Crazy for Her (19 page)

“Good,” Logan replied. “It seems we have you to thank for getting us this far.”

Logan’s sister blushed, making Dani glad he had complimented her. The girl adored her brother, but unlike in most families, he’d been not only her handsome big brother, but her father and mother, too.

“Really?” Dani asked, wanting to keep the spotlight on Maria for a few more minutes. “How did you do it?”

“It wasn’t hard.” She held up her fingers and wriggled them. “Just these and this,” she said, pointing to her head.

“Impressive,” Dani said, returning Maria’s pleased smile.

“We needed to follow the trail of the dummy companies. The fastest way to do that was to put her in front of a computer, put her fingers on the keys, and then get out of her way,” Jake said in obvious admiration.

Dani noted three things happening at once. Maria gave Jake a pleased smile, Jake’s eyes softened, and Logan’s eyes narrowed. She put her hand over Logan’s and squeezed. He looked up at the ceiling and sighed. The poor man still struggled with the idea of Maria and Jake together, but he’d get over it. Eventually.

“Anything else?” Logan asked. “Dani and I have a plane to catch.”

“Just this,” Jake said. “I talked to a buddy of mine, an FBI profiler. If it turns out Eli’s not acting alone—that if the cult is involved—it’s possible Eli’s been brainwashed by this Ballard dude. He said since Eli’s been with him since the age of two, it would be an easy thing for Ballard to have done.”

“If so, that changes everything,” Dani said. She couldn’t help but think that Evan had avoided a life with Herbert Ballard by a simple toss of a coin. Poor Eli.

“It changes nothing,” Logan replied, glaring at her. “Go see if those satellite pictures are ready, Buchanan. I want to take a copy of them with me.”

Dani carried Regan onto the chartered Learjet, every bone in her body wanting to grab Logan’s hand and drag him back to the car, demanding that Jake take them back to Logan’s house. It was safe there. Logan had worshipped her body and loved her there.

Her time in Pensacola had been the best days she’d had since Evan died. She and Logan had played in the gulf with Regan, had taken long walks on the beach, and one night, roasted marshmallows and smashed them between graham crackers and bars of chocolate.

Amazed he’d never had s’mores, she’d insisted he couldn’t go through life without tasting the decadent treats. They’d eaten the damn things until they were sick, and then made love on the cool sand next to the fire. Like everything else he took a mind to, Logan was becoming quite an expert at the business of making love.

She watched the buildings below grow small beneath them as the Lear lifted. What was awaiting them back home? She couldn’t rid herself of the unsettling feeling that they’d angered Eli by leaving like they had. What Evan’s twin wanted and why he was focused on her, she couldn’t imagine.

If Eli had been brainwashed, however, it meant Herbert Ballard pulled the strings—something worse than watching a Freddy Krueger movie, number one on her list of things that scared the living hell out of her, until now.

“What do you think’s going to happen when we get back?”

His chest lifted as he took in a deep breath, and he wrapped his hand around hers. “I don’t know but my gut tells me whatever it is, it’s going to happen soon.” He twisted toward her. “I’m sorry, Dani. I shouldn’t have let things go on this long.”

That didn’t make any sense. “Don’t be silly, you’re doing everything you can.”

“Now I am, but I wasn’t before. I could have caught Eli if I’d really wanted to.”

She pulled her hand away and frowned. “What are you saying?”

His head fell back on the seat, and he closed his eyes. “I could have caught him the first day, but if I had, there wouldn’t have been a reason for me to stay.”

Oh.
Dani examined how she felt about his admission. With the advantage of hindsight, she realized she was glad he was still with her. Although, if he’d caught Eli and ended the threat, she would have never known what she was missing. She had no regrets. If given a choice, she would not give up these past days spent with Logan.

“Logan?”

“Yes?”

“There’s something I’ve been wondering.”

“What would that be?”

“For a man who’s never made love before me, you’re an amazing kisser. Why is that?”

His eyes opened, the grin on his face so purely wicked, her toes curled. “I never said I was a virgin kisser.”

How many had he kissed to get this good? She wanted him to forget all those other women. “Kiss me, Logan.”

“That I can do.”

Her heart beat faster when his lips touched hers, something it had been doing more and more when he touched her. And he did like touching her.

Logan prayed that the last thing he did on earth was kiss Dani. If that wish came true, it would mean there would be a lot of kissing until then because he planned to spend years loving her.

“Dani?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you a member of the Mile High Club?”

Her eyes sparkled with interest. “No, but I’ve always wished to be.”

“Let’s make your wish come true, then. Wait here.” In the cockpit, the two pilots gave him identical raised eyebrows. “No strolling back through the cabin until I say otherwise,” he said, and left.

