Twisted Fate by Summer Cooper

15

Logan

Logan was lost in his office the next day. He wanted to spend time with the girls, but he had to handle problems at work that needed his attention. Financially, he could sell the whole business right now and have enough money for several lifetimes, but that wasn’t what he ultimately wanted. He liked what he did, he liked employing people, and producing new and innovative self-defense products. Things would calm down now that Zoe was home with them, and maybe he’d find a way to balance all of this. After all, it was the age of technology.

Once the girls were older and more independent, he’d have little to fill his time with anyway, so he’d find someone to stand in as he’d done in California and cut back on the time he spent on work for now. They needed his attention right now, as did Keily. She was shaken by her mother’s visit yesterday, although she seemed relieved at the same time.

She’d told him it was a final break with her past when he went in to visit her the night before.

“She took so much from me, Logan, not just money. My childhood, who I was, who I wanted to be, and did it all for a nasty habit that she won’t get help for. It’s better she’s gone, for good I hope.” Keily was on her bed, arms around her knees again, as if to protect herself from any harm her mother could cause, rather than relaxed as she’d been the last time he was in her room.

“That’s all I need to know, then. You don’t want her in your life, or the lives of our girls, that’s fine with me.” He didn’t add that his own parents hadn’t even bothered to email him back when he’d sent them one set of pictures. He’d stopped contacting them once he realized no reply was coming. There was no point in trying, they just didn’t care and that was simply how it was.

“They have Rosa and Violet, as well as Avery and Judith. That’s enough.” Violet had forced a smile but the pain behind that smile still tugged at the strings of Logan’s heart.

His thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell going off for a second day in a row. Even Rosa and Violet didn’t ring the doorbell anymore. They knew they were welcome and just came in, usually straight up to the nursery. If it was that woman again…

He muttered under his breath about asshole parents and how he’d never be like that with his own daughters as he walked out of his office to answer the door. When he saw Keily’s mother, dirtier than the day before, her hand clutching at the doorframe with dirty black fingernails, Logan cringed.

“I will call the police if you do not leave, right now.” He said, not realizing he was repeating Keily’s words from the day before.

“I just wanted to talk to you. You’re my baby’s man, right?” Heather, that’s what her name was, he remembered now, tried to elbow her way in past him but he stood firm.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m her man or her gardener, madam, you aren’t wanted here. You were told that yesterday.” He glared down at her tiny frame, her gray eyes, Keily’s eyes, haunted with insatiable need and full of hungry greed. Not Keily’s eyes at all, he thought, these were the eyes of nothing but avarice.

“But listen, I just need a couple of thousand dollars, to get back to Florida you know? Keily broke my heart yesterday, you know, and I just need a little bit to get me by. I’ll pay you back.” The words rushed out of the dark-rimmed lips, probably a lack of oxygen, or damage from her drug habit, Logan noted without pity. This woman had made Keily the girl she was, had turned her into a snotty little snob, and had taken so much from her. He had no pity for her at all.

“No, leave.” Logan nodded his head towards the cheap car outside the door and looked back at her dispassionately.

“But I never tried to hurt her, you know? I don’t know what she’s told you, but I made her who she was. I made her a queen.” The woman stood a little straighter, but the weight of decades of drug abuse soon pulled her back into a slouch. “I made her who she was.”

“I know, I remember how you turned a bright, charming, friendly young girl into a malicious, snotty, young woman that sneered at those she thought were beneath her. I saw how you pinched her at school assemblies, when she didn’t want to strut and preen for an audience and only wanted to go home. I remember one particular incident where she threw up, because she was sick, and you slapped her and made her come out on the stage anyway. We all saw it, Heather. All of us, but you were so oblivious you didn’t realize that. I know now you were probably too high to notice, but we did. So don’t play innocent, proud mother with me. You’re anything but. Now go, before I really lose my patience.”

“But, man, I really need some cash!” Heather almost screeched, losing her patience. “That bitch owes me for all the money I spent on her.”

“Oh, you mean the money you stole off of her? Let me tell you now, Heather, I know what you did. You will never, ever come near my daughters, you will never corrupt them, touch them, or anything else. I will not give you a dime and if you were never to contact us again, that would be awesome. So, I’ll ask you once again, as politely as I can, to fuck off.”

“Fuck you, whatever your name is. Logan, that’s what Joe said it was. Fuck you, man, and fuck that bitch too.” Her ugly face twisted and for a second Logan thought she was going to spit at him. She seemed to realize that would be the worst mistake she could make when she looked him in the eye.

“Nope, don’t do that you ugly witch. Now, for the very last time, goodbye. And good riddance.” Logan closed the door in her face and turned around to see Keily on the stairs. He started to speak, to apologize, but she just smiled with a nod and turned around to go back to the girls.

He decided he’d talk to her about it later, for now, she looked pleased and he’d leave it at that. He went back to his office to finish up the business tasks that needed his attention the most and then went into the nursery.

Keily was asleep on the couch with Zoe on her chest and Avery had Zinnia, rocking her back to sleep in a rocker. Logan went to Zara’s crib and looked down at his daughter. She wasn’t asleep and her eyes latched onto his. Something about the way she looked at him reminded him of something and then he remembered pictures of himself that he’d seen as a child. Maybe the girls did have some of their daddy in them after all.

“That’s my girl.” He said as he picked her up and put her against his shoulder. “How are you, sweet pea?”

He left the nursery with her and walked around the house, just walking to spend time with her in a room that wasn’t the nursery. He found the housekeeper in the kitchen, happily making dinner for the adults in the house.

“Oh, can I hold her for a minute?” Judith held her hands out and Logan handed her over. “Which one is this?”

