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

‘My mother’s been a trophy wife all her life. It’s hard work. Soul-destroying, at times. I guess I simply grew up not wanting it.’

‘Is that why your bedroom’s so spartan? Because you’re rebelling against the perfect-homemaker label?’

‘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.

CHAPTER SIX

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.’

Max eyed her narrowly. ‘So what’s in it for you?’

Evie shrugged. ‘A fascinating house guest, for a while.’ Max probably wouldn’t want to know this next reason but it was a definite plus to Evie’s way of thinking. ‘Exceptionally good sex.’

Max winced. ‘Is that it?’

‘Isn’t that enough?’ countered Evie.

‘Cold, Evie.’

‘Maybe,’ she murmured. ‘But I’ve decided that I can’t be in love with your brother, Max. Infatuated, yes. Willing to help him overcome a few demons, yes. But I can’t fall in love with him. That’d be beyond stupid.’

‘You know, I had this vision in my head that if I cut you free to be with Logan that your romance would progress in somewhat traditional fashion. Dating. Getting engaged. Marriage. What about marriage?’

‘Marriage is overrated.’

‘You’re selling yourself short, Evie. And my mother’s in town as of last night and she wants to have lunch with you.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Consider yourself forewarned. She’ll be here in about …’ Max glanced at his two-dollar watch. ‘Now.’

‘She’s coming here?’ Evie had a sudden and irresistible urge to be not here. ‘I won’t be here. I’m heading out on site. Now. Right now. I’m already running late.’

‘Which site?’

‘The Rogers site.’

‘Mick’s already there.’

‘He needs help.’

‘He’s got help.’

‘My help.’ And Evie needed to be gone when Caroline Carmichael arrived. ‘What does your mother want with me? I mean … if she’s after her ring back, I don’t have it.’

‘I found the ring, Evie. I spent half a day looking for that bloody rock. I gave it back to her.’

‘Oh.’ Evie digested Max’s words with a frown. ‘What did she do with it?’

‘I’m guessing she put it back where it came from. I didn’t ask.’

‘She hurt him.’ Hurt Logan.

‘Sometimes he brings it on himself.’

‘You’re defending her.’

‘No!’ said Max curtly. And with a twisted scowl, ‘Yes. She’s my mother, Evie. What do you want me to say?’

Good question. ‘Do you know what Logan’s father did to them? What he did to himself? What he did to his son?’

‘Do you?’ asked Max quietly. ‘You know what Logan’s told you, Evie. That’s not the whole story. If you want another side of the story, best you get it from my mother. She’s not a bad person. It wouldn’t kill you to hear what she has to say.’

‘She hurt him, Max. By having you give me that ring she used you, confused me and stuck a knife in Logan’s heart. Anything she has to say should be said to Logan, not to me.’

‘He doesn’t listen to her, Evie. Maybe he’ll listen to you. You’re closer to him than anyone’s ever been.’

‘And yet I’m still so very, very far away.’ Evie ran a hand through her hair. ‘Max, I can’t fix this. I can barely fix what went wrong with Logan and me. You’re asking too much. Your mother is asking too much.’

‘And yet here I am,’ said a cultured, feminine voice and there stood Max’s mother. Logan’s mother too. Caroline Carmichael in her well-preserved flesh. ‘Asking for an hour of your time and an open ear. I want you to listen—I hope you will listen to what I have to say.’

‘This wasn’t fair warning.’ Evie eyed Max darkly. ‘You’re my business partner. We don’t bring personal matters here. Not to work.’

‘We’ve always brought personal matters here, Evie. We tangled those threads a long time ago.’

Maybe so, but she had never thought Max would ambush her like this. She glared at him some more and then at Caroline, who stood quietly by the door, wanting more from Evie than Evie had in her heart to give.

‘You’re here to tell me how you failed to protect your son?’ she asked acidly and felt a flush of shame when Caroline Carmichael looked her dead in the eye and said yes.

‘Everyone makes mistakes, Evangeline. Mistakes that shatter your world and lose you everything you love,’ said Caroline with quiet dignity and Evie felt the sharp sting of tears behind her eyes. ‘Please.’

‘I can’t help you repair your relationship with Logan.’

‘I’m not expecting you to,’ said Caroline. ‘I just want you to help my son be the best man he can be. I want him to realise what a good man he is. I want him to be happy.’

As far as manipulation went Caroline had nailed her good—or maybe Max had. Someone had.

‘One hour. Not a minute more,’ said Evie, and again Logan’s mother said yes.

‘Why did you make Max give me that ring?’ asked Evie when they were seated at a table for two on the shady terrace of a nearby restaurant. The table wobbled ever so slightly because of the convict-laid cobblestones beneath its feet, but the water was cold and the service was speedy, and, as far as Evie was concerned, speedy was good. ‘You knew Logan would recognise it.’

