She shook her head and said again, "Sorry."

Clearly disgusted, he smirked. "You can keep your secrets, Sue. If you have another guy calling you, hey, we don't have any agreements, right? We're not even having sex anymore. Is that why?

You've found someone else?"

What? That's what he thought? She laughed at the absurdity of it.

Eyes narrowing with menace, he crossed his arms. "That's funny?"

"Well...yes. A little."

"Glad I could amuse you."

Wow, he really did sound angry. "I'm sorry."

He muttered, "Fuck." Then with just as much annoyance, he said, "Stop apologizing already."

She approached him. "That wasn't another man."

"Then who was it?"

Blast. She'd really gotten herself into a corner. "I mean, it was a man, but not in the way you're thinking."

"What other way is there?"

She made a split decision. A good way to test him would be to give him just a tiny taste of information-and watch how he reacted to it. "My brother."

Chagrined, he took that in, then smiled. "Oh." After an awkward moment, the smile turned into a laugh.

"Shit."

She tipped her head, gauging the sincerity of the sound. "Now you think it's funny?"

"Considering I was jealous, yeah."

"Jealous?"

"What did you think?" Taking her by surprise, he kissed her, quick and light.

"I didn't know you had a brother."

Jealousy was outrageous and sort of endearing. "We don't see each other often."

"How come?" As if it didn't really matter, he took her hand and led her to the couch. "You're not close?"

"It's not that. We're actually very close. We only have each other. But he doesn't live around here."

"You lost your parents?"

She nodded. "A very long time ago."

Solemn, he cupped her face. "You never told me."

"Because it's not an uplifting story."

His thumb brushed her cheek while he studied her face. "I'd still be a good listener."

He seemed so sincere, so sympathetic, that she wondered how a few truths would hurt. She'd never had anyone whom she could confide in. Only Rowdy.

But no one knew the details of their background, so it wasn't information Logan could use against her-even if he was a threat, which she didn't believe.

Out of necessity, she'd learned to be a good judge of character.

Logan didn't feel like a bad guy to her, not in any way.

"My brother and I grew up in a trailer on the riverbank." Memories crowded in: days spent swimming, playing in the mud; Rowdy teaching her how to fish, and how to fight; sunburns and late nights camping out and watching the stars. As kids, they'd had some good times-just not enough. "My parents weren't...great. Neither of them kept a job, and they drank too much. My brother and I were pretty much left to raise ourselves."

"Damn." Appearing genuinely hurt for her, he took her hand. "What's the age difference between you and your brother?"

"Just three years." She couldn't help but smile. "But he's so alpha, way more outgoing than I am, you'd think there was a bigger age span."

"Alpha?"

Mega alpha. She smiled at Logan.

"He's pretty fearless, and too daring for his own good."

Logan stilled, then lifted her hand to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. "How did your folks die?"

"Just a dumb car wreck. Dad was driving, but they were both drunk. There were a total of about six cars involved, but luckily no one else died."

Though she'd tried to keep a physical distance between them, she found herself leaning on Logan's shoulder, accepting the arm he put around her and the kiss he pressed to her temple.

"How old were you?"

"Fifteen. Young and dumb and..."

Vivid memories settled over her, making her heart heavy, her chest tight.

"Unprepared for social services to take me away."

"Shit." He turned her face up to his.

"That's what happened?"

She nodded. In a mere whisper, she confided what only Rowdy knew. "It scared me so badly, I spent two days crying. I didn't want to go to a foster home. I didn't want to lose my brother."

Logan's strong arms closed around her, holding her tenderly, protectively.

"Of course not. No young girl should be put in that position."

"My brother took care of it." He took care of me.

"How's that?"

Much as she enjoyed Logan's embrace, his warm attention and especially his caring, she put a little space between them. The more she depended on him, the more she wanted to, and that was a dangerous path to go down.

Rowdy wasn't wrong about that.

"He knew they wouldn't let him be my guardian, so he packed us up and we ran off together."

Disbelief, and maybe a little pity, showed in Logan's expression. "An eighteen-year-old and a fifteen-year- old?"

She nodded. Rowdy had promised her that they'd never be separated, and he'd done his best. But despite all his efforts, too many promises had been impossible to keep.

