FIC: Magnolia (3/5) (AB/X-Men)
Apr. 18th, 2006 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhalachaiMagnolia part 3 of 5
by Mhalachai
Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. Marvel and 20th Century Fox own all things X-Men. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Summary: Picking up strays wasn't Logan's thing, especially after what happened up in Alberta. So why is he so intent on that strange woman next to him at the bar? (Set just after the first X-men movie, and about a half a year after Incubus Dreams. No spoilers beyond that book.)
Rating: R for sex and stuff. Yes, this is that chapter. If you are not old enough to read the Anita Blake books, you are not old enough to read this chapter.
Note: A note about height. Yes, I know that in the comics Wolverine is 5'3", the same height as Anita. But I'm working off the movie version here, and Hugh Jackman is 6'2", so. When I write smut, there are a hell of a lot more commas than normal.
Part One here
Part Two here
~~*~~
Logan sat on the steps outside of the sheriff's office, listening to Anita yell at the men inside as he watched the stars twinkle in the warm night air. Were they familiar to him? Had he seen them, like this, years before?
He doubted it. Somehow, Mississippi didn't feel comfortable to him. Too hot, too many people, too flat. Up in the Rockies, that felt right. Or, more recently, in upstate New York.
He wasn't the kind of man to start laying down roots. He'd get tangled up in them, thinking he had some place to go, people to depend on. In fifteen years, he'd learned that the only person he could depend on was himself. He'd told Marie that he'd be back, but it wouldn't be because he needed anything. He just kept his word, was all.
Inside, the yelling stopped. A minute later, Anita stormed out of the building and down the steps.
"Going somewhere?" Logan asked, pushing himself up to follow her.
"What do you care?" she snapped back, not looking at him as she made her way down the deserted sidewalk.
"Got nothing else to do."
Anita made a disgusted noise in her throat. "I'm going back to the bar," she said, sounding determined.
"Time for a drink after work?"
"I don't drink."
Logan frowned. "You like country music?" he guessed as they crossed an empty street.
"No, damn it!" Anita turned on him, fists clenched at her sides. "It's none of your fucking business, so please go away!"
She walked past him, heading alone down the street.
"Does this have to do with what happened in the woods?" Logan called after her. She stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, but kept going, not looking back. Logan ran the short distance to her side, knowing he was on the right track. "What did happen in the woods?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said in a stiff voice.
"Yeah, you do." He jumped ahead of her, and she had to stop to keep from walking into him. "But what I can't figure out is what that has to do with walking back into that bar."
She stared at his chest for a few moments, then raised defiant eyes. "While I appreciate your help tonight, Logan, it's really none of your business what I do with my personal time," she said, then stepped around him.
He caught her hand, thinking that maybe he'd have to follow to the bar to have his curiosity satisfied. When his skin touched hers, the power he'd felt in the woods rushed back, not as overwhelming, but still enough to make his breath catch in this throat.
Anita tried to pull away, but Logan wrapped his fingers around her wrist. "What is this?" he asked when he could speak.
She tried to pull away, and this time Logan let her. "It's just something I have to deal with." Slowly, she walked down the sidewalk.
Here she was again, sounding a little bit unhappy and a little bit resigned and a whole lot like Marie. "How's that?"
A pick-up truck drove past, drunken teenagers whooping it up in the flatbed. Anita watched them go, frowning. "They should be wearing seatbelts," she muttered.
"That's not an answer."
Anita looked back at him, anger flaring in her expression. "Fine, the answer is that I need to find someone to have sex with, because my energy levels are getting low and that always leads to bad things, okay?" she snapped.
Logan had let that sink in. "You need to find someone to have sex with," he repeated. He didn't mean to sound so incredulous, but he'd be damned if that wasn't the strangest mutant power he'd ever heard of.
"Yes, and unless you're volunteering, I need to be on my way."
"Who says I'm not?" Logan said, surprising them both.
Anita gave him a strange look. "Not getting out of my way, or not volunteering?"
"Volunteering." This had to be the oddest pick-up line he'd used. "If you're interested."
