Smart, Sexy and Secretive (32 page)

“
You have pointy elbows,” he
says, pulling my arms to my sides so I fall flat on his chest. I
stick my chin into him and laugh. “And your chin, too.” He tousles
my hair playfully. “Death by elbow impalement,” he says. He has
dismissed my earlier moment of insanity with my stupid question.
Good.

“
Sorry I was being nosy,” I
say quietly.

“
You can ask me anything you
want,” he says. He looks into my eyes. “But you can’t get mad at me
when I give you the answers.” He arches a blond eyebrow. “Do you
really want to know where I learned that?”

I push off of him. “No.”

He chuckles. “Wait,” he says, pulling
me back on top of him. “I learned it from a men’s health magazine,
silly.” He laughs. “I wasn’t even sure it would work.” His laughter
rumbles around the room. It’s such a welcome sound. He looks down
his nose at me. “Did it work?”

“
Oh, heck yeah,” I breathe.
It worked.

He kisses me. “Good.”

Logan

I follow Emily into her
apartment and stop short when I see Trip lying on her sofa in
nothing more than a pair of boxers. He has one hand stuck in the
waistband of his underwear and the other is behind his head. He’s
completely oblivious to the fact that we’re there.
What the fuck
, I
sign.

He didn’t know we were
coming.

I don’t give a fuck if he
knew we were coming or not. He doesn’t live here. And he doesn’t
live alone. This is shit.

“
Trip,” Emily calls. She
picks up a couch pillow and throws it at his head. “Put some
clothes on.”

He sits up. “Oh,” he says, his smile
bright. Then he sees me behind her. His smile falters. “Good
morning.” He nods at me and gives me a tight, fake grin. “Logan,”
he says.

“
Trip,” I say with a nod.
Emily walks toward the kitchen. He calls to her retreating back. “A
courier came a few hours ago with some clothes. I put them on your
bed.”

Her head shoots around the corner. “My
room is off-limits,” she says sharply. Trip grins. I want to punch
his fucking face.

“
It’s not like I’ve never
been in your room before,” he says. He’s still grinning, and this
time, I start toward him.

Emily rushes across the room and stops
me by putting her hands on my chest. “Let’s go see what my mom
sent.”

I look down at her. I’ll go with her as
soon as I deal with Trip. “You go ahead. I’ll be there in just a
minute.” I nudge her shoulder toward her room.

“
Logan,” she says.
Stop it.

Stop what?
I go and sit down on the couch beside Trip, cross
my foot over my knee, and raise my arms to the back of the couch.
“You go shower. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

Emily stomps her foot, and I
smile at her. I’m not moving. Not until I tell Trip a few things he
needs to know.
You may as well go ahead.
Trip and I need to talk.

“
That thing you two do is
rather rude,” Trip says snidely, looking from one of us to the
other.

“
You mean talking?” I ask. I
smile at him. To Emily, I sign,
Go ahead.
I won’t hurt him. I promise.

You swear it?

I draw an
x
over the center of my
chest. She rolls her eyes and goes into her bedroom.

“
It’s still just as rude now
as it was a moment ago,” he says. I imagine he grumbles it, but I
really can’t tell. He’s looking at the TV and not at me, but I can
still see his lips.

“
What’s rude is bringing my
girlfriend home and finding her ex-boyfriend in her apartment
wearing nothing but his boxers.” I smile at him. I work to look
relaxed, but I’m not.

“
She was my girlfriend
first,” he says. He reminds me of Hayley when she’s really tired
and doesn’t get her way.

“
I’m pretty sure that ship
has sailed.” I grit my teeth.

He shrugs. “Never know. That ship might
come around again.”

“
You’re totally fucking up
the Bro Code, dude,” I say.

“
Bro Code?” he asks. “We’d
have to be
Bro
s”—he draws quotes in the air—“for that to be a concern,
wouldn’t we?”

