Chapter 4: Revenge is a Dish Best Served in Even Numbers

"NO!" Dick shrieked. "NO WAY."

Mac's eyebrows peaked like freshly sharpened Ginsu knives. "Oh? So you can have sex with them and it means nothing but when I do it… Oh how the tables have turned. Into hypocrites. Instead of tables."

"You're not having sex with my sex ninja best friend," Dick said. "No fucking way."

"Logan as a sex ninja? Please." Mac snorted. "He thought Ass #47 was hot. Boy knows nothing."

"It looked a little like Veronica's. In the right light."

Veronica kicked her feet up on the table. "I'm in if you are."

They all turned to look at her. "What?" she said. "Have you seen that haircut? Mac's hot."

"You like it?" Mac brightened, smoothing her hair. "I really wasn't sure I could pull off the undercut, and the asymmetrical thing seemed like it was just calling too much attention to itself."

"Nah, I'd do you even before the haircut. You've got the brains and the body. You're the whole package, Q."

"Thanks, Bond!"

"I don't think they really need us here," Logan said to Dick. "You wanna go out for a beer, or…"

Dick flung himself off the couch and onto his knees. "Mac. Please. I'm serious, now. You have to forgive me. I can't take it if you don't forgive me. I'll cry more."

She looked alarmed. "Please don't."

"What do you want me to do?" He hugged her around the legs. "Do you want me to be mean to Ronnie? I'll do it."

"He really can," Veronica said. "He was super mean to me for years. I had to run over his surfboard."

"I don't think you really had to, if you think about it…" Dick grumped at her.

"Oh, I've thought about it. Where's your new surfboard? Maybe Mac will forgive you if I run over that one, too."

"NOOOOOO I CAN'T LOSE MY BOARD AND MY GIRLFRIEND IN THE SAME DAY!" Dick howled.

Logan scowled. "Okay. This has gone far enough." He pointed at Mac. "He loves you. You know that. Stop torturing him." He pointed at Veronica. "Stop pretending you'd be fine with Dick being mean to you, just because you feel exposed because you said the t-word to him. You'd be crushed if you lost Dick's friendship. You probably wouldn't say a non-sarcastic word to another human being until 2050 if he let you down, because deep down, you trust Dick even more than me."

She glared thunderously. "I DO NOT."

"He's simple," Logan said. "You think you understand him, but in a lot of ways you can never fully predict me."

Veronica was silent.

"That's what I thought." Logan pointed at both girls. "Now apologize. You know goddamn well he was just trying to do his best for both of you, and you're being assholes to him about it."

They sulked. Apologies were not forthcoming.

Dick looked up, from where he was still on his knees hugging Mac's yoga-pants-clad legs. "Hey, thanks, buddy."

"What are friends for, if not big speeches?" Logan checked his watch. "Thirty minutes until pizza and we haven't had a homicide yet tonight. I think we might make it, kids."

"That guy Veronica shot is still in the hospital," Dick piped up. "He could still bleed out. So"—he shrugged—"don't call it too soon."

"I think I want to," Mac said abruptly. "Fuck them."

"WHAT?" three voices said in unison.

She shrugged, cagily. "If it means nothing, why not? I hear he's a sex ninja and Veronica's gorgeous. Besides, Logan fucked half of southern California before he met her. If she can bring a guy like that home to pasture, what tricks does she have up her sleeve?"

Dick looked heartbroken. Then hopeful. "Can I come, too?"

"No. You're in trouble. You screwed my best friend without telling me. And my business partner."

"Before you were together," Veronica put in. "Timeline and intent are both pertinent for sentencing."

Mac scowled at her. "You lied to me, too. This whole time."

Veronica looked bewildered. "Does that mean you only want to fuck Logan?"

"No." She snapped her fingers. "I want the full surround-sound experience. Now to the bedroom, both of you."

Logan checked his watch. "The pizza's gonna be here in about twenty, Dick. Mind answering the door?" He headed for his bedroom. "Oh, and can we borrow condoms?"

"Oh right, since Veronica got the IUD, you probably don't have any." Dick got up, a little mopily. "Hey, how's that working out, Ronnie? Still hurt like it did that one day?"

"Nah, just the day they put it in. But you were right, triple-chocolate-chunk ice cream really does cure everything."