Relief passed over her features. "Really?"
"Really." It wasn't like he was a monk or anything. He'd never stuck around anywhere long enough to find anything long-term, hadn't ever met a woman he'd want to spend more than a month with, not before he got to New York. Figured that the one woman he liked would be involved with a jerk. But Logan really didn't want to think about Jean right then.
"Okay, then." Anita looked around. "Um, my hotel's back in town, if you--"
"I'm staying around the corner," Logan interrupted.
"Oh." She fidgeted with the hem of her jacket. "I guess we could go there, then."
"Sounds good."
~~
Anita stood in the center of the motel room, looking around. "I hope it's cheap," she said under her breath.
"We can go back out and do it in your jeep if you want," Logan said as he locked the door.
"I didn't say I didn't like it," Anita said. "I just... oh, fuck."
She looked so uncertain, very different from the confident woman with the gun in the woods. "We don't have to do this," Logan felt obligated to say.
She shook her head, black hair flying loose of the hair tie. "You may not, but I do."
"How do you, you know, do it when you're home?" Most mutants could cope better at home, and everything could go haywire when they went into unfamiliar places.
"Home." Anita toed off her shoes and pushed them to the side of the door with her feet. "My... I guess you could call them my boyfriends, we feed... I feed off them."
"Boyfriends?"
She fixed him with a stare, so deep and intense he wondered if she could read minds. "It's not what you think," she said. "Everyone knows everything, about the others. No secrets."
"And what will these boyfriends of yours think about what we're going to do?"
She shrugged, brushing a lock of hair out of her face. The movement stretched her body out in a line, hip to shoulder, and Logan forgot for a moment what they were talking about. "They understand that I need to do this," she said. bringing him back. "I thought I could get away from it for a couple of days, but I forgot how much a fight takes out of me."
"Why didn't you bring one of these boyfriends with you?" Logan asked as he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Believe me when I say that I tried. But the preternatural politics down here are so fucked up, I couldn't bring them. Anyone connected to a vampire, in any way, couldn't come on such short notice."
"You date a lot of vampires?" Logan asked, wishing he had a beer or a cigar or something to do with his mouth besides talk.
"Something like that." Anita sat on the edge of the bed. "I mean, not everyone's a vampire. I'd have brought Micah, but the twins' father has been around and I couldn't risk it."
Logan could have asked her what the hell she was talking about, but it probably didn't matter. "So it comes down to me."
"If you want."
How many times did he have to say yes to this woman? "Is it going to hurt?" he asked, not really caring. He could deal with a little pain in his pleasure.
"No, it won't hurt," she said reassuringly. "The opposite, in fact."
"Right."
"Good." Anita stared at him for a moment, but he didn't know if this was the part where he was supposed to kiss her or what. The whole situation was surreal. Slowly, Anita pushed herself to her feet. "I'm going to go wash the dirt off my hands."
"It's right through there," Logan said, pointing at the bathroom door.
She smiled at him as she walked past him. When the door shut behind her, Logan let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
What the hell was he doing? Agreeing to let some strange woman suck on his energy? Especially some woman that almost got him killed in the woods with that damned vampire attack?
It's only for one night, he told himself. She's tough, and she's got guts, I like that.
Logan shook his head. It really had been too long since he'd been with a woman. He had thought he was over shit like emotions... right up until he met Jean Grey.
Even thinking of Jean was painful. Sure, Logan still thought Scott was a jerk, but he had to envy the man. Jean loved the jerk, much to Logan's eternal loathing, but her commitment was one of the things he loved so much about her. Perverse in the extreme.
The bathroom door opened, and Anita slipped out, holding her leather shoulder holster wrapped around her gun in one hand. There was something different about her, and it took Logan a moment to realize that her hair was down.
"So," he said, pushing all thoughts of Jean out of his head. "I guess this is it."
"I suppose so." Taking a deep breath, Anita put the gun on the dresser, then crossed the floor, stopping less than a foot away from him. He could feel the heat coming from her body; the scent of her skin was intoxicating. "Do you want to get undressed first, or something else?"
