Chapter 11
“Where the fuck have you been? Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Max blinked in surprise at the anger in Liz’s voice. He closed the door behind him. “I-uh-had a couple of drinks with some of the guys from work.”
Fists doubled on her hips, she glared at him. “You were having drinks? That’s it? Drinks?”
“I had a sandwich, too,’ he offered, as though that would make it better.
“A sandwich?” Liz knew her voice was raising, but was having trouble controlling it. “I made fettuccine Alfredo. Do you know what fettuccine Alfredo tastes like after it’s been sitting on the table for four hours? Wallpaper paste, that’s what!”
“Look, I’m sorry, but I…”
“You couldn’t call to let me know you were going to be late?”
“Liz, we don’t have a phone.”
“Don’t make excuses!” she yelled, stamping one foot. “I’ve been going nuts sitting here in this ugly apartment with nothing to do but try to remember what my feet look like, and no one to talk to but a couple of cockroaches. I waited to eat with you, but then the food got cold and disgusting and now I’m starving. For all I knew, you could have been lying dead somewhere. Did you care that I might be worried? Did you even try to let me know where you were? No!”
“But I…”
“You think it’s fun sitting around this place? You think it’s easy carrying twenty pounds of extra weight in front of me? You think it’s a breeze to try to cook around this thing? Then you try it! See how you like it.”
“Liz I…”
“You probably weren’t even working,” she added, on a roll now. “You probably didn’t even ask even one question about-mmph.”
Max’s hand was planted firmly over her mouth. He loomed over her, gazing narrowly down at her, his goofy grin replaced by a frown.
“I was working,’ he said, his voice much quieter than hers had been. “And I did ask questions. Enough, at least, to know that there aren’t any easy answers to be found on the construction crew. Now, would you watch what you’re saying, for crying out loud? I know you’re trying to make this sound good, but don’t get carried away and forget to be discreet, okay?”
Liz hadn’t thought she could get any madder. She was wrong. She shoved his hand away from her face. “Don’t ever cover my mouth with your hand again! And stop telling me how to do my-mmph!”
Max didn’t silence her with his hand this time. He used his mouth.
The heat of anger transformed itself rapidly, almost magically into passion. Without even stopping to think about it, Liz threw herself into the kiss with the same enthusiasm she’d put into her tantrum.
Max was a bit surprised at first by her cooperation, but then he took full advantage of the opportunity, parting her lips with his tongue to deepen the kiss, his arms closing around her. Both of them murmured their frustration at the bulky padding that separated them when they would have pressed closer together.
Max’s hands slid down Liz’s back, settling on her hips to hold her as close against him as possible. She lopped her arms around his neck, strained over the padding between them and lost herself in his kiss. She had to admit that she’d wanted to kiss him again ever since he’d kissed her that morning, even if he’d only been performing then for any onlookers benefit.
There were no onlookers now.
Max’s thick, brown hair was soft against her fingers when she buried them at the back of his head. His mouth hard, hot, skillful. As far as kisses went, this one would have earned him an A-plus, she thought dreamily, sliding her tongue tantalizingly against his. He tasted of beer, and she never would have dreamed the combination would be so pleasing. Or was it just the taste of Max that intrigued her so?
Her mind was spinning by the time he finally, reluctantly ended the kiss. He lifted his head slowly, his eyes locked with hers. She searched his face, wondering what he was thinking, what he was feeling as he stared back down at her. She thought she saw there the same stunned realization that was overwhelming her.
The exchange between them, explosive as it had been, hadn’t been a total a surprise to Liz. The attraction had been building for long time-weeks, months maybe-though she’d fought hard against it. She had refused to acknowledge it even to herself-until now, when she could no longer deny it.
Max seemed to suddenly become aware that he was still holding her, his hands still clasped on her hips. He dropped his arms abruptly. “I, uh, I’d better take a shower,” He murmured, his voice rather hoarse.
Liz could only nod, not trusting her voice at all.
He hesitated another moment, still looking at her, and then he took a sharp breath turned, and all but bolted for the shower.
Liz covered her flaming cheeks with her hands and moaned.
And she’d though their last assignment together had gotten complicated!
Liz threw out the fettuccine, still too stunned to feel more than a flicker of renewed irritation that she was having to do so. She made herself a turkey sandwich, then realized that her hunger had faded along with her temper. She choked down half of it, then stuffed the remains into a plastic sandwich bag, and shoved it in the fridge for later.
She was tired. Mentally and physically exhausted. Sitting alone for long, boring hours was almost more wearing for her than steady physical activity.
Her nightshirt in her hand, she was waiting at the door of the bathroom when Max emerged after his shower, wearing only the gym shorts he favored for sleeping. She brushed past him with an incoherent murmur, her gaze trained firmly away from his bare chest and legs. She spent a long time brushing her teeth, removing her makeup and putting on her nightshirt. As always, she gave a sigh of relief when she removed the heavy harness. Taking that thing off was better-and faster-than a strict diet for making her feel slim and fit.
Max was sitting on his side of the bed, when she finally left the bathroom. He looked tired, she noted. There were deep lines around his dark eyes and unsmiling mouth, and a weary slump in his bare shoulders. His very sexy bare shoulders, she though before she could stop herself. She turned her eyes away and moved around to her side of the bed.
They crawled under the sheets without speaking. Max reached out to turn off the bedside lamp, and the room was thrown into darkness. Someone walked noisily above them, a baby cried somewhere beneath them. Someone was playing a stereo too loudly, heavy on the bass. The sounds of traffic, shouts, and an occasional siren drifted in from outside.
There was total silence inside the bedroom.
Liz could almost hear the minutes ticking by. Slowly. Painfully slowly. She lay on her back, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. Sleep seemed very far away. She was just about to give up and go watch TV when Max spoke, his voice sounding startlingly loud.
“Liz?”
She moistened her lips. “Yeah?”
“Sorry about dinner. The guys asked me to have a few beers with them and it seemed like a good chance to pump them for information.”
She covered her face with her hands and groaned deeply.
Max sounded startled when he spoke again. “Liz? What’s wrong? Are you still mad?”
“I’m mad at myself,” she muttered, her voice muffled by her hands. “I can’t believe I yelled at you like that. Of course, you were just doing your job-you did exactly what Max Powers would have done. I don’t know why I got furious. I guess I got carried away with my role.”
Max exhaled deeply-what might have been a sigh of relief that she wasn’t still angry with him. “It’s okay,” he said. “I understand. Sometimes it’s easy to forget who you are for a while. Besides, you were probably bored out of your mind. I know I would have been if I’d had to sit alone in this dump all day and all evening.”
“Yeah, I was,” she admitted. “This assignment doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Sometimes I wonder if we’re just wasting our time.”
“It’s only been five days,’ Max reminded her. “Valenti expected us to take a couple of weeks to firmly establish our cover. And you have made a lot of headway with Maria. She’s already talking to you. If she’s involved in this, you’ll know soon.”
He was trying to be encouraging, but Liz didn’t feel much better. “I still feel stupid,” she said. “Not for yelling at you-I needed to do that for the cover. But I was really mad at you for missing dinner.”
Max chuckled and rolled up to one elbow, propping his head on his hand as he looked down at her. “You really did get carried away with your role, didn’t you?”
She nodded against the pillow. “I spent the day cleaning the refrigerator,” she confessed. “I even pulled it out and mopped behind it. At one point, I stopped and asked myself if I ought to be doing heavy cleaning in my condition!”
Max laughed softly.
But Liz wasn’t through. “You know what I found myself doing this afternoon to entertain myself? Choosing names for the baby! I tell you, Evans, we’ve got to get on with this case before I start decorating the place with cutesy country stuff.”
Max was still laughing. “Naming the kid huh? So what did you choose?”
She sighed and mentally cursed herself or being so candid with him. Now she’d probably never hear the end of it. “Never mind.”
“How about Bob? I’ve always liked Bob.”
“Bob?” she repeated. “For a baby?”
“Sure. It’s simple, easy to spell, a nice strong, manly name. Like Max,” he added.
“I can see why simple, easy to spell, and monosyllabic would appeal to you.”
He growled in response to the less-than-subtle insult. “Watch it, Parker.” And then he reached out almost absently and brushed a strand of hair from her check as he continued the teasing. “I suppose you’d rather name a kid after a city? Atlanta, maybe? Detroit?”
“Hey just cause my middle name’s Dallas doesn’t mean I actually like it.”
“So where’d you get that name anyway?”
“That’s where my mother dumped me,” she answered with a shrug against the pillows. “One of the social workers that was involved in my case named me after her dead daughter Elizabeth and Dallas well I guess she had a weird sense of humor.”
Max stopped laughing. “You were never adopted?”
“No. I grew up in foster homes. Most of them were okay. Some sucked. But that’s life, I guess.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head dislodging his hand, which had rested against her cheek. “No pity, Evans. I really hate pity.”
“Stop being so prickly, Parker. It isn’t pity. Its just commiseration. That’s allowed between friends, isn’t it?”
“Friends?” she repeated thoughtfully, trying to focus on his face through the dim, watery light coming in through the window curtains. “Since when are we friends?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, moving his fingers back to her cheek. “But it seems to have happened somehow. You have any objections?”
“Not to being friends,’ she answered cautiously.
His head was very close to hers now-so close she could feel his warm breath caressing her right cheek as softly as his fingers stroked her left. “What if we became more than friends?” he asked, very quietly. “Would you have any objections to that?”
“I…” she had to stop to clear her throat. “I think that would be a mistake.”
He toyed with her left earlobe, tracing it with one fingertip, “Do you?”
“Yes,’ she whispered, then said it again, more firmly. “Yes. Definitely.”
“Why?”
“I’m lousy with relationships. Every time I’ve tried it, something went wrong. Really wrong,” she emphasized, to make sure he got her point. “You and I have several strikes against us already. Let’s not completely get carried away with this assignment and take a chance on turning it into a bigger disaster than the last one.”
“What are the strikes against us?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
She couldn’t believe he didn’t already know. Maybe he just wanted confirmation of what he already suspected. “We’re cops, for one thing. Cops have a history of bad relationships. You should know that,” she added, remembering that he’d been living with someone when she’d met him. One of their co-workers had mentioned it right after Liz and Max had been introduced on her first day in his precinct. She’d immediately stifled any initial attraction she might have felt for the dark-haired, amber-eyed detective; she had very strict rules about “trespassing.”
By the time she’d learned that Max and his former roommate had gone separate ways, she had pushed that earlier attraction firmly aside. Permanently she’d thought. Obviously she’d been mistaken.
“Granted, cops have some problems with relationships,” Max conceded. “Usually because the other person doesn’t understand what it’s like being a cop. What else?”
“We don’t get along. You’re always grouchy, and I like to laugh. You always try to tell me what to do-I don’t like taking orders form anyone, especially my partner.”
“I’m aware that I tend to be bossy. “I’ve been working on that with you, or haven’t you noticed? As for my personality, I don’t think I’m any grouchier than you are. You just see it more than with yourself.”
“Bull.”
“And who was it attacking whom earlier this evening?’ he asked politely.
She flushed. “That doesn’t count. I’ve already said I wasn’t myself then.”
“Guess I just bring out the worst in you.”
“Exactly,” she said, feeling as though another point had just been made to support her argument.
“Okay, so I’m a grouchy, bossy cop. Anything else about me you don’t like? You think I’m ugly? Stupid, maybe?”
She frowned. “Of course, I don’t think you’re ugly. And you aren’t stupid. You’re one hell of a good cop-when you aren’t busy trying to do my job for me. But…”
“I don’t think you’re ugly either,” Max interrupted, nuzzling her cheek with his nose. “In fact,’ he added, his lips brushing the corner of her mouth, “I think you’re gorgeous. I always have. It just took me awhile to realize that I like the rest of you almost as much as that great bod of yours.”
Max was calling her gorgeous? If she weren’t so damned flattered, she’d probably be suspicious of his motives. He’d never given her flowery compliments before, never touched her the way he was touching her now, sending little surges of electricity rippling through her. It was almost enough to make her wonder what he was really after.
And then she remembered what else he’s claimed. “You don’t even like me, Evans,” she stated automatically. “You think I’m a pain in the butt.”
“Well, yes,” he agreed. “But I like you, anyway. Funny huh?”
“I don’t…”
Her words were smothered by his kiss.
It was a long time before he lifted his head-at least, as far as he could lift it with Liz clinging like a tightly knotted tie around his neck. “Oh, yeah, Parker,” he murmured gathering her closer. “I like you.”
TBC……………
Undercover - CC/AU M/L ADULT [COMPLETE]
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Erina, Hunter, Forum Moderators
Chapter 12
Chapter 12
He kissed her again running his tongue along her lips, he loved the feel of them, they were so full and soft and they tasted a bit like strawberries he thought. Simply addictive. Liz opened her mouth to him seeking his tongue with hers. Both moaning at the contact.
Before long it was hard to tell who was kissing whom, whose arms were more hungry, whose movements were more urgent. Liz was starting to get light headed, needing oxygen but not wanting to break contact from Max’s frenzied kisses. He was like a drug she couldn’t get enough of.
Max suddenly moved his mouth to her neck sucking and licking down to her collarbone. His hands moving up her bare thighs, ending at her hips. God, he thought, she feels so good; her skin is so soft to touch. Why haven’t I done this sooner?
Liz’s head was thrown back giving Max better access to her neck, which he took advantage of. His hands were slowly creeping up the inside of her shirt stopping just below her aching breasts, which were begging to be touched.
“Max?” Liz asked in a breathless moan.
“Yeah?” he mumbled against her neck.
“Take my shirt off.”
“You sure?”
“God yes,” she practically screamed.
Max smiled slowly inching her top off staring at the skin slowly coming into view. Liz untangled her arms from Max’s body allowing him to remove her shirt fully.
Max gave a sharp sigh as her breasts came into view. God she was beautiful, her breasts were just perfect, her nipples standing out proud waiting to be touched. Max gave Liz another smile then moved his mouth to her nipples. Taking one of the rosy pecks into his mouth he gave it a slight tug causing Liz to moan in both pain and pleasure. He then flicked his tongue over it to ease a bit of the pain.
Lifting his head, which was rather hard to do, as Liz had wrapped her hands into his hair tying to keep his head on her left nipple, he moved over to her twin breast giving it the same treatment. His right hand was massaging her other breast causing Liz’s moans to get louder.
Slowly he began to wander downwards kissing every part of Liz’s body he could see until he reached her panties, which caused a barrier to the goal he was aiming for. Lifting his head to look at Liz he waited for her approval to go any further.
Liz was in a daze, his kisses were like fire, she was so hot and bothered and the ache between her legs was getting worse by the second. She could feel Max’s cock pressed against her thigh, which didn’t help the ache she was feeling at all. Noticing that Max had stopped his movements, she lifted her head to look at him. The desire she saw in his eyes was almost enough to make her cum there and then. Realizing why he stopped, Liz slowly nodded her head that she wanted him to continue. God she would be an idiot if she didn’t.
Max watched as Liz slowly lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes were glazed over in passion, which made him even harder if that was possible. As she slowly nodded her head, his heart jumped a beat. He was about to unwrap his present which he had been wanting to do for God knows how long weeks---months he’d lost count. He was as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning.
Gripping either side of her panties he slowly pulled them down, gazing at this beautiful women in front of him. Throwing the panties over his head he pulled her thighs apart getting the first look at Liz, his Liz he thought with delight.
Max slowing inserted one finger into her tight passage. God she is so wet and it’s all for me. Inserting another finger inside her he slowly moved them in and out causing Liz to let out a sharp gasp. His fingers felt so good. He moved his thumb over her clit in a swift flight. Liz jumped, sending a warm glow through her body.
Unable to hold back anymore Max removed his fingers only to replace them with his mouth, finally getting a taste of the real Liz. Max let out a deep moan as he tasted her. God he was in heaven. Hearing Max moan sent shivers up and down Liz’s body, she loved that sound.
Liz’s hands had some how travelled into Max’s hair again. There was no way she was going to let him leave his current position until he had finished what he started.
Max didn’t mind at all, he was feasting on her like he hadn’t eaten in days. By now Liz’s moans were getting close to screams. Knowing that she was close, he pulled her clit into his mouth and sucked on it flicking his tongue over and over until Liz let out an earth-shattering scream that was bound to wake up the whole building.
Lifting his head Max watched Liz in the throws of ecstasy. He had never seen anything more beautiful in his life. Pulling himself up he lay down beside her with a smile on his face.
Liz had never had an orgasm that violent in her life. God he was good, she thought again for like the tenth time tonight. Turning to face him she gave him a small smile. Suddenly very shy. “Hi,” she said in a whisper.
“Hi,” he replied just as quiet.
“Wow, that was just wow.” Liz couldn’t think of anything else to say it seemed all her vocabulary had just gone out the window.
“I know,” he replied just as stunned.
Feeling rather under dressed Liz decided she had to remedy the situation. Pushing Max onto his back she threw her leg over his hips straddling him. “It seems to me Max that you are way over dressed, let me help you with that” She gave him a sexy smile.
“Why Miss Parker I would be honoured.” He gave her a sexy smile of his own.
Liz leaned forward kissing Max but pushed him away before he could deepen it. Moving her mouth to his neck she began to suck just above his collarbone, causing Max to grab her butt pulling her closer. Smacking his hands away she gave him a stern look.
“Ah ah ah, no touching now put those hands up where I can see them.”
Max lifted his hands above his head and gripped the headboard so that he wasn’t tempted to touch her. Sure that he wasn’t going to move Liz continued what she was doing. Kissing down his neck to his oh so hot body, she tugged one of his nipples into her mouth then flicked over it exactly as he had done to her not so long ago.
“God,” Max breathed when he felt Liz tug on his nipple. That felt so damned good.
Liz smiled against his chest when she heard Max groan, releasing his nipple she continued kissing down his chest. Max’s muscles contorted as Liz’s kisses moved lower. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take before he exploded. It was just plain torture. His hands had turned white with the strain not to touch Liz.
Stopping at the waste band of Max’s shorts Liz slipped one finger inside just grazing the tip of his erection. This of course caused Max to almost jump right off the bed. Grinning, Liz pulled his shorts off coming face to face with his aroused member. God he was huge, she wondered how the hell he was going to fit.
Grabbing his cock with both hands, she began to rub him up and down, also using her tongue to lick him from root to tip. Max let out a loud moan thrusting his hips up trying to make Liz place her mouth where it was needed the most.
Laughing Liz continued teasing Max with her tongue. Finally felling sorry for the poor guy she lifted her head to look at him. “Max, open you’re eyes I want you to watch me.”
Max opened his eyes at the sound of her voice lifting his head off the pillow, struggling to focus his eyes.
Making sure Max’s eyes were on her; Liz lowered her mouth to taste him. Carefully sliding her lips over his turgid flesh, Liz slowly moved him farther and farther down her throat. To his amazement, and hers, she managed to take him completely into her mouth. Moving up and down gently sucking as she went. She used one hand to massage his sac as she went.
God Max thought, what is she doing to me? He could not remove his eyes away from her head as it bobbed up and down on his member. Feeling that he couldn’t last much longer, Max released his hands and grabbed her head away from him. “Liz you need to stop I want to be inside you.”
“Oh God yes,” she said breathlessly.
Crawling the length of him, Liz stopped just above his throbbing erection. Grabbing his cock and rubbing it along her dripping folds, Liz slowly started to descend onto him. Max placed his hands on her hips helping to guide her.
Both moaned in unison, as he finally completed her. Resting their foreheads against one another, they waited for Liz to get comfortable before they continued. Liz slowly began to rock on his hard length. She stared out at a slow languid pace, but before long she was slamming her hips up and down on his as he thrust up into her.
Needing to be in charge Max flipped Liz over, staying inside her. Finally being able to move with freedom, Max began bounding into Liz loving the feel of her surrounding him. Grabbing one of Liz’s legs he placed it high on his body trying to get the best angle, thrusting deeper and deeper with every stroke.
Liz was in heaven she loved the feel of Max inside her, branding her as his own.
Feeling himself close to release, Max reached between their bodies and stroked her clit roughly. Liz was whimpering, her vaginal muscles fluttering around his cock almost instantly as her orgasm began to start. Suddenly they clamped down causing Max to moan loudly. Giving her clit one more tweak, Liz screamed, her fingernails tearing into his shoulders as she exploded. This caused Max to shoot his semen deep inside her core roaring her name as he did. He carried on pumping into her until he collapsed with exhaustion.
Rolling off her Max pulled Liz on top of him making sure she was comfortable. Liz stirred against Max’s shoulder. He lay sprawled beneath her, his breathing not quite steady, his heart still racing beneath her cheek. Intimately tangled with her, his body glistened with a fine sheen of perspiration, and his hair was damp around his neck when she touched it with her fingertips.
It was nice to know that he’d found as much satisfaction as she had with their lovemaking, she thought contentedly.
Her eyelids were growing heavy. The sounds outside the bedroom began to fade as she drifted toward unconsciousness. But there was one thing she wanted to say before she fell asleep. “Evans?”
“Hmm?” his own voice was slurred, sleepy.
“I like you too.”
He hugged her roughly against him, and this time there was a smile in his voice when he said, ‘Go to sleep Parker.”
She smiled against his throat and decided that just this once, she’d do as he suggested without argument.
TBC………….
He kissed her again running his tongue along her lips, he loved the feel of them, they were so full and soft and they tasted a bit like strawberries he thought. Simply addictive. Liz opened her mouth to him seeking his tongue with hers. Both moaning at the contact.
Before long it was hard to tell who was kissing whom, whose arms were more hungry, whose movements were more urgent. Liz was starting to get light headed, needing oxygen but not wanting to break contact from Max’s frenzied kisses. He was like a drug she couldn’t get enough of.
Max suddenly moved his mouth to her neck sucking and licking down to her collarbone. His hands moving up her bare thighs, ending at her hips. God, he thought, she feels so good; her skin is so soft to touch. Why haven’t I done this sooner?
Liz’s head was thrown back giving Max better access to her neck, which he took advantage of. His hands were slowly creeping up the inside of her shirt stopping just below her aching breasts, which were begging to be touched.
“Max?” Liz asked in a breathless moan.
“Yeah?” he mumbled against her neck.
“Take my shirt off.”
“You sure?”
“God yes,” she practically screamed.
Max smiled slowly inching her top off staring at the skin slowly coming into view. Liz untangled her arms from Max’s body allowing him to remove her shirt fully.
Max gave a sharp sigh as her breasts came into view. God she was beautiful, her breasts were just perfect, her nipples standing out proud waiting to be touched. Max gave Liz another smile then moved his mouth to her nipples. Taking one of the rosy pecks into his mouth he gave it a slight tug causing Liz to moan in both pain and pleasure. He then flicked his tongue over it to ease a bit of the pain.
Lifting his head, which was rather hard to do, as Liz had wrapped her hands into his hair tying to keep his head on her left nipple, he moved over to her twin breast giving it the same treatment. His right hand was massaging her other breast causing Liz’s moans to get louder.
Slowly he began to wander downwards kissing every part of Liz’s body he could see until he reached her panties, which caused a barrier to the goal he was aiming for. Lifting his head to look at Liz he waited for her approval to go any further.
Liz was in a daze, his kisses were like fire, she was so hot and bothered and the ache between her legs was getting worse by the second. She could feel Max’s cock pressed against her thigh, which didn’t help the ache she was feeling at all. Noticing that Max had stopped his movements, she lifted her head to look at him. The desire she saw in his eyes was almost enough to make her cum there and then. Realizing why he stopped, Liz slowly nodded her head that she wanted him to continue. God she would be an idiot if she didn’t.
Max watched as Liz slowly lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes were glazed over in passion, which made him even harder if that was possible. As she slowly nodded her head, his heart jumped a beat. He was about to unwrap his present which he had been wanting to do for God knows how long weeks---months he’d lost count. He was as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning.
Gripping either side of her panties he slowly pulled them down, gazing at this beautiful women in front of him. Throwing the panties over his head he pulled her thighs apart getting the first look at Liz, his Liz he thought with delight.
Max slowing inserted one finger into her tight passage. God she is so wet and it’s all for me. Inserting another finger inside her he slowly moved them in and out causing Liz to let out a sharp gasp. His fingers felt so good. He moved his thumb over her clit in a swift flight. Liz jumped, sending a warm glow through her body.
Unable to hold back anymore Max removed his fingers only to replace them with his mouth, finally getting a taste of the real Liz. Max let out a deep moan as he tasted her. God he was in heaven. Hearing Max moan sent shivers up and down Liz’s body, she loved that sound.
Liz’s hands had some how travelled into Max’s hair again. There was no way she was going to let him leave his current position until he had finished what he started.
Max didn’t mind at all, he was feasting on her like he hadn’t eaten in days. By now Liz’s moans were getting close to screams. Knowing that she was close, he pulled her clit into his mouth and sucked on it flicking his tongue over and over until Liz let out an earth-shattering scream that was bound to wake up the whole building.
Lifting his head Max watched Liz in the throws of ecstasy. He had never seen anything more beautiful in his life. Pulling himself up he lay down beside her with a smile on his face.
Liz had never had an orgasm that violent in her life. God he was good, she thought again for like the tenth time tonight. Turning to face him she gave him a small smile. Suddenly very shy. “Hi,” she said in a whisper.
“Hi,” he replied just as quiet.
