AN: I know I've been slacking on this one, sorry guys. Fluff just doesn't come as easily to me as angst. Not so sure what that says about my own emotional wellbeing, but whatevs. I've got to come out of the dark place every once in a while, so here you go.
Rory was staring at her European Civilizations textbook. Her eyes scanned over the content, taking in each word, and yet the sentences wouldn't stick. Every time she'd reach the end of the paragraph she was on, she'd realize that she couldn't remember a single thing she just read. She went back to the beginning for the fourth time, but not before shooting an annoyed glare at the man on her right. How was she supposed to concentrate when he kept looking at her like that?
"Stop it!" she hissed under her breath.
"Stop what?' Logan asked with an innocent shrug and that smile that could turn her insides to liquified goo.
"Actually, if you could both stop it, that would be great," Colin piped in quietly from across the table. "I don't know how anyone in this library is supposed to study with the two of you making googly eyes at each other."
"Leave them alone, Colin. They're happy." Stephanie defended.
"Well they should go be happy in private. Some of us want to pass our finals."
Logan rolled his eyes and chuckled silently. "I was being quiet as a mouse," he defended, leaning back in his seat and bringing his arm up to drape over Rory's shoulder. "I'm just trying to study like everyone else."
"Well I don't think any of your professors are planning to test you on Gilmore's profile."
"Can we all just get back to studying?" Rory asked, making her fifth attempt at the current passage. She shrugged Logan's arm off her shoulder.
Logan didn't let this deter him. He glanced at Rory again out of the corner of his eye and noticed her right hand resting on the table next to her book. He took his own hand and rested it gently on top, entwining his fingers with hers. He rubbed his palm caressingly over the back of her hand.
Rory groaned inwardly as she felt the last semblance of concentration flittering away. Her hand automatically fell open, palm up, welcoming his ministrations. He rubbed soothing circles with his thumb for a moment before gently guiding her hand down off the table into his lap. Rory felt tingly in places that shouldn't feel tingly in public. Since when was the hand an erogenous zone?
She bit her lip as he continued to fondle her palm. She chanced a quick glance at him; his face was completely impassive, as though he didn't know he was driving her insane. No fair.
Rory pulled her arm back and stood up. She needed to get away and cool off for a minute. "I'm going to the bathroom," she announced, heading off through the stacks towards the main floor of the library.
She made it down one aisle and half of another before she felt fingers wrapping around her wrist and pulling her around. Before she even realized what was happening, Logan's lips were on hers and he had her pressed against a wall of books. Her mouth opened, granting entry to his tongue which began doing mind numbingly incredible things to hers.
She groaned his name, bringing her hands up to his chest to push him away slightly.
"I'm sorry," he grinned cheekily. "Was 'I have to go to the bathroom' not code for 'follow me into the stacks so we can make out'?"
She let out a small laugh, unable to keep herself from finding him ridiculously cute. She glanced up and down the aisle and bit her lip nervously. "Just for a minute," she relented.
That was all it took for his lips to find hers again. He nipped at her lower lip, the one she had just been chewing on herself. She arched her back into him and he trailed his kisses down her neck, his tongue stopping to massage the pulse point at the base.
His left hand slid over her backside, slipping into the pocket of her jeans to massage her ass.
She brought her hands up to his shoulders to push his jacket off, then quickly slid her fingers under the hem of his designer t-shirt. His skin was warm, and his muscles were hard.
She grasped frantically at his flesh as his mouth continued its relentless attack on her neck. Her Yale, zip-up hoodie slipped off her shoulders revealing the straps of her tank top and bra. Logan nuzzled the straps aside with his nose for better access. He kissed his way over her collar bone to the tops of her breasts just above the neckline of her shirt. His free hand wandered up to cup her through her top, sweeping his thumb over her puckered nipple.
Every cell in Rory's body was buzzing. She wanted more. She started to push Logan's shirt up over his head.
"Woah, Ace," Logan chuckled, gently pushing her hands back down and letting his shirt fall back into place. "Not in front of the books."
Rory buried her face in his chest half in embarrassment, half in frustration. Frustration at herself for apparently lacking any kind of control around Logan as well as the pent-up sexual kind of frustration. Their make out sessions were getting hotter and hotter but still, no sex. It was killing her; being ready for this, deciding she wanted it, and him not giving it to her. It was always him that put on the brakes, though he had no trouble starting things.
"We could go back to your place," she mumbled into his chest.
"Now, now," he replied, looking down at her with a smirk. "What did we agree on?"
