I also borrowed lines from ‘Sexual Healing.’
Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas!
Chapter 29
“Where are we going, Max?” she cried with a laugh as they ran alongside the thick row of trees surrounding the park.
“Liz, where’s your sense of adventure?” he teased.
“I have one,” she said between breaths, “but in most of my adventures, I’m not running with my Knight in Shining Armor towards nowhere.”
Max stopped suddenly mid stride, and she stumbled into him. He leaned in and swept his lips over hers.
He looked deeply into her eyes as he asked, “What makes you think I’m not taking you somewhere really special for our three month anniversary?”
She looked behind him at the street corner they were nearing and scrunched her nose in earnest.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, Max,” she pointed out. His words hit her just then and she searched his face for any sign he wasn’t serious. Liz blinked and demanded, “Our three month what?”
“Three month anniversary,” Max said calmly. “You know, those special days couples celebrate on to cherish how long they’ve been together.”
“We haven’t been together for three months,” she said slowly even as she started to consider the wild possibility that they could have been. When Max raised one of his eyebrows, she asked with a shy, incredulous smile, “Has it really been three months?”
“Well, we would have been together for six months almost two weeks ago if we hadn’t broken up after Valentine’s Day,” Max said mournfully.
Looking back, Liz realized that she was actually thankful that every step in their relationship had been carefully won. It had been the right thing for them to do, to take a break after he told her about his alien heritage so that they could become closer. Before she learned the truth, she felt like there was a huge glass wall between them.
“Max…” she started to say nervously, feeling guilty for the hurt that was shining in his eyes right now.
Max stroked her cheek with one finger and told her, “But I’m not sorry that we took a break because it meant I could try to win your heart as myself...not as part of myself. I can’t tell you how free I felt around you once I told you the truth.”
Liz hadn’t realized how much she needed him to say those words until he had. She sighed gratefully as he gathered her body to his and held her close.
“And now,” Max continued in a playful tone he whispered into her neck, “We have been together for three months and it’s been the most incredible, heartfelt, genuine three months of my life.”
“Genuine?” she repeated dazedly as she pressed her face deeper into his t-shirt.
“I’ve never felt this real and truthful with anyone…” Max admitted gruffly as he clarified his feelings.
“I’ve never been this honest with anyone in my life before, Liz.” Max bent his head and skimmed her tank top straps aside so he could press three languid kisses on one of her shoulder blades.
Liz shivered and turned her face up to his. “Am I an awful girlfriend because I didn’t remember?”
Max met her eyes and shook his head. He kissed the corner of her mouth when he saw her irresistible pout. “Absolutely not,” he told her.
“It just means I get a “get out of jail free” card sometime in the distant future.”
Liz rolled her eyes.
“Absolutely not, Max.”
She couldn’t help squealing when in response he yanked her arm and started running again. As they neared the end of the street though, Max suddenly changed direction, and lead her away to the right, heading straight towards the thick copse of trees and away from the prying eyes of any of the occupants in the houses across the street from the park.
They finally stopped running and she took advantage of the reprieve to press her hands on her knees and take in a large refreshing breath. As she straightened back up, her mouth fell open when seemingly of their own accord, the two large fir trees before them wavered and their branches swept up towards the sky, parting to make a path for them.
This was what it was like being with Max, she scolded herself. Every moment was amazing and always managed to steal her breath away entirely, and after “almost” six months of being with him and knowing him so closely for almost a year, he never failed to do so.
“You never cease to amaze me,” she murmured as she stepped closer to him. Her soft body brushed against his before she slid into his arms.
“Come on, we have to go,” Max warned reluctantly as the bare skin of her arms tickled his own. He was itching to pull her close to him and let his fingers wander over her skin until she was aware of exactly how much she was driving him crazy right now…but the night was still young.
He looped his fingers around hers more securely and quickly led her into the park by way of their secret entrance.
Once they moved out of the thicket of oak and fir trees that bordered the edge of the park, they neared a small clearing where the grass was flat and low. In the dark, Liz could make out the familiar shapes of playground architecture twenty feet in front of them and she smiled faintly, realizing at once that this was going to hands down win their most unusual date ever.
