words out loud. I knew that I had by his reaction, but I knew that there wasn’t anything I could do to take it back.
“I can’t wait to see you again either, Mia. I must say that you, my dear, are a breath of fresh air.”
The driver coughed and I looked up to see him waiting, still holding the door open for me. I didn’t want to leave, but knew I had to. Everything was left unfinished. I watched their car’s taillights vanish into the night before I even attempted to go to my own car. I was standing there asking myself, what had just happened?
To be continued…
Fully & Completely Book 3: His Condition
By: Ashlee Price
Prologue
With the sanctuary she loves in peril, Mia has taken a chance to try and fix everything. She’s gone to the biggest PR company in Chicago and asked for their help. It’s a long shot, but she meets Logan, and something about her makes him want to help.
He has a condition, though, something that he wants in return for his help. It sounds innocent enough. He just wants to go on one date with her. Mia agrees. Even though it sounds too good to be true and even though she’s worried about what will happen on the date, she can’t say no. Everything that she wanted is hers for the taking. All she has to do is go on one date. Easy enough.
What she isn’t expecting is for him to have a surprise for her from halfway across the world. Logan is focused on making her his – and she is falling right into his hands.
Chapter 1 – Mia
I still wasn’t sure how I felt about the condition of a date. I had mixed emotions. On one hand, I checked my phone far more than was normal, sure that I kept hearing it ring and hoping it was him. It never was, and after a week, I started to think that he had forgotten about me and his little condition for helping the sanctuary.
I heard my name being called, and it pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked over to Ryland. He was standing too close and I took a step back out of reflex. I knew that I didn’t want him next to me, towering over me like he was. I really needed to get it together, because I never let him that close to me since our botched date. Now I was slipping, and he was going to think that I was still interested. I didn’t know how much clearer I could have been, but now I knew that I hadn’t been clear enough. He still had want in his eyes that I had no desire to make stronger.
“What can I do for you, Ryland?”
My words were not thought through, and the leap of heat in his dark black eyes made me shiver and wish that I had said it a little differently.
“I’ve been calling your name for five minutes. What’s with you lately?”
I knew that I was feeling and most likely acting different, but I didn’t like for it to be Ryland who was bringing it to my attention. I didn’t need to hear it from him, and I certainly wasn’t going to answer to him or anyone else. It was Logan who was on my mind. I wondered why he hadn’t called me yet. I thought that he wanted to see me again, but maybe I had played too hard to get.
Sighing, I looked back to Ryland, who was looking at me with a bit of concern, as if I had lost my marbles or something. “Nothing is with me. I’m just tired, and with everything going on, I’m not getting much sleep.”
“I could help put you to bed, Mia.”
I almost felt the breakfast that I had eaten an hour before coming back up. I don’t know what I was thinking when I had agreed to go out with him the first time. Now I just got creeped out, and he was the type who had a sexual innuendo that went with everything. It wasn’t the same as when Logan would say something. He was never so vulgar. When Logan spoke, I would feel a tingle run through my body; now, I just felt revulsion when Ryland said something like that.
“I’m good, thanks, Ryland. So what was it you wanted?”
“Huh?”
I sighed. He was looking at my chest, instead of at my face. He was always like that, and it seemed like that hadn’t changed.
“You said that you were calling my name for five minutes. What was it that you were here for in the first place?”
He was aggravating me, even though I was the one who’d been caught dillydallying about when there was plenty of work to do. I was supposed to be checking on Tom to see how he was adjusting to the new surroundings. I was supposed to be making sure that he was ready to be introduced to the rest of his kind, but I was sidetracked and had been all week.
“Oh, yeah. You got a call, and he said he didn’t know your cell phone number so he had to call up here.”
I hated that my heart surged in my chest with the hope that it was in fact Logan finally calling me to the set up the date that I had been looking forward to, as well as dreading, all week. But I was standing in front of Ryland I didn’t want to give anything away.
“Do you know what line it is?”
“Three, I think.”
“Thanks, I’m going to go take that in the office.”
It was a place that I could go to get away from him, and I was going to take advantage of it. I needed a moment of air after being around him for more than five minutes. What had I been thinking when I’d gone out with him? He was handsome in his own kind of way, but there was just something about him that I didn’t trust, and it made me want to stay as far away from him as possible.
***
I was still thinking about talking to Ryland when I got to the phone in the office. I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t that worried about hearing from him, but I was. He had sent people over to take pictures and work with me on the promotion for the sanctuary, but it was the date that I kept thinking about. I knew that I was supposed to be all about the job, but the date, that was everything for me, and I was looking forward to it more than I should have been.
“This is Mia.”
“Mia. It’s good to hear your voice.”
It was good to hear his as well. How many times had I answered and hoped that it was him on the other line?
“Hi, Logan. It’s good to hear from you as well. You must be a busy man this week.”
I bit my tongue and wished that I could take it back. It was a reference to him taking so long to call me, and I didn’t want him to know that it had bothered me that much or that I had been waiting for the call.
“Sorry about that. Things are a little crazy because of the holidays. You know how things are.”
I told him that I did, though I really wasn’t sure about his world. I was sure that it was as foreign to me as most of the other things that went on in his life. What he thought was normal, I was sure was not normal in most other people’s worlds. How could it be?
“It’s no problem. I just thought I would hear from you sooner.”
“Are you ready to go out?” There was a chuckle in his voice, and I was sure that he knew exactly how I was feeling. For some reason, I didn’t like the idea of that at all.
