“That was Grace.” Cole shoved me playfully. “Can’t shut this one up.”
I grimaced at him. “You’re funny.”
“I am delightful,” he responded, and then grinned at Maia, who blushed. That only made Cole grin harder.
I shoved him for teasing her. “Grow up.”
“Never.” He shook his head and stared at Logan’s flat door again. “How long should we give them?”
“Give who? What’s going on?” Maia said.
“Shannon and Logan,” I replied, heading toward my door. “Let’s go in and have a cup of tea.” I glanced back once last time at next door, feeling the beginnings of something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Contentment. There was still a ways to go to getting there, but it didn’t seem so far out of reach anymore. I smiled as I stepped inside. “They’ll come get us when they’re ready.”
CHAPTER 27
I
timed my confrontation with my father perfectly.
By that I mean I did it at the same time as the guys were going to confront Shannon’s ex. I couldn’t bear the idea of pacing back and forth in my flat, waiting for Logan to return and tell me everything was going to be all right, so I decided I’d distract myself with the emotional nuclear weapon that was my father.
Maia, who now knew about my father’s visit and Logan and the guys’ decision to meet with Ollie, assured me she’d be fine keeping Shannon company. It might have seemed like bad parenting to let her in the loop, but she was bright; she knew these upsetting things were happening, and it was just making her feel worse not knowing the details.
This was Maia.
As much as I hated the reasons why, she was mature enough to handle it. And honestly, she was a wonderful solace to Shannon.
I left Maia with her aunt at her flat and then I jumped in a cab.
The driver dropped me off outside the Balmoral Hotel. The huge building loomed over me, intimidating me, taunting me.
I had the concierge ring up to his room, and they sent a hotel staff member to take me to his suite. Of course it was the best suite in the hotel: the Royal Suite.
I was led inside the foyer of the suite and left there.
“Hello?” I called out.
“Oh, you’re here. Come in.”
I followed his voice into a large sitting room. The Balmoral Hotel was a period property with the massively high ceilings and grand architecture of the Victorian era. The focal point of the room was a beautiful fireplace that Gabriel had crackling despite the warmth of the summer air outside.
I had been hot with nerves before. Now I was practically melting.
“Sit.” He gestured to the armchair across from him. It was a nineteenth-century reproduction Louis XV chair, and I was almost afraid to sit on it. As per usual, nothing but the very best for Gabriel Bentley.
Once I was seated, he smiled. I could see immediately that he thought he’d won. “May I offer you a drink?”
“No, thank you.” I sucked in a huge breath and exhaled slowly. “I’m here to tell you to go back to London. Without me.”
His smile immediately died, his brown eyes darkening to black. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious.”
“Your mother has cancer, for Christ’s sake!”
I winced at the reminder. “Yes. But I had to ask myself what was harder to live with – the guilt that I’d feel not going to see her, or the venom that would reenter my life by allowing her back into it. By allowing you all back into it.”
He scoffed. “Such drama.”
“No, Gabriel,” I said, my use of his name cementing my coming point. He flinched. “You are not my family anymore. You stopped being my family a long time ago… if you ever really were.”
“Forgiveness is divine,” he reminded me.
“Yes, it is.” I stood up, letting all the anger and hurt and rejection flow out of me, and for the first time it was directed at one of the people who deserved it. “And what am I to forgive? Your complete and utter neglect? How you were never there so you never saw how she treated me? Her constant criticism and insults? How she tore me apart from the moment I could walk? I’m to forgive this. But not for you. I will forgive it all for me. For my sake.”
“Your mother was trying to prepare you for our world. She’s a realist!”
“She’s a bitter, cruel, conniving bitch!” I yelled back. “Cancer doesn’t erase that, Gabriel. Sickness doesn’t automatically erase people’s sins. My mother is not a realist. She’s a woman who woke up to realize her husband didn’t love her like she loved him and so she learned to play the game and play it well instead of running as far and as fast as she could from you. Because she’s mercenary and the money will always be more important than her happiness. And if she couldn’t be truly happy, by God, I wasn’t going to be either. I took the brunt of her bitterness. You unloved her, so she unloved me!” I pounded my fist against my chest as he stared up at me in horror. “I took your insults, your slaps, your betrayals! All of it meant for you!”
“Gracelyn…” he whispered.
“Grace.” I sucked in my tears and straightened my shoulders. “And I’m done wondering what I could have done to make her love me. It isn’t my fault she’s not capable of it. I know that now.” I nodded, knowing it but not quite feeling it. I could only hope that one day the words would sink into my bones. “I won’t let her hurt me again. Or her twisted little shit of a son who thought it was all right to set his mates on me because he thought rape was so damn funny.”
Gabriel stood up slowly, eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying your precious little boy liked to let his drunken friends into my room when I was teenager. Luckily for me, I got away before anything truly horrific could happen.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Sebastian wouldn’t…”
“Sebastian is a male version of your wife. Believe me, he did. He learned from Danielle how to treat me, and she only encouraged him.”
He gazed at me, disbelieving. “You are saying all this happened under my roof without my knowledge?”
