How Lilly Kane's Bathing Suit Changed Everything
Title: How Lilly Kane’s Bathing Suit Changed Everything
Rating: NC-17 for sex
Word Count: 7322
Spoilers: Let’s say up to “Normal is the Watchword” because it references the summer before season 2, but mostly this is pre-series. Also, for the purposes of this story, the rape never happened.
Summary: During a heat wave, Veronica remembers the summer before Lilly’s murder when she and Logan spent a night together that changed everything
Notes: Written for the loveathons Heat Wave Challenge. Feedback is always appreciated. As always, flashbacks are in italics.
“I have never been so hot in my life,” Wallace groaned as he and Veronica sat inside the Mars family apartment, a box fan blowing full blast on their overheated skin. “California sucks.”
“You’re such a baby,” Veronica chided, though she was just as miserable as her best friend. “This isn’t even the worst heat wave to ever hit Neptune.”
“I want to go swimming.”
“We can risk the building pool, but I’m pretty sure that I saw algae growing down there.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“That’s what you get for living in a crappy building.”
“Why did Logan and his merry band of morons have to set the pool on fire?”
Trying desperately not to think of her recent ex, the one that made her ache with missing him, she offered, “I could call Duncan and we could be doggy paddling in the Grand pool in no time.”
“I hate going there. Every time I walk in, management looks at me like I’m about to bust a cap in somebody’s ass.”
Veronica laughed. “That’s ridiculous. I’m more gangster than you.”
“And there’s one more crushing blow to my ego.” With a defeated sigh, he requested, “Call Duncan. I’d rather risk a frisking than diseases from the green pool.”
After quickly calling Duncan and his assurances that they could come over, Veronica and Wallace climbed into the Le Baron, grateful for the breeze hitting their faces at 60 mph. Duncan was waiting in the lobby, greeting them before they headed out to the patio where a massive in-ground pool resided. A few people splashed in the water while others slowly baked themselves toward melanoma with Jackie O sunglasses atop their recently rebuilt noses. Veronica recognized a few from surveillance details she had done, but they were her last concern today, especially when she slipped into the deliciously cool water of the pool.
Wallace let out a whoop as he did a cannonball into the pool and Duncan laughed as he followed suit, splashing Veronica as if they were twelve again and in the Kanes’ backyard pool, the pool that Lilly had died beside.
For three hours the trio leisurely swam and joked as if things hadn’t changed so monumentally in the past year. Wallace, of course, was not privy to all of the history shared between Veronica and Duncan; he knew bits and pieces of stories but did not understand the inside jokes. Of course, there was the tiny detail that he didn’t particularly like Duncan; while he was certainly kind enough to him and made an effort to be his friend, he was a little too fake for Wallace’s tastes. Whether you were kind or an asshole, Wallace just wanted realism, something that always seemed to escape Duncan.
“This was exactly what I needed,” Wallace sighed as they finally climbed out of the pool.
Taking a seat on one of the chairs poolside, requesting three sodas from the waiter that was sweating to death in his black polyester uniform, Duncan stated, “Two years ago the heat was unbearable. Something like six people almost died of heat stroke.”
“Really?”
“Really. One of Dad’s programmers got hospitalized and Mom panicked. Next thing Lilly and I knew, we were being dragged to a ski chalet for two weeks so that we’d miss out on the rest of the heat wave. In Mom’s mind, hypothermia was a more acceptable problem than heatstroke.”
“Oh, yeah. I mean, last night my mom told me and Darrell to just stick our heads in the freezer. Completely the same thing.”
Duncan chuckled. “Lilly was pissed because she wasn’t going to get to wear this new South American bikini that she bought that Mom hated. Do you remember that, Veronica?”
Veronica, surprisingly quiet, just nodded as long buried memories began to claw their way forward out of her subconscious. She remembered that summer, all right; some days, it never left her thoughts.
But it wasn’t Lilly Kane’s displeasure that she recalled with such acuity. No, that summer was when she had fallen in love with Logan Echolls.
* * *
”What do you mean you hafta go to Switzerland?” Veronica asked as she held the portable phone between her shoulder and ear as she spooned out a bowl of cookie dough ice cream.
“It’s so totally unfair,” Lilly Kane complained as she furiously shoved garments into her $2000 suitcase. “Celeste comes home all panicked cuz some geek didn’t have enough commonsense to find a building with some air conditioning, and now I have to spend the next two weeks with her and the Donut in some cabin in the middle of nowhere with people that speak Norwegian!”
Resisting the urge to laugh, Veronica gently corrected, “People in Switzerland speak Swiss.”
“Whatever! The point is, I just bought the hottest bikini in the entire world and I’m not even going to get to wear it!”
“Don’t they have hot tubs in Switzerland?”
“This is not a hot tub suit, Veronica Mars! This is the kind of suit that screams ‘hey, look at me! How hot am I?’ You cannot wear one of those in some grungy hot tub full of Dutch people!”
This time, she couldn’t help but chuckle as she licked her spoon. Only her best friend would complain about spending the next two weeks at a luxury resort in Europe while the rest of Neptune was forced to withstand scorching heat and nothing to do. And with Lilly gone, that severely cut Veronica’s social options in half.
Though she didn’t want to be selfish, Veronica was upset that her best friend wasn’t going to be around. There was only two and a half weeks left before school started again, and Veronica wanted to be out of the house as much as possible. Her mom was drinking again, and it was different from before. Last night, her parents had ended up in a screaming match about a half-empty bottle of whiskey that her dad had found under the front seat of the Le Baron, her mom’s prized yet ancient convertible. Veronica had walked in just as her mother had thrown the keys at her father’s head, shrieking that she didn’t even want the car anymore and they might as well just save it for Veronica because she wasn’t ever going to drive it again. When they had noticed her, they had stopped, but Veronica knew that she did not want to be in the Mars household anymore than necessary.
Lilly was the perfect escape. She couldn’t deny it; she envied her lifestyle. Celeste was a monster, that much was true, and Jake was never at home, but Lilly never wanted for anything. Nothing was ever an obstacle to her, and people just seemed to want to be around Lilly. When Veronica and Duncan had broken up, she had feared that Lilly would abandon her to, that she would say good-bye to her non-09er best friend and end up running around with Madison Sinclair. Instead, Lilly, in one of the first truly unselfish things she had ever done, had come over to the house with several DVDs and pints of Ben & Jerry’s and helped her mope through her break-up. Veronica had been hoping that she would now help her handle her mom’s drinking.
“We leave at ten tonight,” Lilly continued, the irritation slowly draining from her voice, “but I’m coming by to give you the suit.”
“What? I have a swimsuit already.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it, and I’ve seen muumuus that are better fitted. Think of this as a kindness to me, Veronica. This suit cannot go to waste in my closet.”
“So you want it to go to waste in mine?”
“Veronica!” With a frustrated exhale, Lilly snapped, “I’ll be over in an hour, and you had better take it!”
Rolling her eyes, she acquiesced and turned the phone off, curling up on the couch with her ice cream, contentedly scratching Backup’s head as she enjoyed the air conditioning and prepared for the usual drama queen antics of her best friend.
* * *
The swimming suit that Lilly had spent an obscene amount of her father’s money on was beyond scandalous. It was a bikini that was hardly more than a thong and nipple cups, carefully engineered black fabric that was designed to make the wearer look like walking sex. There was no more perfect a bathing suit for the fabulous Lilly Kane; for the innocent Veronica Mars, a sandpaper loofah seemed like a better idea.
She had known the second that Lilly had handed it to her that she was not going to wear it. Even if she had wanted to, there was no way on God’s green earth that Sheriff Keith Mars was going to let his only child-the same child he didn’t even let cross the street alone until she was twelve-wear a suit that was just this side of indecent exposure. No, Veronica had thrown it into a drawer and forgot about it completely.
It was three days into the Kane summer family exodus that someone knocked on Veronica’s front door. She had been confused; without Lilly there, no one was going to call her up and invite her out. Because she was the Sheriff’s daughter, party invitations weren’t offered unless she was bringing Lilly along, and none of the 09ers had never seemed to understand what about Veronica had fascinated the Kane siblings. No, when Veronica opened the door on that Thursday afternoon when the sun was so hot that daring to step anywhere barefoot resulted in a burn, she had been expecting a Girl Scout or maybe a Jehovah’s Witness.
The last person she had ever expected to see on her front porch was Logan Echolls.
Dressed in board shorts and a hideous orange Hawaiian shirt, he looked every bit the surfer bum and not at all the Hollywood royalty that he was. His smile, perfect from two years of orthodontia in junior high, was startlingly bright in the sunlight, and his eyes sparkled with the sort of mischief that Veronica had always associated with him. Until she and Duncan broke up, Veronica had considered him to be one of her best friends, one of those surprising people that appeared to be complete jackasses but actually would go to the mat for one of their friends. She had expected him to be like his girlfriend and continue to be her friend. Instead, Logan had remained firmly in the Duncan camp and she had painfully learned that the only thing that she and Logan had ever seemed to have in common was Duncan Kane.
