Roswell Fanatics

A Bride for Zan
By Carenicole
Rating: TEEN/MATURE
Characters: Max and Liz
Disclaimer: I do not own the Roswell characters. I am just borrowing them for this story. Thank you.
Summary:
Princess Elizabeth Parker of the planet Bellaria is about to get the surprise of her life. She’s just returned from earth after receiving her education there and is expecting to spend some quality time with her parents, King Jeffrey and Queen Nancy of Bellaria. What she isn’t expecting is the news that she’s been betrothed to the Prince of the planet Antar.

Prince Zan Maxwell Evans of Antar isn’t thrilled with the idea of marriage. He’s never heard of his intended before and he’s not about to get himself tied down to some rich bitch princess just because her planet has resources that Antar might want. So he’s come up with a plan.

Little does he know, Liz has a plan of her own.

AN: This story idea is based (sort of loosely)on a challenge that I got from NaughtyMe (Anna) on the old board. It’s from Feb of last year so it’s sort of been something that I’ve worked on off and on. I promise that this story won’t interfere with the others. In fact, I’m in the process of wrapping up Right Kind of Wrong at the moment. So I might just tease you all with a small part of this and post more after RKOW is complete. Let me know what you think. This story is sort of an experiment for me. I’m not sure how it will work because it’s really different from anything else that I’ve written.
Carey


Chapter 1

Setting: The planet Bellaria, in the Royal Chambers

“I’m not going.” The words were spoken adamantly with a defiant lifting of the jaw. In all her 21 years, Elizabeth Parker, the only daughter of Jeff and Nancy Parker, King and Queen of the planet Bellaria, had never openly defied her parents. Until now.

“You can’t just expect me to uproot my life like that,” she went on, her voice rising as her agitation increased. She had just returned from earth the night before. She had actually been looking forward to meeting her parents for breakfast that morning and had arrived early, only to be told the news. She was engaged…to a man she had never met.

Jeffrey eyed his daughter with equal parts caution and curiosity. Never before had Liz spoken out so strongly. It was interesting to see how she had grown in her time away from Bellaria. He glanced at his wife, whose expression remained relatively passive at Liz’s strong opposition.

“Sweetheart, we realize that this is quite a shock. We never intended for this to occur, but it was necessary. We can’t go back on our word now,” Jeffrey explained.
“Your word means more than your only daughter’s happiness? Is that what you are saying? I thought you cared about me!” she exclaimed with disbelief. “Instead, I return to find out you’ve used me as a bargaining chip.”

Jeffrey sighed. Liz had every right to be upset. He knew that what he had done was wrong. But he hadn’t been able to come with any other viable options. For the past eight years, Bellaria had struggled under the financial burden of a civil war. The war itself had ended eight years previously but trying to restore Bellaria to its original splendor had proved a far more difficult task than anyone had anticipated. The royal treasury was almost complete depleted. To continue Bellarian restoration, Jeffrey had been advised by his council to seek aide from the neighboring planet Antar. The planet was prosperous and technologically advanced. It was only natural that Bellaria would turn to the Antarians for help. What Jeffrey hadn’t counted on, was the price he would have to pay to give his people the lives they had fought to have. His only daughter. King Phillip of Antar was a fair man and had been willing to listen to King Jeffrey’s proposition. The idea that Jeffrey and his advisors had put together was not something that appealed to King Phillip though. He had been more interested to learn that Jeffrey had a daughter of marriageable age.

The thought had formed quickly in Phillip’s head. He had a son. A wild, intelligent, willful young man who was too busy gallivanting around the country playing prince to notice that he was, in fact, heir to the Antarian throne…the future King. It seemed that his son might never settle down unless he forced to do it. Phillip had quickly proposed the betrothal to Jeffrey, promising him that the benefits of a marriage alliance between the two planets would go beyond financial.

Jeffrey had been unable to say no. And now he sat, staring down his willful daughter, trying to make her understand just how important he role in this situation was.

“You are a princess Elizabeth. You were born to privilege and with that come certain ….” He started to say.

Liz cut him off. “Obligations. Yes I know that father. I’ve heard those words my entire life. I just never realized you meant to force a loveless marriage on me.”

“It doesn’t have to be loveless Lizzie,” her mother began to say.

“It will be. I can guarantee that much. I’ve seen the gossip written in newspapers. Prince Zan is nothing but a rake. On earth they would call him a player, a man that goes from woman to woman, seducing them and leaving them for another. He has nothing on his mind but who he’s going to bed next. I want no part of it. Let him marry one of his trollops.”

“Elizabeth, really…you know that gossip isn’t always true…” Nancy started to say.

“Of course…but he’s been pictured with that Avaria tramp more times than I can count and it’s always in some indecent pose.”

“Liz….”

“Don’t ‘Liz’ me! I don’t want to marry a man I don’t love,” she told them, her voice breaking as she spoke. She knew she sounded childish, spoiled and completely ungrateful, but she just couldn’t resign herself to a life of being the dutiful, unwanted wife.

“We don’t have a choice, Liz,” her father told her. “If you don’t marry Zan, we won’t get the financial aid we need to help rebuild Bellaria. There are people in desperate need Elizabeth and we’re running out of money to help them. Whether you like it or not, you have a duty to your people.”

Liz’s distress grew with each word her parents spoke. They watched, both wishing there was another way. She had only just returned to them and they had hoped to spend more time with her. But they also had to make sacrifices.

“I always knew that something like this would happen,” she finally said with resignation. “I guess I just hoped that maybe I would be allowed to fall in love and lead a normal life; not one where duty rules over everything…even your heart.” With that said, Liz retreated hastily from the room, knowing that the choice had been made whether she wanted it or not.

********
Setting: Antar. Zan’s room. Two weeks after the betrothal of Prince Zan and Princess Elizabeth was announced.

“You realize that you’re crazy don’t you?” Michael “Rath” Guerin, second in commence and advisor to Prince Zan of Antar spoke. “Zan…you’re asking for trouble man.”

Zan stood in front of the sink, his eyes focused on the task at hand. With each stroke of the razor blade the change became more apparent. Gone were the lip and eyebrow rings. The goatee was quickly disappearing and the long hair had been cut significantly shorter. The difference was drastic, made even more so by the change in clothing. A body that had once been clad head to toe in traditional royal Antarian leather, was now covered by what earthlings called jeans and a t-shirt.

“No…you see what I’m doing is saving myself a hell of a lot of trouble later on, Michael,” Zan replied to his fried. “If I can take care of this situation now, I can eliminate a possibly bad situation before anything too final takes place.”

“ And how exactly did you convince your father to go a long with this hair brained scheme of yours?”
“I just explained my rationale. I’m only 27, Michael. It’s too soon to be so worried about my place in the Antarian line. Why should I be thinking about having an heir when my father is in perfect health and will probably be ruling Antar until I’m old and gray? Besides…why should I settle for an arrangement? Why would I want anyone less than the best?”

“Are you talking love?”

“I don’t know maybe. I’ve never been in love before. That’s why this marriage shouldn’t happen. Why do I want to be strapped into a loveless marriage?”

