Second Life (M/L CC Mature/Adult) *part 18* 7/22/07 [WIP]

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Lulù
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Southern Italy

Post by Lulù »

hey everyone, here's the next part! :D

thank you to all of you who left their feedback and all the lurkers out there too :wink:

hoping you guys keep loving my fic :roll:

let me know about it, please! :oops:



°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°


Part 10

Isabel spent the remainder of the Monday confined in her room, laying on her back and staring up at the ceiling, in a surreal silence. Just when it was getting late in the evening , Max and Michael succeeded to drive her out, almost coercing her to have a bite of some fried chicken and a sample of one sandwich with cheese and Tabasco.

Although she didn’t feel better in any sense, she was pretty adamant on getting back to work the next Wednesday, mostly to free herself from her two stalking flatmates.

Then, time started to rush, hour after hour in a quick and yet even pace. The days just flew by, so that the daily routine would get better.

All too soon it was Friday again, and nothing apparently was different from the last week, even if so many things had changed since then. All the guys were not on very good terms with each other anymore. It felt like something was broken among them in some way, especially between Max and Liz who hadn’t even talked to each other the past few days. Neither of them had tried very hard to meet the other one halfway, essentially.

Only one of the gang could be content with the events that occurred during the previous week, truly promising for his next future: Kyle.

Friday evening came and he had been pacing the living room confines for over thirty minutes, holding the piece of paper Tracey had given him on Sunday in his right hand, while the left one grabbed his cell phone.

Once Maria came home from work, whistling a song by U2 as she stomped past the front door, she spotted her friend lost in his own thoughts, just a moment before he slumped down in the couch.

“What are you doing?” she asked with her hands on her hips, walking up to him.

“Nothing,” he mumbled in embarrassment, trying to conceal his right hand behind his back. But it was too late, Maria’s radar was already working on it.

“Mmm, numbers! Now that’s sooo cool !” she teased him, pressing her lips in a mockery line and peeking down at the note. “I’ll bet it turns out a new Zen discipline or something. Uh, let me guess! Maybe, according to the newest Buddha theories you can cleanse yourself just by contemplating some numerical sequence, right?”

“No, actually this is just a phone number,” he huffed as he slowly placed his hand on his own lap, lightly frowning at her tease.

“Interesting!” Maria remarked as she took a seat next to him on the couch arm. “Well, you have to dial the number in earnest if you do want to call someone,” she explained as she went on studying him. “It can’t be enough just dreaming of it in your imagination. No way. You have to move your fingers, buddy!” She pointed blatantly at his cell phone. “Understand now? All in all it’s pretty easy, you know.”

Kyle snorted, wearing a confused face. “It’s just… I … I don’t know whether I’m going to call or not, yet .”

Maria rolled her eyes at his comment. ‘Why do men always have to be so dense?’ she mused to herself. “Okay, let’s try to handle that,” she breathed with a cocked eyebrow. “Whose number is this to begin with?”

“Um, well, I met this girl on Sunday evening,” he responded, raising his gaze hesitantly to hers. “Her car broke down and I gave her a ride to her place. So she asked me out and …”

“… and she let you have her number,” Maria continued for him. At his slow nod she just sighed. “Fine. What does she look like? Fat, ugly and hunchbacked, huh?”

Kyle blushed as every memory of Sunday evening came back flooding through his mind. Tracey’s appealing lips, her sensuous hips, her well-shaped legs. “No! No. She looks like … a goddess!”

Maria’s eyes went wide. “What the hell are you waiting for, then?” she hissed, highlighting her scolding tone. “Call. Her. Now!

“I’m not so sure I’m going to enjoy this,” he stated in a low voice, racking his brain over and over with indecision. “What if she and I … what if we don’t get on that well with each other? What if we don’t find anything to talk about? Gee, it would be just uncomfortable!” he exclaimed as he bit on his lip.

“Hey, get a grip, man! You don’t need to get married with her, okay?” the blonde girl replied, patting supportively his shoulder. “Listen, you can just go out for a date and never meet her again, if the two of us don’t hit it off well. On the other hand, if you don’t give her a chance, you’ll never figure out what might happen. It can possibly be the chance of your lifetime!”

Kyle slowly nodded his head. Maria did have a point here. There was something else tormenting him, though, and he was fully aware of it. “That’s not all. I … I don’t want to act like an utter asshole. I mean, going out on a date, having fun while Isabel is going through a lot of … pain.”

Maria stared at him for a while, every hint of mockery suddenly abandoning her face. “Kyle, you know her even better than I do . Izzy would never expect us to be weighed down or watching our actions because of her…all right?” She paused as Kyle stared back at her, his eyes gleaming with unreadable emotions. “Do you think she’s going to approve when you don’t go out with a ‘goddess’ just because of her?”

“ I don’t think so,” the answer surged fast and loud out of him.

Isabel hadn’t ever been that type of a person who loved to be rolling in someone’s commiseration. Even though what he felt for her was much more different - much more intense - than commiseration…

“See, your problem doesn’t even exist anymore!” Maria snapped her fingers, a small smile in her chipper voice. “Just do it: stretch your fingertips, clear your throat and … CALL THE GIRL!!!” she shouted in his ear, causing him to jerk away from her in order to preserve his own hearing.

After that, she pulled up and silently made her way to the kitchen, her empty stomach commanding her attention.

As soon as she left the room, Kyle found himself back where he had started, with the note in one hand and his mobile in the other one. Plus, his heartbeat was speeding up more and more as he tried to collect himself.

That was when he made the decision: Maria was right. He would take the chance, no matter what. Without wasting another moment, he dialed the number ever so slowly, afraid of making some mistake in the process. He listened as the cell rang on the other end, until someone picked up at the third ring.

“Hello?”

It was her. He had to take in several breaths before replying.

“Hi Tracey. This is Kyle here …”

*~* ~*

Later the same evening

The Book & Co.’s employees couldn’t wait to get out of the book store as soon as possible. Luke, Kate and Celina had already made themselves scarce, sneaking out of the front door at 7:01 pm, whereas Liz and Sara remained in the dressing room and finished up changing.

“Can you feel it?” Sara inquired as she zipped her skirt up, at the same time maneuvering herself into a pair of high-heels shoes.

“What?” Liz inquired back, her eyebrows arching in puzzlement as she tugged her jeans up her own legs. She was having a hard time in the effort to keep her own balance while changing back into her normal clothes.

“Just nothing!” Sara beamed with a sweep of her arm. “That’s it! When that bitch isn’t moving around, life couldn’t be more perfect!” She was clearly hinting at the fact that Annie Winslow hadn’t been showing up in the bookshop since the previous week.

Liz worriedly eyed the closed door, before gently scowling at Sara. “Shh, Paul is still staying out there! Don’t you want him to hear you, do you?”

Sara leveled Liz a meaningful look as she buttoned up the front of her blouse. “Oh please! As if he doesn’t know the way his sister bosses us around!” she commented with a smirk. Liz just sighed in agreement. “Uh, I almost forgot! How about you and me go and take Susie from my mother’s once we are out? My sweetheart would be ecstatic to meet you. She really, really likes you, Lizzie!”

Liz’s heart swelled up with tenderness at Sara’s words. Susie was an adorable little girl, so cute and lively she could light up even your darkest day just being next to you. “That would be great! Actually, I kind of adore your daughter!” Her lips curved in a full smile, her eyes twinkling as she put on her leather jacket.

“Believe me, it’s a mutual thing!” Sara said after shutting her locker with a thud. “Okay, let’s go and give her a wonderful treat!”

“Okay!” Just when Liz was about to retrieve her own purse from her locker and turning around, a soft knock came from behind the shut door.

“Come in!” was Sara’s hasty invitation.

The moment her voice wafted trough the air, a stylish Paul Winslow made his way into the room, dressed in his newest Armani black suit, his matched button down shirt and no tie around his elegant neck.

“I’m sorry I interrupted your ‘girl talk’,” he started with his usual gentleness. Taking a few steps forward, he glanced between the two girls, until he focused on Liz as if he was suddenly oblivious of everything else. “Please, can Liz and I have a word in private here, if you don’t mind?” he told Sara even though he didn’t take his eyes off Liz.

“O… okay. I’m leaving!” Sara replied in a sheepish giggle. Then she leaned in to whisper in Liz’s ear, “I’m waiting for you outside.” Since Liz imperceptibly nodded, she waved at Paul before rushing past the door.

Liz watched her friend getting our of the room and turned to Paul who was still staring at her “I’m all ears,” she muttered with a note of anticipation as he strode to her.

When he was just in front of her, he paused for a moment. “Did I do something wrong?” he almost murmured, loud enough for her to hear him.

Liz’s doe eyes snapped up to him. “What? Something wrong?” She looked pretty much astonished, and she truly was.

“I guess I must have offended you some way,” Paul gazed her right in the eyes as if he wanted to dig deep within her soul. “I swear I didn’t mean it, Liz.” He paused again, a dismal expression all over his face. “I need to apologize to you for doing anything you thought I could have done.”

The animated conversation Paul had had with Annie on Saturday, which Liz had overheard in spite of herself, was resounding through her mind all over again. Which was why she began to feel a bit too edgy. Added to this, the way things between her and Max had been deteriorating during the past week obviously didn’t help.

“Wait, wait! Apologize to me for doing what? You didn’t do anything wrong, Paul.”

“Really? So why are you keeping me at arm’s length?” he asked and stepped closer to her. Liz didn’t feel like she could utter a word . “I thought we were friends, good friends . We used to talk to each other, we used to laugh, and now …you’re openly avoiding me. Please, can you just tell me why?” he begged in a whisper.

“It’s just complicated.” Liz squeezed her eyes closed, before blinking them open again. She just figured out she wouldn’t be able to deny what Paul had confronted her with. She really was avoiding him. She really was keeping him at arm’s length. Then again, she couldn’t tell him why. “I’m going through a sort of strange period.”

“A strange period?” Paul repeated as he scanned each and every single inch in her face through slit eyes.

“Yep… strange.” She pulled away all of a sudden and looked back, pretending to be looking for something in the nearby area. His lingering gaze, the way he was practically ogling at her right now, could just feed her rising suspicions about him. It was all she needed to put together two and two. Had he really a crush on h…?

“I’m sorry, Liz ,” Paul’s quiet voice cut off the train of her thoughts. She looked around in time to see him leaning his head down. “I realized I sounded too indiscreet.”

“Paul …” Liz called out before he could go ahead, even if she didn’t know what to say.

“Don’t worry, I perfectly understand.” His jaw line slightly clenched as he buried his hands in the front pockets of his posh jacket, walking back towards the door. “Let me just tell you one more thing . Whatever you might have thought about me, just remember that I respect what you are. I respect who you are and people you choose to be with. I know where I’m not allowed to go. I know I can’t cross the lines and trespass on someone else’s land. I’ll try my best to never forget that.” He took a last look at her, then reached out for the door handle, a faint smile parting his lips. “See you on Sunday morning for the meeting with Mr. Brown.”

When Liz was left all alone in the very silent bookshop she wondered if Paul Winslow had just read her mind like an open book . ‘I know I can’t cross the lines and trespass on someone else’s land.’ That sounded definitively self-explanatory to her.

How did he know that she knew? Was the truth written all over her face? Probably he had simply got a glimpse of her on Saturday afternoon. Probably he had presumed her stopping by at Book & Co. from some clue and yet hadn’t talked to her about it. Probably … but she wouldn’t bet on it. What if it wasn’t like that?

She couldn’t believe in nonsense like reading mind or anything, could she? She couldn’t believe in such a load of crap, could she? Truth to tell, she couldn’t believe in aliens either, before being brought back to life by one of them, in September 1999, and after that falling in love with him. So this thought wasn’t going to reassure her at all.

“Hey! What did ‘Mr. Stunning Eyes’ just tell you? Well, perhaps I’d rather say ‘Mr. All-Around Stunning’! I dare anyone to find a single not-stunning cell in his person. He looks like a total work of art!”

Liz hadn’t realized yet she was out of the bookshop, elbowing her way trough the packed sidewalk, until she heard Sara’s voice bombarding her with nonstop words.

“Hm, actually he didn’t say anything that important. He just needed to tell me … this …” she stuttered and cleared her throat. “You know, this absolutely insignificant thing.”

The fact itself was that Liz was trying to go off the point, in order to elude the real question, and yet had somehow managed to stir up the flames of Sara’s curiosity.

“Ahhh! I guess he needed to tell you this ‘absolutely insignificant thing’ ,” Sara parroted, folding her arms over her chest, “making goo goo eyes at you, mmm?”

“He wasn’t making goo goo eyes at me!” Liz shook her head in denial, a little more vigorously than normal . “He was just … gentle.”

“Gentle? Are you kidding? He was just about devouring you with all he had!” Sara gawked at her as they sauntered side by side. “How lucky can you get? Two of the hottest men alive, your hubby and your boss, drooling over you. Gee, I really wish I were in your shoes every so often!” she added in an envious and yet frivolous tone.

Nevertheless, Sara had so many good reasons to be envious of Liz. In fact, describing her sentimental life as disastrous would only be a brave euphemism, even without the exception of Susan’s father. She had always fallen in love with the wrong guy, to cut a long story short.

“Whatever!” Liz just shrugged, turning a deaf ear to her friend before shifting her head briskly. “Susie likes ice cream, doesn’t she?” she asked candidly, catching sight of the ice cream parlour sign straight across the street. “What about we go and get for her a cup of chocolate ice cream with vanilla syrup on top?” she offered to divert Sara’s attention from herself.

Without waiting for any reply, Liz was already heading to the opposite sidewalk, dragging Sara along with her.

*~* ~*

Friday night

In this tepid Autumn night, Liz was having such an awesome dream she wished it could last forever. It felt so wonderfully real, so exciting for both her body and spirit she was nearly breathless. It had all began while she lied peacefully on her side, her back to the balcony , the thin cotton blanket covering most of her relaxed body.

Liz languidly huddled herself into a little ball, her knees almost touching her breast in a fetal position. Just then she felt herself startling as something began to slide down her outer arm, sending goose-flesh all over it. It felt feather light and very warm, brushing against her flesh. Unable to swallow back a sigh even as she kept on dreaming, she wondered what was happening to her, her pulse pounding feverishly under her skin.

It couldn’t be her satin nightdress stroking like that against her arm, since it was sleeveless. It couldn’t be the blanket either, since it felt wholly different. Whatever it was had just moved up on her bared collarbone, making her whimper and reach behind her in reaction.

At the same time, Max lied in his part of the bed, having the best erotic dream of his life. A sweet tempting hand, which he was so familiar with, slithered up over the inside of his muscular thighs, searching between them for his gloriously hardened cock.

In his dream she still had her back to him, but he wanted her to look at him, so that he could see passion beginning to burn in her dark eyes. He also wanted to look back at her, savoring her with every sense of his, with all of him. In less than no time he grabbed her to roll her over, pulling her against him before lowering his body to hers.

Max got rid of her satin nightdress in one smooth motion, uncovering her naked skin beneath that, apart from her lace covered mound. Propped up on his elbow, he let his hands explore her delicate curves, his lust filled eyes attracted to her breasts just like bees to honey. A split second later, his hands were palming her small globes, cupping them from undersides, his thumbs teasing her nipples into hard buds as she let out a slight moan.

Liz’s hands weren’t idle either, she craved to return to him the same pleasure he was giving her. She greedily slid her lithe hands under his pajamas, roaming them over his sculpted abs and athletic hips, where she caressed him in circular strokes, eliciting a husky growl from him. Then she inched her fingers higher onto his gorgeous body, cherishing his large chest and his broad shoulders with slow caresses as she went.

His shirt was soon in her way, so she made short work of it and threw it away somewhere on the ground. By the time she refocused on him, her hands brushed their way from his torso, down his sides, before gliding gently behind his brawny back, causing him to quiver under her palms. When she got to the top of his briefs, she ran her hand onto the elastic band as she toyed with it, traveling her fingertips over and under the fabric just to drive him insane with desire. Finally, she decided it was enough and moved her tiny hand to his pulsing groin, where she wanted it to be at the very most.

Just when Liz was going to cup him through his briefs, Max leant over her to capture her mouth with his, pushing his tongue past her lips. His hand went under her head to pull her face up against his and keep her still, the other one wrapping around her waist to pin her between his firm body and the mattress. By kissing her, he did unbelievable things to her. Entangling his tongue with hers, he rubbed it against the underside of hers, nibbling and sucking on her lips, all the while groaning into her welcoming mouth.

Once he pulled away from her swollen lips, he led his mouth to her chin, trailing kisses down to her neck and up to her earlobe, where he allowed his tongue to lick her scorching skin. Liz’s eyes fluttered closed as she gasped at the insufficient amount of oxygen reaching her lungs. When she barely caught her breath, a string of serrated moans escaped her deepest throat, starting fireworks behind her eyelids. That was all Max needed to cave in to his own hunger and let himself go. He felt even through this mind-blowing dream he couldn’t hold on any longer. As a natural result, his right hand wandered down to her flat belly and slid past her panties, moving aside the lacy hem to make room for his incursion.

When he entered her using two fingers she felt so wet and warm it almost took his breath away, his starving eyes silently begging her to touch him once again. Liz raised her head and stretched up, more than glad to fulfill his voiceless plea, her other hand pressing into the mattress for leverage. But after his thumb brushed over her nub, his fingers pumping simultaneously inside of her, she just couldn’t make any other movement. She arched her back, her hips bucking up into his hand, her moans turning into hoarse cries of delight that rapidly would send her over the edge.

Then everything suddenly quietened down in the room, two pairs of eyes looking into each others, his hand still inside her heat, their heavy breathes trying to return to normal.

The dream was over. And the most shocking thing was for both of them to comprehend that it hadn’t been a dream. Their half-undressed bodies, together with the heap of clothes laying disregarded on the floor, gave them a pretty thorough idea about what had just happened.

It had been real.

Max and Liz spent a few minutes just staring at each other, no word needed to be said as they wondered how they could have gone so far, incredibly mixing reality to dream without even realizing it. Or instead, they had realized it and just pretended not to go on doing what they were doing?

Before they could get any answer Max broke away from her and stood up with a start, walking up to where his pajamas were laying on the floor. Then he bent over to pick the shirt up and put it on swiftly, the bulge between his legs sticking out from his outline even in the darkness.

“Max?” Liz was still out of her breath as she sat up, pulling the sheets over her bare breasts. “Where are you going?” she asked, watching him as he stumbled towards the door, after retrieving a blanket from the closet.

“G-getting some sleep on the c-couch,” he stammered with his eyes lowered, conscious that if he had looked up at her just now he wouldn’t make it.

Liz frowned, resisting the fierce urge to yell at him. “What …? Why?”

Max clinched his jaw as he approached the door. “Because … I just have to,” he answered, pressing the blanket tighter under his arm. At her nervous giggle that followed his words, he abruptly swirled around and let his eyes meet hers again. He could tell they were still charged with passion, just like his.

“God Liz, you know what’s gonna happen if I don’t leave!” Max finally said, before biting down the loud moan threatening to bubble forth at the sight of her nipples poking against the sheets.

“Well, I’d be okay with it,” Liz whispered shamelessly as she stared at his huge erection making her mouth water.

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again as if he had changed his mind at the last minute, an odd look coming over his face.

“I wouldn’t,” Max just replied, his eyes lowering again. The moment was broken, and he was back to his ordinary – ordinary as for the very current days – ice-cold demeanor.

Seconds later he stumbled out of the room, falling limp against the wall to keep from collapsing. The living room seemed so faraway from him and his legs weren’t responding anymore. ‘Will I never make it to that fucking couch?’ he wondered as he took his first step across the soundless hallway.

*~* ~*

Friday night, in the far side of the city

Annie Winslow drove her Mercedes SLK into an unusually desert San Francisco, passing up few outlying districts. Dawn was still far-off to come, so she rarely bumped into occasional night drivers, in such a suburban area. Just as planned.

She hastily pulled up to the entrance of a blind alley and turned the engine off; at the very end of the alley there was a blank wall, pretty out of sight to them who drove along the main street. She cautiously looked around, checking the whole neighbourhood. There wasn’t a living soul. Just as planned.

As she marched across the pathway, her face grimaced with impatience until she stopped in front of the wall and waited for something to happen. Her foot was already tapping the asphalt when a white-lightening glow appeared from on highest sky, piercing the obscurity and mirroring all over the wall, just before her eyes.

Annie took a quick step back in order to get a better view of the blazing images starting to materialize across the wall: three big circles, firstly positioned in a vertical line, then moving around and fusing into a bigger, brighter one. Inches below, slightly on the right, a date became visible and flashed blue:

October, 8, 2004

Thirty seconds later, the glow blurred suddenly, an evanescent haze hiding the wall. Thirty seconds more and the haze disappeared as well.

“Two weeks only,” Annie spoke to herself, making her way back to the car, a wicked sneer in her voice. “We are almost there …”

Now, nobody would hinder her plan anymore, neither Paul or anyone else. Now it was just a matter of time.

Just as planned.

TBC
WIP

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Lulù
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Southern Italy

Post by Lulù »

Hey everyone, here’s the new part for you! :D

Hope you guys enjoy it. :roll:

By the way, just as information, I’m not a Max’s hater at all! Actually, I kinda adore his character, even if my fic could have been telling you a different story, so far.

I can assure you I really love Max, and I’ll find a pretty good way to redeem him, I swear! After all, everybody has their bad moments, right? ;)


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Part 11

Isabel awoke feeling like something had changed deep inside of her, like she somehow wasn’t the same woman whom she had been yesterday, when she had fallen asleep. Almost as if it was a turning point.

Saturday had come and she was gonna have the rest of the weekend off from work. That was a good thing, after all, since she really wasn’t in the mood for working right now. She felt so damn tired, as if the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. She needed so badly to throw away all these thoughts which were making her mind blur. Going ahead and yet not knowing where it would bring her; questioning herself continuously without getting any answer at all; losing her own sense of direction, like she had no path; being through such an excruciating hurt, all over again.

It all was too much. She was so sick of this, she just couldn’t stand it any longer. She could feel she had reached her limit. That was why she had to try something and fix it.

