Page 133 of When He Plays

He nodded. And he lifted his hand toward her. Extended it, palm open.

With no hesitation, she took it. Her fingers curled with his. They didn’t look back as they left. Even when Freya began screaming. Shouting that she wanted to make a deal. That she could provide evidence on so many people, that she’d had no choice. That she had to kill Adam and Patricia.

Logan tensed.

But he didn’t look back.

They kept going forward.

And left the past behind.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“What happens now?” Charlotte asked.

They were in Logan’s office. The door closed. The rest of the world at bay. He sat behind his heavy, wooden desk. Charlotte stood on the other side, her gaze on him.

His fingers tapped against the top of the desk. “Been one hell of a week, hasn’t it?”

Understatement. “Pretty sure you told me once that I wouldn’t make it five days without running from you.”

His fingers stopped tapping. “Do you plan to run from me?”

The mission had ended. The case was closed. But she was still there. Though she did have a bombshell or two that she planned to drop. “I’m getting out of the CIA.”

He seemed to stop breathing.

“I don’t want to be flying all over the world, becoming someone new every few months. I…” So hard to say. “I was afraid of falling in love. I didn’t want to end up like my mother. I never wanted that. I didn’t want to love someone so much that I’d be lost without that person.” And yet…“I love you.” It had just happened. “And if I lose you, it will gut me.” Truth. “It will wreck me. I will hurt and I will rage, and I will feel agony pour through me.”

He shot to his feet. The chair flew back behind him. “You aren’t losing me.”

No one lived forever. Life and pain went together. But so did life and love. “I’m not my mother.” Something she’d come to understand. Different people made different choices.

I am not my mother.

He stalked to stand beside her.

She turned so she faced him fully. “I will not make the same choices she did. I will not live and die the way she did.” Her lips pressed together. After a long moment, she was able to continue, “I was afraid to love, and then I met you, and there was no control. No stopping what I felt. I just—I fell into you. Loving you was as natural as breathing.”

“I fell in love with you first,” he murmured. “Don’t even try to act like you did it before me.”

His words made her heart feel warmer. Her Logan. He could always make her smile. “I want everything with you. I want a home. I want a dog.”

His jaw hardened. “Kids?”

“Yes. Everything. The whole package. I don’t want just danger and a pretend world. I want the real thing. You are my real thing.”

His hands extended. They curled around her waist, and he lifted her up. He put her down on the hard top of the desk. “I think I told you before…” His head lowered. He pressed a kiss to her throat. “But in case I didn’t, let me be clear.” He moved back. Stared into her eyes. “I will give you anything. Everything. All you have to do is ask.”

He kissed her. Dipped his tongue into her mouth even as Charlotte felt the slide of his hand between her legs.

He touched her through her pants. A strong, sensual touch, but the clothing was so going to have to go.

And, yes, in the next few seconds, her clothing was gone.

She kicked away her shoes. He peeled off her pants and her panties. His hands hauled her to the edge of the desk where he crouched between her legs and his mouth feasted on her. Demanding and possessive, and that tongue of his lashed and lashed her as she fell back onto the top of the desk. Her hands flew out helplessly and shoved away the phone and a keyboard.

Both crashed to the floor.