I nudge his shoulder with mine
playfully…and forcefully. “Oh, we’re Bro’s. You just don’t know it
yet. I can be your best friend or I can be your worst enemy. But I
can’t be your best friend while you’re living with my girl. Or
while you’re in your boxers.” I look down at the offending item.
“Put some fucking clothes on when you’re outside your room,” I
growl.

Shit. I was trying to stay so calm. I
fail. Game over.

He bites his lower lip as though he’s
laboring over something snarky to say. “See, Logan, that’s just it.
This is my apartment right now. So I can walk around dressed any
way I like.”

“
Well, in that case,” I
start. I get up, stretching broadly. “Emily and I will just have to
stay in her room for a bit. Until you can decide to put some
clothes on.” I pat his naked knee and flash a conspiratorial grin.
“There wasn’t a TV in her room the last time I spent the night
there.” His grin falters. “But I’m sure we can find something to
occupy the time.” I wink at him. “Bet you fucking wish you were me
right now. One—so you don’t have to hear me with Emily.” I point to
my ears, reminding him I’m deaf. “And two—so you could be alone
with her in her room. Naked.” I make a
tsk
,
tsk
,
tsk
with my mouth. “Of course, if you
were dressed, we would be able to hang out here with
you.”

He gets up and stomps toward his room.
A minute later, he comes back wearing lounge pants and a
T-shirt.

“
Thank you,” I
say.

“
You’re not welcome,” he
replies. He sits up and looks at me over the back of the couch.
“You know I had her first, right?” he says.

“
I know you fucked it up by
insulting her.” I cross my arms in front of my chest. The idea of
him calling Emily stupid makes me want to body slam him.

His shoulders shake as he laughs. “Is
that what she told you?” He starts to flip channels on the
TV.

He’s baiting me, but I can’t stop.
“Only a royal dumbass would try to hurt a girl like her,” I
say.

He gets up and walks toward the
kitchen. He pats my chest as he walks by me. “Just remember, Bro.”
He gets in my face, and his lips move slowly. “I popped her fucking
cherry.”

He must see the anger in my face
because he suddenly backs up.

But he knows he has me at this point.
He has insulted Emily by talking about intimate matters that never
should have left the bedroom. I fight back the urge the punch
him.

“
Oh, that bothers you,
doesn’t it?” he asks. “The fact that I’ve been inside her. I’ve had
her on top of me and under me and with her mouth wrapped around
my—”

I shove him so hard that his head hits
the wall. I can feel the vibration of it in the floor. “Shut it,” I
say.

“
Why?” He grins. “Are. You.
Having. Trouble. Following?” He says it slowly. “I fucked your
girl.” He shrugs. “Or you’re fucking my girl? I don’t know which it
is. But I know I don’t have to like it. She’ll get tired of you,
and when she does, I’ll be here with her daddy’s blessing, waiting
to put a ring on her finger.”

“
It’ll never happen,” I
growl. I want to pound his face into the wall, but I know I
can’t.

“
Wait and see,” he
says.

“
Get your own place to live
and stay out of her life, Shit.”

He grits his teeth. “It’s
Trip.”

“
That’s what I said,
Shit
.” I place my
fingertips over my mouth. “Oh no!” I cry like a girl. “Did I make a
mistake? Sometimes us deaf guys, we can’t enunciate properly.” I
can enunciate just fine, but I choose not to because I’ve finally
pissed him off. “You understand my problem, don’t you, Shit?” I
grab the front of his shirt and jerk his face close to mine. “If
you ever talk about Emily the way you did a minute ago to
anybody
, including me,
I’ll wrap your little dick around your throat and tie a fucking
knot in it. Do you understand?”

His gaze drops from mine. I think I’ve
finally made my point.

“
I think Emily can make her
own choices.” He adjusts his clothes when I let him go.

“
She already
did.”

I’m talking to his back by this point.
His door slams.