After getting up rather early, when she knew everyone else would be still soundly asleep, especially on a Saturday morning, she took a quick shower and slipped out of her home, her head clearing up as soon as she was outside.

It was a sunny day, Isabel could see as she looked around, even though there was a slight breeze. She stepped across the sidewalk, enjoying the feel of the sunrays all over her face, her eyes absorbing the view of the frantic city surrounding her. It felt so peaceful, as if it could mean a fresh start for her, in some way. She slowly kept walking, letting her mind blank out as she moved through nameless people. By the time she came to a stop, twenty minutes and a few deep sighs later, she was amazed to find herself in the very middle of the city.

Before leaving home she had automatically thrust into her pocket the Step By Step leaflet Liz had given her less than a week ago. She remembered how Liz had tried her best to help her to deal with the situation, and she also remembered the way she had reacted to it. Rejecting Liz’s help and just bawling, effectively sending her away from her room. Now she regretted doing that. She shouldn‘t have taken her pain out on Liz, bashing her for something which wasn’t her fault. Liz had just held out her hand, waiting for her to clutch it in order to not go down. But all she had been able to do in return was mistreat her.
Isabel decided she would apologize to Liz for her deplorable behavior as soon as she had the chance. No matter how much pain had inspired her outbreak, she shouldn’t ever hurt her sister in law. Never. She did care for her.
Pretty much lost in such thoughts Isabel raised her eyes from where she had looked before and discovered to her amazement, she was facing the now familiar sign that said Step By Step. How did she get here ? And the main thing was, why she got there?

Although she couldn’t succeed in getting any response from herself, she stumbled towards the front door of the building until she walked through the threshold. As soon as she entered the lobby, she looked around and saw a lot of people filling the large room just before her, some of them settled down into rows of comfortable blue armchairs, others just pacing the place or talking to each other.

As she let her eyes wander aimlessly back and forth some questions were echoing in her mind. What would be wiser to do: walk in and sit down or turn around and run back out the front door she had just walked through?

A distant voice in her mind recommended that she had to hurry out of there immediately for her own good; a more forceful voice told her to stay for a while and try it, instead.

Which one would she listen to?

*~*~*

Liz and Maria took advantage of the sunlit day and made it to the beach together, wanting to relax under the luminous September sun. The two supplied with a pair of sunglasses, a bottle of suntan cream, dressed in two very skimpy bikinis, each of them lying on her own sunbed near the shore. A company of bold surfers had ventured in the ocean, riding the foamy waves as they used the favorable wind as increment to their acrobatic maneuvers.

Maria had been talking non-stop for the past twenty minutes about how her relationship with Micheal was recently. “… so we are at the so called ‘stalemate’. It’s not that we have these big problems. No, no. It’s just us … our chronically undefined situation. I mean, we are together now, alright. But how would it have been if the FBI hadn’t given chase to us hm? I’m wondering if it would have been this way anyways? Would we have ended up together? And would he have remained the same… Michael? That’s it! I just don’t know any of this!” she didn’t paused for much of a breath, yet long enough to see Liz as she ravenously ran her eyes over a few files, not paying so much attention at her. “Hey, chica, could you listen to me just one moment?”

Liz immediately looked up and adjusted the sunglasses on her nose, “Go ahead. I was listening!” she replied in a resolute tone before adding, “I just needed to study this program for tomorrow. The media will be at Mr. Brown’s conference, plenty of journalists, even some TVs troupes. It all must go off smoothly, without a hitch,” she huffed softly, her hand reaching behind her sunbed to regulate its inclination in one higher position. “What were you telling me about Michael?” she motioned Maria to go on.

“Um … yeah,” Maria nodded, soon absorbed again in her speech. “Last Sunday he came out with this rush of altruism I couldn’t understand. He pretty much shocked me, you know. He said I shouldn’t have followed him here when he was the one who stopped me from my brilliant future. Like I sacrificed myself by staying with him,“ she continued as she rubbed the suntan cream into her pale skin, clashing with her black bikini swimsuit that had a bra-like top and a thong.

“Well, there is something in what he said …” Liz spoke in a quiet voice as she sat up, revealing her nice upper body. She was wearing a red two-piece with triangle cut string bikini top and string bikini bottoms. Her tan looked slightly richer than Maria’s.

“What? No, no, no!” Maria shook her head from side to side, leaning back into the sunbed. “I’m totally pleased with my life. My job allows me to come in contact with wonderful clothes. I can show off this incredible skill of mine on Butterfly’s stage. Plus Spaceboy seems to be madly in love with me, when he’s not a jerk, and you, my best friend ever, are right beside me. See, everything is just perfect!” she stated as if she was positive of what she had just said.

Still, Liz could tell she was just feigning it was all okay. “Come on, Maria! It’s me here. You don’t need to put on a fake face! I do know you used to have your ambitions back in Roswell. Very important ones.”

“So did you!” Maria observed, her neck straightening out as she frowned at Liz. “In fact you used to be much more ambitious than me, remember? It wasn’t me who aspired to become this super-biologist in order to do good around the whole humankind!”

“It was long ago …” Liz sighed, her eyes slowly closing as her head fell back against the headrest of the sunbed. “As in another timeline.” It really was like another timeline when most of her energies were focusing on her acceptance at Harvard, aiming for a career in the Academic teachers body. Now it all felt so faraway …

“Hmm, I probably left my ambitions in that timeline too! At least mine are gonna keep yours company!” Maria kidded, in such a serious intonation it almost came across as real.

Liz’s head snapped up in astonishment before she turned to Maria and watched out of the corner of her eye, from behind her sunglasses, the childish grin forming on her lips.

“You’re a crazy girl, you know that?” Liz laughed.

“Yeah, sure. That’s why everyone loves me so much!” Maria laughed back. Then she reached out and patted her best friend’s shoulder to put her up to share her confidences. “So how is your hubby? Still polar frost on his end and no sexual activity under the sheets, huh?”

Liz’s laughter trailed off on the spot, quickly replaced by a pouted expression. “It’s kind of hard to have some sexual activity when the bed where he falls asleep in isn’t even the same where I do …” she rolled her eyes at it.

“Wait, wait!” Maria was stunned. “Are you guys sleeping in two separate beds?”

Liz just grimaced. “Yep. He came to the decision he was better off sleeping on the couch.”

“Oh please! That’s so unlikely!” Maria gasped as she leapt to her feet with a fuming look on her face. “Bedsharing is like the milestone in a marriage, it supposed to be all the time! You have to take action, babe. You have to do it right now!”

“Just what do you think I should do?” Liz asked. Maria’s shadow was now blocking the sun, hovering over her.
“Um, let me think about it…” Maria mumbled starting to move around. “I’ve got it!” she squealed instants later. “You may apologize to Max and take all the blame of it--”

That was when an animalistic growl came from Liz and interrupted her.
“WHAT? APOLOGOZE TO HIM? NOT A CHANCE IN HELLLL!!!!!!!!!”

Liz realized pretty soon she had screamed at full volume since everyone at the beach was now staring at her with puzzled eyes. Feeling herself blushing to the tips of her ears, she got up with caution and leaned towards Maria, speaking in a lower voice, “I don’t have anything to apologize for! It’s him who should apologize to me! He’s going all huffy because he’s not used to being contradicted. Just think of that! I did warn him I was gonna tell Isabel, too bad for him if he didn’t believe that!”

“Well, I guess this is leading us to reject the first option here,” Maria cocked her eyebrow, arms folding over her chest. “We still have the second one, though.”

“Right, and what is it?”

“Making Max want you so much it almost will drive him crazy and just then, let him finally have you! Trust me, he just needs to get shot of all the shit that’s clogging his brain and you’re the only one who can cause it to happen. It’s time to pull out your seductive abilities, girlfriend!”

Liz didn’t even ponder a little before glaring at her and hissed, “I’m so not doing this, ‘Ria! I’m not using sex to make up with him! I … I can’t!”

“Yes you can!” Maria remarked placing her hands on Liz’s shoulders as encouragement. “Gotta hit the alien in his Achilles’ heel! Max has never been able to resist it when you mesmerize him with your charm….” She paused and winked at her, a mischievous smirk spreading over her face. “So make it worthwhile!”

Liz just looked away, her eyes trained somewhere in the distance.

*~*~*

Isabel was seated in a secluded chair in the very back of the room, just hoping nobody would notice her. As the SBS meeting was getting to its heart the current speaker’s voice reached her ears as in twisted echoes, like hypnotic sounds making her feel all dizzy. Her eyes were stuck to the stage, unable and yet needy to regain their own freedom. She couldn’t hold on. The longer she stayed there, the more she was overcome with grief.

The past thirty minutes she had already listened to all kinds of human miseries being exposed through a mike: a mother telling how her child had died, run over by a truck as soon as he had got off of the school bus; a boy describing in details how his brother had passed away from Aids; a man in his forties recalling the day his wife had breathed her last in his arms.

Isabel realized suddenly she was on the verge of tears. It was killing her with each and every single word she heard, like a thorn in her flesh. She needed to stop this before completely breaking down in front of everyone. Getting up from her seat with trembling legs, she tried to go unnoticed as she crawled against the wall and snuck out of the crowded room. When she was pretty sure no one had seen her she even began to run towards the front door, her breath growing short and heavy. In the hurry of the moment she didn’t notice a couple of black eyes staring at her in the far corner of the hallway that followed her all along the quick getaway.

“That was your first time, wasn’t it?” a feminine voice asked understandingly from behind her back, just by the doorway.

Isabel startled at it and instinctively turned around, only to see that pair of black eyes settled into a young, very nice face. “Excuse me?” she said breathless.

“My name is Tracey,” the girl beamed as she held out her hand.

“Isabel.” When Isabel held out her own hand in return to shake Tracey’s she immediately felt like she could trust the girl. Like it was the most normal thing in the world, and that almost shocked her.

She couldn’t know that someone very close to her had met the same girl, a few days ago, in pretty different circumstances.

“You must be a newbie,” Tracey gave her a sweet smile as they both proceeded to study each other. “I’ve never seen you around before.”

It wasn’t until that moment when Isabel could fully view of her. Tracey had a trendy short haircut, stylish clothes, a very trustful look and such a beautiful body she looked like a statue, even though she was several inches shorter than her.

“Uh … um … yeah, actually I can’t figure out why I came here,” Izzy answered before hesitantly taking a step away. “It was just a mistake …”

“Oh, the first impression is always sort of traumatic!” Tracey pointed back at the room where they had just come from, her tone becoming softer. “It seems like you’re suffocating when they go on talking like that. But you’re eventually gonna learn to handle it. You’re even going to love it, little by little. They might help you a lot if you just let them …”

Isabel’s eyes tinged with even more sadness. “I don’t think so,” she whispered, taking another step away. “I’m not coming here anymore.”

“I swear I said pretty much the same thing the first time I popped in here!” Tracey smiled again, a wistful, reflective smile.

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do, seriously, but I’m really not coming here anymore,” Izzy repeated, her hands curling in fists into the front pockets of her slacks. “I need to go, it’s getting late.”

Tracey just sighed, giving up to her will. “Okay, as you wish,” she started to go, then stopped for a moment and added, “If you ever change your mind, you’ll find me here on Tuesday, seven-thirty pm.” She smiled her goodbye before walking back in the building.

Isabel headed pensively for the sidewalk, dwelling on the last events of the morning. The meeting had deeply affected her, prompting her to run off; just then she had met that girl who had soon made her feel better, someway. Tracey, that was her name.

Tracey seemed so self-confident, so serene, like she had come to some peace of mind despite the heartbreak she had of course gone through. Isabel wondered if she would ever go back being like that? She couldn’t know whether she would or wouldn’t find a way to get past it.

Nevertheless she had to try and see what would come out. She kind of owed it to herself.
*~*~*

Since the walk had given her an appetite Isabel decided to have lunch at Butterfly in order to hang out for a bit with both Max and Michael. She had pushed them away every single time that they had offered her a shoulder to cry onto, just as she had done with Liz when the truth about Jesse came out. Now she realized she couldn’t, she wouldn’t do it anymore. She needed her loved ones more than anything else in her whole life.

Michael was seated in the diner, near one of the large windows, his elbows resting on the round booth, fists under his chin. He was about to eat his lunch, consisting of a generous plate of burger and pepperoni, ready to enjoy it. That was how Isabel found him.

As he looked up from his meal to see her approaching him Michael stood up to grace her with a gallant bow. Then he walked up to her and took her hand in his, escorting her to the booth where he had chose to eat. Isabel just sat in the chair and watched him hurry into the kitchen with a questioning expression. When he came back in the diner, a few minutes later, he was getting a poppy-seed bagel with cream cheese and Tabasco sauce in it. Isabel’s favorite kind of meal at noon. She just smiled up at him.

“It took my by surprise… I mean, you stopping by here,” Michael confessed as he handed her the bagel before sitting back in his seat across from her.

“I know,” Isabel agreed as she brought the roll to her mouth for the first sample.
“Today I’m having this strange feeling. Like I’m carrying within me this … change. I still don’t know if this will be for good or not. Anyway it’s happening and I can’t close my eyes to that.”

“I bet it will be for the good. I think I saw you smiling just one moment ago …” he raised an eyebrow tentatively as he started to eat his lunch.

“Yeah, I did smile,” and as a confirmation she smiled again, more convincingly this time. Michael’s face lit up. “It’s not so characteristic to have you as my personal waiter!”

Michael chuckled, ready to come up with one of his best joke when they heard a smashing noise coming from the kitchen along with Max’s loud yells.
“What’s wrong with him?” Isabel questioned, pausing from her lunch. She knew her brother like the back of her hand, she could even write a book about every side of his gentle personality. Still, those terrible, thunderous like sounds she had just heard him letting out was anything but gentle!

“Tell me that!” Michael exclaimed as he sprinkled the Tabasco sauce all over his pepperoni. “He’s becoming just more and more unbearable. You can’t even talk to him without dealing with his fury. He must be in a very bad mood.”

“Hmm, we both are perfectly aware of the reason why his mood is so bad…” Isabel hinted.

“Liz?” Michael uttered in between bites of food.

“Bingo!” she said as she chewed on her bagel.

“It’s not like him. I mean, he simply can’t stay away from Liz. This is gonna drive him insane.”

“Oh God, it would be so easy if he just went to her. They would talk to each other and everything would be okay. But no, he’s as stubborn as mule!”

“Well, it’s not that Liz is so much better than him …” Michael pointed out, leaning over his now half-emptied plate.

“I need to do something. I just can’t see them like this anymore!” Isabel suddenly got up and began to pace the diner.

“Can I recommend the electroshock?” Michael replied ironically.

But Isabel eyes gleamed with new resolution, when she turned to him again, which made Michael realize something was up with her.

“No. It’ll be much less drastic …”

TBC
WIP

Second Life


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Lulù
Enthusiastic Roswellian
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Location: Southern Italy

Post by Lulù »



:oops:

Well, thank you to everyone who let me know they do love my fic. I’m still feeling disheartened though, like this story isn’t captivating you guys truly enough :(

Anyway, I’m going to continue translating it a little further, just to wait and see how it turns out :?

If you enjoy the update, please take your time to drop me a line about it. Me continuing this or not depends just on you :roll:


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Part 12

Liz leaped out of the Beatle breathless, her heart hammering wildly in her chest, blood running turbulently through her veins.

She had parked the car in a ‘no parking’ area just behind the block to gain time, since the other spots were all occupied, and rushed up the stairs so hurriedly she hardly managed to see what she was doing. She was moving mechanically, counting on her familiarity with the place.

Once she flung open the apartment door she found Isabel waiting for her in the hallway. Liz’s eyes began checking her sister-in-law to make sure she was unharmed. No wound. No injury at all. She looked like she really was okay. So why had she phoned her, all but begging her over the mobile to get home immediately?

“I came as soon as I could, you told me it was urgent,” Liz said before putting her purse on the dresser, a questioning look on her face.

“It was,” Isabel nodded as she walked Liz to her bedroom, sliding one hand into the crook of her arm.

The moment the two entered Isabel’s bedroom Liz could see someone standing by the window, as if staring out across the street, somewhere into the distance, his back still to them. However she didn’t need anything else to recognize him. It was Max.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Liz leaned in and whispered, upset with the fact that she had rushed home for no reason, apparently.

“This happens to be his place too, right?” Isabel replied, her own tone matching Liz’s whispering one.

It was all it took for Liz to turn on her heels and proceed to walk back to the hallway. “You do have him here, so you don’t need me anymore!”

Isabel scowled at her. “Liz, come in here! NOW!” she called out, grabbing her arm to pull her back into the room.

Before Liz had the chance to say anything else Max turned around and gasped, gazing at her as she was facing him, a fierce look in her eyes charged with electricity.

“What the hell is she doing here?” Max growled and glared over at his sister.

“Mmm, sounds good!” Isabel gave him a sarcastic smirk. “You guys already agreed on the first thing you told me.”

Max rolled his eyes annoyingly. “I can’t imagine what you’ve got in that mind of yours but I’m not--”

“Stop it!” Isabel bawled, interrupting him. “Just sit down and shut up!” she punctuated it with a motion of her hand, before glancing over at Liz. “I mean it, both of you!”

Even though they looked quite hesitant, Max and Liz complied with a nod and sat down on either side of the bed, with several inches between them.

Arms folded over her chest, Isabel stood looking down at Liz, making it evident she was gonna talk to her first. “I need to apologize to you about the way I treated you this past week. My pain drowned me so much I didn't know what I was doing or … saying,” she sighed.

“I know and--” Liz tried to voice her reply.

“I thought I made myself clear earlier!” Isabel yelled again, throwing her hands in the air. “I don’t wanna be interrupted, okay?” Liz just blinked in return and she went on in a quieter tone, “I’m sorry for being so rude back then, it was just my way of dealing with the shock of everything. You didn’t deserve it. You were great, really honest with me, and I appreciated that. Anyway …” she paused and put on a light frown. When she spoke again her tone turned a little harsher, “Still, I can see you’re acting very stupidly right now, and that’s not like you since you’re all but stupid, Liz. You did well by telling me the truth, mostly when my own brother didn’t do it. But now I’ve had enough with this ‘I’m-too-outraged-I-can’t-forgive-him’ thing of yours. Make up with him and cut it out once and for all, for God’s sake!”

“I … don’t …” Liz gaped at her words before trailing off when Isabel looked away and focused on Max, stepping up to him until she was right in front of him. Seemingly, it was his turn to get a ticking-off.

“Now what about you, my dear bro?” Isabel snarled at him, staring closely into his eyes. “Did you think I was blind or deaf? Well, I’m neither of that! I saw and heard everything you did and said, these past few days. You were a fucking ass, Max! I thought you were a gentle guy, I mean, I was pretty confident of it. But actually you proved me wrong. You’re growing boundlessly arrogant! And the worst thing is, you don’t even realize that. So what, huh? There are limits, and you went over them quite a long time ago! Enough is enough!”

Max just lowered his head and Liz slowly turned to look at him, seeing the sudden guilt on his face. She watched as he swallowed, his hands clenching together on his lap. Then her eyes drooped sadly.

Isabel studied both Max and Liz, narrowing her gaze at their regretful expressions. “I’ve been watching you guys ignoring each other the past week, and believe me, it’s not the prettiest sight ever! You’re making me feel even worse than I should do. It’s sorta agonizing,” she admitted, causing their heads to snap up at the same time, astonishment spreading over their faces. “Hey, it’s you I’m talking to. I mean, YOU TWO! Max and Liz, the ones who had to fight so hard in order to finally get together. I do know how much you love each other. I don’t understand how you’ve been going this long, though!” she paused for a minute to let them take in it.

“I’m sorry, you guys have no reason to do what are you doing!” Isabel cried out as tears started to regain at the corners of her eyes, betraying her deep, atrocious feelings. She couldn’t repress a sob escaping her throat before continuing. “I won’t watch and wait as you two idiots waste your time like that! Please, just wake up and hurry back to your real selves! Life is the most precious thing we’re allowed to have.”

With that she sighed and sauntered out of the room, letting them brood as they stared at her retreating back. Hopefully, they would be able to deal it on their own now that she had shaken them up properly.

Once Isabel was off, Max quickly turned to Liz, his eyes hungrily searching for hers. Liz raised soon her head to look back at him. The moment their gazes met and held, emotions began flooding through both of them, appearing plainly on their face. Fear. Apprehension. Regret. Worry. Care. Love. So much love …

They kept staring at each others, getting lost into their finally exposed souls, where they found reflected the other one’s, no longer a barrier through them. And it felt so good, so heart-warming for both of them, to be able to ‘see’ each other again.

Liz was the first one to recover her own ability to speak, moments later. “Izzy’s got that right,” she drawled, her lips vibrating with every breath of hers. “Time is really too precious to be wasted …”

Max nodded in agreement, his left hand rising from his lap, his head bending ever so slowly in her direction. Their eyes never left. “God, I screwed up …” he acknowledged throatily, moving his hand up to her cheek and gently stroking it. Liz didn’t retreat. She was yearning for his touch, she couldn’t lie to herself. She closed her eyes in delight as she leaned into his hand, and all the resentment swiftly dissolved from their hearts. “Liz … my Liz …”

He was about to bend a little further and press his lips against hers, giving up to the kiss they both longed so badly for, when his mobile started ringing from inside his front pocket. Liz pulled away from him with a start.

“Fuck!” Max huffed before pulling the ringing thing out of his pocket and brought it to his ear.
He glared down at the number flashing over the display seeing it was Ray’s, one of the Butterfly’s most trustworthy attendants.

“Hey Ray,” he grunted harshly into the phone. “What’s the matter?”

As he heard the male voice speaking over on the other end, Max answered with a firm ‘no’, a couple growls that sounded as a ‘yes’, and one grumbling noise. Then he just hung up and put the mobile back into his pocket, his eyes raising again to Liz’s.

“I gotta go,” he announced reluctantly, his hand reaching for hers. Liz took it uncertainly, their fingers brushing against each others in such a soft, pleasurable friction. “I’m sorry. At the Butterfly they seem to be having a crisis in the kitchen. Ray mumbled about this tube of water exploding or something.”

