Warrior's Rise (17 page)

Logan smiled when he looked at him. He was obviously the leader of the pack, a no-nonsense sort of person not unlike Darien and himself. “Logan Savage,” he replied.

Logan met the boy’s somber, brown eyes and something in his heart that had been dormant up until now, softened. “No, I’m not,” he found himself saying.

The boy averted his eyes to the ground.

“Can you tell us what the human world is like?” the little girl asked, inching closer to him.

Logan gave her a soft smile and nodded. He looked up at the others. “Would you like to hear too?” They didn’t say anything, but crowded closer. Logan noticed the little girl shiver and he reached out to her. “Are you cold, sweetheart?” He motioned her forward. “Come here.” This time, she obeyed and he scooped her up onto his lap. She almost immediately snuggled close to his chest. As the others took seats around his feet, Logan began to tell them about the things of his world. The world that now seemed very far away.

* * * *

It was late into the night when the revelry finally stopped. Willow made her way across the courtyard and over to Logan, who was handing a sleeping little girl over to an older boy, who took her, waved good bye and headed for home.

Logan stretched his back and smiled at Willow as she approached. She grinned. “The children seem very taken with you,” she remarked.

He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I have no idea why… I was telling them stories about humans.”

She smiled. “They like to listen to stories, especially about humans. To them, humans seem as much of a story as fairies seem to you.”

Logan looked down at her with a soft kind of light in his eyes that made her curious. She frowned in thought. “Are you okay?”

He sighed and gave a slow nod. “I
am
okay,” he said, as if surprised at the realization. “How’s Darien?”

She gave a soft smile and reached down to take his hand. She’d only meant to get his attention so that she could guide him to where his room would be, but his fingers tightened over hers and he turned his gaze on her, making her heart turn over several times in her chest. His ever arrogant and mocking green-gray eyes were soft, kind and held a hint of burning fire that she remembered from the night Cyrcinus had manipulated his dream.

She swallowed and looked away, but couldn’t bring herself to let go of his hand. Her mind kept returning to the man she had seen earlier, crying in the forest, dejected and hopeless, lost. That had been Logan at his barest and most vulnerable. It was the truest she had ever seen him and that image tugged at her heart in the most profound way.

“Willow,” he murmured, taking a step closer to her. “I want to thank you.”

She looked up at him. “For what?”

He took her other hand and placed her palm over his heart. “For whatever you do to make the horrid, overwhelming panic stop. I don’t know how you do it, but you’ve kept me sane and I thank you for that.”

She felt her cheeks turn pink and she looked down. “Oh… I don’t know what it is exactly. I remember when I was younger and the Alveda d’Kai were still alive. Some of them were very aggressive and animalistic. They tended to have awful tempers that they couldn’t always control. I remember seeing some of their women, or even some of our women, tell them to be still. It didn’t work with everyone. I didn’t even know if it would work with you, but I guess it did.”

He nodded and moved closer. “It did. Whatever is inside of me, these dragon warrior instincts or whatever that makes me so turbulent, I can’t control them. Not until I understand them, I imagine. Something about you…” He shook his head. “You can speak to that part of me. You calm the storm.” He lifted her chin with his finger so that he could gaze down into her eyes. “For a woman who loathed my very existence the moment she set eyes on me, you have done a lot for me in the past few days.”

Willow’s heart was fluttering like a caged bird and she hated it, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She was forced to look into his beautiful eyes and his tormented, handsome face. As if it had a mind of its own, her hand moved from his chest up to cup his jaw. His eyes closed and he leaned into her touch. She sighed. “No man, human or otherwise, should have to go through what you’ve been put through over the past three days. I don’t care who you are.”

He smiled and opened his eyes to look at her. “Do you still think I’m a jerk?”

Even though he sounded playful when he asked it, his face was serious. She shook her head and feathered her thumb back and forth across his cheek, studying the texture of the stubble that decorated his face. “No,” she whispered. “Darien and the other kids like you. Lucy adores you. For some reason, my brother thinks you rock.” His chuckle was deep, velvety and warm. It sent chills all along her spine. “And you protected me when Cyrcinus tried to attack me. Even if you didn’t know what you were doing. Even if you didn’t know what was going on. You still protected me. That is not something a selfish jerk would do.”

The smallest of smiles touched his lips and he placed his hand over hers, then drew it to his mouth and kissed her fingers. It was a gentle, feather light touch, and it set her on fire in the worst possible way. His gaze met hers again and confusion flashed in his eyes. It was enough to let her know that her face was sparkling again.

She stepped away. “Nothing. Come on, I’ll show you where you’re supposed to sleep.” She turned on her heel and walked towards the entrance to the main hall of her house. She really had a bone to pick with her body. It kept betraying her and she didn’t like it. Not at all.

Chapter Seventeen

“Logan!”

Logan awoke with a start, his fingers instantly coming up to close around the wrist connected to the hand he felt on his chest. He was ready to do serious bodily harm, but his adrenaline subsided when his eyes fell on Willow’s pale face. He frowned and loosened his hold on her wrist. “Willow?” He propped himself up on his elbow. “What’s wrong?”

She looked sheepish and uncertain. She glanced down and shrugged. “I just—” She sighed. “I had a bad dream that you’d been stabbed. It was awful. Really vivid. I actually woke up screaming.” She stole a glance up at him. “I just had to see if you were all right. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be sorry.” He smiled. “I’m okay.”