Logan raised an eyebrow at her. "You always negotiate like this?" he asked.
She pursed her lips. "Do you have a better way of going at it?"
"How about just, you know, go at it?" Logan closed the distance between them, their clothes brushing together as he reached up to touch her hair.
"Okay," Anita said with a tiny smile. The nervous way she held herself gradually relaxed as Logan kept stroking her hair. Finally, she put her hands on his chest and leaned in for a kiss.
Her lips were like silk, body soft curves over strong muscle. Logan tightened his arms around her, feeling her respond to him as she opened her mouth and ran her tongue over his lower lip. Letting out a tiny growl, he ran his hands down her back, pulling her thin shirt out of her jeans. Just touching her skin made him feel a hell of a lot better.
Anita broke the kiss and pulled back, breathing heavily. "That was nice," she said, her voice faint.
"It was more than nice," Logan said, bending back down, but Anita's hand on his chest stopped him.
She stepped back and drew his hands up, running her fingers over his skin between his knuckles. "They don't... the claws, they don't come out when you're excited, do they?" she asked.
"No." Logan wondered if she was having second thoughts, if this was the part where she found some reason to run away.
"Okay." Still, Anita stayed where she was, touching his hands. "I'm... I guess I'm a little freaked out," she finally confessed. "I don't do this often. Well, ever."
"Pick up strangers?" Logan twisted his hands in hers to pull her gently back into his arms. He hide a smile as she nodded solemnly. "Don't worry about it."
She put her hands on his waist, a safe distance above his belt. "Do you still want to do this?"
"Hell yeah," Logan said promptly. That made her smile. "Do you want to go slower?"
Anita took a deep breath, her breasts pressing against Logan's chest. "No." She went up on her toes, her mouth so close to his. "I want to speed up."
She kissed him, hard and fast. He responded by gathering her body to his, running his hands over her back under her shirt. He had just unhooked her bra when a burning rush of power swept over him, driving all thought from his mind, leaving him all need and sensation.
Anita flung her head back gasping, pressing her lower body against his. Logan didn't bother with buttons, instead pushing her shirt and bra up over her head. The cloth ended up on the floor as his hands went to her ribs, then higher, while he kissed her again.
It felt like her hands were everywhere at once, but finally they settled on his belt buckle. The soft sound of the leather being pulled out of the buckle seemed loud to his ears. Then hot fingers dipped inside the waistband of his jeans, dragging up a whole new set of sensations.
Anita broke from his mouth and kissed up his cheek. "We should lie down before this gets out of hand," she murmured as she unbuttoned his jeans.
Logan tried to clear his head, but his base instincts seemed to be in charge. "Is it always like this?" he managed to ask as they made it to the bed.
"Like what?" Anita asked, sitting down. The next moment, she let out a surprised gasp as Logan pushed her onto her back and yanked off her jeans, pulling off her socks at the same time.
He straddled her thighs, taking a minute to stare down at the nearly naked woman lying on his bed. She was gorgeous; curves in all the right places, with more than a hint of strength in her lithe limbs. Logan sat back on her legs as Anita raised herself up on her elbows, arching her back slightly. What had he been talking about again? Oh, yeah. "Is it always this intense?"
With a smile, seductive and hesitant all at once, Anita said, "It's a little bit worse than normal today."
Logan raised an eyebrow as he leaned over her, slipping his fingers around the edge of her black lace panties. "Why is that?" he whispered, watching her closely.
"I don't know, but right now, I don't care." She lifted her hips to let him slide the tiny scrap of clothing down her legs, her eyes fluttering closed as his fingers brushed over her thighs.
The next kiss was slower, but Logan felt it all the way in his bones. When her hands moved to his clothing, he helped her, needing to feel her skin on his.
Once the last bit of cloth flew to the floor, he put his arm under her body, bracing his weight as he settled next to her. A particular part of him was pressed hard against the inside of her thigh, and the wanting was almost more than he could bear.
He propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at her. Her skin was flushed and Logan could hear her heart beating fast. "What do you need?" he managed to say, while using his free hand to gently squeeze her breast.
