by CP Smith
“Yeah, but that was before, you know I don’t have feelings for him.”
“Then I’ll put it to you like this, picture Rachel pressed up against my body. Her tits smashed against my chest. Me tickling her to make her feel better.”
The moment the words left his mouth, my eye began to twitch. “Point taken. No more hugging ex-boyfriends and the general male population.”
The smile that spread across his face was dazzling. “Stings doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. It’s an ugly thought. There are so many rules when it comes to dating that I never thought about . . . Wait, Ty admitted he knew this rule when you punched him. He knew he shouldn’t have hugged me if this is a bro code.”
“Which is why he didn’t get pissed.”
“You should have hit him twice for breaking it then.”
His smile turned blinding. “Your wish is my command . . .”
_______________
“Are you going to fill me in on what happened with Max Greeley?”
Logan glanced at Skylar then back at the road. He’d been debating for the past few hours whether or not to fill Skylar in on his suspicions. No matter how it played out in his head, he knew she would be hurt. Chance was their older brother, for better or worse. If it turned out he was a killer, his siblings would be affected.
The moment he’d laid eyes on the three James siblings on the side of the road, his protective instincts had kicked in. Skylar drew him in first, but her brothers had also left a mark on his soul. The thought of any of them bearing the brunt of Chance’s actions soured his stomach. He had a decision to make. Should he tell them before he had real evidence or keep them in the dark, which could put their lives in danger.
Skylar’s trusting eyes bored into the side of his head while she waited for his answer. He glanced at her and caught the moonlight glinting off the windshield, it’s silver glow highlighting the shine in her hair. Everything about her called to him on a level he’d never experienced. He’d never been with a woman who had evoked these feelings. Drove him to punch a man out of jealousy. He’d reacted on pure instinct: defend his territory. Beat his chest so the other male knew he’d fight him tooth and nail to keep what was his.
An image of Ty comforting Skylar while she cried burned into his mind’s eye. He could see her small frame pressed against Ty’s larger body. Knew he’d felt her generous tits against his chest. Could smell her innocent scent as they embraced. Logan squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment, trying to erase the image. He looked back at Skylar and caught her bright eyes watching him closely and something snapped inside him.
Overcome with a powerful possessiveness and a need to claim what was his, Logan pulled his truck off the road at the next turn off and pulled to a stop in the shadows of a tree, throwing the gearshift into park. When Skylar questioned him with her eyes, he reached across the cab without a word, unhooked her seat belt, and pulled her across the console onto his lap, straddling her legs around his. Then he took her mouth in a punishing kiss, wrapping his hand in her hair to keep her right where he wanted her. She opened for him instantly, warring her tongue with his without thought or question about what he was doing. So in sync with his mood and needs, no words were needed.
With each encounter between them she grew bolder, battling with him for dominance rather than being led. She may have been inexperienced when they met, but she was adventurous. She was no wallflower sitting on the sidelines, she was an active participant, ready to learn. Wanting to please him while getting her own pleasure in return. The mix of angel and vixen was a heady combination for any man. But no man would ever have her but him. She was his. His salvation. His peace. He planned to build a future with her in the mountains of Montana, and in doing so he’d honor his brothers by living life to the fullest.
Logan kept at her mouth while he reclined his seat, adjusting it to give them more room. He hadn’t made out with a woman in a vehicle since he was nineteen, but he wasn’t waiting until they reached her cabin. Her brothers were waiting for her, which meant he’d have to share her. He wanted her all to himself for just a little while longer to purge his demons and center his soul.
No words were spoken between them as their clothing disappeared. She seemed to sense his urgency and fed off of it, biting and licking what skin she could reach as he pulled her jeans and panties off her legs. Once her legs were free, she popped the button on his jeans and released the zipper until his painfully hard cock sprang free. Logan bucked his hips and groaned when she wrapped her tiny hand around his length. His breath caught when she kissed her way down his chest, sliding her small frame between the seat and steering column so she could take him in her mouth.