Logan returned to his seat, reached over, and pulled Dani onto his lap. He glanced across the aisle to make sure Regan still peacefully slept in her carrier.

“Hello, soldier. You looking for a good time?”

Straddled over him, she peered down at him with eyes that made him think of a green forest right after a soft rain. “Oh, yeah. Think you’re up to the task?”

Her fingers were on the top button of her blouse. “I’m not sure. I guess you’ll have to be the judge of that.”

She undid the button and moved to the next one, his gaze hungrily following her movements. Another button undone, and then another. The plane hit a little turbulence and Logan put his hands on her waist, steadying her.

“I assume we’re not going to get any unexpected visits from the pilots?” she asked.

“Taken care of.” He traced a finger across her skin just above the lace of her bra, fascinated by the goose bumps that appeared. Sliding his hand under the flimsy material, he stroked his thumb over her nipple, feeling it harden. The bra was a front snap and he flicked it open.

“You’re getting good at that.”

“When you do a thing, do it well,” he said, and lowered his mouth to a breast.

For the past four nights and early mornings, he’d made love to her, yet the newness of it hadn’t worn off, and he didn’t think it ever would. Each time had been better than the last as he learned what pleased her. One of the things she liked was for him to fondle and suck on her breasts. He was more than happy to accommodate her.

“My turn,” she said, and slid off him, kneeling on the floor. She unsnapped his jeans and pulled the zipper down.

Logan’s breath hitched. This was one of his new favorite things, and he’d decided to think positively when he dressed this morning, forgoing underwear. He lifted his ass when she tugged on his jeans, dragging them past his knees. She wrapped her hand around the base of his shaft and started licking him as if he were a popsicle. Her tongue was hot and wet, and he grasped the armrests when her mouth covered his cock. Watching her take him deep in her throat was incredibly erotic, bringing him to the edge.

“Enough,” he said when the pressure started to build too much. “Come here.” She gave him one last, slow lick and then stood, slipping her panties off.

“Do you know why I wore a skirt?” she asked after she straddled him again.

“So we could do this, thus making me a happy man?”

“You’re so smart.” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she eased down on him and made him a deliriously happy man.

Later, as Dani dozed against his shoulder, Logan wound a strand of her hair around his finger and wished he could read her mind. Was she still only looking to have an affair for however long it lasted, or was she maybe starting to consider a future with him?

That she liked him, he knew, but could she ever love him?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

L
ogan
showered and then wandered into the kitchen. Dani stood at the counter whipping eggs, Regan balanced on her hip.

“Gan!” Regan yelled, and held out her arms.

Unable to resist, he walked up behind Dani, brushed the hair away from her neck, and pressed his lips to the soft skin behind her ear. “Hello.”

She rested her head against his shoulder. “Hey, you. Hungry?”

“Oh yeah.”

Her chuckle was soft and throaty. “No, silly, I mean for food.”

“That, too,” he said, his stomach growling, putting truth to his words.

“I heard that. I think there are only two things men care about, sex and food.”

“I think you’re right.” He gently bit her neck, feeling a shudder pass through her. Regan grabbed ahold of his ear and tried to twist out of Dani’s arm. He could imagine a lifetime of nights like this, the three of them in the kitchen, talking, playing, touching. Desperately wanted it.

“Come here, little girl,” he said, and took Regan from her. “We’ll be in the living room. Why don’t you fix our plates and bring them in there, unless you need me to help.”

“No, go entertain my little stinker,” she said, and gave Regan a smack on the lips. “That’s what you can do to help. Cheese omelets okay? That’s about all we have until I can get to the grocery store tomorrow.”

“Have I ever told you how much I love . . . cheese omelets?” he asked, and left before she could answer.

Apparently he had tickled Regan to sleep. He’d have to remember that little ploy. Glancing at his watch to see fifteen minutes had passed since he’d left Dani in the kitchen, he started to get up and check on her when she walked in with one plate and a cup of coffee.

“Here’s yours. Be right back.”

She returned and settled down on the floor near him, putting her plate on the coffee table next to his. “After hearing your stomach growl, I thought you’d be done eating by the time I got back.”

The aroma of the omelet filled with cheese, mushrooms, and jalapeño peppers wafted up to him. “I do have some manners, though I’ll admit it wasn’t easy to wait.” He scooped a forkful of the eggs into his mouth and sighed. She made a mean omelet. “Good,” he mumbled around another bite. “Sorry.” He chewed and swallowed. “Hungry.”

“When a woman’s meal reduces her man to one-word sentences, then she’s doing something right.”

