Say Now

by Linzi Basset

  “Logan,” Shanna whimpered as he trailed his lips over the curve of her breasts. He sucked on one nipple while he played with the other, teasingly rolling the little bud between his fingers. He tweaked it—hard—at the same time he gave the other nipple a sharp nip.

  “Oh god, Logan,” she squealed his name, clawing at his shoulders. The snow was forgotten as his hands and lips turned her body to a furnace. “More, give me more.”

  Logan chuckled. He had every intention of taking his time. He was going to enjoy every minute of this quest to find fulfillment. He was going to play, until she was on the brink of desperation. His hand found its way under her panties. Soon he was going to rip every piece of clothing off her body but for now . . . yes, there it was.

  The pad of his finger slowly slid over her clitoris. He watched as she bit her lip and gasped for breath. He circled the button of her clit, watching every reaction that flashed across her face.

  “Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you, Shanna?”

  She blinked at the question; his deep voice unraveled the last of her resistance. No woman could resist that seductive, loaded drawl.

  “W-what?” She managed to stammer, overwrought by the sensations he was causing with his sensual touch.

  “I’m going to have you for lunch. Yes, luv, I’m going to eat your pussy like you’ve only dreamed of before. All the arousal that is coating my fingers now is going to be my meal. I’m going to lap all your sweetness; I’m greedy, I want it all. I’m going to spread you wide open, so I don’t miss a drop.”

  “Logan, you—”

  “And do you know what I’m going to do then?”

  “Please, I need—”

  Her hips twisted against his hands. The flush on her face was a sign of how close to the edge she was. He felt the pleasure swirl inside him, knowing that this time, she’d obeyed him and hadn’t climaxed.

  “Then, my sultry little vixen,” he growled, leaning in closer. He could sense how desperate she was. His smirk was wicked. “Once I’ve ensured I’ve licked every delectable inch of your enticing pussy, I’m going to shove my tongue deep inside your little cunt and get more, because every drop of your essence belongs to me.”

  Shanna’s cheeks burned. She was battling to breathe. The vision he painted with his words was enough to bring her closer to the edge of the abyss she’d been teetering on since he’d smacked her nipples the night before.

  “Yes, my pet. I’m going to fuck you with my tongue and watch you come over and over again. Is that what you want, Shanna? Do you want to buck like a filly on my tongue?”

  He pressed his finger down and rotated over her clit.

  “Yes! Oh, fuck yes!”

  He watched her neck arch as she screamed his name. The catlike mewl echoed around them like a haunting song. He continued the lazy circles around the sensitive nub, allowing her to ride out her orgasm.

  “Beautiful, luv. Now, it’s time for my lunch.”

  He picked her up and carried her inside the chalet. Shanna was too limp to protest, her body still throbbing in after effect of the shattering climax she’d just had.

  Logan placed her on the sofa in front of a roaring fire. She was too mellow and weak to protest when he undressed her and wrapped her in a thick blanket.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said and went to change into dry clothes. When he returned, she was asleep.

  Chapter Six

  He knew he shouldn’t have gone home for his birthday. Whatever made him believe that eight years of absence would’ve made the heart grow fonder? His hope dwindled when he gazed into the chilled eyes of his father.

  “So, you decided to grace us with your presence? Not that I’m surprised. I knew you would come crawling back.”

  Logan stared at the big man slouching in the large comfortable chair in front of the fireplace with a beer in his hand. He smelled like cigarettes and alcohol; the way broken people did, trying to forget their mistakes. Logan had hoped his father would’ve changed with age but it seemed that he’d only become worse.

  Logan felt nothing. Not a twinge of love or warmth filled his mind. Not that it surprised him. His gaze dropped to his father’s huge hand that tipped the bottle to his lips. That was where Logan’s love and respect had gone. Broken and destroyed by the fists of a drunken father who took pleasure in beating Logan to a pulp when he was intoxicated.

  “I’m not here for you,” Logan sneered, unable to keep the disgust from his voice. He felt no fear. He’d stopped being scared of him a long time ago.

