Chapter 50
fifty
BLAIR
“Yeah, we’ll let you know if they make contact again.” Logan stands, accepting the detective’s extended hand. “And you’ll let us know as soon as you get any new information?”
The detective nods, her severe salt-and-pepper bob barely moving, she has so much product in it. “Absolutely. Rest assured, we’re working on it.”
She says something else, but I don’t really hear it. My mind is a chaotic jumble of worries. All I can focus on is Reed’s head on the pillow on my lap as I run my fingers through his curls. He fell asleep an hour ago, but I can’t bring myself to stop.
“Do you want me to carry him to bed, or would you rather we all stay together out here?” Logan’s gentle question finally breaks through my haze, and I peer up at him.
He looks tired and worried, but there’s none of the quiet resentment I grew used to in Noah’s expressions after my parents died.
Because Logan isn’t Noah. And Logan isn’t going anywhere. I can see that now.
“I’m tempted to say let’s all stay together on the couch, but I’m pretty sure we’d be sorry in the morning.”
Logan brushes a strand of hair from my face. His smile is soft as he looks between me and my sleeping little brother. “I think you’re right. I’ll carry him to bed.”
I start to protest because Reed isn’t a small kid, but Logan slides his muscular arms underneath my little brother and lifts him as if he is.
I shouldn’t be surprised—I know Logan is strong—but it still stuns me as I watch him straighten up with my gangly brother in his arms and navigate the room like Reed weighs nothing.
Logan’s apartment is dimly lit, so I focus on my steps.
We spend time here, but not nearly as much as my place, so I’m not as confident in my path as Logan is.
Neither of us really cares where we spend time, but my place ends up being easier because of my brother.
Though, if it was up to Reed, we’d hang out almost exclusively at Logan’s.
His place is admittedly much nicer than ours.
We step through the doorway to what I know to be one of Logan’s guest rooms. He leaves the light off, and I watch, heart in my throat, as my boyfriend carefully lays my little brother down and covers him up. It’s so achingly sweet, so without pretext or performance, that I’m fighting back tears.
When he’s sure Reed looks comfortable and warm, Logan grabs my hand and leads me to his room. The soft patter of our feet on the hardwood joins with the thunderous beating of my heart to form a symphony of anticipation.
When the door snicks shut behind us, Logan crowds me against it. His stormy gray eyes scan me from head to toe while his hands roam my body. As if he’s checking for a physical manifestation of the panic that’s been bleeding through me since I opened that damned letter.
“Are you okay?”
“As much as I can be.”
He pulls me into his embrace, and I go willingly, resting my head against his chest and holding tight. His body is solid, warm, and safe, and I feel at home in his arms. It’s terrifying and wonderful.
“You’ll both be safe here. No one will get close to you. I’ll make sure of it.”
“I know.” My fingers move, deftly unbuttoning Logan’s dress shirt. When the fabric gapes, I run my palms across the planes of his chest and abs. He sucks in a sharp breath, and when I let my fingers wander lower, his chin drops to his chest with a low groan.
“Angel. You should rest. It’s been a long, trying day.”
“Rest isn’t what I need right now.” I press kisses to Logan’s chest as my fingers work his pants open. I need to feel grounded. Safe. Alive. I need to feel him. “Please.”
“Fuck.” Logan’s breath catches when my fingers slip beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs and wrap around his hardening length. He holds himself still only long enough for me to give his dick a few languid pumps, and then he moves.
One hand tangles in my curls, while the other steadies my waist as he spins us and walks us toward his king-size bed.
We stumble, lost to our frantic kisses and my wandering hands, and fall back onto the mattress.
Logan brackets my body, careful not to hurt me, but neither of us stops.
Hard kisses build my need into a throbbing pulse in my chest and between my thighs.
Arching, I help Logan remove my shirt. He kisses the swell of my breasts as his fingers find the clasp at my back and he tugs the cups free.
I hiss as he runs his tongue over the stiff peaks of my nipples, then leaves them exposed to the cool night air.
The contrast of heat from his mouth and the cold from the winter night only brings my pleasure higher.
“Logan…” I’m begging, but I don’t know what for. I just know I need more. Everything.
“I know, baby. I’ve got you.”
I moan appreciatively when his long fingers tug my pants off, leaving me only in my lace panties. And when he slides down my body and mouths at my pussy through the thin fabric, my eyes nearly roll back in my head.
“Fuck, you smell good.” He nips at my mound through the lace before pushing it to the side and running his tongue up my slit. “Taste good too.”
“Oh, god.”
“There’s no god here, only me and you.” He grins up at me from the juncture of my thighs, lips glistening with my arousal. The sight is so filthy, it rewires my brain.
“Only you,” I pant, nodding.
It’s the right thing to say, because a moment later, he’s ripping the panties off my body and spreading my thighs wider with his broad shoulders.
Pleasure builds, and he moans when he spears me with his tongue, greedily drinking directly from the source.
I thread my fingers through his dark blond hair and grip tight, encouraging him to lick harder, faster.
“More.”
I feel his smile against my pussy. “So greedy.”
I am. I’m greedy for all of him. His tongue, his mouth, his fingers, his dick.
I want his body covering mine. I want him inside of me, invading every empty inch of space.
But it’s more than that. I’m greedy for his care, for his attention and love.
