Risky Business (11 page)

“Where
is
Logan?”

“Something unexpected”—very unexpected—“came up.”

While Cat went to say hi to everyone else, Magdalena stayed in the kitchen, watching them. Suddenly, she didn’t want to share anything
with the family. What had happened today spooked her. Logan had come over at four, she’d thought to drive out to Queens with her…

His hair was a mess and he hadn’t shaved. Though he looked sexy all rumpled, it wasn’t his style. “I can’t go to dinner at your house. I know we planned to tell your family about us, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She’d touched his arm. “But why?”

“Teresa’s
spotting. She’s scared.”

“Did she call the doctor?”

“Uh-huh. He says it’s not uncommon. It could happen for the first trimester.”

“It happened to Paulie and Nia, too. Why are you opting out of our plans?”

“She wants me with her.”

Magdalena didn’t like Teresa’s demands at all. She started to say something, but Logan seemed so sad, she just hugged him. “Then go. Be with her.
I’ll be fine…”

Now, staring into the living room, Magdalena admitted she wasn’t as calm about the turn of events as she’d pretended to be. Was this a foreshadowing of what was to come?

“Logan Price.”

“Hi, it’s me. Teresa.”

He tried to control the sigh that rose in him. “How are you?”

“Good. Better. Thanks for staying with me Saturday night.”

“Are you still
spotting?”

“Yes. And I’ve had some cramping. Could you come over again after work?”

“I guess.” Once again, he had plans with Magdalena. “I’ll be there around seven.”

Dreading the evening ahead, he crossed into Magdalena’s office. She was at her desk, her head bent over the computer and long curls falling down her back. She looked up when he entered. “What’s wrong?”

“It was Teresa.
She wants my company tonight again.”

A quizzical expression. “Has something more happened?”

“She says she’s cramping.” He dropped down into a chair. “Can I talk to you about this?”

“Of course, you can talk to me about anything.”

“I have a bad feeling about her actions, her demands.”

“In what way?”

“I don’t know whether I’m worried about a miscarriage or worried about her
being so clingy.”

Rising from her desk, she crossed to him and sat next to him on the couch. She took his hand and held it between hers. The gesture loosened some of the tightness in his neck and chest. “The first would be a tragedy. The second you can handle.”

“Thanks for understanding.” He shook his head. “You’re so special, Mags.” He rarely called her that. “Most women would be throwing
tantrums about now.”

“Not my style. I’ll postpone dinner with Dylan.”

“You could go anyway.”

“Maybe I will.”

Standing, he drew her up from the chair. He took her in his arms and kissed her deeply. When he let go, she said, “Hmm. That makes me want to do some clinging of my own.”

“I’ll come over after she goes to bed.”

“I’ll wait up.”

Magdalena sat across
from Ana at a new restaurant in Brooklyn. Her sister had called and asked her to come out for lunch. “So, how are you doing?” Magdalena asked. “Have you made a decision about Jared yet?”

Ana sighed. Her face was pale and her eyes tired. “The decision was inevitable. I wouldn’t let him move in this week, and it was a nightmare. Opal missed school, so I missed work. Jared had a fit when I didn’t
call him about some recurring pain. So he’s moving in. There didn’t seem to be any other choice.”

“Maybe it won’t be too bad.”

“Maybe, but I doubt it.” Ana took a bead on her sister. “How about you? You aren’t happy. I see some circles under your eyes, which are never there.”

“Just busy at work.”

“I meant to ask you, did you stay with Logan during the storm? You were wearing his
clothes when you got to the hospital.”

“Yeah, by the time I realized the severity of the weather, I couldn’t get home.”

Ana got her
mother look
on. “Was that all?”

“What do you mean?”

“You seemed different that night. More together.”

To stop the tears from falling, Magdalena bit her tongue
.

Ana reached for her hand. “Oh, Mags. You never cry. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s complicated.”

“You’re talking to the queen of complications.”

So she broke down and told her older sister how she and Logan had gone to the next level in their relationship. Then what had come crashing between them with Teresa’s announcement.

