Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Logan
T he sunlight broke through the trees, spilling through the gauzy curtains of his bedroom and dancing in dappled patterns across Harper’s face as she lay sleeping. Her body was tucked against his, her head resting on his chest, and Logan had been watching her sleep since before dawn.
It was early, but he’d hardly slept. He kept replaying the previous night. How Harper’s voice had quickly brought every person in the room to stunned silence. He’d been unable to look away. It was one thing to hear her working out her own songs, and quite another to hear her stun an entire bar full of people. People had walked out of the main bar and onto the outdoor deck to listen. And when she’d finished, the applause had been deafening.
Logan brushed his fingers through her silky hair as she slept. He’d tried to ignore the passing time. Tried to ignore that she would be leaving, hoping in some way that she’d decide to stay.
But after last night there was no chance of that. Cape Wilde was too small a place for someone like Harper. She needed to fly, and he wasn’t going to hold her back.
So he wouldn’t tell her how he felt. He’d let her go, watch her leave and then get back to his solitary life. It would be enough.
It had been enough before, so surely it would be enough again?
He tried to ignore the niggle of doubt that twisted inside him, souring his mood.
Sighing, he curled himself around Harper and hugged her to his chest as if he could keep her next to his heart forever.
“I love you, Harper.” His voice was so soft it was barely audible, and she didn’t stir. He smiled sadly and dropped a kiss to her head, closing his eyes as the scent of her shampoo drifted around him.
“Hmm?” Harper stirred next to him.
His heart thumped so hard he was surprised it didn’t burst from his chest. Had she heard him?
Logan had been brave his whole life. He’d helped put his family back together after first the death of his youngest brother, then again after the death of his father.
He’d been there when Mason had come back from deployment after deployment a little less the brother he’d known and a little more the hardened, scowling man he’d turned into. He’d driven back and forth each weekend to Boston to visit Mason in the veteran’s hospital when he’d been sent home, damaged and bitter.
He’d stayed in Cape Wilde so his siblings could leave and chase their dreams.
Mason to serve his country.
Rowan to travel and learn from his mentors.
Cassie to go to college.
And he’d helped his cousin Rhett build his own business.
All this he did without being asked. Without needing to be asked. He gave and gave and expected nothing in return. All he wanted was to see the people he loved succeed at their dreams. To see them happy and healthy.
But what do you want?
“Nothing,” he said. Partly answering Harper and partly answering the little voice in his head that pushed him to want more.
He was happy. He had his life in Cape Wilde. He had his family. There wasn’t anything else that he wanted.
And yet as he looked at the woman who opened her brown eyes and smiled at him, he thought that perhaps he should want more. Perhaps he’d been lying to himself.
“I can’t believe I did it,” she said with a smile, her face lighting up as she blinked sleepy eyes.
There was no way he could take this away from her. He wasn’t going to spoil her dream by asking her to stay. He wouldn’t try to turn this into anything it wasn’t.
They’d agreed at the beginning what this was between them. He wouldn’t ruin that.
“You were amazing.” He smiled and dropped a kiss on her nose.
She giggled and pushed away to stretch her arms over her head, the fabric of her tank top lifting up to show an expanse of soft stomach. Logan groaned and slid down the bed to drop a kiss to the side of her bellybutton, making her giggle again.
“Logan!” She cried out in mock protest, and he smiled against her skin.
Yes, he may only have her with him for a short time, but damned if he wasn’t going to make sure she had a good time.
He nosed the fabric of her tank top up, exposing more stomach, the fabric getting caught on the undersides of her breasts. Her hands came down to grip the sheets next to him.
He grinned, hearing her breathing speed up and glanced at her face to see her eyelids half closed in drowsy arousal. Good.
He took the fabric carefully between his teeth and lifted it up over one of her breasts, freeing the rose-tipped perfection to his gaze. He groaned, capturing her nipple between his teeth and biting softly, the bud tightening.
Logan’s cock had hardened to the point of discomfort, and he used one hand to awkwardly tug his boxers off and throw them to a corner of the room, not caring where they landed. He tugged on his dick, squeezing the end and somehow managing to free Harper’s other breast from the prison of her tank top at the same time.
He latched onto her other nipple, giving it the same attention as the first. Harper’s enjoyment of his attentions was apparent as she writhed against the sheets, her fingers sliding into his hair to grip and tug him closer to her.
Logan slid a knee between hers and eased her legs apart, his cock hard and throbbing against her hip. Her tank was now bunched over the top of her breasts, and he pulled back to view the utter perfection laid out before him.
She was all flushed skin and curves, his hands itching to touch every part of her and follow that with his lips.
Some of his hunger must have shown in his eyes because Harper bit her lip as she watched him.