“Wow, that was just wow.” Liz couldn’t think of anything else to say it seemed all her vocabulary had just gone out the window.
“I know,” he replied just as stunned.
Feeling rather under dressed Liz decided she had to remedy the situation. Pushing Max onto his back she threw her leg over his hips straddling him. “It seems to me Max that you are way over dressed, let me help you with that” She gave him a sexy smile.
“Why Miss Parker I would be honoured.” He gave her a sexy smile of his own.
Liz leaned forward kissing Max but pushed him away before he could deepen it. Moving her mouth to his neck she began to suck just above his collarbone, causing Max to grab her butt pulling her closer. Smacking his hands away she gave him a stern look.
“Ah ah ah, no touching now put those hands up where I can see them.”
Max lifted his hands above his head and gripped the headboard so that he wasn’t tempted to touch her. Sure that he wasn’t going to move Liz continued what she was doing. Kissing down his neck to his oh so hot body, she tugged one of his nipples into her mouth then flicked over it exactly as he had done to her not so long ago.
“God,” Max breathed when he felt Liz tug on his nipple. That felt so damned good.
Liz smiled against his chest when she heard Max groan, releasing his nipple she continued kissing down his chest. Max’s muscles contorted as Liz’s kisses moved lower. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take before he exploded. It was just plain torture. His hands had turned white with the strain not to touch Liz.
Stopping at the waste band of Max’s shorts Liz slipped one finger inside just grazing the tip of his erection. This of course caused Max to almost jump right off the bed. Grinning, Liz pulled his shorts off coming face to face with his aroused member. God he was huge, she wondered how the hell he was going to fit.
Grabbing his cock with both hands, she began to rub him up and down, also using her tongue to lick him from root to tip. Max let out a loud moan thrusting his hips up trying to make Liz place her mouth where it was needed the most.
Laughing Liz continued teasing Max with her tongue. Finally felling sorry for the poor guy she lifted her head to look at him. “Max, open you’re eyes I want you to watch me.”
Max opened his eyes at the sound of her voice lifting his head off the pillow, struggling to focus his eyes.
Making sure Max’s eyes were on her; Liz lowered her mouth to taste him. Carefully sliding her lips over his turgid flesh, Liz slowly moved him farther and farther down her throat. To his amazement, and hers, she managed to take him completely into her mouth. Moving up and down gently sucking as she went. She used one hand to massage his sac as she went.
God Max thought, what is she doing to me? He could not remove his eyes away from her head as it bobbed up and down on his member. Feeling that he couldn’t last much longer, Max released his hands and grabbed her head away from him. “Liz you need to stop I want to be inside you.”
“Oh God yes,” she said breathlessly.
Crawling the length of him, Liz stopped just above his throbbing erection. Grabbing his cock and rubbing it along her dripping folds, Liz slowly started to descend onto him. Max placed his hands on her hips helping to guide her.
Both moaned in unison, as he finally completed her. Resting their foreheads against one another, they waited for Liz to get comfortable before they continued. Liz slowly began to rock on his hard length. She stared out at a slow languid pace, but before long she was slamming her hips up and down on his as he thrust up into her.
Needing to be in charge Max flipped Liz over, staying inside her. Finally being able to move with freedom, Max began bounding into Liz loving the feel of her surrounding him. Grabbing one of Liz’s legs he placed it high on his body trying to get the best angle, thrusting deeper and deeper with every stroke.
Liz was in heaven she loved the feel of Max inside her, branding her as his own.
Feeling himself close to release, Max reached between their bodies and stroked her clit roughly. Liz was whimpering, her vaginal muscles fluttering around his cock almost instantly as her orgasm began to start. Suddenly they clamped down causing Max to moan loudly. Giving her clit one more tweak, Liz screamed, her fingernails tearing into his shoulders as she exploded. This caused Max to shoot his semen deep inside her core roaring her name as he did. He carried on pumping into her until he collapsed with exhaustion.
Rolling off her Max pulled Liz on top of him making sure she was comfortable. Liz stirred against Max’s shoulder. He lay sprawled beneath her, his breathing not quite steady, his heart still racing beneath her cheek. Intimately tangled with her, his body glistened with a fine sheen of perspiration, and his hair was damp around his neck when she touched it with her fingertips.
It was nice to know that he’d found as much satisfaction as she had with their lovemaking, she thought contentedly.
Her eyelids were growing heavy. The sounds outside the bedroom began to fade as she drifted toward unconsciousness. But there was one thing she wanted to say before she fell asleep. “Evans?”
“Hmm?” his own voice was slurred, sleepy.
“I like you too.”
He hugged her roughly against him, and this time there was a smile in his voice when he said, ‘Go to sleep Parker.”
She smiled against his throat and decided that just this once, she’d do as he suggested without argument.
TBC………….
Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Max was watching Liz sleep again. He lay on his side, facing her, his gaze focused unblinkingly on her sweetly relaxed face. He knew she wouldn’t like it that he was staring at her at such a vulnerable, unguarded moment, but he couldn’t seem to look away.
He had absolutely no idea how to handle this new development between them. Making love with her had been—well it had been incredible. Spectacular. Staggering. As a matter of fact, he would like very much to do it again. Soon. Repeatedly. But was that all there was between them? Sexual chemistry? And if so, how come it hadn’t hit him before? Why had he only fully realized it after he’d become aware of all the things he admired about her?
Maybe there was more to it then sex. And wasn’t that a scary thought?
She stirred against the pillow, her fine brown hair tangling softly around her face. He wanted to reach out and smooth it back, but was afraid he’d wake her if he did. She needed her rest.
He didn’t blame her for being bored and restless during the past week. As skilled as she was in the kitchen, Liz wasn’t the type to content herself for long with repetitive domestic routines. She thrived on action, pressure, even a hint of danger. Liz loved her job in a way that Max could only envy. If he’d ever really felt that way about his career, the enthusiasm had burned out years ago. He hadn’t felt particularly enthusiastic about anything for a long time, until last night. Making love to Liz Parker had made him feel more intensely alive, more passionately aware, than he’d felt in years.
Now he found himself already dreading the inevitable return to the dull, gray, smothering monotony of life without her. Because something told him that the end of this assignment would also mark the end of whatever tentative relationship had been formed between him and his impulsive, utterly dedicated partner.
She stirred again, yawned, then blinked sleepily a couple of times. Her gaze met his and suddenly focused. Max could almost watch the awareness returning to her in stages as she realized that he was lying beside her, watching her, and that she wasn’t wearing anything. And then her eyes widened, and he knew she’d remembered exactly what had happened between them last night.
How would she react? Would she withdraw in panic? Turn her confusion into anger at him? Brush it off as “just one of those things”?
He hadn’t expected her to smile.
“Good morning.” She murmured.
“Good morning.” He noticed how soft and inviting her unpainted mouth looked first thing in the morning.
“Did you sleep well?” she asked politely.
“Yes. You?”
“Mmm. Very.” She stretched lazily and the sheet slid down to expose the upper curves of her small, perfect breasts. Max felt his heart do a slow somersault in his chest.
And then she smiled again. “I haven’t slept that well in a very long time,” she assured him.
He couldn’t resist reaching out to touch her. He restricted himself to brushing back that lock of hair that had been tempting him all morning. “Neither have I.”
“Are you hungry? I was thinking of making waffles for breakfast.”
Waffles were very far down on his list of priorities just then. He looked again at her smile, threw caution to the wind and reached for her.
“Maybe we could talk about breakfast later,” he whispered, his mouth hovering a breath above hers.
Liz wound her arms around his neck. “Sounds good to me,” she agreed with flattering eagerness.
That weekend, for the fist time, Max found himself almost wanting to believe the fantasy he was living.
He and Liz spent most of Saturday in the bedroom. They made love…repeatedly. They talked; they raided the kitchen for snacks, which they fed each other in bed. They laughed. He noticed at one point that Liz was looking at him strangely, though she’d been giggling only moments ago. “What is it?” he asked, trailing a lazy hand down her firm, bare thigh.
“You’re laughing,” she said, sounding bemused.
“Yeah well, you’re pretty funny Parker.”
“You don’t laugh very often. Except for the fist time you saw me in the harness, I don’t think I’ve ever really heard you laugh before.”
His smile changed to a quick frown. “Sure you have.”
She shook her head. “I’ve heard you chuckle. I’ve seen you smile—very rarely. But I’m not sure you’ve ever really laughed out loud around me before last week.”
She was making him self-conscious. He shrugged.
“You’re a very serious guy, aren’t you Evans? Aren’t you happy?” she asked lightly. He sensed that she was only half teasing.
With his head propped on one hand, he touched her face with the fingertips of his other hand. “I’m happy right now,’ he said quietly. And realized, to his surprise, that he meant it.
She smiled and nestled her cheek into his palm. “That’s nice,” she murmured, her lips moving against his caressing thumb.
“Mmm. Nice,” he agreed, his voice growing husky. His body stirring. Again. “Very nice,” he whispered, and replaced his thumb with his mouth.
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down to her.
Max groaned, covering her body with his, his erect cock pressed against her stomach and throbbed with the beat of his heart. His lips burned her flesh everywhere they touched her. Liz’s hands dug into his back, then slid down to his buttocks, clenching there and forcing him harder against her. She heard him groan when her hands came in contact with his ass, and his cock jerked against her, growing even larger. His tongue was deep in her mouth; she sucked on it, locking her eyes to his smoldering gaze even as her body locked to his.
Max pulled back, causing a whimper of frustration from her as she reached to pull him down again. Her gasps stilled as she watched him position himself between her thighs, take his erection in his fingers, and slide himself up and down using his own arousal to lubricate her. He slid slowly into her a little, closing his eyes, his mouth open in mute pleasure, the muscles in his arms and legs bunched in anticipation of the act of coupling. He pulled out again, moving his cock between her legs, then lunged forward powerfully. The thrust carried him entirely within her, causing Liz to gasp at the completeness of his penetration. He held himself still for moment, feeling her inner muscles moving to accommodate his size. When he knew she was ready, he began to pump in and out, hard.
Liz’s nipples were stiff against his chest. Max bent down and took one into his mouth, sucking her breast, teasing the nipple with his tongue, then biting it, just hard enough to send a bolt of sweet pain through Liz. He did the same with the other.
He knew it would happen fast. From Liz’s cries and the movement of her body, the tightening of her inner muscles around his swollen cock, Max knew she would not last much longer. His thrusts were deep and powerful, faster as his lust increased. His breath was rapid and harsh, every exhale a sob. He felt Liz’s hands gripping his upper arms for leverage as she moved in time with his rhythmic stabbing, her face flushed, her eyes glazed over with desire. “Max….” she panted, then words failed her as her orgasm ripped through her, sending her body into spasms. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Max watched her climax, feeling her inner muscles squeezing his cock again and again in diminishing waves as her orgasm gradually wound down. The pleasure was almost unbearable. He lifted her body up against him holding her buttocks, and drove into her faster, wanting to bury himself so deeply inside her that their bodies would be fused together like this forever. Liz was sprawled on the lumpy mattress, her hair a mass around her shoulders, eyes fixed on Max, watching him as he made her his own.
His strokes didn’t slow down or decrease in intensity, if anything; he seemed to feed on the passion from Liz. Gasping, his hair stuck around his face; his body slick with sweat, max rode Liz almost violently, dancing with her in the most primal, most erotic of dances. He didn’t think he could be more hard, but with every stroke he could feel his cock grow to the point that it was almost painful for him to continue.
He felt Liz tightening around him again, and she gasped out, “Oh God, Max….” as another climax ripped through her body. She had no strength to pull herself up into Max’s arms.
Her release triggered Max’s climax, and he gasped out as the first spasm hit him like a tidal wave. Pitching himself forward, bracing himself on his hands, he rode out his orgasm, his body convulsing again and again. His eyes were closed against the intensity of his passion.
It took a long time for Max’s body to finally calm down. He slowly regained his normal breathing, feeling Liz’s fingers sliding through his damp hair, caressing his shoulders, moving down his back to his ass, stroking him and laughing when her touch caused his cock to jump inside her.
“Well is it hot in here or is it just me?” Liz asked jokingly.
“Believe me it’s not just you,” Max said finally rolling off her. Causing them both to moan at the loss of contact.
“How about I go get something for us to eat? I’m starving.” Liz asked.
“Sure, sounds good,” Max replied noticing how hungry he was as well.
“Be back in a second,” Liz said leaning over giving Max a quick kiss on the mouth before climbing out of bed. Max had great view of her rear end as she walked to the kitchen.
Back in the bedroom, Max and Liz were leaning up against the headboard talking. They talked about movies, sports, and mutual friends. Then Liz wanted to know what kind of music Max listened to.
“Alternative rock, usually. Why?”
“Just curious,” she murmured around a bit of home made brownie, part of the batch she’d made while struggling to entertain herself Friday afternoon. “I’d have a hard time sleeping with someone who regularly listened to Britney Spears,” she added after swallowing.
Max smiled and brushed chocolate crumbs off his bare stomach. “A music snob, Parker?”
“Yep,” she admitted unabashedly. “And, by the way, if you don’t like Creed, then I’m afraid it’s over between us. I have to set standards you know.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I like Creed, isn’t it?”
She made a great show of sighing in relief and wiping her brow. “Made it past the fist hurdle. So how do you feel about science fiction?”
He really liked science fiction he assured her, but he had to confess to a slight preference for tightly written mystery novels. She graciously allowed him that eccentricity.
“What else do you like to do, Liz? Besides read scifi.”
She shrugged. “I work,” she said simply.
“That’s it?”
“Pretty much. Who has time for anything else?”
She didn’t sound as though she were really complaining. Max knew it was because Liz truly loved her work. Again he felt that uncomfortable ripple of envy that he didn’t—couldn’t feel the same way about their mutual career. It was a job to him. A way to pay the bills. That was all it had ever been. He sensed that for Liz, it had always been much more.
They worked together to prepare dinner Saturday evening. Liz broiled two inexpensive steaks, promising that her special marinade would make them taste like the finest cuts of beef. Max made a salad and prepared a dressing from a recipe he solemnly swore had been passed down for eleven generations in his family, to be revealed to outsiders only at the risk of great personal injury.
“Eleven generations, hmm?” Liz asked skeptically, trying to see around him to watch what he was adding to the bowl.
“Eleven,” he repeated, blocking her view with his broad shoulders.
“And only your relatives know the recipe?”
“It has never been divulged to anyone outside the Evans family.”
“What about people who marry into the Evans family?”
“They are given the secret on their wedding night.”
“And if they decide to divorce the Evans they married in order to receive the secret?”
“Then they have to be killed,” Max assured her gravely. “There are very few divorces in my family.”
“You’ll tell Junior, won’t you?” she asked, patting her flat stomach beneath the oversize white T-shirt that was all she wore at the moment. The shirt belonged to Max. He liked the way it looked on her much better than on him, he thought rather dreamily.
“Max?”
“Mmm?”
“You will tell Junior the secret recipe, won’t you?” she prodded, smiling at their silliness. “After all, he is your child.”
“I’ll tell him,” Max promised. “The usual method-a secret ceremony for all the adult males in the family, to be held at midnight on his twenty-first birthday.”
“Only adult males? Why, you sexist pig. What if Junior’s a girl, hmm?”
Max shook his head. “Bob isn’t a girl,” he announced flatly.
“We are not naming this child Bob,” Liz informed him.
He sighed noisily. “I don’t understand this dislike you have toward the name Bob. It’s really a great name, Parker.”
“I know. Short, simple, easy to spell.”
“Yeah. Frontward and backward. What more could you ask?”
“Creativity? Imagination?”
He shook his head again. “People with creative and imaginative names usually end up getting teased. No one makes fun of good, solid names like Bob.”
“Or Max, I suppose.”
“Right.”
She snorted. “You’ve got no imagination at all, Evans.”
“Oh I don’t know,” he murmured, glancing at her over his shoulder. “I’m imagining a couple of interesting things I’d like to do with you.”
She widened her eyes. “Something we haven’t already tried?”
“Honey, we haven’t even gotten good and started.”
‘Oh, my.” She fanned herself rapidly with one hand. “I’m getting all flustered. Um-just how hungry are you, anyway?”
He laughed and turned back to his salad. “You can just wait until after dinner, Parker. A man needs his strength for the activities I have in mind.”
“Why don’t I whip you up a liver milk shake to go with that? Some oysters maybe?”
Max realized that he was laughing again.
Damn, it felt good.
TBC……….
Max was watching Liz sleep again. He lay on his side, facing her, his gaze focused unblinkingly on her sweetly relaxed face. He knew she wouldn’t like it that he was staring at her at such a vulnerable, unguarded moment, but he couldn’t seem to look away.
He had absolutely no idea how to handle this new development between them. Making love with her had been—well it had been incredible. Spectacular. Staggering. As a matter of fact, he would like very much to do it again. Soon. Repeatedly. But was that all there was between them? Sexual chemistry? And if so, how come it hadn’t hit him before? Why had he only fully realized it after he’d become aware of all the things he admired about her?
Maybe there was more to it then sex. And wasn’t that a scary thought?
She stirred against the pillow, her fine brown hair tangling softly around her face. He wanted to reach out and smooth it back, but was afraid he’d wake her if he did. She needed her rest.
He didn’t blame her for being bored and restless during the past week. As skilled as she was in the kitchen, Liz wasn’t the type to content herself for long with repetitive domestic routines. She thrived on action, pressure, even a hint of danger. Liz loved her job in a way that Max could only envy. If he’d ever really felt that way about his career, the enthusiasm had burned out years ago. He hadn’t felt particularly enthusiastic about anything for a long time, until last night. Making love to Liz Parker had made him feel more intensely alive, more passionately aware, than he’d felt in years.
Now he found himself already dreading the inevitable return to the dull, gray, smothering monotony of life without her. Because something told him that the end of this assignment would also mark the end of whatever tentative relationship had been formed between him and his impulsive, utterly dedicated partner.
She stirred again, yawned, then blinked sleepily a couple of times. Her gaze met his and suddenly focused. Max could almost watch the awareness returning to her in stages as she realized that he was lying beside her, watching her, and that she wasn’t wearing anything. And then her eyes widened, and he knew she’d remembered exactly what had happened between them last night.
How would she react? Would she withdraw in panic? Turn her confusion into anger at him? Brush it off as “just one of those things”?
He hadn’t expected her to smile.
“Good morning.” She murmured.
“Good morning.” He noticed how soft and inviting her unpainted mouth looked first thing in the morning.
“Did you sleep well?” she asked politely.
“Yes. You?”
“Mmm. Very.” She stretched lazily and the sheet slid down to expose the upper curves of her small, perfect breasts. Max felt his heart do a slow somersault in his chest.
And then she smiled again. “I haven’t slept that well in a very long time,” she assured him.
He couldn’t resist reaching out to touch her. He restricted himself to brushing back that lock of hair that had been tempting him all morning. “Neither have I.”
“Are you hungry? I was thinking of making waffles for breakfast.”
Waffles were very far down on his list of priorities just then. He looked again at her smile, threw caution to the wind and reached for her.
“Maybe we could talk about breakfast later,” he whispered, his mouth hovering a breath above hers.
Liz wound her arms around his neck. “Sounds good to me,” she agreed with flattering eagerness.
That weekend, for the fist time, Max found himself almost wanting to believe the fantasy he was living.
He and Liz spent most of Saturday in the bedroom. They made love…repeatedly. They talked; they raided the kitchen for snacks, which they fed each other in bed. They laughed. He noticed at one point that Liz was looking at him strangely, though she’d been giggling only moments ago. “What is it?” he asked, trailing a lazy hand down her firm, bare thigh.
“You’re laughing,” she said, sounding bemused.
“Yeah well, you’re pretty funny Parker.”
“You don’t laugh very often. Except for the fist time you saw me in the harness, I don’t think I’ve ever really heard you laugh before.”
His smile changed to a quick frown. “Sure you have.”
She shook her head. “I’ve heard you chuckle. I’ve seen you smile—very rarely. But I’m not sure you’ve ever really laughed out loud around me before last week.”
She was making him self-conscious. He shrugged.
“You’re a very serious guy, aren’t you Evans? Aren’t you happy?” she asked lightly. He sensed that she was only half teasing.
With his head propped on one hand, he touched her face with the fingertips of his other hand. “I’m happy right now,’ he said quietly. And realized, to his surprise, that he meant it.
She smiled and nestled her cheek into his palm. “That’s nice,” she murmured, her lips moving against his caressing thumb.
“Mmm. Nice,” he agreed, his voice growing husky. His body stirring. Again. “Very nice,” he whispered, and replaced his thumb with his mouth.
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down to her.
Max groaned, covering her body with his, his erect cock pressed against her stomach and throbbed with the beat of his heart. His lips burned her flesh everywhere they touched her. Liz’s hands dug into his back, then slid down to his buttocks, clenching there and forcing him harder against her. She heard him groan when her hands came in contact with his ass, and his cock jerked against her, growing even larger. His tongue was deep in her mouth; she sucked on it, locking her eyes to his smoldering gaze even as her body locked to his.
Max pulled back, causing a whimper of frustration from her as she reached to pull him down again. Her gasps stilled as she watched him position himself between her thighs, take his erection in his fingers, and slide himself up and down using his own arousal to lubricate her. He slid slowly into her a little, closing his eyes, his mouth open in mute pleasure, the muscles in his arms and legs bunched in anticipation of the act of coupling. He pulled out again, moving his cock between her legs, then lunged forward powerfully. The thrust carried him entirely within her, causing Liz to gasp at the completeness of his penetration. He held himself still for moment, feeling her inner muscles moving to accommodate his size. When he knew she was ready, he began to pump in and out, hard.
Liz’s nipples were stiff against his chest. Max bent down and took one into his mouth, sucking her breast, teasing the nipple with his tongue, then biting it, just hard enough to send a bolt of sweet pain through Liz. He did the same with the other.
He knew it would happen fast. From Liz’s cries and the movement of her body, the tightening of her inner muscles around his swollen cock, Max knew she would not last much longer. His thrusts were deep and powerful, faster as his lust increased. His breath was rapid and harsh, every exhale a sob. He felt Liz’s hands gripping his upper arms for leverage as she moved in time with his rhythmic stabbing, her face flushed, her eyes glazed over with desire. “Max….” she panted, then words failed her as her orgasm ripped through her, sending her body into spasms. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Max watched her climax, feeling her inner muscles squeezing his cock again and again in diminishing waves as her orgasm gradually wound down. The pleasure was almost unbearable. He lifted her body up against him holding her buttocks, and drove into her faster, wanting to bury himself so deeply inside her that their bodies would be fused together like this forever. Liz was sprawled on the lumpy mattress, her hair a mass around her shoulders, eyes fixed on Max, watching him as he made her his own.
His strokes didn’t slow down or decrease in intensity, if anything; he seemed to feed on the passion from Liz. Gasping, his hair stuck around his face; his body slick with sweat, max rode Liz almost violently, dancing with her in the most primal, most erotic of dances. He didn’t think he could be more hard, but with every stroke he could feel his cock grow to the point that it was almost painful for him to continue.
He felt Liz tightening around him again, and she gasped out, “Oh God, Max….” as another climax ripped through her body. She had no strength to pull herself up into Max’s arms.
Her release triggered Max’s climax, and he gasped out as the first spasm hit him like a tidal wave. Pitching himself forward, bracing himself on his hands, he rode out his orgasm, his body convulsing again and again. His eyes were closed against the intensity of his passion.
It took a long time for Max’s body to finally calm down. He slowly regained his normal breathing, feeling Liz’s fingers sliding through his damp hair, caressing his shoulders, moving down his back to his ass, stroking him and laughing when her touch caused his cock to jump inside her.
“Well is it hot in here or is it just me?” Liz asked jokingly.
“Believe me it’s not just you,” Max said finally rolling off her. Causing them both to moan at the loss of contact.
“How about I go get something for us to eat? I’m starving.” Liz asked.
“Sure, sounds good,” Max replied noticing how hungry he was as well.
“Be back in a second,” Liz said leaning over giving Max a quick kiss on the mouth before climbing out of bed. Max had great view of her rear end as she walked to the kitchen.
Back in the bedroom, Max and Liz were leaning up against the headboard talking. They talked about movies, sports, and mutual friends. Then Liz wanted to know what kind of music Max listened to.
“Alternative rock, usually. Why?”
“Just curious,” she murmured around a bit of home made brownie, part of the batch she’d made while struggling to entertain herself Friday afternoon. “I’d have a hard time sleeping with someone who regularly listened to Britney Spears,” she added after swallowing.
Max smiled and brushed chocolate crumbs off his bare stomach. “A music snob, Parker?”
“Yep,” she admitted unabashedly. “And, by the way, if you don’t like Creed, then I’m afraid it’s over between us. I have to set standards you know.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I like Creed, isn’t it?”
She made a great show of sighing in relief and wiping her brow. “Made it past the fist hurdle. So how do you feel about science fiction?”
He really liked science fiction he assured her, but he had to confess to a slight preference for tightly written mystery novels. She graciously allowed him that eccentricity.
“What else do you like to do, Liz? Besides read scifi.”
She shrugged. “I work,” she said simply.
“That’s it?”
“Pretty much. Who has time for anything else?”
She didn’t sound as though she were really complaining. Max knew it was because Liz truly loved her work. Again he felt that uncomfortable ripple of envy that he didn’t—couldn’t feel the same way about their mutual career. It was a job to him. A way to pay the bills. That was all it had ever been. He sensed that for Liz, it had always been much more.