Before she could even ask what he was doing, he withdrew a sno-cone from behind his back and quipped, “Can Ronnie come out and play?”
Despite wanting to smile, she didn’t; despite wanting to appreciate the fact that he had brought her a grape sno-cone, her very favorite, she couldn’t. Instead, she just sniped, “I hate it when you call me Ronnie.”
His smile faltered a bit before he confidently said, “No, you don’t. It’s our thing.”
“Our thing?”
“Yeah, it’s the thing that’s just special between us. I could call you Veronica Mars like Lilly does but let’s face it: I’m too damn lazy to use that many syllables every time I need to say your name.”
Crossing her arms across her chest, she suddenly felt very vulnerable as he laid on his infamous charm. “What do you want, Logan?”
“Can’t I just want the pleasure of your company?”
“No.”
With a sigh, he thrust the quickly melting confection towards her. “At least take the damn thing before I look like a Teletubby.”
Veronica took the paper cup that held the flavored ice, unable to stop herself from taking a bite out of it. As it melted on her tongue, she sighed, “Come in.”
Logan couldn’t help but look around the Mars household. It was in one of the neighborhoods that was just south enough to be in the 09er zip code without actually being one of them. Logan’s house was three times as big as this, but it was certainly not as homey as this. He had never actually been inside of Veronica’s house for more than five minutes, mostly due to Keith’s disapproval of him, which was why he had picked a time that the Sheriff would be at work. The last thing he wanted to do today was have to deal with a suspicious lawman.
Studying the pictures on the mantle, Logan couldn’t help but pick up one of Veronica when she was two years old, naked in the bathtub, her back turned to the camera but her head turned to look over her shoulder at whoever held the camera, a rubber ducky clutched in one hand as it if were gold.
“Nice butt.”
Blushing bright red, Veronica grabbed the framed photo and replaced it on the mantle. Anger now firmly in her tone, she demanded, “What do you want?”
“I wanted to hang out!”
“What?”
“I’ve had about all I can stand hanging out with Dick and the boys, and Duncan and Lilly are in Europe, so-“
“So I was your last resort.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m using you.”
“What would you call it? You haven’t talked to me in almost three months without Lilly being here! We don’t hang out anymore, we don’t talk on the phone, and you don’t even look at me when you’re with ‘your boys.’ Now, suddenly, no one’s in Neptune, and you come to hang out? Excuse me for not believing you’re sincere.”
“Look, I know I’ve been an asshole to you, but that’s…that’s not about you.”
Looking so much younger than her fifteen years at the moment, feeling as if she had been stripped bare and turned inside out, she softly asked, “How can you say it’s not about me when it’s me you’re avoiding? I thought that we were friends, Logan, and you ditched me the second that Duncan and I broke up.”
“We are friends! Let me make it up to you. Come out with me today.”
“It’s too hot,” she immediately began to excuse.
“Which is why we’ll be spending our time in the fabulous Neptune Cineplex, which is holding a double feature of both X-Men movies, meaning you’ll get to ogle Hugh Jackman in all of his clawed glory.”
“I don’t know,” she wavered.
A charming smirk on his face, he gently chucked her under the chin. “C’mon, Ronnie, don’t make me beg.”
With an exasperated groan that was directed more at herself than Logan, she said, “Wait here while I get my purse.”
* * *
The problem with Logan Echolls was that he had always been able to play the strings of Veronica’s heart effortlessly. From the first time they had met and he had told her that she was the prettiest girl in Neptune Junior High to the night before when he had ordered a small fortune in Chinese food that they ate in the Echolls pool house while watching The Breakfast Club, Logan had always known how to make her feel as if she was the most important person in the world. For the last week, he had been able to do that, and for the last week, Veronica Mars had wished that he was always as good a friend to her as he was now when no one else was looking.
It would probably come back to bite her in the ass, but Veronica didn’t care. Right now, Logan was her best friend and she would just enjoy that.
Tonight was the hottest since the damned heat wave had started, the mercury topping out at 104° and Veronica felt as if she was melting. Even the air conditioning was not helping her discomfort, and she was about to say something to her dad about fixing it when she heard him angrily snap, “What is this, Lianne?”
Even two rooms away, Veronica could hear her mother slurring, “It’s nothing! God, why do you make such a big deal out of everything?”
“This bottle was not here this morning, and it’s almost empty now!”
“What, you’re searching the cabinets now? Gee, Sheriff Mars, don’t you need a warrant for that?”
Their shouts were escalating, and Veronica didn’t even realize that she had tears coursing down her cheeks until Backup began to lap at her face. Gently pushing the pitbull away, Veronica picked up the phone and retreated into her bedroom. Dialing the familiar number, the moment she heard his voice, she asked, “Can I come over?”
Logan heard her sorrow through the phone and his heart broke for her. She had casually mentioned something about her parents fighting the other night and when he had come over a couple days ago, Lianne Mars had smelled as if she had bathed in bathtub gin. Logan was no stranger to alcoholic mothers, and he knew exactly how it felt when you first realized that your mother cared more about her next drink than what was going on in your life.
“I’ll be over in fifteen.”
Wiping her face, she grabbed a drawstring bag, tossing her wallet and a swimsuit out of her drawer into it, knowing that they would probably end up in the Echolls pool. As she slowly descended the stairs, she heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking, followed by, “Jesus Christ, Lianne!”
Veronica all but collided with her father, who took one look at her and whispered, “I’m sorry, sweetie.”
“Is it okay if I go to Logan’s?”
“Don’t you walk away from me!” Lianne screamed from the kitchen, prompting Veronica to flinch.
“I think that’s a good idea.” The loud, metallic clang of pots being swept across the counter onto the floor seemed to echo throughout the house. “Um, I’m going to call Lynn and ask if you can stay in one of the guest rooms. Are you okay with that?”
Struggling not to cry again, Veronica just nodded, accepting the cell phone that he pressed into her hand. When she heard the horn outside, Veronica pressed a kiss to her father’s cheek before charging out the door, practically jumping through the window of the brand-new banana yellow Xterra that Logan got when he passed his driver’s test. Two days ago Veronica had been making fun of it for its size and ridiculous color; tonight it was the white horse that her smart mouthed knight rode in on to save the damsel from her drunken mother’s tirade.
“Are you okay?”
“Just drive.”
Logan obeyed, manipulating the car through the streets of Neptune towards his family’s mansion. His father had bought it for its location away from the rest of the Neptune elite, high atop the hills without a next door neighbor. It made it much easier for him to beat his son or for his wife to get drunk and vomit all over the patio without neighbors to call the cops or The Inquirer. The mansion had always seemed like a prison to him, but tonight it was Veronica’s safe house. Tonight, Logan had the chance to be everything for her that no one had ever been for him.
Tonight, Logan Echolls had the chance to protect Veronica Mars.
Aaron was on location shooting some cheesy teen movie in Seattle, and Lynn was headed out to some benefit at Torrey Pines for AIDS awareness. Logan smiled when he saw the way that Veronica’s eyes widened at his mother standing in her Versace evening gown, her hair styled to perfection, lips recently plumped with more collagen, talking on their antique rotary phone, a cigarette held between her two manicured fingers.
“Of course it’s not a problem, Keith,” she was saying, her words slightly mumbled due to her ridiculously large lips. “You know that Veronica is like one of our own. Don’t worry. Of course, you, too. Bye.”
Placing the phone back in its cradle, Lynn turned her brilliant smile on the teenagers standing in the foyer.
“Veronica, that was your dad. He asked if you could stay here tonight. Do you mind staying in the pool house? The guest rooms are all being remodeled while Aaron’s gone, and they’re a mess.”
Smiling at the mere idea that staying in a pool house that probably cost more than her real house would be displeasing, Veronica assured her, “It’s completely okay, Mrs. Echolls. I love your dress.”
“Aren’t you sweet? I’m starting to look my age, which is a curse in this business. I’m doing what I can.”
“You look beautiful, Mom,” Logan replied by rote, knowing that she was fishing for a compliment. “Angelina Jolie’s got nothing on you.”
Lynn laughed the high fake laugh that Logan had come to associate with business functions and his father’s jokes. “Well, my car’s probably waiting. I’m not going to be back until late; you know how these things are. There’s plenty of food in the fridge, and if you want to order out, there’s cash in the usual place. Try not to die in this heat.”
“We’ll do our best,” Logan solemnly swore, wiping at the lip gloss that his mother had just deposited on his cheek as she left the house. “So we’re having a sleepover?”
