Chapter 1 – Undeniable Attraction

"Is this seat taken?"

The white-haired, blue eyed African beauty was jarred from her reverie by the gravelly, almost growly voice addressing her. She turned in her seat to look up into a pair of mesmerizing, intense steel gray eyes situated in an equally mesmerizing handsome face. His immediate impact on her was startling. Two things happened to her at once. She drew in a quick, hasty breath and her heart thundered in her chest. The man standing before her was over six feet tall. Even under the cover of his immaculately tailored charcoal gray suit, she could detect a muscular body that was apparently a slave to fitness. His raven colored hair was thick and wavy, but well cut. His forehead was broad and high. His brows were thick and bushy and arched over the eyes that currently held her attention. A slender and finely chiseled nose divided two high cheekbones framed by well-trimmed mutton chops. His mouth was wide, with lips that were finely shaped, having a sensual fullness to them. As she stared into the handsome stranger's face, a warm glow overtook her, fully embracing her. Her heart did a fancy little dance it had never done before. Her mouth went dry and she lost all power of speech as she continued to stare wordlessly.

The stranger gazed down at her and he repeated his question quietly. "Is this seat taken?" She detected an accent, but couldn't place it. The sound of his voice sent a delicious shiver running down her spine.

She blinked rapidly before stammering. "Uh...no." She cleared her throat and tried again. "No, it is not." She was so shaken by him and his commanding presence, that she was reduced to a stuttering fool.

"Thank you," he remarked with seeming nonchalance. "There were no other seats available."

Like everyone else, they were out in the seated area of Bryant Park, enjoying the rare, gloriously bright, sunny, cloudless March day Mother Nature had blessed them with.

She laughed lightly. "It is a beautiful day today. So, it seems everyone is out enjoying it."

He grinned and reached for his ham sandwich, unwrapping it and taking a bite. "Yeah, it's unheard of having this kind of weather this time of year in New York City."

She noticed the simple gold wedding band on his finger when he unwrapped his food and her heart dropped at the sight of the piece of jewelry. She was stunned as a bitter emotion engulfed her. It was jealousy. This had never happened to her before and she was distraught at the realization. She responded to him politely, "Yes. I love spring and this weather is an added bonus."

He heard the weirdness in her voice and looked up into her face. That face! He had seen her sitting alone, oblivious to everything around her, when he was searching for an empty space to sit to eat his lunch. He was inexplicably drawn to her and a strange force had beckoned him to her. As he drew nearer and eventually stood before her, he couldn't help but notice the well-defined angles and planes of her face. She wasn't wearing much makeup, which made her no less lovely, only softer and younger than she appeared to be. Her jaw was delicate but firm. Her nose was slender. Her mouth was framed by luscious lips…hell...suffice it to say, they were the sexiest pair of lips he had ever behold. Her hair was white as the snow that capped the mountains in his native Canada and he imagined, just as soft and luxurious.

When she had looked up at him, he was dumbfounded by her almond shaped, cerulean eyes and he was further thunderstruck when his heart began beating erratically and a suspicious clot formed in his throat. The bolt that struck him right between the eyes and straight in the heart was completely out of left field. He had no clue as to why he was standing before her and his reaction to her completely floored him, especially since he was a married man. He knew he was borrowing trouble, but he just couldn't seem to help himself. He steeled himself against the baffling feelings stirring inside him by silently reminding himself that he had vows to remain true too.

"I could see that you do. You seem to…glow in the sunlight." The last words were uttered softly after a slight pause. He'll bet that she glowed in the moonlight too.

He took notice when she shifted uncomfortably. Wanting to ease her discomfort, he laid his sandwich down and wiped his right hand off before reaching out, intending to introduce himself and to cover the uneasiness between them.

"I'm James Howlett, but you can call me Logan."

The warm, strong, callused hand that reached out to her was so huge that she stared at it for a moment before she took it into hers and smiled. "Ororo Munroe. Please to meet you, Logan."

Sparks erupted between the two at the brief touch. Ororo's body trembled slightly and Logan felt it as he gripped her hand tighter. For one insane moment he wished he knew what it was like to have her quivering beneath him in unbridled ecstasy. The thought both excited and shamed him.

"Damn!" He muttered. He was horny as hell and for what? A woman who was a complete stranger to him.

Ororo heard his muttered curse, caught up in her own thoughts as to why she was hot and burning with a sense of awareness for this man. For some strange reason, she didn't feel inclined to draw her hand away from his, but common sense dictated that she gently tug it away. She shook her head to clear it of the swirling thoughts.