Liz just looked up at the ceiling, struggling to hold back her disappointment. “Go,” she said under her breath, her eyes traveling everywhere in the room as if it could help her out someway. Actually she would have begged him to stay and kiss her senseless more than anything. ‘Fuck Butterfly and that damn tube! And fuck Ray’s timing as well!’ she thought bothered.

Just then Max got up from the bed only to crouch down on the floor, settling between her legs, his eyes at her face level, their hands still holding. Liz could feel each and every cell in her body screaming aloud to look at him, and she obeyed. It almost took her breath away. He looked so handsome, and he was so damn close too…

“Liz, God knows how I’d rather stay here with you,” Max whispered leaning in even closer, his nose nearly nuzzling hers, his eyes gleaming with golden sparks. “But … “

“I know,” Liz rasped without breaking the eye contact with him. “Just go, Max,” she added quietly.

Max withdrew a few inches and stopped to say, a pray in his tone, “Maybe … tonight?”

“Maybe,” Liz breathed out, the air coming out in a pant.

As her answer sank into his mind, Max let go of her hand and stood back on his feet, one corner of his lips curving in a small smile. The first one he had given her for over a week.

The first one he had given anybody for over a week.

Watching him as he made his way silently to the hall, hearing his footsteps fading away as he approached the doorway, sent bittersweet shivers down through her spine.

*~*~*

Kyle held the glass door open with his arm, using his free hand to gesture Tracey to enter the Butterfly first. She warmly smiled at him before walking past him and stepping in. When he had phoned her yesterday, Tracey had agreed to go out together the next evening. He had suggested dinner at Butterfly right away. She had told him she looked forward to it, since she had heard of the Butterfly plenty of times, but she’d never had the chance to go there.

He thought that taking her somewhere public where he was so accustomed with could make him feel a bit less edgy on their first date. He realized pretty soon that his best intentions were all flying away the instant he picked her up at her place and she got into his car, giving him the most charming smile.

She looked fantastic, dressed in a fuchsia strapless dress that was mid-thigh length and fitted snugly around her breasts. And what blooming, delicious breasts they were! Sneaking a drooling look at her, seated just next to him in the car, Kyle felt like he was going to give out from one moment to the next. Luckily he made it and drove them to Butterfly safe and sound.

“So this is the ‘infamous’ Butterfly, huh?” Tracey started as she surveyed the packed diner.

“Yeah, it is,” Kyle replied coyly, standing next to her in a pair of black slacks and a light blue button down shirt. “You like it?” he cocked his eyebrow at her reaction.

“Hell, yes!” she said, still looking around, awe in her black eyes. “I mean, it’s kind of cozy in here!”

It was a busy Saturday evening, but Kyle had made reservations so they would be seated at one of the round booths facing the large window, enjoying the picturesque view.

Reassured by her statement, Kyle grinned and tried to relax a little. “Come on, let me introduce you to two friends of mine who own this place.”

In a matter of seconds he steered her to the bar where both Max and Michael were already waiting for them.

“Hey guys, this is Tracey. Tracey, this is Max and Michael,” Kyle stated as Tracey shook first Max’s hand and then Michael’s in greeting.

“Max, Michael, congratulations!” she gave them a huge smile. “This place is really cool. I know I’m gonna love it!”

“Thank you. Good to know you like it so far,” Max smiled back friendly. Even though it seemed like he was distant, distracted, as if something more essential was occupying his mind. “That’s your table,” he pointed straight at the only booth that remained empty, slightly on the left.
“Enjoy the dinner, guys,” he waved goodbye to them before heading towards the kitchen.

“Well, can I get you guys anything? Perhaps some drinks?” Michael offered, confidently placing one arm around both Kyle’s and Tracey’s shoulders, as the three of them made their way through the restaurant.

“No, we’re fine,” Kyle responded, after getting a knowing look from Tracey when they reached the booth.

“Okay, these are yours,” Michael handed over them their menus as they sat down. Then he wore a smile and left them to settle on their meal.

The table was all set with candle light and flowers; a plate of canapés was placed on its center so that the customers could nibble on some food while chattering and making themselves comfortable.

“Your friends are very nice, “ Tracey uttered happily, looking over her menu.

“Sure they are!” Kyle giggled in assent. When he looked over her someone else suddenly captured his attention. “Oh, can you see that sexy blondie up there?” he pointed out the stage where Maria was beginning to warm up her voice surrounded by her band. Tracey followed his gaze and just nodded. “She’s my dear friend Maria, Michael’s very very patient girlfriend!” he giggled again.

“Do you live with her too?”

“Yes, and also with Max’s wife, Liz, and his sister, Isabel. We are six in all.”

Tracey just sighed heavily. “That must be wonderful, having people care for you all around. People that you know will always be there for you.”

“I guess that’s what friends are for,” Kyle conversed casually. “Aren’t your friends like that?”

Then he just froze in the chair when he noticed that Tracey’s face fell at his observation, her skin growing pale all of a sudden.

“Look, my best friend, Carol, died in a car accident last July. Since then I’ve … like isolated myself from the rest of the world for over a month,” she murmured, her eyes glued to the flickering candle light, her legs slightly shaking under the table. “Even now I’m still finding it difficult to talk about such things, you know … about friends.”

An embarrassing silence lingered between them for a while before Kyle collected himself from the shock. “Whoa, I’m soo sorry, Tracey. I was such a moron forcing you into that!” he blushed, wishing he’d get sucked then and there into a black hole.

“It’s okay,” Tracey looked up at his apologetic expression and winked at him, quickly making him feel at ease again. “You didn’t know that, did you?”

Just as Kyle let out a shy ‘no’, Michael came back to their table with the same smile he had worn when he left, the order notebook in his hand.

“So, what are you two in the mood for tonight?”

*~*~*

Later that night

Darkness had fallen across the city, sheltering all the various sceneries with a subtle mantle that made them appear incomparably fascinating, somehow mysterious.

Every street lamp, every light sign, every single shadow took part in it, contributing to the allure repeating on nights, forever and ever. Such a breathtaking view that could revive your spent hopes all at once, just looking at it . And Liz needed something to revive her own hopes more than air itself, that night.

She would be all alone at home, that was why she hadn’t gone out like everyone else. She kind of wanted to hide in her secure shell and let the night pass by. She needed some restful, pacific time for herself before going to bed, since she was gonna be up quite early the next morning. Tomorrow it was gonna be a very hectic day at the Book & Co.. She would be showing up at 7:30 am, in order to get everything ready for the upcoming conference scheduled at 10:00 o’clock.

After dinner as she cleaned up the kitchen, dressed in her scruffy sweater pants and an extra-large T-shirt she felt sore even if she wasn’t ill. Her body ached, cold quivers traveling through her tender flesh like she had a temperature, stiffness building up into her slender muscles. Her heart was stung by nonexistent needles, as if stifling, like shriveled, and it was all because of Max. Staying away from him was killing her. Literally. Like he was the drug she had got intoxicated with. And it was even beyond the lack of sex as in a mere ‘physical’ sense.

His sweet hands, the feel of his skin against hers, his mind-boggling kisses, his passionate whispers of love, their souls linking each others through their heated joining. She missed all of it. All of him.

Could she trust the last words he had said before leaving? Could she count on it?

*“Maybe … tonight?”*

Well, now it was tonight, Liz pondered to herself, and he hadn’t got in touch with her yet, in any way. Perhaps he had already changed his mind, again. Perhaps he wouldn’t get home anytime soon.

All that she could currently do was hold on and try not to completely yield, with the thought of him continually escorting her.

When she finished in the kitchen, she strode along the hallway, heading straight for the bigger bathroom and proceeded to ready the tub for her to bathe in. She bent over to turn on the faucet, then began to remove her clothes while waiting for the hot water to gather into the tub and added to it some strawberry bubble bath.

Vapor had just started to steam up the room, rising from the water, when Liz remembered to do one more thing before having her bath. With only her underwear on, she rushed to her and Max’s bedroom and turned on the stereo, putting on one of her favorite CDs. Once she clicked ‘play’ and turned up the volume, she rushed back to the bathroom, music starting to play through the empty house.

Back in the bathroom, she continued to undress until she was entirely naked. Then she climbed in, one foot after the other, and plunged down into the water, frothy bubbles covering the surface. Finally she threw her head back and let the water drench her long locks, smoothly tickling her scalp. As she ran her hands through her hair and rubbed the shampoo in it, an abundant foam forming under her fingertips, the song lulled her movements to a slow, yet rhythmic rate …

I know there’s something in the wake of your smile
I get a notion from the look in your eyes, yeah
You’ve built a love but that love falls apart
Your little piece of heaven turns too dark

Listen to your heart
When he’s calling for you
Listen to your heart
There’s nothing else you can do
I don’t know where you’re going
And I don’t know why
But listen to your heart
Before you tell him goodbye


Those words were talking to her. That song told exactly the story of her present state. Her sense of loneliness. Her inward trepidation. Her craving for him. She could just about feel him under her skin, in-between her tissues, in the nucleus of her cells. He was just all over, in and out of her. She couldn’t help it but wanting him. If only he would have been with her …


*~*~*

Meanwhile at the Butterfly

Max froze in the restaurant, somewhere between the right side of the counter and the rows of crowded tables, squeezing a bottle of mustard in his hand.

A couple customers had asked him if they could have some sauce on their burgers and Max had simply come to take the bottle before handing it to them. It wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t hard at all. However he was having a really hard time to get himself in motion again. By the moment he had arrived pretty much halfway, he hadn’t been able anymore to step forward to the customers or move back to the counter. He was just stuck in the middle, his feet attached to the floor, his mind wandering.

The song Maria was presently singing had hit his nervous system like an electric storm, making it overload.

Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile
The precious moments are all lost in the tide, yeah
They’re swept away and nothing is what is seems
The feeling of belonging to your dreams


He couldn’t stop thinking about Liz. The more he thought about her, the more he wanted her, and the song didn’t make it easier not focusing on her. His brain was rapidly crammed with plentiful flashes of last night, when he had almost made love to her in earnest, believing it was just a dream. Would it have been so bad if they really had done it? If love and passion had taken in charge instead of pride and obstinacy? If they had stopped thinking so much and just felt? Probably not.

Then he also recalled the afternoon, when he had been about to kiss Liz in Isabel’s bedroom, only a few hours ago. What if Ray hadn’t call him and he had made it and kissed her? Would it have been enough for them to fix everything?

He probably would have been profuse in his deepest apologies for being such a jerk and they would have continued the conversation in their bed. Of course they wouldn’t have actually talked that much.

*Hey, it’s you I’m talking to. I mean, YOU TWO! Max and Liz, the ones who had to fight so hard in order finally get together.*

Isabel’s heartfelt words resonated through Max’s mind over and over, each time louder than the previous one. She definitively knew how to affect him, confronting him with his own faults. Just now he realized he had gotten everything wrong, towards both his sister and wife. He just hoped it wasn’t too late for him to make up for it.

And there are voices
That want to be heard
So much to mention
But you can’t find the words
The scent of magic
The beauty that’s been
When love was wilder than wind


Before he even had a chance to extend these thoughts any further he was tossing the bottle of mustard anywhere on a nearby table, marching towards the door with blazing eyes. This time no one was gonna come between Liz and him, he swore.

Michael watched from behind the counter as Max suddenly stepped across the diner and started to panic, afraid that something terrible could have happened.

“What’s up?” he rumbled worriedly, running after Max without hesitation, stumbling his way through the crowd.

“Nothing,” Max said as he slowed down his march a little, an indecipherable look dancing over his face. “I’m going to Liz, she’s just called me.”

Michael wiggled his brows in puzzlement. “You mean, by the phone?”

“No.” That was it. Period.

Realization was instantaneously upon Michael. The connection, Max and Liz’s own method of reciprocal communication. “She’s okay?” he sighed.

“I think so,” Max was walking past the door while answering. “She just needs me as much as I need her.”

Quite taken aback, Michael could only see him jumping in his Rav4 and skidding out of the Butterfly’s parking lot, off into the clear night.

Listen to your heart
When he’s calling for you
Listen to your heart
There’s nothing else you can do
I don’t know where you’re going
And I don’t know why
But listen to your heart
Before you tell him goodbye



TBC (????)

AN: the song I used in it was "Listen to your heart" by Roxette
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Lulù
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Post by Lulù »

Hi guys! :D

Thank you all for leaving your wonderful feedback. Please, don't stop it. I really appreciated that!

And now a little warning ... Adult stuff is just coming :lol: so , if you're not into it, please don't read the next part! :wink:

Enjoy the reading :D


°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Part 13

When Liz finished her hot bath, about twenty minutes later, she got out of the tub and picked up a towel from the linen closet. She took her time in drying herself with the towel. After that, she picked up a smaller towel and ran it over her hair that was soaking wet.

Sitting on the edge of the tub, steam still filling up the room, she reached out for her lotion and pulled aside the towel enveloping her body. Then she started to rub the lotion into her own skin, tracing slow circles on her tender flesh until she drank in all of it. The moment her hands found their way up her belly and higher to her protruding breasts, meticulously massaging their underside, she let out a guttural shallow sound at the aching sensation building up within her, her stomach tightening with need.

God, how she wished it was Max massaging her everywhere, in his own way that drove her crazy anytime he touched her, anytime his skillful fingers came into contact with her waiting skin. It had been too long since she had felt his touch on her. Since she had felt him on her. What they had done last night in their bed, thinking it was just a dream, wasn’t enough at all. It had only seemed like a poor appetizer for her starving appetite.

“Get over it!” Liz chastised herself, before standing up and walking to the mirror, where she routinely grasped the brush on the cradle and began to thread it thorough her wet tresses, smoothly disentangling them, water still dripping from their tips as she did.

She had to stop torturing herself like that. Max wasn’t gonna come home yet and, probably he was still angry with her. Perhaps he wasn’t even wanting her tonight, not as bad as she was wanting him, at least. She was there all alone, that was the plain truth.

She sighed with frustration before turning on the hair dryer which soon began blowing dry her thick mane. The song that had been playing through the Hi-fi system over and over for the past few minutes, now was nearly over again, reverberating through the space its meaningful refrain.

Listen to your heart
When he’s calling for you
Listen to your heart
There’s nothing else you can do
I don’t know where you’re going
And I don’t know why
But listen to your heart
Before you tell him goodbye…


Max broke into the apartment in a really frenzied state, his breathing getting ragged as soon as he took the first step across the floor. He hadn’t even walked through the door when his voice came out in desperate screams, “Liz? Where are you, my love? Liiiiiiiiiz?” he called out frantically as he went on like a crazy man.

With widened eyes he looked around, perusing all the rooms, searching for any evidence of her, as the stereo played on from their bedroom. But she was no where in sight, he noticed worriedly.

By the time he had reached the middle of the hallway, almost panicked, it struck him. There was still the bigger bathroom to check out, the one with the largest tub and the round mirror set against the wall in front of it.

While vacantly looking at herself in the mirror, Liz could feel the warm air blowing through her hair, quite relaxing as it brushed against her scalp, its monotonous rumble sounding into her ears, covering any other sound. Suddenly it felt like something else was being heard over that, something kinda demanding, persistent. So she turned the dryer off and stood listening to it, without moving an inch. Her ears pricked up. A deep voice, his voice, calling her name again and again, like a feverish litany. Couldn’t be. Or it could?

Perhaps he wasn’t angry with her anymore, after all? All she had to do was go and see.

In a matter of seconds Liz was out of the bathroom, stealing a hopeful look all along the hallway. That was when she finally saw him, and he saw her too. They locked gazes immediately to never leave again.

“Max?” she murmured amazed, her face lighting up.

He stared at her with ravenous eyes, tempestuous feelings mirroring through them, his heart throbbing with love and desire. She was barefoot, half-dampened hair fluttering around her shoulders like a silken mantle. The towel loosely wrapped around her body, her gaze blazing with inner flames, her lips slightly apart as just begging him to take them. She looked so innocent, so exposed, so alluring to him he couldn’t stop watching her, a rush of heat squeezing through his insides.

Her own scent, mixed with the stronger one of her shampoo quickly impregnated the apartment, preventing him from thinking straight. He shut his eyes for an instant, swallowing hard, then flipped them open back to look at her, his voice somehow cracked.

“I’m so sorry, Liz … I’m so sorry …” his eyes were loving and open, finally.

“I know,” she breathed out taking a tentative step towards him, her legs getting oddly weaker. “So am I.”

“No!” Max replied readily, his feet moving forward of their own resolve. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It was me who messed everything up. I was such a jerk I deserve to have my ass kicked!” he paused for a while to let her digest his apologies, his tone becoming lower, softer. “You were right about the whole Isabel thing. I mean, she needed to know the truth about Jesse and you did well by telling her. I was just too fucking stupid to recognize that. And when I finally did, I was too swollen with pride to admit it to myself, in the first place.”

Liz was listening to him in wonder, his heartfelt admission leaving her all but beyond words. “Max …”

One step. Just another step and he would be close enough to embrace her, her nice scent invading his nostrils. His throat needed to be cleared before he spoke, “Can you forgive me, Liz? Please, will … you?” he pleaded, his hands outstretched towards her. “I didn’t ever mean to hurt you.”

Liz held out her own hands to link them with his, dragging him to her so that they would be inches from each other, her nose nuzzling his neck as she wrapped her arms around his body. “Okay, Max. It’s okay,” she whispered.

Max rested his face on top of her head, his hands travelling their way up her back, tightening her. “Thank you, my love,” he whispered back against her hair. “I mis…”

He was about to say he had missed that so much, being able to hold her again, feeling her like that, when Liz pulled lightly back and silenced him, her gentle finger pressing against his lips.

“Shh, don’t say anything else Max,” she stated huskily, a little smile spreading over her face. “Just make love to me.” With that she did the most awesome thing, slackening the towel from around herself and letting it quietly drop to the floor, where it landed in a baggy pool.

After that, her wondrous nudity was fully uncovered to him.

Max’s eyes were burning now, even more intense and passionate, her request making them to shine with delight. “Do you want …? N-now?” he stammered, reaching out to slide his hands down her arms.

She felt herself shivering under his palms when he placed one hand around her slim waist, the other at her shoulder.

“Yes.” It was a barely above a whisper. Still, it shook the quietness surrounding both of them like a tornado.

For a moment earlier, Max had unconsciously held his breath, as if all of a sudden afraid of what she might say. But now, since Liz had just given him her definite approval, he practically pounced on her, enjoying the way her nude skin grazed against his clothes in a delicious friction.

Clinging to her in a firm grip, he began caressing the silky valley between her shoulders, while leaning in to kiss and nibble his way to her neck as she arched into him.

When a very erotic moan rose from Liz’s lips, her arms wrapping tightly around him, Max pulled his mouth from her flesh to look into her eyes. The sizzling desire floating in there told him she was dying to have him, exactly to the same degree that he was dying to have her.

“God, I want you so bad!” he groaned before attacking her lips and sealing them with his, first gently, then more and more greedily, as if willing to devour her alive.

As her response, Liz pushed him even closer to her, her eager fingers wandering over the front of his shirt. She started to unbutton it down a little jerkily, as he was making it very difficult for her by touching and fondling every curve of hers he could find in such a position. It seemed like the buttons were getting countless, like multiplying with her descending movements, and that was more than she could take. The idea of ripping them open fleetingly crossed her mind, then. On the other hand, she didn’t intend to ruin the shirt she had given to him for his latest birthday herself.

Actually, it was Max who took the ultimate decision for her.

Running his own hand over the buttons he caused them to rip open in his haste, before shrugging the shirt the rest of the way off , down his arms, and finally throwing it away behind him.

“I’ll fix it,” Max promised breathless, hands cupping her rosy face, lips brushing over hers, teeth tugging on her lower lip. “Later …” he added throatily, drawing out of her a brief laughter.

Just now Liz found herself to recall how it could be useful to get married with a super-powered alien king, excluding the living nightmare where they obviously had to walk into, every so often, as in consequence of Max’s extraordinary nature.

Anyway she was pretty soon moving aside any rational thought, loosing the last ounce of awareness while sliding her hand past the waistband of his pants, over his straining maleness. Once she unzipped it without hesitation, his hard shaft fervently pulsed underneath her exploring fingers, through his boxers.

“Max, now!” she incited him, in between the open-mouthed kisses she was raining all the way down his neck to his muscular chest and abs.

Max just nodded in bliss at what she was doing, totally surrendering to her as she made a short work of undressing him. His breaths turned into keen pants when he felt her roughly push his pants down further, exposing his brawny legs and calves, his eyes narrowing in glimmering splits of passion.

As soon as Liz jerked his pants off of him, she proceeded to dispose of his boxers as well, freeing his hard erection that sprang up gloriously. Max stepped out of his underwear with a grunt before his lips crashed on hers again. Then he easily lifted her up into his arms and carried her into their bedroom, mouths never ceasing to feast on each others as they left a cluster of discarded clothes behind them.

* ~*~ *

As the night wore on, at the Butterfly it was crowded the way it always was on a Saturday night, especially since Maria was singing tonight. The diner was so packed that not one booth remained empty.

Michael was literally bending over backwards to take care of so many things he had never had to handle on his own. Although he was pretty busy by rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the counter and vice versa, wherever it turned out his presence would be necessary, he incessantly kept cursing under his breath on Max’s abrupt leaving.

Maria had just walked down the stage in order to take a break and give some rest to her worn-out voice. So she came to the counter and swung up onto one of the bar stools, facing a very annoyed Michael who was currently helping out the barman with some drinks.

“Hey Spaceboy, can I have a soda?” she asked, before noticing his frown and adding in concern, “You okay?”

He immediately stopped to do whatever he was doing and just glared at her, rivulets of sweat rolling down his forehead as in indication of his exertion. “Do I look like someone who is okay?”

“Not really,” Maria mumbled, before turning around to have a look across the packed diner in search of Max. Apparently he wasn’t anywhere near them, though. “Where the hell is His Majesty, the King?” she wondered ironically, looking back at Michael.

