Before he could decide, they were interrupted by a group of his teammates. Most were really young, judging by their whiskered baby faces. They were laughing and joking around, drinks in hand. When Logan caught them smiling at Meadow and leering at her legs, he gave them a death glare that sent them scattering.
He scowled after them, then put his hand on Meadow’s thigh in an unmistakably possessive gesture.
She slanted him a knowing smile.
His answering smile was faint.
As they sat talking and watching the swaying couples on the dance floor, it became increasingly obvious that he wasn’t in a partying mood. His smiles were growing hollower as the night wore on, and there was an infinite sadness behind his eyes that couldn’t be celebrated away. He was the life of the party three hundred and sixty-four days of the year. But not on this day. Not on April eighth.
When “The Way You Look Tonight” began playing, he grabbed Meadow’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “C’mon. Let’s dance.”
She looked at him. “Are you sure?”
He was already leading her toward the dance floor. When they were nearly there, he stopped so suddenly that she almost ran into his back. She looked up at him questioningly, but he wasn’t paying attention to her.
His face had gone sheet white as he stared across the ballroom.
Concerned, Meadow touched his arm. “Logan?”
He released her hand and shouldered his way through the crowd, drawing curious stares.
Frowning in confusion, Meadow watched as he walked up behind a woman with a curtain of black hair hanging smooth down her back. When he put his hand on her shoulder, the woman turned around. Her surprise turned to pleasure when she saw Logan. She smiled seductively and batted her eyelashes, sliding her body against his.
Logan backed away from her and mumbled an apology, then pivoted on his heel and made his way back toward Meadow. He looked even paler, as if he’d just seen a ghost.
She stared at him in concern. “Are you okay?”
He met her gaze but seemed to look right through her, his eyes distant and haunted.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and drained it in one swallow. He seemed dazed and shaken to the core.
Meadow draped her hand over his forearm, feeling the flex of hard muscle. When his dark eyes met hers, she reached up and gently cupped his cheek. “I can tell you don’t want to be here.”
He lowered his lashes over his eyes, not denying what she’d said.
“We don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
“Yeah.” His voice was low. “I think I’m gonna head up to the room.”
“I’ll go with you,” she said without hesitation.
“You don’t have to leave the party. You can stay.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not leaving you alone on your birthday.”
He looked at her with an unreadable expression.
She lifted her chin. “Just try to get rid of me.”
She saw a glitter of humor in his eyes. After a few moments, he handed off his empty glass to another waiter. Then he took her hand and led her out of the ballroom and down the corridor to the elevators.
They rode to the top floor without any stops. When they entered his suite, Logan shrugged out of his tuxedo jacket, tossed it over the back of the plush couch and walked to the windows.
With her heart aching for him, Meadow sat down on the couch and slowly crossed her legs.
Logan stood brooding in front of the window with his hands jammed in his pockets, his shoulders rigid as he stared out at the bright lights of the Strip. She sensed that his gaze was focused on the casino where he’d been abandoned as a child. He looked so lost and lonely, her heart yearned to comfort him. But she wasn’t sure she knew the right words to say.
She did, however, have one burning question. “Who was that woman at the party?”
It was a long time before he answered. “I thought she was my mother.”
Meadow stared at him. “Your…mother?”
He gave a slow nod. “She resembled her from the back. The long black hair, the way she walked…” He swallowed visibly. “This isn’t the first time I thought I saw her.”
“Really?” Meadow whispered. “When was the last time?”
He stared out the window. “I was having lunch with the guys not too long ago. I glanced outside and saw a woman who looked just like my mother, even down to the waitress uniform she used to wear. She was standing at the bus stop across the street, and I could have sworn she was staring right at me. But when I got up and ran outside, she vanished into thin air.”
Meadow swallowed tightly, gazing at him as he continued speaking.
“When Santino told me he wanted to adopt me, I asked him if I could keep my last name. I thought…if my mother ever came looking for me, I wanted to make it easy for her to find me.”
Meadow’s heart locked in her throat, tears stinging her eyes.
Logan dragged a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. I know I’m being lousy company.” His shoulders expanded on a deep, heavy sigh. “Maybe we could watch a movie or something.”
“We could.” Pulse pounding through her veins, Meadow uncrossed her legs and got slowly to her feet. “But I can think of better ways for us to pass the time.”
Logan turned to look at her.
Staring into his turbulent dark eyes, she lowered the side zipper on her dress and slowly slid the strap off one shoulder.
The flare of hunger in his gaze was unmistakable. But he made no move toward her. He looked as if he were rebelling within himself, resigned to suffer through this day without allowing himself any real pleasure.
Not on her watch.
“Your birthday has always brought you so much pain and sadness.” She slipped the other strap off her shoulder, letting the dress slither to the floor.
As Logan’s smoldering eyes took in her lingerie-clad body, she whispered with seductive tenderness, “Let’s replace the bad memories with good ones.”
Chapter Twenty-One
LOGAN
* * *
Her words unleashed a primal hunger so intense that Logan almost let out an exultant roar.
Heart pounding a savage tempo, he crossed the suite in three strides and crashed his mouth down on hers.