There was one more lone tree in front of them that had a tire swing attached to one of its thick, stoop branches. Max reached up with his free hand and took something down. Liz eagerly craned her neck and rose up onto her tiptoes so she could look over his shoulder at what his mystery item was.
She caught a glimpse of the old-fashioned blue lantern he held in his hands, which looked as if it had weathered quite a bit of time outside for many, many years. Its appearance was so questionable that she was curious to know where he had gotten it from and how he’d known to find it there. She asked him as much and he murmured something about a magician never revealing his tricks.
When he opened the lantern’s door, Liz clapped her fingers over her mouth and giggled as he made a flame flicker and waver under his palm. The lantern had a soft, shimmering, blue light that was as magical as the night was promising to be.
Max’s hand found hers again and as he led her further into the park, she was confused yet transfixed by the way the lantern light seemed to be spreading out across the grass in front of them.
It seemed that each step they took towards the playground itself made the lantern’s light spread out even further. Her attention was still riveted to the light on the grass around them even when they stopped in front of a slide.
She glanced at Max’s outstretched palm and realized that he had made the lantern rise up above them like this. He was controlling everything from the way it had levitated away from his hold to the way it was shaking in the air…or was he? Had he lost control over this new power, overestimating precisely how much of a handle he had on it?
The lantern began twirling and spinning in the air, and the glass was expanding quickly now, threatening to bulge out of the frame.
Liz buried her face in his chest, and waited…but instead of hearing the horrible, telltale crack of glass breaking, she heard a soft pop in the air before something silky and soft brushed against her arm, and something else that was just as soft skated down her arm.
Liz pulled back from him and bravely looked up. She gasped at the sight of the cascading, blue-tinted white rose petals that were tumbling down over them.
What was even more amazing was that whatever light the lantern had was still as present and real as the air they were breathing. She knew that if she thought about this moment ten years from now, she would remember believing in that instant that the grass below their feet was blue and that she was wearing a sky blue skirt instead of a white denim one.
“Max…”
Her voice was wavering as she stepped away from him and the shower of falling petals followed her.
“What’s going on?”
“Do you like it?” he asked shyly as he came closer to her.
She met Max’s soft brown eyes and nodded wordlessly.
It seemed all Max wanted was her approval, and she just wished she could tell him that he always, always had it. She opened her mouth with every intention of saying just that to the amazing boy standing before when he quickly pressed his thumb over her mouth and her words got caught in her throat.
“I’ve been practicing this all summer,” Max murmured.
“And the light trick?” Liz asked coyly.
“How did you come up with that one?”
“The desire to make it real made any limits disappear,” he muttered as his gaze softened as he followed a petal that landed in her hair and lingered.
“And a fair amount of practice at not losing control,” Max added dryly with a forced chuckle. As he was no longer facing her, he missed the mischievous grin that settled on her lips.
When he turned back to her, any vestiges of it were gone and she was looking at him with so much admiration and love in her eyes that it made his heart skip a couple of beats.
Max leaned forward, pretending he was confiding confidential information. “Tonight, rose petals are going to follow you everywhere you go.”
“I love it, Max,” Liz said honestly. “It’s…well, it’s breathtaking,” she added. She reached out for his hand and asked shyly, “What’s next?”
He looked down and watched as her small, smooth hand disappeared inside of his grip. They slowly walked towards the playground set ahead of them hand in hand, and like he promised, the shower of white rose petals moved through the air along with them.
Max found the neon yellow ladder he designated as a marker earlier that afternoon and led her to the fake pirate ship. The playground of course was designed for small children, so even though the pirate ship had a ladder, its floor was low and all but four feet off the ground. He touched one of the poles that kept the structure up and focused on rearranging the molecules so they expanded and stretched, and the pirate ship had risen a couple of inches and Liz was still grinning.
Now they could walk under it easily without crouching at all. Liz stepped forward and as she did, the unassembled lantern followed her overhead and filled the crawl space with light. Her eyes found the picnic basket and blanket easily, and she turned to face him.
“So this is what you were doing while I was stranded at the mall?”
“Nope, I only set this up an hour ago,” he confessed.
She knit her eyebrows together and frowned; if that was the case, she still had a few questions about where he’d been while she was at the mall. Her eyes were drawn to his magical hands as he crouched down at the entrance and opened his hands over something on the ground. Though the crawl space around where she was standing was filled with the lantern light he promised would follow her all night, the entire space wasn’t lit, and she couldn’t see what he was doing. She watched as he stretch his hands out and lit almost two dozen candles at once.
