Sighing, he scrubbed at his scalp, trying to shift the dull headache. He was a little puzzled that she didn’t blame him for her not getting the job. That was a total turnaround from what she’d told him the night of Jenny’s sleepover.
And she thought he was perfect. Hah. Perfect for what? He certainly wasn’t perfect boyfriend material. And definitely not perfect husband material. A shudder ran through him at the thought. Look at Rory and his two marriages. The first had been, from all accounts, a trip to hell. His mother and father had lasted until six months after he’d been born, and Rory reckoned it had been the most miserable six months of his life. And while his second marriage had lasted much longer, and neither seemed inclined to seek a divorce, they spent the absolute minimum of time together, usually with the Atlantic Ocean between them. He’d thought Abby was like Judith, his father’s second wife—uptight, prim and proper. But with Judith it went deep to the core. That was her true self. With Abby, it was a mere surface veneer, covering the real woman. But then, from what he’d gathered, she’d grown up thinking she had to show a perfect front to the world. Sort of the opposite of him, who’d grown up believing he had to show a tough, badass attitude.
Beneath that surface layer was the wild girl of his fantasy, but she was too ingrained in her ways to change now. She’d decided what she wanted in life and no way did he fit in. So he’d have to accept being Jenny’s father and Abby’s friend. From a distance.
Leaving her sleeping, he went downstairs and let Grunt out into the garden for a last sniff around. Once the dog was settled back in his bed, he returned to his room. He shut the door behind him, not quietly, but Abby didn’t move. And she didn’t stir when he went into the bathroom, or when he came out five minutes later, drying himself. He tossed the towel onto the chair by the bed, and slipped under the covers. Her back was to him and he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. His dick was happy to be there, but he ignored the way it stiffened against her ass.
Abby was the sort of woman you had for keeps. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the sort of man who anyone kept long-term. He’d always known that. He’d screw up somehow. Better he backed off now and let her have a good life.
Just let him have this one last night.
He breathed in the warm scent of her, loving the sense of rightness, then closed his eyes and was asleep within minutes.
Chapter Fourteen
She didn’t want to move. Abby woke up disorientated, with no clue where she was or how she’d gotten there. But she was warm, the bed was big and soft, and the body behind her hot and hard.
She snuggled backward, felt the twitch of Logan’s cock against her ass. But she could tell from his breathing that he was still asleep, and she settled again, not wanting to wake him until she remembered how badly she’d behaved.
Peeking under the cover, she discovered she was almost fully dressed, so not that badly. Though as the memory filtered back, she realized it wasn’t so much her not behaving badly as Logan behaving well. He’d been the perfect gentleman, refusing to take advantage of her. However much she’d begged him to. She burrowed her face in the pillow, but it smelled of Logan and only made her feel worse.
She hadn’t wanted to go home the previous evening. When she’d left work, she’d phoned her mum, asked her to take Jenny for the night, and then called up her old school friends and asked if they would meet her. It had been a long time since they’d gotten together. She’d let her old friendships slide. It had been Mel and Sue who had organized her eighteenth birthday celebration, so they were sort of responsible for her relationship with Logan. Though “relationship” was probably the wrong word. Anyway, it had seemed appropriate to be with them last night.
She’d been so angry and frustrated. And for the first time she’d seen things from Logan’s perspective, known what it was like for someone to look at you and make assumptions based on nothing more than what they saw on the surface. She was hanging around with Logan therefore she would make a crap detective. More likely it was because she’d said no to the chief inspector’s advances when she first joined the force, and this was payback. He was using Logan as an excuse, and the others backed him up because that was the way things worked.
Well, she was fed up with it.
She’d always been good and look where that had gotten her. Nowhere.