“And this is the argument that convinced him?” Michael asked incredulously.

Zan smirked. “Not exactly. I just explained that we couldn’t be sure this Princess Elizabeth would even make a suitable bride. She’s been education on earth, which is all well and good, but it means that she’s unfamiliar with the customs that are necessary to be present in Antarian or Bellarian court for that matter. She’s untrained…unprepared.”

“And your father’s response to that?”

Zan frowned. “He decided that maybe it should be up to me to train her. He told me that if I deemed her unsuitable after the training that we could discuss dissolving the agreement.”

“You’re not even going to give her a chance are you?” Michael asked.

“Only as much of one as I have to. She’s required to be here for at least two months. Those were the terms of the agreement. That’s when her parents will be arriving from Bellaria for the engagement party. I intend to have things dissolved by then.

Michael shook his head. He loved Zan like a brother…but his spoiled prince roots were certainly beginning to poke through the surface.

“Fine…it’s your grave…just don’t expect me to dig you out when you get in over your head,” Michael told him.

“Nice use of earth clichés, Michael.” Zan teased.

Michael scowled.

“Look, don’t worry so much. I’ve got everything all figured out. If things work the way I think they will, the little spoiled princess won’t last long enough for there to be any problems.” Zan washed his face, removing any remnants of the shaving crème, then took a step back from the sink. “So…how do I look?”

“Surprisingly common…very common,” came Michael’s stilted reply.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” Zan said with a satisfied smirk. With one last appraising glance at himself, he made his way out of the elaborate bathroom and into his suite of rooms.

“Did Valenti contact you about the time the Bellarian shuttle will be arriving?” Zan asked as he made his way to his private study. Ever since he learned of his betrothal to princess Elizabeth, Bellaria’s sweetheart, he had spent an extensive amount of time preparing for her arrival. He had concluded that it would be in his best interest to learn about the planet of his future bride as well as everything about the woman herself. It would give him a distinctive advantage.

A manila folder on his desk included all of his findings. Elizabeth or “Liz” as her earthling friends called her, had been born near the start of the Bellarian civil war. She had been relatively safe at first, but when things had grown dangerous, she was sent to earth for protection in the guise of formal education. When the war had ended eight years ago, she had made the decision to continue her earth based education. Copies of transcripts from every boarding school Liz had attended were in that manila folder. By Earth’s standard, Liz was brilliant. At the age of sixteen she had been accepted to a very prestigious University in the United States of America. She had then graduated with honors and a degree in Physics. Zan supposed that her intelligence was a noteworthy quality. A smart bride would be an asset in the future.

Intelligence was only a small part of the whole package though. There were other more important aspects…like physical compatibility…similar interests. Zan had been unable to gather information that gave details on her physical appearance and personality. The most recent picture he had been able to get was of a twelve year old Elizabeth. She was an admittedly cute child, but that gave little indication of what she looked like now.

Of course it was all immaterial at this point. Zan Maxwell Evans was not ready to be tied down to anyone. Especially someone he didn’t know.

That was why he’d developed his plan.

“She’ll be arriving here this evening. Bellaria’s ambassador, Alexander Whittman, is escorting Elizabeth and her friend Maria Deluca,” Michael, informed, relaying the latest information from Kyle Valenti, Antar’s ambassador.

“Only one person to help her? That’s strange. Isabel has at least seven. She can’t seem to do anything on her own,” Zan commented.

“This friend isn’t like your sister’s ladies in waiting. Maria Deluca is an earthling and she’s along to…this is a direct quote I believe, ‘to support her Lizzie’.”

That was very strange…a princess who didn’t require assistance. It was almost unheard of.
“Your sister has also requested that she be allowed to greet the shuttle. She was adamant about helping Elizabeth settle in. It might be a good idea. That way you can jump into your assumed role first thing in the morning. Isabel has also agreed to cooperate in any way you need.”

“Really? That surprises me. I’m sure I’ll find out her real motive later, though. Either way I’ll probably benefit.” Zan paused as he glanced at the time. It was getting later in the afternoon. “I have some business to take care of in the main city. I’ll probably be gone all night. I’ll trust you to inform Elizabeth of the plans for tomorrow. I’m sure you can make sure they get settled in properly,” Zan insisted.

“Of course, your highness. I’m sure that whomever…whatever you are doing in the city is far more important than meeting your future wife,” came Michael’s sarcastic reply.

“You may be my friend Michael, but in this case, I didn’t ask for your opinion, so keep your sarcastic comments to yourself. Elizabeth is not my wife yet. Until she is…she’s not my first priority.”

Zan looked away then; if he hadn’t he would have seen Michael’s incredulous look and raised eyebrow. For not being a priority, Zan was certainly putting a lot of effort into this whole plan of his. He had a sinking suspicion that his friend was going to get himself in trouble.

AN: Here it is, Chapter 2. I decided to go ahead and post it because of all the fantastic feedback. You guys are really great! And for those of you that voted for me to continue the other fics, have no fear, they're defintely next on my list and I intend to devote some quality time to them as soon as May 10 has passed. Again, thanks for the feedback. It means alot. Hope you enjoy this next part. And if you have any questions, or think something is confusing, B-mail me and I'll try to clear it up for you.
Carey

Chapter 2
Setting: Bellarian shuttle to Antar

“Oooh, Lizzie…did you see this latest article on your intended? He looks…dangerously sexy,” Maria Deluca informed her best friend. She was staring at the latest issue of Antarian magazine. She had said it was to expose her to Antarian culture so that she would be prepared when they arrived. But Liz knew that it was a way for Maria to get a heads up on all of the hot gossip.

Liz cast a cursory glance at the picture Maria was apparently ogling. She rolled her eyes. There was Zan Evans in all of his splendid glory. At least according to the magazine. “Please, Maria…he looks like some sort of degenerate, a rebel without a clue.” She despised everything about him. From his long brown hair to his goatee. She couldn’t stand the man. To make matters worse, he wasn’t posing alone in the picture. Standing next to him, practically glued to his side was none other than Avaria Harding. She looked like a dog in heat, Liz thought. What a slut.

Why in the hell would they ever suggest a marriage for Zan when it was clear that he had yet to sow all his wild oats, so to speak? It was ridiculous for them to expect Liz to cow tail to the demands of a husband that had no intention of being faithful to her.

Her dismal thoughts on Zan and his lack of character were interrupted by an unladylike snort from Maria’s direction.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, Liz. Have you even looked in the mirror today? Because if you can sit there and say that he looks terrible, you can surely recognize how awful you look. God knows that you barely even resemble the friend that I thought I knew,” Maria exclaimed, her voice thick with exasperation. She still couldn’t quite resign herself to Liz’s new “look.” Instead of vibrant cocoa colored eyes, she found her gaze meeting a mismatched set, one green and one a dull brown. The eyes weren’t that noticeable though. For the most part they were concealed by a pair of large, unattractive plastic framed glasses with lenses so thick and heavy that the glasses were constantly sliding down Liz’s nose. There were other changes aside from the eyes. The chocolate waterfall of silky hair had been transformed to a greasy mass that was haphazardly pulled into a messy pony tail. To top it off, Liz had applied that absolute worst shade of orange foundation that managed to cover the healthy glow of her olive skin. And the clothes….Maria shuddered inwardly. It was wrong for clothes to look so awful. They were several sizes too large and Maria was afraid that Liz hadn’t washed them before she packed everything. The overall effect was really quite…disturbing. It was terrible and so completely un-Liz-like that it was hard to believe that it was the same girl.

