by K. C. Lynn
That has me feeling a little better.
“Me? What about Logan? He’s the one in danger.”
I shake my head at Anna’s concern. “I’m fine, baby, I can take care of myself and he knows it. It’s why he went to you and not me.”
“I agree,” Brooks says. “I don’t think she’s in danger. It was a scare tactic because Ricketts knows he’s going down. We stick to the plan for now, but like I said, after the fight he’ll be dealt with properly.”
If I don’t kill him first, but I keep that thought to myself.
“We’ll be in touch. Contact us if anything else happens,” Davis says. As the agents make their exit, Davis swings a final look of contempt in Jaxson’s direction.
“Jesus, I fucking hate feds. They’re nothing but a bunch of arrogant pricks,” Cooper mutters.
Jaxson’s eyes bore into mine and I hold his stare, bracing myself for the fight I’m sure is to come. “Both of you come home with me.”
I blink, not expecting him to say that and I reject the idea fast. “No way, I’m not going to your house. Not with Julia and Annabelle there.” Before he can argue I turn to Anna. “Maybe you should go, just to be safe. At least until the fight is over and the cops have Ricketts.” I hate every word that falls from my mouth, but I’m trying to do what’s best. I would protect Anna with my life, but if this isn’t a scare tactic and I’m a target she would be safer at Jaxson’s until this is over.
“No, I’m not leaving you.”
“Anna, it’s for the best,” Jaxson starts but she cuts him off.
“No, I’m not leaving him.” She turns to me, determination igniting her gaze. “I’m serious, Logan, don’t push me away—not again.” Her words hit me like a ton of bricks, bringing me back to that day four years ago at the prison. “Please,” she whispers, “don’t do that to me again.”
I blow out a heavy breath and nod. “I won’t, it was just a suggestion. If you want to stay with me then we’ll make it work.”
She drops her head on mine with relief. “Thank you.”
“Fuck’s sake!” Jaxson curses, clearly not pleased with the decision, like I knew he wouldn’t be.
Anna goes to him and wraps her arms around his waist. “Please try to understand, I can’t leave him and I don’t want to. You know how hard this has been on me, Jaxson. I need to be with him.”
Her soft words hit me like a punch to the gut. To know she needs me as much as I do her has something breaking free inside of me. Something that was locked up tight but now has me breathing easier.
“I’m just worried, kid, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I’m just about to tell him I wouldn’t let it but she beats me to it. “Logan won’t let anything happen to me.”
The conviction of that statement causes another shift inside of me. Not only am I glad she trusts me enough to take care of her, but also choosing me to do it instead of Jaxson. As much as I try to be understanding of their relationship I want to be the one she goes to, the one she trusts to protect her. For once I want to be her hero, not him.
“If it makes you feel better how about when I’m not with Logan or at school I’ll come to the gym or your house.”
That’s exactly what I would have had her do anyway, but she’ll be glued to my fucking side every possible moment.
I can tell Jaxson is close to giving in but he tries one more time to persuade her. “I have guns at my house.”
I grunt. “So do I.”
“What? How the hell do you have a gun?” Cooper asks, but doesn’t give me a chance to speak. “You know what, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know. Jesus, I got one who has illegal fucking guns, the other is tossing out threats to the fucking feds. I swear, you assholes give me heartburn.”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t have something to protect myself with the shit they have me involved in? And how do you know it’s illegal, maybe it’s not.”
He gives me a you-have-got-to-be-shittin’-me look. I shrug, it was worth a try. Truth be told I knew it would take too long, and I figured my chances of getting approved for one were slim to none. I did what I had to do, no way would I be taken off guard unprotected.
Never again.
“Whenever you can’t be with him I want you with me. Got it?” Jaxson says to Anna, his demand breaking me from where my thoughts were just about to go.
“I promise.”
Cooper walks over to me. “I get that you’re helping the feds and you need to follow the plan, but remember, nothing is more important than your life, especially not this case. If something doesn’t feel right, you break that plan. Don’t put yourself in a position you can’t get out of.” I nod and he sticks out his hand to me. “You have my number if you need me.”
“Thanks.” I’m not used to people having my back. I’ve always been the one to shoulder all the responsibility and usually I like it that way, but right now I appreciate his help. I trust him a hell of a lot more than the agents I’m working for.
With a final goodbye they both walk out the door, leaving Anna and me alone. She watches me hesitantly, her eyes looking tired and haunted from tonight’s events.
“You okay?” I blurt out, before I realize how stupid the question is.
“Yeah, I think so. Just tired.” She clears her throat. “Um, I just realized we both don’t have our vehicles here and I don’t have anything for tonight.”
“We’ll worry about all that in the morning. I have a spare toothbrush you can use and you can borrow something of mine to wear.”
She nods. “Okay, thanks. Um, do you mind if I have a shower?”
My cock instantly swells at the thought of her in my shower, but I try to tamp it down, knowing now’s not the time after everything that’s happened. “Yeah.” My voice is rough, betraying my good intentions. I go grab her a pair of sweats and one of my shirts then a towel before showing her to the bathroom. Once she closes the door and I hear the shower turn on, my already hard dick throbs like a motherfucker.
