Chapter 172

The minute I walked over Logan’s threshold, with the door safely closing behind me, Logan pulled me into his arms and kissed me senseless.

There wasn’t much room for talking after that, as we shed our clothes on the way to the bedroom and then proceeded to test the strength and durability of Logan’s king bed.

After, when we’d cleaned up and returned to the bed to cuddle, I rested draped on top of Logan, my head on his chest. Logan idly brushed his fingers through my hair.

For a moment, I allowed myself to fantasize what it would be like to always have this. If Logan and I lived together and were married like normal husbands and their wives. This could be our bed, not just Logan’s. Every night, we could go to sleep like this together and wake up the same way.

Unfortunately, with our current circumstances, life like this just wasn’t meant to be. Not yet. I’d keep hoping and keep fighting that someday we could have this life…

But Tina’s words, her warnings, continued to rattle me. Logan’s grandfather would never accept me as Logan’s wife. Logan would be forced to sacrifice it all for me, or we’d have to hide our relationship for the rest of our lives. Either option left me very unhappy.

Desperate to think about something else, I lifted my head to look at Logan. His mind seemed elsewhere, his distant gaze locked somewhere on the wall.

“Logan?” I asked and he blinked a few times, returning to me.

“What is it?” he replied, focusing now on me.

“Where were you just now? What were you thinking about?” I asked.

“Oh…” He cleared his throat. “You probably won’t like it.”

Now, I was desperate to hear what it was. “Tell me anyway.”

“Well… I’m thinking about joining an amateur boxing league.”

Of all the things I expected him to say, that was not on the list. At all. “Do you know how to box?”

“I’ve taken some classes,” Logan said. “I can throw a punch when necessary.”

A league wouldn’t be like a class. Logan would be in the ring against an honest-to-goodness opponent who wanted to punch his face in.

I was quite fond of his face. I’d prefer it not be punched in.

Not to mention, why the sudden interest to box? Logan had never expressed interest in it before. Either I truly did not know him as well as I thought I did, or this was something new.

“What brought this on?” I asked.

Logan shrugged, jostling me somewhat on his chest. I pushed myself up onto my elbows to look at him more fully.

“There must be a reason,” I pressed.

“Why do I need a reason?” he said, looking away. The words were short and terse. Why was he losing his temper? It was only a question.

“You don’t have to get sharp,” I said.

“I don’t need to explain every little thing that I do,” he replied.

Just like that, I felt a wall shift into the space between us, though I still had no understanding as to why. Could a resentment already be growing? Logan might eventually learn to hate me if he had to continue to sacrifice.

Thinking that, I pulled back from him and crawling out of bed, went in search of my clothes.

“Where are you going?” Logan asked.

“I’m getting dressed,” I said in the same short tone he’d been using with me. “Is that alright with you?”

“No,” Logan stepped out of bed and started to follow me.

I grabbed his boxers and tossed them at him. He slipped them on as he continued to follow me out into the hallway.

“Hazel, you don’t have to do this. Don’t go. Come on.”

By now, I was too riled up for his softer tones to work. Honestly, I just wanted to go home and think this through. I couldn’t stand it if Logan was growing to hate me.

He had been acting so strangely lately, first with the junk food and now this boxing dream. Worse, his behavior was shifting, taking on this bitterness that I’d never seen in him before.

“Hazel.” He reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping me. Glancing back, I saw the clear guilt on his face. He didn’t have to say anything more; I already knew he hadn’t meant to hurt me. But that’s the way resentment like this worked. It built up slowly over time, likely without its owner’s knowledge.

For Logan’s sake, as well as my own, I needed to place some distance between us.

“I want to go home,” I said.

That was enough. He let me go.

Free from his hold, I continued dressing, then grabbed my purse and walked out the door.

Watching Hazel walk out, Logan felt powerless. He had intended this evening to be a celebration of their affections. He had wanted to make love to her until the early morning hours, so she would have no reason to doubt his desire for her, and not for Tina.

Somewhere along the way, he’d fucked it up. Hazel was allowed to have questions about his boxing. She was his wife; it made sense for her to be worried. He had no idea why her simple questions irritated him so much.

Maybe he was simply tired of answering to everyone.

Logan was born independent. He didn’t need anyone, he didn’t want for anything.

Yet constantly, he found himself under pressure from everyone around him. Everyone seemed to think that they knew better than him what he should do with his life. His grandfather, Tina, Dawn, Cameron…

Hazel wasn’t like that. Her questions had been borne out of a worry for him. Logan knew that, but it still unnerved him.

Why couldn’t he have one thing for himself?

With Hazel gone, he needed something to do with his excess energy. He returned to his room to change into gym shorts and a tank top, then made his way down to his personal gym in the basement of his mansion.

He walked right up to his punching bag and starting swinging.

Letting his anger run through him, he threw punch after punch.

He was learning to hate his grandfather. The elderly man might have been a world-renowned businessman, but he was a cold-hearted monster of a human. He didn’t care about people, only how he could use and control them to gain himself more power.

Logan was no exception. Grandfather wanted to shape Logan into the perfect heir, but only so his own legacy would live on how he wanted it. Grandfather didn’t give a shit how Logan felt, or what he cared about, or who he cared for.

For that reason, Grandfather would never accept Hazel as Logan’s wife.

Logan had thought that if he worked hard enough to prove himself, that eventually he could convince Grandfather that he was capable of making his own choices. One of those choices could have been Hazel.

But it was becoming increasingly clear to Logan that this would never happen.

Logan was going to have to hide her away forever.

Logan punched at the bag until his knuckles bled. His arms ached, begging him to stop.

He wouldn’t. He didn’t.

Inside of him, hate and bitterness festered.