Total Knock Out / Book Two

Chapter Twnety Five: Please, Stay

Logan brushed Stanford's hair out of his face, trailing her fingertips down his cheek. The lamp threw a soft glow over his body and highlighted the scars on his chest, drawing her attention away from the shape of his jaw. She shivered when he drew his fingers down her side, cupping her hip in his hand when he got to it.

"Ruby showed me her gun earlier. It might sound messed up, but I wanna be her when I grow up," Logan whispered, a smile playing on her lips. It had caused her and Charlie to laugh so hard they spit coffee onto the table, the two of them finding it hilarious that her son had taken her purse away so she wouldn't be tempted to shoot Razor that morning.

For all of the bad news that had been given, it hadn't stopped them from making the most of the day; everyone silently agreeing to stay in the house instead of going out. She had to admit it was nice cooking lunch and dinner with Ruby and being able to watch Rori play with Zoey while she sat on the couch with Stanford. It had even been enjoyable to herd everyone out of the house just an hour earlier, Parker and Zoey already fast asleep in the arms of their mothers.

"You're already pretty badass like she is. Although, I'm not so sure we should give you a gun. You'd probably end up trying to use it on me," Stanford replied, hand squeezing her hip before moving to rest on her stomach.

"Just keep the toilet seat down and we won't have an issue," Logan teased, moving closer to his side and snuggling in. The ceiling fan was causing goosebumps to erupt on her bare skin and Stanford was radiating heat, warming her up in seconds.

The slow grin he gave her was warming her up too, starting in her stomach until it encompassed her entire body. She hadn't expected him to follow her to bed or to strip her naked the second she mostly closed the door between her room and Rori's, but she definitely wasn't complaining. He had turned her body into a pile of human shaped jello in a matter of minutes, just as slow and blazing hot as the night before.

A comfortable silence lulled between them, Rori's soft snoring acting as background noise. Things would be different in three days, but for right now she could just enjoy this. Enjoy Stanford. Act like she knew what she was doing when it came to the man laying beside her that she was definitely in love with, even though she would probably end up hurt by the end of this.

"What if you do end up pregnant?" Stanford blurted out, the hand that was on her stomach twitching like he couldn't control it.

Logan closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pushing all images of Stanford holding a small baby that looked just like him out of her mind. She knew this conversation had been coming the second Rori brought it up to Ruby and she didn't want to scare him into running for his own room. Into running from her.

"I'm on birth control, so the odds are pretty low. But even if for some reason it didn't work and I ended up pregnant, we'd do exactly what we have been doing. You can deny it all you want, but you'd be a great dad. You are a great dad. A newborn doesn't magically make everything that you've learned and feel go away," Logan whispered, slotting her fingers through his and moving his hand off of her stomach.

The thought of having Stanford's child was enough to leave her shaken. She knew that she was in love with him, and that Rori worshipped the ground he walked on, but two weeks was such a short amount of time to fall for someone. She might know about the demons in his past but she didn't know basic things like his favorite color or what side of the bed he preferred to sleep on, and she thought those were important things to know about the person you wanted to have kids with. He was a great dad from what she had seen, but they had so much more growth to go through before deciding their future together.

"Are you going to stay after all of this ends? With me?" Stanford asked, squeezing the fingers he was holding and Logan felt her head shaking before she could even open her mouth. She pressed her free hand into his chest to keep him laying in the bed when she felt him move to get up.

"I want to keep seeing you, yes. I think sleepovers are pretty much a given thanks to how attached Rori is to you. But I also think that two weeks isn't enough time to decide if we want to live together. Who knows, a month down the road you could realize that you hate my guts and want nothing to do with us anymore; and I have to make sure that Rori doesn't get hurt in this. She's already had one dad try and ruin her life, she doesn't need another one," Logan explained gently, moving her hand from his chest to cup his jaw.

Stanford stared at her with those beautiful blue and gold eyes, searching her face for God knows what. It felt like her heart was going to come out of her chest until he nodded his head, pressing his face further into her hand before moving forward so their foreheads were touching.

"I love you. And Rori. In a way that makes my body feel like my own and that I finally have a home to come back to. So if taking things slow is what it takes to keep you in the long run, I'll do it. Because I'm not giving that up for anything," Stanford promised, making her heart feel like it was exploding and finally coming home all at once.