They worked together to prepare dinner Saturday evening. Liz broiled two inexpensive steaks, promising that her special marinade would make them taste like the finest cuts of beef. Max made a salad and prepared a dressing from a recipe he solemnly swore had been passed down for eleven generations in his family, to be revealed to outsiders only at the risk of great personal injury.
“Eleven generations, hmm?” Liz asked skeptically, trying to see around him to watch what he was adding to the bowl.
“Eleven,” he repeated, blocking her view with his broad shoulders.
“And only your relatives know the recipe?”
“It has never been divulged to anyone outside the Evans family.”
“What about people who marry into the Evans family?”
“They are given the secret on their wedding night.”
“And if they decide to divorce the Evans they married in order to receive the secret?”
“Then they have to be killed,” Max assured her gravely. “There are very few divorces in my family.”
“You’ll tell Junior, won’t you?” she asked, patting her flat stomach beneath the oversize white T-shirt that was all she wore at the moment. The shirt belonged to Max. He liked the way it looked on her much better than on him, he thought rather dreamily.
“Max?”
“Mmm?”
“You will tell Junior the secret recipe, won’t you?” she prodded, smiling at their silliness. “After all, he is your child.”
“I’ll tell him,” Max promised. “The usual method-a secret ceremony for all the adult males in the family, to be held at midnight on his twenty-first birthday.”
“Only adult males? Why, you sexist pig. What if Junior’s a girl, hmm?”
Max shook his head. “Bob isn’t a girl,” he announced flatly.
“We are not naming this child Bob,” Liz informed him.
He sighed noisily. “I don’t understand this dislike you have toward the name Bob. It’s really a great name, Parker.”
“I know. Short, simple, easy to spell.”
“Yeah. Frontward and backward. What more could you ask?”
“Creativity? Imagination?”
He shook his head again. “People with creative and imaginative names usually end up getting teased. No one makes fun of good, solid names like Bob.”
“Or Max, I suppose.”
“Right.”
She snorted. “You’ve got no imagination at all, Evans.”
“Oh I don’t know,” he murmured, glancing at her over his shoulder. “I’m imagining a couple of interesting things I’d like to do with you.”
She widened her eyes. “Something we haven’t already tried?”
“Honey, we haven’t even gotten good and started.”
‘Oh, my.” She fanned herself rapidly with one hand. “I’m getting all flustered. Um-just how hungry are you, anyway?”
He laughed and turned back to his salad. “You can just wait until after dinner, Parker. A man needs his strength for the activities I have in mind.”
“Why don’t I whip you up a liver milk shake to go with that? Some oysters maybe?”
Max realized that he was laughing again.
Damn, it felt good.
TBC……….
Chapter 14
Chapter 14
They played cards after dinner. It turned out that they shared a mutual passion for gin rummy, and a mutual competitiveness that turned the simple game into a grimly serious contest. Neither of them liked to lose. They diplomatically decided to end play at a point when the scores were tied.
Max watched the evening news before turning in, admitting that he wanted to check the scores of that day’s professional baseball games. He had a bet riding on one of them, he confessed.
“A bet?” Liz repeated, her head coming up from its comfortable position on his thigh. She’d stretched out beside him on the couch, her feet dangling over the opposite end, and she was totally uninterested in sports news.
“Chill out Parker. I’m not talking about bookies, here. The bet’s with Kyle. And the loser has to buy the winner a steak dinner. So don’t start reading me my rights, okay?”
“I wasn’t accusing you of illegal gambling,” she retorted, resting her head on his leg again. “You’re too much of a straight arrow for anything like that. And much too unimaginative,” she added.
“Unimaginative?” he echoed, feigning offence. “Who me?”
“Hey, you’re the one who wants to name the kid Bob. If the adjective fits, wear it.”
“Okay, ‘fess up, Parker. You once knew someone named Bob didn’t you? What did he do, break your heart?”
“I have nothing personal against the name Bob,” she argued. “It’s just…well, dull.”
“Dull?” He tapped one finger firmly against the wooden arm of the couch. “Like Max, perhaps?”
“The name or the person?” she inquired sweetly.
“You’re treading on dangerous ground here, Parker. Max is a fine old name in my family. It’s been passed down…”
“For eleven generations, I know,” Liz cut in with a roll of her eyes.
“Three,” he corrected. “Starting with my grandfather.”
“Then I’m surprised you don’t want to name your kid Max the fourth.”
“I do have more imagination than that.”
She giggled. “Oh yeah. Right. Bob.”
“Okay, so what would you name the kid?”
“My favorite name is Evan.”
Max choked. “Evan Evans? Give me a break, Liz! The kid would be the laughing stock of his kindergarten class.”
To his surprise, she actually blushed, her cheeks turning an intriguingly rosy color. “I hadn’t thought of using your last name,” she muttered. “This is a hypothetical kid remember?”
“Right. A hypothetical kid who would be called Evan Powers. I hate to break this to you, but that isn’t any better.”
“This is ridiculous,” Liz said, sitting up abruptly. “There is no kid! And besides, it might be a girl,” she added, obviously without stopping to think.
Max laughed. “I suppose if it’s a girl, you’d want to name it Emily?”
“I’m going to brush my teeth,” she announced, sweeping toward the bedroom door with exaggerated dignity. “Watch your scores, Evans. You’re probably going to be buying Kyle a steak dinner before long.”
He was still grinning when she left the room.
Parker was cute when she was embarrassed. She would seriously hurt him, of course, if he dared say so aloud.
He found himself suddenly picturing a tiny little girl with Liz’s doe brown eyes and intriguing dimples. His grin vanished.
Now where on earth had that image come from? And why the hell had it left him with this achy, hollow feeling somewhere deep inside his chest?
Max had put his momentary thought firmly behind him by the time he and Liz crawled back into bed. He turned to take her into his arms, and she came to him eagerly.
Above them, a bed began to creak.
“Oh yes. Yes, yes, oh, God yes!” Came the familiar shriek.
Liz dissolved into giggles against Max’s chest.
His deep laughter echoed from the dark corners of the grubby little room.
Max slipped downstairs for a newspaper early Sunday morning. The little women he’d spotted once before was moving down the first floor hallway behind her walker, wearing the same faded housedress and probably the same baggy knee-high stockings. He gave her a bright smile. “Good morning.”
She darted him a suspicious look and redoubled her pace, the walker thump-thumping loudly on the linoleum floor.
Max chuckled and tucked the newspaper under his arm. Max Powers certainly wasn’t making any new friends in this building. But Max Evans had surprisingly few complaints at the moment. He felt better than he’d felt in longer than he could remember. He’d just spent one of the most spectacular nights in his experience. Liz was upstairs even now making waffles for their breakfast. They had the entire day ahead of them-just the two of them.
He could almost believe it was all true. That he and Liz were a couple, making a home together, no matter how modest their surroundings. That the rapport they’d established extended beyond the bedroom, beyond the physical hunger they hadn’t begun to sate. That it wouldn’t all come to a messy, awkward, embarrassing end.
Hell, he could almost believe in little “Bob.”
He shook his head, some of his good mood fading. This was getting dangerous. And he wasn’t talking about their assignment.
Liz looked up with a smile when he joined her in the kitchen. The heavenly scent of crisply browned waffles filled the air, making his mouth water. But it was the warm smile she gave him that whetted his most urgent hunger.
Oh, yes, he thought grimly. This was most definitely getting dangerous.
It was the first time any assignment had ever put his heart at risk.
“Dear Ellis,” the letter in the newspaper began. “I’m in love with a man who can’t seem to open up to me. I want to make a lifelong commitment to him, but every time I try to talk about his feelings for me, or our relationship, he changes the subject. Is there any hope for us? Signed, Frustrated.”
Liz peeked over the top of the newspaper page at Max, who sat at the other end of the couch, perusing the sports section. As though he’d sensed her looking at him, he glanced up. He smiled that crooked, lazy smile that made her stomach do slow somersaults. She returned the smile with a weak attempt of her own, and slid her gaze quickly back to the features-section page she’d been reading. Max looked down at his baseball scores again.
“Dear Frustrated,” Liz read silently. “A man who won’t open up often has something to hide. A lasting relationship is built on total communication. Talk to him. If he still won’t discuss your future, you may have to accept that he doesn’t share your feelings or your goals. I urge you to find out now, before you invest any more in this one-sided relationship.”
Total communication. Liz sneaked another look over the paper, studying Max’s attractive profile. She couldn’t say she and Max shared total communication. Not verbally, anyway. They communicated beautifully in bed—but shouldn’t there be more to it than that?
There was so much about him she didn’t know. He’d told her about his childhood, growing up the beloved only son of a police-officer father and a homemaker mother. He’d told her he’d joined the police force nine years ago, and had vaguely mentioned that he’d first graduated from a state university. He’d brushed off her questions about his college major. He didn’t seem to enjoy talking about his career achievements.
There was a darkness in him, a deep, secret pain that she sometimes saw in his amber eyes or sensed in his deep, gruff voice. She’d once thought it had something to do with his broken relationship with the woman he’d lived with when she’d first met him. Now she wasn’t so sure. When he mentioned Pam, which he’d done only a couple of times since she’d known him, there’d been no real heartache or deep fondness of the woman, and he hadn’t been devastated when the affair had ended. Liz suspected that the break-up had been as much his decision as Pam’s.
Had there been another woman, before Pam? Had someone else hurt him so badly that he was still stinging, still wary about getting involved with anyone else?
She didn’t like to think about Max mourning an old love even when he was holding her in his arms.
Not that she was ready for a lifelong commitment, either, Liz assured herself hastily, closing the newspaper section. Her record with relationships was abysmal, and most of the men she’d known had been heartaches waiting to happen. Or vicious animals just waiting for an opportunity to attack. Or heartless slezoids who viewed women as nothing more than vulnerable bodies to be used for their own sick, selfish pleasures.
She suppressed a shudder as several old, ugly memories surfaced from the deep recesses of her mind. She pushed them firmly back into their dark corners, where she preferred them to remain.
Max Evans had his secrets. Liz Parker had hers. This so-called relationship was nothing more than a pleasant diversion to occupy them during an otherwise slow-moving investigation. When the assignment was over, their affair would end, as well. She could only hope it would end amicably, without an ugly scene that would make it more difficult for them to continue to work together.
“Aren’t you supposed to get in touch with Valenti this afternoon?” she asked suddenly, wanting to hear their supervisor’s name spoken aloud, needing the reminder that this was all part of the job.
Max had just turned to a new page of the sports section. In response to her abrupt question, he went very still for a moment. And then closed the newspaper. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d almost forgotten. Uh thanks for reminding me.”
He didn’t sound particularly grateful.
“Maybe I’ll try to talk to Maria again while you’re gone. I still think she’s our best chance at breaking this case. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind getting out of this rat hole soon.”
Max was looking at her with an odd, shuttered expression far different from the relaxed smile he’d been wearing all morning. Liz almost regretted bringing up the assignment. For a few wonderful hours, Max had seemed….well, almost happy. Now he looked more like the man she’d known during the past year-distant, cool, emotionless.
She missed his smile.
He set the paper aside. “I think I’ll take a shower and change before I go out.”
“Sure,” she muttered, and turned back to her paper as though she wasn’t aware that something had just changed between them. Something very important.
Max left the apartment at just after four that afternoon. “I’m not sure when I’ll be back,” he warned. “I’ll talk to Valenti, then hang out around the neighbourhood for awhile. See if I can pick anything up,”
“No reason for you to rush back,” she said casually. “Maybe Valenti has a new lead for us.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He hesitated at the door, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
Liz stood beside him, her bulky harness back in place beneath a blue, peasant-style maternity top with a large ruffled collar that kept tickling her chin. She smoothed the collar down for the dozenth time. It gave her something to do with her hands, other than reaching out to cling to Max. “Watch your back, Evans,” she said offhandedly.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you always say to your buddy Elliott?”
“Yeah,” she admitted, “Seemed appropriate.”
He nodded. “Okay. Keep your guard up, Parker.” He brushed his lips across her cheek, then let himself out.
Her fingertips pressed to the spot he’d kissed. Liz stared thoughtfully at the closed door. Keep your guard up. Isabel’s habitual response to Liz’s routine warning.
Apparently, Max had been watching Liz more closely than she’d realized during the past months. Did that mean he’d been interested in her before this assignment had begun? Or did it mean he was the observant type? Maybe it didn’t mean anything at all. Maybe she was just wasting her time looking for a faint, tentative reason to hope this wasn’t just a convenient, temporary affair.
She closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. Someone was going to get hurt on this assignment, she thought glumly. It would probably be her. And potential physical danger was the least of her worries.
TBC……
They played cards after dinner. It turned out that they shared a mutual passion for gin rummy, and a mutual competitiveness that turned the simple game into a grimly serious contest. Neither of them liked to lose. They diplomatically decided to end play at a point when the scores were tied.
Max watched the evening news before turning in, admitting that he wanted to check the scores of that day’s professional baseball games. He had a bet riding on one of them, he confessed.
“A bet?” Liz repeated, her head coming up from its comfortable position on his thigh. She’d stretched out beside him on the couch, her feet dangling over the opposite end, and she was totally uninterested in sports news.
“Chill out Parker. I’m not talking about bookies, here. The bet’s with Kyle. And the loser has to buy the winner a steak dinner. So don’t start reading me my rights, okay?”
“I wasn’t accusing you of illegal gambling,” she retorted, resting her head on his leg again. “You’re too much of a straight arrow for anything like that. And much too unimaginative,” she added.
“Unimaginative?” he echoed, feigning offence. “Who me?”
“Hey, you’re the one who wants to name the kid Bob. If the adjective fits, wear it.”
“Okay, ‘fess up, Parker. You once knew someone named Bob didn’t you? What did he do, break your heart?”
“I have nothing personal against the name Bob,” she argued. “It’s just…well, dull.”
“Dull?” He tapped one finger firmly against the wooden arm of the couch. “Like Max, perhaps?”
“The name or the person?” she inquired sweetly.
“You’re treading on dangerous ground here, Parker. Max is a fine old name in my family. It’s been passed down…”
“For eleven generations, I know,” Liz cut in with a roll of her eyes.
“Three,” he corrected. “Starting with my grandfather.”
“Then I’m surprised you don’t want to name your kid Max the fourth.”
“I do have more imagination than that.”
She giggled. “Oh yeah. Right. Bob.”
“Okay, so what would you name the kid?”
“My favorite name is Evan.”
Max choked. “Evan Evans? Give me a break, Liz! The kid would be the laughing stock of his kindergarten class.”
To his surprise, she actually blushed, her cheeks turning an intriguingly rosy color. “I hadn’t thought of using your last name,” she muttered. “This is a hypothetical kid remember?”
“Right. A hypothetical kid who would be called Evan Powers. I hate to break this to you, but that isn’t any better.”
“This is ridiculous,” Liz said, sitting up abruptly. “There is no kid! And besides, it might be a girl,” she added, obviously without stopping to think.
Max laughed. “I suppose if it’s a girl, you’d want to name it Emily?”
“I’m going to brush my teeth,” she announced, sweeping toward the bedroom door with exaggerated dignity. “Watch your scores, Evans. You’re probably going to be buying Kyle a steak dinner before long.”
He was still grinning when she left the room.
Parker was cute when she was embarrassed. She would seriously hurt him, of course, if he dared say so aloud.
He found himself suddenly picturing a tiny little girl with Liz’s doe brown eyes and intriguing dimples. His grin vanished.
Now where on earth had that image come from? And why the hell had it left him with this achy, hollow feeling somewhere deep inside his chest?
Max had put his momentary thought firmly behind him by the time he and Liz crawled back into bed. He turned to take her into his arms, and she came to him eagerly.
Above them, a bed began to creak.
“Oh yes. Yes, yes, oh, God yes!” Came the familiar shriek.
Liz dissolved into giggles against Max’s chest.
His deep laughter echoed from the dark corners of the grubby little room.
Max slipped downstairs for a newspaper early Sunday morning. The little women he’d spotted once before was moving down the first floor hallway behind her walker, wearing the same faded housedress and probably the same baggy knee-high stockings. He gave her a bright smile. “Good morning.”
She darted him a suspicious look and redoubled her pace, the walker thump-thumping loudly on the linoleum floor.
Max chuckled and tucked the newspaper under his arm. Max Powers certainly wasn’t making any new friends in this building. But Max Evans had surprisingly few complaints at the moment. He felt better than he’d felt in longer than he could remember. He’d just spent one of the most spectacular nights in his experience. Liz was upstairs even now making waffles for their breakfast. They had the entire day ahead of them-just the two of them.
He could almost believe it was all true. That he and Liz were a couple, making a home together, no matter how modest their surroundings. That the rapport they’d established extended beyond the bedroom, beyond the physical hunger they hadn’t begun to sate. That it wouldn’t all come to a messy, awkward, embarrassing end.
Hell, he could almost believe in little “Bob.”
He shook his head, some of his good mood fading. This was getting dangerous. And he wasn’t talking about their assignment.
Liz looked up with a smile when he joined her in the kitchen. The heavenly scent of crisply browned waffles filled the air, making his mouth water. But it was the warm smile she gave him that whetted his most urgent hunger.
Oh, yes, he thought grimly. This was most definitely getting dangerous.
It was the first time any assignment had ever put his heart at risk.
“Dear Ellis,” the letter in the newspaper began. “I’m in love with a man who can’t seem to open up to me. I want to make a lifelong commitment to him, but every time I try to talk about his feelings for me, or our relationship, he changes the subject. Is there any hope for us? Signed, Frustrated.”
Liz peeked over the top of the newspaper page at Max, who sat at the other end of the couch, perusing the sports section. As though he’d sensed her looking at him, he glanced up. He smiled that crooked, lazy smile that made her stomach do slow somersaults. She returned the smile with a weak attempt of her own, and slid her gaze quickly back to the features-section page she’d been reading. Max looked down at his baseball scores again.
“Dear Frustrated,” Liz read silently. “A man who won’t open up often has something to hide. A lasting relationship is built on total communication. Talk to him. If he still won’t discuss your future, you may have to accept that he doesn’t share your feelings or your goals. I urge you to find out now, before you invest any more in this one-sided relationship.”
Total communication. Liz sneaked another look over the paper, studying Max’s attractive profile. She couldn’t say she and Max shared total communication. Not verbally, anyway. They communicated beautifully in bed—but shouldn’t there be more to it than that?
There was so much about him she didn’t know. He’d told her about his childhood, growing up the beloved only son of a police-officer father and a homemaker mother. He’d told her he’d joined the police force nine years ago, and had vaguely mentioned that he’d first graduated from a state university. He’d brushed off her questions about his college major. He didn’t seem to enjoy talking about his career achievements.
There was a darkness in him, a deep, secret pain that she sometimes saw in his amber eyes or sensed in his deep, gruff voice. She’d once thought it had something to do with his broken relationship with the woman he’d lived with when she’d first met him. Now she wasn’t so sure. When he mentioned Pam, which he’d done only a couple of times since she’d known him, there’d been no real heartache or deep fondness of the woman, and he hadn’t been devastated when the affair had ended. Liz suspected that the break-up had been as much his decision as Pam’s.
Had there been another woman, before Pam? Had someone else hurt him so badly that he was still stinging, still wary about getting involved with anyone else?
She didn’t like to think about Max mourning an old love even when he was holding her in his arms.
Not that she was ready for a lifelong commitment, either, Liz assured herself hastily, closing the newspaper section. Her record with relationships was abysmal, and most of the men she’d known had been heartaches waiting to happen. Or vicious animals just waiting for an opportunity to attack. Or heartless slezoids who viewed women as nothing more than vulnerable bodies to be used for their own sick, selfish pleasures.
She suppressed a shudder as several old, ugly memories surfaced from the deep recesses of her mind. She pushed them firmly back into their dark corners, where she preferred them to remain.
Max Evans had his secrets. Liz Parker had hers. This so-called relationship was nothing more than a pleasant diversion to occupy them during an otherwise slow-moving investigation. When the assignment was over, their affair would end, as well. She could only hope it would end amicably, without an ugly scene that would make it more difficult for them to continue to work together.
“Aren’t you supposed to get in touch with Valenti this afternoon?” she asked suddenly, wanting to hear their supervisor’s name spoken aloud, needing the reminder that this was all part of the job.
Max had just turned to a new page of the sports section. In response to her abrupt question, he went very still for a moment. And then closed the newspaper. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d almost forgotten. Uh thanks for reminding me.”
He didn’t sound particularly grateful.
“Maybe I’ll try to talk to Maria again while you’re gone. I still think she’s our best chance at breaking this case. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind getting out of this rat hole soon.”
Max was looking at her with an odd, shuttered expression far different from the relaxed smile he’d been wearing all morning. Liz almost regretted bringing up the assignment. For a few wonderful hours, Max had seemed….well, almost happy. Now he looked more like the man she’d known during the past year-distant, cool, emotionless.
She missed his smile.
He set the paper aside. “I think I’ll take a shower and change before I go out.”
“Sure,” she muttered, and turned back to her paper as though she wasn’t aware that something had just changed between them. Something very important.
Max left the apartment at just after four that afternoon. “I’m not sure when I’ll be back,” he warned. “I’ll talk to Valenti, then hang out around the neighbourhood for awhile. See if I can pick anything up,”
“No reason for you to rush back,” she said casually. “Maybe Valenti has a new lead for us.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He hesitated at the door, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
Liz stood beside him, her bulky harness back in place beneath a blue, peasant-style maternity top with a large ruffled collar that kept tickling her chin. She smoothed the collar down for the dozenth time. It gave her something to do with her hands, other than reaching out to cling to Max. “Watch your back, Evans,” she said offhandedly.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you always say to your buddy Elliott?”
“Yeah,” she admitted, “Seemed appropriate.”
He nodded. “Okay. Keep your guard up, Parker.” He brushed his lips across her cheek, then let himself out.
Her fingertips pressed to the spot he’d kissed. Liz stared thoughtfully at the closed door. Keep your guard up. Isabel’s habitual response to Liz’s routine warning.
Apparently, Max had been watching Liz more closely than she’d realized during the past months. Did that mean he’d been interested in her before this assignment had begun? Or did it mean he was the observant type? Maybe it didn’t mean anything at all. Maybe she was just wasting her time looking for a faint, tentative reason to hope this wasn’t just a convenient, temporary affair.
She closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. Someone was going to get hurt on this assignment, she thought glumly. It would probably be her. And potential physical danger was the least of her worries.
TBC……
Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Max had been gone for well over an hour when Liz crossed the hallway and tapped quietly on Maria’s door. “It’s Liz,” she said, identifying herself in answer to a muffled question from the other side of the door.
Maria opened the door a moment later. She quickly searched Liz’s face. “Anything wrong?”
“No. I just wondered if you’d like to come over and have a cup of coffee with me. I owe you one.”
Maria glanced across the hallway toward Liz’s apartment. “Your man home?”
“He’s gone out for awhile. I don’t know when he’ll be back.” Liz tried to look wistful and lonely.
Maria took a step back. “Why don’t you come on in here? I don’t want to be at your place if he gets home early. He don’t much like me.”
Liz looked hesitant. “I….uh…”
“You’re afraid he’ll catch you with me?”
“No, of course not,” Liz insisted a bit too quickly. “He doesn’t mind if I have friends.”
Maria obviously didn’t believe her. She stood in the doorway, waiting for Liz to make her decision. Liz took a deep breath, glanced both ways down the empty hallway, then pretended to come to a quick decision. “All right. If it’s no trouble, I’d love to have a cup of coffee with you.”
“Come on in, then. We’re letting the cool air out with this door open. What little cool air there is,” Maria added disgruntled. “The air-conditioning in this building sucks.”
Liz commiserated more delicately, waddling into the minimally furnished apartment behind her pregnant neighbor. She tried to imitate Maria’s off balance posture-not that it was all that difficult to feign, with twenty pounds of padding weighing her down.
Max shifted the telephone to his other ear and sipped form the coffee cup he held in his free hand. His sneakered feet were crossed in front of him on his kitchen table, and he slumped comfortably in the big wooden chair. It was nice to be back in his own apartment, in a place where no eight-legged intruders ran across the floor or counters, where the sounds from outside were nicely muted, where the air was scented with a pine-based air freshener rather than cabbages, onions and human excretions.
Problem was, he missed Liz. His apartment, where she’d never been, seemed empty now without her.
Real stupid, Evans.
He pushed his personal problems aside and completed his report to his lieutenant. “I really don’t think anyone on the construction crew knows anything about baby brokers in the neighborhood,” he concluded. “I’ve all but asked outright and haven’t even gotten a hint from them.”
“So Maria DeLuca is still our best lead,” Valenti said through the phone.
“Yeah, Parker still isn’t convinced DeLuca is mixed up with them, but I think she is. If anyone can find out for sure, though, it’s Liz,” Max added. “She’s already gotten tight with the women a lot faster than I expected her to.”
“Even you have to admit that Parker is damned good at her job.”
Parker was damned good at a lot of things, Max could have replied. Instead, he confined himself to a simple, “Yeah she is.”
“So how are the two of you getting along?”
Max nearly choked on another drink of coffee. He swallowed, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and casually replied. “Let’s just say we’ve got the neighbors convinced that there’s a lot of tension in the Powers household.”
