by Ciana Stone
“Don’t be.” She touched his arm lightly. “I know you’ve been married. Several times in fact.”
“True.”
“But you were saying?”
“Oh, yeah. My wife wasn’t interested at all. In fact, she wasn’t happy on the ranch in Texas. I offered to build a place in town, but she was dead set on living in Dallas.” He shook his head. “Dallas. Christ on a crutch, I hate the city.”
“You’re just a country boy through and through.” Sabine chuckled and opened the door. “It’s too pretty to sit here. Let’s walk down to the lake.”
Logan met her in front of the helicopter and took her hand. In silence, they walked down to the edge of the water. “It’s so clear,” she remarked and knelt to put her hand in the water. “And cool.”
She looked up at him. He smiled and tilted his face up to the sun, closed his eyes and took in a long deep breath. “You can almost smell the peace.”
Sabine got to her feet. “Is that something you feel you lack in your life?”
The sound that came from him was harsh, a laugh that held no humor. “I don’t even remember what that is.”
“I’m sorry.” She stepped in front of him and wrapped her arms around him. His arms went around her and for a long time they just stood there, holding one another, swaying slightly.
Sabine understood all too well what it was like to search for peace and contentment and always come up short of the mark. To long for something so badly, knowing that it was always going to be out of reach.
She’d hoped that he had found happiness or at least some measure of contentment. Anger threatened, and she shoved it back. She’d been angry so much of her life. For this one moment, she wanted to be free of it, to be able to appreciate this time they had together. God only knew when it would be ripped from her, and she didn’t want to ruin it by letting old anger surface.
“Why did we stop here?” she asked.
“Because I wanted you to myself—just for a little while.”
Hearing those words was like being suddenly thrust into a dream, one she’d wished for since she was old enough to remember.
“Then I’m glad we stopped.” She stepped back from him, and he took her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it.
“Ever wonder what might have happened if you hadn’t disappeared that night? Been taken, I mean.”
“They would never have allowed it, Logan James. Should they discover we have seen one another there will be a great price demanded.”
“What kind of price?”
“One you will not have to pay.”
“But you will?”
“It was a deal I made and will honor.”
“What will they do to you?”
Sabine couldn’t allow such ugliness to intrude upon this time. She stood and stripped her shirt up and over her head. She saw the surprise on his face as she slid her skirt down over her hips and stepped out of it.
Sabine stepped into the water and looked back at him over her shoulder. Gone was the surprise from his face. In its place was something else. She recognized it and exulted in the fact that the sight of her nude would inspire lust in him. She waded out waist-deep, feeling the water cool her skin, caressing, and soothing.
“Come.” She motioned to him. “It’s wonderful.”
Logan looked at her for a few seconds, and she wondered if he was going to reject her invitation. Then he started taking off his boots. Once his feet were bare, he stripped off his shirt.
Sabine felt her skin warm at the sight. The years had been kind to Logan James. He was still firm and strong and maybe sexier now than he had been ten years ago. When he stepped out of his pants and peeled off his boxers, she felt her skin go from warm to downright hot.
He waded out to her, and she looped her arms around his neck and pressed in on him to mold their bodies together, chest to groin. She felt his arousal, but to his credit, he let her take the lead. Sabine wound her legs around his waist and captured his lips in a kiss that had his hands moving first to cup her ass, gripping almost painfully.
That was when her control ended and his began. She gasped against his mouth when he lowered them down into the water. Almost immediately he stood back up, turned and walked out of the lake with her still wrapped around him.
She didn’t give a care when, still holding her, he knelt down and lowered her to her back on the ground. This time he initiated the kiss, and there was nothing gentle about it. It was teeth and tongues, battling for dominance while hands roamed and grasped.
Sabine lost herself in the onslaught of sensation. Logan James’ hands were that of a man accustomed to manual labor, rough with calluses.
She marveled at the sensations his touch evoked. Had their one night together taught him so much about her? What caused her to moan for more or lose her mind to ecstasy? It seemed that way. As soon as one climax would start to fade, he would instigateanother.
With hands, mouth and body, he claimed control of her, took her to that place where feeling and sensation mixed with love and emotion and transcended all mundane and earthly reality. Sabine surrendered to it without hesitation, eager for all he had to give.
And in turn gave all she had, pleasuring him in all the ways she knew it possible for a woman to please a man. There was no thought of time or the passage of it, no care given to the dirt beneath them or the clouds that gathered in the heavens above them, blocking the sun and then dissipating into a clear blue sky.
Sabine felt yet another orgasm approach, and as she reached that crest, that precarious perch where one teetered before the fall, she cried his name and reached for him with all that was in her.
She felt him with her and abandoned all else to the wave of pleasure and love that washed over and filled her. When at last reality returned, he rolled over onto his back and pulled her to his side, closing his eyes.
“Please don’t run away again, Sabine. You almost killed me last time.”
