Chapter 9
The first week that I was open I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall.
I was used to things being tough. I never said I wanted life to be easy.
That's what everyone assumes, but I'd grown up doing a lot of heavy lifting. Around the house physically and in my head and heart.
I was used to shouldering burdens that weren't mine, so it was a relief, in a way, to shoulder my own.
I liked working hard.
I liked the feeling of a few sore muscles at the end of the day.
But now, with Logan around, I had a few nights where I went home to someone willing and more than able to massage those sore muscles and then making a few of my other muscles a little sore.
It was a fair exchange, but I wasn't about to tell Logan that.
Because the mornings after?
We ended up in the shower with him massaging me all over again.
It was part of the way through the second week when I started to feel the skin at the back of my neck start to prickle when Logan wasn't around.
I attributed it to the fact that I just felt safer around him.
In a town this small, I doubted that anything crazy was going to happen to me.
That's where I went wrong.
Under thinking.
Business came and went.
A few people lifted a brow at the idea that a woman had taken over.
Some people didn't think a woman could cut men's hair.
I guess pointing out that some of the most famous hairdressers for women were men wouldn't help.
People just saw some things as men's jobs or women's jobs.
I didn't think a barber is what I'd become when I was an adult.
Sailor Moon? Sure! That was a solid job choice.
Pop star? Sure, if they formed an American version of the Spice Girls.
My other option? Soap Opera Actress. I lived for All my Children and One Life to Live.
Barber happened because my dad got tired of paying the guy down at the PX.
Since I learned to cut his hair, I started to cut for the soldiers in the area, using the back porch when my dad wasn't around.
The money I earned, I saved for my escape someday.
I saved and I saved and on the day that Logan left, I had it all in my pocket, giving me the world's biggest anxiety issue which was only topped by my broken heart.
The money?
I kept adding to it and even when I married Kent, I kept adding to it thinking that I'd have it to use on our children.
I heard the rumble of motorcycles outside the shop, and I looked up, my hand moving over my belly.
When the sound rattled the windows, I felt the baby shift under my hand.
It made me smile thinking that the baby was feeling the rumbling and recognizing it.
Logan had told me, every day, that he wanted to be the baby's dad.
And while I loved hearing it, I didn't know how that was going work.
Would he still feel that way when he saw the baby?
My heart answered that.
I felt the painful contraction in my chest.
It was calling me on my thoughts.
I'd been separated from Logan for years, but I knew him.
I knew that he meant it.
He wanted to be a father to this baby.
And I wanted him to be the baby's dad.
If we hadn't been separated from each other by my dad. We'd probably have a few kids by now.
Maybe more.
A car pulled past the window, and I looked up, a frown creasing my forehead.
Nothing outside looked any different from what it usually was.
Trees. The park across one street. The hardware store across the other.
Still...
I moved to the door and pulled it open breathing in the air.
It was nice. The air.
The atmosphere of the town.
We weren't affluent by any definition, but it was just my speed.
This was a place where I could live and feel peace.
Exactly what I was looking for.
A breeze brushed past me, and I turned my head, chasing a scent that I could have sworn...
No.
I had to be imagining things.
There was no way that I really smelled Kent's Versace Knockoff cologne.
It was me.
It had to be.
Imagining the other shoe falling.
My cell phone rang, and I dug into my cross-body bag to pull it out.
I saw the screen as I lifted it up to my ear. "Logan? Did you miss me?"
There was a moment of silence and then I heard him groan.
"I wish you were here, honey."
I smiled.
Logan had been gone for a little over a day and going to sleep and getting up alone?
It was horrible.
Or if Logan had said it. It sucked!
I smiled at the thought.
"Hey," I heard his voice, rough and thin in my ear. "You still there?"
"Yeah, sorry. I was thinking that you sound exhausted."
His laugh was almost a whisper.
"A little." He groaned again and she heard the sound of his bed frame shifting under him. "But if you were here, I'd find the energy to make you scream."
I looked at the clock on the wall.
It was almost three in the afternoon.
The shop had been dead since the morning.
One woman had come in to look around the shop. I had a feeling that she might be a good hire.
She'd hinted at looking for a job, but nothing had been settled.
After all, I'd just taken over the shop and I didn't have enough business for me.
The money I'd saved over the years was a good beginning, but I really doubted it would be enough if I just kept dipping into it.
"Honey, are-"
"I'm headed over to the club."
I swore I could see him smiling at that.
"I'll take a shower and wash off the road dust and get a couple bottles of water."
"You need me to bring you some?" I would be happy to.
"Naw, just come on over, baby. I'll make sure I'm hydrated and ready."
I hung up the phone and laughed. I knew he meant it.
And me?
I needed to see him.
Needed to feel him.
I'd always heard of the second trimester where some women were suddenly all about the sex.
I didn't know if that's what had me constantly ready for Logan, but-
No, that was a lie.
I wanted Logan because I've always wanted Logan.
If he hadn't been determined to make me wait until I was legally of age to have sex I would have tried to tempt him.
Now, I was an adult with... needs.
And Logan was willing and oh so able.
Going to the front door, I turned the OPEN sign over to CLOSED and headed out the back, flicking off all of the lights as I went.
I managed not to blush to the tips of my ears when a prospect opened the gate for me, waving me through. The fact that it was opening before I was even close enough for the gate guard to see my face made me feel good.
