Logan Read online

  Contents

  Also by Samantha Chase

  Also Available

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Excerpt from TREY (Book 7)

  Also by Samantha Chase

  The Enchanted Bridal Series:

  The Wedding Season

  Friday Night Brides

  The Bridal Squad

  Glam Squad & Groomsmen

  * * *

  The Montgomery Brothers Series:

  Wait for Me

  Trust in Me

  Stay with Me

  More of Me

  Return to You

  Meant for You

  I’ll Be There

  Until There Was Us

  Suddenly Mine

  * * *

  The Shaughnessy Brothers Series:

  Made for Us

  Love Walks In

  Always My Girl

  This is Our Song

  Sky Full of Stars

  Holiday Spice

  * * *

  Band on the Run Series:

  One More Kiss

  One More Promise

  One More Moment

  * * *

  The Christmas Cottage Series:

  The Christmas Cottage

  Ever After

  * * *

  Silver Bell Falls Series:

  Christmas in Silver Bell Falls

  Christmas On Pointe

  A Very Married Christmas

  Life, Love & Babies Series:

  The Baby Arrangement

  Baby, Be Mine

  Baby, I’m Yours

  * * *

  Preston’s Mill Series:

  Roommating

  Speed Dating

  Complicating

  * * *

  The Protectors Series:

  Protecting His Best Friend’s Sister

  Protecting the Enemy

  Protecting the Girl Next Door

  Protecting the Movie Star

  * * *

  7 Brides for 7 Soldiers

  Ford

  * * *

  7 Brides for 7 Blackthornes

  Logan

  * * *

  Standalone Novels

  Jordan’s Return

  Catering to the CEO

  In the Eye of the Storm

  A Touch of Heaven

  Moonlight in Winter Park

  Wildest Dreams

  Going My Way

  Going to Be Yours

  Waiting for Midnight

  Seeking Forever

  Mistletoe Between Friends

  Snowflake Inn

  * * *

  Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than sixty titles under her belt! When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.

  * * *

  Where to Find Me:

  Website:

  www.chasing-romance.com

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  Also Available

  7 Brides for 7 Blackthornes

  Devlin (#1)

  Jason (#2)

  Ross (#3)

  Phillip (#4)

  Brock (#5)

  Logan (#6)

  Trey (#7)

  Logan – Book Blurb

  Meet the Blackthorne men, each one as hot, fast, and as smooth as the whisky that built the family fortune, and the yachts and race cars that bear their name. From proud Scottish stock, Blackthornes never lose. But, one by one, the seven sexy men in this family are about to risk everything when they fall for strong and beautiful women who test their mettle in life…and love.

  Logan – Book Six

  It’s not easy being the youngest Blackthorne, and Logan has never shied away from a challenge. No matter what everyone thinks. Coming home to Maine finds him dealing with not only family surprises, but the shock of finding the caretaker’s daughter all grown up.

  Piper’s dream is to design her own games, not play them. And Logan Blackthorne is the ultimate player. It’s one thing to hang out with Logan as a friend, but he’s far too charming for his own good.

  Logan promises hours of pleasure, but should she settle for less than happily ever after?

  Don't miss these sexy, heartwarming, emotion-filled books by bestselling authors: Barbara Freethy, Julia London, Lynn Raye Harris, Cristin Harber, Roxanne St. Claire, Christie Ridgway and Samantha Chase.

  LOGAN

  © Copyright 2019 Samantha Chase

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  * * *

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  1

  It doesn’t matter if you win or lose; it’s how you play the game…

  And right now, Logan Blackthorne was playing to win.

  Granted, he was only competing against himself–and he wasn’t really playing anything–but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still come out on top, right?

  Arms pumping, legs burning, he kicked up the incline and speed on the treadmill and powered on, determined to beat his personal best in speed. Once he hit his stride, he focused on the view out the wall of windows in front of him.

  Boston Harbor.

  Yeah, the view was pretty spectacular and it was one he never grew tired of. Give him a place to live on the water–any body of water–and he was happy. Luckily, he could afford the luxury. If he had planned better, he would have opened the sliding glass doors before starting his run so he could have the full sensory experience.

  “Another time,” he murmured, checking his distance. His normal brisk pace had him clocking in with an eight-minute mile, but today he felt the urge to push beyond that. Why? Because that had been his time for the last several months and he loved pushing himself. Besides, he was getting ready to hit the road later today. Since he’d be living up in Maine for the next three weeks, he would have to get out and jog the old-fashioned way.