She arched into his touch with a moan. "Don't need anything, just do it!" she urged, bringing her knees up on either side of his hips.
His hesitation vanished as she curled her legs over his back. He kissed her one more time as he slid inside of her. He tried to hold still, to enjoy the moment, but Anita bucked against him, moaning loudly, and instinct took over.
Power built between them with every movement, every hurried caress. Logan tried to think about what might happen when the power crested, but nothing mattered in that moment except the woman underneath him.
Too soon, everything tipped over the edge. Anita came first, crying out underneath him, her nails digging into his shoulders as her thighs tightened around his hips. Pulling her onto him hard, Logan let his control slip. The power exploded, burning hot, from everywhere their skin touched. It didn't hurt; it felt fucking wonderful, and part of Logan was sorry when it began to fade.
Gasping, Logan rolled off to the side, not wanting to crush Anita. It took him a while to get his breath back. After a bit, Anita curled up next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she asked, a tinge of worry in her satiated voice.
Without opening his eyes, Logan began to chuckle. "Hell, yeah."
"Good," Anita murmured. "Thanks," she said after a few minutes.
"What for?"
"For this," Anita said. Logan opened his eyes as she turned her head to look up at him. There was something soft and open in her eyes, something that reminded Logan uncomfortably of Marie. He frowned slightly, but before he could figure out what to do, Anita twisted up and leaned against him. Her smile changed to something a little more confident and sexy, and the resemblance was gone. "It's certainly been an interesting evening."
Logan crooked a smile. "You don't get into this all the time?"
"Not the chasing after vampires in the woods part." She frowned. "Okay, maybe I do, but not arguing with the police too."
Logan pushed her dark curls over her shoulder, letting his fingers linger on her skin. Her frown faded as she watched him. The silence hovered on the edge of awkwardness, when Anita leaned down and laid a feather-light kiss on his lips.
"I should go," she whispered softly. A question lingered in her eyes, but Logan wasn't sure he wanted to know what she wanted.
He moved out from under her and stood up. "Do you want me to walk you back to your car?" he asked as he pulled on his jeans.
"You don't need to do that," Anita said at once. She started collecting her clothes. "It's only a few blocks away."
"With vampires around who fall from the sky looking for you?" Logan retorted, handing her panties across the room. She glared as she snatched them out of his hand.
"I can take care of myself."
Logan shrugged. "It was just an offer."
Anita paused in threading her belt through her shoulder holster. "Yeah. Thanks."
Logan slumped on the bed, watching Anita closely as she continued to dress. If he'd been asked to describe someone who needed to have sex for energy, he sure as hell wouldn't have described Anita. Her body was more like a runner than a seductress, she hadn't spent any time trying to convince him into bed. In fact, that was probably what got him there in the first place. He never had much time for being fed a line.
"So, what's next?" he asked as she laced up her runners.
"I've got a meeting tomorrow night, then I guess I'm heading home," Anita said.
"What kind of meeting? With the cops?"
Anita snorted. "Hell no. I told that damned sheriff he can catch his own drug-running vampires," she said, standing up.
"Then what's the meeting for?"
Her face was hidden behind her hair as she holstered her gun. "Politics," she finally said. "That's all."
It was probably more complicated than that. It usually was.
Shaking her hair back, Anita smiled at him. "Well, I guess this is it."
"I guess so," Logan said, getting to his feet.
"Thanks," Anita said again. "For the vampires in the woods, too, not only the, um..." she pointed at the bed.
"The sex," Logan said helpfully. He smiled slightly at the blush that gathered in her cheeks.
"Yes, the sex." She smiled, still blushing, and opened the door. "Maybe I'll see you around."
"Maybe," Logan said, although he doubted it. He stayed on the bed until the door shut behind Anita, then let himself fall back onto the mattress.
Jesus Christ. What a night. He sure as hell hadn't expected that when he went into the bar for a drink. Sure not one of those nights he could tell Marie about.
He shook his head and pushed himself off the bed to go take a shower. He needed to stop thinking about Marie, especially when he was lying on that rumbled bed that still smelled like sex.