"And weed," he reminded her. "Don't forget the weed part."

"The weed part did help. Hey, get lube, too, Dick. Condoms are the worst without lube."

Mac stood halfway between the bedroom and the couch, her face a mixture of furious and horrified, starting to splotch a little with red stress hives.

"Cheer up, champ." Veronica chucked her under the chin. "Remember when you asked me if your sex life was abnormal, then complained your libido was like the Sahara? Now you can say you've had a threesome. How un-nerdy is that?"

"Pretty un-nerdy," Mac said, looking pensive. "Not nerdy at all, in fact…"

#

Her whole life, Mac had been the nerdy one. The swapped baby who didn't get the rich family. The one born without blonde hair and big tits and who, yes, even looked awkward in a cheerleading skirt. She'd sneaked Madison's uniform once, in a very ill-conceived attempt at trying on another life. Unsurprisingly, she'd been all knees. Her Strongbad tee shirt bagging oddly on top so she wasn't sure whether to tuck it in or wear it out. Instead, she'd torn off the cheerleading skirt and dropped it in a dumpster.

Honestly, she'd never understood why Veronica wanted to be friends with her. It made sense when it was just the occasional computer-related favor, but when Veronica started sitting at her lunch table? Calling her on weekends? Nah, that was a systems failure alert on all fronts. Even back when she was an outcast, Veronica Mars was cool. Made it seem like she ruled her own lunch table rather than that other people wouldn't let her sit at theirs. And Logan—he was hot, it wasn't like she didn't have eyes. But she'd never thought of him that way. Not that she wasn't attracted, but she always kind of knew she couldn't handle someone like that.

There was something about him that was utterly defined by sexual energy, but in an effortlessly confident way like he'd been born knowing everything there was to know. She could tell that given a million years, she'd never feel experienced enough to try with someone in his league. Like he'd be doing the smooth, sophisticated tango and she'd be stuck in the back attempting a jerky hopscotch. He was meant for someone like Veronica who was tough and brilliant and untouchable and the kind of beautiful real people didn't get to be.

It kind of pissed her off, actually, even though they were her friends. Those two got everything: money, notoriety, solving cases that stumped the police and FBI both. Each other.

To know they'd had Dick, the one thing on earth that was truly, irrevocably Mac's…well, other than impeccable hacking skills, and plenty of people had those. Maybe even a couple people on earth were better than her with a computer. Hopefully not too many, for the Turkish treasury's sake, but still.

Dick loved her. With an all-consuming, unquestioning devotion that filled a gap in Mac that she'd always thought was Grand Canyon wide. Unbridgeable. Unfixable.

She hated that Veronica and Logan had had him before she did. And she hated that he'd had them when they were so obviously better than her in every way. It wasn't fair, damn it! She was always the furthest down the social hierarchy, fine. Lemming level on the high school food chain. It just wasn't supposed to be like that with her boyfriend.

Except…Mac shifted, her toes curling inside the nylons she was still wearing beneath the garter belt and then yoga pants she'd borrowed from Veronica. Tonight she wasn't that, was she? They'd put her on a stage. At a podium. With a microphone so every one of the thousands of tech geniuses at that conference could hear her. And then they gave her an award. Two awards! Sure, it was for Logan, too, but even he knew there was no chance he'd have a website or an app without her.

She wouldn't have taken Veronica and Logan up on their crazy offhand offer on any other night of her life, but right now? With both triumph and hurt thumping through her veins? With all three of these incredible, popular, beautiful people offering her the kind of sexual experience that had always been for other people, not her?

As of today, Mac was a fucking tech tycoon. Her brain alone had won seventy thousand dollars in prize money tonight, which was more than her whole family had made in an entire year, any year of her whole life. And yeah, that same brain was telling her this was going to ruin all her closest friendships and she was going to humiliate herself in front of the two most sexily suave people she knew. But the other part of her brain? Was telling her that Dick did them first, and they came out the other side closer than ever.

Her body was telling her she might like it. Kind of a lot, actually.

Veronica Mars was a mind-reader. Anybody with two brain cells to spare in Neptune knew that. But she must be a body-reader, too, because she stepped close to Mac now and said, "See? Very un-nerdy." She leaned forward, confident as she always was, and touched her lips softly to Mac's.

Oh.