She cried out softly and threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him like she’d been yearning for this moment as desperately as he had.
He groaned her name as his hands slid down her back, cupping the perfect globe of her ass and lifting her tighter against him. She trembled in his arms as he kissed her roughly, ravenously, wanting to take all of her in one breath.
“Logan,” she whimpered into his mouth. “I want you.”
“God, baby.” He was raging with lust and raw need, but the woman in his arms wasn’t just some random bunny. She was Meadow. His Meadow. So he needed to take things slow with her, savor every bit of the priceless gift she was offering.
When she closed her lips around his tongue and sucked hard, he groaned and picked her up without breaking the hot press of their mouths. She locked her legs around his waist as he gripped her ass, carrying her across the suite to the bedroom. He’d had turndown service, so the luxurious linens were neatly folded down on the king-size mattress.
He set Jupiter down at the foot of the bed and let his heavy-lidded eyes do a slow pass over her beautiful body. Her breasts were full and firm, swelling over the lacy cups of her strapless bra. Her small waist flared into deliciously rounded hips and thighs. Her stomach was smooth but not washboard flat, and it didn’t need to be. She was pure perfection and he was downright drunk on her curves, intoxicated by her made-for-sin body.
“You’re even more beautiful than I imagined. How is that even possible?” He touched the top of her bra, brushing her cleavage before skimming a finger along the top of her lacy panties.
She quivered, dark lashes flutterin
g over those gorgeous amber eyes.
Instead of stripping her naked like he was dying to, he scooped her hair out of the way and lowered his head to kiss the side of her silky neck.
She shivered hard, her breath quickening as his lips painted a sensual path from her neck to the delicate flesh behind her ear. He paused there, closed his eyes and breathed in deep, savoring the scent of her perfume and her natural essence.
“Logan.” Her needy whisper arrowed to his cock, hardening it even more.
He slowly kissed his way back to her plush lips, sliding them apart and thrusting his tongue inside the sweet warmth of her mouth. She kissed him back, her tongue tangling with his as she began unbuttoning his shirt. The brush of her knuckles against his hot skin had every nerve ending going ballistic.
She pushed his shirt off his shoulders and ran her hands over his chest, making him suck in a breath.
“So damn sexy,” she purred appreciatively, stroking his muscles from shoulders to abdomen. “Such a magnificent work of art you are.”
“Back atcha.” He shucked his shirt off the rest of the way and tossed it aside.
Before he could reach for her, she splayed her palm over his thumping heart and pushed him toward the bed. “Down you go.”
He sat as commanded, watching as she knelt between his legs and removed his shoes and socks. When she was done, she stood and leaned over him, balancing her hands on his thighs as she provocatively stepped out of one sparkly high heel and then the other. With her hair falling around her face and her tits spilling out of her bra, she looked like his hottest erotic fantasy come blazing to life.
“Fuck, Jupiter,” he rasped. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack on my birthday?”
She gave a smoky laugh. “On the contrary. Lie down.”
He stretched out across the bed, his erection jutting up aggressively through his tuxedo pants.
“Oh my.” Jupiter’s eyes twinkled with naughty satisfaction. “He never rests, does he?”
“How can he when you’re around? Half naked, at that.”
“Good point.” Smiling seductively, she slowly crawled up onto the bed like a jungle cat on the prowl. Watching her come toward him was the most thrillingly arousing thing he’d ever seen. His heart was pounding so hard he could feel each beat reverberating in his rock-hard cock.
He almost exploded when Jupiter climbed up over him, straddling his thighs so that his erection was notched against her pussy.
He groaned. “Baby—”
“Shh. Just relax and let me do this.”
“Do what? Kill me?”
She laughed and licked her lips, a bewitching smile playing across her face. “Get comfortable, papacito.”
He propped up some pillows behind him and lay back with his arms folded behind his head, feasting on the sight of her in her sexy red lingerie. She was so fucking gorgeous she took his breath away. He wanted to lick her all over, eat her up morsel by morsel.
His eyes lifted to hers as she leaned over him and took his face in her hands, kissing his forehead and eyebrows with such tenderness that his heart melted and his chest ached.
“You were such a beautiful boy, and you’re an even more beautiful man.” She brushed her lips over his nose, cheeks and jaw. “You don’t know how many times I’ve dreamed of holding you like this. Kissing you. Breathing you into my soul.”
Logan closed his eyes and swallowed as a thick knot formed in his throat. He’d never been touched this way by a woman, never been so cherished. It was the sweetest torture.
Jupiter kissed his mouth with tantalizing slowness, moving her tongue across his bottom lip while unfastening his belt and unzipping his pants. “Lift up for me, baby,” she whispered.
He obeyed and found himself trembling—actually trembling—as she slowly dragged his pants over his hips and down his legs. He opened his eyes to watch, his heart banging like war drums as she reached for the waistband of his boxer briefs.
When his hard cock bounced free, he heard her swift intake of breath. For a moment he wasn’t sure if that was worry or appreciation that flared in her eyes as she stared at him.
But then she bit her bottom lip and made a low purring noise that shot straight to his balls.
Appreciation, he decided. Definitely appreciation.
