“Careful.” Logan eases me back, frowning at my nipples.
“You stayed.” Happiness rolls over me, a warm blanket. It feels like a dream.
“You need sleep,” he says gruffly. “If you get sick, your piercings can get infected.”
I’m smiling so hard my skin might crack. The corner of Logan’s mouth hitches up in response to my giddiness. He stayed. He cares.
The fire is out and the room is chilly. Logan bundles me up carefully in a blanket and carries me to the bathroom where he performs the piercing aftercare himself. He washes the rest of me so thoroughly, my knees wobble, weak with arousal.
I’m panting by the time he’s done, hoping he’ll bend me over the tub and fuck me. But no. He leads me out and dries me off, then steps back into the shower and soaps up his massive body while I watch. Rivulets run in the grooves between his insane muscles. His hands are huge as they swipe soap over his delectable abs.
I lick my lips. I’m staring. I can’t help it. When he lathers up his palms to wash his cock, my pussy pulses with a mini-orgasm. He shoots me a wicked look.
I take a step towards him and he shakes his head. “Stay.”
He turns his back to me to wash his hair under the spray and the eyeful I get of his chiseled back and ass makes me drop to my knees. I’d crawl to him right now and beg for him to let me take him in my mouth. I’d grovel for a chance to touch him, kiss his feet.
He could have reacted so differently when I made my request yesterday. But he was gracious, kind, the perfect Master playing my body like a prodigy and taking me further than I’d ever been— so deep, so high, so excruciatingly intimate together with him, and that’s not even to speak of the pleasure—
I want to worship him back. I’ve never wanted anything more. And he knows it. When he exits the shower and slings a towel around his hips, I groan.
“Such a needy little one,” he murmurs, nothing but affection in his tone.
I look up from my knees in pure reverence.
He bends down and lifts me, setting me on a towel spread on the marble vanity top. Then he kneels.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he bends his dark, wet head and kisses the inside of my thigh just above my knee.
“Something to remember me by,” he rasps, easing my legs open. And then….oh...his mouth… He licks me all over, adding scratchy kisses courtesy of his unshaven face. There’s no mask between us.
It feels like years since I’ve seen his beloved face. The scarred portion on his left cheek is just a feature of his face to me now. All I see is Logan. My Logan, more dear to me than anyone else on this earth.
I cum as our gazes lock, my head flying back and hitting the bathroom mirror almost hard enough to crack it. Logan picks me up and brings me to a chair in front of the fire. He bustles around, dressing and building up the fire while I sit, still floating.
An alarm goes off somewhere in the room. Distantly I hear it, but don’t recall what it is. Not until Logan lays my phone down next to me. I set an alarm earlier, reminding me to pack. For my engagement ball.
“You need to go,” Logan says.
I open my mouth to protest, and I realize he’s not kicking me out. He’s letting me go...again. To deal with Adam.
Logan kneels again in front of me. In his palm is a ring. My heart flutters a second in blinding joy, and then I realize it’s the gaudy diamond Adam picked out for me. My throat squeezes. I don’t want to touch it.
But Logan plucks it and pinches it between thumb and forefinger, holding it in front of my face. “I know you need to go back.”
I swallow and nod. Logan sets my phone and the ring on a side table.
“You’ll return to me,” he says. His finger traces a wide circle around my pierced nipples. “You’ll remember me.”
“Yes.” I cup his face. “I can do this, Logan. You can trust me.”
An hour later, a familiar car pulls up. I’m dressed warmly. My nipple piercings are carefully bound, but they chafe. A constant reminder of the one I’m leaving. The one I belong to.
He’s trusting me. I won’t fail him. Not this time.
Twenty-Three
Present Day
Daphne
In the car I grab my phone and dial my dad. The call doesn’t connect until we’re out of the hills and forest and on the road to New Olympus. But then it rings and rings for a while until a nurse picks up.
“Is my father all right?” I ask after we exchange greetings.
The nurse hesitates. “He’s sleeping now. I’d wake him but--”
“Oh, no, it’s fine. He needs his sleep.” He’s been sleeping more and more lately. I give instructions for the nurse to call me when he wakes. I’m sure Adam pestered him about coming to the engagement party. I add that to my list of things to confront my ‘fiancé’ about.
Can’t wait. Not. If I could, I’d tell the driver to turn the car around.
But no. The new Daphne doesn’t avoid conflict. Still, all too soon the car is pulling up to one of the first high rises built in New Olympus, a grand old building repurposed into an event space. I order the driver to pull around back to avoid the caterers and crew setting up in the ballroom downstairs. Hopefully I can get my dress, hair, and makeup done before anyone sees me.
Rachel is pacing in a fancy private parlor on the second floor. “Daphne,” she breathes and I rush to give her a hug. Wow, I’ve really missed her. So much has happened. I could use a friend to confide in.
“You okay?” she draws back to study my face. She looks worried but I just give her arm a squeeze.
“Yep. Let’s do this.” I strip quickly out of my clothes.
“Holy shit. You’re pierced.” Rachel’s mouth hangs open.
Oops. “Yes.” No use feigning a shyness I don’t feel. I’m not ashamed. I go to the mirror to inspect the piercings.
“When?”
“Logan did it.”
Rachel shakes her head, but says nothing as I pull my saline spray from my purse. I ignore her, sharing a shy smile with the woman in the mirror.
Thank you, Logan, for marking me. Just seeing them reminds me of who I am. Of my strength. Warmth pools in my lower belly as I care for my piercings as he ordered.
“Um, I got a few dresses, but with those,” Rachel waves at my chest, “This one might be the best option.” She holds up a gold dress with a sweetheart top.
“No,” I say. “I ordered something myself. It should’ve been delivered with the rest.” At Rachel’s skeptical look, I smile and add, “No tree costume this time, I promise.” I go to the roller rack of dresses and rummage until I find the green sheath. “Here.” Green reminds me of Logan, and I need all the reminders I can get.
Rachel pauses as I hold up the dress against myself, eyeing me.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she says, but then she crosses her arms over her chest. “There’s something different about you.” She rolls her eyes. “Apart from the obvious.” She gestures at my boobs but then gets serious again, obviously waiting for my answer.
There are a thousand things on the tip of my tongue. I want to tell her about all of it. About Logan and how amazing and electric he is. About the future I’ve only begun daring to hope for with him. About how screwed up everything is with the company and Adam, complicated even more by how much Logan hates him and—