Kings Among Runaways - Chapter Twelve (Logan/Veronica) R
Chapter Twelve
“We have two days left until your father comes home for a week straight, and you invite this clown over to ruin the mood.” Logan shook his head. Wallace had come just as Logan’s fingers had been groping at the clasp to Veronica’s bra, and Logan was more than ready to get back to that.
“She spent the entire weekend with you,” Wallace tossed back. “Face it, Echolls, she was bored out of her mind with you.”
“You’re both wrong.” Veronica looked up from Wallace’s half-finished science homework. “I was just sick of watching movies with subtitles.” She shrugged. “Sorry, Logan. You had your chance.”
“Why would I know how to set up a sterio? We have people for that,” Logan told her. “I could’ve had Hoolio or Jorge come by and set it up for you.”
“Those are not their names,” Veronica said. “Seriously, be less of an ass to them. They’re very nice.”
“He doesn’t even live there anymore,” Wallace quipped. “What’s the point? Also, how the hell did you get that past her dad?”
“Sheriff Mars loves me. I don’t know why you’d think it was a problem.”
“So basically you made Veronica do all the work?”
“Yeah, it was remarkably similar to when I do all your homework,” Veronica quipped. “And this movie sucks. You’re movie picking privileges have been revoked.”
“Of course it sucks,” Wallace said. “The whole point was to watch Jessica Simpson in those shorts.” Logan made a sound of agreement and Wallace laughed when Veronica turned on him with a glare.
“Hey,” he said defensively, “If you’d like to put on some dukes and prance around, you will have my undivided attention.”
“I only wear them to bed,” she told him, “and it’s looking less and less likely that you’ll be around for that.” Veronica smiled sweetly as Logan’s face fell.
“Wallace, new movie time.”
Wallace sighed. “This was much more fun when you weren’t trying to get into her pants.”
…
Wallace almost managed to make it through Veronica’s movie pick (Little Miss Sunshine), but as Logan became bored with the familiar storyline, he slowly turned his attentions toward distracting and not-so-subtly groping Veronica. She batted him away playfully, but her heart wasn’t really in it, and eventually Wallace opted out.
“Seriously,” he told them as he threw his bag over his shoulder. “PDA before I show up next time.”
Logan opened his mouth to share just exactly what Wallace’s arrival had interrupted when Veronica silenced him with a glare. “We’ll work on it,” she promised. She hugged Wallace tightly. “Remember, don’t disappear on me ever again. I’m a better wingman than any of those basketball fools. Hot girls trust hot girls. You want me on your team.”
“Because if she’s not, she’ll tell them all you have VD,” Logan told him with a wry glance. “Vicious is her middle name.”
“I was 12!” she said defensively. “I didn’t know what it meant, and you wouldn’t stop pulling my pigtails.”
“I’m just saying, you cost me a lot with that comment.”
“You slept with the fifteen year old model in your dad’s next movie!”
“Exactly,” he told her. “I had to give up on middle school girls. You ruined my rep.”
“I made your rep.”
Wallace cleared his throat. “If this is your twisted attempt at foreplay, I’m just going to jump out a window right now.”
“We’re on the ground floor, melodramatic,” Veronica grumbled. “I’ll walk you out.”
Veronica came back with a flourish of take-out menus, though it was obvious to Logan that she had already picked their meal in her mind. They curled on the couch, semi watching two more movies before Veronica could no longer control her yawning.
It felt more like home than anything Logan could remember.
. . .
His lips move slowly down her jaw line, and she mewls softly, her fingers clutching the fabric at his shoulders. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, his lips trace the line of her neck, sucking on the tender skin where neck and shoulder connect as she writhes beneath him. His fingers graze her bare abdomen, and she shivers under his touch. Her fingers find the hem of his shirt and tug it up over his head.
The look in his eyes is awestruck and feral as she throws his shirt to the floor and pulls his head back to her mouth. She moans as his hands finally catch the clasp on her bra, and it’s quickly discarded. He pulls his lips away, and she arches into him as he takes one nipple into his mouth, his tongue flicking deliciously over the tip. She gasps as his fingers find the hem of her panties, and she lifts her hips obligingly as he tugs them from her body.
She moans his name as his hand grazes her hip, teasing her. His eyes meet hers, and she utters the only words she can think. “Logan, please…”
“Veronica?” His voice was sultry and low, but it immediately snapped her from her dream. Her door was slightly ajar, and he stood stiffly at the foot of her bed.
“Logan?” she muttered, still sleepy and disoriented. “What are you doing in here?”
