The house was cool when Logan woke. There was fog outside and the chilly spring morning had settled wetly around them, creeping in silently to condense on the windows and moisten the still air scented heavily with sex and contentment. Beside him, his Mississippi girl was snuggled deeply into the heavy blankets, her eyes fluttering softly under the fanned sweep of her dark lashes as she dreamed.

Logan was tempted to touch her, curious to see if her skin was on or off while she slept, but he didn't want this first morning to be anything but slow and easy. There would be many other mornings to come to unravel each other's intimate secrets.

Marie was sleeping deeply, her nude body tangled in a sheet on the far side of the bed. They'd woken in the predawn hours, drawn into consciousness by the warm sprawl of tangled limbs. Both of them were used to sleeping alone, unfamiliar with the soft breathing and quiet comfort of curling around someone in the darkness.

It felt good. Right. They'd whispered and touched and the soft sleepy caresses had become urgent and searching as the need to join their bodies rose sharply. He'd been less gentle, driven and focused now that the dam had finally broken after too long a wait. Logan had needed to feel all of her that time. Every bit of her skin. And he'd needed for her to feel every bit of him, too. Her camisole and stockings lay pooled on the floor, pulled from her in a moment of passion and carelessly discarded in their urgency.

She still hadn't wanted her skin to take in any of his mutation. They'd managed with one of her gauzy scarves and a condom that he'd ripped away in the final moments so he could shove deep and pour into her with a string of rough grunts as she arched and seized.

They'd fallen back asleep afterwards with his body wrapped around hers and the sheet reluctantly pulled between them, but she'd stirred and eventually rolled away. Clearly her issues with her skin were not going to disappear overnight but Logan was glad she'd been able to bare all of herself to him, even if it had been in the dying light of the fire.

Beside him, Marie shivered and snugged deeper into the covers and Logan realized that he was going to need to be more aware of her comfort. He rarely felt the cold and almost never bothered to make a fire in the morning unless there was a good foot of snow outside. He merely put on more layers. Shaking his head, he slipped silently from the bed and pulled on a pair of old jeans. Nature called and he needed to rebuild the fire.

His motives were hardly altruistic. He wanted her naked, not wrapped up and shivering. She was his sanctuary and he wanted her to feel that same sense of belonging in this place with him, safe and secure and free to let go and just be at peace in her own skin. That was what she gave to him. Hell, it had been that way with her right from the beginning. He couldn't say why. They just fit, somehow.

The fire was crackling in the hearth and he was padding through the kitchen when she finally stirred.

"Mmm….." She stretched luxuriously and he wondered if she always did that or if she was just sore after the night they'd shared. "Mornin', sugar."

Logan leaned a hip against the island and nodded her way. He didn't want to make assumptions or pressure her by appearing too eager to rejoin her in the bed, despite the overwhelming urge to lie down with her in the warm nest of blankets. "Mornin', kid."

He watched as she rose from the bed, gloriously nude, and she fidgeted a little under the weight of his stare as it flicked from her face down over her body, lingering on the marks he'd left. Flushing, she pulled his flannel shirt off the newel post at the bottom of the stairs and slipped it on. "I need…" her eyes flicked to the bathroom.

"Sure."

That answered that. He'd wondered which woman he'd wake with this morning. The Rogue would have flirtatiously showed off the marks boldly instead of covering them up. And she'd have likely invited him into the bathroom to watch, as well.

Logan was finished making the coffee when Marie emerged, smelling of wintergreen toothpaste and of him. Her morning hair was still big and wild. He liked it. That she hadn't tried to tame it spoke to their newfound closeness. She hovered at the door of the bathroom for a moment, unsure, until he held out his hand in silent invitation.

This was new ground for them both. He thought they might fall into it easily now that they were finally lovers, but it was still an unfamiliar intimacy. Marie'd never had a lover and Logan didn't do 'morning afters'.

She came to him, sliding under his outstretched arm and wrapping herself around him as he pulled her into his side. Turning her face to press a kiss just over his heart, she rested her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes with a soft hum of contentment. An answering purr rumbled in his own chest. It was better when they were like this. Touching. The awkwardness of a few moments ago melted away.

"Sleep good?" He felt her smile against his chest in answer.

"Mmm hmm."

"Sore?"

"Yes." He winced a little at that until she added, "I like it. It's even better than I hoped it would be. I feel… well, I feel kinda silly sayin' it." He encouraged her with a squeeze. "I guess I feel more like a woman now."

"You were a woman before," he said, bristling a little. He did not just debauch a child. He didn't.

"I know. I guess I mean I feel more like your woman."

The thick arm around her got tighter.

"Grrr…" That growl was out before he could stop it.

"Is it like that for you?"

"For me?" He wondered if she meant did she feel more like his to him now, or did he feel more like hers, or some blend of both.

"You were doubting my follow-through." He could feel the Rogue now in her sassy smile as the soft caress of her fingertips became more bold. "You feel like mine yet, cowboy?"

The stark truth came out, unchecked.

"Kid, I've been yours since you called out to me in that shitty bar." He'd just been killing time since then, waiting for her to figure out if she felt the same. She melted into him at that and they held each other long minutes, parting only when her skin prompted them to do so.

Her face was thoughtful. "Can I ask you somethin'?"

"Sure. Anythin'." She had a right to ask for whatever she wanted now.