“Spare me the drama, Maria. I explained everything to you and even you agree that my plan just might work. In fact, I’m convinced that this is foolproof. It’s all very simple. Zan will take one look at me and find me so unsuitable that he’ll have no other option but to send me right back to Bellaria. And then, because the breech of agreement would be on his end, Antar will still have to give Bellaria the aid that they promised. We’ll be back on Bellaria in under a week,” Liz said with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Well, I’m glad you’re convinced. I, on the other hand, have a sinking suspicion that this is all going to blow up in your poorly made up face,” she warned.

“It won’t, especially not if you help me like you promised. We had a deal, Maria. You get to visit new planets and I…I get out of marrying that womanizing miscreant Zan. As long as you don’t back out, this is going to work perfectly,” Liz insisted.

“If you say so, Liz…if you say so.”


******
Setting: The King's Private Landing Site, Antar.

Isabel Vilandra Evans and her entourage were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Bellarian shuttle. She was hoping to meet her brother’s betrothed before he had the opportunity to swoop in and scare the poor girl off. Isabel had a lot of sympathy for her fellow princess. She knew what it was like to be beautiful and perfect and held in such high esteem that your public couldn’t leave you alone. That’s why she was waiting at the King’s private landing strip hoping that the new girl would turn out to be her new favorite shopping partner.

The landing strip was heavily guarded and as the shuttle finally made it’s descent, everyone was instantly on alert and eager to see just who was about to tie down their beloved prince. It took several long minutes before the moment of truth finally arrived and the shuttle doors opened.

Isabel put on her brightest princess smile and prepared to meet Elizabeth. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight that greeted her though. A blonde of average height came barreling off the shuttle talking a mile a minute to a man Isabel recognized as Ambassador Whittman. The blonde was completely different than Isabel had imagined the Bellarian princess to be. She could tell already that the motor mouth and her brother would not be a suitable match. It made her wonder if there might be some merit to Zan’s ridiculous plan. Now he could pretend to be someone else and check out the girl at the same time. It was really quite ingenious.

Following closely behind the Ambassador and the princess was another girl. She was sort of short with…dear God! The girl looked terrible, completely unkempt. Isabel could only assume that she was from earth. Earthlings tended to be sloppy and the girl certainly fit that description. Squaring her shoulders, Isabel tried to prepare herself mentally as she approached the small group.

“Hello! Welcome to Antar. I’m Isabel,” she introduced herself to the blonde who smiled and shook Isabel’s outstretched hand enthusiastically.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Maria Deluca.”
Isabel paused. “You’re not…?”

“She’s not, I am. Elizabeth Parker, princess of Bellaria. It’s a pleasure to meet you Princess Isabel,” Liz said pushing the thick glasses up her nose again before reaching to shake Isabel’s hand.

Isabel fought the urge to laugh. This had to be a joke. The girl in front of her was no more a princess than Michael was. The mere thought of that geeky, awkward girl was supposed to marry her brother was completely ridiculous. Composing herself, Isabel took the extended hand. “It’s very nice to meet you, Elizabeth. If you want to follow me, our transport to the palace is waiting. I’m sure you must be tired after your trip. You can get settled into your suite.”

“That would be great, Isabel,” Liz told her. She could already see the disapproval in Isabel’s eyes and inwardly rejoiced at the reaction. So far, so good. Everything was going to plan. If Prince Zan was anywhere near as vain and shallow as his sister, then he’d ship Liz back faster than she could say “boo”.

Giving Maria a wink, Liz moved quickly to follow Isabel. She immediately began to ask a series of annoying and stupid question just to annoy the hell out of Isabel. Walking behind them, Maria and Ambassador Whittman snickered.

“She’s really going to do this, isn’t she?” Maria asked with equal parts disbelief and admiration.

“It certainly seems that way,” came Alex Whitman’s reply. They burst into unrestrained laughter then, no longer able to keep their amusement to themselves.

*********
Setting: James (Jim) Valenti's Earthstyle Horsebreeding Ranch
“Max…is that you?” a confused James Valenti asked, doing a double take when the clean cut young man stepped in front of him. As a retired Army General, he had always been close to the royal family. When Max had been younger, Jim had taken him under his wings. Now Max was like a second son to him.

“Hello, Jim. It’s good to see you,” Max told the older man sincerely as he shook the hand extended to him. It had been months since Max had made time to visit Jim.

Jim smiled and decided it would be best if he got right to the point. He could tell that Max looked a little bit nervous. “Why don’t we go for a ride, Max? You can tell me what’s on your mind then,” he suggested even as he steered Max in the direction of the stables.

An hour later they were stopped at a small stream while the horses rested.

They were standing on the bank of the stream; Max was skipping rocks along the smooth surface of the water.

The silence wasn’t uncomfortable and Max was glad for it. But it wasn’t long before Jim took the initiative to start the conversation. He didn’t hedge the issue, but rather got right to the heart of the matter. Sometimes, Max appreciated that, other times, he’d rather Jim wasn’t quite so blunt.

“Why are you so opposed to getting married?” was Jim’s first question.

Max shrugged. “I’m not opposed to marrying. I’m opposed to marrying for something other than love. It’s a matter of pride and principle. I don’t think that politics should play such a large role in my personal life…in anyone’s personal life for that matter. How can someone possibly dictate another person’s path in life without considering that person’s feelings?” Max asked earnestly.

“So the underlying message here is that you’re upset with your father for making the decision for you,” Jim summarized.

Max sighed deeply and dropped to sit on the grass. “Yes and no. He’s king and someday that’s what I’ll be. The thought…well, the idea of marrying this way has really made it hit home…the fact that my life seems to be bigger than just one person you know…I’ve got a whole kingdom…hell a whole planet of people that are going to be placing their trust in me. I have to say that at this point…I really haven’t earned that trust.”

“Max…you’re still young. You’re allowed to make mistakes. It wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t. If I were you I would focus more on doing the right thing in the here and now and not spend so much time worrying about the far off future.” Jim paused. “Now…would you like to tell me about this sudden change in appearance?”

Max laughed. “I was wondering if you were going to say anything. I guess its all part of my plan. My picture has been plastered all over the tabloids lately. Not that I really care, but I’m sure that my bride to be has seen those pictures. In fact, I’m counting on it because…I’m not exactly going to be introducing myself to her as Prince Zan of Antar. Instead she’s going to meet Max, royal tutor. What do you think?”

“How in the hell do you think you’re going to pull that off?”

“Everyone pretty much calls me Max anyway. Except Michael, but he’s working on it. He’s my right hand man and if he blows it, then this plan will never work. The basic idea is to tutor the princess in Antarian ways. Of course, what she doesn’t know is that I’m really sizing her up. It will give me a chance to get to know her without revealing myself as the prince. If she’s lacking at all, then it will be easy to say that she doesn’t measure up to the standards required of an Antar’s future queen.”
“Seems a little bit extreme don’t you think?”

