Fighting Fate

by Linda Kage

  With a shrug, Logan gifted her with a small, amused smile. “Maybe.”

  She shoved him in the arm. “Thanks.” He laughed and caught her hand, and she leaned forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder. “You do realize I wasn’t really raped, right?”

  He stroked her hair, tangling his fingers through the long, dark tresses. “It was close enough.” Then he kissed her temple. “Too close.”

  Her sigh was long and sad. Logan continued to brush her hair with his hand, and it lulled her into a warm sense of security. “So much has happened all at once. It’s impossible to take it all in. I need a break, just a little time out to do something normal and memorable. Last night, Dorian Wade was alive and scary. Today, he’s…gone. What if tomorrow it’s you or me?” Lifting her face from his sturdy shoulder, she met his gaze. “I don’t want to die with what he did to me being my sole source of experience with sex.”

  Logan’s face drained of color. “You’re a vir—” He squeezed his eyes closed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh, thanks. No pressure or anything there. It’s been three years for me. I’m not exactly on the top of my game here, and I want you to have the best.”

  She grinned and set both hands on his thigh to knead at the muscles bunching under her fingers. “I have a feeling you’ll rise to the occasion.”

  Dropping his hand to study her, he shook his head. “I don’t have anything. No protection.” Just as soon as he said that, he hissed out a breath and pressed a fist to his forehead. “I can’t believe I just said that. I’m not considering this. It’s not going to happen. You’re not ready.”

  But the more convinced he was that she wasn’t ready, the more she felt ready because she knew she could trust him implicitly. The “protection” aspect caused her a moment of pause, though. She bit her lip before an idea struck. With a gasp, she leapt off him and hurried to Mariah’s side of the room. Hitting pay dirt with the first drawer she opened in her roommate’s desk, she yanked out the foil package she found lying inside and whirled around to wave it victoriously.

  His blue eyes flared as he stared at the condom. Then he slowly shook his head and whispered an obscenity. It was like watching the walls of his resistance crumble to dust. As she moved toward him, feeling powerful and excited, plus a little nervous and scared, he looked up.

  “You know what you’re doing, right?” he croaked. “You’re asking me to deflower Trace Zukowski’s little sister. Paige—”

  She pressed her fingers to his lips and drew in a sharp breath. Hearing her brother’s name caused her a moment of pain. She pictured him in her mind and bit the inside of her lip. But then she focused on the man sitting on her bed, his expression tormented as he watched her. And loved her.

  “No,” she said. “I’m asking you to make love to the woman you claim you love and to help her heal from a horrible event.”

  He shuddered and blinked a few dozen times. “You have to be sure about this, Paige. You have to convince me without a doubt that you’re ready.”

  Before she could respond, he reached out and grabbed her between the legs. Paige yelped and jerked away from him.

  Narrowing his baby blues, he lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not convinced.”

  “Well, you caught me off guard. Damn it.” Knowing he’d done that on purposed to prove his point, she set her jaw hard and scowled at him. But she wasn’t going to give up. Grasping his wrist, she led him back to the spot he’d just touched, more slowly this time. Gently, she fit his hand into place.

  As he sucked in a breath, she bit her lip and threw back her head.

  The warmth of his palm seeped through her jeans and panties, making the muscles in her stomach clench as she used her hold on his wrist to rub him lightly against her. Immediately, her breasts tingled, and an electric pulse shot up the insides of her thighs. With a little moan, she shifted closer so she could use his hand more freely to grind over the sweet spot.

  “See,” she panted, forcing herself to focus on his face. But when she saw the way his eyes had widened and his frame had frozen with either shock or horror, she flinched. “What’s wrong?”

  It took him a second to tear his attention from his hand and lift his face. “I don’t think you realize just how incredibly hot it is to watch you touch yourself…with my hand.”

  Using the hand between her legs, he drew her closer to snag the condom from her grasp. Then he tipped his face up for a kiss. Paige leaned down to meet him, and he tumbled her back onto the bed as soon as their mouths met. Without untangling his tongue from her, he tucked her under him on the mattress and took control of his grinding hand. She arched under him.