Her man?
His heart did an agreeable flip. The scene was so domestic and so foreign to him that his throat hurt. Was this how it was for most families? The father and mother laughing and joking over dinner while their child slept peacefully and safely nearby? Growing up, his perception of domestic bliss had been scrounging enough food to keep Maria healthy and successfully hiding her from their mother’s johns.

His first real family had been his SEAL brothers. The basic underwater-demolition training had been a bitch, but it had been the first time in his life he’d made a true friend. In BUD/S training, he’d tried to maintain his distance from the others, knowing most of them would give up and ring the bell. From the first day, he’d sworn he wouldn’t pull the rope that would toil his failure to endure the agony it took to call himself a SEAL.

He’d never had a close friend and didn’t know how to go about making one. Enter Evan. Logan smiled thinking of his friend.

“Why are you smiling?”

Logan hesitated. A week ago, he would’ve shut down before talking about Evan, the guilt too much to bear. His heart no longer hurt, however, when the memories came. They were good ones and he wanted to share them.

He didn’t want to make her sad, yet he wanted them to be able to talk about his friend, her husband, and Regan’s father. Hoping she would like hearing his Evan story, he plunged ahead.

“I was just remembering when I first met Evan.”

She put her fork down and sat back. “Tell me, please.”

“I was thinking of BUD/S training. He was struggling a little, not as much as most of the others, but enough to worry him apparently. For some reason, he made up his mind I was going to make it through and attached himself to me like a damned leech. Annoyed the hell out of me.”

He smiled as he remembered Evan’s words. “I can’t speak with his Texas twang, but when I tried to discourage him, he said something close to this: ‘Not going nowhere, Kincaid, not gonna ring that bell. You got a look in your eyes that says you’re gonna barrel your way through this, and I reckon I’m just gonna hang on to your shirttail and let you drag my sorry ass along.’ I don’t know how he managed it, but he got himself assigned as my swim buddy. Do you know what that means?”

Her lips curved in a fond smile. “Yeah, it means you couldn’t go anywhere without him, not even to the can. He probably drove you crazy at first, but then you couldn’t help yourself, you started to like him, right?”

“That I did. I’ll admit there were times I thought about killing him.” He loved the way she laughed at that, understanding how Evan could make him crazy even when he’d loved the man. “I loved him like a brother, Dani, and I miss the hell out of him.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. Why had he brought this up? They were both going to be bawling in a minute.

She placed her hand over his, something he’d noticed she did each time he wanted to climb out of his skin. “I know,” she said. “Thank you for sharing your memories of him. It means the world to me. I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I was mad at you when you didn’t come see me after you got out of the hospital. I had this idea we’d go out, have a few beers, and trade Evan stories. But you never came.”

Logan exhaled a long breath. Christ, how many ways had he failed her? “I couldn’t. I tried, but I just couldn’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

Although he’d been one at the time, he refused to act the coward now. He met her eyes. “I didn’t keep him safe for you, and I just couldn’t face you. I was wrong not to come.”

“Oh, Logan.” Surprising him, she crawled onto his lap, rested her head on his shoulder, and laced her fingers through his. “I should have realized that was why. If I had, I would’ve come to you. You have nothing to feel guilty about. It was war, nothing more, nothing less.”

She’d said that before, said it to absolve him. Over and over again, she kept turning his world upside down. The feel of her, the scent of her, the warmth of her hand in his, her words that she would have come to him, all of it hurt because he wanted it so badly, wanted it forever.

“Before we left for Pensacola, you said something I didn’t understand, but now I think I’m beginning to,” she said.

He rubbed his cheek over her hair. It seemed this was another night for confessions, but he was almost afraid to ask to what she referred. In the last week, he’d bared his soul to her and wasn’t sure he could stand much more. He asked anyway. “What’s that?”

“When you said it was a matter of honor. You think I belong to Evan and that you don’t have the right to be with me. Am I right?”

“That’s a part of it. It was all mixed up with all that other stuff I told you about.”

She sat up and straddled his thighs. “So how is it different if I’m with someone else?”

A low rumble left his throat. There was only one man he would step aside for now, and that was Evan, if he rose from the dead. Unable to answer her question without giving himself away, he slipped his hand behind her neck and brought her mouth to his.

Sliding his hand down her back to the curve of her waist, Logan groaned when she pushed her tongue into his mouth. When she rubbed herself across his erection, he pressed his fingers into her skin. It wasn’t until she pulled away that he realized Regan was crying.

She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed herself up. “Sorry.”

No more sorry than he was. He leaned his head back on the couch and watched her through half-closed eyes. Her love and care for her daughter never ceased to fascinate him. Until now, he’d never quite understood just how much he and Maria had missed. If he somehow got very lucky and Dani fell in love with him, agreed to marry him, he thought he might want at least a half-dozen kids so he could spend his days watching her love them.

