“Well, in that case”—he paused and smiled—“shall we?” I watched as he nodded his head to the dance floor, where Nora and Gwen were now dancing with Mackenzie.
Turning back to Trevor, I regarded him for a moment before I answered. The second tequila shot buzzed through me, and I could feel the music’s tempo a little more as it thumped across my body. “Only if you dance with me.”
A crinkle of delight reached his eyes. “I thought you’d never ask, Campbell.” He stood up from the booth and reached his hand out for me. I placed my hand into his and got up to follow him over to the rest of our group.
Three things happened very quickly as we reached the dance floor. First, Gwen took a step toward Logan and firmly planted her arms up and around his neck. Second, Logan noticed Trevor and I approaching, and his eyes flicked down to my hand in his. Third, I felt Trevor’s breath on my skin as he said softly into my ear, “You know, Amelia . . . you’ve really grown into a beautiful woman.”
I tore my eyes away from the subtle downturn of Logan’s mouth and looked back to Trevor, who was pulling me closer into his chest. Our bodies pressed together in a way that felt vaguely uncomfortable just as both of his hands pressed against my hips. He began to move to the beat of the music, looking down at me with a grin.
“Oh, uh . . .” I stammered. After a quick glance back at Logan and Gwen, I saw that Logan was dancing with her and no longer focused in this direction. I snapped my attention back to Trevor, feeling myself fumble through the moment. “Thank you?”
His grin widened as he continued to look down at me, and I noticed his eyes catch on my mouth for a moment before they roamed down to my chest. He wasn’t exactly being sneaky about it, and I felt like a gross piece of meat on display. It didn’t help that I’d picked an outfit that showcased my chest, but itcertainlyhadn’t been intended for Trevor. “You know, I always had a little thing for you.” I watched as his eyes made their ascent back up as his hands made their journey from my hips to my ass.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?” I couldn’t help but scoff, feeling annoyed at this curveball. I was just looking for a noncommittal, friendly dance with Trevor in an attempt to distract myself from Logan. Did I miss something? Like the part where I invited him to fondle my ass?
“Yeah,” he said, his eyes stuck on my chest again as his hands held firmly onto my backside, and I instantly stepped backward and out of his hold. Confusion flashed across his face as he looked up at my eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
I narrowed my eyes at him again, and in the process realized that the edges of my peripheral vision were blurring. It was like everything around me was moving in slow motion.
The back-to-back tequila shots were kicking in at averyinopportune time.
Trevor was still staring at me, looking confused and perhaps a smidge guilty.Good. “Amelia . . . ?”
I shook my head and turned away from the dance floor, beginning to feel unsteady on my feet.Did the music get louder?I could feel the bass practically thumping through the inside of my brain, swirling my thoughts around into pudding. I spun around in place until I found an exit sign hanging above a dark door on the back side of the bar and then promptly made my way through it.
As soon as I got outside, I felt like I could breathe again. I could still hear the music beating through the door—but it wasn’t as suffocating, and the fresh air helped my mind recalibrate with the rest of my body. I realized I’d gone out a back exit and not the main door where we’d entered, and was relieved that the bar backed up to the beach so that I could orient myself with the ocean. I decided to walk down into the sand and toward the water, craving the bright moonlight on my skin.
Just as my feet stepped into the warm water, I heard the back door of the bar open and shut from up behind me. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, praying that it wasn’t Trevor coming after me.
Turning to look, I saw it wasn’t Trevor, but Logan. He walked toward where I stood at the edge of the water with a firm determination held in his shoulders, but he stopped his pursuit a good distance away from me. Even in the darkness of night I could see the utter rage in his eyes. It made me freeze in place, my breath catching on an inhale.
“What did he do to you?” he growled. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides and I knew he was on the verge of losing control of his anger. Tendons were practically bursting from his neck.
I wasn’t sure that I’d ever seen Logan this lethal before. His eyes bore into mine as his eyebrows scrunched, willing me to answer him. Willing me to give him the opportunity to break from his restraint.
He was reacting. Reacting in a way that sent shivers down my spine, because he was reacting forme.
“It was nothing,” I stammered. “He just . . . he came on to me, and I didn’t expect it.” Despite the flickers of pleasure within my body at seeing him respond in this way, I wasn’t sure that Trevor truly deserved whatever wrath that Logan undoubtedly had in mind.
I saw his jaw clench and his eyes narrow even further. “Amelia, don’t lie to me. He was grabbing your ass like it was already his.” His face contorted as if he was experiencing a jolt of pain. “That’s not how you come on to someone.” His voice was gravely and dangerous. The tension in the air was so thick that goosebumps exploded all over my skin.
I was suddenly yearning to touch him, to feel his raw emotion through his hands as they skated across my body. But how long would this last? How long until he reverted back to acting like whatever this was between us wasn’t real? “Why do you care, Logan?” I needed to hear him say it. I needed him to admit what he was feeling at that moment.
He stared hard at me for a moment before answering. “What do you mean, why? You know why.” He kept his voice low.
“No, actually, Idon’t.” I scoffed. “I don’t know why, because you spend so much time pretending like this thing between us doesn’t exist.” I watched as he took a deep breath and looked down toward his feet, a tell tale sign that he was trying to collect himself. Trying to restrain himself. “Logan, when you found me in that bar a year ago, you looked at me like no one else in the entire world existed. You’ve been looking at me like that for as long as I can remember. Youkissedme all those years ago when I picked you up from that bar downtown. And that kiss was the best thing that I’ve ever felt in my whole life.” I inhaled a deep breath, feeling like my lungs could expand more now than they had in years. It felt so good to finally say the words out loud. To speak life into them.
Logan’s eyes flicked up to mine. “Amelia.” He said my name like it was a plea. A plea for me to understand—a plea for me to drop it.
I felt my stomach coil tightly inside of me, but I kept going, choosing to ignore the look on his face. “And now, when I’m right here in front of you, you spend the entire day taking care ofGwen.”
Logan’s face instantly changed, morphing from regret into something else, something more desperate. “What?Amelia, that’s not what I was doing,” he said, his voice a little more urgent. “She was hurt and I was just trying to do the right thing.”
“Why don’t you do the right thing with me, then?”
He paused and stared at me, eyes pleading. I watched as his throat bobbed. “That’s all I’m ever trying to do, Mills.”
I scoffed again. “Then tell me that you want me.” I would have been mortified by how desperate I sounded if I didn’t need to hear him say it so badly. I needed him to soothe the ache I felt around him by acknowledging that he felt it too. I kept my eyes locked on him, waiting for him to say the words that would finally give me solace. “Logan, tell me that you want me. Please. Tell me that I’m not crazy. Tell me that you want this just as much as I do.” He still only stared back at me. I began marching toward him, closing the distance between us. The urge to kiss him, toremindhim, came over me with such tenacity that I couldn’t stop myself. I was being reckless, completely irrational, but I didn’t care.
