Lessons Learned (The Gifted Realm Book 2)

by Jillian Neal

  “I want to take you to bed, baby.”

  She moaned loudly. The effect drove him wild.

  “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, but I want to hold you against me. I want to feel you, Ad. I want to wrap you up in me until you know and you feel how much I love you and that I will always keep you safe.”

  His name hissed from her lips as she clung to him. His heart hammered just to feel her wrap her body around his.

  “Come here, baby.” He reached and lifted her into his arms. He’d worked hard building the house and training with Vindico. He might as well show off the developing ripples, he decided as he cradled her body to him. As he carried her to their room, he felt it again. He felt his heart mend as he held her against him.

  “I haven’t slept here since you moved out.” He felt sorrow permeate her body as he brushed a kiss across her forehead. “And I don’t ever want to sleep in this bed without you.”

  “Never, Logan, I swear I’ll never leave again. I’m so sorry.” Her tears returned. He continued to cradle her as he pulled the sheets back and then laid her in the serenity of their bed. He lay beside her and kissed her again.

  “Please don’t cry, sweetheart. You’re here now, and that’s all that matters.”

  Her mouth beckoned his again. She moaned as she turned and clung to him.

  He moved until her body was covered by his. He’d had more than a few beers over the past several nights. He’d been trying desperately to drown the grief and heartache in alcohol, but it hadn’t worked.

  When Rainer had called him on it, he’d stopped. As he laid there, feeling her pull him closer, knowing what she was about to allow him, he understood that he’d wanted to get drunk on her. He’d needed to drown the tedium of the cruel world in the mix of their releases. There was nothing else that would fill him like being with her.

  Slowly, he edged the shirt she’d been wearing up over her. She trembled as he pulled it off and then popped the clasp of her bra.

  “I’m gonna take your clothes off, baby. I want to see you. I want to feel you, but then I’m gonna set the cast, okay?”

  She gave a tentative nod and bit her lip, but then she let her eyes close. She seemed to give her body over to him.

  “Please, Logan, please,” she begged, and he pulsed fiercely. His body tensed in starved desire.

  Her eyes flashed back open as she felt him throb against her. She panted. Her body trembled as she moaned in expectation.

  “That’s what you do to me, baby.” He wanted her to know the power she held over him. “You make me ache, and you’re the only one who can make it better.”

  A loud evulsive moan echoed from her as she writhed under him. She needed him to take it all away, if only for a little while. She needed him to stand between her and the world, and that was all he’d ever wanted to do for her.

  Every problem, every pain that either of them harbored in the depths of their hearts could wait outside their door. He was going to make her do nothing but exist in the two of them together.

  He pulled off his shirt. He wanted to feel her tender skin against him as he pulled off the pants and white cotton underwear she was wearing.

  She clearly wasn’t thinking she might be back in bed with him when she’d gotten ready for work that morning, but the juxtaposition between the innocence of the undergarment and the hungry look in her eye drove him wild.

  She dragged her hands down his chest, groping and pulling his pecks in heated desire.

  “Tell me what you want, baby.”

  “Please, Logan,” she reached and wrapped her hand around his length.

  A low, guttural moan spilled from his chest.

  “Please, I wanted to feel you against me for so long. I cried myself to sleep every night. I just needed you so bad, and I knew I pushed you away. I knew that you deserved better, but when I’m with you, when I feel how much you love me, I know everything’s going to be okay.”

  “No, baby, I don’t deserve you,” he argued insistently as he let his hand trace over her lower lips. His gentle caress of their swollen need made her shudder deliciously. “But I sure as hell am gonna take you.”

  His promises drove her wild. He could see it in her eyes. He could feel it as her energy spiked in hard, jagged waves that he wanted desperately to soothe.

  “You are so beautiful.” He allowed himself a moment to drink in the imagery of her. His hands tracked up and down her body. He let his fingertips glide from her face to her neck. Then he cupped her breasts. Simply unable to wait any longer, he massaged her and felt her nipples pebble timidly in his hands.