Dick's kisses were whole-hearted. Enthusiastic, energetic. He could do sweet or sexy but the nuance in feeling her best friend's lips against hers was…very different.

Veronica cupped her cheek and this time, her tongue swept inside. Just a little. Slow enough that Mac had time to panic, restart a little, and then begin to kiss her back. Which felt…much better than she'd been expecting it to?

She'd always thought Veronica was pretty. Like, "stare a little and wish like hell your hair could do that" pretty. "Face like a Disney princess and wit like a Disney villain" pretty. Mac hadn't previously considered Veronica was the kind of pretty that she might like kissing.

This might be…kind of more fun than revenge?

Except whoa, Veronica's kissing must have taken Mac's famous brain pretty far offline if she hadn't remembered another person's very famous jealousy. A person who happened to be tied in very financially to Mac's future, and who had been very quiet through all the aforementioned kissing.

She pulled away, blinking. Veronica was even prettier up close. Which wasn't even fair. Didn't people in Hollywood need more makeup for their close-ups?

"Um." Mac looked to Logan, and then to Dick, who was holding lube and condoms and looking a quite specific mixture of aroused and dejected. "You know, this was maybe a terrible idea." She accidentally glanced back to Veronica's lips, wishing she'd have tried just one more of those kisses before she came back to her senses.

"If you want to," Logan said, meeting Mac's eyes. "You can."

He looked to Veronica. "Right?"

"Yeah," Veronica said slowly. She tilted her head at Mac. "Cone of silence."

"10-4, Bond."

"Stop whenever it gets weird?"

"Oh definitely." Mac took a step toward the bedroom. Logan held out his hand to her. She looked at it like it was a Pepsi, poised to spill on her keyboard.

"Or not." He took it back.

"No." She sighed. "It's not that. It's not you."

"I don't float your boat. I don't mind," Logan said. "If you want, I can still come along and talk Veronica through getting you off. Just so you scream loudly enough to get all the way back at Dick." He winked.

She laughed, a little. "It's just…I like you as a business partner. And I like Veronica not hating me, and I remember what you guys do to everyone who comes between you." She made claw hands. "Ribbons. Bloody, bloody ribbons."

"You won't come between us," Logan said. "Not these days." He held out his hand, this time to Veronica. She brought Mac with them while she reached for Logan, and then Mac was enveloped in a soft hug in between both of them. Veronica ducked and kissed Mac's neck. Nibbling just the tiniest, gentlest bit. Mac jolted, her nipples pricking through her dress. Logan swept her hair to the side, trailed his fingers down that now-sensitized stretch of neck.

Mac full-body shuddered. "Whoa. Um."

"So hot," whined Dick.

Logan's hand settled on her side, stroking her belly with his thumb. Veronica's hand went lower, finding the hem of her skirt and palming the thin cotton of the borrowed yoga pants.

Mac was breathing in squeaks now. "Um. Wow. You guys erg, do this a lot? Work as a team?"

"Never," Logan said, and kissed Veronica over Mac's shoulder. That made Veronica's breasts press into Mac's and it was an interesting sensation. So intriguing, so weird that she held onto Veronica, panting and her eyes falling closed to try to get used to all the different new feelings. Until—oh God—something very hard and thick touched her backside. She jolted forward.

"Stop?" Logan asked Mac, his hands coming up to her arms to set her away.

"Nope!" she squeaked, her eyes still closed. "Um!" She wanted to feel him getting aroused again, that very forbidden nudge of a cock that definitely wasn't hers to be touching. And she wanted to feel Veronica's breasts against her chest again. She just wanted to feel it all while being completely invisible so no one knew she was there, thank you very much. Mac had just enough computing power still online to know that saying this out loud would make her sound like a crazy person. So instead she just kept her eyes closed and breathed like a freight train, trying to figure out how exactly one handled something like this.

"Do you guys want the condoms?" When she opened her eyes, Dick was hanging his head, not really looking at them. "I brought the lube." He heaved a sigh. "The expensive stuff. Take care of my girl, okay?"

Logan met his eyes. Nodded.

"Dick…" Mac exhaled. She was just now remembering that the point of revenge was to hurt the other person. Which also made her remember how very much she hated to see Dick hurt. It happened so rarely and when it did, not a scrap of his heart escaped damage. She'd never been the reason for said damage before and now, she was queasily unsure she wanted to start.