“I’m trying to find a way to do this without damaging our political connections with Bellaria. Father was telling me the other day that they have natural resources that we could benefit from. This way, both planets could still possibly get what they want.”
Jim chuckled. “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s too bad that I won’t be around to see what happens. There’s a council meeting for the Confederation of Planets and your father has decided to send me to Earth as Antar’s representative. Maybe I can leave the house in your keeping while I’m gone. That way if your plan backfires or even if you just need to get away, you can hide out here for awhile.”
*************
Setting: Liz and Maria's suite in Antar's Palace

Liz could barely hide her smile as Princess Isabel finally made her excuses and left. They were in the suite of rooms that had been designated for Liz and Maria and while Maria was practically beaming from excitement over the luxury of it all, Liz wanted to jump for joy because it seemed that her plan was going very well. She’d never in her life been so proud. Her repulsive look was definitely working. She was sure that Isabel would never want another thing to do with her.

“You know Liz, even if you didn’t look like a dork, gloating would not be a good look for you,” Maria informed her as she threw herself into one of the overstuffed chairs in their small sitting room. Small…now that was a joke. The sitting room was larger than three bedrooms put together at the house Maria lived in with her mother.

“I know…but this is going so well!” Liz exclaimed.

Maria shook her head. “Is it really worth it though? I mean, come on Liz, you look disgusting. I can practically see the grease dripping from your hair…”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so melodramatic. It isn’t that bad. Besides, as soon as Zan sends me packing you and I can take a whole week and go to that spa you were telling me about. It’ll be my treat.”

“I’m definitely holding you to that, Parker. But tell me, what if Zan doesn’t send you away? What are you going to then? I’m not sure I handle this version of you for very long.”

“Well, if this,” she said gesturing to herself, “doesn’t work, then I have some terrible habits I can start to exhibit,” Liz told her. By now she was sprawled out on the couch across from Maria.

“Fabulous,” Maria replied sarcastically. “Now I can look at your greasy hair and watch you pick your nose.”

“I’m going to ignore that,” Liz told her. They sat there for a few silent minutes until Liz couldn’t take it anymore.

“I can’t just sit here,” she told Maria. “Isabel said we could look around ourselves. So let’s go explore for a little while. Maybe we’ll get lucky and run into Prince Zan and I can jumpstart ‘Operation Too Ugly to Marry”
Maria followed her delusional friend reluctantly. Geez…and everyone thought that she was the weird one. She could only hope that this entire charade ended quickly.

Half an hour later the two women had made their way to a small but extensive library just three doors down from their suite. They stumbled upon it by accident and Liz was quickly enchanted by all of the books she found there. She became deeply engrossed in a book on Antarian Genetics and didn’t notice when Maria wandered off into an attached room.

Maria wasn’t know for sharing Liz’s book worm tendencies and found herself exploring the areas that were inundated with books. That’s how she found the attached room. It was actually a sitting room built almost identically to the room in Liz’s suite. The color scheme was different but the over décor the same.

“Can I help you with something?” a deep masculine voice asked, startling Maria out of her observation.

She squealed, practically jumping out of her skin. “Holy Shit! Where did you come from?”

The owner of the voice stepped forward into Maria’s line of vision. “I apologize. I didn’t intend to frighten you,” he said sincerely.

Hand pressed to her rapidly beating heart, Maria brought her gaze up to meet that of the man’s, only to feel the pounding of her heart intensify even as butterflies took over her stomach. “I….I…” she stuttered and quickly blushed at making such a terrible first impression.

When he saw that she wasn’t saying anything, he went on. “I don’t know who you are and I know everyone in the palace,” he informed her.

“Uh…I’m Maria Deluca,” she finally told him, extending her hand in greeting.

He hesitated momentarily before taking the outstretched offering and shaking her hand firmly. “Michael Guerin, advisor and commander in training for Prince Zan.”

He smiled then and the breath Maria had been holding since there hands touched whooshed out of her. “It’s very nice to meet you,” she told him enthusiastically. “I’m here with Liz…I mean Princess Elizabeth.”

Michael arched an eyebrow. “Really? Is she nearby? I’d like to meet the princess if it’s at all possible.”

Maria nodded. “Sure. She’s just in the library.”

“Oh. That’s not a library that’s Zan…uh, I mean, that’s Max’s study. No one is allowed in there.”

“Who’s Max?” Liz asked, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. “And where aren’t we allowed?”

When Michael turned to look in Liz’s direction, his body froze in shock. Was that….? Clearing his throat, he tried to compose himself. “Princess Elizabeth, I presume.” Michael offered a brief bow of recognition. “I’m Michael Guerin. I am Prince Zan’s advisor, currently training to be his second in command.” He paused. “Max is going to be your tutor. To answer your second question, the ‘library’ as Maria has called it, is actually Max’s personal study. You’re not allowed in there unless he’s given permission. In fact, you shouldn’t be in any rooms outside of your suite,” Michael explained. As he did so, his gazed drifted casually over to Maria.

“Wait a second; what do I need a tutor for? I’ve just finished my undergraduate degree at Oxford University, no less. Don’t tell me you don’t think I’m smart enough,” Liz said with accosted disbelief.

“I don’t think anything of the sort, Princess. The decision to have you tutored was made by Prince Zan. If you are to be a suitable queen for Antar you must be well versed in Antarian customs and history,” Michael tried to explain. He fought the urge to roll his eyes. This princess certainly seemed as arrogant as Isabel. She was definitely going to be a pain in the ass, probably annoying as hell. And even though she didn’t look the part of a princess, she was probably just as spoiled like they all were.

“Oh…well, I suppose I can understand that,” Liz said, looking only slightly less insulted.

Maria, unable to keep her mouth shut any longer, stepped forward.

“So if your Zan’s second in command, you must know a lot about Zan. Fill us in. What’s he like? We only know what we’ve read about him in Antarian tabloids.”

Michael cleared his throat and looked directly at Maria. “I’m not the tutor but I can tell you right now that proper ladies are not brought up to gossip Miss Deluca. The information you request will have to be learned from the source. But I doubt that either you or her highness, Elizabeth will be given the opportunity to have your questions answered; at least not in the immediate future. Zan will not be introduced to Elizabeth until she has successfully completed her tutoring.”

Maria looked taken-aback by the rudeness Michael was suddenly displaying. He’d called her a gossip. The nerve of him! She never gossiped; she merely spread news that people didn’t always want others to know. She was far from a gossip.

“So what happens if I don’t do well in my tutoring?” Liz asked, wondering if this ‘tutoring’ might be a way to escape her doom.
“Ah, well, not only will Zan remain a mystery, but Bellaria will have to do without Antarian aid. The sooner you are able to learn Antarian ways, the faster your people will receive help. Now, I suggest you return to your suite. Max could return at any time and he has been known to have a temper.

Both girls left the room hastily. One was furious about being insulted and the other was furious because he had cut short a possible scheme.

