Chapter 13
Logan could see by the rapid pulse in August’s throat how unnerved she was by him. Along with a contradictory angry glitter in her eyes, no doubt at the memory of the way he had dismissed their lovemaking earlier today.
Much as Logan resented the interference, he knew Atticus was right, and this wasn’t the time for Logan’s concentration to be split by wanting August and trying to protect her at the same time. He couldn’t do both, or either, to the best of his ability if his attention was divided. Hopefully, August would let him explain that to her when this was over.
“Well?” Logan stepped away as he challenged her over his last question.
Her shoulders slumped. “You’re coming in to work with me, aren’t you?”
He gave a grin. “I doubt your employer will object to having an extra man on security at the gallery tomorrow.”
August doubted it too. Mr. Jervis was so desperate for the Waterston exhibition to go well that he would no doubt welcome the extra security Logan could provide.
Which was of absolutely no help whatsoever as to how August was supposed to get through the rest of the evening and night in Logan’s apartment. Especially if he had any more of those nightmares.
“Chinese food for dinner,” he now reminded her.
August’s gaze didn’t quite meet his. “Just order whatever you like, and I’ll have some of that.”
“Fine,” he accepted, crossing the room to remove several takeout menus from a drawer in the dresser along one wall. “Any particular likes or dislikes? And I was referring to the food,” he added as she narrowed her eyes.
“I’ll eat anything but oysters—and you can keep your remarks to yourself on that subject,” she warned as Logan would have spoken.
Surprisingly, once the food arrived, the two of them managed to eat in a companionable silence, August helping to clear away the empty containers once they’d both had enough to eat.
Although, August could feel her tension rising the later the hour got. She’d had very little sleep the night before and only a short nap this afternoon, and even though it was only ten o’clock at night, she just wanted to fall into bed and sleep for nine or ten hours.
“Go to bed whenever you feel like it,” Logan told her evenly when he saw her trying to hide a yawn. “I put your bag in your bedroom before I joined you and Haydn in the kitchen earlier.”
She frowned. “What are you going to do?”
He shrugged. “I have some stuff to go over on my laptop before I go to bed.”
August lingered in the kitchen. “Do you and Haydn really think Adam might have had something to do with the attack on Jenna?” She hadn’t said much at the time, but she found the bank account information on Adam, along with those strange provisos in his father’s will, as much of a concern as they obviously did.
“We’ll know more once we’ve checked it all out in greater detail,” he dismissed.
In other words, Logan wasn’t going to share any more of that information with her for now.
Needing to sleep and being able to do so were two distinctly different things, August quickly discovered, once she had changed into her sleep clothes and crawled beneath the bedcovers.
And it didn’t take two guesses to know why that was.
Logan.
It was over three hours since she had left him in the kitchen. The apartment was silent, with no strange noises to keep her awake. Yet August was totally aware of the fact she hadn’t heard Logan go to bed yet.
He must be as tired as she was, maybe more so, and surely he wasn’t still working at almost one o’clock in the morning?
August continued fighting the instinct to go and check for herself for another fifteen minutes. But she finally couldn’t take it anymore, climbing out of bed to pull on and fasten her knee-length robe before padding softly down the hallway to where she could still see a dimmed light on in the sitting room.
She came to a halt in the shadows of the doorway when she saw Logan sitting on one of the couches, his dark hair tousled as if he had run his fingers through it roughly and often. His laptop was open on the low coffee table in front of him, but he seemed to be staring blankly at the screen rather than actually doing any work on it. There was also an unopened bottle of whisky and a glass sitting on the table beside the laptop. August ruefully noted it wasn’t the twenty-one-year-old single-malt that she had shown such disrespect for the previous evening.
Before she had chance to turn and go silently back to her bedroom, she saw Logan lean forward and close the laptop. He pushed the coffee table away from him before stretching out and splaying his long legs, then resting his head on the back of the couch.
His eyes were fully open as he stared up at the ceiling. “I can’t sleep.”
August stilled at the realization Logan not only knew she was there but was also talking to her.
He tilted his head sideways to look at her, a rueful smile curving his lips. “You didn’t do anything to give yourself away, I just have very good hearing.”
August stepped farther into the room. “Can I do anything to help you sleep?”
He raised dark brows. “Now there’s a leading question,” he teased.
There was something about being awake in the early hours of the morning that made it seem as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. It stripped away all inhibitions, leaving only what was important in that particular moment.
What was important to August right now was that, despite their verbal disagreements and her objections, Logan had done everything he could to protect her from the moment they’d first met. He had possibly put himself in danger by doing so.
August wanted to do something for him. To take away, if only for a few minutes, the memories that haunted Logan and prevented him from sleeping.
She padded softly across the room, holding his gaze as she stood between his splayed legs before dropping lightly down onto her knees. She could feel Logan’s sudden tension as she placed her hands on his thighs.
He looked at her uncertainly. “August…?”
“You’re the most annoying man I’ve ever met.” Her gaze was lowered as her fingers moved to unfasten the button on his jeans. “Irritating to the point that half the time, I just want to hit you or throw something at you.” She slowly lowered the zip on those jeans.
“And the other half?” he prompted huskily as he lifted up slightly so that August could pull his jeans and boxers down his thighs, baring the rigid length of his cock.
“The other half…” She glanced up at him as she licked her tongue across her lips. “I want to do this.” She moved up onto her knees before lowering her head and taking the tip of his cock between her moist lips.
Logan gave a low groan, followed quickly by another one as August’s lips parted even farther and his cockhead was completely engulfed inside the heat of her mouth. He closed his eyes as her tongue delved moistly into the slit at the top before she began to alternately suck the tip and flick her tongue into the sensitive slit.
It was fucking torture.
