Chapter Ten: Interlude Resumed
Logan showed his guests to the door, quietly shutting it and then heading back for the bedroom where Max had isolated herself.
"You want to talk about it?"
Max just shook her head in the negative. Logan drew a deep breath, two steps forward three steps back, "He really did come back for you," Logan said not looking at her. Max shot him an angry look that he caught in the periphery of his vision, "It was not very fair of you to react like that… I did invite him here."
"Shows you have no judge of character," Max said sharply.
Logan found himself having to take another deep breath to keep from rising to that bait. And again to keep from blasting her for her attitude, "He led us step by step through the complex helping us take on the contingent of soldiers that was stationed there, laying in wait to stop us. He fought and killed his own brother to get us to the cell where they were holding you. The man had labeled Kito a traitor. And now he finds himself a stranger in a strange land, without a purpose in life, no direction and no recourse to go back to what he considers home," Logan explained, "All for his choice to try and help you."
"You really believe that don't you?" Max said softly, "Your good nature is blinding you Logan, I would not be surprised if he was a plant to betray us all to Lydecker."
"Do you remember what I told you about my ability to sense the level of danger different people pose," Logan said, Max nodded, "Do you trust me?"
She looked at him sharply, "Of course."
"Then believe me when I say that he poses us no threat."
"Why do you believe that?"
"Because my sense of impending danger has never gone off around him," Logan sighed. He then pointed something else out, "Kito could easily have betrayed all of us in that complex. He could have gotten us lost in the bowels of the building so deep we would never have found our way out," He saw her consider that, stubbornly trying to hold on to her own conviction that Kito had betrayed her and would betray them all. He also saw that the notion was losing ground to the sense Logan was making. Logan slowly moved over and sat next to Max, "Did I tell you that Kito is one of the Manticore kids I fought four years ago in Yreka?"
"What?" she said looking back at him.
"Oh I don't think he realizes it, I was already in pretty rough shape when I entered Lydecker's tent with a bent to put double ought buck in his back. Kito was one of the two kids who defended Lydecker that night. He was thirteen at the time, maybe fourteen. He and the redheaded girl pretty well kicked my ass. It's taken me a bit to figure it out, surprises me actually, that I had any clarity at all during the fight, but I do remember his face.
"It was part of the subconscious reason I refused to trust him when he told me he had found you. I didn't even know why I had mistrusted him until about halfway through the mission." Logan said thoughtfully, "I wonder what he would do if he knew that." They both went silent for long moments.
"Did you ever have a time when you got your hopes up after dismal news, only to have that hope dashed just when you were beginning to believe it?" Max said breaking the silence finally, "That is what it felt like the night he walked through that door throwing around promises of freedom. He further bolstered that when he started breaking the locks that held me. I wanted to believe that he would be my salvation and then he was whisked away taking my hope with him. It was all so convenient… like it had been staged." Max said in a trembling voice, "I honestly thought Lydecker had set that up to break my will."
"Would the night you were taken count?" Logan asked looking sidelong at her. He took a deep breath then continued, "I had finally convinced myself that we were free and clear that we were going to get left alone. We had seen neither hide nor hair of a Manticore operative in over a year. I allowed myself to believe that we would be able to start our family in peace…that it would all work out after all. I believed in it, only to have those dreams dashed when we found ourselves surrounded. I woke up after the nightmare of watching them shoot you to find that you and the hopes for my future were gone, for what I thought was forever."
He leaned back supporting himself on her back, sighing heavily, "I still don't want to let myself believe that we are truly back together for fear of waking to find that this is all a dream. I have become gun shy about happiness."
"Me too," Max said shakily, "All those years I spent there dreaming that I was home with you… with the baby," He heard the tremor in her voice get worse as the tears threatened, "Do you realize that she would have been three and a half now?" She added morosely, and a single sob escaped her lips. Logan swallowed as a sharp pain lanced through him at the thought of their lost child. Max was silent for long moments trying to recuperate her composure, "I would dream that I was warm and safe with the people that I loved and that loved me. I convinced myself so many times that it was true only to wake up in that claustrophobic, depressing room, strangling in my restraints, chilled to the bone. I don't want to wake up from the dream again."
Max reached back searching with blind fingers for Logan's hand, and in finding it laced her fingers through his squeezing it tightly, desperately. Logan returned the gesture trying to give her comfort knowing the feeling exactly, hearing his own fears echoed in her words.
They simultaneously turned toward each other, never losing that physical contact. Logan reached up with his free hand running the back of it down her tear-moistened cheeks. It continued to move until he was lightly cradling her neck staring earnestly into her reddened eyes, "This is not a dream, Max," Logan asserted quietly, "This is as real as our life gets."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I can't, but that is what I believe, and I will continue to believe that until proven otherwise."