“Now, this is a good question!” Michael growled, arms folding over his chest. “He fled from here over a hour ago, saying he had to go to Liz ‘because she needed him as mush as he needed her’, or something like that. I even tried to call him but he must have turned his damn mobile off, and the phone in our apartment is still ringing with no one getting the call!!!”

Maria’s jaw dropped open in amazement. “Are you telling me that Max left you all these hellish hordes to deal with and went straight to her ‘because she needed him as much as he needed her’? His actual words?” When Michael just nodded his answer, she rolled her eyes dreamily at the thought of it. “Awww, that was like the most romantic thing I ever heard!”

Michael’s eyes went wide with anger, his hand slapping violently down onto the counter. The vehement sound, that was heard even over the varied bustle in the diner, caused a few customers to turn their perplexed glances on him. “What? Romantic? That wasn’t romantic! No, no, no. That was just stupid, and irresponsible, and selfish!” he exclaimed livid, still glaring at Maria even as he handed her a soda across the counter. “Gee, if I had been the one to do what he did, you guys would have already ripped my head off. But being Max, everything is allowed to him! I just hope he had a very good reason to make himself scarce like that.”

Maria giggled at what he had just said, as she started bringing the soda to her own thirsty mouth. “Well, I’ll bet his reason was far beyond good!” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, comprehension clearly upon her as she took a gulp of her drink.

Yeah! Sounded like their best friends had eventually come to their senses together.

Michael stood just pondering over it for a while, then his eyes went wide again, this time in quite disgust. “Eww, I don’t truly want to know what Maxwell is doing right now ,” he shook his head from side to side, looking embarrassed. “As long as he brings his fucking ass back here soon!”

Maria stretched out her hand to touch his arm. “You know, it makes me horny as hell when you’re getting this conscientious guy in charge all alone, with a great head on his shoulders …” she purred seductively, brushing her fingertips over his outer arm.

Michael leant over the counter, his lips curving in a confident smirk as he whispered in her ear, “You know, it will take me less than five minutes to kick all these people out and take you in the backroom …”

“Don’t even try, Spaceboy!” she teased, giving him a consolatory peck on the cheek. Michael pouted, instantly retreating from her. “A conscientious guy is never supposed to act this way! Too bad you still have a long road ahead of you,” she said, before jerking her thumb at Kyle and Tracey, whose booth was situated not too faraway from where she seated. “You’d better take some behavior lessons from him!”

“Kyle?” Michael batted his eyes at her. “Where did it come from?”

“Have you seen that chick he’s dating tonight?”

“Whoa, of course! How couldn’t I? She’s perfect, like out of this world!” it spilled out of him before he could even restrain his own enthusiastic tone, which triggered Maria to toss him a probing scowl.

That told him he had to speedily go back on his statement, if he would possibly save his ass. “I mean, she’s … kinda … nice … pretty … passable … oh, definitely nobody that special … I guess?” he drawled, even as punctuating every word with a cautious pause.

Maria smirked as she slightly swatted his arm. “Oh c’mon, I have got eyes, you know. I do see how beautiful she is. Just it wasn’t my point. My point is, why do you think Kyle managed to get her, huh? E-v-o-l-u-t-i-o-n!” she spelled indicatively, making him stare at her mouthing a mute, ‘Ouch’. “He used to be an asshole years ago, remember? Alright. Then he found Buddha somewhere along the way and his lifestyle changed from night to day. That’s so obvious!” she concluded with a snap of her fingers.

Michael gave a crooked look in Kyle’s direction, making a face as he turned back to her and replied, “Hmm, I’ve got what you are driving at! No way, woman! You’re wasting your time if you think I’m ever going to find Buddha myself! I don’t believe in that meditation stuff or something!”

“That has nothing to do with finding Buddha. I’m talking about evolution. You’re not evolving yourself, not the least bit!” Maria exclaimed after taking another sip of her soda. “All you could do in this cruel world is move on, my darling. Once you got the message, you’ve made it. Okay?”

When she started to get up he promptly stepped around the counter and stood there in front of her, a playful smile across his lips, “Mmmm, fascinating! I think I’m going to ‘evolve myself’ in the kitchen. What about you? Are you going to ‘evolve yourself’ on the stage too?” he asked through a sardonic chuckle.

“You fool!” Maria replied teasingly as she stuck her tongue out at him, stomping her way back to the stage.

Michael just kept chuckling up his sleeve like a ten year old boy, with his mood someway lightened.

*~ *~ *

Through the incessant rings of the phone, which neither of them was even hearing by now, Max stumbled into the bedroom with Liz in his arms. He set her on the center of the bed so that she could open her legs wide, making room for his fervent body. Eagerly, she propped up on her elbow and let her supple hand take his impressive arousal, where the precum came from the tip of him.

Max moaned hoarsely, his head falling back at the feel of her small, soft hand engulfing the length of him, either one of them knowing there wouldn’t be time for any foreplay. They both needed to get lost in the other too much, him thrusting into her, her meeting his thrusts, hips grinding into hips.

It had been too long since they’d been together. Like the darkest, longest eternity.

Soon Max had Liz fully laying back on the bed, her eyes at half mast as he pressed her body down into the mattress with his, her hand guiding him to her opening. Max looked down at her to see her hair spread all over the pillows, as framing her face flushed with passion. He moaned once more when the tip of his cock stroked over her sleek folds, telling him she was more than glad to take him in.

Liz whimpered at it and wrapped her legs around his, driving him into her welcoming sheath, her free hand gripping his rear encouraging him to go ahead. She kept her eyes half-closed until he was buried to the hilt inside of her, then she had to look up at him.

Max let out a contented sigh the moment he felt her being all around him. It was like heaven, his own sweet heaven. Staying inside Liz was the only place he had ever wanted to go to, the only home he had ever had.

“I’ll always love you, Liz,” she heard him pant against her ear, his tongue flickering one of the most sensitive spot of hers.

Awe-inspiring. Max was just awe-inspiring. Period.

Even through the heat of the moment he made it a point to keep the promise they had exchanged on their wedding night, the one about telling ‘I love you’ every time they would make love to each other. It had almost gone out of her mind, but Max hadn’t forgotten it. That caused her to fall even more in love with him, if possible. With Max even the impossible could become possible though, she managed to consider before a flow of renewed desire overpowered her.

“I’ll always love you too!” she promised, her shiny eyes seeking his as Max adjusted himself into her, while leaning down to kiss her lips.

They stilled for a while, flesh into flesh, allowing their bodies and souls to fuse together, their mouths sharing a deep, hungry kiss that left both of them gasping against each other’s lips.

Early enough they grow perfectly aware that it wouldn’t last long. They were so starving for each other they needed to rush it to the edge, an insistent urge screaming aloud in every single cell of theirs.

Max rose up to his hands with a serrated groan and started to rock his hips against hers, her palms clasping around his forearms as they found a rhythm, pleasure escalating within them.

As Max picked up his speed, he laid his body over hers and glided his hands up to her thighs, past her hips, and to her breasts. Then he cupped them into his hands and began to knead them, his thumbs gently toying with her hardened nipples. “So beautiful,” he rasped in the throes of craving. “You’re mine!”

“Yes, only yours,” Liz rasped back before gasping as Max shifted his hips gyrating them, all the while pounding into her. “Oh God, Max! Yes, that’s it!”

They moved in sync, feeling the end nearing, both of them desperate for release. The more of him Liz took inside of her walls, the deeper she wanted him to stroke her. The more Max pumped in and out of her, the more he wished he could stay inside of her forever, filling her, pleasing her, loving her.

Liquid fire was rushing through their veins, up to their hearts, deep inside their souls. Liz incessantly ran her hand up and down Max’s back, his muscles quivering beneath her fingers, nails digging into skin. Her other hand buried itself in his ruffled hair, slowly pulling him back to her for another breath-taking kiss.

Tightening his arms around her, Max nibbled and sucked on her lips, still thrusting into her harder and faster, sweat forming between their groins where they were slamming hard against each other.

Climax was approaching fast, ready to explode over them simultaneously, and when it finally arrived, pants and moans blended together as they cried out in sublime ecstasy.

“Yes, Liiiiiizzzz!” Max yelled as he tumbled over the edge, spilling his seed into her palpitating body.

Feeling him come was all Liz needed to reach her own peak. “Maaaxxx!” she shouted, arching up to meet his final strokes.

Seconds later, they were still intimately joined, laying in silence and letting their bodies cool down a little, her heart beating against Max’s ear, whose face rested now peacefully on Liz’s heaving chest. With a satisfied smile, he slid out of her and rolled to his side, pulling her in his arms until her head leaned against his shoulder.

They were exhausted, sore and coated with sweat, and yet incredibly happy.

“Wow, that was certainly worthwhile,” Liz spoke amidst the light kisses she was placing on his skin.

“Worthwhile?” Max echoed in a relaxed voice, one hand caressing the back of her head, the other trailing up her arm.

“Yeah,” she nodded and straightened up a little, a childish grin on her lips. “I mean, me and you arguing and then making up this way!”

“Mmm,” Max said, leaning in to nuzzle her petite nose. “I love it when we make up this way.”

“Tell me that!” Liz giggled, her finger tracing his upper lip before he pulled her closer again and wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her body glued to his. “Thoroughly making-up girl here!”

“Mmm, I happen to love making-up girls too,” Max replied impishly, feeling her warm breath send shivers all the way down his chest. His lower body began quickly coming back to life at it.

“Really?” Liz murmured as she swirled her tongue around his nipple, taking a long lick leading straight to the other one. “All of them?”

“Actually … just one. Oh!” Max moaned when she suddenly sat up to straddle his legs and leaned over him, letting her hands travel up his sides, his and her juices both still flowing from her core.

The moment she started to suck greedily on his neck he looked by chance at the watch, out of the corner of his eye, and just cursed, “Shit!”

“What?” Liz asked, her head snapping up in surprise.

Max sighed and yet started to get out of the bed. “I gotta go back to the Butterfly! I basically make myself scarce when I came here to you,” he explained before adding jokingly, “Guess I was sorta impatient.”

But Liz just stayed there on her knees, arms crossed before her chest, her lips sticking out making her look like a little girl.

At the sight of her pout Max laughed and bent over to kiss her lips, his nakedness temptingly close to hers, once more. “I’ll be back soon, I swear, and then we can continue this session…” he breathed into her mouth, then suddenly withdrew from her as something dawned on him. “Unless you need some rest. I’d understand it. I mean, you have to get up pretty early, tomorrow morning.”

A short silence stretched between them before Liz jumped on her feet and stood facing him with a twinkle in her eyes, a brilliant idea crossing her mind. “Well, I might take a nap while you’ll be working at the Butterfly,” she suggested as her gaze raked him up and down. He was so gorgeous, all naked and sweated from their lovemaking, it left her spellbound. Letting her eyes worship his incredible body, his broad shoulders, sculpted chest, and rippled abdomen, she licked her lips in anticipation. “So when you return home, I’ll be rested enough to welcome you properly, like the devoted wife I am.”

“Hm, sounds great,” Max muttered his approval, sliding an arm around her waist and drawing her to him, hugging her tight. The second their bodies met, arms sensuously around each other, they groaned in unison at the feel of their skin connecting once more, their lower anatomies growing aroused again.

“I better go to regain my clothes over there,” Max growled. He gulped as he turned around and forced himself to look away, or he would never make it to leave her anytime shortly.

“Looks like you urgently need to take a shower, my love,” Liz joked and took a step back even as she tried to take her eyes off of him, her mouth going dry at the sight of his cock, which was already thick and hard again, just within reach. “I made you sweat over me, didn’t I?”

Max squirmed an eyebrow, although he didn’t dare to look back at her. “Sure. I just don’t want the water to wash away our smell yet,” he replied so softly it made her quiver at the love in his voice. “It’ll almost feel like having you … hmm, still around me …”

When he started to walk to the door Liz rapidly bounced on him from behind and reached around, finding the raging erection between his legs. She couldn’t help it.

“Almost!” she broke out into a wicked smile before giving him a light squeeze, from the base all the way to the tip. Sexual electricity sparked immediately between them, and that was more than enough for Max to throw to the wind his own good intentions.

With a primal cry, he spun around and dragged her to the bed, pushing her down onto it.

“You tease!” he hissed and poised himself over her, feigning indignation at what she had done. Actually, the way he was holding her, his mouth attaching to hers as he stroked his member over her folds, betrayed all too soon his fakeness. “I have a feeling they won’t be seeing much of me tonight, all things considered …”

That effectively ended all conversation as Max proceeded to show his wife how he had missed her for the next couple hours.

TBC
WIP

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Lulù
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Southern Italy

Post by Lulù »

Hey guys! :D

I'm sorry I'm late :roll: .... something was wrong with my email account last week. Just yesterday I managed to sort out everything and now I'm back! Missed me? :lol:

Ok, stop kidding. Here's the new part.

Enjoy it!

*Kisses*

Lulu

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°



Part 14

It was about 2 in the morning when Annie drove her Mercedes through the large, tree-lined courtyard of the Winslow Residence until she pulled up near the patio. As she walked her way through the front door, then through the deserted living room, all fancy in her black sleeveless dress with hints of green throughout its straps and neckline, she didn’t even catch sight of the white damask sofas, the magnificent crystal chandelier or the spectacular granite stairs.

All that she did was tramp through the hall leading to the far end of the ground floor, leaving a double series of closed doors behind her back as she went. She stood facing the last door to the right for the smallest of seconds before flinging it open and stepping into the room, where a huge, well-provided bookcase ran the length of the largest, farthest wall. With a sinister gleam in her eyes, she leaned forward against the bookcase, then pushed it towards the wall to reveal a cavity that led directly to somewhere else. A safe.
Once the woman was inside the cavity she smirked to herself while placing her manicured hand over the combination lock in order to have access to the safe. As soon as she jerked it open there was a small fortune just waiting for her: priceless pieces of jewelry, golden Rolex watches, several antiques, aged family relics, and very rare manuscripts.

However, the only thing that got Annie’s attention was a rhomboidal stone on the left side, barely bigger than a walnut. It was laying in a little red case separating it from the other kind of jewels. The stone shone with a rich tone of yellow which turned into many polychrome nuances under the faint light penetrating it from the room outside.

Sliding her hands into the safe, Annie eagerly grasped the rhomboidal stone, hiding it safely in her palm, while her other hand put another stone down into the case, identical to the first one. As she held the stone tightly in her own hand, it flashed brightly for a while. But the moment she tossed it hurriedly into her purse, hanging carelessly from the crook of her arm, the light just faded off right away.

“What are you doing in here?” Paul’s voice came suspiciously from behind her back.

Annie slightly turned to him, without even batting an eyelash at his sudden appearance. “Well, putting this away, actually,” she responded through a glacial smile, undoing the emerald beaded necklace encircling her own neck. Then she reached out and settled down the jewel into its box, before locking the safe. “I wore it tonight and went to Caroline Abbot’s birthday party. I had a terrific time over there, you know.”

Paul’s eyes sadly traveled up to the life-sized portrait of a woman hanging on the wall opposite the bookcase. The author had put his own sign on it , on the extreme right. P. W. “I take it always as a bad sign when you choose to wear our mother’s jewels …”

Annie gave a nonchalant shrug and walked past him, stepping back into the room. “You are totally on the wrong track here. Emeralds just matched with my gown, do you see it?” she said, her hand gesturing down at her own posh dress. “That’s all. No obscure reason or something!” she added.

Paul looked like he hadn’t swallowed the bait. “I would like to know what you are up to,” he began, glaring at her. “You stayed almost all last week away, no one knowing where you might be or with whom. So just spit it out already. Where the hell were you yesterday? And the day before yesterday? And even the day before it?” he questioned with an inquisitive look. “We happened to have the board of directors at the company, last Thursday, and you didn’t so much as show up there. I had to get a delegation on behalf of you. This is really scaring me. You’re scaring me!”

Annie’s reply was just a low, mocking laughter that reached him in a scornful echo. “Relax, bro! Keep going this way and you’ll get an ulcer pretty soon I’ll bet. Besides, too many worries would cause a lot of indecorous wrinkles to ruin your pretty face.” She started to walk away from him then.

But Paul brought his hand over her arm and grabbed a hold of it, swinging her around to face him. “I asked you a question, and demand to get an answer from you, Annie. RIGHT NOW!” he roared. “You have to tell me what’s going on with you?”

“Oh, really? I think you would be a little shocked. I mean, you’re such a goody two shoes…” Annie mocked as she struggled out of his grip, her purse still hanging from the crook of her arm. “My boyfriend didn’t feel like he could ever leave me. He fucked me all the time, night and day, wherever and whenever the mood struck. He could never get enough of me, quite a sex machine. It’s great, isn’t it? I enjoyed myself al least, as you were leading this cloistered life!” she concluded with a sarcastic sweep of her free arm.

Paul took some exasperated sighs before composing himself and speaking again, “You are…”

“What? What am I, uh?” Annie came down on him like a lion, cutting him off. “Listen to me now. What I decide to do or where I resolve to go is none of your fucking business, It’s only mine and nobody’s else! When are you going to get it through your head?” she yelled.

After giving one last, cheeky glare at him she finally left the room, her footsteps heavy and furious against the floor.

Paul just stood there with a deep frown and brooded over her words for a moment, still wondering what his sister was up to since he knew she was. That was when a suspect began pounding in his own head.

He walked immediately to the safe and yanked it open once more, his eyes skimming frantically over the interior as if looking for something in particular, something he cared for the most. The moment he found what he was searching for relief plastered itself on his face and he was able to breathe again.

The yellow stone was still where it belonged, where it needed to stay. Everything looked perfectly normal in his eyes. What if he had just taken it wrong? Perhaps Annie had been true to her word, this time. Perhaps she wasn’t really up to anything. Who could tell.

Hopefully, it had been just a false alarm.

Clinging to this reassuring thought with all he had, Paul locked the safe and started to shove the bookcase forward, aligning it to the wall to set everything back into place before making his way out of the room.

Then he calmly headed towards his bedroom, situated on the first floor of the immense residence, and started getting ready to go to sleep, quite peaceful in his naïve unawareness.

*~*~*

Liz left the apartment where she and the gang lived in with a heavenly smile on her face, feeling like she was floating somewhere over a cloud, angels and cherubs sweetly singing in chorus only for her to hear them.

It didn’t mattered to her it was Sunday morning and she had to go to work, instead of sleeping late and having the day off like it was supposed to be. That past night had been so unbelievable, so breathtakingly awesome she knew she would carry that smile along with her all the day long. And this could only get better, she mused to herself as she looked forward to coming back home after work. Granted, Max would be willing to prolong their wonderful making-up weekend as much as possible. And so would she.

Then again, as soon as she stepped into the Book & Co. and glanced instinctively around, all she got to see was a primordial-chaos scenery. A dozen trays filled with sweets and candy were placed messily onto rows of tables, threatening to overturn all over the ground from one moment to the next; several boxes were piled up haphazardly over the floor, almost blocking the way in; a big box containing an assortment of drinks was resting on the edge of another box in unstable balance.

Liz rubbed her hand over her face, as she scanned the hectic place looking for Paul astonished. When she finally found him, he was standing near the counter and she could hear him arguing loudly on the phone. Once Paul acknowledged her he flashed her a quick, faint smile and waved her hi, while keeping on the conversation over the phone.

“What?! Are you out of your mind? No, no, that's not an explanation. No, I'm not being reasonable. How do you run a business this way? You take an order, you take my payment! That’s completely crazy. Oh please, shut up. I don’t wanna hear anymore. Bye!” he rumbled into the phone before hanging up. “Damn it!” he growled then, slamming his fist on the counter.

“Paul? What’s going on?” Liz asked quite alarmed as she approached him, trying to be a help.

Paul made a face as he rolled his green eyes to the ceiling. “The caterer had to cancel. Both of the waitresses they hired on the occasion just let them down, and apparently they don’t have staff enough to replace any of them in time!” he explained before continuing in an angrier, louder voice, “Now there is plenty of food and not a soul to wait on the guests!!!”

Liz found it very hard to believe that her boss had lost his temper like that, especially since she knew for sure he wasn’t so easy to get mad. “Well, there is me,” she volunteered timidly after a few moments of just gaping at him. “I mean, if you’re okay with this. Obviously I can’t split in two, although I guess one waitress is better than none, isn’t it?”

Now it was Paul’s turn to gape at her in awe, looking like her mere closeness was calming him down. “You? Oh, no,” he shook his head as he added softly, “I can’t let you do this. That’s not supposed to be your job.”

“No problem,” Liz replied with a heartening shrug. “I used to be a waitress back in high school, so you can tell I gained some experience in waiting on people!”

Paul strode to the podium in the middle of the room, where Dan Brown’s conference was going to take place in two hours. “Thank you for the offer, Liz,” he said, his gaze sweeping over the podium to check it out for the twentieth time. Then he suddenly looked back at her and she could see the doubt in his eyes. “But I still don’t want to make you feel like a thing to be used, like… like you were someway underestimated or …”

“Underestimated? Why?” Liz promptly interrupted him. “I don’t really think that giving your friend a hand when it is needed is something to feel underestimated for. I think quite the opposite!”

“Are you sure?” Paul couldn’t help but ask, even as he was already staring at her in gratitude. “You don’t have to.”

“I’m positive,” she said with a resolute nod. “Just tell me what I should wear.”

Paul’s look turned from grateful to admiring in a flash. Which oddly escaped Liz’s notice as he let his eyes roam over her delicious, petite body right in front of him. He felt his mouth go dry and had to clear his throat before responding hoarsely, “Your usual uniform would be okay,” he forced his stare away then.

“Great,” Liz grinned and glanced down at her wrist for her digital watch. “Well, there are still two hours until the conference gets started. Can I do anything for you meanwhile?”

“Um, yes. Actually you might help me to carry this stuff over to my office,” he gestured first towards the food that the delivery man had just delivered and then towards his office door. “We can use it as temporary storage room.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Liz nodded her consent and quickly picked up a couple of trays. “It’s kind of weird that the rest of us haven’t shown up yet,” she considered as she began to walk. She was wondering why none of her co-workers hadn’t arrived yet. They usually were pretty punctual.