She was tentative at first, unsure exactly how to please him, totally unaware that just her touch was heaven. When she wrapped her warm tongue around the head of his cock, Logan reached up and grabbed the steering wheel for control. He wanted to surge up into her warm mouth on instinct, but he’d let her set the pace for now. With each stroke she became more self-assured. With each pass of her tongue, Logan cursed and threw his head back. She was destroying his self-control inch by inch until his whole body vibrated with the need to let go.
Soon her pace became faster, her strokes more frantic. When she sucked what she could of his length to the back of her throat, her eyes closed, and she moaned. Seeing his cock buried in her sweet mouth, coupled with her passionate moan, finally shredded his restraint. Logan reached down and pulled her up his body until she was straddling him again, then he centered his cock with her core and surged up, capturing her soft cries of pleasure with his mouth.
Skylar threw her head back as he wrapped his hands around her shoulders and began to thrust, pounding into her heat. The desire to release his seed deep inside her rode him hard. He needed to mark her as his, have his cum dripping between her legs so no other man would get near. Hug her when he wasn’t around.
The blood in his veins began to pound through his system, an internal drumbeat that edged him toward violence against any man who dared to harm her. Touch her. He knew then he would kill anyone who tried to take her from him. Knew without a doubt that the beating of his heart belonged only to her.
“Look at me,” he ordered. Skylar tipped her chin until she was eye to eye with him, wrapping her hand around the base of his neck for support. She leaned in and tried to kiss him, but Logan jerked his head back until he could see her eyes again. “You own my soul,” he whispered, grounding her down on his cock. He held her there, so he was fully seated in her heat. Her shocked eyes held his, her open mouth panting sweet breath across his face as he reached up and cupped her cheeks. “You’re the most important thing in my world. You demolished the wall I’d built around myself and left me bare. I won’t walk away. Believe that.”
“Logan.” She said his name whisper-soft like the breeze, as her eyes pooled with glittering tears.
“I’ll never let you go. I’ve only wanted one thing in my entire fucking life. I found that in you.”
Skylar swallowed hard, her lips trembling. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’ll never let you go,” he repeated. “I can breathe again for the first time in a year. You’re the air in my lungs.”
Her tears fell silently as she leaned in and brushed her lips across his, whispering, “Then breathe me in and taste my love.”
His eyes flared with heat at her declaration. He slammed his mouth over hers, drinking her in as their bodies began a slow push and pull. Instead of taking her possessively this time, he let it build slowly until they both ignited at a fevered pitch. He made love to her. Made love for the first time in his life.
Twenty
Family Time
I WOKE UP cold. After having Logan curled around my body the whole night, I knew he was gone when my teeth began to chatter. Winter was here so flannel pj’s were a necessity, but I’d forgone putting them on when we arrived home because there was nothing sexy about them. My bladder screamed at me to get up,
so I braved the cold, slid from the bed, and found a pair of sweatpants, a hoodie, and socks to pull on.
The moment I opened the door to head to the bathroom, I was assaulted with the smell of my favorite food group—bacon. I ignored my bladder and ran toward the scent, sliding to a stop when I reached our open floor plan and looked into the kitchen. I assumed one of my brothers was cooking, but I found Logan at the stove flipping the heavenly meat while Max sat at his feet. The only thing better than waking up to bacon was finding two hundred and forty pounds of raw muscle cooking it.
I took in my fill for a brief moment then ran to the plate holding crispy strips of God’s gift to the human race. I snagged a piece while I did the potty dance, flashing Logan a bright smile before running toward the bathroom again. After finishing my morning routine—teeth, moisturizer, taming my hair—I bolted back to the kitchen for more bacon before my brothers woke up and annihilated the plate.
“I didn’t even know we had bacon,” I stated, climbing onto the counter so I could watch Logan and have easy access to crunchy munchy heaven.
The moment I grabbed another slice, Logan’s hand shot out and snagged my wrist in midair, stepping between my legs. “If you want more, then I get a fucking kiss first.”