  A thundering moan echoed from his lips as they began to throb. Her body’s reactions to him drove him wild.

  He continued to explore her. He tenderly teased her navel making her tense until he moved further and spread her legs. He wanted to see her. His fingers glided over her lips, swollen full and ripe.

  She writhed and bucked from the caress. He slipped his fingers inside of her carefully. He made certain he wasn’t going to hurt her. She gasped and panted as she bucked her hips. She wanted more.

  He pushed deeper. The feeling of her tightening around his hand as her body prepared her for him had his heart thundering and his cock begging desperately to replace his hand.

  She was bound tight. The stress of the week they’d had, and of her life, had taken its toll. She needed him to set her free.

  “The cast,” she urged in a heated whisper. He clenched his jaw and willed patience into her. He moved until he was right beside her ear.

  “Just relax for me, baby. Just let me make you feel better. Let me have this, and then I’ll set the cast. I promise, sweetheart, I won’t let you down again.”

  He continued to work her over. He caressed all of the places that made her energy spike rapidly. She couldn’t seem to let it go, and frustration set in her eyes. He continued to soothe her with his voice.

  “I’m right here, Ad. I’ll always be right here. I’ll do this all night if that’s what you need. I’m not going to stop until I’ve made you feel it, until you know how much I love you.”

  Logan decided upping the ante might be helpful. He kept up his rhythmic strokes, and then began to kiss his way across her collarbone.

  He drown her right nipple in the fiery heat of his mouth. He swirled and licked as she cried out for him. He knew what she liked. He began to suck fervently.

  Back and forth, he pulled them deep as her eyes flew open, and she bucked under his hand. Her breath became frantic. She continued to writhe. She was almost there.

  He begrudgingly released her breasts, but his tongue thirsted for something else. He continued his path down her stomach, and watched her abdomen clench in heady anticipation.

  With a deft move, he swirled his tongue around her clit and then began to suck as he pushed his fingers deeper.

  She came undone. She screamed out for him and was unable to keep her body still. Her energy spiraled in waves all around him.

  He concentrated and let the waves flood through him. The sizzle of her desire and her release permeated his rhythms. It pulsed inside the heat they were creating. Watching her give everything to him nearly drove him over. He eased his strokes until he was barely touching her as her breath calmed.

  “Please, Logan, I need you,” she whimpered out her plea. His heart hammered. She very rarely asked for anything at all, and for her to ask for him was more than he could ever have wished for.

  “I’m gonna set the cast, baby,” he summoned instantly. Her energy was swirling all around him. She’d already let him have her, so a moment later he closed her womb and moved over her.

  She was still bound so tightly he reminded himself to move slowly, though he longed to pound into her. He wanted to own her, to make certain she knew she was his.

  He eased her apart tenderly with his hands as she begged, and then he prodded and pushed into her. The feeling was exquisite perfection. A deep groan echoed from within him as he sli
pped into the tight, fevered space. He shuddered as he felt her body pulse and tremble around his length.

  “Nothing could ever feel as good as you do.” He thrust gently until he felt her give way under his insistent persuasion.

  He permeated her fully. He filled her with all of him. He buried himself to his hilt as she writhed and moaned. She called for him.

  “Yes, take me. Please,” her body contorted under his. She needed him. She needed to know that he wanted all of her just the way she was, and that’s exactly what he planned on showing her.

  “You are all mine, baby. And you’re gonna take all of me,” he urged in a heated growl as he began to pound into her. He formed her around his length.

  “I’m gonna give you everything you need,” he continued to soothe her as he covered her body. He shielded her from the rest of the world. All that mattered was the way her body moved in time with his.

  He felt her unfetter, felt her let the love he gave so willingly enter and fill her. It reassured and restored her as she began to give way again.

