“If Kane doesn’t choose you for the Blackwings, that’s his loss.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
“How?”
“Because from where I’m sitting, you’re the most incredible person. You’ve gone through so much, and you cleaned yourself up, picked yourself up, carved out a life.”
“For Brody.”
“Bullshit. You looked up to him as a guideline for normal because you didn’t have that growing up. You’re here now, clean, happy, healthy, a secret strong-as-hell badass because of your own grit. Brody doesn’t get credit for that. You do. You’re enough, Winter.”
She let off a long, shuddering breath at how good that felt to hear. It was a first. “Can you say that again?”
Slowly, Logan lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “You’re enough.”
With a helpless sound, she eased her lips onto his as a thank you because he’d just given her something so important. Something she’d wanted for so long. She’d yearned for one person to feel like that, and it was him.
Logan froze under her lips, but she didn’t care. She laid gentle pecs on him until his mouth softened against hers, and he kissed her back. This wasn’t the match meets gasoline that had happened before. This was gentle sips and soft sucks and shallow nips. It was moving against each other and enjoying each other’s taste, scent, feel.
He cupped her face and wiped her tears away with his thumbs, then slid his tongue past her lips. She loved the scratch of his beard against her soft skin and the way his hand went to her hip and squeezed as though he didn’t want to ever let her go. She loved how he wrapped his strong arm around her head to keep her close. She loved how she couldn’t feel his bear at all and Logan was giving her this beautiful moment without the risk of pain. She wanted it to last forever.
“Stay with me,” she whispered against his lips.
“Winter,” he murmured, easing away as if he would deny her.
She rushed onward. “Stay with me tonight. And tomorrow, stay with me then, too.”
“I can’t give you what you want. I can’t be that for you. I’m not permanent.”
Winter cupped his cheeks and kissed his denial away. “Give me one day at a time. I know you can do it. I was messed up, and I did it one day at a time, held onto the bright sides, clocked my progress, kept track of my little victories until I could get off my knees and stand on my own. And I’ll be here cheering you on, Logan. Please. Just…don’t quit.”
“No more talking,” he said low, and then his lips were on hers, more urgent this time. She could practically taste his desperation to escape her pleading. He slid his hand down her stomach and cupped his hand between her thighs.
Winter gasped and rolled her hips against his touch. She shouldn’t encourage him. Sex with Logan got her hurt last time, but maybe if they just fooled around a little. The purr in her throat rattled louder, as if her panther had no survival instincts at all, and the human side of her was left all alone to make decisions about when to stop Logan.
When he slid his hand down the front of her panties, Winter gasped at how good his fingers felt sliding through her wetness. He circled her clit. Now her claws were out, digging into the back of his neck, keeping him close as he kissed her lips swollen.
“I won’t hurt you,” he whispered against her mouth, but she didn’t miss the hint of a false note in his voice. He was trying to convince himself as much as her. “I won’t,” he said firmer, and there it was. He believed that one.
And as stupid as it was, so did she. Winter rested her leg over his hip. He inhaled sharply, dragged her hips toward him, and rocked his erection against her. He was so big, so hard, and his sweatpants so thin, she could feel the perfect outline of his shaft. She wanted that. Now.
She rolled her body gracefully against his, tempting him to touch her deeper, to touch her more, to ask for everything. His bear was here. He was in his mercury-colored eyes. He was in the scent of predator fur and the soft snarl in Logan’s throat. His bear was here making the air feel heavy, but still, she didn’t experience fear.
Her panther clearly had a death wish, and now Winter was at the mercy of her pheromones. Maybe Logan had been right. Maybe she was going into heat. She hadn’t ever wanted anything or anyone more than Logan right now, and it made no damn sense because her arm was still sore.
Logan rocked them up until she was sitting on the edge of the bed with her back to him. She was confused for a moment before his hand slid her sweater slowly up her back. His fingers brushed her spine the entire way, and when her covering hit the floor, he didn’t pounce, no. Logan pressed the flat of his palm on her shoulder blade and slowly dragged his hand down, raising gooseflesh where he touched her. He settled onto his knees behind her, easing her between his powerful thighs as he pulled her hair gently. When her head was angled to the side, his lips brushed her neck softly, like the stroke of a paintbrush. Behind her, his stomach and chest were rock-hard against her back, but his lips were pliable and easy on her skin.
A large mirror hung on the wall in front of her. Now that her eyes were adjusted to the dark, she could see him perfectly. He lifted those blazing silver eyes to their reflection and locked gazes with her. He looked wild and sexy, his shoulders flexing as he ran his hands down her arms. He opened his jaw wider, as if he would bite her, but he didn’t. His nip stayed gentle and pleasurable on the side of her neck, right under her ear. Oh, he knew her buttons. It was male panther instinct to bite the back of the neck during sex, and it was just as erotic to the females. He was working her neck until she hadn’t the strength to deny either of them.