“Zara, the ever so serious one.” Logan cooed at the baby as she blinked at him from Judith’s arms. She was so serious, but then she broke the moment by sticking her entire hand in her mouth. “Maybe not always so serious.”

“Maybe not, Logan. My goodness, they’re all so beautiful, I have to say.” Judith brushed the back of a finger down Zara’s silky skin, pleased when Zara followed the finger. “I can’t believe there’s three of them.”

“Believe me, there are three of them, and we know it when they all start crying at the same time. She’ll start fussing soon too. She knows there are two sisters and if they’re not close enough for too long, they kick up a huge fuss about it.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Judith cooed before she handed Zara back to her father. “Thank you, but I have to get back to this sauce or it will burn.”

“Any time, Judith. I’m going to take her back up to her sisters now.” Logan snuggled Zara against his shoulder, his hand over her head, and went back up to see Keily awake and feeding Zinnia.

“She woke you up?” Logan asked and watched as Keily shifted the baby from one breast to the other.

“She woke us all up; Avery is feeding Zoe.” Keily blinked and her eyes went out of focus for a minute. “I think I need more naps today.”

“When she’s finished you should go and lie down.” He answered immediately, wanting her to have what she needed.

“I might just do that.” She replied and leaned back, Zinnia still happily feeding away.

Her eyes came up to his for a second, a promise there, but then she looked down at the baby in her arms and the look vanished. Had that been desire he saw there? His heart thundered in his chest, but he turned away. Now wasn’t the time, not when the babies needed her.

He left the room, scenarios playing in his mind as he headed for the shower, a refuge for the last few weeks. He’d had so many fantasies about her in that shower, but he’d never tell her that. When he was feeling a little less stressed, Logan got out of the shower and put on a clean pair of black sweatpants and a black t-shirt.

By the time they’d had dinner and the world was dark once more, Logan’s fantasies were back in his head. She’d looked at him the way she used to, before he broke her heart, over dinner, and there was hope at last. She was thawing towards him and it was showing. He was about to go to his room when she came out to the hallway, her hair damp on her shoulders, a thin cotton nightgown all that hid her nudity.

Yeah, that doesn’t help, he thought as he glued his eyes to hers. If he stared at her breasts, she’d probably get offended. She’d just fed the babies and they weren’t as round as they were before that final feeding of the evening, but they were still delectably firm and her nipples darker than they were before she got pregnant. The round nubs were clearly visible beneath the cotton, hard peaks that drew his gaze, no matter how hard he tried to look elsewhere.

“Logan?” She called out to him and he walked over to her when she leaned back against the wall. “Come in for a minute?”

“Sure.” He answered and followed her like a lost puppy. He didn’t even blink when she closed the door and walked up to him, her fingers walking up his chest.

“Thanks for today. My mother, I mean.” She looked up into his eyes, her eyes on his lips. “It meant a lot to me.”

“You’re welcome.” He breathed out, instantly hard and ready for her but not willing to make a move, in case he scared her off.

She perched on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. He forgot how to breathe as her soft lips found his and her breasts pressed into his chest. “I shouldn’t do this, but I can’t help myself.”

The words were whispered against his lips before she pressed deeper and her tongue also pressed into him. His hands settled on her hips to hold her snugly against his body, where he wanted her, soft and giving in all the right places. His tongue came to meet hers and he inhaled the clean scent of her so close to him.

Desire flared into life, uncontrollable, unexpected, and all he could do was let her have whatever it was she wanted from him. Her right hand came down, slid beneath his shirt to the flat plane of his stomach, down to his hard cock, before she squeezed him ever so slightly.

Logan groaned into her mouth, ready to turn her around, push her against the bed, and fuck her, but he’d read about the operation she’d had, about the time it would take her to heal and how the surgery might affect her. He had to be gentle, when and if she initiated sex. This might not be the beginning of sex, no matter how much she wanted it. It might be a whimsy, or her hormones, or something else that would make her step away from him.

He’d let her lead, but while her hand was cupped over him, pressing into him in a hell located somewhere between pleasure and pain, he didn’t really think all that much. He just enjoyed the soft feel of her breasts against him and the cherry taste of her tongue on his.

“Fuck, Keily, don’t stop.” He groaned when she pulled away enough to push the top of his pants down to grasp him fully. He thought he’d come in her hand, and he might have if he hadn’t handled himself earlier in the shower.

“I’m not going anywhere.” She whispered before she pressed her lips back to his.

Memories flooded into his mind, Keily on her knees, his cock down her throat, or beneath him in his bed, over him on that couch when they went on vacation all those many months ago. When the girls were old enough to not need them every moment of the day, he’d have to take her back to that island paradise, he decided.

“I want you, Logan.” She whispered as she left his lips to kiss a trail down his neck.

She was about to drop to her knees, her lips already open for him when Avery knocked at the door.

“Keily, I’m sorry but Zinnia has a little fever. I thought you’d want to know.”

All thoughts of sex and pleasure flew out of the window. Their daughter needed them.

“Sorry,” Keily whispered as she stood back up and threw a robe on.

“No, it’s fine. Zinnia needs us.” Logan said, but he really wanted to shout obscenities as he took his hard cock in hand and pushed it back into his pants. He took deep breaths until it went down and then turned to open the door. He saw the indecision on her face as thoughts flickered around in her mind. He could actually see the moment she changed her mind about where she wanted this night to go.

Tension and frustration built inside until it almost ruptured, but he only allowed himself to clench his fists. Keily looked at him at last, the uncertainty still clear to see. She wanted him but for whatever reason, she was still holding back. All he could do was breathe in to calm himself down and let it go.

“Go on to bed, Logan, I’ll see to her,” Keily said as she left her room and headed for the nursery.

Not tonight then, he knew, but soon. Very soon, he hoped as he headed for the shower once more.