He crossed to the side of her bed, and his eyes were as feral as they had been in her dream. “I went to the bathroom, and I heard you moan my name.” Veronica flushed violently, though she couldn’t tell whether it was from his words or the design his fingertip was tracing along her collarbone.
With her last bit of rational thought, she stuttered, “my dad?”
“Still gone,” Logan told her. Her father had texted her the night before to tell her he was sleeping at the office, and Logan was vehemently hoping for a similar circumstance tonight. He sat on the edge of Veronica’s bed, his finger still tracing the sloping neckline of her tank top. With every pass, he pulled the shirt a touch lower, waiting for the reprimand, for Veronica’s hand to still his.
It never came. Instead, she shifted towards him in silent invitation, and he slid her sheets down to lie beside her. His hand traced the curve of her from neck to hip, dragging her toward him. He pressed into her, and his lips captured her gasp. Finally, her hands twined into his hair, and his hands took up their earlier path, tiptoeing up her abdomen. When his warm hands closed over her breasts, she broke away with a gasp, and his lips trailed down her neck. With a subtle shift of his weight, Logan pushed Veronica to her back, then nearly lost himself as she tugged him more fully over her.
With his weight on one arm, Logan hovered over her for a minute, enjoying the trail her fingers traced up his sides.
Her face flamed again slightly when he whispered, “You were having another dream about me?” She nodded, her head barely moving. He leaned lowered his lips to her ear, then asked, “What happened?”
His tongue traced the shell of her ear, and she shivered. He hadn’t expected an answer, so the low, raspy note of her voice surprised him. “You were… touching me.” He knew she was blushing, but her words made him strain against his sweats. “And you were kissing me…” She took his free hand, slid the neckline of her hem down, and laid his hand across her breast. “…here.” Involuntarily, his hips jerked, pressing firmly into the seam of her cotton night shorts. Her voice hiccupped on a gasp, and her eyes were wide and soft with desire.
His thumb toyed with her pert nipple as he tried to even his breathing, burying his face in her neck. Her breath came quick and shallow, and he could feel the heat of it along his neck. He could feel her all along his body, and the gentle shifting of her hips nearly did him in.
When he lifted his head, her eyes were soft and trusting, and he couldn’t help the drop of his lips to hers. She arched her chest into his hand, and he pulled his lips away, trailing his kisses down her neck and across her chest. When he closed his mouth over her nipple, she moaned his name in the most throaty, sultry voice he’d ever heard. The moan that fell from his throat came without warning.
“I want you.” He whispered it against her skin, barely audible past his lips. She whispered his name, her body suddenly less responsive, and for a moment he wondered if she’d somehow heard him, if he’d scared her. He stilled against her, his eyes glancing up to hers for a moment.
She looked startled, and he pulled back. “What…?” She shushed him before he could go on, and then he heard the low rumble of a car engine.
“My dad…” Her voice was soft and remorseful, her hands still wrapped around him. He slowly pulled her shirt back into place, then climbed off of the bed. He leaned down to press a soft kiss to her lips.
“Good night, Logan,” she whispered.
He responded with a smirk. “Sweet dreams, Veronica.”
It was a long time before she got back to sleep.
…
“So last night…” Veronica stared hard at her hands, folded in her lap. “That was…”
“Great?” Logan answered. She could hear his smile. “Horribly interrupted? In need of a repeat?”
Veronica couldn’t help the smile tugging at her lips. “Risky.”
Logan reached across and took her hand, and she lifted her head at the same time. He glanced over, rolling through a dead intersection with a California stop. “That’s better than I hoped you’d say,” he teased. “You’re not painfully embarrassed this time?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m very embarrassed,” she clarified. She glanced down at the floor before adding, “I’m glad it was you.”
He squeezed her hand. “Well, it is basically a dream come true. There is not much better than this.”
She scoffed, but her response was cut off by the vibration of Logan’s phone. He released her hand, pulling his phone out of the center console and opening his messages.
“We’re five minutes from school, Logan,” Veronica chided. “It can’t wait?”
“My dad’s starting a new project,” he told her, his voice oddly detached. “He’ll be in LA for two weeks and then they’re working in New Mexico until Christmas. My mom wanted to let me know that I could come home.”
“Oh.” Veronica didn’t quite know what to say. “Well, that’s probably good. My dad’s vacation will start soon.”
“But I won’t be able to hear when you moan my name at night,” Logan told her in a low voice, immediately guiding them back to his preferred topic. “I guess you’ll just have to start calling me when you have those little dreams of yours.”
Veronica laughed. “Hold your breath.”
