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Natalie quickly dressed. Intending to leave without so much as another glance at Logan, she walked briskly past him where he leaned against his kitchen counter and rushed toward the exit. Only his voice stopped her when she reached the living room.
    â€œIsn’t it enough that you have dozens of men at your disposal? Why are you pushing this so hard, Natalie? Why do you want to mess up a good thing?”
    â€œAnd committing to me would be messing up a good thing?” she asked incredulously, turning back to the voice coming from the next room, grateful she had a moment to steel herself against the exquisite beauty of its owner. She was determined not to be taken in.
    Logan was not about to let the conversation be reduced to a screaming match. He wasn’t the screaming kind to begin with, but he was well aware that she could be. He calmly emptied the contents of his glass, set it down, and came out of the kitchen to join her. “We’ve only been seeing each other a couple of months,” he replied evenly.
    â€œNot a couple. Four. Four months. Almost five,” she said, correcting him, the hurt evident in her voice and on her face.
    â€œHalf of them spent with you running all over the country,” he replied gently.
    â€œI only have another year and a half on my contract.”
    He cut her off, shaking his head. “It’s not about your job. It’s about moving too fast. We’re in good places in our lives right now, doing good things. We knew going into this relationship that we were busy people with lots of commitments, to ourselves and to others. I just don’t feel like that’s changed. Yet.” Logan knew it sounded insensitive, though that wasn’t his intention. He tried to soften the sting with a backhanded compliment. “Besides, I think the only reason you even care is because I’m being the least bit hesitant. If it was me asking you to commit, you’d be avoiding me like the plague.”
    â€œNot true,” she said emphatically, no longer concerned about looking like the desperate, clingy one. “I knew there was something special about you the night we met. Didn’t you see it? For heaven’s sake, didn’t you feel it?”
    â€œWhat I felt was amazingly lucky that someone like you would go out of her way to spend some of her free time with me,” Logan replied earnestly, though he was unwilling to hurt her further by telling her he didn’t feel the same way. He had never felt something special about any woman, ever. It had never really dawned on him that he was supposed to. He wasn’t currently seeing anybody else, but he also was never convinced it was ever the right time to close the door on the wealth of possibilities. He didn’t usually date multiple women, but he recognized the fact that he couldn’t make a relationship last. They didn’t end badly most of the time—just fizzled. Women wandered in and out of his life after realizing he didn’t make sacrifices to accommodate them. He never led anyone on or stood anyone up, and he was always forthcoming about the fact that there just wasn’t much of his time to spare. He worked long hours, by choice. Then he had to fit in his own workouts. The only time left was his man-cave time and the other main perk of his profession: tickets to every single sporting event he could ever want to attend. He wasn’t ready to see man-cave time disappear yet, at least not on a permanent basis. And with Natalie, when push came to shove, he knew deep down he couldn’t put up with being the boy toy of an insecure, scratch-happy hellcat. He didn’t want to lose her, but he also wasn’t willing to lie to her, or himself, to make her stay.
    Logan hesitantly reached out, and when she made no move to recoil, he gently took her by her shoulders. “Besides, seriously, Nat, I don’t think either one of us is ready to take it to that level. Having