Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

LOGAN

F or the first time since I'd met her, it felt like Mira was finally letting her guard down all the way. While I sat on the floor and we ate the shitty, rig cafeteria food, I got to learn more about her and even told her more about myself in turn.

"Am I allowed to know why you'd put yourself through this?" I asked once we got onto the subject of how they would like to improve this rig. "Don't get me wrong, you're obviously very good at your job. I've seen you in action and I was impressed, but that still doesn't tell me why you do it."

Instead of shutting me right the hell down, she thought it over as she chewed her next bite and then shrugged once she'd swallowed it down. "I guess I'm just my daddy's little girl. He may be gone now, but all I've ever wanted to do is to follow in his footsteps, and then to take it several steps further than he ever could've dreamed."

"Several steps further?" I asked, tilting my head and setting down my fork as soon as my stomach was full enough to last me through the night. "What do you mean?"

I'd met their old man a couple times before he'd passed. Every so often, he'd come out to our college campus to visit his boy, and on one of those visits, Slate had introduced me. I remembered the man well. Remembered the respect he demanded by his mere presence and how hard-working he'd been, but also how he'd spent hours with us, paying for coffees and taking a genuine interest in our studies.

He'd been the kind of Dad every kid would be lucky to have and would strive to live up to the expectations of, but Mira was his daughter. I couldn't imagine him forcing her into this simply because of expectation or it being the family business.

And now, it seemed she didn't just want to follow in his footsteps, but she wanted to outdo him. Why?

The tips of her ears turned red. "If I didn't already know that you believed this was possible, I would've told you. I play these particular cards even closer to my chest than others, but I'm working with Slate to make the rigs greener, if I can."

My eyes nearly bulged out of my head. "Are you for real? I know someone who would kiss your feet for saying so. She's also got a ton of ideas for you to tap into."

"Ariane?" Mira smiled softly, and it was only then that I remembered her connection to Mickey, who had grown up with Ariane. It stood to reason the two women had at least met each other—if not grown up together themselves. She cleared the mystery up for me with the very next thing she said. "I have chatted to her about it briefly, but you know how she is. Once she sinks her teeth into something, she goes at it all guns blazing and I'm not really at a point yet where I can offer any practical implementation, so I've been keeping her at bay."

"You're still in the research phase," I guessed out loud.

Mira dipped her delicate chin in a nod, crossing her legs under her on the mattress as she pushed her own tray away. "I am. I know that it must be extremely frustrating for her to have to wait, but I don't have the money, the contacts, or the resources she has. I've looked into a lot of her ideas and I've researched what others have done. There are definitely ways to get it right, but I'm just a lowly consultant. I need to play by the rules and keep the owners happy while also convincing them to push serious money into things that aren't strictly necessary for their operations. "

"Why haven't you mentioned any of this to me before?" I asked seriously. "You said you knew that I have plans for this, which is why you're comfortable mentioning it now, but why didn't you say anything when I ran into you on the other rig?"

She pursed her lips at me, looking deep into my eyes. "There were other, more pressing issues that required your attention. Plus, it was the first time you were out there. If I'd started pitching ideas right away, you'd have either agreed to them or nixed them based on what you thought initially, before you saw how things work on a rig. That would've been a waste of everyone's time."

"Okay, but I'm here now and I'm understanding more about this industry with every passing minute, so lay it on me. What ideas do you have? If you've seen the plans Ariane has sent through, which I'm assuming you have since I forwarded them to Slate, are there any that are viable?"

"A few, provided we can arrange the required funding, but I don't really want to get into that now."

"Why not?" I asked. "It seems like the perfect time to me. We're stuck in this cabin, which I swear is smaller than the inside of the last cell I saw, and we can't go home until the morning, so might as well be productive while we're here."

"Sure, we could be, but I'd rather just keep talking," she admitted, her voice a little smaller and more uncertain than I'd ever heard it. "I just need you to distract me. The more we talk about my plans for rigs, the more I'm reminded of where we are, and this particular rig gives me the creeps."

"Me too," I confessed, wanting to give her honesty in return for her own. "There's a whole other vibe on this thing, isn't there?"

She nodded, her brow furrowing as her teeth sank into her lip for a moment. "There really is, so tell me about you instead of asking about my plans for the rigs. Who is Logan Jones really? I don't want any of that bullshit they sell about you online or in tabloids. It's just us here, so who are you when you're at home?"

"Me? When I'm at home…" I trailed off. I wasn't used to people talking to me like this, asking me to be real with no ulterior motives at pl ay. But with her, it wasn't as intimidating or as uncomfortable as I'd thought it might be. Honestly, I had nothing to hide. Mystery wasn't really part of my charm. "I come from an exceedingly middle-class family. There was nothing special about us, no hidden, wealthy relatives and no special skills that came to the fore."

