Twenty
“What mansion are we in again?” Logan asked. It was an honest question. Callie had already dragged him to half the mansions in Newport, and he had started to lose track of time and place. The view in each house was more or less the same, nothing but a bunch of dated interiors preserved in some kind of weird homage to a time that had long since passed, a time when titans of industry competed with each other by building bigger houses. The Rockefellers and Vanderbilts building seaside temples to their own wealth instead of trying to start nonprofits and pass laws. Whatever house they were in was particularly impressive, Logan admitted to himself. His footsteps echoed against the stone floor and walls of the hallway, and he felt a cool draft rising up one of the dozen stairwells that led to all the roped off sections of the mansion. Houses this large had their own climate. Regardless of time of year, they always had that same chill in the air.
It would have been one thing to actually explore the house, to wander from room to room, just him and Callie. Maybe alone they could have had a feel for what these houses had truly been like, but on their tour they could barely see anything past the throngs of tourists ahead of them. At least at the end of the line there was no one to push them forward.
Logan had been back from DC for two days. Since his return, he hadn’t heard a word from Jack. He hadn’t gotten the expected angry call from his father about minding his own business. Either way, he had given it a shot, and, honestly, he held a hope that the process stalled a little while longer. He could have bought himself more time by letting the bill stall out, but eventually Callie would have to leave. He knew the day would come when she got called back to DC, and he’d rather help her move forward than hold her back for his own selfish reasons.
“The Breakers. This is the second to last one on our itinerary, and the last one is really just for lunch. We started at Marble House. Then we went to Rosecliff, and now we’re here.” Callie cleared her throat. “Are you even listening? You’re the one who said it would be nice to give me the authentic Newport experience.”
“I didn’t expect the authentic experience to involve quite so much walking, waiting or stairs,” Logan said.
“Oh come on, after all we’ve done, what’s a few stairs?” Callie joked.
“You know, we have a mansion of our own to sneak around. We wouldn’t have to wait around or join a group. We could just go. I could even find some way to make the whole thing even more memorable than last time. We won’t even need the rain storm.” Logan didn’t want to tell her that he had been dragged to these houses again and again when he was younger or that his father was a large donor to the Preservation Society of Newport County, which owned the mansion they were walking through. Logan probably could have arranged a private tour of The Breakers if Callie had asked, but he didn’t want to seem like he was showing off, and he was enjoying how much she seemed to enjoy being a tourist.
Callie blushed at the mention of their first time together. “I think we’d be better off keeping ourselves in public. I wouldn’t want to have another lapse of judgment like that again.”
“If you call that a lapse in judgment, I’d hate to know what you call the rest of our time together,” Logan joked.
“Temporary insanity?” Callie said.
“Eh, if the shoe fits.” Logan said. He laughed and added, “I take exception to the temporary part, though. I guess it doesn’t matter. If we weren’t already crazy, this slow-moving tour might just do the trick.” He looked around to see if there was some way to duck away from the tour and strike out on their own.
“Hey, you’re not exactly one to judge,” Callie said. “If you were left to your own devices, I don’t think we’d ever leave bed.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Logan replied.
“You really have a one track mind, don’t you?” Callie teased. “If I weren’t here, you’d probably be trying to pick up one of these tourists.”
“Good to know we’re on the same page,” he said. The rest of the tour had started moving again. All he had to do was wait for a moment and he and Callie would be alone. He scanned the area around him to look for a good place to duck away with her for a moment.
***
“There’s only one tourist here I’m interested in, and I’m looking at her,” Logan said.
“Hey, I’m here on business, remember?” Callie said. Sometimes she felt like Logan had an invisible switch and that the tiniest thing could throw it from fun to impossible without her even noticing. She looked around. Was he really going to try this?
“I thought you were trying to convince me that you came for business and stayed for pleasure,” he said.
“Either way, I’m not a tourist even if I like to do touristy things every now and then.” She placed her hand between herself and Logan, anticipating his next move.