Still, he wondered if he'd ever see Anita again.
by Mhalachai
Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. Marvel and 20th Century Fox own all things X-Men. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Summary: Picking up strays wasn't Logan's thing, especially after what happened up in Alberta. So why is he so intent on that strange woman next to him at the bar? (Set just after the first X-men movie, and about a half a year after Incubus Dreams. No spoilers beyond that book.)
Rating: R for sex and stuff. Yes, this is that chapter. If you are not old enough to read the Anita Blake books, you are not old enough to read this chapter.
Note: A note about height. Yes, I know that in the comics Wolverine is 5'3", the same height as Anita. But I'm working off the movie version here, and Hugh Jackman is 6'2", so. When I write smut, there are a hell of a lot more commas than normal.
Part One here
Part Two here
Logan sat on the steps outside of the sheriff's office, listening to Anita yell at the men inside as he watched the stars twinkle in the warm night air. Were they familiar to him? Had he seen them, like this, years before?
He doubted it. Somehow, Mississippi didn't feel comfortable to him. Too hot, too many people, too flat. Up in the Rockies, that felt right. Or, more recently, in upstate New York.
He wasn't the kind of man to start laying down roots. He'd get tangled up in them, thinking he had some place to go, people to depend on. In fifteen years, he'd learned that the only person he could depend on was himself. He'd told Marie that he'd be back, but it wouldn't be because he needed anything. He just kept his word, was all.
Inside, the yelling stopped. A minute later, Anita stormed out of the building and down the steps.
"Going somewhere?" Logan asked, pushing himself up to follow her.
"What do you care?" she snapped back, not looking at him as she made her way down the deserted sidewalk.
"Got nothing else to do."
Anita made a disgusted noise in her throat. "I'm going back to the bar," she said, sounding determined.
"Time for a drink after work?"
"I don't drink."
Logan frowned. "You like country music?" he guessed as they crossed an empty street.
"No, damn it!" Anita turned on him, fists clenched at her sides. "It's none of your fucking business, so please go away!"
She walked past him, heading alone down the street.
"Does this have to do with what happened in the woods?" Logan called after her. She stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, but kept going, not looking back. Logan ran the short distance to her side, knowing he was on the right track. "What did happen in the woods?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said in a stiff voice.
"Yeah, you do." He jumped ahead of her, and she had to stop to keep from walking into him. "But what I can't figure out is what that has to do with walking back into that bar."
She stared at his chest for a few moments, then raised defiant eyes. "While I appreciate your help tonight, Logan, it's really none of your business what I do with my personal time," she said, then stepped around him.
He caught her hand, thinking that maybe he'd have to follow to the bar to have his curiosity satisfied. When his skin touched hers, the power he'd felt in the woods rushed back, not as overwhelming, but still enough to make his breath catch in this throat.
Anita tried to pull away, but Logan wrapped his fingers around her wrist. "What is this?" he asked when he could speak.
She tried to pull away, and this time Logan let her. "It's just something I have to deal with." Slowly, she walked down the sidewalk.
Here she was again, sounding a little bit unhappy and a little bit resigned and a whole lot like Marie. "How's that?"
A pick-up truck drove past, drunken teenagers whooping it up in the flatbed. Anita watched them go, frowning. "They should be wearing seatbelts," she muttered.
"That's not an answer."
Anita looked back at him, anger flaring in her expression. "Fine, the answer is that I need to find someone to have sex with, because my energy levels are getting low and that always leads to bad things, okay?" she snapped.
Logan had let that sink in. "You need to find someone to have sex with," he repeated. He didn't mean to sound so incredulous, but he'd be damned if that wasn't the strangest mutant power he'd ever heard of.
"Yes, and unless you're volunteering, I need to be on my way."
"Who says I'm not?" Logan said, surprising them both.
Anita gave him a strange look. "Not getting out of my way, or not volunteering?"
"Volunteering." This had to be the oddest pick-up line he'd used. "If you're interested."
Relief passed over her features. "Really?"
