“Working on a Saturday, huh?” He had to be what, an investment banker? A lawyer like Lee’s boyfriend, Ben? Some high-stakes corporate job with no work-life balance. He looked the type.
Logan rubbed tiredly at his eyes. “If it wasn’t my dream job, I’d have quit ages ago. Oi,” he barked suddenly, just as the hovering guy knocked my arm. “Watch it!” The guy glanced back at us sheepishly and moved away.
I leaned over and braced my elbows on the table. “You really have no fear, do you? You just say whatever you’re thinking.”
“Sorry. Born this way, as my mum likes to say. Big fan of Lady Gaga, her.”
“Your mum...far away in England?”
His mouth quirked. “Here in Texas. My mum’s Belarusian and my dad’s British. They both emigrated from the UK a year before I was born and set up shop down in Odejo.”
“Ah.”Thatexplained his accent. It was clear, crisp, lilted enunciation one moment and growled twang the next. England meets Texas. Wholly unique and beautiful to listen to.
He sighed. “Yes, I’m one of those classic British Texans you see everywhere. My childhood home was a hobbit hole on a cattle ranch and we ate nothing but fish, chips, and brisket growing up.”
“Be careful or I’ll believe you.”
“Odejo tried its damnedest to make me a cowboy, I’ll admit, but I guess some Britishisms stuck. Mostly, my mum’s slang and my dad’s obsession with the Hotspurs.”
“That’s another soccer reference, I presume.”
He looked affronted by my ignorance.
“For what it’s worth, I think your bluntness is kind of amazing.”
He drained his drink and dropped it on the table. “Yeah, well, please inform my colleagues. Pretty sure it’s shaved years, if not decades, off their lives.” He copied me, leaning over and placing his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together. Our clasped hands were mere inches apart. I could easily lift a finger and stroke the back of his hand. Was his skin soft? He had long, elegant fingers but callused knuckles. The sudden vision of his hands moving roughly up my stomach to cup my breasts sent a stab of electricity through me. I crossed my legs tighter under the table.
“So what, then?” Logan’s gaze grew more intense. “You’re not in the habit of speaking your mind? A woman with a name like Ruby Dangerfield, who goes out to celebrate dumping her ex, wearing that dress—I smell bullshit.”
I glanced down. “You like the dress?” Technically Carter had liked it, too, but the compliment was different coming from Logan.
Our eyes locked across the table. He cleared his throat and half stood, shoving back his chair. “Yeah, well—you want another drink?”
“I thought you were trying to get home at a reasonable hour?” Companionship aside, I’d feel bad if I ruined Logan’s night after he saved mine.
He shrugged. “One more won’t kill me.”
“Then I’ll have what you’re having. Whiskey.”
His eyes jumped to mine, and he looked like he wanted to say something. But all that came out was, “Right back.”
I watched him elbow his way through the crowd and make it to the bar in record speed, laughing to myself as he flagged down the bartender’s attention ahead of half a dozen people who turned to him in outrage, which he roundly ignored. It was amazing: I’d managed to find my polar opposite. But our differences weren’t aggravating: in fact, simply being around Logan felt like taking a mental vacation. Without anyone nearby to judge, I let myself study him, lingering over the lines of his body, his face in profile. He wasn’t bulky, but his white-collared shirt pulled taut across his shoulders, tightest over the swell of his biceps as he leaned against the bar. His shirt was tucked smartly into belted navy pants that were fitted enough to show—oh. His ass was round and firm, the kind you found on baseball or soccer players, men who worked for it.
I bit my lip—whowasI right now? I never lusted like this. I hadn’t even realized I was capable of it. When I met a guy, I certainly noticed whether he was attractive or not, but I’d never had this kind of visceral reaction. Was it Logan’s brashness I was responding to, my body soaking it up and reflecting it back like a mirror? Or had I simply morphed into a caricature of a sex-deprived woman? Either way, it feltgood, like someone had flipped a switch to remagnetize me, the sudden buzzing attraction proof that I was very much alive. Even better that Logan was so wildly out of my league: I could simply sit back and admire him for admiration’s sake.
I was still contemplating this when he turned, two whiskeys in hand, wearing an expression of such great annoyance it was like he’d heard my inner monologue. Despite his expression, my chest warmed at the thought that he was making his way back to me, out of all the people in the bar.
“Assholes,” he pronounced, sliding my drink to me. “Up there at the bar complaining about having to refurb their company’s oil rigs because of environmental rules. Boo-hoo, it’s going to cost you a little extra money in exchange for not poisoning the planet. Get over it.”
He sounded just like Lee, which I found endearing. I grinned and sipped my drink, prepared to hear all about it, but his eyes followed the drink to my mouth and his annoyed expression dropped, replaced by a guilty smile. It made small wrinkles frame his eyes like commas. His eyes were such a warm, rich brown. It was amazing how much he could convey with them. Now they radiated a sly, amused knowing.
“Any-way,” he said, drawing it out. “On to more important things. I’ve told you about me. Now I want to know everything about you, from the day you were born to the moment you walked into this bar. The good, the bad, the ugly, the exes. Unpack yourself, Ruby Dangerfield. I’m prepared to be fascinated.”
I laughed to cover the sudden sharp ache.Alexis Stone, the bore.I wanted so badly to impress this magnetic stranger. But obviously, my real life wouldn’t cut it. A wild hare struck me. “You mean...you want to hear how my parents conceived me on a motorcycle tour around America, and my mom gave birth to me at the mouth of Niagara Falls?”
Logan’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
My heart raced. Just like that, I was fascinating. Sure, I was lying, but what did lying matter on a night I’d specifically carved out to be a blip in reality, an island of time disconnected from every other day? I would never see Logan or any of these people again. I could do anything. Why not try on another life for a few hours?
