Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1.

A/N: Chapter 1 at its start and finish explains the challenges that instigated this story. It's quickly degenerated to "nekkid Logan for nekkid Logan's sake." So far, I haven't really found a down side...

A bit shorter this time, and a few more clothes, but ...

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Winter's Chill

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XIII.

He'd stopped thinking and just was... his fingertips tingled where they traced Max's skin, his lips sparked with electricity every time she moved and nibbled and tasted his mouth with hers... his pulse raced and his chest burned and in his belly, he craved her with every neuron left to him firing wildly...

"Logan!" She gasped, pushing up a few inches, and he registered she was panting, too, her own pulse pounding. "Sam wants you resting..."

"Sam's insane..." he breathed. "He doesn't know that you're here, like this..." He pushed up off the pillow to seek her lips again, reaching up to meet her mouth as she responded again, eagerly, her kiss long and sweet...

...before she moaned a little, to pull back again, this time more slowly and, clearly, regretfully. "Logan..." she chewed her lip. "...I can't do this to you... if you blow up or implode or burn out, because I wasn't a good medic..."

As much as he hated to stop, her sweetly teasing words – and the ache with which she spoke them – made him laugh in a haze of disbelief that it could all really be happening. A warm, soft, squirming Max had just kissed him with more passion and desire than he'd ever dared allow in his dreams – even in secret he hadn't believed he was that worthy. He thought he might just burst, right there and then...

"I'm sorry..." She stroked his face gently, and he gently caught her hand in his, bringing her palm to his lips to kiss it as he had before. He has to know how that made me feel, she thought absently. Did he see what it did to me before? "If Sam hadn't said..."

"Don't be sorry, Max, not for making me feel so... incredible..." he smiled, hopeless in her spell over him.

"Logan... I want this... I want you." She melted into his arms, nuzzling into his chest. "I hate Sam right now."

He drew her close, drunk with the idea that she could have such feelings for him – Max, in all her beauty and intelligence and superior genetics – wanted him. And he wanted her, more than he could put into coherent thought. But for now, he was under Sam's orders... and above all, wanted to make Max happy...

He managed to find his voice. "You didn't freeze – only I did," he urged. "Max, even if Sam won't let me do more tonight – there's no reason for you to stop..." Maybe a convenient way to get used to how things might be, with them... And as much as he wanted her happiness, as much as he meant his words ... he hated the thought that he might be right...

"It wouldn't be the same." Max met his look, unafraid and undaunted. "I want to wait 'til we can do this together."

He wavered, stroking her cheek as he tried a smile, even as he felt the pain of his admissions. "There may not be much more than this, Max. I won't be able to do much..."

She didn't waver once. "I don't want to worry about what you can't do, Logan..." Her eyes carried her strength and her faith in him. "I want us to worry about all that you can..."

XIV.

The room was dark; the blankets warm... the voices soft and low. In the bed, a couple wrapped around each other in tenderness and care... one of them nursing the other back to his old self, the other instilling trust and faith in her that she was now grounded, as safe and comforted as she could hope to be in this world... And to their mutual amusement, they had both 'just popped out of bed to pee, just like every other human on the planet,' one time each...

Logan sighed in sleepy contentment, brushing a stray lock from her cheek. "Max, I really have imagined this ... dreamed it, when I was sleeping ... fantasized about it, when I should have been working ... and every time, I tried so hard to make it special... I wanted it to be perfect, for you..."

"This feels pretty perfect to me..." Her words were muffled as she burrowed in to his chest.

He snorted softly, a smile of appreciation appearing across his features, but he wasn't having it. "No, it's ... it's..." He relented, his rich chuckle vibrating sensuously in her chest. "Well, okay, it's perfect... but not the perfect I would have made for you, if this didn't just ...happen... because of my freezing myself out there..."

"For which I am very grateful." She lifted her face toward his with her words, and at his quick look at her, coupled with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, she quickly added, "not that I'm happy that you almost chilled yourself permanently, going off on a wild goose chase..."

"The informant wasn't a wild goose..."

