by Susan Stoker
Grace’s legs began to tremble, and she tried to close her legs as her orgasm neared. Logan rested his elbow on her thigh and held the other open with his free hand. His thumb never stopped its slow relentless caress of her clit.
“That’s it, Grace. You’re almost there. Close your eyes, let yourself go.”
She did as he suggested, arching her spine and groaning as she dipped her head back. Logan watched her open body as it readied itself for the orgasm that had been slowly building up within her. He increased the speed of his thumb slightly, but not the pressure. He circled her bud faster and faster, watching, fascinated, as her ass squeezed shut while every muscle in her body bore down in preparation for her climax.
He hadn’t expected it, but the moment she went over the edge, she pushed upward, opening her legs even wider than they’d been and yelled his name.
Grabbing a condom from his bedside table, Logan covered himself and knelt between Grace’s legs, loving the fact that she still trembled with aftershocks even after he’d removed his hand.
“Grace?”
She opened her eyes then and met his gaze. For the first time since they’d come into his bedroom, he didn’t see anything but pure desire in her eyes. “Take it off,” Grace demanded.
“What?”
“The condom. Take it off. I want to feel you.”
“Grace-”
She interrupted him. “You told me you hadn’t had sex in years. Me either. I’m clean. Please. I want to feel you, I need you, just you this first time. Please.”
“Are you sure?” Logan asked urgently, his eyes boring into hers. He was an asshole for even considering it, he knew that. It was his responsibility to protect her, and at the moment he knew she was too far gone with passion to really be thinking coherently. The last thing he wanted was for her to regret anything about their first time together.
“Absolutely.”
Logan waited a beat, and saw no hesitation in her eyes. “God, you’re amazing.” Logan quickly stripped off the rubber and dropped it on the floor, not caring where it landed. He took hold of himself and winced at how ready to explode he was. He gave her one more chance. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Make love to me, Logan.”
“Grace,” he groaned, easing the tip of his erection just inside her slick folds. He felt her clench against him, trying to pull him inside, and his hand came up to brace himself over her once again.
“You’re so warm,” she said reaching up with both hands to grab hold of his arms.
He ground his teeth together and pushed in another inch. Dear God in heaven, he wasn’t going to last. He’d had an erection for the last fifteen minutes, and it hadn’t waned one bit during all that time. It wanted one thing and one thing only . . . to be inside Grace Mason.
Logan pushed in farther, groaning as she squeezed him. “God, Smarty, relax. Let me in.”
“I can’t help it, you feel so good,” she told him, not taking her eyes away from his.
Sweat beaded on both their brows as he slowly took what should’ve been his for years.
Logan licked his lips and pushed the rest of the way inside her, feeling his balls flush up against her ass. She shifted in his embrace and he gained another few millimeters.
“Shit, Grace, I can’t . . . you . . .”
She smiled. “I see you’re the speechless one now.”
Logan opened his mouth to respond to her sass, but gasped instead when she used her inner muscles to squeeze him as hard as she could. “Fuck, yeah. Jesus, Grace. You have no idea how amazing this feels. It’s like a thousand warm pulsing fingers brushing against my cock.”
He eased back, then pushed back in, not wanting to leave the hot cavern of her body. Being inside her was one of the best feelings he’d ever had. Ever.
He pulled out, then pushed in again. Then did it again, all while cognizant of Grace watching his face intently. Logan had no words for what he was feeling, and didn’t even try to talk. Her body was soaked, and he slid in and out easily. Wanting to feel her squeeze his dick in the midst of her orgasm, Logan moved a hand down to where they were joined, and found her clit once again.
Instead of being gentle and methodical, as he’d been the first time he’d made her come, Logan roughly strummed her bundle of nerves while pumping in and out of her.
“Oh, God, Logan. Damn, I . . . yes, right there,” she moaned shoving her hips up into his thrusts and against his thumb.
He finally found his voice. “I can’t hold off. You’re too damn sexy and feel too good. I want to feel you come around my dick, Grace.” He sped up the movements of his thumb. “Come on me, Smarty. That’s it . . . I can feel it. Let go, give it to me once more.”
Grace screeched and lifted her hips into his once more, and exploded for the second time.
Logan felt her hot release against the sensitive skin of his dick and sped up his thrusts, pushing through the spasming folds of her pussy until he felt his own come surging up from his balls and out his dick. He thrust inside her roughly and held still as he emptied himself inside the sexy, sated woman beneath him.
Logan shuddered through his orgasm, his eyes closed, letting the euphoria race through his body along with his release.
“Holy cow,” Grace whispered, making Logan grin even though he hadn’t quite recovered yet.
He fell onto her, catching himself so he didn’t squish her, then rolled over until she was lying on top of him, making sure to keep their hips glued together. Grace propped herself up gently onto his chest, peering down at him. They were both still breathing hard, and their bodies were slicked with sweat.
“I’ve never felt anything like that in my life,” Logan told her honestly, bringing his hand to the nape of her neck and rubbing his thumb against her tattoo.