“She’s hungry and needs a bath,” Dani said, bouncing a teary Regan on her hip.

“Need help?”

“No, why don’t you find something on TV, and I’ll be back soon.”

A little disappointed not to be included, he shrugged. “I need to study those satellite photos and do a little research on the computer.”

After she left, he picked up the dishes, loading them in the dishwasher, and then retrieved his computer and the photos. Pouring two glasses of wine, he returned to the living room and spread the satellite images out on the coffee table.

Ever since the briefing from his team, he’d had the unsettling feeling this wasn’t just Eli acting alone. Ballard had a history of going after women with money. Not only was Dani a successful novelist, but she was Evan’s wife.

The last part bothered him the most. Would the lure of possessing the wife of the twin he’d not been able to take away from Ruth’s husband be too tempting to resist?

The more he considered all he’d learned about the man, the more he wondered if Ballard hadn’t resented not taking everything away from Evan’s father. Wouldn’t that spur the man to keep an eye on Evan? If so, he’d know Evan had been killed in battle, leaving a wife. Even better, leaving a wife with money. If Ballard could get Dani in his clutches, along with her money . . .

The Iceman saw things others didn’t, and he just fucking knew Ballard wanted Dani and would come after her. When and how? He snatched up his phone and called Buchanan.

“Yo, boss.”

“Listen, I’ve got a bad feeling about this cult business.”

“Not surprised, but was wishing like hell your hair wasn’t going to start standing on end. Gives me the heebee-jeebies when that happens.”

“Right now, my hair feels like I stuck my finger in an electrical outlet.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Logan agreed. “I want you to put Bravo team on alert and Delta on standby. In the meantime, send Turner and Watkins to keep Decourdeau company. Andre won’t like it, but I don’t give a damn. If something happens, I want them already in place.”

“Boots on the ground, got it. Anything else, boss?”

“Have you studied the satellite photos?”

“Every inch and then again. The dogs are going to be a problem.”

“Put Decourdeau on figuring out how to neutralize them. What else did you see?”

“Are you asking about the house with armed guards at the front and back doors, or the razor wire across the top of the fence?”

It was encouraging he could still count on Buchanan being as sharp as he’d always been in the field. “Both.”

“I’d bet my mama the fence is either electrified or has an alarm of some kind, and you know how much I love my mama. I never bet her unless it’s a sure thing.”

“I love your mama, too, and would never let you lose her. If the unthinkable happens, you’re in charge of getting us over the fence without getting torn to shreds or setting off any warning bells. Now, I’m going to borrow your mama and bet the house is Ballard’s headquarters. If we end up in that compound, that’ll be our target.”

“Hoping it doesn’t come to that, but if so, already got our way to it mapped. What else?”

“Just pray we don’t have a reason to need these precautions.”

“Doing it on my knees every night, boss. You’re keeping our girl close, right? I mean, like, superglued to your side.”

“So close I might have to steal your handle.”

Buchanan chuckled. “No problem. I’m getting a little tired of Romeo anyway. Later, boss.”

Logan frowned at his phone as he disconnected. Why was Buchanan getting tired of his nickname? He’d always been proud of it and what it implied. There was only one reason Logan could think of, and he didn’t like it. This business needed to be finished so he could get home, hopefully with Dani at his side, and keep an eye on his sister.

“For me?” Dani asked, picking up a glass.

Logan nodded, and glanced at his watch, surprised forty-five minutes had passed since she’d left to take care of Regan. “Got her all tucked in for the night?”

“Hopefully.” She leaned over the table and studied the photos. “What’s that?”

The long, narrow building she pointed to had what looked like small ten-by-ten fenced-in sections abutting it. “I believe that’s a kennel and those are dog runs. See this little dot here inside the second fence? I’m guessing it’s either a German shepherd or a Doberman.”

Picking up his magnifying glass, she held it over the brown dot. “I suppose it could be. There’s a dozen of these little fenced-in areas, so I guess that means there are twelve dogs?”

“Unless they aren’t all full, or of more importance, they keep more than one in a kennel.”

“Oh.” Her gaze swept over the photos. “Are you planning to go in there?”

He hoped to God not, because it would mean they’d got to her and he would be mounting a rescue mission. The look on her face was the same as whenever she saw Evan off. Was her fear this time for him?

Lifting her chin with his finger, he turned her face to his. “I’m not planning on it, but you always, always prepare for all contingencies. I don’t like not knowing something, and right now, what I don’t know is whether Eli’s acting on his own or if he’s just someone’s puppet. So I’m just covering my bases.”