by K H Lemoyne
Everywhere, blackness and horror.
Her legs struggled to move, but her feet were glued in place. Her pulse raced, her heartbeat drowning out the surrounding sounds. She shouted, but nothing came out and nobody noticed.
It was all her fault. She should have been stronger. More powerful.
Meaty hands pressed into her arms and legs. She fought, but their grips tightened.
No escape. No hope. Fear dragged her deeper into the dark.
“Bri.”
She kicked, tried to scream. Her muscles refused.
“Bri. Wake up.”
The weight lifted and her limbs loosened.
“Honey. You’re okay.”
The claws shackling her body, the hold on her, gentled into a soft shake.
“It’s over. You’re safe.” Logan murmured against her ear. The nightmare receded as he stroked the hair from her face and stared at her. Lines of worry framed his features in the dwindling firelight. He exhaled as she nodded she was awake, and then pulled her against his chest. Still shivering, she burrowed deeper. After a brief sob, tension left her body.
“Want to talk about it?”
She shook her head against the hard contours of his chest, inhaling his clean, musky scent. Here in his arms, she could forget. Bri never wanted to feel helpless again.
“Tell me about the fire I saw on your captor earlier. I assume you summoned it. If he or his crew had the power, they’d have already used it against us.”
“I—I don’t know. It appeared and I couldn’t control the flame.” Thinking back was hard. But he’d emphasized her brief success—the turning point for her freedom. Sneaky man, chiseling away at her reluctance to talk. But in all honesty, her memories of those moments were tenuous. Terrified, she’d strained to grasp any surrounding powers, faith winning over despair with Logan’s arrival. “When the minion infected you, I opened myself for help. I let something in.” She inhaled and shuddered.
“It worked. But where did the fire came from?”
“I have no idea. I’ve never been able to control what answers when I call.”
“Maybe that’s the way it should be. You owe nothing in return.”
Swallowing hard, she drifted back, analyzing. Not even a half an hour had passed from the time she’d told the children to run, until the instant Logan had pulled her free. Yet an eternity passed for her with those men.
“Bri, if you hold it in, it’ll eat away at you.” His chin nudged the top of her head. “There’s nothing you can’t tell me.”
His hold, the gentle touch of his fingers against her scalp, so different from the fingers that had grabbed and prodded. All she’d wanted then was to fight back. Now, fighting, or even exposing herself, was the last thing she wanted. What if he didn’t understand? What if he saw her differently, less? “Not true,” a weak inner voice nagged at her.
“Anything, Bri,” he persisted. “Test me. I don’t mind.”
Fine. Courage was a muscle she needed to exercise. And there was no one safer to exercise it with, though she willed back panic. “They wanted payment from the laird, and took me instead.” Unable to hold back her revulsion of the memories of their treatment, she shivered. “The one who restrained me in the water decided after they…he was going to keep me.”
Logan palmed the back of her head, and while he was still gentle, his voice grew rougher. “They hit you. I’ve heard rumors of their treatment of women.”
She nodded. Her inspection for breeding potential sickened her too much to mention out loud, the images and words too vivid.
“Did they—” Logan cupped her jaw, forcing her not to look away. “No matter what they did, it won’t change anything between us. I’ll help you get past this. If I could kill him again, give you the sword to run them through, I would.”
He rubbed his thumb against her lower lip, and she felt anger radiate from him, enough to vanquish her doubts about how he’d think of her.
“They didn’t—” She continued, feeling braver. “He didn’t have time.”
Without anymore questions, he kissed her cheek. She turned, capturing his lips with her own. She wanted every bit of feeling from their night in the forest again. Warmth and desire to erase the cold, rough pawing of the Plagiars.
With each breath, she forced away the disgusting images. Then he withdrew, and she clutched his arms with a splash of panic. “No.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Just getting us comfortable.” He lay back down and pulled her with him until he was curled around her body like a shield.
