Chapter Eighteen
L ogan’s bare feet sounded on the tiles as he neared the door. He seemed to pause before he opened it. I studied him as my pulse continued to drum in my ears, silhouetted by low lighting as he stopped in the doorway between the two rooms.
The top half of his body was bare. He’d taken the chain around his neck off along with his shirt. He was wearing drawstring sleep sweats that hung low on his hips; the V of his obliques disappearing into them below his toned stomach had my mouth watering.
We stared at each other in silence until I couldn’t stand the building tension any longer.
“You know, it’s total bullshit that some people get the genes of Spartans and Vikings and the rest of us are left with a pool of potato DNA.”
Logan laughed as I’d hoped, it made the air around us feel less charged.
He came to stand beside the bed. “Can I join you? ”
“This is your Viking lair, not mine.”
He chucked again as he moved onto the mattress and settled at my side, facing me as we fell silent again.
I blew out a puff of air. “Seems my pausing things have turned us clumsy. I’m sorry. I just… got in my head a little.”
“Nervous?” Logan asked.
I bit my lip and nodded.
“I can admit, I am a little as well.” Logan lifted a hand to press hair behind my ear. “But I think I’m ready to make some new memories. With you.”
The sincerity in his eyes took my anxiety down several notches. “Me too.”
His bare skin was so close, I couldn’t help but take all of Logan in slowly. He didn’t have much body hair on his torso so I could see every muscle in detail. He was beautiful and my fingers itched to touch him. I looked back at his face, knew he’d been studying me while I studied him, and quickly averted my eyes.
Logan put his hand on the bedding covering my knee and squeezed gently. “You touch me first, Crash. When you’re ready.”
It felt silly that I was shy now; I hadn’t been while we kissed in the living room. We’d both enjoyed it and I knew I wanted to experience much more with him. Trying to find some bravery, I met his stare again and raised a hand to touch my fingertips to his cheek .
Logan sighed at the contact and pressed his face into my palm. I ran my fingers along the slight stubble on his jaw then moved my other hand to his hair and pulled him toward me.
The kiss started soft and sweet this time as we shifted our bodies together and I sank into the plush pillows. Logan’s chest came against mine as I rested my hands on his shoulders; the feel of his skin against mine had all my nerve endings firing. I ran my fingers over his back to explore the hard muscles shyly as he deepened the kiss and his hands started moving on me as well.
Logan ran his arm beneath mine and coiled it around me, slowly running his fingertips up and down my ribcage. Then he moved his hand between our bodies and gently squeezed my breast, making me moan into his mouth. He let loose a sound of pleasure as well and grasped me a little harder as he dipped his head down to the side of my neck. His lips ran along my skin, gently sucking and breathing hot air along a path to my collarbone before moving his mouth down my chest slowly.
“Your skin is even softer than I’d imagined,” he murmured against it.
Logan placed gentle kisses on my cleavage as he tucked his fingers inside a cup of my bra and tugged it down. I watched as he trailed his tongue lower until it touched my exposed nipple and I sucked in air, flinging my hands beside my head, clenching my fingers around the pillows as my whole chest felt flushed.
When Logan closed his hot mouth on my breast, I let out a cry and arched my back. He made a satisfied hum and rolled his tongue around my nipple again.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” he told me as he moved his lips back to my neck and slid his hands around to the clasp at my back.
“A-Are you, umm, d-do you want to turn off the lights?”
Logan shook his head. “God no, I want to see you.”
I felt the clasp freed by his quick fingers and held my breath as he pulled the fabric away from my skin. I folded my hands over my neck, my forearms covering my chest as I stared at his.
Logan paused and gently touched a finger to my chin to press up. I let him raise my blushing face.
“You don’t need to hide anything from me,” he told me softly.
I blinked a few times, then gave him the smallest nod.
Logan put his hands on mine, pulling them apart gently. His fingers moved over the pulse at my wrists, trailing his touch up my palms until his fingers were laced through mine. I was almost overwhelmed with emotion again. It was such a simple gesture of intimacy that people did without thought every day, but it felt so precious, having Logan’s larger hands entwined with mine.
My chest exposed, his eyes traveled down me slowly then back up. The desire in them warmed me.
Logan let go of one of my hands, moving his down to cup my breast and my lips parted on a sigh of pleasure. His fingers squeezed gently again as he rolled the nipple between one with his thumb. When I gasped, he dipped his head down to the breast he hadn’t tasted yet .
I moaned again, closing my eyes to focus on the sensations spreading through me as I threaded my fingers through his hair. I was learning how much he enjoyed having my hands there as he groaned, so I tugged the strands a little harder until I heard and felt him growl against the nipple in his mouth.
Logan grasped my hips and pulled my body off the pillows and down the bed further. He brought both hands back to my breasts as his mouth moved to kiss the valley between them. I felt his lips and hands moving on my skin, edging the bedding off me, but it didn’t register that his body was moving down until his tongue dipped into my navel.
My fingers, still in his hair, jerked involuntarily and my lids flew open. “Logan, wait, what are you—”
He looked up but I could only shake my head.
“How long has it been since… Has it been a while for you?”
“N-not since I was with—” I couldn’t say it and shook my head again.
He looked surprised for a moment but then understanding was clear in his eyes as he sat up. Logan took my hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. “I haven’t been interested in sharing myself with anyone in a long time,” he told me. “I haven’t wanted this since… since…”
I was surprised as well, but nodded quickly, letting Logan know I understood and he didn’t have to say the rest.