Veronica just nodded, the spell that Lynn had cast now dissipated as she followed Logan through the house towards the backyard.
The sun had set an hour ago, but the heat hung in the air, the humidity so high that it was causing strands of the long hair she had piled on her head to stick to her neck. It was nights like these that she just wanted to hack off all of her hair so that she wasn’t carrying around a pound of flaxen locks that seemed to add 20 degrees to her overheated frame.
“Do you wanna talk?”
“It’s not a fun story,” Veronica asserted, “and we only do fun, remember?”
“C’mon, Ronnie. You’ve listened to me bitch about Lilly enough. I can return the favor.”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
“Because this isn’t some stupid jealousy thing!” she exploded, her pain turning into anger as she faced him. “My mom gets so drunk that she passes out on the living room floor! She forgets where she is, she hides vodka in water bottles, and now she’s smuggling it into the house! That’s a little different from you and Lilly fighting over whether or not she was grinding on some guy at a party at Dog Beach! She’s…She’s hardly my mom anymore, and I don’t understand! I don’t understand! I don’t understand,” she began to sob.
Logan had always hated to see girls cry, but right now he knew that Veronica needed to do it. Wrapping his arms around her, he let her cry into his chest as he stroked her hair and back, shushing her and whispering useless platitudes into the crown of her head. She cried for everything that had happened in the past six months, everything she had lost and everything that she had changed, and she was desperately clinging to Logan’s shirt as she did so.
Gently, he scooped her up and moved her into the pool house, cold from the air conditioning, and he laid her onto the bed in the center of the room. In a move that his mother had done for him many a time after one of his father’s beatings, he found a washcloth in the bathroom and wet it with cold water before returning to Veronica and carefully wiping her heated face.
When she cried herself to sleep, Logan covered her with a soft blanket folded at the foot of the bed and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. It wasn’t until he was back in his room that he stopped to wonder why it was that his feelings for Veronica Mars always seemed to cling to him like the sweltering heat around them.
* * *
It was three in the morning when Veronica woke up in the darkened pool house to scorching heat and without the familiar hum of the air conditioner. Reaching over to the table, she tried turning on the lights but found that they weren’t working. With a groan, she realized that it was a blackout and that there was no way that she was going to be able to alleviate her discomfort.
Digging into her bag, she tried to find her bathing suit only to realize that she was now clutching Lilly’s precious swimsuit, the one that wasn’t fit for Jenna Jameson to wear. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t even consider putting it on, but the thermometer mounted near the doorway declared that it was still 98°.
Shrugging out of her clothes, she attempted to put on the suit only to find it much too big. She should’ve known, of course; Lilly was far curvier than she, and Veronica looked like she was all dressed up in big sister’s clothes. She might as well go naked for all that this suit wouldn’t cover, but it was 3 AM and no one could possibly see her.
Finding a towel in the bathroom, Veronica dropped it onto one of the lounge chairs before dipping her foot into the water. With the heater turned off, it was cold but not unbearably so. Adjusting her top so that it would not fall off the moment she slid into the water, Veronica walked onto the diving board, staring down at the shimmering water below. Taking a deep breath, she dove.
* * *
Logan was in the kitchen getting a glass of water when he heard the splash. Intrigued, he walked into the backyard to find Veronica breaking the surface of the pool, her long blonde hair streaming down her back, her skin like alabaster in the moonlight. His breath caught as he watched her climb out of the pool and head back to the diving board; her suit, while too large, was incredibly revealing and it wasn’t until that moment that he had realized just how beautiful Veronica Mars really was.
She was at the edge of the board, prepared to dive again when she noticed him. Like a deer in the headlights, she froze, torn between jumping into the pool and covering herself with her hands, humiliated at being caught wearing the suit that was made for someone womanly like Lilly, not someone who was caught between girl and woman.
“There’s no electricity,” she blurted out.
Taking a few tentative steps forward, Logan nodded, pulling his t-shirt over his head. “I know.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“Mom woke me up,” he corrected, pushing his shorts down his legs, leaving him standing poolside in only a pair of green boxers. “She had a few too many martinis and passed out on the stairs.”
Veronica knew that surprise registered on her face. She had always thought that the Echolls were a normal family, the exception to the Hollywood stereotype. Sure, it always seemed like Lynn had a drink in her hand, but she was never obviously drunk. But, then again, maybe she just held her liquor better than Lianne Mars.
“So you know.”
Logan nodded. “I know.” His patented cocky smirk on his lips, he quipped, “So where’d you get that suit? You working the poles at the Seventh Veil on the weekends?”
“Shut up!” she ordered, flushing bright red before she jumped into the pool, splashing him.
He quickly followed suit, loving the feel of the water against his skin. When they both had their heads above water, Veronica answered, “It’s Lilly’s, and I know I look ridiculous.”
“You don’t,” he argued.
“Yeah, right.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Ronnie. You’re twice as beautiful as Lilly, always have been.”
A lone butterfly began to flutter in her stomach. “That’s not nice to say about your girlfriend.”
He shrugged, the recently developed muscles in his chest flexing. “It’s the truth. You might as well accept it, Ron: you’re hot.”
The butterfly was joined by more of its kind. Treading water, her feet moving faster so that she’d stay aloft, she just shook her head. “Let’s not talk about this.”
Slowly swimming towards her, Logan asked, “Why not?”
“Cuz it’s inappropriate.” Swimming backwards towards the steps, Veronica ticked off, “You’re Lilly’s boyfriend, I’m her best friend, you’re Duncan’s best friend, and we can’t talk about…about you thinking I’m hot.”
Logan stalked after her as much as he could in the water. When the water was chest high, he saw the way her eyes drifted down towards his chest before meeting his gaze again, her teeth lightly biting into her lower lip. Suddenly Logan was hit with every feeling he had ever had for Veronica Mars, and he realized that if he ever wanted to know what they could have, tonight was the night.
Veronica watched in shock as Logan removed his wet boxers, tossing them out of the pool and onto the cement surrounding it. She turned away immediately, having never seen a naked man before and unsure if she wanted her best friend’s cute boyfriend to be the first.
“Ronnie,” he began, moving closer while she stayed still, torn between wanting to be here and see what happened and running far away to make sure nothing did.
“Don’t call me Ronnie,” she immediately protested, hating the way the nickname that, when uttered in such a passionate voice, made her stomach clench in desire.
Sliding his hand along her cheek, his fingers in his hair, Logan whispered, “But it’s our thing.”
“Logan-“
His lips were cold from the water and tasted of chlorine as he pressed them against hers. Veronica was surprised at the sudden turn in events; the logical part of her told her that she needed to shove him away, smack him across the face, do anything than just let him kiss her. But then there was the other part that told her that this felt too good to be true, that it had never felt this good with Duncan.
Duncan. Duncan was Lilly’s brother. Lilly’s Logan’s girlfriend.
Veronica opened her mouth to say such but suddenly Logan’s tongue, hot and demanding, was exploring her mouth, and Veronica stopped protesting. She was an equal participant now, her fingers clutching at his sun kissed locks, trying to make him feel as good as he was making her feel right now. So involved in trying to kiss him to the best of her ability, she didn’t even realize he was untying her top until it was floating beside her in the water.
She gasped as the cold water hit her breasts and was about to protest when Logan’s hands rose to cup them, his touch surprisingly gentle as he caressed, his thumbs lightly skimming her nipples, painfully erect from the cold water. It felt as if little shocks of pleasure were exploding wherever he touched, and she moaned into his mouth. Their kiss deepened, Logan gently leading her back until she was on the steps, standing at perfect level for him to take her right nipple into his mouth.
“Logan!” she exclaimed, startled at the contrast of his hot mouth against her cool skin. Duncan had never done this to her, and Veronica was ashamed to admit that she was glad that he hadn’t, because she highly doubted he would’ve done it as well as Logan was.
“Shh,” he smiled up at her from his place against her breast. “You’re gonna wake the neighbors.”
“You don’t have any neighbors,” she panted, squirming from unfulfilled lust and embarrassment at standing before him topless when he was Lilly’s boyfriend.
“You’ll wake the ones a mile away if you keep yelling like that,” he teased before placing a suggestive lick to her nipple.
Moaning, Veronica began to shake her head. “Logan, maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.”
“I like you, Ronnie,” he said with sincerity as he tugged at the strings on her hips that held the bottom of her suit on. “Don’t you like me?”
“Yeah, but…you’re Lilly’s boyfriend.”
Logan pulled away, staring up to meet her gaze. With great deliberateness, he stated, “I’m not forcing you to do anything, Veronica. If you don’t want to do this, then we’ll stop. Your friendship means more to me than this.”
Covering her chest, she murmured, “What about Lilly?”
Truth ringing through with every word, he informed her, “If I had ever thought that you were an option, I never would’ve been with Lilly.”
