Okay, here it is. I'm not too sure about how this went about, but I was okay with the overall outcome. I wanted to post this sooner but was giving me a little trouble. I'd like to thank everyone that reviewed, I'm thrilled that you're all enjoying the story. Feedback means the world to me, so thank you!

CHAPTER #4

"You gotta give me a second."

"You aren't half-ready yet - even when you said nine sharp."

"How would you know that?"

"Because it's common knowledge you know nothing of the world punctuality."

"Your faith in me is overwhelming, Gilmore."

"It comes with the package of being the best reporter ever."

"Ha!"

"Anyone else would misunderstand your gratitude for sarcasm."

"That's cuz it is sarcasm, sugar."

"Why did I agree to this madness that you call a date?"

Logan shrugged with a smile. "Can't stay away."

"Ha!"

"Or maybe it's just my irresistible, chiseled unearthly good looks."

"Yup. And I was Cleopatra in my past life, too. Open the door, Logan."

She heard him chuckle, and her suspicions were proved. There was Logan, in his hair-unkempt sleepy glory. While he was wearing his jeans - and Rory had not ever seen him wear jeans, he was sporting a Yale sweater that she doubted was his regular attire.

She turned to him accusingly. "You're not ready."

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Would you believe me if I said this was all Finn's fault?"

"No."

"Aw, Ace, you know you've always forgive me."

"Your arrogance is truly astounding," she remarked, removing her scarf as she walked into the dorm, half-surprised, half-impressed by the elegant, but very clearly male dorm that contrasted from hers and Paris'.

"And you've been denying this attraction for to long."

"Have you stopped taking your medication, Huntzberger?"

"Very funny."

"Yes, I do happen to think it's quite hilarious."

"You're the only one laughing."

"Because mentally impeded men usually do not grasp anything other then small words."

"You wound me."

"You'll get over it."

"I think the question is why am I pursuing you?"

"Who else would take your sorry ass?"

"The love makes my heart feel warm inside."

"Plus the fact that you can't help it. The whole challenge thing? It's in your nature."

"I beg to differ."

She smiled cheekily. "I'm quite sure you beg for many things."

"You're working up my last nerve here, woman."

"Be still, my beating irate heart."

Logan still chuckled. "Okay. I apologize. I do realize I was pestering you for a day out with me and I'm not ready. I'll take no more then fifteen minutes."

Rory nodded, realizing she'd teased him enough - for now. "Okay."

Before Logan could walk back into his room the door knocked once again, and Rory turned to look at him curiously from the couch, hearing a distinct female voice and Logan in what seemed an amicable conversation.

"You wouldn't have any leftover milk, would you?" the female voice asked.

"As a matter of fact, I was just about to have breakfast," Logan answered, his voice becoming louder as Rory noticed him reappear again with a blonde - a pretty blonde - next to him. Rory stood up and walked over to them.

She sized Rory up and right. "And who is your friend?"

Logan grinned and grabbed Rory from the waist, unaware of her shocked face. "This is a friend of mine, Rory Gilmore. Rory, this is Madison. Finn and I met her a few days ago. She lives right across from us at our dorm. A transfered sophomore," he explained with a sexy grin. It's when Rory realized he wasn't trying to purposefully be sexy. Logan was just sexy by nature, and it was something she had noticed as he left the two of them to grab a bowl of cereal. Just who exactly looks sexy eating cereal?!

Logan Huntzberger, that's who, Rory thought, grinning at Madison as they shook hands. "It's nice to meet you. You like the building so far?" she asked, trying her best to be polite.

"It seems like a cool place," she answered with a smile. "The company is fabulous."

Rory nodded, looking around the lofty place, realizing she had never been in Logan and Finn's room before. She was snapped back to the conversation Madison and Logan were having when she noticed how Madison was blatantly checking him out as Logan handed her the carton. Rory's eyes narrowed as she noticed Madison twirling her hair in playful manner.

"Rory? Ace?" Logan asked, trying to bring her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Madison's having a dinner next week. Said I could bring a few friends," he commented, grinning down at her.

Rory peeked at Madison from the corner of her eye and she could tell she was highly uncomfortable with Connor asking Bella to be his date. She didn't like this new development. "Who'd you have in mind?" Rory asked, flashing him a devastating smile, channeling her mother in such a way Lorelai Gilmore would have been proud

"Is that a yes?"

"That's a yes," she confirmed, not knowing why she wanted the smile off of Madison's face.