Michael let out a huge sigh of relief once the Princess and her friend were gone. Zan was going to be in big trouble. Hell, even Michael was going to be in trouble. He’d taken one look at that green eyed, blonde haired pixie and gone down for the count. She was something else….in a good way. Of course, he couldn’t let her know that. He’d been two seconds away from spilling every damn secret he’d ever been told, including Zan’s ridiculous plan. His immediate reaction had bordered on rudeness, which had obviously managed to piss the fair Miss Deluca off. But it had served its purpose and distracted her from asking him too many questions that he wanted to answer truthfully. Now, though, he was going to have to distract himself.
*******
Setting: A Bar in Antar's Main City

Zan stared at the unfamiliar face reflecting back at him from the mirror. He still wasn’t accustomed to the new look, he wasn’t sure if he would ever get used to it. Pushing away from the sink, he decided that he couldn’t stay in the bathroom any longer. After he had left Valet’s, he’d gone into the main city. His reason had been two fold. First, he needed to do one more thing to complete his transformation. A haircut. Dark hair that had once hung past his chin was now cut short in a much more conservative style. He was now officially Max.

Finally tearing his gaze away from the stranger in the mirror, Zan left the bathroom and walked out into the smoke filled haze of the bar. This was part two of his trip to the city. He was testing to see if he was recognized. It was odd that the citizens of Antar had no idea that it was him…their beloved Prince with the bad reputation.

He only hoped that, in the end, it would all be worth it. He wasn’t sure he could pull this off. Changing his image wasn’t the only thing that was involved; he needed to adopt the personality of Max the tutor as well.

With a one last glance of the bars patrons, Zan made his way back to his transport vehicle. As he did this, his communicator was activated. He answered quickly, hoping that it was Michael with a report. It was.

“Zan, I think you should get back to the Palace as soon as Antarianly possible,” Michael’s voice stated.

“Why? Has something gone wrong?” Zan asked, quickly growing concerned.

“Let’s just say that you may want to be prepared for what you’re going to encounter tomorrow. Especially if you want to maintain an edge over your betrothed.”

“Did you see her?” His question was met with silence. “Michael?”

“Yes, Zan, I saw her.” There was a pause. “I really think that we should talk about this in private.” Michael told him.

“Okay, fine. I’ll be there in an hour.” Zan found his transport then and quickly set his coordinates for the Palace, the whole time wondering just what the hell was going on.

Chapter 3
Setting: Liz and Maria’s Suite. Their first full day on Antar.

The great thing about the fashion statement Liz was currently making was that it was completely low maintenance. It was so much so, in fact, that her beauty routine had gone from thirty minutes to three. All she had to do was brush her teeth and wash her face. Getting dressed that morning was just as simple; she threw on the wrinkled, oversized clothes she’d been wearing the day before.

Liz was ready and waiting before Maria was even coherent. While she was waiting for Maria to finish her beauty regimen there was a brisk knock on the door. Liz hopped up quickly to answer it. She almost fell all over herself when she saw the man standing in the hallway. He was gorgeous. She definitely had to admit that Antar knew how to grow men. This particular Antarian could have posed as a model for any number of magazines on Earth. In fact he would probably be in high demand…with those cheekbones and that chiseled jaw line. He was…stunning, simply stunning.

“Uhm…Hi!” Liz managed to squeak out after an awkward moment of silence. She quickly cleared her throat as she composed herself. It really didn’t matter that the sight of this man was causing a series of chemical reactions to explode in her body, most of them resulting in a sexual awareness that Liz had never felt before. “Can I help you?” she finally asked. Did she sound as dumbstruck and nervous as she felt?

The wickedly handsome man opposite her merely arched an eyebrow at her in an appraising glance. He extended his hand, appearing reluctant to do so. “I’m Maxwell, your tutor. That is, if you’re Princess Elizabeth.”

Liz nodded somewhat dumbly as she shook his hand. She was vaguely aware of his words as she absorbed the feel of his hand in hers.

“Well, then, first things first; Why don’t you go get ready for the day? You look as if you’ve just woken up. I’ll give you an hour to shower and change clothes. Then we can start your lessons.”

“Oh, I’m already…ready. So we can start now if you like,” Liz informed him. She felt her cheeks blushing with embarrassment as she remembered just what she looked like. As much as her inner self was screaming at her to do exactly what he suggested she couldn’t do it. She had a plan, dammit, and she had to stick with it. It didn’t matter if she wanted to impress her hunky tutor or not.

“I must insist that you bathe,” he told her coolly, his piercing amber eyes narrowed slightly as they raked over her form, taking in her less than stellar appearance. “I’ll send one of Princess Isabel’s ladies to help you fix your hair once you’ve washed it.”

Liz narrowed her eyes, returning his steadily appraising gaze. He was starting to make her angry. How dare he order her around like that? It was insulting. Now she was flustered and angry and she knew that she would start spouting off things like Maria did. Case in point, the next words out of her mouth were, “I’m afraid that’s quite impossible. I’m…well, I’m allergic to shampoo if you must know and I never allow anyone to touch my hair.” Liz winced inwardly as she heard the words leave her mouth. Allergic to shampoo? What was she thinking?

They were at a standoff. They stood practically toe to toe, both glaring at each other. Liz was forced to look up to meet Maxwell’s gaze, but it didn’t make him seem any more intimidating. Liz noticed that his nostrils flared in an unflattering manner when he was angry. There, he wasn’t so perfect after all.

Meanwhile, Max was just getting a good look at her eyes. Dear God? Was that…? Did she really have two different colored eyes? No wonder the Bellarians were so eager to marry her off. It was probably a case of no one else wanting her, leaving the alliance with Antar as their last hope. A part of him felt a rare twinge of pity. Maybe he shouldn’t be so hard on her. Then he got a good whiff of something a little too ripe and his stance became more rigid.

And so their standoff continued, neither willing to back down. There was no telling how long it might have gone on if Maria hadn’t chosen to interrupt.

“Liz…aren’t you going to introduce me to our guest?” Maria asked sweetly. She eyed the scene with amusement. The devastatingly handsome man was giving Liz a disdainful look that her friend was quick to return.

“Maria…this is Maxwell. He’s my tutor,” Liz explained tonelessly.

Max shifted his gaze from Liz to the other woman in the room. He was immensely relieved to see that this ‘Maria’ was properly groomed. For a second he’d been afraid that somehow the Earthlings had resorted to slovenliness.

“Miss Deluca, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he told her graciously as he extended his hand to greet her politely. Instead of shaking the proffered hand he brought it to his lips and kissed it.

Glancing at Liz it was apparent by the look in her eyes that she had noticed the great discrepancy between Max’s greeting to her this morning and the greeting he offered Maria.

Hiding his smirk of satisfaction, Max focused his attention on Maria. “So, tell me, Maria, is ‘Liz’, as you call her, really allergic to shampoo?” he asked seriously.

Maria hesitated and glanced at Liz who shot her a pleading look.

Not wanting to outright lie, Maria nodded. “It’s a very curious and frustrating condition that Liz has,” she explained, her words describing Liz’s current mental capacity rather than her weird, made up allergy.

