Say Now

by Linzi Basset

  “I have to give it to you, luv. You’ve got spunk but you should learn not to poke a cranky mamba,” he pointed out. His eyes flashed once more, a sign that his anger was still boiling under the surface.

  Shanna should’ve taken note of it.

  “Would that be a one-eyed mamba? The same one you bandied about all night long? I’ll have you know—”

  “That does it,” Logan growled and yanked her out of her chair. She was still formulating a protest when he lifted her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and stalked out of the restaurant.

  “What are you doing?” Shanna hissed, holding on to his belt to keep her head from bobbing up and down against his very enticing ass.

  ‘Exactly what it looks like, Shanna. It’s time you realize I’m not like any other man. You can’t control me, luv.”

  “Excuse me! Me control you? I’m not the one who lied to get me to your freaking chalet yesterday. Put me down,” she demanded loudly.

  “Soon.”

  “Now! Logan Chase, I said, put me down!”

  This time he didn’t bother to respond. He lengthened his strides, unconcerned with the guests smiling and laughing at the spectacle they were making. It was enough to shut her up. She wasn’t going to add fuel to the fire and embarrass herself any further.

  But heaven help him once he puts me down. I’m going to kick his fucking nuts up his ass!

  Shanna was ready to let her heels fly the moment he lowered her to the floor, but before she could even aim a kick, he upended her and pushed her down over his knees.

  “You’re not serious!” She yelled when she realized what his intention was. Her shrieks sounded shocked to her own ears when the first strikes connected with her soft behind.

  Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

  “Stop! You’re a fucking asshole. I’m not a child . . . oowww!”

  Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

  Logan ignored her screams and pleas for him to stop and planted a good thirty smacks on her ass cheeks.

  For moments, after the last one fell, neither one moved. The only sounds that filled the room were Shanna’s sobs and haggard breathing.

  Logan sighed heavily and assisted her upright. He tried to draw her onto his lap but she yanked her arm loose and headed for the door.

  “Shanna, you’re not running away again. We’re going to talk about—”

  “I have nothing to say to you. Stay aw-away from me, Logan and I hope your fucking hand falls off!” She ended with a huff before she pivoted around and stormed through the door, his angry shout spurring her to break into a run.

  Logan watched the door close behind her. He didn’t move. A burning sensation in his hand drew his gaze down.

  “Fuck!” His hand was blazing red and he could only imagine how her soft ass cheeks must be feeling. He closed his eyes and leaned against the back of the sofa. “How could I have lost it? I know better,” he grated through his teeth. He’d always been cognizant of his abusive father, worried that he would develop the same tendencies. It had been what had driven him to pursue the BDSM lifestyle. He always had stellar control and he never touched a sub with intent to really hurt—until now.

  All he could see in his mind was Shanna lying broken and mangled around a tree or at the bottom of a ravine. The slope she’d skied down that morning was one of the most dangerous on the mountain. He’d been out of his mind with worry, especially when she hadn’t answered her phone. Punishing her was justified for putting her own life in danger.

  “But not this,” he sneered to himself, closing his hand in a fist. He was still in the midst of self-reproach when Noah and Mason walked in.

  “Did you find her?” Noah asked by way of greeting. They had joined his frantic search for her. “Alexis and Rachel aren’t answering their phones either. No one at the ski control points have seen her.”

  “She’s fine, apart from her ass.” He stared at his hand. “I’m afraid I fucked up badly. I still couldn’t get the picture of her hurt, lost and alone somewhere on the mountain out of my mind, which is why I didn’t pay attention to how hard I struck her. Fuck!”

  “Then I suggest you go and fix it,” Mason said quietly, more than aware of the struggle Logan had always had with the history of his father.

  “Yes, but I’m going to need your help.”

  “We’ll give you thirty minutes alone with her and join you after we’ve informed Alexis and Rachel where we are,” Noah asserted. “After heating their behinds for not responding to our messages!”

