by Lia Lee
Cara’s eyes grew wide. “That sounds awesome. To get the chance at an exhibition will be the best thing ever. I just … I’m the worst when it comes to any kind of focus. When I’m just painting for myself or to sell to a few random buyers, I find things easier to cope with. But when there’s the pressure of an actual showing or commitment to a gallery, what if I can’t go the distance?”
Seeing her crestfallen face, Logan held out his arm. “Come here.”
A smile played at the corner of his lips when she trustingly moved forward and placed her hand in his. He pulled her to stand in front of him and he regarded her solemnly. “Still twitchy?” he asked, noting how she seemed to fidget, feet shuffling in one spot and shoulders swinging from side to side.
“Don’t make me have to stand still and mute again,” she warned, biting hard on her bottom lip as she frowned.
Logan chuckled deeply. “I have a better idea.”
His husky brogue sounded suspiciously thick, and Cara became aware of the heat from his hand traveling through her fingers and up her spine. Between her thighs, a drumbeat started, accompanied with drizzles of needy moisture.
“If I said I knew ways to get you more centered as well as sharpen your focal skills, will you believe me?” asked Logan, mossy green eyes hooded and he tugged her forward to stand between his spread legs. “Tell me, Cara, when was the last time you ever really let yourself believe or trust anyone?”
She let out a ragged sigh. Her eyes squeezed shut, and she made an internal resolution. It was now or never.
“With my ex. He was my first, and the only man I’ve been with. I knew I could have walked away any time, especially when I started to notice things had changed, but I didn’t. I just never thought anyone else would want me, or love me like he did. Foolish me, right till the end I still believed what he felt for me was love,” she added with a self-derisive laugh.
“He hurt you?”
Cara knew what Logan meant and bobbed her head in assent. “Sometimes I think he didn’t really mean to. But sometimes, being too weak can bring out the worst tendencies in others. He began to get off more and more on my inadequacies and used them to keep me dependent on him. It got to a point, that if he didn’t hit me or punish me the way he did so cruelly, then I told myself it meant he didn’t care.”
“Fuck, Cara.” Logan tugged her even closer and she landed on his lap, her eyes downcast as she felt his intense gaze scan her face.
“But you got out, or you wouldn’t be here,” he added softly, cupping her face and stroking her cheeks with his thumb.
Cara bobbed her head again. “He’d exerted so much influence on me that I’d never been allowed to hold down a real job or have any real friends. I barely had enough money or possessions of my own. The only things I took were my paintings and the clothes I had on. Everything else I owned had been provided by him.”
“I can’t imagine what you must have gone through. But I understand things much better now,” Logan said. He placed an index finger beneath her chin and lifted her gaze to meet his. “With me, taking control isn’t about me having the power. It’s about the woman having the strength, while understanding her own limitations and taking pride in her sensuality and femininity.”
“I want to be strong,” whispered Cara, watching Logan’s head steadily descend, his lips slanting closer and closer to hers. Her eyelashes fluttered lower as his warm sweet breath fanned her parted mouth. She wanted to understand what it took to be a woman of desire and substance, to own it. The second after she thought this, she moved her face the last inch forward and joined together Logan’s lips and hers.
Cara may have initiated the kiss, but it was Logan who deepened it, dominated it. He pried her lips apart and assaulted the interior of her mouth with his tongue. Cara gave in to him, shivers of lust running down her spine as she heard him groan roughly, crushing her to him.
Cara had thought it would feel weird kissing someone other than Jude. Instead, it was the most intense pleasure she’d ever experienced. It made her blood pump faster, her heartbeat accelerate, and the butterflies in her stomach, swarm into a fierce crunch of lust.
She’d never met a man like Logan, never felt an attraction to another man that made her eager to rip off his clothes and feel his skin beneath her palms. Logan broke their heated kiss and she moaned in protest. Her eyes fluttered open to seek Logan’s and the gleam of desire in his eyes stole her breath away.