“I can think of other things I’d rather be holding.” His glance flicked to her chest and Veronica flushed a deep red. Logan laughed, then took her hand back. “Sadly, we’re here.” He whipped into a parking spot, then dropped Veronica’s hand and reached back to grab both of their bags from the back seat.
As soon as they were out of the car, Logan slipped his arm over her shoulder, leaning down to whisper, “I’ll stay tonight, so you aren’t alone.” She smiled up at him, placing a chaste kiss on his lips. “And you can feel free to drunkenly stumble into my pool house anytime. I’ll enjoy it much more, now that I know you won’t slap me if I kiss you.”
“You sure about that?” Veronica smiled sneakily. “Besides, I bet my dad will be much less reasonable about me staying at your place now.”
Logan shook his head. “I’m not seeing the upside to this public dating thing.”
“Well… now I can kiss you anytime I want.”
“Doesn’t happen nearly often enough,” Logan told her, stopping beside her locker as she swapped her books. “And please, keep the movie quotes contained to porn. Just the ‘oh my god’s and ‘don’t stop’s.”
Veronica shook her head. “Yeah, I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
. . .
The note tumbled to the floor as she riffled through her unusually messy locker looking for her lab book. For one misguided moment, she wondered if Logan had left it for her, and her eyes unconsciously scanned for him. Then her rational mind chided her, reminding her that she’d spent the whole morning with him, and she had never known him to be a note writing type.
Her suspicion was confirmed when she snatched the letter off the floor, catching the slightest glimpse of her name scribbled on the front before she shoved the letter in her lab book and rushed to class.
She would know his handwriting anywhere.
. . .
Veronica discreetly pushed the letter across their lab desk, ignoring the inquisitive look that she felt Wallace throw at her. She scribbled four simple words onto her notebook and slanted it toward him. It’s not from Logan.
Suddenly Wallace’s curiosity expanded, and Veronica felt it so palpably that she thought the rest of the class must all have noticed it as well. She chanced a glance at the class, though, and the same array of boredom, attentiveness and complete confusion surrounded her.
She reread the letter in her head for what seems like the hundredth time as Wallace read it beside her.
Veronica -
I know I did this all wrong. I was scared. My mom… I know I shouldn’t have just believed her. I know she’s always hated your family, and I should have gone and figured this out a long time ago. I treated you horribly and I know you’ve been hurt. But Veronica, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I had to beg Lilly to stop bringing you by the house, because I couldn’t handle it. I’ve only ever wanted you, and I know you felt the same for me.
He can’t love you like I do. You know that he can’t. Please just come see me. I miss you. We need to talk. I’ve done this all wrong, and I need to fix it.
We can talk at my house tomorrow after school. Please don’t bring Logan. We need to work this out. I need you. Please come.
Love,
Duncan
She felt when Wallace had finished the letter, his wide eyes swinging up to hers. She dartingly caught his eyes, then looked away. He turned back to his notebook and scribbled on the page, sliding it slightly toward her. You okay? She nodded, though softly. Are you going to go? She paused, then finally shrugged. You think it’s safe?
That startled her. She’d never felt uncomfortable with Duncan before the party. Now… well, now she wasn’t entirely sure how to answer.
Put me on speed dial, if you go. I’ll be close. Veronica wanted to hug him in that moment, but settled with the deepest sigh of relief and a bright smile.
“You’re the best,” she whispered, and she meant it more than she could say.
. . .
By the end of the day, Veronica had gone back and forth on her decision about seeing Duncan at least a dozen times. The only concrete decision she had made was that she wouldn’t tell Logan. At the very least, she knew that nothing good could come from that.
Wallace had shot her a glance at lunch when she hadn’t mentioned it, but she had silenced him with a look.
“So you’re not telling him,” he whispered to her, over the video clip of Pride and Prejudice in their English class.
“You think that would help anything?” she tossed back. “He’ll just get pissed and make up some reason to go start a fight with Duncan.” Veronica tensed at the thought. “I can fight my own battles.”
“Oh, I know you can,” he assured her. “But… he’s going to find out, V. And he won’t be happy.”
“I’ll tell him,” she said. “Just… after. When it’s over, he’ll get pissed at me, but it’ll be done and there will be no reason for him to go and get into a fight.” She paused. “And I’ll have you near to protect me, so he can’t get too pissed about me going alone.”
Wallace rolled his eyes. “He’s going to think you didn’t tell him because you want Duncan back.”
Veronica shook her head. “He’s not that stupid. Logan knows me better than that.”
Wallace just shook his head. “There’s no logic in this, V. Let me be your guy bff for this. Tell him.”
