Page 23 of Until the Sea Runs Dry

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Apetite Asian woman around fifty-years-old opened the door.

Her smile caused deep dimples to show. She bowed thehead full of silver hair that she wore in a neat bun.

“I’m Kitty, Mr. Steel’s housekeeper. You must be Jane and Detective Summers. Please, come inside.”

She stepped aside so they could enter.

Almost immediately, they were tackled by a yapping ball of fluff as Loki sprang at Jane, overexcited to see her again. His mouth was gripped around something brown and made of leather. It wasn’t until he stopped jumping at her that she saw it was a shoe.

A very expensive looking shoe.

She crouched down to stroke him, a delighted smile on her lips.

“I guess you remember me, then?”

In response, Loki threw himself at her feet, rolling over to expose his soft, white tummy as he squirmed, waiting for her to tickle him, though he never let go of that prized shoe.

Summers laughed at his antics. “This must be the dog who found you on the beach. You should get him some treats.”

“You could, though he seems to prefer my shoes,” Logan sounded irritated as he approached the group.

Gone was the relaxed man she had met before. In his place stood the movie star. Dressed in a tailored shirt that he’d paired with designer jeans, there was a magnetism about him that caused her heart to flutter.

His hair was wet, as if he’d just stepped out of the shower. He wore a pair of leather sandals on his feet. At his appearance, Loki released the shoe that had been in his mouth and dove for his sandals, snarling and snapping at them as if they were an animal.

“Stop it, you mutt! You’ve already ruined several pairs, already!” Logan attempted to move his feet away only for Loki to attack them with renewed fervor. Trying to ignore him, he shook Summers’ hand.

“Good to meet you in person at last.”

Summers flashed a grin at the other man. “My wife is going to lose it when I tell her about today. Figure, it’ll buy me several years of conversation at family functions.”

“I think you’ve vastly overrated their interest in me.”

Logan turned his attention to Jane.

She squirmed, unsure what he must think of her, while she was unfortunately aware of her own reaction to them. Under his intense gaze, her body was growing warm, and she had to resist the urge to fan herself.

Logan was having his own reaction to seeing her again.

In the days since he’d left her, he hadn’t been able to keep her out of his mind. Her face kept popping up at the most random moment, distracting him from work, which was a problem as he was knee-deep in pre-production on his new movie.

Despite how full his days had been with fittings, physical training, and rehearsals, he’d still found time to check in with Summers on her progress. He could have called her himself, but each time he’d picked up the phone, his mind had gone blank. He couldn’t think what to say. Then some other urgent business would preoccupy him. By the time he remembered, it was always far too late into the night.

When he’d learned of her imminent discharge, and the lack of support that would be offered her, something primitive had woken. There wasn’t anything he hated in the world more than injustice — and he’d experienced plenty of that growing up.

It seemed obvious to offer her the use of his pool house, though the decision hadn’t come easily.

As he’d been concerned with, several pictures of his visit at the hospital with Jane did surface, though his team had made fast work of having them taken down. A stern call from Summers had helped proceedings.

His team were furious for having to retract them, however. This was exactly the kind of publicity he needed to reverse public opinion of him. They couldn’t have engineered a better story, and it had landed in his lap — for free.

But Logan had refused to use Jane’s misfortune to further his career.

Instead, he’d paid a pretty big sum to keep the owner of the photographs quiet, incurring the wrath of those around him.

With that incident still so close, he could only imagine the implosion that would occur when they were given the news that, not only had he forced them to sit on the story, he was now bringing the girl to his home to live.

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