"No, it's okay." He turned away. "I get it. I hurt you. You should hurt me back."

It was Veronica who caught his hand this time, and squeezed. "That's not how relationships work, Dick. It's not hurting each other an equal amount."

"It's when they hurt you," Logan said, "and you know they didn't mean it. So instead of hurting them back, you take it." He was quiet for a second. "Absorb it into yourself so you can protect them."

Mac was starting to see what Dick had meant when he said that sleeping with them hadn't been romantic, but that it had meant stuff. And things. The stuff and the things were pulling her heart all out of shape at the moment. They were good for each other, these three, and she didn't want to be the reason they stopped being good for each other.

Mac broke free of them and fled across the room, hugging Dick as hard as she could. "I'm sorry. Don't be sad, okay?"

"Okay," he said, very sadly. "I'm sorry I didn't love you good enough. I really tried."

She kissed him, all over his face. "It's okay. I mean, it's not. It's super weird. I can't stop thinking about you with Veronica." She paused. "And Logan." Paused again. "Also, I'm really turned on now, which now makes thinking about it kind of super hot, and that makes it even weirder to think about."

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Logan.

"What can we do to make it better?" Veronica asked. "I don't want to lose my friend. I'm crap at female friends, you're all I've got. And I—" She held her arms to the sides. "Crack investigator I am, I didn't even know it was you Dick loved, not then. Not when we—" She bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Mac," she said again. "And Dick, for this getting you in so much trouble. Honestly, I was just…horny? That day? And Logan and I had broken up again and I was all raw and crazed and I would have done anything no matter how wild if it would make me feel better. But if I'd have known, all these months later, it would fuck things up for either of my closest friends, I never would have done it."

"I mean, we could have just driven across town for the anal dildo," Logan said. "It wasn't that far, we were just being lazy."

The doorbell rang.

"Ooh!" he said. "Pizza. Anybody hungry?"

He answered the door and paid the pizza boy while the other three looked at each other.

"Can we?" said Mac finally.

"REALLY?" Dick said, all but dancing. "EVEN ME?"

She rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. "Even you, you big lug."

"Are you going to kiss Veronica again?"

"Not if you're gonna be all exploitative and weird about it like this."

"Okay, I definitely won't. Right after you tell me what that means."

Veronica opened the door to Logan's bedroom, which had the biggest bed. "After you, my friends."

Logan sighed. "Does this mean I don't get pizza?"

Veronica led the way into their bedroom, Mac just behind.

Dick was the first to speak. "Let's get this party started. Who wants to take something off first? Because I'll do it, don't have to ask me twice." He went for his belt and Mac couldn't help but smile, even as she was rolling her eyes. That was Dick for you, never letting a tension grenade go off if he could throw his whole self on it for everybody else. Was it any wonder she couldn't help loving him?

"Actually…" Veronica stepped up to Dick and Mac's pulse picked up. With so many feelings at once she wasn't sure what to do with all of them. She didn't think she was jealous, not in any actual, serious way, but seeing handsome blonde Dick and gorgeous blonde Veronica made her feel left out in a way that went back so many years it just felt natural. Which made her feel worse. Except looking at them like they might actually touch was…exciting in a way she didn't want to admit to in public.

This is a foursome, Mac, she pep-talked herself. You're allowed to think it's hot. Probably. Maybe. Even if you don't necessarily want to see your boyfriend's hands on another woman. Except for the part where you really want to see it. Like, in 3-D with a bucket of popcorn and really good HD and maybe one hand sneaking down your panties where nobody else could see.

"Do you mind if I…?" Veronica touched his chest, just a little. "It's been a long time and we weren't friends back then. I'm not 100% sure I can, these days."

"Sure, Ronnie. Whatever you need. Think of me like a big, sweet, gentle dildo." He stretched out his hands to the side, letting her take the lead. Mac giggled.

Veronica shot her a dirty look.

"I know but he's kind of adorable, right?" Mac grinned. "Can you blame me?"

"Not as much as I'd like to," Veronica said dryly.

She slipped her hands up under his shirt, and he held his arms up like a little kid for her to take it off.

"See? I don't bite." Dick wrapped her in a hug, laid his head on her shoulder. Veronica never really let anybody hug her, as far as Mac had seen. And her feels were getting really bent out of shape, watching them like this.