Valenti chuckled. “I’ll bet you do. What? Wait a minute,” he said to Max when a women’s voice spoke in the background. The sound from the other end became muffled, as though Valenti had covered his receiver with his hand.
Max lifted a curious eyebrow as he waited for his boss to get back to him. As instructed, he’d called Valenti at his home number. So Valenti had a female visitor this afternoon. Interesting. As far as Max knew, the lieutenant hadn’t dated anyone since his wife had died two years ago.
“Hey Max?”
He lowered his mug and brought the phone back to his mouth, “Yeah?”
“Elliot says to tell Liz hello. And she wants to know if the two of you have been picking out baby names.”
Max grinned, though his curiosity had just gone up another notch. What was Isabel Elliot doing at Jim’s house this afternoon? Very interesting. “Yeah, as a matter of fact we have. Ask her what she thinks of Bob.”
Valenti murmured a question and Isabel replied inaudibly. There was a smile in the lieutenant’s voice when he spoke again to Max. “She doesn’t think much of it,” he said. “She thinks you can come up with something more original. Like Levi. Or Zan.”
Max sighed. “What ever happened to appreciation for the fine old names?”
“Like Bob?”
“Right. Or Max.”
“Or Jim. Now that’s a fine old name.”
Max chuckled. “Bob Jim Evans. Has a nice ring to it. I’ll suggest it to Liz.”
“Er-don’t you mean Bob Jim Powers?”
Max cleared his throat. “Yeah. Right. That’s what I meant to say. Just joking around, all part of the cover story.” He was babbling. And, damn it, he thought he might even be blushing. Hell.
“You could be working too hard out in that hot sun, Evans. I think it’s time you came in out of the heat, don’t you?”
Max knew what he was being told. His part of the assignment was drawing to an end-or at least, the active role he’d taken thus far. Now it was time for step two. Time for Liz to take over. It was a good plan, and he knew she could handle it. But he wasn’t that enthusiastic when he said, “Yeah, I guess it is. I’ll check in with you as soon as I wrap it up.”
“Okay. See you then. Give Parker my best.”
“Sure.” Max hung up the phone, took one last sip of his coffee, then sighed and pushed himself to his feet.
He had a job to do.
Liz giggled at something Maria said, looking across the tiny table with the rather awed admiration she knew Maria found flattering. “You’re so funny,” she said.
“People say I got a good sense of humour,” she admitted, fluffing her hair.
“You do. Your baby will have a great time with you,” Liz dared, watching for a reaction.
She got more of a reaction then she expected. Maria’s smile suddenly disappeared from her face; her eyes went dull losing the life and sparkle. “You want more coffee?” she asked changing the subject.
“I’d better head on home,” Liz said knowing that Maria wouldn’t say anything more about the baby. “Max will be home soon, if I’m not there he’ll be angry-um I mean worried,” she corrected herself making it sound like she was trying to cover up her mistake.
Maria shook her head. “Why do you put up with the prick?”
“I love him,” she said quickly, then mentally winced at the sincerity in her voice. So what, she was a good actress. So good she almost convinced herself. There was no need to get carried away, she warned herself sternly.
“Love,” Maria snorted. “That word makes me sick. Nothing turns a woman into jello faster than thinking she’s in love.”
“Have you never been in love before?” Liz asked.
Maria gave a sharp breath out her nose raising a hand to the scar on her cheek. She dropped it almost immediately.
Before Maria could answer Liz’s question, they were both startled by a loud pounding on the door.
“Liz!” Max’s voice roared form the hallway. “Are you in there?”
“It’s Max,” Liz whispered unnecessarily, letting fear creep into her voice.
“That’s it,” Maria said slapping her hand down on the table. “There is no way that I’ll let him come banging on my door like that. I have friends that will make him wish he was never born. Nobody, and I mean nobody uses fists on my door!” Already heading for the living room, Maria’s voice was getting louder by the second and her body was shaking with outrage.
“Maria no!” Liz said pleadingly chasing after Maria. “I’ll take care of him. He’ll only get more angry if you start threatening him.”
“You think I’m scared of him? As if. I have friends that will make him look like an underdeveloped kindergartener.”
Liz had to admire her, knowing that there were no big friends, but she almost found herself believing that Maria was more then capable of taking care of an enraged male. “I don’t want Max hurt,” she said. “Please let me handle this.”
Maria stepped aside reluctantly letting Liz open the door, right in the middle of another series of blows. Max nearly fell through the doorway. Liz would have found it quite funny if he had landed on his face, but he managed to steady himself with one hand on the doorframe. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he yelled.
“Having coffee,” Liz assured him in the meek voice she had adopted for this role. “I was just coming home.”
“Get your ass home now,” Max said, grabbing her arm dragging her into the hallway. He made it realistic enough that Liz knew she would have marks on her arm where he’d taken hold of her. Not that she blamed him. He was just doing his job.
“Get your hands off her,” Maria yelled lurching forward.
Max stopped her by poking a finger into her shoulder. “You stay the hell away from my women, you hear me? I don’t want her hanging out with the likes of you.” He said, his voice laced with distaste.
“But, Max we were only talking about our babies, I mean their both due around the same time, and…”
“I don’t wanna hear about her bastard kid, or yours for that matter,” Max added cuttingly.
Liz allowed her eyes to fill with huge, pitiful tears. It was a talent she was rather proud of actually. She could cry at a drop of the hat when she wanted to. It was only when she really needed to that Liz was usually unable to shed a tear.
“Hey, that was uncalled for. Ain’t no need to hurt her like that,” Maria said sounding a bit appalled.
“Keep your nose out of our business, I’m warning you,” Max added, giving Liz another not so gentle shove in the direction of their apartment.
“I have friends you know,” Maria called after them. “Big friends,’ she added loudly, just as Max slammed their door closed behind himself and Liz.
Liz stood in the middle of the living room, her head cocked as she listened. A moment later Maria’s door slammed with enough force to shake theirs. “Damn. That was interesting.”
“You don’t think I overdid it, do you?” Max asked, frowning.
“Na you did just fine. You play the jerk very well. Must be a natural talent.”
He didn’t smile at the joke. Instead he reached out, took her hand and examined her arm. “Did I hurt you? I wanted it to look real but I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Liz shook her head. “You didn’t hurt me, Max.” she assured him.
Frowning at the faint red marks on her inner arm. He traced them with one finger, then bent his head down touching them quickly with his mouth before stepping back. “If I ever see you with that slut again, I’ll beat the living shit out of you.” He shouted.
Her arm still tingling from the all-too-brief contact with his lips, Liz promptly faked noisy tears and yelled back at him.
The “fight” progressed to more shouts, foot stamping, plate throwing and door slamming before ending it a good two hours after it started.
“Don’t want anyone calling the cops,” Max whispered with a faint smile.
Liz made a face knowing exactly how most of their neighbors felt about the police.
Dropping onto the couch Liz hitched the harness higher in her lap, and propped her feet on the coffee table. “So what did Valenti say?” she asked, keeping her voice low.
Turning on the TV for background noise, Max plopped down beside her. “He said it was time to come out of the sun.”
Liz felt her heart sink, though she’d been expecting this. “You’re moving out?”
“No one is going to approach you about the baby if I’m still around. I figure I’ll manage to get myself fired from the job tomorrow, then you and I can have another row and I’ll move out. You know what to do from there.”
“Yes. I’m to grieve myself half sick over you, and blame the baby for coming between us and ruining our beautiful relationship.”
Max nodded. “Yup. If Maria knows anything she’ll tell you.”
Liz thought of the look Maria gave at the mention of her child. “I think you’re right Max. I think she’s already made the arrangements to get rid of the baby. I don’t know if she’s going to adopt it or sell it, but I don’t think she has any intention of raising it.”
Liz suspected Maria was already mourning the loss of that child, though she hid her pain behind the tough façade she had probably developed years ago.
“She’s selling it,” Max said certainly. “Women like Maria don’t give anything away for free.”
Liz sighed, wishing she could disagree; knowing he was right.
“By the way, Elliot said to tell you hi.”
“When did you talk to Isabel?” she asked surprised.
“I didn’t, she was with Jim when I called. She sent the message through him.”
“Isabel was at Lieutenant Valenti’s house?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.” How interesting, Liz silently thought with a faint smile.
“I’m getting hungry. Any spaghetti left from lunch?”
“Yep, or I could make something else if you want?”
“Na leftovers are fine with me. I’ll start warming it up.”
Liz looked thoughtfully after him when he left the room. Max was acting strange this evening. She wondered why he had put up an invisible wall between them, when they had been so close only hours ago.
Was he preparing himself to leave? Or was he subtly signalling that the affair was coming to an end, along with his part of the assignment?
Bitting her lip, Liz concentrated on the action movie on the fuzzy TV. It helped her take her mind off the drama unfolding in the tiny, shabby apartment.
TBC……
Max had been gone for well over an hour when Liz crossed the hallway and tapped quietly on Maria’s door. “It’s Liz,” she said, identifying herself in answer to a muffled question from the other side of the door.
Maria opened the door a moment later. She quickly searched Liz’s face. “Anything wrong?”
“No. I just wondered if you’d like to come over and have a cup of coffee with me. I owe you one.”
Maria glanced across the hallway toward Liz’s apartment. “Your man home?”
“He’s gone out for awhile. I don’t know when he’ll be back.” Liz tried to look wistful and lonely.
Maria took a step back. “Why don’t you come on in here? I don’t want to be at your place if he gets home early. He don’t much like me.”
Liz looked hesitant. “I….uh…”
“You’re afraid he’ll catch you with me?”
“No, of course not,” Liz insisted a bit too quickly. “He doesn’t mind if I have friends.”
Maria obviously didn’t believe her. She stood in the doorway, waiting for Liz to make her decision. Liz took a deep breath, glanced both ways down the empty hallway, then pretended to come to a quick decision. “All right. If it’s no trouble, I’d love to have a cup of coffee with you.”
“Come on in, then. We’re letting the cool air out with this door open. What little cool air there is,” Maria added disgruntled. “The air-conditioning in this building sucks.”
Liz commiserated more delicately, waddling into the minimally furnished apartment behind her pregnant neighbor. She tried to imitate Maria’s off balance posture-not that it was all that difficult to feign, with twenty pounds of padding weighing her down.
Max shifted the telephone to his other ear and sipped form the coffee cup he held in his free hand. His sneakered feet were crossed in front of him on his kitchen table, and he slumped comfortably in the big wooden chair. It was nice to be back in his own apartment, in a place where no eight-legged intruders ran across the floor or counters, where the sounds from outside were nicely muted, where the air was scented with a pine-based air freshener rather than cabbages, onions and human excretions.
Problem was, he missed Liz. His apartment, where she’d never been, seemed empty now without her.
Real stupid, Evans.
He pushed his personal problems aside and completed his report to his lieutenant. “I really don’t think anyone on the construction crew knows anything about baby brokers in the neighborhood,” he concluded. “I’ve all but asked outright and haven’t even gotten a hint from them.”
“So Maria DeLuca is still our best lead,” Valenti said through the phone.
“Yeah, Parker still isn’t convinced DeLuca is mixed up with them, but I think she is. If anyone can find out for sure, though, it’s Liz,” Max added. “She’s already gotten tight with the women a lot faster than I expected her to.”
“Even you have to admit that Parker is damned good at her job.”
Parker was damned good at a lot of things, Max could have replied. Instead, he confined himself to a simple, “Yeah she is.”
“So how are the two of you getting along?”
Max nearly choked on another drink of coffee. He swallowed, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and casually replied. “Let’s just say we’ve got the neighbors convinced that there’s a lot of tension in the Powers household.”
Valenti chuckled. “I’ll bet you do. What? Wait a minute,” he said to Max when a women’s voice spoke in the background. The sound from the other end became muffled, as though Valenti had covered his receiver with his hand.
Max lifted a curious eyebrow as he waited for his boss to get back to him. As instructed, he’d called Valenti at his home number. So Valenti had a female visitor this afternoon. Interesting. As far as Max knew, the lieutenant hadn’t dated anyone since his wife had died two years ago.
“Hey Max?”
He lowered his mug and brought the phone back to his mouth, “Yeah?”
“Elliot says to tell Liz hello. And she wants to know if the two of you have been picking out baby names.”
Max grinned, though his curiosity had just gone up another notch. What was Isabel Elliot doing at Jim’s house this afternoon? Very interesting. “Yeah, as a matter of fact we have. Ask her what she thinks of Bob.”
Valenti murmured a question and Isabel replied inaudibly. There was a smile in the lieutenant’s voice when he spoke again to Max. “She doesn’t think much of it,” he said. “She thinks you can come up with something more original. Like Levi. Or Zan.”
Max sighed. “What ever happened to appreciation for the fine old names?”
“Like Bob?”
“Right. Or Max.”
“Or Jim. Now that’s a fine old name.”
Max chuckled. “Bob Jim Evans. Has a nice ring to it. I’ll suggest it to Liz.”
“Er-don’t you mean Bob Jim Powers?”
Max cleared his throat. “Yeah. Right. That’s what I meant to say. Just joking around, all part of the cover story.” He was babbling. And, damn it, he thought he might even be blushing. Hell.
“You could be working too hard out in that hot sun, Evans. I think it’s time you came in out of the heat, don’t you?”
Max knew what he was being told. His part of the assignment was drawing to an end-or at least, the active role he’d taken thus far. Now it was time for step two. Time for Liz to take over. It was a good plan, and he knew she could handle it. But he wasn’t that enthusiastic when he said, “Yeah, I guess it is. I’ll check in with you as soon as I wrap it up.”
“Okay. See you then. Give Parker my best.”
“Sure.” Max hung up the phone, took one last sip of his coffee, then sighed and pushed himself to his feet.
He had a job to do.
Liz giggled at something Maria said, looking across the tiny table with the rather awed admiration she knew Maria found flattering. “You’re so funny,” she said.
“People say I got a good sense of humour,” she admitted, fluffing her hair.
“You do. Your baby will have a great time with you,” Liz dared, watching for a reaction.
She got more of a reaction then she expected. Maria’s smile suddenly disappeared from her face; her eyes went dull losing the life and sparkle. “You want more coffee?” she asked changing the subject.
“I’d better head on home,” Liz said knowing that Maria wouldn’t say anything more about the baby. “Max will be home soon, if I’m not there he’ll be angry-um I mean worried,” she corrected herself making it sound like she was trying to cover up her mistake.
Maria shook her head. “Why do you put up with the prick?”
“I love him,” she said quickly, then mentally winced at the sincerity in her voice. So what, she was a good actress. So good she almost convinced herself. There was no need to get carried away, she warned herself sternly.
“Love,” Maria snorted. “That word makes me sick. Nothing turns a woman into jello faster than thinking she’s in love.”
“Have you never been in love before?” Liz asked.
Maria gave a sharp breath out her nose raising a hand to the scar on her cheek. She dropped it almost immediately.
Before Maria could answer Liz’s question, they were both startled by a loud pounding on the door.
“Liz!” Max’s voice roared form the hallway. “Are you in there?”
“It’s Max,” Liz whispered unnecessarily, letting fear creep into her voice.
“That’s it,” Maria said slapping her hand down on the table. “There is no way that I’ll let him come banging on my door like that. I have friends that will make him wish he was never born. Nobody, and I mean nobody uses fists on my door!” Already heading for the living room, Maria’s voice was getting louder by the second and her body was shaking with outrage.
“Maria no!” Liz said pleadingly chasing after Maria. “I’ll take care of him. He’ll only get more angry if you start threatening him.”
“You think I’m scared of him? As if. I have friends that will make him look like an underdeveloped kindergartener.”
Liz had to admire her, knowing that there were no big friends, but she almost found herself believing that Maria was more then capable of taking care of an enraged male. “I don’t want Max hurt,” she said. “Please let me handle this.”
Maria stepped aside reluctantly letting Liz open the door, right in the middle of another series of blows. Max nearly fell through the doorway. Liz would have found it quite funny if he had landed on his face, but he managed to steady himself with one hand on the doorframe. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he yelled.
“Having coffee,” Liz assured him in the meek voice she had adopted for this role. “I was just coming home.”
“Get your ass home now,” Max said, grabbing her arm dragging her into the hallway. He made it realistic enough that Liz knew she would have marks on her arm where he’d taken hold of her. Not that she blamed him. He was just doing his job.
“Get your hands off her,” Maria yelled lurching forward.
Max stopped her by poking a finger into her shoulder. “You stay the hell away from my women, you hear me? I don’t want her hanging out with the likes of you.” He said, his voice laced with distaste.
“But, Max we were only talking about our babies, I mean their both due around the same time, and…”
“I don’t wanna hear about her bastard kid, or yours for that matter,” Max added cuttingly.
Liz allowed her eyes to fill with huge, pitiful tears. It was a talent she was rather proud of actually. She could cry at a drop of the hat when she wanted to. It was only when she really needed to that Liz was usually unable to shed a tear.
“Hey, that was uncalled for. Ain’t no need to hurt her like that,” Maria said sounding a bit appalled.
“Keep your nose out of our business, I’m warning you,” Max added, giving Liz another not so gentle shove in the direction of their apartment.
“I have friends you know,” Maria called after them. “Big friends,’ she added loudly, just as Max slammed their door closed behind himself and Liz.
Liz stood in the middle of the living room, her head cocked as she listened. A moment later Maria’s door slammed with enough force to shake theirs. “Damn. That was interesting.”
“You don’t think I overdid it, do you?” Max asked, frowning.
“Na you did just fine. You play the jerk very well. Must be a natural talent.”
He didn’t smile at the joke. Instead he reached out, took her hand and examined her arm. “Did I hurt you? I wanted it to look real but I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Liz shook her head. “You didn’t hurt me, Max.” she assured him.
Frowning at the faint red marks on her inner arm. He traced them with one finger, then bent his head down touching them quickly with his mouth before stepping back. “If I ever see you with that slut again, I’ll beat the living shit out of you.” He shouted.
Her arm still tingling from the all-too-brief contact with his lips, Liz promptly faked noisy tears and yelled back at him.
The “fight” progressed to more shouts, foot stamping, plate throwing and door slamming before ending it a good two hours after it started.
“Don’t want anyone calling the cops,” Max whispered with a faint smile.
Liz made a face knowing exactly how most of their neighbors felt about the police.
Dropping onto the couch Liz hitched the harness higher in her lap, and propped her feet on the coffee table. “So what did Valenti say?” she asked, keeping her voice low.
Turning on the TV for background noise, Max plopped down beside her. “He said it was time to come out of the sun.”
Liz felt her heart sink, though she’d been expecting this. “You’re moving out?”
“No one is going to approach you about the baby if I’m still around. I figure I’ll manage to get myself fired from the job tomorrow, then you and I can have another row and I’ll move out. You know what to do from there.”
“Yes. I’m to grieve myself half sick over you, and blame the baby for coming between us and ruining our beautiful relationship.”
Max nodded. “Yup. If Maria knows anything she’ll tell you.”
Liz thought of the look Maria gave at the mention of her child. “I think you’re right Max. I think she’s already made the arrangements to get rid of the baby. I don’t know if she’s going to adopt it or sell it, but I don’t think she has any intention of raising it.”
Liz suspected Maria was already mourning the loss of that child, though she hid her pain behind the tough façade she had probably developed years ago.
“She’s selling it,” Max said certainly. “Women like Maria don’t give anything away for free.”
Liz sighed, wishing she could disagree; knowing he was right.
“By the way, Elliot said to tell you hi.”
“When did you talk to Isabel?” she asked surprised.
“I didn’t, she was with Jim when I called. She sent the message through him.”
“Isabel was at Lieutenant Valenti’s house?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.” How interesting, Liz silently thought with a faint smile.
“I’m getting hungry. Any spaghetti left from lunch?”
“Yep, or I could make something else if you want?”
“Na leftovers are fine with me. I’ll start warming it up.”
Liz looked thoughtfully after him when he left the room. Max was acting strange this evening. She wondered why he had put up an invisible wall between them, when they had been so close only hours ago.
Was he preparing himself to leave? Or was he subtly signalling that the affair was coming to an end, along with his part of the assignment?
Bitting her lip, Liz concentrated on the action movie on the fuzzy TV. It helped her take her mind off the drama unfolding in the tiny, shabby apartment.
TBC……
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Max’s emotional distance continued throughout the evening. Liz climbed into bed beside him in a state of uncertainty. Should she turn to him, as she had the past two nights? Should she ask him if anything was wrong? Or should she leave the fist move up to him?
For once, the apartment above them was silent. Ms. Oh-my-God-yes! must be out for the night, Liz thought as she settled into her pillow. Thank God. She wasn’t in the mood to be an unwilling audience to someone else’s sexual escapades tonight.
Max cleared his throat, causing Liz to jump.
“Sorry,” he said. “Did I startle you?”
“A bit. Um, did Valenti have anything else to say this afternoon?” She couldn’t think of anything else to say at the moment.
“No, not really.”
“Oh, so how are you going to get yourself fired tomorrow?” Not that she really cared; she just felt a strong need to make conversation. Anything rather than lie in silence beside him, wondering why he was being so careful not to touch her tonight.
“Dunno. Probably pick a fight with one of the guys or something.” He didn’t seem that interested either.
“Better make it a small guy,” Liz offered, hoping to make him smile.
“You saying I can’t handle a big one, Parker?” he asked, falling in with her teasing cooperatively enough. But the humour was forced, very different from the laughter they’d shared the day before.
“I don’t think I’ll touch that line. You make it too easy.”
“Someday Parker….” he growled softly.
She was glad it was too dark for him to see her pathetic attempt at a smile.
She wiggled again on the pillow. Her bare leg brushed Max’s. She jerked away as though she’d been burned.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Can’t get comfortable?”
“No.”
“Would a back rub help you relax?”
Relax? With his hands on her? “No!” she said, too quickly.
“Okay, take it easy. It was only a suggestion.”
“Sorry. Thanks for the offer.”
“Yeah.” He lay quietly for another few minutes—long enough that she began to wonder if he’d already fallen asleep. She didn’t expect to get a wink of sleep herself; she was too busy wondering what the hell was going on between them.
And then Max broke the silence again. “Liz?” His voice was quiet.
“Yeah?”
“You seem very far away tonight.”
“So do you,” she whispered.
His hand touched her shoulder. A moment later she was in his arms, her mouth crushed beneath his.
Deepening the kiss Max moved one hand into Liz’s hair while the other one drifted down her back grabbing her ass and pulling her closer to him. He could feel her all around him; her smell was driving him insane.
Liz let out a moan at the feel of his hands on her ass, which brought a smile to Max’s lips. He loved the sounds she made when they were making love. It was good to know that she was enjoying this as much as he was.
Needing to feel Liz’s skin against his own Max disentangled his hands from her body making sure not to lose contact with her mouth. Grabbing the end of her shirt Max slowly slid it up her body touching her torso as he went. Liz lifted her arms making it easier for Max to remove it. Lifting his mouth from hers for only a second, Max threw her shirt over his shoulder where it landed somewhere on the floor behind them.
Placing his mouth back on hers they both let out a moan when their chests come into contact with one another. Liz’s nipples instantly hardened at the change in texture, Max had to taste them. Kissing his way down the side of her face, then neck, he made his way to the two rosy peaks. Flicking his tongue out he gave a quick swipe before latching onto her right breast.
Taking the nipple between his teeth Max gave it a little bite, causing Liz to shudder both in pleasure and pain. He continued like this for a few more minutes before letting her breast go. Liz tried to grab his head to guide it back, but she quickly dropped them again when he latched onto her other breast. Giving her left breast the same treatment. Max finally removed his mouth, kissing his way down her body towards the nest of dark curls where they both wanted him to go.
Pealing her panties from her body Max got a good look at Liz. He was almost drooling with want of tasting her. Spreading her legs even wider, Max placed his hands behind her legs. Then leaning down, he pulled her up to his face, entering her with his tongue. Liz groaned deeply. Max explored her for several minutes just enjoying the taste of her, much to Liz’s delight.
Removing his mouth he rubbed his nose to the tender skin between her thighs. He then left her to suck at that skin, running one hand up her back. With the other, Max ran first one and the finally several fingers deep inside her before he slid his mouth back to her breast, leaving his thumb to continue his neglected work. Max suckled while stoking her. By now Liz’s head was thrashing against her pillow in pleasure. Max moved his mouth to her other breast, letting his other hand tease the nipple he had abandoned, his right hand stroking her harder.
“Max!” Liz screamed, as she lost herself in ecstasy, shuddering.
That was enough for Max to snap. He pulled back from her, ripped off his shorts and threw them behind him. He sucked off his fingers, which had stroked her, took her by the hips and entered her, not allowing her to come down. Liz was struggling to breathe; she was so overcome by sensation that her mind was a haze. She began moaning as Max moved within her. Her body was so overstimulated that he brought her back to orgasm without much effort at all. Liz lay there half-screaming as he leaned down to suckle one of her breasts. Her nails tore at his back as she groaned panting.
When she had come down somewhat, Max leaned back to look at her. Opening her eyes she said breathlessly “God you feel so good.”
Max smiled at her and stroked more deeply, causing her breath to stop for a second and close her eyes. “So do you,” he informed her.
Liz looked back at him. “Kiss me, Max…… Please.”
He leaned over her and kissed her deeply, a hand on her face.
Liz ran one hand into his hair, placing her other arm around his shoulders, her hips thrusted upwards needing him to continue.