Later she would say that it was because she needed to feel validation, that she needed someone to think that she was better than Lilly, but she had always known that was simply a lie. What transpired next was as complex as it was simple: Veronica had wanted Logan first and Lilly had taken him because she could. Despite her love for her best friend, she had never quite forgiven her for that.
Tonight, Veronica could get Logan back.
She kissed him gently at first before returning to the same level of passion that had occurred only moments ago. The bottom of her suit was removed, and Veronica felt a frisson of excitement tinged with fear as she realized that she was going to lose her virginity tonight. It was something that she had wanted to save for someone that she loved, and, when Logan looked at her with those light green eyes of his, she knew that she was giving it to the right person.
Veronica squealed as Logan lifted her as if she weighed nothing, setting her on the edge of the pool, the cement rough against her backside. She was about to protest when he shocked her by pressing a kiss to her thigh.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, trying to close the legs that Logan now stood between, his hands gently skimming along the outside of her legs.
“Please,” he softly said, a small smile on his lips. “I promise I’ll stop if you don’t like it.”
“Logan,” she sighed, mortification crossing her features even as her body screamed to say yes.
“Ronnie,” he sighed right back, pressing quick kisses to the skin of her thighs. As he neared her pelvis, she tried to stifle a moan, shifting as pleasure coursed through her.
She squealed in satisfaction as his lips moved between her thighs, kissing her in the most intimate place that he could, a place that no one other than her had ever even touched. Her fingers clawed at his shoulders, unsure whether or not she was trying to draw him nearer or make him stop, but as his tongue probed, she brought one hand to her mouth to muffle her cries.
There was no way that she was going to stop him. In fact, she wanted this to never stop. The heat was forgotten as Logan devoured her, sliding one finger carefully into her wetness, causing Veronica to buck. His touch was probing, as if he was trying to find something, and Veronica was about to ask him what he was doing when pleasure exploded in her gut as he rubbed a spot inside her.
“Oh god!” she shrieked, prompting Logan to chuckle and shush her as he pressed the spot again while sipping her clit into his mouth and tenderly sucking it.
Her hands were definitely drawing him closer now as something continued to build inside of her. She was breathing loud even to her own ears, words mixed in, and she was ready to beg, borrow, and plead for whatever was building when the dam inside of her burst and she was screaming in bliss.
When her pleasure subsided, a very smug Logan said, “Well, I guess you liked it.”
“Shut up,” she murmured, trying not to blush and failing miserably. On shaky legs, she stood and headed over to the lounge chair where she had tossed her towel. Carefully, weighing her options, she tried to sound mildly seductive as she asked, “Do you want to join me?”
For a 16-year-old boy with a massive erection, Logan moved with incredible speed, suddenly lying atop her on the lounge chair, the rough cloth of the cushions rubbing against her back. Veronica moved her neck to allow him to continue to press warm kisses to her skin, and she was reveling in the sensation when she felt Logan pressed intimately against her.
Veronica stilled, the gravity of the situation hitting her. She was about to have sex with her best friend’s boyfriend, with her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, on a lounge chair. This was enough to destroy her friendship with Lilly, to ruin things forever with Duncan, and kill her father if he found out.
Sensing her worry, Logan whispered, “We don’t have to do this. We can stop if you want.”
“I’ve never done this before,” she confessed, her fingers drawing patterns on his back. “And Lilly…Isn’t this wrong?”
“Does it feel wrong?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Disappointment flaring through him as his groin ached with dissatisfaction, he groaned, “It’s okay, Ronnie. It’s okay.”
“Do you love me?” she blurted out before cursing herself for sounding so stupid. “I mean, do you care about me?”
“You know I do.”
Taking a deep breath, she softly queried, “Do you have any…protection?”
“Yeah, yeah, in the pool house. We’ll go in the pool house.”
Wrapping the towel around her body, she watched as Logan, unashamed of his nudity, hurried into the pool house, disappearing into the bathroom before reappearing with a box of Trojans. As Veronica slid beneath the covers, Logan hurriedly opened the box, plucking a foil packet from it before sliding into bed with her.
Logan knew that this was Veronica’s first time and it should be memorable. He didn’t want to be the guy who ruined sex for her, and he sure as hell didn’t want her to not enjoy this. Hell, he was practically giddy and he hadn’t even gotten anything out of the deal yet. This was his chance to finally love Veronica Mars, and he was not going to squander it.
Their kisses were fierce, and Logan was so involved that he gasped when he felt Veronica tentatively touch his dick. Her hand was warm and slightly rough in its inexperience, but she was trying so hard to make him feel good. And she was. Even in her innocence, she was tempting as hell and Logan knew that if she didn’t stop touching him, he was going to cum all over the sheets and stop this before it even started.
“Veronica, stop,” he panted, fumbling with the condom as he tried to open it.
“Am I doing it wrong?”
“God, no. I just…I want this to laugh.” Temporarily rolling off of her, he slid the condom over his length, Veronica’s eyes wide as she watched. When he positioned himself atop her again, Veronica raised her knees, opening herself to him.
“Are you sure?” he panted one last time, kissing her for a long moment.
Veronica just nodded, affectionately touching his cheek.
They both gasped as Logan flexed his hips forward, pressing the blunt head of his erection inside of her. She was unbearably tight, and, while it felt amazing to Logan, it was uncomfortable for Veronica. Logan slowly moved back and forth, trying to adjust her to his girth, and slowly she began to relax. When he finally touched the barrier inside of her, he paused. Reaching down to her center, he began to rub her clit, trying to distract her. When she began to moan, Logan gave one final push and he was seated fully inside of her.
The pain was sharp and sudden, and Veronica’s nails bit into his back. As a single tear rolled down her face, Logan began to kiss her, whispering apologies and love words into her ear. It was torture not being able to move, but he didn’t want to hurt her. The last thing in the world that he ever wanted was to hurt her.
After several minutes, Veronica moved her hips, and Logan took that as his sign to start to move. Once he did, Veronica was able to move past the pain and into the pleasure. Logan slowly began to gain speed, pressing kisses to any skin that he came into contact with, and Veronica began to cautiously return his thrusts. As they moved together, sweat covering their bodies, Veronica clung to him, all sense of propriety thrown out the window as Logan ignited feelings in her that no one else ever had, feelings that would always be his because he was the first.
The tension coiled in her stomach was almost unbearable as Logan’s thrusts picked up speed as he neared climax. Pressing hard against her center, Veronica cried out, scratching at his back while Logan came, groaning against her ear, “Oh, god, Ronnie, you’re perfect.”
As they lay there, both of them clinging to the other, the air conditioner kicked back on, the new air causing goosebumps to rise on their flesh.
Logan moved to dispose of the condom before returning back to bed, pulling the blanket over them, spooning Veronica against his side. As she slipped into sleep, Logan sighed into her long, tangled hair, “I love you, Veronica.”
* * *
The bed beside her was empty when Veronica woke up, and disappointment tore through her even as she logically realized that Logan had to go back to the house so that Lynn didn’t catch them.
After showering, Veronica made her way over to the main house. She had barely stepped in the door when she heard, “Veronica Mars!”
Turning, Veronica was shocked to see Lilly and Duncan sitting in Logan’s living room, Logan uncomfortably sitting in an easy chair.
“When did you get back?” Veronica managed, returning Lilly’s voracious hug as Duncan looked away.
“At five this morning. We just had to get back to civilization. I bought you the coolest present ever. So did you and Logan have fun?”
“Fun?” Veronica echoed, confusion on her features, panic in her heart.
“Logan told us that you ran into him at the beach while he was wasted and you took care of him. Was it fun wiping up after him?”
“Fabulous,” was all Veronica offered, ignoring Lilly’s mocking laugh, unable to ignore the apology in Logan’s eyes.
She had known that last night was too good to be true, that he was never going to leave Lilly. She had also known that she couldn’t exactly be angry when she had just betrayed her best friend in the worst way possible. But that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt.
Lilly never suspected anything, or, if she did, she didn’t say a word. All she had ever asked was if Veronica had ever worn the swimsuit that she had loved so much. When Veronica had said yes, she asked if it had been as amazing as she had promised.
“It changed my life,” she had replied honestly though Lilly took it as a joke.
The heat wave broke the next night.
* * *
“Do you remember that, Veronica?” Duncan repeated as he handed her the glass of Pepsi he had ordered.
As she sat in the hot August sun, the beads of condensation slowly sliding their way down the glass, Veronica thought back to this summer, to how, once again, her and Logan’s passion had been measured in a heat wave. The first time they had been together, they had broken the heat; the last time they had been together, they had started one. It seemed, in Veronica’s mind, that no matter what happened between the two of them, heat was inevitable.
Glancing at her boyfriend, the nice, safe boyfriend that had never made her burn like Logan Echolls had, she honestly replied, “I could never forget.”