Soundless tears started. She didn’t realize she had soaked his shirt until her sob released, no longer held in place, with nowhere to go but out. His protectiveness released the lock on her emotions. The tide rushed forward, refusing to be contained as enormous sobs racked her body. Logan held her, driving away her grief with consoling kisses against her temple.
Her sobs stopped and shivers eventually stopped, leaving only fatigue. Logan rubbed his face against hers and whispered soft, unintelligible words against her hair.
Drained, she wiped her palms against her cheeks and accepted the comfort he showered on her. She’d seen him do the same with Fiona. But now she was intimately aware of the potency of his comfort. Greedily, she let him purge her years of fear and helplessness and fill the empty well of hope inside her.
And something more. Something strong and hot that wound between them.
She kissed his jaw. Then, suddenly embarrassed at her outpouring, she unclenched her fingers. The effort to relax her stiff hands, smooth down his shirt, and give him dry clothes distracted her while she mustered her dignity.
But he didn’t allow her to hide, instead tilting her head and covering her lips with his as he built the delicious tension between them again. Tingles followed in the path of his lips. When his tongue stroked at her mouth, she opened for him. Heat unfolded from deep within her body, burning a path from her belly to her toes and back again. His kiss deepened and his body tightened around hers. Heat furled beneath her skin, arousing and enticing.
Bri slid her hands behind his back, feeling his muscles bunch and shift as he ended their kiss.
“Logan.”
“Mmm.” His response vibrated against the skin beneath her ear.
“Make love to me again.”
He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “That night in the forest—did we?”
“Just enough. Please. I want us to be all I remember.”
The concern in his expression melted away, replaced by blatant desire. He kissed her again, soft and brief, then he rolled away and stood.
Was he rejecting her?
“Not here, in the middle of all these people, Bri.” He tossed their blankets over his arm and crouched, grasping her fingers and tugging her close. “Somewhere beautiful. Private.”
He pulled her up with him and folded her close against him. They strode behind Thomas’s cottage and up the hill overlooking the castle’s construction and the firth’s gleaming waters.
The full moon shone ice white, lighting every pebble and blade of grass. Their path wove behind a group of larger boulders. Logan knelt and smoothed out one of the blankets on a patch of grass. “No one will sneak up on us here.”
Suddenly shy, she knelt beside him, hoping the warm flush on her cheeks wasn’t obvious in the bright moonlight. He leaned with his back against one of the rocks and urged her into his arms. Cradling her against his chest, he nestled her body between his splayed legs and draped an arm around her
One hand spanned her stomach, his fingers rubbing tiny circles as he nodded before them at the water. “In the time you’ve been here, have you ever been across the Firth of Lorn?”
“I’ve never been off this island.”
She felt the chuckle in his chest. “There’s a lot to see.”
“You’ve been there?”
“Not here, but in my dimension.”
She turned sideways, leaned back against his raised knee, and looke
d up into his face. Moonlight twinkled in his eyes. The rich brown she’d become so familiar with shone almost black, but the familiar hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth relaxed her.
Her hand almost touching his cheek, she paused. How forward should she be?
With her hesitation, he took her fingers and laid them against his cheek—permission granted. She traced the thick stubble of beard grown since his arrival on the island. Dark and soft, the hair curved around his jaw and chin, covering the dimple she knew appeared when he smiled. She stroked his face and feathered her fingers over his temple. He submitted to her exploration, his eyes dark and intense.
He pressed his lips against hers, watching her with a half-hooded gaze as his tongue coaxed her into opening for him. When she complied, he nipped her lower lip and she squeaked in surprise. As the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled in laughter beneath her fingertips, she smiled. “Stop teasing me.”
He turned and kissed her fingertips. “I’m enjoying you.”
“Surely you don’t consider this lovemaking?”
He drew her closer and kissed at the corner of her mouth. “Making love with you is all about enjoyment, feelings.” His lips skimmed across her jaw before he kissed a delicate spot below her ear. She held her breath as the tip of his tongue traced a hot pattern on her skin. “Remember to breathe.”