“It’ll be fine, Wallace. Don’t worry so much.”
“Maybe you should worry a little more,” he told her. Later, she would have agreed.
. . .
“My dad’s going to want us to have that little dinner,” Veronica told Logan as they drove toward her house after school. “Probably before he lets you take me out again.”
“So he wants me to be afraid of him before I’m going to be alone with you anymore.”
“Basically.”
“Sounds like fun,” Logan told her. He was gritting his teeth. “Tomorrow?”
“I promised Wallace some bff time,” Veronica said, the lie slipping from her lips before she could think it through. Wallace would not like being involved in her cover up. She’d have to remember to warn him about it, though.
“Oh?” Logan said. His hand slid the length of her thigh. “I thought I was your bff.”
“I don’t let my bff grope me,” Veronica informed him. “Your choice.”
Logan grinned, squeezing her thigh gently before returning his hand to the wheel. “Okay, he can have it.”
“So we could do dinner on Thursday,” Veronica offered. “I’ll make Italian at my place, and we can have dinner there.”
“You don’t want there to be witnesses for when he tries to castrate me?”
“You can defend yourself,” she assured him. “It’s a short run to the door, and it’s just so embarrassing when he has to chase you out of a public restaurant.”
“Well, at least you have faith in me.”
Veronica smiled sweetly. “Well, just don’t mention that you’ve had your hand up my shirt, and you should be fine.”
“Damn, I guess I’ll have to come up with a new ice breaker.” Logan grinned. “Maybe something about how soft your sheets are?”
Veronica slugged him - not at all gently - in the arm. “I’d let him kill you if you even joked about it,” she promised.
He laughed, a deep rich sound that made Veronica tingle all the way to her toes. “I could always talk about how soft… other things are.” He glanced suggestively toward her chest, and he saw her blush work all the way down to the scoop of her neckline.
“I hope you enjoy the memory, then,” she told him, her eyes discreetly turned out the window. “Because if you do, you’ll never experience them again.”
His eyes slanted toward her, and she felt like she might combust from the blood rushing to her cheeks. His hand drifted to her thigh, dancing dangerously along her hemline. “You’d cut me off, Mars?” His voice was low and seductive, and she remembered the husky rumble of it against her skin the night before. His finger traced just below the hemline, and her breathing fell shallow and erratic. “Because I was pretty sure you were enjoying it just as much as I was.” She barely noticed that they had pulled up in front of her house, but then Logan threw the car in park and slanted his body across the center consol. “Were you?”
She choked on a tiny gasp as his finger slid farther up her skirt, just barely grazing the cotton of her soft, orange panties.
“Lo-Logan,” she stammered. Her hand clutched at his arm, though she wasn’t sure whether she was stopping or encouraging him. Finally, the distant sound of a door slamming brought back enough rational thought for her to pull his hand away and slide a few centimeters away from him. When she met his eyes, they were dark with lust, and his eyes darted to her lips in blatant suggestion.
“I want you.”
The words rolled over her like a physical caress, and she clutched his arm more firmly, trying to gather her wits through the haze of hormones.
Finally, she managed an almost coherent smile. “Here, Logan? In your car in my driveway in broad daylight?” She dared to place a quick kiss to his lips, pulling away before he could get a firm grasp on her. “I want you, too.” She laid one hand on his knee. “I mean,” - she looked away, flushing - “obviously.” With a deep breath, she steadied herself and looked back at him. “But… it’s important to me, Logan. Duncan and I… we never…” She trailed off, knowing he understood. “It’s important to me.”
“I wouldn’t just take you in the backseat of the car, Veronica,” Logan said, and she was glad to see that he seemed to have regained most of his composure. “God, you can’t think that’s all you are to me.” He slid his hand down her arm, the gentle touch sending tingles through her. “But damn if you aren’t making me lose my mind in the mean time.”
She blushed, and he couldn’t help dropping his mouth to hers. The kiss wasn’t so chaste as hers, though he did manage to restrain his roving hands. When she pulled away, her voice was soft, her lips just a hairsbreadth from his. “I just want it to be special,” she muttered, her hands loosely linked behind his neck. “I don’t know how or when. But I know I want you.”
Logan’s smile took her breath away. “Damn straight.” He brushed her hair back. “Now we’d better get inside before the neighbors start to talk.”
Veronica cracked a little at the thought. “I’m sure it’s already too late for that,” she muttered, then plastered herself together enough to add, “but at least it should all be too convoluted for my dad to hear anything concrete. You’re manly bits will at least start off with a fighting chance.”
