“Focused?”

“No.”

“Determined?”

Tate rolled his eyes. “Can I—”

“Smart. That makes me the smartest fucker around.”

“You’re unbelievable.”

Logan grabbed his hand and winked. “Yeah, but you love me anyway.”

Tate found the smile Logan was aiming his way so damn contagious that he left their conversation right there. There was nothing more he needed to add to make that moment sheer perfection.

* * *

“Sit down, would you? Damn, you’re fidgety.”

Logan looked up at Tate from where he was seated on the blanket. They’d made their way around to the back end of the grounds to one of the spring-fed ponds.

“Well, I quit smoking,” Tate told him, shaking his hands out by his sides.

Logan said nothing for a moment, but he discovered that this revelation made him really fucking happy.

“Did you now?”

“Yep. Last week. I was halfway through a pack, looked at it, and decided I wasn’t going to do it anymore.”

“Just like that?”

Tate nodded. “Yep. Just like that.”

“No cravings?”

Tate’s mouth quirked at the side as he ran his gaze down over him. “Not for a cigarette.”

“Swapping one addiction for another?”

“Maybe. Are you complaining?”

Logan gave a wolfish grin. “Definitely not.”

“Didn’t think so. Plus, I don’t know…I just have a lot of energy today.”

“Have you always been like that? Full of energy?”

“Pretty much. As a kid, I never sat still. My mom always—”

Tate stopped talking and frowned, then he turned away. He started walking down to the edge of the water, and Logan stood to follow. Stopping behind him, he reached out to offer a comforting hand, hesitated for just a second, and then gripped each of Tate’s biceps.

He felt him tense. Then he leaned back into him, and Logan wrapped an arm around his chest.

“You okay?” he asked as he rested his chin on Tate’s shoulder.

Tate angled his head to the side so their hair was touching and then reached up to hold his hand where it rested on his chest.

“Yeah. I just…” Tate paused as if he were trying to think of the words to say. “I just can’t believe she could be this cruel. To talk about you—”

“Me?” Logan asked. “No, Tate. Don’t you even think about me. This is about you. What she did to you was...I couldn’t even imagine how you felt then or are feeling right now.”

“I feel confused.”

That wasn’t the word Logan had expected to hear.

“I’m confused because the woman I grew up with, my mother, taught me to love everyone.” Tate stopped and turned to face him.

Logan could see the pain in his eyes. He would have done anything to take that from him, but there wasn’t anything he could do except listen.

“I guess she meant everyone like her.”

Logan took Tate’s face in his hands and leaned in so their noses touched. “I’m sorry they hurt you. That they don’t understand.”

“She didn’t even try to understand.”

Logan stroked a hand over his hair. “Many won’t.”

“I don’t care.”

“You don’t?”

Tate shook his head and kissed him lightly. “No. I’m done pretending I don’t understand what’s going on here. It’s crazy and intense, but Logan, it’s real. Every time I’m near you, I feel alive.” He closed his eyes and whispered, “What they did and what they said...that’s their choice, and you are mine.”

25.

By the end of the week, Tate knew they needed to go home. Logan’s phone had been buzzing for the last two days, and his still held the heavy weight of silence. They both had to return and face reality, no matter how unwelcome it might be.

As Logan zipped his bag, Tate could feel his eyes on him from across the bed they’d shared for the last half of the week.

He was no longer a guest in this house.

In fact, Logan had welcomed him in every room.

“You ready?”

Tate acted as though he had to think about it. “Well, I don’t know. I had so much to pack.”

Logan picked his bag up and threw it at him across the bed. With an oomph, he caught it and slung it over his shoulder.

“Are you ready?”

Logan came around the end of the huge king-sized frame and kissed him. “Never more so.”

“Okay then. Let’s go home.”

* * *

Ten minutes on the road and Logan knew that something was on Tate’s mind. Their time away had been incredible. The more he’d let down his walls, the more connected he’d felt with Tate. But as they sat there heading back to the reality that awaited them, his guy was deep in thought.

“Want to talk about it?”

He looked over to see Tate give a half smile.

“About what?”

“Whatever’s on your mind.”

Tate reached across the console and placed a hand on his thigh. Logan covered it and tightened his fingers.

“What is it?”

“I’ve been wondering about something.”

Tate looked so serious Logan swore his heart actually skipped.

“Okay. Then ask.” He concentrated on driving, and when Tate said nothing, he quickly glanced back at him. “Ask, Tate. You’re making me nervous as fuck.”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to know. Whatever happened to Chris? Did you see him again?”

That, he hadn’t expected. After the night he’d told Tate what happened between him and Chris, they hadn’t spoken of him again.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I never saw him again. I called for the ambulance that night, and as I walked out the door, he told me he wished he’d never run into me again, and that hit harder than any punch he could have landed. Because it really did mean that everything he’d said to me over the last two years was a fucking lie. He didn’t press charges. I figured he wouldn’t. Otherwise, he’d have to explain who I was. And there were too many questions there that he didn’t want to answer. I did check the hospital the next day to make sure he was okay. They’d released him.”

“God,” Tate whispered.

Logan concentrated on the road and managed, “Yeah.”

There was a short silence before Tate said, “Hey?”

Logan looked at his passenger to see he was turned toward him.

“One more thing.”

What else is left to say?

“What’s that?”

“Do you still need a date to your work function?”

Logan was sure he’d misheard. “What did you say?”

“Your work function. Is the offer still—”

“Yes,” Logan answered before he’d even finished.

Tate chuckled and settled back into the leather seat. “Okay then. Would you please focus on the road? I have this sudden need to see you in a tuxedo.”

Logan’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, and before he let slip the ridiculous grin he wanted to, he pulled it together and told Tate, “I have the sudden urge to peel you out of one.”

“That can definitely be arranged—as long as you promise not to rip it. I only have the one.”

Logan switched lanes and imagined Tate in a tux.

Jesus, I really want to see that.

“A challenge. I do love a good challenge.”

“Yes, I know,” Tate answered. “I found out the hard way.”

Logan laughed at that. “There is so much that could be said right now, but yes, Tate, you were my hardest challenge yet.”

Tate reached across the car and took his hand, bringing his palm over to the zipper of his jeans, proving just how hard he was. “Apparently, I still am.”

Logan could see Tate out of the corner of his eye as he took their exit. He was looking at him and applying a real nice squeeze. Shit.

“What the hell are you trying to do to me?”

Tate shifted closer when they pulled up to a red light and told him, “I’m challenging you. My place is closer. Get us there in one piece and I’ll take you upstairs and do all kinds of things to you with my mouth.”

“Fuck, Tate.”

Logan turned his head and took Tate’s lips in a bruising kiss. He curled his fingers around Tate’s growing erection, and it wasn’t until a horn blasted behind them that he pulled his mouth away. He put his foot on the accelerator and took off down the road.