Page 8 of A Reputation Dark & Deadly

Peyton didn't think. She didn't reason. She simply acted. Raising her arms, she took his grizzly face in her hands and brought his head towards her so his lips crashed onto hers.

Once the initial shock disappeared at the fact that holy shit, she was really kissing Logan and breaking his rule and she was going to get into a hell of a lot of trouble and probably get a scathing review from him on top of the shitty grade, Peyton realized that Logan was actually kissing her back. Upon initial contact, he immediately opened his mouth and slid his tongue out so it ran across her bottom lip. Acting on instinct rather than logic, Peyton opened her mouth for him and he immediately invaded it with his tongue. His hands gripped her lower back roughly, pressing her into him incessantly. He tipped her head back with a tilt of his head and continued to kiss her.

Peyton's head was in a daze. She didn't think their kiss would even last this long. She didn't think she would enjoy kissing him, but holy hell, her skin was buzzing with static electricity and her bones had melted into thick caramel. The only reason why she still had the ability to stand was because he was holding her up with his hands.

His lips were surprisingly soft, the whiskers from his salt and pepper five o'clock shadow tickling the sensitive area around her mouth. It wasn't as unpleasant as she expected it to be. It felt raw and real and grown up. She was kissing a man rather than a boy and she suddenly appreciated the fact that he was such an asshole, he was this older, masculine jerk who still held her up with his hands and indulged her despite her breaking a rule.

Which led her to realize that this kiss that had originally started out as a way to get back at Logan, to show him that she wasn't like all the other girls who had TA'ed for him in the past, the girls who cowered or looked down or did whatever he asked blindly, turned into something a little deeper than Peyton had expected. There was something there, a bubbly, excited feeling that started to tickle her senses, stemming from the connection of their lips. The thought kept repeating in her head - he was kissing her back, he was kissing her back - and that made her nearly swoon in his arms.

Her hand dropped from his face to reach behind him and run through the black locks of his hair. They were surprisingly silky against her skin, considering she figured he had to use some form of product to keep it slicked back all the time.

This was the moment Peyton planned to pull away and hightail it out of there as quickly as she was able to. However, Logan seemed to gain control of his senses as the initial shock wore off and he let out a possessive growl as he began to take control of the kiss. The noise did something funny to her insides but she wasn't allowed any more time to contemplate just what that was considering Logan had taken control and wasn't planning to give it back anytime soon.

He pressed into her until her back was against the wall once more, and with a strong thigh, he eased her legs apart just slightly enough for him to put gentle pressure on her pelvic bone. His free hand reached up and grabbed her throat, wrapping his fingers around the smooth skin while he extended his thumb until it hit the top of her chin and he was able to tilt her head back to the angle he desired. Peyton gasped, her eyes remaining closed but her mouth slightly parted at the pressure against her pelvis.

The gasp easily turned into a moan of pleasure as Logan slid his tongue past her parted lips in order to claim her mouth for himself. She felt herself get dizzy with overwhelming sensations, unable to fully get a grip on reason. He smirked through the kiss; she could feel his lips move against hers in a way where she could easily tell what he was thinking. However, she couldn't quite bring herself to care, considering her lips were responding to his and she was kissing him back with all that she could muster. She had no idea if it was because it had been a while since she had thoroughly kissed someone before or if she liked dueling with him for power. Either way, her hands dropped from his hair to grip his leather-clad shoulders, and she curled her fingers into him, desperately using him to hold onto herself.

Damn, he was an amazing kisser.

At that moment, his hand left Peyton's hip and slowly slid underneath her shirt. His hands were surprisingly warm but she flinched at the sudden sensation of skin upon skin. They hadn't even touched yet and now he was touching a part of her so intimate nobody had ever touched before. She gasped again, cutting the kiss off, not quite sure how she felt but knowing she didn't want him to stop. She reached for the lapel of his jacket, tugging on the leather in order to bring him closer to her. His fingers squeezed just a little harder against her throat, almost as though he were reminding Peyton that just because she initiated the kiss, he had taken over and was once again in charge. It was his way of telling her not to pull away again, and the hint of danger sent shockwaves to her very core.

His fingers continued to trace tantalizing patterns against her stomach and instead of reclaiming her lips, he pulled away just slightly. Peyton was surprised at the disappointment that flooded through her bloodstream because he wasn't kissing her anymore.

Instead, he leaned forward to put even more pressure on her very core. Once again, Peyton closed her eyes but the moan that came out of her mouth was ripped from the skin of her teeth. If logic was still working in her mind, she might have still cared but she couldn't bring herself to do so now.

It was then that she realized he was scrutinizing her reactions to his ministrations, trying to read her feelings, what she wanted and what she didn't. Peyton felt nothing short of exposed during this moment. His hazel eyes were too serious and didn't have the arrogant smirk it usually did and his lips were curled down into a small frown that matched his eyes. This was too much.

But she couldn't bring herself to look away. Instead, she turned her head, hoping that would prevent him from seeing how she really felt, probably because even she didn't want to know. Instead of deterring him, however, her gesture pushed him forward. His lips came to rest on her cheek, surprisingly soft and intimate, before trailing downwards to her neck. She opened her mouth to gasp but no sound came out. His lips seemed like expert explorers, sliding down the column of her throat after sucking at her pulse and feeling it beat beneath his lips.

The tickle of his beard against her flesh only enhanced his kissing, causing a shudder to rack through her entire body. She closed her eyes once more, trying to ignore the fact that Logan could sense exactly how she was responding to this, trying to ignore the fact that he was smirking against her skin and she could feel it. His hand that had been tracing mindless patterns on her skin slowly began its trek upward until he reached her breast. Without hesitating, he grabbed the cup of her bra and nipped the area where her neck and shoulder met, causing her to let out a soft moan.

His smirk only deepened. "You like that, sweetheart?" he asked in a rough, raw voice. It was lower than it typically was, causing little bolts of lightning to strike straight to her core.

Without waiting for a response, his fingers dipped into the cup if her bra in order to bring it downward. The cool, bitter wind felt like a hard slap against Peyton's face. Her eyes spring open as a voice inside of her head asked, What are you doing?

She placed her hands on Logan's chest and pushed him gently away from her. The action caught him by surprise, causing him to stumble and giving her room to sidestep around him after adjusting her shirt and bra. She took in hisbruised lips, his scruffy hair, his dilated, hooded eyes so black there was hardly a sliver of hazel to be seen and immediately felt the blood rush to her face. Peyton wasn't sure if she was ashamed, per se, but it hit her that she had broken a rule and had kissed Logan. And enjoyed it.

Not only that, but he had kissed her back.

She had to get out of there. Without looking back, she did.