If she’d shown her veneer, he would have let her be. But her unsteady words coupled with the tremble of her lip made his chest squeeze, the air bottled within.

He’d hurt her, because he’d meant to hurt her.

He was very good at what he did.

Rowan reached for her wrist, his fingers circling her slender bones and he pulled her toward him. She stiffened but didn’t fight him. If anything she’d gone very still.

“Let me see your head,” he said gruffly, bringing her hips almost to his. He lifted a heavy wave of honey-colored hair from her forehead to inspect her temple.

With one hand still in her hair, he tipped her head, tilting this way and that to get a proper look. It didn’t look too bad. She must have cleaned the wound while he’d gone to pick up Jax. The cut was scabbing, and he saw the start of a dark bruise. The bruise would be uglier tomorrow, but all in all, she was healing.

“I’m sorry I didn’t catch you,” he said, his deep voice still rough. They might not be on good terms but he didn’t like that all he did was bring her pain. “You went down hard.”

“I’ve survived far worse,” she answered, her smile full of bravado, but the bold smile didn’t reach her blue eyes, and in those blue eyes fringed by thick black lashes there was a world of hurt and shadows. Far too many shadows.

He tipped her head farther back to look into her eyes, trying to see where she’d been and all that had happened in the past three years and then he felt a stab of regret, and blame.

He’d left her out there, hanging.

He’d left her, just as she’d said.

He, who protected strangers, hadn’t protected her.

His head dropped, his mouth covering hers. It was a kiss to comfort her, a kiss to apologize for being such an ass, and yet the moment his mouth touched hers he forgot everything but how warm she was and how good she felt against him. Her mouth was so very soft and warm, too, and her chest rose and fell with her quick gasp, the swell of her breasts pressing against his chest.

He had not been celibate for the past three years. He liked women and enjoyed sex, and he’d found pleasure with a number of women but Logan didn’t feel like just any woman—she was different. She felt like his. But he didn’t want to explore that thought, not when he wanted to explore her, and he slid a hand down the length of her back, soothing her even as he coaxed her closer, heat in his veins, hunger making him hard.

He wasn’t going to force her, though. She could push him away at any moment. He’d let her go the moment she said no, the moment she put a hand to his chest and pressed him back.

And then her hand moved to his chest, and her fingers grabbed at his shirt, and she tugged on the shirt, tugging him toward her.

The heat in his veins became a fire.

He deepened the kiss, his tongue tracing the seam of her lips until she opened her mouth. His tongue flicked over her lower lip and then found the tip of hers and teased that, and then the inside of her upper lip, teasing the delicate swollen skin until he felt her nails dig into his chest, her slender frame shuddering. He captured her hip, holding her close, wanting nothing more than to bury himself in her and make her cry his name again...

She wasn’t like any other woman. He’d never met another woman he wanted this much.

The kiss became electric, so hot he felt as if he was going to explode. He didn’t want to want her like this. He didn’t want to want anyone like this. He didn’t want his control tested, didn’t want to feel as if he couldn’t get enough, that he’d never have enough, that what he missed, needed, wanted was right here in this woman—

He broke off the kiss and stepped back. He was breathing hard, his shaft throbbing but that was nothing compared to what was happening in his chest, within his heart.

She was not the right one for him.

She couldn’t be.

He didn’t like spoiled, entitled society girls, and he didn’t respect women who’d never had to work for anything...

“One of us should be with Jax,” he said curtly. “Make sure she’s safe in case there’s turbulence.”

“I was just on my way back to her,” Logan replied turning around and walking away, but not before he saw the flush in her cheeks and the ripe plumpness of her pink lips.

He nearly grabbed her again, wanting to finish what he’d started.

Instead he let her go, body aching, mind conflicted.

There was no love lost between them. They couldn’t even carry on a civil conversation but that didn’t matter if he took her to bed. They didn’t have to like each other. In fact, it might even be better if they didn’t like each other.