Chapter 30: Toucha Toucha Toucha Touch Me!
Rogue was, at that very moment, blissfully ignorant of Gambit's thoughts… or even his very existence. She was busy experiencing her first real kiss.
It was late, and they had gone outside. It was dark, and Rogue stumbled over a rock. Wolverine caught her before she fell. Then, his teeth flashing in the moonlight as he grinned, he offered her his bare hand. "Hold on; I can see better than you."
They went down to the bench beside the pond, that Rogue was beginning to think of as "her" spot, and sat down. Logan put his arm around her and turned her face towards him.
Rogue blinked and looked away.
"You okay, darlin'?"
She nodded. "It's just that… oh, I can't believe this, Logan. I'm nervous."
"So am I," he admitted. Without another word, he bent his head and fitted his lips to hers. Best cure for nervousness he'd ever found: getting on with whatever made him nervous.
Rogue had been kissed before: once by David, whom she'd sent into a coma, and once or twice by Bobby while they were dating. They'd been nice, if a little hurried, but not always ending well.
Logan kissed her as if he had all night; which, she thought honestly, he really did. His lips touched hers gently, his kisses warm and leisurely.
Logan found he was enjoying this. He knew they wouldn't go any further tonight than kissing, and it was the first time in his 15 years of memory that he'd ever sat down with a woman he liked and respected, to just kiss. Come to think of it, he didn't think he'd ever kissed a woman he respected before. There had been Jean, yes—but the fact that she was willing to go behind Scott's back to mash lips with him had brought her down in his opinion quite a bit.
This was also a big responsibility—kissing for Rogue, because of her mutation, was a huge deal. Probably a bigger deal than full-out sex would be for most women. He wanted to make sure it was good for her, comfortable but not complacent, sexy but not pushy. So now he touched her face lightly, cupping her jaw in his hands as he tasted her mouth in an unhurried manner. He let it escalate when she was ready, and pulled her in closer running his hands up and down her bare arms. His hands found hers, and stroked them as his mouth moved over hers—Rogue was so used to wearing gloves that this touch was powerfully intimate for her.
He lost track of how long the spent out there on the bench, making out like a couple of kids; by the position of the moon, it must have been several hours. Rogue shivered.
Logan nodded. "Getting cold out here. Let's go in." He rose painfully, adjusting his jeans with a self-conscious grimace (he wasn't used to just kissing without going further!) and offered her his hand.
They got inside just as the clock struck two, and Rogue yawned. "Oh, this is bad," she admitted with a rueful smile. "Ah'm so tired! But I don't want to stop touching and waste some of the twenty-four hours!"
"Fair enough," Logan said. They were at the doorway to her room. "Go on in; I'll be back in a minute." He headed towards his own door.
A/N: Kindly forgive me for the chapter title. It's after 1 AM in my time zone and I really couldn't help it!