  When he abandoned her lips to run his own down her throat, he groaned. “You asked for this.”

  Oh, yes, she had. And she didn’t regret it at all. She loved the way his large protective body covered hers, how his mouth cherished her, and his hands worshiped everything they touched. When he sat up long enough to pull his shirt over his head, she sat up with him to stroke his bare chest, loving the way he let her curiously explore every inch.

  Relishing the reverent look in his eyes when he helped her remove her shirt, she felt adored. They removed her bra in a united effort, and it seemed more meaningful to her that they did it together. He fitted his mouth over her breast as he unzipped her jeans. She moved with his every touch, bowled over by it all. This was really happening. She was with Logan, and they were going to go all the way.

  She scissor-kicked her legs to assist with the removal of her jeans, then grinned at him when she went for his. He touched her face as he let her slide his pants down his powerful thighs. Once they were both stripped completely, she met his gaze to find him staring back, his eyes glittering with a euphoria she’d never seen on his face before.

  “Want to help me with this?” he asked as he tore open the condom package.

  Intrigued by the process, she scooted in to watch as he pinched the tip of the latex and rolled it into place. When she reached out with a shaking hand, he let her finish. Once he was covered completely, she let her fingers wander back up the entire length.

  Logan shuddered and groaned. “You can be less gentle,” he said. “Here.”

  After he showed her what he liked, she kept her fingers curled around him and pumped from tip to base. He buried his hand in her hair at the nape of her neck and pressed his forehead to hers. A couple more strokes later, he moaned. “Your turn.” Nudging her back onto the mattress, he asked, “What do you like?”

  Paige shook her head. “I have no idea.”

  “Right.” He met her gaze and grinned. “First time.” Studying her face with a thoughtful expression, he suggested, “How about I experiment a little, and you give me a yea or nay?”

  Not sure how else to do it, she bobbed her head.

  What followed was a whole lot of yeas and nary a nay.

  Logan hit a very enthusiastic yea when he bent his face between her legs and licked. Paige gasped and arched. She tried to clutch his hair, but ended up cursing. “Damn it. You need longer hair.”

  “Sorry.” He grinned as he crawled back up her body. “I’ll work on that.” Slotting his hips into place, he interlaced their hands and held them in place by her face as he rested his upper body weight on his elbows.

  She felt him down there as his blue eyes watched her. “Are you ready?”

  Still throbbing from the sweet torture his tongue had put her through, she nodded, as eager as she was nervous to experience what came next. Logan’s grip on her hands tightened, and he rocked forward. They stared at each other, and she absorbed the expression on his face as he seemed to do the same to her. Watching his eyes go unfocused and his cheeks ruddy from pleasure was overwhelming. It was almost as powerful as feeling him press into her for the first time. The pressure and stretching was the most indescribable sensation.

  Once he was seated deep, he paused and let out a breath. It gave her enough time to grow accustomed to the feel of his body joined with hers.

/>   “You okay?” he asked, his voice strained.

  Paige didn’t think okay was quite the word she needed, but she said, “Yes. Yes, I…that wasn’t so bad at all.” She’d been braced for tearing pain.

  He choked out a laugh and pressed his forehead to hers. “What every guy aspires to be. Not so bad.”

  She flushed. “I mean—”

  “Shh.” He kissed her lightly. “It’s fine. This way, we only have room to improve.” Then he pulled out and eased back in.

  Paige arched and squirmed as he seemed to hit every nerve ending inside her. “Oh,” she gasped in surprise and felt the need to move with him as he did it again. “Better.”

  Amusement lit his face. “Is it? How about this?”

  He shifted slightly and came in at a different angle.

  With a moan, she bit her lip and nodded. “Mmm hmm.”

  “And this?”

  “Oh yeah.” She wrapped her legs around him and tightened her fingers in his grip. “That. Do that. But faster.”

