Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Rosamunde reared back as though he’d hit her, and little Rhia started to cry again.
“What? I haven’t done anything wrong. You can’t do that. She wouldn’t settle, and you didn’t answer
your phone. What else was I supposed to do? This isn’t fair.” Her voice rose to a shrill whine, which
went straight through Logan’s skull. Visions of wrapping his hand around her throat, of closing off her
air supply to make her shut up bombarded his brain, not helped by Jack piping up.
“Of course, he can’t do that, babe. You have rights. I know who you are, and I have friends at the
papers. They’d just love to know the great Logan Bryce shagged up with some bimbo while his little girl
needed him, so … argh … what the fuck?”
The imbecile’s nose gave a very satisfying crunch under Logan’s knuckles, and he welcomed the
resulting pain that shot up his hand. Rosamunde paled and screeched, which made Rhia abandon her
hold on his legs. She darted under the coffee table, hands over her ears, and Logan’s gut churned.
Fuck it, now she looked frightened of him. As for Hannah, hands on hips she glared at him, and then
grabbed hold of the box of tissues, walked over and handed them to a groaning Jack.
“Here, use those, and for the love of God, stop screeching, woman. You’re scaring the little girl.”
“I’m scaring her. He … he hit my boyfriend. How dare he? We’re gonna sue. I’m gonna fight this. They
warned me at the agency. Said he had a temper, but fuck this. You don’t get to sack me. I quit.”
Logan shrugged and stared the woman down.
“Be my guest. Don’t expect me to pay you a penny, though. You were supposed to look after her, not
use your time to have it off with the likes of him.”
He snarled the words, satisfied to see them have the required effect, because the sorry excuse for a
nanny gasped and took several steps back dragging her whining boyfriend with her. It was laughable,
really, the fuss the guy made. At worst his nose was broken, hardly that big a deal. Logan had broken
his more times than he could count in his ill-begotten youth.
Adrenaline still soared through his veins, and he wanted nothing more than to get into a proper fight
with the asshole. Not that he would. All mouth and no fucking trousers, clearly, because this Jack
almost ran down the corridor. Logan cursed at the curious bell boy who appeared from the lifts, no
doubt wondering what all the commotion was about, and slammed the door shut.
Rhia jumped, hit her head on the coffee table and promptly burst into renewed tears, while Hannah
swore under her breath. The look she threw at him made him take a step back. If he’
d thought he’d seen her angry before, he hadn’t seen anything yet. Little Hannah positively vibrated
with fury, as she got right into his personal space and hissed at him.
“Jesus, Logan, I have no idea what the hell is going on, and I’m sure I don’t want to know, but control Belonging to NôvelDrama.Org.
your temper. The poor girl is terrified. Look at her.”
Seeing Rhia cower in fear should have been an instant bucket of water over his emotions, yet the
opposite was true. It made him want to go after his unwelcome visitors and do some real damage. This
was all their fault, damn it. Hannah’s hand on his chest stalled his forward movement. Fuck, he’d had
his hand on the door handle. What the hell was wrong with him?
Get a grip.
“What’s her name?” Hannah’s whispered question got through the rage, which still had him in its firm
grip, and he shook his head to clear it.
“Rhia.”
“Okay, stay away from her and get yourself under control. I’ve got this.”
He wanted to protest, this was nothing to do with Hannah after all, but seeing her crouch down so that
she was eye-level with Rhia, and the tender smile she offered the terrified munchkin rooted him to the
spot.
Hannah reached out to touch the ear of the bedraggled looking floppy rabbit Rhia carried around
everywhere.
“Hey, there, my name is Hannah. Who are you?”
Rhia stopped crying, clutched her rabbit a little tighter to herself, and watched Hannah with red-rimmed
huge eyes.
“What’s that, I’m silly, and you can’t speak? Well, you’re right, of course, but I bet you can talk to little
Rhia here, right?”
Hannah smiled at Rhia and then made a big show of cocking her head as though she was listening to
something only she could hear.
She clapped her hands and laughed. Rhia frowned as though Hannah had lost the plot, and maybe she
had. Logan sure as hell didn’t know what she was up to, but it seemed to be working at least. Rhia’s
tense little shoulders relaxed slightly, and the death grip she had on Mr. Hoppy lessened somewhat.
