Veronica had told Logan he could plan their weekend getaway, and she would handle her dad. She had no idea what he planned for the two of them, only that he told her to bring her swimsuit and a sundress.
Now, here they were on a boat she assumed belonged to the late Aaron Echolls, film star. The boat was smallish, but very nice. All white, and there was a cabin underneath where a quaint bedroom had been stunningly outfitted.
When they ventured below to look around, Logan had taken her into is arms and whispered, "We never did get to take that trip to Catalina."
"Yeah, well we're kind of more out in the open than we were in those days, aren't we?" she responded, glumly remembering why she had stood him up for that particular date. She didn't enjoy being reminded of Logan's role in her rape, although she had long forgiven him for it.
He kissed her and smiled. "True, but that doesn't mean we can't visit a tried and true tourist destination for all of SoCal. Come on, you're going to love making fun of all the prissy rich people and the plastic surgery fiends. Plus, this date is a 'choose your own adventure,'" he teased, waiting for her to take the bait.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" she asked cautiously, trying to be optimistic that Logan didn't have some nefarious plan in mind.
"Well," he started, leading her over to the bed and pressing against her at the edge. "I wanted you to be able to customize your weekend getaway so as to have the absolute best experience while playing hooky. After all, who knows when we'll get to do this again?"
"Okay," she accepted, threading her fingers through his. "So what did you have in mind?"
"Option one: we can stay at a fancy hotel, where you can have all the luxuries your petite heart desires. We can roleplay, if you like, as fashion moguls, or heirs to a giant fortune, or whatever crazy scheme you come up with—you're better than me at those things. But anyway, we basically can stay at one of the nicest Catalina resorts on daddy's dime."
Veronica looked intrigued, then dubious. "What's option two?"
"Option two is a little bit closer to home." He moved the two of them onto the bed, rolling them so they were both laying down, facing each other. He looked up and around. "We can 'rough it' on the boat, dock it in the harbor, be fugitives, or transients, or just agoraphobes. And we can still do all the stuff we want, just from the comfort of our own boat."
She nodded, smiling. "It bodes well for the future that you think of this as 'roughing it,'" Veronica commented.
He shook his head at her. "Trust me, in comparison to the Avalon, this is roughing it." After a pause to kiss her, Logan pulled back and asked, "So, detective, what'll it be?"
She looked pensive for a moment and then leaned in to kiss him, pressing them together on the comforter, entwining her legs with his and finding her fingers' way into the hair at the base of his neck. They kissed lazily, enjoying just these few moments in solitude when her father, or Wallace, or Dick, or whoever, wouldn't burst in and ruin their fun.
When she pulled away, Veronica smiled at him. "We could be at the Camelot, eating take-out and watching pay per view the whole weekend, and it would still be perfect."
"That's my Veronica. Idealizing spending time at seedy motels in shitty towns where we know (and hate) everyone there. Does this mean you choose option two?" he asked, trying to sound like he was excited about it.
"Hell no. Silly boy, take me to the luxury resort and treat me like the princess that I am." The character she affected came through in the second half of her request, but beneath that, it was all Veronica. She deserved nice things, and he wanted to give them to her.
"I was hoping you would say that," he admitted.
"Yeah, well, you won't be so happy next time around when it's my turn to plan and we do end up at the Camelot for our special weekend away."
"Hey, I have some really nice memories of the Camelot," he reminded her, and knew they were both seeing that incredible kiss in their minds. Veronica was replaying it vividly in her mind—the fluttering in the pit of her stomach, the confusion, the attraction, even the guilt.
"Yeah," she said simply, and knew he was remembering it too.
Decision made, they sailed to Catalina, and it was a lot faster than Veronica had thought it would take, but she also wasn't sure how much she enjoyed this whole sailing thing. After a bout of near seasickness, Veronica wondered how people could spend the majority of their time on these things. Really living on a boat, like they did in Louisiana or the Navy…how did people manage to exist so long without having two feet firmly planted on the ground? It didn't matter, she had chosen the fancy hotel, and wouldn't have to spend more time on this boat than was absolutely necessary.
When they arrived at the Avalon, Logan had checked into the tiny boutique hotel under the name Joe Hardy. When Veronica heard him say it aloud, she had to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh. Instead, she sniggered quietly while he presented his credit card for payment. She doubted this was unusual for them, what with celebrities booking rooms under aliases all the time to avoid attention, but it was a bit heavy handed.
After they shut the door to the room, Veronica finally let her laughter out. "I thought you would appreciate it," Logan commented, unsurprised. "I figure I could be the Hardy boy to your Nancy Drew. It's a bit aspirational, I know."
All she could do to reply was push him down on the down duvet and kiss him, which he didn't seem to mind. "Let's just say I want you for more than your detective skills," she said, straddling him.
"At the moment," he commented, "It seems you want me mostly for my body."
Their position was hardly evidence to the contrary, with Veronica's hands caressing him and the expression on her face clearly one of desire.
"You got me," she feigned confession. "I want to ravage my boyfriend in this fabulous hotel suite—" Though her tone was joking, as she looked around the room, Veronica noticed the hotel room they were in was actually pretty standard as far as fancy hotel rooms go.
Instead, what caught both of their eyes was the view. Looking out through French doors that led to a balcony, Veronica saw the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean, their hotel room only a block from the shore. The beach was still populated, but it didn't matter. With such a fantastic view, people were mere blips in the scene.
Logan sat up, pulling her to her feet. "It's a different view than we get in Neptune, isn't it?"
"Much," Veronica answered. "I wonder if up close it's the same. Crime, corruption, abuse, class warfare…" she mused, then laughed. "What am I thinking? Catalina's a mecca for the rich and famous. It's probably worse!"
"Hold up there, Sherlock. I'm sure that if there is seedy underbelly to this idyllic place, you'd be the one to keep us both awake all night trying to find it. But this is supposed to be a vacation. You know, those things where instead of doing the thing you do all the time, you don't do that and just, you know, relax? No detecting this weekend."
"Oh, fine, but only because it would probably blow the cover story that I'm going to come up with for us. Would you rather be a Hilton relative, or a distant foreign royal? Ooh, no, how about you're a real estate mogul? One of those HGTV types. You could pull it off, I think." Before she could continue to plot their characters out, Logan had pulled her back down to be horizontal next to him.
"What makes you think you'll want to leave the hotel room to interact with people? We may not even have the opportunity to try our new personas out."
She smirked at him. "There's the beach, hello, and I'm going to want to go snorkeling. Also, I have a feeling there may be a pony on this island with my name on it. If I can't steal it, I'm at least going to ride it around on one of those horseback sightseeing tours."
He smirked right back at her. "Not that I'm saying no to any of that—I'm going to need a break at some point. But those things can all be done in the proximity of Neptune and its parental/friendly figures. There's one thing that doesn't quite make that cut."
Leaning in, Logan kissed her more passionately, tongue entering her mouth, fingers wandering under her blouse, up her sides that tingled beneath his touch. His body pressed against hers, and she could feel every place where they met, every hard angle that connected them. Their hips cradled against each other, and as their fervor built, Veronica was reminded of why exactly they needed this weekend away. She broke away and laughed. "I guess at least we'll make good use of this fancy hotel room you got us… because we're never leaving it."
Logan showed her his agreement by grinding his body against hers, eliciting a small gasp of pleasure from his girlfriend. "It's a pity I booked us a snorkeling package tomorrow morning, then, isn't it?"
She laughed and moved down his body, nimble fingers undoing his clothing as she went. By the time she reached her destination, Logan was absolutely certain they would not make that particular appointment. This woman was going to be the death of him. And what a way to go.