She just needed to decide how she wanted this to play out, and she needed to decide quickly or there wouldn’t be a decision to make.
With her mind in a whirlwind of indecision, she shook her head infinitesimally. At her action, he took another two steps and pushed her against the wall. His stance was dominant, one sinewy thigh wedged between her legs as he stared down at her. “Lift your mouth to mine,” he ordered.
Lauren inhaled raggedly and lifted her chin only a fraction of an inch.
His hand tightened around her wrist and he growled low in his throat, “Lauren.”
Lauren felt the exquisite pleasure of her name rasped in his fevered voice and knew her acquiescence was imminent. She couldn’t even fight it anymore. She lifted her face and waited.
At her act of submission, she felt his tension come down a notch. “Don’t push me like that again.”
“I didn’t push you,” she denied. “You took me by surprise, that’s all.”
With one hand still controlling her, he wrapped his other arm around her middle and lifted her until she felt his hard arousal pushing into her stomach, threatening her sanity. His gaze was pointed as he held her eyes captured with his and he hissed out in an accusing voice, “You’ve been taking me by surprise since the moment I met you.”
His mouth came down over hers and with a force that took her by storm, he thrust his tongue into her mouth and began kissing her as if he’d never let her go. The thought both terrified and elated her, and as she hung in his arms as he ravished her mouth, it flashed across her brain that she’d never again be exactly the same person she’d been before she met him. And that was the part that terrified her, because she didn’t want to go back to that time, she didn’t want to think about being without him.
As he kissed her, he kept her off-balance, his touch changing between punishing and adoration and then back again just as swiftly.
She turned her head to catch her breath, and he quickly began stripping her, and within seconds, he was holding her against the wall, naked and aching for him.
“Tell me you want my kiss.”
The demand stunned Lauren, and helpless, she gave him what he wanted, both because it was the truth and because she felt how badly he needed to hear her say it. “I want your kiss.”
His sinewy muscles tightened against her. “Logan. Say my name.”
“Logan,” she repeated. Her heart turned over at the look reflected from his eyes. “I want your kiss, Logan.”
He leaned down and kissed her again, his tongue going deep and stroking her, mimicking the sex act before ruthlessly pulling away and making another demand. “Don’t flinch from me again, you understand me?”
Lauren shivered in his hold and as he let go of her only long enough to adjust his pants and slide on protection, he said in a softer tone, “Lauren?”
“You took me by surprise,” she repeated softly.
“I’d never hurt you.” He lifted her up and Lauren felt the head of his arousal at her opening. “My God, you have to know I’d never hurt you.” He pushed in an inch and then stopped, his face etched in lines of tension. “You drive me insane. You’re driving me insane, woman.” With that, he pushed all the way in with one strong stroke and Lauren moaned as pleasure, hot and sweet, slid down her spine and wrapped around her entire body.
****
Logan impaled her completely, and felt her tight, silky femininity enclose him. He stilled inside of her, finally feeling halfway human now that he was inside of her once again. He closed his eyes and let her softness ease the beast inside of him that was trying to break free.
He’d felt damn fine when he’d knocked on her door tonight, but that had been shot to hell as soon as he’d heard her damn phone conversation.
And there wasn’t a fucking thing he could do about it.
It had only been two weeks since he’d seen her for the first time. Two weeks. She wasn’t his. He didn’t own her or her time. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t impose his will over her. He had to fucking remember that.
If he tried, she’d kick him out of her life faster than he could say, ‘tag, you’re mine.’
Oh, but he planned on it. Yeah, he planned on saying it before too much longer. He’d try to wait as long as he could, so she wouldn’t figure out how insane he was about her.
Jesus Christ, he was insane.
He’d never felt like this before, ever.
What the fuck was she doing to him?
Maybe he needed to stay away from her. Maybe her trip out of town would be a good thing. She was getting too deep into his system and he needed some time to think about all this shit.
But he’d think about it later.
For now, all he could think about was her wet, tight pussy clenched around his cock. Oh yeah, he’d think about all that other shit later.
Right now, he was in fucking heaven. He had her exactly where he wanted her; her inner muscles were clenched around him and all he wanted to do was fuck her and fuck her good. He began to move.
****
Logan began pumping into her and the pleasure was so intense that Lauren had no control when the back of her head fell against the wall.
He adjusted their position. He let go of her hand and lifted her higher, wrapping his arms around her thighs and holding her open to him. When he sank in again, Lauren knew she’d never felt anything like it before. She had nothing even remotely close to compare it to. He was big, and he was macho, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He controlled her like a marionette on a string and she just went along with the flow.
He pushed in and out and Lauren lifted her head for his lips.
He accommodated her immediately. His tongue sank in and with a rhythm that held her in its grip, he slid in and out of her mouth as he slid in and out of her body.
Within moments, Lauren couldn’t control it anymore and knew she was coming. Starbursts began exploding in her head, and when he pushed in one last time, and hissed out his pleasure from the back of his throat, Lauren exploded into spasms of ecstasy.