  Logan nodded. He didn’t move from where he was still slumped on the sofa, nor did he hear the door close behind them. His mind was already back thirteen years to that fateful night he’d returned to his parent’s house after the prom.

  His mother’s screams were muted by the walls but not so much that he didn’t hear them the moment he got out of the car. He tore across the lawn, noticing the neighbors peeping through the curtains.

  “Stop fucking peeping and phone the cops,” he shouted as he crashed through the front door. It was the one thing he could never understand. All the years growing up, they had all known, heard and seen how Rory Chase abused his wife and child, yet none of them had ever bothered to report it.

  He found them in their bedroom. Rory was beating Vera with his fists, slamming his meaty hands into her stomach and slapping her across her face.

  “Where is it, you fucking bitch? What did you do with the money?”

  His arm drew back for another blow, but before he could swing it around, Logan caught it and flung him with one mighty heave across the room. He slammed into the wall and stood disorientated after his head connected with a crack against the hardwood.

  “I warned you,” Logan sneered through clenched teeth. His hands fisted as he waited for his father to charge.

  “No! Logan, please go. Just leave,” Vera pleaded in a frail voice. She was beaten to a pulp, her face was cut and bleeding, with her left eye already black and swollen shut. At a guess, Logan believed she had a couple of broken ribs as well, judging by the difficulty she was having in breathing. She was too weak to move and leaned against the bed.

  “You fucking bastard!” Rory shouted and charged. Logan sidestepped and planted a fist straight into his solar plexus. Rory wheezed for breath as he staggered to the bedside table.

  “Run! Please Logan, get out of here. He has a—”

  Vera’s hysterical cries were silenced by the gun exploding in Rory’s hand. Logan was already in motion but he was too slow. The bullet slammed into his side, searing right through the flesh with a burning heat that caused him to stumble.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Logan grated as he continued to move forward and rammed his shoulder into Rory’s stomach before he could take aim again. They were equal in height and even though Rory had an advantage, Logan was stronger in the shuffle that ensued for possession of the gun.

  Logan was fighting for his and his mother’s life. This was the last time his father lifted his hands to her. He cursed as Rory managed to wrangle the gun lower between their bodies. Logan knew a shot at this stage could go either way. He was already weakening from the steady stream of blood flowing from the wound in his side.

  He twisted sideways and kicked his foot as hard as he could into Rory’s weak leg. He screamed like a banshee and went down with a crash, the jagged edge of his broken tibia cutting through flesh and skin. Logan yanked the pistol from his hand at the same time the cops piled in through the door.

  “Police! Put the gun down,” the officer shouted, pointing his gun at him while the others kept theirs aimed at Rory.

  Logan was breathing harshly. Hatred flowed through him and the desire to pull the trigger was tempting.

  “Logan, darling please. It’s not worth it,” Vera pleaded and cried out in pain when the female officer tried to assist her to stand.

  “Isn’t it, Mom?” Logan asked without taking his eyes from Rory, still pointing the pistol at his head. “Are you going to
leave him this time, or do you still want to stay with this animal?”

  Vera started to cry. The shock of watching Rory shoot their only child was still fresh in her mind. “No. He’s gone too far this time. It’s over. I’m leaving him, Logan. If you’ll help me?”

  Logan lowered the gun, his gaze turned to his mother who was leaning against the police officer.

  “Of course, I will, Mom.” And he promptly passed out. It had been touch and go after that. He’d been weakened by loss of blood and developed an infection, which had put him on the brink of death, but he’d pulled through, adamant on putting Rory behind bars this time and taking his mother back to Los Angeles with him.

  “And I’m not like him. I’ll never be like him,” he grated. He got up and strode with long strides toward the hotel. He had to make Shanna understand why he had been so angry.

  “She’s the one I want. I’m not going to fuck this up.”

  Minutes later he rapped insistently on Shanna’s hotel room door.

  “Shanna, I know you’re in there. Open the door, please.”

