Logan scraped a hand over his face and fought a yawn.He’d had entirely too little sleep since this woman had come to the castle.He blinked, rubbed his eyes and put a hand to the back of his neck to work out the aches developing in his muscles.He could sleep anywhere.It’s what warriors did.He’d been known to prop himself up against a stone wall and drift off with ease on long journeys, or even lie down amongst the heather and get a good few hours of rest.
But the sound of that damned lass’s breaths kept filtering into his mind.His fingertips tingled and he recalled her slick heat trapping them and how her breaths had grown heavy and erratic when he’d brought her to the peak.His blood boiled just thinking on it.
Ach, he was clearly not going to get any sleep this night.
The fire had died down so he eased to standing, wincing as his body pulled and tugged in protest.Quietly snatching up a couple of logs, he added them to the fire and thrust the poker into it before placing it down next to the fireplace.Naturally his gaze fell onto Lorna.
With a hand tucked beneath her head, curled on her side, that dangerous mouth shut, she appeared soft and innocent.No hint of the proud, maddening woman here.She seemed smaller too.He was aware she wasn’t the tallest of women, but the way she drew herself up made a man forget.
Logan noted the slight tremble of her lips.The rest of her was covered with the blanket but he made out the tremor of her body.
“Curses,” he muttered to himself.
Groaning inwardly, he lifted his gaze to the roof and released a resigned sigh.What was it about this woman that ate through his defences?He eased down next to her and lifted the blanket.Warmth and the lemon fragrance of her washed over him.Once settled next to her, he covered them both and nestled her against him.He didn’t place an arm around her—he didn’t trust himself to.If he did that, his hand might stray to the tempting curve of her waist or higher...
Still, she’d be warm enough with his body next to her.Lord knows, he was giving off enough heat to warm the entire keep.That soft rear pressed near him made him feel as though sparks had jumped from the fire and set him alight.
Inexplicably his lids grew heavy as he listened to her breaths and felt the tiny tremors subside.He couldn’t help himself.She eased that ache inside him somehow—the empty one that he’d been left with when he’d awoken with no idea as to who he was.Darkness inched into his mind, his pulse slowed.Her heat and scent cocooned him and lured him into slumber.
When he awoke, he couldn’t be sure how long he’d slept.He woke as he often did, jerking to and covered in sweat.For several moments, his mind fumbled around, searching for facts to cling onto.His heart thudded like a battering ram while his eyes took their time to focus.The room was dark.No windows.The donjon?Was he still shackled?Something pinned down one wrist.Panic rushed through him and agony tore at his neck.It took him several more breaths to realise he was in the kitchen and, nay, though he did not have his full memory back, he did know some facts, unlike the time he’d awoken in the dark, dank donjon with no clue as to how he got there and agony coursing through his entire body.
Logan pressed the scar and waited for the pain to cease.There was no earthly reason it should be so painful but most mornings it plagued him, as if his body recalled being nearly sliced in two.He rolled and saw his arm was trapped under Lorna.She had turned into him and was now nuzzling into his side.
For certain, this was far from the moment he’d awoken from his crazed state.Gillean often reminded him of how he had been driven to the edge of madness by the injury he’d received.What he must have done to himself in that state, he knew not, but if the scars and marks on his body had been anything to go by, the laird had been right to confine him.Some of that damage had not been received in battle.
Lorna pressed her nose into his side then lifted her head.Though the room was gloomy, his eyes had adjusted enough to see the perfect bow shape of her mouth.Her eyes remained shut as she pressed her cheek into him and she wrapped an arm around his waist.He stiffened.
That hand snuck down and he felt his eyes go wide.Gulping, he kept still while her fingers explored the ridges of his stomach through his garments and crept lower still.Ach, but he could not help himself.His body had responded to her presence long before he had awoken and he lifted his hips toward those fingers.Mayhap that would awaken her.
But, alas, it did not.
Instead, her hand found his arousal under the layers of clothing and curled around it.He hissed at the sensation of cool, smooth fingers against his hot flesh.Then she began working her fingers up and down him.Logan glanced at her innocent face briefly, shock reeling through his veins, before giving himself up to the sensation and dropping his head back.
He thrust his hips in time with her movements.His mind shut down and his blood pounded through him.Only the feeling of a feminine body pressed to his side and the remembrance of musk and wet desire remained with him.
“Dinnae stop,” he ground out as his body tightened.
So.Damn.Close.
He groaned.The hand around him stilled, and he groaned again.He slapped his own hand around hers and held it there.When she twisted her head, he saw she’d come awake and her eyes were rounded in horror.But for the life of him, he could not relinquish the feel of her wee hand curled around him.
Logan heard her gulp then...then she leaned into him, kissed his neck and ear, and she began to work her hand up and down him once more.Unable to believe his good fortune, he capitulated once more and closed his eyes.She burrowed her face against his neck, her breaths tickling the hair on his jaw, and worked vigorously to bring him to the edge.He clutched the blanket in one hand and his other found her hip.Fingers digging into her, pleasure rushed through him and with a long shuddering release of breath, he came.
Lorna withdrew her hand and Logan concentrated on drawing in air.She remained tucked into him and even pressed a sweet kiss to his cheek.
“Logan...”she said softly.
Even his name on her tongue made him want to roll her over and see if he couldn’t go again.
“Come with me,” she said.“Let us go from here.”
He tensed.Had it been some game to her?A seduction mayhap?Had she even been asleep?By God, he was a fool.He pushed her away, regretting his roughness when she let out a cry.But when he came to standing his annoyance returned.This lass would do anything she could to use him.Mayhap she believed he was that idiotic, he would do anything after a brief moment of pleasure.But he was not.
Words burned his tongue as she stared up at him.But what was the point?They would argue and she would beg and plead, and try to convince him with her feminine wiles.
No more, he decided.“No more,” he said aloud, and turned to stomp up the stairs.The sticky reminder of his pleasure aggravated him further and he adjusted his garments with a grimace.Damn the lass and damn his weakness.
“Logan!”she called, her voice thin.
