Free Her Soldier Protector by Soraya Lane Page B

get up and start to pace. But then that would have only drawn attention to herself, and the whole point of sitting quietly and wearing her brunette disguise was so no one even thought to glance twice at her.
    She still didn’t know exactly what she was going to say to Logan, but starting off by thanking him for being so honest with her about her management team, and then apologizing for disappearing on him, was probably a good starting point. The guy had been nothing but nice to her, and he deserved an explanation about what had happened between them, and for how right he’d been about Billy. He’d set her on the right path and he deserved to know.
    “Candace?”
    She turned when a deep, low voice said her name. Heat flooded her body when she saw Logan, standing with his hands jammed into his jean pockets. There had never been any doubting that he was incredibly sexy, but seeing him in the flesh again brought back a certain amount of memories that she’d been trying to repress. Namely his mouth, his rock-hard abs, his...
    Candace jumped up and kissed Logan on the cheek, stamping out those thoughts. “Hey.”
    “Wow, you look...” He hesitated. “Different.”
    “I don’t know if I’m fooling the hotel staff, but so far no one has bothered me,” she admitted. “It won’t last long, but I’m planning on checking out first thing tomorrow.”
    Logan went to sit down, then stopped. “You want a coffee?”
    Candace glanced at her empty cup. “Another chai latte would be great.”
    She watched as he crossed the room to order, rather than waiting for someone to come and serve them, before sitting down across from her. It was all old-fashioned decadence here, and big, strong Logan looked the completed opposite of the hushed-toned men in suits walking past. He looked relaxed in his jeans and shirt like only a confident, strong man could, and she liked that he had such a strong identity of who he was—or at least that’s the impression he gave.
    “Logan, I want to apologize for just leaving in the middle of the night. It wasn’t something I’ve ever done before, and you deserved better.”
    She struggled to read his expression, but he didn’t look angry.
    “I’m not going to lie. I was looking forward to waking up to you beside me,” he said, staring into her eyes and not giving her one chance to look away. “But I get it. You saw the photos and you freaked.”
    Candace took a slow, deep breath. So he thought she’d seen the pics on her phone and run. That she could live with. If he’d thought she was stone cold and happy to just bed him and then leave? Not something she’d have been able to swallow very easily.
    “I’m just sorry that I dragged you into all this. You were just trying to be nice to me and...”
    “Stop,” he said, reaching for her hand then hesitating, like he’d acted before realizing what he was doing. “We had a great evening together and it didn’t end quite as planned. We’re both grownups and we never made any promises to one another. Right?”
    So in other words he didn’t care? Candace pushed aside the feelings of hurt, the emotion clogging her throat. This was why she wasn’t a one-night stand regular, because she couldn’t handle the blunt truth of a man being honest with her.
    “Logan, I wanted to thank you for being honest with me,” she started, reminding herself of the real reason she’d wanted to see him. “You were more honest with me than anyone has been in a long while, even though you hardly even knew me.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “This sounds serious.”
    She nodded, waiting for their coffees to be placed in front of them before continuing. “I fired my manager and pretty much everyone else I’ve been working with, and I’m going to take some time off before rehiring anyone. Just be me for a while.”
    He sat back, gaze fixed on her. “What changed? Why now, after all this time?”
    Candace tried to relax, but with Logan staring at her she was