Chapter 2… Enjoy! Sorry it's so short! Damn exam time!

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She was walking towards the elevator when Logan pushed off from the wall against which he'd been leaning. "Logan, not now. I'm not dealing with this. I'm not dealing with you…"

He followed her into the elevator. "I'm not going to make you. I'm giving you a ride home."

She glared at him. "I can drive myself, thanks."

He contemplated snatching her bag from her arm and holding it above his head to watch her jump up and down and stamp her foot childishly but quickly discarded the idea. He could be mature about this. She'd listened to him once and she'd do it again. They were both adults. "You seem to have forgotten a certain incident involving you, me, and my X-terra."

She frowned. "I'd rather forget every incident involving me, you, and your X-terra unless it involves a crowbar and a shovel…"

He took a step towards her and she moved back.

There wasn't much room in the small elevator and soon she found herself backed against the wall and Logan seriously invading her personal space, his breath dancing across her collarbone as he bent to speak intimately to her.

"We were outside your apartment after a dinner and a movie. We were joking around about your dad ready to shoot me because you were late for curfew and then we were kissing and then someone blew a hole through my car window," he ground out between clenched teeth. "Which scared me to death because a) I'd have to take the damn thing in for repairs and more importantly, b) the most important person in my life had just been put into danger… probably because of my own stupid fault."

She closed her eyes. Snapshots from that night flitted through her mind. His mouth on her skin, the feeling of his hands on her body, the intensity of his eyes… Stop. Her body refused to listen though. She flushed and tensed up. Her eyes opened and she glared at him. "Well, wouldn't you driving me home make it more dangerous for me, not less?" she snapped. "No one can miss that big yellow target."

He placed one hand on either side of her on the wall so she couldn't escape. "If anything ever happened to you…" he breathed.

"It wouldn't be your problem." The elevator pinged and she slipped under his arm and out into the cool air of the parking garage.

"Quit being so damn stubborn, Veronica! You're not invincible, contrary to your personal belief!" He threw up his hands and stalked after her.

"I feel safer without you!" she called back from the other side of a row of parked cars.

"Well, think of the environment then Ronnie. You don't want to be a part of the reason for global warming, do you? Why take two cars when we'll fit into one? Well, we'd fit in mine. Your cereal box prize on the other hand…"

Her voice floated towards him. "Not a good way to convince me, Logan."

He weaved between the cars and grabbed her by the arm and started towing her towards the X-terra. "Well, I tried the easy way and now you're gonna get the hard way."

To his despair, she dug in her heels, stopping them dead in the parking garage. "Fine. You'd probably rear-end me on the way home anyway. Just despite me. But I'm driving." When he started to protest, she hit him with one of her best anti-Logan smirks and said, as if off-hand, "If we're really worrying about the whole global warming bit…"

He let out a sigh. Dammit. She was just too smart for her own good. He wanted to be in control. He wanted to be the one taking care of her, wanted to be the one who was in control of the whole situation.

They got into the Lebaron and he spent the first half of the drive staring out the window. God, it was hard to be this close to her. It felt claustrophobic. He felt like he couldn't breathe. She was starting to get under his skin and not in a bad way. Which was not good. He'd have to fix it with some good old fashioned snark… something to bring out the bite in Veronica.

"So, you're going out with the Donut tonight?"

She shot him a glare. "Don't call him that. I thought you were friends."

He shrugged. "We are but that doesn't mean I'm happy with you throwing your life away on him."

"Instead of throwing it away on you?" she snapped back.

He shrugged again, moody. The fight was gone out of him. It just wasn't as much fun knowing that neither of them would really win this fight.

They were quiet the rest of the way to her house.

She parked and got out, slamming the door.

He followed her to her door, half wanting to laugh and half wanting to yell and shake sense into her. He caught her at the door and spun her around. "Please Veronica…"

"Please what, Logan? Huh?" she asked, trapped for the third time that day by him. "Why are you still willingly around me? You hated me when we broke up. You wanted nothing to do with me until Duncan took an interest in me. When we started going out, all you wanted to do was break us up. What is it? You don't want me and you don't want anyone else to have me? You want me miserable and pining for you while you're off screwing around with Kendall?" She had tears in her eyes but blinked them back angrily. "Just make up your damn mind, Logan!"

He moved in right close. "No, you make up your mind. I've made up mine. You say the word and I'll dump Kendall out on her skanky ass. I don't want her. I want you. I've always wanted you."

"It's not fair." She yanked him to her and kissed him hard before escaping inside and slamming the door behind her and locking it. She leaned back against it, knowing full well he could see her shape through the blinds.

"I'm not leaving, Veronica," he said evenly.

She pushed off and ran for the bathroom and the refuge of a shower.

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