Page 91 of Winter’s Fire

“We know what you are, Simmonds. She told us—eventually.”

He was many things—Logan wondered exactly what she’d said to them. He turned to face the man behind him. On closer inspection, this one looked just that little bit harder, colder than his twin. If Logan had to guess, he was probably the oldest of all of them. The man stood with his feet apart, arms crossed in front of a barrel of a chest. Ready for a fight. Logan assessed his potential adversary for weak points—it wasn't encouraging, but he’d faced worse odds and survived.

“Hell of a way to find out your little sister’s a subbie.”

He hadn’t anticipated that. Logan glanced around at the other three men, arranged around him like the points on a compass. It was so fucking obvious. Lucy couldn’t have known every one of her overprotective older brothers was a Dom, even the medic. He’d bet she was still in the dark now. “I’ll be damned.”

“You will be, if you don’t straighten things out with her and treat her right. You’ll have the four of us to answer to.”

“I was told,” Logan turned back to the brother responsible, “she doesn’t want to see me.”

“She doesn’t—but what she wants and what she needs aren’t necessarily the same thing. As her Dom, you should know that.”

The presumed most senior brother again. “I do know that. It’s why I’m fucking here.”

“You talk to Oh-Em-Gee like that, and we’ll rip your balls off.”

That explained a lot. No wonder Lucy specialised in weapons-grade profanity—she’d grown up with four of the best to show her the way. But Oh-Em-Gee? There had to be a story behind that. Logan wondered if he’d ever get to find out what it was. “Do I get to see her or not?”

“You planning to collar her?”

“If she’ll have me.”

Sam jerked his chin towards the door. “She’s upstairs. Last room on the right. And Simmonds?”

“Yes?”

“Mess with her, you mess with us. Got it?”

“I got it the first time.”

With all of them riding shotgun, how the fuck had Lucy ever managed to date? Not that there was any more of that shit in his sub’s future. She was a one-man woman from now on. And she’d be wearing his collar just as soon as he could find something that would do her justice.

Even though Logan took the stairs two at a time, he made no noise. The floorboards at the top creaked a little, but he doubted Lucy had heard. At least he hoped she hadn’t.

He knocked on her bedroom door, because it was the polite thing to do. He didn’t wait for an invitation to enter, because on this occasion, other things were more important than observing vanilla protocol.

“Logan! What are you doing here?”

She’d been lying on the bed but sat bolt upright when she saw him. Even with so much between them still unresolved, she gave him a hard-on on sight.

“I came to talk to you.”

“My brothers—”

“Know I’m here.”

She looked away from him and hugged her knees to her chest. “How’s Diana?”

So that was how she wanted to play this. “Mind if I sit down?” He gestured towards the edge of the bed, and took her answering shrug as permission to park his arse. “Last I heard, her father was sending her to Switzerland to ‘recuperate’.”

Now she was frowning at him. “Last you heard? What’s that supposed to mean? Shouldn’t you be with her?”

“Why in God’s name would I be with her, when the woman I love is right here?”

He’d intended to break the news to her in a rather more controlled manner. Lucy’s reaction, however, wasn't what he expected—eyes wide with shock stared at him from a face devoid of all colour. Had he made a mistake, after all? “Are you all right?”

She didn’t appear to have heard him. Instead, she looked as if she were trying to work out the most complex puzzle in creation. “Lucy?”