Текст книги "Insider"

Автор книги: Olivia Cunning

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Текущая страница: 25 (всего у книги 34 страниц)

It must be hard to go through life so bitter and jaded, Toni thought, but she moved on with her presentation. “There will also be sections on what goes on backstage.”

“Now we’re talking,” Susan said.

Toni ignored her and continued down what she’d worked out so far for the table of contents. “The crew. The fans. Promotional events. The tour bus. The private jet—which I haven’t seen yet. A huge section on concerts and a chapter on each band member. Each of those will vary depending on the band member. For instance, Logan is an open book and has tons of hobbies outside of music, so his chapter will look a lot different from Max’s because Max is very private and more focused on the fans. I’m really excited about the section on what it’s like to create and record new songs as a member of Exodus End. Dare says they’ll consider creating a song exclusive to the book. And let me track the entire process from brainstorming to writing to recording.”

“That sounds exciting,” Mom said, her eyes wide with wonder.

“That sounds dull,” Susan said as she pretended to stifle a yawn. “Where’s the real dirt on these guys? That’s what will sell books.”

“There’s no dirt,” Toni said. That was exactly what she didn’t want in this book. No dirt. Nothing that could potentially hurt a member of the band.

“There has to be dirt,” Susan said. “You’re around them twenty-four seven. You have to be privy to things more exciting than what they had for breakfast.”

“You’d be surprised how much preparation goes into getting them breakfast. Their tour runs like clockwork.”

“Which is boring,” Susan said. “This is all very boring.”

“I think the fans will love it,” Mom said.

“Oh, yeah, they’ll eat this shit up,” Susan said. “But we discussed this, Eloise. Remember? The fans are a niche market. And you want to sell this book to millions of people. To do that, you need dirt.”

“Exodus End has millions of fans,” Toni said. “It may be a niche market, but it’s a huge niche.”

Susan and her mother stared at each other for a long moment, as if communicating by telepathy.

“Before I saw this, I was convinced the book needed dirt to sell, but I think Toni is on to something here,” Mom said.

“I think you’re making a mistake,” Susan said. “Let me take over. I’ll create a book that will sell like wildfire.”

“This isn’t only about sales,” Toni said. “If we do a good job with this book, other bands will come to us to have their biographies written. If we publish a bunch of scandal, it might make us money now, but our chance at future projects will be obliterated. No one will trust us.”

“Publicity is publicity,” Susan said. “Even if it’s bad publicity. Actually, bad publicity gets more attention than good publicity. What are you more likely to recall: Steve Aimes cheating on his wife or Steve Aimes sending shoes to poor kids in Africa?”

“Steve sent shoes to poor kids in Africa?” Toni mused.

“See what I mean!” Susan said.

“Toni,” Birdie interrupted, tugging on Toni’s sleeve.

“Just a minute, Buttercup,” Toni said absently before continuing to plead her case. “Maybe this book isn’t about publicity.”

“Of course this book is about publicity,” Susan said. “That’s the only thing their manager wants out of it. He wants it to draw more attention to the band. And how better to do that than to get people’s attention with dirt?”

“Just because someone reads the book to get this so-called dirt you’re so fixated on, that doesn’t make it more likely that they’ll buy Exodus End’s music or go to their concerts, does it?” Toni had never argued with a nonfamily member before. She wasn’t sure why it was so much easier to stick up for her new friends than it was to stick up for herself, but she wasn’t backing down on this. She wasn’t writing the book to sell it to a bunch of nosy people who would snigger and ridicule the band members for their mistakes. She was writing this book to glorify a group of men—and one woman—who deserved to be recognized for their greatness.

“Toni!” Birdie said, yanking on Toni’s sleeve anxiously.

“I said just a minute, Birdie,” she snapped, prying fingers from her sleeve. “Can’t you entertain yourself for a few minutes?”

“She’s bleeding,” Mom said, jumping to her feet.