"Really." It wasn't like he was a monk or anything. He'd never stuck around anywhere long enough to find anything long-term, hadn't ever met a woman he'd want to spend more than a month with, not before he got to New York. Figured that the one woman he liked would be involved with a jerk. But Logan really didn't want to think about Jean right then.
"Okay, then." Anita looked around. "Um, my hotel's back in town, if you--"
"I'm staying around the corner," Logan interrupted.
"Oh." She fidgeted with the hem of her jacket. "I guess we could go there, then."
"Sounds good."
Anita stood in the center of the motel room, looking around. "I hope it's cheap," she said under her breath.
"We can go back out and do it in your jeep if you want," Logan said as he locked the door.
"I didn't say I didn't like it," Anita said. "I just... oh, fuck."
She looked so uncertain, very different from the confident woman with the gun in the woods. "We don't have to do this," Logan felt obligated to say.
She shook her head, black hair flying loose of the hair tie. "You may not, but I do."
"How do you, you know, do it when you're home?" Most mutants could cope better at home, and everything could go haywire when they went into unfamiliar places.
"Home." Anita toed off her shoes and pushed them to the side of the door with her feet. "My... I guess you could call them my boyfriends, we feed... I feed off them."
"Boyfriends?"
She fixed him with a stare, so deep and intense he wondered if she could read minds. "It's not what you think," she said. "Everyone knows everything, about the others. No secrets."
"And what will these boyfriends of yours think about what we're going to do?"
She shrugged, brushing a lock of hair out of her face. The movement stretched her body out in a line, hip to shoulder, and Logan forgot for a moment what they were talking about. "They understand that I need to do this," she said. bringing him back. "I thought I could get away from it for a couple of days, but I forgot how much a fight takes out of me."
"Why didn't you bring one of these boyfriends with you?" Logan asked as he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Believe me when I say that I tried. But the preternatural politics down here are so fucked up, I couldn't bring them. Anyone connected to a vampire, in any way, couldn't come on such short notice."
"You date a lot of vampires?" Logan asked, wishing he had a beer or a cigar or something to do with his mouth besides talk.
"Something like that." Anita sat on the edge of the bed. "I mean, not everyone's a vampire. I'd have brought Micah, but the twins' father has been around and I couldn't risk it."
Logan could have asked her what the hell she was talking about, but it probably didn't matter. "So it comes down to me."
"If you want."
How many times did he have to say yes to this woman? "Is it going to hurt?" he asked, not really caring. He could deal with a little pain in his pleasure.
"No, it won't hurt," she said reassuringly. "The opposite, in fact."
"Right."
"Good." Anita stared at him for a moment, but he didn't know if this was the part where he was supposed to kiss her or what. The whole situation was surreal. Slowly, Anita pushed herself to her feet. "I'm going to go wash the dirt off my hands."
"It's right through there," Logan said, pointing at the bathroom door.
She smiled at him as she walked past him. When the door shut behind her, Logan let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
What the hell was he doing? Agreeing to let some strange woman suck on his energy? Especially some woman that almost got him killed in the woods with that damned vampire attack?
It's only for one night, he told himself. She's tough, and she's got guts, I like that.
Logan shook his head. It really had been too long since he'd been with a woman. He had thought he was over shit like emotions... right up until he met Jean Grey.
Even thinking of Jean was painful. Sure, Logan still thought Scott was a jerk, but he had to envy the man. Jean loved the jerk, much to Logan's eternal loathing, but her commitment was one of the things he loved so much about her. Perverse in the extreme.
The bathroom door opened, and Anita slipped out, holding her leather shoulder holster wrapped around her gun in one hand. There was something different about her, and it took Logan a moment to realize that her hair was down.
"So," he said, pushing all thoughts of Jean out of his head. "I guess this is it."
"I suppose so." Taking a deep breath, Anita put the gun on the dresser, then crossed the floor, stopping less than a foot away from him. He could feel the heat coming from her body; the scent of her skin was intoxicating. "Do you want to get undressed first, or something else?"
Logan raised an eyebrow at her. "You always negotiate like this?" he asked.