“That’s really all I’m asking for.”
“We have two days left until your father comes home for a week straight, and you invite this clown over to ruin the mood.” Logan shook his head. Wallace had come just as Logan’s fingers had been groping at the clasp to Veronica’s bra, and Logan was more than ready to get back to that.
“She spent the entire weekend with you,” Wallace tossed back. “Face it, Echolls, she was bored out of her mind with you.”
“You’re both wrong.” Veronica looked up from Wallace’s half-finished science homework. “I was just sick of watching movies with subtitles.” She shrugged. “Sorry, Logan. You had your chance.”
“Why would I know how to set up a sterio? We have people for that,” Logan told her. “I could’ve had Hoolio or Jorge come by and set it up for you.”
“Those are not their names,” Veronica said. “Seriously, be less of an ass to them. They’re very nice.”
“He doesn’t even live there anymore,” Wallace quipped. “What’s the point? Also, how the hell did you get that past her dad?”
“Sheriff Mars loves me. I don’t know why you’d think it was a problem.”
“So basically you made Veronica do all the work?”
“Yeah, it was remarkably similar to when I do all your homework,” Veronica quipped. “And this movie sucks. You’re movie picking privileges have been revoked.”
“Of course it sucks,” Wallace said. “The whole point was to watch Jessica Simpson in those shorts.” Logan made a sound of agreement and Wallace laughed when Veronica turned on him with a glare.
“Hey,” he said defensively, “If you’d like to put on some dukes and prance around, you will have my undivided attention.”
“I only wear them to bed,” she told him, “and it’s looking less and less likely that you’ll be around for that.” Veronica smiled sweetly as Logan’s face fell.
“Wallace, new movie time.”
Wallace sighed. “This was much more fun when you weren’t trying to get into her pants.”
…
Wallace almost managed to make it through Veronica’s movie pick (Little Miss Sunshine), but as Logan became bored with the familiar storyline, he slowly turned his attentions toward distracting and not-so-subtly groping Veronica. She batted him away playfully, but her heart wasn’t really in it, and eventually Wallace opted out.
“Seriously,” he told them as he threw his bag over his shoulder. “PDA before I show up next time.”
Logan opened his mouth to share just exactly what Wallace’s arrival had interrupted when Veronica silenced him with a glare. “We’ll work on it,” she promised. She hugged Wallace tightly. “Remember, don’t disappear on me ever again. I’m a better wingman than any of those basketball fools. Hot girls trust hot girls. You want me on your team.”
“Because if she’s not, she’ll tell them all you have VD,” Logan told him with a wry glance. “Vicious is her middle name.”
“I was 12!” she said defensively. “I didn’t know what it meant, and you wouldn’t stop pulling my pigtails.”
“I’m just saying, you cost me a lot with that comment.”
“You slept with the fifteen year old model in your dad’s next movie!”
“Exactly,” he told her. “I had to give up on middle school girls. You ruined my rep.”
“I made your rep.”
Wallace cleared his throat. “If this is your twisted attempt at foreplay, I’m just going to jump out a window right now.”
“We’re on the ground floor, melodramatic,” Veronica grumbled. “I’ll walk you out.”
Veronica came back with a flourish of take-out menus, though it was obvious to Logan that she had already picked their meal in her mind. They curled on the couch, semi watching two more movies before Veronica could no longer control her yawning.
It felt more like home than anything Logan could remember.
. . .
His lips move slowly down her jaw line, and she mewls softly, her fingers clutching the fabric at his shoulders. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, his lips trace the line of her neck, sucking on the tender skin where neck and shoulder connect as she writhes beneath him. His fingers graze her bare abdomen, and she shivers under his touch. Her fingers find the hem of his shirt and tug it up over his head.
The look in his eyes is awestruck and feral as she throws his shirt to the floor and pulls his head back to her mouth. She moans as his hands finally catch the clasp on her bra, and it’s quickly discarded. He pulls his lips away, and she arches into him as he takes one nipple into his mouth, his tongue flicking deliciously over the tip. She gasps as his fingers find the hem of her panties, and she lifts her hips obligingly as he tugs them from her body.
She moans his name as his hand grazes her hip, teasing her. His eyes meet hers, and she utters the only words she can think. “Logan, please…”
“Veronica?” His voice was sultry and low, but it immediately snapped her from her dream. Her door was slightly ajar, and he stood stiffly at the foot of her bed.
“Logan?” she muttered, still sleepy and disoriented. “What are you doing in here?”