“Princess, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he practically growled.
He shoved the sheet to the end of the bed, not wanting even a toe to be hidden from his view. He wanted to see all of her. To touch all of her.
To love all of her.
Well, if he couldn’t have her for more than a few more days, he was going to make the most of them. He gripped her tank top and lifted, Harper sitting up and lifting her hands over her head to help him get rid of the garment.
Her arms dropped once it had been yeeted to some unknown corner of the room, and she cupped her breasts in her hands, pushing them together and offering them to him. He wanted to remember her like this always, naked except for a pair of violently pink, lacy panties.
He kneeled between her legs and gripped her around the waist, lifting her onto his lap. Her legs wrapped around his waist, her arms around his neck, and she ground herself against his erection.
“Ah, Harper. What you do to me.”
He slid one hand up to her middle back to hold her steady, and the other down to her ass, bringing her closer against him. He ground his dick against her pussy in a way he knew she liked, as it rubbed against her clit. She moaned and closed her eyes, dropping her head to his shoulder and rolling her hips.
“That’s it princess.”
Harper lifted her head and kissed him, her mouth opening over his to capture his tongue. He was surrounded by the scent of her, the feel of her, and he never wanted this to end.
But then she slid a hand down and gripped his dick and moved her hand in the way she’d learned he liked, and all thoughts of anything other than getting inside her fled his head.
“Condom,” he managed to say between gritted teeth.
She giggled and turned in his arms to reach for the nightstand drawer. She pulled out the box and emptied it onto the bed. One packet fell out. What had felt like an overly optimistic purchase had proven to be quite the necessity.
“Lucky last.” Harper grinned, tearing the packet open with her teeth and giving Logan a saucy wink.
Harper’s hands were torture on his dick as she sheathed him in the latex, smoothing her hand over his length.
“Fuck, princess. I need you,” Logan ground out, hands gripping her hips and lifting her into place.
“My panties?—”
“Don’t care.” Logan pulled the lace to one side and slid two fingers into her tight, wet heat, making sure she was ready for him. His thumb sought her clit, moving in gentle circles around the sensitive nub.
Harper gasped and moaned, grinding herself down on his hand.
“You’re ready to come on my cock, aren’t you?”
She nodded and his hand stilled. “Yes! Yes! I want to come on your cock,” she cried out.
Logan grinned and began moving his fingers again, Harper gasping and sighing as she sought her release.
“What if I’m not ready to give it to you, hmm?”
It was all lies. He was practically climbing out of his skin with wanting to slide inside her, but he wanted this to be good for Harper. And he’d learned that she loved him talking when he was touching her like this, so he kept going.
“You don’t get my cock until you’ve come on my fingers, princess. Can you do that for me?”
“Oh god, Logan.” She was a delicious mess; hair disheveled, breasts heaving with her ragged breathing, hips rolling to take everything she could get from his fingers.
He looked down, the sight of his hand on her pussy, fingers inside her, almost making him regret not letting her ride his dick.
Almost. But not quite.
He moved his hand slightly, grinding his palm against her clit and curling his fingers until he found the spot that had her back straightening. She threw her head back, hair draped over his arm and panted his name as she tightened almost painfully against his fingers.
“Oh, Logan!” She cried as she came, hands clutching at his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin.
A part of him hoped she’d mark him so he’d have something to remember her by. A visible mark of what they’d done. That she’d been in his life, however briefly, and changed him.
She collapsed against his chest, and he slid his fingers free, licking the taste of her from his skin with a wicked smile. Harper huffed a laugh, her cheeks going pink and not meeting his eyes.
She was adorable like this. One minute screaming her pleasure as she rode his hand, the next blushing like a virgin. He loved finding what made her tick.
“Ready for me, princess?” He asked against her ear, biting the lobe gently to make her shiver.
“Yes.”
He lifted her boneless body up to notch his rigid cock against her entrance. The anticipation of what was to come had him holding back, just as it had her wriggling against him as she tried to impale herself on his thick length.
“Logan,” she whined, a petulant expression on her face. “Come on.”
Logan squeezed her ass with his fingers, reveling in the way her curves felt under his hands. “Patience, Harper.”
“I’m not fucking patient!”
He laughed, a full body laugh with his head thrown back. Harper took the opportunity to wriggle herself a little further onto his dick.
He inhaled between clenched teeth, torn between waiting and giving in and letting her have what they both wanted.
Harper’s hands landed on either side of his face, her eyes meeting his. “Please, baby. Fuck me.”
At her softly spoken words he did just that, unable to take his time and sending them both over the edge with swift, sure strokes.
Afterwards, as they lay together, Harper tracing a pattern on his chest with her fingers, him with his arm wrapped around her, he wondered how many days they had left.