“Oh, honey, that’s a tough one.”

“Tougher than I thought it would be. I said I’d stand with him through this, and Teresa said she’d
be reasonable, but she’s found a way to get him to her house nearly every day for nearly a week. I’m afraid she’s going to make more demands. Last night, she called him again, and he refused to go. She was hugely upset. They’re meeting today, but Ana, I don’t think it’s all going too well.”

“Do you want it to work with you and Logan?”

“Of course. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

“Then calm down. Don’t jump the gun. You might regret your initial decisions when they have more far-reaching effects than you could imagine.”

Cocking her head, Magdalena sat back and watched her sister. “Are you saying that’s what you did with Jared?”

“This isn’t about me. It’s about you and Logan. Hang in there, sweetie. He needs you.”

She was shocked at Ana’s response. She’d
been afraid to share her and Logan’s situation with this sister because she’d thought Ana would tell her to ditch Logan. That she’d gotten the exact opposite response suddenly made Magdalena feel better.

Using the key he’d had for years, Logan entered Magdalena’s house in a fit of temper. The familiar scent of vanilla candles scattered around the living space didn’t calm him.
He couldn’t believe what had just happened. She wouldn’t, either. He called out. “Magdalena, it’s me.”

“I’m in here.”

She waited for him in the bedroom. Now the scent was her perfume that drove him crazy. Undressed, her creamy shoulders were bared by the sheet she held up to her breasts. God, he needed to hold her. Without saying anything, he shucked his clothes and climbed in with her.
He kissed her deeply. “Hi.”

“Hi.” She put her hands to his mouth. “I don’t want to talk yet. Make love to me.”

Logan feared he wouldn’t be able to control himself, that all the emotion inside him would just burst out with her. “I’m a wreck. I don’t want to be rough with you.”

Leaning over him, she kissed his chest, then his neck, then his lips. He held himself back. So she slid out
of bed and drew him with her. He sat on the edge of the mattress, a coil of seething, dark energy. She knelt between his legs and lowered her head
.

She was gentle, too gentle. Her hands massaged him. He needed more. Then she took him into her mouth and tongued him. Finally, she went deeper, starting at the tip of his penis to the top of the shaft. Once. Twice. She used her hands, rubbing him
hard, harder, and fast and faster until he had to brace his arms behind his back to stay upright. Not long after, he raised his head and shouted the pleasure that burst out of him in strong, wild waves
.

He came back to consciousness to find her seated next to him, her arm around him, her head on his shoulder. He kissed her hair. “How did you know I needed that?”

“We’re in tune, Logan.
We always have been.”

He faced her. “I love you so much, Magdalena.”

“I love you, too.”

Slowly he pressed her back on the bed, spread her legs and knelt between them. “Your turn.”

Afterward, they lay on the pillows together. He treasured the closeness. Appreciated the release of the awful tension that had gnawed at him.

Facing each other, holding hands she said, “Now you can
tell me how it went with Teresa.”

“She’s acting crazy.”

“Define crazy.”

“She railed on me about not coming to her last night when she called. Said I chose you over her, which is true, and that’s exactly what I’d do with the baby.”

“Oh, Logan, she’s just pushing your buttons.”

“It gets worse. She wants to move in with me.”

Magdalena recoiled.
“What?”

“She wants to move
into my house. She said if I agreed, she’d know that I’d be a good father.”

“Christ, the next thing you know, she’ll want us to break up.”

He was silent. Then, “Not precisely.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“Because it is. She doesn’t want me to see you until the baby’s born.”

“What did she do when you said no?”

“I didn’t.” He kissed her hands. “Honey, she was a raving lunatic.”

“She needs help. Not concessions.” He just stared at her. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“That maybe we could take a break for a while.”

“Why would you even consider that?” Magdalena asked.

“Because she said she’s going to have an abortion if I don’t cut it off between us.”

“God, Logan, is this who you want to be the mother of your child?”

From the time Pete and Donnie Pettrone died, Magdalena had known that the world could shift on its axis in just a few hours. But she’d hoped it would never happen in her personal life. She was a practical, logical, numbers-oriented person, and she craved order. How ironic.

