But his eyes were dark, bottomless pools that pulled her in and wouldn’t let her go. “I’m not very good at this,” he said, his voice full of gravel. “Clearly, I said the wrong thing last night, came on too strong or something, and I want to fix that.”
She forced herself to take a step back. Her chest ached. Yes, she wanted to burrow into his chest and let him hold her and tell her it would all work out.
But she wasn’t sure that was what was going to happen, so until she was sure, she was staying safely out of touching range.
Logan’s touch was far too distracting to trust—like the rest of him now.
“Drink your coffee,” she said, trying to desperately remember the now clear-as-mud plan she’d had when she woke up.
Right.
She’d wanted to storm into his room.
And then she’d chickened out—which she was doing all over again right now.
A muscle in his jaw twitched, but he reached for the mug and slowly lifted it to his mouth. His eyes never left her face, so she did the only thing she could think of. She turned around and busied herself with setting breakfast on the table.
When she turned around again, Logan’s eyes were trained right where her butt had been and he was doing absolutely nothing to hide the fact that he had an erection.
“Breakfast?” she asked weakly.
“Nope.” He put his mug down. “We need to clear some shit up first.”
“I don’t want to,” she blurted out. Her face flamed. Yes, she did. But she didn’t. Not if it was going to be bad.
But if it might be good?
The erection promised good stuff, right?
Or he was just a guy who got horny at the sight of an available ass.
Not that her butt was available.
Except…it was. Maybe.
He frowned. “Tor, we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. I want you. I can’t hide that any longer.”
“I see that,” she whispered. In fact, she really couldn’t take her eyes off it.
Now who was objectifying who?
“He’s not going to bite.” He laughed. “Although I could. If you want me to.”
A little squeak slipped past her lips and she pressed them tighter together as she shook her head. No biting. Heat flooded through her at the idea of his teeth on her skin. Definitely…no biting. At all. Not even on her nipples, or her inner thighs, or…
He moved closer and she stepped back. He reached for her hand and she spun around. His back collided with hers and once again she was in his arms, his fingers grazing the line of skin along her belly where her tank only sort of met her shorts.
She closed her eyes as he held her tight, his breath sweeping across her temple. His mouth settled next to her ear. “I love you.”
“I know, I love you, too.”
“No.” His palms spread wide against her sides. Her heart hammered hard in her chest, not wanting to imagine that the touch was possessive, but knowing it was—for better or for worse. “I love you, love you. With my heart and soul and all that shit.”
“Don’t go getting all romantic on me,” she said weakly, because even in his characteristically curt way, she knew what he meant—and it made her head spin.
“I didn’t want to stop yesterday. I thought I should, so I did, because I always want to do right by you. But you gotta know it took every ounce of willpower I had.”
“Logan…”
“I’m right here.”
She pressed her eyes shut and gave in to the heat blooming inside her. The hot, hungry desire he’d ignited. “What did you want to do?”
“Everything.” He groaned and pressed his face into her hair. “I wanted to strip you out of your swimsuit and taste you all over. I wanted to sink inside you and mark you from the inside out. I want you to be mine, Tori. I’m not fooling around here.”
“This is crazy.”
“Yeah. Totally insane. Doesn’t change the fact that’s how I feel about you. And I know this is the worst time to tell you. I get that. But I kissed you, and I can’t take that back. And somehow I gave you the erroneous impression that I was conflicted about that, about wanting you. I’m not. Maybe I should have told you sooner,” he muttered in her ear.
Her heart lurched. “That would have been just as hard,” she whispered, twisting her head so she could see his profile. “And what would have been the point?”
He rolled his shoulders, the planes of his chest hard as they bumped against her back. “Maybe there wasn’t, then. Maybe we needed to wait.”
“You’re still on the other side of the country, Logan.”
“Not right now. Not every time I’ve visited you.”
“And I’ve come to you. But then we have to say goodbye again.”
“Maybe now we’ll stop saying goodbye, and start saying…” He shrugged. “I dunno. How about, ‘I can’t wait to do it all over again?’”
“Do what?”
He squeezed her hips with his hands as he turned her slowly, reverently, and lifted her up to sit on the counter. His face softened as he leaned in close and cupped her cheeks in his hands. “This.”
Twelve