“Last night…was magical. Having you there, beneath me, soft and warm.” His fingers were lightly tugging at the top button of her blouse, his eyes leaving her face, drifting down over her body.
“Logan…please…” But she didn’t know if please meant stop or continue. Logan apparently took it as license to keep going. He moved to the second button, undoing that one with ease.
“And then, later…” He leaned forward, his lips against her breast. Melody exhaled, a shiver coursing through her body.
“Ye taste so good, Melody. Better than anything.” His tongue followed the curve of one breast, dipping between them before tracing back up the other one.
“Better than Macallan?” Even to her ears her voice sounded breathless.
“Aye. Better than the Macallan. But just as potent. I could drink you in and be just as drunk.”
“Only no hangover?” Her fingers were wrapped in his hair, holding him to her as he nuzzled her skin.
“No hangover.” He looked up at her, his eyes hooded and dreamy. “You really need to leave now.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh. Really?” Her body was singing with heat, a deep throbbing low in her belly. The small fire had turned into a much larger flame.
“If you dinna get off my lap, you’ll not be leaving anytime soon, Melody. I’ll take ye right here, at the table, if need be.”
Melody sighed, reaching down to button her blouse. “Then I’ll take a rain check. Same chair, same table, tonight. Deal?”
“Deal.” The smile on Logan’s face took away some of the regret she felt, for leaving him and for leaving behind the image of him taking her there, at the table. Her knees were weak when she finally stood up.
“Call me.” And she left the suite before she lost her willpower.
* * *
“Victoria, add a meeting to my calendar. Today, two o’clock. It’s for the MacKenzie-Ashton case.”
Victoria looked up from the papers on her desk. “Okay. Is Mr. MacKenzie going to be here?” Victoria’s face lit up momentarily, before her professional demeanor returned.
“Yes, he is.” Melody sighed. This is getting tiresome.
“Did you see the change of attorney notification? Isn’t that…odd? Do you know why that happened?”
Melody cocked her head, pursing her lips, as she regarded Victoria for a moment. “Yes, I did see it. No, it’s not really odd. It does happen, for a variety of reasons. And no, I don’t know why in this case.”
“But we…” Victoria started to speak, but her phone rang. She turned away, picking up the receiver.
Once in her office, Melody closed the door behind her. She shuffled around on her desk until she found Logan’s file. The change notification papers were still clipped inside, where she’d left them. And still not date stamped, which Victoria should have done. Okay. That’s the odd part, Victoria…how do you know about them if you’ve apparently never seen them?
Melody shook her head. “I’ll deal with that…and her…later. First…”
She scooped up the phone, dialing Joe Hunter’s office. They spoke briefly and when Melody hung up, she did a little dance in her chair.
“Okay, Ryan. I think you’ve finally out maneuvered even yourself.”
For the rest of the day, Melody anxiously watched the clock, waiting for the appointment with Claire and Logan. In her heart she knew Logan was telling her the truth, that whatever Claire had to say about the child…Logan’s child…wouldn’t change anything between him and Melody. But she knew that wasn’t always the case.
Children changed everything. It could be no other way. And Melody knew that no matter how torn she was, how upset she became over this, standing by Logan was only thing she could do, for him, for their relationship. And welcoming his child into their…into her life…was what she would do. If it came to that.
But that didn’t mean she had to be happy hearing about it, especially from Claire and especially now. Melody knew this meeting was going to be difficult for all of them and there was nothing she could do for Logan today, other than be his attorney. At least not until she left the office and returned to their hotel.
Their hotel.
It came almost as a surprise to realize she’d been living with Logan almost as long as she’d known him. The last time she’d gone back to her apartment for yet another change of clothes, the place had that smell unused places get, of dust and stale air. Her apartment phone’s answering machine was full and she listened with a guilty conscious to the messages, making notes of who to call back.
Then she’d packed another bag of clothes, picked up her mail from downstairs and gone back to Logan. The apartment no longer felt like home. The suite at the hotel had become their haven, their refuge. Melody felt the heat rise in her cheeks. We’ve pretty much initiated the entire suite, at least every horizontal surface.
She wondered though, when this was over, the trial settled, Claire behind them—or at least no longer harboring secrets—where they’d go, where they would live. Logan talked about taking her to Scotland, but they’d never really talked about concrete future plans. Would we live together?
Melody gazed out the window, idly wondering what life on the road with Logan would be like. Would she like being in a new city every few days? Would they get on each other’s nerves, constantly moving from place to place? She’d never really traveled, never been much further than upstate New York, not counting her mad dash across the Atlantic to Scotland.