  “Go away.”

  “I’m not leaving until we’ve talked. Please, luv.”

  “I have nothing to say to you, except goodbye.” Her voice sounded stronger.

  “You’re not leaving, Shanna. I won’t let you.”

  “You won’t let me? See, there you go again. You have no say over me, Logan Chase. None. Nada. Leave me alone.”

  He slammed his fist against the door. The harsh sound echoed inside the room like a punctuation. A warning that he was at the end of his tether.

  “Open this damn door,” he demanded.

  “I. Said. No!”

  “Either you open this door, or I’ll kick it down.”

  Shanna didn’t respond but Logan could hear doors and drawers slamming. It was how she chose to display her anger at him. He could envision her throwing her clothes haphazardly into a suitcase.

  “Very well. Stand back, Shanna.”

  His words had barely registered on her when the door crashed loudly against the wall. She spun around from where she had been packing her bags on the bed. He muttered irritably, inspecting the broken lock, before he pushed the door closed behind him.

  Their eyes met.

  Shanna swallowed as she noticed regret warring with something else in his gaze, something that she couldn’t identify.

  “You wasted your energy, Mr. Chase. I have no interest in hearing what you have to say.”

  “Well, I’m going to say it anyway.”

  Shanna turned her back on him and resumed packing. Logan walked around the bed and stood watching her for a while. She methodically folded her clothes before placing them in the suitcase.

  “You’re wasting your time packing. I won’t let you go.”

  She seared him with a sharp glare. “You won’t let me go? Just who the hell do you think you are, Logan Chase? Just because we had sex doesn’t give you the right to decide what I do, or don’t do. Least of all, the right to do what you just did!”

  “Shanna, come here,” he cajoled gently, holding his hand out to her beseechingly.

  The snort she released was anything but lady-like and drew a quirk from his lips.

  “Very well, we’ll do it the hard way but remember, I did ask very nicely first,” he warned before he picked her up and carried her kicking and cursing to the sofa where he sat down and held her on his lap.

  “Enough! Settle down and listen to me,” he asserted in a deep voice. It had an immediate effect on Shanna. She stopped fighting but sat upright with her back ramrod straight.

  “How does your ass feel, luv?”

  Another snort was accompanied by her arms folding over her breasts.

  “I guess I’m on the receiving end of silent treatment,” Logan mused. He brushed back her hair over her shoulder and gently traced the tear tracks on her cheeks. He was relieved when she didn’t pull away from his touch.

  “I was whistling when I got out of the shower this morning. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt as revived and relaxed upon waking with another human being. Maybe it was the beautiful sight that I opened my eyes to. It was a big disappointment to find my bed empty when I returned with coffee.”

  He brushed his fingers over her lower lip. “I was looking forward to kissing these tempting lips some more. When I couldn’t find you in the bathroom, I panicked. There is only one way down the mountain and after finding your skis gone . . .”

  He pinched her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him. “Do you have any idea how worried I was, Shanna? I was out of my mind with concern.”

  “You didn’t have to be. I’m an excellent skier.”

  “The route you took is extremely treacherous, even for experienced skiers, Shanna. All I could see, was you lying in a crumpled heap somewhere in a ravine.”

  Shanna blinked at the genuine concern on his face.

  “I was almost out of my mind when I couldn’t get hold of you, especially as no one at the hotel saw you arriving either. I had to wait for the Snowcat to come down the mountain. Goddammit, Shanna, I thought that you were hurt or worse, dead!”

  “I’m sorry for making you worry but you didn’t have to spank me. That hurt, Logan! Like volcanic lava had been poured on my ass,” she complained in a small voice.

  “I know and I am sorry for that. I never intended to hit you that hard, but all I saw in my mind’s eye was your lifeless body.”

  Shanna narrowed her eyes and glowered at him.

  “What exactly are you sorry for?”

  “That I spanked you too hard.”