Shaking my head, I walk out onto the balcony to have a smoke, needing to ease the tension coiling inside of me. This is going to be a long fucking night.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Anna
I walk out of the bathroom feeling a little more refreshed, though no less disturbed from tonight’s events. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around everything.
I enter the living room to find it empty but notice the balcony door is open. Walking over, I tentatively peek my head out to see Logan sitting on a chair having a cigarette, lost in thought. I use this moment to take him in, from his rumpled, messy hair to his troubled expression, he looks lost rather than the sure, confident guy I’ve always known. I also notice his back is against the building as he stares out at the world in front of him. In the years he’s been gone something has changed in him. I still see his old self, and he was always guarded, but now he’s…harder? I don’t know the right word for it, but it hurts my heart.
As if sensing the weight of my stare he looks at me, and his troubled expression softens. “Hey, did you find everything okay?”
“Yes, I did, thank you,” I reply quietly, still having only my head peeking around the door.
“Come out here, Anna. It’s a nice night and I’m enjoying the fresh air.”
“The air you’re having is hardly fresh.” Although I say it in a teasing manner I do really hate that he started smoking again.
He gets that sexy smirk of his that makes my heart flutter in my chest. “Touché.” Taking one last drag of the cigarette he puts it out. “There, now come out here.”
Even though his balcony is mostly private by the half-wall wrapping around it, I still check to make sure no one is around before tentatively stepping out. Logan’s smirk vanishes and his gaze turns to fire as it roams down my half-naked body. I shift under his heated stare and clear my throat. “Uh, your pants didn’t fit. Even when I did the drawstring up as tight as it would go they still
fell off.”
His eyes slowly move back up to meet mine. “Why are you nervous?”
The question catches me off-guard. I had hoped I was hiding my emotions better, but I guess not. “Because I’m scared,” I answer truthfully.
Guilt flashes in his eyes. “You don’t need to be, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“I’m not scared for myself, I’m scared for you.”
His expression is one I can’t decipher, but something shifts in the night air between us, something that has my heart rate kicking up. He holds his hand out to me. “Come here.”
I reach out to take it and he pulls me over before lifting me in a swift move to straddle him. My breath seizes in my throat at the unexpected act and I bite back a moan at the feel of his erection between my legs.
His fierce gaze locks with mine as he holds me close. “Nothing is going to happen to me, baby, I promise.”
I wish I felt as confident as him, but I can’t get that man’s awful threat out of my head. “I hate that they’re using you for this.” I more than hate it, I’m furious about it.
He shrugs. “In the end it works out for all of us.”
“Because you don’t have to go back there?” I ask softly, remembering his earlier words to me, words that had my heart swelling so painfully at the desperation it brought to his eyes.
“Yeah, and because it also gives me a chance to redeem myself.”
My head tilts inquisitively. “What do you mean? For what happened with Robert?”
He nods. “A little. I guess a part of me feels that by helping them I can prove I’m not the murderer everyone thinks I am.
I hate that he feels the need to prove he’s a good person. Reaching up, I cup the side of his face. “You’re not a murderer, what happened was an accident. He was the bad person, Logan, not you.”
He stares back at me, his eyes intense as he encircles my wrist and presses a kiss to my palm. “That’s not the most important redemption I have.”
“Oh?” I whisper, through my sudden-dry throat. “Then what is?”
“You.”
Even though I figured that was going to be his answer it still rocks me to my core. I suck in a sharp breath and drop my head down on his, my eyes closing at the storm of emotions battling inside of me. I fight back the regret trying to bubble up, my heart hurting for all the time we’ve lost together.
Logan’s hands weave up into my hair, keeping us only a breath away from one another. “I’m going to fix us, Anna. I’m going to make everything right again or I’m going to fucking die trying.”
Before he can say more my mouth finds his. All of the fear and frustration from tonight fuels a desperation from us both as we inhale one another. My hands frame his face while his cup my bottom to bring me closer, but it’s not close enough. I reach between us for his shirt and drag it up. “Take this off, I need to feel you.” I need to feel all of him, every part. I need him to erase the memories that threatened to take me tonight. He’s the only one who has ever been able to do that for me.
We only break the kiss long enough to remove our shirts then we are back on each other, mouth to mouth, skin to skin. My gasp and his groan mingle as electricity shoots through every nerve ending in my body.
“I love feeling your bare skin against mine,” I admit, breathing into the kiss.
“Me too, baby. I love just breathing the same fucking air as you.”
His words have my heart warming and my hips rocking to be closer. My hands are urgent as they move to the button of his jeans. With a growl he helps me get his pants undone and frees himself. I grasp his smooth, hard cock in both of my hands and he pumps his hips up into my firm grip. The raw and wild sound that erupts from him proves he’s as desperate for my touch as I am for his.
“I swore to myself the next time I had you I was going to take my time rediscovering every inch of your sweet body. But goddamn, I can’t right now, I need you too fucking bad.”
“I need you more,” I breathe out.
“Not fucking possible.” With that he shreds my panties from my body then plunges inside of me in one single thrust that knocks the breath from my lungs.