Toni looked down at Birdie, who had blood trickling out of one nostril, over her lip, and down her chin. “Oh God,” Toni said, forcing Birdie to tilt her head forward and catching the blood in her hand so it didn’t get all over the boldly patterned carpet. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Birdie said. “I just sneezed and blood came out.”

“Just a nose bleed,” Toni said. “Don’t panic.” She looked at her mom. “Is there a bathroom nearby?”

“Just down the hall,” Mom said. “Do you want me to take her?”

“I want Toni to do it!” Birdie wailed.

Mom bit her lip and nodded her go-ahead. Toni wondered if the reason Mom struggled to care for Birdie was partially her fault. Toni was always the one to jump in and fix Birdie’s tragedies. This situation was no different.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Toni promised.

“Can we look at the rest of your mocked-up manuscript pages while you’re gone?” Mom asked.

Toni was rather proud of those few pages, especially since Logan had approved of them.

“Sure. They’re in the folder labeled manuscript pages,” she said before steering Birdie out of the conference room and hunting down the nearest restroom.

“I think Mom liked your hard work,” Birdie said as Toni packed her nostril with toilet tissue to stem the flow of blood.

Toni smiled. “I think so too.” It felt great to have won her mom over to her side. And she was pretty sure Mom liked her ideas because they were sound, not because her flesh and blood had come up with them.

“That other lady is not nice to you.” Birdie gave her a comforting pat on the arm.

“I noticed.” Toni doubted anything would convince Susan that Toni knew what she was doing. She hoped that Mom didn’t head back to Seattle and immediately cave to the outspoken editor’s wishes. She liked to think that her mom was made of stronger stuff than that, but Susan was as persistent as she was opinionated.

“Are you coming home with us?” Birdie asked, her inquisitive brown eyes enlarged by her thick glasses.

A pang of guilt twisted Toni’s heart. She stroked Birdie’s cool cheek. “I still have work to do.”

“Mom said if I rode on the plane like a big girl, you’d come home.”

So that was how Mom had gotten Birdie on the plane. “I’ll come home in a few more weeks.”

“It’s too long.”

“I know it feels like a long time—”

Birdie shoved her away and stomped out of the bathroom. By the time Toni returned to the conference room, Birdie was already sitting cross-legged in the corner and writing bold angry words across a page. Probably things like Toni is a jerk and I wish Susan was my sister.

“I think we’ve seen all we need to see,” Mom said from the end of the conference table. The sample page Toni had made about band promotion was displayed on the screen at the front of the room. Susan was conspicuously absent. Thank God. “Continue with your vision for the book.”

Toni’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Is Susan in agreement?” She wasn’t sure why she cared. The woman’s opinions never meshed with Toni’s.

“Not exactly,” Mom said, “but let me worry about Susan. I’m impressed with how much you’ve accomplished already.”

“You are?” Mom didn’t hand out compliments regularly. Toni couldn’t help but smile.

“I am,” she said. Turning, she called out, “Birdie, how’s your nose?”

“It’s fine!” Birdie yelled. “Leave me alone.”

“She’s mad,” Toni said as she moved to the table to shut down her laptop and disconnect the projector, allowing it to cool down so she could stow it away again.

“Why is she mad?”

“Someone told her that if she rode on the plane, I’d come home.”

Mom bit her lip and rubbed at an eyebrow with one finger. “I did tell her that. I figured you’d be more useful at home than here. I was wrong. We’ll figure something out to make this work.”

“Are you coming with us to the track?” Logan would be almost as happy as she was that she was staying and completing the project as she envisioned it.

Mom laughed. “To watch your boyfriend play with his bike?” She shook her head. “I think I’ll pass. I can get some work done before we have to catch our plane.”

“Is it okay with you that Birdie comes with us?”

“Of course.”

“Birdie,” Toni called to her sister, who was sulking in the corner, “are you too mad at me to go watch Logan ride his dirt bike?”

“Yes!” Birdie said.

“Logan will be sad. He wanted you to see him do a trick. I thought you were his friend.”

