Rogue was drowning. That was the only way she could think to describe the pressure in her chest and stomach, the slight dizziness and disorientation from the lack of oxygen. And every time she tried to drag herself back to the surface, she was pulled under again.
It had started out innocently enough. Logan leaned back comfortably in his chair, waiting for her to come to him, but even when she stood right in front of him, he didn’t reach for her. Instead, he tipped his head back to look at her and told her bluntly to kiss him. Rogue felt unsettled and unbalanced – she had never initiated a kiss before. She took another half step forward, feeling almost embarrassed as Logan obligingly moved his legs apart so she could stand between his thighs. Dropping her hands onto his muscular shoulders, she leaned forward, hesitating when she saw that his eyes were open and focused on hers. He still had his arms crossed over his chest.
Rogue frowned. “Why are you starin’ at me?”
Logan’s lips twitched in a quick smirk that vanished almost instantly.
“Just tell me what you want, darlin’,” he said evenly.
“Quit starin’ for one!” Rogue exclaimed uneasily. He immediately closed his eyes, but Rogue’s uncertainty remained. “I…what do you want me to do, Logan?” she asked hesitantly.
Without opening his eyes, he answered, “Doesn’t matter what I want. This is about what you want. You can start by kissin’ me, but you want somethin’ else, you tell me. You want my hands on you, you tell me. And you tell me where you want them.”
Rogue felt her face flush scarlet. To cover her embarrassment, she immediately leapt into action. She discovered quickly, though, that she had misjudged the angle as she ended up kissing more of Logan’s chin than his mouth. With a fleeting thought to whether he found it funny, she quickly corrected the kiss, surprised when Logan did no more than return the light pressure of her lips on his. She would have expected him to take control from the start. Intrigued, she wondered if she could make him lose control. She began teasing his lips with hers, brushing them softly and pulling back slightly, flicking his lower lip with her tongue and waiting for him to reciprocate. He didn’t. After a couple minutes of her toying with him, she became impatient.
“You don’t have to sit there with your arms crossed, you know,” she snapped.
He responded again without opening his eyes. “What do you want me to do with them?” The rough edge to his voice gave Rogue a dark sense of triumph. He wasn’t nearly as unaffected as he pretended.
“My shoulders and neck, like we agreed before. And you could at least make an effort to kiss me back,” she muttered in irritation, completely missing the quick satisfied tilt to his lips as she again leaned forward.
She hadn’t realized at the first touch of Logan’s tongue against hers that she would end up drowning. It had been fine then, exciting and a little unsettling, leaving her wondering what had changed between this morning in the library and now. That, of course, was when she had still been able to think clearly. As soon as Logan repeated his actions from earlier and slid his lips along her jaw and onto her throat, her stomach felt as though a whole cage of butterflies had been let loose inside it. She had managed for a few heady moments to keep her wits about her, to swim clumsily through the waves of desire crashing against her. But then he used his teeth, and she was lost.
* * *
Logan knew he had her. If he just kept going, she wouldn’t even realize what was happening until it was too late. But as much as he wanted to continue, he didn’t want to give Rogue any reason to be angry with him. And so he gritted his teeth and drew back, threading his fingers through her hair and tipping her head so she would look at him. Her eyes remained closed, though, as he took in the flush high on her cheekbones and the quick beat of her pulse in her neck right beneath a raspberry colored mark where his lips had been a moment before. The sight caused his eyes to darken and his muscles to tense in restraint. Rogue was almost limp in his arms, offering no resistance, her only movement the slight pressure of her fingertips digging into his back and the press of her breasts against his chest as she breathed rapidly. It startled Logan to realize he didn’t even remember when he had stood up to pull her against him.
Frowning, he shook her a bit and commanded roughly, “Open your eyes, kid.”
She complied slowly, her eyelids fluttering for a moment before she met his gaze with her desire clouded eyes.
“What do you want, Marie?” She stared at him hazily and he groaned in frustration that she wasn’t understanding him. He took a half step back, smiling grimly when she loosed a mewling little sound of disappointment. He shook her again. “Marie, listen to me. Do you want to keep going?”
She blinked a few times and bit her lip in indecision. The few seconds she hesitated allowed enough time for her mind to clear. A thousand thoughts flew through her mind, and she latched onto the one that seemed most important at the moment.
“If…if I say no, are you going to go out looking for a woman again?” Her voice was low, hesitant, and Logan easily heard the fear beneath the question.
He smiled wryly and took another step back. She had already answered his question. Rogue reached out as if to draw him back, but stopped at the last moment.
Sighing, Logan chucked her on the chin lightly. “No, kid, I won’t do that again.”
She smiled at him brilliantly and caught his hand up in both of hers, resting her chin happily on their knuckles. Her smile faded quickly. “Isn’t that going to be…uncomfortable for you?” she ventured.
Logan snorted. “Yeah. That’s why I think we should get married by the end of the month.”
Rogue gasped and dropped his hand. “Logan, that’s less than three weeks!”
“So?” He couldn’t imagine lasting another three days, let alone three weeks. Why was she arguing when he was just trying to be generous?
“So I can’t put together a proper wedding in three weeks.”
With a frown, he ticked items off on his fingers. “License, blood test, schedule a trip to the courthouse. That won’t take three weeks, kid.”
Her lower lip trembled and he cursed silently.
“I want a real wedding, Logan, not just some legal agreement. I want a dress and a ceremony. I want to be married by a preacher – it doesn’t even have to be in a church,” she pleaded, “and I want…” She trailed off, but Logan saw the way she absently rubbed her ring finger with her thumb.
“You want a ring,” he sighed.
Rogue nodded tremulously.
“And you can’t get all that lined up in three weeks?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. I want a couple of bridesmaids for the ceremony, so we would need time to decide on dresses and have them altered.”
Logan squinted in consideration. “All right. Six weeks then. No longer, got it?”
Expecting another argument, he was surprised when Rogue just smiled and nodded. Studying her, he realized she actually looked happy. Wanting to keep her happy without really knowing why, Logan said, “We’ll start with the ring. Let me take a shower and then we’ll go shopping.”
Rogue’s smile widened and then almost instantly turned into a frown.
“Why do you need another shower? You took one this morning.”
Logan’s lips quirked in wry amusement. “I need a cold shower, darlin’,” he explained ruefully.
Her eyes dropped to his groin and she blushed. Muttering a quiet, “Oh,” she scurried from the room, leaving Logan staring at the door, his body aching for her.
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