When the opening act was over, Logan was surprised to find that Marie had enjoyed watching the man on the platform untie his lover more than the show itself. It spoke to her deep desire for intimacy, rather than a shallow longing for the physical release of sex, and yet her comment about feeling his blades on her skin had shaken him.
That she could even imagine it at all told him there was a purely physical element somewhere in the mix. One he hadn't realized was quite so pronounced. It certainly spoke to a level of sexual sophistication that he hadn't expected from someone with such limited experience. It was a thrilling prospect and one that chipped away at his hard earned control.
Still, while it was clear she found the idea of erotic restraint compelling, she had seemed uncomfortable, rather than aroused, as the woman on the stage had come, twisting and writhing in the ropes. Feeling her discomfort made him uneasy too. It skated too close to the line of despoiling something pure and good. He had no problem sharing any number of sordid pastimes with her as long as she joined him on the other side of that dirty line of her own free will, but he didn't like the idea that he was responsible for putting her in a situation where she might feel pressured.
"You okay, darlin'?"
"Yes." Her eyes were bright and clear as he refilled her glass.
He gestured to the stage. "Too much?"
"No. Not really. Just different than I imagined."
"Different how?"
"Just different than it felt when I saw Jubes and Gambit that time. I liked it, but that was strange enough when it was just me watching."
He understood what she wasn't saying. She found the crowd inhibiting. This time she'd been more aroused by their conversation than by the action on the stage.
"You wanna go? S'okay if you do."
"No." She blushed at how quickly that had come out and ducked her head as Logan chuckled softly. "I like being here with you."
That was a whole different animal than I like what we're watching. It wasn't quite laying all her cards on the table, but it was enough of an admission that it had the Wolverine rattling the bars.
"Me, too." Too fucking much.
Before he could elaborate, a woman approached their table, her eyes on Marie.
Logan grimaced. Christ. Another one? This was getting ridiculous.
Marie was clearly taken by the grandeur of the woman as she stopped in front of them. She had a sleek cap of mottled feathers instead of hair and powerful wings that fluttered silently, like an owl. As long as he'd known her, Marie'd had a compulsion to pick up and stroke any feathers she found and he could tell she was a little awestruck by the woman. She was less an archangel and more a valkyrie. Her eyes were large and golden and while she wasn't classically beautiful, she was striking.
The bird-woman noticed Marie's attention and smiled at her with expectation. "May I touch?"
"No." Marie's voice was firm and final. It surprised him. She wasn't hiding behind him this time.
"Not you." The stranger turned her strange, unblinking gaze on Logan and plucked a downy plume from the underside of one of her massive wings. "Him." She held out the feather invitingly.
Well, shit. He'd definitely read that situation wrong. She hadn't been eyeing up Marie as a potential partner, but as a rival for his attention.
"In that case, HELL no." Marie took the feather from the woman's outstretched fingers before Logan could even reject the token. "He's mine."
Whoa. Logan's eyes flicked to Marie's face. The husky growl slipped out before he could stop it. It wasn't shock. It was pride. Possessiveness spiked with a healthy dose of pleasure. This was what he'd expected earlier. A lioness. The Rogue in all her glory. She owned every bit of it now — not the little glimpses he'd gotten before, but the full measure. Strong and wild and as fierce as he'd ever seen her.
"Is that true?" The woman's condescending expression seemed to imply she couldn't believe a child like her owned a man like that.
Logan just sat back smugly, saying nothing.
The Rogue was not silent. "Every last bit of him, sugar."
The woman's scathing glance switched back to Logan. "Your loss." She flounced away with a shake of her head; a flutter of wings and feathers ruffled the wrong way.
"Damn," he breathed into the awkward silence.
"Sorry." This time it was a glimmer of Marie in a sea of The Rogue. "I didn't think." It had just come tumbling out. It felt too right to even be embarrassed about it right now. She probably would be later when the adrenaline faded, but right now, she was feeling good and more than a little wild.
"S'fine."
"I don't know…" she shrugged. "Nobody owns the Wolverine."
"Somebody does tonight."
God, she hadn't even thought of that. No doubt the word that the Wolverine had allowed himself to be publicly claimed would spread like wildfire through this place.
"Just tonight?" she managed, saluting him with the glass and a cheeky wink.
Jesus, he loved The Rogue.
"Nobody owns The Rogue, either, darlin'," he shot back. He didn't care what the rest of the people here thought about him. The only person whose opinion mattered to him was hers, and she seemed frighteningly fine with it.
She touched the bite on her neck with one gloved finger. "Somebody does tonight..."
Another growl rumbled out before he could get a lid on it, and for a moment, his eyes gleamed golden at her across the table.
