Note: Yes, this is the end of Dangerous Games. The two of us have never written fanfiction before, or in fact any kind of fiction. This was a completely new experience, and turned out to be more rewarding than we could have imagined. Thank you for all of your feedback, suggestions, and support.
We are currently working on a prequel based on the "spin in the park" after 411 on the DL.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, etc. etc.
Time frame: Directly following Part 9.
Dangerous Games 10: Dinner
Kendra smirked. "Sure. But if I've taught you anything tonight, just remember one thing, Max."
"And what's that, Oh Wise One?"
"It gets better with practice."
Max couldn't formulate a response, so she ducked out the door and headed for Logan's.
//Just dinner and possibly...practice. Good old-fashioned lust. I can handle that.//
Traffic irritated her more than usual. Arriving at the building, she found herself cursing at the slowness of the elevator. She was impatient to arrive, until she actually reached the door and stopped short. This was when she'd normally pick the lock. Unless the door was open, as it often was when Logan was expecting her. But she seemed unable to control herself. Her stomach tensed up, and instead of reaching for the doorknob, she lifted her hand and rang the bell.
//Oh, great. Now he's going to answer the door and I'm going to feel like an idiot standing here.//
Logan was feeling pretty damn good about his preparations for the evening. If Max was indeed as female as Bling kept reminding him, she would love it. If not...he wasn't going to think about that. And he wasn't going to think about the little sex talk they would be having, either.
//I can keep sex off my mind for an hour. Or at least a half hour.//
He had just lit the candles floating in a large bowl on the table when the bell rang. Expecting Max to walk in unannounced, the sound startled him. He headed for the door, which swung open before he arrived as Max walked in. "I realized you might be busy in the kitchen."
Logan's greeting died in his throat along with his resolve. He seemed unable to look above the deep V of her neckline. Max waited for him to say something. Anything. Finally she leaned in to kiss him just as a timer buzzed in the kitchen and he turned his head. Her lips collided with his ear, and they both laughed nervously. Logan found his voice and managed to look Max in the face. "I should probably get that. In the meantime, why don't you grab a glass of champagne."
Max grinned and headed towards the table, slinging her backpack onto a chair. Logan found his gaze transferring from her cleavage to the seat of her very well-filled red leather pants.
//I guess she is a girl after all. And if she keeps dressing like that I may not survive this relationship.//
Logan returned to the kitchen and pulled a pan from the oven. He transferred the rest of the well-planned, perfectly executed meal to the table. Not that he could recall exactly what he had cooked.
//Pull yourself together, Cale. Just feed her dinner. And make sure she remembered to bring the pills. If she didn't, then you can get nervous.//
Max sat at the table, sipping the pre-pulse champagne that had to have taken some serious effort to get. Sweet of him, especially since he hadn't made her get it for him. And he'd actually dressed up for her. Not that she could actually remember what he was wearing, but whatever it was he looked good in it. Nice shoulders.
//Stay cool, Max. You owe him one for Murray. And another for Joe. And a third for not telling you what you were picking up in the first place.//
Logan put together a plate of food for Max, and returned to his own place at the table. She seemed to be staring at his chest. He cleared his throat. "So, Max, you had time to go home and talk to Kendra? And grab anything you might...need...tonight?"
Max stopped staring and started eating. "Oh, right, sorry I was late, but Murray just wouldn't let me leave."
"Murray, right." Logan managed to swallow a few bites himself. "You mentioned Murray. By the way, who is Murray?"
Max shrugged. "Just this guy. Really seemed to want to keep me around for some reason."
//That's one.//
"Fine," Logan said, stabbing some lettuce with his fork. "I guess you don't owe me an explanation of who your friends are."
Max laughed. "Logan, calm down. He was the security guard at the pickup location. The one you didn't mention. Who locked me into an office."
"No one told me about a security guard," Logan said apologetically. "Again. Sorry about that. But you're here, so I guess you got out. And other than that, everything went well? Nothing else was...forgotten?"
"As well as can be expected." Max said, watching him as she swallowed a bit more champagne. "Once Joe stopped staring at my ass long enough to hand over the goods."
"Joe the guy you picked up from?" he asked. "You let him stare at your ass without kicking his?"
"He seemed to think he had a reason," Max replied. "Strange. I've been wondering about it ever since. It's so stuck in my mind, I nearly walked out my door without my keys."
She could tell Logan was dying to ask what else she might have forgotten. She didn't tell him.
//That's two.//
Logan watched Max as she focused on eating with great enthusiasm. "You said on the phone he did give you the package?"