Paul picked up a couple of trays himself so that he could follow Liz’s trail. “It was Saturday yesterday,” he reasoned comprehensively. “It’s only fair they stayed late last night!” His lips bent in a light smile.

Liz turned her head to him when they went through the office doorway together. “Yeah, you’re possibly right,” she agreed, glad that he had found his best mood again.

“Speaking of Saturday, how was yours?” he conversed casually, even if he had a feeling that her answer was going to upset him.

Liz shouldn’t have let it happen, as she was in the throes of working, but a lot of steamy memories came flooding through her mind at the simple mention of it. She was instantly lost.

“Oh, it was just … unforgettable!” she purred in joy, feeling her cheeks blushing as she gave her brightest smile ever.

Paul froze on the spot, between the two chairs facing his desk, blood draining from his face as he tried to a put on fake smile. “Good to know,” he muttered through his teeth before stomping his way back out of the office.

Once he left her alone with the trays she was still holding in her hands, Liz proceeded to clear the desk so that she could make some room. Just when she was about to put down the trays on the wooden surface her elbow knocked into a file folder, causing it to fall down onto the floor. The folder went open because of the fall and a few papers jumped out of it, catching her full interest.

Liz lowered on her knees to gaze at the papers and was stunned: she recognized herself portrayed in a charcoal drawing as she was standing sideways in front of a window overlooking the ocean, loosened curls fluttering around her face, her sad eyes wandering over the rough waves. Also she was holding a single withered rose in her hand, some of its petals spread onto her lap creating a sense of melancholy.

Astounded, Liz started to rummage through the papers and to her wonder she found out that she was portrayed in all of them, even if in many different ways. Still, what disturbed her the most was the drawing where she was laying on a bed, resting languidly on her right side, thin sheets covering her whole body except for her nude breasts.

The point was, those looked like they really were her own breasts. That looked like it really was her own body, the body that only one man had closely seen before. In fact, one half-man and half-alien…

Just then she noticed the same artist’s sign put on every drawing: P. W. Paul Winslow.

“Oh my God!” Liz gasped, pressing a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream bubbling out of her throat.

After hastily putting the drawings back in the folder, she got up and succeeded to set it down on the desk. Then she backed away with wobbly legs.

Could she just get over it? Could she just remove from her mind everything she had just seen?

Too bad she didn’t think so.

*~*~*

Washington D.C.
Safety Palace, Wing B (Federal monitoring department)


Surrounded by calm and silence, a blond young man dressed in his regular black suit watched diligently over the enormous screen. A large map of the US was set against the wall just above it. Throughout US territory dozens of little circles flashed occasionally red. The circles had all the same size excepting the one around the name Roswell, NM. It was much bigger and more glowing than the other ones, as in to be emphasized.

One older dark-haired man, slightly thinning at his temples, joined him before the screen seconds later. Dressed in his black suit as well, he looked like he was in his early forties. His blue eyes were definitely upsetting: constantly narrowed into slits, impenetrable, as hostile as never-ending glaciers.

“Any news, agent Cutter?” the older man asked.

The young man stood up reverentially at attention. “No, sir.”

“Are you sure? Nothing at all?” the older man asked again, just to make sure he had got it the first time.

“Nothing, sir.”

It prompted the dark-haired man to slam his fists on the desk in fuming rage. “Damn it! There’s no time to be wasted here! We have to immediately put into action the second part of the plan.”

“I didn’t think there would ever be a second part of it,” the young man couldn’t help but argue, blinking at him.

“There would be a third part too,” the older man hissed cruelly, leaning threateningly closer to him. “Even a fourth part if need be! Until I catch each and every one of them, at the cost of exterminating their entire families!”

The blond man took a trembling step back, almost in shock at what he had just heard. “That Ramirez guy who died in Boston … he was …guiltless, sir…” he whispered as he leaned against the adjacent wall for support.

“WHAT? He wasn’t a bit guiltless!” the dark-haired man howled, his eyes narrowing even more than usual as he glared at him. “He married an enemy, he killed one of our best men in order to keep his wife‘s crimes under wraps. Does it still sound guiltless to you, huh? Ramirez was just a traitor, he only got what he deserved!”

“There were five other people aboard the plane, and they …” His voice cracked under the unbearable weight of what he was feeling now. Utter horror mixed with fear.

“Agent Cutter, we were graced with the unequalled privilege to protect our country from every danger menacing national security,” the older man said unemotionally, in a robotic voice. “It’s only fair to achieve such a goal by means of some ‘unexpected accidents’ along the way! Don’t bother yourself anymore. It was a price to be paid, and it was worth the effort, hopefully,” he stated with a wicked grin on his lips before turning his look to the screen. “So, let’s focus on the next aim …”

“What … what aim?” the young man was almost afraid of the answer he was about to get from the older man.

“This one!” He pointed a finger at one of the names just appeared across the screen and quickly pressed a blue button on the keyboard.

A beep started to sound acutely through the room.

TBC
WIP

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Lulù
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Southern Italy

Post by Lulù »

hey, I'm back!

I have kind of bad news for you... I've started a new job the last week so my life is only getting busier and busier... I'm sorry I don't know when I make it to translate the next part :( anyway, I'm not absolutely abandoning this story, I promise! Just I think I'll have to slow down a for a while, until I settle down a bit in my new job :roll: then I'll try and work things out again :wink:

Bye and enjoy this part! :D

thank you everyone for reading it :wink:

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°


Part 15

Liz and Maria were spending their afternoon lying side by side on Maria’s double bed, arms stretched across the mattresses.

“What am I suppose to do at this point?” Liz shook her head slightly as she tried to calm down a bit. She had just told her best friend the whole Paul thing with the drawings and everything else that had aroused her suspicions about him so far.

“You shouldn’t do anything, Liz! This has nothing to do with you in the first place!” Maria responded as she sat up, crossing her legs in one of the most popular yoga position.

Soon, Liz sat up as well, a frown covering her face as she spoke. “How can you say that? I think this has everything to do with me. Especially since I don’t know how to act around Paul anymore,” she rolled her eyes and added worriedly, “Dealing with him is gonna be so totally weird! I mean, I can’t just keep pretending I didn’t see what I saw. On the other hand, I can’t even go up to him and say, ‘Look Paul, I happened to run into your drawings. Oh by the way, very good job with the nude thing!’. See I’m in a mess anyway!” she pouted.

“In my opinion you should just be the same as usual,” Maria gave a sympathetic shrug. “In the end, that’s not such a big deal. It’s only some drawings we are talking about, all right? He didn’t jump your bones … did he?” she asked in a tentative tone, her eyebrows arched.

“Of course he didn’t!” Liz let out a heavy breath. “But you weren’t there, you didn’t see what I saw. It looks like he put his own soul into those drawings.”

Just then Maria turned her head and leaned in to cup Liz’s cheeks with her hands. “I don’t understand, what are you complaining for?” she muttered as she gazed at Liz’s extremely preoccupied face. “Today you’d quite fly up through the skies like a bird. Remember all the things Max did for you, or I’d rather say ‘with’ you last night, just one room over?” she gestured suggestively towards the next door along the hallway where Liz and Max’s bedroom was located.

Liz just looked down in frustration, not comforted by Maria’s words. “You’re missing what the point is here! We’re not talking about Max and me. We are talking about Paul Winslow who made me portraits. Even more, he portrayed me as stark naked! With all the right details, as if he had actually saw me. Can you believe it?” she questioned as shock still vibrated through her voice. “Even this little mole I have under my right breast. It’s kind of … creepy! As if it wasn’t just a coincidence.”

Maria’s eyes went suddenly wide. “Oh God, you’re right, Liz!” she shrieked, at the same time grasping Liz’s arm and tugging it in horror. “What if Winslow was this paranoid maniac who usually spies on people through a hidden camera? What if he already planned to kill you? I’ll bet he’s torn between slicing you up into millions of pieces or strangling your neck with his bare hands. Dear Lord! It’s gonna be matter of days until you’re just a poor dead body!” That was when she brought one hand over her trembling mouth before bursting out laughing so hard her sides hurt.

Liz just listened at the deep laughing sounds, arms folded over her chest in a light squeeze. “This is not funny at all, you know,” Liz grumbled as Maria began to compose herself again.

“C’mon, take it easy!” Maria giggled and reached out to give a few friendly pats on Liz’s shoulder. “If I were you I’d be only honored to be portrayed by such a gorgeous man as Paul Winslow is. He’s so damn cute! Did you ever notice that before by chance?”
Liz felt Maria’s hand rest on her shoulder and sighed. “The thing is, I also feel sorry for him, Maria,” she finally stated in a whisper. “He’s hopeless, stuck in a place where there’s no way out.”

“Excuse me?” Maria blinked when she pulled back enough to take a clearer sight of her best friend’s figure. “Sorry for him? Oh please, it’s not like he can’t handle it! I guess he can get a lot of distractions. Female distractions, Lizzie!” She got up and walked up to stand in front of the closet, checking herself in the mirror.

Liz slowly looked up at Maria’s reflection in the mirror until their eyes met. “As crazy as it can sound I think he’s not, like, the typical, loaded playboy. He seems to be pretty … different.”

“You mean, different like Max?” Maria asked daringly.

Liz launched off of the bed to come to Maria’s side, looking a bit annoyed as she stared back at her friend’s stare into the mirror. “No! No one is like Max! What are you thinking of? Max is the most wonderful man, with the most beautiful soul in the universe!” Liz exclaimed in such a passionate, heated tone Maria thought she would catch fire . “I’m just saying, Paul is a good man and I’d be sorry if he has to be heartbroken because of me…” Liz whispered a few seconds later, her voice fading out.

“Too compassionate, babe!” Maria teased through a low chuckle. “Let him stew in his own juice!” Then she shifted to playfully narrow her eyes at Liz. “Plus, it’s not normal that you’re not a bit pleased about a hottie who clearly drools over you!”

“Well, I’m not!” Liz replied on a whim before shrugging at Maria’s disbelieved expression. “Okay, okay, perhaps just a little bit…” she admitted finally.

At that, Maria held up her hand to give Liz a high five. Liz instinctively held out her hand too. “Here you go, Liz!” Maria screeched when their palms slammed soundly against each other. “Welcome to the ‘Purest Hundred Percent Mean Women Club!”

After Liz removed her own hand from Maria’s, with a smile on her lips, she happened to glance over her shoulder and catch a glimpse of something set on top of the desk, just next to some charts. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that one looks totally like a guitar, doesn’t it?” she questioned with a hint of awe.

Even if she was surprised by the change of subject, Maria practically jigged her way to her desk until she reverently picked the guitar up. “Yeah, actually I’ve kind of started to work on a new song!” she announced proudly.

Liz’s smile grow wider as she rushed towards Maria and hugged her tight, embracing the guitar too in the process. “Wow, that was like the best news I’ve heard in a long, long time!” she commented with genuine thrill.

“I know,” Maria returned her hug for a while then retreated before smiling up at Liz. “Hopefully, I’ll have it ready for the upcoming weekend show, if my muse helps.”

“I’m sure you’ll succeed in doing it! Did I ever mention I think you have a genius for music?” Liz said as she bent forward to place a kiss on Maria’s cheek, whose response was just a quiet, smiling nod. “Now, I’m gonna go and get ready for tonight. I promised Max I was going to the Butterfly by 8. So I have to hurry up if I want to make it there in time.” She began to step out of the room then.

“Oh!” Maria replied and stroked the strings of her guitar nonchalantly, starting to play a spur-of-the-moment melody. “You and Max planned to do it in there too!”

“What?” Liz stopped dead near the doorway and turned again towards Maria, giving her a look somewhere between confusion and amusement.

Deliberately raising her green eyes from the guitar, Maria couldn’t help but smirk at Liz’s face. “Sex! You two are going to have sex in the Butterfly too, aren’t you? Probably against the backroom wall or even on the kitchen counter, which definitely would be much more comfortable!” she explained and smirked again. “No problem, it’s perfectly okay with me! I do comprehend you and Max have to make up for lost time. Just I’m afraid that Spaceboy can have a heart attack if he catches the both of you together, entangled in the strangest Kama Sutra position!!”

“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure he won’t catch us any time soon!” Liz managed before losing her battle against hilarity. Now, both her and Maria were hooting with laughter, just thinking of the sight of Michael if he really had caught Max and Liz together. The two girls were sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it would be a scene to capture on film and then play it over and over again!

By the time Maria stopped laughing she had tears in her own eyes, as well as Liz. She rapidly tried to regain a serious countenance though, as she moved to her bed and began to sit down on it, the guitar still in her arms. “So, what are you doing with Max? You intend to inform him about the drawings?”

“I don’t know yet. But I don’t figure how he could take it well…” Liz reasoned and leaned against the door frame, her hand treading though her long hair.

“Neither do I,” Maria nodded her agreement. “When the calm one gets jealous that’s who you must be frightened of the most!” Maria concluded, her words ringing out like a blur prophecy due to come, someday, even if not immediately.

Liz just watched Maria slide her fingers over the cords of the guitar, its melodious sound echoing through the room and merging with her talented, humming voice. As she strolled out of the room, traveling along the hallway, Liz found her mind still lingering over Max. She didn’t like keeping secrets from him, especially now that the two of them had just got close again. However, this time she had no option. This was an incredibly hard-to-handle situation.

Besides, she wondered if Max had ever been really jealous of her. Then it came to her mind the time he had caught her childishly pillow fighting against Sean DeLuca in the DeLuca’s living room, he had a deadly look imprinted on his face while staring at them wide-eyed, and she cringed.

All the more reason for her to tell him nothing about it.

* ~* ~*

Monday morning came all too soon and Liz went to work with squirmy, upsetting feelings building up more and more within her, which was the worst way for her to get the ball rolling for the week. Once she arrived at the Book & Co. Paul wasn’t anywhere in sight yet and she was pretty glad of it. To be all alone in that silent, large room felt too good for her to want something to occur and change it right now. Then again she knew it couldn’t last much longer.

After rolling up every shutter in the bookshop to let the sunlight in and speedily dusting off the nearby furniture Liz proceeded to dispose on the shelves several copies of Dan Brown’s latest thriller that just yesterday had been presented to the Medias during his conference. She was deeply lost in her thoughts when she heard an abrupt voice from the entrance of the bookshop.

“I never spied on you as you were undressed, Liz,” Paul spoke firmly causing Liz to startle at it, so that the book she was holding slipped off her hand. “I suppose I’m not naturally inclined to become this pervert guy!” That was pronounced in a vaguely ironic tone which didn’t escape her notice.

“What …? What did you just say?” Liz uttered without turning to him. In fact, she had heard it perfectly well. Just she would like that she hadn’t. How the hell had he gotten to know it? What if he could truly read her mind? Just the mere thought of it sent cold shivers through her spine. ‘No,’ she thought to herself, ‘it can’t be!’

Paul’s slow, steady footsteps contrasted with the frenzied race of her pulse. She could feel him move towards her as she bent down to lift up the book from the floor.

“The drawings,” Paul replied and she startled again in spite of herself. “I found them set in a different order than I put them the last time. So, given that you were the only one who entered my office after me …” he paused just enough to let her stand up and finally decide to face him. “I simply jumped to the most obvious conclusion.”

“I’m sorry, Paul,” Liz blushed with lowered eyes, her fingers pressing hard into the book in deepest mortification. “I didn’t mean to poke my nose into your own business. I was just cleaning up your desk when I knocked into a file folder and it accidentally fell, and then some drawings popped out of it and … I couldn’t help but glance at them!” she told him as inarticulately as just who was being very ill at ease could have done. “But I swear I did not intend to rummage through your stuff.”

As soon as she finished her explanation he flashed her a wide smile to make it clear he wasn’t angry with her. “I believe you, and I’m not blaming you for anything,” Paul remarked before taking a few steps forward. He looked around to see the place was still deserted except for the two of them. “I just wanted to make sure you understood that I made up everything. It was just my imagination. Even if you could have your doubts about what you saw in my office yesterday.”

Liz started to get flustered at his new closeness, although she tried to not uncover that to him and did her best to hold his look. “Oh, well, yes. What I saw in your office looked very like ... me,” she breathed out and waited for him to say his piece.

Paul’s reaction at her admission confused her even more. “Please, tell me it didn’t offend you in any way,” he all but whispered, a doubtful look plastering itself over his face, eyebrows curving above a couple pleading eyes.

“No, no. I’m quite astonished, though,” Liz answered and bit nervously on her lower lip in the effort to keep her voice under control. But he was giving her a hard time by persisting in staring at her like that. She had to look away, in the end. “I didn’t know you were so good at drawing.”

He slowly slid his hands down to bury them into the pockets of his designer label pants. The moment he took a step back she promptly released the breath she didn’t even know she had been holding.

“I used to spend almost all of my spare time with a pencil in my hand when I was just a little boy,” Paul started to fill her in, a touch of bittersweet melancholy in his words. “ Drawing was this special thing I could do just for the love of it. Something I could do because I loved it, and not because someone else got me to. To my wonder, it turned out before long I was pretty good at it,” a gentle sigh fled from his lips. “Until I turned 17 I was even convinced that that was what I would do for a living, that I was gonna grow into this celebrated artist whose expositions would take place all around the world! Apparently, teenagers dreams have no limits,” he gave a strange half grin.

Liz automatically looked up at him through wary eyes. “Yeah, I think I know the feeling.”

Paul nodded knowingly before continuing, his tone gradually changing from bitter to sad, sorrow altogether enveloping him. “Then my parents passed away about the end of that year and our company urgently needed someone to take care of our interests …”

“Needless to say, you figured out you were that ‘someone’, huh?” Liz interjected, anticipating his next words.

Since the first day she had been working at the Book & Co. she had heard very rarely either one of Paul and Annie Winslow mention their parents’ death, happened in a car accident over eight years ago. So, this time she was fairly taken aback by Paul’s openness, albeit every line of misery appeared on his features, added to his voice dying away into silence, showed unquestionably how profound his grief still was.

“Exactly,” he murmured with a nod, pushing away his saddest memories with a fit of coughing. “So I threw to the wind all of my naive dreams and hurriedly signed up for my classes at the business college here in Berkley. I had, literally, to roll up my sleeves and force myself into working hard while rushing headlong into study. Nowadays, drawing is just a hobby to me, and I’ve never time enough for it.”

Liz inclined her head and placed her finger over her mouth in an inquiring motion.

“That’s only one thing I can’t explain…” she frowned, hundred questions popping up into her mind. “Why me? I mean, why did you choose to portray me of all people?”

Paul didn’t need to be asked twice to give her the most unexpected answer. “Because you, Liz, you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he stated without hesitation, his eyes telling her the same thing his voice had just done as he ogled her.

Dismay overpowered Liz as she was opening her mouth to speak but no sound came out. She gulped down past the lump in her throat . “You… you shouldn’t’ have said that…” she croaked after a while. It wasn’t only ‘what’ he had said, but ‘how’ he had said that, to begin with. Like he was willing to impress her, hypnotize her, and this made things even more upsetting.

Paul didn’t seem to be aware of her baffled state because of him, or even if he was, he didn’t make it to emerge to the surface. “Why not? It’s only true. You’re so beautiful, inside and out. Sometimes it still amazes me so much I just like looking at you all the time,” he went on with his adulating manners.

By now, Liz couldn’t have doubts any longer about him. He was making subtle and yet inappropriate advances to her, and she couldn’t let it happen twiddling her own thumbs. She had to dot the i’s and cross the t’s without delay.

“I’m a married woman, Paul!” she exclaimed articulating every syllable of hers as audible as possible. “And I love my husband from the bottom of my heart!” she emphasized the words ‘love’ and ‘husband’ to not give rise to any misinterpretation. Somewhere in the back of her mind she found herself to consider how Max would have reacted if he had ever known about that.

Paul stood there motionless, just gazing at her tiny, graceful form from head to foot in a way that wasn’t a bit ambiguous. He was openly eating her alive with his eyes. “I know you do, but this doesn’t change how I feel about you,” he confessed throatily, an appreciative smirk forming at the corner of his lips.

That was the last strew for Liz. She wasn’t able to bear any of it anymore. “Okay, I’ve heard enough! We’re not having this conversation!” she hissed before starting to stomp towards the front door as if she wanted to leave. And it was effectively what she intended to do if someone else hadn’t materialized just then in front of her, coming from the packed sidewalk and barring her way with his skinny, tall body.

“Mondays just suck you know!” Luke called out while walking through the front door at a hurried pace. “They all really need a sedative out there!” he continued, his eyes still focused on the opposite busy road where countless cars were lined up one after the other as a result of the traffic, horns sounding uninterruptedly. “Well, except for this itty bitty detail, good morning to you nice people!” he beamed then and finally turned his bright gaze around the room, looking between the two of them.

Liz waved him her good morning, unable to return it by words at present. She realized on the spot she had to make a decision regarding Paul and what she had just discovered about him as soon as possible, before things got even worse.

Paul fell silent as well as he saw Luke entering the bookshop. That was why he mumbled a wistful ‘Good morning’ and briskly excused himself heading to his office, his look never leaving the ground as he steadily walked away.

TBC
WIP

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Lulù
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Post by Lulù »

Hey, I'm finally back! :D
I'm sorry it took me so long :( my new job was a way more hectic than i could ever think :roll:

now enjoy the new part.... and thenk you for being so patient :wink:

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°



Part 16

Isabel was very pleased that she caused Max and Liz to make up, at least initially. Now that the two of them were again inseparable and even more sickeningly sugary than ever she could feel within herself a minuscule grain of optimism. It was very little and yet real, surely undeniable, especially since she did recall how she had been feeling until the few past days. Still, another thing was starting to concern her: she hadn’t been able to talk to Kyle for five minutes consecutively in a while. Apparently he was always so absorbed in his job because he also had to cover one of his workmates’ shifts who went on holiday, and when he wasn’t working he apparently had something more interesting to do than spending his time with her.

