Brie
I take a step away from Logan, then another, until my back hits the wall just outside of the bathroom. The room blurs, the soft cream fabrics and dark wood turning dreamlike and hazy. We could be anywhere–any kingdom–any room or darkened forest, and I wouldn’t know it because right now it’s just me and him, and I’m utterly, wholly exposed.
I’m sure my family and those others who know me well would say I’m a complicated person. They’d be right. Below the surface, beyond my mask of resilience, I’m like ice, and within that icy fortress is something akin to fear.
No one has been able to penetrate those walls. Not even Maeve.
But Logan is looking right through me, shoving those walls down, clawing at them until they topple and shatter.
“If you don’t feel the same,” he says, his tone softening, “I… I understand. I know our situation is complicated, Brie, I get it. I have an… obligation to return to Emberfyll, and you–”
“I regret it.” My voice shakes, but my gaze stays locked on his. “Logan, I regret it–”
He closes the distance between us in three easy steps, his hands caressing my face as he leans down, his nose brushing mine. I close my eyes against a torrent of emotion that washes through my body like the current flowing beneath our ship, carrying us toward an increasingly uncertain future. There’s so much we need to talk about, so much that needs to be said, but this–his touch–it settles in my bones and erases any words that may have been trying to materialize on the tip of my tongue.
His lips brush mine in a featherlight touch. I chase his mouth, my hand curling around the back of his neck as I inhale, taking in his cedar scent. That smell… Goddess, it reminds me of the shores of the river beneath Veiled Valley. I used to sit down there as a child and throw rocks into the river, collecting the prettiest, smoothest stones to bring back to my dad. He keeps them all, still, in a drawer in his desk. Logan is a constant reminder of that–of home.
Logan cages me in against the wall and kisses me, dragging my lower lip between his teeth. He trembles as my hand slides up his chest beneath the fabric of his half-unbuttoned shirt, tugging it free of his belt. He lets out a rough sigh, releasing me from the kiss to nuzzle my neck, inhaling and exhaling sharply. His hand curls into a fist at my side, his other arm bent and resting against the wall over the top of my head.
He’s hot to the touch. Almost fevered. His chest is still peppered with scrapes from the shipwreck, but he doesn’t flinch as my hand glides over the hard, smooth muscle of his abdomen and back down to his belt. My fingers dust over the leather toward the buckle. I look up into his eyes. They’re closed, and his expression is…
“I’ve never….” I taper off, my cheeks suddenly blazing with heat as a blush soars through my skin. “I’ve never been with a man before.”
A soft, wry smile touches the corner of his mouth, but his pupils are blown wide when he opens his eyes to slits. “I can’t take you right now. I–” He sucks in a breath, chuckling darkly as he licks his lips and leans in to brush the next words over my mouth, “I wouldn’t be able to stop. I’d hurt you. I need to shift first–I need to run, and get off this fucking boat.”
I swallow hard, my hand leaving his belt to travel up his chest again. He likes this. He closes his eyes, his chest rising and falling slowly, like he’s trying to calm himself down. He opens his eyes again, scanning my face, then pulls away, clasping my hand and whirling me around to face the wall. He cages me in again, pressing a heated kiss to the crook where my neck meets my shoulder. I close my eyes as his hands drag down the gentle curve of my waist to my hips before he reaches for the zipper of my dress.
It’s dark in the room now. It’s the main room of our suite–the captain's quarters. As he pulls the dress from my shoulders, sliding the fabric off my arms and down to my waist, I’m suddenly acutely aware of the soft light coming from a nearby lamp–the only light to be had.
He explores my bare stomach as he presses his body against mine. He nuzzles my head to the side to press kisses to my temple, down to my jaw, like he’s trying to distract me from where his hands are moving now.
I’m not wearing a bra. I wasn’t given one, and the dresses Monica supplied had built in boning to keep my amble breasts in place, but now there’s nothing between us but skin, and when he cups my breasts, they overflow around his large hands, and he… groans, pressing his mouth into my hair and whispering what I can only assume is a prayer of thanks to the Goddess Herself.
My dress slides off my hips without his help, the fabric falling in a heap around my ankles.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispers, his thumbs brushing over my nipples in a way that makes me jolt awake, alive and burning with desire. “Brie, push me away.”
“No,” I moan, sucking in a breath as I fist my hands against the wall. “Please, don’t stop.”