I looked at the bacon adoringly and sighed. “You drive a hard bargain.” I squealed when Logan yanked me into his body then leaned in and snagged the bacon right out of my hand with his mouth. “That’s cruel and unusual punishment,” I cried out.
Logan grinned then swallowed, bending his head toward my mouth. “Kiss me,” he whispered against my lips.
I licked his bottom lip and he opened for me, capturing my face in his hands. He leaned his head one way and I leaned mine the other then we drank each other in. We didn’t stop until the sound of thundering feet and muffled grunts caught our attention. We broke apart in time to see Jake shove Josh to the ground, then leapfrog over him, his entire focus zeroed in on my plate of crispy goodness. The bacon gene ran deep in our family.
Logan snagged two slices from the plate before Jake reached it, handing them to me. “My hero!”
“Don’t eat it all, dickweed,” Josh shouted, bounding from the floor.
Logan turned and put a hand to Josh’s shoulder as he tried to steal the plate from Jake, who had turned his back to guard his prize while he scarfed down multiple slices at a time. “I’ve got three pounds to cook. You’ll get your own plate.”
“Three?” Josh breathed out like he’d been offered a million dollars.
“Yeah, it was in my ice chest. I needed to cook it, so it didn’t go to waste.”
Josh turned his eyes to mine. “Mother lode, Skye.” Only a fifteen-year-old would think a man who had three pounds of bacon made him legendary. “You know that, right?”
An image of Logan and me in his truck the night before flashed erotically through my mind. The way he’d made love to me with gentle hands until I shook with need. That was definitely legendary.
“He’s okay,” I giggled.
Logan cocked an arrogant brow at me. A blush rose up my neck and settled in my cheeks, so I cleared my throat and jumped off the counter. “Pancakes, anyone?”
Jake mumbled, “Yes,” as he folded into the couch and reached for the remote.
The sound of the gridiron filled the cabin. Sunday was about kicking back and watching pro football. Jake studied his favorite pro quarterbacks like it was his job, which essentially, God willing, would be for years to come.
I pulled a large mixing bowl down from the cabinet then grabbed the pancake mix from the pantry, while Josh waited patiently for Logan to cook the second pound of bacon. It wasn’t lost on me how easily Logan fit in to our family unit. There was no awkward silence, no hemming and hawing around him by either of my brothers now. And Logan acted as if he felt right at home in our cabin. Like he’d been here for years rather than a few hours. He wasn’t waiting patiently at the table for me to cook a meal, rather he found a frying pan and got to work like he wasn’t a guest. I liked it. All of it. Knowing we meshed so well. The getting to know each other stage was on a fast track. And what I knew about him I liked. So much I was afraid I’d wake up and find out I’d just dreamed him up.
“Skye, your boy, Jimmy G, is playing right now.”
I whipped my head around and bugged my eyes at Jake. It took him a moment to catch my drift, then his eyes shot to Logan with a smug smile.
“You a Niners fan?” Logan asked. I wished I’d left my hair down to cover my blush. I wasn’t a Niners fan, I was a Jimmy Garoppolo fan. That boy was smokin’ hot.
I nodded and kept stirring the pancake batter like my life depended on it.
“She has the hots for Garoppolo,” Jake threw out with a chuckle. “No self-respecting Montanan roots for anyone but the Seahawks.”
I stiffened and tried to lie my way out of the pickle I was in. “Not everyone likes the Seahawks.”
Logan set down the tongs he was using to flip the bacon and leaned his hip against the counter, crossing his arms at his chest. I glanced up and caught his lips twitching.
“What?”
“Name one player on the Niners besides Garoppolo?”
I dug deep, couldn’t come up with anyone, and blurted out, “Joe Montana,” to save face.
His lips twitched harder, then he threw back his head and laughed.
Jake shook his head and mumbled, “Wrong century.”
“Fine,” I sighed. “I have no idea.”
Logan moved until he was towering over me, so I had to tip my head way back to see his eyes. “So you like watching him play, huh? Is it because he throws a ball like a fucking football god or the fact his pants leave nothing to the imagination?”