Logan came in from putting away the pizza. "Wow, so we are hot and heavy in here. Mac, we gonna pinkie promise something next?"

He toed off his shoes, tossed his socks after him. Clearly old hat at the group sex—getting rid of the un-sexiest items of clothes first and leaving the rest for fun-time removal by the first volunteer. Mac noted the technique, in case she was ever in this situation again.

"Veronica and I were just getting acquainted again," Dick said. "She gets spooked off. By the giant—" He cleared his throat, nodding down to his fly. "Wanna touch it? Just to get the lay of the old land again?"

"Only if you never call it that again?"

He winked, caught Veronica's hand against his cheek, held it softly there. "You're the boss, boss."

Her fingers curled a little against his cheek and she looked at him funny. He shrugged. "Logan does stuff like this for you. Figure you like it."

"I…" Veronica cleared her throat and Mac's eyes were starting to itch in a very unsexy way. She hoped no one noticed. Especially Logan, with his sardonic pinkie promises and his very noticeable not-touching of her right now when he had a clear opening. "Yeah," Veronica said. She stepped in, slid her other hand down the front of his jeans. Mac couldn't stop staring.

"Whoo boy," he said. "It's weird doing that with somebody that's not Mac these days. Babe?" He stepped back. "Rub it all better?" She rolled her eyes but he slung an arm low around her waist and pulled her in to one of his sweet, all-consuming hugs. She tingled all over, that he'd just had another beautiful woman's hand on his dick—and honestly, Mac had been all-in on watching that go further—and he'd come back to her for a hug instead. She gave his semi an affectionate squeeze in thanks, and it came immediately up to point at her familiar touch.

"See? It missed you."

She laughed softly and nuzzled her face into his neck. "You're not so bad, Casablancas. You know that?"

"Yeah?" he sounded hopeful. "Does that mean you're not mad at me anymore?"

She checked. "Eighty-five percent not mad."

It was fading faster than she'd prefer, frankly, but also? It was kind of nice to have one thing in life she could count on, and she couldn't even pretend a little thing like one orgy could break her faith in Dick at this point. She knew she was right about him. Plus, he'd been named for the right body part. He could do really nice things with this baby. She gave it a long, rough rub through denim and he made that growly sound in the base of his throat that meant he'd be getting gymnastic at her later.

It was kind of nuts that he loved her this much, and he was willing to let her have this, even now when they all pretty much knew the "doing it for revenge" part was bullshit.

She couldn't help but watch Logan through half-lowered lashes, the last frisson of nerves about this whole thing resting on him. Veronica and Dick had been busy, Mac had been clearly free and within easy reach and he just…hadn't. She knew he was a one-woman man, everybody and their corresponding black eyes knew that, but if he wasn't into a little adult playtime with Mac even when he had full verbal and written permission from the girlfriend, well. Mac wasn't the kind who could ask him to go through with it anyway without getting squidgy in her stomach about it.

Right now, he was fully focused on Veronica, coming up behind her and dropping his head to kiss her neck. "Okay?" Logan asked quietly and Mac bit her lip, slipping her hand down Dick's pants to distract him while she watched. This made sense. Veronica would say she was all green light with this, even if she wasn't, and Logan would know her well enough to see through her bullcrap.

"Not hardly. This night is weird," Veronica said, and Mac burrowed her face into Dick's chest, still watching but pretending she was super busy with what her hand was doing under his belt, so Veronica would think she wasn't listening.

"I meant about shooting the guy," Logan said. "Figured you'd be super off-balance about the sex."

Veronica's hand came up, curling her fingers inside of his. "Medium about shooting the guy. Mostly fine."

"Kay. Veronica?" He flattened his hand over her belly, rubbing with slow, gentle movement.

"Hmm?" It came out a little squeaky, and Veronica had squeezed her eyes shut.

"It's okay to want this." His hand slipped up through the slit of Veronica's dress and Mac could track its movements when he found his way under her panties. Mac's hand clenched on Dick's hard-on and he gasped against her hair.

Veronica's head fell back against Logan's chest, eyes still closed. "How sure are you about that?"

"Medium sure."

She laughed and he kissed her hair and something in Mac's chest pinched hard.

They really had come a long way as a couple. Further than she knew, because they were both all untouchable sarcasm and Library-of-Congress long looks at each other in public. Unreadable to mere mortals.

