Page 44 of Wicked Love
“For now,” a woman grumbled.
I cut my gaze in her direction, my pulse still wobbly but my stance increasingly steady. “Frankly, I’ve never met anyone more committed to his work than the man beside me, and I wouldn’t want him to slack off on it. You don’t have to worry about me distracting him. And if you don’t already know that he gives this business and the people working with him his all, then I don’t thinkyou’vebeen paying enough attention.”
Someone made a noise of protest, but Beckett intervened before they got any further than that. His hands were clenched but loosely, and his eyes shone for a moment as he looked at me. Then he turned to his employees.
“As you should be able to see, I have nothing to hide. The real distraction here are these rumors, which are purposefully designed to unsettle you. They’re absolutely untrue. Someone is trying to undermine my leadership. But you know me and what I stand for. I’ve never let you down, and I don’t intend to start.”
A more animated murmur followed that declaration. The idea that their leader might be under attack seemed to rile up his underlings even though some had moments ago been criticizing him.
Beckett went on, motioning to the crowd. “We’re all dedicated to keeping this empire working as it should. You can count on me, and I’d better be able to count on you. Go and find out who’s stirring up trouble against the Storm, and let’s deal with them together.”
Voices rose in approval while several of the underlings ducked their heads with shamed grimaces. At Beckett’s wave, they all hustled toward the door as if eager to prove themselves to their leader. Relief trickled through my chest, but a deeper tension stopped it from filling me.
I turned to Beckett as the last of his people slipped past the doorway. “Do you really think someone’s still out to displace you? That someone from the outside started the rumors on purpose? I thought Doom’s Seed and his lieutenant were backing off.”
Beckett swiped his hand across his mouth. His shoulders had relaxed a little with the end of the meeting, but at my question, he only looked weary.
“That’s what Doom’s Seed promised, but I’m becoming increasingly sure he was lying. This has to be Lindell sowing doubts about me, and he couldn’t do it now without his boss knowing about it.”
“Why?” I had to ask.
Beckett was silent for a long moment. “There’s only one logical reason I can think of. Doom’s Seed is planning on making a grab for the Storm’s territory here. Formyterritory. And soon.”
CHAPTERTWENTY
Madelyn
My eyes were starting to glaze over. I dragged them away from my laptop’s screen, rubbed them, and gazed blearily across the main campus library where I’d been sitting for the past couple of hours. Beckett had sent me a lot of files yesterday, but so far nothing I’d seen in them seemed at all connected to my dad.
I wasn’t alone in my search. Logan, Slade, and Dexter were all sitting amid the rows of computers at the other end of the first floor, searching the digitized database of old newspaper and magazine articles with local news that might give us some clue about whichever of Doom’s Seed’s illegal businesses Dad had gotten wrapped up in.
So far they hadn’t turned up anything either, as far as I knew. Logan had been leaving his computer periodically and coming around to see how I was doing, as if I were straining anything other than my eyes sitting here in this upholstered chair. But there’d been something so intense in his eyes and his voice that I hadn’t hassled him about his concern, just reassured him. Each time, he’d lingered for several more seconds before seeming to tear himself away.
So it wasn’t a surprise to see him ambling over again now. He nodded toward my computer. “Still nothing?”
“Yeah,” I said, and restrained a yawn. It wasn’t even noon yet, but I hadn’t been sleeping all that well these days. “I don’t think I can stand to stare at this screen any more. Maybe I’ll take a little walk around.” I shut my laptop.
Logan’s attention homed in on me again, so penetrating it made my skin tingle. “I could use that too. Come with me?” He extended his hand.
Why not? I tucked my computer under my arm and let him tug me out of my chair. “Where are we going?”
“Not far.”
He kept his hand around mine and led me along the wall to one of the study rooms that lined it. This door didn’t have a reserved sign on it.
Logan opened it with an air of purpose, escorted me inside, and switched the sign over to reserved. As the door thumped shut, he clicked over the lock, lifted the laptop from me to toss it onto the meeting table behind him, and pushed me up against the door.
His hands fell to my hips, pinning me in place. His gaze pinned me too, staring down at me as if he were memorizing my face, in awe of every angle. A heady tingle raced down my back at his passionate examination, his musky scent winding around me with his closeness.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice coming out breathless.
He bent so his forehead rested against mine. “I can’t get enough of you, you know. The curve of your lips.” He brushed a finger across them, provoking more tingles. “Your cute little nose.” He tapped it. “This hair. It’s so soft. And the way you react when I play with it…”
He twirled a few strands around his fingers and gave them a light tug. I couldn’t stop my eyelids from fluttering at the sparks that shot through my scalp. Heat was pooling between my thighs.
Logan drew my head back farther, exposing my neck. He dropped his head and pressed a trail of kisses along my throat. I quivered against him, a gasp tumbling out of me.
“I was thinking,” he muttered, pulling his lips away as if it was an effort to do so. He left his hand in my hair, but he released the tension there, allowing me to look up at him. “It hasn’t been just the two of us since we cleared the air. Since that night two years ago, I haven’t been with you the way I wanted to, and even then…”
