The following Friday, Logan drove out to Katie’s place after work.

He’d had a lot to do that day, so it was almost seven by the time he got to her little house.

She must have had a busy day too because she was just getting home when he pulled up the drive. She was getting out of her car, trying to manage her phone, her bag, and her travel mug all at once without dumping anything on the ground.

He smiled at the sight of her balancing on her heels and closing her car door with her hip.

She was clearly still in the middle of a long, drawn-out conversation when he joined her at the front door, taking her mug and her keys so he could unlock the door for her.

Her bag got dropped in an unceremonious heap in the entryway, like normal, and she slipped off her heels and left them beside her bag.

“I know it’s terrible,” she said into the phone. “I know it’s not fair. But there’s no sense in getting too upset about it until we hear what the judge decides. And even if that’s not the decision we want, we still have a lot of options.”

She made a face at Logan, which indicated she was sorry she couldn’t get off this call.

He was used to it and didn’t really mind. Katie had a soft heart. She didn’t want to hang up on her clients, even when they were clearly just using her as a sounding board for their woes. A lot of them could afford to pay her for those long conversations even if they accomplished nothing but making her clients feel better.

Katie looked a little stressed out this evening though. He hoped this particular client wasn’t getting to her. He hoped she wasn’t taking it personally.

He opened the bottle of wine he’d brought with him and poured a glass for both Katie and himself. He’d brought takeout with him too this evening, so he started pulling the containers out of the big paper bag.

By the time he’d laid all the food out on the counter, Katie had managed to hang up.

“Sorry,” she said, sighing deeply as she leaned her chin on her hand, her elbow propped up on the counter.

“Don’t be. Is everything all right?”

“I don’t know. Marla’s husband is the biggest ass on the planet. He’s got his lawyer filing all these motions just to slow things down and drive up my bill, making things more expensive for Marla. I don’t know how a man who claimed to love Marla in the past could do this kind of thing to her now.”

He checked her expression, saw that it was twisted with emotion. He put down his glass of wine and walked around the counter so he could pull her into his arms.

She shook against him for just a minute. “Sorry,” she mumbled. She wasn’t really crying, but she was close.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” He stroked her hair and enjoyed the feel of her soft body against his, even as he tried to comfort her.

She pulled away after a moment and met his eyes. “I’m not upset about us though. Just about Marla.”

Some of the tension in his shoulders relaxed. He didn’t want Katie to be upset about anything, but he particularly didn’t want her to have any doubts about their relationship. She’d seemed so happy all week.

Just as happy as he was.

And he felt like the entire world had been remade before his eyes.

“I’m glad,” he told her. “Not that you’re upset about Marla, but that—”

She laughed and stretched up to kiss him. “I know what you mean.”

He liked the kiss very much, and he tried to deepen it. He groaned when she pulled away from him.

“I’m starving,” she said with a smile, heading toward the containers of Italian food he’d laid out on the counter. “Food first. Kissing later.”

That seemed like a reasonable deal to Logan.

They chatted about work as they ate, and Katie asked about the father of his partner, Carl, who’d had the heart attack two weeks ago and then triple-bypass surgery.

He was starting to recover, which Logan was happy about.

“Have you heard from your parents?” Katie asked, finally pushing her plate aside once she’d eaten her fill.

“Yeah, my mother has called twice this week.” Logan chuckled. “I think she wants to make sure I’m not messing things up with you.”

“Why would she think that?”

“It’s been known to happen,” he admitted. “I’m not the most open or emotionally available man in the world, you know.”

She smiled at him fondly, reaching over to smooth down a piece of hair that insisted on sticking straight up. “I hope you told her that you’re the best boyfriend in the universe.”

“I told her no such thing.”

“Well, you should. Because you are.”

He shook his head, but he couldn’t help but smile back at her. He’d never known his heart could feel so much, could hold so much emotion—all of it directed at one slim, pretty, smart, sensitive, absolutely amazing woman.

“I’ll tell her when I see her next,” Katie added with a teasing look.

“I hope you won’t.”

“Someone needs to brag on you.”

“I don’t know why.”

“Because you’re incredible and the world should be made aware of that fact.” She leaned over to kiss him.

He got excited as he responded to her embrace, resulting in both their stools nearly toppling over.