"Yes, I got it. I stuck it," she thought for a second, "somewhere."
Logan didn't like the look on her face. "I'm sorry you had to go to so much trouble, but it was important."
"No problem," she said. "You should eat, Logan, your dinner's getting cold."
Logan couldn't take it anymore. "Max, DID YOU BRING THE PACKAGE?"
Max gave in.
//He's so damn cute when he's worried.//
"Yes, dear." She walked over to her backpack and pulled out the box, tossing it to him across the room. She aimed it just a bit out of his reach.
//And that's three.//
Logan tried to grab it in midair, his fingertips colliding with one corner of the box. It bounced off and landed in the bowl of floating candles. He watched it sink for an instant before he wheeled around to the side of the table and started frantically dowsing the flames. Max took one look at the panic on his face and started laughing. Quietly, at first, but it grew until she fell back into her chair, head on the table, her shoulders heaving. Logan fished the box from the water and ripped open the sodden cardboard, to find the bottle inside still sealed and dry. Max peeked up, and the intense relief in his expression started her laughter again. Logan moved back to his place at the table, setting the bottle beside his plate. "Max, it's not that funny."
She could barely speak. "Yes it is."
"No, it's not," he said. "Calm down."
//I guess it's now or never.//
Max took a deep breath and let it out, shakily. "I'm calm."
"Good. Now just let me explain about the package."
Max nodded solemnly.
//I am not going to laugh again.//
"You see, Max, since the...accident...I have certain medical concerns."
Max bit her tongue, hard.
Logan continued. "Not that they interfere much with my daily life, of course, but from time to time, issues can arise."
She bit down harder. It wasn't working.
//Arise. Oh God. I will keep a straight face, I will keep a straight face.//
He went on. "I didn't want to say anything last night, but that was one of those situations."
Max's shoulders were shaking with barely suppressed mirth.
"Max, are you all right?"
She couldn't keep it in any longer. He looked so serious. She burst out laughing again. "I know."
Logan watched her, confused. "What do you know?"
Max struggled to catch her breath. "I know," gasp, "what's in," gasp "the box."
"And what it's for?"
She nodded.
"And you didn't tell me?"
"It didn't come up."
She cracked herself up again. Logan wasn't as amused.
//Come up. Very funny, Max. Especially the way you let me worry about this when I didn't need to. What kind of game are you playing?//
"I see," Logan said in a deceptively calm voice. "You're an adult, I should have assumed you'd know your way around."
Max stopped laughing. "Excuse me?"
"I know about your biology, Max," he said, getting furious at the position she'd put him in. "And in any case, you're an attractive woman and I understand why you would be somewhat experienced."
Max's tone grew dangerous. "What exactly are you trying to say, Logan?"
Logan caught the edge in her voice.
//Oh shit. That was a mistake.//
"I'm just saying that...since you know about...well, it's OK...if you've...been around... that's a bad way to put it..."
"You're right," Max replied in a barely controlled voice, "that is a bad way to put it. You really want to know the extents of my experience, Logan?" she asked, her own anger mounting. "A mistake or two while I was in heat, before I was old enough to keep myself locked up. And I'm not exactly myself then, so I barely remember what happened. And as for boyfriends, I haven't had much luck with the breed." Her voice was rising, suffused with anger at him and at herself for even telling him this. "So let's just say my experience probably equals less than one year of your career. Which I assume was considerable."
//This was a mistake. I know what boyfriends are like, why the hell did I think this one would be any different?//
Logan tried to stop himself, but couldn't. He shot back, "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference what kind of 'career' I had before I was shot in the back, now, does it?"
Max went still and her face went blank. And Logan, dismayed, would have given anything to take the words back.
//I promised myself I was never going to mention that. I know it makes her feel guilty. Max, why do I let you get to me like this?//
He started again, quietly. "Max...maybe I've been around more than you have, but not...like this. And that kind of change...It isn't exactly easy to deal with. I'm sorry."
Suddenly she felt guilty at the way she had been teasing him all evening. The feeling combined with another, one that she wasn't ready to define.
//This isn't easy for him either. He's putting himself on the line for me and I'm acting like a royal bitch.//
"I'm sorry too," she replied, every bit of anger gone in an instant. "Kendra told me about the pills."
"I should have known," he said. "Or at least I shouldn't have implied-"
"Forget it," she cut him off. "I shouldn't have, you shouldn't have, whatever." She sighed. "Why are we fighting? Sex is easy. It's an instinct. So why is this so damn hard?"