As he came towards her, his face flickered in the lights that danced across his face. She reached out and cupped his cheek as his arms found the curve of her back and he gathered her small body to his.
“Are you speechless?” he asked huskily before he pressed his lips to her forehead and his mouth hovered by her cheeks. She shivered as his warm breath tickled her skin with each breath he drew in.
“No, no…I-I-I’m not,” she stuttered shakily.
Liz shook her head from side to side, hoping for clarity. Clearing her throat, she clarified, “No, I mean yes…I am. You’ve robbed me of speech, Max Evans,” she told him.
Max buried his face into her sweet smelling hair as they held each other. The moment he held her, he knew he wouldn’t want to let go, but it seemed she was hungry after all because her stomach rumbled loudly.
“I want to…” she started, looking up into his eyes apologetically, and Max whispered, “I know.”
“But this is so perfect,” she laughed wryly, “that I think my stomach has had other plans since the moment I saw the basket.”
“Then let’s eat,” he said as he gestured for her to sit. Liz sat down and hugged her knees to her chest while she watched him walk over to the basket and bring it to her. Even the simplest things this man did made her weak in the knees, she acknowledged silently, watching every muscle that was visible to her hungry eyes flex and shift, from the ones in his arms to the ones in his calves.
Max opened the basket and she was thrilled when she saw that he’d brought lasagna, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, garlic bread and angel food cake for dessert. He served her everything but the cake and bread first on a plate and warmed the plate with his hands before giving it to her.
While he did the same for his share, she reached into the basket for the garlic bread and cut pieces for them. As Liz was putting it back, her fingers brushed against a glass bottle. Curiosity got the better of her and she took it out to get a better look at it. It was a brand new bottle of sparkling apple cider and she jabbed him playfully.
“You always think of everything.”
She giggled as he popped the cork on the bottle and poured some into her wine glass. He poured some for himself and then he pulled out a tablecloth from the basket and spread it over the top so they had an unofficial table for the night. Her first sip of cider was almost as divine as the first bite of lasagna and she told him as much, which naturally prompted her adorable, shy, alien boyfriend to blush.
An hour later, the sound of his heart beating steadily filled her right ear and he was lazily stroking her arm with his index finger as he told her about the stars. Liz was lying down in his arms, her head was on his chest and his legs bracketed hers, and above them was the most wonderful sight she’d ever seen.
After they finished eating, he’d made eye contact with her and raised his hand parallel to the floor of the ship above them.
When she looked up, she shouted happily, “Wow, Max!” and fell into his open arms. Now there was nothing between them and the gorgeous, starry sky because he’d made the floor of the ship directly above them disappear.
She turned in his arms so that the front of her body was pressed against his, and she smiled up at him as she confessed, “This is just incredible, Max.”
In response, he kissed the top of her head and wrapped her in his arms even more snugly.
“I have something for you,” Max said a few moments later as he reached for something in his pocket.
Liz rolled off his body and watched with lazy eyes as he took out a small red pouch and dropped it into her open palm. She tugged the drawstring and then she turned it over so a necklace could fall into her hands.
It was a beautiful, unusual necklace with a black pendant on a silver chain. The pendant had glowing, silver iridescent dots spaced evenly in the shape of an M. Her gaze collided with his, and he watched happily as her entire face brightened and she sported a smile a mile wide. Liz fingered the M reverently, and she noticed how in the starlight, the chain glittered in a way silver never did.
“Max…is this white gold?” she asked softly.
“The chain’s been in my family for years,” Max said as he pressed his finger to her velvety cheek.
“So I had to do some restoration,” he joked lightly.
“All of the women in my family have owned it at one point in their lives.”
“My sister Isabel wore it from her fourteenth birthday until last year, when she gave it back to my Mom, and when I told my Mom that I wanted to get you something, she said she wanted you to have it, too,” Max said simply.
Liz placed the necklace in his hand, scooted closer to Max, and held her hair up off her neck so he could slip the necklace around her neck.
Then she placed her fists on his chest and looked at the way the dots were spaced on the pendant carefully. On a whim, she rotated it and pressed her thumb over half of the M.
