Page 20 of Justice for the SEAL
He traced a line as it swirled around the crest of one breast. “There are flowers and designs I don’t understand, but there are also symbols. I found the silhouette ofJustice.”
Her mouth pulled down hard at the corners. He wasn’t disgusted. He was inawe. “She’sblindfolded.”
He stroked her gently. “And an ocean wave with the sun setting in thebackground.”
There was a heart there too, for the child who would never play on that beach, but she didn’t need to tell him that. Most of the designs were too personal for anyone else to understand. She hadn’t created them for anyone butherself.
“So beautiful.” He bent his head and kissed each breast tenderly,reverently.
She lifted his face to hers and kissed him, knowing she was very much a woman in Logan’s eyes, feeling sexier than she could remember feeling in her lifetime. Her hands slipped beneath his shirt and she lifted it overhishead.
“Go get a condom,” she commanded. “I have a blanket, and this time, we’re doing it on thefloor.”
12
Gemma satup in bed with a start, her heart pounding. It took her a moment to remember where she was, the familiar shapes and shadows of Logan’s apartment coming intofocus.
She’d had a crazy dream about the man who attacked her. She smelled the stench of his filthy skin before he knocked the wind out of her, following her to the ground as the full weight of his body landed onherback.
She’d tried to scream, but it came out as a whimper. “Leave mealone!”
A man’s shiny black dress shoes stepped in front of her face. “I love you, Gemma.” It was Royce’s voice, but when she looked up to see him, she was staring into the eyes of herfather.
“Does anybody need a lawyer?” heasked.
She shivered. No way she was ever going to get back to sleeptonight.
Logan shifted in his sleep and she looked back at his sleeping form. The two nights they’d spent together had been the best two nights she’d had in alongtime.
It’s not like this can turn into something serious. You’re way too oldforhim.
Shefrowned.
Some women had relationship with younger men. Whycouldn’tshe?
She wrapped Logan’s bathrobe around herself and padded to the living area. The sun would be up soon, the eastern half of the sky already illuminated, throwing the loft into some kind oftwilight.
She wandered around the space, considering the sparse furniture and decor. In a way it gave the few pieces he had that much greater significance, and she imagined she could get to know the man by the things he used to fill hisspace.
One wall held a bookcase, desk and several framed degrees. The PhD in computer science came as no surprise, but the medical degree had her mouth hanging open. She touched the abrasion on her cheek. He hadn’t thrown in a sly, “I’m a doctor” when he’d treated herinjury.
Perhaps the degree was a joke, like a fake magazine cover or a prank lottery ticket. Something you could print off the Internet to amuse yourfriends.
Or maybe itisn’t.
She hummed softly. She might have to change her computer-nerd-with-the-body-of-a-Greek-god idea of him if it was real. She focused on the year he graduated and did some quickmentalmath.
She was thirteen years older than him, not quite as bad as she’dthought.
Her hip bumped the desk in front of her, a computer monitor coming to life from the movement. Her eyes went back to the big screen, which was mirroring the open inbox on the smallerlaptop.
The names of several judges caught her eye, along with a political figure she knew professionally. Was this her email she waslookingat?
She narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the names, one standing out from theothers.
BarbaraRoyce.
It took a minute for confusion to give way to understanding. This was Royce’s computer, not her own, and those were emails to his wife. She looked back at Logan, his eyes closed, his naked body tangled in thebedsheets.