It was probably wrong of her to manipulate her sister, but Birdie would get over her anger quickly if she was having fun. And who could be around Logan for more than ten seconds without having fun?

“I’ll go,” Birdie said. “But I’m not sitting by you.”

“Don’t be cross with Toni,” Mom said as she rose from her chair. “I’m the one who told you she was coming home.”

“I’m not sitting by you either!”

“This should make our flight home interesting,” Mom said under her breath as she walked toward the door. “Make sure you’re back here before three.”

Toni nodded and sent a text to Logan. Meeting is over. Went well. I’m bringing my equipment and my sister to our room. You might want to hide the toys.

His reply came a few seconds later. OK. Where am I supposed to hide them all?

IDK! Use your imagination.

I’ll meet you in the hallway. Just knock.

He was right; it probably wasn’t the best idea to allow Birdie into their suite. No telling what she might see. Still upset that she’d been lied to, Birdie followed begrudgingly. Her attitude changed entirely when Toni knocked on the suite door and Logan appeared with two long-stemmed white roses.

“For the pretty ladies,” he said.

He offered a flower to Birdie first, who lifted the blossom to her nose and sniffed. Toni was too busy ogling the gorgeous spectacle of Logan’s ass in his thin red race pants to give a fig about a flower.

“Thank you!” Birdie said. “It doesn’t smell good.”

“It stinks?” Logan asked, smelling the rose he was still holding.

“No.” Birdie laughed. “I mean you can’t smell it.”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” Logan said, tossing his rose on the floor.

“But I love it!” Birdie rescued the discarded flower from the hall carpet as Toni nudged her way into the suite and dropped off her bags.

While Logan occupied Birdie in “safe” territory, Toni grabbed a couple of sweatshirts. She had no idea what the weather would be like in Denver in May.

By the time they were settled in the waiting limousine outside the hotel’s front lobby, Birdie was too distracted with awe to hold on to her anger toward Toni. Birdie fiddled with the television and other various buttons, while Logan and Toni snuggled close together in the seat.

“Is it stupid that I missed you?” he murmured close to her ear.

She probably should force some distance between them when a young witness was in their midst—those pants of his left very little to the imagination and she knew what kind of effect she had on the man. But she found herself squirming to get closer and burying her face in his neck.

“Not stupid, flattering,” she assured him.

“Tell me about the meeting,” he said, and then whispered to her out of Birdie’s earshot, “to distract me from my desire to devour you.”

“My little sister is watching,” she reminded him.

“Which is the only reason I haven’t made you naked.”

If Birdie hadn’t been present, Toni was quite sure she’d be enjoying one of his fabulous lessons.

“Uh, the meeting,” she said. She placed a hand on his chest to steady herself, not finding the rapid beat of his heart steadying in the least. “Right.”

She told him what had happened—trying not to overstate what a bitch Susan had been to her—and he listened. Somewhere in the middle of her recap, she realized that she liked having him as a friend. And that if this relationship between them didn’t work out, she’d lose so much more than a fantastic lover. She’d lose a confidant, her champion, her partner. When had she started thinking of him like that? Probably in the wee hours of that morning when he’d been squinting blurry-eyed at video footage and searching for the perfect thirty-second segment from their record store signing.

“I’m glad you get to stay,” Logan said.

Looking up into his tender blue eyes, she was sure she’d have stayed with him for as long as possible even if her mother had given the job to Susan.

“I’m not,” Birdie said crossly. “I want Toni to come home.”

“Birdie . . .” Toni began.

“Aren’t you proud of your sister?” Logan asked Birdie. “She’s been working hard to make me look good.”

“That is a hard job,” Toni teased.

He poked her in the belly, but didn’t reply to her barb. “And no one believed she could do it. Not your Mom. Not Susan. Not the guys in the band.”

“Susan is mean!” Birdie said.

“But your big sister did an excellent job, and now everyone realizes how amazing she is. That’s good, isn’t it? She couldn’t do that if she was at home.”

Birdie nodded. “I proud of her, but I miss her so much.” She dropped her head forward and plucked at the petals on one of her roses.

