My head now bent backward, my neck at his mercy, he leans toward me, the ancient chair creaking, and fastens his lips to the delicate curve of my bared throat. His hot kiss marks me like a brand.
I inhale swiftly, all of my insides turning tight and hot, forcing me to go limp against him. My fingers clutch his jeans and slip over the smooth material to his waist. At the first glancing feel of his hot skin against the tips of my fingers, my breath seizes in my throat. I delve under the material of his shirt and whimper, aching desperately for more. More skin—more contact—more him.
He groans, and his fist clenches in my hair almost impossible tight as his tongue samples and his teeth nibble. The leisurely journey he takes from the base of my throat to my lips is agony. By the time he finds my mouth, I no longer have a breath to spare, but it doesn't matter—everything but his kiss simply ceases to matter.
I don’t think about what’s going to happen tomorrow. About the horrors from the past. I’ve never felt so completely overtaken. He plunders, his kiss waging a battle. It should go down in history because by the time he lets me up to breathe, I’m waving a white flag, never having experienced tactics quite so masterful.
His other hand comes to my waist and urges me up to his lip so I’m straddling his lap.
“You want this?” he asks, and nudges his hips upwards in a slow, rhythmic roll. My response lodges somewhere in my throat, and he chuckles darkly. “Oh, yeah,” he growls. “You want it.”
The arm of the chair is digging into the side of my hips and we are both in desperate need of a shower, but all of that fades into the back of my mind. I suck his lower lip into my mouth and nip it between my teeth as I release. His eyes flash and his hands flex, and I smile just as darkly causing him to grin against my lips.
When I speak, it’s guttural and I worry it betrays more of what I’m feeling than I’d like. “Yeah, Logan. I want it.”
The closeness is almost too much. All-consuming. Overwhelming.
My legs dangle off either side of his hips as he cradles the rest of my body in his lap. All I can do is clutch his head with my hands as our kiss turns carnal, all teeth and tongues and heat. I lose myself and can’t tell where he ends and I begin.
When I’m limp from it, he gets to his feet with me in his arms and crosses the room in two long strides to place me on the bed. He wastes no time ridding himself of his hoodie and shirt, then shucking his jeans, leaving himself completely bare.
Any other time, I’d give in to studying each and every blessed inch of his tawny, inked skin, but I barely have time to take him in before he’s ridding me of my own clothes. By the time I catch up, my shoes and socks are gone and his thick fingers are fumbling with the buttons on my jeans.
“Here let me,” I say when he growls in frustration and starts to rip them right off me.
His hands frame my hips as I work the button lose and peel down the zipper. Our eyes lock, and he dips his head, capturing my lips again. Somehow, I manage to wiggle out of my jeans. though it takes forever because I keep getting distracted by the sleek, muscular body pinning me to the bed. There are acres upon acres of gorgeous skin for me to explore, and I can’t wait to trace every inch of it with my lips and tongue and teeth.
I start to do just that, scooting my body under his to trace his sternum and abdomen with my tongue, but he captures me under my arms and hauls me right back up. My shirt and bra disappear next and then we are naked and bare against each other, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything so exquisite in my life.
In a few quick, efficient motions he pulls a condom practically out of thin air and opens it with his teeth. When he positions his hips between my legs, my eyes are drawn down to his hands as they sheath his cock with the layer of latex.
Then his eyes meet mine and he nudges me backward, crawling up my body until his weight rests above me. He bumps my thighs open wider, deliciously, uncomfortably so, and then he thrusts, and I see white. His own hoarse growl of satisfaction is low and sends warmth radiating through me.
Everything I’d been denying, all the feelings I wasn’t able to put a name to—or I didn’t want to put a name to—come rushing to the surface as he thrusts into me, slowly, inexorably, and we lock eyes.
“There it is,” he says.
I shake my head against the rise of sensation, the firestorm of emotion.
