AS209 Much Ado About Something Chapter Nine, a dark angel fanfic

AS2.09 Much Ado About Something by Star24 and Lelu2

Chapter Nine

As the waltz drew to a close, Logan glanced around the room. Most of the guests had gone back to their own conversations, and he and Max no longer seemed to be the cynosure of all eyes.

"I think it's time we make our move. I'm going to head us toward the French doors. When the dance ends we're going to go outside…" He paused, mid-sentence, as the crowd parted and a tall blonde appeared momentarily. The crowd shifted again and she disappeared from his sight.

"Let me guess, to do some star gazing?" Max said dryly. Logan didn't answer immediately and a slight frown creased her forehead. "Earth to Logan."

Logan snapped his attention back to her and quickly flashed one of his patented smiles at her for the benefit of anyone watching them. "Sorry, Max, for a minute I thought I saw someone I know."

"And that's surprising because?" Max said quizzically.

"Let's just say that this someone is not a person whose acquaintance I made at the local prep school parties." Logan responded. "I wonder how she got here."

Max glanced around and then smiled meltingly at Logan, "You mean an informant?" she said, too softly for anyone to hear, even as she ran a hand teasingly through his spiky hair.

Logan gave her a besotted smile, "None other." He tightened his arms around her and swung her around so that she was facing the room. The music stopped and they came to a halt next to the French doors. Leaning in as if he was about to kiss her, and letting his hands drop to her waist caressingly, he whispered in her ear, "Are we clear? Can you see anyone paying us particular attention?"

Max laced her hands around his neck and quickly and unobtrusively swept the room. "We look clear, as far as I can tell."

Continuing the charade, Logan let his lips meet hers. Max let out a sigh as their mouths met. Logan's arms tightened around her and for a moment he let himself be swept up in her sweetness. With an effort he pulled back from the kiss and stepped away from her.

"Maybe we should take this somewhere a bit more private?" he said just loudly enough to be heard by anyone close to them.

Max looked up at him and tossed her head, using the movement as a cover to make one more quick scan of the ballroom. "Seize the moment, Logie." she responded flirtatiously.

Logan stepped forward and held one of the French doors open for her to precede him outside, which she did with a provocative sway to her walk. He followed her quickly. Once they were outside, he took her hand and led her along the slate patio that stretched across the rear of the mansion. It only took a moment or two before they were past the brightly lighted French doors that punctuated the length of the ballroom, and found themselves in relative shadow.

Logan stopped and pulled Max into his arms, once again facing his back in the direction from which they had come and allowing her to use her superior vision to check behind them.

"We're clear, Logan. Let's move." Max's tone was all business.

"The room we want is the third set of doors past the ballroom." Logan directed her. The two walked quickly to the doors in question and this time Logan faced the way they had come, using his body to shield Max from the view of anyone stepping out onto the patio from the ballroom. He heard a soft click.

"We're in." Max said softly. He followed her through the French doors and waited as she took one last look back to be sure they hadn't been followed, before she closed and locked the doors behind them. When she finished, Logan stood in the darkness waiting as Max scanned the room.

"No one here but us chickens," she said. Logan reached back and made sure the heavy velvet drapes were tightly closed across the doors they had entered through. Satisfied that they were, he pulled out a penlight and aimed the beam at the floor, shielding it with his hand to allow only enough light through to be sure he didn't trip over anything. Max had already wandered off to explore the room, not needing to wait for him to light her way.

"Over here, Logan; the computer is ready and waiting." Max called softly.

Logan made his way to where she was standing next to a massive walnut desk. A state of the art PC sat in the middle of it. "I'm going to need a few minutes for this," he said, pulling a mini disk from his pocket. "You want to listen at the hall doorway to be sure we don't have any surprise visitors?" He had already booted up the computer by the time he finished, not waiting for Max's response.

Max stationed herself at the doorway. For long minutes the only sound in the room was the soft clicking of the keyboard as Logan worked intently on the computer. Max felt a soft prickling of her senses and called softly to Logan, "How much longer?"

"I'm in the charity's mainframe and I found the file I wanted. I'm waiting for my virus to upload. Shouldn't be much longer…ah, there it goes." Logan grunted in satisfaction.

Max started to respond but then paused, focusing her hearing. Logan pulled his disk from the drive of the PC, shut the PC down and looked up to see Max at his side. Despite having seen it before, he felt a sense of wonder at her ability to move so quietly and quickly, but Max gave him no time to dwell on it.