“I didn’t run. You already know that. I would never willingly leave you.”
He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. “I won’t let them take you from me again.”
“Why?” She needed to hear it.
“You know why. I love you.”
At that moment there seemed to be an abrupt cessation of sound. It was like time had stopped, and all that existed was her and Logan and those words.
I love you. She’d dreamed of him saying those three words more times than she could count, imagined it in a thousand different scenarios. The reality of it eclipsed even her dreams.
“I knew it that night,” he continued. “Maybe before. When I was a kid I didn’t want to care about you, felt stupid for caring about you. You were just a scrawny kid who was always underfoot. Then you—you saved me and Gil and Rusty and even Micky, and while I was grateful, I was scared.”
“Scared?” That surprised her.
“Yeah. Scared. First of what happened and then because you just disappeared and no one would talk about where you’d gone. I told myself to forget it. I imagined it and we were all better off with you gone.”
“You probably were.”
“I don’t know if that’s true or not. But I do know I didn’t forget. And when I saw you again—all grown up. It was, I don’t know—like fate. You told me you loved me and by the time the night was over I wanted to say it too, but I couldn’t. I woke up and that’s the first thing I thought. I was going to say it but you were gone.” Logan touched her face gently. “I can say it now.”
“Then I will never leave you and no one will force me from you again. I promise you that, Logan.”
“Promise.”
“Absolutely.”
“Why?” His smile was mischievous and made him seem twenty years younger.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I like you.”
“Like me?” He rolled her over and pinned her beneath him. “That’s all I get? Maybe you like me?”
Sabine laughed. “Did you not hear me
?”
“Hey, hold on.” His expression communicated the surprise. “You called me Logan.”
“I did.”
“Not Logan James.”
“No.”
“Why now?”
“Because you said it.”
“That I love you?”
“Yes. I waited my whole life to hear you say it.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to keep saying it if that’s what keeps you from calling me Logan James the rest of my life.”
Sabine smiled and took his face in her hands. “I’ve loved you my whole life Logan James Legacy and will love you forever.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“So you say.” She squirmed from beneath him and took off in a run for the lake. “You might be singing a different tune in a few days.”
The water enveloped her in coolness when she dove in. A moment later she felt a hand wrap around her foot, and a second after that, Logan James had her in his arms with his lips on hers. And then, well then nothing else mattered.
At least not until Logan announced that they needed to go on to his uncle’s house. It was closing in on dinner time, and he didn’t want the family to worry.
Sabine didn’t argue. This afternoon had been one of the best of her life. Ten minutes later, they were back in the air.
Sabine looked out over the land. “I can see why your uncle loves it here,” she remarked. “It’s beautiful. But is this where your family is from?”
“No. Uncle Elijah moved here when he was a young man, fell in love with a Cheyenne woman and stayed.”
“Do they have a family?”
“Yes, four sons. Levi, who’s a year older than me, then Ezra, Wyatt, and Colton.”
“Do they all live in Colorado?”
“Yes. The last I heard, they are all still working the ranch.”
“What kind of ranching?”
“Bulls, mostly, and horses but some beef cattle and sheep.”
She smiled and reached over to place her hand on his leg. “You sound envious.”
Logan returned the smile. “I am. A little. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for what I have and will do whatever it takes to make sure the family is safe and provided for, but I honest to god don’t really like business meetings or wearing suits or having to make decisions that affect other people’s jobs and well-being.”
“You’d rather be a rancher like your Uncle Elijah?”
“I would.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“Because Dad handed the reins to me and it’s my responsibility.”
“And none of your brothers and sisters are qualified to step in and take your place?”
She could tell from the look he gave her that he hadn’t considered that. “Well, I guess. I mean, Beau would be the obvious choice. He’s already Chief Operating Officer and doing a hell of a job. And Mysti is CPA, and her husband, Jean Paul, is the Chief Financial Officer. And then there’s Lyon. He has an MBA and until a year ago was specializing in hi-tech, but then his fiancé died in a boat explosion, and now all he does is some kind of treasure hunting thing. I don’t know what exactly but apparently he thinks he’s Indiana Jones or something.”
“But the point is, there are people who could fill your shoes in the business if you really wanted to step down.”
Logan’s expression was serious when he looked at her. “Yes.”
“Then what’s stopping you? Unless you don’t really want to step down.”
He shrugged and turned his attention to his instrument panel. “Maybe that’s the problem. I think I’d like just to be a rancher, but I can’t let go so maybe I do like it more than I admit. I don’t know.”
“I think you do, but you’re just not ready to face it and that’s fine. We come to our realizations and face our true desires in our own time.”
“Have you?” He cut her a look. “Faced your true desires?”
“You already know the answer to that.” Despite her defiant words, she knew as well as she lived and breathed that the Council would do everything in their power to keep her and Logan apart. What she’d told him was true. Everyone feared what might result from their union. A child born to them posed a threat to the structure of power.