She made an effort, but her fingers dug through his hair and held him to her as he moved slowly along her neck. This torment. This beautiful rush of feelings existed only with Logan, and she wanted more. When his mouth finally returned to hers she met him, desperate for the taste of him.
But as her desire rose, he held back in a way both frustrating and delectable. He first sipped at her lips, followed by a leisurely tangle of his tongue with hers before he retreated. Need wound so tight in her she couldn’t think straight. But when she tightened her fingers in his hair, he growled.
She yanked away her hands. He bit gently at the corner of her neck and shoulder. “Don’t stop. You won’t hurt me. I like it when you show me how you feel.”
A sigh or maybe a moan echoed. She wasn’t sure which. It hardly mattered, as she arched her neck offering more as his lips and teeth provoked a cascade of sensations. Her breath caught as his hands curved around her ribs, the path of his thumbs leaving sparks of heat as they skimmed beneath her breasts.
To hell with slow. She grabbed his hair and pulled him back, claiming his lips. His actions had unleashed her own frenzy. Instead of shock at her own actions, his resounding growl of satisfaction encouraged her. Pleased her, even.
He palmed her breasts, but so softly she leaned wantonly into his touch for more. He retreated. Whimpering at the loss, she gasped as his hand brushed down her neck. He pushed her gown over her shoulder and down her arm. The cold night air lingered on her naked breast for only a moment before he captured her nipple in his mouth.
Oh, yes, she remembered this, though reality burned brighter than Logan’s feverish dream. A low fervent cry escaped her lips. His tongue and teeth generated a sizzling pull from her nipple, to her belly, to the apex of her thighs. With a shiver, she squeezed her legs together for relief. The ache unappeased, she squirmed in his hold for more.
“Patience, love.” His gaze traveled across her face as his fingers plumped her other nipple through her shift. Then he kissed her jaw with a brief butterfly touch and she couldn’t breathe. “I remember now, Bri. You’re glorious. Again.”
He bared her other breast, pooling fabric around her waist. Her pulse pounded in her ears. Anticipation sped through her like a firestorm, the throb between her legs now heavy and demanding.
When his mouth finally covered her nipple, she arched against him. Shameless and half-naked in his lap, she savored being pleasured in the moonlight.
“Delicious, too,” he murmured.
Oh Goddess. She’d never thought of herself as a meal. Consumed this way, her skin set alight by his mouth and tongue, was a decadent experience. One leaving her trembling.
His hand stroked her breast and drifted down to her leg, tracing a path there along her bare skin. The cold of his ring contrasted with the warmth of his hand and the stroke of his fingers. His thumb caressed inside her knee and she shivered. Squeezing her gently, he moved no further, though his tongue claimed hers as his fingers feathered on her leg. A light touch just below her thigh, so wicked and yet promising, mesmerized her.
Dizzy with the sensations he’d awakened, she froze as his hand pressed her thigh wider. He halted, pulling back from their kiss.
“I’ll stop if you want me to, but I promise not to do anything you won’t enjoy. Tell me what you’re thinking.” He kissed her nose and waited. The moonlight exposed the tension in his features. The rapid pulse beating beneath her hand proved how much he wanted this. He hadn’t needed to reassure her of his desire or his restraint. She already trusted him and wanted to experience pleasure in his arms, feel his passion as he created this new memory for them.
“Don’t stop.” She pressed her lips against his, urging him. He still hesitated. “Unless getting cold is required for physical pleasure.”
“Trust me.” With a subtle twitch of his lip the hand beneath her thigh drew her closer. He nibbled along her neck and back to her mouth as he shifted them onto their sides. “I’ll keep you warm.”
She moaned into his kiss and arched in his hold. First with attention to her breasts, and then a soft caress between her thighs, he brought her back to a point of insatiable need. As she itched to move, his stroke deepened until she held her breath for more. He delved, circling in an infuriatingly slow rhythm. She could feel the fluid pool between her thighs in response. She clenched her legs around his hand, silently begging for more, but he only skimmed along her skin.
