“It’s already settled. I will go home, and you will never mention this to anyone. Nor will I and perhaps we will see one another in twenty years and have a good laugh—”
That was it. His hands gripped her upper arms and shook her slightly.
“I don’t know what’s come over you, but that is not the way any of this is going to go.” Faith opened her mouth to speak but apparently thought better of it and shut her mouth tightly.“Now, I want you to sit there,” he said, nodding to the wingback chair. “And just relax. I’m going to draw you a bath—”
“Oh, you really shouldn’t—”
“And you’re going to take as long as you like, do you understand? In the meantime, I’ll figure out how to break this to everyone.”
Faith’s eyes snapped to him.
“Are you mad? We’re not telling anyone that you bedded me.”
“Well, of course not,” he said as she visibly relaxed. “But still, we need to come up with an explanation of some sort—otherwise, there will be too much confusion when we announce our intent to marry.”
The expression on Faith’s face was almost comical if it weren’t for the fact that she was already shaking her head.
“No. No. Absolutely not, no,” she said, trying to break free of his arms even as he held her still. “Let go.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked, yielding to her wish. “You couldn’t possibly think that I wouldn’t offer for you after all this.”
“All what?” she asked frantically. “You assumed I had slept with Donovan. Would you be offering if that had been true?”
“Well, no—”
“So, there is no reason for you to do so now.”
“I disagree.”
“Then we are at an impasse,” she said, finally managing to pull away. She got back to work finishing with her dressing. “I will leave, right now, and if you’d like, we will never say another word to one another ever again. I think that seems a fair trade.”
Logan’s brow scrunched incredulously as she sat in the wingback chair and reached for one of her shoes.
“Are you suggesting that our coupling can be payment for silence?”
She stood up from tying one of her boots.
“When you say it like that, it does sound rather… Anyway… Um, yes?”
“Absolutely not.”
“You’re being unfair.”
“And you’re being ridiculous.”
“Look, Logan,” she said after finishing her task. “Obviously this isn’t what either of us expected and while I appreciate the…chivalrous offer, I must decline.”
“I’m not being chivalrous, Faith,” he growled, reaching for her again. He held her against him and inhaled. “I want you.”
The words fell from his lips almost in a whisper, and Faith’s shaky disposition seemed to settle. She looked into his eyes, and Logan’s breath hitched. She really was breathtaking.
“You do?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“But… why?”
The tone of her question nearly broke Logan’s heart. Didn’t she realize who she was? Yes, she was feisty, prickly, and argumentative, but that was just a fraction of her. She was brilliant and beautiful, caring and kind, fiery and formidable. Why, there wasn’t anyone in the world that he should like better to marry. And while he’d never intended to marry anyone, the circumstance being what it was, it was the only thing to do.