“What ball?” I whispered.
Logan leaned down the fifty feet it took to reach my mouth, trapping me between both his arms on either side of my waist, and bit my bottom lip.
“That bacon isn’t gonna cook itself while you two make out,” Josh grumbled.
Logan ignored Josh. “You want, I’ll throw on a pair of football pants and we can get creative.”
My eyes glazed over at the mere thought of all that muscle squeezed into what amounted to leggings for men. “You would do that for me?” I whispered.
“If it keeps your eyes off of another man’s ass, then yeah.”
“You’re my hero.”
He stared at me for a long moment, his lips still twitching, then grunted, “You’re a nut.”
“Whatever.” I moved to the stove and grabbed a skillet, daydreaming about Logan in football pants. It was a great vision. Way better than Jimmy G.
So began our Sunday. Logan cooking mounds of bacon and me making pancakes, side by side at the stove. His phone kept vibrating with messages that he would read but not respond to. Logan had explained on the ride home what they’d found the night before at the funeral home. They assumed it was Justice Bear’s remains, but wouldn’t know until a DNA test was performed. Considering Justice had just died that morning, it was the logical conclusion, so I let it go. He seemed on edge, though. His warning I stick close until he solved Duke’s disappearance might have been reactionary to everything that had happened, it was hard to tell because even though I’d given him my heart, I still had a lot to learn about the man.
Once all the food was ready, we all settled at our pine table and dug in. Josh peppered Logan with questions about his time with Delta Force, which Logan politely stated, “We don’t talk, kid. Ever.” Instead of being offended, Logan seemed to up his street cred with my brother. Whatever had gone on between the two days before, when Logan had driven him to school, seemed to have left an impression if Josh’s, “Wicked cool,” was any indicator. For that alone, Logan would have my undying gratitude. Josh had been skating by before Logan came to town, now he was engaged and joking instead of fighting with Jake over every little thing. Happy to be at the table with us both. I couldn’t remember the last time our Sundays off hadn’t ended in a fight.
Seeing my brothers joke around and happy brought a sting to my eyes, so I leaned against Logan’s shoulder and watched them. Logan dipped his head to me and searched my face, so I smiled at him. He must have caught the moisture glittering in my eyes because his hand raised and wrapped around the back of my neck, squeezing once before whispering, “You okay?”
I nodded. “Haven’t been this happy since my father died.”
And I hadn’t. Our father’s death broke us a little, but we had persevered the best we could, living day-to-day until the next hurdle came our way. I was the mother who took care of my brothers. Jake was the protector who watched over us, and Josh was the lost soul who seemed to ramble through life on a road to nowhere. We’d been so caught up in surviving; we’d missed what was now glaringly apparent. We hadn’t been alone in the world. The town had been watching out for us the whole time. I just hadn’t noticed. Not until Chance pulled what he had, and the town circled their wagons to protect the three James orphans from the big bad wolf.
What I hadn’t noticed the past few years was crystal clear. Duke had kept an eye on us. Stopped by almost daily to check. To counsel if I needed it, and lend a firm hand with the boys if they were out of line. Ed Burk, a rancher in town, had stopped by on more than one occasion the past few years with freshly slaughtered beef, saying his freezers were too full and we’d be doing him a favor to take it off his hands. Gerry Sullivan, the town’s doctor, never charged us when one of us had taken ill and needed medicine. He’d just call it in then have someone drop it by free of charge. The list went on and on. Ty playing bouncer, fixing my truck for free. Jamie staying close, instead of moving on to a larger city, so she could have my back. Hell, even the town’s florist would drop off flowers from time to time saying they were gonna wilt before he sold them, and they gave the bar a touch of class.
Yes, I’d been so caught up in my own head, I’d missed the fact Ennis had had our backs this whole time. And now so did Logan.
Logan studied me for a second more, then leaned his forehead against mine and closed his still bruised eyes. I would never, not ever, tire of him doing that.