"Because it's not just about sex, Max."
Max watched him for a long moment. "I know."
Logan's heart turned over at the expression on her face.
//Good enough. I'll take that for now.//
He smiled, and Max smiled back. "So where do we go from here?"
Logan considered for a split second. "A good start would be to kiss me the way you did this morning."
"But don't we need to clean up from dinner?" Max asked. "Which, by the way, we didn't finish eating?"
"Max?"
"Yeah?"
"It's time to shut up now."
Max raised an eyebrow.
//He's asking for it.//
Max stood up, the evil glint back in her eyes. She walked around the table, deliberately, leaning over and grabbing his shoulders. And she kissed him, hard. He responded in kind. Once again exorcising the frustrations of the past months, they began to heat up, although nothing touched but their lips, and her hands moving on his shoulders. For long minutes that was enough.
And then it wasn't. Logan slid his hands up the back of her legs, rubbing her thighs through the leather. Giving in to the urge he'd had earlier that evening, he moved his hands higher and cupped her, feeling her curves compressed into the tight pants, squeezing gently. Until the tension grew and he grabbed her lower back, pulling her into his lap. Where he gave into another urge he'd been having all night, and slid his hand into the V-neck of her shirt.
Max tore her lips away from his, arching into his hand as his fingers found the edge of her bra and slipped beneath. She leaned into his chest, biting his neck. Logan caught his breath and his hands fisted. "Not so fast this time," he said into her hair, holding her still, "and not here." "Just do me a favor," Max said, grabbing the bottle from the table, "and take your pill. Or maybe two." Logan managed to get the bottle open, swallow the tablet, and wheel them both into the bedroom while Max continued to run her lips over his neck. By the time he'd hauled them both from the chair onto the bed, she'd gotten both hands under his shirt and was sliding them along the muscles of his back. Once his arms were free from the chair, she hauled his shirt over his head and moved her attention to his chest. Logan rolled his weight over hers and grabbed her hands. "Max, love, slow down."
That word stopped her dead in her tracks, and a touch of apprehension came into her face. Logan was perversely pleased.
//Good. This is not going to be about animal instincts, even if it is easier for her that way.//
He released her hands, and she lay still, waiting. He pulled the rest of his clothes off, then hers, as she watched him. Logan smiled down at her and then kissed the corners of her eyes, closing them. Slowly he kissed his way down her face, tracing the line of her jaw, the corners of her lips. He lingered there, kissing her slowly, lightly, waiting for her response. Within Max, emotion was warring with instinct.
//God damn it, Logan, why can't this just be about sex?//
Logan continued to kiss her, carefully, as if she was something unbearably precious. Emotion won.
//Because it's not, that's all. Stop thinking about it and deal with it.//
Her hands came up around his back, and she began to return the kiss with the same quiet intensity. It was the signal he had been waiting for. He deepened the kiss, one arm banding her waist, one hand behind her neck, until he could feel his own control slipping. He pulled away from her lips. Before she had time to protest his mouth was moving against the pulse in her throat. His hand trailed up over her ribs to brush gently against the underside of her breast. Max jumped.
Logan's laugh was strangled as he moved his mouth down to the sensitive skin. Max lay still again, her breathing shallow, feeling the warmth of his breath and tongue against her flesh. He left her breasts and moved lower, his mouth traveling over her belly and hips and thighs, lingering on any spot that made her catch her breath. His breathing was as ragged as hers by the time his lips reached her core, teasing her. Max could only stand it for a few seconds. She wanted him close to her, all of him, and she pulled him back up above her. When he tried to roll her on top of him, she held him where he was. Watching his face, she hooked her legs behind his knees and pulled him into her.
Max closed her eyes as she started moving beneath him. Logan's arms came around her and she felt his lips in her hair, his breathing harsh against her cheek. Logan struggled to keep the last remaining shreds of control, as her breasts rubbed against his chest, and her hips moved against his. But the tension was building in both of them, and as Max shuddered and cried out beneath him he let go. Max felt his arms tighten on her as she pulled him to her one last time, his "I love you" ragged in her ear as they collapsed into a tangled heap.
Logan rolled onto his back, taking Max with him, stroking her back and her arm where it lay across his chest. Max lay still for long moments, listening to Logan's breath slow towards sleep, feeling his muscles relax and his heartbeat slow under her arm. She watched him until he shifted in his sleep, turning his head away from her, his fingers loosening in hers. Leaning into his back, she brushed her lips against his ear and whispered "I love you too." Kissing him softly, she slid back to lie beside him.
