Free Her Soldier Protector by Soraya Lane Page A

she’d arrived to quietly slip into her room, the place had been buzzing with photographers. There was only one explanation for it, and she was going to be giving him his marching orders and sending him packing before the end of the day, after she asked him whether he was responsible for the letters she’d been receiving.
    Then she was going to figure out how to apologize to Logan for running out on him in the middle of the night, before figuring out what to do for the next few days. It was time for her to take a break, figure some things out, and find a beach to relax on where she wouldn’t be disturbed. She didn’t have any more concerts scheduled on this tour, and she’d been too busy for too long without taking time out for herself, punishing herself with work to avoid dealing with everything that had happened.
    Her hotel phone rang but she ignored it, uninterested in whoever it was. She’d made it clear she didn’t want to be disturbed, and she meant it.
    Candace padded barefoot back into the bathroom and let her hair down, running her fingers through it and then working some product into the roots. She would do her hair and makeup, then deliver the verdicts that she’d decided upon.
    It was time for her to take control of her own life, her own destiny, and that started today.
     

CHAPTER SIX
    “L OGAN , IT ’ S C ANDACE .”
    He stopped dead, flicking his phone off speaker and pressing it to his ear instead.
    “Candace? I thought you were long gone.”
    There was silence for a moment, and Logan had to check that they hadn’t lost the connection. The last thing he’d expected was for Candace to call.
    “I was wondering if you had time to meet up,” she asked, her voice low.
    “Business or pleasure?” Logan cringed the second the words left his mouth. Pleasure hadn’t exactly been the best phrase, given what had happened between them.
    “Coffee,” she said. “I’m at a different hotel, just down the road from where I was before.”
    “I can’t believe you’re still in Australia.” Unbelievable. Almost two days later and he’d been sure he’d never hear from her again, especially when she’d never answered her door when he’d known she was in her room that next morning.
    “You’re still here, in Sydney, right? I mean, I thought you might have already left for the Outback.”
    “I leave tomorrow,” he told her. “I’ll head to you now, if that’s okay with you?”
    “Sure. Meet me in an hour at my hotel. I’ll be in the café, and I’m wearing a short brown wig.”
    Logan said goodbye, zipped his phone into his pocket and tapped his thigh as a signal to Ranger. It would take him at least fifteen minutes to run home if he sprinted, but given that he was about to cut his workout short, he wasn’t complaining. Ranger bounded along beside him and Logan tried not to overthink the phone call he’d just received.
    He wasn’t going to even bring up what had happened between them unless she did, and he was most definitely not going to offer to help her or take her out again. She had a bunch of professionals at the ready if she needed them, and he was done with the army and with working any kind of security, at least for now. From next week onward, he was just Logan Murdoch, civilian. He was going to spend time on the land, forget about the future for a while, and figure stuff out.
    Or at least that was the plan.
    He blanked everything out of his mind, focusing only on the soles of his shoes as they thumped down on the pavement. Logan concentrated on each inhale and exhale of breath, the pull and release of his muscles, his dog matching his pace as he ran directly at heel.
    Exercise was how he kept in control, how he stayed focused, and it was the only constant he’d had in his life for a very long time. Candace might have rattled him, but he was going to stay in control and not let anyone distract him. And that included her.
    *
    Candace’s legs were so fidgety she was fighting the urge to