“I see. Well, I’ll have someone search for an alternative form of cleanser for you, Princess. I’d hate for you to be uncomfortable.” That said, he turned and left quickly.

Liz glared after him. “What a jerk! Did you see the way he kept looking at me? It’s like he thought I was disgusting or something,” she told Maria, clearly outraged by the idea.

“Lizzie, babe, I hate to break it to you but you are disgusting. Did you even bother to look in the mirror this morning?” There was a pause before Maria spoke again, looking at Liz pointedly. “Besides, I thought looking disgusting was your plan.”

“It was. I mean it is. But it can’t work until I meet Zan, which that…that Michael told me won’t happen until that dreadful tutor, Maxwell, is pleased with me. Which, judging from this first encounter, isn’t likely to happen in this century.”

“So does this mean a new plan has to be formulated?” Maria asked hopefully. Liz was starting to gross her out, which was saying a lot because as best friends they’d weathered quite a few not so pleasant things together.

********

Max barged into Michael’s office the same way he always did, not even bothering with the pretense of knocking.

“You should have warned me!” he exclaimed immediately, dispensing with pleasantries.

Michael looked up from the letter he was drafting to Bellaria’s Military commander. His lips twitched from amusement. “I did warn you, Max.”

“No…you said something about getting an eyeful, but you never prepared me for this. I’ve never seen anything that unkempt in my life. An eyesore, Michael! She’s a damn eyesore! How in God’s name am I supposed to marry that?” Max asked in bewilderment.

“Calm down. The whole point of your tutoring farce is to prevent the wedding. I would say you would be perfectly justified in sending her packing at this point,” Michael told him.

Max sighed and sank down into a plush, yellow chair opposite the desk. “The problem is that I have to a least look like I tried. If I say that she wasn’t physically acceptable, what kind of cad does that make me out to be? I can’t let that be the deciding factor. My father’s only stipulation was that I have to at least pretend to give her a chance. If not, the marriage will take place whether I want it to or not.”

“So…any other bright ideas, your highness?” Michael asked with a smirk. He was really enjoying the situation. It was rare to see Max squirming like this.

Max sat there silently, looking thoughtful. “Maybe if we approach this scientifically…yeah…scientifically. Her tutoring can be set up as a series of tests to see whether or not she’s really fit to be princess. What she won’t know is that there’s absolutely no way for her to pass; it will be impossible. No one can contest her suitability if it’s approached scientifically, logically.”

“So exactly what kind of tests are you talking about?”

“It will start out fairly simple. We’ll see if she’s really as smart as everyone claims. She’ll have to learn all of our Antarian History, and the language, in a matter of weeks. Of course they’ll be a final test on her knowledge that will be so hard, there’s no way she can pass. Then maybe we’ll stick her with Isabel for awhile to see if they can get along. Princess Liz won’t last a second with Princess Isabel, fashion Diva of the three worlds.

“Anything else?”

“I’ll think of other things as we go, but first we’ll see if the princess can take orders.”

*******

“He what?!?” Liz asked her voice loud with disbelief.

“He won’t start your training until you’ve agreed to bathe properly. He’s had shampoo shipped from Earth that is specifically designed for people with your special condition,” Michael informed her. “He insists that you use it.”

Michael left a speechless Liz standing there and went to report back to Max. He was muttering under his breath, cursing Max for making him perform such menial tasks. He could lead an army through dangerous battles and yet here he was, delivering a message from a stubborn Prince to his unlikely Princess. It was damn ridiculous.

Leaving the suite, Michael didn’t notice the woman headed in his direction until he had almost knocked her over.

“Watch where you’re going space boy!” she yelled from her sprawled position on the floor.

“I’m very sorry,” he replied quickly, his good manners forced him to extend a hand to help her up from the floor.

She accepted without protest, too shocked that the gruff soldier would even bother with an apology. After he helped her to her feet, Michael bid her good day and was off. He had taken two steps before turning around. “For the record, I believe it was you who barreled into me first.”

Maria’s indignant cry echoed in the hall after him and he had to fight to hold back his laughter.

******

The ‘special’ shampoo that Max ordered for Liz arrived in their room moments after Michael left. Liz stared at the non-descript bottle for a long time. There were no labels on it, or anything else that might give her a clue as to what kind of shampoo it was.

Not that it mattered. She wasn’t going to give in.

The rest of the first day was spent with Liz silently fuming over Max’s orders for her. She was not going to back down. She didn’t care how handsome the arrogant bastard was.

The second day Liz spent listening to Maria whine about how terrible Liz looked and smelled.

The third day Liz realized that Maria was right and decided that she was really only punishing herself by being stubborn. Max wouldn’t even agree to see her unless she took a shower, so it was pointless to deny herself the simple pleasure of cleanliness.

The only shampoo she had was the bottle Max had sent to her. She hadn’t anticipated being on Antar long enough to really need those sorts of things. She’d been wrong and now she was forced to use what was available.

She was surprised when she went to use the shampoo. It didn’t have any dyes or perfumes and was a clear gel. Max really had gone to some trouble to find something she could use despite her unfortunate condition. Liz’s heart softened a little bit. Maybe her tutor was trying to make the best of the situation.

Those thoughts lasted all of five minutes until Liz’s scalp started to burn like it was on fire. Yelling for Maria to get help, Liz fell out of the shower and tried to wrap a robe around her wet body.

Michael arrived first, demanding to know what the problem was. He looked shocked when Maria hastily explained. In the meant time, Liz was writhing on the floor in pain. Michael watched with curiosity and determined that Liz was definitely telling the truth. He proceeded to call Max via communicator and ten minutes later, Max arrived with the Royal healer.

“What in God’s name was in that shampoo?” Liz demanded in a broken moan as soon as she saw Max.

He looked at her guiltily. “I don’t know. It was just regular shampoo, I swear. I didn’t really think you were allergic.” He had a sudden attack of conscience. In his attempt to one up her, he’d ended up hurting her and that had never been his intention. Sure, he didn’t want to marry the girl, but he certainly didn’t want to send her back to Bellaria injured.

“She’s not,” the healer informed him. “At least not to shampoo in general. She is, however, allergic to whatever it is you gave her.” The healer gave Max a stern, disapproving look before he knelt down and placed his hands on the both sides of Liz’s head. The old man’s light gray eyes concentrated intensely; connecting to Liz and the innermost recesses of her mind; soon she felt the pain dissipating.

“You’ll be fine now, Princess,” he informed her with a warm smile. “I suggest you steer clear of things you don’t know the origin of, though.” He stood up then and looked at Max. He chuckled. “I do believe you’ve got your work cut out for you, boy.” With that said he was gone.

When Liz looked at Max, he had the grace to look apologetic. “I’m very sorry Princess. It was not my intent to cause you harm,” he told her sincerely.

******


That night, Max lay awake, thinking over the events of the day. Liz hadn’t said much of anything to him after the incident was over, but he would never forget the image of her staring up at him with equal parts embarrassment and fury expressed in her silly mismatched eyes. He chuckled absently when he recalled her drowned-rat look. An unexpected flash of her bare legs caught him off guard and he tried to focus on other things. He shouldn’t be thinking about the Princess that way.

