While Logan wasn’t normally in the habit of slamming doors, his foul mood and accompanying horniness had persisted even through a prolonged swim in the chilly lake water. And so he slammed the front door when he returned to the mansion.
Several children paused in their scurrying to stare at him with wide eyes. He snarled and they bolted. Sighing, Logan scrubbed his hands over his face before running them back through his hair. Since he hadn’t bothered letting it dry before the ride back, it probably looked an absolute mess. Not that he cared. At the moment he was more concerned with trying to figure out how in the hell he was going to make a marriage with Marie work and how to avoid scarring their kid with his habit of snarling and growling.
He sighed again and headed for Marie’s room. His mood darkened as the students continued giving him a wide berth on the stairs and, although he would never admit it, he was relieved when he hit the teachers’ wing and the crowds of students disappeared. Wondering vaguely why there were so many kids hanging around on a Saturday, he almost missed the howls of laughter coming from Marie’s room.
With a perfunctory knock – they had gotten beyond the stage of common courtesy years ago – he pushed open the door. He saw her lying on her bed, a pillow under her stomach and chest, and several open magazines sprawled around her. She looked up in the middle of a laugh and choked on it when she saw who was standing in her doorway. With a gasping gulp that sounded painful even to him, Marie swallowed her laughter and shoved the magazine she was holding under the pillow.
His eyebrow shot up. His anger was forgotten as curiosity consumed him. Marie had never hidden anything from him before. At least, not that he knew. He took a step closer to the bed and she scrambled to gather up the magazines.
“What’re you lookin’ at, kid?”
“Nothin’,” she said, hastily slipping the magazines into a locking drawer in her nightstand and tucking the key into her pocket.
Logan grinned evilly as he eyed the pillow. She had forgotten one. Marie realized it just as he made his move. She dove for the pillow, but Logan’s hand had already grasped the magazine. Swiftly pulling it out from under her, he was pleased to see that it was still open to the page she had been looking at. Rogue reared up on her knees and made a desperate grab for it. Logan didn’t pull it back in time, and with a slick ripping sound, the magazine tore in two.
“Ha!” she exclaimed triumphantly, glancing down at her half. Her eyes grew wide with sudden panic as she saw what she held. Logan’s grin stretched even wider. Apparently he had the good half. “Logan, no!” she shrieked, dropping the pages she held and reaching again for his. He stepped back quickly and hastily scanned the title on the top page. His eyebrows flew up.
“What Your Man’s Behaviors Say About Your Relationship?” he read in disbelief.
Rogue made a humiliated sound low in her throat and grabbed for the magazine again. Logan held it out of reach and absently extended his other arm, placing his palm on her forehead and easily holding her back. She tried to pivot around and get closer, but he moved with her as he turned his attention back to the magazine. His eyebrows inched impossibly higher as he scanned through the first few questions. For each one, Rogue had circled an answer. A couple of the questions had hastily scrawled notes next to them.
“Interesting,” he said smugly, realizing that she had already done as she had promised she would. He thought it was a rather unorthodox approach to establishing a sexual relationship, but if it worked, he didn’t much care how she went about it. Glancing down at Rogue, his smugness immediately crumbled and panic welled in his chest. There were tears streaming down her cheeks. “Aw shit, kid,” he said contritely and handed the magazine over before he finished reading the questions.
Rogue snatched it to her chest protectively, her face flaming and embarrassed tears still spilling over her lashes.
“Dammit, Logan,” she mumbled, pulling her long sleeve over her hand and scrubbing her face dry.
They stared at each other for a few seconds in uncomfortable silence. Logan cleared his throat and offered an olive branch.
“You got the first question right.”
The blush that had just begun fading from her cheeks flared up brighter than ever and Rogue loosed a surprised little gasp.
“Well that one was never any mystery,” she said angrily. “You stare at every pair of boobs that crosses your path.”
Logan smirked. “So I’m a breast man – never thought that was something I should apologize for.”
Rogue glowered at him and he laughed.
“You should be happy about that, kid. You’ve got a killer rack.”
Another gasp and her right fist flew out, hitting him hard in the arm.
“Ow,” Logan mumbled, rubbing at his bicep just for show. The pain had faded instantly. When Rogue’s expression remained mutinous, he sighed heavily and ran his hands through his hair again. “Listen, kid, I’m sorry I embarrassed you. I’m glad you’re goin’ through the magazines, and if you want I could…” he trailed off uncertainly.
“You could what?” Rogue prompted suspiciously.
Logan hesitated a moment longer before throwing caution to the wind with a mental shrug. “I could go over the answers with you.”
There was that blush again. Rogue lowered her eyes, opening and closing her mouth several times as she searched for what to say. Logan waited patiently.
“I…okay,” she whispered finally, extending the crumpled magazine pages to him. Logan took them and pulled out her desk chair. Flipping it around, he straddled it and rested his arms on the chair back. He looked at Rogue expectantly until she dropped uneasily to the side of her bed.
“So, how did you answer these?” he asked. “Did you think them through before answering, or did you just go with the first one that popped into your head?”
“First thing that popped into my head.”
“‘Kay,” he said, turning his attention to the questions. “First one. ‘What does he like best a) your sense of humor, b) your legs, c) your smile, or d) your boobs.’ You answered D, which is fine. I like your boobs,” he explained calmly, “but for the record, kid, you’ve also got a great sense of humor and great legs. And I love it when you smile. A real smile, not the ones you give people when you’re being polite. So, technically, I like everything about you. Your boobs are just the icing on the cake.” Here he leered at her chest and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Rogue snickered.
“Lech,” she reprimanded half-heartedly.