“Me either,” she agreed breathlessly.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome?”
He smiled at her in amusement. “Yeah. Thank you for giving yourself to me and trusting me. It was everything I dreamed it would be and more.”
“Really?”
“Really. You enjoyed it?” Logan asked, his eyebrows raised.
“I can’t believe you even have to ask me that. It was amazing. You were amazing. We were amazing.” Grace told him without a trace of guile in her voice. “I had no idea sex could be like that. Is it normally?”
“No,” Logan answered definitely. “At least not for me. And I don’t think sex could ever be like that for you again with anyone else.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Only you can make that happen, huh?”
“Exactly.” He grinned devilishly at her.
“Then I’d better keep you around.”
“Yup. For at least another eighty years or so.”
“You think you can get it up when you’re a hundred and eight?”
“If you’re in my life, yeah, I think I’d have a pretty good shot.”
Grace laid her head down on his shoulder and relaxed comfortably into him. “I know we need to shower, but I don’t think I can move.”
“Then don’t. The shower can wait.”
“Don’t we need to . . . uh . . . clean up?”
Logan wrapped his arms around Grace and held her to him, making sure she didn’t move. “Eventually.”
“Well, wake me up when you’re ready.”
“I will,” Logan whispered. He felt himself finally slip out of her body as the blood finally left his cock. They both groaned but didn’t move.
Logan held Grace as they both dozed, and for the first time since she moved in, he didn’t think about her situation, her parents, or the danger she might be in. He simply soaked her in, thankful as all fuck he’d gotten a second chance to be with her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was eleven in the morning and Logan had gone to Denver to meet with a man who wanted a security guard. It wasn’t the type of thing that Ace Security did, but the man had been so insistent that Logan had finally agreed to
at least meet with him.
Ever since the first afternoon when Grace had made love with Logan, it seemed as though their relationship was on fast-forward. They made love almost every day, and she felt as comfortable around him as if she’d been with him her entire life. As a bonus, she felt calmer when Logan was around, and less worried about what she should and shouldn’t be doing.
There were times when she found herself falling back on old habits, like going along with something Logan said even when she didn’t agree or want to do it, but luckily, most of the time he noticed and called her on it. He encouraged her to be herself. To say what she liked and act on it, and perhaps more importantly, to say what she didn’t like and not do it to please him or anyone else . . . and not be afraid to speak up about it.
It was around the time she thought he’d be heading back to Castle Rock, so Grace didn’t even think twice when a knock came at the door. Figuring it was probably Felicity, she looked through the peephole and almost choked when she saw her father standing on the other side of the door.
Immediately panicking, Grace quickly stepped backward, almost tripping over her own feet in her haste to get away from him.
“Grace. I know you’re there, I heard you at the door. Please talk to me,” her father pleaded.
Her breaths came hard and fast, and she closed her eyes and tried to keep herself from hyperventilating. “What do you want?” she asked in a cold, hard voice when she could speak normally once again.
“Just to talk to you. I know I don’t deserve it, and you don’t trust me, but all I’m asking is for you to hear me out.”
“Why should I?” Grace’s hands trembled. They’d all been waiting so long for something to happen, but she still wasn’t prepared. And it figured that Logan wasn’t here with her when her father made his move.
“I’ve left your mother.”
That was the last thing she expected to hear. “What?”
“Left her. When you left, it opened the door for me too. Your mother has been blackmailing me her entire life. But when you weren’t around for her to hold over my head, it allowed me to get out as well. I had stayed with her because she had always threatened to hurt you if I left.”
Grace’s head spun. “What are you saying? That you stayed all those years to protect me?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” her father said in a sad voice. “Every time Margaret sensed I’d reached my limit or that I was upset with how she was treating you, she told me that she’d make your life even more of a living hell if I didn’t do as she asked.”
“So, when I was twelve, and you told me I was fat and could only drink chicken broth for a week, Mother made you do that,” Grace said sarcastically.
“Yes.”
“And when you laughed in my face when I tripped and fell into the coffee table and had to get three stitches in my head, that was all Mother too I suppose?” she pushed.
“You don’t understand,” her father pleaded. “I hated it. I hated what I was being forced to do to you. But you know about the cameras in the house. If I didn’t, she’d know, and then you’d pay for it.”
“It wasn’t too long ago that you handcuffed me to my bed and told me I had to shit in a bucket,” Grace railed, unconvinced.
“Remember when I was hospitalized when you were around seven or eight?”
Grace rolled her eyes at the abrupt change of subject, but said, “Yeah.”
“It was right after you came home with a picture you’d drawn in school. It was of you and me, remember?”
She did. They’d been assigned to draw their family. Grace had been upset at her mother for not letting her eat breakfast that morning and had drawn a picture of her and her father instead. They were standing in front of a restaurant. He’d taken her there, just the two of them, the week before. “I remember.”
“You came home and showed it to me and were so happy about it. I put it on the fridge. Your mother was gone that night. She had a meeting up in Denver with a builder.”
“The picture was gone the next day,” Grace remembered out loud.
