Chapter 25

Melany

“YES, CHANCE. JUST like that,” I moaned, lifting up on my hands so I could drive myself back into him while he thrust into me from behind. Just like every other time we’d been together over the past several weeks—It. Was. Incredible. I never felt more alive in my life than when I was with Chance. And when he was inside me, it only exacerbated that feeling.

My orgasm built fast. I arched my back and shifted my knees wider, taking Chance’s cock deeper, desperately chasing my release. Just as I was about to dive over that ledge, he pulled out. My cry at the loss of him quickly turned into a startled yelp as his hands at my hips spun me around until my back was to the mattress. One of Chance’s hands hooked behind my knee and pulled it close to my chest as he plunged back in, hitting that perfect spot that made my toes curl as I cried out his name.

“Never had this,” he grunted as his hips slammed against mine. “Never. God, Mel.”

He buried his face in the crook of my neck while I circled his shoulders with my arms and wrapped my free leg around his waist. I gasped as each stroke of his cock brushed against my G-spot. “So good,” I whimpered. “God, Chance.”

Suddenly, his head came up, his eyes so intense as he burrowed into me. His steady thrusts turned into sharp, hard jabs as my body began to clench around him.

“It’s never been this good,” he panted. “Never had as good as you, baby.”

My words lodged in my throat as a sudden sense of profoundness washed over me. It wasn’t just the impending orgasm. As I stared into his eyes, something told me that what he was saying meant so much more than just sex, and that realization caused my eyes to sting as I whispered, “Me either.”

“I’ll never get enough of you, Melany. Tell me you feel it. Tell me you’ll never get enough of me either.”

I knew it wasn’t just how he worked my body that pushed me closer, but his words as well. I was about to come harder than I ever had before, and it was all because of the intensity in his statement.

“Say it. Say the words,” he demanded, as he drove into me at almost a punishing pace. It was brutal and intoxicating, and I couldn’t get enough.

“I’ll n-never get enough of you,” I breathed just moments before it hit me. My head flew back against the pillows and my back arched off the bed as wave after erotic wave coursed through me, so strong that the force of it had me yelling Chance’s name so loud my throat grew scratchy.

I knew he was almost there; I could feel him swelling impossibly bigger inside me. Something in Chance snapped just then, and he reared up, grabbing hold of the headboard and using it as leverage to fuck me even harder. “Fuck, Melany. Fuck!” A second release slammed into me before the first had even completely faded away, and tears sprang to my eyes as my mouth dropped open in a silent cry.

Chance buried himself to the hilt and growled countless expletives as he emptied himself inside the condom. As he groaned through the dregs of his own orgasm and finally collapsed on top of me, my arms and legs contracted, holding him even tighter as he buried his face in my hair. One lone tear slipped free and slid into the hair at my temple.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I’d just experienced, but something in my gut told me it was incredibly important. Whatever was happening between Chance and me had just shifted. And something told me it would never be the same again.

I’D SPENT THE entire day feeling like I was floating on a cloud. After Chance’s exceptional wakeup call earlier that morning, and the awareness of something new budding between us, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Not even the exhaustion from working on that damn proposal was enough to dampen my good mood. And I was most definitely exhausted.

Resting my elbows on my desk, I dropped my head and began massaging my temples. My eyes had grown blurry from staring at my computer screen for the past ten hours, and I felt an impending headache coming on. It was well after seven already. Most of the employees had already gone home for the evening, leaving the entire office eerily quiet. Collin had hung around as long as possible, but I told him to leave an hour ago. All that was left was getting the finalized proposal from the copy center, and there was no need for both of us to stay late for a one-person job.

I’d just finished the final read-through, thanking every God in existence that it was error free, and placed the bound copies on Collin’s desk when I heard Logan say my name.

“Hey, what are you still doing here?” I asked, as I went back to my desk to begin shutting down for the night.

“Had a few last-minute things I had to finish up. What about you? Still working on the Hammerly proposal?”

I smiled tiredly as I bent down and pulled my purse from the bottom desk drawer. I rested the strap on my shoulder and declared, “Just put the final product on Collin’s desk. I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“We should go celebrate,” he insisted, as we both started for the elevators.

“Oh… uh…” A few months ago, I would have fallen all over myself to get an offer like that from Logan. For five years, I thought he was everything I’d ever want. I’d built him up so big in my head that I’d created a fantasy so perfect no human being could live up to it. But everything was different now. Now there was Chance. And the only person I had any interest in celebrating with was him. It didn’t hit me until right then that my feelings for Logan had changed so greatly, I no longer had any of the nervous tics that used to be associated with him. I didn’t stutter or blather on about useless topics. I didn’t turn into a massive ball of anxiety whenever he walked into a room. There were no butterflies or hummingbirds in my stomach, no more little whooshes. There was just… nothing. “I don’t think so. I’m really tired and probably wouldn’t be very good company.”

