by Lori Ryan
He ground his erection into her bottom and she pressed against him, nipping at his neck. God, she wanted this—him—so badly. She thought she’d explode if he didn’t touch her soon. As if reading her mind, his hand found her breast and his thumb grazed over her nipple. The roughness of his touch through the fabric of her top was tantalizing and all she could think was more. She wanted more.
Logan pulled away from her and rested his forehead against hers as they both worked to regulate their breathing.
“Remember where we were. I’ve got to get in touch with Zach and get a plan in place. When I get back—” He simply grinned and left the promise out there.
Samantha’s answer was somewhere halfway between an mmmmmm sound like she might make if she were eating a cookie, and an um hmmm sound made to indicate agreement. She was absolutely in agreement.
Logan grinned the full-blown devilish grin she knew was genuine, but didn’t see as often as she’d like, and then pulled out his cell phone. He dialed and leaned in to kiss her briefly while he waited for someone to answer the phone.
“The faster I get someone over here and get back and forth to my place, the faster we can continue where we left off,” he said.
Sam wondered briefly if she should go with him to his house, but he would have someone come to stay with her. She’d be safe. Not to mention, he hadn’t exactly offered. She would stay here and shower, change, and climb into bed to wait for him. The wait might kill her, but she wouldn’t press him to go with him if he wasn’t offering.
“Hey,” he said into the phone, his voice suddenly all business and no longer the sultry bedroom voice he’d been using to croon the panties right off her body. She assumed he was talking to Zach, who owned a personal protection company and was familiar with what had happened with the bugs. He’d been the one to install her new security system.
“What’s up?” Sam heard Zach’s muffled response on the other end of the line.
“I’m pretty sure Samantha and I were being watched when we left a restaurant half an hour ago. I think whoever is bugging her might have upped their game.”
“What makes you say that?” Zach asked.
“Gut feeling. Sam got it, too and apparently she’s felt that way before tonight.” Logan spared a glare toward Sam, who responded by sticking her tongue out at him. He cracked what looked like a reluctant grin before turning his focus back to Zach.
“I’m going to run back to my house and grab some stuff to stay over here with her. Do you have anyone you can send over to watch the house while I’m gone? Maybe even set up a protection detail on her for a few days until we figure out who this is and what they want.”
“You bet. Jeff Carson should be available. I’ll send him that way or let you know if he isn’t free, but he should be. You’ll wait for him to arrive?”
“Yup. And I’ll touch base with you tomorrow to come up with a plan moving forward.”
“You got it. Talk to you tomorrow.”
Logan closed the phone and turned toward Sam, drawing her back into his arms.
“We’ve got some time to kill until his guy gets here,” he said with a leering smile. His teasing turned to heated passion when she ran her hands up his chest and pulled his head in for a kiss. Then, he took over.
Head spinning, Sam tried to capture and remember every sensation, everything she felt during this moment. It seemed as though Logan had given up trying to fight what they were feeling and she wanted to experience everything.
But soon her body felt too much for her overly analytical mind to keep up with and she had to let herself simply sink into the pleasure of being with him. It wasn’t a condition she was used to.
Samantha had lost her virginity quite purposefully in a very planned, organized encounter. She and her best friend, Johnny Dornan, had decided to experiment sexually together when they were seventeen. They met at the lake her family spent summers at, and had both been science geeks. They’d been friends for over five years, spending several weeks each summer together in a small town in Maine. They were comfortable with each other, but that didn’t mean the experience wasn’t a bit too scientific and a little light on passion. Hidden away in one of the unused boathouses, they’d tried everything they could think of in the name of learning how to be “sexually competent,” as they put it. Positions, oral sex, mutual masturbation. They’d had a lot of fun and the experience was one Samantha had always thought of as extremely freeing.
She’d had orgasms with Johnny. Not at first, of course, but once they got the hang of it. And she’d been with a couple of other men since then. All, quite enjoyable encounters.
But it was nothing compared to what Logan was doing to her body now. She felt as though every nerve ending was on fire and burning up for him. For his touch, his caress, his heat. His teeth grazed over her neck on his way down to kiss her collarbone and she gasped at the sheer power of the arousal coursing through her. Her hands grasped his shoulders and she tried to hold him to her, but she didn’t have to. He buried his head against her and nipped, licked, and suckled his way down the top of her breasts, to the dip of her cleavage and she vaguely wondered when he’d undone the buttons of her shirt.
Then, he was lifting one breast up over the cup of her bra and his mouth closed in over the nipple and she was lost. There was something so erotic and dirty, in a good way, about his lifting her out of her clothes to taste her, rather than peeling them off. As though he couldn’t wait to get his mouth on her, couldn’t wait to have more of her. She felt the same way about him and she threaded her fingers in his hair and held him to her.
They were both panting when Logan stopped and held her face in his hands, meeting her eyes. The fierce passion and fire in his eyes was enough to make her crave—no need—more of him. But the man of steel was apparently back in charge. His breath might be coming in pants, but he had gotten his head clear enough to slow them down.
