No Stranger to Danger (16 page)

Chapter Seventeen

2100 hours, Saturday

Outside Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Rain pattered heavily on the roof, covering the sound of his steps as Logan entered the dark bedroom. Flashes from outside washed across the room outlining the bed, but he turned to the bathroom where a seam of light glowed under the closed door. The sound of the shower running softly filtered into the bedroo
m.

He glanced once more at the bed as he moved across the plush carpet and remembered his earlier fear of making a mistake, but right now, he feared
not
going to Mara would be the mistake.

She needed him as much as he needed her.

Another failed call to
Connar
had him realizing now might be the time to correct
real
mistakes he'd made—ones that had never injured him or nearly gotten him killed. The only thing Mara could harm was his heart.

Logan pulled the door open, and Mara turned in the shower. Surprise lit her gaze as it fell down him and came back up.

Logan watched her without moving. She was beautiful and soft. Her pink lips closed and plush, only reminding him of earlier, of how they had felt against his, of how she'd tasted.

More lightning flashed behind him through the bedroom windows, the flares of white-light reflecting in the shower glass.

Logan stepped on the back of his boots to remove them and then pulled his shirt over his head. Mara bit her lip in anticipation, and when he tossed the rest of his clothes down to the tiled floor, she opened the glass door for him to step in, backing away.

Logan pulled the shower door closed and reached for Mara, dragging her forward under the stream of hot water and kissed her, hard, pressing her back up against the damp, granite wall as a crack of thunder ripped through the cabin and the electricity flickered.

They stopped for only a moment to glance up to the light above the shower as it went completely out and then came back on.

"It seems that flood you threatened may actually come," he rasped.

Mara grinned. "It can't be a bad thing."

Power or no power, Logan could not stop himself. His hand fell to her thigh, and he curled his fingers around her slender leg, bringing it up to wrap around him.

He was lost for a moment as he kissed her crazy. His mouth crushed against hers so hard his lips stung from the brutal grind of their mouths, but he didn’t care. She opened her lips for him, thrust her hand into his hair, and held on. Logan dipped his tongue into her mouth, her warm, sweet mouth. He pulled her head backward and swept his tongue against hers as he pressed his cock against her smooth, wet stomach.

Logan teased her with his tongue, giving her long, hot glides—much like what he would like to do with his cock inside her—before he pulled away to suck her bottom lip, pulling it between his teeth. He groaned and bent to lift her other leg around his waist, moving himself against her—

Her teeth came down on his tongue.

Logan flinched, and a curse rumbled into Mara's mouth.

He reared back, dropping her legs and taking a step away, his cock uncomfortably hard with need, but he stared at her confused, a tang of blood filling his mouth.

"Damn you, Logan." Mara's eyes sparked like fire. "I never knew when you were coming or going or if you would be home. But when you left, at least I thought I knew you were gone for good."

"Well, I wasn't," he bit out. "You never left me, Mara." He closed the space between them, the wet heat between their naked bodies stirring him even deeper. He breathed her in, every part of her—everything he had longed for in the last five years.

And for what?

Where had he gotten by giving her up?

"Why did you fuck me earlier?" Her eyes searched his. "Why are you doing this now?" she asked, her voice very near a whisper.

"I fucked you because I wanted to. Because I couldn’t
not
fuck you, same as I couldn’t
not
kiss you."

Her chest racked with a sob, and Logan advanced on her, bending to roughly scoop her legs over his arms, pressing her into the wall as he lifted her. She cried out in alarm, grabbing his neck as her legs went up flat against his chest, her feet on either side of his head and he thrust his cock into her.

With one hand, Logan dug his fingers into the flesh of her ass, keeping her pinned to the wall with his body, and with the other he splayed his fingers over her throat.

He kissed her brutally then, nipping her lip harder than he intended in return for the bite she'd dealt him, and when he pulled back a smear of blood tinted her lower lip. A primal beast in him stirred, and he drove himself into her harder than before, the head of his cock arching into the tightest recesses of her.

He ran his thumb over the smear of blood, and she rocked her head against the shower wall, whimpering as he took her. Logan bent his head and tasted her again, not giving a shit that her blood got in his mouth.

"You'll only leave me again," she said between kisses, her fingers wrapping around his neck.

Logan growled at her and took her wrists to pin above her head, pressing her harder against the warm, wet marble, his hips pinning her in place with each thrust. He slammed into her, the water from the shower raining down his back, between their bodies. Mara's head fell back, and she cried out, grasping for his shoulders as she arched her back against the shower wall, her legs straining against his chest as their bodies glided together hot and wet.

Water dripped from his hair and rolled down her breasts to her flat belly as he plunged upward into her, his sac slapping against her ass with quick thrusts. Logan felt her back slip against the marble behind her as he began to rock against her even harder, riding against her as he kissed a trail from her ear, down her neck, the rough bristles of his jaw scraping her flesh.

