Page 297 of Sin Bin

“Mmm, look how strong you are,” she purred appreciatively. “You’re the new and improved version of your father, although I don’t think Luc has ever been this ripped before. My God, Logan. Your workout regimen must be positively insane.”

Logan felt numb to her words, numb to her touch. He peeled her hands from his chest and turned away from her. “You need to go.”

“I don’t want to. And you don’t want me to either,” she said coyly, sidling up beside him and rubbing against his arm. “I know you think I’m beautiful and sexy. I’m a little older than you, and you find that intriguing—”

Logan gave a harsh snort of laughter and turned his head to look at her. “You actually think I’m intrigued by my father’s trophy wife?”

She lifted her chin. “I know you are.”

He laughed at the ceiling before looking at her again. “Let me put this in the crudest possible terms so there’s no misunderstanding. I’ve fucked more women than I can recall—young, old and everything in between. And you know what? None of those broads meant shit to me, before or after. There’s only one woman I’ve ever made real love to, whose body I cherish and can’t get enough of—”

She smirked. “Let me guess. Meadow?”

“Damn right. She rocks my fucking world every single time we come together. Apart from her, sex is pretty much a transaction to me. A necessary outlet. A temporary release.” He raked Chantal with a coldly amused glance. “Fucking you would be no different. The second I busted a nut, I wouldn’t give you a second thought. But you, on the other hand…” He trailed off with a smirk.

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting that I would become obsessed with you if we slept together?”

“Let’s just say you wouldn’t be the first.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Someone thinks rather highly of his sexual prowess.”

“With good reason. I said sex is mostly meaningless to me. Never said I wasn’t good at it.”

She stared at him. Her eyes were bright with excitement, the thrill of the challenge. “I don’t know whether to be insulted or turned on.” She grinned. “I think I’m both.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not interested. So run along.” Logan shooed her off and turned back to the window, dismissing her.

She didn’t budge.

He heaved an annoyed sigh. “Look—”

“Do you know the real reason your father invited you here tonight?” she said with a malicious sneer. “A business rival was threatening to leak the news that he’d fathered an illegitimate child years ago. Luc knew he had to get ahead of the story to mitigate the damage to his family’s reputation. So he and his advisors planned this dinner party and invited some of the most influential people he knows. He needed to break the news himself and spin the narrative to make himself look sympathetic and remorseful. He wanted his past sins to be chalked up to youthful indiscretion and nothing more.” She shook her head in disgust. “Tonight wasn’t about righting past wrongs or extending an olive branch to the son he abandoned. Tonight was a preemptive move to do damage control before his rival exposed his dirty little secret.”

Logan stared at Chantal with such cold fury that she took an instinctive step back.

“Why are you telling me all this?” he said in a low voice.

“I thought you should know the truth. I didn’t want you to leave here thinking your father’s a changed man. He’s not. He’s a selfish, cunning manipulator driven by ruthless ambition and greed. He doesn’t do anything that doesn’t benefit him or his family. He took a calculated risk by airing his own dirty laundry. The scandal of fathering an illegitimate child might hurt his reputation in the short run. But when that illegitimate child just so happens to be an NHL superstar…well, all can be forgiven.”

Logan glared at his stepmother, renewed anger burning in his chest as he absorbed her words. His father’s motive for delivering the speech was even worse than he’d thought.

“When I married Lucien, I didn’t even know you existed. He kept the truth from me all these years. When he finally decided to come clean, he told his entire family before he told me, his own wife.” Chantal’s lips twisted bitterly. “I had to hear it from that little bitch Kinsley. She threw it in my face during an argument. She told me your father had a son with the only woman he’s ever loved. A woman he thinks about every time he looks at me.”

Logan clenched his jaw as he backed slowly away from Chantal, his fists balling and releasing at his sides.

She followed him, rubbing against his chest as she backed him up toward the couch. “We’re both victims of your father’s treachery and deceit. Now’s our chance to get even with the bastard. Don’t you want to hurt him the way he hurt you and your mother?”

Logan’s gut tightened with fury. “Don’t talk about my mother.”

Her lips curved upward in a sharp smile of triumph. She’d found his weakness. “I can see how much you hate him. I can see it in your eyes and feel it in the rigid muscles of your body. You’re like a ticking time bomb ready to explode.” She ran her hand down his chest. “You need to find a way to release all this pent-up rage before it destroys you.”

Logan turned his head away as she cupped his jaw and nuzzled his neck.

“Fuck me, Logan,” she whispered in his ear. “Fuck me good and get your revenge against your father.”

Logan shook his head, jaw clenched tight. “No.”

“Do it, Logan,” she goaded urgently. “You want to hit him where it hurts? Fuck his prized trophy wife. Take what’s his.”

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