He crossed to the side of her bed, and his eyes were as feral as they had been in her dream. “I went to the bathroom, and I heard you moan my name.” Veronica flushed violently, though she couldn’t tell whether it was from his words or the design his fingertip was tracing along her collarbone.
With her last bit of rational thought, she stuttered, “my dad?”
“Still gone,” Logan told her. Her father had texted her the night before to tell her he was sleeping at the office, and Logan was vehemently hoping for a similar circumstance tonight. He sat on the edge of Veronica’s bed, his finger still tracing the sloping neckline of her tank top. With every pass, he pulled the shirt a touch lower, waiting for the reprimand, for Veronica’s hand to still his.
It never came. Instead, she shifted towards him in silent invitation, and he slid her sheets down to lie beside her. His hand traced the curve of her from neck to hip, dragging her toward him. He pressed into her, and his lips captured her gasp. Finally, her hands twined into his hair, and his hands took up their earlier path, tiptoeing up her abdomen. When his warm hands closed over her breasts, she broke away with a gasp, and his lips trailed down her neck. With a subtle shift of his weight, Logan pushed Veronica to her back, then nearly lost himself as she tugged him more fully over her.
With his weight on one arm, Logan hovered over her for a minute, enjoying the trail her fingers traced up his sides.
Her face flamed again slightly when he whispered, “You were having another dream about me?” She nodded, her head barely moving. He leaned lowered his lips to her ear, then asked, “What happened?”
His tongue traced the shell of her ear, and she shivered. He hadn’t expected an answer, so the low, raspy note of her voice surprised him. “You were… touching me.” He knew she was blushing, but her words made him strain against his sweats. “And you were kissing me…” She took his free hand, slid the neckline of her hem down, and laid his hand across her breast. “…here.” Involuntarily, his hips jerked, pressing firmly into the seam of her cotton night shorts. Her voice hiccupped on a gasp, and her eyes were wide and soft with desire.
His thumb toyed with her pert nipple as he tried to even his breathing, burying his face in her neck. Her breath came quick and shallow, and he could feel the heat of it along his neck. He could feel her all along his body, and the gentle shifting of her hips nearly did him in.
When he lifted his head, her eyes were soft and trusting, and he couldn’t help the drop of his lips to hers. She arched her chest into his hand, and he pulled his lips away, trailing his kisses down her neck and across her chest. When he closed his mouth over her nipple, she moaned his name in the most throaty, sultry voice he’d ever heard. The moan that fell from his throat came without warning.
“I want you.” He whispered it against her skin, barely audible past his lips. She whispered his name, her body suddenly less responsive, and for a moment he wondered if she’d somehow heard him, if he’d scared her. He stilled against her, his eyes glancing up to hers for a moment.
She looked startled, and he pulled back. “What…?” She shushed him before he could go on, and then he heard the low rumble of a car engine.
“My dad…” Her voice was soft and remorseful, her hands still wrapped around him. He slowly pulled her shirt back into place, then climbed off of the bed. He leaned down to press a soft kiss to her lips.
“Good night, Logan,” she whispered.
He responded with a smirk. “Sweet dreams, Veronica.”
It was a long time before she got back to sleep.
…
“So last night…” Veronica stared hard at her hands, folded in her lap. “That was…”
“Great?” Logan answered. She could hear his smile. “Horribly interrupted? In need of a repeat?”
Veronica couldn’t help the smile tugging at her lips. “Risky.”
Logan reached across and took her hand, and she lifted her head at the same time. He glanced over, rolling through a dead intersection with a California stop. “That’s better than I hoped you’d say,” he teased. “You’re not painfully embarrassed this time?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m very embarrassed,” she clarified. She glanced down at the floor before adding, “I’m glad it was you.”
He squeezed her hand. “Well, it is basically a dream come true. There is not much better than this.”
She scoffed, but her response was cut off by the vibration of Logan’s phone. He released her hand, pulling his phone out of the center console and opening his messages.
“We’re five minutes from school, Logan,” Veronica chided. “It can’t wait?”
“My dad’s starting a new project,” he told her, his voice oddly detached. “He’ll be in LA for two weeks and then they’re working in New Mexico until Christmas. My mom wanted to let me know that I could come home.”
“Oh.” Veronica didn’t quite know what to say. “Well, that’s probably good. My dad’s vacation will start soon.”
“But I won’t be able to hear when you moan my name at night,” Logan told her in a low voice, immediately guiding them back to his preferred topic. “I guess you’ll just have to start calling me when you have those little dreams of yours.”
Veronica laughed. “Hold your breath.”