"Quick, Logan." Her hand yanked him up from where he was sitting behind the desk and he followed her blindly across the dark room. She stopped suddenly and he felt her strong hands tug at him, pulling him off balance. Before he could catch his breath, he found himself sprawled on top of Max, on what felt like a large sofa. Max's fingers were in his hair, pressing his face to hers as she pulled him in for a kiss. "Make it look good, Logan," she whispered just before their lips met. Logan felt her hands slide up under his shirt, caressing his back. He opened his mouth to ask why but Max gave him no opportunity.

"Logan." she hissed and then her tongue was in his mouth. He felt a jolt go through him at the same time he became dimly aware of the sound of a door opening. Belatedly realizing the danger they were in, he deliberately shut out all thought of who might be entering the room and instead concentrated on Max. With one hand he reached up and pulled her hair from its elaborate coiffure, even as he used the other one to slide the skirt of her gown up to reveal one of her slender legs. He nipped at her neck gently but couldn't stop the quick jolt of surprise as he felt her hands sliding his zipper down.

"Ohhh…Logie…" Max moaned, writhing beneath him. Logan's body reacted instinctively, even as a bright light suddenly illuminated the room. He ignored the light and continued to kiss Max.

"Well, well, well… looks like we interrupted something," a familiar voice sneered.

Max let out a gasp and pushed Logan to a sitting position. He glanced at her noting her slightly swollen lips and the faint red marks on her neck, as well as her disheveled hair. Max sat up clutching the bodice of gown to her and Logan wondered when and how she had had time to undo the zipper in the back of it. She looked the picture of a woman caught in the midst of a passionate interlude.

He calmly stood, and with an air of arrogance, reached down to pull up his zipper. "I can't say I appreciate your timing," he drawled to John Endicott and Teddy Gunnison. He stepped forward blocking Max from their view. "If you don't mind, I think the lady would like some privacy for a moment." Without waiting for an answer he led John and Teddy across the room and away from Max, maneuvering them so they were facing away from her. Behind their backs Max winked at him and gave him a thumbs up.

"Knew she was a hot piece the minute I laid eyes on her." Teddy said lasciviously.

John leered, "So hot you couldn't wait until you got her to your room, Cale?"

"Maybe the lady couldn't wait. She looks like the type who'd do it at the drop of a…hat." Teddy chimed in.

Logan shrugged, "I'm not one to kiss and tell, especially when it comes to the wishes of a lady." He was seething inwardly, but managed to keep his outward air of calm sophistication.

"I only hope we didn't ruin your evening." John said, his tone belying his words.

"Logie" Max's voice interrupted them from across the room. "I'm tired. I want to go to our room now." Her voice was sultry, with a definite invitation in it.

"Seems like your evening isn't ruined after all," Teddy said with a look at Logan.

Logan shrugged, "It would take more than this to ruin my evening with Max." He took a step toward the sofa where Max waited, but John put a restraining hand on his arm.

"Wait a minute."

Logan stopped and raised an eyebrow, pointedly looking down at John's hand. "Do you mind?" His tone was icy.

John flushed and removed his hand, "Why were you two in this room?" His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "It should have been locked."

"It wasn't, and we were in a bit of a hurry for some privacy." Logan said calmly. "Why would a library be locked anyway?"

John hesitated, "There are some valuable first editions here."

Logan merely raised his eyebrows, "Surely you aren't saying that a member of Seattle's upper 500 would stoop to stealing books?"

A flush crossed John's face. "We don't know everyone here tonight. Case in point, your…girlfriend, Cale."

Teddy gasped at the implications in John's tone. "John, you don't mean that. Cale wouldn't bring some piece of street trash here. He is one of us after all, and he knows what's appropriate."

Logan drew himself to his full height and an icy blast from his eyes sent shivers down Teddy's spine. "Let John speak for himself, Teddy. What exactly are you saying about Max, John?" His tone was made more deadly by the fact that his words were soft. There was dead silence in the room.

"I wasn't saying anything at all." John finally said sulkily.

Teddy beamed at them both and slapped them both on the back heartily. "There you go, Logan. He didn't mean anything. We're just a bit tense is all."

"Why would we be tense?" Logan asked.

"He meant those of us involved with the charity. This fund raiser is important and we want it to succeed. All those poor little children depending on us, you know." John blustered, shooting a look at Teddy.

"Logan, you really shouldn't neglect, Max." Teddy said quickly. He winked at Logan. "Best to strike while the iron is hot, doncha know."

Logan glanced at the two of them. It was clear he wasn't going to find anything out by continuing the conversation. He flicked his hand, unobtrusively sending a silent signal to Max, who immediately rose from the sofa where she had been sitting, and sauntered over to them.

When she reached Logan she laced her hand through his arm and leaned against him. "Logan, please can we go now? You can talk to your friends more tomorrow." She looked up at him as she pressed against him suggestively.