“Goddess,” he curses, trying to regain control of himself. I wonder if he turned me to face the wall because looking at me might send him over the point of no return. He said he’d hurt me, that he wouldn’t be able to stop, but I… want that. I know what he’s capable of. I’ve seen him fight without mercy. I’ve watched his mouth move when he speaks with that sharp, unfiltered tongue. His roughness and wit is what drove me toward him even without the bond in place to speed things up.
I want him just the way he is.
But he’s right about shifting. It’s been a while for me, too. Normally, it’s not a problem, but now I’m hypersensitive and desperate for any kind of stimulation I can find… which includes the filthiest thoughts I’ve ever had about what this man–this warrior–could do to my body… and I’d love it.
I lean against him as his hands press into my breasts, kneading while rolling my nipples between his fingers. The sensation is almost too much to bear. I lean my head in the crook of his shoulder, my face tilted toward the ceiling, my lips parting as I moan again, unable to stop myself.
Before I can even think of catching my breath, Logan moves, roping an arm around my waist and hoists me off my feet. I yelp, taken by surprise by his swift movements as he carries me a few steps toward the bedroom door, which he kicks open, the door slamming violently into the inner wall and nearly smacking us as he carries me inside the room and promptly tosses me on the bed.
I gasp as the door slams shut on its own accord, and we’re coated in darkness, his body nothing but a dark shadow as he stalks toward the bed.
Faint moonlight drifts through the window on the far side of the room, but it’s not enough for Logan. He looks down at me then glides around the bed and flips on a lamp on one of the bedside tables.
I wince as soft golden light ghosts through the room, highlighting my naked skin. My simple, cotton panties are all that covers me, and he’s here, seeing me, seeing nearly all of me…
I bring my arms up to try to cover my breasts, but he grabs my wrists.
“No. Let me look at you.”
I look into his eyes expecting to find… at best, morbid curiosity, but it’s more than that. Lust shines bright, turning his already rugged, handsome features into something dark and dangerous.
A part of him I think only I have ever seen.
I know Logan’s been with other women before. A man like him wouldn’t have trouble in that department. He’s older than me at nearly thirty. He knows what to do, whereas I’m… totally unprepared when he unbuttons his shirts all the way, his gaze locked on mine.
He rounds the bed slowly, his gaze leaving my face to travel hungrily down my body. When his eyes meet mine again, I feel my body relaxing, my arms going slack at my sides, my lips parting as mingled excitement and a feral kind of heat sweeps over me.
He notices the change. His nostrils flare, a cocky smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth as he says, “Come here.”
My heart races as I sit up. He’s barely even breathing as I crawl to the end of the bed and rise on my knees.
For the first time in my life… I feel… beautiful.
He pulls the pins holding my hair away from my face loose. Curls and waves roll down my back and shoulders. He cups my cheek, his thumb drawing a line along the underside of my jaw as he tilts my face upward to look at him. He kisses me fully, his tongue dancing with mine in a slow, laborious circle that makes my toes curl and my body hum to life.
But Logan’s rigid. His muscles stay flexed as he guides me onto my back, his hands roaming freely over my skin. I tangle my fingers in his thick hair, losing myself to his touch, his scent, until my brain shuts down completely, and I’m nothing but a puddle of desire that makes rational thought impossible… until he pulls away to start kissing down my body.
When his mouth grazes past my belly button, and he begins to drag my panties down over my thighs, I freeze, my breath catching in my throat.
“Wh–what are you doing?” I try to sit up, but he presses a hand to my stomach, forcing me back down.
I try to squeeze my thighs together, but he kneels on the floor at the edge of the bed, wrenching them apart.
“Logan–”
He presses a kiss to my hip bone, shushing me, pulling my panties down my calves, and I’m… lost to him. Completely, utterly, at his mercy. He looks up at me, his eyes shining as his mouth curves into a smile. He presses a kiss to my thigh, then lower, toward my center.
Grunting, he adjusts his position, my thighs resting on his shoulders, and tugs me further toward the edge of the bed.
I arch a brow, mimicking the cocky look he’s giving me. It’s like he’s challenging me to say no instead of offering me an out, and I’m….
Logan presses his tongue to my thigh and licks upward. I shiver, my head rolling back and hips arching into the sensation. Another lick has me locking my ankles behind his neck, my hands traveling up to cup my own breasts like I’ve been taken over by some demon–some siren desperate for touch.
He chuckles darkly against my skin, rasping my name like a prayer before his tongue parts me.
I gasp, my hands leaving my breasts to clutch the sheets.
“You’re mine,” he says against my aching folds, licking another line and circling his tongue over my clit. “From this moment forward, you are mine.”