LOGAN (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 5) (38 page)

He kissed her hand again. "We're good."

"Then may I please have sex now?"

His jaw dropped and he laughed. "I thought you were kidding."

"Don't worry. Since I did the asking, I'll do all the work." She used her poking finger to back him up to the armless chair then tugged his shirt over his head. Her fingers combed through the hair on his chest as she kissed and nibbled one aroused little peak then the other. While her mouth kept him distracted, she loosened the waistband of his pants and eased them and his shorts down to his ankles.

The strength of his erection was visible proof of how she made him feel, but she wanted much more after what he'd put her through the past two weeks. She wanted him to be really sorry he'd waited so long to give in to the inevitable.

Kissing her way down his abdomen, she knelt to help him out of his shoes and clothing. In that position, her hands learned the shape of the hard muscles of his calves and thighs, then moved up to squeeze his well-formed buttocks and lick his taut stomach. She softly blew her warm breath along his arousal, making him twitch in response before she touched him with her hands.

Wanting to bring him as close to the edge as possible, she teased him with her tongue and teeth until his fingers tangled in her hair to still her head. She knew what he wanted and gave it to him... for a few seconds. But as soon as he began moving rhythmically within her mouth, she backed away and stood up.

He swayed a little after her untimely departure and tried to bring her closer, but she pushed him down onto the chair behind him and stepped back.

With a seductive smile, she slowly opened the closures on her caftan. "Now, Logan, you know I'm not going to make it that easy. Not after how crazy you've made me. Besides, between the drugs and the fever, you've never been with the
real
Tarla." She let her robe and chemise slide off her shoulders and down to her waist, baring her breasts to his gaze.

"I know you watch me sometimes when you think I'm not looking. The next time you do that, I want you to see this." Her hands cupped her breasts, lifting and kneading them as she watched him curl his hands into fists. "See how thoughtful I am? I'm saving you the trouble of preparing me for your entry."

Her hands pushed the caftan to the floor then shimmied out of her chemise and underpants. Her fingers grazed over her belly to the nest of black curls below. She parted her legs so he could clearly see how she stroked herself and how very damp she was already.

After a few seconds, she stopped and opened her eyes. "It's not the same as when you touch me, Logan." She closed the distance between them, put her arms around his neck and tongue-kissed him for several long seconds before saying, "I would very much like to have sex with you now."

In one swift movement, he cupped her bottom and settled her on his shaft with her legs straddling his lap and the chair, while delivering an eating kiss that left no doubt that he planned to use her at least as much as she intended to use him. She felt the tip of his shaft pressed against her core and moaned her need into his mouth. She rode him slowly and rhythmically then faster and harder as his kisses ravaged her mouth and encouraged her not to hold anything back.

It felt as though his hands were everywhere at once, gliding over her hair, her face, her breasts, back and hips, feeding her desire while tempting her to make the pleasure last, it was impossible to hold off the rampaging flood of sensation that took possession of both her body and her mind. She felt and heard Logan succumb to his climax within a second of her own and realized she had lowered the block between their minds and feelings.

"It's okay," Logan whispered next to her ear. "I'm still not ready for you to be in my head twenty-four/seven, but during sex, well, I definitely get that part. In fact..." He rose, holding her in place, and moved to the bed. "I can't wait to do it again."

Barely giving her a moment to catch her breath, his body was again arousing hers, demanding she stay with him in that other world where nothing mattered but giving and taking pleasure. Without another thought, she turned the next round over to him.

* * *

Despite Robin's best efforts to follow Tarla's advice, Geoffrey thwarted her at every turn. She suspected that he saw right through her attempts to steer their relationship onto more personal ground, but then subtlety never had been one of her strong traits. As the days of their second month together turned into weeks, she accepted the fact that he was going to hold out until the last minute of the postponement he had agreed to.

But the morning of that day had finally dawned. Anticipation had Robin bouncing out of bed with more energy than usual, but she determined not to say a word to Geoffrey until they were alone in their apartment that night. There was no sense warning him in advance and giving him all day to think up another excuse to put her off.

Seeing how happy Tarla was hadn't improve Robin's frustration level during her waiting time. The glow she had noticed in Tarla's eyes after she and Logan finally solved their problems was now obvious to everyone. The two of them openly shared glances across the room that were so meaningful, it was almost as though they could read each other's thoughts.

Another mysterious thing she didn't understand was what was going on between Logan and Jason. Being a connoisseur of handsome men, Robin couldn't help but be aware of the changes in the young man regardless of how innocuous he was most of the time.

When he had first shown up, Jason was very much like the old men on the farm. Now, two months later, his eyes seemed more focused. He was able to follow conversations even when several people were talking at once. She even thought he appeared more confident, though that could be because Logan kept reminding him to stand up straight and raise his chin and look him in the eye when they spoke to each other.

These things could have been her imagination but the change in his physical appearance was definitely real. He'd put on enough pounds that it was noticeable. Rather than the extra weight making him soft and pudgy like other Heart men though, it seemed to be having the opposite effect on Jason, almost as if he were working out. Overall, he just looked more masculine.

Robin had asked Tarla about all the private conversations she saw Logan and Jason having, but she said that, other than saying that he liked the kid, Logan was being very secretive about it.

Fortunately, their project was keeping everyone too busy to fret over any little things for long. With the backing of Parliament and the extravagant budget, Parisia had been able to assign all the technical staff needed to carry out the details of the plan. A factory was turned over to them and prepared for the new work that would be accomplished there—making weapons and converting passenger craft to patrol ships.

