Chapter 13
AN: I am going out of town so this will be the last chapter for awhile…Just thought I'd give you all the heads up…Turkey the mountain air and lots of family…aren't I lucky.
"Max, cut it out." Max squirmed away from Logan's cold hands as he cleaned her wound. They played this game every time he had to clean it.
"I hate you." Max spit out angrily.
"Hate is such a strong word." Logan toyed with her.
"Must be why it matches my feelings so well." Max said trying to swat his hand away from her wound.
"Honestly you're such a baby sometimes." Logan belittled as he grabbed her hand and pushed it out of the way.
"I'm a baby. What about you?" Max asked incredulously.
"You nearly ripped my arm off." Logan spit out; amazed that she could even compare the two things.
"Key word is nearly. Ouch! What are you trying to do?" Max said squirming out of his reach. Logan smiled; sometimes it felt good to inflict a little pain on her. She wasn't the easiest houseguest that was for sure.
"If you lay still and behave like a good little girl I'll give you that back rub you wanted." He bribed more for his benefit then hers.
"Fine but this doesn't mean you win." Max said pouting. "I'm still mad at you, you know." Logan only nodded and became gentler as he finished bandaging her back. She really did have a beautiful back and he enjoyed every minute he got taking care of it.
Max smiled inwardly as his hands lingered longer then they needed to. She loved the way he touched her but she'd never admit that. It was one of the reasons she gave him grief over cleaning her wound. That and she really did hate him. His nerve, his sarcasm, his awful jokes, and the banter between the two of them—at times it was ridiculous. Well when it wasn't incredibly endearing that is.
Logan let his hands roam over her back, pretending that all of his actions were necessary. She had flawless skin but the more he thought about it, she was flawless herself, except of course for her attitude. There were times he just wanted to kill her but he'd settle for being a little harsh when cleaning her back.
Max let out an involuntary sigh as Logan brought his hands to the sides of her stomach tracing circles with his thumbs. Forget about lessening the occasional muscle spasm his attentions to her back had ten times the benefits of any painkiller. Max bit her lip to keep quiet when his rubbing turned into feather light touches as he traced random patterns on her back. It was more then she could take.
"Um thanks Logan but its kinda cold." She spit out giving herself a good mental kick. Logan stuttered something about being sorry and pulled her shirt down. She'd been at Logan's only two days but they were already comfortable sitting in silence together. It was starting to get creepy how comfortable they were just sitting there, Max realized as Logan brought his hand down to rest on the small of her back.
"What happened to Sophy? I mean you never told me and…" Max broke out suddenly uncomfortable with they way his hand brushed against her spine. She had to distance herself if she planned on killing this man in the end. Logan jumped at her question.
"I had some friends fix the problem." Logan answered cryptically, he'd had the S1W go in and fix things but not without a cost. They'd lost a few good people in the process and Logan felt responsible.
"While we are on the topic of unanswered questions…" Logan started leaving the bed and pulling a chair up next to it instead. Apparently he felt they needed more space between them as well, with good reason—he didn't know this woman after all. For all he knew she could have been sent to kill him.
Max grew uneasy at his distance. True the close proximity had done things to her she knew would cloud her judgment and risk the mission, but with the distance his actions echoed the fact that he didn't trust her yet.
"I was wondering about Manticore…Why exactly are you not there now to be precise?" Max closed her eyes stealing herself against it; she didn't want to lie to him. That fact alone threw her, why shouldn't she lie to him? "You don't have to answer if you don't want it I just thought…never mind." Logan quickly amended to her pained expression.
"NO! I mean no, its ok. Its just a hard memory."
"Well if it's too hard…" Did he have to give her every opportunity to back out of it? No, she had to do this or he'd never completely trust her.
Eight months ago I was sent on assignment to kill Eyes Only, yeah like she could really say that. Even if that's all she wanted to say.
"A year ago, I was sent out to go under, you know create a life, get close to my target then get rid of the threat. Well things didn't go as planned. I'd never been out before for so long. People grew on me, my target especially; I'd always felt like what I'd been doing was wrong. The group of us tried to escape once but we never made it. I figured this was my big chance to get lost. So I did. I still have friends in there, I guess it's just hard knowing that I have this life and they are still in there." Max half lied.
"Who was your target?" Max grimaced and Logan jumped up placing his hand on her back. "Are you ok?" he asked concerned.
"Fine just a muscle spasm." Max lied again.
"You sure?" Did he have to stare into her eyes like that? It made lying hard. It made conscious thought hard. It made not jumping up and kissing him hard.
"Yeah." Max managed past a lump in her throat. Logan nodded and gave her an incredible smile before sitting down again. Max pulled her bottom lip between her teeth a habit she'd formed when she was nervous or uneasy.
Logan had to look away before he got lost in those deep eyes again. And the way she bit her full bottom lip, it almost sent him over the edge. He noticed that familiar tension between them was building up at an incredibly fast rate again. Self-control he had learned, but he didn't know how much of it he would have if she stayed here much longer. Much as he enjoyed her company he needed to get her out of here as soon as possible, or he would do something he knew he'd regret later. He was only human.
Max too sensed the tension building up. If he'd just stop looking at her, if he's stop caressing her back whenever he got the chance, why couldn't he just be the rude dominating pig he was when she'd broke into his apartment? It would make things easier on both of them.
"Hey my friend Original Cindy was thinking of stopping by today to check up on me. You don't have a problem with that do you?" Max blurted out trying to ease the tension in the room and ignoring Logan's raised eyebrows at the mention of Original Cindy's name. It was true that Cindy was upset and worried about her, not to mention the fact that she was coming to check out her "boo's new shorty" despite Max's protests. They weren't like that…were they? Well it didn't matter. Her back was healing in record time thanks to her revved up DNA. Soon she'd be able to distance herself from him and things would go back to normal.
"Its fine. You know when she's planning on stopping by?" he asked gladly taking the chance to retreat back behind his walls. No one should be able to get to him that easily, he'd have to work on those walls. Problem was, when she was around it didn't matter how high they were or what they were made of, Max always got behind them.
"Her lunch break. Which is about now." Max said and smiled as someone knocked on his door.
"Good timing." Logan commented with a smile as he stood up. "I'll show her in and make some lunch." He added as he left the room.
"Sounds good." She called after him, meaning it with all of her heart. If there was one thing she'd learned from her stay here, it was that Logan Cale knew how to cook. Max licked her lips in anticipation.
"Boo, you did good. He got a sista?" Original Cindy asked walking in and sending Max into giggles. "What?" Cindy asked sitting next to Max on the bed.
"Missed ya. That's all." Max offered to Cindy's comical expression.
"Suga ya sure that bullet hit your back. Cause seems to me like you suffering from lack of oxygen or something." Then smiling, "But I missed ya too baby girl."