Cara knew there was so much that could go wrong if she was making a mistake. Her heart could get broken, her world destroyed. At the very least, the whole surrogacy arrangement could go up in smoke. Was Cara willing to go along with her needs and Logan’s, and risk it all in the heat of the moment?
***
They kissed almost all the way to his bedroom. Logan placed a hand on his door and pushed it open, the other one wrapped around Cara’s waist as he swept her inside.
That was the moment their lips broke away and Cara gasped for air. Finally taking in her surroundings, she peered around the spacious bedroom, the natural light filling the whole space with a welcome glow. But then Logan reached for a button and the next second, blinds descended beyond the wall-to-wall windows, dimming the room. Sexy mood activated, thought Cara with an unbidden inner giggle.
She wasn’t laughing though, when two hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her into a hard body from behind. Logan brushed his lips against her earlobe. “We’re here.”
Instinctively she arched into him, sighing in pleasure. “Yes, we are.”
She spun around to face him and without a second thought, kissed him hard on the mouth. She’d meant it when she’d said she wanted to be strong and empowered by her womanhood. Logan seemed taken aback for a split second before his hands were hefting her ass and picking her off the floor with her legs wrapping around his waist.
Whew. Cara didn’t know what the hell she was doing. She just hoped her limited bedroom experience would not detract from their lovemaking the first time.
Logan didn’t give her time for doubts, as he wasted no time planting her on her back atop the bed. His green eyes glinted as he peeled out of his shirt, hovering above her with all the predatory masculinity of a sexy, ravenous jaguar. “Take off your clothes, Cara,” Logan demanded.
Her name sounded so much like an endearment in that stirring tone of his. Cara didn’t argue, sitting up to throw off her T-shirt and bra. Her jeans soon followed, puddling at her feet before Logan yanked them off the rest of the way. He stopped as he took in her body, clad only in her black lace panties. Thank goodness her underwear at least looked sexy, thought Cara in relief. She sucked in a breath as she caught Logan’s expression. His green eyes were stormier than ever, raking over her naked breasts with a deliberate slowness that had her inner thighs quivering. The air around them shifted noticeably and Cara could hardly think, much less breathe.
Logan’s burning gaze made her feel the most beautiful she’d ever felt.
He didn’t even have to say a word. She knew he wanted her, desired her as much as she did him. As he rid himself of the last of his clothes, Cara understood what awe and lust meant. He was magnificent, all proportionate muscle and golden-toned perfection. His member was the most beautiful sight, even with it being bigger than she’d even pictured it. Bigger than she’d had before, for certain. The slickness at her apex became more demanding, in conjunction with the twitching that started up in her nether folds. Her mouth parted, her eyes never leaving Logan’s body as it moved to cover hers.
He took her face in his hands and kissed her senseless. Cara opened her mouth to his thrusting tongue, clutching his broad shoulders, raking his toned chest, and loving the tenderness and passion in his kiss. And yet why did she sense that beneath the surface, a promise of danger and rapture sizzled?
It made her stomach hurt almost, with all the excitement, arousal, and anticipation. Logan groaned, releasing her lips to trail his mouth down her neck to her breasts. He gripped both her wrists a
nd pinned them above her, out of the way, leaving her helpless to fight his assault on her nipples, as he seized them, one after another in his mouth. Rough, taking sucks, snagging bites and fervent licks … he turned her inside out with pleasure supreme. Never had her nipples ached and yet, throbbed with bliss at the same time. His mouth felt so good on her body she never wanted it detached from her—ever. His bulging manhood nestled against her damp sex and it was all she could do not to arch her hips and invite him to slide right into her waiting slit.
Before she could act on the temptation, Logan shifted position downwards. He released her wrists and trailed his lips farther down her body to her abdomen. She was surprised when he planted a gentle kiss there. Cara truly never expected Logan to be this tender, even for some hand-picked moments. Her flesh buzzed with every contact from those silky lips, and she loved the smoothness of his jaw grazing her stomach and then, her inner thighs.
Though she missed his beard and would always wonder how it would have felt tickling over her bare skin, Cara couldn’t deny how intimate it felt to have his smooth skin gliding over her most secret, delicate parts.