“It looks really familiar, Max,” she said as she lifted the pendant and showed him the V she’d found in the design.
Max smiled wryly. “That V shape is one of my favorite things we learned about in Astronomy. It’s one of the red giants out in the Whirlwind Galaxy, and although they’ve taken pictures of that area several times, only three out of ten instances does it actually show up.”
“Red giant…isn’t that a star that’s in its last stages of its life cycle?” Liz asked hesitantly as she remembered some of what they’d learned in their tenth grade Astronomy class.
Max always sat on the other side of the room, she thought. If anyone had come up to her fifteen year old self and told her that one day she’d be lying under the stars in Max Evans’ arms, she would have…well, she would have wrote them off as crazy. Things like that had never been on the horizon for her younger self.
“Yeah, Mr. Seligman said that it doesn’t always show up because the light from a red giant is weak…so weak we usually can’t pick it up with our telescopes.”
Liz settled her head onto his chest and closed her fist around the pendant as she matched her breathing to his. She was thinking about how a couple of the times they’d kissed, she’d gotten flashes and imagined that she’d been flying through space. As best as she could remember, a really similar V shaped red giant star had played a prominent role in her flashes.
Had her mind latched onto the saying “seeing stars” and associated kissing Max Evans with the red giants and other stars she’d learned about? Or was it possible that she was receiving a flash from Max of something deep inside of him?
What he said next was perfectly in sync with what she’d been thinking; it seemed his mind had wandered to the same place hers had.
“Ever since we learned about it, I’ve had this feeling that this is somehow related to who I am. It’s felt familiar to me since the moment I laid eyes on it.”
Max looked up at her to see Liz staring back at him with a gentle, encouraging gaze. He flushed and said quietly, “I know it sounds weird…”
She shook her head and said insistently, “It doesn’t, Max. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know where you came from, and holding on to something that’s a clue.”
“I think it’s really sweet that besides giving me your initial, you’ve also given me a symbol that’s really special to you.”
Max couldn’t stop smiling as she leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips. The more she thought about this red giant V star pattern though, the more confused she became though. They rarely discussed flashes and seeing things, another reason why she had no reasonable explanation for why she was able to receive flashes from Max or how they were initiated in the first place. One thing she was certain of was that she had definitely seen this V pattern in a flash while they were kissing.
“Hey, I have a question…”
Max looked at her expectantly.
“It’s something I’ve been wondering about, and the more I think about it, the more I’m curious if it’s because I don’t want it to happen or if it’s something that only used to happen and stopped all of a sudden…”
“What is it, Liz? You know you can ask me anything.”
She paused and sighed, “Do you still get flashes when we kiss?”
Max frowned as he mulled over her question.
“Yes…” he said slowly. “I got a few yesterday when you woke me up. Did you get some, too?”
She nodded, closed her eyes, and nervously bit her lip. Max waited patiently for her to gather her thoughts.
“It always feels like I’m on a roller coaster,” she murmured. “We start sliding up the tracks to the top of the hill, and that’s where everything’s safe and predictable and happy. When things heat up, we start going over the hill, and that’s when the flashes start rushing at me.”
Liz looked up at him with a lazy, seductive smile. “The best part about it is that I get to feel what you feel when you see me. I just wish I knew how it worked,” she said as she pouted haughtily at him.
“It seems to always happen whenever things get really intense between us,” he said slowly, thinking back to how he’d also received flashes when he realized he was falling hard for her and also the first time they made love.
“Did you know you’re the only person I’ve ever had flashes with?” Max asked. “Besides Michael and Isabel, of course,” he added, “But that doesn’t really count because it’s not the same. It doesn’t even come close to the way I feel when it happens with you.”
Liz’s eyes softened at his wonderful admission and she snuggled deeper into his body. She found his hand and kissed his knuckles, and closed her eyes for a second. “This…connection we have, Max…” Liz sighed before she met his gaze again. “It’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever known. I’ve never been as connected to anyone as I am with you.”
“And I’ve never loved anything as much as I love you. I think that’s why our connection, our bond is so strong and true and pure,” Max said, pouring all the love he felt for her into a gaze that was so yearning and searching that Liz shivered.