  “Like this?”

  Losing the ability to voice her opinion with intelligible words, she merely clung to him, enthralled until there was nowhere higher he could take her. Plunging off the zenith of her pleasure, she swept him over the edge with her, and together they seemed to free fall into oblivion.

  “I told you, you were totally ready.”

  At Logan’s smug-sounding comment, Paige cracked a tired smile and lightly poked her elbow back to nudge him in the gut. “Oh, yeah. You called it. Liar.”

  Spooned behind her, he let out a quiet oomph and then chuckled before he kissed the back of her hair. “Seriously, are you okay?”

  She hummed out a sound of contentment. “I am so far from okay, it’s not even funny. I’m too elated, overjoyed, gratified—” she yawned “—and exhausted to be a measly okay.”

  “Good. I am too.”

  Feeling a little smug herself to hear such a positive report, she closed her eyes.

  Since neither knew if Mariah might try to pop in at some point in the night, they’d reluctantly crawled back into enough clothes to be decent. But Logan’s fingers had no problem finding their way inside her oversized t-shirt that stretched down to her knees. When he cupped her breasts and flicked an expert thumb over her nipples, she moaned with pleasure.

  “Want me to raid my roommate’s drawers again for a little something-something?”

  He groaned and pressed into her from behind. “Don’t tempt me.” Then he just as quickly added, “I don’t want you to get into trouble with her.”

  Paige snorted. “Don’t worry. If she knew what I wanted to do right now, she’d probably run out and buy me an entire case of condoms.”

  “She would, would she?”

  “Oh, yeah.” She rolled around to face him. Though she could barely see him in the dark room, her lips found his without a problem.

  He didn’t break away until her hand smoothed down his bare chest and discovered the waistband of his boxer shorts. “We probably shouldn’t,” he said, his voice strained as he caught her wrist. “You have to be sore. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Wiggling her fingers, she tried to break free to tempt him some more. “I don’t mind. Really.”

  “But I do. Please, Paige.” His lashes fluttered against his cheek. “Let me be a gentleman, this time at least.” Then he set his mouth by her ear and whispered, “because I have a bad feeling that after I’m sure you’re healed, I’ll be attacking you every chance I get.”

  Though the last part of his explanation heated her to the core, the importance of his wanting to be a gentleman struck her as special, showed her how much he cared and wanted to treat her right. She honestly didn’t mind a little soreness, but she sighed and kissed his chin.

  “Oh, all right.”

  She let him work her back around until they were spooning again. When he returned to stroking his hand down her arm, she relaxed against him. “What time is it?”

  She felt him lift his head off the pillow before he said, “Just after two,” and then he nestled his face back into her hair.

  She let out a sad sigh. “I wish tomorrow didn’t have to come so soon. I wish we could stay here like this until…I don’t know. For a long time.”

  “All right then. I forthwith suspend time until the lady wishes to move on.”

  Wrinkling her nose, she laughed. “Forthwith?”

  “What? What’s wrong with forthwith?”

  “I’m definitely getting you a thesaurus. No one uses forthwith anymore.”

  Logan chuckled with her. “Did anyone ever?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe in the eighteen hundreds.”

  “While drinking tea and eating crumpets in the blue salon,” he suggested, affecting a British accent, which made her giggle.

  “And talking about dukes and earls who might be attending the upcoming masquerade ball,” she added.

  He played along, building to the story. And she felt the need to outdo him until soon they had a ridiculous tale created that no longer had anything to do with the word forthwith.

  They talked deep into the night, teasing and whispering, kissing then touching. By the time Paige drifted into a dreamless sleep, she felt happier than she could ever remember feeling in her life. Just before unconsciousness claimed her, a pair of warm lips pressed against the back of her head.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  And that was all she needed to feel content.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “PAIGE, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE—” The bathroom door to Paige’s room flew open and Bailey exploded inside with Tess hot on her heels. “Dorian Wa—oh my God. Paige is in bed with a guy!”

