Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
I wound them off her feet, leaving her in her sweater and a matching gray satin thong.
She looked so perfect sitting there.
Her lips parted.
Her eyes wild.
Her heart hammering.
A fucking fantasy I’d long since forgotten to dream.
I pressed my finger to the little thatch where she was wet between her thighs.
“Even if you lied with your mouth, I’d know you want me, Little Star. Look how wet you are. You’re drenched, aren’t you?”
I ran my finger up and down, up and down, pressing the fabric deeper between her lips with each pass.
She rasped. Lifted her hips from the couch again. “You’re teasing me.”
“You deserve it, don’t you think?” It was close to playful as I dipped the tip of my finger beneath the edge of her panties and dragged it along the sweet spot where her thigh kissed her pussy.
She gulped for air. “Is that what you want? To punish me?”
I pressed my nose to the spot my finger had been, my words a low breath. “No, Aster, I don’t want to punish you. I want to give you the world. I want to chase down every dream you’ve ever had and give it to you. Kill everything that threatens it. I want to fuck you. I want to keep you. I want to feed you and love you and protect you. I want to live for you, Little Star.”
Aster gasped, then her hips bucked high when I ripped her panties from her body. I had my mouth on her faster than she could protest. Before she could say the words I hated.
Thirty days.
Thirty days.
Fuck that.
Fuck Jarek.
Fuck her father.
I fucked her with my mouth, instead.
Drove my tongue deep into her cunt.
Aster fisted my hair in both hands. “Logan.”
I licked her everywhere I could taste her. Tongue thrusting into her pussy before I lapped up to suck her throbbing clit into my mouth, scraping it with my teeth.
Aster moaned and jerked. “Please, Logan. Please. I want to feel you. All of you.”
I edged back to look at her. “You want my cock, baby?”
Her head nodded frantically against the back of the couch.
“No. Not until you know you’re truly mine. Not until I have you, heart, body, and soul. Not until you get that I’m not letting you go.”
I dipped back down between her thighs, hoisting her up so I could lick between her cleft, tongue stroking her asshole because I was going to take that, too.
Aster was an earthquake in my hands. Vibrating. Shaking. A tremor that would bring down her walls.
I slipped higher until I was back to sucking at her needy clit, and she was begging me all over again.
I pushed two fingers deep into her body, rubbed her in that place that had her losing all sanity. I pressed down on her lower stomach at the same time.
“Oh god, Logan…how…I didn’t think it was real…thought it was a dream.”
“It’s real, Little Star. It’s you and me.”
She came apart right then.
Beauty in my hands.
I led her through, as she tightened and quivered and floated toward the sky.
I held her there, whispering, “You’re mine. You’re mine.”
I was going to keep saying it until she understood it.
She slumped down, gasping for breath.
I eased my fingers out of her, then sat up higher so I could kiss her mouth.
Soft and slow.
Tender.
Because I saw the panic in her gaze, rising up from that place that had been broken apart.
“Wait right there.”
Pushing to standing, I moved into my bathroom where I started a bath in the massive tub because I was intent on taking care of this girl. On showing her what she deserved. Who she was and what she meant to me.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised that when I walked back out to get her, Aster Rose was gone. I knew she was afraid.
She had to learn to trust this.
To trust me.
And how would I ever fully trust her if she never stayed?
TWENTY-THREE
ASTER
What was I doing? What was I doing?
I couldn’t stop shaking as I scrubbed my face with cold water in my bathroom.
Every choice I made seemed to bring me closer to disaster. But I couldn’t stop. Not when I was with Logan. Not when he was bringing it all to the surface.
The loss.
The grief.
The fear.
The hope.
The love I had to stop from raging on inside me.
Choking over a sob, I turned off the faucet and rubbed my face with a hand towel until it was almost raw, as if I could wash away every scar. Blot out every stain.
Or maybe find some way to bear a different name.
I suppressed a wail of agony that bubbled up in the towel.
Or maybe it was a war cry.
Tonight...tonight the shackles were too heavy and the only thing I wanted was to break free of them.
I dropped the towel and stared at my reflection in the dusky mirror.