NEW FIC! Keep Bleeding - Chapter 4 - NC-17: By Paradise
http://community.livejournal.com/loganandmarie/199772.html (Chapter 1)
http://community.livejournal.com/loganandmarie/202014.html (Chapter 2)
http://community.livejournal.com/loganandmarie/202871.html (Chapter 3)
Chapter 4
Rogue woke up at noon in wrinkled sheets and covered in bruises. Her hair was messy and tangled, her mind in a whirlwind of leftover sensations and guilt. Her head ached as if she had a hangover and she tried to sit up.
Remy sat in the chair across from the bed. He hadn’t slept.
“Hi,” she said, the sun upsetting her eyes.
“Hey,” he replied.
She blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the daylight. She clutched the sheets to herself, a little embarrassed about the night before.
“Je suis désolée,” he said sincerely.
“It’s okay.”
He stood up, walking to the closet, retrieving clothes for her.
“Here,” he said. “If ah hurt you ah…”
“Remy, I mean it. I’m okay.”
“Ah’m gonna go away for a few days. Clear mah head.”
“Do you have to?”
“Ah can’t be here.”
“Let me come with you. Let’s go away together.”
“You really that afraid to be alone with him?”
Rogue was insulted.
“Dammit, Remy,” she said, flinging the covers off, no longer embarrassed. “I love you. Now you can defile me all you want but the fact is that you are the one now trying to run from me.”
“No, mah question is can you really be alone with him?”
She wanted to slap him.
“Yes!” she cried.
“Well ah guess we’ll find out.”
He packed a few clothes and shut the door behind him.
XxX
She had a migraine she was desperately trying to cure with some herbal tea in the kitchen before her next teaching class in an hour. She sipped the warm liquid and tried to clear her mind.
“What’s the matter?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Nothing,” she said briskly.
He came over to her.
“He’s gone, isn’t he?”
“Logan, just…don’t talk to me right now.”
She began to walk past him but he took hold of her arm.
“Ow!”
He hadn’t grabbed onto her that hard.
“What?” he said.
“Nothing,” she said, taking her arm back.
It was then he rolled up her sleeve to see a bruise. Looking more closely, he saw that she had little cuts and scratches all over her.
“What the hell did he do to you?” Logan demanded.
“He didn’t do anything.”
“Oh really? You think about me and he decides to knock you around a little? I refuse to believe you two would be that kinky with what he’s been hearing being said ‘round the damn school about us. He decided to give you a lesson.”
Well, it was both of those things.
“I’ll be fine,” was all that came from her mouth.
Logan placed his hand on her face, flooding her with feeling.
“Use my power and heal yourself.”
She pushed his hand off of her, breaking the connection between them.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” she said, trying to move past him but he blocked her.
“What? You deserve to be punished?”
“Logan, this is none of your business.”
“None of my business?”
“This is my marriage. Stop trying to distract me. We can’t happen!”
“Let her by, Logan,” Scott Summers said.
Logan paused at the sound of his former rival and Rogue took the opportunity to pass by him, leaving the room.
“You gonna tell me what a big bad guy I really am?” Logan asked as he turned, turning to Scott.
“Tell me, Logan, what is it about Rogue that you absolutely have to have?”
Logan said nothing.
“I mean I know how beautiful she is, but did it ever occur to you in your entire existence that what’s best for her might be to let her be happy with Remy?”
“You don’t know Rogue like I do,” Logan said.
“Oh no, of course not. You have such a deep connection with her. Kinda the same one you had with my wife. You like other men’s wives, don’t you? That’s the thrill, isn’t it? Them not being available, not being yours?”
“Rogue isn’t Jean.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Scott said. “You know Jean went through a lot with you and then we went through a lot to get back to where we are now. I saw Rogue with Remy after you left. I saw them fall in love, get engaged, take vows, all of that. And now I’m watching Rogue struggle to hang onto him while you torment her with an attraction I bet wouldn’t even be there were she not married.”
“You know nothing.”
“I know,” Scott enforced. “I lived it and if you really love Rogue, really and truly, let her be happy with the man she married. Don’t use her and leave her like you did Jean.”
XxX
Logan found Rogue crying outside in the garden that evening, her arms crossed over her chest, rocking herself. He knelt beside her and turned her, pulling her into his arms.
“It’s alright,” he said and that only made her sob louder against him.
She rested her chin over his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him, using him as the support she so desperately needed. She cried until she weakened, tears drying the skin on her face and he pulled her back and looked at her.
“It’s gonna get better.”
“Not before it gets worse,” she replied.
“Rogue,” he said softly, the longing in his voice evident.
“No,” she snapped, trying to stand up.
“Please,” he said, yanking her back. “Please stay.”
“Logan, I need you to leave the mansion.”
“Am I a bad habit that as long as I’m not around you can kick it? That’s no way to live. If I’m so addictive maybe you should give in and be with me.”
“How many ways can I spell it out?”
“You’ve spelled it plenty of ways but how many ways can I tell you that-“
“What? We’re meant to be? Come on, Logan. I have a husband who loves me. Now whatever you’re feeling, it doesn’t compare to how much he loves me.”
“Yes it does.”
She searched his eyes, trying to figure out if she could possibly believe that.
“Do you honestly believe what’s between us is real?” she asked.
“I know it is. That’s why it scares us both so badly. But you can’t think I’m such a heartless bastard that I don’t know what love is.”
She leaned in, placing a deep kiss on his forehead, embracing him.
“No! I know you love with all your soul,” she cried passionately. “I would never think anything less of you than you loving with everything you’ve got.”
“Then let me, Rogue. Forget about everything else in the world and let’s just get out of here. You made me promise to take care of you. I can still make good on that promise.”
She couldn’t tell him how much she wanted that. How much she ached for him to hold her and touch her and take her away the way Remy wouldn’t. She was sick of feeling guilty no matter how much she should. She loved him back, no matter how wrong that was. This beautiful man was in front of her professing his love and all she wanted to do was give in.
“Dammit, Logan,” she said, blinking away tears. “You make me want things I can’t have.”
“Would you stop saying that?”
“Would you stop pushing me?”
“No, look-“
“No, I have to go. He’s coming back to me.”
And she got up and left.
~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~