"You feel so good," he breathed against her neck, just under her ear. Logan groaned low as his cock flexed in pleasure as her orgasm pulsed and squeezed around his cock.

Mara opened her mouth and cried out when he gave her a hard thrust.

"
Mmm
." He drew in a hiss between his teeth. "Your pussy got a lot wetter. You should have waited. Can you take more of me?" he rasped against her ear.

When she only whimpered in response, he dug his fingers into the sides of her ass and lifted her off his cock, pulled from her and whipped her around, pressing her front to the marble and kicked her feet apart.

Mara's head fell back as he thrust into her again, and Logan took her hair in his hand, winding it around his fingers and bracing his hands on either side of her head. She arched her back, her ass pressing against him as he hammered against her, each thrust building hot, wet friction between them. He looked down, watching as he came in and out of her, the slick wetness on his cock gliding from her body.

Logan cursed and reached around to her front to touch her, slipping his fingers against her, and Mara cried out as a loud crack of thunder shook the cabin. She moved urgently against his fingers, whimpering at each wave of pleasure.

Logan drove against her harder, his pace increasing until Mara began to claw at his arms, crying out. He thrust once more, a rough guttural sound ripping from him as he came.

Lightning struck something acutely near, and at once, they were in darkness. The water from the shower flickered and lost pressure.

As it dripped across Logan's back and the water stopped completely, Mara arched against him, the thick length of his cock still arched tight and swollen inside her as she moved against him. "At least you finished before," she said, looking at him over her shoulder with wide dilated eyes, then up to the showerhead.

Logan pulled her wet hair from her cheek and nipped at her ear, gently running his finger over the glaze of blood tinted water on her chin, removing it. "Oh, I'm not done with you yet," he growled.

****

Mara gasped in ecstasy as Logan tossed her back onto the bed and came over her on his knees as he crawled up to rest at her side. He kissed her gently, trailing his fingers down her damp skin and then back up, claiming her hand and interlacing their fingers as he brought her hand above her head.

With the other, she reached up to trace her finger over one of Logan's tattoos, a skull on his chest, and moved on to hover over a scar that marred his abdomen, stretched tautly over a hard muscle.

"I remember when you got this," she said. "I remember being alone and scared that you would never come home after I got the call that you had been injured."

Logan sighed and bent his head to rest it against hers. "I know I fucked up." He freed her hand to bring his fingers to her cheek. "I'm sorry."

A tear slipped from Mara's eye, and she swallowed against the painful knot in her throat.

Logan rose over her and kissed her tenderly, pulling his lips away only slightly, brushing her lips with his words. "I never stopped loving you," he said on a whisper.

Mara gasped as he kissed her. She swallowed the air from his lungs, and when he mounted her, they both moaned as he pressed his cock back inside her.

Mara arched her neck and dug her nails into Logan's shoulders. He chuckled low against her ear, sending a spread of gooseflesh over her skin. He made a deep sound of pleasure as he sank into her deeper.

"God, you're so hot and slick." His head fell back, and he looked—in a word—undone. He moved against her tenderly, their hips undulating together in a perfect rhythm. Logan kissed her lips, her neck, her temple. He touched her softly, as if it were their first time.

When they came together, one last tear slipped from Mara's eye.

Logan lay against her a moment, her legs parted on either side of him. Lightning flashed across their naked bodies in the quiet dark. "Was it good?" he asked, pulling from her and falling to his side exhaustedly.

Mara smiled and turned her head in the crook of his arm, rolling her body so her front pressed into his side. She lifted her arm and draped it across his flat belly. "Best I've had in a long, long time." When his expression darkened and she witnessed a moment of pain she stopped, her smile faltering.

"How many have you been with since…" His question trailed off.

She scoffed at the question. "You did this to us, not me," she said a bit quieter, irritated at his hypocritical censure. "It's not like you haven't been with someone else in the last five years." Mara traced the tattoo with her finger.

He turned his head to her and raised a brow.

Mara paled in the dark room. A horrid feeling squeezed her belly, and her finger stopped in the dark ink line it followed.

"Not even one?" she asked. Which was precisely how many she had been with
.
A snap of regret hit her hard.

He shook his head.

"What does that mean, Logan? That you care? What does any of this mean? Are you going to settle down and leave this life behind or learn to let me in? You said you loved me enough you let me go before, that you never stopped loving me, but could you ever love me enough to give yourself completely? Where does
this
leave us?"

"I don't know," he whispered.

Logan rose off her to sit on the bed, his back against the headboard. He reached to drag her into his lap, pulling her up against his chest and wrapped strong arms around her to shelter her from the pain spiking at her heart.

She had never felt so confused in her life.