Thirty days.
On top of that, I didn’t understand Logan. What he’d done, the choices he’d made, up against the fierce look in his eyes when the man took me by the hand.
Our hatred, our hurt, at odds with this twining of want there was no chance of escaping.
I felt it build as the man walked backward facing me as he pulled me out of the kitchen and into the living room where it was even more crammed with people.
The mood had gotten a little rowdy.
Voices raised and laughter flowing.
The music had been turned up a notch, enough that it covered the conversations and lifted everything to an elevated hum.
In the middle of the throng, Logan pulled me into his arms and crushed me against the hard, rippling planes of his body.
He had one arm banded around my waist. His other palm was splayed wide, gliding up my spine until he was slipping it under the fall of my hair. He took hold of the mass of it in a fist.
A surprised squeak whispered through my lips.
Strength vibrated through his body.
Chills skated across mine.
“Logan.” I didn’t mean to plead his name the way I did, but it was getting harder and harder not to beg for what every part of me wanted.
He grunted and somehow tucked me even closer. His voice was a rough scrape against my ear. “I’ve been waiting hours to get you alone like this.”
“Are you jealous?” There was no stopping the tease because the sulking woven in his voice was ridiculous.
Adorable and ridiculous.
This rigid, intimidating man who could be so goofy and sweet.
“Tessa was hogging you.”
“Hogging me?”
“Yes. Hogging.”
I glanced behind me then back to him. “Well, she is really pretty.”
“Aster.” His voice deepened to a growl. “Don’t make me punish you.”
His hand tightened in my hair, giving it a little yank to tug my face back to meet the warning in his gaze.
I giggled.
Clearly, I was losing it, letting go, getting caught up in the swell of giddiness that swept through my being.
“Are you laughing at me?” Logan grumbled.
“Maybe.”
Another giggle, only that one morphed into a needy moan when he pressed his face to the edge of my jaw. He ran his nose along the sensitive flesh, slipping up to my ear and back down to my chin.
Twice he did it, whispering, “You’re mine,” as he went.
It was a mind-altering caress.