“Oh, come on,” he chided with a playful smile on his face. I used to dream of having that smile pointed in my direction. Now… well, now I just wanted to go home. “It’s late, you’ve been working your ass off, and you’re been under a lot of stress. You need to unwind, loosen up a bit. Besides, you must be hungry by now, right?”

“Not real—” I began to lie, but my stomach chose that very inopportune moment to let out a protesting rumble.

“See?” he chuckled. “Come on, Melany, it’s just dinner. And maybe a drink or two. What else do you have going on tonight?”

He had a point. I really didn’t have anything else happening. Chance wasn’t even going to be home until late. He’d be tied up in a client dinner all evening anyway, meaning there was nothing for me to do at home besides heat up a frozen dinner, lie in front of the TV, and pass out before he got home. Besides, there wasn’t anything wrong with two coworkers grabbing a bite to eat, right?

“It’ll be my treat. What do you say?”

“Fine,” I finally relented. “But just something quick. And no drinks or I’m more than likely to fall asleep in my plate.”

He wore an oddly triumphant smirk as he jabbed the button to call the elevator and said, “Deal. I’ve got the perfect place in mind.”

I let him lead the way once we exited the building. The walk to wherever he was taking me was filled with banal conversation, topics such as work and weather. I was quickly coming to discover that we didn’t seem to have much in common and was regretting my decision to agree to dinner when we came to a stop outside Le Petite, one of the fanciest French restaurants in Manhattan.

“Um… Logan.” I tried to keep my tone as polite as possible. “I thought we’d just stop somewhere for a burger or something like that, not a four-course meal.”

“You don’t celebrate potentially landing a huge client like Hammerly with a burger,” he teased. “You do it in style.”

“But… we don’t even have the account yet.”

He placed his hand on my back and applied just enough pressure that I had no other choice but to walk through the door he was holding open. “But you will. I don’t have a doubt in my mind. And this place has the best food. Their escargot is to die for.”

I looked over my shoulder, my face wrinkled in disgust. “Isn’t escargot snails?”

“Yeah, why?”

I shook my head as Logan chatted amiably with the hostess, all the while thinking to myself that I’d rather jab a fork in my eye than eat snails. But I kept that bit of information to myself.

I followed the hostess as she led us to a table near the window. Logan trailed behind, his hand still firmly resting on my back, causing a prickle of irritation along my skin. It was crazy how things could change in such a short amount of time. I used to think I’d give my left arm for him to touch me; now it just bugged me that he was invading my personal space.

I released a grateful sigh once we were seated and he was across from me, no longer in touching distance.

We sat in silence for a minute or two as we looked over the menu. The waiter had come and gone, delivering our drinks, and taking our order—a snail-free dish for me—before Logan spoke again. “So, tell me about yourself, Melany. I realized that we’ve been working together for years now, and I still don’t really know much about you.”

“Oh… um, well… what do you want to know?” I questioned.

“What do you do for fun?”

“Well…” I paused and gave my answer some thought just as our first course arrived. The restaurant might not have been a first pick for me—heck, it probably wouldn’t even make top ten—but at least the tomato bisque was good. “I do a lot of different things. It just kind of depends on the mood I’m in. Sometimes I’ll get together with Collin’s fiancée, Devon, and we’ll have a girls’ night. Sometimes I prefer to veg out in front of the couch for a movie marathon, you know? And sometimes I like to go spend time with my best friend and her family.”

“You’re good friends with Collin’s fiancée?”

I dipped my spoon back into my soup as I carried on. “Yeah.” I smiled at the realization that my circle of friends had more than doubled in the past two and a half months. “I guess you could say we’ve gotten pretty close. She’s really sweet.”

“Really?” he asked, stabbing at his salad with his fork. “I got the impression she’s kind of a ball-buster.”

My eyebrows dropped in a deep frown. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I’ve just seen her at the office a few times and it looked like she was giving Collin a ration of shit. Seemed a little high-maintenance to me.”

What in the world was he talking about? The woman I knew and the one he described sounded like two completely different people. And the fact he’d describe Devon in such a way seriously set me on edge. “She’s not high-maintenance in the slightest,” I defended. “And she’s crazy about Collin.”