****
On Thursday night, the night before she had to go out of town, Lauren sat beside Logan in a booth at the same Mexican restaurant they’d eaten at on their second date.
He held his hand on her thigh but there was no question that he was on a short fuse. And there was no doubt in her mind as to why. Lauren had no clue what to do about it or if she should even care. She had enough to worry about just dealing with her job. There was a glass ceiling she was always pushing against, men hit on her so much of the time that it sometimes bordered on sexual harassment, and she was putting in way more hours than she cared to think about.
She certainly didn’t need to worry about Logan getting all pissy on her.
She decided to ignore his bad attitude. “Do you have plans this weekend?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, just took a sip of his beer and shook his head. “I’ll probably work.”
She nodded her head and offered him an olive branch. “I’ll be home Sunday night about nine if you want to come by.” God, she hoped that didn’t seem too needy.
The look he turned on her was piercing. “For a quickie?”
She sucked a piece of salt off her straw and flashed her eyes at him. “It doesn’t have to be quick.” She shrugged her shoulders and looked down into her margarita as she stirred it. “Or it can be, whatever.”
“Whatever?”
Lauren knew this could explode around them in a heartbeat if she let it. But for some reason, she didn’t think it would escalate to a break-up. She wasn’t going to break up with him over this and she pretty much knew that he might be so pissed he couldn’t see straight, but he wouldn’t cut her loose. Besides, it wasn’t her that he was angry with. It was her job. She took a breath. “You’re reading too much into this. It’s no big deal either way. You can come by if you decide you want to. Just text me and let me know.”
“Do you even care one way or the other?”
His tone was so neutral that Lauren couldn’t read him. He didn’t seem as pissed as he had a moment before, and the question he asked seemed like an honest one with no hidden implications.
“I’d like to see you,” she answered quietly.
His steady gaze bore into her and she felt a flush cover her cheekbones. “Okay, we’ll plan on Sunday night then. Do you want me to pick you up at the airport?” he asked as his hand ran up and down her thigh.
Pick her up at the airport? For some reason that seemed like too much too soon. “No, that’s okay. I’ll have my car.”
“It’s going to be dark when you land … I’ll pick you up.” He said in a deep, controlled voice.
Lauren tilted her chin up a degree and shook her head at him. “Nah. I’ll drive.” She attempted to use a tone that brooked no argument. If he dared to disagree with her, dared to impose his will on her this early in the relationship, Lauren was going to have to think twice about all of this. The alpha shit was fun in bed, no doubt about it. But every minute of the day? She sucked in oxygen followed by a healthy drink of her margarita. It was a lot to think about.
****
Logan could have kicked himself in the ass. He needed to learn how to rein it in and damn quickly. When he’d made the mistake of telling her that he’d pick her up at the airport, her demeanor had changed. She’d gone from sweet, soft and biddable, to ‘don’t fuck with me’ in an instant.
And he planned on fucking with her, a whole lot more.
So he’d better get with the program, and if he couldn’t do that, then he at least needed to bluff her into thinking he was with the program.
****
On Sunday night, Logan counted to ten as he waited for Lauren to open her front door. The weekend had been sheer, unmitigated hell as he imagined every bad scenario under the sun. The thought kept beating at him over and over again that he couldn’t let her see how badly her out-of-town trip had affected him.
But he admitted to himself that the weekend had not been good. All he’d been able to think about was how beautiful she was, and he knew how badly he wanted her, so didn’t it stand to reason that every other horny motherfucker out there would feel the same?
And goddamnit, she was almost like an innocent little virgin, inexperienced and having not a single clue what went on the minds of ninety-five percent of the men out there. He could just imagine some fucker buying one too many rounds and Lauren trying to keep up with the men by drinking with them. She couldn’t handle liquor, she’d admitted it to him and he’d seen it for himself. One margarita went to her head and lowered her inhibitions. He could just see some fucker walking her up to her room on the pretext of seeing her safely to her door and then trying to take advantage of her.
And not only did that piss him off, it put his protective instincts on high alert. Why the fuck should she have to deal with that? Did she get scared? Was she put in situations that she didn’t know how to handle that worried her?
No, the weekend had not gone well as he’d imagined all kinds of crazy-assed shit happening.
Before he could get fired up even more, the door opened and she stood smiling back at him. The sight soothed the shit out of him, calmed the fires raging in his bloodstream, and he ran his gaze over her to make sure she was in one piece.
She looked fine, as if nothing or nobody could faze her, and her obvious happiness at seeming him made him take a bold move.
He pushed inside the apartment and turned and locked the door. Yeah, she looked good, but he needed a little something more than just a quick observation.
He reached out and grabbed her.
She gasped as her torso was propelled into his, but he didn’t stop to think. He was acting purely on physical impulse, and the impulse blaring through his brain was to strip her naked and push inside of her.
He wasn’t going to deny himself.