  Jerked from a deep sleep, Paige sat straight up, making her covers slide down to reveal the Minnie Mouse t-shirt she’d worn to sleep. Beside her, Logan lurched sideways and tumbled to the floor.

  When he landed with a thump, Paige scurried forward to peer over the edge. “Are you okay?”

  Lying flat on his back, he groaned and opened his eyes. “Does everyone blow in here like that each morning without knocking first?”

  She winced. “Actually, no. I think you’ve just gotten lucky.” She held out her hand to help him up.

  As he accepted it, Bailey shifted around them, studying him from a different angle before her eyes flared. “Hey, you’re that hot designated driver guy.”

  He grunted out an unintelligible sound and rubbed the shoulder he’d landed on as he scowled at her. “Yeah. G’morning to you too.”

  “Pai-aige!” Tess looked pleasantly scandalized as she put two syllables in Paige’s name. Eyes glittering with glee, she rubbed her hands together. “Did you get drunk and need a ride home last night?”

  Both Logan and Paige ignored the intruders as they gazed at each other.

  Reaching out, he caught a piece of her hair and smoothed it down, his expression full of adoring amusement. “I should probably go.”

  She nodded glumly and watched him glance around the room until he spotted his jeans draped over the back of her desk chair. Her greedy gaze gobbled up the muscle tone on his legs and the sleek line of his vertebra as he kept his back to them and jerked his pants on, tugging them up over his boxer shorts.

  Paige licked her lips, remembering how she’d clutched that very back last night before she realized she wasn’t the only one taking in an eyeful.

  Scowling at both her suitemates as their stares followed every move Logan made, she stepped partially in front of them to block their view and crossed her arms over her chest.

  Lifting an eyebrow, she asked, “Do you mind?”

  Bailey shifted to the side so she could peer around Paige’s shoulder. “Not at all.”

  “Me neither,” a blushing Tess piped up as she dodged to the other side of Paige for her own peek.

  Giving up on them, Paige sighed and turned just in time to see the last bit of Logan’s golden back disappear as he slipped on his shirt. When he glanc
ed at her with a nervous, uncertain smile, she melted. His blue eyes asked if she was okay, if she regretted anything, if she wanted to see him again.

  She loved how much he cared. Smiling her reassurance, she took his hand. He squeezed her fingers before his shoulders eased and he breathed out a silent, relieved breath.

  “I guess I’m going then,” he said.

  She followed him to the door, where he crouched down to pull on his shoes. “Do you have to work today?”

  “No, I…” Shoving his foot into the last shoe, he stood and cast her suitemates a cautious squint. They watched him avidly. “I have a feeling you and your friends need to talk, though.”

  Paige glanced at Tess and Bailey who both bobbed their heads in vigorous agreement. She sighed. “Yeah.” And she had a lot more to tell them than Logan realized. “It might take a while too.” She sent him an apologetic grimace.

  “That’s fine. I’m going to head home and grab a shower. I think I left my cell phone at The Squeeze, so I might pop in there to get it, and make sure we didn’t leave too much of a mess last night while I’m at it. Is…” He cast their audience a discreet look before turning back to her. “Is it okay if I stop by later?”

  Without answering, Paige grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands and yanked him against her for a goodbye kiss. When his mouth captured hers, she felt home.

  Soon, the meeting of lips turned into something too deep for prying eyes, so she regretfully let go of his shirt. He took a step away from her, looking dazed as he struggled for air.

  “Okay, then. I’ll take that as a yes.” He returned to her just enough to press his forehead to hers and nuzzle their noses back and forth.

  “I think that was a hell yes,” Bailey piped up.

  Logan grinned as he pulled back. Paige’s hand caught his and their fingers naturally interlaced as he nodded to her suitemates and then opened the door to the hall. His eyes were soft and content.

  “Bye.”

  “Bye,” she whispered back, not letting go of his fingers until the very last moment. The door closed gently before she turned around, floating on a cloud of ecstasy—