“Yeah, if you still want to. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to owe someone, and you made that your only condition. Just seems right that I hold up my part of the deal.”
There was a silence, and then he told me that he liked a woman who would do that. I liked the way his tone went down a couple of octaves, and I wondered then what he was thinking. I wished he was there in front of me, because he gave away a lot more when I could see all of the small nuances of his face and the way he held himself. I wanted to see him again, badly.
“Well, you’re a woman right after my heart. I was hoping that you would be available tonight. I had a meeting get canceled, and I can’t think of anything else that I would rather do.”
I grinned and was glad that he couldn’t see me. “Just tell me the when and where and I’ll be there.”
Chapter 2 – Logan
I hung up the phone and tried to think of something that was better than the feeling I had right then. She wasn’t fooling anyone when she told me that she hadn’t been waiting on my call. I could hear it in her voice and the way that she tried to admonish me like I had done something wrong. The only thing that I had done wrong was waiting so long. It had been hard on me, far harder than it should have been, and it made me wonder why. I had tried to take as long as I could, prolong it as much as possible, but I had not been able to go that long without hearing from her. I was happy that I wasn’t the only one who was a little impatient with it all.
Usually I was the man with the plan. I would figure out what I wanted, make a plan and follow through. It was all about the follow-through, and with women it was no different. But Mia was different in a lot of ways, and I wanted to make sure that everything was the way it was supposed to be. I wanted everything to be perfect. She may have been different than any other girl I had been with, but I still wanted the same results: I wanted her in my arms and in my bed.
There were many things that I could do to impress her. I was good at that part of it, and since she seemed like the type who was easily entertained, I thought about going all out, maybe whisking her away to an island or to Paris. The sky was the limit, and before long I was engrossed in thoughts of what to do next. Indecision was not something that I was used to or fond of.
Several times Jesse popped in to remind me about a meeting or a conference call that I had arranged and forgotten about. I think she thought I was drinking again, because her eyes would squint when she came in. I didn’t alleviate her worry. I shouldn’t have to. It was the first time that I had woken up completely sober from the night before, and I was able to see things that I had maybe glossed over before.
“Are you okay, boss?”
I nodded my head that I was, but it was pointless to say that. She wouldn’t believe me anyways. Sitting down across from me, she was getting that worried look on her face, and I didn’t want to see it. I knew that I was usually worthy of that kind of pitying look, but not today. Today I was just thinking about the evening and I was thinking about Mia. There was nothing wrong with any of that.
“I’m fine, Jesse.”
“I just feel like maybe you should take some time off. There are a lot of places where you can go to get some help. It doesn’t have to always be you taking care of everything.”
Jesse didn’t get it. I knew that I had given her reason to worry in the past. I had let everything kind of spiral out of control; it was my way of dealing with loss. But for once I wasn’t under a haze of booze.
“I really am fine, Jesse. You don’t have to worry.”
She was still skeptical, but she never had been the type to argue. Jesse would of course still look at me as if I was a ticking time bomb, but at least she wouldn’t argue and ruin my mood.
“So there is one last meeting and then you’re free to hit the bar.” Jesse was standing up, knowing that it would be pointless for her to say anything else.
“Actually, I’m going to skip the meeting, and I have a date.”
“Sir, that was an important meeting, and you know how John is. I don’t want to call him.”
“Don’t worry about it. I already took care of it, and he is fine with seeing me this weekend.”
She was stunned and I had to say that I really liked her short on words. It didn’t happen very often, but when it did, I was more than happy to take the moment of reprieve.
“Oh, okay. Well,
I wasn’t expecting you to have it all together. Are you sure you’re okay?”
I just nodded my head. “Jesse, I’m fine. I actually did what I was supposed to do, and it seems like you’re still not happy. I’m sober and you can leave before five. Today is a good day.”
I knew that she still wasn’t sure about it, but she left with me smiling at the back of her. Something was going on, but it was a good thing. Maybe it was the first good thing that had happened in a long time, and the last thing I needed to do was jinx it by overthinking it. I had to get home and get ready, something that I never really bothered with before.
***
God, she was beautiful. That was all I could think as I watched her answer the door. She was pretty the last time I had seen her, more than that she had been mysterious, but now I couldn’t breathe or speak. The innocent girl I’d met in the boardroom and the fearless one who’d taken me in to see Rocy were gone, and there was nothing left but a dress that made me wish I was the very fabric curving around her body. She was gorgeous, and every curve was accentuated with a little bit of black silk.
“Mia, you look amazing.”
She smiled back at me, and her aquamarine eyes were glowing. She liked the compliment, and I pulled her to me in a sort of embrace before I could think about what I was doing. I just wanted to touch her, make sure that she was real, because it was times like this that I wasn’t really sure about. She looked too good to be true, and I was waiting for someone to pinch me so I would wake up and she would be gone.
“Do you want to come in for a minute? I need to send out this one last email and then I’ll be able to go.”
I wasn’t all that happy to wait, but I wanted to see the inside of her house and see what I could learn about her. I wanted to know everything, and it wasn’t long before I realized that she was into animals far more than I imagined – and also that she had a little hidden talent for painting. Her living room wall was covered in a mural and I knew that it was her who’d done it. It looked like the little doodles I’d seen on some of the pages of her reports for the meeting. It was just one more thing to love about her, and it made me feel even closer to her than before.