He took the time to kiss her once, only briefly, and then he lifted her up and carried her through to the bedroom. He pushed her shorts and underwear down her legs and tossed them to the floor. Lowering his head, he slid his tongue inside her mouth as he unsnapped his jeans and shoved them to his ankles.
Not bothering to step from them or to remove any more clothing, he clenched his stomach muscles as he forced himself to don protection as they stood by the side of the bed.
With that feat accomplished, he separated her legs and pushed her butt to the bed. Standing between her thighs, he grabbed her knees and levered them up and out and away from her body.
He could hear her panting breaths through the ringing in his ears but he couldn’t stop or slow down.
He wrapped his hands through her hair, his fingers molding her scalp and as he came down over her, her spine hit the mattress. Her eyes held his with a possible touch of panic in their depths, but she wasn’t stopping him and thank fuck for that, because he didn’t think he was capable of stopping.
The head of his erection unerringly found her wet heat and he began pushing into her, studying her reactions as he slid all the way inside. Relief hit him immediately, but her eyes began to close and he couldn’t stand it. “Look at me, Lauren,” he managed in a voice he couldn’t control.
She inhaled raggedly and opened her eyes, and the almost-drugged look he saw reflected there both fascinated him and fuelled the flames of his lust. The slight question he read in her eyes had him answering with an aggression he was incapable of taming. “It. Was. A. Fucked. Up. Weekend.”
She sucked in a breath and he felt his abs clench as he pushed harder and impaled her to an impossible depth that calmed him not one fucking bit.
She let out a tiny whelp and he stilled completely. “Did that hurt?”
Her eyes were huge and blue and she shook her head just once.
He pulled out and pushed in again and her breath strangled on an abbreviated cry.
“Son of a bitch, babe. Am I hurting you?”
“No,” she panted.
Relief grabbed Logan by the throat; he’d stop if he had to. Thank God he didn’t have to. He pumped once more and adjusted his hold as he tightened his hand on the side of her face and looked into her eyes. “I don’t like it when you go out of town.” He pumped again. “It sucked pure shit.” He tried to shut his fucking mouth but the words kept spilling out as he thrust in and out of her. “There’s no fucking way you can be safe out there.” He attempted to take a calming breath but it didn’t help and he kept on burying himself deeper with his words. “Somebody tries something with you and I swear to God, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
Her eyes flared and he read what looked like distress as she took a shallow pant and stared back at him. He needed to shut the fuck up; he knew he must be scaring her but in that second, he felt her shiver of response and her uncontrollable physical reaction that manifested itself in a rush of moisture that wrapped around him where he penetrated her. It both eased his way as he pounded into her and goaded him into seizing her hands in a restraint that he needed more than anything he’d ever craved before.
Chapter Five
Oh my God. She was crazy. She was crazy. She must be insane. How could she like this? Like it? Hell, she loved it. In what universe was it right for her to love the way he was hanging over her, holding her down, staking her to the side of the bed while his feet were still on the floor?
How could she love the way he had her knees shoved up to her hips in a position that put her under his uncontested control? How could the fact that he’d stripped her of her shorts and panties while leaving the rest of her clothes intact excite her? How could she love the dangerous sizzle of his antagonistic words pummeling her brain while he pummeled her body with his?
How could she love the way he was out of control, almost out of his mind as he restrained her to the bed?
How could she trust him enough to even now, feel her imminent orgasm?
Oh God, she knew how.
It was because of the wild look of relief that crossed his features
as he sank inside of her on the first stroke. It was because of the fact that he hadn’t been able to take the time to remove the rest of their clothing before joining with her. She felt his need that could only be appeased with that joining he hadn’t been able to wait another second for.
And it was because of the depth of his concern when he’d thought he might be hurting her. He would stop if she asked him to; she had absolutely no doubt of that.
It was that level of trust that she already felt in his arms that was screwing her up so much.
So yeah, she knew why she loved this. As she sank under the most mind-blowing orgasm she’d ever experienced in her life, she knew she had the best of both worlds: she had an absolute caveman in bed … and one who cared for her. And he wasn’t capable of hiding either fact.
****
Another six weeks slid by and Lauren was getting in a little over her head. Logan was only showing her a good side, and she wondered what had happened to the crazy-assed man she’d first met. He was just as uncontrolled and hot in bed, but the rest of the time, he treated her with kid gloves.
He spoiled her, pampered her, and was protective of her.
She was beyond suspicious; she knew he was playing her. But it didn’t matter. He was getting under her skin in a good way and she loved it.
She almost, almost wanted to have the ‘exclusivity’ conversation with him.
But she thought it was too soon, and besides, she wondered if they even needed it.
He showed no signs of even being interested in other women. Like, she didn’t think he even registered that there were other women alive. Like there were no other women but her living on the planet.
They’d gone dancing a few times, and when they walked into a club or a restaurant, she immediately noticed when other women checked him out. And why wouldn’t they? He was infinitely hot, and if she could see it, then everyone else could see it.
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