  She was on the edge. The climax began to consume her and, with another unrelenting thrust, she spiraled over. His name groaned loudly from her, and he filled her with more than his energy. A shuddered moan exploded from his mouth as he spilled himself inside of her.

  She quaked and convulsed as he held her. He refused to allow any space to exist between them. She reveled in the ecstasy of them together. She clung to him fiercely as fear seeped in where her release had vacated.

  “Please, please don’t let go of me. Please, just hold me.”

  He moved beside her, and withdrew as carefully as he was able. He kept her wrapped in his protective embrace.

  “I will never let go of you, Adeline. Not for the rest of our lives. You’re mine, baby. That’s my ring your wearing, and I’m in this for life. You and me, that’s it.”

  She nodded, but was still clinging to him tightly.

  He wrapped his arms and his energy around her until she calmed. “Go to sleep, sweetheart. I’m right here. I will always be right here.”

  “Thank you. Thank you for coming to get me tonight. Thank you for taking me back. I’m so sorry for everything I’ve put you through.”

  “Baby, if that’s what it took for you to realize what you mean to me and for you to agree to marry me, then it was worth it.” He was unable to believe his own vow.

  He released her just long enough to wipe away her tears before he wrapped her back up in his arms. She looked so small and frail in his long, muscled arms. He wanted to take care of her and of everything she might ever need.

  Her eyes were still red and swollen. He could feel her energy falter in her exhaustion. She hadn’t slept any better than he had.

  “Let’s get some sleep, baby. I know you’re exhausted.”

  She yawned with a slight chuckle at the confirmation. “I can’t sleep without you.”

  “You never have to. Never again.” With that, she relaxed as he held her close. He soothed her with his body as she fell into a deep sleep.

  Logan awoke in a panic. The bed was empty. He threw back the covers frantically. He was terrified that it had all been a dream. He tried to steady his breath and slow his racing heart. A moment later, she emerged from the bathroom.

  “What’s wrong, baby? Are you sick?” he yawned deeply and tried to guide her back into bed with him.

  She smiled sweetly. “Hang on just a second.” She began digging in her suitcase for something. Still trying to calm himself, he moved to her.

  “It’s three in the morning, baby. What are we doing?”

  “I just had to set the cast. I’m sorry I woke you.”

  Logan was still confused as he glanced back at the clock. He noted that it was 3:18, but if she wanted to have sex at three in the morning, then he was definitely game.

  He still didn’t understand why she was going through her clothes. Clothes were highly unnecessary if she wanted him again.

  Suddenly, she cringed, and placed her hand on her abdomen. Her entire body tensed, and Logan understood. She hadn’t been closing her womb. She’d set the cast that Gifted women were able to set to make their bodies dispense with everything they didn’t need in a day or two instead of a week.

  “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry, but that’s good, right?” He recalled the Medio’s thinking that her stress had made her late.

  “I think so.” She looked relieved as he studied her. She pulled a pair of panties out of the suitcase and returned to the bathroom. After shaking himself in an effort to fully awaken, he went to the kitchen, grabbed some painkillers, and made her some tea. He returned just as she exited the bathroom.

  “Thank you.” She looked truly touched.

  “Of course.” He guided her back to the bed and handed her the tea.

  She cringed momentarily, and then swallowed down the pain medication. He braced her, ran a heat cast through his hands, and began rubbing her back.

  “I think maybe we, uh, scared it off with everything we did that night at the hotel, and then….” he drew a deep breath and tried to think of words to describe the past week. “Well, I think maybe this week took its toll.”

  She snuggled down beside him and sighed contentedly.

  “Yeah, I think you’re right. I know Brad kept me from getting fired this week, and my period, I just think I can’t really make it without you. Nothing works right. You know?”

  “Yeah, well, you aren’t the only one, sweetheart. I can’t tell you one damn thing Vindico tried to teach me this week. I was a wreck.” He shuddered slightly as he considered the way he’d been for the past few days.