“I can think of other things I’d rather be holding.” His glance flicked to her chest and Veronica flushed a deep red. Logan laughed, then took her hand back. “Sadly, we’re here.” He whipped into a parking spot, then dropped Veronica’s hand and reached back to grab both of their bags from the back seat.
As soon as they were out of the car, Logan slipped his arm over her shoulder, leaning down to whisper, “I’ll stay tonight, so you aren’t alone.” She smiled up at him, placing a chaste kiss on his lips. “And you can feel free to drunkenly stumble into my pool house anytime. I’ll enjoy it much more, now that I know you won’t slap me if I kiss you.”
“You sure about that?” Veronica smiled sneakily. “Besides, I bet my dad will be much less reasonable about me staying at your place now.”
Logan shook his head. “I’m not seeing the upside to this public dating thing.”
“Well… now I can kiss you anytime I want.”
“Doesn’t happen nearly often enough,” Logan told her, stopping beside her locker as she swapped her books. “And please, keep the movie quotes contained to porn. Just the ‘oh my god’s and ‘don’t stop’s.”
Veronica shook her head. “Yeah, I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
. . .
The note tumbled to the floor as she riffled through her unusually messy locker looking for her lab book. For one misguided moment, she wondered if Logan had left it for her, and her eyes unconsciously scanned for him. Then her rational mind chided her, reminding her that she’d spent the whole morning with him, and she had never known him to be a note writing type.
Her suspicion was confirmed when she snatched the letter off the floor, catching the slightest glimpse of her name scribbled on the front before she shoved the letter in her lab book and rushed to class.
She would know his handwriting anywhere.
. . .
Veronica discreetly pushed the letter across their lab desk, ignoring the inquisitive look that she felt Wallace throw at her. She scribbled four simple words onto her notebook and slanted it toward him. It’s not from Logan.
Suddenly Wallace’s curiosity expanded, and Veronica felt it so palpably that she thought the rest of the class must all have noticed it as well. She chanced a glance at the class, though, and the same array of boredom, attentiveness and complete confusion surrounded her.
She reread the letter in her head for what seems like the hundredth time as Wallace read it beside her.
Veronica -
I know I did this all wrong. I was scared. My mom… I know I shouldn’t have just believed her. I know she’s always hated your family, and I should have gone and figured this out a long time ago. I treated you horribly and I know you’ve been hurt. But Veronica, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I had to beg Lilly to stop bringing you by the house, because I couldn’t handle it. I’ve only ever wanted you, and I know you felt the same for me.
He can’t love you like I do. You know that he can’t. Please just come see me. I miss you. We need to talk. I’ve done this all wrong, and I need to fix it.
We can talk at my house tomorrow after school. Please don’t bring Logan. We need to work this out. I need you. Please come.
Love,
Duncan
She felt when Wallace had finished the letter, his wide eyes swinging up to hers. She dartingly caught his eyes, then looked away. He turned back to his notebook and scribbled on the page, sliding it slightly toward her. You okay? She nodded, though softly. Are you going to go? She paused, then finally shrugged. You think it’s safe?
That startled her. She’d never felt uncomfortable with Duncan before the party. Now… well, now she wasn’t entirely sure how to answer.
Put me on speed dial, if you go. I’ll be close. Veronica wanted to hug him in that moment, but settled with the deepest sigh of relief and a bright smile.
“You’re the best,” she whispered, and she meant it more than she could say.
. . .
By the end of the day, Veronica had gone back and forth on her decision about seeing Duncan at least a dozen times. The only concrete decision she had made was that she wouldn’t tell Logan. At the very least, she knew that nothing good could come from that.
Wallace had shot her a glance at lunch when she hadn’t mentioned it, but she had silenced him with a look.
“So you’re not telling him,” he whispered to her, over the video clip of Pride and Prejudice in their English class.
“You think that would help anything?” she tossed back. “He’ll just get pissed and make up some reason to go start a fight with Duncan.” Veronica tensed at the thought. “I can fight my own battles.”
“Oh, I know you can,” he assured her. “But… he’s going to find out, V. And he won’t be happy.”
“I’ll tell him,” she said. “Just… after. When it’s over, he’ll get pissed at me, but it’ll be done and there will be no reason for him to go and get into a fight.” She paused. “And I’ll have you near to protect me, so he can’t get too pissed about me going alone.”
Wallace rolled his eyes. “He’s going to think you didn’t tell him because you want Duncan back.”
Veronica shook her head. “He’s not that stupid. Logan knows me better than that.”
Wallace just shook his head. “There’s no logic in this, V. Let me be your guy bff for this. Tell him.”