One hand comes to grip my jaw, and he forces me to look up at him. There’s no hiding from the tumult of sensation, no running from the inevitable tumbling over the edge. He has me trapped. As it overwhelms me, I give a cry of surrender, and he swoops down to swallow it with greedy lips. My orgasm sweeps through me, and I clench around him with greedy, wet pulls. It consumes me completely, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let him go.
Logan
The goddamned hotel is like sleeping in a freezer. I throw myself onto my back and growl at the world in general. I don’t want to get up, but I don’t want my dick to freeze off either. I turn to where Sienna had fallen asleep after hours of the mindless tangle of sex, but I find it empty and just as cold as the rest of the godforsaken room.
“Sienna!” I call out, hoping she went to the bathroom and will turn the air off for me on the way back. I figure I can barter sexual favors in return. I discovered several of her favorites the night before. “You in the shower?”
As my brain starts to kick into gear, I realize there’s no wet splash from the shower that I’ve grown accustomed to in the mornings since I’ve been staying with her. There’s no hum from the blow dryer she uses to style her hair.
A vague unease unfurls in my stomach.
What the hell?
I throw off the blankets and stalk naked to the bathroom in spite of the cold. It’s quiet as a tomb inside, and when I open the door, I find it just as devoid of life. The hotel we chose was cheap and small, so there’s nowhere else she could possibly be.
I jerk on clothes angrily and snatch up my cell phone. When I try to dial her number, her phone vibrates on the tabletop.
“Fuck!”
After I jerk on socks and a pair of boots, I clip on my ankle holster and stride from the room. There’s really only one place we came here for, so there’s only one place she’d be.
And when I get to her—if she hasn’t already gone and gotten herself killed—I’m going to lock her up in jail if that’s what it takes to keep her ass safe.
I have no idea where I’m going, so I call Colson as soon as I wait for a taxi.
“Please tell me you aren’t already in trouble,” he answers.
“Don’t fucking start,” I hiss. “I need the address from the background file on Miami for the murders at Sienna’s house.”
“Lost her already?” he says as I hear papers shift in the background. I ignore him and lay on the horn for an elderly couple in front of me going ten miles under the posted speed limit. “All right, 982 Orange Avenue. Good luck,” he says.
I hang up the phone without answering and swerve around the old couple. As I weave in and out of traffic, I input the address into my GPS and hope the damn thing isn’t too far away.
Ten minutes later, I swerve to a stop at an apartment complex. It looks like it hasn’t been lived in since Sienna left it the night her sister was murdered. Vines are snaking alongside the walls, windows are busted out and the door itself is yawning wide open.
Cursing under my breath, I pull my gun out from the ankle holster and take a tentative step into the doorway. Dust motes swirl through the air and hazy light shines in through broken boards over empty window sockets. I clear the living room, then move toward the kitchen.
I’ve cleared houses countless times as a Marine and as a cop, but none of them have ever cut me to the core with the sharp edge of fear like this place does. A part of me recognizes what happened to Sienna in a visceral way, and my every instinct is screaming at me to find her and protect her.
Kitchen cleared, I move to the hallway. With each step I take, I remember Sienna�
�s first person-account of the night she walked this same hall. How the man grabbed her, dragged her to her sister’s room to view her butchered remains, and then nearly did the same to her. With careful steps, I clear the adjacent bedroom and bathroom, then move to the last room, the one I’ve been dreading the most.
With careful movements, I push open the door and sweep left to right. Sienna is sitting on the floor so still I damn near have a heart attack.
In two quick strides, I’m by her side and lifting her into my arms. She doesn’t even fight me. She just melts into my embrace.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” I ask hotly, unable to let her go.
Her body trembles against my own. “I needed to come here,” she says, her voice soft. “I needed to know I could do it on my own. Stop running from it. I needed to face it.”
“But you didn’t have to do it on your own, dammit.”