After stripping off his underwear, she leaned over him and whispered in his ear, “I want to know what you taste like.”
He groaned as his pulse went berserk and his dick got even harder. So fucking hard he thought he might end up in the emergency room. He wanted her more than he wanted air.
“How old are you today, birthday boy? Twenty-five?” At his delirious nod, she smiled into his eyes. “That means you get twenty-five kisses.”
He stared up at her feverishly. “Baby—”
“Shush.” She began moving down his body, softly counting out each kiss that she placed on his overheated skin. “One…” She kissed his left nipple, giving a throaty chuckle when he quivered like a leaf. She blew a warm path to his other nipple, watching it harden into a tight pebble before she circled it with her tongue and kissed it. “Two…”
Logan groaned hoarsely. “Kisses? Or licks?”
She gave a wicked laugh. “Whatever I want.”
“Fuck.” She was driving him insanely wild with a need so primal, so ferocious and raw he shook with it. When he took his right hand from behind his head to touch her breast, she caught his arm and lowered it to the bed beside him. Then she leaned down and kissed his bicep.
“Three.” She moved her way down his arm, her tongue tracing the intricate pattern of his tribal tattoos. Reaching his hand, she slowly licked the word etched in Latin.
“Slayer, huh?” She gave him a naughty, dick-exploding smile. “We’ll see about that.”
“Dios,” he whispered, staring at her in amazement. Where the hell had she been hiding this wicked little sex kitten?
He lay there, thighs clenching, erratic breaths escaping his throat as she continued kissing her way down his body, her soft hair trailing sensuously over his skin and raising an army of goose bumps.
He writhed beneath her as she rained burning kisses along his lower obliques, the V-cut muscles that were like catnip to women. She started moaning as she licked him, telling him how sexy he was and how much he turned her on.
He stopped counting birthday kisses with her, losing himself in the mind-blowing pleasure of her lips and tongue.
When she wrapped her hot little hand around his cock, he sucked in his breath. “Jupiter—”
“What number am I up to now?”
“Fuck if I know,” he rasped. “I lost count after three.”
“Mmm.” Kneeling between his spread thighs, she began stroking his cock, purring with pleasure when he leaked into her palm. He shuddered as she rubbed the sensitive head with the pad of her thumb, looking up at him with that sexy siren smile.
“Even your dick is beautiful,” she said in a dreamy voice. “And it’s even bigger than I thought. Wow.”
Logan watched as her pink tongue slipped from between her lips to curl around the flared head of his shaft, tasting the pearly drops there. He hissed as she made a sexy little purring noise in her throat that vibrated right through his dick. His balls drew up tight and hard, and all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his groin.
Closing his eyes, he felt the white-hot heat of her mouth wrapping around the head of his cock. She sucked the swollen tip before sliding down, swallowing a good deal of his length.
“Oh shit,” he groaned raggedly, his head falling back on the pillow. “Jupiter…baby…”
She took him even deeper, sucking strongly as her fingers squeezed the base of his cock. Her mouth was hot and wet, an instrument of indescribable pleasure. He didn’t know how much more he could take without exploding inside her. And then she did something with her tongue and throat muscles that nearly stopped his heart.
“Fuuuck,” he groaned loud and long.
“Mmm
. You taste so freaking good, Logan.” She popped his cock out of her mouth and licked the underside, looking up at him as she began sucking his balls.
His hips shot off the bed and his fucking toes curled. She moaned with pleasure, the carnal sound shooting up his spine.
Tonguing his heavy sac, she put her hand on his quivering stomach and pushed him back down to the bed. Then she took his cock back into her mouth, sliding him in and out of her wet heat, her tongue working him into a burning frenzy.
He fisted his hand in her hair as her head bobbed up and down his length. He was breathing faster and harsher, the building pressure in his balls making him almost lightheaded.
“No más,” he panted hoarsely even as he pumped into her mouth. “It feels too good, baby. I’m gonna come if you don’t stop.”
“Do it,” she urged breathlessly. “I’ll swallow every drop.”
“Ohh fuck,” he groaned just seconds before his orgasm ripped through him. He tried to pull out of her, but the tight suction of her mouth trapped him.
She moaned lustfully as he exploded down her throat, holding her head with both hands, his hips bucking against her mouth. He was coming harder than he’d ever come in his life, and she was swallowing his seed as if every drop provided life-sustaining nourishment. The sight of her pouty lips stretched around his pulsing cock was the most erotically beautiful thing he’d ever seen. It blew his mind and wrenched a shuddering groan out of him.
She sucked him dry, savoring every spurt of semen he released on her tongue. When his cock stopped twitching, she slowly pulled her mouth off him and licked her lips. Then she smiled up at him as if she’d just received a wonderful gift, when she was the one who’d just given him the most unforgettable blowjob of his life.
When she kissed the insides of his thighs, every muscle in his body tightened and he felt tears bite beneath his eyelids. He was a quaking mess by the time she slowly kissed her way back up to his face.
Gazing into his eyes, she gave him one final kiss on the lips and whispered with aching sweetness, “Happy Twenty-Fifth Birthday, Logan Brassard.”
Sin Bin Page 37
