Authors: Natasha Rostova
The Naked Truth (14 page)
‘Hello, Logan.’ Callie fought both the tremble in her voice and the urge to turn and run.
‘Callie.’ His expression looked as if it had been carved from stone, but his eyes flashed with intense displeasure.
Callie paused some distance away from him. ‘How did you find me?’
‘I have my ways. Do you want to tell me what you think you’re doing?’
A couple of passers-by glanced in their direction as the angry undertone of Logan’s words floated on the hot air. Callie debated the wisdom of telling him to come into the store, but decided she didn’t want the rest of the world knowing her business.
‘Come inside,’ she said, reaching for her keys. ‘I’ve been trying to explain things to you for weeks now, only you never listen to me.’
‘Don’t start this shit with me again,’ Logan snapped. ‘I give you everything you want.’
A responding anger ignited inside Callie. Who was he to tell her what she wanted? She suppressed the urge to snap at him and instead unlocked the door. She didn’t bother turning the lights on, preferring the cloak of semi-darkness. Logan followed her inside, taking in the tie-dyed atmosphere of the shop in one glance.
‘This is where you chose to work?’ he said, his voice dripping with contempt. ‘Christ, it looks like Jerry Garcia threw up in here.’
Callie locked the door behind her and gave Logan a derisive look. ‘There is no need to be condescending.’
‘There is every need to be condescending,’ Logan retorted. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were working here? How long has this been going on?’
‘For several months,’ Callie said. ‘And I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t approve.’
‘And is that why you didn’t tell me you were leaving me?’ Logan snapped. ‘Because you knew I wouldn’t approve?’
‘No, I thought you’d try and stop me.’
‘And you thought I wouldn’t find you anyway? You should know by now that I have more than enough resources at my disposal.’
‘Yes, I do know that.’ Callie’s hands clenched into fists as she struggled against an increasing anger. ‘I know that you’re the great and powerful Logan who sees everything and always gets what he wants.’
‘Damn right.’ Logan picked up a crystal ball that sat on a nearby shelf. ‘Get your things. You’re coming home.’
‘I am not,’ Callie said. ‘I didn’t leave you only to have you drag me back again.’
‘What is this all about, Callie?’ Logan asked. His fingers tightened on the crystal ball, but his voice didn’t rise a single octave. ‘You’re trying to prove something, is that it?’
‘Maybe I am,’ Callie replied. ‘Maybe I’m trying to prove that I’m sick of the life we’ve been leading.’
‘You mean the life of expensive furnishings, gourmet food, designer clothing and everything you could possible want? Is that the life you’re talking about?’
‘No,’ Callie snapped. ‘I’m talking about the life of stilted conversations and a black hole of emotional warmth. A life based on our image rather than our relationship. A life devoid of any kind of connection to my own husband.’
Logan rolled his eyes. ‘This kind of
Cosmopolitan
magazine drama is a bit overdone. If you want to continue working at this ridiculous place, then fine. But I want you to pack your belongings and come home right now.’
Cosmopolitan
magazine drama is a bit overdone. If you want to continue working at this ridiculous place, then fine. But I want you to pack your belongings and come home right now.’
A wave of sheer fury rose in Callie like an overflowing pot of water.
‘Fuck you, Logan,’ she bit out. ‘I’m not a child, and you sure as hell can’t treat me like one. If you can’t even understand why I left you, then what makes you think I’m coming back?’
‘The fact that you can’t possibly expect to continue living like this.’
‘I can continue living like this! I have my own money and my own place to stay. More importantly, I have some freedom. I can wear a black dress somewhere without my own husband telling me I look like a slut.’
Logan’s eyes narrowed. ‘And do you also have someone to take that dress off you?’
Startled, Callie took a step back. How on earth did the man know everything? ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking about this punk kid you’ve been seeing. Are you fucking him?’
‘That is none of your business!’
‘The hell it’s not.’ Anger darkened Logan’s eyes as he strode towards her in three long steps. ‘You’re still my wife, or have you conveniently forgotten that?’