Once again, he urged her legs apart, this time shifting her onto her back. Sensual fire whipped through her body and she tensed. “Logan?”
“I’m here, honey. I have you.” He stroked her body, breast to navel to knee, a sensual petting, avoiding full contact where she needed it the most. Her nerves quivered in response. He pulled her clothes from where they bunched at her waist, and slid them over her head. He covered her just as quickly with kisses.
His tongue swirled across her skin. Again at the inside of her knee, he continued up her thigh and gave a gentle nip. She gasped and then moaned as he licked the sting. A different kind of burn ignited beneath her skin as his lips closed over the flesh between her thighs. She lifted her hips with another gasp as his tongue swept between her folds and into her channel. The pattern he traced ignited a silver mist behind her eyelids. She lost all focus as his thumb took up a slow, deliberate glide and he slid one finger into her.
Reaching for his hair, she panted. “Logan, please.”
Her fingers gripped tight as his mouth covered her again and suckled her. He pulled back at her cry, his beard teasing at her skin, then he added another finger and stroked inside of her in a maddening new pace. She tried to move with his rhythm.
“Let go.” He stroked faster and the wicked pull of his tongue sent her careening over the top. She fell and fell, still quivering with a pleasure that sucked the air from her lungs.
“Beautiful. You’re so beautiful, Bri.” His breath flamed hot across her skin as he moved up her body, ending with a kiss to her temple.
The hard length of him, still clothed, pressed against her belly. But fear no longer claimed any part of her attention. Though if this was only the beginning, how could it be better?
Bri waited and chilled, suddenly realized he wasn’t going to press her for more.
Well, that wouldn’t work. She’d asked him to make love to her, his pleasure and theirs combined, not just his distraction with her body. Hell, she’d trusted him enough to marry him, certainly coupling wouldn’t take more courage. No matter what came next, she refused to stop now.
She wrapped an arm around Logan’s neck, pressed a kiss to his lips until he opened for her, then slid her leg around h
im and pushed him to his back on the blanket. Straddling him, she ran her hands over his chest, enjoying the little tickle of his chest hair against her palms. He cupped her breasts, so sensitive now from his attentions, and she leaned closer, offering herself to him.
Mimicking his earlier actions, she kissed along his cheek, teased at his ear, and ran her tongue across his lobe, finishing with a tentative bite. Her hands fumbled with his belt buckle, but he offered no help.
“Bri?”
She ran her hands across the hard muscles of his abdomen and leaned down to taste his nipple. “I want all of you, Logan.”
He captured her jaw in his hand and angled his head to check her expression. It gave her a chance to run her fingernails down his chest. His chest rose and his breath caught with her action. Evidently convinced she meant what she said, he rose, rocked her backward in his arms, and kissed his way across her ribs. She laughed at the tickle and pulled again at his belt. He only raised a brow. “If you can put clothes on me, you can remove them.”
“Smart mouth. But you’re right.” With a mere thought, she had him naked beneath her.
At the sudden feel of his hard, hot flesh against hers, she opened her legs wider and cradled his erection against her dampness. With a swallow, she shifted backward on his thighs, sliding her hand along his ribs and down his hips. The hard planes of his muscles moved, sleek and strong, beneath her palms as she explored.
He lay back down, his hands on her knees, giving her time to dictate their pace. “It’s not a competition, honey.”
“Might be fun if it were.” Since she didn’t want to stop, she curled her hand around his erection and stroked him from base to tip, exploring the thick feel of him. The veins, soft skin over hard rod, and the way he jerked against the motion of her hand—new, exciting, and safe because he’d given her free rein to play.
She’d contemplated the logistics of coupling before, but she’d never anticipated the emotions, much less the exhilaration she felt at the quickening of his breath and his responses to her touch.
