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company. Said I was a cold-blooded monster who wouldn’t rest until I got what I wanted. The article stated no company was safe from me.”
     
         “The ‘man of steel,’” she whispered.
     
         He looked up. “With a heart to match.” His mouth set in a firm line. “I don’t look back and I don’t have regrets, Chandler. But I always try to protect the people close to me. Even at the expense of myself.”
     
         His gaze met and held hers. She knew Logan Grant held secrets buried deep inside; secrets revealed only in brief flashes in his gun-metal eyes. The man lied, he held many regrets—but he wasn’t about to explain, and he wasn’t going to look back.
     
         Her breath caught in her throat as an unexpected wave of protectiveness flooded her. Why did she have this sudden need to put her arms around him and offer comfort? Why wasn’t she horrified at his story, shocked at the way he manipulated another human being?
     
         She didn’t know. She’d met many hungry executives before, and counted her own father among them, but there was a unique difference about the man beside her. She believed Logan when he said he’d be fiercely devoted to the people he loved.
     
         “I believe you,” she said softly. “I don’t hold every businessman in a negative light, and I try not to make judgments on what I hear or read. People deserve a chance.”
     
         “Does everyone deserve a chance? Or just the people you can keep at a safe distance?”
     
         She pushed back her heavy mane of hair. “I don’t keep myself at a distance. I always try to give something of myself to people.”
     
         “Even men?”
     
         She bristled at his comment. “Everyone. Men and woman. I don’t draw distinctions between the two. If you’re talking about a romantic sense I’m bound to disappoint you. I never get involved with my students or my business partners.”
     
         He raised an eyebrow at her warning. “Doesn’t leave a lot of territory open now, does it?”
     
         She rose from the sofa and wondered how this man got her so defensive on the subject of her love life. Or lack of it. She glared at him. “Quantity is not my concern, Logan. Quality is what makes a relationship work, and I can guarantee I won’t find that with a man making a six figure salary, but is too busy to come home at night. I need more.”
     
         He studied her in silence. Intensity radiated around him. She struggled to take a deep breath, suddenly afraid of him, of the powerful emotions that crackled in the room like a burst of summer lightning. She backed away a bit. He was no longer her charming dinner companion, but a dangerous man who seemed to feel something she couldn’t understand.
     
         And she was alone with him.
     
         Slowly, Logan stood up and placed the snifter on the table. He crossed the room in two strides and stopped before her. “Your apartment suits you.” His voice vibrated through her body like a caress. “It reminds me of a woman filled with life—one who uses every moment to feel pleasure.”
     
         His hot steel gaze burned her. She stared, transfixed by his words and his voice and the heat that emanated from his body. “But at the same time there’s a part of you that remains in control, selfishly contained in a small, dark space. That part is cold and clinical, and vows to never melt into the other.”
     
         He took the glass from her hand, set it beside his, then moved closer. The back of his hand caressed her face. “You hold yourself back, Chandler, waiting for someone who will never come; a fantasy figure who seems safer than a man of flesh and blood, a man who will probably make mistakes and possibly hurt you. But the man you deny yourself could also make your spirit soar. You’re too afraid to reach out and take him.”
     
         He pulled her towards him with slow,