Giggling, Katie stood up and started to clear up their plates. Logan sighed resignedly as he helped her.

Surely pretty soon he’d be able to touch her the way he wanted to.

Finally the dishes were done, and the phones were put away, and they were sitting together on the couch.

There was no reason in the world now for Logan not to pull her over so she was straddling his lap.

“Kind of impatient today, aren’t you?” Katie murmured, rubbing herself against him and evidently feeling that he was already starting to get hard.

“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” he admitted, pulling her down into a deep kiss.

Once he had her in his arms like this, there was no way to hold himself back. He kissed her thoroughly and caressed the sweet curves of her bottom, her hips, her breasts, wanting to feel every inch of her again.

He pulled off her top since it was just getting in the way.

Soon she was as eager as he was. She was making pretty little moans as he fondled her breasts through the thin fabric of her bra. Her head had fallen backward, and she looked lush, decadent, helplessly aroused.

He couldn’t believe he was capable of making her look that way, feel that way. It filled his mind, his chest, with a rush of purely masculine pride.

Wanting to extend the aching pleasure, he put his hands on her hips to hold her still, to stop her from grinding herself against him in that torturous way. He unclasped her bra and pulled it away from her skin, his erection throbbing painfully at the sight of her firm, bare breasts.

He lifted her up enough for him to take first one nipple and then the other in his mouth.

She was so deliciously responsive, whimpering in pleasure and arching in toward him with wanton enthusiasm. Soon she was mumbling out a series of pleas for him to touch her more, take her hard, make her come, and the breathless words couldn’t help but go to Logan’s head.

He adjusted their bodies so she was on her back on the couch and he was above her. He slowly took off the rest of her clothes until she was laid out beneath him, naked and ripe for the taking. Then he kissed his way down her belly until he could pleasure her with his mouth. He took her to the brink and then back again, teasing her until her cries were loud and helpless.

“Please, Logan,” she begged, clawing at his shirt. “Please, please, make me come. I’m dying here. I want you so much.”

He knew it was true. He could see it in the urgent wriggling of her body, the gush of moisture between her legs.

And he wanted to satisfy every need she would ever have.

He quickly undid his trousers to free his erection. “Turn over, baby,” he said in a voice that sounded like gravel.

She immediately did as he instructed, presenting her firm, rounded ass to him in a way that made him want to howl. Then he positioned himself behind her and slid himself home.

Both of them groaned in pleasure at the penetration.

He was feeling too much to go slow tonight. His rhythm was immediately fast, uncontrolled, almost rough as he thrust into her from behind. She came almost immediately, almost choking on her pleasure. And then she came again as he kept pushing into her hard. She buried her face in the couch cushion to muffle her screams.

Her whole body was shaking with the aftermath of her orgasms when he pulled out and turned her over again. When he fit himself into her body once more, he reached down to wrap her legs around him exactly as he loved most.

She pulled him down into a kiss as he started rocking over her again. She moved with him, eagerly, wildly, perfectly. She wanted to take everything he could give her.

“I love you,” she was gasping as her body started to tighten again. She usually didn’t come this many times, but he’d worked her up with the extended foreplay and it had clearly had an effect on her body. “I love you, Logan. Oh God, I’m going to come again.”

“Yes, baby.” He was grunting as he realized he couldn’t last much longer. “Love you too. Come, baby. Come.”

She opened her mouth in a silent scream as her body began to shudder and quake again, and this time he let himself go too. The rush of pleasure, satisfaction, completion almost leveled him.

He collapsed on top of her when the sensations finally dissipated, leaving only a delicious, sated languor.

Katie was obviously feeling it too. She kept mumbling, “Oh God. Oh God,” as her body softened beneath his.

After a few minutes, she started to stroke his hair.

He was feeling more capable of forming words now, so he raised his head and pressed a soft kiss on her lips.

“That was amazing,” she said.

He grunted. Evidently his power of speech hadn’t returned quite yet after all.

“I didn’t know you could be like that. So… so dominant.” Her smile made it clear that she’d really liked it.

He’d liked it too. “Only with you.”

Her smiled deepened. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

“You can hold it to me for the rest of my life—because that’s how long I’m going to be loving you.”

“I’m going to be loving you for the rest of my life too.”

And Logan couldn’t think of anything in the world that would make him happier than that.