The Way Love Goes (AA ML, L/OC Adult) (Complete)

[Deejonaise]

Chapter 20

Waking up beside Liz is a bit awkward. It’s been eight years since I slept alongside this woman and while it’s familiar it’s strange, too. Despite all our years together this feels new to me. Perhaps that’s appropriate, too, because we’re starting over.

Presently, I can’t help but blush a little when I think of the things we did to each other last night. It has never been like that between us, so hot and abandoned…very erotic. Though we didn’t make love last night, at least not in the conventional way, my body feels achy and sore like we did. God knows we did everything else. The places I touched, tasted and…God, the places she touched, her tongue… I’m as aroused by the memory as I am chagrined, but as I shift over onto my side to find her smiling at me I forget my embarrassment entirely.

“Good morning,” she whispers softly.

“Good morning.”

“Are you hungry?” she asks, her cheeks staining with a shy blush, “I can make you some breakfast.”

I have to think on this a moment because I am, indeed, hungry though not for food. Finally I answer in a husky murmur, “I actually have something else in mind.” I reach underneath the sheets to cup her wet center, my implication clear when I slide a lone finger inside her silken warmth. She moans my name. Damn…how I’ve missed that.

Seeking out her lips for a kiss, I simultaneously work my finger in and out of her in long, slow strokes. Her fingers bite into my forearm, urging me closer. But as I start to roll on top of her, condoms be damned, her telephone rings to life.

“Someone up there hates me,” I mutter against her cheek, “Please don’t answer it.” I kiss a trail down her body to flick her nipple with my tongue while pushing my fingers higher within her aching wetness and mimicking the caress with my hips. She emits a serrated groan of pleasure.

“Let it ring,” I command her roughly, “I want you to come for me.” Liz nods jerkily and lets her thighs fall wider, letting me settle comfortably between them. I remove my fingers and take hold of my twitching erection and press the tip to the wet center of her. Her muscles stretch to accommodate my length, conforming around me tightly. Yet as I start to surge forward, intent on burying myself deep, her answering machine picks up the call.

Maria’s frantic voice blasts into the bedroom, halting the beginning of our breathless lovemaking. “Liz? Liz?” she cries in annoyance, “I know you’re there! It’s a fucking snowstorm so where are you gonna go? Pick up the phone! Liz? Elizabeth Parker! I mean it!” Our grunts of frustration mingle as I reluctantly slip from her body and Liz rolls for the phone.

“What?” she barks into the receiver. I lean over her shoulder in order to eavesdrop shamelessly on her conversation, scooting close so that my erection is nestled against her buttocks. “Maria, what are you talking about?” she asks blankly as my fingers skate over her belly to travel down between her legs. She swallows back a gasp as she struggles to maintain her conversation. “You’re…you’re t-talking too f-fast. I…I don’t…I don’t understand…what you’re…saying…”

I circle my thumb against her swollen clitoris and she moans out loud. “No…” she tells Maria, “I’m fine… No! I’m…I’m not doing that…at all! I’m…um…I’m not lying…” She shoots me a pleading glance just as I surge my fingers into her hard. “Yes, he’s here,” she pants into the receiver and then all but shoves the phone at me. I have no choice but to cease and desist with my ministrations.

“What?” I mouth to her, gesturing towards the phone.

“It’s Maria,” she qualifies inanely, “She wants to talk to you.” And then she gives my thigh a wicked pinch letting me know exactly what she thought of my game. I manage to bite back my hiss of pain when I tell Maria hello.

“You sneaky little devil!” she accuses me laughingly, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were going to visit Liz?”

“Why didn’t I tell you? Wait,” I say, my brow furrowed with confusion, “How did you know in the first place?”

“Isabel told me. She’s good and steamed,” she says and I’m half distracted from her answer because Liz chooses that moment to roll from the bed. I catch hold of her wrist with one hand and mute the phone with the other. “Where are you going?” I pout in disappointment.

“I need a shower,” she tells me, “and I think you might be awhile.”

I smirk at her knowingly. “Don’t think I don’t realize what you’re doing, you coward,” I charge with a smile. She doesn’t deny the unspoken accusation in my words but merely shrugs, leans forward to kiss me, and then skips off unrepentantly for the bathroom. I’m so preoccupied with grinning after her that I don’t realize Maria is saying my name until she screams it. “What?” I demand crossly.

“Isabel said you broke up with Carrie. Thank God for small miracles.”

I roll my eyes in long-suffering. “Maria, please--,”

“Did you do it for Liz?”

“Maria!”

“I just want to know if you two are back together.”

“Why?”

“Max, don’t be a pain in the ass,” she whines, “Just tell me.”

I have to grin over her wheedling, mostly because I’m happy she’s happy for me but more so because I’m bursting to tell someone my good news. Still, this being Maria, I realize I have to temper my response. “We’re working things out,” I tell her vaguely but excitedly, too.

“By working things out you mean--,” Maria prods shamelessly.

“I mean we’re working things out,” I reiterate unanswerably.

“Lemme speak to Liz,” she demands, “I know she won’t leave me in the dark.”

“You can’t. She’s in the shower,” I say.

“Aha! How would you know that if you weren’t somewhere close to her right now, huh? I know there are only two bathrooms in Liz’s house and one of them is in her bedroom.”

“Maria, shut up.”

“Fine. Don’t tell me,” she chirps smugly, “I know the truth even if you won’t own up to it. But I’d be on the lookout for your sister. She’s on the warpath.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” I reply, bothered by the news that Isabel is upset. I don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize why.

“Tell Liz I’ll call her back later this afternoon,” Maria tells me, “And I’ll expect details.”