Max bit the side of her neck lightly, stroking her more deeply. Wrapping her legs around his hips, Liz ran her hands down to his butt to pull him further in. Max stroked harder, watching her face. She moaned in delight.
Picking up speed Max knew that he wouldn’t last for much longer. Moving a hand in between their bodies, Max found the little nub he was looking for. Grabbing Liz’s clit between his thumb and finger he tugged and pulled until her felt Liz explode into another earth shattering orgasm. This brought on his own release. He keep stroking in and out of her spilling his seed deep inside her hot core.
Later Liz lay limply against Max’s chest, her body sated, her eyelids heavy. Even as she drifted into a restless sleep, she reflected that though they couldn’t be any closer physically, Max still seemed very far away.
He was gone when Liz woke the next morning. Not surprising, since she hadn’t slept at all well. It had been sometime around dawn the last time she’d managed to sleep.
Max had seemed to rest just fine, damn him. He was probably looking forward to getting out of here. Going back to his own clean, comfortable apartment. Going back to work with their friends. Leaving her here alone in this dump, alone in this big, lumpy bed. Damn him.
And then Liz, who could never cry when it mattered, found that there were real tears rolling steadily down her cheeks. And it suddenly mattered very much.
Max was back by three that afternoon.
“What are you doing home so early?” Liz asked clearly when he let himself into the apartment. Just in case anyone was listening.
“I got fired, damn it. And it’s all your fault!” Max yelled.
“My fault? How could it possibly be my fault?”
“You kept me up whining at me half the night and I couldn’t concentrate on the job today. You’re ruining my life!”
Liz broke into noisy tears again—completely phoney tears this time. She was satisfied that Max would never know she’d shed any real ones over him. “Why don’t you just leave me, then?” she wailed loudly.
“Sounds like a hell of a good idea to me!”
“Fine! Then leave.”
“Fine! I think I will.”
There were more shouts, more noisy sobs, plenty of door banging as Max shoved his things into a duffel bag. Liz followed him to the front door, begging him not to go.
“Just shut up! I’m leaving. That’s all there is to it!”
“Max, please….please…”
He hesitated with one hand on the doorknob. Without smiling, Max Evans looked directly at Liz Parker, the roles dropping for a moment. And then he reached out to snag a hand around the back of her neck and pull her to him. The kiss was long, hard, thorough. “Be careful,” he whispered when he released her.
“I’ll be in touch,” she murmured back.
“Do that,” he said, then jerked the door open. “Get the hell out of my way!”
“Max, please…please…..don’t go.”
“I’m already gone. You know what to do if you want me back,” he said with a quick glance at Maria’s closed door.
He was just disappearing into the stairwell when Maria’s door opened. Liz broke into sobs.
“What the…” Maria stepped out into the hallway, staring at Liz, who huddled miserably against the filthy wall. “Hey are you okay? Did that bastard hit you?”
“He—left me,” Liz replied in a rush of heartbroken words. “He’s gone, and he said he-he’s not c-coming back.”
“Look, kid, I’m sorry, but maybe it’s for the best, you know?” Maria offered awkwardly. “I mean, he really didn’t treat you too good. You got your kid to think about.”
Liz sobbed harder. “I want Max, she wailed. “I only want Max. If it wasn’t for this baby, I wouldn’t have lost him. It’s all my fault.”
“Your fault? Honey, you’re crazy. The kid’s half his.”
“But he didn’t want it. If I-if I’d only been more c-careful.” Liz cried, hiccuping. She wiped her wet face with the back of her hand. “Now he’s broke and out of work and discouraged and I’ve lost him. I’m all alone. Oh why did this have to happen to me? Why why why?”
Careful, Parker, she warned herself. Don’t overdo it.
Maria seemed to be falling for the charade without question. She patted Liz’s shoulder, roughly, self-consciously, obviously uncertain about how to offer comfort. “You’ll be okay,” she said. “Women like us, we’re survivors kid. We don’t need anyone to take care of us. We take care of ourselves, you know? And besides, you ain’t all alone. You got friends, you know? Like me.”
“I-I have to be alone for a little while,” Liz whimpered, groping for her doorknob. “I have to think about what I can do to get him back. I’ll talk to you later, okay Maria?”
“Yeah, sure. You just say the word and I’ll have my friends track that guy for you, okay? Maybe they can convince him to do his duty by you, you know what I mean?”
Liz shook her head, hiding her face behind her hair, as if she was too overcome by emotion to speak. Then she stumbled into her apartment and closed the door behind her, aware that her noisy sobs filtered through the thin barrier.
She ran heavily into the bedroom, as though to throw herself on the bed and dissolve into tears. Only when the bedroom door had slammed behind her did she allow herself to relax. She went into the bathroom to repair the damage her tears had done to her face. She patted her face with a worn hand-towel, ran a brush through her tangled hair, then walked back into the bedroom. The very empty bedroom. The very quiet bedroom.
She sighed, her face focused on the lumpy bed.
She really was going to miss Max.
TBC………
Max’s emotional distance continued throughout the evening. Liz climbed into bed beside him in a state of uncertainty. Should she turn to him, as she had the past two nights? Should she ask him if anything was wrong? Or should she leave the fist move up to him?
For once, the apartment above them was silent. Ms. Oh-my-God-yes! must be out for the night, Liz thought as she settled into her pillow. Thank God. She wasn’t in the mood to be an unwilling audience to someone else’s sexual escapades tonight.
Max cleared his throat, causing Liz to jump.
“Sorry,” he said. “Did I startle you?”
“A bit. Um, did Valenti have anything else to say this afternoon?” She couldn’t think of anything else to say at the moment.
“No, not really.”
“Oh, so how are you going to get yourself fired tomorrow?” Not that she really cared; she just felt a strong need to make conversation. Anything rather than lie in silence beside him, wondering why he was being so careful not to touch her tonight.
“Dunno. Probably pick a fight with one of the guys or something.” He didn’t seem that interested either.
“Better make it a small guy,” Liz offered, hoping to make him smile.
“You saying I can’t handle a big one, Parker?” he asked, falling in with her teasing cooperatively enough. But the humour was forced, very different from the laughter they’d shared the day before.
“I don’t think I’ll touch that line. You make it too easy.”
“Someday Parker….” he growled softly.
She was glad it was too dark for him to see her pathetic attempt at a smile.
She wiggled again on the pillow. Her bare leg brushed Max’s. She jerked away as though she’d been burned.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Can’t get comfortable?”
“No.”
“Would a back rub help you relax?”
Relax? With his hands on her? “No!” she said, too quickly.
“Okay, take it easy. It was only a suggestion.”
“Sorry. Thanks for the offer.”
“Yeah.” He lay quietly for another few minutes—long enough that she began to wonder if he’d already fallen asleep. She didn’t expect to get a wink of sleep herself; she was too busy wondering what the hell was going on between them.
And then Max broke the silence again. “Liz?” His voice was quiet.
“Yeah?”
“You seem very far away tonight.”
“So do you,” she whispered.
His hand touched her shoulder. A moment later she was in his arms, her mouth crushed beneath his.
Deepening the kiss Max moved one hand into Liz’s hair while the other one drifted down her back grabbing her ass and pulling her closer to him. He could feel her all around him; her smell was driving him insane.
Liz let out a moan at the feel of his hands on her ass, which brought a smile to Max’s lips. He loved the sounds she made when they were making love. It was good to know that she was enjoying this as much as he was.
Needing to feel Liz’s skin against his own Max disentangled his hands from her body making sure not to lose contact with her mouth. Grabbing the end of her shirt Max slowly slid it up her body touching her torso as he went. Liz lifted her arms making it easier for Max to remove it. Lifting his mouth from hers for only a second, Max threw her shirt over his shoulder where it landed somewhere on the floor behind them.
Placing his mouth back on hers they both let out a moan when their chests come into contact with one another. Liz’s nipples instantly hardened at the change in texture, Max had to taste them. Kissing his way down the side of her face, then neck, he made his way to the two rosy peaks. Flicking his tongue out he gave a quick swipe before latching onto her right breast.
Taking the nipple between his teeth Max gave it a little bite, causing Liz to shudder both in pleasure and pain. He continued like this for a few more minutes before letting her breast go. Liz tried to grab his head to guide it back, but she quickly dropped them again when he latched onto her other breast. Giving her left breast the same treatment. Max finally removed his mouth, kissing his way down her body towards the nest of dark curls where they both wanted him to go.
Pealing her panties from her body Max got a good look at Liz. He was almost drooling with want of tasting her. Spreading her legs even wider, Max placed his hands behind her legs. Then leaning down, he pulled her up to his face, entering her with his tongue. Liz groaned deeply. Max explored her for several minutes just enjoying the taste of her, much to Liz’s delight.
Removing his mouth he rubbed his nose to the tender skin between her thighs. He then left her to suck at that skin, running one hand up her back. With the other, Max ran first one and the finally several fingers deep inside her before he slid his mouth back to her breast, leaving his thumb to continue his neglected work. Max suckled while stoking her. By now Liz’s head was thrashing against her pillow in pleasure. Max moved his mouth to her other breast, letting his other hand tease the nipple he had abandoned, his right hand stroking her harder.
“Max!” Liz screamed, as she lost herself in ecstasy, shuddering.
That was enough for Max to snap. He pulled back from her, ripped off his shorts and threw them behind him. He sucked off his fingers, which had stroked her, took her by the hips and entered her, not allowing her to come down. Liz was struggling to breathe; she was so overcome by sensation that her mind was a haze. She began moaning as Max moved within her. Her body was so overstimulated that he brought her back to orgasm without much effort at all. Liz lay there half-screaming as he leaned down to suckle one of her breasts. Her nails tore at his back as she groaned panting.
When she had come down somewhat, Max leaned back to look at her. Opening her eyes she said breathlessly “God you feel so good.”
Max smiled at her and stroked more deeply, causing her breath to stop for a second and close her eyes. “So do you,” he informed her.
Liz looked back at him. “Kiss me, Max…… Please.”
He leaned over her and kissed her deeply, a hand on her face.
Liz ran one hand into his hair, placing her other arm around his shoulders, her hips thrusted upwards needing him to continue.
Max bit the side of her neck lightly, stroking her more deeply. Wrapping her legs around his hips, Liz ran her hands down to his butt to pull him further in. Max stroked harder, watching her face. She moaned in delight.
Picking up speed Max knew that he wouldn’t last for much longer. Moving a hand in between their bodies, Max found the little nub he was looking for. Grabbing Liz’s clit between his thumb and finger he tugged and pulled until her felt Liz explode into another earth shattering orgasm. This brought on his own release. He keep stroking in and out of her spilling his seed deep inside her hot core.
Later Liz lay limply against Max’s chest, her body sated, her eyelids heavy. Even as she drifted into a restless sleep, she reflected that though they couldn’t be any closer physically, Max still seemed very far away.
He was gone when Liz woke the next morning. Not surprising, since she hadn’t slept at all well. It had been sometime around dawn the last time she’d managed to sleep.
Max had seemed to rest just fine, damn him. He was probably looking forward to getting out of here. Going back to his own clean, comfortable apartment. Going back to work with their friends. Leaving her here alone in this dump, alone in this big, lumpy bed. Damn him.
And then Liz, who could never cry when it mattered, found that there were real tears rolling steadily down her cheeks. And it suddenly mattered very much.
Max was back by three that afternoon.
“What are you doing home so early?” Liz asked clearly when he let himself into the apartment. Just in case anyone was listening.
“I got fired, damn it. And it’s all your fault!” Max yelled.
“My fault? How could it possibly be my fault?”
“You kept me up whining at me half the night and I couldn’t concentrate on the job today. You’re ruining my life!”
Liz broke into noisy tears again—completely phoney tears this time. She was satisfied that Max would never know she’d shed any real ones over him. “Why don’t you just leave me, then?” she wailed loudly.
“Sounds like a hell of a good idea to me!”
“Fine! Then leave.”
“Fine! I think I will.”
There were more shouts, more noisy sobs, plenty of door banging as Max shoved his things into a duffel bag. Liz followed him to the front door, begging him not to go.
“Just shut up! I’m leaving. That’s all there is to it!”
“Max, please….please…”
He hesitated with one hand on the doorknob. Without smiling, Max Evans looked directly at Liz Parker, the roles dropping for a moment. And then he reached out to snag a hand around the back of her neck and pull her to him. The kiss was long, hard, thorough. “Be careful,” he whispered when he released her.
“I’ll be in touch,” she murmured back.
“Do that,” he said, then jerked the door open. “Get the hell out of my way!”
“Max, please…please…..don’t go.”
“I’m already gone. You know what to do if you want me back,” he said with a quick glance at Maria’s closed door.
He was just disappearing into the stairwell when Maria’s door opened. Liz broke into sobs.
“What the…” Maria stepped out into the hallway, staring at Liz, who huddled miserably against the filthy wall. “Hey are you okay? Did that bastard hit you?”
“He—left me,” Liz replied in a rush of heartbroken words. “He’s gone, and he said he-he’s not c-coming back.”
“Look, kid, I’m sorry, but maybe it’s for the best, you know?” Maria offered awkwardly. “I mean, he really didn’t treat you too good. You got your kid to think about.”
Liz sobbed harder. “I want Max, she wailed. “I only want Max. If it wasn’t for this baby, I wouldn’t have lost him. It’s all my fault.”
“Your fault? Honey, you’re crazy. The kid’s half his.”
“But he didn’t want it. If I-if I’d only been more c-careful.” Liz cried, hiccuping. She wiped her wet face with the back of her hand. “Now he’s broke and out of work and discouraged and I’ve lost him. I’m all alone. Oh why did this have to happen to me? Why why why?”
Careful, Parker, she warned herself. Don’t overdo it.
Maria seemed to be falling for the charade without question. She patted Liz’s shoulder, roughly, self-consciously, obviously uncertain about how to offer comfort. “You’ll be okay,” she said. “Women like us, we’re survivors kid. We don’t need anyone to take care of us. We take care of ourselves, you know? And besides, you ain’t all alone. You got friends, you know? Like me.”
“I-I have to be alone for a little while,” Liz whimpered, groping for her doorknob. “I have to think about what I can do to get him back. I’ll talk to you later, okay Maria?”
“Yeah, sure. You just say the word and I’ll have my friends track that guy for you, okay? Maybe they can convince him to do his duty by you, you know what I mean?”
Liz shook her head, hiding her face behind her hair, as if she was too overcome by emotion to speak. Then she stumbled into her apartment and closed the door behind her, aware that her noisy sobs filtered through the thin barrier.
She ran heavily into the bedroom, as though to throw herself on the bed and dissolve into tears. Only when the bedroom door had slammed behind her did she allow herself to relax. She went into the bathroom to repair the damage her tears had done to her face. She patted her face with a worn hand-towel, ran a brush through her tangled hair, then walked back into the bedroom. The very empty bedroom. The very quiet bedroom.
She sighed, her face focused on the lumpy bed.
She really was going to miss Max.
TBC………
Chapter 17
Chapter 17
“Girl, you look like hell. You are going to have to start taking better care of yourself.”
Liz sighed in response to Maria’s critical words. She knew exactly how she looked. Like hell, just as Maria had said. And it wasn’t all pretence, damn it.
It was Thursday, three days after Max’s dramatic departure. Liz couldn’t believe how much she missed him. The apartment had seemed smaller, dirtier, grimmer, uglier since he’d left. Only concentrating intently on her job had she been able to keep herself from climbing the walls.
It hadn’t been hard for Liz to pretend that she’d lost her appetite, and any concern about her appearance. In fact, it had been all too easy.
Maria had become her constant companion. Liz had sensed Maria’s loneliness from the beginning, but now she knew that Maria had craved companionship. Those “big friends” she’d bragged about had been conspicuously absent during the two weeks Liz had known her.
“Come on, eat somethin’,” Maria urged, motioning toward the fast-food feast she’d brought with her to Liz’s apartment a few minutes earlier. “You need to keep up your health.”
Even had it not been for the role she was playing, Liz wouldn’t have had the heart to point out that the selection Maria had provided was not exactly healthy for a supposedly pregnant women. Basically, the menu consisted of deep-fried fats and cholesterol, with a side order of empty calories. But the concern in Maria’s eyes was genuine, and the gesture had been well intentioned. Liz made an effort to eat a few bites, silently grateful that she didn’t really have a delicate stomach to contend with.
“That’s better,” Maria said, watching Liz swallow a soggy French fry. “You’re eating for two, you know.”
And consuming enough fat for six, Liz thought, but managed a weak smile. “This is really good, Maria, but I’m just not hungry. It was sweet of you to think of me.”
Maria blushed faintly beneath the layer of paint she habitually wore. “Hey, don’t start getting all mushy about it,” she bluffed, reaching for her own half-eaten double back cheeseburger. “I was hungry and I wasn’t in the mood to eat alone tonight. Thought you might want to join me.”
“Whatever the reason, it was still nice of you,” Liz replied, sincerely this time. “But I won’t embarrass you.”
Maria shrugged and took an enormous bite of her burger. Her mouth still full, she asked, “You heard from Max?”
Liz allowed her lower lip to tremble. Just a little. “No,” she murmured, and sighed. “Not a word.”
And she hadn’t either. Not that she’d expected to, of course.
She wondered if he missed her. She wondered if he was having trouble sleeping alone. But most of all, she wondered if he was sleeping alone.
“Yo, Liz.”
Liz blinked and looked across the table, finding Maria looking at her strangely. “Yes?”
“Where you been girl? I’ve said your name three times.”
Liz blushed. “Sorry. I was uh, thinking.”
“About him, right?”
She could answer with complete honesty. “Yes. About Max.”
Maria made a sound of disgust and shook her head. “Man, you really got it bad. Way he treated you, you’d think you’d be glad to get rid of him.”
Trembling lower lip again. A heavy sweep of eyelashes as accompaniment this time. “No,” Liz said on a long, miserable exhale. “I miss him, Maria. I want him back.” Damn it.
“Even if it means giving up your kid?” Maria asked bluntly.
Liz raised a hand on the harness and her breath caught in what might have been a sob. “I think so,” she whispered. “I can’t raise it alone. And I don’t want to try without Max.”
“You could give it up for adoption,” Maria suggested, avoiding Liz’s gaze, as she seemed to concentrate on scooping up a tablespoon of Ketchup with half a limp fry.
“I know. I wish I thought that would help.”
“It would get the kid out of your way.”
“But it wouldn’t help us financially. That’s what Max is so upset about. He doesn’t like to be broke. He’s real proud when it comes to money. But I was sick a lot at first and the doctor bills just cleaned us out. Giving the baby up for adoption would mean that I wouldn’t have to pay hospital or delivery fees, but it wouldn’t replace everything I’ve already cost poor Max.”
“Poor Max,’ Maria repeated, her voice dripping with scorn. “Sometimes you just make me sick.”
“I’m sorry,” Liz muttered and huddled into herself, looking miserable.
“Oh, hell, now you’re doing it with me!”
“Doing what?”
“Letting me treat you like a victim. You ain’t no doormat, Liz. Get up off the floor and quit inviting folks to wipe their feet on you.”
Liz lifted her chin, carefully hiding her amusement at Maria’s advice. “Well, what should I do?” she asked, allowing herself to show some harshness. “You seem to have all the answers, how are you going to support your baby all alone? You don’t even have a job.”
Maria nodded, seemingly more comfortable with Liz’s aggression than her former meekness. “I got plans,” she said simply.
“What plans?”
Maria shrugged. “That’s my business.”
Patience Parker. “Great,” she muttered. “You sit there telling me everything I shouldn’t do, but you won’t give me any advice about what I should do. You won’t even tell me what you’re going to do.”
Maria looked torn for a moment. And then she set the last of her sandwich on the paper plate in front of her and leaned forward, as though concerned that someone else might hear them. “I’m not raising this kid,” she admitted. “I’m giving it up.”
“Adoption?” Liz asked, trying to look sad. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Look, you’re right about one thing. It’s damned hard to raise a kid alone, and I want this one to have a better life than I could give it by myself. But I’m not going to end up broke and alone after I have it, like you’ll be if you ain’t careful.”
“Well,” Liz dared, “you won’t have a lot of medical bills, probably, but you will still be broke. You still won’t have a job.”
“I can get a job anytime I want,” Maria returned sharply. “As a matter of fact, I had a high paying job before I got in this shape, thanks to the latex industries shoddy workmanship. I could go back to it anytime I want. But it ain’t going to be necessary. I’m getting paid for this kid. Well paid. And I’m taking that money and starting over somewhere nice. Somewhere cool,” she added, plucking discontentedly at her sticky maternity T-shirt. “Michigan, maybe. I had an aunt who lived in Michigan. She said it was real pretty there.”
“It’s real cold there,” Liz added. “Snow up to your chin in the wintertime.”
“Beats the hell out of frying eggs on your chin down here in the summertime,” Maria retorted with a grin.
Liz picked at her food, making a small mountain of mangled fries. “So, uh… what’s this about you getting money for the kid? You make it sound like you’re well, you know. Selling it or something.”
Maria shrugged. “Or something,”
Liz widened her eyes. “You can do that? Legally?”
“Hell no, it ain’t legal,” Maria muttered with a scowl and another quick look around them. “Not exactly. But a girl’s gotta look out for herself. Nobody else gives a shit, I’ll tell you that for sure.”
“But what about the baby? What will happen to it?”
Maria glanced down at her stomach, then quickly away. “It’ll go to a good home,” she said quietly. “They promised me that. Wealthy people, who don’t want to waste time with all those stupid bureaucratic rules lawyers make up so they can get rich handling private adoptions. There’s a waiting list a decade long for available white babies, and there’s plenty of people with enough money and enough determination to get around that list. The kid will get a good home. So why shouldn’t I get something out of it too? I’m doing someone a service. I’m the one who’s had to carry the kid all this time. I’m the one who’s all swollen and aching and bloated. It ain’t fair that I have to suffer and some shark lawyer makes the dough, is it?”
“I hadn’t really thought of it that way,” Liz said uncertainly.
“Well think about it. You go back to your Max with no baby and a fistful of money and you could probably get him back in a second, though God only knows why you’d want that asshole. As for me, I’m taking care of myself. Just like always.”
Liz put her hands on the harness, as though she were holding her baby protectively. “I don’t know if I could do something like that.”
Maria shrugged. “Ain’t no one making you. It’s just a suggestion.”
“I really think you should give this some more thought Maria. It sounds awfully risky to me. What if you get caught? You could go to jail.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Maria grumbled, then sighed. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m no murderer or anything.”
“I never though you were,” Liz assured her loyally.
“Man, it’s a wonder you’ve survived as long as you have. You’re about as street-smart as a kitten.”
Liz lifted her chin again, letting it thrust out proudly. “I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“I can,” she insisted.
“Like you’ve been taking care of yourself the past week?” Maria asked sharply. “Going without food? Moping around over Max the asshole? Bawling your eyes out?”
Liz lowered her chin. “I’ll get him back,” she muttered.
“Mmm. Well, if you want to know any more about what I said, you just let me know. But don’t you go talking to anyone else about it, you hear? If I find out you’ve been running your mouth about my business, you’re going to be in a truckload of trouble, you got that?”
Liz cowered. “You wouldn’t turn your big friends on me, would you?”
“I just might,” Maria countered, searching Liz’s face as though testing her sincerity. Apparently deciding that Liz was no more than she seemed, she relaxed. “But I like you, kid, or I wouldn’t have said nothing. You won’t talk to anybody, will you?”
“Who would I tell?” Liz asked.
Maria seemed to accept that. “Just don’t tell no one.”
Liz ate another lard-dripping fry to avoid answering. She had to go see Max.
TBC…..
“Girl, you look like hell. You are going to have to start taking better care of yourself.”
Liz sighed in response to Maria’s critical words. She knew exactly how she looked. Like hell, just as Maria had said. And it wasn’t all pretence, damn it.
It was Thursday, three days after Max’s dramatic departure. Liz couldn’t believe how much she missed him. The apartment had seemed smaller, dirtier, grimmer, uglier since he’d left. Only concentrating intently on her job had she been able to keep herself from climbing the walls.
It hadn’t been hard for Liz to pretend that she’d lost her appetite, and any concern about her appearance. In fact, it had been all too easy.
Maria had become her constant companion. Liz had sensed Maria’s loneliness from the beginning, but now she knew that Maria had craved companionship. Those “big friends” she’d bragged about had been conspicuously absent during the two weeks Liz had known her.
“Come on, eat somethin’,” Maria urged, motioning toward the fast-food feast she’d brought with her to Liz’s apartment a few minutes earlier. “You need to keep up your health.”
Even had it not been for the role she was playing, Liz wouldn’t have had the heart to point out that the selection Maria had provided was not exactly healthy for a supposedly pregnant women. Basically, the menu consisted of deep-fried fats and cholesterol, with a side order of empty calories. But the concern in Maria’s eyes was genuine, and the gesture had been well intentioned. Liz made an effort to eat a few bites, silently grateful that she didn’t really have a delicate stomach to contend with.
“That’s better,” Maria said, watching Liz swallow a soggy French fry. “You’re eating for two, you know.”
And consuming enough fat for six, Liz thought, but managed a weak smile. “This is really good, Maria, but I’m just not hungry. It was sweet of you to think of me.”
Maria blushed faintly beneath the layer of paint she habitually wore. “Hey, don’t start getting all mushy about it,” she bluffed, reaching for her own half-eaten double back cheeseburger. “I was hungry and I wasn’t in the mood to eat alone tonight. Thought you might want to join me.”