“If we don’t stop now, I won’t be able to hold back any longer, Sam. Much as I’d love to haul you upstairs and strip you down and play with this body all night long, we’re going to be interrupted any minute by Zach’s guy. And, I gotta tell you, I can’t have any interruptions when I get you naked. I need time to learn every inch of your body, to make you scream and shake and come ’til you think you might black out. Then, I need to bury myself to the hilt in you and not come up for days, Sam.”
She stopped breathing. No one had ever talked to her that way. He spoke as though he needed her like he needed food or water, and that was a turn on, in itself. She suspected she was also turned on by dirty talk and couldn’t wait for more of that. More of him. She whimpered her need, and he let out a raspy huff of laughter, only to be cut off by the sound of the doorbell.
Logan lowered his forehead to hers. “I’ll be back soon. I want to pick up some cameras to set up in case we get any visitors, and a few more weapons. I only have my Glock with me. I promise, as soon as I get us set up to take care of you here, I’m gonna make good on all those promises.”
Sam nodded as Logan’s cell phone buzzed.
“Yeah?” Logan answered while taking the stairs down two at a time to answer the door.
“Yup. Six three, dark hair, scar over his eye. Got it. Talk to you tomorrow.”
Sam heard the door open and voices as Logan and another man made their way up the stairs. The other man was as tall as Logan, but leaner. He looked to be in top shape, though, and had the same look Logan had, as though he were utterly confident in his ability to take on any threat. A jagged scar marked one of his eyebrows, but it added to his edgy look rather than detracting from it.
“Sam, this is Jeff Carson. He works for Zach. He’s going to be outside tonight and then one of the other guys will take over in the morning.”
Sam reached her hand out and shook Jeff’s outstretched one.
“Ma’am,” Jeff said with a nod and what Sam assumed he thought was a smile. It wasn’t. But she didn’t get a creepy vibe from him. Just the feeling
that he was someone who was used to working and not socializing. She was fine with that.
Logan turned to Jeff. “I’m going to run over to my place. It’s only a few minutes away so I’ll be back in a half hour, forty-five minutes, tops.”
Jeff nodded.
“Sam, would you like Jeff to wait in here with you or watch from outside?” Logan asked.
Sam didn’t feel overly anxious about things yet. She had a feeling this was still related to Sutton Capital and someone wanting intel on her work. She didn’t think whoever this was would be breaking down her door to harm her. She had panic alarms in three places in her town house. She would feel perfectly safe with Jeff parked outside her town house until Logan returned. Since he was a total stranger to her, she liked the idea of him being outside better.
“I think outside is fine. I’ll be fine in here until you get back. I’ll probably just get in bed and read.” She smiled cheekily at Logan and saw the sharpness in his eyes as his glance hit her. Her mention of bed had had the desired effect.
“Fine,” Jeff said, with a nod.
Logan went to the desk in the corner of Sam’s living room and picked up the extra receiving unit for the panic alarms Zach had given her and tossed it to Jeff.
“She’s got a panic alarm on each floor. Hooked into police and to me.”
Jeff nodded and turned silently toward the stairs that led back downstairs.
Logan spun Sam’s head into a tizzy with one of his craze-inducing kisses before walking out the door with her promise to lock up and set the alarm behind him.
Chapter Thirteen
Yoshi listened as one of the men he’d hired to watch Samantha Page delivered news he didn’t want to hear. “I think we’ve been made. There’ve been some intermittent outages on the bugs. Some of it could be normal interference. No bug is foolproof, but I’m fairly sure Stone just spotted us. He looks like he’s rallying more protection for her. They’ve got a man outside her house. Stone just left, but if you’re gonna want us to act, now is probably the best time.”
“Hold on,” Yoshi said, then held the phone away from his mouth and relayed the information he’d just been given to Diya.
Diya’s expression turned cold. The faces of her mother and father and her two angel brothers flashed through her mind’s eye and she all but whimpered at the pain of their loss. She’d give anything to be wrapped in the love of her family again. Anything.
“Take her out.”
Yoshi brought the phone back to his ear, prepared to give instructions before Diya interrupted.
“Wait. Strike that. Tell them to bring her to me. Let’s go ahead and draw this out. Let Logan Stone suffer for a while.” She felt a slight, if only temporary, ease in her chest. Yes, bringing him pain would alleviate some of her own.
Yoshi gave the instructions to the man on the other end of the line, smiling as he told the man not to be careful with her. He didn’t care what condition Samantha Page was in when they got her, as long as she was alive enough to let them film her for a few days. Yoshi was happy with Diya’s plan to let Stone suffer watching videos of Samantha as they tortured and killed her.
Diya laughed when she heard him. Yoshi had a lot stronger taste for revenge than she’d given him credit for when they set out on this journey. It turned out, he wanted payback for her family’s slaughter almost as much as she did.
*****
Sam set the alarm after Logan left and went up to her bathroom on the third floor to take a hot shower. She figured she would change into the silk pajamas that she’d bought recently, just in case she ended up spending the night with Logan. She’d thought about getting something skimpy and sexy, but had opted for a soft ivory-colored pants and top set instead. It was more her style, with the light scalloped edging and buttons down the front. It was sexy without being over-the-top, in-your-face slutty.