Maria, who couldn’t help herself, she had already informed her that Kyle was dating this chick named Tracey, making sure to repeat how beautiful she looked and how nice she was over and over. Isabel was somewhat disappointed at it because Kyle hadn’t felt like he had to share with her the good news, the way he had done with everyone else. In spite of everything, she had ever thought she could call herself his friend, just like everyone else of them. Well, sometimes a lot more than everyone else…

When Tuesday evening came she resolved to go over to the Step By Step’s branch in the city, where one of the twice –a- week meetings was gonna take place, partly in order to take her mind off other things partly just to try herself. Isabel had been so utterly shocked by the previous meeting she had been present to that she promised herself to never set foot again in there. Instead she felt like she had to do it now though. Like something inside her was telling her to and she couldn’t help but comply with it.

As soon as she walked past the doorway, she saw the crowded room coming to life before her. All of the people were talking to each other in a very like familiar way, making a slurred chattering to resound all around the room. Suddenly everyone fell silent when one of them stepped up to the stage, approached the microphone and tapped it with her fingers to test its sound. Isabel immediately recognized the woman who was about to lay herself bare in front of the audience. It was Tracey, the girl who had encouraged her to not give in the first time she had got there, after she hastily ran out of the meeting room. So she was all ears when Tracey started to speak.

“Hi everyone … um… my name is Tracey … hum… this is the fist time ever I got myself to talk in public about these things, these terrible things...” Tracey threw a disoriented look all over the audience then clenched the mike in her fist whilst she was using the other hand to toy nervously with the hem of her blouse, as if it was her unconscious attempt to pluck up her own courage.

“Over two months ago, my dearest friend Carol and me … well, we were both in her car and she was driving us along Flamingo Road. We weren’t going too fast even though we were pretty thrilled. The following day we were supposed to leave for Europe and we wanted to celebrate, you know. It should have been our first flight together. Both of us were so ecstatic, so overjoyed but… it eventually happened that we didn’t go to Europe. Not that time, not ever…” her hushed voice turned into shattering sobs, copious tears flowing down from her eyes. However, she didn’t intend to stop until she finished the whole story. “This 10-wheeler truck cut across directly in front of us in a curve, near Sunny Point. The car we were in was propelled against the guardrail and quickly overturned. I came out of it with only a few bruises and some light grazes, while my friend … my friend was hurled down against the asphalt and her head smashed violently against the ground. The EMT said she died instantly… she didn’t have time to realize anything.” She sniffed and interrupted for a moment; her face fell and she covered it with her hands. She burst into tears, finally giving vent to her anguish, and yet continued sobbing under her breath. “I haven’t been able to get into my car until a couple of weeks ago. I still feel myself panic though… it’s so hard… so unfair …” she paused and let out a sigh. “I still see her everywhere …. her face covered with blood … her blank eyes… her frozen body laid there, on the ground. It’s like one living nightmare I can’t get rid of. Then again I do know I have to fight this. I’m sure Carol would like for me to go on, and get over it… and I have only to say thank you to all of you if I managed to figure it out. Thank you everyone… I’d never made it without you guys!”

By the moment she finished her speech, forcing herself into a faint smile, the room was filled with thunderous applause, the crowd clapping their hands in unison. Isabel was applauding as well. She did know how that type of pain felt like, how badly it could hurt, and that Tracey’s words had triggered from the bottom of her soul the wet marks of emotion she was wiping off her face.

However, Izzy struggled to hold on until the meeting was over. When she finally was leaving the room, one and a half hours later , headed to the exit, as she was almost in the middle of the sidewalk she drew a deep breath, feeling quite proud of herself. Just then she saw that Tracey was straight on her way, looking somehow pissed off. The moment Isabel came up to her she could tell the reason why she seemed so annoyed.

One of Tracey’s high-heeled shoes got stuck in this grating so she had had to remove it forcefully out of it and she could have her foot back free. But as result of it her shoe came out of the grating as the heel didn’t do the same, remaining just where it was stuck. That was what currently made Tracey to curse to herself.

“Gee, this is not happening! What am I supposed do now? Shit!” she spat out. She was so incensed and livid she could devour the biggest bull alive.

“Maybe I… let me try to help you there…” Isabel offered in a whisper.

“What?” Tracey blinked part of the rage out of her eyes as she looked up at Isabel’s magnificent form.

Isabel grinned before bending over and picked up the heel stuck into the grating. Then she took the damaged shoe from Tracey’s hand and pushed the heel back into it, gluing it where it belonged by using a little blast of her alien powers. She also made sure no gleam or light shone out with that. “Here you go,” she said, and handed the shoe back to its shocked owner, perfectly repaired. “Now try and put it on.”

Tracey's eyes almost popped out of their hollows in surprise as she gave the shoe an unbelieving look. Although she did what she was told and put on the shoe; after taking a few probing steps around the sidewalk she beamed gratefully at Izzy. “Wow! How did you make it? You possibly are just my good-luck charm, aren’t you?” she teased.

“No, no! I don’t think so!” Isabel replied. “I guess it’s just a matter of practice. Apparently, I’m better than you at this stuff!” she chuckled a little too vehemently at the irony. She truly hated it to lie to Tracey even if she barely knew her, and it felt so damn weird she was kind of awed by it.

The shorter girl looked down at her own feet and then up back to Isabel. “Well, thank you a lot. You basically saved my butt here. Your name is Isabel, isn’t it?”

Isabel just mutely nodded her head.

“Good,” Tracey nodded back as a smile started to play at her lips. “So, Isabel, you eventually got to stay till the end, this time!” she hinted, and made it clear she remembered very well the moment they first met.

Izzy wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh, yes… I did. Um, speaking of which, I also got to hear what happened to you two months ago. It must have been so horrible!” she couldn’t help but grimace at that, empathically.

Tracey sighed and shrugged in her waist length leather jacket. “Sure it was, but it kinda felt like this essential thing to be done. You know, to start to walk over it. …” she was staring at her with intent eyes.

“Well, since you take it this way I presume I’ll never walk over it,” Isabel stated as she rolled her eyes and then looked blankly up into distance. She hadn’t the slightest doubt about it, she wasn’t gonna be able to utter publicly one single word about Jesse’s death. Not today, not in a while, not ever. As if that hadn’t been bad enough!

Tracey wasn’t surprised or disappointed by this assertion, if her facial expression was any indication “Please, you’re being too harsh on yourself! Now it’s obviously still too soon. You’ll realize it yourself when you are ready to get a shot of it, and then you can’t believe the weight that will lift off your shoulders straight away!” she spoke comfortingly, like she was more than positive about it. It sounded like she had this belief buried within herself and wanted to share it with Isabel as well. After that she suddenly changed the subject and took Isabel by the arm. “So, how about going for a drink over there? I heard they make really yummy milk-shakes!” she pointed to the opposite sidewalk where a pretty café looked onto. There were a dozens of small tables forming a few circles all around the porch on the first floor, with a sloping roof above it and several tangled climbers emerging in the background, against the far wall.

“Why not!” Isabel found herself to respond, to her own bafflement. Seconds later she was crossing the road walking by Tracey. A strange urgent sensation was blossoming within her and she couldn’t deny that. She did need to get closer to Tracey, even if not totally. A thought hit her all of a sudden before she could stop it. What if she was making an awful blunder? As though she wondered over and over the next few hours she didn’t get an adequate answer for that.

It just felt so right to want to question more …

* ~*~ *

Saturday came again and Liz hadn’t yet make her mind up about Paul Winslow, at the end of a dreadfully troubled week. One way or another he had kept distance from her throughout the entire week, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened between the two of them to cause her to worry about. He had been the perfect respectable boss around her, looking even distant sometimes, and that could only increase Liz’s confused state to the highest level.

The most conscientious thing would be for her to resign right away the moment she found out that Paul’s feelings towards her were far beyond a superior/employee type of relationship. But also the point was, she really needed to work at the Book & Co and continue to make her own contribution to the house expenses like everyone else. She couldn’t afford to throw to the wind such a remunerative steady job just in order to preserve her virtue from an hypothetical - for now - menace. Since she was part of the group she needed to make decisions that affected all of their lives not only according to her priorities but everyone’s too, and sure the first priority for everyone to take into consideration was the common good. That was the reason why she slowly began to convince herself that the things had to be left the way they already were. Hopefully Paul Winslow would leave her alone from now on.

Anyway she tried and pushed all this crap away, managing to focus on her topical plans for today. Sure enough, today was when Sara’s daughter, Susan , turned six, and Max and Liz were both invited to her birthday party in the afternoon.

Susan who truly adored her mother’s young couple of friends, had called either of them more or less 10 times yesterday to make sure they would be present at her party. To cut a long story short, there was no choice left of missing the party for them, which also should be quite unnecessary considering that Liz was off on Saturdays, and Max could certainly take a brief break from the Butterfly’s management.

It was shortly after 16:00 by the time Max pulled his Rav4 up before Sara’s one-floor house, situated in a pretty outlaying area. When the two of them got out of the car holding hands, with Max carrying a big red box in the crook of his arm, Liz knocked twice at the front door before Sara went and answered them.

“Hey, come on in! I’m so glad you two eventually made it here!” she squealed while ushering them through the door.

Max and Liz let their eyes wander all around the room as they walked in. It was simply furnished and very small too, with an only room used both as a cooking area and a lounge.

After stepping inside, they weren’t surprised to find almost everywhere framed pictures of Sara and Susie laughing and playing together. Even through the photos you could see how happy they were with each other, how deeply and beautifully bonded they were. Susie was one fortunate little girl to have Sara as her mother, even if there wasn’t a father taking care of both of them.

“I’m so sorry yesterday Susie bothered you guys all the day. She was so excited about the party she got out of control!” Sara apologized with a low voice.

“Don’t worry,” Max said kindly, wrapping his free arm around his wife’s waist. “She wasn’t really bothering us!”

“Yes, she was only excited like you just said,” Liz agreed and slightly leaned in to Max’s side. She was already looking for Susan all around the room. “Where is she by the way?”

Sara immediately perked up. “Entertaining her little guests in the backyard!” she motioned to the open French-doors on her right, where several gurgling giggles could be heard penetrating the room from outside.

After that, Sara came up to the cooking area and began to distribute crisps and cookies into two plastic plates; while Max was ready to follow her and give her a hand, Liz took advantage of it and slid his grip off of the red box , sneaking away from him before he could even object. So he just put on a fake frown.

In less than no time, a blissfully in-love smile exploded on Max’s features as he watched Liz hurry towards the backyard with the box in her hands. When she turned around to sweetly wink at him she was so beautiful that just staring at her right now was enough to make his heart pound wildly in his chest, his beat going crazy as his breathing quickened.
Susan was in the middle of a 6-year-old children gathering, proudly showing everybody off all the gifts she had got so far by the time Liz walked out in the backyard.

“Now then, I heard that was a party out here!”

At first Susan was a bit startled at the sound of Liz’s voice, however she swiftly spun around and dived on her, encircling her in a tight embrace. Awed stares and murmurs began to come from the children still surrounding them.

“Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzz!” she cried out with joy, her arms encircling Liz’s hips. “You’re here! Hurraaaa!!!”

Liz kneeled down to properly return her embrace, momentarily putting the box down somewhere over the ground before wrapping Susie in her arms and kissing her on the cheek. “Happy birthday, little one!” she heartedly exclaimed.

Afterwards she pulled away enough to study Susan more closely: she looked simply adorable, with her long brown tresses curled down along her neck, a few pink clips keeping her locks away from her smooth forehead. She wore a puffy pink and white checked dress while her shoes were bright yellow with a bow on top of them. She was one of the cutest thing Liz had ever seen.

“I’m not little anymore!” Susie pouted and struggled to disentangle from Liz’s hug. “I’m six!” she concluded powerfully, her green eyes fixed on Liz’s face as in to scrutinize her.

“Oh, sure thing. I can see you’re just growing into this splendid young lady here!” Liz softly brushed her hand under Susie’s chin, causing her to look up again in anticipation.

“You serious?” Susan asked in a renewed hopeful tone.

“Hey you don’t think I’m a liar, do you?” Liz arched an eyebrow playfully.

Susan shook her head resolutely “Nope.”

“See? You already knew I was serious!” Liz suddenly reached down to retrieve the box from the ground before getting up . Susie ‘s breath was catching in her throat with excitement.

“This is for you!” Liz announced as she gave the box to an eager Susie.

It took, surprisingly, just a flash for her to unwrap the box and find out what it was actually containing.

“Wow! A dolls house!” was all the little girl managed to utter in the enthusiasm of the moment. “Just what I wished to get!” That was when she started to-jump up and down the backyard like a puppy-, and Liz couldn’t help but chuckle at the jubilant reaction.

“Thank you veeeeeeeeeeeryyyyy much!”

“You’re veeeeryy welcome, sweetie!” Liz mimicked her words.

When Susie calmed down a little she removed willingly all the pieces that would be composing the dolls house from the box and dropped them down on the round table near the French-doors.

With the user manual’s in her hands Liz frowned lightly at the pieces messily scattered over the table, wondering how they should be correctly assembled together? Before she had a chance to move any inch though Max appeared next to her, his big hand curling fondly over her petite one, his hot breath skimming her temple.

“Need any help, my love?” he quietly demanded, someway amused by her present incapacity. It was such a rare thing, Liz finding it difficult to do anything!

“Mmh... maybe,” Liz admitted reluctantly, her lips twitching as Max took the user’s manual off her unsure grasp.

At the same time Susan started to tug at the hem of his navy blue shirt. “Maaaaaxxx!” she squeaked and launched into him, giving him the same welcome she had given Liz a few minutes ago; Max took her up into his arms too. Just this time it was her who retreated first to gaze at him in fascination.

“I’m six now!” she stated as soon as he lowered her back on her feet.

“Yep,” Max commented, agreeably. “I know You’ve grown up!”

“I’m even big enough to have a boyfriend!” Susie took a few steps back and made a swift twirl like she would show him how much she had grown up.

“A boyfriend?” Max was a little stunned, so he thought he had heard her wrong. But judging by Susie’s immediate nod he had actually got her right. She did mean it. “Oh, well, at least we have to ensure you choose a good one!”

“I chose you, Max!” was Susan’s unexpected reply. Then she launched once more forward before her arms flew around him, her face pressing softly against his stomach as she squeezed him for dear life.

Max blushed rosy pink, both embarrassment and amusement equally mixed inside him. “I’m sorry, sweetie,” he sighed, and felt her instantly release him. “I’m kind of old to be your boyfriend, am I not?”

Susan didn’t seem much affected. “I don’t care!” she hurriedly protested.

“Beside,” he continued when she hung once more on to him. “I’m a married man, remember?” he bent his thumb in the direction of Liz, who was standing next to him in the effort to repress a blurt of laughter.

In the meantime, the other children were all still and silent, somehow mesmerized by the odd scene happening in front of them.

“And married men are not supposed to be anyone’s boyfriends. They have their wives to be faithful to,” Max explained patiently, before realizing Susan wasn’t paying attention to him anymore.

In fact she shifted her beseeching eyes up to Liz. “Please, would you mind lending Max to me? Just every so often, when I need him to be my boyfriend for a while? Pretty please?” she whined, her palms joined in a like pleading way.

Liz and Max shared a baffled glance before she looked down at Susan. How cheeky and direct children could be, in their natural innocence?!

“Well, let me think about it,” Liz looked up and pretended to be undecided, even if she internally savoured so much how it was turning out. “Okay, since it’s only every so often .. I think I can handle it. He’s all yours!”

She didn’t even finished to speak, causing Max to stare at her dumbfounded, when Susan clutched at his forearm leaving him no option but to comply.

Liz didn’t miss the look of panic flashing into her husband’s eyes the moment Susie started to drag him all around the backyard like a war trophy, her little friends gaping at that in wonder.

“Max is mine! Max in MINE!” she shrieked over and over at the top of her childish shrill voice.

“C’mon boyfriend, there’s no need for you to be that shy!” Liz grinned at Max as she watched most of the little guest of the party join him and Susan in the hilarious procession.

Max raised his look to catch hers and glared at her teasingly. “I’ll make you pay for it!” he mouthed for only her to grasp it.

But something told her she was gonna enjoy so much the punishment he had in mind.

*~*~*

Susan didn’t let go of Max until she introduced him as her newest boyfriend to each and every single person present at the party, all the while gripping at him like she was afraid he could slip away anytime soon. Which should possibly happen otherwise.
When he saw that Susan was pretty busy playing hide-and-seek with some friends of hers, Max peered around once more and then silently tiptoed his way to Liz, who was now bending over the table, stubbornly trying to assemble together the pieces composing the dolls house on her own.

He just leaned over and whispered in her ear, "So you lent me to her, huh?" his arms trapped her body from behind as he pressed his lower half slightly against her good-looking butt. "I didn't know you were so open-minded about threesome things..." he added huskily.

There was no time for Liz to get scared by his assault as his masculine perfume slowly began to overwhelm her senses. She could just give up, as usual. "I couldn't help myself," she murmured as his lips moved over her jawline inch by inch down to her neck, his light kisses wrecking havoc on her skin. "I figured the two of you would be such a nice picture together!" she gasped at the realization this was the initial part of Max's payback.

Then he abruptly pulled away, leaving her needy and wholly unfulfilled. Under her attentive eyes he started to work on what she was previously doing and rapidly succeeded to fit every piece together. The dolls house would turn out well, after all.

Once he finished, Max turned his look up to Liz who was observing him and the fruit of his work in uncovered daze.

"Wow, really impressive!" she breathed out in a rush.

Max just smiled, that sexy content smile of his that always sent goose-pimples over her flesh. "It was just me and my hands," he lowered his forehead and rubbed it aganist hers. "No alien powers here!" he mumbled.

That was when Liz's hands took both of his in hers and brought them up to her mouth. "Mm, I do know how good you can be with your hands..." she purred before planting an open-mouthed kiss on either palm. She felt Max shiver at that.

They got lost into each other's look then, love burning and flooding beneath their skin. Their lips were magnetized towards one another aching to stick together as their gazes locked.

A moment later they were striding to a more secluded place where they could put themselves out of everyone's sight for a while when Susan turned up from out of the blue and pounced on them like a goods train.

“Why don’t you two make a baby?” she asked them two innocently.

“Why don’t we?” Max asked Liz in his turn, unprepared to answer himself. A glump formed in his throat as the words sunk in: a baby, his and Liz's baby. His greatest dream. Another thought started running through his mind though. His and Tess's son. His greatest regret. His biggest mistake. His face fell at that as he felt his heart break into a million of pieces again and again with remorse.

Although Liz was taken aback as well she strained herself to put up a brave front. “Oh… well… um..." she stammered. "Because we can’t... we can't...” She didn't find anything else to say as her mind run fast. Actually they hadn't ever gone into the subject and yet she knew how broken Max'd feel about it.

Susan took either Liz's and Max's hand and hauled them back in the centre of the backyard. “Are you serile?” she questioned with no clue, voicing the word wrong.

“What?” Max and Liz spoke in shocked concert.

Sara was just walking past them when Susan spoke like that and jumped at her daughter's nerve. “Susie! Stop this now!" she scolded with her hands on her hips. "Where did you hear that word?”

Susan looked down at her feet as she bit her own nails sheepishly. "I heard some people saying it at the "Ophra Winfrey Show" the past week, while you were washing your hair," she responded under her breath .

Sara rolled her eyes and puffed in complaint. Note to self: never again let your 6-year-old daughter watch TV alone! "It's 'sterile', anyway," she corrected the pronounce, before giving both Max and Liz an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, she usually isn't so uncouth."

Liz couldn't take her eyes off Max's hurt expression. He was surely thinking about his and Tess's son, that blameless baby he had left behind over two years ago. No matter how much time had passed since then, the memory still stung him so hard. She could sense that. It was written on his face and dug into his heart, like this perpetual wound that none in the world would ever be able to heal. Not even her. With a deep sigh, she leant in close to Max and covered his trembling hand with hers, entwining their fingers together. In reaction he gave her a little sad smile. “No, we aren't sterile," Liz finally felt strong enough to respond. "We just can't think to make a baby right now." Her voice sounded shaky as another sigh left her mouth.

Hopefully it would be enough to satisfy Susan's curiosity since she wasn't sure she could articulate just another syllable.

Barely a second later, Susan looked suddenly away and lit up at the sight of the middle-aged woman entering the back entrance. "Grandma!!!" she called and flew off to meet half-way the woman, who opened her arms to take her. Sara excused herself, then, and walked up to greet her mother, who she looked like the double in every possible way, just a lot younger than her. So Max and Liz were left alone again.

In some way, Susie's screams managed to bring Max back to the present, tearing him away from the agonizing trance he had gone into. When his head sprang up his eyes were magnetically drawn to Liz. His body drifted towards hers until they rested fully against each other.

In response, Liz put her arms around Max's neck and her nose nuzzled tenderly against his as she let his warmth seep into her like a magic fluid, easing both her sadness and his.
"I'll never leave you, Liz," Max murmured as his fingers traced gentle lines down her cheek, his mouth stroking her hair as he spoke. "You mean everything to me... just everything."

Liz just nodded and pressed a few kisses over his face, while hugging him tightly.
They remained like that for an amount of time neither of them needed to count, both of them feeling the same : she was his strength, he was hers, and that was the only thing they had to cling to. Forever and ever.

Just now it seemed all so complicated, as if this scaring ghost had just reappeared from the darkest past, ready to harass them all over again.

And it was all because of a very curious 6-year-old little girl named Susan...

TBC
WIP

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Lulù
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Southern Italy

Post by Lulù »

Hey everyone! New part is coming :D
I hope you like it :wink:

Bye, Lulu

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°


Part 17

The moment for Maria’s show to take place at the Butterfly was approaching fast so she sat on a stool in the restaurant area just near the stage, practicing her guitar. She wanted to perfect a few chords of her newest song.

She moved her head in harmony with the music as she gently rocked her guitar like her beloved baby. The large round floodlight, which would make her orange halter top gleam during the show, was now off like this enormous sleeping eye with a melancholic feel.

Michael, in his part, was bustling back and forth around the bar as he settled several goblets over the cupboard shelves behind the counter. Although he occasionally gave a glance over to Maria he didn’t really pay attention to what she was doing, not even to her performance. It looked like the same Michael as always, his body restlessly in motion, his look nearly blank as if he was swallowed in a soap bubble, so lost in his thoughts.

