45
Logan
“Are we sure the threat is dismantled?”
Somehow we’ve managed to make it back to Devil Tower in one piece. The doctor’s looking me over, and despite my half-promise to Lia, well, I did handcuff her to me… just in case.
Damien has joined us, and so has Everest, much to my despair. He should be with Jane. But he assures me he left her in her foster brother’s hands, who promised he’d take good care of her. The expression reminds me of what Jane said: He takes good care of me… sometimes.
But I guess I’m going to have to satisfy myself with that. At any rate, the way he treats her is probably better than the way I treat Lia.
“Yes, the threat is over,” snaps Lia. “The guy who took me told me he’s the one my father owed money to.
He’s dead now, so we’re safe, and there’s no more excuse to keep me locked up.
The Puicin Gang may still be a threat to Devil as a whole, but I personally don’t give a fuck if you all rot, and anyway, it’s all the more reason to let me get as far away from Devil Tower as possible. ”
“Okay, Lia,” I murmur, trying not to show her how much each of her words hurt.
“Besides, even if it weren’t safe,” she continues, “I don’t believe you could keep me safe. It’s not like you found me. I was there for hours...”
“You can’t have waited for me that long,” I cut in.
“I didn’t wait for you at all. I knew I couldn’t count on you. I knew the only way you’d come for me was with a gun or handcuffs.” She clanks the metal of her cuff against mine. “Clearly, I was right.”
“It’s temporary,” I tell her. “Just until I can convince you to stay.”
“Right. So, permanent, I guess.”
I pull her into my lap thanks to the short chain that separates us.
She obeys, sighing in defeat, sitting passively on me.
But I can tell, as I run my hands up and down her back, that some of her frost is melting.
I keep stroking her, her back, her arm, her thighs, kissing her freckles, while Damien motions for everyone to leave.
Taking advantage of her silence and of our privacy, I allow my hand to pass over her breasts, to stroke down her stomach, drifting toward her pussy, without ever touching it, until she’s not just melting... she’s wriggling in my lap.
“What if I made you come every day, Lia?” I breathe in her ear. “I’ll stop edging you. I’ll just make you come all the time. Remember when you said that could be enough for you to accept your captivity? Hmm?”
Her lower lip trembles. “Maybe it would help… a little.” She pauses. “But you couldn’t possibly make me come around the clock. And between each orgasm, I’d remember I was a captive, and it would break me.”
“I could do it around the clock. I could do anything, if it meant making you happy.” I edge my hand toward the hem of her red dress.
“It wouldn’t make me happy. It would make me forget. Just like I forgot for eighteen years.” She squirms in my lap as my hand drifts up her thigh. “No, Logan. Stop. Red. We need to talk about my daughters. About Jane. You told me... you told me you found her.”
“Yes, I did,” I tell her. “And if you’re my good girl, we’ll go as soon as I’m healed.”
“I want to go now,” she hisses. “You’re barely injured.”
“No, you’re wrong.” I squeeze her to me. “I’m very injured. So you’re just going to have to stay with me, and next week, when I’m better, I’ll let you see Jane.”
Her eyes flash angrily, but at last she sighs, once more resigned. “Fine.”
_
“Okay. What do you want first? My mouth, my fingers, my cock?”
“Logan...”
No matter how painful my injuries are, they could never prevent me from carrying her into my bedroom, tossing her down on the bed, and hiking up her dress.
“Logan... this isn’t going to solve anything.”
“No, you’re wrong. It’s going to solve everything. I’m going to keep you so well-fucked you’ll never need anything else ever again.”
“I’m always going to need freedom.”
I shake my head desperately. “No. Open your thighs.”
She sighs, but does as I ask. “At least let me take a shower. I’m covered in dust.”
“No,” I say again. “I’ll lick the dust off you. I don’t care.”
“Logan,” she groans again.
But she doesn’t resist me when I rip off her underwear and bury my mouth against her pussy. She’s just as responsive as ever as I lick long stripes up and down her cunt, toying with her clit, sucking it in until her moans let me know I’ve succeeded, at least for a bit... she’s forgotten.
“Logan... Logan!”
When I try to pull back for air, she pushes my face down against her cunt. “Don’t you fucking dare edge me!”
I smile against her, wrapping her legs around my neck and doing my best to give her exactly what she needs, despite the fact that the lack of air is making me lightheaded.
When she starts bucking, I thrust two fingers inside her, the added sensation making her scream.