She gave him a meager smile and nodded, but didn’t really look like she felt much better. “All right.” She swallowed. “I’ll go back to bed.”

She started to leave and Logan had no idea what kind of demon possessed him, but before a rational thought could enter his mind, he snatched Willow by the wrist and hauled her into his arms, pressing his lips to hers in a demanding, hot kiss. She squeaked when he pulled her down and her body stiffened when he kissed her, but she didn’t resist.

Sense returned to him almost immediately and he pulled away, his chest laboring with the force of his breath.
What the—?
He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers as he tried to get control over himself. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to be forceful.” It had been her concern, her concern for his safety. He was the last person to deserve her care and compassion, yet she gave it to him anyway. Even though he’d been a jerk. Even though he’d viewed her as no more than a piece of meat when he’d first met her. He’d insulted everything she loved. He’d been rude, arrogant, callous and careless, but she’d watched over him when he’d been sick. She’d stayed with him when he’d begged like a child. She calmed the foreign beast that lived within him. It was more than he could have ever asked from another person, and it was definitely more than he ever would have asked from her.

Willow drew a shaky hand up to her mouth and moved away enough so that she could look up at him in bewilderment.

Logan shook his head.
Way to blow it, idiot.
“Please, Willow, don’t be upset. I know you think I’m just a womanizer, but I promise I wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on you. You—” He sighed and kept his eyes downcast. He didn’t want to see the disgust she no doubt was looking at him with. “You’re not a conquest to me,” he admitted quietly. “I wasn’t trying to conquer you. I was just…” He searched for words. “I was just trying to—” Her slender fingers against his lips stopped him from speaking anything else.

“Logan,” she murmured, “I’m not upset.” She gave a small, nervous giggle. “Actually, I think if I remember correctly, I owe you one anyway, right?”

He braved a look up at her and smiled when he only saw mirth and a small hint of desire in her eyes. Desire… Could that really be what it was, or was it only his mind wishing so hard that he imagined it? It didn’t really matter. She’d basically just given him permission to kiss her again and he was going to take advantage of it.

He reached out to pull her back in his arms and situated her so that he was cradling her. She looked apprehensive and unsure, but he reached up to brush back her hair and caress his fingers down the line of her jaw. Her eyelids fluttered closed and he gently lowered his lips, brushing over hers with a teasing stroke, then kissing each corner of her mouth. He pressed a light, chaste kiss to her top lip, then her bottom lip before he drew it into his mouth and sucked. She exhaled a shaky breath and he smiled, then fully covered her mouth with his.

He held her face with care and he made his kisses slow, deliberate and sensual. He took his time and was delighted when she reached up, tangled her fingers in his hair and thrust her tongue into his mouth, taking control of the kiss in a way he hadn’t expected. His arms tightened around her and his world exploded at the perfection and sweetness her mouth offered. It was better than any kiss he’d ever received. She tasted better than any other woman. Maybe because, for the first time, he wasn’t just kissing a random woman. He was kissing Willow. He knew her. He cared for her. He wasn’t just attracted to her body and her face. He was attracted to her fire, her compassion, her selflessness. He was attracted to her initial blatant disregard of him because it made her different. It made her special.

There was emotion in his kiss for the first time.

When Willow pulled away, both of them were fighting for air and her face was flushed and sparkling worse than ever. He gave a thoughtful frown and touched her cheek. “What
is
this?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face against his shoulder. “It’s embarrassing, that’s what it is.”

He chuckled and held her close. “Tell me.”

She huffed and gave him a pointed look. “Well, it’s like a female fairy’s version of a man’s…well…” She glanced down at his lap. “You know.”

His eyes widened. “Oh…” He frowned, then wrinkled his nose playfully. “So, you’re aroused?”

Her face turned a deep shade of red and she buried it against his shoulder again. “Leave me alone, Logan,” she muttered.

He laughed and held her close, not wanting to let her go, ever. That was strange for him, just as foreign as everything else he was feeling. He never got attached. But she felt good in his arms. Her warmth against him felt right. He didn’t want to let it go. Feeling devilish and aching to taste her lips one more time, he nudged her with his shoulder and put his mouth close to her ear. “Willow,” he whispered, “look at me.”

She did and he moved in to cover her lips again, keeping it soft and simple and enough to tide him over, even though he wanted much,
much
more than that at the moment. He sighed when he pulled away and nuzzled her nose with his, making both of them smile.

She shook her head. “Oh, no.” She blushed an even deeper shade of red. “Not that I was, like, daydreaming about kissing you or anything like that. I mean, I was just fulfilling my end of a bargain.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Right. Just fulfilling the wish of a man who thought he was dying.”

She gave a curt nod. “Right.”

His smile grew. “Then why are you still lying here in my arms? And why were
you
the one to turn
my
kiss into one that was demanding?”

Her eyes widened and she struggled to sit up. “I-I was just. Um—”

He laughed and held her tight so that she couldn’t flee. “Embrace the woman you are inside, Willow,” he taunted. “You told me to, more or less, listen to my instincts. You should do the same. I’m not going to do anything to you.”

“Yeah, right. Only embarrass me right into the ground,” she grumbled. But she stopped struggling.