"I didn't agree," she pulled away, hands on hips. "You just decided. I was ready the moment we got back together, but you said we had to wait. And now you're being a tease." She pointed at him accusingly. This was ridiculous. She was practically begging her boyfriend, a notorious ex-womanizer to take her virginity. She would be mortified if she wasn't so horny.
Logan shrugged, cocking his head to the side. "Yeah," he nodded in agreement. "Being the tease in the relationship is kind of fun."
She slapped him playfully. "Stop," she whined. "This isn't funny. I can't concentrate on anything. You're driving me nuts. If we just did it already, I could maybe finally focus again."
Logan chuckled. "As flattering as it is to hear that my super-hot girlfriend can't stop thinking about having sex with me," he grinned cockily, "I promised you it would be perfect. And part of it being perfect means you not thinking about your philosophy exam the whole time."
Rory pouted, and Logan felt a crack in his resolve, just for a moment. It was only nine more days, he reminded himself. He could hold on for nine more days. He had to. His plans were already in motion. He had the whole day planned out, from the moment Rory finished her last final Friday.
"No," he reaffirmed.
Rory felt her pout fall away and her gaze intensify as she cast her eyes down. "I know you want to." She bit down on her lip again as she ran her hand down over his pants to cup the hardening bulge.
"Jesus," he hissed, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling it away. He tried to think unsexy thoughts. "Didn't your mother ever teach you that 'no means no,' Ace." He swallowed uncomfortably.
Rory crossed her arms petulantly and let out a sigh.
"Hey," Logan said sympathetically. He reached out to fix her bra strap and straighten her hoodie. "I want to do this right. It's important to me. You're important to me."
"I just can't think straight. Every time you touch me or look at me…"
"I know," he nodded. Logan let out a pained sigh. He felt it too. "So maybe we shouldn't see each other until finals are over."
"What?" Rory looked up in shock.
"It's only a week and a half…"
"That's longer than we've been back together for," she reminded him.
"We've been dancing this dance for over a year, Ace. We can make it nine days." The thought of not seeing her hurt. For months his only focus was getting her back and now he had her and he was going to stay away? It would be torture. But, as much as he did get a perverse kind of pleasure out of being a tease, he wasn't sure how much longer his resolve would hold up. Sure, he could stay strong now—they were in a public library. Not that he hadn't had sex in a public place before. But if they were alone together it would be that much harder to resist.
"Fine," she agreed reluctantly, gazing at the floor. He was right. She knew it. Losing her virginity wasn't just the kind of thing you got over with. And when she was around him that was all she could think about. She needed to be thinking about school, not mooning over a boy. She needed to concentrate. And that meant space. It was only nine more days.
Nine more days to do it right and have a night they would both remember forever.
Rory tossed her empty coffee cup in a trash can as she and Stephanie made their way down State Street. She took a quick glance at her watch. "I need to be home by 6. I want to get at least four more hours of studying in for my Psych final tomorrow, and I need to be in bed by 11 to make sure I get enough sleep."
"Absolutely," Steph agreed with a conspiratorial smile. "It's very important that you're well rested for your…" she cleared her throat, "…final."
"Stop that!" Rory's face went beat red. Her shoulders hunched causing her face to sink further into the scarf wrapped around her neck. "I didn't ask you to hang out so that you could make fun of me."
"No," Steph shook her head and repressed a laugh, "You called me to help you shop for something seeeeeexy."
Rory blushed further. "It doesn't need to be sexy, it just needs to be…I don't know," she threw her hands up in frustration. "He won't tell me what we're doing. How am I supposed to know what to wear if I don't know what he has planned?"
"Oh, I know what he has planned," Steph wiggled her eyebrows. "And you won't need to worry about what to wear."
"That's not what I meant!"
Stephanie stopped short, looking both ways, before grabbing Rory's hand and pulling her around the corner away from the heavy foot traffic of post-finals students passing time until their carpools left town for Christmas break. "But you are, right?" she asked. "I mean, you're not going on some romantic weekend getaway with your honey and sleeping in separate beds?"
"No," Rory replied sheepishly, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. "There's just going to be the one bed."
Stephanie squealed excitedly, clasping Rory's hands and jumping up and down.
Rory let her friend's excitement melt away her nerves, just enough to bounce along a couple times. Her lips curled up in a shy smile. "Stop it," she protested half-heartedly. "People will see."
"And they'll know that you're happy and instantly realize you've got plans to get laid this weekend," Steph snarked playfully as she straightened out her hat which had ridden up in all the excitement.
"Well when you put it that way…" Rory rolled her eyes. She knew she was being silly, but she couldn't help herself from being nervous. Between finals and this weekend, her anxiety was bordering on paranoia level. Plus, it had been a full week since she'd seen Logan. The time away had, in fact, helped her focus on studying, but it was making tomorrow feel even more significant, as if that were possible.