But then Veronica caught her watching. Mac snapped her eyes shut, a blush rising in her cheekbones and she pressed into Dick's chest to hide her embarrassment. She should have known the investigator wouldn't miss a trick.

"Honey?" Veronica whispered.

"On it." Logan stepped away from her, coming up to Dick and Mac. Mac drew away from Dick, leaving his pants unbuttoned as she froze mid-movement, uncertain what was supposed to happen next. What exactly had Veronica been asking Logan to do?

He held out a hand. Dick grabbed it and Logan gave him a dirty look. "Whoops, sorry." Dick transferred the hand to Mac's. "With this hand, I give my blessing, "Dick intoned. "For sex, though, not matrimony. Holy or otherwise. Just saying."

She gave him a dirty look and blew him a kiss, then gave a smaller, wider-eyed look at Logan. He tugged her backwards, coming to sit on the edge of the bed so he didn't put as much of a crick in her neck to look up at. Except her heart was two races into the Triple Crown. Logan Echolls. On a bed. Holding her hand. With one-night-only permission to do anything from both their significant others. Mac was starting to wish she did drugs. A lot of them. Because she desperately wanted to already be doing that "anything" with him, and she also did not have any idea how one would have the courage to open the Olympic Games, so to speak.

"Me and you," Logan said. "We don't do this stuff together, so you don't know how I work." He caught her other hand up in the air, tickled her palms with his fingers, until all their fingers slid effortlessly together. "I won't hurt you," he said. "And I won't do anything you don't want. And anything that's too dirty for you." He winked. "Dick and I will do it together instead."

She smiled. "I know. You and Veronica together are…" She caught her breath, stumbling on all the different things she wanted to say at once. "Hot. Can I—"

"Watch? Play? Have a turn?" He smiled. "Yes."

She swallowed, gripped all the courage she had, and closed the last step between her and Logan Echoll's chest. But he still didn't touch her. Instead, he bent his head a little more, dropped his voice so it just whispered between them.

"When I first came in, I saw your face fall."

"No, I—It wasn't—"

"I needed to check on Veronica one more time first. When no one else was listening and she'd tell me the truth." Logan's arm came around her back. "It's not that I didn't think you're sexy." He dipped his head, bit her neck with a stark, vivid streak of sensation. She fluttered out a gasp. "Okay?"

"Okay," she squeaked. She was remembering what he'd said when Veronica first came home. It could not possibly have topped 200 nerds, creaming their khakis in unison when Mac walked onstage in that dress and opened that mouth. She was thinking now it hadn't been just another quip, tossed off without thinking. His eyes were dark on hers, and crazy as it was, Mac thought Logan might have been actually looking earlier. At her dress. At her.

"You want to undress each other?" He tucked her hair behind her ear, and she tried to pretend she could breathe when her male friends said things like that to her. "For the slow start?"

She nodded, not trusting her voice.

"You can touch me any way you want," he murmured. "I don't mind. I like just about anything."

He guided her hands to his shirt. Mac gulped a breath and pulled it off and damn. He and Dick both surfed most mornings, and it really…well, it did certain things. To a chest. That were quite nice to look at.

"My turn." His hands slipped under her skirt, those dark, liquid eyes following her face. Sure, she had yoga pants on under her dress after she got home, but it did not change a thing about how crazy it felt to have his hands under her dress. Big thumbs hooked in the waistband and drew them down. She was so aware of her body right now that everyplace the fabric brushed her legs on the way down felt like a touch from him. He steadied her arm as she stepped out of the pants.

He touched the hem of her dress next, and she inhaled, choking a little on the oxygen.

"Mmm, maybe me first then." He caught her hand, brought it up to his belt buckle, and left it there. Unattended. She just stared, her knuckles brushing those abs. Snuck a look at Veronica, who was wow kind of busy with Dick right now. Veronica let out a soft laugh, and Dick grinned, his one like he was proud of himself, and Mac's heart gave a gentle squeeze. They were cute together, those two, even when they were being X-rated. She flipped open Logan's belt and it was kind of impossible not to notice how hard he was when she unzipped his pants. Like, was he watching Veronica and Dick, too, or… but no, he hadn't looked away this whole time.

"Yeah," he said, sounding faintly amused as he followed her gaze. "Well."

