For Kicks (13 page)

Breeze opened her eyes wide and stared at him.

“Question one.” He pointed to the book.

“Depends on who you’re lying to.”

“Strangely, I get that. I don’t want you to lie to me, but if my sister wants to tell me she’s still a virgin, I’ll be happy to believe her.”

“I thought she had a baby.” A grin tickled her lips.

“Immaculate conception.” His features were calm, as if it weren’t a joke.

“I see,” Breeze said, trying not to giggle as she dug in the bag for her copy. Logan laughed out loud. Really loud. “What now?”

“The questions about dominance. Do your friends call you a control freak? Do you insist on driving? According to this, you’ll be tying me up in under a week.”

“Very funny.” As if she held the upper hand. She opened the book, looking for some ammunition to use on him. “Are you afraid of commitment?”

“Not as much as you. Are you closer with your best friend or your mother?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It’s a few pages over, in the part about family.”

“Not that. I’m not afraid of commitment. I’ve worked for the same company since I was sixteen, ten years. That’s commitment.”

“Or lack of opportunity. You never thought about working anywhere else?”

“No.” She shook her head. She had plenty of headhunters trying to recruit her, but she liked the security of always working for the same place that had grown her grandmother’s career. “I want to be a regional vice president, like my grandmother. I’m on the right track, as long as nothing derails me.”

“Why Mendelssohn’s though? Could it be any major retailer?”

“I like being a legacy.”

“Sometimes you have to blaze your own trail. She did that, right? That could be the legacy you’re meant to follow.”

Breeze shifted in her seat and decided to turn the mirror back on him. Let him see how uncomfortable it was. “What about you? What are you committed to?”

“Being happy.” She waited, but he didn’t elaborate.

“That’s it? It’s awfully narcissistic.”

“I prefer hedonistic. Life is short. You have to live life to its fullest and enjoy every second. You don’t want to look back and see wasted time. Time you spent dwelling on things that don’t matter.”

Did she do that? She didn’t want to. She wanted to have a full life. That’s why she kept so busy, filling her brain with knowledge, busying her mind with work. And yet it never seemed to be enough.

Everyone thought her life came up short in some ways. Her parents thought she was unhappy, her grandmother thought her career was stalling, and Logan thought she needed a good time.

What she really needed was a way to spin this whole game around on him. Change her tactic from defense to offense.

“What is your longest relationship?”

Logan swallowed hard. The woman had a love affair with that word,
relationship
. He’d done his best to ignore it, but she refused to be ignored. As if she was trying to twist what they had into something stilted and forced, the kind of thing he always walked away from.

Except, when she challenged him, her eyes twinkled. She thought she had him. She was playing…him. He grinned. Playing was what he’d been trying to get her to do, after all.

“My longest relationship? My sister, I guess.”

“Very funny. Romantic relationship. Have you ever been married? Engaged?”

“No and no. It never really gets that far.”

“Because you’re commitment phobic.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who left without saying goodbye and then suggested we pretend like last night never happened.”

Her eyes widened and knew he’d pushed too far. So focused on the pursuit, on getting her to admit she needed to live a little, he hadn’t stopped to consider how that realization might affect her. Or the pressure it would put on him to live up to her expectations. Which he was failing to do right now.

On the outside she might be the model of a modern professional woman, but inside lurked the heart of a traditionalist. She wanted to know him, try having a relationship, albeit in secret.

Even though the term relationship made him itch, her willingness to try and frame them into something felt like his biggest accomplishment of all. Last night she’d trusted him, and that demanded he live up to that trust.

He opened the book, looking for a way to get to know her too. Because he needed to know why he felt so good. Why the sex was better, why his heart beat faster when he made her laugh, why he was so determined to challenge someone willing to let him walk away.

“What do you want to do when you retire? When you’ve gone as far as you want to in your career and can do what you please.”

“My grandmother hops from one cruise ship to the next. She worked hard her whole career and was given a nice payment to retire. Maybe I’ll travel like that.”