I sneered. “Don’t pretend to care now. It’s too bloody late.”
“I don’t know what you want from me.” He shrugged. “I thought I’d given you everything. Now I just don’t know what you want from me.”
Like always, he would play the sad martyr… another weapon of manipulation.
But it wouldn’t work. Not this time.
“I want you to go home to London.”
He stared at me as if he didn’t recognize me.
Good.
I didn’t want to be the person he knew before.
“You would really ignore this? Ignore your mother’s cancer?”
“I’m not ignoring it. I’m sad for anyone who has to fight that battle, but with her the sadness is begrudgingly given.” I strode toward the door and stopped to look back at him. “I’ll tell you what, Gabriel. If Danielle asks for me, I’ll come to see her. But just to visit. Not to stay, not to care for her… because we both know with utter certainty that she would not reciprocate the kindness. This is good-bye, Mr. Bentley.”
He looked away, the muscle twitching in his jaw, as realization poured over him that he wasn’t going to win this one. There would be no reuniting of this family so he could wave to his public and his shareholders and tell them all was right in his world, and if all was right in his world, then all was right in his business.
“She won’t ask for me,” I said. “And I thank God she won’t. Her presence in my life is a snake bite. I’m still not done sucking the venom out of me from last time. Another bite might prove fatal.”
And with that sad summation of my relationship with the woman who had once been my mother, I walked out of the hotel room, feeling heavy of heart but knowing I’d done the only thing I could live with.
CHAPTER 28
I
’d love to say I went back to Shannon’s flat and kept my cool and was strong, fil
led with British stiff-upper-lipness.
The truth is, emotional flood that I was, I burst into tears as soon as Shannon opened the door, and spent the next ten minutes alternating between hugs from her and from Maia.
Finally I calmed down enough to tell them everything I’d said, and when I was done they both stared at me in awe.
“One day, when I’m older and I can hack it, I hope I’m brave enough to confront my mum like you did your dad,” Maia said.
Well, that just made me cry again.
“Oh dear,” Shannon said upon the return of the human watering pot in her sitting room. “I think I’d better make some tea.”
Once she’d left the room, I wiped at my tears and tried to focus. “Any word yet from Logan?”
Maia shook her head. “Nope. I have to admit, I’m starting to get worried.”
The butterflies that had become my constant companion these last forty-eight hours suddenly grew fiercer.
We sat in silence for a minute or so until I said, “They should be back by now.”
“I know,” Shannon agreed, coming back into the room with a cup of tea for us all. I took the warm cup gratefully. “I’ve texted Cole, but I haven’t heard anything back. We’ve all been worried about Logan’s reaction, but you guys do know that Cole is a trained martial artist, right?”
My eyes bugged out of my head. “No. No one did impart that pivotal information. You don’t think he would…?”
Shannon shrugged. “He promised me he wouldn’t. But Cole has protective instincts a hundred miles long. He knows everything that Ollie did to me.” She ran a hand through her hair, a ringlet springing back defiantly from the tug of the action. “I should never have agreed to this.”
The door opened at that exact moment, and Shannon sprang to her feet as Logan and Cole strode into the room. There was a heavy, dangerous air around them.
“What happened?” Maia said, getting to her feet as I did.
“He got the message,” Logan said, features tight with grim fury. “Without violence. Although I had to hold this one back the whole time.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Cole.
Cole looked ready to explode.
Shannon took a tentative step toward him, whispering his name.
Logan looked at Maia and then at me. “Let’s leave these two alone.”
I gathered my things as Maia hugged a very distracted Shannon good-bye. I touched her shoulder as I passed her and grabbed Logan’s hand.
There was no point saying anything to Cole. His eyes were locked on Shannon, and I had a feeling I knew how he was going to expend all that unused energy inside of him.
I blushed at the thought and held tighter to Logan.
“Are you okay?” I said as soon as we were out of the flat.
“Aye,” he assured me. “I’ll tell you everything when we get home. Are you okay?”
“She was brilliant,” Maia threw over her shoulder as she led us out the building. “But I’ll let her tell you how it went.”
“Maia was there?” He frowned at me.
“No,” she said, “but I wish I had been.”
Since no one felt like cooking that night, we grabbed some fish and chips while we were out and took them back to Logan’s. We snuggled up in his sitting room, eating, while he related what happened.
His eyes glinted with triumph. “You should have seen his face when he saw these six blokes walking toward him. And then he saw me. By then it was too late. We were right in his face.”
“Were there other people in the park watching?” Maia said, her eyes bright with excitement at the thought of the drama.
Logan nodded. “Aye, we definitely had an audience.”
“The six of you are quite a sight,” I muttered, my lips twitching with amusement at the thought.
He chewed on a chip and then swallowed. “The first thing Ollie said was, ‘Where’s Shannon?’ Cole just lunged for him. Luckily, I’m fast. But I had to keep ahold of him the whole time.”
“So what else did he say?”
“Ollie basically said that he wanted to apologize for what he’d done. That he was a different person.”
“What did you say?”