Rating: NC-17 for sex
Word Count: 7322
Spoilers: Let’s say up to “Normal is the Watchword” because it references the summer before season 2, but mostly this is pre-series. Also, for the purposes of this story, the rape never happened.
Summary: During a heat wave, Veronica remembers the summer before Lilly’s murder when she and Logan spent a night together that changed everything
Notes: Written for the loveathons Heat Wave Challenge. Feedback is always appreciated. As always, flashbacks are in italics.
“I have never been so hot in my life,” Wallace groaned as he and Veronica sat inside the Mars family apartment, a box fan blowing full blast on their overheated skin. “California sucks.”
“You’re such a baby,” Veronica chided, though she was just as miserable as her best friend. “This isn’t even the worst heat wave to ever hit Neptune.”
“I want to go swimming.”
“We can risk the building pool, but I’m pretty sure that I saw algae growing down there.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“That’s what you get for living in a crappy building.”
“Why did Logan and his merry band of morons have to set the pool on fire?”
Trying desperately not to think of her recent ex, the one that made her ache with missing him, she offered, “I could call Duncan and we could be doggy paddling in the Grand pool in no time.”
“I hate going there. Every time I walk in, management looks at me like I’m about to bust a cap in somebody’s ass.”
Veronica laughed. “That’s ridiculous. I’m more gangster than you.”
“And there’s one more crushing blow to my ego.” With a defeated sigh, he requested, “Call Duncan. I’d rather risk a frisking than diseases from the green pool.”
After quickly calling Duncan and his assurances that they could come over, Veronica and Wallace climbed into the Le Baron, grateful for the breeze hitting their faces at 60 mph. Duncan was waiting in the lobby, greeting them before they headed out to the patio where a massive in-ground pool resided. A few people splashed in the water while others slowly baked themselves toward melanoma with Jackie O sunglasses atop their recently rebuilt noses. Veronica recognized a few from surveillance details she had done, but they were her last concern today, especially when she slipped into the deliciously cool water of the pool.
Wallace let out a whoop as he did a cannonball into the pool and Duncan laughed as he followed suit, splashing Veronica as if they were twelve again and in the Kanes’ backyard pool, the pool that Lilly had died beside.
For three hours the trio leisurely swam and joked as if things hadn’t changed so monumentally in the past year. Wallace, of course, was not privy to all of the history shared between Veronica and Duncan; he knew bits and pieces of stories but did not understand the inside jokes. Of course, there was the tiny detail that he didn’t particularly like Duncan; while he was certainly kind enough to him and made an effort to be his friend, he was a little too fake for Wallace’s tastes. Whether you were kind or an asshole, Wallace just wanted realism, something that always seemed to escape Duncan.
“This was exactly what I needed,” Wallace sighed as they finally climbed out of the pool.
Taking a seat on one of the chairs poolside, requesting three sodas from the waiter that was sweating to death in his black polyester uniform, Duncan stated, “Two years ago the heat was unbearable. Something like six people almost died of heat stroke.”
“Really?”
“Really. One of Dad’s programmers got hospitalized and Mom panicked. Next thing Lilly and I knew, we were being dragged to a ski chalet for two weeks so that we’d miss out on the rest of the heat wave. In Mom’s mind, hypothermia was a more acceptable problem than heatstroke.”
“Oh, yeah. I mean, last night my mom told me and Darrell to just stick our heads in the freezer. Completely the same thing.”
Duncan chuckled. “Lilly was pissed because she wasn’t going to get to wear this new South American bikini that she bought that Mom hated. Do you remember that, Veronica?”
Veronica, surprisingly quiet, just nodded as long buried memories began to claw their way forward out of her subconscious. She remembered that summer, all right; some days, it never left her thoughts.
But it wasn’t Lilly Kane’s displeasure that she recalled with such acuity. No, that summer was when she had fallen in love with Logan Echolls.
* * *
”What do you mean you hafta go to Switzerland?” Veronica asked as she held the portable phone between her shoulder and ear as she spooned out a bowl of cookie dough ice cream.
“It’s so totally unfair,” Lilly Kane complained as she furiously shoved garments into her $2000 suitcase. “Celeste comes home all panicked cuz some geek didn’t have enough commonsense to find a building with some air conditioning, and now I have to spend the next two weeks with her and the Donut in some cabin in the middle of nowhere with people that speak Norwegian!”
Resisting the urge to laugh, Veronica gently corrected, “People in Switzerland speak Swiss.”
“Whatever! The point is, I just bought the hottest bikini in the entire world and I’m not even going to get to wear it!”
“Don’t they have hot tubs in Switzerland?”
“This is not a hot tub suit, Veronica Mars! This is the kind of suit that screams ‘hey, look at me! How hot am I?’ You cannot wear one of those in some grungy hot tub full of Dutch people!”
This time, she couldn’t help but chuckle as she licked her spoon. Only her best friend would complain about spending the next two weeks at a luxury resort in Europe while the rest of Neptune was forced to withstand scorching heat and nothing to do. And with Lilly gone, that severely cut Veronica’s social options in half.
Though she didn’t want to be selfish, Veronica was upset that her best friend wasn’t going to be around. There was only two and a half weeks left before school started again, and Veronica wanted to be out of the house as much as possible. Her mom was drinking again, and it was different from before. Last night, her parents had ended up in a screaming match about a half-empty bottle of whiskey that her dad had found under the front seat of the Le Baron, her mom’s prized yet ancient convertible. Veronica had walked in just as her mother had thrown the keys at her father’s head, shrieking that she didn’t even want the car anymore and they might as well just save it for Veronica because she wasn’t ever going to drive it again. When they had noticed her, they had stopped, but Veronica knew that she did not want to be in the Mars household anymore than necessary.
Lilly was the perfect escape. She couldn’t deny it; she envied her lifestyle. Celeste was a monster, that much was true, and Jake was never at home, but Lilly never wanted for anything. Nothing was ever an obstacle to her, and people just seemed to want to be around Lilly. When Veronica and Duncan had broken up, she had feared that Lilly would abandon her to, that she would say good-bye to her non-09er best friend and end up running around with Madison Sinclair. Instead, Lilly, in one of the first truly unselfish things she had ever done, had come over to the house with several DVDs and pints of Ben & Jerry’s and helped her mope through her break-up. Veronica had been hoping that she would now help her handle her mom’s drinking.
“We leave at ten tonight,” Lilly continued, the irritation slowly draining from her voice, “but I’m coming by to give you the suit.”
“What? I have a swimsuit already.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it, and I’ve seen muumuus that are better fitted. Think of this as a kindness to me, Veronica. This suit cannot go to waste in my closet.”
“So you want it to go to waste in mine?”
“Veronica!” With a frustrated exhale, Lilly snapped, “I’ll be over in an hour, and you had better take it!”
Rolling her eyes, she acquiesced and turned the phone off, curling up on the couch with her ice cream, contentedly scratching Backup’s head as she enjoyed the air conditioning and prepared for the usual drama queen antics of her best friend.
* * *
The swimming suit that Lilly had spent an obscene amount of her father’s money on was beyond scandalous. It was a bikini that was hardly more than a thong and nipple cups, carefully engineered black fabric that was designed to make the wearer look like walking sex. There was no more perfect a bathing suit for the fabulous Lilly Kane; for the innocent Veronica Mars, a sandpaper loofah seemed like a better idea.
She had known the second that Lilly had handed it to her that she was not going to wear it. Even if she had wanted to, there was no way on God’s green earth that Sheriff Keith Mars was going to let his only child-the same child he didn’t even let cross the street alone until she was twelve-wear a suit that was just this side of indecent exposure. No, Veronica had thrown it into a drawer and forgot about it completely.
It was three days into the Kane summer family exodus that someone knocked on Veronica’s front door. She had been confused; without Lilly there, no one was going to call her up and invite her out. Because she was the Sheriff’s daughter, party invitations weren’t offered unless she was bringing Lilly along, and none of the 09ers had never seemed to understand what about Veronica had fascinated the Kane siblings. No, when Veronica opened the door on that Thursday afternoon when the sun was so hot that daring to step anywhere barefoot resulted in a burn, she had been expecting a Girl Scout or maybe a Jehovah’s Witness.
The last person she had ever expected to see on her front porch was Logan Echolls.
Dressed in board shorts and a hideous orange Hawaiian shirt, he looked every bit the surfer bum and not at all the Hollywood royalty that he was. His smile, perfect from two years of orthodontia in junior high, was startlingly bright in the sunlight, and his eyes sparkled with the sort of mischief that Veronica had always associated with him. Until she and Duncan broke up, Veronica had considered him to be one of her best friends, one of those surprising people that appeared to be complete jackasses but actually would go to the mat for one of their friends. She had expected him to be like his girlfriend and continue to be her friend. Instead, Logan had remained firmly in the Duncan camp and she had painfully learned that the only thing that she and Logan had ever seemed to have in common was Duncan Kane.