“I should probably confess that I used to like these houses,” Logan said. “When I was little, I tried to convince my dad to buy Rosecliff. I don’t think I really understood why he couldn’t, but he wouldn’t have even if he could. This kind of place is too ostentatious for him. He much preferred his cottage.”
“Oh yeah, his humble, enormous vacation home.” Callie looked up at the cavernous room around her. She was convinced that some guide would come by and whisk them off the premises before they could finish the tour. Despite her fear of getting yelled at, she wanted to linger in the house and just enjoy the sheer magnificence of its carved stone rooms. In some ways, she felt the same way about her time with Logan. She knew it was too good to be true, but she wanted to hang onto it as long as possible. “It would have been nice to have a place like this though. Imagine the parties they must have had here.”
“I’ve been to a few of them,” Logan said with a shrug.
“I meant a hundred years ago, sprawling, over-the-top masquerade balls and lavish celebrations. It must have felt like its own world. I think that’s what I meant when I said I wanted the authentic Newport. I wanted to get away from everything for a while.”
“We’re about as far away from the real world as you can get, but we can go farther away if you’d like.” Logan said. “Pick a place, anywhere in the world, and we’ll go there, just you and me. We could start over and build a life together.” Logan got quiet and looked out over the water. “Then again, if you can’t relax in a place like this, I don’t know where you could ever relax.”
Callie looked up at the double height ceiling above her. “Before I came here, I asked for a vacation, a chance to escape all the responsibility I’ve had to take on over the past few months. Instead of a retreat, this trip has been the complete opposite, I’m confused about everything, I have to juggle my obligations to you and to your father and my company, and I don’t know what to do. I know I said I’d do my best to win you over, but the Veronica thing is really wearing on me.”
“Don’t let it. I’ll find a way to make sure she doesn’t mess things up for you. I wish you had told me about this sooner. I could have done more to prevent her from coming here. I could have done more to help you,” Logan said. He paused for a moment and looked around the room. He placed his hands on Callie’s shoulders and smiled. “I have an idea. Why don’t you let me plan out the next date? I actually had been hoping to do this last weekend, but now it seems too perfect to pass up.”
“What do you have in mind?” Callie asked. “I don’t know if our definitions of perfect have much of an overlap.”
“Oh come on,” Logan said. “Do you really think I’d tell you? You’ve been holding your plans over my head ever since I told you to win me over. Callie, you’ve won. I’m in. Now it’s my turn to plan a few things for you. What do you say?”
Callie sighed. “Can I at least have a clue what you’re thinking?”
Logan flashed that wicked smile again and let his eyes linger over her. He shook his head no. She felt a little rush every time he looked at her like that. He was up to something. “Come on. At least give me a hint,” she said.
“It’s surprise,” he replied.
“You have to give me something to work off of.”
“That would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it?” Logan said. “It’s funny to see what it’s like with the shoe on the other foot, isn’t it?”
“Well, speaking of shoes, I need to at least know what to wear,” Callie said. The tour had started moving again, but she stood her ground. She needed at least some idea of what Logan wanted. Attire would be a good start toward figuring it out.
“Something classic,” Logan said. “You can do that right?”
“It’s an odd choice of words, but sure.”
“Oh, you’ll need something to keep your hair from blowing around.”
“If you think you’re going to bring me skydiving forget about it,” Callie said.
“I promise it will be something much more grounded than that.”
“You have to tell me more than that,” she said.
“Fine. I’m fairly certain that this is everything you’ve been waiting for.”
“We’re losing the tour,” Callie said. She turned and grabbed hand to lead him back to the pack, but Logan surprised her by pulling her back against himself and kissing her hard on the lips. She leaned in and returned the kiss, closing her eyes and slipping her tongue against his. Even as she kissed him, she smiled.
“That’s kind of the idea.” Logan looked up and down the hall and pulled Callie into a stately bedroom. He shut the door behind them. He looked around quickly at the four post bed, the armoire, the desk, and then he saw the open door to the bathroom. “Come on,” he said.