Logan saw the movement and eyed her skeptically. He reluctantly let go and offered her a crooked smile. "Pleasure is mines Ororo. It means beautiful doesn't it?"

Ororo's eyes widened. "Yes! Do you know Swahili?"

"A few phrases and words. Learned when I was in the military and was traveling from one country to the next."

"What countries have you travelled too?"

"Quite a few. Cuba, Germany, Tanzania, Uganda," he replied. "But I was born and bred in Alberta, Canada."

She nodded and gave him a soft smile that did peculiar things to his insides. "Your accent gave away that you are not a born American."

"What about you? Ororo is definitely not an American name." Logan replied, loving the way her name rolled off his tongue.

She chuckled. "I was born here in New York City. My father was from Harlem and my mother was from Kenya. I spent quite a bit of my childhood in my mother's homeland."

Logan nodded in lieu of speaking as he was busy chewing a bite of his sandwich.

"So what brings you out to enjoy the day, Logan?" Ororo inquired softly.

Shit! The slight husky timbre of her voice saying his name caused his loins to tighten some. His reaction to her was shocking to say the least. It was obvious that she wasn't soliciting for that kind of reaction from a man. The lust originated only in his mind, but it was unquestionably there. However, sitting there and staring at her, he soon realized that his reaction to her wasn't based on desire alone. He felt a compulsion to protect her and to suffuse her with his strength. It was something he had never felt before with any female, and he was ashamed to admit, not even with his wife.

He took another bite of his sandwich, chewed and swallowed, in an effort to calm himself before he answered her innocent question. "Needed to get away from the confines of the office for a bit and think."

"What do you do?"

"Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers."

Ororo picked up on the slight trace of sadness in his voice. She braved a glance at him and saw the same unhappiness flash across his face before he schooled his features into a mask of coolness.

"You say that like it is nothing to be proud of."

Logan sighed. He was normally a taciturn man and never felt the need to reveal his thoughts or emotions to anyone, except those who were in his tight circle of family and that only included his wife Jean and his sister Anna. However, there was something profound about the blue eyed Goddess sitting before him that made it easy for him to talk and it bade him to speak freely.

Ororo, sensing his hesitancy in opening up, guessed that it had something to do with the fact that she was a complete stranger, gave him a small smile. "I am sorry. It is none of my business."

"It's not that, it's just that…"

"You do not like talking to a complete stranger about private matters," she finished for him.

His shaggy eyebrows rose, surprised that she was able to read him so well. "Yeah," he said on an exhaled breath. "But there is something about you. You seem easy to talk to."

Ororo laughed breathlessly. "I get that a lot."

He liked her laugh. Liked it very much. He delighted in the low musical sound of it. "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Do you not know that it is rude to ask a woman her age?" Her twinkling eyes told him that she was teasing him. "I am twenty five years old. And you?"

"No fooling? You look younger. At least sixteen. I'm thirty five."

Ororo blushed and gave him a shy smile. "Thank you."

Logan finished his lunch and gulped down a bottle of water, before giving Ororo his undivided attention. As he stared at her, warning bells went off in his head. The beauty before him had the potential to add a complication to his life he sure as hell didn't need and couldn't deal with right now. Coupled with his bizarre reaction to her, he knew he was courting trouble. His marriage was already on shaky ground and another obstacle was most definitely not what he needed. However, he ignored the shrill ringing of the bells and succumbed to the temptation before him.

"So what do you do, Ororo?"

"I am currently attending Columbia, where I will be finishing up my Master's Degree in a few days."

Logan whistled softly. "Nice. What's your area of study?"

"Education. I have always wanted to be a teacher. Like my mother was."

Logan heard the sorrow in her voice and instinctively knew her mother wasn't around. "I'm sorry."

Ororo scrunched her brows together. "For?"

"From the sound of your voice, I assume your mama isn't around."

"No. My parents died five years ago on the American Airlines flight that crashed en route to Kenya."

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I know what it's like. My folks were killed by a drunk driver when I was sixteen."

Ororo reached out to grab her bottled water and took a sip, in an attempt to calm the rioting emotions that usually assailed her when she thought about her beloved parents. Logan knowing that she needed a few minutes to regain her composure remained silent.

After a while, Logan, out of the blue, muttered, "I hate being an accountant."

Ororo tilted her head to the side and regarded him warily. He really was a handsome devil and apparently, a smart one at that. Then she sobered up when the realization that he was a married man hit. "So why are you an accountant then?"

He glanced at the simple leather band strapped watch on his wrist. He had half an hour more to spend in her wonderful company. "Long or short version?"