Before she could even ask what he was doing, he withdrew a sno-cone from behind his back and quipped, “Can Ronnie come out and play?”
Despite wanting to smile, she didn’t; despite wanting to appreciate the fact that he had brought her a grape sno-cone, her very favorite, she couldn’t. Instead, she just sniped, “I hate it when you call me Ronnie.”
His smile faltered a bit before he confidently said, “No, you don’t. It’s our thing.”
“Our thing?”
“Yeah, it’s the thing that’s just special between us. I could call you Veronica Mars like Lilly does but let’s face it: I’m too damn lazy to use that many syllables every time I need to say your name.”
Crossing her arms across her chest, she suddenly felt very vulnerable as he laid on his infamous charm. “What do you want, Logan?”
“Can’t I just want the pleasure of your company?”
“No.”
With a sigh, he thrust the quickly melting confection towards her. “At least take the damn thing before I look like a Teletubby.”
Veronica took the paper cup that held the flavored ice, unable to stop herself from taking a bite out of it. As it melted on her tongue, she sighed, “Come in.”
Logan couldn’t help but look around the Mars household. It was in one of the neighborhoods that was just south enough to be in the 09er zip code without actually being one of them. Logan’s house was three times as big as this, but it was certainly not as homey as this. He had never actually been inside of Veronica’s house for more than five minutes, mostly due to Keith’s disapproval of him, which was why he had picked a time that the Sheriff would be at work. The last thing he wanted to do today was have to deal with a suspicious lawman.
Studying the pictures on the mantle, Logan couldn’t help but pick up one of Veronica when she was two years old, naked in the bathtub, her back turned to the camera but her head turned to look over her shoulder at whoever held the camera, a rubber ducky clutched in one hand as it if were gold.
“Nice butt.”
Blushing bright red, Veronica grabbed the framed photo and replaced it on the mantle. Anger now firmly in her tone, she demanded, “What do you want?”
“I wanted to hang out!”
“What?”
“I’ve had about all I can stand hanging out with Dick and the boys, and Duncan and Lilly are in Europe, so-“
“So I was your last resort.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m using you.”
“What would you call it? You haven’t talked to me in almost three months without Lilly being here! We don’t hang out anymore, we don’t talk on the phone, and you don’t even look at me when you’re with ‘your boys.’ Now, suddenly, no one’s in Neptune, and you come to hang out? Excuse me for not believing you’re sincere.”
“Look, I know I’ve been an asshole to you, but that’s…that’s not about you.”
Looking so much younger than her fifteen years at the moment, feeling as if she had been stripped bare and turned inside out, she softly asked, “How can you say it’s not about me when it’s me you’re avoiding? I thought that we were friends, Logan, and you ditched me the second that Duncan and I broke up.”
“We are friends! Let me make it up to you. Come out with me today.”
“It’s too hot,” she immediately began to excuse.
“Which is why we’ll be spending our time in the fabulous Neptune Cineplex, which is holding a double feature of both X-Men movies, meaning you’ll get to ogle Hugh Jackman in all of his clawed glory.”
“I don’t know,” she wavered.
A charming smirk on his face, he gently chucked her under the chin. “C’mon, Ronnie, don’t make me beg.”
With an exasperated groan that was directed more at herself than Logan, she said, “Wait here while I get my purse.”
* * *
The problem with Logan Echolls was that he had always been able to play the strings of Veronica’s heart effortlessly. From the first time they had met and he had told her that she was the prettiest girl in Neptune Junior High to the night before when he had ordered a small fortune in Chinese food that they ate in the Echolls pool house while watching The Breakfast Club, Logan had always known how to make her feel as if she was the most important person in the world. For the last week, he had been able to do that, and for the last week, Veronica Mars had wished that he was always as good a friend to her as he was now when no one else was looking.
It would probably come back to bite her in the ass, but Veronica didn’t care. Right now, Logan was her best friend and she would just enjoy that.
Tonight was the hottest since the damned heat wave had started, the mercury topping out at 104° and Veronica felt as if she was melting. Even the air conditioning was not helping her discomfort, and she was about to say something to her dad about fixing it when she heard him angrily snap, “What is this, Lianne?”
Even two rooms away, Veronica could hear her mother slurring, “It’s nothing! God, why do you make such a big deal out of everything?”
“This bottle was not here this morning, and it’s almost empty now!”
“What, you’re searching the cabinets now? Gee, Sheriff Mars, don’t you need a warrant for that?”
Their shouts were escalating, and Veronica didn’t even realize that she had tears coursing down her cheeks until Backup began to lap at her face. Gently pushing the pitbull away, Veronica picked up the phone and retreated into her bedroom. Dialing the familiar number, the moment she heard his voice, she asked, “Can I come over?”
Logan heard her sorrow through the phone and his heart broke for her. She had casually mentioned something about her parents fighting the other night and when he had come over a couple days ago, Lianne Mars had smelled as if she had bathed in bathtub gin. Logan was no stranger to alcoholic mothers, and he knew exactly how it felt when you first realized that your mother cared more about her next drink than what was going on in your life.
“I’ll be over in fifteen.”
Wiping her face, she grabbed a drawstring bag, tossing her wallet and a swimsuit out of her drawer into it, knowing that they would probably end up in the Echolls pool. As she slowly descended the stairs, she heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking, followed by, “Jesus Christ, Lianne!”
Veronica all but collided with her father, who took one look at her and whispered, “I’m sorry, sweetie.”
“Is it okay if I go to Logan’s?”
“Don’t you walk away from me!” Lianne screamed from the kitchen, prompting Veronica to flinch.
“I think that’s a good idea.” The loud, metallic clang of pots being swept across the counter onto the floor seemed to echo throughout the house. “Um, I’m going to call Lynn and ask if you can stay in one of the guest rooms. Are you okay with that?”
Struggling not to cry again, Veronica just nodded, accepting the cell phone that he pressed into her hand. When she heard the horn outside, Veronica pressed a kiss to her father’s cheek before charging out the door, practically jumping through the window of the brand-new banana yellow Xterra that Logan got when he passed his driver’s test. Two days ago Veronica had been making fun of it for its size and ridiculous color; tonight it was the white horse that her smart mouthed knight rode in on to save the damsel from her drunken mother’s tirade.
“Are you okay?”
“Just drive.”
Logan obeyed, manipulating the car through the streets of Neptune towards his family’s mansion. His father had bought it for its location away from the rest of the Neptune elite, high atop the hills without a next door neighbor. It made it much easier for him to beat his son or for his wife to get drunk and vomit all over the patio without neighbors to call the cops or The Inquirer. The mansion had always seemed like a prison to him, but tonight it was Veronica’s safe house. Tonight, Logan had the chance to be everything for her that no one had ever been for him.
Tonight, Logan Echolls had the chance to protect Veronica Mars.
Aaron was on location shooting some cheesy teen movie in Seattle, and Lynn was headed out to some benefit at Torrey Pines for AIDS awareness. Logan smiled when he saw the way that Veronica’s eyes widened at his mother standing in her Versace evening gown, her hair styled to perfection, lips recently plumped with more collagen, talking on their antique rotary phone, a cigarette held between her two manicured fingers.
“Of course it’s not a problem, Keith,” she was saying, her words slightly mumbled due to her ridiculously large lips. “You know that Veronica is like one of our own. Don’t worry. Of course, you, too. Bye.”
Placing the phone back in its cradle, Lynn turned her brilliant smile on the teenagers standing in the foyer.
“Veronica, that was your dad. He asked if you could stay here tonight. Do you mind staying in the pool house? The guest rooms are all being remodeled while Aaron’s gone, and they’re a mess.”
Smiling at the mere idea that staying in a pool house that probably cost more than her real house would be displeasing, Veronica assured her, “It’s completely okay, Mrs. Echolls. I love your dress.”
“Aren’t you sweet? I’m starting to look my age, which is a curse in this business. I’m doing what I can.”
“You look beautiful, Mom,” Logan replied by rote, knowing that she was fishing for a compliment. “Angelina Jolie’s got nothing on you.”
Lynn laughed the high fake laugh that Logan had come to associate with business functions and his father’s jokes. “Well, my car’s probably waiting. I’m not going to be back until late; you know how these things are. There’s plenty of food in the fridge, and if you want to order out, there’s cash in the usual place. Try not to die in this heat.”
“We’ll do our best,” Logan solemnly swore, wiping at the lip gloss that his mother had just deposited on his cheek as she left the house. “So we’re having a sleepover?”
Veronica just nodded, the spell that Lynn had cast now dissipated as she followed Logan through the house towards the backyard.