Logan turned to Madison. "So we'll see you on Wednesday?"

Madison nodded. "It's a cocktail dinner party. Dress fancy," she advised them. She turned to Rory. "It'll be nice to see you again."

Rory grinned with feign innocence. "Ditto."

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Twenty minutes later, a showered and casual looking Logan emerged from the bathroom, his hair still wet. Rory gulped loudly and looked away, standing up hastily. "You ready? she asked, chastisizing herself for sounding so meek.

He flashed her a grin. "Always."

Rolling her eyes the two of them stepped out of the dorm. "You know, I didn't see Colin or Finn back there," she commented as they began to walk side by side.

"You know Finn's antagonism with the sun. He won't be up for another ten hours. And Colin had a weekend trip with his folks."

Rory noticed a petite redhead walking by them, only stopping to sneer at Logan.

"You sure make a lot of friends," Rory observed, biting her lip with interest.

Logan turned to her sheepishly. "She was..."

"An ex."

"How'd you guess?"

"Ah, I know and see all."

Logan shrugged. "Things didn't work out."

"What happened?"

"We were very casual. Until sweet Heather who is always checking up on me… every minute… of every day… all the time. Just to make sure I'm not with another girl, despite the fact we'd agreed it was open relationship."

"So why didn't you just call it quits?"

Logan shrugged again as if it were obvious. "Great sex, no strings. Until she wanted strings."

"You are a pig."

Logan grinned. "And you love me for it, doll."

"Whatever."

"There's enough sexual and chemical tension between us to cut with a butter knife, sugar."

"Oh, a pig and mentally deluded as well. Aren't you a combo."

He turned away haughtily. "Do not pretend to know me."

She snorted. "Please. I know you better then you imagine."

His eyes twinkled. "I think I know more about your family then you do."

She laughed and turned to him giddily. "You know what? That's probably true. That's not fair. I mean, I want to know a lot about you too, ya know."

He laughed back at her. "What can I say? I find you utterly fascinating."

She mocked herself, making a bad face to prove her point. "Puh-leeze."

"Seriously! You're a contradiction sometimes, an enigma the other. It's all a mystery to me. You're sometimes a mystery to me. I like trying to find out."

She had to laugh again. "So I'm like a game?"

He grinned. "More like pleasant company."

She pursed her lips and turned away, giving him the perfect oportunity to take a peek at her face. He hadn't lied. Sometimes she'd look at him with her big blue eyes, look at him in such a way that he was sure she hid some incredible secret, to both him and the entire world. And her eyes would laugh at the ruse they put out to the people around her, and it only made you want to look deeper into them. And he might not decipher her, and it only made him more intrigued.

"I'm serious, I want to know more about you," Rory insisted.

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything."

Logan sighed, shifting gears on the car before his eyes trained back into the road. "You know, when you think of rich families you immediately assume that they're never there for their kids, or the father's a jerk that controls your every move and the mother just wants you to marry well," Logan stated, smiling softly. "And in some, it's true. I've been pretty lucky, Ace. While I didn't spend all that much time with my parents, I can't really complain. My mom would always get so mad because my father enabled my every move. He didn't have the heart to scold me."

Rory chuckled. "Not even when you sunk a yacht?"

Logan glared at her mockingly. "Oh, believe me. He was livid. Pounded his fist on a wall and I swore I was a goner," he confided. "But me and my brother, we never felt asphyxiated by family tradition. I never felt manipulated by choices. I was given free will. He always made it clear that my future was my choice, and I thank him for that."

"You always wanted to attend Yale?"

"I was proud of my father," Logan admitted, a sheepish look on his face. "I remember being ten years old sitting in his office wearing a Yale cap. Even then I said I was going to Yale. I was never coerced into it. Perhaps I needed more discipline, or so mother has often remarked. But my dad always told her that if he'd been stern, I wouldn't have turned out as I did."

Rory heard the affection in his voice and smiled.

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"It's a skating rink," she stated.

"Boy, you're sharp there, Ace."

She glared at him. "What I meant was, this was your idea of a fabulous day? Ice-skating?"

"Why not?"

"And here I thought for you a day of leisure meant a private plane on New York to catch the opera," Rory drawled.

Logan just grinned good-naturedly at her jabs. "Been there. Done that."

"I'm not going to torture you by taking you to the opera. I do want you, you know."

Her eyes shot up towards him, deer-caught-in-the-headlights. "You… you want me?"