“And I’d miss her if she went home with you,” Logan said.

Birdie lifted her head, her eyes alight with the excitement of discovering a perfect solution to everyone’s problems. “Then you come home with her!”

Logan laughed. “Maybe I’ll visit someday.”

Was he serious? Toni couldn’t imagine him trapped in their quiet house in the wilderness. The man needed people and excitement. Neither was in abundance on a farm situated miles outside of the small town of Enumclaw, Washington.

“He has to perform in his concerts,” Toni said.

“You’ll come when you’re finished?” Birdie asked, giving her unscented rose another sniff. The blossom was already starting to droop.

“Yeah,” Logan said.

“And that’s when Toni will come home too?”

“Actually, I’ll be home months before then. Logan’s traveling to far-away countries this summer. Without me.”

Logan squeezed her shoulder. Maybe the idea unsettled him as much as it did her.

“But aren’t you getting married?” Birdie asked.

Logan laughed. “Uh, no.”

“Why not?”

The man was already jittery about commitment; Toni didn’t want uncomfortable questions to send him running into the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, never to be seen or heard from again.

“We just met, Birdie,” Toni said. “Marriage isn’t something two people should take lightly.”

“Or even consider,” Logan said under his breath.

“If you kiss her, you have to marry her,” Birdie said.

Logan laughed again and rubbed at one eye with his fingertips. “I must have a lot of wives I don’t know about.”

Birdie looked utterly bewildered. Toni supposed it was time to have the talk with her. Or maybe Mom would do the honors, because Toni wasn’t exactly an expert on romantic relationships. Not yet.

As for marriage, Toni wasn’t ready for that level of commitment either, but someday . . . Did Logan mean he’d never consider marriage? She apparently needed to have an awkward talk with him too.

The limo drew to a halt and they stepped out into a cloud of dust. The hum of the dirt bikes on the track sounded like a horde of gigantic angry bees. Logan directed Toni and Birdie to a small set of stands where they could watch the action.

“I guess I should ask if you want to ride or just watch,” Logan said.

“Just watch,” Toni said.

She hadn’t been sure what to expect, but now that she could see the track, she saw riders zooming up and down dirt hills, skidding around sharp turns, and launching themselves high into the air before landing with solid thuds.

“How ’bout you just watch too?” she said to Logan. She cringed when she saw a rider wipe out and skid sideways through the dirt. As soon as he came to a stop, he jumped to his feet, picked up his bike, and kick-started the engine before zooming off again, dirt spraying out behind his spinning back tire.

“You’re kidding, right?” Logan asked.

She wasn’t, but she nodded and grabbed the front of his jacket to pull him close for a kiss, clinging to his lips as if it was the last time she’d see him alive. He patted her butt when they drew away.

“I’ll wave to you,” he said and with a quick wink, he walked away, leaving Toni to clutch her sweatshirt with apprehension.

Birdie stood at the fence that separated spectators from the track. She had her hands over her ears, but was watching the dirt bikes zoom past in wide-eyed, slack-jawed wonder.

“Come up top so you can see both sides of the track,” Toni called, slipping the sweatshirt over her head and her arms into the sleeves. Now that Logan had gone, she was chilly. Birdie paid her no mind. Likely she hadn’t heard Toni over the squalls of the engines when she had her ears covered.

Toni touched Birdie’s back, and Birdie looked up, eyes wide. “They’re fast!”

“Are you cold? I brought you a sweatshirt.”

Birdie uncovered her ears long enough to put on the sweatshirt, but she covered them again as they climbed the metal stairs of the bleachers. About halfway up, Toni barked her shin on the edge of a bench, which sent her hobbling in pain. She should probably wrap herself in bubble wrap before she ventured out in public.

“Special treat today, folks,” an announcer said over the speakers. “Logan Schmidt is on the track.”

There was a smattering of enthusiastic applause and cheers from the small crowd that had congregated in the stands.