He turned a disarming smile on me, but I was too steeped in my ire for it to have any effect. “I must have misconstrued the situation, then. If you say she’s nice, then she must be.”

“She is,” I snapped, picking up my spoon and slurping at my soup in agitation.

Conversation hit a lull as our second course was delivered. I was wracking my brain to find something to talk about and finally came up with a question of my own. It didn’t make for the most riveting conversation, but it was the best I could do. “So, do you have any brothers or sisters?”

Logan shook his head and wiped at his mouth with the cloth napkin. “No, I’m an only child. You?”

“Me too. I always thought it would be nice to have a brother or sister growing up, but it was just me.”

“But what about those kids in the photo on your desk? I thought that maybe those were your nephews or something.”

“Oh! No, those are my best friend’s sons.” I smiled as I thought about the Trio of Terror. “I mean, they might as well be my nephews for how close I am to them, and they do call me Auntie. I’m the one they come to for junk food and all the fun stuff their parents don’t allow. They can be little hooligans most of the time, but they’re really great kids. I love them like crazy.”

He chuckled at my description of the boys. “Well, at least you can spoil them then ship them back to their parents. I’d probably lose my mind if I had three kids. And three boys? Forget it. That has to be hell on their folks.”

Warning bells started going off like a foghorn in my head. “You don’t like kids?”

“I wouldn’t say I don’t like them, necessarily. I just like them better when they belong to someone else.”

“But don’t you donate to charities for foster children?”

He shrugged casually and replied, “I donate to a lot of different charities. It’s a great tax break. To be honest, I’m not really sure where half of it goes. I just tell my accountant to pick something that looks good on paper and have him write the checks.”

I was amazed by just how wrong I’d been about this guy. For five years, I’d pictured Logan as some gallant, altruistic person when the truth was, he was just some self-serving jackass. I was so disheartened that I’d allowed myself to be blinded by the rose-colored glasses I’d worn for years. I was an idiot.

And I didn’t think I could stomach sitting at that table with him for another second. It wasn’t that he was a bad guy, he just wasn’t the guy I’d built him up to be. I was more disappointed in myself than anything.

“You know what?” I started, pulling my napkin from my lap and placing it on the table. “I think I should go. I’m really not feeling well. I think maybe I was more tired than I considered. Thank you for dinner, but I need to go.”

I stood quickly, hoping to make a hasty getaway, but Logan stood as well, blocking my path. “What? No, stay. We haven’t even gotten to the main course yet. You can’t leave now.”

It was rude, I knew that, but I really wanted to go home. I wanted to get back to Chance. “I’m sorry. I feel bad for leaving in the middle of dinner, but—”

He breathed a heavy sigh and grabbed hold of my forearms gently. “Look, Melany, I’ve been trying to make this obvious for a few weeks now, but that’s not working, so I’m just going to come out and say it. I like you. I really like you.”

“Why?” I asked before my brain could register what I was saying.

“Why what?”

“Why do you like me?” I suddenly felt like I couldn’t leave without an answer. “You said it yourself, you don’t even know me. So what I want to know is why do you like me?”

His mouth opened and closed several times, doing a spot-on impersonation of a stupid-looking fish. “I… I don’t know. I just do.”

I scowled as I pulled my arms from his grip. “That’s a terrible answer.” I started to step around him, but he cut in front of me.

“Look, I know you like me too, okay? I’ve known for a long time now. You’ve had a crush on me practically since day one. I was an idiot for not acting on it before, but things are different now. You…”

My heart was in my throat as I stared up at the man I’d misjudged so badly. Chance was a hundred times the man Logan could ever hope to be. “I what?”

“Come on,” he said softly, a knowing grin on his face. “I know this whole makeover thing was to get me to notice you. And it worked. I noticed. And I really liked what I saw, so I think we should give this a shot.”

A bark of astonished laughter bubbled up from my chest. “Wow. You’re unbelievable.”

I stepped to the side, ready to brush past him when, to my complete bewilderment, he grabbed hold of me, wrapped an arm around my waist and slammed his lips against mine. I don’t know how long I stood frozen in shock. I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t make myself move as Logan’s lips worked against my unresponsive ones. Thankfully, somewhere in the restaurant, a waiter dropped a tray of dishes, and the loud crash snapped me out of it.

Yanking away, I wiped at my mouth with the back of my hand. “This was a bad I idea. I never should have agreed to dinner with you, and it’s a mistake I won’t be making again. Goodnight, Logan.”

I bumped my shoulder into his, forcing him out of my path, and hightailed it out of the restaurant.

Needless to say, that giddy feeling I’d been floating around on all day long had disappeared.