"...or whatever it was to get you so close to ice cube status, but if you had to go do something like that anyway, " her smile softened again, "this was fairly quick and to the point ... as far as breaking the ice goes." She suddenly grinned broadly and added, "or maybe 'breaking the ice' wasn't the best choice of words, given your recent adventures..."

He rolled his eyes, his sigh long suffering, but at the same time he brought his hand up to her cheek and curled up off the pillow to brush her lips with a kiss. Dropping back against the pillow, and looking at her for a few quiet moments, he returned to his earlier thoughts. "...as perfect as this may be, " he began again, his soothing voice carrying some regret that he hadn't had the chance to offer her true perfection, "I wanted to make it a night you'd remember ... " his voice began to soften as he spoke, taking on a dream-like quality, hushed and compelling. "If we'd done things the normal way ... and eased into things with the usual sort of progression..." the twinkle in his eyes let her know that he actually appreciated the fact that they'd gotten to this point suddenly too, without time for all the gnashing of teeth in which he'd've felt duty bound to engage, otherwise. As things had played out, he might just be a bit braver, and more ready to explore what might lie ahead for them, than he would have been had they gone through the normal rituals. But still... she heard a soft, yearning regret that he hadn't given her the moon and the stars – and loved him all the more for his generous spirit. "I would have asked if you'd ever had a chance to just stay in bed for twenty four hours, to... just ... enjoy this..."

"And I would have said I hadn't..." she encouraged.

"Ah, well, then, I would have planned such a perfect first night, for you..." His voice was a murmur; he leaned in slightly to kiss her nose and as he pulled back to drink her in, his eyes held such love and tenderness for her, she felt herself shiver yet again... "I would have had everything ready, to make this all perfect. I would have found just the right music, playing in the background... and I'd have had candles – lots of candles – and would've had them all over the bedroom, and around the tub ... all over the apartment. You'd have gotten here and I would've had all the lights off..."

"The computer, too?" She looked up, winsomely, her eyes shining like a child's, swept up in his images.

He chuckled, offering a rueful smile of admission. "The computer, too." He paused, then continued to weave his evening for her. "You'd come looking for me and I'd be back here, waiting... I'd have the whirlpool filling..."

"And bubbles..?" She whispered hopefully.

"Of course, bubbles... and champagne... and candlelight..." He paused, almost succumbing to his own fantasies himself, shifting again to kiss her, gently, sweetly...

...until after a moment Max pulled back a little... and at the glitter of concern in his eyes that she broke the kiss, she urged, her smile all anticipation, "and then what, Logan?"

Understanding, he chuckled, and, nuzzling her nose a bit with his, continued, "and with the champagne there would be strawberries... chocolate-covered strawberries," he corrected. "And I would undress you, piece by piece... so you could get in the tub..."

"Who's going to undress you?" She asked, breathlessly.

"Isn't this supposed to be a night that's made perfect, for you?" he watched the brown eyes imagine the scene, swept up in the magic he'd spun for her, his own smile conveying his devotion. "The whirlpool was for you..."

"It wouldn't be perfect if you didn't get in with me..." she dared to join the fantasy. "So you'll have to let me undress you, too..."

His smile was a pleased one. "If it would make you happy..." he agreed. "We undress each other, then... and get in the tub..."

"And you feed me chocolate-covered strawberries..." she closed her eyes in ecstacy, imagining...

"And champagne..."

"And champagne..." she agreed.

"...and with the bubbles, there's scented oil for the water... and when you've had enough strawberries, you can lay back and let the whirlpool do its work... and I'll have new soaps for you, your favorites..."

"And for you...?"

"And for me, too," he promised, his voice low.

Opening her eyes slowly, she looked into Logan's, shining in such hope and care for her, any fear or self-doubt she still felt disappeared, and she knew she had found a home in his heart. "Logan ..." she breathed, "I don't ever want to leave the tub or the strawberries or champagne ... or you..."

The longing in her eyes and voice made his chest burn with his love for her, and he fought the sudden prickle of tears at his eyes. "You don't have to..." he promised. "Stay with me, Max; stay here, with me..."

...more nakedness to come...