She pulls back to look up at me with watery eyes. “I know.” Then she kisses me, and a laugh bubbles up. “Don’t you see? I knew you’d be there for me. I knew you’d be here when I got back. Having you here for me is what gave me the strength to face the thing I’ve been running from all this time.”
“Don’t you ever do something so stupid again,” I nearly shout. “I swear to god, I nearly died a thousand times over by the time I got here.”
She wraps her arms around my waist again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to scare you. If it weren’t for you, I would have never been able to do this.”
I grunt. “Well don’t thank me. I won’t take credit for this idiocy.”
“Let’s go home,” she says, her face shining up at me.
And how can I be mad at that?
Piper
Logan doesn’t release my hand the entire way back to the hotel.
“You scared the shit out of me,” he says for what feels like the hundredth time.
“I’m sorry.” I unbuckle and scoot over on the bench seats to his side. “I didn’t mean to.”
At the next red light, he pins me with a fierce glare. “From now on, you don’t leave my sight.”
I hide my smile. “That’ll be hard to do considering we live in separate houses.”
“Not anymore.”
My smile fades a little. “What?”
“You can move in with me or I can move in with you.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Smile is now completely history.
“You can pick. My place or yours. But I need you where I can keep an eye on you. My place is bigger, but then you’ll have more chances to escape . . .” The end of his sentence trails off as he gets lost in thought.
“Escape?” I laugh at the pure ridiculousness of what he’s talking about. “I’m not moving in with you.”
“You damn well are. You owe me for scaring ten years off my life. It’s payback.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I’m fine. There’s no need to make any rash decisions.”
He pulls into the parking lot of the hotel, turns off the rental car, and then glares at me. “Do you think I look like the type of man who makes rash decisions?”
“This sounds like a trick question,” I say instead of answering.
“Your place or mine,” he reiterates. “If you don’t choose, I will.”
He gets out of the car and I stare after him in stunned silence for a few beats until I jump out to follow. “If you think you can dictate to me like that, buddy, you better—”
Logan spins before I can finish my sentence, and he has me hauled up against him before I can even gasp.
“You deserted me in a hotel room when someone might be after you. Then you went to a known location alone. You owe me this if only to keep me from going crazy worrying about where you are.”
“Why don’t we talk about this when we get home?” I ask instead of answering his ridiculous question. Maybe some sleep and a plane ride will clear his head.
“My place,” he decides. “I can wire it up with security like Ben and Livvie did at their place.” He turns and starts mumbling under his breath. “Maybe I’ll even add a tracking device.”
“I’m not a dog,” I say behind him as he unlocks the door to our hotel room.
He starts to open his mouth to speak, but whatever quip he’s going to make is cut off as his body jerks soundlessly in a move so reminiscent of my nightmares that reality splits again. I’m seeing Stephen and Logan’s bodies combined. Just like I saw Lena and Paige’s.
My heart rends in two as Logan slumps down to the floor with a burbling sort of breath that sears itself into my brain. I glance up and reel back in horror.
“Hello, Sienna,” Joseph says. “Been a while.”
Oxygen strangles in my throat, and I drop to my knees at Joseph’s feet to push Logan to a sitting position. Already his T-shirt is soaked with blood. I glance around for someone, anyone, to help, but there is no one in sight and our room is located on the back side of the hotel. We could be on another planet for all the help it’ll do us.
Joseph tangles his hand in my hair and yanks until I feel the roots coming free. “Now is that any way to greet an old friend?” he asks.
“Drop dead,” I snarl.
His eyes flash and his smile twists. “Temper, temper.”
He advances, then looks down his nose at Logan. “Pity your boy toy won’t last long. I’ve waited a long time to find you, Sienna.”
“You’re going to have to wait a hell of a lot longer,” I hiss. I inspect Logan’s side where the wound seems to be the deepest. I glance around, but the only thing I find is a small throw pillow. Figuring it’s better than nothing, I press it to his side to staunch the flow of blood and then position his weight on top of it. If I’m going to survive this, I’m going to need both hands free. “What the hell are you doing here?” I ask him.