Logan waited until Max settled into her own pillow before he smiled into the darkness.
THE END
We are currently working on a prequel based on the "spin in the park" after 411 on the DL.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, etc. etc.
Time frame: Directly following Part 9.
Dangerous Games 10: Dinner
Kendra smirked. "Sure. But if I've taught you anything tonight, just remember one thing, Max."
"And what's that, Oh Wise One?"
"It gets better with practice."
Max couldn't formulate a response, so she ducked out the door and headed for Logan's.
//Just dinner and possibly...practice. Good old-fashioned lust. I can handle that.//
Traffic irritated her more than usual. Arriving at the building, she found herself cursing at the slowness of the elevator. She was impatient to arrive, until she actually reached the door and stopped short. This was when she'd normally pick the lock. Unless the door was open, as it often was when Logan was expecting her. But she seemed unable to control herself. Her stomach tensed up, and instead of reaching for the doorknob, she lifted her hand and rang the bell.
//Oh, great. Now he's going to answer the door and I'm going to feel like an idiot standing here.//
Logan was feeling pretty damn good about his preparations for the evening. If Max was indeed as female as Bling kept reminding him, she would love it. If not...he wasn't going to think about that. And he wasn't going to think about the little sex talk they would be having, either.
//I can keep sex off my mind for an hour. Or at least a half hour.//
He had just lit the candles floating in a large bowl on the table when the bell rang. Expecting Max to walk in unannounced, the sound startled him. He headed for the door, which swung open before he arrived as Max walked in. "I realized you might be busy in the kitchen."
Logan's greeting died in his throat along with his resolve. He seemed unable to look above the deep V of her neckline. Max waited for him to say something. Anything. Finally she leaned in to kiss him just as a timer buzzed in the kitchen and he turned his head. Her lips collided with his ear, and they both laughed nervously. Logan found his voice and managed to look Max in the face. "I should probably get that. In the meantime, why don't you grab a glass of champagne."
Max grinned and headed towards the table, slinging her backpack onto a chair. Logan found his gaze transferring from her cleavage to the seat of her very well-filled red leather pants.
//I guess she is a girl after all. And if she keeps dressing like that I may not survive this relationship.//
Logan returned to the kitchen and pulled a pan from the oven. He transferred the rest of the well-planned, perfectly executed meal to the table. Not that he could recall exactly what he had cooked.
//Pull yourself together, Cale. Just feed her dinner. And make sure she remembered to bring the pills. If she didn't, then you can get nervous.//
Max sat at the table, sipping the pre-pulse champagne that had to have taken some serious effort to get. Sweet of him, especially since he hadn't made her get it for him. And he'd actually dressed up for her. Not that she could actually remember what he was wearing, but whatever it was he looked good in it. Nice shoulders.
//Stay cool, Max. You owe him one for Murray. And another for Joe. And a third for not telling you what you were picking up in the first place.//
Logan put together a plate of food for Max, and returned to his own place at the table. She seemed to be staring at his chest. He cleared his throat. "So, Max, you had time to go home and talk to Kendra? And grab anything you might...need...tonight?"
Max stopped staring and started eating. "Oh, right, sorry I was late, but Murray just wouldn't let me leave."
"Murray, right." Logan managed to swallow a few bites himself. "You mentioned Murray. By the way, who is Murray?"
Max shrugged. "Just this guy. Really seemed to want to keep me around for some reason."
//That's one.//
"Fine," Logan said, stabbing some lettuce with his fork. "I guess you don't owe me an explanation of who your friends are."
Max laughed. "Logan, calm down. He was the security guard at the pickup location. The one you didn't mention. Who locked me into an office."
"No one told me about a security guard," Logan said apologetically. "Again. Sorry about that. But you're here, so I guess you got out. And other than that, everything went well? Nothing else was...forgotten?"
"As well as can be expected." Max said, watching him as she swallowed a bit more champagne. "Once Joe stopped staring at my ass long enough to hand over the goods."
"Joe the guy you picked up from?" he asked. "You let him stare at your ass without kicking his?"
"He seemed to think he had a reason," Max replied. "Strange. I've been wondering about it ever since. It's so stuck in my mind, I nearly walked out my door without my keys."
She could tell Logan was dying to ask what else she might have forgotten. She didn't tell him.
//That's two.//
Logan watched Max as she focused on eating with great enthusiasm. "You said on the phone he did give you the package?"
"Yes, I got it. I stuck it," she thought for a second, "somewhere."