How sad that their kind had devolved to this state of rapacity and hunger for dominion. Perhaps it would be best for her entire race if their bloodline was more diluted with that of humans.
“Sabine?” Logan’s voice drew her back to the moment.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“You know what, but like you said, if you’re not ready to face it, that’s fine.”
She gave him a look that accompanied the sarcastic tone of her words. “Smart ass.”
He grinned at her and for a moment her reality was exactly what she’d wished. If only she could freeze the moment.
“Okay, let’s set her down,” he announced.
She watched as he landed the helicopter in what appeared to be a pasture, and waited until he’d shut down the engine before unbuckling and exiting the vehicle. They’d taken no more than a dozen steps before a double-cab pickup pulled up on the other side of the pasture fence.
A tall, big man climbed out of the driver’s side and grinned. “Boy, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
Logan smiled, took Sabine’s hand and hurried her along until they reached the fence. He held up one strand and mashed down another strand with his booted foot so Sabine could slip through, then braced one hand on the post for support and jumped the fence.
Sabine felt a tug in her heart as she watched Logan’s uncle grab him in a big hug. The love between them was obvious.
“It’s been too long since we’ve seen your face,” his uncle remarked when he released Logan.
“It has and I apologize.”
“We understand. You’ve got a full plate. But you’re here now and how about you introduce me to this beautiful woman you brought with you?”
“Absolutely.” Logan held out his hand toward Sabine and when she grasped it , he smiled and made the introduction. “Uncle Elijah, this is Sabine Legendre Beaudreaux. Sabine, this is my Uncle Elijah Legacy.”
“It’s an honor, Mr. Legacy.” Sabine disengaged her hand from Logan and offered it to Elijah.
“A pleasure, Ms. Beaudreaux.” He clasped her hand, and both of his eyebrows rose. She smiled up and him and he chuckled. “Well, now, I do believe you’re the most interesting woman Logan’s ever brought home, Ms. Beaudreaux.”
“Sabine, please, and I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“As you should. Now, what do you say we head up to the house? Nora’s got dinner ready.”
“Sounds good,” Logan agreed and looked at Sabine.
“Yes, let’s go,” she agreed.
They all got into Elijah’s truck and she listened as he and Logan talked about family, getting caught up. She smiled and leaned her head back to close her eyes and listen. Just then, her phone rang. She pulled it from the pocket of her skirt and looked at the caller ID.
“Ravyn,” she said for Logan’s benefit.
“Take it if you want.”
“Thanks.” She answered the call. “Ravyn? What’s up?” As she listened, concern bloomed and grew. She didn’t interrupt or speak until Ravyn had finished talking. “Hold on, Ravyn.”
She looked at Logan and then Elijah. “You might want to rethink inviting me to your home, sir.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m about to ask Logan to meet with someone he has no cause to trust and the only safe place I know for that meeting to happen is right here.”
Elijah put his foot on the brake and when the truck stopped, he locked his gaze with Sabine’s. “I’ll ask you once. Will this meeting bring danger to my family?”
“It could. If anyone finds about it.”
“And I’m guessing you have a plan to keep that from happening?”
“I do. If Logan were to meet these people somewhere,
he could fly them here, and no one would be the wiser if they left their phones and electronic devices behind.”
Elijah looked past her to Logan. “And what do you have to say about this?”
Logan looked at Sabine, and she saw the doubt on his face. “Who exactly do you want us to meet with?” he asked.
“Ravyn and Wayne Garen.”
“Garen? Why would I meet with him?”
“Because he’s going to help you stop his father from trying to destroy your family.”
Logan’s expression told her quite clear that he was uncertain. She unmuted the phone and raised it back to her ear. “Let me call you in the morning, Ravyn… Yes, tell him we will definitely be in touch in the morning… Yes. I promise… I love you, too. Bye.”
She looked at Logan then at Elijah. “If you’d prefer that I not be here, take us back to the helicopter and I’ll ask Logan to take me home.”
“No,” Logan protested immediately. “You’re not safe there.”
“I don’t want to make your family uncomfortable.” She looked at Elijah as she spoke. “I’d understand if you wanted me to leave.”
“No. My nephew asked for sanctuary here and we said yes. You’ll stay as long as you need.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am.” His voice softened and she saw the kindness in his eyes.
“Thank you.” She didn’t try to hide the tears that gathered in her own eyes. She’d had kindness shown to her in her life, but not that much and not by many. When it happened, she was grateful and touched.
“Don’t you mention it.” He started the truck. “Now, let’s get to the house. My stomach’s about to gnaw a hole in my backbone I’m so hungry.”
Sabine nodded and looked at Logan. “We’ll talk,” he promised in a low voice.
“I know.” She trusted that he would hear her out and hoped he would agree to meet with Wayne and Ravyn. She she believed they would prove to be helpful in keeping Harris Garen and the Umbra from causing great pain and suffering to a lot of people.