I trembled, uncertain of how Chitah men were in the bedroom.
He wiped a few stray hairs from my left cheek. “Did I hurt you?”
“It’s not that.”
His gentle fingers brushed over the bite on my neck. The punctures would leave scars for the rest of my life, and now I was forever marked by two men I hated, but not the one that I cared for.
“I’m going to kill him,” Logan said darkly. “And it’ll be painful so that I can savor his remorse.”
“Shhh,” I whispered.
My hand popped the button on his jeans free. Some of his willpower came off with that button.
Logan sat up, straddling me. “You’re ill.”
Logan captured my wrists.
“What if I said it was doctor’s orders?”
“Then I would know you were lying.” He took a deep breath and pressed his lips in the palm of my hand.
I closed my fingers into a fist. “Now I have your kiss.”
“And what do you plan on doing with it?” He chuckled, softly stroking the wrist of my left hand.
Without answering, I slid my hand between my legs and opened my fingers, releasing the kiss. Logan inhaled sharply.
There was no weakening this man. He was a Chitah and always had the upper hand when it came to seduction. The cocksure tone in his voice returned. “How did you know it was me lying on top of you, hmm?” He stroked his finger across my jaw, in control once more.
“Because I know your smell.”
He eased himself on top of me. “Don’t say things like that. You don’t know the effect they have on me.”
But I did. His sentences sometimes trailed into a growl, but now they ended with a breath. His skin was so warm.
“Touch me,” I begged in a whisper against his cheek.
“Silver, stop. I can’t do this. You need to heal.”
“Doc said I’m healed. Don’t I
feel
all better now?” I nibbled his shoulder, rubbing my hands down his sides and his entire body reacted with a jerk. This was too much restraint for a man who had pursued me as hard as he had. “
Why
don’t you want me?”
Logan hovered. Every word was a caress in all the places that I craved him. Between each of his sentences, he placed a languid kiss against my neck. “I want to seduce you, Little Raven.
Slowly
. Like a delicacy. I want to savor your arousal. Taste you. Touch you with these hands that have memorized every line and curve of your body.”
“Then
touch
me.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking. Don’t put me in a position where I have to deny you.”
My body sagged. “I’ve been asleep for years, Logan. I want this. Right now. With you. If you don’t…”
He lifted my chin up with his finger. “Erase your doubts. Tell me.”
“I’m blind. Maybe I’ll never regain my sight. If you don’t want me now, then I’ll know it’s because you’re not okay with this. I need to know that this doesn’t matter.”
“My doubt has nothing to do with your ability to see.”
“Then what is it?”
“Would you find a male who imposed on you in this weakened state admirable? When I said that I would take you as you are, I meant it. Blind does not mean weak; it means that we’ll experience each other through touch.” Logan’s hand cupped my breast and I moaned. “And taste.” His tongue circled on my shoulder before planting a kiss. “And sound.” A quaking purr rumbled in his chest that soothed me like a lullaby. “And smell.”
“I like your smell.” My legs opened to him.
“A female should be courted properly and I regret going about this the wrong way. I carried a foolish notion that because you’re a Mage, some rules did not apply. But you’re owed the same honors that a female Chitah would get.
He kissed my nose. “We are virile males, Little Raven. Refraining from sex is how we show a female our strength, respect, and control.”
“You’re also a man who likes to break rules, Mr. Cross. And I’m okay with that.”
His fingers were on my hips, clawing. “You know I love when you call me that.”
“Then claim me.”
The heat between us rose by ten degrees. “There’s no going back and undoing what’s been done,” he warned.
“I’m already undone, Logan. I want to feel like I’m more than just a challenge in your eyes—but a light.”
His hand flattened over my chest. “Female, you are the most relevant thing about me.”
I closed my eyes and murmured, “I wish I could see your face.”
Logan stretched across me and a switch clicked. “Sight is overrated. Now that we’re both in the dark, what shall I do with you?” His long fingers trailed up my inner thigh and paused so close to my panties that I felt the heat from his hand and moaned. “Someday, Little Raven, my eyes will feast on your body.”
His expert hand massaged me so slowly that whatever doubt I had about his intentions melted away. His thumb grazed over my sex and I lifted my hips for more.
A delicious purr sounded against my ear. “You are a luscious female.”
“Turn on the lights if you want.”
“No.” His mouth covered mine and his tongue was hot and velvety. As he deepened the kiss, he released his hold and the weight of his body settled on me.
“Ah,” Logan whispered. “I seem to remember you saying something about enjoying foreplay.” He sat up.
Well this is an odd way to go about it, I thought.
Logan held my bent knees, slightly prying apart my legs. “Where should I begin?” he contemplated.
When his left hand moved away, I held my breath in anticipation.
A feathery touch brushed over my panties, stroking me so insistently that I made one of those wonderful, pleading moans that every man loves to hear.
“So sensitive,” he murmured, kissing my knee and licking my inner thigh.
My heart raced, my body trembled, and I knew with everything in me that I wanted Logan.
Without warning, he hopped off the bed and pulled off his jeans. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn he was taking his time to draw out the suspense. Maybe he was reading my scent like a book and had discovered the art of cliffhangers.
His fingers leisurely slid down my leg.
“Sit up.”