“It’ll be fine, Wallace. Don’t worry so much.”
“Maybe you should worry a little more,” he told her. Later, she would have agreed.
. . .
“My dad’s going to want us to have that little dinner,” Veronica told Logan as they drove toward her house after school. “Probably before he lets you take me out again.”
“So he wants me to be afraid of him before I’m going to be alone with you anymore.”
“Basically.”
“Sounds like fun,” Logan told her. He was gritting his teeth. “Tomorrow?”
“I promised Wallace some bff time,” Veronica said, the lie slipping from her lips before she could think it through. Wallace would not like being involved in her cover up. She’d have to remember to warn him about it, though.
“Oh?” Logan said. His hand slid the length of her thigh. “I thought I was your bff.”
“I don’t let my bff grope me,” Veronica informed him. “Your choice.”
Logan grinned, squeezing her thigh gently before returning his hand to the wheel. “Okay, he can have it.”
“So we could do dinner on Thursday,” Veronica offered. “I’ll make Italian at my place, and we can have dinner there.”
“You don’t want there to be witnesses for when he tries to castrate me?”
“You can defend yourself,” she assured him. “It’s a short run to the door, and it’s just so embarrassing when he has to chase you out of a public restaurant.”
“Well, at least you have faith in me.”
Veronica smiled sweetly. “Well, just don’t mention that you’ve had your hand up my shirt, and you should be fine.”
“Damn, I guess I’ll have to come up with a new ice breaker.” Logan grinned. “Maybe something about how soft your sheets are?”
Veronica slugged him - not at all gently - in the arm. “I’d let him kill you if you even joked about it,” she promised.
He laughed, a deep rich sound that made Veronica tingle all the way to her toes. “I could always talk about how soft… other things are.” He glanced suggestively toward her chest, and he saw her blush work all the way down to the scoop of her neckline.
“I hope you enjoy the memory, then,” she told him, her eyes discreetly turned out the window. “Because if you do, you’ll never experience them again.”
His eyes slanted toward her, and she felt like she might combust from the blood rushing to her cheeks. His hand drifted to her thigh, dancing dangerously along her hemline. “You’d cut me off, Mars?” His voice was low and seductive, and she remembered the husky rumble of it against her skin the night before. His finger traced just below the hemline, and her breathing fell shallow and erratic. “Because I was pretty sure you were enjoying it just as much as I was.” She barely noticed that they had pulled up in front of her house, but then Logan threw the car in park and slanted his body across the center consol. “Were you?”
She choked on a tiny gasp as his finger slid farther up her skirt, just barely grazing the cotton of her soft, orange panties.
“Lo-Logan,” she stammered. Her hand clutched at his arm, though she wasn’t sure whether she was stopping or encouraging him. Finally, the distant sound of a door slamming brought back enough rational thought for her to pull his hand away and slide a few centimeters away from him. When she met his eyes, they were dark with lust, and his eyes darted to her lips in blatant suggestion.
“I want you.”
The words rolled over her like a physical caress, and she clutched his arm more firmly, trying to gather her wits through the haze of hormones.
Finally, she managed an almost coherent smile. “Here, Logan? In your car in my driveway in broad daylight?” She dared to place a quick kiss to his lips, pulling away before he could get a firm grasp on her. “I want you, too.” She laid one hand on his knee. “I mean,” - she looked away, flushing - “obviously.” With a deep breath, she steadied herself and looked back at him. “But… it’s important to me, Logan. Duncan and I… we never…” She trailed off, knowing he understood. “It’s important to me.”
“I wouldn’t just take you in the backseat of the car, Veronica,” Logan said, and she was glad to see that he seemed to have regained most of his composure. “God, you can’t think that’s all you are to me.” He slid his hand down her arm, the gentle touch sending tingles through her. “But damn if you aren’t making me lose my mind in the mean time.”
She blushed, and he couldn’t help dropping his mouth to hers. The kiss wasn’t so chaste as hers, though he did manage to restrain his roving hands. When she pulled away, her voice was soft, her lips just a hairsbreadth from his. “I just want it to be special,” she muttered, her hands loosely linked behind his neck. “I don’t know how or when. But I know I want you.”
Logan’s smile took her breath away. “Damn straight.” He brushed her hair back. “Now we’d better get inside before the neighbors start to talk.”
Veronica cracked a little at the thought. “I’m sure it’s already too late for that,” she muttered, then plastered herself together enough to add, “but at least it should all be too convoluted for my dad to hear anything concrete. You’re manly bits will at least start off with a fighting chance.”
“That’s really all I’m asking for.”