“They forced her into retirement and you’re still loyal to the company?”

“It was a six-figure pay out.”

He shook his head. “That’s your grandmother. What do
you
want to do?”

She shrugged and looked for a new question. “I’ll worry about it after I cash my check.”

“I want to get a house on the coast. Not too far from wherever my kids are so they can come visit.”

Kids, he wanted kids. That meant he wasn’t the commitment-phobe she thought. Did that mean she’d stumbled upon a great guy who saw something in her and wanted it enough to pursue her with the intensity of a Black Friday shopper? Could she handle that? Her fingers busied with the pages.
Find another question, quick!

“Do you want kids, Breeze?”

Too late. She buried herself behind the tiny book before answering. “I don’t think I should.”

“Why?” Logan spoke calmly, as if he hadn’t just turned on the garbage disposal of her family history.

“My mother has strong feelings about how much my grandmother worked.”

Logan put a finger atop her book and lowered it, forcing her to either meet his gaze or admit avoiding him. “But not about your grandfather?”

“He had the same issue with how much my grandmother worked. He left when my mom went to college.”

“Oh. Well, some people balance better than others.”

She straightened the lapels of her suit jacket. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Probably not.” He gave a shrug and gave his attention back to the pages.

New subject, pronto.
She used the words of the book to say what she didn’t dare. “Let’s talk about sex.”

“In the abstract, or the fun way?” His lecherous grin made her look away. She couldn’t let him distract her with passion again. Not here.

“Define faithful.” She scrutinized him as he thought, realizing that maybe he wasn’t against relationships, just not looking for a lasting one with her.

“You want to be with someone else, you tell me first.”

“Define be with.” Breeze studied his face, looking for cracks in the honest façade he wore.

“Trust.”

“I think it means technically, where is your line for cheating. Is it sex, kissing, touching?”

His eyes darkened, and she heard his breath quicken. “You feel for someone else what you feel for me, you tell me before you act on it.”

“I can’t think of anyone else, but you can flirt with random strangers.”
And it scared me so bad I can’t think straight.

“I wasn’t flirting.” He sounded annoyed. Good.

“You were flirting. You were smiling at her.”
You’re only supposed to look at me that way.

“I’m happy.” He leaned closer, laying a hand on her knee. “Had an amazing night last night. Can’t stop smiling.”

“I’m serious.”

“You’re too serious. I was there. You had a great time. Think about it, you’ll be grinning from ear to ear too.”

With a weak smile, she returned to the pages, a warm blush heating her skin. She needed to calm down, stop overreacting and just enjoy him. For however long she held his attention.

“How long do your relationships last?”

“I don’t have a stopwatch. They end when it’s over. Usually about three weeks.”

She gasped, realizing she’d already used up one of hers.

“I walk when it becomes inauthentic. Life is too short to be a place card in someone’s life. A lot of women out there think there’s a right time to be married, and any decent guy will do.”

“That’s crazy.” Breeze scrunched her brows. “There’s only one reason to get married.”

He nodded but didn’t offer what he thought that reason should be. “How long do we have to keep hiding that there’s something going on with us?”

“Who do you want to tell?” Her chest tightened, holding in the panic of having the past repeat itself.

“I don’t like secrets. It’s always better to have things out in the open.”

She shook her head. “You promised no one would know.”

“I’m not going to put out a memo. I’d just like to be honest with my sister about why I was here this weekend. Haven’t you told anyone?” His fingers drew lazy circles on her knee.

“No, have you?” Her heart stalled.

“No. You haven’t even told your mom?”

She winced. She’d forgotten to call, again.

“You still haven’t called? Do it now.”

“No, they don’t even know about this trip. Calling from an airport would be weird.”

“Why didn’t you tell them about the trip?” His eyes widened, disapproval settling on his face.

“I’m busy, they’re busy.” Too busy to even return her calls it seemed. She shook off the thought, not wanting him to think badly of her family. “They deliver three hundred babies a year.”