She might not know exactly what she was doing to him, but the look on her face said she had a damn good idea, and that she was loving every moment of it. It didn't surprise him. Tonight was about testing her wings and clearly she was enjoying her newfound power. He enjoyed it, too. There had always been a spark. Tonight they were playing with fire. And it was damn good.
He caught her eye. For a moment, everything faded into the background and it was just the two of them, acknowledging the silent shift between them.
The lights dimmed again and he heard Marie huff quietly.
"What?"
"I can't see."
"Five Mississippi wore off already?"
"Most of it, yeah. I still have a little of you in me." God, those words. She had to have chosen them deliberately. "I still feel a little wild, but the extra senses are gone."
He frowned at that, wondering if she'd only been as assertive as she'd been because of the lingering trace of him inside her. "Mmph."
"It's not that."
Sometimes it annoyed him that she could read him so well. "Hey, if-"
"Hush up, sugar. It's all me. Whatever I got from you, it's not what's coming out tonight." His expression was wary, with more than a touch of disbelief. "This has been building a long time. What I took… that just makes me feel more safe to be the me I've been keeping inside for too long. It's time."
He nodded. This wasn't about them, it was about her. It was time for her to begin stepping out of the boundaries that had held her back for too long.
His body stiffened in the chair when he felt the feather tickle up and down his forearm, following the path her lips had taken earlier.
"Kid?"
She swirled it over his pulse point, making his sensitive skin crawl. "Mmm…"
"You want more?" It was a question, not an offer. This time she'd have to ask. He couldn't in good conscience lead her further. It had to be all on her this time.
"Yes." God, she was killing him with that damned feather. She'd moved on from his wrist to his knuckles. He could feel the blades pricking at the back of his hand. Her owning the tool of another woman's attempt at seduction was getting to him too. There was a sophistication there he hadn't expected.
"Then ask me."
Her breath caught but she met his eyes. Her gaze was wild but steady. "Logan, sugar? Can I please have more?"
Christ, that did it for him. He liked it when she said 'yes' and 'please' and he really liked it when she said his name like that, all whispery and breathy as hell.
He might have made her ask, but he wasn't above pushing a little now that she'd joined him on the other side of the line. Instead of offering her his arm again, he opened another button at his throat and canted his neck in challenge, chuckling as her eyes widened.
He couldn't possibly…
Her eyes narrowed. It wasn't smart to dare the Rogue.
She moved closer with the feather and he growled under his breath at her. A playful warning. He could tell from the sparkle in her eye she was thinking about earlier tonight; his admission that his neck was ticklish.
She'd run her fingertips over him then and he expected her to do the same thing again now. His body was already beginning to coil in anticipation of her removing that glove and touching his throat like she'd done earlier. Hell, her wrist would probably still be carrying his mark. It took considerable effort to remain still in the chair with that gauntlet thrown down in between them.
His breath rushed out of his lungs in surprise as instead of pulling off her glove, she leaned in closer, dragging the flat of her impertinent little tongue up his neck. It was an impossibly slow tease, a wet glide from his collarbone to that shivery spot just under his ear. Breathing him in. Tasting him. Testing the rough drag of his stubble under her tongue.
Eight. Nine. Ten.
Christ, those lips. Big and soft, so close and warm… The arm he had around her slid up to cup the back of her head, holding her to him.
Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen.
Her eyes were closed in pleasure but he could see her brows furrow as she concentrated, trying to make it last as long as she could, to hold back the overwhelming tide from rushing into her too soon.
Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.
The buzz electrified his blood.
Seventeen.
Fuck. Too soon. Too soon. She nipped him with her teeth and the pull began as she laved away the sting with her clever tongue.
This time, she didn't pull away.
This time, she knew what was coming and she wanted it. Wanted to feel him inside her, filling her up. That delicious pressure pulsing and throbbing under her skin.
Four Mississippi…. Five Mississippi… Six…
By eight, the world was beginning to go hazy around the edges.
Nine…
He swayed in the chair. "Marie," he warned.
Ten.
"Enough," he growled, pulling her mouth from his skin, but still keeping her close; shaking off the gray as the world threatened to go dark. Christ, she was so powerful. She shouldn't be, a little bitty thing like her. But she'd damn near put him on the ground just now. It made him feel better, not worse. Despite her youth, she was his physical equal in every way.
Her eyes were wild. She was panting hard, lit up from the inside. Full of him. Full of power. Full of hunger for things she'd never tasted, except for the stain bleeding from the memories in her head. "Sorry," she breathed, still trying to separate herself from the heady rush of him coursing through her.
She could feel him so strong in her mind. An echo of his thoughts and feelings; a tangle of pride, desire, lust, tenderness and overriding it all, apprehension. A clear feeling that this was too much too soon.
