Page 114 of Sinful Palace

“I’ll leave the bathroom first, so no one gets suspicious.” He patted my shoulder, and then he headed for the door. Before he opened it, he turned his head and looked back at me. “I hope you make the right choice, Willow. You deserve a lot better than what you’ve been given.”

“Thank you,” I murmured.

With that, he stepped out. I waited a couple of minutes before exiting the bathroom too.

Logan was still standing by the gold-draped window when I returned to the East Room. “Are you okay?” he asked, cocking a brow. “You look pale.”

I forced a smile. “I’m fine.”

He held up his phone. “I couldn’t hear anything while you were talking to Jamie. Just static.”

I touched the pendant at my throat. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard a few people complaining earlier about the Secret Service jamming cell phone signals in certain parts of the White House tonight. Something to do with security. Maybe that’s why it didn’t work?” I said, cheeks filling with warmth.

I hated lying, but I didn’t want to tell Logan the truth about my conversation with Jamie. Not until I knew more.

His brows knitted. “Maybe, but my phone still has a signal. It’s weird.”

“Try it now. It might’ve been a temporary glitch,” I said.

He pulled his phone out and opened the necklace tracking app. He pressed a button on the screen and then pulled out the little black headset cord that was plugged into the jack at the bottom. Sound started coming out of the phone immediately; all the chatter, laughter, and music of the party around us. “Huh, it’s working again.”

“I guess it was just a glitch after all.”

“Yeah, must’ve been.” He put his phone away and slipped his arms around my waist. “For a minute I thought you’d broken the necklace to get away from me. I was picturing you climbing out a window as part of your grand escape attempt.”

I let out a light, tinkling laugh in response, as if it was actually funny to joke about me being held in captivity.

“What did Jamie say, anyway?” Logan asked.

“Nothing, really. He just told me to be careful.”

“Damn. I was hoping he’d know something useful.”

“Me too.”

“Oh, well. We’ll keep looking in other places.” He cocked his head to one side and frowned. “Why were you gone for so long, anyway?”

My eyes widened. “What?”

“If Jamie had nothing to tell you, why did you take so long? You were gone for almost twenty minutes.”

“Oh. I… I had a sore stomach. I thought I might throw up, so I went to the bathroom for a while,” I said, lowering my eyes to his tie.

“Shit. I hope you haven’t caught that bug that’s been going around.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Hope so.”

I gulped down a deep breath and looked back up at him. We were right beneath a tiered chandelier, and the glittering lights were making his eyes twinkle. He looked more handsome than ever, and for a moment, it was hard to remember how much of a monster he’d been in the past.

“Logan,” I finally said softly, dropping my gaze slightly. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

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