The sun had set an hour ago, but the heat hung in the air, the humidity so high that it was causing strands of the long hair she had piled on her head to stick to her neck. It was nights like these that she just wanted to hack off all of her hair so that she wasn’t carrying around a pound of flaxen locks that seemed to add 20 degrees to her overheated frame.
“Do you wanna talk?”
“It’s not a fun story,” Veronica asserted, “and we only do fun, remember?”
“C’mon, Ronnie. You’ve listened to me bitch about Lilly enough. I can return the favor.”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
“Because this isn’t some stupid jealousy thing!” she exploded, her pain turning into anger as she faced him. “My mom gets so drunk that she passes out on the living room floor! She forgets where she is, she hides vodka in water bottles, and now she’s smuggling it into the house! That’s a little different from you and Lilly fighting over whether or not she was grinding on some guy at a party at Dog Beach! She’s…She’s hardly my mom anymore, and I don’t understand! I don’t understand! I don’t understand,” she began to sob.
Logan had always hated to see girls cry, but right now he knew that Veronica needed to do it. Wrapping his arms around her, he let her cry into his chest as he stroked her hair and back, shushing her and whispering useless platitudes into the crown of her head. She cried for everything that had happened in the past six months, everything she had lost and everything that she had changed, and she was desperately clinging to Logan’s shirt as she did so.
Gently, he scooped her up and moved her into the pool house, cold from the air conditioning, and he laid her onto the bed in the center of the room. In a move that his mother had done for him many a time after one of his father’s beatings, he found a washcloth in the bathroom and wet it with cold water before returning to Veronica and carefully wiping her heated face.
When she cried herself to sleep, Logan covered her with a soft blanket folded at the foot of the bed and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. It wasn’t until he was back in his room that he stopped to wonder why it was that his feelings for Veronica Mars always seemed to cling to him like the sweltering heat around them.
* * *
It was three in the morning when Veronica woke up in the darkened pool house to scorching heat and without the familiar hum of the air conditioner. Reaching over to the table, she tried turning on the lights but found that they weren’t working. With a groan, she realized that it was a blackout and that there was no way that she was going to be able to alleviate her discomfort.
Digging into her bag, she tried to find her bathing suit only to realize that she was now clutching Lilly’s precious swimsuit, the one that wasn’t fit for Jenna Jameson to wear. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t even consider putting it on, but the thermometer mounted near the doorway declared that it was still 98°.
Shrugging out of her clothes, she attempted to put on the suit only to find it much too big. She should’ve known, of course; Lilly was far curvier than she, and Veronica looked like she was all dressed up in big sister’s clothes. She might as well go naked for all that this suit wouldn’t cover, but it was 3 AM and no one could possibly see her.
Finding a towel in the bathroom, Veronica dropped it onto one of the lounge chairs before dipping her foot into the water. With the heater turned off, it was cold but not unbearably so. Adjusting her top so that it would not fall off the moment she slid into the water, Veronica walked onto the diving board, staring down at the shimmering water below. Taking a deep breath, she dove.
* * *
Logan was in the kitchen getting a glass of water when he heard the splash. Intrigued, he walked into the backyard to find Veronica breaking the surface of the pool, her long blonde hair streaming down her back, her skin like alabaster in the moonlight. His breath caught as he watched her climb out of the pool and head back to the diving board; her suit, while too large, was incredibly revealing and it wasn’t until that moment that he had realized just how beautiful Veronica Mars really was.
She was at the edge of the board, prepared to dive again when she noticed him. Like a deer in the headlights, she froze, torn between jumping into the pool and covering herself with her hands, humiliated at being caught wearing the suit that was made for someone womanly like Lilly, not someone who was caught between girl and woman.
“There’s no electricity,” she blurted out.
Taking a few tentative steps forward, Logan nodded, pulling his t-shirt over his head. “I know.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“Mom woke me up,” he corrected, pushing his shorts down his legs, leaving him standing poolside in only a pair of green boxers. “She had a few too many martinis and passed out on the stairs.”
Veronica knew that surprise registered on her face. She had always thought that the Echolls were a normal family, the exception to the Hollywood stereotype. Sure, it always seemed like Lynn had a drink in her hand, but she was never obviously drunk. But, then again, maybe she just held her liquor better than Lianne Mars.
“So you know.”
Logan nodded. “I know.” His patented cocky smirk on his lips, he quipped, “So where’d you get that suit? You working the poles at the Seventh Veil on the weekends?”
“Shut up!” she ordered, flushing bright red before she jumped into the pool, splashing him.
He quickly followed suit, loving the feel of the water against his skin. When they both had their heads above water, Veronica answered, “It’s Lilly’s, and I know I look ridiculous.”
“You don’t,” he argued.
“Yeah, right.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Ronnie. You’re twice as beautiful as Lilly, always have been.”
A lone butterfly began to flutter in her stomach. “That’s not nice to say about your girlfriend.”
He shrugged, the recently developed muscles in his chest flexing. “It’s the truth. You might as well accept it, Ron: you’re hot.”
The butterfly was joined by more of its kind. Treading water, her feet moving faster so that she’d stay aloft, she just shook her head. “Let’s not talk about this.”
Slowly swimming towards her, Logan asked, “Why not?”
“Cuz it’s inappropriate.” Swimming backwards towards the steps, Veronica ticked off, “You’re Lilly’s boyfriend, I’m her best friend, you’re Duncan’s best friend, and we can’t talk about…about you thinking I’m hot.”
Logan stalked after her as much as he could in the water. When the water was chest high, he saw the way her eyes drifted down towards his chest before meeting his gaze again, her teeth lightly biting into her lower lip. Suddenly Logan was hit with every feeling he had ever had for Veronica Mars, and he realized that if he ever wanted to know what they could have, tonight was the night.
Veronica watched in shock as Logan removed his wet boxers, tossing them out of the pool and onto the cement surrounding it. She turned away immediately, having never seen a naked man before and unsure if she wanted her best friend’s cute boyfriend to be the first.
“Ronnie,” he began, moving closer while she stayed still, torn between wanting to be here and see what happened and running far away to make sure nothing did.
“Don’t call me Ronnie,” she immediately protested, hating the way the nickname that, when uttered in such a passionate voice, made her stomach clench in desire.
Sliding his hand along her cheek, his fingers in his hair, Logan whispered, “But it’s our thing.”
“Logan-“
His lips were cold from the water and tasted of chlorine as he pressed them against hers. Veronica was surprised at the sudden turn in events; the logical part of her told her that she needed to shove him away, smack him across the face, do anything than just let him kiss her. But then there was the other part that told her that this felt too good to be true, that it had never felt this good with Duncan.
Duncan. Duncan was Lilly’s brother. Lilly’s Logan’s girlfriend.
Veronica opened her mouth to say such but suddenly Logan’s tongue, hot and demanding, was exploring her mouth, and Veronica stopped protesting. She was an equal participant now, her fingers clutching at his sun kissed locks, trying to make him feel as good as he was making her feel right now. So involved in trying to kiss him to the best of her ability, she didn’t even realize he was untying her top until it was floating beside her in the water.
She gasped as the cold water hit her breasts and was about to protest when Logan’s hands rose to cup them, his touch surprisingly gentle as he caressed, his thumbs lightly skimming her nipples, painfully erect from the cold water. It felt as if little shocks of pleasure were exploding wherever he touched, and she moaned into his mouth. Their kiss deepened, Logan gently leading her back until she was on the steps, standing at perfect level for him to take her right nipple into his mouth.
“Logan!” she exclaimed, startled at the contrast of his hot mouth against her cool skin. Duncan had never done this to her, and Veronica was ashamed to admit that she was glad that he hadn’t, because she highly doubted he would’ve done it as well as Logan was.
“Shh,” he smiled up at her from his place against her breast. “You’re gonna wake the neighbors.”
“You don’t have any neighbors,” she panted, squirming from unfulfilled lust and embarrassment at standing before him topless when he was Lilly’s boyfriend.
“You’ll wake the ones a mile away if you keep yelling like that,” he teased before placing a suggestive lick to her nipple.
Moaning, Veronica began to shake her head. “Logan, maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.”
“I like you, Ronnie,” he said with sincerity as he tugged at the strings on her hips that held the bottom of her suit on. “Don’t you like me?”
“Yeah, but…you’re Lilly’s boyfriend.”
Logan pulled away, staring up to meet her gaze. With great deliberateness, he stated, “I’m not forcing you to do anything, Veronica. If you don’t want to do this, then we’ll stop. Your friendship means more to me than this.”
Covering her chest, she murmured, “What about Lilly?”
Truth ringing through with every word, he informed her, “If I had ever thought that you were an option, I never would’ve been with Lilly.”