  Logan grew up hating his abusive father. He’d left home at the age of eighteen with only one goal in mind; to make enough money to save his mother from a life of abuse. He also had to leave before he ended up killing the man who’d given him life.

  He worked three jobs while putting himself through college. There hadn’t been any time for play but it hadn’t bothered him. He was determined to succeed and he did. He passed his degree cum laude and at the age of twenty-six, he had made enough money with clever investments to live a life of luxury. He’d also landed a lucrative top-level job at a hedge fund investment firm. Now, he was here to fetch his mother.

  “Of course. You’re here for your weak and frail mother. She’s not here. She’s at work.”

  “At work?” Logan’s lips flattened as he glanced around the room. The house, that had once been his mother’s pride and joy, appeared dusty and neglected.

  “What did you expect, boy? After you destroyed my leg, I couldn’t work anymore. Are you proud of your achievement, Logan? You are the reason we’ve been living in poverty for eight years,” Rory snorted through his nose.

  “What are you talking about? You had a fucking broken tibia, that’s all. You would’ve been back on your feet in six weeks. You had more than enough qualified people on your staff to keep the motor repair shop going.”

  “Ah, so that’s how you’ve appeased your conscience all these years? You conveniently forgot that you nearly killed me,” Rory taunted him.

  Logan drew in a deep, calming breath.

  “Believe me, had I wanted to kill you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.”

  Logan watched Rory stare at him, knowing that he was noticing his muscled frame for the first time. The bulging biceps and the shirt that strained over his wide chest were proof that he had grown into a man to be reckoned with. Logan was as tall as him and would easily overpower him—like he had when he was an eighteen-year-old boy.

  “You’re not welcome in my house,” Rory barked. “Get the fuck out. If you want to see your mother, she’s working at the day clinic on Barker Street.”

  “While you sit and marinate in beer and junk food.”

  “Because of you!”

  “No, not because of me. You’d been counting the days until I finished school so that you could put me to work in your shop. Someone to do your bidding without compensation so that you could sit on your lazy ass, like you are doing now. Only it wasn’t as easy to manipulate me when you couldn’t hit me into submission anymore, right?”

  “It was your duty! I supported and fed you all your life. It was your turn to look after me!”

  “And I would have . . . if you deserved to be called a father, but we both know that was a joke, didn’t we?”

  “I’ve heard enough. Get out.”

  “I’m going, but hear me, Rory Chase, if I hear even a whisper that you’re abusing my mother again, I’ll be back. This time, you will bear the full brunt of my anger.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “No. I’m stating a fact.”

  Logan sat on the floor with his back against the sofa, staring at Shanna while she slept. His brow furrowed in thought. Why he was regurgitating the past at this exact moment didn’t make sense; especially as that incident had almost cost him his life. He traced the puffed scar in his side as his mind wandered back once more.

  “Logan! Oh my god, I’ve missed you so much,” Vera Chase cried and flu
ng her arms around his neck when he found her in the nurse’s staff room at the clinic. Logan hugged her, forcing back the tears that burned behind his eyelids.

  He was shocked at how old and frail his mother looked; she was only forty-five-years old. Her hair, which had always been her pride and joy, hung limp and dull over her shoulders, mildly streaked with speckles of silver.

  She couldn’t stop talking and asking questions for over an hour, her eyes sparkling in her tired face. When he told her what he’d achieved, the pride on her face warmed his heart.

  “Why didn’t you come and visit us, Logan? Is it . . .” she swallowed hard. “Do you blame me for your father hitting you when you were younger?”

  “No, Mom, of course not. You couldn’t have stopped him.”

  Vera’s shoulders slumped and realization hit Logan like a ton of bricks. She didn’t know that he was aware of how his father had abused her. Or how many times Logan had taken the brunt of his intoxicated anger to save her from his fists.

  He took her hands in his. “Mom, I love you. I always have. That’s why I left and only kept contact by phone. I had to succeed, so that I could come and take you away from this horrible life.”

