Page 35 of The Stygian Crown

Kara worried her thumbs across the tips of her nails. “I wanted to punish you. I wanted comfort, something to cling to while it felt like everything was crumbling around me. I thought I’d lost you—that I’d been a fool to think I ever had you.”

“You’ve had me since Liore.”

Her hands strained to touch him. She curled her fingers into her fists until nails bit flesh.

“He loves you, you know.” It sounded like it’d torn something from Logan to say it.

Kara swallowed her spit.

“Do you love him?” Red eyes flickered in the darkness.

“Not in the way you mean.”Not like you.She didn’t dare say the words aloud. Thing were too tenuous, too fragile to shake with the weight of that confession.

Logan shifted on his feet. She felt his desire to touch her like a palpable, living thing.

“You should have told me, Logan.”

“I know. Things happened so fast when I got back—but that’s no excuse, Kara. There is no excuse. I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I wish I could fix it, fixus.”

A horrible thought occurred to her, creeping into her mind like a worm.

“Did you tell her about me?”

Logan stilled. “What do you mean?”

“Did you tell her you were with someone? That you had someone waiting on you? Did you try and dissuade her with that?”

He shook his head no in the darkness, and the flame of hope inside her died. She bit the inside of her mouth until she tasted blood, trying to hold back her tears.

“What can I do, Kara? Please tell me what I can do.”

“I need time.”

“There are things we need to talk about. The keening…”

“I have it under control.”

“Are you going to kill, then?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Both irises lit with fire and blazed down at her. “If you think I will stand by and let another have you while your body—your heart—still burns for me, you are sorely mistaken.”

“You’re under the assumption that my body still burns for you.”

Logan jerked her toward him, pulling her flush against his corded muscle. Hot awareness shot through her body, demon’s drip be damned.I guess that answers that question.

His big hands skimmed the bones of her waist beneath her shirt, and she was grateful for the dark.

“You mean if I dove my hand into your leathers right now, you wouldn’t be soaking wet for me?” His hands slid down her back and squeezed the cheeks of her ass, pulling her against the hard proof of his desire. “That if I bent you over this bench and fucked you, you wouldn’t come on my cock and beg for more?”

Kara’s sex clenched with desire that pulsed like a second heartbeat. He had the ability to make her go from rational thought tosex, sex, sexin seconds flat.

Sudden light pierced the darkness, and a gnarled voice called out, “I’m all for young love, but you’ll have to find someplace else. I’m locking up.” The bell attendant hobbled up the entranceway, toting a large torch. The play of light and shadow lit the craggy lines of his face with a wicked glow.

Logan pulled her into his chest, hiding her face from the man.

“This isn’t over,” he whispered into her ear. He pulled his cloak off, draped it over her head, and nudged her toward the door. Then he faded into the darkness.

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