Would he understand? Would he help to keep her cover?

Would he want her enough to live with the convoluted lie of her life?

Pepper realized they were sitting there watching each other in a taut silence. She’d gotten way ahead of herself, so she faked a yawn. “I need to get going.”

Instead of trying to dissuade her, Logan nodded. They stood together, and he walked her to the door.

“Sue?”

“Hmm?”

His hand slid around her skull, holding her still. “I could really use a good-night kiss right about now. I promise it’ll be that and nothing more.”

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, but… “Me, too.”

It felt different, the slow, gentle way his mouth moved over hers, just as hot, but now somehow more personal. As he lifted away, he said, “I’ll work tomorrow, but I’d love to share dinner again.”

“My turn to cook,” she said. And because she couldn’t stop herself, she kissed him again, quickly, then not so quickly. It’d be easy enough to segue into the bedroom, to get carried away one more time…

Again, Logan ended the kiss. “Soon as you’re ready, honey, let me know.” He touched the corner of her mouth, put his forehead to hers. “The second you give me the word, I’m as willing as any man can be. Until then, I’m doing my best not to push you. But much more of that, and I’m going to forget myself.”

So noble. So incredibly considerate. “Thank you.” Smiling from the inside out, Pepper stepped out to the hall. “Good night, Logan.”

“Good night, Sue. Sweet dreams.”

Like a true gentleman, he stood in the hallway watching over her until she got into her apartment.

Closing the door, choking on a resurgence of hope, Pepper hugged herself. If she couldn’t have a normal life, she at least had this, now, with Logan.

It was more than she’d learned to expect.

And maybe it was far more than she deserved.

CHAPTER NINE

A LITTLE MORE THAN A WEEK later, Rowdy sat in the parking lot of the bar, his laptop in his lap, disbelieving the results of his GPS tracker. Every day he’d wanted to check it, yet day after day, he’d put it off.

Pepper seemed so damned hopeful that he hadn’t wanted to burst her bubble by grabbing solid evidence off the tracker any faster than necessary. Neither did he want to check the damn thing too soon, thereby missing something important.

He’d kept a close watch on things, waiting to attack if Logan Stark made the wrong move, while hoping he wouldn’t. He knew he couldn’t put it off any longer, so while his sister sat all cozy with the bastard, watching a movie and eating pizza, he’d retrieved it.

With dread, Rowdy had anticipated how he’d break the news to her, how he’d explained that she’d been used…

Now, with the results right there in front of him, it looked as if he might not have to. Logan Stark had gone shopping, to various establishments in the area to eat or get a quick drink, back to his construction site only recently and to the apartment building.

The apartment where he spent an inordinate amount of time with Pepper.

Sitting back, restless on many levels, Rowdy thought about things. He and Pepper had survived by being cautious and by trusting instincts.

For some reason, despite the data before him, everything about Logan screamed a warning. But maybe that was Rowdy’s own prejudice.

How could any red-blooded guy be so attracted to Pepper for so long? Most times when Rowdy saw her, she looked like a drudge, like a plain-Jane with no redeeming features to draw in a man.

Being a guy, too, he understood how the male mind worked. At first he’d written off the attraction as a challenge for Logan. After all, Rowdy himself had recently suffered the same type of challenge with the little waitress. He’d gone back to the bar a few times, but he hadn’t seen her again, which accounted for part of his restlessness.

But Logan saw Pepper damn near every day, so that reasoning didn’t make sense.

If he’d hoped to score with her…no, Rowdy hated thinking along those lines. Besides, that’d be impossible without Pepper blowing her cover, and she’d never do that. In so many ways, she was more protective than he could ever be.

So what the hell was happening between them? It made no sense. Logan had to be working an angle.

As a safeguard against all threats, Rowdy had furtively kept up with his past, with Checkers and with any info he could find on Morton Andrews.

For all intents and purposes, it was business as usual. Crimes committed without proof of personal transgression. Accusations that didn’t pan out. Cutthroat business that expanded by the day.

Ripe frustration among a select few in the police force.

But no mention, ever, of Rowdy or Pepper Yates. It seemed they’d been forgotten. Perhaps even the most corrupt villains gave up on loose ends after enough time had passed.

Could it maybe all be over?

Could Logan Stark really be no more than an honest guy looking for companionship?

Rowdy snorted. Before he made that leap, he wanted some assurances. And that meant breaking into Logan’s apartment, going through his things and seeing what he could turn up.

He’d uncover the man’s entire background, one way or another.

And he’d get started tonight…as soon as he got Pepper to cooperate.

* * *

FEELING LIKE A HUNTED MAN, Logan paced his small living room. Pepper would expect him in another hour. She didn’t realize that her personal style of platonic socializing had left him tightly strung.