since I’ve arrived. “Your body is quivering for my touch. You want this, don’t you?” He skims his fingers up my thigh. “You want this bad.”
I can’t help quivering in response and I try to stop my gasp but don’t manage in time.
“Well, today, little girl, is going to be your first trial. And your first lesson. You can’t always get what you want.”
I frown. What does that mean?
Logan prowls around the table.
“Did you learn about the twelve labors of Hercules in school?”
I nod. “I think so. It sounds familiar. But I- I don’t remember the particulars.”
“Hercules too committed a great sin, and so in penance, the oracle told him to go serve King Eurystheus and do all that he asked of him. The King set him to twelve labors, each more difficult than the last.”
Logan bends over me, eyes blazing into mine. “The last task had him descend into the very bowels of hell itself.” He trails a finger gently down my face and then between my breasts, pain and anger etched between his brows. “Are you willing to go to hell and back for your sins, Daphne?”
I strain against my bindings. I didn’t commit the sins he’s bound and determined to think I did, I want to scream. Why is he so determined to think the worst of me? What’s happened to him to make him like this? The boy I once knew and even the man of the last two weeks I’ve become so intimate with... Finding Logan again only to lose him—I can’t. I won’t.
So I tell him the truth. “I’m willing to do it for you.” I’ll fight for him, dammit. For this. For us.
For a second, just for the briefest flicker of a moment, I think I see something in him crack—a flash of the Logan I know and cherish.
But the next second the Master is back, cold and calculating. He pulls back and stands up straight, turning away from me.
“Then let us begin.”
Nine
7 Years Ago
Daphne
“How did I know I’d find you here?”
I look up at hearing my favorite voice, butterflies alight in my stomach.
Logan.
He pays attention to me out of pity, I know that’s why. But still my heart soars every time he stops by to say hi, and the few times he’s taken me out to eat—heaven.
“Hi Logan.” I try for my voice not to sound shy but don’t quite succeed. Gods, don’t look like a timid little girl! I thought there was maybe a moment at the Ubeli’s ball when he saw me as more…but then he wouldn’t dance with me and I barely saw him the rest of the night.
“How long have you been hunched over your books here?” he asks. “I saw you when you came in this morning and that was hours ago. Have you been at it all night?”
I blink blearily and glance over at the clock on the wall, then down at my laptop. “I was trying to finish this chapter on my dissertation and I guess time got away from me.”
His brow furrows. “Have you had any sustenance other than coffee?” He gestures at the several empty coffee cups in the corners of my little study carrel.
A thrill goes through me in spite of my tiredness. Does this mean he’s about to take me on one of our little lunch dates? Then I wince internally. No, they aren’t dates. I’m a pity project and he’s a good man afraid of a girl on his watch dying of starvation.
He lifts an eyebrow. “Woman cannot live on coffee alone. Come on.”
Woman. He called me woman.
He was making a joke. Don’t be an idiot.
But I’m nodding and getting to my feet. “Okay, if you say so.” Inside, I’m doing cartwheels. Logan date! Logan date!
I’m too tired to fight the internal battle and allow myself to just be happy as he leads me to our favorite sandwich shop.
But to my surprise, he gets our order to go.
My heart sinks. No Logan date after all. He’s just seeing that I’m fed and taking me right back where he found me. Dear heavens, this is embarrassing.
I stand up straighter and try to be a grown-up about the whole thing. “Look, Logan. I appreciate it but really, I can take care of myself. Let me just pay for this, then I’ll get out of your hair.”
I try to reach for my wallet in my purse but he puts his big, warm hands on mine, stopping me.
Logan Wulfe is touching me. I melt