Two nights ago, Logan had come to her more upset than she’d ever seen him. She’d
tried to take the edge off of that anger, to soothe him with her body, and it seemed to have worked. Then he’d dropped the bomb. She didn’t begrudge him the lovemaking, since they both needed it, but she was furious at Teresa. She’d held her temper, though…

“Logan, she’s manipulating you.”

“I know that. I just don’t know what to do about it.”

“Never negotiate with terrorists.”

“She isn’t that bad.”

“Yes, she is. She’s an emotional terrorist, blackmailing you for your time and attention.”

“You said I could have that to give to her.”

“I never said I’d give you up, Logan. Never. Let me make one more point. If I was still just your friend, I would tell you the same thing. But it’s your decision.”

The rest of their night together had been tense, eating, watching
no-mind television, sleeping in the same bed. In the morning, he said, “I’ve decided to let her move in with me for the duration of the pregnancy. Would you consider taking some time apart, at least at first, to placate her?”

“I need to think about this, about what I’m willing to take from her. From you.”

He’d gotten mad. “Fine. Let me know when you decide our future.”

“I’m not the
one who’s screwing things up, Logan…”

She hadn’t seen or talked to him since. She worked from home the next day, and he hadn’t come in today. Now, alone, she pictured what her life would be like for the next months if she became a part of this whole stupid plan. Nights alone. Logan with another woman who, no matter what he said, he’d been very attracted to at one time. With her living in his
house, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what
her
next steps would be.

The buzz of her cell phone interrupted her morose thoughts. “Hello.”

“Hi, Mags. It’s Luke.”

“Hi. Did you come down early?”

“No, I’m in Binghamton. Lexy has a bad, bad cold. She’s on antibiotics but is sicker than a dog. I can’t bring her down there.”

Poor Luke. He’d been counting on this trip with Kelsey
before the next kid came. She made a sudden decision. “I’ll come there. I can take care of a sick little girl.”

“I’d never ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t ask. To tell the truth, this would be a perfect time for me to leave New York. We just closed a big deal and I haven’t started working on another. Some other things are going on that make me want to get out of Dodge.”

“Oh, God,
Mags, it would mean so much to me.”

She thought of Luke stepping in when Stash Ludzecky died. He’d been a teenager and she was a child. She still remembered him putting her to bed, holding her while she cried, watching over her until she’d grown. She told him so. And that she owed him.

“Huh. If you put it that way, then yes, come.”

Clicking off, she went into the bedroom to pack. It
would be fun to be in leggings and sweaters and slippers all day instead of business clothes. Maybe she should pack outerwear, too. If Lexy got better, she and the girls might go sledding later in the week. She cringed at the longing inside her to have Logan with her, sharing in the childcare. But he had his own child to care for now and she was on the outside. If she was going to have a relationship
with him, she’d better get used to it.

Logan hadn’t slept last night after moving Teresa into his house. At times, he thought he was crazy for succumbing to her blackmail—Magdalena was right about that—and then he’d take out the sonogram photo and tell himself his unease was worth it. He was late getting to work because he hadn’t slept well with her down the hall in the guest
room. When he opened his office door, the scent of perfume reached him before he saw Magdalena behind his desk, writing on a yellow legal pad. She looked up. Her hair was in a braid, falling over a heavy sweater and quilted vest. “I was just leaving you a note.”

“You came in casual today.”

“I’m not
in
today. I’m taking a week of my vacation.”

He hadn’t expected that. “I thought we
were going skiing at the end of the month.”

“I have more vacation, but Logan, you can’t go skiing for a week. Not with Teresa living in your house and any agreement you make with her.”

“Is that what you going away is about?”

“No, actually. You aren’t the center of my universe, you know.”

He recoiled at her harsh words. “That was mean.” Then he moved in closer. She didn’t look any
better than he did, with circles under her eyes and pale, almost translucent skin. He raised a hand, traced a mauve smudge there. “You didn’t sleep much last night, either.”