“Yes, I think you might be right there. I just bet he does a grand job of looking after Rhia.” She
continued to give a good impression on listening to someone. Rhia looked over to Logan, and he
shrugged. A tiny smile formed on Rhia’s cupid mouth, and when Logan nodded, she held Mr. Hoppy
up.
“Mr. Hoppy wants to know who you’re talking to.” Rhia’s voice came out low and thready, but at least
she was talking.
Hannah sat down on the floor, giving him a tantalizing flash of her bare bottom in the process, and
Logan swallowed a groan. He should rot in hell for noticing how satisfyingly red that skin still was, and
her slight wince as her butt made contact with the luxury carpet shouldn’t please him. Not at all. Nor
should it make his palm itch to repeat that experience, before he buried himself balls deep back inside
of her. Further proof if ever he needed any that he was indeed a perverted bastard, not fit to be around
a child, like Rhia’s grandparents claimed. His mood darkened further, and he pushed those thoughts
away, and concentrated on the magic that was happening right in front of his eyes.
After everything she’d been through Rhia didn’t trust easily, yet Hannah coaxed a genuine smile from
her when she started talking.
“Ah, well, nice to meet you, Mr. Hoppy, by the way.” She reached out to take one of the stuffed animal’s
paws, and gave it a good shake. Rhia giggled, and the tense ball of emotion which churned in Logan’s
gut slowly unraveled. “I had a rabbit just like you when I was growing up. He sits on my bed at home,
and when I listen really hard, I can hear him. He was just telling me how brave your Mr. Hoppy is, and
what a good job he does looking after you. He’s worried about you though, because it’s really late, and
you should be in bed. Isn’t that right, Mr. Hoppy?”
Hannah smiled at the stuffed animal, and Rhia sighed.
“Don’t like sleeping.”
She hugged the rabbit closer, and her little bottom lip wobbled. Hannah looked toward Logan with a
query in her face, and he slowly edged closer.
“She has bad dreams.”
Rhia shuddered and nodded.
“I see, well, we can’t have that. You know what always helps me to chase away the bad dreams?”
Hannah asked as she got to her feet. She looked around the living area of the suite as though she was
searching for something. Her gaze stopped at the writing bureau, and she walked across to pick up the
pen and paper.
“I write the bad dreams down. I know you can’t write yet, but perhaps you can draw them. Once I’ve
done that I rip the paper into lots of little pieces and flush it down the loo, and bingo. They’re gone, for a
little while at least.”
She approached the coffee table Rhia was still sitting under and held out her free hand. Rhia looked
from that hand to Logan and back again, and when he smiled at her, she took Hannah’s hand and
finally came out from under that table.
“Thatt’a girl. Here, you sit right here on the couch and start drawing. I’m just gonna talk to your daddy
out there. Is that okay?”
Hannah pointed to the veranda, which afforded breathtaking views over London at night, and then
helped Rhia hop onto the settee. Seeing her tiny form on that huge, antique couch made him swallow.
She shouldn’t be here, should never have had to deal with any of that, as she bowed her head and
started scribbling on the notepaper.
“K, I draw.”
“That’s it, munchkin.” Not caring about his audience, he stepped over and dropped a kiss on her curls.
Rhia dropped everything in her hands and wrapped her little arms around his neck in a stranglehold,
which tore at his heartstrings. He didn’t deserve her love, but he would damn well make sure she was
safe.
He hugged her back, murmuring nonsense, and when she let him go and picked up the paper and pen
again, he joined Hannah on the balcony. Arms wrapped around herself to no doubt stay warm against
the cool night air, she whirled around to face him, when he pulled the doors shut behind him.
She glanced toward the settee, where Rhia’s head remained bowed over the notepad, and then fixed
her expressive eyes on him. Oh, yes, she was still utterly furious with him, and his cock jerked in his
joggers. Now was so not the time for sex, but it seemed that particular part of his anatomy had a mind
of its own around Hannah. It didn’t help his current state one iota that, with the light spilling out from the
suite behind her, she might as well not have been wearing anything
“You better have a good explanation for all this, Logan. What in the hell is going on?”