Oh, God.
He’d sunk a digit into her wetness, making her cry out his name. He groaned, resting his cheek against her soft inner thigh as he watched his middle finger stroke in and out of her vagina. Cara was like putty for him, eyes rolling in her head as she grabbed his hair.
“You’re tight. Like a virgin,” he rasped. “And so wet and slippery. You smell divine, baby.” He brought his face closer to her entrance and seemed to sniff her, then groaned rawly. He stuck his index finger inside to join the middle one, wedging it deep into her swollen gash.
Cara stretched around him with muscles that grew more sensitive and welcoming. She couldn’t make sense of the incoherent mumblings spilling from her mouth and she doubted if Logan could either. But he was too busy focused on watching her slit as her flesh clung to his thrusting fingers. They moved faster and deeper inside her, sinking past any resistance and prepping her for a tumultuous orgasm, or a rugged claiming, or maybe both—at the same time. She nearly screamed in agonized pleasure when his thumb descended hard on her clit.
Then came the shocker, when Logan bent and replaced his thumb with his lips. He planted barely-there kisses on her clit but they were enough to ignite the first throes of Cara’s bazooka-like orgasm. When he sucked her whole clitoris in his hot mouth, Cara came violently and loudly.
Her fingers latched onto his lush locks as she reached her orgasm, and she released a shrill scream of ecstasy. It took long moments for her to realize she’d clamped her knees around his head. Gently, Logan pried them apart again and all but rested them on either side of the bed, spreading her impossibly. “Let me taste your cum,” he said thickly.
Oh my. Cara hadn’t fully come down yet but her body definitely knew how to react to those words. Cara’s bleary eyes forced themselves to focus as she met those darkened, fierce green eyes and stared at his swollen, pink lips which then lowered to her vagina. He pulled out his two fingers, the slushing sound of those digits dislodging from her entrance causing Cara to flush from neck to toe.
“Logan, I don’t think I can take much more,” she whispered, her words followed by a full body shudder.
Logan paused to arch a brow at her. “What? I’ve barely even started. Please tell me you have more stamina than that,” he growled, half-teasing. His mouth hovered over her dripping sex now, and Cara bit hard on her bottom lip, almost fearful of how her body would respond to him eating her.
She had one last glimpse of a sly Logan-branded grin, before his tongue connected to her slit and blasted Cara into a realm of pleasure that eclipsed any kind of pleasure she’d ever known.
***
The figure hidden just beyond the crack of the slightly open door, couldn’t say how long she stood there, watching the two lovers.
The noises of unbridled lust and pleasure had never sounded so animalistic, so gratified. To find Logan raising his smeared face from between Cara’s legs—after his tongue and lips brought her to yet another wall-shaking orgasm … had those watching eyes want to squeeze shut to blanket the painful vision.
When Logan reached inside his bedside drawer, pulling out black silk scarves and began tying the writhing Cara’s limbs to each end of the bed, the intruder could no longer continue with her torturous voyeurism. She backed away from the door, stifling her sobs with her fist stuffed into her mouth, before disappearing down the passage. She ran from the sounds echoing from Logan’s bedroom, as if they were stampeding bulls readying to crush her beneath their punishing hooves …
If Cara thought she heard a strange noise from just outside the bedroom, she didn’t give it a second thought. She was much too engrossed in the sensation of being bound to Logan’s bed by his soft, silk scarves that seemed so decadent wrapped around her wrists and ankles.
Logan took her like that, helpless and completely for his use and pleasure. She’d never imagined how intense and even taboo it would feel to be claimed by a lover this way. Her body was spread wide, in a starfish shape and with her every secret on display.
It was the most vulnerable Cara had ever been, yet the most empowering. She was mesmerized by how black with lust Logan’s eyes had become. His hands were rough on her breasts, kneading and pushing them together. He bent to lick them, bite them, and suck on them. Her nipples were so sore from his rugged attentions, but she loved it so much she wanted more and more. Between them, his hardness aimed for her sex and he slickly rubbed the mushroom cap against her swollen nether lips.
