Page 30 of Sinful Palace

Shit.

I racked my brains, trying to remember the exact wording of my conversation with Elizabeth earlier. I hadn’t said anything particularly bad about Logan, but I’d definitely made it pretty clear that I thought his mother should leave his father. If he’d listened to the rest of the conversation after that, he might’ve realized I was scheming and plotting yet another escape. That meant he might already know I was only faking my affability toward him right now.

I uttered a silent prayer and decided to test the waters to see how much he actually knew.

“Oh, yeah, I did talk to her,” I said in the most nonchalant tone I could muster up. “So you listened to us?”

He shook his head. “Not really. I got an alert saying you were talking to someone, so I listened to the first few seconds, but then I realized it was my mom.” His lips curled into a small smile. “I figured there was no point wasting my time with the rest. It’s not like you’d ever be able to convince one of my parents to help you leave me.”

His words sliced into me like a cold sliver of glass, reminding me that at the end of the day, no matter how nice he was to me, I was still nothing more than a prisoner in a gilded cage.

At least he wasn’t aware of my plan, though. That was a massive silver lining.

I swallowed hard, keeping my expression neutral and my voice pleasant. “She brought me some herbal tea, which was really nice, and we talked about our hobbies and college for a little while,” I said lightly. “She had to go to the city to get a manicure with some friends, though, so she wasn’t here for long.”

That was all technically true. I didn’t have to say any of it, but I figured if I made it seem like I was being as open as possible about my chat with his mother, Logan wouldn’t feel the need to go back and listen to the whole recorded conversation. Then I’d be safe to continue with my plan.

He raised a disdainful brow. “Well, I’m glad you both had such an amazingly productive day,” he said, voice dripping with condescension. He turned away, heading for the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll order something for dinner afterwards.”

I took a deep breath and called out toward his retreating back. “Logan… wait.”

He paused and turned to face me. “What?”

I stood up, face arranged into an expression of wide-eyed innocence. “I need to talk to you about something.”

He frowned and stepped toward me. “What?”

I bit my bottom lip before replying again. “It’s just… I’ve been thinking about what you said.”

Logan raised his brows. “You’ll have to be more specific than that.”

“The other day, you told me I need you for certain things. Physical things,” I said in a halting voice, looking up at him through my eyelashes. “You were right.”

“I know. I’ve been telling you that ever since I took you,” he said, eyes narrowing. “How are you only realizing this now?”

“I guess it finally hit me today,” I replied, minutely shaking my head. “If you’re tense or having a bad day, you can go to someone else to relieve that stress if you want. Or you can touch yourself. But… I can’t. I can’t do anything without you here. If I’m feeling bad and need something to make it go away, I just have to sit here waiting and hoping.”

He took two more steps toward me, eyes alight with interest. He was so close I could smell his spicy cologne and feel his warm breath on my skin.

“What are you trying to say, princess?” he asked in a low voice, one hand hovering near my side. The air between us was crackling. Electric.

I shifted and squirmed in my spot like I was desperately horny. It wasn’t hard for me put on such an act, because Logan’s deep voice and towering masculinity was always enough to cause a hot flush to race through me, scorching me from head to toe.

“I’m saying I’ve had a really rough time lately, with everything that’s been happening, and I need….” I purposefully trailed off and coyly averted my eyes, making it seem like I was too embarrassed to finish my sentence.

“Tell me what you need,” Logan said, voice husky as he slipped both arms around my waist. I felt the thick bar of his cock pressing into me as it strained against the black fabric of his pants. When he shifted slightly, grinding it up against my belly, hot tingles shot through me, radiating out from my core.

I licked my lips as my body reacted to his touch, to the hot tickle of his breath against my face. The very first stage of my plan was working. He thought I really wanted this.

Sure, maybe a part of me did, but a much bigger part of me was simply using the chemistry between us to get what I wanted. Logan was usually nicer to me after sex because of that sleepy, post-coital glow that seemed to wash over the two of us, and I needed him to be as nice as possible right now. I needed him to think our relationship was progressing and evolving in a positive way so I could slowly convince him to listen to his mother more often and get involved with her dream project.

If I couldn’t make that happen, I wouldn’t have any hope at escape.

“You,” I said, voice scarcely above a whisper. “I need you to make me feel better. I need you to—”

Logan cut me off with a finger pressed against my lips, clearly done with talking. He nipped one earlobe until I gasped, and then he tilted my head back and pressed his lips to mine. One hand stroked the back of my neck as his mouth devoured mine, and my whole body tingled with an electric charge as he deepened the kiss, crushing me with his urgency.

Lips still firmly on mine, he tore my robe off and tossed it aside, leaving me stark naked and trembling as goosebumps cropped up all over my skin. I reached up to finish unbuttoning his half-undone shirt before running my hands all over his powerful chest.

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