  Vera couldn’t hide her shock. Tears trickled down her cheeks. “You knew. All this time, you knew,” she whispered.

  “Yes.” Logan looked at their clasped hands. “I realized when I saw him again that I shouldn’t have left you here.” He looked up. “He hasn’t stopped, has he?”

  Vera cried openly and turned her head away. Logan’s breath caught in his throat when he noticed the purple bruises on the side of her neck, hidden by the collar of her uniform. His cursed loudly.

  “All these years! Every time we spoke on the phone, you never said anything. Goddammit, Mom, you should’ve told me.” His harsh voice vibrated with the hatred that resurfaced.

  “No! Logan, please, let it go. He . . . your father is sick. His mind . . . he’s—”

  “I don’t believe it. After all these years and you still defend him?”

  “I’m sorry, Logan but he’s my husband. I have no one else, nowhere to go and—”

  “You have somewhere to go now, Mom. Come with me.”

  Vera stared at him with wide eyes. Insecurity flashed in her eyes, warring with hope, until it was repressed by acceptance.

  “I can’t go, Logan. I can’t leave your father. He only has me. Logan! Where are you going?” Vera cried when he turned and walked away.

  He ignored her pleas for him to return and lengthened his strides until he found himself walking down the main street of the town Concord, where he’d grown up.

  Logan moved his shoulders and leaned his head back against the sofa. He could never understand why his mother had decided to stay with his father, until Noah explained that it was the only thing in her life that had been stable, however fucked up it sounded. It was what she knew. It didn’t matter that Rory abused her; he was still the man she fell in love with and who had given her a child.

  He sighed heavily and closed his eyes; choosing instead, to concentrate on a treasured memory. Even after all these years, this vivid memory never failed to bring him comfort.

  “Can I get you anything, sir?” A sugar sweet voice purred in his ear. He glanced up and smiled tersely at the young, curvy blonde who stood next to him. “My name is Haley, and I’ll be serving you today.” The message in her voice was clear; she was offering more than what was on the menu. He was in the diner he used to favor during his younger years.

  “Coffee and a cheeseburger, please.”

  “Coming right up.”

  He watched her walk away, his cock stirred at the suggestive swing of her hips. The burger tasted like shit but her chirpy company improved his mood.

  When he picked her up later that night, he still didn’t know how she’d managed to convince him to be her date to the prom, or why he’d agreed to go. He was eight years her senior. It was a decision he regretted an hour later. Haley was clingy, possessive and sulky by turns.

  “Thank god, I had the foresight to withhold my real name,” he muttered as he escaped to the gazebo on the far side of the school gardens, where the prom was being held. The last thing he needed was a young girl hanging onto his tail.

  That was when she arrived. A little nymph in the moonlight. She stood gazing up at the stars, her hair tumbling down her back. He couldn’t make out her features clearly but she enchanted him nevertheless. He stubbed out the cigarette he’d been smoking.

  “Got too much for you too?”

  She started but didn’t move or look at him at first. He walked closer and leaned his arms on the rails next to her, following her gaze to the sky.

  “Beautiful night, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, very.”

  Logan was lost in that moment. Her smooth, husky voice tugged at his heart strings. He smirked at the thought. He didn’t believe in love at first sight, not that it would be, seeing as it was too dark to make out what she really looked like.

  Lust. Yeah, that’s what it is.

  He started talking, wanting to hear the melodious tinkle of her laugh and huskiness of her voice that stirred the man inside him. There was an undeniable chemistry between them that drew them closer and soon they were in each other’s arms.

  Shanna moaned softly, drawing his attention back to her. She stretched lazily.

  Logan watched her with a growing carnal hunger. Maybe it was because Shanna reminded him of her—the way she moved and that same voice—his moonlit nymph, who took him to sexual heights he’d only dreamed of. Maybe it had been her innocence, her need to please him that had made the encounter so special and unforgettable.

