Shelby Quinn

My body thrums like a livewire as we tumble through the front door of my apartment, tearing off each other's soaked outer layers and kicking off our soggy shoes.

Logan has me stripped to my underwear in a matter of seconds, his hands gripping feverishly to my backside. His tongue swirls within the soft cavern of my mouth, starved with an insatiable need. Only once we have made it past the threshold and down the hall does he break away from me to look around my living room, curious bewilderment bright in his rich brown eyes.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Logan chortles in amusement as his gaze passes over the pastel pink wallpaper and plush sheepskin rugs before skimming over a shelf of feminine tchotchkes and glittering trinkets. "It's like Barbie's damn dream house in here!"

I bite my bottom lip, suddenly feeling oddly naked and vulnerable in a new way. I haven't ever invited a man inside my apartment, not even Slater and Cassidy have seen the soft floral patterns and delicate dusty tones that I retreat into after a tiresome day. And not only because they would tease me relentlessly about it. But because my apartment has always been my sacred space, my safe haven, where I could simply exist without anybody judging me. The place that would comfort me through the lonely life I had built before Logan pried my heart wide open.

"I like pink." I mumble admittedly, wrapping my arms protectively around myself, preparing to face his taunts and ridicule..

But it never comes..

"I can see that-" He smiles, as his attention lands on a shelf of accomplishments, polished war medals and a bejewelled tiara catching his eye. Fingering the crystals of my pageant crown, he lifts the silver headpiece, turning to face me before placing it on my head with a sexy smirk. "My Beauty Queen."

My arms fall away as he crowns me, his gaze softening upon me to wash me in a honeyed warmth. "If it weren't for this crown, you never would have agreed to help me search for Hendrix." I smile to myself, struck by how far the two of us have come. It is as though we have lived a lifetime together in a matter of months.

"That's not true." He laughs, his rich cocoa gaze narrowing in on me. "I didn't do all this on a lick and a promise, Shelby, I knew I was a goner from the moment I first saw you. It was you, Little-Miss-Hardass, who weren't so impressed by me."

"Well, if we're being completely honest-" I giggle shyly, feeling silly now for my past perceptions. "Maybe I was a little intimidated by you."

"It sure didn't seem that way." He grins, reaching out to affectionately tuck a loose strand back behind my ear.

"Oh, I know, I hide it well." I smile, reaching up to remove the heavy crown from my head. I am not that girl anymore. I will never be her again. But for the first time in a long time, I feel like myself. "The way Iris spoke about you, it was clear to me how much respect she had for you. But after all the pageants and princess gowns, I was afraid you wouldn't take me seriously."

Logan watches as I set the tiara carefully back on the shelf. "You don't ever gotta hide from me, Butterfly." He strokes my cheek with an adoring caress. "I love everything about you, rhinestones, scars, attitude and all."

"It wasn't you I was hiding from, Logan." I sigh. "I was hiding from myself, because the truth is I've been scared to let myself be happy. I always felt like I wasn't enough- or like I hadn't earned it and if I just worked harder- it's stupid."

I can't help but think of Hendrix and his constant disappointment in me, the very root of my insecurities.

How is a girl supposed to learn to love herself when her own father couldn't?

It wasn't until Logan showed me what unconditional love feels like that I am able to see my father for who he really is. I don't blame Hendrix, I'm sure he feels as though his own father didn't love him enough either. But I am done desperately trying to earn his approval.

I don't need it anymore.

"It's not stupid, Baby." Logan nods slowly, taking in what I am saying with empathetic eyes. "I understand exactly how you felt."

"You do?"

"Sure." He chuckles sadly, deep and rumbling as his strapping shoulders sag with a heavy breath. "Why'd you think I left Waco? Nobody could see me as anything other than one of David's poor orphaned fanatics. Sometimes, it's hard not to see myself that way. If it weren't for Dallas, I dunno if I would be half the man I am today." He reaches up to rub the back of his neck nervously. "Hell, I ain't exactly proud of the things I've done, Shelby.

I slink closer to him, eager to hear more. "You never really talk about it."

"What am I supposed to say, Shelby? That my parents cared more about that crazy fucking cult than their own children.. That David Wainwright beat Dixie and me, and fed us dog food for a month after we tried to escape the first time.. That he raped my sister and she was never the same again, or that I killed one of his men in cold blood for trying to do the same to me."

"Logan- I had no idea.." My chest aches, tightening painfully at his confession. But his secrets do nothing to douse my adoration of the man. If anything, they make me love him more, he is the strongest, bravest person I know.

Logan tugs his collar, loosening the wet clingy fabric from his neck. "S'pose I don't so much like living in the past." But then his mocha eyes find mine, locking in with an intensity that makes my heart skip a couple beats. My gaze fixates on his plush pink lips as they move, entranced by the soft flick of his tongue and honeyed Texan drawl. "Not when I'm trying to live for the future."

"You mean our future?" A hopeful flame is rekindled in me as he entwines his fingers in mine..

"There's a lot of things I can't give you, Shelby, I'm not gonna lie." Remorse furrows his dark brows.. "But my heart isn't one of those things. Everything I am, everything I will ever be, is yours."

"Logan- you've already given me everything I could ever need.." The moment feels bursting with opportunity and I want so badly to tell him everything.

But right now, I just need to be close to him..

I press up on my tiptoes to kiss him hard. My fingers fumble with the buttons of his shirt, struggling to contain my giddy excitement to share with him our wonderful news, and to share so much more. Greedy to feel the heat of his hardened body, I gasp when I find a bandage wound tightly around his chiselled chest. Mottled purple bruises peek out from behind the gauze, leading my gaze lower to the reddened scars of licking flames that creep across his ribcage.

A heart wrenching sight.

"Oh god! I knew it was bad, Loan Star, but this is-" A horrified gasp whooshes from my lungs as I reach out with ginger fingertips to gently stroke the place where his sigil tattoos had once been. All traces of the ink that the evil prophet had illustrated him with, is now burnt away to leave only an angry red scar.

"It looks worse than it is-" Logan tries to reassure me gently as he brushes a hand back through his waterlogged onyx locks. "Really, Butterfly, trust me. I'm good."

I nod, struggling to swallow all my worries. "That doesn't make me feel any less guilty."

He squeezes my hands in his, bringing my knuckles up to his lips to brush gentle kisses over them. "Shelby, you have nothing to feel guilty about. None of this was your fault." Logan pulls me closer into the heat of his embrace. "You risked your life to get me out of that place- hell, you took a knife for me."

"Pfft, that was just a flesh wound!" I shrug, breaking away from him with a dismissive flick of the wrist and a playful smile. The healing slice hardly noticeable to me now that I am seeing first hand the suffering he has endured

"Shelby... Don't do that." He grumbles as he reaches carefully to catch me by the hip. His tender, appreciative thumb brushes over the edge of the small plaster that sticks to the side of my lower abdomen. Unimpressed by my modesty, Logan forces me to face him eye to eye with a knuckle tucked beneath my chin. His hard stare accelerated the race in my chest with his outright honesty. "If you hadn't come for me, I wouldn't be breathing right now. You're my hero, Barbie."

His timbre is as sincere as it is sweet and in that moment I fall for him all over again, tumbling into the safety of his presence.

"Don't you see?" Fluttering wings whip around my stomach and I am suddenly struck by the way he looks at me, with so much tenderness and adoration that I can barely stand to maintain eye contact as I confess my devotion. "I'd do anything for you, Lone Star."