Chapter 33
Chapter 33
Hang on, what?
No, no, no, that wasn’t part of the plan. She couldn’t have fallen in love with her husband, could she?
She set the coffee machine to work while staring out of the window, desperately trying to talk herself
out of this sudden and most unwelcome insight. It was useless however.
“Ah, here you are, up early, my sweet. I clearly have to work on my technique, if you have this much
energy in the morning.” Logan’s strong arms came around her, and her breathing hitched when she
realized he was naked and very much aroused. He nuzzled into her neck, and his warm breath raised
goosebumps on her skin as he whispered in her ear.
“Morning, Mrs. Bryce, you robbed me of our morning cuddles, but here will do just as well.” He dropped
his voice, and her traitorous body simply melted for him. She could never resist him, even less now that
her heart beat only for him. He nudged her legs apart, and slowly ran his hands up her inner thighs
taking the hem of her negligee with him. He groaned when he found her slick folds, and Hannah shut
her eyes and gave herself up to the instant tingles his fingers created as he played her body like the
craftsman he was.
More of her arousal coated his fingers, and his breathing grew harsh. Hannah, too, had a hard time
pulling oxygen into her lungs as she felt the silky tip of his erection slide through her sensitive flesh. A
gasp escaped her lips when he pushed into her body, claiming her in one smooth, long thrust, which
filled her utterly. A hand between her shoulder blades pushed her forward, and she rose on tiptoes as
he started to move. In this position he went deep, awakening nerve endings in over sensitized tissues,
still swollen from their nocturnal activities. Logan wrapped his hand in her hair and tugged her head
back, his mouth next to her ear, as he whispered dirty words, which shouldn’t be a turn-on, but were
nonetheless.
The soft sounds of their bodies slapping together as he upped the pace added another layer of sensory
overload, which meant she flew into the pleasurable abyss, at record time. Logan, too, groaned and
stiffened, his head resting between her shoulder blades as he pumped his essence inside her body.
“Fuck, yes, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Hannah couldn’t help the tears from falling, as he pulled out of her, and reached across for the tissues
to clean her up. His gentle ministrations did her in, and she couldn’t hide the fact she was now openly
crying.
“Shit, did I hurt you?”
Logan spun her around, and the concern on his handsome face was too much.
“No. It’s nothing. I just need to…”
She pushed him away and fled to the relative sanctuary of the bathroom. Not that it lasted long,
because Logan followed her, and the door fair shook under his fist pounding against it.
“Damn it, woman, let me in. What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, please, just go. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Another, much louder thump made her jump and fear for the hinges, before he withdrew.
“Fuck this.”
The fury behind those two words twisted her insides, and she clamped her hand over her mouth to stop
the sobs from escaping.
How on earth was she ever going to survive the next few weeks, knowing that she loved him? It made
her want so much more, so much that she knew he wasn’t prepared to give.
Chapter Ten
Logan scowled at the locked door, stalked back downstairs, and planted his fist into the wall. Not that
the act of violence achieved anything, other than bloody his knuckles. The tower’s walls were ancient
and had withstood much more than one man’s fury.
What the ever-loving fuck though?
Just when he thought he had his wife all figured out and they were getting along swimmingly, she
pulled this stunt on him. Logan snatched a pair of his joggers of the back of the kitchen chair and
grimaced as his injured hand protested yanking them up his legs. He trotted over to the kitchen sink,
turned the water on and held his hand under the stream. Rivulets of crimson water collected in the sink,
the evidence of his own stupidity not helping his mood one little bit.
A soft gasp behind him alerted him to the presence to his errant wife.
“What on earth did you do?” She was next to him in seconds, the weight of her breast resting on his
arm, as she pulled his hand out from under the water, and bent over it to examine it. He tensed when
she probed his knuckles—that fucking hurt—but he made sure none of that showed in his face while he
ground out a surly answer.
“It’s nothing. Leave it be, woman.”
Hannah flinched, but whatever had possessed her to burst into tears like that must have passed,
because she glared up at him in way that she hadn’t done since the early days of their strange
relationship. While a part of him was glad to see her ire, the other, confused, wanting to make this
better for her part—and what the fuck was that impulse about?—ached to hold her in his arms and for
her to open up to him. He liked it far better when they were on the same page. He should have known
that easy rapport wouldn’t last. Jeez, two weeks into their marriage and they were at loggerheads
already.