"You ever wish I'd been older when we met? That I'd been someone you could take from and give to right away?"

Logan lifted his head and met her eyes, nodding. Her face fell a little. "Not like you mean, though."

"No?"

"Nah. Not like- 'yeah, I wish you'd been older so I could have had ya right off'. Not like that. Sometimes I think about what that might be like, havin' you with a few more miles on ya, yeah." He could only imagine the glorious creature she'd become when she fully embraced the wildness inside of her. He squeezed her a little tighter and ran his hand down her spine to settle on the small of her back. "Somethin' to look forward to, huh? We'll get there, kid. But I wouldn't go back and change it, if that's what you're askin'."

"Why not?" She seemed genuinely surprised.

"'Cause I never woulda let you in my truck." He'd have left her there and never looked back. But leaving a kid to freeze? Or worse? Even jaded as he was, that just wasn't in him. "You got in under my radar and had me jammed up real good before I knew it. I tried runnin', but it was already too late."

"That's why you gave me the tags before you left." It wasn't a question. Her voice was soft with wonder.

"Yeah." His eyes shone wetly.

She kissed him tenderly and let him pull her close and tuck her under his chin while he pulled himself back together a little.

When his breathing had evened out again, she shifted against him and met his eyes. The Rogue was there, shining out at him.

"I watched you in the cage. If I had been older, would you have fucked me after that last fight?"

"Jesus Christ," he muttered, brows going skyward. Clearly, she still intended to push. Pleasure rippled through him.

"Tell me, sugar." He felt the sting of her nails, prodding him to answer and her body language shifted from affectionate to sultry and wanting.

If she dragged him over that line, she better be prepared for what she'd find there. He was a man on the edge. It wouldn't take much to tip him over it. When she nipped at his lip, he broke.

"Fuck, yeah." His eyes flashed gold at her.

"How?"

"How what?" He was beginning to be distracted by the sweet press of her body.

"How would you have fucked me?" His mouth lifted from her neck in surprise.

"What?"

"How? From behind in the dirty bathroom? On my knees in the cold alley out back? On my back in your truck?"

He chuckled darkly as he bent his head back to her neck. "I never fucked anyone in my truck. Too much intimacy." He couldn't get in the wind if they were still there, clinging to him afterwards and wanting things he wasn't prepared to give.

That stopped her.

"What you wrote to me — that first fantasy, the one you burned — that was us in your truck," she said softly, with more than a little amazement.

"Yeah." He pulled away. "Knew you were different right off. Why the fuck you think I tried to get the hell away so damn fast?"

"Wow. I never—"

Marie froze and turned bright pink.

"What is it, darlin'?"

Her face went from pink to deep red and she squirmed against him and then looked down, helplessly. Logan looked too, brushing open the sides of the shirt she was wearing to see what had stopped their intimate exchange.

A small watery trickle of stale semen was dripping down her inner thigh.

Logan chuckled at her flaming face. "No reason for you to be embarrassed, baby." He wiped it away with the tail of the shirt. "I'm the one who put it there."

Marie giggled and felt another warm gush that left her shivering. Logan just grinned and caught the translucent drip with his thumb. It didn't surprise him. He usually came in copious amounts, something he'd always attributed to his mutation. Catching her gaze, he smeared the drip over her full bottom lip and then kissed her, slow and deep until the tingle forced them apart.

"God."

"Heh."

"You taste so good, sugar."

"Back atcha, darlin'."

"Hmm…"

"What?"

"I guess a big plate of crow is on the menu for breakfast, huh?"

He smiled against her hair as his hand slipped between her legs to touch her softly. "You still think it's tickly?"

Her laughter was low and dirty and delightfully warm. "Gawd, sugar! I don't even have any words for what that was."

"Heh." Logan opened the shirt she was wearing a little more, noting the still oozing bite on her neck and the smaller purple marks across her throat and chest. There was a bruise in the shape of his teeth forming on her breast and she had beard burn under her neck and between her legs. "You sore here, too?" He petted her soft opening with his fingers but didn't penetrate her.

"A little." He thought she'd draw back and was surprised when she leaned into him and pulled him closer. "Please don't say you're sorry."

"You hear sorry come outta my mouth?" Logan could tell he'd shocked her a little. The truth was he liked seeing her body like that. There was something about feeling her shake and thrash in his teeth that satisfied him on a primal level.

"Sugar?"

"You asked me to," he said simply. "Gave you what you wanted. I trust you to know your mind— to know whatcha need outta me. I always wanna give ya that." He knew he'd said the right thing when she dragged his hands to her breasts. "You needed to feel it. I needed to do it. You weren't wrong to ask for that, baby. And there sure as hell ain't anythin' wrong with me givin' it to ya, however you need it."

That was one home truth he needed her to take down deep.

"I get it, now." There was a question in his eyes. "It hurts good. I get it, now."

His smile was predatory; sharp, white teeth flashing in the early morning light.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg, kid."

"Good, because I want more. I want more right now."

Feedback is love. It also ramps up my (sadistic!) WolverineMuse like whoa. ;)

Up Next: These Dreams. Marie's got something specific in mind now that they're finally out of the fantasies in their heads and firmly in the real world. Logan's definitely up for that. Heh. Any guesses?

Also, it's official. The smut bunnies have moved in and set up camp. Brace yourselves. We'll be here a while!