When we’re finished, Logan drives me back to his office where I left my car. The parking lot is mostly empty now, and I wonder what sort of therapist keeps such late hours. Then again, this is LA.
“This was fun, thank you,” I say as he walks me to my car.
The night air is crisper than it was earlier and I draw my jacket more tightly around my shoulders.
Logan turns to face me, the yellow street lamps reflecting eerily against his emerald eyes. “The pleasure was all mine. I’m just glad you’re feeling better.”
“Yes, I’ll have to pay better attention,” I say.
The pause between us becomes weighted.
I hitch my bag higher on my shoulder and move to step around him, but his hand on my arm stops me. “About what happened earlier—”
“I really need to get going,” I say, ducking my head to avoid his piercing gaze.
“Celeste, when I’m with you, I feel something I’ve never—”
“Good night, Logan.” I push past him and pull my car door open, my skin tingling where I touched his chest. He calls my name as I climb into my car and shut the door. Without looking up again, I start the engine and drive off. When I stop at the edge of the lot, my neck prickles with the awareness that he’s watching me go.
A quick glance in my mirror confirms it.
My chest tightens at the sight of him, broad shoulders stiff and hands stuffed into his pockets as he stares at me in the darkness. As if he can see me crystal clear even from a distance.
My hands tighten on the wheel and I make the turn, giving it gas as I head for home. Tears burn my eyes. I’m desperate to get away and heartbroken at the loss I feel over leaving. It’s ridiculous, the attachment I feel for a man I’ve just met. But like every other feeling that’s come over me in the last couple of days, it’s absolute.
An unexplainable truth that I can’t deny no matter how strange or suddenly it’s appeared. With reckless abandon I exit the highway at the first off ramp and turn back towards Logan’s office.
I need to know what’s happening, and I feel in my gut he has the answers.
Though I haven’t been gone long, the office building looks empty. But Logan’s car is still in the parking lot.
I rush through the front door and head straight to his office. He looks up in surprise when I barge in. “Celeste.”
My name on his lips makes my knees weak. “What is this?” I ask, knowing he knows what I mean.
I can see it in his eyes. Feel it in the weight of the words left unspoken between us.
I sink into the loveseat and he stands and takes the chair in front of me. He doesn’t speak. I think neither of us has the words to define what we’re feeling.
The strange sort of hunger in his eyes is back, and he’s staring at my throat.
Desire hits me so hard it nearly knocks the breath from my lungs.
My lips part and Logan’s gaze flicks from my throat to my mouth. Warmth pools low in my belly. It’s crazy, this kind of lust. I can’t remember the last time I felt this way. About anyone.
It’s also a betrayal considering the fact that I’m engaged to someone else, but I can’t seem to get my body to agree.
“Logan,” I say, breathless and not even sure what I mean to say next.
But it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t give me the chance.
At the sound of his name, Logan slides from his chair and drops to his knees on the rug in front of me. In a lightning fast move, he has my legs parted and is pressed close between my open thighs.
His hand glides across my collarbone and around, cupping my neck. I lean in, giving him complete access as his mouth hovers over the sensitive skin below my jaw.
My breaths are ragged as I wait for his lips or even his tongue to trace a trail. But instead, his teeth, sharp and pointed, scrape against me.
“Forgive me,” he whispers. “I can’t resist.”
He sounds pained, but I can feel the hardness of his arousal pressed against my inner thigh.
Suddenly, his teeth press sharply and puncture my flesh.
I cry out at the sudden pain and then moan as it turns quickly to pleasure.