"So what happened?" she asked curiously, her head tilting to the side as she held my gaze. "Something big must have happened. I mean, look at where you are now."

I drew in a deep breath, thinking back to the exact day that my fortunes changed. "I'm sure you've heard about this, but I won the lottery."

She blinked a few too many times in rapid succession, her jaw slackening as she nodded slowly. "I heard about it, but I didn't think it was true. At best, I thought it was a figure of speech. Like, you won the lottery when you made such and such an investment. That kind of thing."

I chuckled. "Nope. It's not a figure of speech. It happened exactly like that. I took the last ten bucks I had and played the lottery."

For a long minute, she didn't say a word. Finally, the shock seemed to subside and understanding dawned in her eyes. "The framed lottery ticket in your foyer. That's…"

"My golden ticket," I confirmed. "After that, I went off the rails for a couple weeks. Who wouldn't, right? For the first time in my life, I could afford to travel. To buy anything I wanted. And I did. I bought a ticket to Hawaii, spent a week getting sloshed next to the pool and buying expensive shit for random people. It really went to my head."

"Until?" she said, canting her head and widening her eyes at me. "What happened?"

"My mom sent me a picture of a diamond bracelet I'd sent her, a picture of the receipt showing the amount of money she'd sold it for, and a picture of the cash. She said she'd keep it in her safe for me when I needed it."

"Tough love, huh?"

I nodded slowly, my eyes slamming shut as remembered shame sped through me for just a moment. "It was a pretty rough crash when I came back down to earth. She said it should cover first and last month's rent for a small apartment near their house."

"Ouch." Mira winced. "I'm sorry, but I'm also not sorry. It sounds to me like it was a ‘Mom to the rescue' kind of situation."

"Definitely," I said seriously. "I got on a plane home that same day, met up with Jude and started investing."

"If you can afford a rig and possibly a second one, then you must've made some staggering returns."

"I did. I also got insanely lucky a few times, put a lot of time and effort into researching the best industry to get involved in, and then got lucky again."

"Well, you know what they say," she said. "The harder you work, the luckier you get. Or something like that, anyway."

"Something like that." I smiled, letting out a long breath through my nostrils as I shook my head. "It still doesn't feel real sometimes. There are even days when I miss the simpler times."

"Really?"

"No." I wagged my eyebrows at her and she laughed.

Strangely, I was finding Mira really easy to talk to right now. Not bickering for once, we were actually getting along really well. It made me feel like I'd known her forever, and it was a damn good feeling.

Her eyes looked into mine, soft and without a hint of hostility in them. "Thank you for having my back today. I never get knocked off my game, but today did a number on me."

Residual anger simmered in my belly. "I hate that you haven't felt comfortable enough to leave your cabin. It's bullshit."

"Yeah, well, maybe when you buy the rig, it'll be better."

"I'm not buying it," I said firmly.

Surprise flickered across her features, her nostrils flaring and her eyes growing wide. "Why not? It's a potential gold mine."

"It is, but I have no interest in an operation that has clearly become corrupt. Plus, I'd need help running it and I don't want you to have to come back here."

I got up as her expression softened and her lips curved upward. Since I didn't want her thinking I'd gone soft, I walked over to the small window and gestured at it. "The view is shit. I mean, I already have a three-sixty-degree view of water back on the other rig."

She burst out laughing, and I was grateful to hear it. Smirking as I turned and went to sit on the bunk with her, I shrugged. "What? Who needs another place with an identical view? My mother would say that I'm wasting money again."

As I sat down, she scooted closer to shove my arm playfully. "We can't have that. If your mother would disapprove, then I guess it's a no."

"Definitely," I agreed, reaching over to tickle her ribs.

She shrieked with laughter, but instead of moving away, she leaned closer, and the next thing I knew, her lips were tantalizingly close to my own. At that moment, I decided to kiss her. I wasn't going to pursue her on a rig, but this wasn't that.

This felt easy. Natural. Right.

As my head bowed, hers tipped back, her body leaning forward at the same time as I did. Mira surged toward me and I slid my hand around to grasp the back of her neck as my mouth came down on hers.

I'd half expected her to push away or to smack me, but she did neither of those things. Instead, she wound her arms around my neck and pulled me closer before she lay back on the thin mattress, bringing me down with her and wrapping her legs around my hips.

It was a surprising turn of events, but I wasn't complaining. Sliding my arms beside her, I held my weight on my elbows propped next to her shoulders and kissed her hard, relishing the feel of her soft body under my own.

This girl was proving to be my undoing, but I didn't mind. Especially not when she moaned into my mouth and pressed her heels into my ass. Right now, I didn't care about how fascinated I'd become with her. All I cared about was getting more.