“Logan... fuck, Logan!”
As soon as she’s drenched my face with her orgasm, I rip off the rest of her dress, trailing my tongue over her grimy skin, swirling it around her nipples to keep them stiff. “Ready for round two?”
“Oh my god, Logan...”
But once again, she doesn’t resist as I take out my cock and fist it in one hand, before plunging it into her wet pussy.
“Fuck!”
“Shh, baby. Take it like a good girl. And after this, I’ll give you my tongue again. And then my fingers. I’m going to keep you coming all night long.”
And I do. All night long, or nearly. By the time my tongue and jaw are so sore I can barely move them, and my cock can’t possibly get it up anymore, the first rays of sun are piercing through the sky.
“I’ve never been so dirty, Logan,” she whines. “I’m still caked over with dirt, only now it’s mixed with saliva and cum, and...”
“You have been dirtier. When I found you in Paris, you were filthy. But I found you, and took care of you...”
“You locked me in a cage, Logan.”
“Well, you’re not in a cage anymore, are you?” I pull her off my lap, though I keep an arm wrapped firmly around her as I lead her into the bathroom and turn on the faucet of the tub. “And tomorrow, or today, I guess, I’ll let you out of the apartment. Baby steps.”
“Baby steps,” she echoes suspiciously.
“Mhm hmm.” As I lift her into the bath with me, I wrack my brain, trying to figure out how to give her something while keeping every other part of her for myself. “Maybe... we could go to the movies.”
“The movies?” She tries to wrinkle her nose, but I can tell she likes my suggestion. “That’s it?”
“Well, a nice dinner and a movie... like a date.”
“Oh. Alright, I guess.” She sighs, leaning back against me while I lather her skin with soap, then shampoo her, looking in vain for the bald spots. But her hair has fully grown back now.
“And what else?” she asks.
“Hmm...” I hesitate. “We’ll start the day with that Starbucks you wanted. Then I’ll take you shopping. I’ll get you an everything bagel for lunch, sushi for dinner, and then a movie. What do you think?”
“I think...” She pauses, and I can tell she’s looking for something to be angry about. “I think you forgot the afternoon. What’ll we be doing between the bagel and the sushi?”
“Well, what would you like to do?”
It’s her turn to hesitate. “How about... how about I drive your car?”
“Fuck no,” I tell her, before biting my lip. “I mean, fuck yes. But, uhm, not right away. Baby steps, Lia.”
“Uh huh.” She crosses her arms, but I can tell she’s trying not to laugh. “Fine. Then let me walk around the campus a little. I want to see Devil College.”
“Sure, Lia. Sure, we can walk around.” I rinse her hair and lather on conditioner next.
“And will you be locking the windows?” she asks, her eyes narrowing as she glances back at me.
“Hmm? Oh, well, no. I won’t need to, since I’ll be spending all my time with you.”
“Okay.” She doesn’t look like she fully buys my bullshit, but she goes along with it begrudgingly. “I want to do all that tomorrow. And then, we’ll see Jane. Right?”
To keep from answering right away, I rinse the conditioner, then lift her out of the tub and towel her off. “Right, Lia. Next week, just like we said.”
“Just like you said.”
“I told you, I need to heal first.”
“Yeah, right.” She snorts. “You’ve just spent hours fucking me, and tomorrow, you’re taking me out all day. I don’t see why you can’t...”
I kiss her on the lips to keep her from talking. “Because, Lia. Because I said so.”
She goes back to crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at me as I sit her down on the bed, tossing the towel aside and wrapping my arms around her. “It’s not just the injuries,” I begin helplessly, realizing she’s shutting down again.
“Then what?”
“Well...” I hunt for a plausible explanation in the place of the real one—how can I possibly keep her with me if I’m not dangling something in front of her?
—“It’s not that easy, you know. Suddenly appearing in someone’s life like that, when they have no idea you even exist. We need to be careful. We don’t want to mess it up, right?”
Her frown lines disappear, and she nods.
“Yeah... yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
I huff out a sigh of relief. “We could spend the week talking together. Figuring out the best way to make ourselves known to Jane. We don’t want to overwhelm her. I’m sure you could come up with ideas.”
“And you’d...” She arches an eyebrow in surprise. “You’d listen to me?”
“Uh huh. Sure,” I lie, kissing her nose. “I’ll always listen to you from now on, Lia.”