Toni spun around so quickly, she almost tumbled down the steps. Birdie grabbed her and pulled her down on the nearest bench. Yeah, they were probably high enough. The higher she climbed, the more likely she was to die from a fall.

Birdie clapped excitedly and pointed as Logan, dressed in red from boots to helmet, sped onto the track. He zipped past other riders as if they were standing still.

“He’s going too fast,” Toni said, her heart thudding in the vicinity of her throat.

When he reached the top of the first hill, his bike leaped so high into the air, she thought for sure he was going to sail right over the fence. But he landed on the top of the next hill as though his wheels had never left the ground. Toni’s stomach plummeted when on his next jump he released one handlebar to offer her the wave he promised. Birdie waved back excitedly, but Toni couldn’t pry her fingers from the metal seat she was clinging to with all her strength.

Logan sped around the track faster—how was that possible?—and this time when he hit the highest hill, he did a back flip in midair. The crowd went wild. Birdie jumped to her feet. Toni’s vision tunneled and her head swam. When he landed safely on his back tire and gunned the engine to ride out the rotation in a wheelie Toni sagged in relief only to tense again when he popped over the next hill and flew sideways, his bike parallel to the ground.

“He’s good!” Birdie clapped excitedly on Logan’s next jump.

He was good—no, better than good. He was amazing. But dear God, he was going to kill himself! Or kill her from heart failure.

By the time he’d skidded, jumped, flipped, and sped around the track half a dozen times, Toni began to relax and then got caught up in the excitement of watching him control the bike as though it were an extension of his body. The strength and athleticism he displayed was truly inspiring, but it was his daring that had her switching from terror to arousal. The man was risking his life for a thrill, and Toni suddenly wanted to tackle him off that noisy motorcycle and ride him for hours.

It was almost an hour later before he finally zoomed off the track. Toni took Birdie’s hand and together they left the stands to find him. He was easy to spot in his bright red race pants and jersey, even though he was completely surrounded by women. And a few men. But Toni only noticed the women. Jeez, not only did they flock to rock star Logan, they also flocked to freestyle motocross Logan.

“Is Logan a slut?” Birdie asked.

Good question.

“He has a lot of sweethearts.”

He certainly did.

Toni squeezed Birdie’s hand. “You aren’t supposed to use that word, remember?”

Logan leaned in close to a woman to hear what she was saying over the noise of the track and then laughed, that charming smile of his turning heads.

“Is there a good word for someone with a lot of sweethearts?” Birdie asked.

Asshole came to mind. Toni knew it wasn’t Logan’s fault that he was gorgeous and talented and fun and outgoing, but she wished she was the only woman who noticed.

“Toni? Is there a good word?”

“Um.” Toni racked her brain for a child-friendly synonym for manwhore. “Popular?”

“Logan sure is pop-a-lure. Did he see all these girls’ boobies?” Birdie looked up at her, her inquisitive eyes enormous behind her thick glasses.

“I don’t think so.” But she couldn’t say for sure. Toni stood on tiptoe and tried waving to catch his attention.

Logan smiled when he spotted them standing at the edge of the gathered crowd. He easily meandered his way to her side.

“There are my girls.” He moved to stand between them and settled one arm around Toni’s waist and his other across Birdie’s shoulders.

“You already have enough girls,” Birdie said.

“A man can never have too many girls.”

Toni’s scowl didn’t lessen even when he kissed her temple.

“Are you ready to head back to the hotel?” he asked in her ear.

She’d been ready to jump his bones, but now she was plain grumpy.

“You were jumping so high!” Birdie said. “And then you did a flip and flew like Superman with your feet out. Was it fun?”

“Very fun.” Logan tugged at one of Birdie’s pigtails.

“Can I try it?”

Logan glanced at Toni, and she gave him a definitely not shake of her head.

“Maybe when you’re older,” he said. “These bikes are for grownups.”

“Do they have loud bikes for kids?”

Logan looked to Toni for assistance, but she was still irritated about his entourage of dirt-bike groupies, so she let him struggle for his own answer.

