“No.” He shook his head. “You weren’t part of the plan. None of what’s happened since that night was part of the plan.”
I cast my eyes down, but he cupped my jaw and lifted it until our eyes met. I drew a sharp breath. Because Logan was no longer a book I couldn’t read. His whole heart was in his eyes. “You’re so much better than the plan.”
The lightness that filled my chest lifted us both off the floor until we floated on a cloud, the candlelight twinkling like stars, or at least that’s how it felt, how I pictured it. And sometimes, as Logan had tried so hard to tell me, fictions could be the truest parts of life.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. “So much.”
I closed my eyes. “I have a hundred things to tell you and I don’t know how to choose.”
“Then tell me everything.” He brushed his cheek against mine, his stubble tickling. “Will you give me tonight?”
In response, because this was my dream, I took his face in my hands and I kissed him. I kissed him until he groaned softly and pushed his hands through my hair, until his lips parted to let me in, until my heart beat its way out of my chest, and took off soaring. I kissed Logan for all I was worth—which was so much, as he had tried so many times to tell me.
42
Alexis Stone’s One-Night Stand
“Cheers!” Inside the tent, everyone raised glittering glasses of champagne as Annie’s father ended his speech, impressively delivered first in Korean, then in English. As the party buzzed back to high volume, I slid my chair closer to Logan’s. He turned to me, his face lit with the pure pleasure of seeing two families dizzy in love, and from the simple happiness of watching someone else give a speech for once. I squeezed his hand and he looked down at where our fingers intertwined on his thigh. His thumb tapped an impatient rhythm, the staccato beat of restraint. He raised our hands and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. As I looked at him, the full weight of how much I wanted him hit me. After holding it in for so long, I nearly trembled with it. Goose bumps raced up my arms.
“Cold?” he asked, reaching to take off his jacket.
This time, I didn’t have to lie. “No. Put your hands on me. Please.”
His eyes grew instantly darker. “Here?”
“Everywhere.” It turned out it wasn’t hard to be bold when you wanted so badly you couldn’t think straight. All this time, I hadn’t been deficient: I’d simply been missing Logan. I uncrossed my legs under the table and slid his hand under the chiffon layers of my dress. His palm was rough where the dress had been silky, and I shivered at the difference. He looked at me a moment, the lines of his face traced by candlelight and shadows, and then with one strong tug he pulled my chair closer. I was practically in his lap now, but the people around us were drunk and getting up to dance.
“Don’t move.” His mouth crooked into a smile. “Act like everything’s normal.”
“Good thing I’m practiced.”
His hand traced a path of heat up my thigh. I tilted my hip in his direction, but he didn’t obey, skimming close to the seam of my panties, then dipping away.
I made a soft strangled sound and closed my eyes. When I opened them, Logan looked at me like he wanted to devour me.
“You close your eyes whenever I touch you. Why?”
His long finger traced the lace at the seam and I quivered. “Because being with you feels like a dream, and I want to stay inside it.”
He swallowed hard. Under the table, his fingers slipped up and stroked me, his touch growing more insistent. I checked that no one was watching and rolled my hips, moving against his hand. It was enough to make me catch fire. He answered by moving his fingers in slow, teasing circles. I caught his free hand and bit his thumb.
“Come on,” he said, rescinding his hands and standing. I groaned at the loss of contact, but he reached down and smoothed my dress, then tugged me up.
I had to skip to keep pace with him as he strode out of the tent, hand wrapped firmly around mine. We entered a dark garden, a maze of cypress trees tall and thin as matchsticks, peachy-pink roses, and perfectly trimmed hedges, the dreamy music and twinkling stars forming a fairy-tale setting. I looked around in wonder. “Where are we going?”
He pulled out his phone. “I have a surprise.”
It felt like I’d spent twenty-seven years waiting for him, and I didn’t want to wait anymore. I pushed Logan against a cypress tree and heard the satisfying crunch of the branches giving, then holding his weight. He blinked and threw his phone into the grass, sinking his hands into my hair. For a single moment the thought blazed that Lee would be very proud of me right now, and then I put away all thoughts of my sister.
I stepped between Logan’s legs and his hands slipped down, sliding over my curves, cupping my ass. He ground me against his hips. My voice came out breathless. “I’ve wanted to do this every day of the campaign.”
His feverish eyes dropped to my lips. I pressed a hand to his forehead and he trembled. “You should have. I could never tell what you wanted.”
I tipped my head back and laughed. Logan took advantage and kissed a column down my throat. “What’s so funny?”
“You were the one who was impossible to read.”
He rested his forehead against mine. “I was trying to stick to our rules. That’s what I thought you wanted. But inside I was drowning.”