“Reunion,” he says smugly.
“Did you follow me here?”
Joseph moves closer, his voice skittering down my spine in an unwelcome touch. “I’ve followed you everywhere.”
Logan moans, and I feel a flood of relief. He’s not dead. He’s not dead, but he will be if I can’t get him out of here . . . soon.
“You killed my sister,” I growl.
“I’ve killed a lot of people.”
“Why her?” I’m furious with myself when my voice breaks.
“Does it matter?”
I slip my hand down the calf of Logan’s jeans and find his ankle holster. Without hesitating, I turn and fire, catching Joseph three times in the arm, one in the shoulder, and one to his forehead.
I slump against Logan’s body, turning my back to Joseph’s lifeless form. With fingers slick with blood, I pull out Logan’s phone and dial blindly.
As I speak with the paramedics, Logan’s eyes flutter open, and he groans in pain.
“Don’t move,” I tell him. “Help is on the way.”
“Ugh,” he says.
As I hold him, I look down at his face, cupping his cheeks. “I changed my mind about moving in with you. It looks like you might need me around after all, especially if I’m going to need to be the one saving you.”
He laughs and then winces. “Stop.”
I kiss his brow and clutch his hand. “Don’t talk. They’ll be here soon.”
“You okay?” he manages.
“I’m fine. It’s over. It’s all over.”
He lifts a hand to my cheek, and I nuzzle against it. “No,” he whispers. “It’s only the beginning.”
Logan
“Breathe, just breathe,” Ben says. His face is annoying the shit out of me, so I punch him in the jaw and he sprawls backward on the floor.
Jack throws an arm around Sofie and grins at me. “He’s taking it worse than I did.”
Sofie shakes her head and elbows him in the ribs, causing him to grimace. “You nearly passed out when they told me it was time.”
“No,” Donnie pipes up from the other side of the room
. “That was Rafe. Jack just turned really white and pretended he had to go to the bathroom.”
Rafe ambles in with a cup of coffee in one hand. “Let’s just say it ensured I’d practice safe sex for the rest of my college career.”
Sofie scowls at her two younger brothers. “You’re all useless,” she says.
“Jesus Christ.” Ben groans as he gets back to his feet. “Did you have to hit me so hard?”
“He should have hit you harder,” Livvie says.
I slump on a chair and put my head between my knees. “I’m sorry, man. I’m just a little out of it.”
Someone claps a hand on my shoulder. I can’t be bothered to look up because I’m focusing all of my energy into not throwing up all over their feet.
“You’d think a cop and a Marine would be used to emergency situations,” Jack says.
Sofie snorts. “We’ve already established you were no better.”
“Yeah,” Jack says, “but it’s so much more fun when it’s not happening to me.”
The patterns on the floor are starting to give me a headache so I just shut my eyes. “I hate all of you.”
“Poor guy,” Livvie says. “I always said having kids was worse on the men than the women. And we’re the ones who do all the hard work!”
“Why did they send you out of there, anyway?” Ben plops down on the chair next to me.
“Sienna told me to go before I punched the doctor.”
“So you punched me instead?”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Shouldn’t be long now,” Livvie says.
I groan into my hands and then stand up and hope the room doesn’t decide to turn on its head. “I’d better get back.”
“Don’t worry,” Sofie says from behind me. “You’re going to do great!”
I don’t have as much faith, but I shoulder through the door to the hospital room anyway. Much as I’d rather turn and high-tail in the other direction, I can’t leave Sienna. She’s probably terrified.
Instead of finding her wild-eyed and screaming at the nurses, I find her laughing and chatting with them. I rush to her side and take one of her hands in mine. She looks up at me and smiles. “There you are.”
Savior (First to Fight Book 4) Page 18