Logan (Wild Boys After Dark, #1)(30)

“But you said…” Her words drifted into the darkness. She knew what he’d said, and she knew he felt the same bond between them that had started as protector and victim and changed at breakneck speed into so much more.

He shifted her onto her back and gazed into her eyes with so much raw emotion, she lost her ability to speak.

“I don’t want to f*ck you, Stormy. I want to make love to you. There’s a difference. I’ve never wanted to make love to a woman before. Fuck? Yes. Take? Yes. Make love? Only you, sweetheart. That is, if you want me to.” He touched her cheek, and the intimacy of it sparked an immediate and total release of the emotions she’d been trying to deny.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Logan…”

“Not a f*ck. I don’t want to be one in a line of dicks, Stormy. I want you to trust me, to be with me and only me.”

“No line…God, Logan. I haven’t even been with a guy in months. I’ve been trying to push away my feelings for you and remain strong, but I can’t. They’re too much. Too real.”

He searched her eyes, and she knew as he slanted his lips over hers and kissed her tenderly that he saw the real her breaking through as strongly as she felt it. Everything about the way he kissed her, the way his hands moved over her, was different. He was caressing instead of groping, as if he were touching her for the first time. He gently removed her shirt, raining kisses down her neck, over her breasts, and then he came up and loved her mouth again. She’d never been touched like this. She felt special, cherished, and it had been so long since she’d been herself that she didn’t know what to do with the emotions burning inside her.

His hands played gingerly over her ribs as he kissed his way south, lingering around her belly button, placing enticing kisses low on her belly. She wanted him to go lower, wanted to feel his mouth on her, his tongue inside her, but he was moving up her body again, torturing her in the most delicious way. Lapping each taut nipple, heightening her anticipation with every slick of his tongue, every touch of his hands. She felt the facade she’d been hiding behind slipping away. He was breaking through the prickly persona she’d worn like a coat, quieting the fear Kutcher had instilled in her and reawakening deeper emotions she’d long ago buried.

“You’re so beautiful, Stormy.”

Stormy. Guilt threaded through her. He wasn’t Kutcher or someone who was out to hurt her, and she was still treating him like he was. He gripped her hips and kissed the tops of her thighs, looping his finger into her panties and dragging them down, leaving her bare beneath his glorious body. He splayed his hands over her thighs. The heat of his calloused palms seeped into her bones as he brought his mouth to her center. She bucked against his mouth with the first flick of his tongue over her sensitive flesh. He tightened his grip on her legs, tucking them beneath his arms, against his muscular sides, and lifting her hips off the mattress, allowing him better access to drive her out of her freaking mind.

When he sank his fingers deep inside her, her toes curled under.

“Ah, you like that,” he said before sinking his teeth into her inner thigh.

She gasped. “Logan…”

“Did I hurt you?”

“God, no. Please, more, Logan. More.”

His lips quirked up with a devilish grin. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll get you there.”

His mouth came down again while his fingers played over the spot that made her blood hotter, heavier, and her breaths shallow. Waves of pleasure rolled down her spine, through her limbs. He teased that spot over and over. She came hard and fast, infused with shocks that radiated through her chest. He lapped and loved her through the very last wave of pleasure. He must have slipped off his briefs, because when he sealed his lips over hers, she felt the wide tip of his arousal pressing against her wet center.

Jesus, everything felt bigger with Logan, better, more real. And if there was one thing Stella wanted, it was real. She clutched at his biceps, and her stomach fluttered. She didn’t just want real. She wanted Logan.

Guilt felt like a wall standing between them.

“Wait, Logan.”

***

LOGAN KNEW HE’D taken a chance by opening himself up to Stormy, but he couldn’t resist. Now the fear in her eyes nearly flattened him. Had she not wanted this? Had he scared her off? If this wasn’t real, he knew for a fact that he’d never know what real felt like.

“Wait.” Her voice softened.

Her hands slid down his arms, and he felt hope slipping away. They came to rest on his cheeks. God, he loved her touch.

“Stormy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

She pressed one finger to his lips. “Shh. You didn’t do anything wrong, Logan. You did everything right.” She smiled up at him, and he saw her remaining walls come crumbling down. “My name is Stella. Stella Krane.”

He let out a breath he hadn’t realized had been caught in his throat and dropped his forehead to hers. She trusted him, and in doing so, she righted everything that had felt wrong with his world since his father died.

“Stella. I’m falling hard for you, Stella Krane.”

A trickle slipped from the corner of her eye. He kissed the salty tears, then lowered his mouth to hers as their bodies joined together. He buried himself deep, perched above the woman who opened his heart and made him feel again.