“Oh god!”
“Fuck, Anna, you’re perfect.” He groans. We both remain still and take a moment to revel in how it feels for him to be deep inside of me. Nothing else matters right now but this and how we complete one another.
“We’re perfect together,” I whisper.
“That’s right, baby, and you wanna know why?” I wait for him to tell me. “Because you’re mine, you always have been. Every goddamn part of you belongs to me.”
“Yes.” It’s a scary thing for me to admit, especially when I’m taking a chance on him again after he pushed me away, but in the end it’s the truth. My heart will always belong to him; everything that’s happened has only proven that.
“Damn straight. And no one is going to fuck with this. No one will ever keep you from me again.”
“Promise?” I ask, sounding as vulnerable as I feel. I need him to promise me this, because if I lost him a second time I know I wouldn’t survive it.
Instead of answering, he snakes a hand around my neck and pulls me in for a kiss. A long, powerful one that touches the very depths of my soul. “Yeah, baby, I promise,” he whispers against my lips. His hands move to cup my breasts and his thumbs brush over my stiff nipples, drawing a whimper from me. “You like that?”
“Yes.”
“You want me to take these pretty nipples into my mouth?”
A moan slips past me at his dirty words. “Yes.”
He leans down and takes a tortured bud into his mouth, sucking with a pressure that borders on a beautiful pain that I feel all the way to my core. My head falls back on a cry and my fingers weave into his rumpled hair with a grip so tight I’m sure I’m ripping strands out. By the growl that escapes him, I’m assuming he doesn’t mind. He goes back and forth between each breast, giving them the attention they yearn for; bringing my body to highs I’ve only ever known with him. When I can’t take the burn any longer, I plant my bare feet on the cool cement and rise up until the tip of his shaft is inside of me then drop back down.
An explosion of sensations erupts through my body and Logan drops his head back on the building with a groan. “Aw fuck yeah, that’s my girl. Do it again, baby.” His fingers grip my hips and he helps guide me. I do it again, rising slowly to my tiptoes then drop back down on him hard, bringing him deeper inside of me than I thought possible. I do this over and over, having pleasure blast through me every time. Logan restrains himself, letting me lead until he can’t take any more and slams up inside of me. I suck in a sharp breath and grab onto his shoulders to steady myself.
He stills. “This okay?”
I nod, because I’m incapable of talking at the moment, but it’s not good enough for him.
“Tell me, Anna, that it’s okay. Tell me you want me to fuck you.”
I lick my dry lips then whisper, “I want you to fuck me.”
With a growl that’s exactly what he does. He plunges inside of me over and over again. My mouth opens on a silent scream, the intensity of his thrusts rendering me speechless. I dig my nails into his shoulders while I hold onto him for dear life.
“Yes. Let me feel your nails, baby, fucking mark me.”
“Logan.” I whimper, my tummy beginning to pull tight with my impending orgasm.
“Look at me, Anna.” My eyes snap open at his command, I hadn’t even realized they were closed. “I want to see your pretty eyes while you come on my cock.”
His words, along with his delicious assault, have me falling over the edge. I drop my forehead on his and he draws me down to his mouth, swallowing my cries of ecstasy. In the midst of my pleasure I feel him go still and groan out his own release. I bury my face in his neck and hold him close while we both try to catch our breath. A slight breeze kicks up and sends goose bumps across my heated flesh, reminding me we’re outside.
“Oh god. We just had sex outside and everyone is probably watching us.” Now that we are no longer in the throes of passion, the thought has panic bubbling up inside of me.
Logan chuckles, clearly not feeling the same torment I am. “No one can see us. The building across from us is a storage unit with no windows.”
I brave the chance to look behind me and see that what he says is true. I also do a quick scan of the dark alleyway to see everything quiet and vacant.
When I turn back to Logan he has an amused smirk. “Did you really think I would let anyone see what’s mine? I’m open to a lot of kinky shit, but allowing someone to watch me fuck my girl isn’t one of them.”
My stomach dips at his words, wondering just what kind of kinky things he’s talking about. With a chuckle he leans in and gives me a hard kiss. “Come on, let’s get inside so I can sleep with you in my arms for the rest of the night.”
“That sounds like heaven. Only this time no sneaking out on me in the morning.”
“Not this time, baby,” he promises as he carries me inside. He gives me another clean shirt of his before I enter into the bathroom to clean up. I also stole a pair of his boxer briefs since he ripped my panties to shreds. Just the thought has butterflies swirling in my tummy.
I walk back out and into his room to see he’s already in bed with the covers pulled back, waiting for me. The small space is completely bare except for a bed and dresser, the bed looking out of place from where it’s pushed against the wall. I shove away the niggling question as to why. I don’t want anything to ruin the easy mood we’ve found. With a small smile I walk over and crawl in next to him. He pulls me in close so our bodies are flush against each other, and our faces only a breath away.
Laying his hand on my face, he brushes his thumb under my eye. “Talk to me.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me everything about you, everything I’ve missed, and don’t leave a single thing out. I want to know you better than anyone again.”