“Yeah. Margaret wasn’t happy with me . . .” His voice trailed off.
“Why? What’d she do?”
“She pushed me, and I fell and hit my head on the corner of the fireplace in the study. A blood vessel broke in my head and started bleeding. I almost died.”
“What?” Grace blurted. “That’s not true! There’s no way.”
“Grace, it is. You were at school, and she said she wanted to talk to me about something. When I entered the study, she told me I was a sorry excuse for a man and that it was all my fault you weren’t a boy. She shoved me as hard as she could. I can still remember the look of rage on her face as I fell.”
Grace had no idea what to say. None. It didn’t matter, because her father continued without waiting for her to comment.
“She called 911 and told the EMTs that I’d tripped and fallen. Put on quite the show too. But the bottom line was that she thought I was getting too close to my daughter.”
Her father sounded sincere and sad, and his voice held a caring tone that Grace hadn’t heard since her childhood. Grace’s chest hurt. She was so confused. She almost couldn’t remember any good times with her parents. Either of them.
Her father continued. “When she came to me and told me the plan for you to marry Bradford, I didn’t want to go along with it, but she’d shown me time and time again that she was ruthless . . . she told me what she’d do to you if I didn’t go along with it.”
“You guys locked me in my room,” Grace said with a hint of acid in her voice. “It seems like she did what she said she would anyway . . . and you went right along with it.”
“I didn’t want to,” Walter said sadly. “I didn’t want to do any of it. Please, Grace. Open the door. Let me talk to you face-to-face. I want to prove to you that I’m telling the truth.”
“I don’t think so,” Grace said uneasily.
“I’ve got the hospital records with me, you can see the date on them, and you’ll know that I’m not lying. I really did almost die. I was afraid for my life if I didn’t do what she wanted me to do. She’s lost her mind in the last few years. She’s never been this bad before. I’m not living at the house anymore. I moved out. I figure you don’t ever want to step foot in there again . . . and I can’t blame you. I have no desire to see that place ever again either.”
“I’m not going to open this door. If I agree to meet with you, and that’s a big if, it’s going to be somewhere else. Somewhere public,” Grace told her father sternly.
“Where?” her father asked immediately. “Name it and I’m there.”
Grace thought quickly. Her father allowing her to choose made it seem even more likely that he was telling the truth. “Rock Hard Gym.”
“It’s right across from the firm. If your mother saw us together, or any of the spies she has at the office did, they’d tell her in a second and we’d be screwed.”
He had a point. “Fine. How about Ace Security? It’s still downtown, but not as close to the firm.”
“Great. How about in thirty minutes?”
“No.” Grace knew that wouldn’t give Logan enough time to get back into town. She wasn’t going to be one of those dumb heroines that she sometimes read about in romance books. “Two thirty.”
“Okay, that’ll work.” Her father paused for a moment, then spoke again. “Thank you, Grace. You have no idea what this means to me.”
Grace didn’t say anything else, but crept forward to look out the peephole and watch her father’s back as he walked away from Logan’s door. Her heart was beating hard in her chest, and she felt slightly nauseous. She didn’t want to be deceived, but her father had sounded so earnest, and for some reason she wanted to trust him. She certainly believed her mother could be as coldhearted as he’d said. Her mother was usually the one who berated her, who doled out most of her punishments, and who harped on the fact that she wasn’t a boy
her entire life. Yes, her father had participated, but he never seemed as angry as her mother.
Grace walked to the kitchen counter, picked up her phone, and pressed Logan’s contact button. She waited impatiently for him to answer.
“Hey, Smarty. What’s up?”
“My father stopped by.” Grace didn’t beat around the bush when she heard Logan’s greeting. “I didn’t open the door, but he said a lot of stuff, and I’m 80 percent sure he was telling the truth, but the bottom line is that he wants to meet with me. Face-to-face.”
“That motherfucker was at my place? Shit. You don’t go meet him. No way. Not without me.”
“Of course not,” Grace agreed immediately. “I’d never willingly put myself in danger by going to meet him alone. I have no desire to end up chained to my bed again.”
“What did he say? Exactly?” Logan’s words were clipped and controlled, and Grace could tell that he was not a happy man.
“Are you done with your meeting?”
“I am now.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to-”
“Grace, you’re way more important to me than anyone or anything else I’m doing. I have most of the information I need from this guy, and his situation isn’t dire. It can wait. Yours can’t. Now, what did your father say?”
God, Grace loved this man. “He said lots of stuff. Mother has been making him do what she wanted him to do by using threats against me. He said that he never wanted to do anything that he did to me, but Mother made him.”
“And you believed him?” Logan asked incredulously.
“I know, it sounds crazy. But Logan, he said that Mother shoved him and made him fall into the fireplace when I was younger and caused a brain bleed. I remember him being in the hospital for about a week around the time he said it happened. And Mother was especially upset with him. When he came home from the hospital, he was different toward me. I didn’t understand why at the time, but it makes sense now. My mother told him that if he didn’t treat me the way she wanted him to, that she’d hurt me next.”