John and Teddy's eyes both swept over her and Logan kept a firm grip on his temper as he saw the undisguised lust in both pairs of eyes. He placed his hand over Max's and smiled down at her.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, my dear. John, Teddy, I'm sure you'll excuse us."

With that the couple turned their backs on the two men and walked calmly toward the doors of the library. The door shut with a soft click behind them, leaving Teddy and John alone.

"I still say I'd like a piece of that." Teddy said to John, his eyes having avidly followed Max's progress from the room.

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"You aren't man enough to handle it." John said harshly. "I, on the other hand, may be just exactly what she needs. Cale's too much the gentleman for a hot blooded piece like that one."

"He's not going to give you a chance to get near her." Teddy said doubtfully.

"Given a choice, Cale likes them tall, blonde and leggy. With the right kind of distraction he'll forget all about this one." John said arrogantly. "And who better to console the abandoned mistress than me?"

Teddy shrugged. "I don't know. There's something different about Cale these days."

"He's still the same weak do-gooder he always was. Just puts on a better front. His Uncle Jonas made no bones about the fact that Cale didn't have the backbone to really be one of us."

"I don't know…"

"No, you don't. Now let's do what we came in here to do, and get back to the ball. Max may be taken for tonight, but Adrienne Van Halster is hot to trot since Jay walked out on her for his secretary and I don't intend to sleep alone tonight. Not with the hard on that Cale's piece gave me watching her saunter out of here in that dress she's poured into." John said crudely.

Teddy nodded silently and the two men walked over to the desk Logan had recently occupied.

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In the hallway outside the library, Logan looked at Max with a question in his eyes.

"We can go. I don't think we'll hear anything worthwhile if we hang around here any longer," she said shaking her head. There was an angry glint in her eyes.

"What did they say?" Logan demanded, picking up on her mood.

"Nothing to the point." Max said shortly. "Can we go to our room now? I'm ready to get out of this dress and wash my face."

Logan grinned, "Now that, I may just be able to assist you with." The two began to stroll down the hallway, taking care to look relaxed and at ease.

Max gave him a playful smack, "That was so not the right thing to say after what I just had to listen to."

Logan stopped. "What exactly did they say, Max?" He gave her a hard look.

"Like you can't guess. Males are all the same, whether they're born with a silver spoon in their mouth or not." Max continued walking toward the front hall and the stairs that led up to the bedrooms. "You coming or you standing there all night?"

"I'm coming, but when we're alone you're going to explain that last comment," Logan said, his long legs making short work of catching up to her.

"You think?" she tossed at him.

"I know." He retorted calmly.

Voices and laughter sounded just ahead of them and he dropped an arm around Max's shoulders. "Time to put our game faces back on."

Max looked up at him and gave him a dazzling smile just as they rounded a corner to the front hallway which was crowded with ball guests making their way to their rooms, or to their cars if they weren't staying for the night.

Logan smiled back and the two made their way through the crowd and up the stairs. Logan disregarded the looks the women were giving Max's disheveled hair and wrinkled gown, and smiled calmly at the knowing looks he received from the men. Max simply ignored all of them, and swept along on Logan's arm as if she was a queen making her way through a crowd of commoners.

When they finally reached the suite that had been assigned to them and were safely inside, Max relaxed and turned to face Logan.

He looked down at her with a twinkle in his eyes. "I think you need to get out of that dress, Max. We have a lot to do and it's only going to get in the way…"

Max narrowed her eyes at him and opened her mouth to reply.

"…I have to link into the charity computer and you need to sweep this place for bugs." Logan had leaned in to whisper in her ear. He slid a small black case into her hand. Max opened it and found a complete set of the tools she'd need to check for eavesdropping devices in their rooms.

Logan grinned as she glared at him, constrained from the reply she clearly wanted to make by the possibility of being overheard.

"I'm not a patient man, sweetheart. Get that pretty little butt in gear and don't keep me waiting." he said clearly. "I want to see you in that white lace negligee that cost me a small fortune."

Max glared at him, "Patience is good for the soul, darling. And you know I'll make it worth your while." Her words dripped sweetness even as her eyes shot daggers at him.

Logan winced. He knew that payback was going to be a bitch, but he couldn't resist reaching out and giving her a slap on her silk clad posterior. "I'll pour the Cristal. You'd better hurry if you don't want all the bubbles gone by the time you get back."

Max jumped and shot him another glare. "You do that, Logie. While I'm gone think about what I'm going to do to you when I get back. I want you all ready and waiting for me…" Her tone was sultry but her message was clear in the look she gave him.

Logan grinned as she left the room. They had a long night ahead of them and he had a feeling it was going to be an interesting one.

End of Chapter Nine