"God, what do you think I've been doing all this time?"

"You mean the shameless flirting, the oh-so-obvious innuendos and the many flowers that currently are restocked in my dorm?"

"…yeah."

"I thought..."

"What? You thought what?"

"I thought you did this all the time."

He had the decency to look hurt. "Really."

"And, well, I didn't… I thought I was just…"

"Another brunette on my scoreboard?" Logan asked venomously. She'd never heard so much anger and hurt in his voice, directed at her. "I'm leaving," he announced, though he made no move to leave.

She stared at him, face full with confusion.

He nodded, attempting to control his feet. "This is me. Leaving."

Logan didn't even take two steps when he was already whirling around, his finger pointing at her shakily. "I don't understand you! You seem to understand me, you seem to want to help me, you seem to enjoy my company, yet you can't seem to comprehend that I like you? God forbid you actually gave people a chance to prove you wrong. God forbid you actually loosen up and have a little fun on what's only the best years of your life!"

"How dare you assume that I am not enjoying my years at college just because I don't go to every party or screw the first warm body that I find - "

"It is NOT like that. It didn't… it doesn't mean anything!" he protested feebly, helplessly.

"That doesn't excuse it," she said sadly. "The Madison girl? The redhead that sneered at us? This just reminded me of who you are, and what you do. Logan, you take any girl that you can get and then you just leave them behind. The more the merrier. Out with the old, in with the new, right? I mean, the fact that I turned you down must have been some sort of challenge. I mean, you just kept coming back for more because God knows that the Don Juan wasn't used to being said no to. Another trophy in your case? That is not who I am."

"I never once thought of you like that!" he yelled fiercely. "You mean more then that! You are more then that."

She flinched, immediately stopped pacing, turned around to face him, looking inside his soulful, amber eyes and trying to see if he was being honest or not-she honestly didn't know anymore. Tired, she sat down on the bench, the skates hitting the ground and sighed. "Logan, I just-I don't trust you. And I don't trust myself with you."

"What does that mean?" he demanded, his face displaying the hurt he felt.

"It means that I don't trust you not to hurt me, and I don't trust myself not to see it."

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose with exasperation. "Lorelai Gilmore you are the most stubborn woman I have ever encountered," he declared. "I understand why you don't trust me. I really do. I mean, I get it. I haven't been the most honorable guy around, and I've been with… with a few girls."

Rory snorted.

"The reason I try isn't because I see you as some sort of challenge, though I admit your total disdain for me intrigued me. Everything else - the prank at the psychology class, while badly executed... it was just because I like you, Ace."

She bit her lip, trying hard not to smile. His eyes were boring into hers, his hand was clasping gently at hers, the words seemed the make her heart swell and her fury fade. "Don't you get it, Logan?" she teased, shaking her head. "The days I like you best are the ones when you don't try."

The way he looked at her... Her knees buckled, her eyes went dreamy, and she was reduced to a speechless, mere puddle in his hands.

She did not want to get hurt. She was insanely attracted to him, cared about him faults and all, almost didn't care about his man-whore status, wanted to throw caution into the wind and embrace his offer without abandon. But a part of her, the big part of her that didn't want to get too close to anyone, realizing she'd get in deep-hell, she already was-and she knew she'd never be able to pull herself up and she would never want to.

He was fast on his feet, his arm snaking his way into her waist, pulling her flush to him. He leaned down, capturing her lips with his. She snaked up her arm in his hair as she pulled him down to her, prodding him to deepen the kiss, both putting in all they yearned, all they had longed for. Skin met skin, lips joined and explored and pleaded. Rory sighed into him. Deliciously euphoric. It was flesh, it was emotion - it was both. Crushing her body to his she opened her mouth to him slowly, hesitantly, until she met him half-way, slow, breathtaking strokes of tongue that made her body feel weightless.

"Maybe it would be best to admit to you that you were right," she continued, lips fluttering against his with the movement. "You were right about me never taking chances," she continued with panged forlorn. "I hide behind my books, I hide behind what I've considered intelligence, all because I'm too scared of those moments, those minutes that I haven't lived. I don't even know what they are, what they'd feel like, and still I deny myself from them because I don't like change."

"Take a chance with me, Ace."

It scared her. Every time she was kissed... With Dean she'd run, with Tristan she'd run, with Jess she'd run...

Logan made her want to stay.

He looked at her gently, smiled at her reassuringly. "Take a chance," he repeated simply.

"Okay."