‘You have to understand,’ said Caroline. ‘Logan was a heartbeat away from walking out my door that weekend and never coming back. Because of you. Because of me. Because walking away is easier than staying and dealing and if there’s one thing Logan knows how to do it’s walk away,’ said Caroline. ‘Logan was about to turn his back on his family. I had nothing to lose.’

‘But why the ring? Why shove those memories in his face?’

‘Because I thought I could goad Logan into finally losing his temper with me. He never has, you know. He locks it all up inside. I’ve been thinking for years that if I could just shatter his self-control, just once, that he would realise that, no matter how deeply he feels betrayed, he will never raise his hand in anger. Never be the man his father was.’ Caroline sat back and raised an elegant hand to her neck, rubbing wearily before seeming to realise what she was doing. Her hand returned to her lap and she sat up straighter, the perfect image restored.

‘Do you have any idea how much courage it takes an abused woman to pick a fight, Evangeline? That’s how much I believe in the goodness of my son’s heart. That’s how strongly I believe that Logan’s fear of turning out like his father is misguided. He won’t. He will never raise his hand in anger. I believe that with all that I am.’

Evie ran a hand through her hair and nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

‘I’m sorry I used you, Evie. I used Max too and I’ve apologised to him as well. But you have to understand …

That weekend was the closest I’ve ever seen Logan to breaking. I thought that if I pushed him I could finally make it happen.’

Love wasn’t meant to be this complicated, thought Evie raggedly. It just wasn’t. ‘But he didn’t break.’

‘Not on me, no. Instead, you threw that ring away and cracked my son’s heart wide open. I’m calling that a win.’

‘You’re mad,’ said Evie.

‘Been called that before.’ Caroline Carmichael’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. ‘Mad and useless and pathetic. I used to believe it. I don’t any more.’

The waiter came with glasses and water and took their lunch order. Salad for Caroline and a sandwich for Evie. Food that wouldn’t take long to prepare, food that would get this luncheon finished with fast.

‘If Logan’s father was such a man as you describe …’ Evie couldn’t believe she was about to ask such an intimate question of a woman she barely knew ‘… why did you marry him?’

‘If I said I loved him once with all my heart you’d call me a fool. But it’s the only explanation I’ve got.’

Which was no answer at all and for some reason made Evie want to cry. Again.

‘Has Logan told you anything about his father?’ asked Caroline Carmichael after a long, long pause.

‘Very little.’ Evie shrugged and cleared her throat. ‘He told me that you left him. That you left Logan too. And then his father killed himself.’

‘Did he mention that he was with his father because I was in a hospital with two cracked ribs, a broken cheekbone and internal bruising?’

No. Logan hadn’t mentioned that.

‘Hospital,’ echoed Evie.

‘Yes.’

That explained.a lot.

‘When I got out of hospital I went to my sister’s. I stayed there a week, getting AVO’s and legal advice about how to get Logan away from his father. How to keep him away from his father. His father was a rich man. He could have the best legal representation money could buy and I needed to cover my bases. I couldn’t afford not to do everything right. I was always coming back for my son, Evangeline. Always. I just wasn’t fast enough.’

Evie said nothing. There was nothing to say.

‘Do you know what the ultimate bid for control ends in, Evangeline?’ asked Caroline Carmichael. ‘Death. And you might think that the last one standing is the victor, but not always. Sometimes the last ones standing wear the stain of that death for the rest of our lives. The helplessness and the guilt. The control issues. The fear of ever letting anyone get close.’

‘But you married again.’

‘I had the best shrinks money could buy and a very understanding second husband. He died too, from cancer, and it was fast and painful. Heartbreaking in its own way. But not my fault.’

There was the guilt Caroline Carmichael spoke of. The deeply held scars that coloured her life.

My mother’s not a bad person, Max had said.

‘Mrs Carmichael—’

‘Caroline,’ said the older woman. ‘Please.’

‘Caroline.’ The name rolled off Evie’s tongue easily enough. It was hard to keep hold of her anger when her overwhelming emotion was sadness. ‘I appreciate you telling me about your past, and Logan’s, but please … don’t pin any hopes on me and Logan staying together, or on me being able to influence his relationship with you. I’m not pinning any hopes on me and Logan staying together. He’s here for a week and we’re halfway through it already, and after that he’s going to go. And while I hope very much that Logan’s been able to slay a few demons when it comes to him being too dominant and me being too submissive all those years ago, I’m going to let him go.’

‘You don’t care for him?’

‘I do care for him. It’d be so easy to care deeply for your son, but I can’t, don’t you see? Logan doesn’t want to fall in love with me. He wants a casual, easy relationship that he can walk away from, no damage done to either of us. That’s how Logan knows he’s not the dangerously obsessed and unstable man his father was. He doesn’t trust his heart in that regard. Only his actions. He walks away. You know that’s what he’ll do.’