Logan didn't like the look on her face. "I'm sorry you had to go to so much trouble, but it was important."
"No problem," she said. "You should eat, Logan, your dinner's getting cold."
Logan couldn't take it anymore. "Max, DID YOU BRING THE PACKAGE?"
Max gave in.
//He's so damn cute when he's worried.//
"Yes, dear." She walked over to her backpack and pulled out the box, tossing it to him across the room. She aimed it just a bit out of his reach.
//And that's three.//
Logan tried to grab it in midair, his fingertips colliding with one corner of the box. It bounced off and landed in the bowl of floating candles. He watched it sink for an instant before he wheeled around to the side of the table and started frantically dowsing the flames. Max took one look at the panic on his face and started laughing. Quietly, at first, but it grew until she fell back into her chair, head on the table, her shoulders heaving. Logan fished the box from the water and ripped open the sodden cardboard, to find the bottle inside still sealed and dry. Max peeked up, and the intense relief in his expression started her laughter again. Logan moved back to his place at the table, setting the bottle beside his plate. "Max, it's not that funny."
She could barely speak. "Yes it is."
"No, it's not," he said. "Calm down."
//I guess it's now or never.//
Max took a deep breath and let it out, shakily. "I'm calm."
"Good. Now just let me explain about the package."
Max nodded solemnly.
//I am not going to laugh again.//
"You see, Max, since the...accident...I have certain medical concerns."
Max bit her tongue, hard.
Logan continued. "Not that they interfere much with my daily life, of course, but from time to time, issues can arise."
She bit down harder. It wasn't working.
//Arise. Oh God. I will keep a straight face, I will keep a straight face.//
He went on. "I didn't want to say anything last night, but that was one of those situations."
Max's shoulders were shaking with barely suppressed mirth.
"Max, are you all right?"
She couldn't keep it in any longer. He looked so serious. She burst out laughing again. "I know."
Logan watched her, confused. "What do you know?"
Max struggled to catch her breath. "I know," gasp, "what's in," gasp "the box."
"And what it's for?"
She nodded.
"And you didn't tell me?"
"It didn't come up."
She cracked herself up again. Logan wasn't as amused.
//Come up. Very funny, Max. Especially the way you let me worry about this when I didn't need to. What kind of game are you playing?//
"I see," Logan said in a deceptively calm voice. "You're an adult, I should have assumed you'd know your way around."
Max stopped laughing. "Excuse me?"
"I know about your biology, Max," he said, getting furious at the position she'd put him in. "And in any case, you're an attractive woman and I understand why you would be somewhat experienced."
Max's tone grew dangerous. "What exactly are you trying to say, Logan?"
Logan caught the edge in her voice.
//Oh shit. That was a mistake.//
"I'm just saying that...since you know about...well, it's OK...if you've...been around... that's a bad way to put it..."
"You're right," Max replied in a barely controlled voice, "that is a bad way to put it. You really want to know the extents of my experience, Logan?" she asked, her own anger mounting. "A mistake or two while I was in heat, before I was old enough to keep myself locked up. And I'm not exactly myself then, so I barely remember what happened. And as for boyfriends, I haven't had much luck with the breed." Her voice was rising, suffused with anger at him and at herself for even telling him this. "So let's just say my experience probably equals less than one year of your career. Which I assume was considerable."
//This was a mistake. I know what boyfriends are like, why the hell did I think this one would be any different?//
Logan tried to stop himself, but couldn't. He shot back, "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference what kind of 'career' I had before I was shot in the back, now, does it?"
Max went still and her face went blank. And Logan, dismayed, would have given anything to take the words back.
//I promised myself I was never going to mention that. I know it makes her feel guilty. Max, why do I let you get to me like this?//
He started again, quietly. "Max...maybe I've been around more than you have, but not...like this. And that kind of change...It isn't exactly easy to deal with. I'm sorry."
Suddenly she felt guilty at the way she had been teasing him all evening. The feeling combined with another, one that she wasn't ready to define.
//This isn't easy for him either. He's putting himself on the line for me and I'm acting like a royal bitch.//
"I'm sorry too," she replied, every bit of anger gone in an instant. "Kendra told me about the pills."
"I should have known," he said. "Or at least I shouldn't have implied-"
"Forget it," she cut him off. "I shouldn't have, you shouldn't have, whatever." She sighed. "Why are we fighting? Sex is easy. It's an instinct. So why is this so damn hard?"
"Because it's not just about sex, Max."
Max watched him for a long moment. "I know."