She agreed.
"Sorry," she said again, softer this time. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't…" it had been too good to stop. She'd always been afraid of that. It wasn't that she was afraid of touch. She was afraid that once she opened herself to it, as starved for it as she was, she wouldn't be able to stop. It had happened once with Bobby, too.
Once that tiger was out of the cage…
It was a thousand times more intense with Logan. Not just because of who he was and how she felt about him, but because what he filled her with was every bit as volatile as that tiger. And just as wild for escape.
She flushed.
"S'alright. M'fine." His head was spinning, but he could feel his mutation compensating, the heat and the full flush of power rising under his skin as his body began replenishing what she'd taken. It was slower than usual and left him feeling good, relaxed and more than a little drunk now that there was less healing to compensate for the large amount of alcohol he'd consumed. He wasn't used to pacing himself.
"I'm sorry." She was having a hard time focusing. All around her the scents and sounds from the other patrons were grating on her senses. She didn't have his decades of experience blocking them out. "I didn't mean to…"
"Yes, you did." He didn't mind. In fact, he loved that she wanted him like that. That it was so big and good and so much that she couldn't control it. He wasn't very good at keeping his need inside the box either. He was sitting with her at a sex club, for Christ's sake. They were both skating a fine line tonight. "You did and I liked it." Fuck the line. He wasn't about to let her feel bad for something they'd both enjoyed.
Her eyes met his, serious now. "I never wanted to hurt you."
"I know." He touched the stripe in her ponytail. "But ya liked it and you wanted more. Nothin' wrong with that."
"Except I could have killed you."
"Nah. It'd take more'n that. I'm good. Real good as a matter of fact." His lopsided grin became something else. Something more serious. "It's just 'cause it's new. Your first time takin' it into you that way when you're in charge. You can't expect to control something so—"
"Scary."
"Powerful," he corrected. "When it's still so new. Give it time." He was more than willing to help her there, but now was not the time for that conversation. He caught her hand with his. "You think I didn't have a learnin' curve with these?" He raised a fist casually.
"Mmphf." Hearing his grunt of derision coming from her made him smile.
And then he frowned as she winced when the woman to their left laughed excitedly and clapped her hands as the lights flicked out in advance of the main show starting. Marie had taken even more of him this time, the overstimulation would be even more intense.
"C'mon."
Logan picked up the bottle and rose.
"I don't want to go," she whispered, catching his hand. She wanted this, with him. Now. Here. Tonight. To watch something sexy with him at her side and that delicious wildness pounding in her blood. Her touch and scent telegraphed that to him clearer than any words.
"We ain't leavin'. Just relocatin'."
He put her in one of the leather booths at the back of the room that was recessed into the wall and half shrouded by heavy velvet curtains. That pseudo-privacy would test his frayed control even further, but it would help block out the rest of the distractions while still allowing her to enjoy the show with the gifts she'd taken from him.
To be honest, he preferred it to the table as well. Crowds were always an assault on his senses.
He knew she'd like this better, too. It wasn't quite the same thing as watching a private show, but it was damn close. They couldn't see any of the other patrons now, just a clear line of sight to the stage as the room plunged into total darkness. The energy between them was different this time. Less tentative. More electric.
The small enclosed space was better in some ways but more difficult in others. The air was still and quickly filled with the scent of her; desire and relief and pleasure over the leather of the booth and the bourbon on the table between them. She wouldn't miss the desire spicing his scent either. Not now.
"Thanks, sugar."
"You bet."
She snuggled up next to his side, breathing deeply, still obviously trying to work out the boundary between him and her. He understood how it might be difficult to define where she stopped and he began with so much of him inside her. He had to be strong in her mind.
"You okay up there?"
She nodded. It was good but confusing. There was so much. A riot of conflicting emotion underscored by an almost primal need, not to own her but to protect her — from what, she wasn't exactly sure. She couldn't even begin to name the raw feelings swirling in him. It was a savage tumult. A part of her was glad. She wasn't ready for the enormity of what was waiting for her. Not yet.
Tonight was just about testing the waters.
Together.
He turned and blinked at her slowly, feeling his mouth twitch. "You licked me."
He thought she'd blush. She didn't. She grinned at him instead. "You needed lickin', sugar, and you know better than to dare me like that."
His chuckle was low and dirty.
Of course he knew that.
That's why he'd done it.
But for now, he let it be.
They both needed to pretend a little longer.
Up next: Hysteria. The real show begins. Marie and Logan are unprepared for the fallout from what they see…
Need I say we're heading into very adult territory here? (Though frankly, if you're not into that, I can't see how you'd still be with me after 27 chapters of it.) Heh. You have been warned!