“I almost forgot,” he said, unzipping a pocket in his race pants and pulling out a small brown paper bag. “I got something for you and your sister at the gift shop.”

Birdie was immediately distracted. “What is it?”

“I’ll give it to you in the car.”

“Let’s go, Toni!” Birdie grabbed Toni’s hand and jerked her in the direction of the entrance. She’d apparently already given up on the idea of a kid-sized loud bike.

Birdie bounced up and down in the limo as she waited for Logan and Toni to settle in the seat. “What is it? What is it?”

“It’s nothing huge,” Logan said.

He reached into the sack and pulled out a pair of gaudy orange and purple race socks. He pulled them apart and handed one to Birdie. “One for you.” And then he put the mate on Toni’s lap. “And one for you.” He retrieved a second pair of socks—baby blue and lime green—and divvied them up between the sisters.

“New socks!” Birdie yelled as if she’d just gotten her own rainbow-farting pony. “Oh, thank you, Logan!”

He grunted in surprise when he got the Birdie tackle-hug treatment and only hesitated a second before hugging her back. “You’re most welcome.”

Toni suddenly wanted to jump his bones again.

Birdie sat back and yanked off her shoes, tugging off her old socks and replacing them with the new. Touched by Logan’s thoughtfulness, Toni had to use one of her new socks to dab away a stray tear before she followed Birdie’s lead and changed into them. They wriggled their matching mismatched socks at him and he laughed, that charming smile of his turning heads again—Toni’s head.

Yep. Bones. Jumped. Now.

Toni was ecstatic to find Mom waiting in the hotel lobby with Susan. Not because she actually wanted to see either of them, but because she needed to hand off her sister so she could get her hands on her man as soon as possible.

“Thanks for visiting.” She gave her mom the quickest of hugs. “Be a good girl for mama.” She kissed Birdie on the cheek. “Later,” she said to Susan and started to back away.

“I don’t want to go on the plane,” Birdie wailed.

“You don’t?” Logan asked.

Birdie shook her head vigorously. “No. I hate them.”

“I love planes,” Logan said.

Birdie looked up at him adoringly. “You do?”

“Yeah. They go even faster and higher than dirt bikes. You can fly through the sky like Superman.” He demonstrated his flying skills—extending his arms and making zoom noises.

Birdie pursed her lips together, obviously struggling with a huge dilemma: fear of flying versus impressing her new friend. The new friend won. The two of them zoomed around the group several times. Susan looked rather annoyed by their childishness, but Mom was smiling. She squeezed Logan’s arm when the two pretend airplanes came to a stop. “Thank you,” she said to him.

He grinned. “No problem.”

“Hello, Logan,” Susan butted in, her tone dripping with something nasty. Disdain?

Logan turned his head to look at her and scowled. “Do I know you?”

“I don’t know,” she said, with a sly smile. “Do you?”

“This is Susan,” Toni said, not really wanting to introduce them. She wanted to get away, get him alone, and get busy.

“It was good to meet you all,” Logan said when he apparently understood Toni’s persistent tug on his elbow as it’s time to go. He gave Susan one last look, patted Birdie on the head, and turned to follow Toni.

“There’s something familiar about that Susan woman,” he said as they stepped onto the elevator.

“Please don’t tell me you’ve slept with her,” Toni pleaded. There wasn’t enough bleach in the world to clean that skank off his dick.

“No. I recognize every woman I’ve ever slept with. I might not remember their names . . .” He turned his head toward her. “What was your name again?”

She slugged him in the ribs.

“No.” He shook his head, still scowling. “I know I never slept with her, but I think I’ve seen her somewhere.”

“She used to be a journalist,” Toni said. “Maybe she interviewed you.” Please let that be all there was between them.

He released a sigh and nodded. “Yeah, that must be it.” He turned toward her and smiled. “So why were you in such a hurry to ditch your adorable little sister?”