With a shake of her head and a rueful smile she brought herself back to reality. There were too many things in front of them right now. There would be time to sort out the future once they had the present under control. Or I hope that’s the way it works.
Promptly at one-thirty, her office phone rang. Logan was in the lobby and she walked past Victoria and took the elevator down to retrieve him. When they came back to Melody’s floor, Victoria had her head down, reading papers. At the sound of Logan’s voice, her head jerked up.
“Oh, Mr. MacKenzie, hello. Melody, I’d have gone down…you didn’t need to…reception didn’t call.” Victoria turned to her phone, frowning at it.
Melody waved her hand dismissively. “No problem. I wasn’t busy.” Logan walked into her office and Melody turned back to Victoria.
“There will be a Claire Blackwood joining us in about half an hour. Can you bring her up?”
Victoria nodded and Melody closed the door. Logan was standing by the window, looking down on the street below, worry and anxiety casting shadows across his face. He was dressed in a conservative black suit and white dress shirt, the same suit he’d worn to the first meeting she’d had with him here at the firm.
It seemed so long ago that she’d sat across from him, so angry and hurt, believing he’d taken advantage of her, used her for a one-night stand. But they’d come so far in such a short time. Melody’s heart ached to reach out and comfort him, touch him…hug him, but she didn’t. Instead she took a seat at the work table, opening the case file.
“Logan. Come sit down.”
He turned from the window and pulled out the chair across from Melody. “I suppose there’s a no touching rule in force today?” He shook his head. “I should have taken ye this morning, when I had the chance.”
Melody smiled. “And I should have let you. But…” She held up her page of notes. “I wouldn’t have had a chance to follow up on this.”
“Oh, the mysterious scribbles, the page torn from my notebook, I notice. What was the big secret?”
“Actually, it turns out it’s something quite simple, something that I think Ryan Marshall, in his haste to undermine me and my career, overlooked.”
“And that thing is?”
“He’s still a partner at Avery Marshall and Shaw.”
Logan shook his head. “I’m not the lawyer here. But I get the sense you’re telling me he can’t represent Ashton if he’s still a partner here?”
“Exactly. If he’s still practicing with our firm, it’s not possible. Especially since he was involved in your case, and had, at one point, appointed himself lead attorney.”
“So, does this mean my case goes away? What about Ashton’s counter suit?” Logan had his elbows on the table, anxiously leaning forward, tension rolling off of him in palpable waves.
“We can ask to settle out of court, if Ashton agrees. I suspect he won’t though.” Melody shrugged.
“But it means Ryan cannot represent Ashton. It would keep Ryan from having your case thrown out of court because of our…because of us.” A wave of guilt washed over Melody. And that saves my professional skin, but doesn’t do much for your case, Logan.
“We’ll need to sit down tonight and make some decisions. Your case is still viable, still important. But if Ryan represented Ashton, there’d be no hope in winning. He knows too much…about too many things.”
There was a knock on the door and Logan stood the same time Melody did. The door opened and Melody drew in a sharp breath.
Victoria ushered in a beautiful girl, tall, with flaming red hair that fell past her shoulders in soft waves. Dressed in jeans and simple blouse, she looked fresh-faced, the girl-next-door, only from Scotland. Melody tried to recover her composure and pasted what she hoped was a professional smile on her face and extended her hand.
“Hello. I’m Melody Lawson. I represent Mr. MacKenzie in…I’m Mr. MacKenzie’s attorney.”
The girl wasn’t even looking at Melody. Her eyes were fixed on Logan. She took another step into the room, walking past Melody’s outstretched hand.
“Logan. You’re here. I didn’t think…I mean, I know you said…but…” Claire’s voice broke and she reached for the back of the chair in front of her, steadying herself.
Melody glanced at Logan, whose face was unreadable. He hesitated a moment before pulling a chair out for Claire.
“Claire. I canna say I’m glad to see ye, but you’re here. So let’s do what we said we’d do. Sit and let Melody…let Ms. Lawson ask her questions.”
Claire was staring open-mouthed at Logan, but she sat in the chair he indicated, perched on the edge as if she were going to bolt from the room. Logan looked across the table at Melody, waiting for her to take her seat before sitting back down in his chair, back straight, shoulders tensed.
Melody tried very hard not to be intimidated by Claire’s beauty. She had never imagined what Claire would look like, and Logan had never talked about her, other than explaining who she was in the briefest of terms. The girl he had wanted to marry.
But her clear skin, green eyes and delicate features made Melody suddenly feel insecure and vulnerable. More so since she couldn’t decipher anything from Logan’s face. His expression was closed, shuttered. He’d looked that way in Scotland, when she’d finally found him, before she’d had the chance to explain about Ryan.