Logan pinned her carefully, making sure not to use too much of his weight and strength against her, but she made his gentlemanly behavior nearly impossible. She fought like a cornered badger, only meaner. She was going for his eyes yet again when he finally got fed up and flipped her over onto her stomach where it would be harder for her to reach his vital areas. He covered her from behind, weighing her down, but it still didn’t deter her. She began to buck like a Brahma bull at a rodeo, nearly unseating him twice.
The third time she did manage it. She bucked and twisted so hard and fast that Logan lost his balance and fell, tumbling off to the side of her. Luckily he managed to keep his hold on her arm, or she’d have been part of the ether before he could so much as sneeze. Still, she writhed like a snake and managed to get to her hands and knees and crawl for the cabin before he fell on her again.
She’d gotten as far as the second step when he took her down, draping himself over her back like a blanket and pressing her stomach against the rough, wooden boards of the steps. She growled something obscene and tried to claw her way out from under him, but he held firm. One deep breath told him she was fighting herself just as hard as she fought him. He could smell the sharp, spicy sting of her arousal perfuming the air around them, made even more intense by her rapidly approaching heat. Just sniffing her made his mouth water, not to mention what it did to the fit of his jeans.
For all that she refused to admit it, Honor felt the attraction between them as deeply as he did. He knew that if he reached between her legs just then, he would find her warm and wet and dripping with the honey that he had drawn from her. The idea made his mouth water, and he licked his lips.
“You ran away from me this morning, Honor love. I don’t think I’m going to let you get away again. This is too important to let that happen.” He leaned down and let his tongue tease the shell of her ear. “You smell much too good to let that happen.”
“Not … your … decision … bastard.” She panted the words out, as if she had trouble drawing breath, but considering he had her pinned beneath his considerable bulk, anything was possible. “Let go.”
He shook his head and nuzzled through the thick curls of her hair to get to the skin beneath. He drew her in, savoring that spicy fragrance and ignoring what it did to his self-control. Who needed self-control?
With that in mind, he shifted his weight slightly and slipped his free hand beneath her body to the spot where her T-shirt had ridden up to expose the soft skin of her belly. He felt her flinch when he touched her, heard her gasp when his finger circled her navel before dipping inside. Her hips bucked against him, but this time it had more to do with reaction than with any attempt to get him off her. Things were looking up, but that still didn’t mean he had any intention of testing it by letting her go just yet.
He caught her hands in his and drew them up over her head, stretching her out beneath him like a picnic blanket, and pinned them there. The position made her T-shirt draw up even farther, and Logan rumbled his approval at the extra inches of bare skin it exposed. She felt smooth and soft and hot to his touch, and in the cool winter air, he would bet that anyone looking at them from a distance would see steam coming off them in waves. Of course, it wouldn’t have stopped him if the entire Lupine population of North America had been watching. This woman was his mate, and he intended to have her. Now.
When he unfastened her jeans, she gave a growl of protest, but when his hand slid between her legs to her dripping core, all she could do was moan. His fingers parted her slick folds and stroked delicately, searching for every nuance of her reaction—the tightening of muscles, the faint trembling, the quiet hitch in her breathing. Sometimes those acute Lupine senses came in very handy indeed.
“Hands. Off.” She growled the threat, but the words lacked a certain authenticity. Her scent told him how his presence affected her.
Logan’s fingers slid a fraction deeper and teased small circles around her opening, drawing even more moisture from her body. Damn, but she was responsive. It made his mouth water almost as much as her scent did.
“Somehow I’m not convinced that’s what you really want, honey.” He leaned forward and nipped at her earlobe, savoring her small intake of breath. “Are you sure you don’t want something more like this?”
His hand shifted and two long fingers slid inside her, filling and stretching her eager body. She felt tight and hot and incredible around his fingers, and he moaned, nearly drowning out the soft sound of her cries. He could imagine few things more perfect in this world than the feel of her slick pussy closing around his cock and milking him to completion. And if he didn’t get his mind off that memory right now, he’d be “completing” right there in his jeans.
Quickly withdrawing his hand from between her legs, he used it to shove her jeans down until they tangled around her ankles. She growled a protest, but his urgency drove him, and he didn’t bother to pause to let her kick them off. Instead, he ripped her burgundy satin panties into shreds, not even taking time to appreciate the smooth, silky feel of the material or the contrast of the rich color against her fair skin. All he cared about was getting inside her, and the panties were in his way, so they had to be destroyed. It was that simple.
Logan threw away the scraps of fabric and reached for his own jeans, racing to get them out of the way before he died of a critical buildup of sperm. The top button defied him, refusing to slip from its hole, and he snarled in frustration. He released her hands so he could use both to tackle the issue, but the second she shifted and braced them beneath her as if to push herself up and drag herself away from him, his hands slammed back over hers. Irritated, he growled, a low, dark warning.
Honor growled right back. Shifting her weight, she braced her hands on one stair and her knees on another. The jeans still around her ankles and lower legs forced her to keep her thighs pressed together, but it made no difference. Pushing herself into place, she dropped to her elbows in front and thrust her bottom out behind her, raising her hips and curving her back until she had presented herself to him like an offering.
Logan froze in place. He recognized the mating stance for what it was, but he hadn’t been expecting it. For all the lust he could smell on her skin, he’d thought Honor meant to play the reluctant mate to the bitter end, and now here she was, presenting herself to him like a lusciously unwrapped birthday gift. For a few seconds all he could do was stare. Then she reached back and drew her hair forward over her shoulder and out of the way, turning to look back at him. She invited him with a look, and when she raised an eyebrow and canted her hips a fraction higher, he gave in to his instincts and covered her.
Honor fought fiercely, but in the end she was overpowered. Not by Logan, but by her own fierce desire. She needed to feel him inside her again and damn the consequences. She had done enough fighting against her instincts lately, enough self-denial, enough of what was good for the pack instead of what was good for her, and she was done. This time, this one time, she would take what she needed and damn the consequences.
If she was lucky, maybe he’d fuck her to death, and she wouldn’t be around to face any consequences.
By the time she decided this, though, and made him a clear offer, it was evident he barely remembered what to do with her. How quickly they forget. Drawing her hair over her shoulder, she put a little wriggle in her hips and looked back at him with one brow raised, as if to ask how much clearer she had to make it.