Breathing deeply, Marie tried to slow down her heartbeat.

“End program.” The scenery before her melted away and she was once again in the familiar danger room. Slowly her body calmed and as the sweat that covered her cooled a shiver ran through her body.

She made her way to the showers, gingerly unwrapping the bindings from her hand and wincing slightly as she uncovered bruised, split knuckles. She had lost track of time in the danger room again and as she walked through the hallways she realised how quiet the mansion was. Everyone else was asleep; she had the place to herself.

She loved this time of night, where she was free from her constant worry of accidentally touching someone, accidentally hurting someone. When the place was that quiet she could pretend she was a normal person, she didn’t need to cover up and she could relax.

Smiling to herself she spread her arms out wide and revelled in the feeling of freedom from her own skin’s prison as she entered the locker room.

*-*-*-*-*

She remained under the hot water for as long as she could stand it. Turning off the shower the cool air made her light headed and she stood against the cold, tilled wall for a second, trying to regain some composure.

As she stood there a feeling crept over her, like someone was watching her. Trying to focus through the steam that had filled the locker room she reassured herself that no one was there, the she was imagining it.

Shaking her head she grabbed her towel and decided that it was quiet enough she could make a quick dash for her room without too much danger.

It was then when she heard him.

*-*-*-*-*

A deep growl emanated from somewhere in the darkness of the room, a noise that she recognised instantly.

“Logan?”

She waited but he didn’t reply. The silenced seemed go on and on and for a moment she thought she had imagined the noise, imagined that Logan was there with her, watching her. But just as she was going to turn away and head up to her room she saw him emerge from the shadows. His dark silhouette stalking toward her, stealing her ability to breath or move.

As he walked into the light his dark eyes never left hers and there was something disturbing swimming around in their depths; a hunger, a need, a want.

His long strides seemed to swallow up the distance between their two bodies and all too soon he was staring down at her, looking like he was trying to see her very being.

But he just stood there, looking at her, not saying a word. Finally she couldn’t stand the silence a moment longer.

“Logan?” Her voice came out as barely a whisper, but it seemed so loud in the deathly quiet room, echoing off every wall.

It was an age before he spoke; “Drop the towel and turn around.”

But she just stood there, not knowing if she’d heard him correctly, she couldn’t have. She didn’t know what to do, her heart was racing again and all thoughts in her head had seemed to have left her.

He growled again and pulled the towel from her hands leaving her naked and too exposed to his stare.

“Turn around.” The words were barely discernable from his deep growl, but she had heard him and with the way he was looking at her she didn’t wish to disobey him.

She turned around slowly and waited, waited for him to do something, anything.

*-*-*-*-*

She was hardly breathing as he stepped up behind her, his face so close to her neck she could almost feel his lips on her skin.

His hot breath ran over her and despite the heat, it made her skin break out in goose bumps.

“Don’t move.” His lips moved against the wet hair that covered her ear, his deep voice making the knot that had formed in her stomach twist a little tighter.

He stood behind her; she could feel the body heat coming off his bare chest melt into the skin of her back. He was so close and she was torn to whether she should step away, cover herself up to prevent him being hurt or to endure the sweet torture that he was inflicting upon her. But any thought of walking away was soon forgotten as his hands circled her neck, moving over her shoulders, his calloused fingertips only a fraction away from her deadly skin, the danger starting to turn her on move than she wanted to admit.

His warm hands skimmed down her arms to her fingertips and he leaned back down next to her ear.

“Lift your arms up.” His voice like thick, warm syrup running down her spine, she never even thought to defy him.

Slowly lifting her arms up, his hands followed hers until she was reaching above her. Again, with his skin so close to hers he ran his hands down the inside of her arms managing to pull a purr from her chest without her noticing. Her eyes fluttered shut, her whole body concentrating on his movements so close to her.

As his ministrations started, she couldn’t decide whether what he was doing to her was agonising torture or something so exquisite it fed her very soul.

He’d never been afraid of her skin, never shied away when she had reached out and she had always been grateful for that, but this was something else entirely.

Her pulled her out of her own thoughts when she realised his hands had stopped. Looking down, his hands were hovering a breath away from her stomach, perfectly still like he was waiting for something.

She wanted to tell him to keep going, tell him that if he stopped now she didn’t think she could ever forgive him, but she didn’t trust herself to speak. So she tried to show him.

Letting her hands slowly drop back, her fingers hesitantly threaded into his wild, dark hair. She gently tugged, trying to tell him she didn’t want him to stop, that she never wanted him to stop.

