Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

MIRA

T hank goodness, Slate showed up.

Before I'd seen my brother's tall frame appear as the door opened, I'd been barreling straight toward letting Logan take me home.

Again .

I wasn't even entirely sure how it had happened. One minute, I'd been explaining why Slate and I didn't want to renew one of the subcontracts, and the next, I was practically panting at the table, my panties damp and my body aching.

How can he be so annoying and yet so hot at the same time? It's maddening!

Inhaling deeply, I put my hand up to wave at my brother. Then I squeezed my legs together, hoping that the ache would now subside. Logan chuckled, the sound low and breathy as he gave me a look that said he knew what I'd just done.

"It'll go away in a minute, I'm sure."

I sighed. "Yeah, it will. You just need to keep talking and the sound of your voice will annoy me enough that?—"

"It was the sound of my voice that got us into this situation," he said, giving me a completely unnecessary reminder of how insanely sexy it'd been to listen to him and his reminiscing .

Mercifully, Slate had spotted us and was making his way across the restaurant. He sank into his seat and immediately offered an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry I'm late. Catch me up. What did I miss?"

"Logan is going to allow us to choose which drilling team to hire."

My brother blinked back his surprise, then grinned at his friend. "Good call, man. What else?"

"We're not renewing the contract of the people who are overcharging us," Logan supplied helpfully, even though I knew he didn't have a single clue which contractor he was referring to. "Mira has also given me the rundown on the legalities we still have to take care of as well as the importance of selecting the right people for every job."

It was absolutely incredible that he was making it sound like we'd gotten so much done when in reality, he'd been staring at my boobs the whole time and had then gotten very close to making me come without even touching me.

Jeez. He really is a good businessman.

Slate beamed at the both of us. "That's fantastic, guys. And you managed to do it all without ripping each other's throats out, which is equally impressive."

"Where have you been?" I asked irritably. "It's great that you're happy with the ground we've covered, but why did we have to cover it by ourselves?"

The waiter came over and took Slate's drink order, and once that was done, my brother glanced at me. "I got a call from Mr. Stanislopoulos. Do you remember him?"

"Sure. Dad's old client, right?"

"Yep." He turned to Logan to explain. "This guy was one of Dad's first clients back when he started the consulting gig. He's been in the game ever since and we've done work for him from time to time."

"That's good for you?" Logan swigged the last of his first whiskey sour and seamlessly moved onto the next. "Why are you telling me about it?"

"Well, because he runs another deep-sea offshore rig," he explained. "He called to tell me that he, and I quote, ‘has gotten too old for this shit'."

"Mr. Stanislopoulos is retiring?" I asked, my ears ringing from the shock. "I thought for sure that he was going to die on his rig and arrange to be buried in the damn moon pool."

"I think the technical term for it is aquamation ," Logan said unhelpfully. "I'm not sure, though. I could be wrong."

"Aquamation or not," Slate continued as he glanced at each of us in turn. "He's not just retiring. He's selling his rig."

I blinked hard. "Are you serious? What about his sons?"

"None of them are interested in taking over. Apparently, they're all hardcore environmental activists now, so there's no way they're going to change their minds either."

Logan let out a heavy sigh. "Everyone is changing sides these days, aren't they?"

Slate nodded, then turned to give his full attention to his friend. "Here's the thing, though. He didn't just call to give me the news. He wanted to know if I had any eligible buyers and I put your name out there."

I spun to face Logan fully now too, seeing the surprise as it crossed his handsome face. First, his eyes flared wide open. Then his lips parted. Then he blinked far too many times in rapid succession. "You told him I'd be interested in buying it? Why? You've both spent the last week practically telling me that I had no business buying Jude's rig, and now you want me to buy another one?"

Slate chuckled. "We just don't want you getting hurt, bro. Sure, you didn't do any research before, but you're really trying to learn now and this is a huge opportunity. Obviously, I'm going to try to get you in there if you're interested."

I chewed the inside of my cheek before I couldn't hold the words back anymore. "It is a huge opportunity, Logan. I don't happen to think you should be buying another rig at the very least until you've ironed out the kinks that remain on this one. That being said, an opportunity like this one isn't going to wait for you to sort everything out. "

"Why do you both think it's such a good opportunity?" he asked curiously, definitely not dismissing it simply because it had taken him by surprise. "Is it made out of gold or something?"