Hannah gave him an unexpected shove that forced him to take a step back.
“This.” She deliberately poked at the broken skin, and smiled grimly at his wince. “This is not nothing.
Now sit your impossible ass down and let me bandage that up for you. What on earth were you
thinking? Oh, let me guess you weren’t thinking. Damn stupid oaf a man.”
There were other words he didn’t catch, his attention too taken up by the high color in her cheeks, as
she kept on berating him and the stupidity of men in general. At least, she’d lost the haunted, fragile
look she’d had earlier. The one that even now made his cock shrivel and want to hide. A novel
experience around her, for sure. That part of his anatomy was usually raring to go at the mere whiff of
her perfume in the air. A damned nuisance it was, too, but nothing, nada, zilch, just this ache in his gut
he didn’t know what to do with.
When she’d finished her first aid, she glanced at him, and would have left him sitting on the kitchen
chair has he not grasped hold of her wrist and tugged her down and over his lap.
“Logan, no.”
Arms and legs flailing she tried to get off him, but she was no match for his superior strength. He
trapped her legs between his, and holding both of her wrists in in his uninjured hand behind her back,
he used his bandaged one to rain a series of swats on her ass.
“Let me go, dammit, no.”
Each swat turning her backside red sent a shockwave of pain up his hand, but he was determined to
get answers, and this seemed the most expedient way for him to get those answers.
“No, I will not. Not u
ntil you tell me what all those tears were about earlier.” Another few swats on her behind stopped her
struggles, and he knew the minute he got through to her, because she went limp across his lap. The
sweet scent of her arousal perfumed the air between them, and he breathed a sigh of relief that he
hadn’t gotten this all wrong. Logan stopped to massage the by now red-hot globes of her ass, and a
sniffle came from the woman across his lap.
“Please, enough, I’m sorry, I’ll tell you.”
Logan delivered one last playful swat across both cheeks, and then helped her to sit on his lap. He
tucked her hair behind her ears better to see her expression, and dropped a kiss on her nose.
“So, talk, what the hell was that about?”
Hannah shrugged. “It was nothing, I told you. I was just being silly.” Logan didn’t even try to hold in his
irritated grunt, and Hannah jumped and shot him a wary look.
“Don’t give me that whole lot of BS. We agreed we would be honest with each other, did we not?”
“Yes.” He had to strain to hear her whispered answer.
“So, it wasn’t just nothing, was it? Or if it was then it was a much of a nothing as my punching that
damn wall over there.”
He gestured to the offending part of the tower, and Hannah smiled and shook her head.
“That was just plain stupid, Logan.”
He grunted a noncommittal reply and grasped her chin to make her look at him. Some incredibly raw
emotion flitted across her expressive face—one he couldn’t put a name to—before she blinked and the
moment passed.
“It really was nothing, bar my silly hormones.” She dropped her gaze to his collarbone and kept it there.
“I’m due on soon, and I always get tearful around that time, and you know, it just hit me. This is our last
day here, and we have to go back to reality, and I guess I’m just worried how that will all go. And then
there is the looming set of hearings about Rhia, and yeah.”
She briefly glanced up at him and offered him a wobbly smile. It didn’t reach her eyes, and Logan got
the distinct impression that she was not telling him everything. Oh, he believed her worry about Rhia,
sure enough. How could he not when it was a constant bile inducing twist in his own gut? Not winning
permanent custody of his niece didn’t bear thinking about, but it became harder and harder to stuff that
thought back in the box where it belonged.
The truth of the matter simply was, that he could. That all this could be for nothing and there was
nothing he could do about it. Being this helpless went completely against his nature, but he could no
more force the judge to vote in his favor than he could coerce the truth out of his wife.
He was missing something here, and until she told him what that was, he would have to pretend he
believed her. As tempting as it was to pummel her backside until she told him the real reason for her
tears, he wasn’t that guy.
He wasn’t his brother, dammit. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
Hannah still wouldn’t look at him, and Logan sighed.
“Fine, if you insist that’s all it is. Talking of Rhia we best get going. That way we might make it home on
time to pick her up from school.”
That suggestion brought Hannah’s head up in a genuine smile that made his chest feel tight.
“You think we can?”
At his nod, she clapped her hands together and scrambled off his lap.
“What are you waiting for then? Let’s get packed, come on.”
She dragged him back to the bedroom, and the irony wasn’t lost on him. Still, a man couldn’t be jealous
of his niece, right?