She grinned, revealing two rows of glossy symmetrical white teeth. "I will leave that up to you."

He took a deep breath before his face turned serious. "Well before I married my wife Jean, my plan was to have my own business. A garage that catered to high end vehicles. I was twenty five then, holding a college degree in automotive engineering and fresh out of the military. I was excited to get my business started. Then Jean told me that if I wanted her to marry me, I had to get my ass a real job. For her a real job meant being corporate." He coughed, then continued. "Being in awe that a beautiful woman like her would want a crude, no frills man like me and being in love will make a man do anything. So, I went back to school, got my degree in accounting and voila."

Ororo listened to his story intently. "So, in essence, you became an accountant to please your wife?"

Logan exhaled and ran his hand down the back of his neck. He couldn't deny that he was virtually forced to enter a career he didn't get any satisfaction from. "Yeah, I most certainly did."

"You are not happy, Logan."

Her simple statement cut through him like a sharpened blade. Was his unhappiness with the direction his life and marriage was taking evident? He always tried to hide his failures behind a mask of indifference, but it was quite obvious that he couldn't fool the blue-eyed beauty before him. He gave her a weak smile and ducked his head in a boyish manner.

"It is clear from the sound of your voice that your career is not the only aspect of your life you are unhappy with. You should do whatever makes you happy. Because happiness brings about completeness."

"Are you psychic?" He was amazed that she was able to read him so easily. Not even his wife was privy to his feelings like this.

Ororo chuckled. "Not at all. You are not as hard to figure out as you would like to have people believe, Mr. Howlett."

He grinned. "You're something, Ororo." He looked at his watch again and realized he needed to get back to his "real job". A feeling of gloom settled over him at the prospect of not seeing her again. He wondered where the depression came from. Before he embarrassed himself, he reluctantly gathered his trash and stood. "Can I see you again?" Shit! That was not the question he meant to ask, but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

She floundered and looked down to stare in her lap. She couldn't deny that there was an attraction between them and the look on his face told her that he felt it as well. However, his status as a married man voided any and all thoughts of a prospective romance. She raised her eyes to his and found him studying her intently. She swallowed and then whispered, "No. I do not think that would be wise."

The uproar that amplified in her chest as she blatantly denied his request would not be stifled. She attempted to salvage some control by smoothing moist palms down her jean clad legs and drawing in deep breaths. But it was in vain, especially when he whispered her name.

She looked up at him. His face was serious. "We can be friends, can't we?"

Ororo cringed on the inside. This was dangerous. Now was the time to stop it before it got started. Her eyes met his and told him in no uncertain terms that that too was not a good idea.

As disappointed as he was, he couldn't fault her for her caution. "I know I'm a stranger. I didn't want my invitation to insult you. I just…"

He raked his hand through his hair. "Oh, hell," he cursed softly and his eyes scanned the park. Then he looked at her again. "I just want to spend more time with you. You're easy to talk to and I like that about you."

How can anyone resist that almost boyish look he was giving her? Yet, Ororo knew she must. "I am sorry, Logan. I cannot."

He resorted to begging. He needed her in his life in some way or the other, despite the potential risks it posed. "Please, Ororo."

"I just cannot." She gnawed her bottom lip in irritation.

He smiled gently and asked, "Do I offend you?"

"No!" The vehemence in her voice elated him.

"Just friends, Ororo."

She looked at him pointedly. "We cannot be friends or anything else for that matter. And you know why."

"Because I'm married."

"Yes," she hissed.

Logan closed his eyes and rolled his neck to release the sudden tension that took root there. His eyes popped open at the next words that she uttered.

"We cannot be just friends, Logan. I know you are aware of this...attraction between us."

Logan swallowed reflexively. Her utterance of what they both were feeling was a shock to his system. However, he felt deep down that this unknown thing that emerged between them was more than a mere attraction. It felt natural and right. He didn't know how to combat it and he was positive that he didn't want to put a name to it. Naming it would solidify it for him and force him to admit some hard truths and that he was ill-equipped for.

Ororo didn't miss the look of longing that flashed across his handsome face, as she was sure the same look was visible on her face. As heartbreaking as it was going to be, she needed to put a stop to the potential peril any relationship between them can cause.

"I am sorry, Logan. Maybe if we had met under different circumstances, then I would happily agree to be your friend." She took a deep breath, preparing to deliver the final blow. "I am sure you know as well as I do that this attraction between us is dangerous, so it is best that we say goodbye now."

With that confession, she hastily gathered her belongings and all but ran from the park and the man that frightened her by eliciting emotions that bloomed uncontrollably within her, filling her entire body, until she couldn't breathe.