  Chuckling softly, Logan put his focus on a boat out on the harbor and willed himself to go faster, run harder. His heart rate kicked up a notch and he felt a slight stitch in his side, but he knew if he could keep this pace for another minute, he’d beat his personal best. Refusing to look at the digital display, he pushed onward.

  Okay…one glance.

  Forty-five seconds to go.

  Rather than focusing on how time seemed to be standing still, he decided to go over his list of things he needed to do today.

  After his run, he planned on having something to eat and then grabbing a shower. After that, he had to finish packing. It wasn’t like he really needed to bring anything with him–after all, his place up in King Harbor, Maine, was his second home and had everything he needed. Still, th
ere were a few items he wanted to pack along with his tablet and miscellaneous chargers. Basically, he was packing an overnight bag, but whatever.

  Once that was all done, he would make sure everything was put away and the refrigerator emptied of anything perishable. While it wasn’t likely he’d be back here in the next few weeks, if he happened to drive home, he’d shop for fresh groceries then.

  Thirty seconds to go.

  “Oh, come on!” he huffed.

  After he locked the place up, he was going to meet his cousin Brock for lunch. There were a lot of Blackthorne men in the family, but he and Brock were the closest in age and more like brothers than cousins. If he hadn’t been on a bit of a time crunch, Logan would have suggested they go for a game of golf or maybe shoot some hoops before lunch.

  “Another time.”

  Fifteen seconds.

  Okay, it was go time, he thought and pushed everything out of his mind except finishing strong. His lungs burned and sweat was pouring off of him, but it was all going to be worth it.

  Ten.

  It was going to be close…just a little more speed and…

  Five!

  It was like time wasn’t even trying to move…

  Do it, do it, do it, do it!

  Closing his eyes, Logan counted down. Four, three, two, one…and…the timer beeped. Opening his eyes, he looked down and saw he had beaten his time by two tenths of a second. “I’ll take it!” he cried, cranking everything down and giving himself a few minutes to cool down before stepping off. Grabbing his towel off the front of the machine, he wiped his face and made his way toward the kitchen. Within minutes he had a smoothie made and was taking a long swallow of it.

  Wishing it was something a little more palatable–like bacon and eggs–he took his glass out onto the balcony of his luxury condo and breathed in the cool morning air. He couldn’t wait to get up to Maine because the temperatures would be even cooler and he definitely enjoyed a little brisk air to wake him up.

  He also enjoyed having a curvy female beside him in bed to wake him up, but he’d take what he could get.

  Was he going to miss this view? This place? Sure. But King Harbor was a second home to all the Blackthornes for as far back as the family had settled in America after coming here from Scotland. Hell, it had been a second home for him for his entire life and there was something comforting about being able to go spend time there whenever he could. He’d spent a good portion of his summer there already, but still, there was never a bad time to go back.

  This particular trip was an annual thing for him. Out of all the businesses under the Blackthorne name, Logan had taken more than a casual interest in the Blackthorne Distillery–more specifically The Whisky Vault, which was a bar on the premises. He couldn’t explain why that particular venture appealed to him the way it did, but he took over running it and found he had a good sense about what to do and how to appeal to customers.

  The Vault–which is really what it had come to be called–started out as a tasting room for visitors to the distillery and morphed into a full-on bar. Last year, they added a small restaurant to it that served superior pub fare. It was a far cry from the rest of the Blackthorne empire, but he enjoyed it.

  Actually, there was a lot within the Blackthorne empire he enjoyed–ones he could easily fit into–but as easy as all the positions came to him, none felt like they were the right fit. That was a fact that didn’t really bother him, but seemed to be increasingly irritating to his father.

  Groaning, he finished his smoothie and walked back inside, closing the sliding doors behind him. Washing out his glass, he placed it down to dry before heading to take his shower as his most recent conversation with his father playing in his mind.

  “You can’t keep flitting around, Logan,” Graham Blackthorne stated in all his intimidating glory. “You need to take pride in what your ancestors created and do what you’re supposed to do!”

  Not that Logan was easily intimidated. They’d had this conversation for years and for the life of him, he had no idea why it bothered his father so much. It wasn’t as if Logan was living off the family money and not contributing anything. He traveled around quite a bit, helping his brothers and cousins wherever he was needed. If anything, he was a jack of all trades within Blackthorne Enterprises and knew he would be an asset to any division he decided to settle on.