Logan's heart turned over at the expression on her face.
//Good enough. I'll take that for now.//
He smiled, and Max smiled back. "So where do we go from here?"
Logan considered for a split second. "A good start would be to kiss me the way you did this morning."
"But don't we need to clean up from dinner?" Max asked. "Which, by the way, we didn't finish eating?"
"Max?"
"Yeah?"
"It's time to shut up now."
Max raised an eyebrow.
//He's asking for it.//
Max stood up, the evil glint back in her eyes. She walked around the table, deliberately, leaning over and grabbing his shoulders. And she kissed him, hard. He responded in kind. Once again exorcising the frustrations of the past months, they began to heat up, although nothing touched but their lips, and her hands moving on his shoulders. For long minutes that was enough.
And then it wasn't. Logan slid his hands up the back of her legs, rubbing her thighs through the leather. Giving in to the urge he'd had earlier that evening, he moved his hands higher and cupped her, feeling her curves compressed into the tight pants, squeezing gently. Until the tension grew and he grabbed her lower back, pulling her into his lap. Where he gave into another urge he'd been having all night, and slid his hand into the V-neck of her shirt.
Max tore her lips away from his, arching into his hand as his fingers found the edge of her bra and slipped beneath. She leaned into his chest, biting his neck. Logan caught his breath and his hands fisted. "Not so fast this time," he said into her hair, holding her still, "and not here." "Just do me a favor," Max said, grabbing the bottle from the table, "and take your pill. Or maybe two." Logan managed to get the bottle open, swallow the tablet, and wheel them both into the bedroom while Max continued to run her lips over his neck. By the time he'd hauled them both from the chair onto the bed, she'd gotten both hands under his shirt and was sliding them along the muscles of his back. Once his arms were free from the chair, she hauled his shirt over his head and moved her attention to his chest. Logan rolled his weight over hers and grabbed her hands. "Max, love, slow down."
That word stopped her dead in her tracks, and a touch of apprehension came into her face. Logan was perversely pleased.
//Good. This is not going to be about animal instincts, even if it is easier for her that way.//
He released her hands, and she lay still, waiting. He pulled the rest of his clothes off, then hers, as she watched him. Logan smiled down at her and then kissed the corners of her eyes, closing them. Slowly he kissed his way down her face, tracing the line of her jaw, the corners of her lips. He lingered there, kissing her slowly, lightly, waiting for her response. Within Max, emotion was warring with instinct.
//God damn it, Logan, why can't this just be about sex?//
Logan continued to kiss her, carefully, as if she was something unbearably precious. Emotion won.
//Because it's not, that's all. Stop thinking about it and deal with it.//
Her hands came up around his back, and she began to return the kiss with the same quiet intensity. It was the signal he had been waiting for. He deepened the kiss, one arm banding her waist, one hand behind her neck, until he could feel his own control slipping. He pulled away from her lips. Before she had time to protest his mouth was moving against the pulse in her throat. His hand trailed up over her ribs to brush gently against the underside of her breast. Max jumped.
Logan's laugh was strangled as he moved his mouth down to the sensitive skin. Max lay still again, her breathing shallow, feeling the warmth of his breath and tongue against her flesh. He left her breasts and moved lower, his mouth traveling over her belly and hips and thighs, lingering on any spot that made her catch her breath. His breathing was as ragged as hers by the time his lips reached her core, teasing her. Max could only stand it for a few seconds. She wanted him close to her, all of him, and she pulled him back up above her. When he tried to roll her on top of him, she held him where he was. Watching his face, she hooked her legs behind his knees and pulled him into her.
Max closed her eyes as she started moving beneath him. Logan's arms came around her and she felt his lips in her hair, his breathing harsh against her cheek. Logan struggled to keep the last remaining shreds of control, as her breasts rubbed against his chest, and her hips moved against his. But the tension was building in both of them, and as Max shuddered and cried out beneath him he let go. Max felt his arms tighten on her as she pulled him to her one last time, his "I love you" ragged in her ear as they collapsed into a tangled heap.
Logan rolled onto his back, taking Max with him, stroking her back and her arm where it lay across his chest. Max lay still for long moments, listening to Logan's breath slow towards sleep, feeling his muscles relax and his heartbeat slow under her arm. She watched him until he shifted in his sleep, turning his head away from her, his fingers loosening in hers. Leaning into his back, she brushed her lips against his ear and whispered "I love you too." Kissing him softly, she slid back to lie beside him.
Logan waited until Max settled into her own pillow before he smiled into the darkness.
THE END