Page 43 of Logan

“Logan! What are you doing? Can I come in?”

The door swung open just as her hand was reaching for the doorknob. His large body filled the doorway, and any thoughts of what he was doing bolted from her mind. He had changed into sweatpants, hanging low on his hips, his bare feet peeking out from the bottom. With a clean white T-shirt straining over his biceps and chest muscles, she stared, speechless.

Reaching above his head, he placed his hands on the top of the doorframe, drawing her focus to his massive arms. Grinning, he asked, “Like what you see?”

She blinked out of her trance and rolled her eyes. “You know I do.”

“I like your honesty.” He jerked his head toward the inside of his room. “So curious about what I’m doing?”

“Uh…yeah.” She laughed. “Why have you put the bedframes in my room?”

“’Cause it’s not your room anymore.” Stepping back, he stood to the side, allowing her to see into his room.

Vivian’s eyes landed on the way he’d arranged the bedding. With the bed frames stored in the room across the hall, he had placed the two twin box springs side by side on the floor, topped with the two mattresses, essentially creating a king-sized bed. With their combined blankets and pillows, she gasped at the perfect bed. She jerked her gaze up to his, and her eyes landed on the hesitancy on his face.

“Hope I wasn’t presumptuous,” he said, squeezing the back of his neck. “I should have asked first?—”

“No. This is perfect.”

He stepped closer, his chest a breath away from hers, and cupped her face in his hands. “This takes away all doubt in your mind as to where I want you to sleep, Viv. The room hasn’t got a lot of space, so the bed has to be pushed up against the corner,but if you need to go to the bathroom, you can just crawl right over me.”

Smiling, she said, “I could sleep on the outside?—”

“Nope. It’s protection. I sleep closest to the door. No one can get to you unless they go through me… and no one can get through me.”

“Oh…”

Leaning down the rest of the way, he moved across her lips, whisper soft. “Babe,” he said, his mouth moving over her lips as he spoke, “Have we got time to initiate the new bed arrangement?”

“Pizza’ll be ready in fifteen minutes,” she mumbled against his onslaught, no longer caring whether they ate pizza.

“That’ll do,” he said, lowering her to the mattresses.

“So besides whatever they are concocting over there, it appears a love triangle might be happening.”

While the pizza was being devoured, Logan listened intently to Vivian as she described what she had learned. “Huh?” Pausing mid-bite, he waited for her explanation.

“It seems Nafisa has eyes for Rashad, who doesn’t pay attention to her, but Malik has his attention on Nafisa.” Suddenly, her eyes lost their sparkle when she added, “And I don’t think Farrah has a very good life. Akram is an asshole to her. She mostly cooks, cleans, and watches some old shows on a tiny TV in the kitchen.”

“What is he doing?”

“He’s on his laptop almost all the time.”

Nodding, he said, “My people have been monitoring him, but so far, it’s nothing important to us. He sets up meetings for thecampus groups, which is how he first got noticed by the FBI and DHS. Hell, who knows how long the CIA has had him on one of their watch lists? From now on, you can just focus on the lab. You’ll need to let me know as soon as I can get in there and tell me what to snatch.”

Swallowing the cheesy goodness, Vivian agreed, “I made serious headway today. Hopefully, tomorrow will give me even more. I just wish I could see what they brought in today.”

“Any ideas yet?”

“There’s no way what they are dealing with is lethal.” She watched as he held her eyes, his undivided interest evident. “They only need to wreak havoc…cause chaos. Overwhelm the medical system, including doctors as well as hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. People can even be exposed, not know it, have no symptoms for a while, and then travel to spread the infections. And it can come slowly, giving the instigators time to introduce the bioterrorism agent into food or water and then disappear.”

“And that’s where I come in.”

Nodding, she smiled. “Yep. You can arrest them and turn them over to the proper authorities. Oh, that sounds good…just like in the movies.”

Logan swallowed ineffectively, the bite of pizza stuck in his throat.There would be no arrest, no trial. He was tasked with eliminating the threat, but no way in hell could Viv ever know that.

Patting him on the back, she frowned in concern. “Hey, are you okay? Did you swallow it wrong?”

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