Callie clenched her fists and battled the urge to step away from him. ‘I most certainly have not forgotten that. My status as your wife is what got me here in the first place!’
‘And it’s what’s bringing you back home right now.’ A vein throbbed in Logan’s neck as he grabbed her arm, his fingers tightening around her so hard that his grip almost hurt.
Alarm fluttered in Callie. Logan had never physically hurt her, but then she had never left him before.
‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m not coming back.’
His grip tightened. ‘You want a divorce? Is that what this is all about?’
‘I want to be away from you.’ A divorce? Was that what she wanted? It sounded so painfully final. Callie twisted her arm in a vain effort to free herself. ‘Logan, let go! You’re hurting me.’
‘I’m getting very tired of this, Callie. I don’t have time for it.’
‘That’s the problem!’ Callie cried. ‘You don’t have time for our relationship when it should be the most important thing in the world to you.’
‘Where do you get the stupid idea that it isn’t important?’
‘From you! You treat me like a stranger or a child or a sister. Anything but what I am. Your wife. You don’t even fuck me right!’
Callie knew she had pushed him too far when his jaw clenched with fury. He yanked her against him so swiftly that she almost fell.
‘So that’s it, is it?’ he said, his voice low and icy. ‘You want to be fucked right? What’s your definition of “right”, then?’
‘Doing it with anyone but you,’ Callie retorted. ‘Now, let me go, you bastard!’
She pressed her hand against his chest and tried to shove him away. He didn’t budge. His body was so tense with anger that he felt like a stone wall. Fear and an odd excitement began to swirl inside her.
‘Why should I let you go?’ He grabbed her other hand and pressed it against his crotch. ‘Don’t you want to be fucked right for a change?’
‘By you?’ Callie sneered, even as her body quickened like an electrical wire when she felt his growing erection. ‘The day you do that is the day that hell freezes over.’
‘Did you or didn’t you fuck that punk bastard?’ Logan asked, his hands tightening on her painfully. ‘Was that “right” for you?’
‘What if it was? What are you going to do about it? Punish me?’ The instant she looked up at him, Callie knew she had pushed him over the edge. ‘Logan –’
His eyes burnt. ‘Is that what you want? Now that I think about it, a punishment would be very deserving. After all, you owed me at least an explanation before you walked out on me.’
‘You wouldn’t dare.’ Suddenly nervous, Callie tried to pull away from him. His grip was steadfast.
‘Wouldn’t I?’ he asked.
‘No.’ Her eyes flashed a challenge at him, and before she knew it, Logan gripped her around the waist and pulled her towards a chair. He sat down and hauled her over his lap as if she weighed no more than a feather.
‘Logan!’ Callie’s heart thudded almost painfully as she fought to get away from him. His thighs were like tree trunks underneath her belly. ‘Don’t you dare!’
He ignored her as he flipped up her skirt to reveal the cotton of her underpants stretched over her buttocks. Hooking his fingers into the waistband, he yanked her knickers over her legs and left them to dangle around her thighs. Callie gasped as she felt the air on her naked bottom. He was really going to do this. Logan’s hand caressed the twin mounds briefly before he landed the first loud slap on her backside. Callie yelped more from shock than actual pain, but she squirmed forwards to try to escape the inevitability of a second blow.
‘Logan!’
Logan’s hand came down again; the accompanying smack of flesh against flesh resounded through the air with a sharp tone of finality. Callie cried out as prickles of discomfort coated her skin, her hips squirming against his legs. Logan’s other arm clamped around her waist, holding her weight down effortlessly as he spanked her again and again. Callie writhed in discomfort, feeling her flesh scorched from the sting of Logan’s hand and the embarrassment of her position. He landed another smack and another, and then Callie realised that the sensation of his hand slapping her tender flesh was spreading heat through her lower body. Even as she writhed to escape his blows, she was aware of an increasing swell centring in her pussy. And even more distinctly aware of Logan’s hard cock pressing into her belly. The knowledge that this aroused him only served to intensify her own excitement.