“You know what I want to do tonight?”
“What?” he asked her back.
“Tonight, I want to be as close to you as possible…”
Max’s eyebrows knitted together even as he nodded. Her bold admission was catching him a bit off guard, though he’d be hard pressed to ever say that he didn’t love it whenever she wanted to seduce him.
“I reserved a hotel room at the Doubletree Hotel for us tonight,” he told her as he tightened his grasp around her waist.
At her questioning frown, he begrudgingly admitted, “We’re more than a little close to school.”
The Doubletree Hotel was a nice, grand hotel in Chicago, and it was much nicer than anywhere they’d stayed during their road trips to and from Roswell. Max had dropped her off at a mall in a small, suburban town outside of Chicago, and then he’d driven into the city to reserve a room at the Doubletree. Then he stopped at their favorite off campus restaurant to pick up their dinner, drove back to set up their picnic right after the park closed, and came back to the mall to pick her up.
Max figured that it’d be a perfect treat for their three-month anniversary for them to spend the night in a spectacular hotel room on the last night of their road trip. He’d been surprised how easily his Dad had agreed to the charge when he called and asked if it’d be okay if the balance for his emergency credit card bill was a little bit higher than usual that month.
Max was wholeheartedly expecting Liz to chew him out for not telling her before where they were when he noticed how her eyes darkened and her small pink tongue darted out of her mouth to skim over her lips.
She suddenly bounded out of his arms and pulled him to his feet in a matter of seconds. “Whoa,” he murmured as Liz smiled at him seductively and scooted closer.
“Tonight, I want to get flashes…I want you to give me flashes, and I want to give you flashes,” she clarified before she rose up onto her toes and nibbled his earlobe for a few seconds.
Soon Max was clutching her shoulders and her back and then he was sliding one of his hands under the edge of her shirt.
“I want to explore our connection to its fullest,” she whispered huskily as she closed her mouth over his earlobe.
When she pulled away and his haze broke, Max scratched his eyebrow and tried to look everywhere but at Liz yet he was all too aware of her expectant gaze.
“Okay, that can be arranged,” were the words he finally managed to string together shakily.
* * * * *
Max cleared his throat softly as he fumbled with the simple task of pushing the access card into the door lock for the fourth time in the past minute. He glanced to his right at Liz, who was leaning one shoulder on the wall, and she raised one eyebrow at him. His smile was forced and tense as he explained, “I haven’t worked one of these in a long time.”
She nodded her head slowly and her gaze slid down to his hands before she resumed their heated staring match. “It’d probably help if you turned the card so you can’t see the strip,” she offered helpfully.
Max glanced down too and flushed when he saw that he was indeed holding the card in the wrong direction. “Right,” he agreed. He turned it over, swiped it again, and was rewarded with the click of the door unlocking and a steadily flashing green light.
Max followed her inside and the first thing he did was put down their bag while she found one of the light switches and flicked it on. Max turned his back to her when he closed their room door firmly, and he took a few seconds to bring his heartbeat back to normal and inhale deeply before he turned around.
Liz was sitting on the queen size bed, and she was so petite that her feet barely skimmed the ground. She coyly flicked her finger at him, signaling to come closer. “I don’t bite,” she said with a smile as he hesitated. “Unless you want me to,” she added.
Max narrowed his eyes and smirked, “That’s false, Liz.” She widened her eyes when he broke out in a short run, closed the distance between them in an instant and landed on top of her.
“Max!” she squealed as he buried his face in her neck and playfully nipped her. She pushed his chest with her palms as hard as she could, and giggled helplessly when her actions had no effect and he wouldn’t relent. His fingers slid between the waistband of her denim skirt and the edge of her tank top and sought out her bare skin. In no time she was laughing and writhing as his fingers danced across her stomach. “Come on, Max!” she said between laughs.
“You bite more than I do,” he reminded her with a challenging glint in his eyes as he lifted his weight off of her.
“You’re heavy,” she complained, choosing to ignore what he’d said. She wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of agreeing with what he’d just said.
Max chuckled as he said, “And you’re as light as a feather…”
Liz didn’t see it coming when he slid his arm under her stomach and suddenly scooped her off the bed. He pulled her body to him and started to rise from the bed. She realized he had every intention of picking her up and taking her across the room so she did the only thing she could – she hooked her arms around his back and pulled him down, hard.