Later she would say that it was because she needed to feel validation, that she needed someone to think that she was better than Lilly, but she had always known that was simply a lie. What transpired next was as complex as it was simple: Veronica had wanted Logan first and Lilly had taken him because she could. Despite her love for her best friend, she had never quite forgiven her for that.
Tonight, Veronica could get Logan back.
She kissed him gently at first before returning to the same level of passion that had occurred only moments ago. The bottom of her suit was removed, and Veronica felt a frisson of excitement tinged with fear as she realized that she was going to lose her virginity tonight. It was something that she had wanted to save for someone that she loved, and, when Logan looked at her with those light green eyes of his, she knew that she was giving it to the right person.
Veronica squealed as Logan lifted her as if she weighed nothing, setting her on the edge of the pool, the cement rough against her backside. She was about to protest when he shocked her by pressing a kiss to her thigh.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, trying to close the legs that Logan now stood between, his hands gently skimming along the outside of her legs.
“Please,” he softly said, a small smile on his lips. “I promise I’ll stop if you don’t like it.”
“Logan,” she sighed, mortification crossing her features even as her body screamed to say yes.
“Ronnie,” he sighed right back, pressing quick kisses to the skin of her thighs. As he neared her pelvis, she tried to stifle a moan, shifting as pleasure coursed through her.
She squealed in satisfaction as his lips moved between her thighs, kissing her in the most intimate place that he could, a place that no one other than her had ever even touched. Her fingers clawed at his shoulders, unsure whether or not she was trying to draw him nearer or make him stop, but as his tongue probed, she brought one hand to her mouth to muffle her cries.
There was no way that she was going to stop him. In fact, she wanted this to never stop. The heat was forgotten as Logan devoured her, sliding one finger carefully into her wetness, causing Veronica to buck. His touch was probing, as if he was trying to find something, and Veronica was about to ask him what he was doing when pleasure exploded in her gut as he rubbed a spot inside her.
“Oh god!” she shrieked, prompting Logan to chuckle and shush her as he pressed the spot again while sipping her clit into his mouth and tenderly sucking it.
Her hands were definitely drawing him closer now as something continued to build inside of her. She was breathing loud even to her own ears, words mixed in, and she was ready to beg, borrow, and plead for whatever was building when the dam inside of her burst and she was screaming in bliss.
When her pleasure subsided, a very smug Logan said, “Well, I guess you liked it.”
“Shut up,” she murmured, trying not to blush and failing miserably. On shaky legs, she stood and headed over to the lounge chair where she had tossed her towel. Carefully, weighing her options, she tried to sound mildly seductive as she asked, “Do you want to join me?”
For a 16-year-old boy with a massive erection, Logan moved with incredible speed, suddenly lying atop her on the lounge chair, the rough cloth of the cushions rubbing against her back. Veronica moved her neck to allow him to continue to press warm kisses to her skin, and she was reveling in the sensation when she felt Logan pressed intimately against her.
Veronica stilled, the gravity of the situation hitting her. She was about to have sex with her best friend’s boyfriend, with her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, on a lounge chair. This was enough to destroy her friendship with Lilly, to ruin things forever with Duncan, and kill her father if he found out.
Sensing her worry, Logan whispered, “We don’t have to do this. We can stop if you want.”
“I’ve never done this before,” she confessed, her fingers drawing patterns on his back. “And Lilly…Isn’t this wrong?”
“Does it feel wrong?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Disappointment flaring through him as his groin ached with dissatisfaction, he groaned, “It’s okay, Ronnie. It’s okay.”
“Do you love me?” she blurted out before cursing herself for sounding so stupid. “I mean, do you care about me?”
“You know I do.”
Taking a deep breath, she softly queried, “Do you have any…protection?”
“Yeah, yeah, in the pool house. We’ll go in the pool house.”
Wrapping the towel around her body, she watched as Logan, unashamed of his nudity, hurried into the pool house, disappearing into the bathroom before reappearing with a box of Trojans. As Veronica slid beneath the covers, Logan hurriedly opened the box, plucking a foil packet from it before sliding into bed with her.
Logan knew that this was Veronica’s first time and it should be memorable. He didn’t want to be the guy who ruined sex for her, and he sure as hell didn’t want her to not enjoy this. Hell, he was practically giddy and he hadn’t even gotten anything out of the deal yet. This was his chance to finally love Veronica Mars, and he was not going to squander it.
Their kisses were fierce, and Logan was so involved that he gasped when he felt Veronica tentatively touch his dick. Her hand was warm and slightly rough in its inexperience, but she was trying so hard to make him feel good. And she was. Even in her innocence, she was tempting as hell and Logan knew that if she didn’t stop touching him, he was going to cum all over the sheets and stop this before it even started.
“Veronica, stop,” he panted, fumbling with the condom as he tried to open it.
“Am I doing it wrong?”
“God, no. I just…I want this to laugh.” Temporarily rolling off of her, he slid the condom over his length, Veronica’s eyes wide as she watched. When he positioned himself atop her again, Veronica raised her knees, opening herself to him.
“Are you sure?” he panted one last time, kissing her for a long moment.
Veronica just nodded, affectionately touching his cheek.
They both gasped as Logan flexed his hips forward, pressing the blunt head of his erection inside of her. She was unbearably tight, and, while it felt amazing to Logan, it was uncomfortable for Veronica. Logan slowly moved back and forth, trying to adjust her to his girth, and slowly she began to relax. When he finally touched the barrier inside of her, he paused. Reaching down to her center, he began to rub her clit, trying to distract her. When she began to moan, Logan gave one final push and he was seated fully inside of her.
The pain was sharp and sudden, and Veronica’s nails bit into his back. As a single tear rolled down her face, Logan began to kiss her, whispering apologies and love words into her ear. It was torture not being able to move, but he didn’t want to hurt her. The last thing in the world that he ever wanted was to hurt her.
After several minutes, Veronica moved her hips, and Logan took that as his sign to start to move. Once he did, Veronica was able to move past the pain and into the pleasure. Logan slowly began to gain speed, pressing kisses to any skin that he came into contact with, and Veronica began to cautiously return his thrusts. As they moved together, sweat covering their bodies, Veronica clung to him, all sense of propriety thrown out the window as Logan ignited feelings in her that no one else ever had, feelings that would always be his because he was the first.
The tension coiled in her stomach was almost unbearable as Logan’s thrusts picked up speed as he neared climax. Pressing hard against her center, Veronica cried out, scratching at his back while Logan came, groaning against her ear, “Oh, god, Ronnie, you’re perfect.”
As they lay there, both of them clinging to the other, the air conditioner kicked back on, the new air causing goosebumps to rise on their flesh.
Logan moved to dispose of the condom before returning back to bed, pulling the blanket over them, spooning Veronica against his side. As she slipped into sleep, Logan sighed into her long, tangled hair, “I love you, Veronica.”
* * *
The bed beside her was empty when Veronica woke up, and disappointment tore through her even as she logically realized that Logan had to go back to the house so that Lynn didn’t catch them.
After showering, Veronica made her way over to the main house. She had barely stepped in the door when she heard, “Veronica Mars!”
Turning, Veronica was shocked to see Lilly and Duncan sitting in Logan’s living room, Logan uncomfortably sitting in an easy chair.
“When did you get back?” Veronica managed, returning Lilly’s voracious hug as Duncan looked away.
“At five this morning. We just had to get back to civilization. I bought you the coolest present ever. So did you and Logan have fun?”
“Fun?” Veronica echoed, confusion on her features, panic in her heart.
“Logan told us that you ran into him at the beach while he was wasted and you took care of him. Was it fun wiping up after him?”
“Fabulous,” was all Veronica offered, ignoring Lilly’s mocking laugh, unable to ignore the apology in Logan’s eyes.
She had known that last night was too good to be true, that he was never going to leave Lilly. She had also known that she couldn’t exactly be angry when she had just betrayed her best friend in the worst way possible. But that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt.
Lilly never suspected anything, or, if she did, she didn’t say a word. All she had ever asked was if Veronica had ever worn the swimsuit that she had loved so much. When Veronica had said yes, she asked if it had been as amazing as she had promised.
“It changed my life,” she had replied honestly though Lilly took it as a joke.
The heat wave broke the next night.
* * *
“Do you remember that, Veronica?” Duncan repeated as he handed her the glass of Pepsi he had ordered.
As she sat in the hot August sun, the beads of condensation slowly sliding their way down the glass, Veronica thought back to this summer, to how, once again, her and Logan’s passion had been measured in a heat wave. The first time they had been together, they had broken the heat; the last time they had been together, they had started one. It seemed, in Veronica’s mind, that no matter what happened between the two of them, heat was inevitable.
Glancing at her boyfriend, the nice, safe boyfriend that had never made her burn like Logan Echolls had, she honestly replied, “I could never forget.”