  The problem was, he didn’t want to settle.

  He wanted to run it all.

  Not that he was going to tell anyone. They’d all laugh at him, for sure. After all, there was no way the baby of the family–and that included his brothers and cousins–was going to take the helm of Blackthorne. His brother Trey was the one who was essentially going to take it all over once their father retired. It was pretty much guaranteed. He’d been groomed for it his entire life, so who was Logan to mess with things?

  Still…it would certainly help get his father off his back if he could figure out what he wanted to do.

  For now, he was heading up to Maine to run the Vault for a few weeks while the manager was away on vacation. It was something Logan always did and he looked forward to it. There was no need to wear a suit or sit in meetings. He could be casual and think of ways to tweak the menus in both the bar and the restaurant. It was part of his creative side that he really enjoyed and for a few weeks, he could embrace it.

  Once he was through in the shower, he went about the rest of his tasks to prepare for leaving town. It was still too early to meet up with Brock for lunch, so he took some time to read the paper and called Charles to confirm their meeting for tomorrow morning. It wasn’t like there was a lot for him to know while covering at the Vault for the next several weeks, but he liked to be caught up on anything going on, including any staffing issues or concerns with suppliers. The last thing he wanted was to look foolish or like he was just a glorified figurehead playing manager. So, he and Charles would sit down tomorrow morning for a couple of hours and go over everything with a fine-tooth comb so his time there would be seamless.

  Not that he expected anything wild to happen. Other than the drama his own family provided for King Harbor, not much else happened. And it certainly didn’t happen at the Vault.

  “C’mon, Piper. You need to do this!”

  “Yeah, Piper! There’s no way we could do this without you! Your contribution to the project is the only reason we’re ready to try!”

  Relaxing slightly in her gaming chair and studying the TV screen in front of her, Piper Stewart only half-listened to her two friends as they tried to convince her to take a chance on their new company and move to Seattle with them. And while it did sound exciting–and exactly what she had hoped to do with herself since graduating from college–she was more than a little hesitant to go with a new startup company, especially one located on the other side of the country.

  “Guys,” she began, “I told you I’d think about it.” With that, she continued to play the game on the screen. And not just any game.

  Her game.

  Yeah, the game she worked on for years, Grove of the Eternal, was finally finished and after many rounds of beta testing, it was in high demand by some of the big gaming companies. It was a dream come true and yet…not.

  The offers were mediocre and the potential for positions offered within the companies were entry-level. Barely. Hell, it was only a small step above an internship and she would have to sign away her rights to the game.

  Disappointing didn’t even begin to describe it.

  So when Michael Jacobs and Eric Hammond–two of her best friends–offered her the chance to be their top game designer plus a partner in the company, she should have jumped at it.

  And yet…she couldn’t.

  Not yet.

  Tomorrow she would be back in King Harbor and she’d talk to her father about it. He was the smartest man she knew–he wasn’t exactly book-smart, but he had a way of talking her through things so she always felt confident in her decisions.

  And boy could
she use some confidence right now.

  The last thing she wanted to do was miss a good opportunity. The deal with Michael and Eric had a lot of promise and potential. The downside was that she’d known these guys for the last eight years–they’d been through college together for their bachelor’s and master’s degrees–and she knew they had the drive and ambition to make their company work. But she also knew that neither had a lot of experience with business matters and she feared it would be their downfall.

  Something she’d shared with them and they laughed off.

  Sort of.

  Piper didn’t see the humor in it and had voiced her frustration at their reaction.

  And was met with more laughter.

  Yeah, this was why she wasn’t jumping at the opportunity. For as much as she loved these guys, they still had a bit of a frat-boy mentality and she didn’t want to crash and burn with them.

  Sad but true.

  “Are you really heading home tonight?” Michael asked, reaching for his bottle of water. His blond hair was askew as usual and he was dressed like he just rolled out of bed–yesterday’s wrinkled clothes and all.

  Nodding, she kept her eyes on the TV screen while working the controller. “My flight’s at five.”

  “Look, Piper,” Eric chimed in, “we’re really not trying to be pushy. We just know the three of us make a kickass team. We’ve been doing this since our freshman year. There’s no way we can accomplish what we want without you.”