They recognized my chunkalunka car and let me in.
It felt... good to belong.
When I stepped out of the car a prospect took my keys.
The first time someone had asked for my keys, I didn't know what to do.
Logan explained that it was safety thing.
Not that her car was in any danger, but they held onto the keys in case they needed to move the cars around in the area in front of the club.
It had made sense when he explained it, highlighting again why he was better than Kent.
Kent just gave her orders and expected her to follow.
Logan explained things to her and that was huge.
He didn't expect blind obedience.
She felt good about that.
She felt respected.
I wasn't stopped at the door to the club.
Men and women greeted me as I walked through.
Only one person asked if I needed help.
Everyone else just expected me to know where I was going.
That felt good, too.
Before I reached for the doorknob, the door opened, and Logan pulled me inside.
I wasn't sure if he kissed me before he pushed me up against his wall or the other way around and then I realized that I just didn't care what came first as long as I got to come.
And with Logan?
I knew he would get me there.
When he broke off the kiss, his face filled my vision, and I was caught in his gaze.
He started working on the buttons down the front of my dress and gave me a grin.
"You remember that night in my Mustang?"
"Which one?"
Yes, I knew I was goading him on, but I liked what it did to him.
"The first time," his smile was smug, "when we were on that dirt road up in the mountains and we pulled into one of those access roads, stopping at the gate."
I reached down to help him with my clothes, but he swatted at my hands.
"Remember?"
"Yeah," I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on the feeling of his hands on my buttons. I was going to have to get more dresses with buttons because there was just something sensual about the way his hands made the material catch and pull on her skin.
"When I laid back the passenger seat in the car and pulled you down on top of me?"
The memories came flooding back. "It was a tight space."
He kissed the side of my neck and turned his head to whisper. "It was awkward as fuck, but you were so tight around me."
He pushed my dress down off of my shoulders and over my hips. I stepped out of it. Knowing me, I'd trip over a pool of fabric.
"I want to try something new."
I opened my mouth to agree, but he bit into my shoulder, and I swear, I came right then.
It was a little flutter of feeling at first, but I clamped my thighs together to muffle the rest of it.
I wanted more.
I wanted him.
I felt him laugh, his lips against my skin. "Don't hold back, baby. There's no need to be quiet."
"You can say that, but they've already heard me through the door and hey!"
Logan lifted me right off of the ground and took me over to the bed.
When he set me down, I shivered.
My shoes had fallen off of my feet when he'd picked me up and the concrete floor was cold under my toes.
"I'm going to get a fucking rug for this room."
"Don't bother." I told him as I shimmied out of my panties and climbed onto the bed on my knees. "It's not like I spent a lot of time barefoot on the floor in this room."
"I'm still getting a damn rug, honey."
"Fine." I reached back to unhook my bra, but he pushed my hands away.
I smiled to myself as he unhooked it with a little tug of the fabric and as my bra fell, his hands reached around and cupped my breasts and his mouth... oh wow.
He placed an open-mouthed kiss against the back of my neck.
Again, I squeezed my thighs together. My heart pounding in my chest.
His hands were warm, and when he bit into the back of my neck, I arched into his hands.
I felt... the rough skin of his palms.
The way his fingers pinched and plucked at my nipples sent shiver through me.
"I fucking love your tits."
"Ah-"
He bit me again and all I could do was enjoy it.
More.
He bit me at the base of my neck where it met my shoulder, and I tipped my head away in the opposite direction giving him more room.
One hand dropped away, and I reached for it to drag it back, but I heard the whisper of his zipper going down and I smiled.
"Bend over, baby."
He could have asked me to do anything at that moment, and I would have tried.
I bent over, bracing my hands on the sheets, his body covered me, fitting against my back, my nipple pinched between his fingers.
And I felt him... hard.
I wanted him like that.
I wanted him all the time.
"Right there, baby."
I stayed still, breathing.
Waiting.
And then I felt him move my legs apart. I loved that he was just moving me around.
I felt like he was taking care of me.
Preparing me.
I felt his knees inside mine, denim clad legs against my bare skin.
He moved and I felt his beard against the back of my neck.
Felt his lips brush along my shoulder.
"I need you, Arlys. I need you now."
I felt like I was under a spell.
"Then have me, Logan. Have-"
He forced the breath out of me, sinking in in one deep stroke.
I was lost.
The sensations inside of me, against my back, his hand gripping my breast...
Everything felt full, aching, needy.
"You like that, honey? Me inside of you."
I couldn't speak.
I could nod, and I did.
Or at least I think I did.
I felt like I wasn't in control, but that was okay.
He was.
And that's all I needed.
Him.
Logan.
"More, baby. Lean down. Cheek against the sheets. Let me fuck you."
Oh...
Logan groaned and I know he felt the flutter of my muscles against him.
"I'm so damn deep inside of you."
I couldn't argue with that.
I wanted to feel him inside of me all night long.
"If it starts to hurt-"
"I'll tell you," I ground the words out. I closed my eyes because there were sparkles in the edges of my vision, "please, Logan."
"I fucking love you, Arlys."
I opened my mouth to say it back to him, but that's when he thrust into me again and I lost control and let him take over.
And I loved every minute of that, too.