Introspective, too quiet, Logan stroked his hand over her head, down the length of her ponytail. Finally he asked, "He got a job?"

"We both found work wherever we could." They'd learned to be pretty tough, too. Out of necessity, they'd stayed in cheap, sleazy places. Danger abounded, so Rowdy taught her how to defend herself.

But more often than not, he followed up whenever he found out anyone had hassled her. Guys learned to leave her alone unless she showed an interest. And even then, Rowdy never missed a thing.

He'd started hovering, and to this day, he kept a quiet vigilance over her. There wasn't much she did, there wasn't much she thought, without Rowdy knowing.

"Must have been really rough."

Logan sounded far too maudlin, causing her to smile. "We survived off a very limited budget. But it wasn't all bad. I looked at it like an adventure. My brother sort of made it seem that way.

He'd tell me that we were free, independent, that we could do anything, be anything." Remembering so many different times that Rowdy had been there for her, she grew somber. "We didn't have a lot, but we had each other."

After a long stretch of silence, Logan spoke. "I'd love to meet him sometime."

That'd never happen. Not in this lifetime. "Maybe someday," she hedged.

She sat back to look at him again. "But now you know I'm not talking to another guy. I don't even know any other guys that I'd want to talk to, or who'd be all that anxious to talk to me." She bit her lip but had to admit the truth. "You're the only one I'm interested in visiting. I promise."

Logan's gaze went to her mouth and then back to her eyes. "I'm glad that I'm here, with you."

But for how long? A man like Logan would quickly grow discontented with celibacy. Maybe after her brother checked the GPS and found out Logan was safe, she could resume a real relationship with him. If she told him everything, how would he react?

Would he understand? Would he help to keep her cover?

Would he want her enough to live with the convoluted lie of her life?

Pepper realized they were sitting there watching each other in a taut silence. She'd gotten way ahead of herself, so she faked a yawn. "I need to get going."

Instead of trying to dissuade her, Logan nodded. They stood together, and he walked her to the door.

"Sue?"

"Hmm?"

His hand slid around her skull, holding her still. "I could really use a good-night kiss right about now. I promise it'll be that and nothing more."

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, but... "Me, too."

It felt different, the slow, gentle way his mouth moved over hers, just as hot, but now somehow more personal. As he lifted away, he said, "I'll work tomorrow, but I'd love to share dinner again."

"My turn to cook," she said. And because she couldn't stop herself, she kissed him again, quickly, then not so quickly. It'd be easy enough to segue into the bedroom, to get carried away one more time...

Again, Logan ended the kiss. "Soon as you're ready, honey, let me know." He touched the corner of her mouth, put his forehead to hers. "The second you give me the word, I'm as willing as any man can be. Until then, I'm doing my best not to push you. But much more of that, and I'm going to forget myself."

So noble. So incredibly considerate.

"Thank you." Smiling from the inside out, Pepper stepped out to the hall.

"Good night, Logan."

"Good night, Sue. Sweet dreams."

Like a true gentleman, he stood in the hallway watching over her until she got into her apartment.

Closing the door, choking on a resurgence of hope, Pepper hugged herself. If she couldn't have a normal life, she at least had this, now, with Logan.

It was more than she'd learned to expect.

And maybe it was far more than she deserved.

CHAPTER NINE.

A LITTLE MORE THAN A WEEK later, Rowdy sat in the parking lot of the bar, his laptop in his lap, disbelieving the results of his GPS tracker. Every day he'd wanted to check it, yet day after day, he'd put it off.

Pepper seemed so damned hopeful that he hadn't wanted to burst her bubble by grabbing solid evidence off the tracker any faster than necessary.

Neither did he want to check the damn thing too soon, thereby missing something important.

He'd kept a close watch on things, waiting to attack if Logan Stark made the wrong move, while hoping he wouldn't.

He knew he couldn't put it off any longer, so while his sister sat all cozy with the bastard, watching a movie and eating pizza, he'd retrieved it.

With dread, Rowdy had anticipated how he'd break the news to her, how he'd explained that she'd been used...

Now, with the results right there in front of him, it looked as if he might not have to. Logan Stark had gone shopping, to various establishments in the area to eat or get a quick drink, back to his construction site only recently and to the apartment building.