“You should try harder with them, Breeze. Don’t take them for granted. Family is who makes us who we are. You don’t want to let that get away.”

“That’s the way it’s been since I left.”

“So fix it.”

She opened her mouth to explain why she couldn’t, that she was still embarrassed by the rumors that ran her out of town, rumors she knew they’d heard. But instead of speaking, she heard her flight announced over the PA system.

“That’s my cue.” She slid the book in the bag and gathered the rest of her things. Once collected she turned back to make a quick goodbye. But the sad look in his eyes told her he’d have none of that.

“What is the difference between love, lust and romance?” He leaned in and pulled her so close to his chair that the tiniest nudge would put her in his lap.

“I don’t know. Is that in the book?”

He nodded, his lips inching closer to hers until they brushed softly. “Breeze, with you I can’t tell the difference.” And then he kissed her.

Long and slow, curling the desire in her belly into a tight coil. Her eyes drifted shut as she drank him in. The scent of hotel soap, the stubble on his cheeks as she framed his face with her hands, the taste of him on her tongue.

He pulled away first, taking her hands in his and kissing each palm. “You’re the most amazing kisser.”

“Really?” A giddy rush floated through her.

“Mmm hmm. When our lips touch, your whole body relaxes.”

“And that’s good?”

“Very. Kissing is reciprocal. It relaxes me too. Enough to let you get on that plane.”

The voiced buzzing through the conference room blurred in his mind. Projected sales numbers no longer held the appeal they once did. He still believed in the Kicks line, still wanted it to succeed for Nitrous and Kellen. But his thoughts were elsewhere. Flying over Pennsylvania to be exact. Set to land in forty-one minutes.

“Logan?”

At the sound of his name he sat up straighter, blinking out of his daydream.

“You’ve worked closer with Breeze than any of us. Do you think she’d be interested in a change?” The director of retail tapped the end of her pen against the table.

“It would depend on the change.” He grinned, wondering if he’d been caught sleeping in class.

“Her sense of urgency is exactly what we need.” She pounded her fist against the table for emphasis. “A problem solver. The retail team is missing that right now. She’d be perfect to head up our training collateral.”

Right up Breeze’s alley.
Not
. “I think she prefers the hands-on side. She’s in constant motion. I don’t see her at a desk writing training manuals and developing slide shows.”

“You think she’d want to stay at the store level?”

“Not for long. I think she plans on running Mendelssohn’s.” No one laughed. Logan’s smile widened with pride.

“I always say, only hire people who you know could do your job. Keeps you on your toes.”

“That is the Nitrous way.” Logan leaned forward. “Would you like me to feel her out? I’m going to check in with her at the end of the week.”

“I’ll e-mail you the specifics. See what she’d be interested in. I’d welcome her in either the flagship Nitrous Town or the employee store. If she’s that determined to move up, we’ll need to keep her close to headquarters.”

Logan nodded, paying enough attention for the rest of the meeting that he was able to gather his things and skedaddle at the first opportunity. Breeze at Nitrous. He’d really have his work cut out for him to convince her to be with him if they worked for the same company.

Instead of returning to his office, he trekked to the other side of the Nitrous campus and maneuvered his way into his brother-in-law’s cubicle.

“How’s the project coming?” Marc asked, barely looking up from his computer screen.

“Better every day. We’ve even got Kellen excited, which is hard to do.”

“Yes, his commitment to being mellow surpasses even yours.”

“I want this to go right for him. The sole design is new, and soccer isn’t as big in the states as basketball and baseball.”

“Which is why you’re launching in North America rather than the more competitive UK or Brazilian markets. You made the right decision, and the global football team agrees. Are you doubting yourself?” Marc looked up with a sympathetic smile and shook his head. “It’s not about work. I take it you didn’t get anywhere with her.”

Logan swallowed hard over the constriction in his throat. “She’s a complex woman.”

“That’s promising. You need a challenge. Otherwise you get bored too easy.”

“Is that my problem?”