Marie woke with a start, going stiff as a board until she felt the steady rise and fall of Logan’s chest against her back. He’s okay. He’s okay.
She rubbed a hand over her face blearily. She was extremely hungry. She hadn’t slept very long, and certainly not very well. Even though she had donned thermals, socks and gloves, her anxiety over her exposed face and neck didn’t make for a peaceful night’s rest.
Still, she wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world.
Logan grumbled a little in his sleep, tightening his arms around her as if she were something valuable, something worth holding onto.
There was something so primally satisfying about the way he wrapped his whole body around hers, warming and protecting her. The thought flitted across her mind that if only she weren’t such a freak, she could have things like this. She could feel wanted, just like this. She tried to cherish every second, imprint every moment in her memory until he woke up.
Because then it would all be over.
She debated trying to sneak out again. Marie didn’t know if she could bear the look in Logan’s eyes once he woke up and realized what he had done, the things he had said to her last night.
She wasn’t sure how much he would even remember given the amount of alcohol he consumed, but she just knew he would be horrified to recall the things he had promised to some girl he picked up from a strip club.
And she didn’t want to make it any worse for him, didn’t want to make him feel guilty or somehow obligated to her. He didn’t deserve that. He was a good man, he really was. He hadn’t even been able to go through with all of the things he probably wanted to do with her. Marie had caught enough glimpses of Tina’s memories to know how men treated strippers they brought back to their hotels.
But something about Logan was different. She could feel it, from the moment he offered to wait with her in the restaurant. He was a little bit damaged, a little bit broken, just like her. Yet there was something so good deep down inside him that Marie just couldn’t help but want to get close to it, to feel it and take it in, a little bright spot in her otherwise dark life.
He had given her that. The things she had offered him in return, simple words of thanks and a little physical pleasure, seemed so cheap in comparison. But that was all she had to give. Even if she never saw him again, she hoped it meant something to him, hoped she had moved him somehow, the way he moved her.
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