I start toward Emily’s room. Maybe I
can help her get dressed. But just as I’m about to turn the knob,
the front door opens and her parents walk in. They may have
knocked. I can’t be sure. It seems like Shit would have come out if
he’d heard a bell or something. Or Emily. They’re her parents and
they pay for the place, so I guess they can do what they
want.

“
Logan,” her mom says,
walking quickly toward me. She’s a pure delight, and I’m surprised
I like her as much as I do. She hugs me and pats my back. “Where’s
Emily? Did the clothes I sent fit?” She looks down at what I’m
wearing and grimaces. I see that they’re dressed really nicely when
Mr. Madison helps Mrs. Madison take her coat off. She’s wearing
pearls and diamonds, and her blue dress probably costs more than a
car.

“
Emily is getting dressed
first,” I say, nodding toward the bedroom.

She hurries in that direction and slips
into her daughter’s room, closing the door behind her.

I stand there starting at Mr. Madison
like an idiot. I made an ass of myself the last time I saw him,
walking out the way I did. I really want to have a good
relationship with him. I stick out my hand, and he reaches for
mine, squeezing it tightly as he looks into my eyes.

“
Mr. Madison,” I begin. I
don’t know what to say.

“
Mr. Reed,” he replies. He
lets my hand go and stares at me like he’s waiting for me to
apologize. I wouldn’t do that on my fucking deathbed, because I
don’t think you should apologize for anything unless you’re
sorry.

“
Logan,” I say, correcting
him.

He just nods.

“
Mr. Madison, I wanted to
talk with you,” I begin. I don’t know the right words to say what I
want to say.

“
Yes, I’d hoped you
would.”

He sits down in a chair and motions to
the couch opposite him. I sit gingerly, not sure of how to proceed.
“The last time we spoke…”

“
You mean when you walked
out and smashed something?” he asks.

I want a cigarette. I can almost feel
one between my fingers. “It was just a trash can.” It could have
been his face if I wasn’t such a gentleman. And he wasn’t Emily’s
father.

“
That trash can never did
you any harm.” But he smiles as he says it, and the pressure in my
chest eases some.

“
Mr. Madison, I feel like I
need to explain my intentions toward your daughter.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Do go
on.”

“
I love her like crazy, and
I’d like to have your permission to marry her.” I blink at him. I
need to say more and it’s on the tip of my tongue, but the words
won’t come.

“
No.”

That’s all he says.
Just
no
.

“
Mr. Madison,” I start. “I’d
really like to have your blessing.”

“
My answer is still no,
young man.” He leans forward putting his elbows on his knees.
“Before Emily was born, I dreamed of what my family would be like.
I dreamed of a houseful of kids. But she was the only one. We
didn’t find out until she was in kindergarten that there was
something wrong with her.” He shakes his head. “I hope you never
find out what it’s like to have child with the problems Emily has.
It was a disappointment to us all.”

I sit back. I suddenly can’t catch my
breath. I would be honored to have a daughter like
Emily.

He goes on, shaking his head. “She’ll
never be a business mogul or a scientist or a doctor. She’ll never
be able to fulfill any of the dreams we had for her. But she can
marry well.” He leans over and squeezes my knee like he’s sharing a
secret with me. “And you, son, do not fit the criteria.”

He holds up a hand when I open my
mouth, and I close it. I probably look like a fish flopping on dry
land.

“
You’ll run your little
tattoo shop and you’ll have a shitty apartment and you’ll buy your
wife a tiny diamond. And you’ll be happy with that. But I’ll never
be happy with that for my daughter. She deserves
better.”

“
Yes,” I agree. “She does
deserve better.” She deserves better than the father she ended up
with. She deserves to have a father who can see the fucking beauty
and intelligence that’s inside her. “She deserves better,” I say
again.

“
I’ve decided to let her
have her fun until it plays out.” He leans back and steeples his
hands over his belly. “But when all is said and done, I expect her
to marry well. And that won’t involve you.”