Page 57 of Logan (The Valeur Billionaires #1)

Chapter Forty-Four

SLOANE

I open the lid and read the inscription on the cake.

When will you tell her about me?

What the hell? Is this aimed at me? Tell her about whom?

I sit on the chair and stare at the cake for long minutes before I notice the text is signed. The letter “G” stands out small at the bottom, and recognition hits me like a punch to the stomach.

G for Georgina. This is Logan’s ex-girlfriend, the one he said is blackmailing him. I look at the sentence on the cake again. Anger simmers beneath my skin at her audacity. She didn’t send this for no reason. She intended for me to see it. I’m sure of it.

I stare at the cake for long minutes before deciding to take a shower and clear my head.

“Sloane? You here? ”

“Hey, babe. I’m in the shower. I’ll be right out!” I shout back.

“Want me to join you?” he asks, this time his voice sounding right behind the closed door. Temptation tugs at me, the urge to lose myself in him nearly overwhelming.

I consider his offer for a moment, almost giving in, but we need to talk, and I have to know what happened with his ex, the conversation with his family. And I need to know what’s going to happen with me. With the future of both of us before anything else, and sex won’t help me get answers.

I steel myself, pushing down the desire unfurling in my core.

“No, I’m coming out now. We need to talk.” I dress and exit, finding Logan in the kitchen.

He’s staring at the cake on the table, the muscle in his jaw ticking. His face is pale. Tension radiates off him in palpable waves, his body rigid and still.

“Logan?” I say on a breath, and he raises his gaze to me, a storm raging in his eyes. Anguish and fury battle for dominance in the blue depths, the force of his emotion stealing my breath.

“I swear there’s nothing to tell. I didn’t touch her.”

He thinks I believe her bullshit?

“Sloane, believe me, I wouldn’t lie to you.”

I approach, stand on my tiptoes, and pull him into a kiss. I pour all my love and trust into the slant of my lips over his, trying to soothe his distress. “As much as I’d like to torture you, and make you beg, it’s too cruel, and I love you,” I whisper against his mouth.

“What?” Confusion furrows his brow, hope warring with uncertainty in his gaze .

“I understood right away what Georgina was trying to do. I wasn’t worried for a moment.”

Logan runs a hand through his hair. “You didn’t believe her?”

“No. I know you. She’s just trying to separate us. What reason do you have to go back to her when you have me?” I raise a challenging eyebrow, a smile playing at the corners of my lips.

“What reason, indeed?” He pulls me to him and presses me against his body, his tongue invading my mouth and tasting me, his hand cupping my ass and his fingers already probing between my legs. Heat floods through me at his possessive touch, need pulsing between my thighs.

A wave of warmth spreads in my stomach, and for a moment, I imagine him tearing my clothes off and fucking me right here on the table.

I tug at his hair and demand more from him, more of him, more... More everything. I arch into him, grinding against the hardness straining his zipper, desperate for friction.

He breaks away from me, his chest rising and falling, his lips swollen from the kiss. I want to pull him back to me and forget the world. Desire fogs my brain, narrowing my focus to the man in front of me.

“Wait.” He cuts off my fantasies. Reluctance tinges his voice, his eyes dark with arousal.

“What?” I try to catch my breath and return to reality.

“You said she’s trying to separate us.”

“It’s pretty obvious. She wanted me to open the box and see her message.”

“But how did she even know we’re together? We told no one.”

“Your brother knew.”

“He would never tell her. I trust him with my life.”

“So, maybe Johnny told her?”

“They don’t know each other.”

“They didn’t know each other,” I emphasize. “But I also never thought Johnny would spread a video of me. He’s not who or what I thought he was. What if they’re collaborating?”

Logan twists his mouth. “Two crazy exes collaborating. I think even in your romance books, they wouldn’t think of something like that.”

“In my books, there’s always a happy ending.” Wistfulness aches in my chest at the thought, a desperate yearning for our own happily ever after.

“We’ll have one, too,” Logan promises, caressing my cheek. “But I don’t think Johnny filmed that video. He admitted to everything except the filming. I don’t think he would lie about that.”

“So, who filmed it?”

Logan’s jaw tightens, a fire igniting in his eyes. “I don’t know yet. But I swear, I’ll move heaven and earth to find out.” His hand slides down to grasp mine, our fingers intertwining. “My team is on high alert. If that video so much as flickers online, we’ll stamp it out.”

A bad feeling rises inside me, but I push it down and nod. Logan said he’ll take care of it, so I need to trust him.

“What happened at Valeur?” I ask, steering the conversation to safer ground.

“I resigned. The video has been deleted from all servers, and the board will never see it. No one will see it. But I don’t intend to continue working there in any case.

It was never my destiny. As I told you earlier, I want to start a company on my own, start something new.

Something that will do good in the world.

And I want your brilliant mind by my side.

What do you say?” Hope and excitement light up his face, his eyes shining with the promise of a future together.

My breath catches. “I can’t work for you again, Logan. I won’t.”

A slow, knowing smile spread across his face. “Work for me? No, that’s not what I’m proposing at all.” He brings our joined hands to his chest, pressing them over his heart. “Your innovation, my business savvy. Equals in every sense. Partners in the truest meaning of the word.”

The world tilts, everything crystallizing into perfect clarity. Laughter bubbles up, pure elation spilling from my lips. “Yes,” I whisper, the word heavy with dreams finally within reach. “God, yes.”

Logan pulls me close, our heartbeats synchronizing. His next words send electricity coursing through my veins. “You can make your ideas come true. No one will stop you.”

I pull back, searching his face. There’s no hint of patronizing, no trace of doubt—only fierce belief in me, in us, in the future we’ll forge together. For the first time, I feel the full weight of my potential.

“No,” I correct him, squeezing his hands. “ We can make our ideas come true. Together.”

Logan’s eyes light up, a mixture of pride and awe that mirrors my own emotions. “Together,” he agrees, the word a vow.

I beam at him, my heart soaring in my chest. Whatever challenges we face, we’ll face them together.

Always.