Page 93 of Winter’s Fire

She shook her head. “I’ve kind of got used to it now. I missed it while you were Lucan. If you did stop, I think I’d miss it even more.”

Hope flared in his beautiful eyes, just for a second. She could hardly believe he was real, that he’d come to her family home to find her. He’d run the gauntlet of her embarrassingly over-protective brothers—and must have at least met with their conditional approval, given that she couldn’t see any fresh signs of physical damage—and laid his heart and his feelings on the line.

Lucy tucked her legs under her and knelt as close to her Master as she could. Without saying a word, she drank him in, from the tousled hair, to the shadows beneath his eyes and the slightly gaunt cheeks. He was still wearing the effects of their imprisonment. How she wanted to wrap her arms around him and give him comfort.

Could a sub to do that for her Dom? He’d given her chapter and verse so many times on how it was his job to protect her, but who looked after him? It seemed so unfair if she couldn’t.

“What are you thinking?”

“That this whole Dom/sub thing should be a two-way street. I should be able to take care of you.” Lucy gently laid her palm against Logan’s cheek. “Will you let me do that?”

His arms wrapped around her, pulling her half onto his lap. Lucy snuggled into him. Logan smelled so good, but the explosion of memories that came along with the reminder was too much. The tears started again, and she curled her fingers into his shirt, trying to pull him even closer.

“Lucy? You okay?”

The words clogged her throat. She shook her head, unable to explain the pain and grief that had carved her into little pieces from the moment Diana had first staked her claim back in that filthy cell.

“Talk to me, Lucy. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

He was rubbing her back. There was nothing sexual about the contact, just warmth, and comfort, and love, combining to give her a wondrous sense of belonging. And with the passage of each second, clarity returned. Logan was here—he’d come to her… come for her. The pain, the aching… it all should have stopped, but it hadn’t.

“Right from the start… when I asked you if you knew her, you didn’t give me a proper answer. You let me think she was a stranger to you. You lied.” By omission, granted, but it was still a lie.

“Out of guilt. When Sir Guy told us we were looking for her, I couldn’t believe it. As time went on and our relationship changed, finding a way to tell you became… impossible. I have no right to ask, but can you—”

“Forgive you? Logan, we all make mistakes, and contrary to what you might think, you’re only human. But… when they brought her to the cell and she… Why didn’t you stop her? Why didn’t you tell her about us?”

“To protect you. Don’t forget—I’ve known Diana a long time, and I’ve seen her at her worst. I couldn’t take any chances. I had to divert her attention away from you.”

And that was exactly what he’d done. Every time the other woman had been about to dig her claws in, Logan had distracted her in the only way someone with an ego the size of hers would respond to—by lavishing her with attention.

“I feel like such an idiot. I never realised.”

“You weren’t meant to. There was never a chance to explain, and if I’d somehow made it obvious enough for you to get the message another way, Diana might have seen it too, and her behaviour towards you would have been even shittier, especially when I… wasn’t around.”

Lucy wasn't sure that was possible. Okay, it probably was, in which case, she was glad she’d never witnessed it.

“Okay, what’s bothering you now?”

“I know what you said about… how you feel about me, but I’m not… the person I was before all this started.”

“Really?” Logan hooked his finger under a strand of her hair and stroked it with his thumb. He appeared deep in thought. “Why do you think that?”

“Everything that happened… things I did… saw.”

“Ah. You think that changed you? I doubt that very much.”

At that, she lifted her gaze to meet his. “How can you say that?”

“Because it’s true. Your knowledge and view of the world, yes, they’ve changed, but it hasn’t changed the person you are inside.” Logan laid his palm over her breastbone. “The person you are here.”

The heat of his touch seeped through her thin, lacy top. The tenderness of the gesture set up an almost unbearable ache for more.

“This heart hasn’t changed,” he continued. “You’re still compassionate and caring—nothing could change that.”

Lucy laid her hand over Logan’s, and pressed it tightly to her chest. “My feelings haven’t changed, either.”

Logan stiffened, as if bracing himself for the worst. Lucy had no intention of letting him go. “I didn’t want to say anything while we were there, because that place was so unreal. I thought we’d come home, and I’d have a chance to be sure how I felt, and then I’d tell you. But Diana appeared, and things changed. Or I thought they did.