He swallowed the words to start again. “If you haven’t been ready until now, I feel honored to be the one. I want this with you, Madison. You have no idea how much. Please. Let me see and touch and taste you. Trust me. If you tell me to stop, I will stop.” He let out a hard breath. “But the last thing I want is for you to tell me to stop.”
Looking into his beautiful, sincere eyes, I believed every word. “I trust you,” I whispered.
Logan slowly slid his hand down my body with the rest of the linens and pushed them off me. My heart beat fast as his gaze wandered over me and touched areas of my body that had looser skin, my tummy that would probably never be flat, and the stretch marks on my stomach and hips from carrying babies and extra pounds over the years.
I didn’t see even a hint of disappointment in his expression, just the need of a man. He moved up to lie on his side. “We will slow down a little, okay?”
I nodded and Logan began to kiss me again. I calmed more as we were still, his body pressed to my side, his hand running softly up and down my arm as our mouths moved together.
He let me increase the intensity of the kiss when I was ready. When my movements became more urgent, turning my body to press against his, Logan started slowly exploring me again.
He trailed his fingers along my neck and shoulder, over my breasts, down my rib cage and stomach, then over my hips and thighs before returning to my neck to start the caress again. I vaguely understood Logan was letting me get used to being touched in places I hadn’t been touched in such a long time. He kept repeating the pattern with patience .
When my skin was tingling all over, I pulled at his shoulders so he would drop his chest to my breasts and know I was ready for more.
The next pass, his hand lingered at my thighs then moved up to gently cup between them. I moaned and he kissed me harder as he started slowly stroking me through the silk. The tension slowly left my legs, my thighs opening to allow him more access with his hand.
Logan tucked his fingers under the fabric and my breath caught as he slowly pressed the tips deeper. When they found a sea of wet he groaned against my lips. “So perfect…”
He moved his fingers to touch my most sensitive spot for the first time and I practically came off the bed as he swallowed the passionate keen that left me. He slid his arm under my body, smashing my breasts to his chest as he enjoyed my mouth and caressed my core.
So long since I’d been touched intimately, every sensation was so intense and my body reacted quickly. My hands moved to Logan’s back and I clung to him, my thighs open to him freely now. When he slid a finger inside me, I pressed my hips up with a loud cry.
“Does that feel good?” Logan murmured against my mouth. I couldn’t form words and nodded. “And this?” He turned his wrist and stroked his thumb up and down the bundle of nerves again as he pressed the finger inside me deeper and slid his tongue over my lips.
I arched my back and sucked in air. “Ohhh… my god! ”
Logan watched me while he moved his hand against me over and over as my body rushed toward release. A sensual, pleased look spread across his face as my mouth opened and closed with quickening breaths as the pressure built inside me. When my body started tightening; Logan clenched his jaw and slowed his hand.
A frustrated cry left me, not understanding why he would stop now. “Logan,” I breathed, “I need—want—please.”
He sat up quickly, his hands leaving my body an extremely unwelcome feeling.
“I can’t wait any longer, Madison,” he told me gruffly as he moved down the bed, swiftly pulling the last piece of my clothing down and free of my toes. I rested my feet back on the sheets, ready for him to pull himself free of his clothing and take some pleasure for himself.
Without pausing, Logan lifted my leg over his shoulder and curled his arms under my thighs to grasp my hips.
He moved so quickly I barely had time to think before realizing his intention. “Logan, I don’t know if—”
The words died in my throat and I cried out in ecstasy as he groaned with pleasure when his mouth found what he seemed desperate to taste.
I stopped thinking. I closed my eyes and just let myself feel.
I felt his lips and tongue dance between my thighs, slow strokes and circles of pressure as Logan centered on where I needed him the most .
I felt him reach for my hand and pull it down to lace through his sun-kissed locks again.
I felt his growl of approval as my fingers tangled through the strands tightly.
I felt tears slide down my temples, overwhelmed with the intense emotions stirred by Logan’s attunement to my needs and the desires I didn’t even know I had.
I felt him focus his attention more with each breathy moan that passed my lips.
When my inhales grew shallow again, Logan pressed a finger inside me slowly. My own frantically grabbed a pillow by my head, digging my nails in.
He increased the tempo of his tongue and curved his finger deeper, playing my body like an instrument as I held my breath, reaching for that edge I wanted to fall over, now just barely out of reach.
His mouth didn’t even leave me when my legs began to shake, but I heard his low rasp of “Breathe, sweetheart,” before he licked up my center again slowly.
I sucked in air as my body completely uncoiled.
“Logan!” I cried as rolls of blissful warmth began waving out from my core to flood my whole being while what looked like stars flashed behind my eyelids.
Logan held my hips in place and continued moving his mouth, sending even more shocks of rapture through me; satisfied sounds from his throat mingled with my moans as he made sure to wring out every last drop of pleasure inhabiting me from head to toe.
When I eventually calmed and my breathing began to slow, my eyelids fluttered open in wonder.
Logan removed his mouth from me and rested his chin against my thigh. He was waiting patiently for me to recover, but the look on his face was almost primal, his desire and need clear, his hands gently, but possessively, gripping my body as he took deep breaths.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” I murmured as I let go of my death grip on his pillows.
Logan’s stare stayed locked with mine as he pressed back to stand at the foot of the bed. Looping his thumbs in his waistband, he removed the only thing still covering his body.
I dropped my gaze to see him naked for the first time. The man was perfection. I lifted my arms, asking him to come to me, biting my lip with anticipation as my heart rate started increasing again.
Logan quickly moved between my thighs. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he enfolded me in his arms, pressed me to his chest, and slowly filled me as we each breathed the other’s name.