A few agonising seconds passed and she waited, but instead of carrying on, he pulled his hands away and stepped back, her fingers dragging through his hair as he left her.

Without his body so close to she was suddenly cold and the feeling on loneliness swept over her, making tears prickle at the corners of her eyes. She just stood there unable to do anything else. Alone again.

“I went to your room, but you weren’t there.” His deep gravely voice interrupted her self pitying, and as she opened her eyes, she was staring at his wide, chiselled chest. She didn’t dare look him in the eyes as he carried on, “you weren’t there, and so I came looking for you.”

The sound of the claws of his right hand hardly registered in her addled brain as she tried to work out what he was saying to her.

Warm metal of the dull sides of his blades touched under her chin and he nudged her head up to look at him. Her light brown eyes met his dark ones and again she found it hard to breath.

“Standing under the water beaten and bruised, I couldn’t stand being away from you any longer.”

His words wrapped around her jumbled thoughts bringing the moment into full focus. All of her emotions collided with one another as he lightly dragged the blunt side of his claws across her skin down to the flat of her stomach.

“I need to be close to you, to protect you.” As he said those words he fell down to his knees in front of her, making her heartbeat double in pace, trying to jump out of her chest, wanting to give itself completely to the man kneeling in front of her, the wonderful man making her body hum with excitement and fear.

Short, hot breaths fluttered across stomach warming the skin there even more. Again she felt torn whether she should stay perfectly still or run as far away from as she could. But even though her mind felt conflicted, her body knew exactly what it wanted. A moan was pulled from somewhere deep inside her and a rush of heat pooled below her stomach as Logan turned his head and scratched his stubble slowly across the sensitive skin just below her bellybutton.

His hands began exploring again, this time running dangerously close up and down her legs. The sounds that he was dragging out of her were becoming barely human.

His hands stopped again, this time on inside of her thighs, so close to their apex. She was just managing to keep still, every nerve in her body was screaming with heated joy. He had managed to awaken her entire being hardly touching her.

She cried out as she felt the bristles of his chops graze the skin at the tops of her thighs and his warm breath move over the wet flesh between her legs.

One of her hands tangled in his hair as the other covered her face, all of the sensations felt like they were going to rip her body apart in a blissful explosion.

Tugging hard on his hair one word slipped out from between her parted lips amid the moans and cried he was eliciting out of her. “Please.”

She didn’t know what she was asking, to end it? To carry on? To never stop? She couldn’t have told him if she had known, only incoherent noises of pleasure followed her plea to him.

“As you wish.” She barely registered his response or the sound of his claws sliding out from between his knuckles again as she concentrated on the tight ball of aching heat that had formed low in her stomach in response to his ministrations.

She felt the blunt side of his claws begin to slowly move up the back of her legs as his breaths over her now extremely sensitive flesh between her legs, get deeper and harder.

More heat pooled in her stomach and all the muscles in her body felt like they were being wound tighter and tighter waiting to be released, something she knew only Logan could provide for her. Scrunching her eyes even tighter closed and throwing her head back, her hands dug into his hair.

A growl from deep in his chest seemed to vibrate her entire world and a scream was suddenly ripped from her throat. Lights sparked behind her eyes as the pressure that had been building inside her was released in one sheer moment of bliss.

No longer able to breath, let alone stand, her knees buckled beneath her and she fell to the floor. But instead of hitting the hard tile, her body was cushioned by a soft and warm object. At that moment she couldn’t understand why the floor beneath her was yielding instead of solid and she didn’t care, she would have been happy to stay there forever. Totally contented, enveloped in a warm safety she never wanted to leave.

*-*-*-*-*

Slowly and to her extreme disappointment she began to regain her senses and some of her composure.

“Back with me?” Logan’s deep, thick voice was low in her ear and turning slightly she realised the warm safety she didn’t want to leave was Logan’s arms. He had somehow managed to wrap her in a towel and was sitting against the lockers with her curled in his lap.

She nodded, not trusting herself to talk as a blush crept up her neck.

She smiled contentedly as he nuzzled into her now dry hair, whispering into her ear, “Good, I thought I’d lost you for a moment.” He shifted underneath her, making her body quiver excitedly and a quiet moan escape her lips which was immediately answered by a growl from Logan.

He shifted again, this time gathering her up and standing with her cradled in his arms. A rush of fear coursed through her at the thought of him letting her go, but he instantly eased her fears as he leaned back down to her ear.

“Let’s see if I can get you to make some of those noises again.” He hugged her tightly to his chest and made his way back through the mansion to his room.

She just hoped that the mutants in the rooms next to Logan’s were heavy sleepers.