They landed on the bed with a soft plop and Liz took advantage of the moment to roll out of his arms. Max looked over at her with a befuddled, perplexed gaze, and she smiled back at him seductively.
“And apparently you’re a lot stronger than I give you credit for,” he conceded.
“I am…” she murmured in agreement. His dark brown hair was rumpled and mussed from his landing. She reached over and brushed his hair back with her fingers, admiring the adorable way his bangs fell unapologetically across his forehead.
“Come here, you’re too far.”
Liz nodded and the sheets rustled as she inched closer to him. Right away she could tell that the playful gleam in his eyes from before was gone. He was looking at her with a hungry gaze that was making her shiver.
Wordlessly, she sat up, swung one of her legs over his body and straddled his waist. Max inhaled the same air she exhaled as she leaned forward and found his mouth. He brushed his mouth over hers and reached up to frame her face with one hand as he deepened their kiss.
He swiped his tongue over her lips, and right away, she opened her mouth to him. As soon as he started stroking her tongue with his, Max felt a flash coming on. He was looking at her closed eyelids in one moment and in the next his vision was filled with an adorable, younger Liz Parker, spinning around in her bedroom in a party dress.
She was so cute, and as she spun around happily and she quickly enchanted him and he was curious to know what the occasion was. And a second later, he got his answer as she started putting on a tiara with a huge number 4 in the center. Max left the flash as quickly as he entered it, and when he blinked, Liz’s eyes were wide open and she was pulling away and looking back at him with awe and confusion painted on her face.
“What’d you see?” they asked at the same time.
He licked his lips and went first.
“I saw you. It was your fourth birthday, I think, and you were wearing a big, puffy pink dress…one of those dresses that flies out when you spin, and a tiara.”
Liz groaned and rolled her eyes. “I remember that birthday…someone ran straight into the table and took the cake down to the floor.”
Max laughed easily along with her. He slid his fingers into her tresses and smiled up at her. “But before that happened, it looked like it was the happiest day of your life.”
“It probably was.”
“I saw you and Isabel running across a playground towards Michael,” she said as she traced one finger up his jaw.
“Those first two years after we were adopted, Isabel cried a lot and she would get these nightmares that something bad had happened to Michael almost every night,” he explained.
Liz nodded sympathetically. “It must have been awful not knowing where he was.”
Max paused thoughtfully before he spoke. “It was, but I used to have a feeling that everything was okay, that he was safe wherever he was. And it turns out, I was right. When we saw him that day, I instantly recognized him.”
“So I guess it’s safe to say we’re both feeling really good right now,” she said as she leaned back down to Max and kissed him passionately.
“Really? How do you figure that?” Max asked as he hooked the edge of her tank top between his fingers and nudged the lightweight material upwards.
“We both got flashes of each other’s happy memories,” she said frankly. “It makes sense that whatever we’re thinking of or how we’re feeling when we’re connected would stir up related memories.” She lifted her arms as Max pulled off her tank top, and she shook her hair out of the loose ponytail she’d been wearing all night. “Question is,” she continued thoughtfully in a light, innocent tone, “What kinds of things can stir up flashes that are a little more recent?”
He couldn’t help but smile, “Is that a challenge, Liz?”
“Maybe!” she yelped as he suddenly grasped her hips and pulled her down to the bed so they were facing each other.
Max reached over so his body was hovering a few tantalizing inches above her own. He set his hands down on either side of her body, essentially trapping her body with his, looked down at her flushed face and swooped in to kiss her hard. Their kisses became more passionate as the seconds ticked by, and it was when they started mimicking a more seductive action that they were building up to that they both got the exact flashes she’d been asking for.
When they pulled apart for air, she stroked his cheek and asked, “Did you see that time we went back to your room after we fell into the lake?”
“I not only saw it, I felt what you were feeling when I saw you in front of the window. If I’d known you were as crazy about me before, I would have confessed everything to you right there on the spot.”
“But you were scared of me,” she realized, having received the onslaught of his feelings as well during the flash.
Liz yanked his shirt up over his head with one hand and held his waist firmly with her small hands as she kissed his chest.