_
“See? Look at her.”
We’re sitting in the car, watching our slim, redheaded daughter fetch the mail at the end of the driveway leading up to Mrs. Everton’s sprawling mansion.
Ever since I found her, I’ve had my guys watch her from afar, and I’ve come to know a lot about her habits.
I know she goes to the mailbox every morning and picks up the mail.
I don’t know if it’s a chore Mrs. Everton gave her, or if she wants a reason to get out of the house, or if, maybe, she’s hoping for a letter.
Whatever the case, she’s outside every morning at seven a.m., picking up the mail.
“All this time,” murmurs Lia, “and she lived right in Astley. Right next to Devil Tower.”
I press her hand to my lips, thankful that her anger seems to have ebbed.
I did, after all, give in to her after she spent all day yesterday—between the Starbucks and the bagel and the sushi and the movie—demanding to see Jane.
I brought her here so she could see her daughter from afar, but I insisted that we wait the full week before meeting her, and she agreed.
Today, as usual, Jane—or Billie, as she calls herself—goes quickly through the letters, then stops at one of them.
It’s got her name on it. She quickly tears it open, reads it, and then… squeals.
I grin. “I knew it. She’s thrilled. We’re paying for her to attend Devil College, and…”
“We’re not paying, Logan. You are. I don’t have any money.”
“Well, what’s mine is yours.”
“No, that’s not true.” Lia shakes her head. “What’s yours is yours. And that includes me.”
I know it’s an accusation, but I decide to take it as a statement of fact. I kiss her on her cute freckled nose. “That’s right, baby. I’m glad you’re catching on.”
She purses her lips, and I can tell she’s trying really hard not to smile.
“Doesn’t our daughter look good?” I ask, looking back at the girl outside. “She seems happy. Doesn’t she?”
I haven’t told Lia about the possible suicide attempt. Maybe she was just hiding, after all. Or floating.
I’m doing my best to keep an eye on Jane.
She doesn’t go out much, beyond getting the mail at the end of the driveway.
I looked into this foster brother of hers, too.
Apparently, his friends see him a lot less ever since she moved in.
He’s always by her side; apparently, he’s very protective of her.
Plus, he’s a straight-A student who’s also the quarterback on the football team.
I know none of that means much, but I have to allow those facts to reassure me.
I won’t give in to the temptation of setting up cameras inside the house.
I’ve already got one girl captive; I just can’t do that to another one.
I need to let my daughters live their lives, even though that means one of them has spent the past few months on the other side of the country, refusing to talk to me, while the other one has a life I know nothing about.
“I wish I could hug her,” murmurs Lia, her lower lip trembling.
I squeeze her hand, and one of the many knots in my stomach eases when she squeezes mine back. “Soon,” I promise her. “But we need to take things slowly...” I hesitate, then turn to Lia. “Don’t you agree? Or… would you like to go talk to her now?”
Surprise flashes in her eyes. “You’re asking for my opinion?”
“Yes.” I hesitate again. “I’ll always ask for your opinion from now on.”
When I see how happy that makes her, I decide not to finish my sentence. That doesn’t mean I’ll take it into account.
Maybe the answer, after all, is giving her just enough freedom to trick her into believing she’s entirely free.
She wraps her arms around mine, and I pull her into a full, awkward hug over the center console.
“I think you’re right,” she says. “I think we should wait. It’s hard, but we’ll wait a few more days.
And in the meantime,” she adds, glancing at me as if she’s testing me, “you can show me where her dorm will be. And I can walk around, and picture her going to her classes, and...”
“Exactly.” I kiss her forehead, then tilt her face up so I can kiss her lips. “You can decide at any moment to leave Devil Tower, take a walk outside, go to the college…”
She arches an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Really,” I promise her. “I just… I hope you don’t mind if I walk around with you.” I pause, wondering how to make it sound like I’m asking, not telling. “I don’t want to leave you, that’s all. I love you so much that I don’t think I could spend a single second away from you. Is that okay?”
Her eyes narrow, and I can tell she sees through me, at least to some extent. But then she exhales and smiles. “Okay. Okay, I’ll let you walk with me.”
I realize I’m not really tricking her, but she’s finally beginning to accept that she has to meet me halfway. She’ll never truly be free, but we’re both going to work awfully hard to pretend that she is.
“Come on, baby,” I murmur, pressing my lips to hers again. “I have another surprise for you now.”