  “Are you saying you intended to spank me when you came looking for me?”

  “Yes. No, you’re not going anywhere,” he snapped when she started to struggle to get off his lap. “I won’t allow you to endanger yourself, Shanna. Ever.”

  “And how did I endanger myself on the day I arrived, to justify the whipping you gave me at Noah’s place?”

  “Shanna, I’m not going to apologize for the lifestyle I live. It’s what has helped me to find focus in my life and to understand my own strengths and shortcomings. It’s never going to change. I will always be the Dominant in our relationship and I will make demands I expect you to follow. You need to understand and accept that. There will always be repercussions if you don’t.”

  “You sound very sure that there will be a relationship between us,” she shot back.

  He looked at her with an inscrutable expression.

  “Aren’t you?”

  Shanna stared at him. He was calling her bluff. He had as much as admitted his attraction to her and his intention of pursuing it. Now, he wanted the same from her. She instinctively knew he wouldn’t be satisfied with anything but the truth. She felt overwhelmed with unknown emotions. In a short span of two days, Logan had exposed her to sensations she never knew existed and last night she’d experienced nirvana in his arms. His power over her, frightened and thrilled her in equal measure.

  “It’s a little too soon to know, don’t you think?” She hedged.

  Logan searched her eyes. The flush of rosy hue on her cheeks betrayed her thoughts. He shook his head dolefully and traced the scallop of her ear.

  “How old are you, Shanna?”

  “Thirty-one.”

  “And I’m thirty-nine. We’re not youngsters anymore. I, for one, know what I want from life. I would’ve thought you would too by now. Was I wrong?”

  “No, you’re right. I do know what I want from life.”

  Shanna pushed the warning, that she still had a secret to share with him, to the back of her mind. She would deal with it at a later stage. She cupped his cheeks and leaned closer. Her breath mingled with his when she whispered, “You. I want you.”

  “Good, because you already have me, luv,” he responded. He covered her mouth with his, kissing her deeply, swallowing her sensual moan as she swooned in his arms.

  The sharp knock on the door broke them apart. Noah an
d Mason walked inside, their gazes filled with heated anticipation.

  “Do you want us to leave, Logan?” Noah asked with a small twitch of his lips.

  “No, the sooner Shanna accepts our lifestyle, the better.”

  “Logan? What . . . I,” she stammered, pointing between the four of them. “Now? You, me . . . and them?”

  “Yes, luv. Now.”

  Shanna wondered if now would be a good time to faint, as she suddenly couldn’t breathe. The testosterone surrounding her, set her body tingling.

  Fuck me. Faint, Shanna. Do it already. You won’t survive this.

  Logan’s eyes offered her gentle assurance. He had undeniably captured her spirit in an amazingly short time span. In the processes, he had effectively disabused her of any thoughts about the reservations that had guided her in former relationships. That one look warned her that with him, there would be no boundaries, that he would inhabit every inch of her being. She felt the tension leave her body. She trusted him, unequivocally so. All that mattered now were the feelings he had awakened inside her. For the first time in her life, she felt unburdened by the pain and loss of her past. She could see a bright future wink at her.

  Chapter Ten

  Shanna didn’t protest when Logan tenderly undressed her. Her eyes widened on the amount of muscled torso that surrounded her on the bed. They were all equally well-built.

  Holy shit! There’s no way I’d be able to take two of them at the same time.

  She panicked at the size of their cocks that stood aroused and eager for action, when they moved in closer. Shanna has never experienced double penetration. She was on the verge of tearing out of the room in a panic, even while her body pulsed with excitement at what lay ahead.

  “What about Alexis and Rachel?” Shanna asked, she couldn’t pull her gaze from their bodies. The abundance of maleness was completely overwhelming to her senses.

  “They know we’re here, luv,” Noah assured her. “They have adapted to this lifestyle willingly and want you to experience what they have.”

  “They don’t mind that it’s just us? Don’t they want to be here?”