This shouldn’t be happening. He was supposed to be keeping his distance. Protecting August. Not—
“Oh dear God…” Logan sank farther down the couch, legs splayed as wide as the jeans about his thighs would allow. August took his length to the back of her throat. “So good, August,” he groaned. “So fucking good.” He felt his legs start to tremble when August lifted up again, swirling her tongue over the sensitive tip before once again sliding his cock to the back of her throat.
His hands reached out blindly, fingers becoming entangled in the silky length of August’s hair while she gave a hum of agreement that went straight to his balls, drawing the sac up tight beneath his throbbing cock.
All he could feel was the silky hot pleasure of August’s mouth engulfing his cock. Sucking. Licking. Driving him closer and closer to the edge of release.
“Don’t stop.” His fingers tightened in her hair as he began to thrust fiercely into that fiery heat, deep, and then deeper still as August miraculously relaxed the muscles at the back of her throat. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Logan lost all control, his release shooting hotly into August’s mouth in creamy blasts.
She continued to suck and lick him until she had consumed every last drop, giving his cockhead one last pleasurable sweep with her tongue before raising her head to look at him with eyes of dark green.
Something clenched in Logan’s chest when he saw the tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. “Dear God, did I hurt you?” He placed his hands beneath her elbows and lifted her until she was sitting on his thighs, her face buried against his throat. “August, speak to me.” Logan placed a hand beneath her chin and tried to lift her face so he could see her, but she resisted, instead burrowing even deeper against him. “August, I need to know you’re okay.” He might have been totally lost in the pleasure August gave him, but he would never forgive himself if he’d hurt her.
“I’m fine,” she assured him huskily. “I just wasn’t expecting… I choked for a few seconds until I learned how to breathe through my nose when you pulled back. It was so good.” She trembled in his arms, fingers tightly gripping the front of his T-shirt. “Your taste is— I had no idea how erotic that would feel…”
Logan stilled. “Are you telling me you’ve never done that before either?”
“I knew the mechanics of it, just not how…enjoyable and—and intimate it would feel.”
A frowned creased Logan’s brow. “The mechanics?”
August nodded. “Jenna and I looked up on line how to do it but—”
“You and Jenna looked it up on line?” Logan repeated incredulously.
“Well, yes.” She gave throaty—embarrassed?—laugh. “Just in case, you know.”
The frown seemed to have taken up residence on Logan’s brow. He couldn’t believe he was hearing this. “No, I don’t know.”
“Women aren’t born with the inborn knowledge of how to—to do that to a man, and Jenna and I wanted to be prepared. If the situation ever arose,” she added awkwardly as she seemed to realize she was talking about Logan’s adopted sister.
“They have instructions on line how to perform fellatio?”
August shrugged. “They have everything else on there, so why not that?”
“I don’t— It’s never even occurred to me how— Did you have to practice on a banana or something?”
August giggled. “Of course not.”
Logan tilted his head so he could see her face. The tears had now dried on her flushed cheeks, her lips red and slightly fuller than normal.
Because seconds ago, he had been thrusting his cock between them like a man possessed. August had even managed to relax the muscles at the back of her throat to allow his cock to go deeper, something not all women could or chose to do. Not all women were happy having a man come in their mouth either.
Logan winced. “And you’re seriously telling me this ‘situation’ has never arisen before?” God, he hoped August couldn’t hear the jealousy in his voice.
“No.”
His eyes widened. “I really was your first?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus…” he breathed. “In that case, you can go to the top of the class, because that was fucking incredible!”
She gave him another of those shy glances that was playing havoc with his heart. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“Enjoyed doesn’t even begin to describe how it felt to be in your mouth and down your throat.” Logan moved to lie full length on the couch, taking August with him. He even managed to pull his jeans and boxers back over his arse. “It’s time for me to pleasure you now.” One of his hands moved to pull apart the belt on her robe and push the sides apart before moving to unfasten the waistband of her sleep shorts.
“Um.” The blush deepened in August’s cheeks as she tried to wiggle away from his caressing hand.
Logan stilled. “Are you still sore from yesterday?”
“No.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I… I already came, and I’m feeling a bit sensitive,” she admitted with an embarrassed wince.
His brows rose. “You did?”
“Mm.” She nodded, once again her gaze not meeting his. “Making love to you felt so incredibly hot, I couldn’t hold back.”
“God, that’s so…” Logan’s hands cupped either side of her face as he kissed her long and deeply before resting his forehead against hers. “Can I touch you there?”
She blinked. “Why?”
“Because I want to do this.” Logan’s palm pressed against her lower abdomen, his fingers stroking through the cream slicking the lips of her channel.
She arched into those caresses. “Sensitive,” she reminded as his fingers brushed over her swollen clitoris.
Logan’s gaze held hers as he brought his hand to his lips to slowly lick and suck her release from his fingers. “You taste delicious.”
August quivered with renewed arousal, her body becoming hot and needy as she continued to watch Logan’s tongue as it licked delicately between each of his fingers, a low groan of pleasure humming in his throat.
She might have reason to regret this in the morning, or maybe the day after, possibly even next week, but for the moment, August was exactly where she wanted to be. This, being with Logan, the incredible closeness she felt to him, was something she would remember for the rest of her life.
Because, incredible as it might appear, as impossible as it might seem, somehow in the past two days, August knew she had fallen in love with this incredibly annoying and yet beneath-the-surface vulnerable man. That she wanted nothing more than to stay cradled in his arms, safe and warm—
“For fuck’s sake, Logan, you know better than to not answer your cell phone— Jesus !” A man August didn’t know had come to an abrupt halt in the doorway to the sitting room.
But he looked enough like Logan and Rourke for her to know this had to be another one of Steele brothers.