  ‘I don’t have a condom, little one, but I’ll be careful,” Logan promised as he pushed his cock inside her tight pussy. Her groan of pleasure had drowned any further thought as they both became lost in the primal demands of their bodies.

  Logan didn’t keep his promise in the end because he lost every vestige of control as he powered into her and ejaculated. He staggered back, gasping for breath.

  “Fuck, little one, you’re dangerous. I didn’t pull out,” he croaked out of breath.

  “It’s okay. I’m not ovulating.”

  Logan forced his mind back to the present. It never did him any good to dredge up the scene that had followed after he had left the young girl at the prom.

  Chapter Seven

  Shanna’s eyes fluttered open and Logan pushed the memories to the back of his mind. Their eyes met, hers somewhat wary, his—hungry.

  “Finally. I’m starving, luv. Come here. It’s time for my lunch.”

  Such confidence. The damn man knows I can’t resist him.

  A hot blush painted her face red as his earlier words flashed through her mind.

  “Is this lunch going to end with a dessert, or am going to be starving, as usual?”

  Logan burst out laughing at the sulky expression on her face.

  “Ah, luv, you truly are a delight. I’m not going to repeat myself again, Shanna. Come here.”

  “Wouldn't you rather come over here? It’s much more comfortable on the sofa than on the hard floor,” she invited. She’d be damned if she jumped to his every command, even though her ovaries were already doing Samba rolls at the promised delights. She was having a hard time concentrating with his chest displayed in all its naked and muscled glory. She licked her lips as her eyes trailed over broad, sharply defined shoulders, to his wide chest, to his corrugated abs . . . to his strong legs encased in a pair of black boxer shorts. Even his feet looked sexy!

  “Shanna.” His voice vibrated in a warning.

  She lifted her head and searched the sofa behind him.

  “Do you have condoms? I’m afraid I don’t indulge in unprotected sex,” she had the presence of mind to be sensible this time.

  Her eyes almost popped from their sockets when he reached to the coffee table next to him and flicked, what looked like, twenty condoms into the air.

 
“I’m well stocked, luv. I have no desire of fathering an unplanned baby. Last warning, Shanna,” he reiterated.

  His words seared through Shanna’s mind. On the one hand, it settled the decision that she’d been battling with; whether or not she should tell him about the baby they had conceived that night at the prom. On the other hand, it made her wonder if she was stepping into the eye of the storm. She rose and patted over the thick carpet toward him.

  “You’re always so full of warnings. It makes me wonder if I’m ever going to meet the Studmaster. Hm? Or does he need some enticement to come out from behind that wall of icy control?” Shanna cooed.

  She wasn’t a tease, but she wanted to make him sweat just a little. She wanted to make him lose the hold he seemed to have over his emotions. She loosened her fingers gripping the blanket around her shoulders and allowed it to slip down to her waist.

  “Well, that’s entirely up to you, my pet,” he taunted her in a gruff voice as his eyes dropped to her perfectly rounded breasts with the coral tipped nipples. His glowing eyes were enough to tease the devil on her shoulder.

  “Just remember, stud, you asked for it.”

  Logan sucked in his breath as he stared at her. She slowly lowered the blanket until it pooled around her tiny feet. His gaze travelled upward, committing every scrumptious inch of her lithe form to his memory. Her legs were lean with perfectly rounded calves. He licked his lips at the succulent perfection of her clean-shaven pussy between her legs, before his eyes traced her toned stomach, small waist, and gorgeous full breasts, to her delicate jaw. He could still remember the sweet taste of her skin, the velvet softness under his tongue.

  God, she is perfection—completely impervious to the effect she has on me.

  Lust excoriated his body uncomfortably, like sunburn against linen. Almost like a persistent and painful throb, instead of a pleasurable one.

  Her eyes remained fixed on him; her lips curved up in a shy, yet sensual smile. The sound of him dragging in a breath was hypnotic against the crackling fire in the background. Again, a tickle more than an itch, made him squirm inside his flesh—enslaved by his own lust.