“Guilty,” Logan admitted. “Question two. ‘It’s date night. Your guy prefers to a) go out to dinner, b) stay in and watch the game, c) cook dinner for you, d) have you cook dinner.’ Two for two, kid. Definitely B.”
“Naturally,” Rogue smirked.
“Brat,” he returned easily. “All right, number three. And this is where I think things get interesting. ‘You get your guy worked up and leave him wanting. He a) shrugs it off and waits until you’re in the mood, b) finds the nearest willing woman in a hurry, c) pouts and forces the issue until you give in, d) you’re not sure.’ You said D, kid.” Logan looked at her expectantly.
Rogue shrugged uncomfortably. “I really don’t know, Logan. I mean, I know you promised once we’re married that you won’t cheat. But we’re not married yet, so when you took off…” Rogue shrugged again and looked at him questioningly.
Logan suddenly felt guilty. He had gotten over his anger at Rogue as soon as he saw her tears, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she would have cried if he had been able to pick a woman up at a bar. Looking at her now, he could see the uncertainty in her eyes, mixed with a strange hopefulness. Hopefulness for what, he wasn’t sure. That he hadn’t cheated? He frowned – he hadn’t thought of it as cheating when he first left the mansion. Or maybe it was hopefulness that he had found another woman and he wouldn’t be bothering her with his attentions. Logan felt caught, not sure what answer to give her. With a shrug, he chose to tell her the truth. He owed her that.
“Honestly, kid, I left to go look for a woman.” Rogue’s face fell.
“And…and did you find one?” Her voice was tiny and she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“No,” he said simply, and chuckled a bit when Rogue gaped at him. “It’s too early for the barflies to be out, kid, and damned if I was gonna troll the malls and end up with a soccer mom.”
Rogue burst into laughter, which was fine with Logan. He thought it was kind of funny too. But when she continued laughing until she clutched her stomach with one hand and pointed shakily at him with the other, he was no longer amused.
“Enough,” he growled. To her credit, Rogue immediately tried to bring her mirth under control.
“W-what did you end up doing then?” she asked, somewhat breathless. Logan ignored her and turned back to the magazine.
“Question four. ‘When sleeping, your man likes to a) spoon you, b) lie on his back and let you cuddle up to him, c) sprawl over most of the bed, or d) leave right after sex, so you don’t know.’” Logan cleared his throat and read the note Rogue had jotted in the margin. “Interesting addition here, kid. You know from experience that A is the right answer for us, but you scribbled in that D is true for everybody else I’ve been with.” Glancing at her, he saw that her face was once again flushed with embarrassment. Logan pretended not to notice and continued, “What I want to know is, if you’ve gotten everything right so far, how can you really say that you’ve never thought about havin’ sex with me?”
Rogue’s look was pure surprise. “Knowin’ this stuff has nothin’ to do with knowin’ about sex. I just know you.
An unfamiliar warmth crept through Logan. It wasn’t uncomfortable, and it certainly wasn’t sexual. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say it meant he was pleased with her answer. He genuinely liked the thought of her knowing him that well. It made him wonder if he knew her as well as he should. Clearing his throat, Logan asked softly, “Are there quizzes for guys to take in any of those magazines?”
Rogue smiled shyly. “Yeah. I thought it was kinda interestin’, though. The quizzes for women to take about guys seem to be focused more on sex, and the quizzes for guys to take about women are more touchy feely.”
Logan’s eyebrow winged up. “Touchy feely?”
Rogue’s smile widened. “Yeah. ‘You forgot your anniversary, how does she feel?’ Or ‘She’s gained a few pounds, so you say….’ ‘When she asks if you think her friend is pretty, you say….’ Stuff like that.”
A short burst of laughter escaped Logan. “Ha! So they’re quizzes on how to navigate the emotional landscape.”
Giggling in response, Rogue nodded.
Logan leaned back a bit and crossed his arms over his chest, the ruined magazine still in one hand. “Guess it boils down to men bein’ physical creatures and women bein’ emotional ones.”
Rogue tipped her head to one side. “Men are emotional too. They just express it physically.”
“But you don’t argue that women are emotional?” he asked curiously.
She shrugged. “Some more than others.”
Narrowing his eyes in thought, Logan asked, “And where do you fall on that scale?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Rogue admitted dryly. “I’ve always been told that I don’t act the way people expect me to. I don’t cry all that much – these last couple weeks notwithstandin’ – I don’t let my feelin’s get hurt over little things. I don’t think I hold grudges?” She looked at him questioningly.
“Not that I’ve noticed,” he answered with a shrug.
She shrugged and they stared at each other, figuring the topic had been talked out. With another shrug, Logan turned his attention back to the quiz. They breezed through the next few questions, all of which Rogue had answered correctly. His favorite meal – steak, drinking with the guys or hanging out with her – hanging out with her, with the added note that sometimes he preferred to drink with Hank and Kurt, and it was fine with her when he did. Logan gave her a nod of approval on that one. A question about how to deal with him not liking her parents – she left that one blank and Logan just shrugged and moved on to the next question. His eyebrow flew up when he got to the one asking if she’d still love him if his stomach got flabby and he started losing his hair. Rogue had answered c) of course, and penciled in “But that’ll never happen.” That earned her another nod of approval.
It was the last question that Logan found most interesting.
“Okay, now here’s the good stuff,” he said with a smirk. ‘After he achieves climax—’ Pansy way to phrase it,” Logan interjected, “‘he a) rolls over and falls asleep, b) returns the favor, c) cuddles with you—’ Is that with or without having returned the favor?” he interjected again, “Ah, and here’s your answer, kid. D.” Shifting his thumb out of the way so he could read the next line, Logan’s eyes widened and he burst out laughing.
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