She skimmed down his jeans, catching a palmful of surprisingly rounded, very hard ass on the way down. Offered to steady him as he stepped out as he'd done for her, but he kicked them free in a graceful little hop, eyes giving a fierce gleam as he came back to her. His hands just barely skimmed her hips, nearly scorching through the fabric with the promise of what they might do next.

"After the threesome," he said, voice low, "Veronica couldn't even look at Dick. It weirded her out to have good sex with someone she didn't love. She'd never done it."

Mac's brows shot up, a little surprised he was talking so openly about it like that.

His mouth quirked. "I told her, it wasn't so weird for me. I like having sex with someone I love the most, but I can like a lot of kinds of sex. I can like it, for instance, with someone who's very good looking and very smart but has always been a friend. I know, for women, they don't like their male friends making their appreciation known." He stroked her hair away from her brow. "So I don't. But I did look at you that way, Mac."

Her skin felt too tight, and she remembered how surprised she'd been when she stepped out onto the stage tonight and everyone started to clap. She was starting to think other people didn't see her entirely the way she saw herself. Maybe not now that she was out of high school.

Logan toyed with the hem of her dress. "Can I?"

"Oh God." The words jumped out of her before she could take them back.

He smiled, unoffended. "I don't have to. You can strip all three of us naked and keep on anything you want. I for one, would find that very hot."

She was trying not to stare at the way his black boxer briefs really…clung. To all the things he had going on under there. "No, do it." She closed her eyes. "I'm just nervous."

"I know. It doesn't hurt my feelings and it won't hurt Dick's." His long fingers played at her thighs, just below the hem of her dress. "Veronica, well… if you kiss her again like you did earlier, just give me notice to close my eyes or I might not last long enough to fulfill that sex ninja reputation Dick talked up for me."

Mac laughed. Okay, it was a little nice that he was still her friend who could make her laugh when he was in the hot middle of stripping her naked. He smiled, crookedly, and pulled her dress up over her head. Smoothed her mussed hair with one hand as he tossed the dress to the ground with the other. Behind them, someone took a sharp inhale.

Logan's eyes darkened as he took in her little balconette bra, no-panty-line thong, and the garters she'd borrowed from Veronica to hold up the stockings he'd butchered earlier. "Christ," he breathed. "This is going to be fun."

He brushed the back of his hands down the curve of her waist, the flare of her hips. The rough skin on his knuckles raised goosebumps in their wake. Instead of going straight for the gold, though, one of his hands took hers. The other rested, feather-light, over the small of her back. Before she was quite sure how it happened, they were dancing. Small, easy movements. Swaying at the foot of the bed with him leading so effortlessly she didn't even feel the push. They were barely even touching, the places where their thighs skimmed as they moved burning red-hot in the edges of her awareness. She swallowed against a dry throat, and then she got it.

"Ah."

"Hmm?" He raised a brow.

"Veronica sent you over here, I heard her. I was wondering for what exactly, and now I get it." She nodded at their dance frame. "To calm me down. This must be…" Her heart gave a strange little yank. "What you do for her."

He smiled wryly. "She won't thank you for bringing it up, but yes." He spun her, and landed her back in his arms. "When she needs it, I can be safe for her." He pulled her in, her breasts flattened roughly into his chest. "And when she's ready for something a little less…safe…I can be that, too." He let out a sound like a growl against the sensitized skin of her neck. "Mac?"

She arched a little into the scrape of his body, getting bolder. "Hmm?"

"If there's anything you want, that you've never wanted to admit to, tonight's the night." His hand slid over her ass, thumb skimming the strap of her thong. "I will never tell. Veronica's a vault, doesn't know how to be any other way. And Dick would lie to St Peter's face for you, if you asked him to."

Logan's fingertips teased at the soft bristle of her undercut, and her whole scalp tingled. His breath whispered against her ear.

"I see how you steal little looks at Veronica. If you're curious, and you let her take the lead, she'll let you try things with her." He brushed her hair back, kissed her temple. "Tonight, she will."

Logan's thigh slipped between her legs and she pressed into it, breathlessly.

"One favor?"

"Hmm?"

"Get me hot enough I can't think anymore?"

"That, my dear friend, I can do." Without slowing the sway of their dance, he slid his hand into her panties.