The volume of Maria’s voice rose to a mighty touching crescendo, challenging the dreary silence across the vacant diner, her guitar making an exquisite accompaniment. The lyrics so much in tune to her, she actually was singing her own feelings through them.

I so need to tell you
Every deepest feeling of mine
then I may destroy the fears
You’ve just built up
Oh, all around your lonely heart

Let me hold you in my embrace
Let me rest in your secret place
Once more, once more…

Sometimes you look just
so far away from me,
So far away from me
I’m sorry I didn’t learn yet
The way you’d be loved, babe


As she kept on singing she also glanced over at where Michael was busy tiding up the counter, hoping to notice any signal for his attention. Some weird grimace on his face, catching him looking at her out of the corner of his eye, his lips oddly rippling up in approval. No way. He definitely wasn’t listening to her or even if he was, he didn’t appreciate it that much. Which caused her voice to turn sadder and sadder with every second she sang, a hint of gloom fitting in with the sense of the lyrics.

Please, come here and show me
This whacked rainbow
Breaking through your tears
So I’ll still try
Oh, I’ll still try and fix this

Let me hold you in my embrace
Let me rest in your secret place
Once more, once more…

Sometimes you look just
so far away from me,
So far away from me
I’m sorry I didn’t learn yet
The way you’d be loved, babe


Maria suddenly stopped and looked through the diner once more. She couldn’t bear it any longer. Her jaw clenched frustratingly as she got up and marched to the counter, then laid her guitar on it and frowned at Michael’s enduring lack of interest. He was currently whistling a tune she instantly recognized as she glared at him. His favourite Metallica’s song.

“So, did you like that?” she asked in a quite anxious tone.

Michael just blinked when he realized her speaking by the mere movements of her lips. “What?” he hissed after quickly removing the earphones from his ears, the CD’s player smartly concealed into the front pocket of his black slacks.

He had been listening to Metallica’s CD for the entire duration of her singing, and it had somehow escaped from her notice up to now.

“My song, what else?” she replied as she felt herself get nervous. She barely could believe the nerve!

Michael scratched his chin at that. “Oh, I wasn’t really listening truth to tell,” he frankly confessed before turning his head and starting to look away.

“Well, you should have!” Maria rapidly grasped him by the arm and turned him back to her. She had an outraged look in her emerald gaze. “It was the least you could do since me and you happen to be a couple!” it spilt out of her mouth in a blast.

“Listen,” he started, then paused to breathe out slowly. “There’s no need for us to get hypocritical with each other, okay? We obviously have differing views about things, especially about music. So live and let live, that’s my answer to everything!”

Maria’s eyes narrowed with mounting temper, her face swiftly tilting to the side. “Music? Oh no my dear, we’re not discussing music. What you enjoy so much is just clattering with no sense!”

Instead, Michael’s eyes went wide with incredulity, as if he had just heard her swear like a trooper. “What the hell are you talking about?” he was staring at her, his arms crossing over his chest. “It’s Metallica, just the name is enough to remind you of a legend in the world music history!”

“Oh yes, a legend anyone could have gladly done without!” Maria caustically commented, drawing out of him a few shocked gasps as he turned vaguely pale, his mouth opening to make his point.

But she didn’t even wait for him to counter before continuing her verbal offensive, “Damn it! You didn’t get it, did you? That was my song. Mine! And you didn’t give a crap about it! I was mainly inspired by you when I wrote it. That’s one of the reasons why you should at least have bothered to listen to me!!!”

Unexpectedly Michael cautiously took a step back and held up his hand in admission of defeat, hostility leaving his body all together. In the twinkling of an eye he changed his aggressive attitude in a more comprehensive one like he was afraid it could probably be even worse if not.

“Okay, okay. Don’t make such a fuss, sweetheart!” he cajoled flirtingly as he put away the cd’s player and leaned again over the counter, beginning to wipe over the polished surface using a cloth.

Maria batted her long eyelashes at him, evidently surprised, and not in the good means. “You just called me sweetheart?” she answered kinda incredulous. When he candidly nodded, she gritted her teeth and swirled around. “I… I… I can’t even find the word for you! Argh! What a jerk!”

Then she lifted her guitar up from the counter while giving him a glacial stare, and without delay started to leave the diner, headed to the front entrance at a wild pace, with her guitar in her arms. Before she passed through the doorway she ran into Kyle coming in.

“Hey ‘Ria, what’s wrong?” Kyle asked as he saw her blowing past him, wondering what was her problem. Then he spotted Michael inside the diner, standing by the counter, and sighed in realization. “Third World War in there or something?”

“Go ask Mr. Stonewall over there!” was Maria’s only response, her index finger pointing backwards to Michael’s form. She was about to continue her way out when she decided to retrace her own steps and walked back to him. She had something else to tell him before going away. “You were way lucky to have me in a good mood today. See Spaceboy, I would have kicked your ass off to the highest skies, otherwise, and I could have made it even without a spaceship!”

With that she turned on her heels and finally stomped off, leaving both Michael and Kyle practically gawking at her.

Kyle was the first one to speak again, about 10 seconds later. “Geez, what the hell did you do to her?” he walked up to the counter and collapsed onto a stool facing his alien friend on the other side.

“Ah, forget it!” Michael gave a slight shrug as he poured Kyle’s favourite drink in a glass before handing it to him. “Women, you know. Sometimes they have this distorted sense of proportions.” He grinned and suggestively raised his eyebrow at what he was about to say. “By the way, how’s Tracey?”

Kyle swallowed down a sip of his drink as he lowered his look. “Fine, she is good. So lovely, nice, interesting…”

“But?” Michael anticipated very intuitively.

“But I’m not sure about real feelings I’m having for her.” A sudden silence stretched between the two of them for a while.

“So you didn’t kiss her yet!?” It came out more as a statement than as a question like it should have been.

“No,” Kyle stated nearly indistinctly. “I mean, I do like her. I like her a lot. Although I’d really love to kiss her something still blocked me every time I was thinking of doing it.”

“Are you totally out of your mind???” Michael blurted out after a short time of just studying him through widened eyes. Then he frowned when something occurred to him. “Unless she has bad breath. That would be just awful, man!”

“No, no. She hasn’t bad breath at all,” Kyle shook his head. Since he felt a blush inexorably suffuse over his face he took another sip of his drink in the blatant attempt to disguise his flushing aspect. “It’s something else…”

A sequence of Isabel’s images started to erupt across his mind so powerfully he was afraid they could be seen even through his forehead or written over his face. Therefore he shifted a little on his stool and looked up at his own figure reflected into the mirror wall behind the counter. He speedily took a deep sigh of relief as soon as he did that. No Isabel in sight, for now.

Michael kept on staring at Kyle as if he had grown up a second head. “I don’t see the problem here. I really don’t,” he mumbled as he saw Kyle sip the rest of his drink. “My advise is, just go for it and don’t mull over it anymore! Kiss her, then everything will be alright,” he easily concluded.

“Go for it…” Kyle repeated under his breath like he was trying to persuade himself. Which was in some measure true. Michael made it to sound all so easy, in line with his black-or-white personality!

“Yeah, just go for it, buddy!” Michael sneered and reached across the counter to mischievously pat him on his shoulder. “Before the girl change her mind and come back to her sense. It’s still a mystery to me what she ever saw in you!”

“Holy crap! How could I consider to take your advice, huh?” Kyle leapt up pretending to look offended even if he was just kidding. “I must have been so desperate!”

Then both of them loudly burst out laughing.

*~*~*

The rest of the weekend didn’t have any noteworthy event apart from the fact that Maria’s performance was such a triumph she was called for an encore on a couple of songs. Even Michael couldn’t eventually avoid to congratulate her on it, joining the unanimous applause resounding across the packed diner. She first suspected though it was only so that he would keep her sweet after they argued about music. Then again, she started to consider the idea she had a bit overreacted about that. She did know he had always been completely Matallica’s fanatic. All the more, she couldn’t blame him for it as much as she couldn’t blame him for being an alien. Perhaps she had to accept whatever staying with him could possibly imply.

When Monday came and the Butterfly was closed on its weekly closure, Michael surprised Maria by inviting her to spend all the day with him, riding his Harley up and down the coastline as far as their mood would take them. She was more than glad of it and didn’t waste time saying yes. After taking a day off, she put on a faded pair of jeans and a random comfortable tee, with her denim jacket over it, and climbed behind him on his motorcycle, looking as happy as a sandboy. Perched on the back of his bike she wrapped her arms tight around Michael’s muscled torso, then rested her head on his solid back as they raced with the wind blowing softly against their faces. They drove away with no route planned, just letting the road guide them, sunlight shining all around them coloring the landscape with many golden nuances. Both of them were aware of the wonderful time they were having together as they felt like nothing could bother them, delight running up through their veins.

That effectively ended every conflict between them.

*~*~*

Liz walked out of the Book & Co. about 7:10 pm, knowing that Max would be there waiting for her to knock off and then they would spend the remaining time together up until the morning after. She was looking forward to that, her stomach rumbling with delicious anticipation the moment she set her eyes on him.

Max was standing next to his Rav4 parked by the edge of the sidewalk; his trademark charming smile instantly dazzled her and she felt herself be inexorably drawn to him, like he was a magnet and she was wholly made of iron. An irresistibly chemical reaction neither of them could ever fight.

The effects of Max’s smile on her were simply overwhelming. The rich peppermint aroma arising from his mouth, his perfect overbite with that snow-white enamel sending out crystalline glimmers. And then there were his eyes… Incredibly soulful amber eyes turning into two of the brightest stars whenever he smiled like that. Which definitely didn’t happen very often, and she was perfectly aware that most of his smiles were destined to her. Just the thought of it was enough to make Liz’s heart swell up with love and devotion.

As she nimbly made her way over to him her face gradually took on a puzzled expression. Because of what happened during Susan’s party she had perceived deep inside herself Max’s pensiveness and affliction every time they came close to each other, the past two days, like this huge burden he was weighed down by, and so she was consequentially. Instead, it seemed like right now he had a lot of reasons to be happy and flirtatious. Just she wondered what could have caused such a change in him?

As soon as she had him within her reach Liz flung her arms around his shoulders and drew his body close to hers, her fingers threading through the dark mane at the nape of his neck as she breathed adoringly, “Hey,” against his kissable lips.

But even now Max’s only response was to start chuckling at her before sealing his lips to hers in a quick delicate kiss.

Liz couldn’t help but frown as she watched him walk around the car to gallantly open her door and wait for her to hop in. Just then he walked back to the driver side and got into the SUV without a sound. When he fastened his seat belt she saw him giving her a final enigmatic chuckle before looking away.

It was too much. After Liz fastened her seat belt as well she couldn’t stop the words ascending from her mouth, “I don’t really see what you would find so funny right now!”

“Just you, my love!” Max replied as he reached out to gently brush his palm over her cheek up to her ear where he tucked back a few locks of her silky hair.

“Me?” Liz was questioningly staring into his eyes as if she wanted to worm something out of them. Too bad, he looked as inscrutable as a mummy at present. “Do you think I am funny?”

“Mmmh,” Max nodded his head, and in a flash he was fishing out of his pocket something she barely had time to identify as a blindfold before her vision went dark. It happened all too soon. After putting the black material over her eyes, he carefully tied it up around her skull and then retreated, finally starting the engine. “You’re very, very funny.”

“What are you doing?” Liz questioned, her hand gripping at his arm as the car started zigzagging along the hectic avenue.

“Kidnapping you, of course!” Max gave out a soft laugh while expertly maneuvering his Rav4 into the chaotic traffic. “Isn’t that quite obvious?”

Liz was stunned almost beyond words as she fell back into her seat, her hands dropping to lay together on her lap.

“And no peeking!” Max instructed his voice sounding far from despotic. On the contrary, it had a seductive hint that could only expand Liz’s expectations.

“’Kay,” she sighed all of a sudden compliantly. Even though, she was literally dying to find out what he had in that brilliant mind of his.

A moment later Max’s hand moved sensually to Liz’s legs, beginning to trace small circles up to the inside of her thighs, his skillful fingers causing her to suck in a deep intake of air with every inch he skimmed over even through the thick fabric of her jeans.
Any rational thought departed from her brain when his hand lingered on the burning spot between her legs, stroking briefly her sensitive mound before continuing traveling up her sinuous hips.

“Max… hmm… you’re killing me ,” Liz moaned as she threw her head back against the headrest her hand blindly sliding towards Max’s thigh until she got to touch it.

“I don’t think so, Liz,” Max sexily moaned back. He was striving hard to keep the car under control as she started caressing him herself. “You feel all alive to me…” Saying that he began running his hand over her upper body arching to him, fingering her peaked nipples through her blouse. “Besides, we are almost there,” he concluded and brusquely pulled away.

Liz whined in complaint and turned her blindfolded eyes to him, waiting for him to give explanation for interrupting like that. But all she got from him was a few dreamy sighs.

*~*~*

Throughout the 15 minute trip to wherever they were heading Liz didn’t stop asking herself where he was driving her? Which road they were traveling along? Were they still on USA soil? And to begin with, were they still on Earth or flying through outer space?
But all things considered, she decided, who cared? She loved an alien king, her wedded husband, who would return her love till the end of time and ages. She had just nothing to be alarmed about.

By the time she felt the car come to a halt, a screeching-brakes sound perching her ears, she realized they had finally reached their mysterious destination.

Max got first out of the car and immediately rushed to Liz’s side to open her door, taking her hand in his and helping her out. He held her tight in his grip, guiding her pace while she groped her way to wherever he intended to lead her. Liz could tell by the quietness enfolding her that nobody else was anywhere near them, and she was right. The vast parking lot was completely empty, except for Max’s Rav4.

Before long they were crossing the threshold with joined hands and once Max took a step to the left a swift click was heard, announcing he had just switched the light on.

Being blindfolded, Liz wasn’t yet able to catch the romantic scenery appearing right before her eyes: a small round table was all set for two in the middle of the diner with covered dishes while the rest of the boots had been collected in the corners of the room. Hundreds of rose petals were strewn all over the floor ahead of them, such a graceful perfumed carpet for their feet to trample over.

As a captivating melody started to play from the nearby stereo sound system Max escorted her to the table and had her standing in front of him before reaching around to untie the knot on her head letting the blindfold loosen around her face so that she could take possession again of her eyesight.

Liz’s eyes slowly fluttered open as she tried to get used again to the light. Her vision was still a little blurred. She let them wander around the room for a split second although she instantly registered its familiarity. It was a place where she and everyone else in the group felt like their second home. The Butterfly.

“Why did you take me here?” Liz enquired while staring at him. That was when she saw him look past her and focus on something behind her back. So she rapidly swung around.

“Because tonight we’re gonna start right here our dream world,” Max whispered in a loving voice. With a snap of his fingers he started his magic, turning the light off once more. Obscurity descended straight away upon the room.

Anyhow it was just a fleeting interlude before a softer luminosity lit the diner up, giving everything marvelous gleaming contours. Countless tiny flames came out of nowhere creating a luminescent loop around both of them. It was something breathtakingly amazing.

“Ohhhh!” Liz exclaimed in amazement, her hand moving up to muffle her gasps. “How many are they? It looks like they might be, like, one hund…“ She was thinking of the number 100 as in being symbolic of profusion. But actually there were even more than 100 candles.

“One hundred and sixty nine, “ Max said stopping the flow of her amazed words. He walked closer to her, his arms encircling her motionless body. “That’s all I was able to find in the drugstores around the district. Apparently candles are being sold like hot cakes lately!” he chuckled teasingly as his eyes ardently darted into hers and locked their gazes.

At that point Liz began feeling light-headed; her knees got weak causing her to be afraid she could liquefy just there in Max’s brawny arms, among those 169 flaming candles!

“Wow!” she managed though to have another nippy glance around as he kept on hugging her. Her heartbeat was so wild and fast she could hear it ripping at her chest. “What does this mean? I mean, it’s truly wonderful but…” She was urged to interrupt when she felt his lips start showering with kisses every single inch in her face. Her brow. Her temples. Her nose. Her cheeks. Her chin. Her lips. His tongue surged into her mouth to hastily meet hers before he trailed his kissing path back along her jaws down to her velvety neck. That was just driving her crazy, and yet she forced herself to get a stronger grip on her self-control. “Please, tell me I didn’t forget one of ours anniversaries or something like that. It would be so mortifying!” she let out in-between his luscious kisses.

Max broke his lips from her skin just to look into her worried eyes. “Don’t worry, you didn’t forget anything,” he gave a tender smile that made her heart to chant with joy. After that he took a step back and released her, helping her to her chair at the table. “Sit down, milady!”

Liz did what she had been told. However she wasn’t content with his reply. “I still don’t understand. There must be a reason for this! “ she commented with a pensive tone.

Max meaningfully rolled his eyes at that. Granted, her scientific mind had always to look for the reason at the roof of things.

“Actually there is but you’ll get to know later,” he sighed as he sat down across from her. “Just be patient for now and when the time comes I’ll tell you everything.”

When he stretched across the table and uncovered the dishes, appetizing aromatic steams immediately leaking out of them and saturating the air Liz found herself speechless all over again.

*~*~*

The waning moon sent silver shadows all over the immense garden in the backside of the mansion where a little private cemetery was arranged and a pair of severe marble graves were delimited by cypresses tidily lined up. Only a pretty short hedge separated it from the pool area that had several lounge chairs and tables scattered around.

In the gravestones the names Arthur Winslow and Margaret Scott-Winslow were sculpted in gold letters with two different dates of birth but, tragically, the same date of death: 2/7/1996. Framed pictures come out of the dark grey granite like coloured blotches.

Annie Winslow was standing between the two tombs for over half-an-hour when a biting gust started disheveling her flawless hairdo which consisted in wearing her hair in an aristocratic bun at the nape of her neck. Her sorrowful look edgily passed from her mother’s gravestone to her father’s, tears equally shed on either of them as she sporadically sniffed plagued by her solitary angst.

The instant she felt her feet grow numb because of her staying still too long she became conscious she needed to get moving. And that was exactly what she did.
After taking barely any step forward she bent alternatively over each tomb and respectfully placed down a few red tulips – her mother’s favorite flowers - at the base of the gravestone.

Then she got up and stirred her quavering body before hesitantly limping her way to another grave positioned not too far from her parents’ ones. This one didn’t have any identifying name sculpted in the marble but just a framed picture of a handsome young woman, with long curled hair embellishing her features and a couple of very piercing blue eyes. The date of her death was 5/2/2002.

“I wish you were here …” Annie finally croaked, her eyes now swimming with tears glued to the picture. “Tess… Ava…”

When she looked up a few minutes later she had a ghastly look evidencing over her pale face. She was blatantly thirsting for revenge.

TBC

AN: the lyrics of Maria's song are just fruits of my imagination :roll:
Last edited by Lulù on Sat Jul 07, 2007 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lulù
Enthusiastic Roswellian
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Post by Lulù »

hey, part 18 is ready for you all! :D

i want to thank once more my wonderful beta Amy (Skittles1983) for betaing this story for me so beatifully and rapidly :wink:

thank you to my fantastic readers too :)

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°


Part 18

Max and Liz had a succulent dinner, eating all of the courses he had produced for them. The menu he had arranged was: Mexican vegetables appetizer, veal steak all speckled with red pepperoni and Tabasco sauce, cheese and carrot soufflé, and in conclusion a home-made by Max chocolate cake for dessert, to both Liz’s gladness and wonder! She knew for a fact that he had never been into cooking.

Soon after dinner, Liz started pointedly to gaze at Max who was seated across from her, his awe-inspiring stare holding hers. She could nearly count each and every flickering candle-lights mirroring in his amber depths. It seemed like a myriad of shooting stars were altogether floating inside his irises interspersing with their natural honey-colored core. As to Liz, it was pretty impossible not to be fascinated by eyes such as his. She sighed impatiently and extended her hand across the table taking his into hers. The pads of her fingertips began sliding over his knuckles and went down, brushing against each tight valley dividing one of his fingers from another.

“So?” Liz said and craned her neck a little, her copious hair plummeting in silken waves over her back.

“So?” Max parroted pretending he wasn’t following.

“So out with it and stop torturing me!” Liz exclaimed fiercely.

“Does it feel like I’m torturing you right now?” he muttered when he slowly brought her hand up to his mouth and started to press featherlike kisses against her soft palm.

Even though shivers began traveling down Liz’s spine, she straightened up against the back of her chair and narrowed her reproaching eyes at him, their hands still connected.

“This is not fair, you know, trying to distract me this way,” she objected just to have him snickering at her. “Not the least bit!”

Max gave her hand a slight amorous squeeze before letting it go. “Okay. You’ve been pretty good thus for, I’m giving you a reward for that,” he leapt up and moved lithely to her chair so that his hands started caressing down her outer arms from behind, sending a rough surge of desire through her body.

After letting out a frustrated sigh Liz got up as well and faced him, her straight look boring into his. “Maaaaax!!!” she roared, her arms threateningly folded over her feminine chest. “ Enough is enough! I want to know what you’re up to, and I want it NOW!” she commanded in a fiery tone that left him no option.

That’s my Liz, he thought to himself as she daringly kept on eyeing him. Meek and mild like a kitten and yet ready to show her lethal claws if need be. That made his lips part in a half contented grin.

“Come here,” Max told gently, his voice as low and peaceful as a summer zephyr. At the same time he held out his hand to her. Liz reached out and rested her palm over his, tentatively, accepting his appealing invitation. But once he had her back in his arms he added unexpectedly, “Just close your beautiful eyes.”

“Why?” she asked on the spot and blinked pretty bewildered.

“Please, trust me,” he pleaded framing her face with his hands as his mouth went down to cover hers. Their tongues stuck in a heated duel. “I’m not disappointing you ,” he promised breathlessly at the end of it, his bottom lip tantalizingly brushing against hers as he spoke.

Liz took a deep breath and fluttered her eyes closed at which Max grinned his consent.

Even if the air around them was filled with rich rose fragrance rising from the floor all that she was able to sense was Max’s white musk cologne on his masculine neck and the chocolate flavor she had just tasted in his mouth. Max felt so utterly good that she couldn’t prevent the lascivious thoughts flowering through her mind at once. She was especially fantasizing of her skillful tongue flickering over the most sensitive spots in his sculpted body, causing him to go swaying over the verge of pleasure again and again before he finally lost his notorious control and gave both of them what they wanted so much.