Her mouth thinned and then she nodded, she looked back into his eyes again and found herself gravitating toward him. He leaned down and met her halfway, kissing her in a tender bittersweet way that told her that he understood. Max released her death-grip on his fingers slowly moving up his arm and shoulder running her fingers through his unruly hair. Logan's hand, now free, moved to her thigh, caressing it lightly as their kiss became desperately passionate. They broke off again simultaneously both staring into each other's eyes. Logan reached up and cradled her beautiful face in his large hands, smiling wanly. He leaned in again kissing her forehead as his hands traced lightly down the back of her velvet shirt. They moved back up again and then down her arms drawing a flush of Goosebumps on her skin.
Max was a motionless eyes intent on him, she closed them as he leaned in to nuzzle her neck, moving himself closer to her body. His hands moved again finding the waistline of her shirt and running a warm hand against her flesh up to her breast. He ran his hand lightly tentatively over it drawing another involuntary shiver out of her. He leaned back again still maintaining his eye contact with her as his other hand moved under her shirt, slowly raising the soft material. She obliged him raising her arms above her head allowing him to remove it. She shook her hair out as it came free of the garment looking at him yet again. His eyes finally moved elsewhere as his hands slowly moved over her brazier-covered breasts, moving around to encircle her. He kissed her again as he worked to release the clasps holding it to her.
Max was in motion now sliding fingers down from his neck and over his back down to his waist and up his chest. She leisurely unbuttoned the silk shirt he had worn tonight as she felt him finally free her from the confines of her lingerie. Logan slowly moved his hands up guiding the satin straps off of her shoulders, and again she assisted by dropping her arms and allowing it to fall to the sheets under her. She had finished her task of removing his shirt and ran her hands between the material and Logan's chest moving them up over his shoulders and down his arms, and she tossed it aside as it came free.
When Max had freed Logan's arms he lightly ran his hands back up her arms and back down to caress her soft skin. He now kissed one cheek and then her chin and back into the crook of her neck.
Max ran her hands back over his muscular body wandering down into his pants pushing his waistband lower. She lingered there listening to his breath come faster at such stimulation.
One hand still moving over Max's body, Logan moved his other hand to the small of her back. With gentle pressure he laid her down on the covers of her bed maintaining the contact of their kiss. Slowly Logan moved lower shifting his body momentarily out of her reach as his mouth traced hot and cold trails down her topless body. His hands then moved to her waist again this time slowly undoing the button down fly of her black pants. As each came loose he kissed another part of her body, top button he kissed her forehead lightly, watching her smile in delight. The second he kissed her full lips passionately, his tongue exploring a bit and met by her own eager and exploring tongue. The third button his mouth moved lower kissing her in the crook of her neck. The last button came undone as Logan kissed her just above the bellybutton drawing an expectant moan out of her. Max shivered in anticipation as Logan's knowing hands moved further down. In what seemed like an agonizingly slow act, Logan used both his hands to pull the last garments from her warm body, running slightly parted lips down her right thigh. Logan stepped off the bed as he pulled the tight pants free exposing her dark skinned body to his sight. For a moment he stood there looking at the sight of her still amazed how good she looked even after her years in captivity. He then stood there, Max intently watching as he took his own pants off, seeing her smile at the sight of what was rightfully hers.
Not allowing the momentum he built up to fade he moved back onto the bed running a hand up her other thigh as he leaned back down and kissed her in opposite order up her body. Logan lingered when he reached her lips kissing and exploring the taste of her. His hands continued to move knowingly to the places that she liked to be touched, and he did it both for his and her pleasure.
Max had resumed her own machinations on Logan's body caressing him until he was also shivering in anticipation and pleasure. With hands on his buttocks she pulled him closer guiding him to her desire, and she gasped at the wonderful sensation it invoked in her. She opened her eyes again seeing him looking down at her with loving understanding eyes, smiling warmly down upon her. That one look erased all the frustration all of the worry in her own soul.
She snaked an arm around his neck and pulled him insistently down into a kiss as she began to move under him legs wrapped around his hips, moving to a rhythm that only she could hear. He slowly began with his own motion matching her tempo as she rose each time to greet him. Gradually the tempo increased moving them together faster and faster, until Logan was near his peak, when Max pushed him off of her.
Logan looked at her indignantly a moment for spoiling the mood. But she disarmed his protest as she presented him with another angle. She looked back over her shoulder smiling slyly. Logan smiled broadly himself as he approached her again. He slowly leaned over her kissing her between the shoulder blades, his hands moving of their own accord to please the dark skinned beauty he was lucky enough to call his wife. Logan straightened and began to move again, and again Max matched his motion doubling the sensation that they were experiencing. Logan was nearing his peak very quickly with the pleasant surprise she had provided for him, but he held off as she began to show her own signs. It fueled Logan's own desire and made the sensation almost more than he could bear. He felt Max tense under him and her body start to quiver as she peaked, and Logan was unable to hold out any longer, trying desperately to keep from collapsing from the intensity of the feeling.
When the feeling subsided a bit he leaned back over wrapping both arms around Max in a loving and protective embrace. Pulling her up to a kneeling position her hot and sweat covered body pressed against his he kissed her in the crook of the neck then on the neck itself and then above her ear. He then whispered raggedly, "If this is a dream, this is one hell of a goodbye."