“I was scared about what you would think about me, and terrified that you wouldn’t accept me,” said Max in a tight voice as she wrapped one arm around his neck and moved up his body.
She looked meaningfully into his eyes. “You shouldn’t have been.”
Max groaned as she settled her mouth on his and plunged her tongue in and out of his mouth passionately. When the need for air was pressing them again, he pulled away and muttered, “God, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about being wrong.”
She hazily opened her eyes and moaned, “Huh, Max?”
Max muttered, “Nothing,” with a chuckle before he slanted his mouth over hers again. He slid his hands up to her bra and cupped her through the cotton material. Liz moaned softly and gripped his torso even tighter. The maddening pace he was plunging his tongue in and out of her mouth was making her dizzy, and her head was feeling light even though his fingers were tangled in her hair and he was holding her so, so close to him…
The feelings were so intense that every kiss, every touch elicited a reaction in their bodies, and the flashes came simultaneously so easily. She shivered as another faded away, and let her head fall back on the pillow.
Max brushed his lips over her collarbone and murmured, “Crashdown, this summer…I followed you into the backroom.”
“Hallway, before Algebra, ninth grade…you thought I was beautiful?”
Max was at work unsnapping her skirt and here she was flushing at his words about stolen kisses almost two months ago. The next second her blush quickly faded as she lost herself in the light, feather touch of his fingers. She bucked her hips when he started to slide her skirt down past her hips.
“You are beautiful. You’ve always been beautiful.”
Liz leaned into him, cupped his face and kissed him slowly. She could feel his heart thudding over her skin and it felt more intimate than anything else about the moment. “Touch me, Max,” she said as she unhooked the clasp of her bra.
His eyes darkened and he pressed a languid kiss on her heated skin between her breasts. Liz gave up completely on sitting up and collapsed on the pillows when his mouth closed over her breast.
“Driving across Nevada state lines,” she breathed raggedly.
Max stretched out over her, and he held her tighter as his fingers brushed over her core back and forth at the same pace he was drawing her flesh into his mouth. “Max!” she panted as another flash faded away, “August, your room!”
At her words, he slid two fingers inside her and she moaned in satisfaction.
Max shifted his weight again and she gasped as he settled his erection between her legs. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and explored her mouth with such tenderness that she felt lightheaded once more.
“An hour ago under the stars,” he told her before he pecked the corner of her mouth.
She hastily fumbled with the buttons on his shorts in the little space there was between them, and as she did, he slid his free hand into his pocket and pulled out a condom. Liz finally hooked her fingers around his waistband and tugged the shorts down his legs along with his boxers. Then she wrapped her hand around his length and she felt so incredibly powerful and feminine when Max sank down on her body again and she felt his moan rumble against her skin like it was her own.
His fingers were just as idle as her own against her skin, but she was quickly realizing that she had him in the palm of her hand, if his moans and labored breathing were any indication. Liz wanted him to lose control tonight though in every way she could drive him crazy, so she tilted his chin up with her free hand and met his mouth in a fierce kiss.
Max broke their kiss with a ragged breath a few seconds later and he begged, “Liz, I don’t want to finish like – I want to be inside you!”
She kissed him again and slid her palm around his thighs. “All you had to do was say so,” she said with a smile. He sat back on his calves and rolled the condom on, Liz was stretched out on the bed before him with love shining in her eyes. He sank into her body and kissed her soundly, before he started moving in and out of her body. She opened her eyes and watched him as they moved. She watched his brow relax, and she witnessed the blissful smile that spread across his face when she wrapped both of her arms around him. It was in that moment that she felt incredibly beautiful.
* * * * *
All that filled the room were their heavy pants and sighs before Max gently pulled out of her. Satisfied was the only way to describe how Liz felt as she sleepily closed her eyes.Max pulled the comforter that was falling off the bed back up and shook it out over them. He smiled wryly to himself that they hadn’t even made it under the covers. He swung one of his thighs over both of her legs as he spooned her body to his, and then he closed his eyes too.
Hours later, while they were sleeping, he moved his arm and brushed her collarbone with his thumb before his palm settled over her skin, a few inches below her neck. His hand was closed over her necklace, and the “V” in the “M” on the pendant he made for her began glowing brightly and pulsing, before it embedded itself into her skin.
Their bonding was complete.
TBC…