The moment she felt him let her go and a few speedy steps were heard across the dinner, Liz sighed at the abrupt lack of his presence. Although she was as impatient as hell she wouldn’t surrender and open her eyes at that point, she decided. She didn’t intend to ruin the special treat he was going to give her. Just a handful of moments later he was making his way back to her, her heart throbbing with childlike eagerness.

“Open your eyes babe,” Max eventually coached. He was standing just next to her, his erratic breath wavering down to her face.

After Liz’s lids slowly opened Max appeared in front of her wearing the same smile as a couple hours ago, when he had picked her up at the Book & Co, with the difference that now he couldn’t secrete anymore the anxiety dancing frantically over his expression.

A soon as she looked down from his adored face she caught sight of him holding a little terracotta vase filled almost to the border with dark brown earth.

“What is this?” Liz arched her eyebrows in utter puzzlement.

Max began to pace around the table they had just had their dinner on. “My guess? It may be a vase,” he replied ironically his eyes sliding down to the object he was holding in his big hands and then back up to her face.

Liz’s eyes pursued the trail of his and her forehead furrowed. She felt like it was some weird joke she couldn’t see the point of. “I can see that ,” she hesitated over the successive words, “I mean, what are you gonna do with it?”

At that, Max surprisingly stopped his pacing and put the vase down atop of the table. “What do you think I’m gonna do ?”

“I have no idea,” Liz shrugged . Now it felt more like an unsolvable brainteaser.

Max let out a husky laugh, his shoulders slightly wriggling with it. “In here,” he uttered, his index finger pointing to the vase on the table, “people usually sow seeds, right?” He paused to cast a mesmeric glance at her, then continued, “And you know, seeds need plenty of warmth to feed on and sprout when time comes.”

The more Liz was listening to him the more her confusion levitated to a higher level. How could this sort of rudimentary botanic lesson have anything to do with his treat? She was all at sea about that!

Like out of the blue Max lifted his outstretched hands over the vase generating from his powerful palms a sparkling wreath of golden rays - somehow comparable to the daylight brightness - which rained down all over the vase, until several newborn leaves were sprouting up. The green nuance of the leaves grew deeper with every second he kept on radiating them with his energy.

After he pulled away walking up to where his dumbfounded wife was still frozen a lush little plant was revealed in all its 7/8 inches of beauty.

Liz did her best to try and rationalize what was happening although she was in an emotional daze. Her eyes went wide as she started to scrutinize the young plant, recognition quickly permeating her brain: jagged vaguely heart-shaped leaves with burgundy edges, some brown thorns sticking out from a short stem, a superbly regal overview. In the light of this her ultimate response came fast and irrevocable.

“It is a rose, a white rose… isn’t it?” she asked in a cracked voice as the fog in her mind gradually began to clear. What he was driving at had to be significant for both of them.

Max’s countenance turned brighter, his eyes smouldering with raging emotion . “Well, not yet but it’ll be shortly,” he rasped suddenly finding it very hard to remember the innate procedure of exhaling and inhaling. “I could have bought you the biggest white rose bouquet ever and yet it would have withered, sooner or later. But this one… this is forever yours. It’s gonna last for a long time with you taking good care of it, watering it everyday, loving it. And when the first rosebud is coming out, you’ll experience the same things as I do every time I’m with you. Pure heaven.”

His tone softened to match the tenor of his words causing tingling vibrations to creep through her bones, like she had a fever. And where she wasn’t made of bones was just her skin to vibrate in cadence with her tendons. “You are the most beautiful white rose to me, and you’re mine!” While pronouncing ‘mine’ he leant down and possessively traced the outlines of her lips with his thumb making them to shine with an ethereal gleam that promptly faded into nothing. “Just knowing that is enough to have my heart screaming in gratitude towards whoever sent me down here, back then in 1947,” there was a brief gap in his talk that left her wondering if he had any regret about his troubled half-human fate. She didn’t have to wait long for the answer. It followed almost immediately. “Evidently it was all meant to be this way, me having to travel through space and then spend over 40 years sheltered in my jelly pod before finally gaining your love. Life would mean nothing to me if I hadn’t got the chance to meet you in Roswell, heal that hole in your stomach and cherish you with every cell in my body.”

Liz staggered at the way his eyes were transfixing hers. She was in need for air since her lugs were flaming. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, her love for him towering over anything else. She didn’t think she could survive the moment. “Oh Max… I … I’m speechle-”

”Don’t,” he silenced her with a feather-soft touch of his finger against her lips. His hand caressingly found its way down to her shoulder where he fondled her for a moment. Then he was speaking again. “There’ s one more thing to be told so please let me finish this,” he entreated quietly. At this instant she couldn’t deny him anything her willpower vanishing kind of unavoidably. She nodded. “I’d love it if this one wouldn’t be the only flower to blossom before long,” he motioned towards the next-to-be white rose before his other hand drifted to rest against her flat abdomen.

Her insides were muddling as she perceived a flood of immeasurable love deriving from his palm and gently leaking into her abdomen infusing her tissues without harming any of them. “How about me and you sowing our seed in … um… inside you?” he was nearly babbling by the time the last word gurgled out of his mouth.

“Inside…?” Liz panted as she felt his emotion diffusing in her very soul as if it were totally hers. The intensity of it was nearly unbearable. “Oh God!” A lump formed in her hoarse dry throat.

Max swallowed as he pulled her into his arms needing her closer. His hands dragged around her waist, fingers spread. “I wish you were the mother of my son … the son I had to… leave behind. Do you know that?” he murmured in such a grief-stricken tone she felt a sharp sting in her heart. Then she found herself to unconsciously nod at him brushing the crook of his neck with the tip of her nose. “But I know I can’t just go back to yesterday and change as much as I like of it, fixing all of my mistakes with the benefit of hindsight. Too bad things don’t work this way,” he shakily said searching her face for encouragement. “Present is all we’ve got and I hope we can live it to the fullest from now on.”

Max drew a deep breath and Liz cuddled up in his embrace waiting for what was coming next.

“Let’s make a baby together Liz, our baby. It’d be so totally like a dream coming true …” his voice was almost a faint whisper undulating to her ear.

Liz shuddered awkwardly against him both marveled and wretched even though she had expected that by the forecasting press of his hand on her belly. She hated what she was about to say even if she had no choice. “I wish we could, Max, you know. But… we can’t,” she spluttered and watched as his jaws clenched.

That was the only movement Max made for a few minutes. Then his whole body tensed and he pulled away from her his chest rising and falling rapidly.

It had just struck him what her point was. “We’ve been gone for two years. Two fucking-long-years!” he snapped the gorgeous lines of his frame broken by several shadows in the room’s dimmed light. “And none came for us until now. What if they eventually threw in the sponge, Liz? What if the FBI isn’t chasing us anymore?” he hissed as he looked at her with troubled eyes his voice shaky. “It’s possibly over, we are possibly safe!”

Liz’s hand reached out and cupped his definite cheek. His statement surprised her with its unthinkable ingenuity. Max was way too smart to really delude himself that everything was over and they were all six safe and sound in San Francisco. The only explanation she found for this was, his deepest strongest desire to make a baby with her had had the better of his usual good sense. “I’m afraid we’ll never be safe again Max. It’s an endless battle,” she stated dejectedly. When she felt him stiffen beneath her touch, evidence of his frustration, she retreated and turned around to look away for a split second. “For heaven’s sake, don’t make me tell you something you already know!” Now she was facing him again her eyes telling him that she was as thwarted as him. “You’ve been dealing with this a lot longer than I have. Your entire existence no less.”

She shut her eyes a moment, her breathing quickening as she grabbed hold of both his arms to pull him back to her. “I don’t want to sound like I’m casting anything up at you here. Leaving Roswell was my decision as much as it was yours and I’ve no regret about it,” Liz asserted. That reminded her immediately of the devoted words she had said on her balcony just before Max’s proposal when they were about to graduate in 2002. ‘I would do anything if it means being with you’, that was exactly what she had told him. She just hoped it was still etched in his memory as it was in hers. She didn’t think though either of them could ever forget any thing of that memorable, wonderful night. “But it goes all differently as to a baby. We can’t condemn our unborn children to such a crazy fate. We wouldn’t even ensure their safety, we wouldn’t ensure ours in the first place! We just don’t have the right to decide for them too.”

Max’s head was spinning wildly, his sanity hanging by a mere thread somewhere in the back of his mind. Truth was, she was so damn right and he was just a selfish asshole. “I’m sorry … I don’t know what I was thinking of … I’m so sorry…” he managed to voice only incoherent words. “It was such a stupid idea to take you here tonight …” he murmured with a disconsolate shrug his eyes hopelessly wandering around the room.

Liz felt like the land was about to fall from under her feet, a river of rough emotions shattering her chest in hurting pieces. “It’s not true!” she shouted wrapping her arms around his toned body. “What you did for me tonight was by far the most romantic thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” she swore wholeheartedly.

“I’m sorry I’m denying you the possibility to become a mother,” Max apologized. The moment he lifted his sorrowful look to meet hers she knew his heart was broken, and she was the one who had, unwillingly, caused that. “It’s my fault if you aren’t having the chance to get a normal life.”

“I’m not after a normal life, Max,” Liz replied watching him fidgeting with his hands nervously. “I’m after a life where you are with me. Like this one we are living together. No matter what.”

His look held hers. “You’d deserve a lot more than that Liz. You’d deserve a family. As you just said we couldn’t even ensure our unborn children’s safety. Love wouldn’t be enough to keep them safe. No wonder I was already proved to be the worst father. Otherwise I’d never give up my son …” Max faltered as his eyes shadowed.

Liz tried to keep it together and sighed, “It was for his good Max. You had no option but give him up at that very moment. Please stop blaming yourself this way.”

She planted a languid kiss against his temple just next to his right eye. After a moment she moved down to kiss a soothing trail across his cheek before stopping at his mouth, her lips mere inches from his while she whispered, “Listen, we are still so young and have plenty of time ahead of us. I’m pretty sure someday we’ll find a way out of this crap so we can freely live the life we want, the way we want it. I bet I’ll turn out just like that!” she pushed herself into a little smile that Max wasn’t able to emulate. Too much was tormenting him, bordering on his angst-ridden soul.

“Do you really believe that?” A cluster of tears he had been inhibiting for too long now were twinkling in his ambrosia eyes like minute diamonds before they slowly began streaming against his clean-shaved skin.

“Yes, I need to,” Liz nodded as she tenderly wiped the tears away from his face with the pads of her thumbs. “And so do you, honey,” she added caressing his skin where tears had just passed by before cradling his face passionately. “Oh Max, do you feel how much I love you? Can you feel it?”

Max looked her straight in the eye his ravenous stare inflaming her whole being. “Please make me feel it once more,” he prayed as his tears decreased to cease totally when Liz ripped herself away from him.

A maddening craving was running up through her veins. And then it was there, she could feel it coming in the air. They needed to become one more than anything else in the world right now. Something demanding was urging both of them to fuse together in the most intimate completed way. Loving each other as if it was all they could latch on to stay alive, healing their respective inveterate wounds.

First she made a short work of taking her blouse off her head, then easily unzipped her jeans guiding them down along her well-shaped hips, past her thighs and knees to her graceful calves till they finally pooled around her small feet, Max’s eyes never leaving her deliberate movements. By the time she was standing in front of him in just her sheer white underwear she was desperate for him and he was for her.

Her hands were trembling as she reached up and started undressing him unbuttoning his red cotton shirt. Max writhed and groaned in pleasure when she reached down to briefly stroke him through his denims. He was amazingly aroused, his member felt so thick and ready throbbing beneath her palm.

Max moaned hoarsely as his clothes began to twirl around the room before landing on the floor beside Liz’s, laying there dispersed like a bunch of defeated enemies. Soon they were tangled in an erotic embrace nothing else between them aside their bare pulsating skin, the glass front-door quickly fogging up with their serrated breaths. Air grew into immaterial fire as he entered her and they cried out in synch. It didn’t matter to them anymore what would happen tomorrow or how many crises they would go through. All they cared about was that perfect moment they were sharing tonight. Their hunger for one another was dominant enough to override everything else.

It seemed like the next-to-be white rose was shielding their lovemaking, discreetly observing them as if signifying the lasting hope of a rosy future.

*~*~*

Four days later

Small whimpering noises coming from the lounge were the only sounds in the apartment whilst the rest of it sounded as quiet as an ancient mausoleum.

It was Friday afternoon and Kyle had finally managed to invite Tracey home, pretty confident that none else would be around there. He had planned to bring their relationship to a superior stage of physical intimacy, willing to take Michael’s advice and let himself go a little. That was what he did.

As the both of them found themselves wrapped up with each other on the couch, busy in an impassioned make out session he realized much to his wonder that the go-for-it-thing wasn’t that bad and could even have enjoyable implications. Very enjoyable ones, actually.

Instead, what had nothing enjoyable at all was the scandalized female voice shrieking from someplace behind the couch: “Kyyyleee!!!!!!!”

Standing sort of petrified in the doorway, Isabel was the picture of astonishment as she stared open-mouthed at the couple lying entwined on the couch. Her eyes were wide open, her arms loosely dangling by her side. “Oh… my… God…” she stammered. After returning from the supermarket all loaded with plastic bags nothing was further from her mind than the scene happening right in front of her, Kyle involved in a methodical perusal of some girl’s mouth with his!

“Izzy!?” Kyle was startled and sat up with a jerk trying to extricate from Tracey’s grasp while gauchely composing himself. He could not believe his eyes and ears. Why her of all the people? He felt like someone who had just been caught red-handed.

“Isabel?” Tracey looked up over Kyle’s shoulder and gasped in surprise. Then she leapt to her feet, her stiletto heel shoes making to creak the floor with their slamming into it.

Isabel narrowed her confused eyes to focus on the girl suddenly emerging from the back of the couch. “Tracey?!” she blinked and gave Kyle an astonished look when the girl was entirely exposed to her prompt examination. It was her, isn’t it?

“Do you know her?” Kyle asked as his cheeks turned red under Isabel’s enquiring gaze.

Isabel didn’t respond. Her reaction was quite self-explanatory. “So do you, I guess!” she sardonically rolled her eyes somehow disturbed. What she could possibly be disturbed by was still unknown to her. Even if…

Kyle took a reluctant step back and walked around the couch heading for the doorway where Isabel was still immobilized. He cleared his throat addressing her, his face flaming with embarrassment.

“What are you doing here? I mean… here…?” was the only awkward way he came up to reply. Then he paused and looked down. “Heck, this is turning awful!” he added under his breath as if having a talk to himself.

“I live here,” Isabel said, unenthusiastically dropping the spoils of her shopping adventure onto the nearby armchair. “Remember?”

Tracey straightened up and started to smooth away the creases in her red midriff bearing top, the hem of her black lace bra sticking out of it as consequence of her and Kyle’s earlier frenzied activities. “So… um… it’s you that Isabel chick he keeps on talking about like, all the time!” she asserted then, running both her hands through her short hair to hastily adjust them.

Once she heard that, Isabel looked askance at Kyle through hesitant eyes. He was now erratically walking up to the kitchen. where he opened the fridge door and picked some soda up. Then he just poured it into a glass. “Do you two want any of it?” he offered the girls as he walked out the kitchen nodding down at the glass in his hands. Neither of them seemed interested in it though.

“Do you really keep on talking about me all the time?” Isabel repeated Tracey’s exact words curiously gazing at him.

“Well … it’s not ‘all the time’ as in really ‘all the time’. Maybe every so often…” Kyle fibbed as he walked back into the drawing room his eyes low and guilty betraying his lie. Actually, all the time was something very close to reality as much as Isabel was one of his favorite words to be pronounced.

Tracey rushed to Isabel and leaned in grinning at her meaningfully. “I’m glad it happens to be you that Isabel,” she mumbled to her ear excluding Kyle from their conversation. “See I was starting to worry that he may have a thing on that other girl… but now I’m truly relieved!”

Izzy frowned as she uneasily ran her hand through her soft brown hair. “Relieved … why?” What if Tracey didn’t think she was attractive enough to make her worried? This was indeed upsetting. And slightly insulting as well. Which was why she felt a little sick... Or not?

“Because I do know there’s no freaking way you two are bonded in that certain way!” Tracey chuckled with a wink.

“Of course,” Isabel agreed pretending she was okay with that. Yeah, no freaking way. All right. She had no objection to make. Now, why did she feel like something was lying on her stomach?

Seated alone at the corner of the couch Kyle was silently keeping in check the girls interaction while sipping his soda.

Tracey turned back and tossed a glance at him, rapidly moving to stand before the couch. “Can I have a taste?” she questioned pointing at the now half-emptied glass in his hands.

“Sure,” Kyle unflappably shrugged before handing her the glass. “Help yourself.”

“Mmh, good” Tracey hummed as she gulped the first fresh sip of the soda. “Me and Isabel,” she began elucidating when she handed back the glass to Kyle. “We met the first time at one of the ‘Step By Step’ meetings. And you know, we felt this immediate bond, like we were someway drawn to each other,” her eyes snapped back to Isabel’s for approval.

Isabel just nodded.

“Interesting,” Kyle conversed even though his interest was heading totally elsewhere. For instance, to why Isabel had kept him in the dark about the news. As far as he knew her it wasn’t like her. Besides how would she take this situation between him and Tracey? Was she going to approve it or not? Now then, why she wouldn’t?

“I’d have told you, if recently you weren’t always too occupied to even listen to me,” Isabel interjected finally. “Not that it’s not self-evident that you had more important concerns…” she gave a scornful glance at Kyle, making him to feel uncomfortable.

Sure enough he turned scarlet at her banter and tensely got up, wanting to fight back. But actually he couldn’t. He didn’t feel like rejoining. Isabel always had this power to have him defenseless with just one spellbinding look of hers and her cutting irony.

Tracey, apparently clueless, lunged on him and gripped closely at his arm. “So, I kinda need to splash my face. Can you show me where the bathroom is in here?” she seductively tweeted against his face.

“All the way along the hallway, last door on the right,” Isabel explained for him.

“Thank you,” Tracey giggled unthinkingly and walked away, wiggling her sexy hips in her tight miniskirt.

As soon as Tracey disappeared from sight Kyle hurtled to Isabel, worry written over his flushed face. “Iz, it’s not like what you might think! I mean, between me and Tracey, it’s just…” he blurted out. That was when he snappishly stopped, words faltering in his gorge. What the hell was he doing? He had nothing to excuse himself for. He wasn’t cheating on Isabel. She wasn’t his girlfriend. They weren’t together.

The two of them were just dear friends sharing unutterable secrets and lots of everyday memories.

Isabel forced herself to look away and let out a compliant sigh as her eyes dyed with bittersweet nuances. “Tracey is this special sensitive person. You better treat her well, she’s the best you would ever dream about, okay?”

You’ re the best I would ever dream about!’ the thought just bounced in his mind without warning. He couldn’t help himself. Less than a split second later a loud explosion was heard across the room.

Hundreds of tiny pieces of glass, iron and wood were blowing together up to the ceiling above their heads just before falling back, randomly dispersing all over the floor. That was the residue of the elegant standard lamp which had been lighting up the adjacent area until now. Even its iron skeleton was deformed with the violent blast, taking an unnatural bowed shape.

Isabel jumped backwards with a reflex as she stared dazed at the numberless fragments the entire room was showered with. “I didn’t do that!” she uttered in a feeble tremulous voice.

“I did,” Kyle uttered back terrified. His alien metamorphosis had eventually begun and who knew where it was going to get him!

At that Isabel’s eyes popped out of her head. “You?” she rasped feeling that her world was collapsing around her. “YOU?”

Kyle nodded his noiseless yes. “I knew one day I would end up like that,” he breathed hard to let his heart slow down its crazy pulse a little, “I’m becoming one of us…”

“Damn it!” Isabel freaked out her hands curling in fists. “That’s all we need!”

Just then Tracey reappeared near them, lead back to the lounge by the startling boom. “Oh Jesus! What happened?” she gasped her eyes incredulously surveying the mess in the room until she spotted the cracked lamp.

“Nothing!” Kyle speedily answered and started to drag her away before she noticed too much of it. The less she was going to get, the better. He had to be very cautious. “I just stumbled over that lamp and it broke” he tried to shrugged it off. “So clumsy, uh?”

“Does she need any help?” Tracey asked watching Isabel as she bustled about tidying up the lounge out of the corner of her eye.

“Nope,” Kyle shook his head vehemently. “She can handle it.”

“Are you sure?” Tracey insisted.

“Positive,” he gave her his largest smile. How had he turned into such a good liar? He just hoped he could steel himself.

Tracey smiled back, seemingly persuaded. “Oh, I gotta go!” she exclaimed after checking her watch. It was time for her to go back to work. “My aerobics class is starting in forty minutes.”

“Okay,” Kyle quietly exhaled in relief. “Let me see you out,” he quickly walked her to the door.

“Bye Isabel, see you tomorrow!” Tracey called out, looking back in order to wave to Isabel.

“Bye,” Isabel waved back as she stuck her head through the lounge door. “Tomorrow?” she wondered to herself. Since she was still caught up in the shock it took her a while to recall that they would meet tomorrow at the ‘Step By Step’ agreed meeting.

Then she had to fight the urge to cringe when her eyes registered the scene taking place at the end of the hallway. Tracey had her arms around Kyle’s shoulders, sliding her body closer to his. They were locked into each other arms as they started to kiss like starving people her hands roaming down his back as he kept her pinned against the wall.

Isabel shut her eyes feeling sick once more. What bothered her the most was the fact that they were being so public in their affections, as though they were even oblivious of her being there. Nevertheless, it was just a matter of time. Soon she would get used to their face-sucking and having to share Kyle with his beautiful girlfriend too.

Definitely. Beyond doubt. Unquestionably.

Ok. So what?

Who the hell was she trying to trick?

She was frigging jealous. Which meant she was screwed.

TBC
WIP

Second Life


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