Kate Hardy - One Night With Her Ex - The One That Got Away / The Man From her Wayward Past / The Ex Who Hired Her

‘I hope not,’ she murmured. ‘Because that’d be stupid, considering I made this home for me. No, I just really like the minimalist aesthetic. Which is not to say I’m totally against a lavish touch at times, because I guarantee you’ll find one in the bathroom. Bubble bath, scented candles, fluffy towels.’

‘Sensualist,’ he murmured and Evie shot him a slow smile.

‘Rich, coming from you,’ she said. ‘I’ve never known anyone who savours sensuality the way you do. Who cherishes touch the way you do. Anyone would think you’d been starved of it as a child.’

‘My mother wasn’t demonstrative,’ he offered blandly. Evie had seen for herself what kind of relationship he had with his mother. His father’s hand had usually been hard and punishing, but those memories he kept to himself. Better a fist than no touch at all—that was the way the crazy ran for him at times. The reason why he’d taken so instinctively to pain play during lovemaking. He hadn’t needed a psychologist to tell him the why of that.

But not last night. Last night’s lovemaking with Evie had been positively, effortlessly normal.

‘Do you have any plans for today?’ he asked, and Evie shook her head and the vivid red silk robe slid from her shoulder again.

Pretty.

He bit into the cinnamon roll Evie had brought up with the coffee and it tasted sweet and flaky and sticky on his tongue.

‘I could show you round Sydney if you feel like playing tourist,’ she offered.

‘Can there be jet boats on the harbour involved?’

‘Yes.’

‘With me at the wheel?’

‘No.’ Evie rolled her eyes at him. ‘For that you’d have to buy the boat. Bridge climb?’

‘Too slow.’

‘Skydiving?’ she offered next. ‘I’m in a club.’

‘Why am I not surprised?’

‘Because you’re getting to know me,’ she offered dulcetly. ‘But in the interests of full disclosure, we could also head for the Botanic Gardens this morning and lie on the grass and listen to buskers play lazy Sunday-morning songs. That’d work for me too. I guess it all depends.’

‘On what?’

‘On whether you plan to stick around and slay a few more demons this week or whether after last night you already consider them vanquished, in which case my money’s on you leaving some time in the next ten minutes.’

Not only did this woman know her own mind, Logan thought uncomfortably, she also had a fair and accurate reading of his. ‘Do you want me to leave?’

‘No.’ She was breaking the other cinnamon roll into bits and he couldn’t see her eyes for eyelashes, but the steadiness of that no was reassuring.

‘You said you’d give me a week,’ he said.

‘And I will, if that’s what you want.’

She still wouldn’t look at him.

‘I do want,’ he said and leaned forward and snaked his hand through her hair and kissed her gently, and then a whole lot more thoroughly, on the lips. ‘But with wanting comes fear—of my nature and of yours and of the path we took last time. You scared me, Evie. With your compliance and with what you were prepared to give. You have no idea how much I wanted to take it all . And then demand more.’

‘You’re right,’ she said quietly and the gaze she pinned on him was dark and knowing. ‘I didn’t know the dangers of that particular road we were on. But I do now.’

‘If I break you I’ll never forgive myself.’

Truth.

‘You won’t break me, Logan. I know what I’m doing. I’ve got your back.’ As the gentle touch of her tongue to the corner of his mouth threatened to undo him. ‘And your front.’ Her hand slid slowly down his stomach, searching for stiffness and finding it. ‘Your measure.’

And he prayed to God that she did.

SUNDAY passed in a blur of tangled limbs and bed sheets and Monday morning came around way too fast. Up at six, with Logan up and ready to head back to his serviced apartment for the day. Scalding-hot coffee and marmalade on sourdough toast as Evie slipped into her work clothes and scowled at the clock. Not a morning person after a night chock-full of Logan. Not a sensible thought left in her head other than she was determined to show him what her life was like, and that her life—on the whole—involved generous quantities of work.

Evie was a good business partner to Max and she needed Logan to see that. She lived a busy life and she wanted Logan to see that too. She wouldn’t be derailed by him the way she had been before.

Half six and out of the door, locking it behind her while Logan stood at her side and waited. She’d see him tonight for dinner. His choice of restaurant this time and he’d let her know exactly what that choice was some time during the day. Not to be controlling or to keep her unsure of his plans for the evening; he just didn’t know yet—this wasn’t his city.

A twenty-minute walk to work for Evie, with Logan heading in the opposite direction. They parted with little fuss, no kisses to spare.

Businesslike.

Until Logan turned back and claimed her mouth with ruthless efficiency before heading off once more, this time wearing a devil’s grin.

They did this for three days and three predominantly sleepless nights.

On the fourth day Max asked Evie where his brother was and whether he’d taken Evie’s brain with him.

‘My brain’s right here in my head,’ she said, and looked at the invoices that covered her desk. Ordering the materials for the various jobs they had on wasn’t her pleasure, which was why she’d given the job to Carlo in the first place, but he’d made a mess of it and she’d taken the job back in the interest of straightening things out. ‘What haven’t I done?’

‘You forgot to order the additional tie wire for the Henderson job.’

Evie groaned. ‘You know what I want more than anything in this world?’

‘Your brain back?’ asked Max.

‘A proper project manager. A really, really good one.’

‘If the civic centre job comes through you can have one,’ offered Max.

Evie just looked at him through her fringe. ‘Who went and got the tie wire?’

‘Carlo. He put it on the account. Said to tell you “Checkmate”.’

‘Carlo wants a proper project manager too,’ said Evie. ‘I’ll grovel to him later.’

‘That’s my girl,’ said Max.

‘Anything else?’ Evie glanced down at her desk once more and sighed. ‘Don’t answer that. I’ll have this sorted by the end of the day.’

‘You seeing Logan again tonight?’ asked Max, with not quite the right amount of disinterest.

‘He’s coming over, yes.’ Assuming he’d left her apartment today at all. He’d discovered her home office and she’d said he could use it. He had his own computer but he was in love with her scanner and fax and her big shiny desk.

‘Do you know what he’s been doing with his days while he’s here?’

‘I think he sleeps.’ How else did a man get to be so inexhaustible throughout the night?

‘Did you know he blew off a face-to-face meeting with a soviet steel baron yesterday? Told him they could reschedule in two weeks’ time or have a conference call, and that it was all the same to him.’

‘You don’t think Logan knows what he’s doing when it comes to big business?’ Evie leaned back in her chair and eyed Max steadily. ‘Maybe he just doesn’t want to work with this man.’

‘Maybe he’s off his game.’

‘You don’t like that he’s spending time with me?’

‘I didn’t say that. I just happen to think that he’s keeping his real life at bay at the moment. Which is hardly conducive to an ongoing functional relationship.’

‘Your brother doesn’t want an ongoing functional relationship, Max. He wants to prove to himself that he’s over me. That he has no need to be scared of me. The minute he does that he’ll be gone.’