"Sort of." I inched forward on my chair, an image of the old rig flashing in my mind as excitement coursed through me. I couldn't help it. Logan might not really know anything about our business, but Slate and I had been itching to get our hands on that thing for years. It had enormous potential.

"It's insanely profitable and it hasn't even been run all that well," I explained. "Mr. Stanislopoulos trusted Dad, and us, for a long time, but we had some ideas he felt were too radical and he decided to take things from there by himself."

"With the implementation of the improvements Mira and I have discussed over the years, the rig could be restored to its original glory, and whoever the owner is when that happens could be a very, very wealthy man."

Logan looked into my eyes, then Slate's, then up to the ceiling as he thought it over. "You guys are making it difficult to say no."

"I've never steered you wrong, have I?" Slate asked. "Realistically, I've got a few other buyers who would love to get their hands on that rig. There's no pressure. I just put your name in the running because I didn't want you to miss out, but I haven't created any expectation with him and you're not under any obligation."

Logan's blue eyes crinkled at the corners, but he wasn't quite smiling. Instead, the expression he wore suddenly made him look of mischief and mirth, those eyes twinkling and his mouth tipped up into a near smirk.

"Thanks, but I didn't really need your reassurances. I trust you, and if you think this is something I should look at, then I'll start my due diligence tomorrow. I'm not scared of new adventures, bro. You don't have to treat me with kid gloves."

"Nah, kid gloves are too big for you when it comes to the oil business. You need to be treated with toddler gloves," I said playfully. "Maybe baby gloves, albeit not newborn gloves anything. "

Logan chuckled and rolled his eyes at me. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Any time." I grinned—until Slate shot me an irritated look and jerked his head a little, like he was trying to tell me no without shaking it outright.

"You've got a lot left to learn in this business," he said to Logan once I fell silent. "There's no denying that, but you've already made a good start and you've got Spiers Consulting on your side. If this is something you're interested in, together, we can make it happen."

Logan brought his gaze to mine. "Why is he still trying to sell me on this? I've already said I'm not afraid. Did I sound insincere when I said those things?"

I shrugged. "Not to me. To me, you sounded pretty sincere, but I don't know. Slate has that big brother thing about him. He needs to double and then triple check everything, and then he'll still feel responsible if something goes wrong."

"True." A slight smile touched just the very corners of his lips. "What about you? Do you think I can do this? Because Slate is making me feel like he dangled the cookie without any intention of actually letting me have it."

I gave him a grave look, enjoying this back and forth between us—to the exclusion of my brother—far more than I should've been. Strangely, I found I quite liked feeling like he and I were on the same side. "Slate likes dangling cookies but then making sure that you'll brush your teeth after, drink a gallon of water, and that you did something during the day to deserve it before he actually gives it to you."

"Slate is right here," he said irritably, pursing his lips at me before turning back to Logan. "I'm not dangling anything. I don't know how many other people Stanislopoulos has spoken to about his intention to sell, but you're still number one on my list. You're the only one I trust won't take the old man's life's work and either steer it into the ground or dismantle it completely."

"Okay," Logan said slowly, regrettably no longer only addressing me. "I'm in, but I have a condition. "

"What's that?" I asked, my eyes narrowing on instinct. "My brother potentially did you a huge solid here, so?—"

"Easy, tiger." Logan laughed, picking up his glass once more and taking a long sip before finally setting it down, folding his hands on the table, and getting serious.

I saw the change in him as clearly as if I had known him all my life and could detect the tiniest nuances about his expression like I'd been born to do it. His chin came up, his shoulders squared, his jaw lowered a bit even though his mouth remained shut, and all humor, mirth, and mischief drained out of his eyes.

Like this, he kind of looked like a guy who had achieved as much as he had in the business world. He looked like someone who took shit seriously and got it done. I couldn't recall having seen him look quite like this before, but I definitely liked it.

It made him seem like there was so much more to him than the easygoing playboy I'd seen so far. Kind of like an onion I was peeling the layers off of. The process had made me teary—with frustration—but it might just be worth it in the end.

"All I ask is that I see it before I buy it," he said. "I'm not going in blind."

"That's reasonable," Slate replied immediately. "Mira will go with you."

My eyes widened. "What?"

My brother shrugged and flashed me an apologetic look. "I've got to get back to the rig."

Logan leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands behind his head. "Sounds like a plan to me. Start the chopper. Let's go do this thing."

I blinked hard, realizing that my brother showing up might not have saved me after all. If anything, he might just have sold me down the Logan-river and he didn't even know it yet.