I’m greedy for the look in his eyes that tells me I’m the most important person in the room.
That he can’t believe I’m his. I’m greedy for the quiet moments and the boisterous, celebratory ones.
I’m unashamedly greedy for Logan Byrne, and I always will be.
“Want to fuck you,” he says between strokes of his tongue. “But I also want to hold you.”
The whine that slips past my lips when he lifts his head from between my thighs is completely undignified, but Logan doesn’t mind. In fact, if the grin on his face is any indication, he’s quite pleased with it.
“Don’t worry, baby. I won’t leave you wanting.
I’m going to make you come so many times tonight, you’ll be begging me to stop.
But right now, I need to be inside you.” He presses a kiss to my temple before reaching for the drawer of his bedside table.
The crinkle of condom wrappers normally elicits a Pavlovian response from me, but tonight, it sounds wrong.
“Wait.”
Logan’s fingers are already wrapped around a square foil packet when he stills and looks at me. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want… I have an IUD. All my last tests were clear, and I haven’t been with anyone but you. We don’t have to use that. If you don’t want to.”
When a furrow appears between Logan’s eyebrows, I brace myself for him to say no. But then his lips part and he takes a deep breath. “I’ve never had sex without a condom.”
“It’s okay. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have suggested that.”
“No. No, it’s not that. I’ve just never trusted anyone enough not to. But with you…” He drops the condom back into the drawer and pushes it closed. “I don’t want any barriers between us.”
The way he says it, like it’s a revelation even to him, makes my chest fill with warmth. A couple of weeks ago, I was ready to end things with this man, and now? Now I can’t imagine ever letting him go.
“I love you,” he says as he sidles up behind me, curling his body around mine and shifting me so I’m lying on my side. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
He presses kisses to my neck, my shoulder, my spine as he positions us. He bends my top knee, lifting my leg just high enough for his dick to bump against my entrance. Rocking his hips, Logan coats his length in my wetness, and I gasp when the head of his cock hits my clit.
“Yes. More.”
“I’ll give you more, angel. I’ll give you fucking everything.” He notches his head at my entrance. “Are you ready?”
I arch back, pushing against him as a little whine leaves my lips. “Fuck me, already.”
“So impatient.” He chuckles as his fingers dig into my hip and he pushes forward maddeningly slowly. The stretch is perfection, and I gasp when the first of his piercings rubs against me. The sensation is so much more intense without the barrier of a condom between us.
“Oh, fuck.”
“Good, baby?”
I nod, unintelligible sounds tumbling from my lips.
When he’s finally fully seated inside me, Logan presses his forehead to my neck.
His heavy breathing makes my curls lift just enough to tickle my skin.
One beat of stillness, then two, then three.
Both of us breathe hard, and I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.
He chuckles when I wiggle against him, desperate for him to move. Needing to feel him everywhere.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you.” And then he moves.
It’s slow, deep, and full of so much tenderness, my chest constricts.
Logan’s body undulates against mine, cradling me in warmth as he fills me.
Large, calloused palms hold my thigh, keeping me open for him as he thrusts in slow, measured strokes.
His piercings drag against me in the most delicious way with each pump of his hips, and pressure builds low in my belly.
“You’re mine,” he murmurs against the shell of my ear.
“No one will touch you. No one will hurt you. I won’t let them.
” He punctuates each promise with soft kisses across my shoulder before tilting my head back and slanting his mouth over mine.
It’s a messy kiss, full of tongues and teeth, and that pressure builds, warmth filling me alongside it.
“And you’re mine,” I promise. “I’ll never leave. Never.”
Logan lets out a desperate noise that almost sounds like a sob, and his control snaps.
The slow, languid strokes become punishing thrusts. His movements speed up, and the sound of our bodies meeting fills the room, punctuated by little grunts and gasps. I arch into him, pushing back as he surges forward.
“Fuck, I’m close,” he gasps. “Need you to come with me.”
I’m already riding the edge when he reaches between us and finds my clit with unerring ease. Between the drag of his piercings, the slap of his thighs against my ass, and the pressure of his fingers circling my clit, I have to muffle my cries with my hand.
“Come for me, baby,” he growls. “Come all over my cock while I fill you up.”
I choke out a sob as my body pulls tight as a bowstring and then releases with explosive force. Pleasure ripples through me and I’m lost to it.
“Oh fuck. I’m gonna come. You’re squeezing me so tight. Fuck.”
Logan’s hips buck erratically a few more times before he holds himself rigid at my back. He spills inside of me while muttering praises against my neck. Shivers tickle my skin as my body rides the euphoric aftershocks of my orgasm, and Logan wraps his arms around me, holding me tightly. “That was…”
“Perfect?”
He chuckles, the sound raspy and raw and so damn sexy. “Yeah. Perfect.”
We lie there for another few minutes, soaking up each other’s heat and letting our heart rates slow before he gets up with a kiss on my temple to clean us both up.
Once we’ve both gotten ready for the night and brushed our teeth, Logan tugs me back into the bed, wraps me in blankets and his arms, and sighs contentedly.
“This day has been a rollercoaster.”
I hum my agreement before it’s interrupted by a yawn. “Yes, it has been.”
“We’ll get through this.”
I believe him.
“Together.” He presses a gentle kiss to my lips, sealing his promise.
Together.