  “I’m so sorry, Logan,” she started again, but he placed his finger tenderly over her lips.

  “Stop. It’s over, and you made me the happiest guy around when you said you’d marry me. So, let’s just not think about it anymore, okay?”

  She angled her face and kissed his jaw. He smiled unabashedly.

  “When do we get to tell your parents?”

  “Well, we could call them now if you want.”

  “Logan,” she giggled.

  He chuckled and cradled her closer. As he realized how long it had been since he’d cracked a joke or teased anyone, he was astonished at how quickly her being there had righted his world.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t even tell your mom you were going to ask me,” she yawned and snuggled into his embrace. His heart beat disjointedly for a moment.

  “Only Rainer,” he admitted. “I couldn’t tell Mom. I wasn’t sure you’d say yes.” He hoped he wasn’t going to upset her again.

  “Does she still like me?” Adeline sounded suddenly terrified. Logan squeezed her tighter.

  “Of course,” he scoffed. “She loves you more than me. You know that. I’m pretty sure she hates Grandpa, but that’s not really a new development either.”

  He reveled in her giggle. It was the sweetest sound in the world. He’d known from the moment he’d told some stupid joke at the lunch table at the Academy, and she’d giggled at him. That one sweet melody had him smiling for days after that.

  He’d missed just being with her for so long, listening to her tell him about her day, and hearing her laugh at his lame jokes, Logan didn’t want to go back to sleep. He wanted to stay up all night and just talk to her.

  “Do you want to go back to sleep, baby?” He wanted to hold her again if she was tired. To his delight, she shook her head sheepishly.

  “I just missed you so much. Can we talk for a little while?”

  A broad grin etched his features as he nodded and cuddled her closer. “Yeah, I was really hoping you’d say that, actually.”

  They stayed up for hours, talking and reconnecting until they were too exhausted to go on, and then they fell asleep wrapped up in one another.

  Any Lengths

  ~Rainer Lawson~

  After glancing at his watch again, Rainer grimaced. He refused to meet any of the pointed glares he was being thrown by Vindic
o and all of the taskforce.

  He tried desperately to think of something to distract the team from Logan’s tardiness. He racked his brain. Vindico had spent the last ten minutes pacing and looking highly irritated.

  He finally spat, “All right, Lawson, where is he? Why didn’t he come in with you this morning?”

  “Uh, well,” Rainer shifted rigidly in his seat. He was hoping to buy Logan a little more time.

  “Em brought me to work this morning.”

  Garrett furrowed his brow. “Ok, why?” he urged.

  He was going to have to spill the news. There was no way out.

  “Well,” Rainer willed Logan to come in at that moment. “Uh,” he drew a deep breath. “He, uh, he and Adeline got back together last night.”

  “Great. Maybe he can actually accomplish something now, but why is he so late?” Vindico stressed.

  “Well,” Rainer glanced at the door. He prayed it would open. “He proposed, ring and everything, so I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

  Everyone began laughing.

  “I figured that would work,” Garrett gave a hearty chuckle.

  “Fine. Why don’t we get started, and you can fill him in the next time Miss Parker’s feet are on the floor.” Vindico rolled his eyes, but he was laughing much to his relief.

  Rainer decided he was definitely going to throttle Logan. He clenched his jaw as everyone began sniggering a few minutes later when Logan flew through the door, a full hour late.

  “Well, so nice of you to join us, Officer Haydenshire.”

  “I’m sorry. We, uh, overslept.” His face turned the exact shade of Emily’s hair. Rainer shook his head and rolled his eyes.

  “Well, you know the Haydenshire men do have great staying power,” Garrett made everyone guffaw as Vindico shook his head.

  “Thanks for that, but now I’d actually like to share the work that I’ve been doing while you’ve all been screwing around...literally.”

  A hesitant knock sounded at the door and Vindico smiled.