It was getting to be too much pressure. Logan kept talking about making it perfect for her, but how was she supposed to make it perfect for him? How was she supposed to impress him when she had no idea what she was doing? This wasn't just another final she could study for—though the stacks of Cosmos and the copy of Kama Sutra hidden under her mattress were proof that she had tried. She hadn't gotten past the second page of the iconic book before slamming it shut and hiding it out of site. How those positions were even physically possible was beyond her.
"You're excited though, right?" Steph prodded. "You want to do this?"
"Yes," Rory confirmed. "I'm ready. I just…"
Steph nodded in understanding, not needing her friend to finish her statement. "It's different," she stated reassuringly. "When it's with someone you care about. Logan doesn't need you to do anything special. It will be special because it's you."
Rory sighed. "My head knows that. I just sometimes wish he'd stop trying to make it so damn special."
"Do you know who you're dating?" Steph laughed. "Logan is the master of grand gestures. For my 18th birthday, he got me onto the set of The Fast and the Furious to meet Paul Walker. When Honor went to study abroad in France for a year, he threw her the going away party to end all going away parties, including a to-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower in their backyard. And when Finn broke his leg heli-skiing, he somehow convinced Rosemary to put on a nurse's costume and wheel him around in a wheelchair for a full week. And none of us were dating him."
Rory smiled at the tales of her boyfriend's thoughtfulness. She was lucky, she knew that. So many girls regretted their first time; she wouldn't have to be one of them. Logan said he was going to make it special, and of that she had no doubt. And yet, she still felt frustrated.
"I can't help it!" she cried. "It's too much pressure. Like, how am I supposed to prepare for this? I prepare for everything. That's who I am. But I can't prepare for this. And when I'm kissing him…" she sighed, "it all just goes away. I don't have to think about it anymore, I don't have to worry. And I know I shouldn't just get it over with, but all the fanfare just gives me more time to think and worry. I mean, what if I do it wrong? What if I'm not any good?
"Hey!" Rory was in full on rant mode, but Stephanie took advantage of the brief pause for air to cut her off. She captured Rory's hand in hers to still her motion. "Deep breath!" Rory obeyed and she felt the oxygen calm her slightly. "You're going to be fine. It's normal to be nervous but I promise you—you can NOT do it wrong. Human beings far less knowledgeable than you have been successfully having sex for hundreds of thousands of years."
"God," Rory exclaimed. "You must think I'm an idiot. An immature idiot."
"No," Stephanie promised with a shake of her head. "I think you're a woman who's about to have one of the most important nights of her life. It's normal to be freaking out. Now, you say you want to prepare, so let's prepare—starting with the outfit."
"I still don't know where he's taking me," Rory replied defeatedly.
"Well, it's Logan so I think we can error on the side of more fancy and less casual. A little black dress, maybe. We can get you a cardigan to throw over it if you need to dress it down."
Rory sighed in capitulation. This was what they were here for anyhow, though deep down she knew she hadn't just wanted Stephanie because of her fashion skills. "I guess you really can't go wrong with an LBD."
"Precisely," Stephanie concurred, leading them back to the main street. "I think Thredz is a good place to start looking for a dress. Plus, it's only a couple stores down from Victoria's Secret."
"What?!" Rory screeched, stopping short. Victoria's Secret? There was no way Rory could pull off sexy lingerie. She'd look like a fool.
"Well, you obviously need a new bra and panties for under the dress. It's not like I'm suggesting a bustier," Stephanie defended. "Though maybe something a little more demure, but still sexy for the night," she added, bringing her finger up to her lips in the 'thinking' gesture. "A nice slip, maybe."
"I don't know, Steph…" But Stephanie was clearly caught up in her own thoughts now.
"Have you ever waxed?" She added as though it were a totally normal question.
"Excuse me?!"
"You don't want to risk having a bad reaction to the wax if you're not used to it…" she mused out loud as she started off down the street, completely oblivious to Rory's horror.
"I am not getting a bikini wax!" Rory hissed to her friend's retreating back.
"Yeah, better to just shave for now." Stephanie replied without looking back.
Rory stood still, mouth agape as her friend continued to walk away without even noticing she wasn't being followed. "Steph! Wait up! That's not the kind of preparation I meant!" She blinked a few times, wiping away the disbelief, before finally scurrying after. This shopping trip had just taken a very unfortunate turn.
AN: Sorry, still no smut, but we're getting closer! Any ideas what Logan has planned? Will Steph convince Rory to go for the lingerie? And bonus points for anyone who can tell me what movie the library scene is an homage to.