‘Ow! Logan, you’re hurting,’ Callie panted. The pain spread through her blood, firing it with pure sensation.
‘Isn’t that the point of punishment?’ Logan replied, his voice both husky and edged with steel.
Another hot sting landed on her bottom, building into a staccato pattern. Callie moaned and twisted, rubbing her belly against the increasing stiffness of his prick, her legs kicking behind her. Her hands scrabbled at the carpet as she searched vainly for something to grasp on to pull herself away, but Logan’s grip was inexorable. Her bottom flared with scorched heat. Then the rhythm of Logan’s hand paused briefly, and his fingers smoothed gently over her reddened arse before dipping into her sex. He chuckled low in his throat as he touched the certain dampness.
‘Oh.’ A moan escaped Callie’s parted lips as her entire body went limp with relief. Her movements shifted subtly into luscious wriggles as Logan’s fingers began to manipulate her folds with an unmatched expertise.
Callie bit her lip on a groan, unable to prevent the thrusts of her hips as she started to work her body against Logan’s fingers. Her mind swam in sensations evoked by his hard palm slapping against her buttocks, his fingers sliding into the humid warmth of her pussy, his erection pressing obscenely against her belly. Poised on the brink, she closed her eyes, her breath coming in rapid gasps as she struggled to impale herself on his fingers. Then, the movements of his fingers stopped abruptly.
Callie groaned. ‘Logan, please –’
His palm skimmed over her buttocks again before his hands clutched her waist and pulled her upright. Callie grasped his arm to steady herself as her head cleared. A pool of unfulfilled desire expanded within her. She drew in a breath.
‘You bastard,’ she gasped, her hand going automatically to the tender flesh of her bottom. ‘Can’t stand the thought of me with another man, can you?’
Logan stood. His face was a mask, his jaw clenched tightly. He looked at her for a moment, and then his eyes darkened to black the instant before his mouth descended on hers. Callie’s heart leaped as the sheer power of his body sank into her. Anger rolled off him in waves. Her fingers clenched a fistful of his shirt. As his lips pushed hers apart, Logan’s hand slipped around to the small of Callie’s back, forcing their lower bodies together. His cock pushed against her belly with lewd insistence.
Summoning every ounce of energy she had, Callie yanked her head away from him. Her heart pounded wildly, her skin aflame.
‘Now what?’ she snapped, well aware that she was goading him to the point of no return. And also well aware that she was incredibly aroused. ‘You’re trying to prove me wrong so I’ll come home?’
‘Suddenly, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if you come home,’ Logan rasped. ‘But wouldn’t you like to come right here?’
He clutched the back of her neck and dragged her mouth back to his. His tongue thrust into her mouth so swiftly that Callie was shocked by the potent eroticism of his anger. Heat bloomed inside her, swelling her cunt and firing her blood. She gripped Logan’s shirt with her other hand and was seized by a sudden desire to rip it off him and feel every tight muscle in his body. She drew in a sharp breath when he pushed her against the front counter, grinding his hips against hers. Callie twisted her head away from him as his mouth moved down to her neck, his teeth biting down on the vein pulsing ferociously at her throat. His breath scorched her skin.
Thoughts spun out of control in Callie’s mind, blurring and mixing together so fast that she couldn’t grasp on to anything rational. Buttons popped off her blouse, scattering to the floor like marbles. Logan yanked the front clasp of her bra open so quickly that the flimsy material ripped. A sudden feeling of blatant exposure came over Callie, even as her arousal intensified. And then Logan’s lips were on her breasts, tugging at her nipples, his tongue laving them with painful strokes. Callie groaned and felt her body weakening, responding to every touch of his hands and mouth. His dark hair brushed against her skin in a delicious, feather-light contrast to the roughness of his touch. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards her, fumbling to unfasten the buttons, hungry to feel the warmth of his skin. His body heat burnt through the material.
Logan suddenly grasped her hips and turned her around, pushing her down over the counter. Callie gasped when she felt him yank her skirt up again, his hand moving over her sore bottom.
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