She pursed her lips. "Do you have a better way of going at it?"
"How about just, you know, go at it?" Logan closed the distance between them, their clothes brushing together as he reached up to touch her hair.
"Okay," Anita said with a tiny smile. The nervous way she held herself gradually relaxed as Logan kept stroking her hair. Finally, she put her hands on his chest and leaned in for a kiss.
Her lips were like silk, body soft curves over strong muscle. Logan tightened his arms around her, feeling her respond to him as she opened her mouth and ran her tongue over his lower lip. Letting out a tiny growl, he ran his hands down her back, pulling her thin shirt out of her jeans. Just touching her skin made him feel a hell of a lot better.
Anita broke the kiss and pulled back, breathing heavily. "That was nice," she said, her voice faint.
"It was more than nice," Logan said, bending back down, but Anita's hand on his chest stopped him.
She stepped back and drew his hands up, running her fingers over his skin between his knuckles. "They don't... the claws, they don't come out when you're excited, do they?" she asked.
"No." Logan wondered if she was having second thoughts, if this was the part where she found some reason to run away.
"Okay." Still, Anita stayed where she was, touching his hands. "I'm... I guess I'm a little freaked out," she finally confessed. "I don't do this often. Well, ever."
"Pick up strangers?" Logan twisted his hands in hers to pull her gently back into his arms. He hide a smile as she nodded solemnly. "Don't worry about it."
She put her hands on his waist, a safe distance above his belt. "Do you still want to do this?"
"Hell yeah," Logan said promptly. That made her smile. "Do you want to go slower?"
Anita took a deep breath, her breasts pressing against Logan's chest. "No." She went up on her toes, her mouth so close to his. "I want to speed up."
She kissed him, hard and fast. He responded by gathering her body to his, running his hands over her back under her shirt. He had just unhooked her bra when a burning rush of power swept over him, driving all thought from his mind, leaving him all need and sensation.
Anita flung her head back gasping, pressing her lower body against his. Logan didn't bother with buttons, instead pushing her shirt and bra up over her head. The cloth ended up on the floor as his hands went to her ribs, then higher, while he kissed her again.
It felt like her hands were everywhere at once, but finally they settled on his belt buckle. The soft sound of the leather being pulled out of the buckle seemed loud to his ears. Then hot fingers dipped inside the waistband of his jeans, dragging up a whole new set of sensations.
Anita broke from his mouth and kissed up his cheek. "We should lie down before this gets out of hand," she murmured as she unbuttoned his jeans.
Logan tried to clear his head, but his base instincts seemed to be in charge. "Is it always like this?" he managed to ask as they made it to the bed.
"Like what?" Anita asked, sitting down. The next moment, she let out a surprised gasp as Logan pushed her onto her back and yanked off her jeans, pulling off her socks at the same time.
He straddled her thighs, taking a minute to stare down at the nearly naked woman lying on his bed. She was gorgeous; curves in all the right places, with more than a hint of strength in her lithe limbs. Logan sat back on her legs as Anita raised herself up on her elbows, arching her back slightly. What had he been talking about again? Oh, yeah. "Is it always this intense?"
With a smile, seductive and hesitant all at once, Anita said, "It's a little bit worse than normal today."
Logan raised an eyebrow as he leaned over her, slipping his fingers around the edge of her black lace panties. "Why is that?" he whispered, watching her closely.
"I don't know, but right now, I don't care." She lifted her hips to let him slide the tiny scrap of clothing down her legs, her eyes fluttering closed as his fingers brushed over her thighs.
The next kiss was slower, but Logan felt it all the way in his bones. When her hands moved to his clothing, he helped her, needing to feel her skin on his.
Once the last bit of cloth flew to the floor, he put his arm under her body, bracing his weight as he settled next to her. A particular part of him was pressed hard against the inside of her thigh, and the wanting was almost more than he could bear.
He propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at her. Her skin was flushed and Logan could hear her heart beating fast. "What do you need?" he managed to say, while using his free hand to gently squeeze her breast.
She arched into his touch with a moan. "Don't need anything, just do it!" she urged, bringing her knees up on either side of his hips.