After I hang up with Maria my thoughts continue to be plagued over Isabel. If I know her at all she’s already called our parents and everyone else under creation to tell them how I’m making such a huge mistake by getting involved with Liz again. But I don’t think I am. I don’t have a doubt it will work out for us this time because we’ve learned from those past mistakes and we are not going to repeat them. I don’t have a doubt that I can trust Liz with my heart…not anymore. Which is why I’m firmly determined not to let anyone undermine our relationship. Not my sister, not my parents…no one.

Liz is rinsing her hair by the time I join her in the shower with my bar of soap and a smile. Her back is to me, her hands braced against the wall as she stands beneath the spray and lets the water sluice over her. I step behind her and curve my hands up her midriff to cup her breasts. She gasps when she suddenly realizes she is no longer alone but then quickly relaxes back against me with a blissful sigh.

“So what did Maria say?” she asks breathlessly as begin lathering her breasts.

“She wanted to know if we were back together,” I murmur against her neck, nipping the sensitive skin just below her ear. I rotate my soapy fingers against her nipples, plucking them lightly.

“And…what did you tell her,” she queries in a moan.

“What do you think I told her?” I counter against her ear.

I know the mood has turned serious when she pushes my hands from her breasts. Liz turns in my arms then and tips her head back to regard me with a questioning stare. “Are we together now, Max?” she asks meekly.

“Liz, I told you last night…I want to do this for real.”

“Well, then that presents quite a few problems for us, doesn’t it?” she whispers.

“Like what?” But I’m well aware that I’m being obtuse at the moment. I know exactly what “problems” Liz is referring to. Is it wrong that I wanted to put off the serious talk for at least an hour more? However, Liz looks determined to have it out now and I don’t want to brush her concerns aside. “So what’s bothering you,” I ask.

“Max, you live in Detroit,” Liz clarifies superfluously, “I live here. I just started my residency. I have friends here…family…”

“You mean your godson?” I deduce quietly when she starts to founder. Her eyes widen at my succinct and correct conclusion. “Maria told me,” I explain simply, “She said that he was born that year after the motorcycle accident.”

She manages a small nod and then buries her face in my chest, as if she fears my reaction. “He…he means a great deal to me, Max,” she whispers, “I want to keep him in my life and…and if you have a problem with that well… God! I don’t want you to have a problem with that. Please…please don’t have a problem with that.”

I gently tug on her hair so that she’s forced to look at me again. “Liz, I don’t have a problem with it,” I reassure in a whisper, “I’m not expecting you to cut anyone out of your life.” She slumps against me in relief, her small hands fitting perfectly into the small of my back. “Is that all you were worried about?” I ask, grinning into her wet hair, “Because those are small things, Liz. And as for us living in different cities…you know it wouldn’t be a big sacrifice for me to move here or for you to move to Detroit.”

“It would be better if I moved to Detroit,” she says and her conviction makes me suspect it’s something she’s been thinking about for a while already, “I can easily transfer hospitals but if you moved here you would have to find another job altogether.”

“Okay, so that part’s solved,” I reply expansively, “What else?”

“I’ll have to sell my house and most of my stuff, too,” she considers.

“Not a problem. I’ll help you,” I say without hesitation, “I can take a few days off from work, we’ll sell the stuff, rent a U-haul and it’s Detroit here we come…only…I think we should probably keep your bed.”

“Really? Why?”

“It’s bigger,” I toss back impertinently.

“Max…” she moans, “You’re making this sound so easy when it’s not!”

“Why can’t it be easy, Liz?”

“Because you’re forgetting all the other factors,” she whispers, “Your family is going to hate the idea of us getting back together. Not to mention my parents! You’re…um…not their favorite person, you know. Plus, I just know everyone will be in our business…trying to tell us what to do. It’ll be a nightmare.”

“So what?” I return with a shrug.

“So what?” she echoes.

“Who the fuck cares?” I declare blandly, “We want to be together, Liz. The only people whose opinions matter are yours and mine.”

“And what about this morning?” she mumbles.

“What about it?”

“We would have made love,” she whispers, “Really made love, Max. What if I had gotten pregnant?”

I can’t quite quell my answering grin as I hug her lather slick body closer. “Is that idea supposed to scare me?” I laugh, “Because I think I like the idea…a lot.”

The sparkle of delight in her eyes tells me she does as well. “You don’t think we’re moving too fast?” she wonders in a sigh.

“Liz,” I whisper, “You and I have been off and on for eighteen years now but this is the first time I’ve ever truly believed that our future together was secured. Let’s not waste anymore time.”

“Okay,” she agrees softly, “Let’s not.”

Later that evening I find myself watching her as she sleeps. We’ve lazed around the house for most of the day, simply enjoying one another’s company, napping and playing and making love. I can’t say that I’ve ever done that before…just simply enjoyed Liz Parker. But I do that now, listening to the sweet sounds she makes as she slumbers.

There was a time when I had been sorry to love her, when I had wished we’d never crossed paths at all but looking at her now I can’t remember those times or the bitterness or pain that had threatened to consume me. It’s all like a bad dream that I’ve finally woken from. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m too filled with hope, with her and I’m content. I’m looking forward to brighter days and the opportunity to cherish every last one. I’ve been given a second chance and I have no intention of squandering it.

As I settle back down against her and pull her sleeping form into my arms I realize that Liz and I have finally come full circle in this crazy, romantic, and painful dance they call love. Who would have known it would take us on such an agonizing, arduous journey and who would have known we’d be the stronger for it?

It’s all an enigma I think, not meant to be understood at all. It’s just the way love goes.

The End

[Kath7]

Congrats on winning a round 9 award!