Although, now that she thought about it, being slutty for Logan had its appeal. She grinned as she reached into the shower and started the water running. Maybe she’d buy something with a little more lace for next time. He made her feel sexy and alluring. She didn’t feel big and clumsy and awkward with him. Hell, he made her forget her size. She didn’t feel like a woman who was almost as tall as he was when she was around him. She felt downright dainty, and that was saying a hell of a lot.
Sam undid the buttons and slid her shirt off her arms and down her body, then removed her bra, letting her hands trail over her nipples as she did. Logan’s mouth had felt incredible on her breasts earlier. When she slid her panties off, she saw they were damp from the effects of Logan’s caresses, and she couldn’t wait to finally make it to bed with him. To see if it would be as explosive as she thought things would be with him.
Sam pulled open the shower door and let the water run over her hand to test the heat. She hated getting into the shower before the water was good and hot. She loved being warm. Someday, Sam planned to build her own house from start to finish and she knew one thing for sure. Her master bathroom would have a minimum of two shower heads and heated tile flooring throughout to keep her toes warm. Maybe a heated towel rack and toilet as well. Why not go all out?
Sam placed one leg into the shower, and then froze as a piercing screech filled the house. It took Sam precious moments she didn’t have to realize what it was. Her alarm. She hit the shower faucet to turn off the water, realizing too late that if someone was in the house, they would have heard it and would know her location sooner rather than later.
How would someone have gotten past Jeff? Could it be Jeff coming in for some reason? He wouldn’t trigger the alarm, would he? No. The alarm that was screeching was the internal alarm Zach had set just inside her front door. A laser crossing her inside hallway was a backup precaution in the event anyone disarmed the perimeter alarms. All too late, Sam heard footsteps on the stairs and started toward the panel that led to the crawl space, grabbing the top to her pajamas as she went. She slid the panel open and climbed through the two-by-four-foot opening, wincing at the darkness. She slid the door shut and then threw her pajamas over her head. She shoved her arms through the holes before moving boxes in front of the door to block it from opening.
It was too late. Sam froze as the footsteps hit the top of the stairs. Would they hear her moving the boxes and know right where she was? Her heart felt like it would break straight through her ribs with its pounding, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to choke on the fear.
Please be Jeff, please be Jeff, please be Jeff, she chanted again and again praying she was being foolish by hiding. Maybe he would call out to her at any moment and tell her he forgot the code for the alarm. She’d feel like a fool but she’d be safe and that was all she cared about right now.
But harsh voices came to her through the panel door of the crawl space. They sounded as though they were right at the top of the landing, which put them within feet of the bathroom door. Sam crushed her fist against her mouth, biting into her knuckles, and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Move it! We’re out of time.”
She heard them move and swallowed a sob, trying desperately to remain quiet. Her mind raced. She had only pushed three boxes against the door. If she pushed any more in place, they would hear her. On the other hand, there didn’t seem to be any possibility that they would leave without checking the crawl space.
Then again, the police and Logan would have been alerted the minute the alarms went off. The intruders should know they were almost out of time. Would they give up and leave? Or would they guess that the response time of the police would be long enough to allow them to grab her?
Moving to the back of the crawl space, Sam made herself as small as possible behind a few boxes of winter clothing and silently rocked back and forth. She saw nothing in the space that she could use to defend herself with, but she mentally began to prepare. If she had to, she would kick and fight and claw at anything she could sink her nails into. If the men breached her hiding place, she would fight.
&nbs
p; Chapter Fourteen
Logan made the trip to his apartment as fast as possible. As soon as he left Sam, he wanted to turn back around and bring her with him. But he’d reminded himself she had Jeff outside watching over her, and the truth was, he couldn’t let her see how he was living. He would change that, though. He would put away the knives and guns that were placed strategically all over his place. If she’d seen the sheer number of them, she would know he wasn’t well, that he was still struggling. He would buy furniture, soon, instead of sleeping on the floor and eating standing up at the counter in the kitchen. He’d take down the blackout curtains on all the windows and turn his apartment into a home, instead of a cave for him to hide in.
He was three blocks from Sam’s house, heading back toward her when he heard the alert on his phone that let him know that Sam’s house had been breached.
What the fuck?
Seconds before, he’d been fighting the urge to blow through the red light he sat at simply because of the caution that had been ingrained in him during his last tour of duty. For most of the last few months of his service, he’d been overseas serving in Afghanistan. One thing US military members never did over there was to sit still in traffic. You kept moving and you stayed alive.
The urge to move had been strong, but Logan had steadied the twisting in his gut and was coping with the feelings bombarding him.
Until that alert came. Then he hit the gas and barely slowed down for turns for the remainder of the trip to Sam’s. He was instantly back in combat-ready mode. Calm, breathing evenly, ready to take on whatever came his way. His head told him they wouldn’t have come this quickly for her, whoever the hell they were. His brain tried to argue that Jeff was standing guard outside her place. His gut was telling him the alarm was no freaking technical glitch or accidental triggering of the alarm. He needed to get to Sam and he needed to get to her fast.