“Well,” she said, “there was this hot guy doing all sorts of dangerous stunts on a dirt bike and I thought to myself, damn, I need to get me some of that.” She turned toward him and slid a hand down his belly, stopping just short of touching what she really wanted. “And after he got me excited with his daring, acrobatic feats, I found him surrounded by all sorts of women, which made me wonder if I even stood a chance with him.”

“You do,” he murmured before directing her hand several inches lower.

“And then he bought a little girl some socks which made her incredibly happy.”

“He sounds pretty lame. I ain’t gonna lie.”

She smiled at him, her heart throbbing with the love trying to burst from her chest.

“You’re wrong. He’s amazing.”

“So you still want him? Even after he unapologetically tried to buy a child’s affection with socks?”

She shook her head, lost in his gorgeous blue eyes. “I want him because of it.” She slid her hand the final few inches and cupped his cock.

He sucked in an excited breath. “So I heard that this hot guy of yours had a naughty surprise installed in his hotel room while he was at the track.”

Toni pressed her breasts into his chest, gently stroking his hardening cock through his thin race pants. “What kind of naughty surprise?”

The elevator dinged as they arrived on their floor, and the doors slid open. Steve stepped onto the elevator but took a startled step backward when he noticed them in the corner.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “Were you about to hike up your skirt so I could fuck you right here in this elevator?” he asked Toni.

Her eyes widened, and her face flamed. Feeling him up through his pants was probably as bold as she was willing to get in a public elevator.

“No?” he asked with a teasing laugh.

She shook her head.

“Maybe if you tried taking instead of asking,” Steve suggested.

“There will be plenty of taking,” Logan said. He tugged her out of the corner by both arms and stopped the elevator door from closing with one well-placed heel before directing her into the hall. “Just not somewhere she feels uncomfortable.”

Steve made whipping sounds until the elevator door closed and cut him off.

“What was that sound supposed to mean?” Toni asked, following Logan without the slightest resistance.

“That I’m pussy whipped.”

“I don’t think you are.” He was just considerate to her. He still had a life of his own. He didn’t jump all over himself to do everything she asked.

Logan chuckled. “That’s because you didn’t know me before I met you.”

“Obviously.”

“As long as it’s your pussy doing the whipping, I’m perfectly okay with it.”

Standing at their suite door as he fumbled with his key card, she thrust her pelvis toward him and mimicked Steve’s whipping sounds. “Get in me,” she said in an eerie voice. She wasn’t sure how a pussy would sound if it could talk. “Now. Wa-psshhh!”

He laughed and opened the door. “Yes, ma’am.”

Giggling, she brushed past him but came to a sudden halt when she saw the naughty surprise he’d mentioned on the elevator. A brass headboard had been affixed to the bed just in front of the standard hotel wall-mounted one. Just looking at it made her tremble with need.

“Now we’ll find out who’s really in control here,” he said in her ear. “Strip.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. Somehow keeping her glasses on her face, her sweatshirt went flying in one direction and her T-shirt in another. She wriggled out of her bra while kicking off her shoes, and removed her skirt, panties, and socks with one sweep of her hands. Naked, she practically skipped to the bed with an enormous smile on her face.

When he didn’t follow her immediately, she asked, “Did you mean for me to strip seductively?”

“A little late for that, isn’t it?”

“I can get dressed and start over.”

He shook his head. “You’ll make it up to me.”

For some reason his words sounded like a threat.

When he came toward her with a black leather belt, she shrank into the mattress. This would be a game, right? He wouldn’t actually hurt her, would he?

“Offer me your wrists,” he said.

His voice was so commanding and his gaze so intense that her arms shot upward as if controlled by his puppet strings. He cinched the belt around her wrists and then pulled her arms over her head. She hadn’t gotten a good look at the belt, but she assumed it wasn’t an ordinary one. It had formed a loop, but there wasn’t a belt buckle digging into her flesh. Logan leaned over her to knot the belt around the brass bars above her head. He then grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down the mattress until her arms were fully extended. Toni tugged at her bonds, not sure if she could escape them, and when they held, a thrill of excitement snaked through her.