Once the actual labor began, the team of Earthlings were able to concentrate on learning how to fly the aircraft and developing the operating systems for the space traffic control tower. Mastering the lessons needed to pilot the ships turned out to be easier than driving a car. Nevertheless, Tarla, Kara, Mandy and Charlene elected to remain closer to the ground in tower supervision assignments.

The only real obstacle they had encountered so far was Parisia's hedging about bringing the rest of the men over from the farm. She kept insisting that the search for volunteers among their women was proceeding, and they might not need to do anything that could upset Parliament when they were being so cooperative.

As Geoffrey served Robin her breakfast, she had to bite her tongue half a dozen times so as not to alert him about what day it was. Once they got to work at the factory, she actually managed to forget about it herself for several minutes at a time. She even forced herself to sit still through an unusually long dinner with Kara and Ray without revealing how anxious she was to go home.

However, when Kara yawned without trying to hide it, Robin could have kissed her for finally giving them an excuse to leave.

"Oh, Kara, I'm sorry. We're keeping you up," she said, looking as if she just realized the time. "Come on, Geoff. Time to toddle off, mate."

She was mentally congratulating herself on being an academy award class actress as they entered their apartment. Certain he was still unaware of what day it was, she vacillated between saying a few words to ease into the fact that she hadn't changed her mind about wanting a closer relationship with him or simply tackling him to the floor.

She was about to go for the tackle, when he practically ran to the bathroom. Thinking he was ill, she went to the closed door and knocked. "Geoff? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Just thought I'd take a shower before bed."

Robin smiled. He usually took his shower in the morning. Maybe he knew what day it was after all and was planning to surprise
her
. Quickly she retrieved the gold ribbon she had put away for this moment, then stripped off her clothes. After tying the ribbon around her neck with a pretty bow, she checked her image in the mirror and decided against greeting him so blatantly. Finally, she remained nude with the gold ribbon, but got on the bed with the sheet covering her from the waist down.

With thoughts of the night ahead filling her mind, she was ready to go back to the idea of tackling him by the time he finally emerged from the bathroom. She expected him to laugh, or be surprised or at least join her on the bed. She did not expect him to take one brief look at her, groan, and cover his eyes as if he couldn't bear the sight of her.

"Oh, my God," she whispered as reality crashed in on her. Tarla had been right about him not giving her his true reason for not wanting to consummate their relationship. She just had never considered the possibility that he found her unappealing. She yanked off the silly tie and buried her face in the pillow so she wouldn't have to watch him walk out of the room. Before she could stop it, a frustrated wail escaped her.

She felt his hand on her shoulder but refused to raise her head. The last thing she wanted was his pity.

"Aah, Robin, please don't cry," he murmured, stroking her hair.

"I'm not crying. Just humiliated," she stuttered into the pillow. "I feel like a complete ass!" She felt his weight on the mattress beside her.

"If there's an arse in this room, it's me, not you."

She shook her head. "Don't try to be nice. That's been the problem all along. If you had just come right out and said you really had no interest in me—"

"No interest?" He turned her onto her back and made her look up at him. "I'm on fire day and night from wanting you."

She sniffled and swiped at a tear trickling down her cheek. "I don't understand."

He caught another tear with his finger and wiped it away. "No, I wouldn't expect you to. As you once said, you go after what you want. You'd never let something pass you by for fear that it might cause more pain than pleasure."

"Will you please speak American?"

He gave her a shy smile. "My experience with beautiful women taught me that they are fickle creatures. You being the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, I was certain your interest in me was fleeting at best. Though I couldn't avoid you completely, I thought if we at least didn't go to bed together, I could stop myself from falling in love with you, thus preventing a broken heart."

"That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard," she said with a grimace.

"Dumb and utterly futile. I fell in love with you anyway."

Robin's eyes filled with moisture all over again as he took her into his arms. "Well, it's about time you wretched man, because I've been in love with you forever."

As his lips met hers in the kiss that would mark the beginning of their life together, she only regretted that she hadn't tried bursting into tears two months ago.

* * *

Fulton massaged his temples to ease the discomfort in his head. He didn't want to think about what he had just heard, but it wouldn't go away. He liked working for Simone. She never scolded him or made him hurt inside the way Nadia did. She never threatened to stop him from seeing Chloe. He had felt good since Nadia left and Simone came to stay.

But what he had just heard could change that. Simone and four women who had visited her before were making plans to bring Nadia home. The mere thought of having to go back to serving her made Fulton's head hurt worse.

He had heard Nadia had done something bad and that the Imperial Prefect had punished her. Though he didn't know what Nadia had done, he did understand that she was supposed to stay away and that Simone and her friends did not agree with the punishment. They were also very upset about something called Parisia's defense plan and thought they could stop it by freeing Nadia.

Simone was now his employer, but the Imperial Prefect was hers. It was bad to do something against the wishes of one's employer. So, Simone must be planning something bad. If she succeeded, Nadia would be back, and he
knew
that was bad.

He felt as though he should do something about it, but what? The law forbade him from approaching any woman other than his employer.

Certain the thoughts that were making his head hurt would soon go away by themselves, Fulton distracted himself by washing the dishes from Simone's meeting.

He realized how important this matter was when he hadn't forgotten about it by the next morning. Fulton's head felt a little better when he awoke, but upsetting dreams had kept him from getting a good night's sleep.
Nadia was back.
Tormenting. Scolding. Frightening and petting him. There had to be a way to stop the dream from coming true.