“Whatever the reason, it was still nice of you,” Liz replied, sincerely this time. “But I won’t embarrass you.”
Maria shrugged and took an enormous bite of her burger. Her mouth still full, she asked, “You heard from Max?”
Liz allowed her lower lip to tremble. Just a little. “No,” she murmured, and sighed. “Not a word.”
And she hadn’t either. Not that she’d expected to, of course.
She wondered if he missed her. She wondered if he was having trouble sleeping alone. But most of all, she wondered if he was sleeping alone.
“Yo, Liz.”
Liz blinked and looked across the table, finding Maria looking at her strangely. “Yes?”
“Where you been girl? I’ve said your name three times.”
Liz blushed. “Sorry. I was uh, thinking.”
“About him, right?”
She could answer with complete honesty. “Yes. About Max.”
Maria made a sound of disgust and shook her head. “Man, you really got it bad. Way he treated you, you’d think you’d be glad to get rid of him.”
Trembling lower lip again. A heavy sweep of eyelashes as accompaniment this time. “No,” Liz said on a long, miserable exhale. “I miss him, Maria. I want him back.” Damn it.
“Even if it means giving up your kid?” Maria asked bluntly.
Liz raised a hand on the harness and her breath caught in what might have been a sob. “I think so,” she whispered. “I can’t raise it alone. And I don’t want to try without Max.”
“You could give it up for adoption,” Maria suggested, avoiding Liz’s gaze, as she seemed to concentrate on scooping up a tablespoon of Ketchup with half a limp fry.
“I know. I wish I thought that would help.”
“It would get the kid out of your way.”
“But it wouldn’t help us financially. That’s what Max is so upset about. He doesn’t like to be broke. He’s real proud when it comes to money. But I was sick a lot at first and the doctor bills just cleaned us out. Giving the baby up for adoption would mean that I wouldn’t have to pay hospital or delivery fees, but it wouldn’t replace everything I’ve already cost poor Max.”
“Poor Max,’ Maria repeated, her voice dripping with scorn. “Sometimes you just make me sick.”
“I’m sorry,” Liz muttered and huddled into herself, looking miserable.
“Oh, hell, now you’re doing it with me!”
“Doing what?”
“Letting me treat you like a victim. You ain’t no doormat, Liz. Get up off the floor and quit inviting folks to wipe their feet on you.”
Liz lifted her chin, carefully hiding her amusement at Maria’s advice. “Well, what should I do?” she asked, allowing herself to show some harshness. “You seem to have all the answers, how are you going to support your baby all alone? You don’t even have a job.”
Maria nodded, seemingly more comfortable with Liz’s aggression than her former meekness. “I got plans,” she said simply.
“What plans?”
Maria shrugged. “That’s my business.”
Patience Parker. “Great,” she muttered. “You sit there telling me everything I shouldn’t do, but you won’t give me any advice about what I should do. You won’t even tell me what you’re going to do.”
Maria looked torn for a moment. And then she set the last of her sandwich on the paper plate in front of her and leaned forward, as though concerned that someone else might hear them. “I’m not raising this kid,” she admitted. “I’m giving it up.”
“Adoption?” Liz asked, trying to look sad. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Look, you’re right about one thing. It’s damned hard to raise a kid alone, and I want this one to have a better life than I could give it by myself. But I’m not going to end up broke and alone after I have it, like you’ll be if you ain’t careful.”
“Well,” Liz dared, “you won’t have a lot of medical bills, probably, but you will still be broke. You still won’t have a job.”
“I can get a job anytime I want,” Maria returned sharply. “As a matter of fact, I had a high paying job before I got in this shape, thanks to the latex industries shoddy workmanship. I could go back to it anytime I want. But it ain’t going to be necessary. I’m getting paid for this kid. Well paid. And I’m taking that money and starting over somewhere nice. Somewhere cool,” she added, plucking discontentedly at her sticky maternity T-shirt. “Michigan, maybe. I had an aunt who lived in Michigan. She said it was real pretty there.”
“It’s real cold there,” Liz added. “Snow up to your chin in the wintertime.”
“Beats the hell out of frying eggs on your chin down here in the summertime,” Maria retorted with a grin.
Liz picked at her food, making a small mountain of mangled fries. “So, uh… what’s this about you getting money for the kid? You make it sound like you’re well, you know. Selling it or something.”
Maria shrugged. “Or something,”
Liz widened her eyes. “You can do that? Legally?”
“Hell no, it ain’t legal,” Maria muttered with a scowl and another quick look around them. “Not exactly. But a girl’s gotta look out for herself. Nobody else gives a shit, I’ll tell you that for sure.”
“But what about the baby? What will happen to it?”
Maria glanced down at her stomach, then quickly away. “It’ll go to a good home,” she said quietly. “They promised me that. Wealthy people, who don’t want to waste time with all those stupid bureaucratic rules lawyers make up so they can get rich handling private adoptions. There’s a waiting list a decade long for available white babies, and there’s plenty of people with enough money and enough determination to get around that list. The kid will get a good home. So why shouldn’t I get something out of it too? I’m doing someone a service. I’m the one who’s had to carry the kid all this time. I’m the one who’s all swollen and aching and bloated. It ain’t fair that I have to suffer and some shark lawyer makes the dough, is it?”
“I hadn’t really thought of it that way,” Liz said uncertainly.
“Well think about it. You go back to your Max with no baby and a fistful of money and you could probably get him back in a second, though God only knows why you’d want that asshole. As for me, I’m taking care of myself. Just like always.”
Liz put her hands on the harness, as though she were holding her baby protectively. “I don’t know if I could do something like that.”
Maria shrugged. “Ain’t no one making you. It’s just a suggestion.”
“I really think you should give this some more thought Maria. It sounds awfully risky to me. What if you get caught? You could go to jail.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Maria grumbled, then sighed. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m no murderer or anything.”
“I never though you were,” Liz assured her loyally.
“Man, it’s a wonder you’ve survived as long as you have. You’re about as street-smart as a kitten.”
Liz lifted her chin again, letting it thrust out proudly. “I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“I can,” she insisted.
“Like you’ve been taking care of yourself the past week?” Maria asked sharply. “Going without food? Moping around over Max the asshole? Bawling your eyes out?”
Liz lowered her chin. “I’ll get him back,” she muttered.
“Mmm. Well, if you want to know any more about what I said, you just let me know. But don’t you go talking to anyone else about it, you hear? If I find out you’ve been running your mouth about my business, you’re going to be in a truckload of trouble, you got that?”
Liz cowered. “You wouldn’t turn your big friends on me, would you?”
“I just might,” Maria countered, searching Liz’s face as though testing her sincerity. Apparently deciding that Liz was no more than she seemed, she relaxed. “But I like you, kid, or I wouldn’t have said nothing. You won’t talk to anybody, will you?”
“Who would I tell?” Liz asked.
Maria seemed to accept that. “Just don’t tell no one.”
Liz ate another lard-dripping fry to avoid answering. She had to go see Max.
TBC…..
Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Liz couldn’t believe her hand was shaking when she raised it to knock on the door in front of her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this nervous. She wiped her palm on one leg of her polyester slacks and lifted her hand again. This time she made herself tap firmly on the wooden door.
During the minute or so that followed, she wondered just how Max would greet her. Professionally – Partner to partner? This was, after all, a working visit. Would he kiss her? Or would he go back to the same strictly business manner they’d used before this assignment had begun? Was their affair over, as far as Max was concerned? Or had he even considered the possibility that it could last for a while? Maybe a long while, if they worked hard enough at it. Liz was willing; she just wished she knew how Max felt about it.
He opened the door, and his closed off expression didn’t give her a clue how he felt about seeing her after almost a week. He stepped back to allow her to enter. “Hi. Come on in.”
“Thanks.” She moved past him, trying not to waddle-which wasn’t easy, since she was wearing the harness. She looked curiously around the living room of Max’s apartment, which she’d never visited before. It was nice. Neat, clean, decorated in comfortably over-stuffed furnishings in burgundy and green. It wouldn’t have been featured in any decorating magazine, but Liz imagined it was a pleasant place to come home to after a hard day’s work.
Max closed the door and turned to face her. He seemed to grope for something to say, and then he glanced down at her middle and apparently decided to keep it light. “How’s Bob?”
She managed a smile. “We’re getting by.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah.” She wiped her palms down her pant legs again. “Uh, how have you been?”
He shrugged. “Okay. Been typing up paperwork on the Sutherland case. You know how I hate paperwork.”
“Don’t we all.” This was ridiculous. She felt as though she were on a blind date-and it wasn’t going very well. She cleared her throat. “I have a lot to tell you. Maria and I have been talking, and…”
He stopped her by raising a hand. “Hold on a minute.”
She lifted her eyebrow. “What?”
“You want a soda or something? We could at least sit down before you start giving your report.”
She twisted her fingers beneath the bulk of the harness. She didn’t really want anything, but maybe it would help them relax if they sat down over cold drinks. “Yeah, a soda sounds good. Thanks.”
Max nodded and took a couple of steps toward a doorway she assumed led to the kitchen. And then he stopped and turned back to face her. “Liz?”
She swallowed. “Yes?”
“I’ve missed you.”
Her knees weakened. “I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered, wishing she could read that stern face of his.
“I’ve missed you a lot,” he said, his frown deepening.
Thoroughly confused, Liz began to smile, anyway. “I’ve missed you too. A lot,” she added, taking a step toward him.
He didn’t give her a chance to meet him halfway. He was already there, his arms around her, his mouth moving wildly against hers. The harness was a solid intrusion between them, but Max ignored it. His hands swept her back, settled on her hips and held her as closely as possible under the circumstances. Her mouth opening eagerly beneath his, Liz strained to get closer.
Max reached beneath the hem of her top and fumbled with the straps of the harness. A moment later, he tossed the bulky appliance out of the way and pulled Liz firmly against him. Her now slender body settled snugly, intimately, between his thighs. He was already aroused, she noticed dreamily.
So was she.
She needed to touch him. It had been so long………
His face was hard and warm beneath her palm, his firm jaw, and lean cheeks, both stubbled. His thick, brown hair was long enough to completely hide her fingers when she buried them in its depths. It hadn’t been trimmed since she’d last seen him.
Beneath his white knit shirt, his broad chest expanded against her with his ragged breathing. She could almost feel his heart racing against hers. His solid thighs cradled her between them, locked her against the erection that strained his jeans, emphasised his need for her. His arms were tight around her; strong, hungry.
He felt as utterly perfect as she had remembered.
“I want…I need…” His voice was hoarse, his words awkward with his impatience. He was already groping for the hem of her top.
Liz murmured soothingly against his mouth. “I know what you want. I need it too,” she whispered, lifting her arms to help him rid her of her top. And then she tugged at his shirt.
They caught their breaths simultaneously when her uncovered breasts brushed his bare chest. Murmuring his pleasure, Max cupped her breasts in his hands and lowered his head to kiss her soft upper curves. And then her hardened nipples. She arched backward to give him better access.
She didn’t actually remember lowering herself to the floor-or being lowered. One moment she was on her feet in Max’s arms, the next she was laying beneath him, the remainder of her clothing tangled on the floor around them.
Her short fingernails dug into his shoulders as he moved over her, kissing, stroking, nipping, rapidly bringing her to a point of mindless need. She shoved at his jeans, but waited only until he’d opened them and pushed them out of the way before arching demandingly upward. Max groaned, and buried himself deeply inside her.
Both paused at the sensation of being joined together again. It just felt so right. Feeling Liz wriggle beneath him, Max started to move inside her. Slowly getting faster and faster. He needed her too much to go slow. Thrusting into her at a blistering pace Max knew it would be over way too soon. Needing Liz to cum with him he reached between their bodies finding her clit.
Rubbing the little nub between his thumb and forefinger he felt her clamp down on his erection causing him let go moaning her name.
Max’s face was hidden against her throat, his lips moving very close to her ear. “Liz?”
She snuggled closer, one hand slowly drifting over his warm, bare back. “Mmm?”
He kissed her earlobe. “How do you like my apartment?”
She giggled. “I like the living room. The carpet is especially nice. Soft, comfortable.”
He moved his head to kiss a smile against her slightly tender lips. “If you think the carpet is comfortable, you should try my bed.”
‘I’ll have to do that sometime.”
“Yeah. Soon.” He kissed her again.
“Very soon,” Liz whispered, her hand sliding to the back of his neck, as she raised her lips to his again.
He groaned and lifted his head. “You have to get back to the apartment soon. And you haven’t even told me what you’ve learned this week.”
Lis lifted an eyebrow and glanced downward. She was completely nude, and tangled intimately with Max, who had finally kicked off his jeans so that he, too, was unselfconsciously naked. “You haven’t exactly given me a chance to report,” she told him.
He grinned. “No. I suppose I haven’t. Any complaints?”
“Not a one,” she assured him.
“Good.” He kissed her one more time, then reluctantly drew away. “The bathroom’s through that door, if you’d like to, um, freshen up.”
She smiled. “Thanks. I believe I will.”
“Want me to pour you that soda now? Make some coffee, maybe?”
“Soda’s fine. I’ll be right back.”
The bathroom was done in the same greens and burgundy as the living room. Idly studying the tasteful Paisley wallpaper, Liz wondered if Max had decorated it himself. She opened a drawer in search of a comb and swallowed hard when she discovered a tube of lipstick, a pink plastic disposable razor, and a half-empty tube of jasmine-scented bath gel. Pam, she thought, quickly closing the drawer.
Had Max made love to her on that soft living-room carpet?
Liz scowled into the mirror and combed her hair with her fingers.
Wearing only his jeans, Max was in the kitchen pouring soda over ice when she rejoined him. A plate of cookies lay nearby-bakery cookies, she noted, wondering if he’d bought them with her visit in mind.
He looked up with a smile. “I thought you might like a snack.”
“You know I always like a snack-especially when it’s cookies,” she replied, reaching for one.
“Yes, I remembered.” Leaving the sodas on the table, he walked up behind her and circled her waist with his arms. The maternity top was baggy around her without the harness to fill it in. Max didn’t seem to notice as he held her close and pressed a kiss on the back of her ear. “As cute as you look wearing Bob, it’s much easier to hold you this way,” he murmured.
“Don’t call me cute, Evans,” she retorted, finding reassurance in the teasing. “And we are not naming the kid Bob. Got that?”
“Not if it’s a girl,’ he agreed. “I was thinking of Bobbie for a girl.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes.
Chuckling, he released her, and motioned her to have a seat at the table. “We’d better get work out of the way, I suppose. Jim’s going to be wanting a report from me.”
Liz took a seat, drew her soda and the plate of cookies in front of her, and told him everything Maria had said in their revealing conversation the day before.
“I told you she was selling it,’ Max said when Liz finished.
She sighed. “Yes, I know you did. So you get a gold star on your report card. That still doesn’t lead us to her contact.”
“I think McCauley is involved.”
“So do I,” Liz affirmed, remembering the landlady’s nosy questions about the state of her health. “But I doubt very much that she’d the brains behind the operation.”
“I wouldn’t say McCauley was the brains behind any operation.”
Liz smiled at his dry remark, but let it pass. “I told Maria I’d consider her advice. I’m going to ask to meet her contacts, as though I’m trying to reassure myself about them, but I don’t want to push for too much at once.”
“You’ll let me know when you set up the meeting.’ He said, and it wasn’t a question. “I don’t want you meeting them without some sort of backup. Never know when something like this will turn ugly.”
They had already agreed upon several ways for Liz to contact Max when needed. Remembering them, Liz nodded. “I’ll keep in touch.”
Max suddenly smiled. “So Maria thinks you’re crazy to want me back, hmm?”
“Yeah. Totally nuts.”
His gaze held hers across the table, and though he was still smiling, his voice suddenly grew more serious. “She’s probably right.”
Liz shrugged, without looking away from him. “Maybe. But there it is.”
“It’s a long way from being over, isn’t it, Parker?” he asked lightly, and she knew he wasn’t talking about the assignment now.
She smiled in response to the touch of fear in his expression. She knew the feeling all too well. “No, it isn’t over. Not by a long shot.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t expect this,” he admitted.
“Neither did I.”
“I didn’t even want it,” he confessed, after clearing his throat.
“Neither did I.”
“So what are we going to do about it?”
“Finish the assignment first,” she said firmly.
He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, then nodded. “Yeah. You’re right, of course.”
She spread her hands, as though acknowledging something everyone would know. “Of course.”
He made a face and tossed a paper napkin at her.
She laughed and fended it off.
They talked business another fifteen minutes or so, and then Liz glanced at her watch. “I’d better get back. Maria might start wondering where I am.”
“Yeah. Damn, I hate to think about you going back to that pit.”
“I’m not exactly looking forward to it, myself,” she assured him, grimacing at the contrast between his clean, cosy kitchen and the dump where she would eat her dinner later. “Mind if I see the rest of your apartment first?” she asked impulsively. “I’m curious.”
He shrugged. “Sure. C’mon, I’ll give you the tour.”
Liz quickly discovered that Max was quite neat in his home. Remembering how he’d complained about cleaning the apartment, she quizzed him about it. “I didn’t see any need for wasting time on that slum,” he explained. “It’s only a temporary place to stay, and no amount of cleaning is going to improve it much. Why wear yourself out on a useless effort?”
“I told you,” she replied. “If I’m going to have to live there, even temporarily, I want it to be as clean as I can make it. I don’t like living in filth.”
“So we have something in common. We like our homes to be neat.”
“We have quite a bit in common, actually,” she said seriously, crossing the living room at his side. “We like alternative rock music, and action movies, good food and good books. We’re both damned good at our job.”
“Is this the same women who recently listed all the reasons we were too different to get involved? You mentioned something about me being a grouch and you an optimist….”
“And I pointed out that you considered me a pain in the butt,” Liz added with a grin. “You agreed, as I remember.”
“Yeah,” he said, looping an arm around her shoulders. “I still think you’re a pain in the butt. But I like you anyway.”
Like? Liz wasn’t entirely satisfied with the word, but decided it would do for a start. She looked around Max’s bedroom, furnished in English style, with glossy mahogany furniture, hunting prints on the walls, a green and burgundy plaid comforter with green pillow shams. It was masculine, yet still warm and inviting. Had Pam decorated it for him?
Liz swallowed a sigh and chided herself impatiently for dwelling on Max’s former girlfriend. She hadn’t come to him a virgin, had fancied herself in love a couple of times before him, but he didn’t seem to be obsessing about her past, the way she was his.
She thought the real problem might be that there was still some part of Max she didn’t know; some dark, hidden pain she needed to understand before their relationship progressed much further. She wasn’t convinced that it had anything to do with Pam, but she hadn’t ruled it out, either. She only knew that the need to understand him was growing stronger, more urgent with each passing moment.
It was no longer possible for her to deny that she loved him. And that knowledge terrified her. If there was any hope that this affair wouldn’t end in heartbreak, she needed to know everything there was to learn about the enigmatic Max Evans.
TBC….
Liz couldn’t believe her hand was shaking when she raised it to knock on the door in front of her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this nervous. She wiped her palm on one leg of her polyester slacks and lifted her hand again. This time she made herself tap firmly on the wooden door.
During the minute or so that followed, she wondered just how Max would greet her. Professionally – Partner to partner? This was, after all, a working visit. Would he kiss her? Or would he go back to the same strictly business manner they’d used before this assignment had begun? Was their affair over, as far as Max was concerned? Or had he even considered the possibility that it could last for a while? Maybe a long while, if they worked hard enough at it. Liz was willing; she just wished she knew how Max felt about it.
He opened the door, and his closed off expression didn’t give her a clue how he felt about seeing her after almost a week. He stepped back to allow her to enter. “Hi. Come on in.”
“Thanks.” She moved past him, trying not to waddle-which wasn’t easy, since she was wearing the harness. She looked curiously around the living room of Max’s apartment, which she’d never visited before. It was nice. Neat, clean, decorated in comfortably over-stuffed furnishings in burgundy and green. It wouldn’t have been featured in any decorating magazine, but Liz imagined it was a pleasant place to come home to after a hard day’s work.
Max closed the door and turned to face her. He seemed to grope for something to say, and then he glanced down at her middle and apparently decided to keep it light. “How’s Bob?”
She managed a smile. “We’re getting by.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah.” She wiped her palms down her pant legs again. “Uh, how have you been?”
He shrugged. “Okay. Been typing up paperwork on the Sutherland case. You know how I hate paperwork.”
“Don’t we all.” This was ridiculous. She felt as though she were on a blind date-and it wasn’t going very well. She cleared her throat. “I have a lot to tell you. Maria and I have been talking, and…”
He stopped her by raising a hand. “Hold on a minute.”
She lifted her eyebrow. “What?”
“You want a soda or something? We could at least sit down before you start giving your report.”
She twisted her fingers beneath the bulk of the harness. She didn’t really want anything, but maybe it would help them relax if they sat down over cold drinks. “Yeah, a soda sounds good. Thanks.”
Max nodded and took a couple of steps toward a doorway she assumed led to the kitchen. And then he stopped and turned back to face her. “Liz?”
She swallowed. “Yes?”
“I’ve missed you.”
Her knees weakened. “I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered, wishing she could read that stern face of his.
“I’ve missed you a lot,” he said, his frown deepening.
Thoroughly confused, Liz began to smile, anyway. “I’ve missed you too. A lot,” she added, taking a step toward him.
He didn’t give her a chance to meet him halfway. He was already there, his arms around her, his mouth moving wildly against hers. The harness was a solid intrusion between them, but Max ignored it. His hands swept her back, settled on her hips and held her as closely as possible under the circumstances. Her mouth opening eagerly beneath his, Liz strained to get closer.
Max reached beneath the hem of her top and fumbled with the straps of the harness. A moment later, he tossed the bulky appliance out of the way and pulled Liz firmly against him. Her now slender body settled snugly, intimately, between his thighs. He was already aroused, she noticed dreamily.
So was she.
She needed to touch him. It had been so long………
His face was hard and warm beneath her palm, his firm jaw, and lean cheeks, both stubbled. His thick, brown hair was long enough to completely hide her fingers when she buried them in its depths. It hadn’t been trimmed since she’d last seen him.
Beneath his white knit shirt, his broad chest expanded against her with his ragged breathing. She could almost feel his heart racing against hers. His solid thighs cradled her between them, locked her against the erection that strained his jeans, emphasised his need for her. His arms were tight around her; strong, hungry.
He felt as utterly perfect as she had remembered.
“I want…I need…” His voice was hoarse, his words awkward with his impatience. He was already groping for the hem of her top.
Liz murmured soothingly against his mouth. “I know what you want. I need it too,” she whispered, lifting her arms to help him rid her of her top. And then she tugged at his shirt.
They caught their breaths simultaneously when her uncovered breasts brushed his bare chest. Murmuring his pleasure, Max cupped her breasts in his hands and lowered his head to kiss her soft upper curves. And then her hardened nipples. She arched backward to give him better access.
She didn’t actually remember lowering herself to the floor-or being lowered. One moment she was on her feet in Max’s arms, the next she was laying beneath him, the remainder of her clothing tangled on the floor around them.
Her short fingernails dug into his shoulders as he moved over her, kissing, stroking, nipping, rapidly bringing her to a point of mindless need. She shoved at his jeans, but waited only until he’d opened them and pushed them out of the way before arching demandingly upward. Max groaned, and buried himself deeply inside her.
Both paused at the sensation of being joined together again. It just felt so right. Feeling Liz wriggle beneath him, Max started to move inside her. Slowly getting faster and faster. He needed her too much to go slow. Thrusting into her at a blistering pace Max knew it would be over way too soon. Needing Liz to cum with him he reached between their bodies finding her clit.
Rubbing the little nub between his thumb and forefinger he felt her clamp down on his erection causing him let go moaning her name.
Max’s face was hidden against her throat, his lips moving very close to her ear. “Liz?”
She snuggled closer, one hand slowly drifting over his warm, bare back. “Mmm?”
He kissed her earlobe. “How do you like my apartment?”
She giggled. “I like the living room. The carpet is especially nice. Soft, comfortable.”
He moved his head to kiss a smile against her slightly tender lips. “If you think the carpet is comfortable, you should try my bed.”
‘I’ll have to do that sometime.”
“Yeah. Soon.” He kissed her again.
“Very soon,” Liz whispered, her hand sliding to the back of his neck, as she raised her lips to his again.
He groaned and lifted his head. “You have to get back to the apartment soon. And you haven’t even told me what you’ve learned this week.”
Lis lifted an eyebrow and glanced downward. She was completely nude, and tangled intimately with Max, who had finally kicked off his jeans so that he, too, was unselfconsciously naked. “You haven’t exactly given me a chance to report,” she told him.
He grinned. “No. I suppose I haven’t. Any complaints?”
“Not a one,” she assured him.
“Good.” He kissed her one more time, then reluctantly drew away. “The bathroom’s through that door, if you’d like to, um, freshen up.”
She smiled. “Thanks. I believe I will.”
“Want me to pour you that soda now? Make some coffee, maybe?”
“Soda’s fine. I’ll be right back.”
The bathroom was done in the same greens and burgundy as the living room. Idly studying the tasteful Paisley wallpaper, Liz wondered if Max had decorated it himself. She opened a drawer in search of a comb and swallowed hard when she discovered a tube of lipstick, a pink plastic disposable razor, and a half-empty tube of jasmine-scented bath gel. Pam, she thought, quickly closing the drawer.