“I said Shannon didn’t want his apology. She had moved on, had a life, a family, and a fiancé. Cole may have thrown a few expletives at him at that point. And then I told Ollie that Shannon never wanted to see him again and that if he tried to contact her we’d call the police.” He smirked. “And then Braden stepped forward and told him Shannon had a family here now and that family would protect her. He said it was best Ollie returned to Glasgow.”
“Is that it?” Maia grimaced, clearly disappointed there had been no fists involved.
Logan grinned at her. “It wasn’t what he said, Maia. It was how he said it.”
I shared a knowing smile with him. “These people are good people.”
He winked at me, obviously in agreement.
“Well, as long as this guy pisses off and leaves Aunt Shannon alone, I guess that’s all that matters.” Maia shrugged, shoving a piece of fish in her mouth.
“Don’t use the word ‘piss.’” I shook my head at her.
“Bugger off?” she suggested, her mouth full.
I wrinkled my nose. “Chew before you talk.”
She swallowed and bugged her eyes out at Logan. “She’s bossy tonight.”
I shrugged. “It’s been that kind of day.”
“You still haven’t told me what happened with your dad.”
“Later,” I said, with more than that promise in my eyes.
Understanding, his own gaze grew heated. He looked away before Maia caught on. “Movie?” he asked her.
“Sure.” Maia put her plate on the coffee table and wandered over to the cabinet with the DVDs. “I guess this is as good a time as any to tell you I’ve got a date next Saturday.”
Logan choked on a chip.
“A boy from the swim program?” Logan stood in my bedroom doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “And I’ve just to say yes?”
I sat on the edge of the bed wearing a sexy blue silk nighty, and that was the first thing he said to me upon his arrival. I had to stop myself from laughing.
“Well?” he said.
“She’s sixteen, Logan. She said that he’s also sixteen. It doesn’t sound like the end of the world. He could be nineteen and riding a motorcycle.”
“I have to meet him.”
“That’s your prerogative. But you will not scare him away.”
He glowered at me. “I thought that was part of my job.”
I chuckled. “A gentle warning perhaps – not a full-blown threat.”
He seemed to consider this, and then he sighed. “You’re sure she’s not too young?”
“She behaves older than most girls her age, and far more responsibly.”
“Maybe you should have the sex talk with her just in case. You know, scare her off.”
I stood up, smoothing out the short nightdress. “If anyone should be getting the sex talk, it’s you.” I gestured to my attire. “This should be getting a different reaction than it’s getting. I’ve checked…” I glanced over my shoulder at my bum and deliberately plucked at the material covering it. “And it seems to accentuate all the right places, so I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong. That would be y—” I looked up again only to discover he’d silently crossed the room until he was inches from me.
His heated gaze made me shiver.
“Does that mean you like it?”
His answer was to drag the nighty up over my head and throw it on my chair. Once I was naked, he lifted me up into his arms and threw me none-too-gently on the bed. I watched, my excitement mounting as he stripped out of his clothes in lightning-fast time.
Suddenly he was braced over me, kissing me like there was no tomorrow. I gripped Logan’s waist as the kiss grew hungrier. I could feel the hard, insistent press of his erection against my belly. He groaned, his lips drifting from
my mouth, across my chin, down my jaw. He kissed his way down my body, his mouth hot, desperate, and I held on, caressing his muscled back, sliding my hands up toward his shoulder blades as he moved downward.
When that hot mouth of his closed around my left nipple, my hips slammed against him in reaction. “Oh God.” My thighs gripped him as I urged him closer, my back arching for more as he first licked me and then sucked hard.
I felt a wet rush between my legs. “Logan.”
He groaned again and continued to suck and tease and torment me, until I felt the coil of tension tighten in my lower belly.
“Logan —” I was breathing hard now, clutching his head in my hands as he circled his tongue around my areola. “More.”
Suddenly he was moving, sliding down my body, his hands cupping and shaping my breasts as he descended, his lips trailing wet kisses down my stomach. I shivered at the touch of his tongue across my skin and relaxed in anticipation of his destination, my legs falling open.
He kissed me, flicking his tongue lightly, deliberately missing my clit, teasing me. And then I felt his fingers slide inside me, and I whimpered with need. Logan looked up at me, his eyes hot with his own desire. His fingers slipped out of me and then back in. My hips pushed against them, trying to catch his rhythm.
I bit my lip as my orgasm built.
“Let it out, Grace. I want to hear you.”
He slipped his fingers out of me, but before I could mourn the loss, he parted my labia and circled my clit, teasing it, pressing it… and then he sucked it.
I let it out for him, crying his name loudly in my pleasure as he continued to lick me. “Logan!” I panted, feeling my orgasm near the edge, “Oh God, yes. Yes. Yes!” I burst apart, crying out his name as my eyes fluttered shut. The orgasm rolled through me in waves, and I pulsed and pulsed against his mouth until finally I was satiated.
I felt him move up my body, and when I eventually pried my eyes open he had his hands braced on either side of my head again, his lower body pressed to mine. His expression was dark with promise and lust… and something much, much deeper. “My God, I love you,” he said, the words so thick with emotion they were barely audible.