His hesitation vanished as she curled her legs over his back. He kissed her one more time as he slid inside of her. He tried to hold still, to enjoy the moment, but Anita bucked against him, moaning loudly, and instinct took over.
Power built between them with every movement, every hurried caress. Logan tried to think about what might happen when the power crested, but nothing mattered in that moment except the woman underneath him.
Too soon, everything tipped over the edge. Anita came first, crying out underneath him, her nails digging into his shoulders as her thighs tightened around his hips. Pulling her onto him hard, Logan let his control slip. The power exploded, burning hot, from everywhere their skin touched. It didn't hurt; it felt fucking wonderful, and part of Logan was sorry when it began to fade.
Gasping, Logan rolled off to the side, not wanting to crush Anita. It took him a while to get his breath back. After a bit, Anita curled up next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she asked, a tinge of worry in her satiated voice.
Without opening his eyes, Logan began to chuckle. "Hell, yeah."
"Good," Anita murmured. "Thanks," she said after a few minutes.
"What for?"
"For this," Anita said. Logan opened his eyes as she turned her head to look up at him. There was something soft and open in her eyes, something that reminded Logan uncomfortably of Marie. He frowned slightly, but before he could figure out what to do, Anita twisted up and leaned against him. Her smile changed to something a little more confident and sexy, and the resemblance was gone. "It's certainly been an interesting evening."
Logan crooked a smile. "You don't get into this all the time?"
"Not the chasing after vampires in the woods part." She frowned. "Okay, maybe I do, but not arguing with the police too."
Logan pushed her dark curls over her shoulder, letting his fingers linger on her skin. Her frown faded as she watched him. The silence hovered on the edge of awkwardness, when Anita leaned down and laid a feather-light kiss on his lips.
"I should go," she whispered softly. A question lingered in her eyes, but Logan wasn't sure he wanted to know what she wanted.
He moved out from under her and stood up. "Do you want me to walk you back to your car?" he asked as he pulled on his jeans.
"You don't need to do that," Anita said at once. She started collecting her clothes. "It's only a few blocks away."
"With vampires around who fall from the sky looking for you?" Logan retorted, handing her panties across the room. She glared as she snatched them out of his hand.
"I can take care of myself."
Logan shrugged. "It was just an offer."
Anita paused in threading her belt through her shoulder holster. "Yeah. Thanks."
Logan slumped on the bed, watching Anita closely as she continued to dress. If he'd been asked to describe someone who needed to have sex for energy, he sure as hell wouldn't have described Anita. Her body was more like a runner than a seductress, she hadn't spent any time trying to convince him into bed. In fact, that was probably what got him there in the first place. He never had much time for being fed a line.
"So, what's next?" he asked as she laced up her runners.
"I've got a meeting tomorrow night, then I guess I'm heading home," Anita said.
"What kind of meeting? With the cops?"
Anita snorted. "Hell no. I told that damned sheriff he can catch his own drug-running vampires," she said, standing up.
"Then what's the meeting for?"
Her face was hidden behind her hair as she holstered her gun. "Politics," she finally said. "That's all."
It was probably more complicated than that. It usually was.
Shaking her hair back, Anita smiled at him. "Well, I guess this is it."
"I guess so," Logan said, getting to his feet.
"Thanks," Anita said again. "For the vampires in the woods, too, not only the, um..." she pointed at the bed.
"The sex," Logan said helpfully. He smiled slightly at the blush that gathered in her cheeks.
"Yes, the sex." She smiled, still blushing, and opened the door. "Maybe I'll see you around."
"Maybe," Logan said, although he doubted it. He stayed on the bed until the door shut behind Anita, then let himself fall back onto the mattress.
Jesus Christ. What a night. He sure as hell hadn't expected that when he went into the bar for a drink. Sure not one of those nights he could tell Marie about.
He shook his head and pushed himself off the bed to go take a shower. He needed to stop thinking about Marie, especially when he was lying on that rumbled bed that still smelled like sex.
Still, he wondered if he'd ever see Anita again.