Healed with a Kiss (Bride Mountain 3)

He gazed down at her with a gleam in his hazel eyes. “Maybe later.”

Okay, so things felt a bit more normal now. He wasn’t here to make small talk or share confidences or any of those other little niceties that would make them feel like an established couple. It was just as it had always been before their anomalous trip to Seattle had left her worried about changing expectations—though she wasn’t sure if she’d been more concerned about his or her own. She assured herself she was quite relieved, actually, that he didn’t want to change anything.

She stepped into his arms and lifted her face to him. “I think Fiona and Ninja would like to be alone for a while.”

“Do you?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then by all means.”

She sputtered in surprise and laughter when he swept her into his arms and carried her toward the bedroom.

He was already hard and ready by the time he tumbled her onto the bed, his hands busily tugging at her shirt and jeans.

“Wow,” she said when she emerged from the shirt he swept over her head, dislodging her glasses along with it. She set them quickly aside.

Logan’s grin could definitely be described as roguish. “It’s been a very long time.”

She could have replied that two weeks wasn’t such a long time. That they’d gone longer than that in the past without seeing each other. But the thing was, these past two weeks had seemed very long to her, too. And she was just as eager to get him out of his clothes.

As always, passion flared quickly between them when they finally lay skin to skin. Still, Logan slowed his movements, taking time to savor, appreciate, pleasure. He was always a generous lover, but there seemed to be a new element to his caresses tonight. A tenderness that took her off guard, that brought a hard lump to her throat even as his clever fingers drove her to the point of dazed incoherence.

She had to make a concerted effort to regain some control, to push against his shoulders and roll him onto his back to grant her lips access to his throat, his chest and lower. She ran her hands over him, tracing muscle and bone, planes and angles, sleek skin and scars. Loving every inch of him she touched.

Her hands froze as the word echoed discordantly in her mind. Loving? No. She appreciated him. She was wildly attracted to him. She liked him very much. But that was all there was to it. All she would allow it to be.

Taking advantage of her sudden stillness, he rolled her beneath him, his mouth seeking hers, his tongue plunging to tangle with hers. She pushed semantics aside, choosing instead to focus solely on the physical.

He cupped her face between his hands as he pushed into her. She felt the tremors running through his fingers, the rigidity of the muscles beneath her palms, both signs of the fierce control he exerted. She wrapped herself around him, urging him on, moving her mouth more feverishly against his until his restraint broke and he swept them both into madness.

She had no idea how much time passed before she could think clearly again, before her heart returned to a somewhat regular rhythm. Logan was still breathing a little heavily, but his eyes were open when she turned onto her

right side to look at him. His mouth curved in a satisfied smile. She adjusted her pillow beneath her right cheek to more comfortably study him.

“So it really was a long two weeks, hmm?” she asked, her voice husky.

He put his right arm behind his head, sprawling unself-consciously nude against her tumbled sheets, his left leg bent up at the knee next to her. “You have no idea.”

Laughing softly, she said, “And then I came along with the blue-light kerfuffle to top off your day.”

He chuckled. “The blue-light kerfuffle?”

“Followed by the white-rose episode. Although that was more Ninja’s fault than mine.”

“Dumb dog,” he said indulgently.

“Oh, he’s far from dumb. In fact, he seems a little too intent on making it clear that he knows me better than we’ve let on.”

Logan shrugged. “It’s not like he can talk.”

She glanced toward the doorway. “I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if he could.”

He gave an exaggerated sigh and shook his head. “He’s a dog.”

“Yes. A very strange and special dog, like my strange and special cat.”

He laughed softly.