“Someone will notice,” Callie whispered as Logan kissed her neck. He let his stubble brush against her delicate skin. He ran his hands down over her hips and slid one under her dress, and she let out a small gasp of excitement.
He kissed her neck and whispered, “Remember how you said you wished you could take more risks and do what you want?”
“I wasn’t exactly talking about this, Logan,” she said. “We should wait.”
Logan leaned in, “but do you want to wait?”
Callie shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t.”
***
This was such a bad idea. Callie trembled as Logan slid his hand under her dress. His touch was incredible. Damn it, she didn’t want to want him at the moment, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted him, and she wanted to feel dangerous, sexy, all of it. She wanted to be bad. Logan kissed her neck. With each kiss, Callie felt her inhibitions fading away. What was the use in trying to hold back? After all, they had already snuck off the tour and hidden themselves in a room.
“Right here?” she asked. “In a bathroom? Are you serious? What happens if someone notices that the door to the bedroom is shut?” She looked back at the closed door and tried to convince herself not to go through with it. She caught Logan looking at her in the mirror. His eyes traced over her with that look of complete desire. She loved the way he looked at her, loved the way it made her feel. Maybe she could give in to her desire for just a minute. “Just kiss me,” she said. Logan leaned in and kissed her neck, and she felt that rush again. A kiss wouldn’t do. She wanted more. She wanted him. She couldn’t believe she was actually considering going through with this. She looked at herself again in the mirror. Her cheeks were flushed, and she looked beautiful in the kind of way makeup never made her feel beautiful. When she looked at Logan, he was still focused solely on her. “Two conditions,” she said. “One, you try to keep things quiet.”
“Done,” Logan said. “What’s the second condition?”
Callie shook her head. “Don’t put me in this situation again.”
“Why not?” he asked. His grin let her know he had a good idea of what she meant.
“I’ll just give in again,” she said with a sigh.
“That doesn’t sound so bad to me,” Logan said. He ran his hands over her hips, sliding them slowly over her thighs, teasing her with his deliberate motions.
Callie closed her eyes as a shiver of anticipation ran up her spine. “That’s the problem,” she said. “Now stop talking and kiss me again.”
It was harder to keep quiet than Callie had imagined. Over the rustling of clothes, the sound of zippers and buttons, each breath, each kiss, each touch had its own distinct sound. Her fear of getting caught intensified every impulse and feeling. She trembled as Logan slid his hands across her bare skin and pressed himself against her again. She tried to concentrate on her own breathing, but her excitement was too great. Then she heard something else, a creak from somewhere outside the room.
“I think someone’s here,” she whispered.
“It’s just the house,” Logan whispered back, “besides, the door has a lock for a reason.”
“I’m serious,” Callie said. She placed her hand over his mouth and listened again.
The next sound was unmistakable: two sharp knocks and a man clearing his throat. Callie froze. She felt like her heart would give out from the anxiety. This was bad, and suddenly being bad didn’t feel so good.
***
Callie had been in rooms like this before, small basement offices, with tiny windows hidden behind hot water pipes and support beams. She looked around and tried to figure out what was happening. A row of metal filing cabinets lined one wall, and a small steel desk was pushed against the wall underneath the room’s one small window. These were the rooms that weren’t on the tour, where people did whatever they needed to do to keep everything running smoothly upstairs. She placed her ear against the door and tried to listen to Logan’s conversation in the hall. He had insisted on talking privately with the manager of the mansion, while Callie had been too mortified to even make eye contact with the poor tour guide who had found them in the bathroom. This was bad. This was so very bad.
It didn’t sound like Logan was doing much better in the hall. Callie couldn’t make out the words, but the sounds told the story just fine. Logan, trying to sooth the manager and talk his way out of the mess, and the manager, shouting at him. When the two stopped talking, and the hallway went silent, Callie realized that she might not just be in trouble, she could be facing charges, trespassing, public indecency, and who knew what else. With every passing moment, she managed to think of some new offense, some new charge for the police to levy against her. She wasn’t a bad girl, she wasn’t even close to it. She was the kind of girl who color coded her class notes, and now she was screwed, completely, royally screwed.