Had Max made love to her on that soft living-room carpet?
Liz scowled into the mirror and combed her hair with her fingers.
Wearing only his jeans, Max was in the kitchen pouring soda over ice when she rejoined him. A plate of cookies lay nearby-bakery cookies, she noted, wondering if he’d bought them with her visit in mind.
He looked up with a smile. “I thought you might like a snack.”
“You know I always like a snack-especially when it’s cookies,” she replied, reaching for one.
“Yes, I remembered.” Leaving the sodas on the table, he walked up behind her and circled her waist with his arms. The maternity top was baggy around her without the harness to fill it in. Max didn’t seem to notice as he held her close and pressed a kiss on the back of her ear. “As cute as you look wearing Bob, it’s much easier to hold you this way,” he murmured.
“Don’t call me cute, Evans,” she retorted, finding reassurance in the teasing. “And we are not naming the kid Bob. Got that?”
“Not if it’s a girl,’ he agreed. “I was thinking of Bobbie for a girl.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes.
Chuckling, he released her, and motioned her to have a seat at the table. “We’d better get work out of the way, I suppose. Jim’s going to be wanting a report from me.”
Liz took a seat, drew her soda and the plate of cookies in front of her, and told him everything Maria had said in their revealing conversation the day before.
“I told you she was selling it,’ Max said when Liz finished.
She sighed. “Yes, I know you did. So you get a gold star on your report card. That still doesn’t lead us to her contact.”
“I think McCauley is involved.”
“So do I,” Liz affirmed, remembering the landlady’s nosy questions about the state of her health. “But I doubt very much that she’d the brains behind the operation.”
“I wouldn’t say McCauley was the brains behind any operation.”
Liz smiled at his dry remark, but let it pass. “I told Maria I’d consider her advice. I’m going to ask to meet her contacts, as though I’m trying to reassure myself about them, but I don’t want to push for too much at once.”
“You’ll let me know when you set up the meeting.’ He said, and it wasn’t a question. “I don’t want you meeting them without some sort of backup. Never know when something like this will turn ugly.”
They had already agreed upon several ways for Liz to contact Max when needed. Remembering them, Liz nodded. “I’ll keep in touch.”
Max suddenly smiled. “So Maria thinks you’re crazy to want me back, hmm?”
“Yeah. Totally nuts.”
His gaze held hers across the table, and though he was still smiling, his voice suddenly grew more serious. “She’s probably right.”
Liz shrugged, without looking away from him. “Maybe. But there it is.”
“It’s a long way from being over, isn’t it, Parker?” he asked lightly, and she knew he wasn’t talking about the assignment now.
She smiled in response to the touch of fear in his expression. She knew the feeling all too well. “No, it isn’t over. Not by a long shot.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t expect this,” he admitted.
“Neither did I.”
“I didn’t even want it,” he confessed, after clearing his throat.
“Neither did I.”
“So what are we going to do about it?”
“Finish the assignment first,” she said firmly.
He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful, then nodded. “Yeah. You’re right, of course.”
She spread her hands, as though acknowledging something everyone would know. “Of course.”
He made a face and tossed a paper napkin at her.
She laughed and fended it off.
They talked business another fifteen minutes or so, and then Liz glanced at her watch. “I’d better get back. Maria might start wondering where I am.”
“Yeah. Damn, I hate to think about you going back to that pit.”
“I’m not exactly looking forward to it, myself,” she assured him, grimacing at the contrast between his clean, cosy kitchen and the dump where she would eat her dinner later. “Mind if I see the rest of your apartment first?” she asked impulsively. “I’m curious.”
He shrugged. “Sure. C’mon, I’ll give you the tour.”
Liz quickly discovered that Max was quite neat in his home. Remembering how he’d complained about cleaning the apartment, she quizzed him about it. “I didn’t see any need for wasting time on that slum,” he explained. “It’s only a temporary place to stay, and no amount of cleaning is going to improve it much. Why wear yourself out on a useless effort?”
“I told you,” she replied. “If I’m going to have to live there, even temporarily, I want it to be as clean as I can make it. I don’t like living in filth.”
“So we have something in common. We like our homes to be neat.”
“We have quite a bit in common, actually,” she said seriously, crossing the living room at his side. “We like alternative rock music, and action movies, good food and good books. We’re both damned good at our job.”
“Is this the same women who recently listed all the reasons we were too different to get involved? You mentioned something about me being a grouch and you an optimist….”
“And I pointed out that you considered me a pain in the butt,” Liz added with a grin. “You agreed, as I remember.”
“Yeah,” he said, looping an arm around her shoulders. “I still think you’re a pain in the butt. But I like you anyway.”
Like? Liz wasn’t entirely satisfied with the word, but decided it would do for a start. She looked around Max’s bedroom, furnished in English style, with glossy mahogany furniture, hunting prints on the walls, a green and burgundy plaid comforter with green pillow shams. It was masculine, yet still warm and inviting. Had Pam decorated it for him?
Liz swallowed a sigh and chided herself impatiently for dwelling on Max’s former girlfriend. She hadn’t come to him a virgin, had fancied herself in love a couple of times before him, but he didn’t seem to be obsessing about her past, the way she was his.
She thought the real problem might be that there was still some part of Max she didn’t know; some dark, hidden pain she needed to understand before their relationship progressed much further. She wasn’t convinced that it had anything to do with Pam, but she hadn’t ruled it out, either. She only knew that the need to understand him was growing stronger, more urgent with each passing moment.
It was no longer possible for her to deny that she loved him. And that knowledge terrified her. If there was any hope that this affair wouldn’t end in heartbreak, she needed to know everything there was to learn about the enigmatic Max Evans.
TBC….
Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Max led her out of the bedroom after they reluctantly agreed that there wasn’t enough time for her to test his bed-with him, of course. Liz motioned to a closed door across the short hallway. “What’s in there?”
“A second bedroom. I use it for storage.”
She was already headed that way.
“There’s nothing in there but junk,” Max protested, though he didn’t try to stop her.
“One can learn a lot about someone by looking at their junk,” Liz informed him, opening the door. “What secrets are you hiding in here, hmm?”
Max smiled and shook his head. “No secrets. Just junk,” he repeated.
Liz paused before turning on the light. “If you mind, say so. I won’t be offended,” she assured him.
He reached around her and turned on the light. “Knock yourself out,” he invited her, standing aside.
She chuckled and walked in.
The room was full. No furniture other than a couple of big, stuffed-full bookcases and a desk that overflowed with more books, tax forms, and bills. Max wasn’t nearly as neat in his paperwork as he was in his living habits. She assumed it was because he despised paperwork.
Large boxes were staked in one corner of the small room. “My Mum cleaned out her house when she and Dad moved up north a few years back,” Max explained. “She made me take all my old school and college mementos. Sports trophies and ribbons, photographs, yearbooks, textbooks. I think even my old Boy Scout uniform is in there, somewhere.”
“Should’ve known you were a Boy Scout, Evans.”
He only smiled.
Three framed photographs rested on top of one of the bookcases full of battered paperbacks. Liz studied them. One was of Max in uniform, probably his graduation photo from the academy. Liz had a similar photo of herself. The difference was, she looked happy in hers. Max had worn little expression at all.
A second photograph showed a little boy about six standing between two adults-a slender blond women and a dark-haired man in a police officer’s uniform. Max and his parents, Liz realized, smiling at the face of a much younger and more innocent Max. He’d been laughing in the photo. He looked happy. When had he started to change into the more serious, often troubled man she had somehow managed to fall in love with?
The final photograph, obviously taken several years later, was also of Max’s parents. His mother had aged well, was still slender and blond, though her face was more lined in this picture. His father had greyed and added a few pounds. He was sitting in a wheelchair, his wife standing just behind him with one hand resting on his shoulder. Max hadn’t mentioned that his father was disabled, Liz mused, wondering how it had happened and whether now was the right time to ask questions.
Still curious, she turned to study the titles in the huge pile of textbooks stacked in one corner next to the bookshelf. They must have been from his college days, she decided, noting that most of them were science courses. She then realized that the largest number of them had to do with medicine. “What was your major in college?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.
He looked rather uncomfortable when he answered. “Premed.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. She’d assumed he’d majored in criminal justice or political science-something having a relation to police work. She certainly hadn’t expected this. “You were studying to be a doctor?”
“Yeah.” Just one offhanded syllable-yet the deep, old longing in his voice made her heart break.
She turned to face him, realizing that she had just stumbled onto the secret she’d been digging for. “How far did you get with your studies?”
“I’d just been accepted to medical school when I quit to join the police force.”
He had been accepted to medical school. He’d been so very close. “What made you change your mind?”
“I didn’t exactly change my mind,” he answered, avoiding her eyes by half-heartedly straightening some of the papers on his desk. “I had it changed for me. My Dad was shot in the line of duty. He walked into a liquor store and was hit by three slugs from a guy who’d just cleaned out the register. He almost died.”
Liz winced. The worst nightmare of every cop and his family. “I’m sorry. It must have been very hard for you and your mother.”
“It was hell,” he said simply. “Dad was in the hospital for months, and in therapy for several years. The insurance ran out long before the treatments did. His disability payments paid for their necessities, but their savings was gone. We even had to sell their home. I went to work to help out as much as I could.”
“You became a cop.”
“I had connections.” He said with a shrug. “I knew it wouldn’t take me long to move into a decent-paying position.”
“You couldn’t afford medical school?” she asked sympathetically.
“Not if I was going to help my parents. Even before Dad was shot it would have been tight. Medical training costs a fortune. My parents had planned to help as much as they could, but….well.”
He shrugged, knowing there was nothing left to say.
Max had dreamed of becoming a doctor. He had never wanted to be a police officer. Liz was stunned. “I had no idea,” she murmured.
“How could you? It’s not something I talk about. Plans change. Life goes on. It happens to everyone.”
She hated his cool, flippant tone. It didn’t disguise the old pain, the still-bitter disappointment. It bothered her that he even tried to hide those feelings from her. “Didn’t your parents try to talk you out of quitting school?” she asked.
“They didn’t ask me to do it,” he answered carefully. “Mum was sort of upset about it, but Dad had always wanted me to follow in his footsteps.”
“ I would have thought they’d have been very proud if you’d become a doctor.”
“I’m sure they would have. But they were very proud when I graduated from the police academy.”
“Did you talk about this with Pam?” she heard herself asking, and then mentally kicked herself for not trying harder to resist the impulse. She couldn’t help wondering though if Pam had approved of the decision Max had made-or resented it.
Max’s eyes narrowed, as though he wondered why she’d asked. “It never came up.”
He had lived with the women-but he’d never shared his old dreams with her? Liz shook her head. “You really have been alone, haven’t you?” she said.
He shrugged and half turned away. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Why didn’t you go back to school? After your parents were taken care of. Why aren’t you going now, if that’s what you want so badly?”
He exhaled through his nose, sounding impatient. “By the time my parents were on their feet financially, I was in my late twenties and already established in my job. I’ve been a cop for nine years Liz-since I was twenty-one. I couldn’t just quit my job and go back to school. I certainly can’t do so now.”
“Why not?” she insisted.
“Money, for one thing. It still costs a fortune. I still don’t have a fortune.”
“There are loans, scholarships, part-time jobs.”
“Yeah, right. And by the time I finally worked my way through medical training, I would be forty. Or older. With a mountain of debts to repay.”
“Maybe. So?”
He looked at her in disbelief. “Forty, Liz. Don’t you think that’s a little old to begin a career?”
“No. It happens all the time. You’re going to be forty, anyways, unless some sleazoid puts a slug in you sometime,” she said, deliberately blunt. “You might as well be doing something you enjoy. Even if you start at forty, you’d still have a good twenty years of practice ahead of you-heck, even if for some reason you were only able to practice for a year or two, it would still be worth it if that’s what you really want to do. Life is short, Evans. I believe in making every day count.”
“Nice little fairy tale, Parker. Real life doesn’t work that way.”
“No?” Annoyed now, she moved in front of him, standing so close that he had no choice but to look at her. How dare he speak so condescendingly to her? She knew all too well how life worked-and maybe it was time Max realized that.
“Look at me, Max. I’m doing exactly what I always wanted to do; from the time I was old enough to watch ‘Miami Vice’ on TV. Everyone told me it would never happen. I was an abandoned kid who grew up in orphanages and generally lousy foster homes. I was sexually molested by a foster-care worker when I wad ten, busted for shoplifting with a group of rebel friends when I was twelve, and had experimented with several illegal substances and alcoholic beverages by the time I was sixteen.”
Chin held high, she continued without giving him a chance to verbally react to any of her revelations, though she watched the expressions flashing across his face. “I was angry and stubborn and defiant and fiercely independent. More than one social worker predicted that I’d end up dead or working the streets like Maria. But when the time came for me to get out on my own, to decide what I wanted to be, I knew they were wrong. No one was going to tell me I couldn’t be whatever I wanted-and I wanted to be a cop. It took a lot of work, more than a few confrontations with those who would have held me back, but I made it, Max. And I love it.”
He’d gone rather pale during her impassioned speech, especially when she’d admitted that she’d been abused as a child. His hand wasn’t quite steady when it touched her cheek. “I know you love your work, Liz. I’ve always envied you for that.”
“So what are you going to do, sit around being jealous of me for the rest of your career? Spend another thirty-five years in a job you’ve never liked?” she challenged, holding his eyes with her own. “Or are you going to do something about getting what you want?”
“Liz, this is ridiculous. I can’t go back to medical school at this point in my life. I haven’t even considered it.”
“That’s a lie,” she said evenly.
He flushed. “Okay, I’ve thought about it. But I’ve never seriously considered it.”
“Then you’re a coward.”
He scowled. “Now wait a minute…”
Still peeved at the way he’d brushed her off-or tried to-she was torn between reaching out to take him in her arms, and taking him by the shoulders and shaking him. Hard.
“I want you to be happy, Max. Don’t you see that? You’re probably the finest man I’ve ever known. You gave up your dreams to help your parents, you’ve performed a job you never wanted with competence and distinction, you care about the people around you, the people you work with and the ones you’ve sworn to protect. You deserve to be happy.”
He reached out suddenly and pulled her close. “Don’t make me out to be some sort of hero. Liz. It isn’t true.”
“To me it is,” she whispered, clinging to him. She could have told him then that she loved him. She didn’t, because she knew he wasn’t ready. He had too much to think about already. And she didn’t want his decisions for his future influenced by any demands he might imagine her feelings made upon him.
She realized that she was even willing to give him up if it meant that the deep-seated unhappiness in him, which she now understood, could be replaced with contentment. So this was love. It seemed she’d never really known the emotion before, after all. Compared to this, the others had been little more than infatuation.
It hurt, she realized. But she could no more stop loving Max than she could stop breathing.
“Think about what I said,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to his hard cheek. “It’s not too late, Max. It’s never too late to go after what you want.”
“You’re all I want right now,” he said gruffly and crushed her mouth beneath his.
Liz kissed him back with all her heart, but she knew it wasn’t enough. As much as she cared for him, it would take more than her love to truly make him happy. How could he ever be content when he was trapped in a career he had never wanted, that he’d found so little joy in? And if Max wasn’t full happy, could they every really be happy together?
“I have to go,” she said with a sigh, drawing away from him.
“I know.” His jaw flexed, a sign of his unwillingness to see her leave. “Be careful.”
“I’m always careful, Evans.” Except where you’re concerned.
He walked her to the door. He stopped her just as she reached for the doorknob. “Uh, Parker?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Yeah?”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
She frowned. Her purse was in her hand, so she knew he wasn’t referring to that. “Am I?”
He grinned. It always amazed her how his rare, full smiles could transform his dark face.
Max knelt and retrieved something large and bulky from the floor next to the couch. “Does the name Bob ring a bell?” he asked, dangling the heavy harness from one hand.
Liz groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh, my God, I forgot it.” She was genuinely embarrassed. In her entire career, she’d never made that kind of monumental mistake while working undercover.
Max was obviously amused by her embarrassment. “I think Maria might have noticed.”
“Yeah,” Lis said grimly, reaching for the harness. “I’m sure she would have.”
“Need help getting back into that thing?”
“You start fumbling around under my clothes and it’ll be midnight before I leave,” Liz retorted, turning her back to him as she raised her shirt.
“There is that.”
She felt him watching with interest as she strapped herself into the rig, then smoothed the maternity shirt back into place. “Now,” she said in relief, turning back to him. “How do I look?”
“Beautiful,” he assured her, no longer smiling.
She blushed. “That was nice,” she said, caught off guard. “Thanks.”
“It just happens to be true.” He kissed her, but touched her only with his mouth. Liz suspected he was resisting temptation. She knew how he felt. It was taking all her willpower to keep her hands off him.
“Take care of yourself,” he murmured as he steeped back.
She had the door open and was halfway out when she looked back at him. “You’ll think about what I said?”
“I’ll think about it.”
She couldn’t read his expression. She didn’t waste any more time trying. She left then, while she still could.
TBC…….
Max led her out of the bedroom after they reluctantly agreed that there wasn’t enough time for her to test his bed-with him, of course. Liz motioned to a closed door across the short hallway. “What’s in there?”
“A second bedroom. I use it for storage.”
She was already headed that way.
“There’s nothing in there but junk,” Max protested, though he didn’t try to stop her.
“One can learn a lot about someone by looking at their junk,” Liz informed him, opening the door. “What secrets are you hiding in here, hmm?”
Max smiled and shook his head. “No secrets. Just junk,” he repeated.
Liz paused before turning on the light. “If you mind, say so. I won’t be offended,” she assured him.
He reached around her and turned on the light. “Knock yourself out,” he invited her, standing aside.
She chuckled and walked in.
The room was full. No furniture other than a couple of big, stuffed-full bookcases and a desk that overflowed with more books, tax forms, and bills. Max wasn’t nearly as neat in his paperwork as he was in his living habits. She assumed it was because he despised paperwork.
Large boxes were staked in one corner of the small room. “My Mum cleaned out her house when she and Dad moved up north a few years back,” Max explained. “She made me take all my old school and college mementos. Sports trophies and ribbons, photographs, yearbooks, textbooks. I think even my old Boy Scout uniform is in there, somewhere.”
“Should’ve known you were a Boy Scout, Evans.”
He only smiled.
Three framed photographs rested on top of one of the bookcases full of battered paperbacks. Liz studied them. One was of Max in uniform, probably his graduation photo from the academy. Liz had a similar photo of herself. The difference was, she looked happy in hers. Max had worn little expression at all.
A second photograph showed a little boy about six standing between two adults-a slender blond women and a dark-haired man in a police officer’s uniform. Max and his parents, Liz realized, smiling at the face of a much younger and more innocent Max. He’d been laughing in the photo. He looked happy. When had he started to change into the more serious, often troubled man she had somehow managed to fall in love with?
The final photograph, obviously taken several years later, was also of Max’s parents. His mother had aged well, was still slender and blond, though her face was more lined in this picture. His father had greyed and added a few pounds. He was sitting in a wheelchair, his wife standing just behind him with one hand resting on his shoulder. Max hadn’t mentioned that his father was disabled, Liz mused, wondering how it had happened and whether now was the right time to ask questions.
Still curious, she turned to study the titles in the huge pile of textbooks stacked in one corner next to the bookshelf. They must have been from his college days, she decided, noting that most of them were science courses. She then realized that the largest number of them had to do with medicine. “What was your major in college?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.
He looked rather uncomfortable when he answered. “Premed.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. She’d assumed he’d majored in criminal justice or political science-something having a relation to police work. She certainly hadn’t expected this. “You were studying to be a doctor?”
“Yeah.” Just one offhanded syllable-yet the deep, old longing in his voice made her heart break.
She turned to face him, realizing that she had just stumbled onto the secret she’d been digging for. “How far did you get with your studies?”
“I’d just been accepted to medical school when I quit to join the police force.”
He had been accepted to medical school. He’d been so very close. “What made you change your mind?”
“I didn’t exactly change my mind,” he answered, avoiding her eyes by half-heartedly straightening some of the papers on his desk. “I had it changed for me. My Dad was shot in the line of duty. He walked into a liquor store and was hit by three slugs from a guy who’d just cleaned out the register. He almost died.”
Liz winced. The worst nightmare of every cop and his family. “I’m sorry. It must have been very hard for you and your mother.”
“It was hell,” he said simply. “Dad was in the hospital for months, and in therapy for several years. The insurance ran out long before the treatments did. His disability payments paid for their necessities, but their savings was gone. We even had to sell their home. I went to work to help out as much as I could.”
“You became a cop.”
“I had connections.” He said with a shrug. “I knew it wouldn’t take me long to move into a decent-paying position.”
“You couldn’t afford medical school?” she asked sympathetically.
“Not if I was going to help my parents. Even before Dad was shot it would have been tight. Medical training costs a fortune. My parents had planned to help as much as they could, but….well.”
He shrugged, knowing there was nothing left to say.
Max had dreamed of becoming a doctor. He had never wanted to be a police officer. Liz was stunned. “I had no idea,” she murmured.
“How could you? It’s not something I talk about. Plans change. Life goes on. It happens to everyone.”
She hated his cool, flippant tone. It didn’t disguise the old pain, the still-bitter disappointment. It bothered her that he even tried to hide those feelings from her. “Didn’t your parents try to talk you out of quitting school?” she asked.
“They didn’t ask me to do it,” he answered carefully. “Mum was sort of upset about it, but Dad had always wanted me to follow in his footsteps.”
“ I would have thought they’d have been very proud if you’d become a doctor.”
“I’m sure they would have. But they were very proud when I graduated from the police academy.”
“Did you talk about this with Pam?” she heard herself asking, and then mentally kicked herself for not trying harder to resist the impulse. She couldn’t help wondering though if Pam had approved of the decision Max had made-or resented it.
Max’s eyes narrowed, as though he wondered why she’d asked. “It never came up.”
He had lived with the women-but he’d never shared his old dreams with her? Liz shook her head. “You really have been alone, haven’t you?” she said.
He shrugged and half turned away. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Why didn’t you go back to school? After your parents were taken care of. Why aren’t you going now, if that’s what you want so badly?”
He exhaled through his nose, sounding impatient. “By the time my parents were on their feet financially, I was in my late twenties and already established in my job. I’ve been a cop for nine years Liz-since I was twenty-one. I couldn’t just quit my job and go back to school. I certainly can’t do so now.”
“Why not?” she insisted.
“Money, for one thing. It still costs a fortune. I still don’t have a fortune.”
“There are loans, scholarships, part-time jobs.”
“Yeah, right. And by the time I finally worked my way through medical training, I would be forty. Or older. With a mountain of debts to repay.”
“Maybe. So?”
He looked at her in disbelief. “Forty, Liz. Don’t you think that’s a little old to begin a career?”
“No. It happens all the time. You’re going to be forty, anyways, unless some sleazoid puts a slug in you sometime,” she said, deliberately blunt. “You might as well be doing something you enjoy. Even if you start at forty, you’d still have a good twenty years of practice ahead of you-heck, even if for some reason you were only able to practice for a year or two, it would still be worth it if that’s what you really want to do. Life is short, Evans. I believe in making every day count.”
“Nice little fairy tale, Parker. Real life doesn’t work that way.”
“No?” Annoyed now, she moved in front of him, standing so close that he had no choice but to look at her. How dare he speak so condescendingly to her? She knew all too well how life worked-and maybe it was time Max realized that.
“Look at me, Max. I’m doing exactly what I always wanted to do; from the time I was old enough to watch ‘Miami Vice’ on TV. Everyone told me it would never happen. I was an abandoned kid who grew up in orphanages and generally lousy foster homes. I was sexually molested by a foster-care worker when I wad ten, busted for shoplifting with a group of rebel friends when I was twelve, and had experimented with several illegal substances and alcoholic beverages by the time I was sixteen.”
Chin held high, she continued without giving him a chance to verbally react to any of her revelations, though she watched the expressions flashing across his face. “I was angry and stubborn and defiant and fiercely independent. More than one social worker predicted that I’d end up dead or working the streets like Maria. But when the time came for me to get out on my own, to decide what I wanted to be, I knew they were wrong. No one was going to tell me I couldn’t be whatever I wanted-and I wanted to be a cop. It took a lot of work, more than a few confrontations with those who would have held me back, but I made it, Max. And I love it.”
He’d gone rather pale during her impassioned speech, especially when she’d admitted that she’d been abused as a child. His hand wasn’t quite steady when it touched her cheek. “I know you love your work, Liz. I’ve always envied you for that.”
“So what are you going to do, sit around being jealous of me for the rest of your career? Spend another thirty-five years in a job you’ve never liked?” she challenged, holding his eyes with her own. “Or are you going to do something about getting what you want?”
“Liz, this is ridiculous. I can’t go back to medical school at this point in my life. I haven’t even considered it.”
“That’s a lie,” she said evenly.
He flushed. “Okay, I’ve thought about it. But I’ve never seriously considered it.”
“Then you’re a coward.”
He scowled. “Now wait a minute…”
Still peeved at the way he’d brushed her off-or tried to-she was torn between reaching out to take him in her arms, and taking him by the shoulders and shaking him. Hard.
“I want you to be happy, Max. Don’t you see that? You’re probably the finest man I’ve ever known. You gave up your dreams to help your parents, you’ve performed a job you never wanted with competence and distinction, you care about the people around you, the people you work with and the ones you’ve sworn to protect. You deserve to be happy.”
