Chapter 136

The high society party was set for Saturday night, so Hazel arranged the appointments for her hair and makeup stylists for earlier in the afternoon, with Logan set to pick her up at 6pm sharp.

Now that she had her own apartment, she had everything done there.

The hair and makeup stylists worked in a blur, then a third stylist helped her into her dress. They helped me select the right pair of expensive shoes that they brought, that Logan must have already paid for. Then they accessorized with a pair of diamond drop earrings and a matching necklace that dipped down between my breasts teasingly.

They left at 5. In their absence, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to sit and wrinkle my dress. I was afraid to move too much, for fear of messing my hair or makeup.

What did other people do in this in-between? Or maybe I hadn’t timed the appointments correctly?

Unsure, I stood in my kitchen, worriedly watching the clock until at last it struck 6, and a knock sounded on the door.

I rushed to answer it. There, Logan stood in an expensive, fitted tuxedo. His hair was slicked back, his chin freshly shaven. My mouth started watering, seeing him. He was always handsome, but right now, he looked like a present all wrapped up just for me.

Logan’s gaze dropped from my face down to my breasts, then to the rest of me.

“Hazel… God…”

“Good?” I asked. I held my arms out a little farther, to show off the dress. He’d seen it before at the store, but he’d been so distracted then, I doubted he’d even remembered it.

He wasn’t so distracted now. In fact, he was staring in earnest.

“Yeah…” He looked back up at my face, staring right into my eyes. “You’re beautiful, Hazel.”

I flushed down to my collarbone and maybe beyond. All my life, Natalie had been the one to receive the complements. So beautiful and perfect. Poor Hazel, so dumpy and plain in comparison.

Maybe even Logan thought that once, when he’d been so blinded by Natalie that he couldn’t see beyond her.

Not anymore, though.

Right now, I was the only one he could see.

He stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind him, all without breaking his gaze from me.

I didn’t move from where I stood, letting him come closer. He stopped mere inches from me, not quite touching. My skin prickled, begging for the feel of his skin to mine. I licked my lips, asking for a kiss.

He started to lean in, granting my wish.

“My makeup,” I whispered, remembering it at the last minute. My willpower was flimsy at best, when faced with his kiss. But those stylists had worked hard. I didn’t want to trash their hard work, even if it was for one perfect kiss.

“I’ll be careful,” Logan said, and that was more than enough for me.

His lips pressed down onto mine, gently at first but with quickly growing insistence. I sighed against him, and he licked his tongue into my mouth.

His hands slid around my waist. Mine went to his shoulders. I started to clench my fingers, but he pulled away just to scold me, “No wrinkles now…”

He was teasing, but I took the warning seriously. We’d have a hell of a time explaining faults like that among these high society people who constantly seemed to be searching for any imperfection to mock and scorn.

With them in mind, I eased back from Logan.

“I didn’t mean we had to stop,” he said, disappointment clear in the dip of his voice and the slump in his shoulders.

“Later,” I promised. “If things go well.”

That seemed to placate him. “Later, for sure.” He smiled at me. “Did I get some of your lipstick on me?”

I looked closely, but it didn’t seem so. For good measure, I lifted my hand and wiped at his bottom lip gently with my thumb. Before I pulled back, he kissed the pad of the digit.

“Logan…”

“I know I don’t,” he said. “The makeup artists you hired use only the best. I made sure of that.”

Just how much effort did Logan go through behind the scenes to make sure this evening was perfect for me?

I lower my hands, feeling pleased and foolish at once.

To help ground myself, I reminded us both of the night before us. “We should go over the rules.”

“Again?” he groaned.

I gave him a flat look, with no real heat behind it. “After this display, it seems like you might need to be reminded.”

He smirked. “Fair enough.”

I held up my hand and counted off on my fingers. “No touching. No kissing. No longing looks. No pet names. No informal names at all.”

“Baby. Sweetie,” Logan said. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he slid into the space behind me, pressing his front to my back. “I’m just getting it out of my system now.”

I rolled my eyes while secretly enjoying every second. It helped take the sting off some of the previously agreed-upon rules.

“It’s best if you don’t talk to me very much at all,” I said. “I’m not sure you can manage any of this.”

“I do at work, don’t I?” He kissed behind my ear. I didn’t have the heart to ask him to be careful of my hair.

“Sometimes,” I said. “Don’t forget the kisses in your office, or that display in the elevator…”

I meant it jokingly, but something about the words made Logan go cold. Slowly, he dropped his arms from around me and placed some space between us.

Confused, I turned to him, poised to apologize for whatever accidental slight I’d made. “Logan…?”

“Just trying to focus,” he said, his gaze off to the side somewhere, no longer on me.

I pushed down my disappointment. He was probably right to act this way. We needed to keep our wits about us tonight to make a good impression and not give away too much about our personal lives.

“My parents and grandfather will be there tonight,” Logan said.

I nodded. I’d met them once before. I think I could handle that encounter, if they even deigned to speak with me. I knew from experience that this evening, I was likely to be ignored by everyone.

Even, unfortunately, Logan.

Down on the street, Logan and I enter a limousine.

“I’d prefer to drive,” Logan explained, “But this is the standard.”

As the car brought us closer, we both tensed up some. I couldn’t help my knee from jumping. Logan stared hard at the window.

“Ready?” Logan asked, as we arrived at the venue.

I nodded.

If I had been on his same social level, it would have been courteous for me, as the woman, to exit the vehicle first. As it was, Logan was the only important one in this car, so he was the first to step out.

Unbelievably, this event had a red carpet walk up to the front of the art museum, where the party was to occur. Photographers, reporters, and some cheering fans and onlookers lined each side of the carpet, with handlers guiding the members of high society through.

“Stay close to me,” Logan whispered behind him to me, then moved forward into the flutter of flashing lights and glamor.

I followed in his shadow, ever just out of frame of the photos.

Eventually, when we finally made it through the front door of the museum, I nearly collapsed in relief.

“So far so good,” Logan said, not looking at me, though I occasionally saw him glancing, as if to make sure I was nearby. He turned toward the main event, and cursed. “Or not.”

I followed the length of his stare toward where the bulk of the party was taking place.

There, right by the front entrance to the banquet hall, was Dylan.