She tried to keep her calm. In some ways, it was easier to be the fixer than the idiot who created the problem in the first place. For the longest time, she had never understood how her clients got themselves into half the situations they did. But now, she understood it well. Impulse control. One moment with the wrong person and poof, you’ve crossed the line and broken the rules. She walked over and placed her ear agains the door. Where the hell was Logan? Callie started to pace back and forth across the room, thinking of every scenario, every possible outcome of the situation.
If she didn’t figure out something soon, she would have to make a phone call back to DC for help. After all, who does a fixer call when she has completely screwed up? Callie could already imagine the lecture Amy would give her if she called. There was no good way out of this. She just had to let her guard down and go along with one of Logan’s whims. Callie stopped for a moment and straightened her posture. This wasn’t Logan’s fault. This was her fault. She had been sent to Newport because Logan couldn’t behave himself, and what had she done? She had gone right along with him, holding his hand and skipping along down the road to ruin. If she had to call for help, she’d never live this down. Callie Haven: the fixer who couldn’t get past a tour guide. Besides, she had no signal. She couldn’t make a call if she wanted to. It’s a sign, she told herself. Just remain calm and everything will work out.
After what felt like hours but was probably only five minutes, the door opened, and a woman stepped inside.
“You must be Ms. Haven,” she said. The woman’s gray hair was pulled back in a bun, and her glasses sat low on the bridge of her nose. She gave Callie a stern look, waiting for her to acknowledge that she had done something wrong.
Callie made sure to look the woman in the eye, if only for a second. “Yes, I am. I’m really sorry. I think there has been a misunderstanding.”
The woman warily shook her head in disapproval. “Please, come with me.”
The woman’s look made Callie wonder if this kind of thing happened often in the mansion. “Where’s Logan?” she asked.
“Mr. Harris has been escorted outside. I believe he’s occupied at the moment.”
Just get me outside, Callie thought. The path back up from the basement seemed longer and more circuitous than before. The hallways seemed narrower, and Callie wondered if the woman was even leading her outside. Finally, the woman stepped up to a door and pushed it open. Bright light poured in, and Callie wasted no time stepping outside. Callie had never been so glad to feel the sunshine on her face. Now all she had to do was leave as quickly as possible. She decided to start walking without Logan. If he wanted to find her, he’d find her.
Instead, she saw him. He was on the phone, pacing back and forth on the back lawn. He looked worried, confused. Callie wondered if it had to do with them getting caught or if it was something else. Shit. Veronica. Had the story broken? If that story had gotten out, Callie was screwed. She had one job: keep Logan out of the press until the bill passed, and instead of doing her job, she had let herself run around with him like some teenager in love. How could she have been so stupid? Her phone was ringing nonstop in her purse.
Callie looked down. Fourteen missed calls. Six voicemails and one text from Amy: CNN. Now! “What the hell?” Callie said. This was bigger than some sex tape. What was going on?
By the time she looked up, Logan had crossed the lawn and was standing by her side. “Hey, you’ve heard, right?” He mustered a half-hearted smile.
“No. All I know is that in the hour that I was locked in a basement, something happened.”
Logan placed his hand on Callie’s arm. “I thought you’d be thrilled. The bill passed.”
Callie gasped. “It what? How?”
“Looks like Jack came through. Someone must have talked some sense into him.”
Callie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. A dozen different emotions had knotted themselves up inside her. She was elated and confused, relieved and worried all at the same time. She felt so many emotions but had only one thought. “Logan,” she asked, “what happens now?”
He grinned. “Now I can get you in as much trouble as I want, and no one will care.”
“‘I think I’ve had enough trouble for one day,” Callie said. She looked over her shoulder at the mansion. “What did you say to get us out?” she asked.
“I didn’t say much,” he said. “I just wrote a very large check.” Logan motioned towards the path back off the grounds, looking for any hint of the security guards who had so kindly escorted them out of the house. “Now, let’s go before I have to write another.”