He reached out suddenly and pulled her close. “Don’t make me out to be some sort of hero. Liz. It isn’t true.”
“To me it is,” she whispered, clinging to him. She could have told him then that she loved him. She didn’t, because she knew he wasn’t ready. He had too much to think about already. And she didn’t want his decisions for his future influenced by any demands he might imagine her feelings made upon him.
She realized that she was even willing to give him up if it meant that the deep-seated unhappiness in him, which she now understood, could be replaced with contentment. So this was love. It seemed she’d never really known the emotion before, after all. Compared to this, the others had been little more than infatuation.
It hurt, she realized. But she could no more stop loving Max than she could stop breathing.
“Think about what I said,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to his hard cheek. “It’s not too late, Max. It’s never too late to go after what you want.”
“You’re all I want right now,” he said gruffly and crushed her mouth beneath his.
Liz kissed him back with all her heart, but she knew it wasn’t enough. As much as she cared for him, it would take more than her love to truly make him happy. How could he ever be content when he was trapped in a career he had never wanted, that he’d found so little joy in? And if Max wasn’t full happy, could they every really be happy together?
“I have to go,” she said with a sigh, drawing away from him.
“I know.” His jaw flexed, a sign of his unwillingness to see her leave. “Be careful.”
“I’m always careful, Evans.” Except where you’re concerned.
He walked her to the door. He stopped her just as she reached for the doorknob. “Uh, Parker?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Yeah?”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
She frowned. Her purse was in her hand, so she knew he wasn’t referring to that. “Am I?”
He grinned. It always amazed her how his rare, full smiles could transform his dark face.
Max knelt and retrieved something large and bulky from the floor next to the couch. “Does the name Bob ring a bell?” he asked, dangling the heavy harness from one hand.
Liz groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh, my God, I forgot it.” She was genuinely embarrassed. In her entire career, she’d never made that kind of monumental mistake while working undercover.
Max was obviously amused by her embarrassment. “I think Maria might have noticed.”
“Yeah,” Lis said grimly, reaching for the harness. “I’m sure she would have.”
“Need help getting back into that thing?”
“You start fumbling around under my clothes and it’ll be midnight before I leave,” Liz retorted, turning her back to him as she raised her shirt.
“There is that.”
She felt him watching with interest as she strapped herself into the rig, then smoothed the maternity shirt back into place. “Now,” she said in relief, turning back to him. “How do I look?”
“Beautiful,” he assured her, no longer smiling.
She blushed. “That was nice,” she said, caught off guard. “Thanks.”
“It just happens to be true.” He kissed her, but touched her only with his mouth. Liz suspected he was resisting temptation. She knew how he felt. It was taking all her willpower to keep her hands off him.
“Take care of yourself,” he murmured as he steeped back.
She had the door open and was halfway out when she looked back at him. “You’ll think about what I said?”
“I’ll think about it.”
She couldn’t read his expression. She didn’t waste any more time trying. She left then, while she still could.
TBC…….
Chapter 20
Chapter 20
She cried all the way back to the apartment. The people on the bus around her looked uncomfortable in the presence of a sobbing pregnant woman, but only one elderly woman asked if there was anything she could do to help. “No,” Liz whispered miserably. “But thank you.”
The women awkwardly patted Liz’s shoulder. “It’ll work out, honey,” she offered. “Whatever it is, you’ll find a way to work it out. Just you wait and see.”
“Th-thank you,” Liz murmured brokenly, giving the sweet lady a feeble attempt at a smile and feeling a bit guilty about deceiving her this way.
The tears had a purpose, of course. Liz needed to return to her apartment with a red nose and tear-streaked cheeks in order to reinforce her cover. Again, she was rather pleased with her acting skills. Had she not chosen a career in law enforcement, she probably could have made a living on the big screen, she decided.
Which only made it easier for her to cry as she thought of how Max had abandoned his own career dreams. She hoped his parents were properly grateful for the sacrifice he had made for them. She suspected they didn’t fully realize what Max had given up.
Liz understood all too well. She knew what it was like to have a dream. Knew what it felt like to be on the verge of letting it go. Knew how it was to be the only one who believed in that dream.
No wonder Max had become such a loner. He hadn’t believed there was anyone who truly understood. She could identify with that, too.
She loved him. She wanted him to have everything he’d ever wanted-even if it meant pushing him away, freeing him to go after his dreams.
Her tears weren’t all fake by the time she stepped heavily off the bus and made her way toward the joyless apartment building.
Max stared at the battered copy of Gray’s Anatomy he held in his left hand. Medical school, he thought scornfully. At his age? Liz must have temporarily lost her mind to even suggest such a thing.
He couldn’t do it, of course. Couldn’t walk away from a successful, nine-year career to go back to school now. Even if he could get accepted again-and that was a very big if-it would be too hard. He wasn’t sure he even remembered how to study. Medicine was nothing more to him now than a boyhood dream, the way some kids once dreamed of being astronauts or superheros.
Or cops, he thought, remembering Liz’s words.
Damn, but she’d had a tough life. How could she still be so much of an optimist? How could she possibly believe that life could all come out just the way it should if someone was just willing to work hard enough at it?
She was wrong, of course. Just because it had worked for her, just because she had managed to overcome enormous odds, didn’t mean everyone could. Nor that everyone ever wanted to try.
It was too late for him.
And even if he should lose his mind and go back to school, Max thought, shoving the thick book back onto its shelf, was Liz aware of how hard that would be on any sort of personal life they might have? He’d be spending long, hard hours studying, working part-time, probably, and then more gruelling hours and seemingly endless nights working as an intern and a resident. The real truth was that he wanted it so badly his mouth watered just thinking about it-but would Liz be able to live with those demands on his time? Assuming she was even considering hanging around that long, of course.
He’d had to make a choice once. Follow his dream, or give it up to help his parents out of a desperate situation. The choice had been painful, but not really difficult. He couldn’t have lived with himself had he taken the selfish path then; would have taken no pleasure from any success he might have found.
If he allowed himself to be swayed by Liz’s bold advice-to risk going after that old dream again-would there come a time when he’d have to choose between his dream and Liz?
He wasn’t sure he could survive having his hopes shattered again. But he was equally sure he didn’t want to live the rest of his life without Liz Parker in it.
He’d once wondered if he was capable of falling deeply, permanently in love with any women. Now he knew that he was. He’d fallen in love with Liz Parker, of all people.
He groaned and rammed his fist against the wall. Why did life always have to be so damned complicated?
Maria reacted to Liz’s tear-ravaged face exactly as Liz had hoped she would. “What happened?” she gasped, clutching Liz’s arm with one hand. “What’s wrong?”
“I-I saw Max,” Liz confessed brokenly. “He-he said he isn’t going to change his mind about the baby. He doesn’t want it. He’ll never want it. And he doesn’t want me if the baby comes with me.”
Maria relaxed a bit, though her brows drew together in a scowl. “What did you do, go crawling to him? Beg him to take you back?”
Liz nodded disconsolately. “Yes. It didn’t work,” she sniffed. “He gave me some money for food and then told me he hadn’t changed his mind.”
“I could have told you that,” Maria muttered. And then she sighed. “Well? What are you going to do?”
Liz touched the harness. “It’s probably better this way,” she whispered. “What kind of life could I give it?”
She slowly turned to Maria. “You’re sure these people you told me about find good homes for the babies?”
“Rich homes,” Maria said. “People with money and power. The kid wouldn’t lack for anything.”
Except scruples, Liz could have retorted. Being raised by wealthy people who didn’t hesitate to break the law for their own convenience was hardly an ideal upbringing. She’d seen the kind of people who’d been raised with money and power and no respect for the law or the rights of others. People like that gave no thought to the “little people” left strewn behind them like unidentifiable roadkill.
No child of Liz’s would ever be raised in that atmosphere-and she was going to do her best to make sure that Maria’s baby wasn’t either. “I’d like to meet them,” she said.
Maria hesitated. “Meet who?” she asked carefully.
“The people you’ve been talking to. The ones who are going to pay you for your baby. The ones who are going to make sure your baby goes to a good home.”
For the first time since Liz had known her, Maria looked uncertain. “You’re sure you want to do this? These people are very serious about this, Liz. Once you give them your word, they aren’t going to let you back out.”
Liz took a deep shaky breath. “How much will they pay me? After all the hospital expenses, of course.”
“Enough to make Max’s eyes light up again,” Maria retorted. “But you can’t decide something like this on impulse kid. You gotta think about it.”
“Did you think about it?”
“I didn’t have a whole lot of other options,” Maria said bitterly. “The money these people are paying me will let me start a whole new life somewhere. I need that.”
“I need to start my life over too,” Liz insisted. “With Max.”
Maria sighed. “I still think you’re crazy. For one thing, I think you got feelings for the kid. I don’t think it’s going to be easy for you to let go.”
He hand still on the padding, Liz tried not to be amused at the unintentional irony. Maria couldn’t begin to guess how anxious Liz was to finish this assignment and permanently rid herself of the hot, heavy harness-so anxious that she’d almost blown everything by forgetting to put it back on before leaving Max’s place!
“I can handle it,” she said. “I want to do this, Maria. Please help me.”
Coming to an abrupt decision, Maria nodded her light head. “Okay. Fine. I’ll talk to them.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.” Maria spoke sharply, flatly. “I’ll talk to them. They don’t welcome strangers around much. If they’re interested in talking to you, they’ll tell me. If not-you’re on your own, you got that? One word from you to anyone about this, and you’ll be lucky if you live long enough to go into labour.”
Liz gasped. “They’re that dangerous?”
“People are always dangerous when enough money is involved,” Maria answered matter-of-factly. She searched Liz’s face. “You still want to talk to them?”
Liz gulped audibly, but nodded. “Yes. I still want to talk to them.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.”
Fifteen minutes later, Liz was alone. She ran a hand through her hair and gave a weary sigh.
All in all, it had been one hell of a day.
The meeting took place on Sunday afternoon. Liz was surprised that the leader of the baby-selling ring working the neighbourhood turned out to be a friend of Ms. McCauley. It seemed that McCauley passed along the occasional tip on a baby-source prospect in exchange for cash. It had been McCauley who’d brought Maria into the scheme.
The women introduced herself only as Mia, an attorney. She was rail thin, with limp, dark hair and hard, lifeless eyes. Liz had no doubt that the woman was cunningly intelligent. That became obvious during their brief meeting, when Mia skirted skilfully around any concrete promises and offered only veiled innuendos that were far from providing enough evidence for successful prosecution. With what little she’d said so far, a clever lawyer could make a case that Mia was only offering her services to set up a legal, private adoption.
Liz knew better.
“I didn’t like her,” she told Maria later when they were alone in Maria’s living room.
Maria shrugged, and pressed a hand to her back as though it ached. “Who said you gotta like her? Her money’s good.”
“Are you sure we want our babies to go to someone like her? What if she’s lying about making sure they’ll go to good homes? What if she’s selling them to people who’ll abuse them or something?”
Liz saw the anxiety that flashed in Maria’s eyes, though it was quickly masked. “She ain’t going to do that,’ she insisted. “Mia says the people wouldn’t want babies so bad if they weren’t willing to take care of them.”
“But what if she’s lying?” Liz insisted.
“Look.” Maria spoke sharply, irritably. “She’s not, okay? You’re the one who nagged at me to set this up. Now you better not start changing your mind.”
“Why not? I didn’t agree to anything,” Liz protested, crossing her arms over her middle.
“You saw her. You could identify her to the cops.”
“Why would I go to the cops? I could get into trouble.”
“Yeah, you just remember that.”
“Besides, she never really said anything about buying the baby. She hinted, but she never committed. She wouldn’t even commit to a firm fee.”
“She’s not crazy, Liz. She ain’t going to give you more than you need to know at this point.”
“How are you going to get your baby to them? Will they pick it up at the hospital?”
“Don’t be stupid. I’ll bring the kid home. It’s gotta look like I’m going to keep it or Child Welfare starts getting involved.”
“So you give them the baby later, after you’re released from the hospital?”
“Yeah. We’ll arrange an exchange point and everything will be taken care of. I’ll take my money and disappear. Start over somewhere else with a new name, a new life.”
“How do you know you can trust them? How do you know they aren’t conning you?” Liz persisted. And then she gasped as if at a sudden flash of thought. “What if Mia’s a cop?”
“A cop?” Maria dropped her hand from her back and gave a snort of laughter. “Yeah, right.”
“No, really Maria. What if she’s trying to set you up? You could hand her the baby and she could arrest you. You could go to jail for a long time. I could too, now. I’m scared.”
Maria lifted both hands. “Calm down, you’re getting hysterical. Mia ain’t a cop, okay? Trust me, I know a cop when I see one.”
Liz looked sceptical. “How?”
“Let’s just say I have experience. Mia’s a snake, but she’s no cop.”
“I still say you should think about this some more,” Liz argued.
There was no mistaking the haunted look that crossed Maria’s face then. “Maybe you can still change your mind,” she said, her voice low. “You haven’t really committed yourself. You could disappear now and they wouldn’t come looking for you. Probably. But I’ve made ‘em a promise. I’ve already taken money. Already spent it. I change my mind, they’re going to want revenge.”
Liz lifted a hand to her throat. “But…”
“Look, I knew someone, okay? Someone who promised her kid, then changed her mind after she had it. She turned up in the river a few days later. No one knew for sure what happened to the kid. You think that was a coincidence? I ain’t that dumb!”
“Oh, Maria. What have you done?” Liz asked sadly.
Maria lifted her chin. “I’m taking care of myself,” she said. “Just like always. And you better be prepared to do the same. I don’t see that man of yours around to take care of you.”
The faint remnants of fear behind Maria’s bravado made Liz’s throat tighten. She still didn’t approve of Maria’s choices, was still prepared to arrest her if she eventually refused to cooperate with the sting, but she felt rather sorry for her, anyway. Misguided as she’d been, Maria had obviously felt that she’d had no other choices.
Like Max, Liz thought with a silent sigh.
She hoped it wasn’t too late for either Maria or Max to turn their lives around. She had grown fond of one, fallen in love with the other. And now she found herself caught right in the middle of their personal dilemmas.
It was a damned unnerving position to be in, she thought ruefully.
TBC…………..
She cried all the way back to the apartment. The people on the bus around her looked uncomfortable in the presence of a sobbing pregnant woman, but only one elderly woman asked if there was anything she could do to help. “No,” Liz whispered miserably. “But thank you.”
The women awkwardly patted Liz’s shoulder. “It’ll work out, honey,” she offered. “Whatever it is, you’ll find a way to work it out. Just you wait and see.”
“Th-thank you,” Liz murmured brokenly, giving the sweet lady a feeble attempt at a smile and feeling a bit guilty about deceiving her this way.
The tears had a purpose, of course. Liz needed to return to her apartment with a red nose and tear-streaked cheeks in order to reinforce her cover. Again, she was rather pleased with her acting skills. Had she not chosen a career in law enforcement, she probably could have made a living on the big screen, she decided.
Which only made it easier for her to cry as she thought of how Max had abandoned his own career dreams. She hoped his parents were properly grateful for the sacrifice he had made for them. She suspected they didn’t fully realize what Max had given up.
Liz understood all too well. She knew what it was like to have a dream. Knew what it felt like to be on the verge of letting it go. Knew how it was to be the only one who believed in that dream.
No wonder Max had become such a loner. He hadn’t believed there was anyone who truly understood. She could identify with that, too.
She loved him. She wanted him to have everything he’d ever wanted-even if it meant pushing him away, freeing him to go after his dreams.
Her tears weren’t all fake by the time she stepped heavily off the bus and made her way toward the joyless apartment building.
Max stared at the battered copy of Gray’s Anatomy he held in his left hand. Medical school, he thought scornfully. At his age? Liz must have temporarily lost her mind to even suggest such a thing.
He couldn’t do it, of course. Couldn’t walk away from a successful, nine-year career to go back to school now. Even if he could get accepted again-and that was a very big if-it would be too hard. He wasn’t sure he even remembered how to study. Medicine was nothing more to him now than a boyhood dream, the way some kids once dreamed of being astronauts or superheros.
Or cops, he thought, remembering Liz’s words.
Damn, but she’d had a tough life. How could she still be so much of an optimist? How could she possibly believe that life could all come out just the way it should if someone was just willing to work hard enough at it?
She was wrong, of course. Just because it had worked for her, just because she had managed to overcome enormous odds, didn’t mean everyone could. Nor that everyone ever wanted to try.
It was too late for him.
And even if he should lose his mind and go back to school, Max thought, shoving the thick book back onto its shelf, was Liz aware of how hard that would be on any sort of personal life they might have? He’d be spending long, hard hours studying, working part-time, probably, and then more gruelling hours and seemingly endless nights working as an intern and a resident. The real truth was that he wanted it so badly his mouth watered just thinking about it-but would Liz be able to live with those demands on his time? Assuming she was even considering hanging around that long, of course.
He’d had to make a choice once. Follow his dream, or give it up to help his parents out of a desperate situation. The choice had been painful, but not really difficult. He couldn’t have lived with himself had he taken the selfish path then; would have taken no pleasure from any success he might have found.
If he allowed himself to be swayed by Liz’s bold advice-to risk going after that old dream again-would there come a time when he’d have to choose between his dream and Liz?
He wasn’t sure he could survive having his hopes shattered again. But he was equally sure he didn’t want to live the rest of his life without Liz Parker in it.
He’d once wondered if he was capable of falling deeply, permanently in love with any women. Now he knew that he was. He’d fallen in love with Liz Parker, of all people.
He groaned and rammed his fist against the wall. Why did life always have to be so damned complicated?
Maria reacted to Liz’s tear-ravaged face exactly as Liz had hoped she would. “What happened?” she gasped, clutching Liz’s arm with one hand. “What’s wrong?”
“I-I saw Max,” Liz confessed brokenly. “He-he said he isn’t going to change his mind about the baby. He doesn’t want it. He’ll never want it. And he doesn’t want me if the baby comes with me.”
Maria relaxed a bit, though her brows drew together in a scowl. “What did you do, go crawling to him? Beg him to take you back?”
Liz nodded disconsolately. “Yes. It didn’t work,” she sniffed. “He gave me some money for food and then told me he hadn’t changed his mind.”
“I could have told you that,” Maria muttered. And then she sighed. “Well? What are you going to do?”
Liz touched the harness. “It’s probably better this way,” she whispered. “What kind of life could I give it?”
She slowly turned to Maria. “You’re sure these people you told me about find good homes for the babies?”
“Rich homes,” Maria said. “People with money and power. The kid wouldn’t lack for anything.”
Except scruples, Liz could have retorted. Being raised by wealthy people who didn’t hesitate to break the law for their own convenience was hardly an ideal upbringing. She’d seen the kind of people who’d been raised with money and power and no respect for the law or the rights of others. People like that gave no thought to the “little people” left strewn behind them like unidentifiable roadkill.
No child of Liz’s would ever be raised in that atmosphere-and she was going to do her best to make sure that Maria’s baby wasn’t either. “I’d like to meet them,” she said.
Maria hesitated. “Meet who?” she asked carefully.
“The people you’ve been talking to. The ones who are going to pay you for your baby. The ones who are going to make sure your baby goes to a good home.”
For the first time since Liz had known her, Maria looked uncertain. “You’re sure you want to do this? These people are very serious about this, Liz. Once you give them your word, they aren’t going to let you back out.”
Liz took a deep shaky breath. “How much will they pay me? After all the hospital expenses, of course.”
“Enough to make Max’s eyes light up again,” Maria retorted. “But you can’t decide something like this on impulse kid. You gotta think about it.”
“Did you think about it?”
“I didn’t have a whole lot of other options,” Maria said bitterly. “The money these people are paying me will let me start a whole new life somewhere. I need that.”
“I need to start my life over too,” Liz insisted. “With Max.”
Maria sighed. “I still think you’re crazy. For one thing, I think you got feelings for the kid. I don’t think it’s going to be easy for you to let go.”
He hand still on the padding, Liz tried not to be amused at the unintentional irony. Maria couldn’t begin to guess how anxious Liz was to finish this assignment and permanently rid herself of the hot, heavy harness-so anxious that she’d almost blown everything by forgetting to put it back on before leaving Max’s place!
“I can handle it,” she said. “I want to do this, Maria. Please help me.”
Coming to an abrupt decision, Maria nodded her light head. “Okay. Fine. I’ll talk to them.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.” Maria spoke sharply, flatly. “I’ll talk to them. They don’t welcome strangers around much. If they’re interested in talking to you, they’ll tell me. If not-you’re on your own, you got that? One word from you to anyone about this, and you’ll be lucky if you live long enough to go into labour.”
Liz gasped. “They’re that dangerous?”
“People are always dangerous when enough money is involved,” Maria answered matter-of-factly. She searched Liz’s face. “You still want to talk to them?”
Liz gulped audibly, but nodded. “Yes. I still want to talk to them.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.”
Fifteen minutes later, Liz was alone. She ran a hand through her hair and gave a weary sigh.
All in all, it had been one hell of a day.
The meeting took place on Sunday afternoon. Liz was surprised that the leader of the baby-selling ring working the neighbourhood turned out to be a friend of Ms. McCauley. It seemed that McCauley passed along the occasional tip on a baby-source prospect in exchange for cash. It had been McCauley who’d brought Maria into the scheme.
The women introduced herself only as Mia, an attorney. She was rail thin, with limp, dark hair and hard, lifeless eyes. Liz had no doubt that the woman was cunningly intelligent. That became obvious during their brief meeting, when Mia skirted skilfully around any concrete promises and offered only veiled innuendos that were far from providing enough evidence for successful prosecution. With what little she’d said so far, a clever lawyer could make a case that Mia was only offering her services to set up a legal, private adoption.
Liz knew better.
“I didn’t like her,” she told Maria later when they were alone in Maria’s living room.
Maria shrugged, and pressed a hand to her back as though it ached. “Who said you gotta like her? Her money’s good.”
“Are you sure we want our babies to go to someone like her? What if she’s lying about making sure they’ll go to good homes? What if she’s selling them to people who’ll abuse them or something?”
Liz saw the anxiety that flashed in Maria’s eyes, though it was quickly masked. “She ain’t going to do that,’ she insisted. “Mia says the people wouldn’t want babies so bad if they weren’t willing to take care of them.”
“But what if she’s lying?” Liz insisted.
“Look.” Maria spoke sharply, irritably. “She’s not, okay? You’re the one who nagged at me to set this up. Now you better not start changing your mind.”
“Why not? I didn’t agree to anything,” Liz protested, crossing her arms over her middle.
“You saw her. You could identify her to the cops.”
“Why would I go to the cops? I could get into trouble.”
“Yeah, you just remember that.”
“Besides, she never really said anything about buying the baby. She hinted, but she never committed. She wouldn’t even commit to a firm fee.”
“She’s not crazy, Liz. She ain’t going to give you more than you need to know at this point.”
“How are you going to get your baby to them? Will they pick it up at the hospital?”
“Don’t be stupid. I’ll bring the kid home. It’s gotta look like I’m going to keep it or Child Welfare starts getting involved.”
“So you give them the baby later, after you’re released from the hospital?”
“Yeah. We’ll arrange an exchange point and everything will be taken care of. I’ll take my money and disappear. Start over somewhere else with a new name, a new life.”
“How do you know you can trust them? How do you know they aren’t conning you?” Liz persisted. And then she gasped as if at a sudden flash of thought. “What if Mia’s a cop?”
“A cop?” Maria dropped her hand from her back and gave a snort of laughter. “Yeah, right.”
“No, really Maria. What if she’s trying to set you up? You could hand her the baby and she could arrest you. You could go to jail for a long time. I could too, now. I’m scared.”
Maria lifted both hands. “Calm down, you’re getting hysterical. Mia ain’t a cop, okay? Trust me, I know a cop when I see one.”
Liz looked sceptical. “How?”
“Let’s just say I have experience. Mia’s a snake, but she’s no cop.”
“I still say you should think about this some more,” Liz argued.
There was no mistaking the haunted look that crossed Maria’s face then. “Maybe you can still change your mind,” she said, her voice low. “You haven’t really committed yourself. You could disappear now and they wouldn’t come looking for you. Probably. But I’ve made ‘em a promise. I’ve already taken money. Already spent it. I change my mind, they’re going to want revenge.”
Liz lifted a hand to her throat. “But…”
“Look, I knew someone, okay? Someone who promised her kid, then changed her mind after she had it. She turned up in the river a few days later. No one knew for sure what happened to the kid. You think that was a coincidence? I ain’t that dumb!”
“Oh, Maria. What have you done?” Liz asked sadly.
Maria lifted her chin. “I’m taking care of myself,” she said. “Just like always. And you better be prepared to do the same. I don’t see that man of yours around to take care of you.”
The faint remnants of fear behind Maria’s bravado made Liz’s throat tighten. She still didn’t approve of Maria’s choices, was still prepared to arrest her if she eventually refused to cooperate with the sting, but she felt rather sorry for her, anyway. Misguided as she’d been, Maria had obviously felt that she’d had no other choices.
Like Max, Liz thought with a silent sigh.
She hoped it wasn’t too late for either Maria or Max to turn their lives around. She had grown fond of one, fallen in love with the other. And now she found herself caught right in the middle of their personal dilemmas.
It was a damned unnerving position to be in, she thought ruefully.
TBC…………..