By that next morning Max had convinced himself that maybe his initial assessment of the Princess had been too hasty. There was more to her than met the eye and he intended to find out just what it was.

Of course his newfound perspective didn’t keep him from inwardly wincing when he caught sight of her again. She was sitting in his study, waiting for him as he had requested. Her hair was pulled back into a sloppy ponytail, her overalls and t-shirt were wrinkled, and the thick glasses she wore kept sliding down her nose. With a deep sigh, he entered the study, finally making his presence known.

“Good morning, Princess,” he greeted politely.

She offered him a forced smile. “Do you think that maybe you could call me Liz?” she asked. “I’m not really comfortable with the formality of a title.”

Max nodded. “If that’s what you would prefer. You can call me Max. Now first things first; I’m aware that you’ve had an extensive education according to Earth’s standards, but you are not well versed in the politics of either Antar or your own Bellaria. Is this correct? “

Liz nodded, not sure how she should reply. Max was acting very business-like and it felt strange for him to be so formal.

“So, my job will be to instruct you in Antarian and Bellarian Politics. You will also be required to learn the Antarian language and the history of our people. I don’t expect this to be an easy process. It is not something that one can do overnight. I wouldn’t dream of approaching it like that, either. I should warn you though that the study will be intensive. I’ve been given a strict schedule that we must uphold to. Zan has to meet you within the next two months, but he’d like to do so as soon as possible. There will be other requirements…we have many customs and you must learn the etiquette of our Royalty. Do you feel you’ll be able to do this?” At his question, their gazes met and locked for a moment. Max couldn’t bring himself to look away either. It was Liz who finally broke the contact.

“It’s all very overwhelming, but I’ll do my best,” she answered softly. For some reason, she couldn’t find it in her to refuse him.


TBC....

AN:Sorry it's taken so long for me to post. Real Life has been incredibly hectic. My grandma got sick, so I've been trying to help take care of her. Because you have all been so patient and keep bumping and emailing for me to get my butt in gear, I decided that I should post another part. I just finished typing it so it hasn't been betaed. If you find any glaring mistakes let me know. Other wise.... enjoy!
Carey


Chapter 4

The lessons, Day 4

The first several days of Liz’s tutoring were tiring for both her and Max. He was pushing her to the limit and Liz was starting to get upset with him. She thought that they had called a truce of sorts, but it seemed as if nothing was good enough for him. Just when she thought she had mastered one thing, he would throw out something new that would only add to the confusing mass of information she was trying to absorb. Part of her wanted to just give up. Who really cared if Zan approved of her? If she couldn’t pass muster when it came to learning Antarian History, she wasn’t fit to be a princess anyway.

“Why don’t you just send me home?” she asked Max in exasperation, interrupting him as he tried to tell her about Antar’s first Civil War and the causes behind it.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“Send me home.”

“That’s impossible,” he told her and went back to talking about the East versus the West.

Liz interrupted again. “It isn’t impossible. No one believes I’m a suitable princess. Why extend this torture for any of us? You don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be here and I can think of a whole list of people who don’t want me to be here. So let’s just call the whole thing off. Antar can claim that I wasn’t compatible with Zan. Bellaria still gets the aid it needs, and Antar has access to our resources.”

“You’ve got it all worked out don’t you?”

Liz nodded. “It’s a perfectly reasonable solution. Everyone wins.”

“I admit that your logic is impeccable princess, but I’m afraid that in this case it’s a bit faulty.” He didn’t bother to elaborate, instead he tried to refocus Liz’s attention on the history lesson he was giving.

“Where exactly is the ‘fault’ in my logic?” the look she gave him managed to be irritated and expectant all at once.

“Let’s get a few things straight, Princess, your job is to do everything you can to remain here so that you can meet your betrothed. Unless you do your job, Bellaria gets nothing…and Antar stands to lose out on potentially valuable resources. My job is to tutor you…to see if you are a fit princess for Zan. I can’t send you home without good reason. If you were incomprehensibly stupid….and maybe if you had continued to refuse to bathe I might have broken down and sent you straight back to Bellaria. But because you did give in and shower and because you are quite possibly the smartest woman I’ve ever met, I cannot in good conscience send you home. Any reasons for your dismissal at this point would be fabricated. That fabrication could be a political and public nightmare.”

“Well, now that you’ve set me straight, shall we get back to other, more enjoyable lectures?” She offered a fake smile as she began internally beating herself up. She should have held out on the no bathing thing. If she had she might have been enjoying a spa week with Maria on Earth instead of sitting in too close quarters with her infuriatingly handsome tutor.
*********

They were in the middle of Liz’s Antarian language lesson when Michael burst into the study. “Excuse me, Max, but your fa…” Michael’s words trailed off quickly as Max shot him a warning look.

Michael glanced at Liz. Her head was bent over as she concentrated intently on the book in front of her. She didn’t appear to have even noticed his entrance.

“Sorry,” He finally said. “The King is waiting to see you in his study. There is something urgent that he must discuss with you.”

Max nodded. “Thank you, Michael. I’ll be there momentarily. Let me finish up with Liz.” Max watched as Michael bowed briefly and then left quickly. Turning his attention back to Liz he found her looking at him.

“I guess your summons means that we’re done for the day,” Liz said with barely restrained relief.

For a moment, Max almost felt like he should cut her a little slack. He had been pushing her all afternoon and even though they were working through things at a rigorous pace, she was keeping up quite well. He was very tempted to give in to the pleading in her eyes and let her day be over with. That confused him; he wasn’t supposed to be giving into anything she wanted. He was supposed to be pushing her so hard that she would crack under the pressure but it wasn’t happening that way. He couldn’t understand just what it was about her that intrigued and infuriated him so. The fact that he was even intrigued was enough to cause the fury and the small amount of compassion Max had been feeling to vanish.

“Actually, the summons means that I am done for the day. You, however, have several things that need to be completed before you’re finished. First, I’d like you to review the language book through chapter 3. Then, go back over everything we discussed in the Antarian history lesson and be prepared to tell me exactly what was happening in Bellaria at the same time. I think that will be enough to keep you occupied for the rest of the afternoon.”

Liz was contemplating all of the time it would take to finish the assigned work and didn’t notice him slip out of the room before she was even able to comment.
She tried to restrain her anger. She should use that energy for finishing the work he had just assigned. He probably didn’t think she could get any of it done. Well, she would show him exactly what he was dealing with when it came to her. Liz Parker was not a quitter and she never backed down from a challenge.

*******
Max’s meeting with the King was short and to the point. His father needed him to free up his afternoons for an undisclosed period of time. Jim Valenti had arrived on Earth for the Confederation of Planets’ council meetings. They had established a satellite link to allow them to view the proceedings of each meeting, enabling them to give Jim immediate input on the decisions the council was making.

Phillip was now insisting the Max be present for all of these meetings.