Cara gasped and squirmed in her bonds. “Jesus, Logan …” She didn’t know how much more of his teasing she could take.
He chuckled darkly, pinching hard on her nipples and bringing tears of pleasure mixed with pain to the corners of her eyes. “Oh, yes, please. Like that.”
“Harder?” he gruffed, as he twisted more on her aching nipples.
“Ugghhh. Yeah. You make me like it rough,” she half-hissed, teeth barely able to move apart as Logan twirled her nubs harder between his thumbs and index fingers.
“Cara.”
Cara heard the rasp in his voice and it made her ache. She stared down at his hands on her body and felt her throat drying up. It was thrilling to watch the contrasts between them. Her curves jiggled and swayed beneath him, while he was all hard ridges and planes, so big and powerful where she was smaller and more delicate, if not weaker.
“Now for your first lesson,” he said with a thin, sexy smile.
Her sun-kissed lover had something to teach her? Well, Cara was more than an eager student, though she didn’t have much choice than to obey, what with being tied down and completely in his power.
His erect member was aligned to her wet center, and Cara’s breath hitched in anticipation. It seemed like every muscle she possessed was straining and taut. He pressed his knob to her entrance and her eyes rolled back, eyelids fluttering helplessly as she flung her head to the side. How could pleasure feel this good? He wasn’t even inside her yet, but the moist contact of their most intimate flesh was already pushing her past the precipice.
He thrust into her, slow and steady. He sank his prodigiously thick, long manhood through her tight vagina in small increments that still felt like he was ripping through her.
“Logan.” Cara’s head was flung back, her vision dimming as her brain felt the zap-like sensation much like an electric current razing her senses. She couldn’t withstand the pressure and the profoundness of her walls being stimulated by the hard ridges of Logan’s massive tool.
He stopped moving and Cara almost cried. “Look at me, Cara. I need those pretty eyes on me.”
Her whole being reeled from all this muchness—of Logan, of his passion, of his presence inside her so deep and snug inside her, like he belonged there. He seemed too incredibly big and she felt too tight for them to fit together, but they did. It had to be a dream.
But just to prove it wasn’t, Cara finally
forced her head up as she opened her eyes to hold his intense gaze.
“Watch me,” he added. He flexed his hips and pulled out to the tip, only to sink in again barely a few inches. Cara had to bite off a wail of deprivation. She needed that feeling of fullness again, craved it like air.
“Logan!” panted Cara. She bucked her hips as much as she could beneath him, while wishing she could rip out of her restraints, pin Logan on his back, and impale herself on that meaty length of steel.
“It’s all about focus, baby. No closing your eyes, or I’ll stop. Keep your eyes on me.”
“But what if I can’t?” whined Cara, a cheeky pout shaping her lips.
His response was to buttress his point with action as he filled her to the hilt. Cara gasped at the monumental invasion that made the air shake with their collective groans. She felt those blinking spots behind her vision again, as her walls stretched to accommodate his impressive girth. Still, she managed to keep her gaze firmly latched onto his.
“You still want to orgasm a few more times tonight, don’t you? Then be good for me. Will you?” he asked thickly.
“Yeah,” Cara moaned. “Just please don’t stop.”
Cara definitely wanted to be good … but could tell that Logan didn’t plan on making it easy for her. Especially with the way he began to move inside her. Damn, he was a total pro. She’d never even dreamed a man could give a woman’s body so much pleasure with just his manhood. Logan was gifted in size and technique, and knew too well how to play either one to his advantage.
Cara must have been crazy to ever wonder about Logan’s love life. He might say he didn’t have much use for women, but he damn sure knew how to handle one once he got her beneath him. He swiveled those toned hips and stroked her insides slowly at first. He was making her dizzy from the way his thrusts massaged every crevice of her channel. The more he picked up the pace, the more her eyes widened as they held his. She was amazed at how he seemed to grow bigger inside her, expanding her almost beyond her limit as well as endurance.