‘But he isn’t walking away,’ offered Caroline quietly. ‘Not from you.’

‘He will.’ Evie took a jagged breath. ‘It won’t be long now.’

‘He’ll be back.’

‘Maybe. And then he’ll go again. And again. And again. Mrs Carmichael, what do you want me to say?’

‘I want you to say that you’ll give my son a chance. That you won’t be so busy protecting your own heart that you fail to see the love pouring out of his. Don’t go into this thinking that Logan’s only move will be away from you. I think he’ll surprise you. Let him surprise you.’

Evie glanced away. She didn’t know what to say.

‘Anything else?’ Because Evie really wanted to be done here.

‘One more thing. One more piece of advice that perhaps my second husband might give to you were he alive today. He was a good man, Evie. A loving man and he loved my Logan as if he were his own. He’d have asked you to be generous with Logan when he makes mistakes.’

‘I had lunch with your mother today.’

Logan stilled and Evie felt the headache that had been coming on all afternoon pick up. Most of the conversations she’d had today hadn’t gone well. Evie didn’t hold out a lot of hope for this one. ‘She cornered me at work. Max was in on the plan as well, though I noticed he managed to weasel his way out of the actual lunch.’ Bastard.

‘What did she want?’ Logan asked finally, his attention seemingly fixed on the far corner of her not-so-sparkling kitchen floor.

‘Mostly to apologise for using me to get to you.’

‘Sounds about right.’ A muscle ticced in his otherwise rigid jaw. ‘What else did she want?’

‘To sing your praises, I think. She did a bit of that.’ Evie wasn’t sure she wanted to share the entire conversation with Logan, but she could reveal bits of it. ‘She wanted to know my intentions towards you.’

Logan looked up, his gaze ever so slightly incredulous. ‘What did you tell her?’

‘I probably should have told her to mind her own business, but I didn’t. I told her you were leaving at the end of the week and that I had no idea what we were doing after that. Does that sound about right?’

Logan cleared his throat and rubbed his neck with his hand. One of Caroline’s traits too, when she wasn’t busy aiming for full composure. ‘Something like that.’

‘Max asked me what was going on between us too. We’re a hot topic of conversation within your family, apparently. I told him that you were an excellent houseguest and an incredibly skilled lay.’

Logan seemed to be having trouble with speech. Which was just fine by Evie, because she didn’t particularly want to talk about where their relationship was going either.

Evie picked up a slice of apple pie she’d brought home with her and handed it to him along with her smuggest smile. ‘You’re welcome.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

LOGAN’S week at Evie’s passed in a blur of easy smiles and sweat-slicked nights. Life was good but there was no denying that he had put the real life on hold in order to be here. Work was piling up back in London and his executives had taken to calling him in the middle of the night—his time—with increasingly urgent questions about the running of his business and opportunities arising. His executive assistant was ready to strangle him. On Friday she’d not so politely told him that if he didn’t have his surly self back behind his desk come Monday, she wouldn’t be there either. Apparently she’d had quite enough of his executive employees begging her for word on decisions that no one but Logan had the power to make. No one else sat at Logan’s desk while he was away. He’d never stayed away for this long before, had never needed to structure his organisation so that he could.

Something to consider.

As for Evie, she was being very … understanding. She didn’t push for him to stay and, apart from that time when she’d talked about lunching with his mother, she’d made no reference to where their relationship was headed at all. As if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to breeze into and out of Evie’s world and make barely a ripple.

Not meek when it came to everyday living—Evie knew how to stand her ground and more. That message had come through loud and clear. He’d watched her putting the brakes on a new project Max had wanted to bid on—a bread and butter project that Max figured they could turn a quick profit on. Evie begged to differ. The client was dodgy—notoriously late with payments and not above changing specs mid build and expecting the builder to wear the cost. There were jobs worth taking, Evie had told his brother bluntly. This one wasn’t worth their effort.

Max had thrown up his hands in a sulk. Evie had lifted one eyebrow, folded her arms in front of her and murmured, ‘Really?’

And half an hour later Max had been back, the dodgy bread and butter bid abandoned, head down alongside Evie’s as they nutted out an alteration to the civic centre plans that scattered her kitchen bench.

No wonder Max had refused to let her go.

But Max wasn’t here now and Logan had to be at the airport early in the morning and, dammit, Evie could at least acknowledge that fact with more than a nod.

And then she pulled down a bottle of tequila from a shelf in the kitchen and two shot glasses and poured until tequila threatened to spill over onto the bench.

‘Got any salt?’ he said.

‘Happens I do.’ Evie had lemons too, and he felt all of sixteen as Evie told him to make a fist. He did and watched as Evie’s hand circled his wrist and she brought his fist to her mouth, a tiny, knowing smile on her face as the tip of her tongue dipped into the V between his forefinger and thumb.