I never knew what to expect with Logan Cross. Nerves fluttered in my stomach and I sat on the edge of the mattress with my legs hanging off the side.
“Raise your arms,” he said.
My loose shirt lifted away from my body and fell to a heap on the floor. His fingers gathered the ends of my hair, feeling the length of it as they moved down—the backs of his hands caressing my breasts.
“Don’t be nervous—I won’t hurt you,” he reassured me, having picked up my tangled scent of arousal and tension.
“What are Chitah women like in bed?” I couldn’t help but blurt out the question.
“Submissive.”
“Those women at that party didn’t seem very submissive.”
He chuckled, lightly rubbing my shoulders. “In the bedroom, most of them will submit to a male as a show of respect. We certainly don’t expect them to; it’s just in their nature.”
“Can I take this off?” I asked, touching the buttons on his shirt.
He stepped closer and I hooked my fingers around an opening and ripped it apart. The tiny buttons dismantled, tapping across the floor.
“Sorry,” I said. “That wasn’t very submissive of me.”
Logan sucked in a sharp breath and his fingers dug into the skin on my shoulders. “Tell me what you want me to do to you, Little Raven,” he murmured.
That took me off guard. Sex was always a recreational activity—like exercising. Which happened to be two things I didn’t do very often, but when I did, there wasn’t much of a warm-up.
I shrugged so that he could feel my uncertainty. “Kiss me?”
He knelt on the hardwood floor, sliding his hands up my thighs and nuzzling his cheek against my stomach until I thought that I would expire. “Where?”
That single, suggestive word charged the air with infinitesimal sparks. An awareness grew between us like a tug of war—a push and pull of energy in its most basic form.
Logan stood up and took my hand, pulling me to my feet. The distance between us made my heart race like an anxious hummingbird.
“I can scent your nervousness.”
My voice was breathier than I intended it to be. “I can’t help it, Mr. Cross. You have that effect on me.”
“Mmm,” he purred. “Step closer.”
I inched forward.
“Closer.”
My stubborn feet moved nearer on the cool, wood floor.
“
Closer
,” he whispered insistently until our bodies touched. “Good.”
The feel of his chest against mine was overwhelming. He used my body as a map to find direction and lifted my chin with the crook of his finger to kiss me. “Each time you get nervous, I want you to remember that you have me completely… in your thrall.”
“Thank you for Max.”
“Your heart was running free on the streets of Texas, so I wanted to bring it home.”
“Where did you keep him? Finn didn’t mention it.”
“Levi. He’s pretty keen on the fella. Chitahs aren’t really big on keeping pets, but now he’s been talking about getting himself one.”
My fingers were doing a little exploring of their own between our small talk, admiring the lines of muscle in his broad shoulders. Logan was built for speed—svelte and tall, but his body was toned and capable. “Your hair seems longer,” I noted, touching the ends of it. My fingers trailed down to the V cut along his abdomen, sliding down the grooves.
Logan dropped to his knees and hooked his fingers on the edges of my panties, slowly…
slowly
pulling them down. Some random thought struck me about how I really wanted him to tear them off with his teeth.
God yes, this
was
going to happen. He rolled his tongue below my navel, circling dangerously. “What about Justus and Christian?” I asked.
He lowered his voice. “They don’t exist.” His hand wedged between my legs. “Just you and me; we’re the last two left on earth.”
A throbbing ache took hold as he scorched me with his touch and tempted me with his words. I’d never felt so sensitive, where even the softest gust of air or brush of a finger was multiplied times a hundred.
“I’m on bended knee, Silver. Tell me you want me.”
“Take me to the bed,” I whispered. My legs were not going to hold me up any longer.
He lifted me and I held onto his neck. “I’ll take you… anywhere you ask me to,” he murmured.
My heart pounded when the sheets cooled my back. Logan measured the distance from my thigh to my breast with his tongue. The darkness brought such an unexpected intensity of heightened awareness. Even the exaggerated sound of the sheets rustling beneath his knees was erotic.
“Oh, Miss Silver. You do have the loveliest bosom.”
A laugh almost erupted from me until his mouth latched onto my nipple. When he swirled his tongue, I moaned in a soft breath. I’d waited for that moment for so long—the one place I wanted to feel his lips, and they were so generous and attentive.
“I’m a man of patience,” he said, kissing around the curve of my breast, “but I’ve waited an excruciatingly long time to taste you.”
“What would you have done if I made you wait years?”
“I would have learned how to give you an orgasm from a kiss.”
My heart quickened. His bedroom words were even better than his bedroom eyes. I luxuriated beneath his expert touch and melted into a pool of desire. Nothing else existed, just the feel and smell of a man who handled me like a goddess.
Seconds? Minutes? It seemed like hours that he marveled over every inch of skin with his tongue until I was writhing beneath him. His arms caged me, hair sliding across my chest, and the rhythm of his wet tongue and whiskers left me breathless.
There was a tug as he pulled the mood ring off my finger.
“I thought it didn’t bother you?” I asked softly.
“It’s yours, but when I take you I want nothing on you—especially a token that another male has given you.” The ring tapped on the bedside table to my left.
I cupped my hand around his neck and stroked my thumb against the bristles on his jaw. “Logan, I want to touch you while I still can. It requires concentration to keep my light reined in, but this is something that I need to learn how to control.”