“Father, I realize that the Confederation makes important decisions at these meetings, but I don’t see why I have to be there to watch the proceedings. You know that I’m dealing with other matters right now that…”

“You don’t have a choice in this Max. I need you here. You may have a different perspective when it comes to the issues that they’re bringing up. Also, it’s time you stepped more fully into your role as the future king. You’ve been groomed to be a Prince…someday you’ll be King and starting to learn the ropes now will only make the transition smoother,” Phillip told his son. “As for your other matters…find something else for your betrothed to do. I’ve been told that she’s not exactly what you were expecting. I’m surprised that you haven’t already sent her back.”

“I have to give her a fair chance. Besides, the girl’s smarter than anyone I’ve ever met before and I have a feeling that things will stay interesting as long she’s around.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Max wished he could retract them. For a moment he thought he saw a flash of amusement in his father’s eyes, but he decided to ignore it. “Although, I’m not sure what to do with her while I’m in the meetings.”

“Well, what kinds of things did your sister have to do? They would certainly frighten the poor girl, don’t you think? She’d run screaming if she thought she might turn out like that.”

Max couldn’t help but laugh at the idea. It actually had some merit.

********
“What?” Liz voiced with disbelief.

“It’s the next part of your tutoring. I won’t be instructing you, but I will be overseeing your progress.” Max explained.

“This is ridiculous. I already play the violin. Why do I have to take music lessons?” Liz asked.

“Princess Isabel enjoyed her music training extensively. I think that you will too. Now, since you already play the violin, I will cancel the piano lessons. However, you will still be required to take voice lessons as every good princess should be able to sing.” As Max spoke he almost thought he saw a glimmer of panic in Liz’s eyes.

“Can’t we negotiate on the voice lessons? I’m really not much of a singer and…”

“No. Your first music recital will be at the end of next week. You’ll have every afternoon to practice, so I expect that you will be well rehearsed. Any other questions?”

Liz shook her head. This was absolutely terrible. There was no way in hell that she was going to pass this test. She couldn’t carry a tune to save her life. Just wait until Maria heard about this.

Ten minutes later after Liz had finished telling Maria about her newest assignment, Maria couldn’t stop laughing.

“You…h-he wants y-you to sing?” More laughter ensued. “But you can’t sing!” she exclaimed. “It’s like listening to a wounded animal die!”

Maria’s laughter continued.

“Thanks for the support Maria. I was hoping that maybe you would help me,” Liz told her, a pleading look on her face.

Maria shook her head. “No…no way. I happen to value my hearing and I’d probably lose it if I tried to help out.”

“Maria…” Liz continued pleading.

“Oh, all right. Just stop with the puppy-dog face! I’ll do it, but don’t expect me to be happy about this.”

“Maria, you’re the best. I promise that I will make this worth your while as soon as we get out of this place.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

********

Two days later, Liz was rousted from her bed at what seemed to be an ungodly hour. Someone was banging loudly at her door.

She crawled out of bed and stumbled to the door. “What?” she growled as she opened the door to stop the banging.

With her eyes only slits, she was able to make out Max standing in the hallway looking irritatingly awake.

“Good morning, Liz. It’s time to get up. You’ve got a lesson today,” he informed her with that half smile, half smirk that Liz told herself was annoying and not sexy in any way.

“No I don’t. It’s Sunday. Even Antarians get Sundays off,” she told him grumpily.

“Normally I would agree with you. Not today, though. You need to come with me to meditation this morning. As Zan’s bride, you’ll be required to attend at least twice a month. Now, hurry up and get ready. We have to be there soon.” As he spoke Max pushed his way into the suite and made himself comfortable on the couch.

Liz stood next to the open door, still bleary eyed. She shook her head. She wasn’t awake enough to argue with Max this morning. She quickly went back to her room and pulled out overalls and a tank top. She hurriedly dressed and pulled her hair into a ponytail. Halfway out the door, she remembered her glasses.

“I’m ready.” She told Max as she stood in front of him.

Max looked at her, exasperation written all over his face. “You can’t wear that for meditation! And you weren’t gone long enough to have even brushed your teeth or washed your face.”

Liz let out an annoyed sigh. “Fine. You come pick out whatever you think will be appropriate for me to wear. I don’t care. I’ll brush my teeth while you’re doing that.”

Liz stalked off into the bathroom, leaving Max to sort through her clothes. He was surprised to find that the room was organized. Looking at Liz you would never guess that she was a bit of a neat freak. Max went to her closet and almost laughed out loud when he saw her clothes. They were a collection of some of the ugliest things he had ever seen, but at least they were separated by color. Her shoes were lined up neatly on the floor. Studying the contents of the closet carefully, Max finally made his selection.

He laid the clothes on the bed and waited for Liz to come out of the bathroom. He smiled when he suddenly heard the shower turn on.

Liz was only taking a shower because she didn’t want to listen to Max complain about her hygiene for the rest of the day. It had nothing to do with the fact that she’d finally woken up fully and realized just what she’d been doing. Antarian meditation was important. You didn’t show up looking like you just crawled out of bed. It had absolutely nothing to do with wanting to look decent for Max. No…that wasn’t it at all.

Ten minutes later, Liz walked out of the bathroom. She was only wearing a towel and was surprised to find Max sitting on her bed. “What are you doing in here?” she asked, startled.

“I wanted to be sure you put on the clothes I laid out.” He said, gesturing to what he’d set out for her. He was trying to keep his eyes trained on her face. But even that was proving distracting. She was surprisingly lovely. Her cheeks were flushed from the heat of the shower, her long hair hung damp and loose down her back. At the moment she was biting her lip in a completely endearing way. And her eyes were a deep brown that…

Wait a second. Her eyes…..they were the same color.

“Liz…your eyes...” Max started to say.

In response Liz’s eyes grew wide and Max could clearly see that he wasn’t mistaken. They were both brown. Not one brown and one green, but both brown.

“I thought…”

Liz didn’t let him finish. “Oh…my green eye…it well changes color. It’s sort of heat sensitive and that’s why it’s usually green….” Her voice trailed off. She knew it was a lame excuse but she didn’t know what else to say.

Max was about to comment when he noticed that her towel had started to slip. He swallowed hard. Liz sure hid a lot under the overalls she usually wore.

“Uhmm…you get dressed. I’ll just wait for you in the other room.” Max told her hastily as he backed out of the room.

Liz watched him leave and collapsed onto the bed as soon as the door shut behind him.

Oh god…that was close, she thought. Although she wasn’t sure if she was referring to him noticing her eyes or to the way he’d made her feel when he looked at her.

Ten minutes later, Liz had composed herself and donned the outfit Max had laid out for her. She was tempted to refuse to wear it. The white cotton drawstring pants couldn’t be worn with regular underwear and she hadn’t exactly brought along a thong. She was left with two choices, the first was to wear her red polka dot underwear, and the second was to wear no underwear at all. She’d decided on the red polka dots since they matched the red t-shirt he had set out.

When Liz finally walked out of the bedroom, Max couldn’t help but smile. This was the first time he had seen her wearing decent clothing. She really did have a nice little body. Why she insisted on hiding it with baggy overalls was a mystery to him. And that red t-shirt really complimented her skin tone. The more Max looked at her, the more he saw things that he liked. The red t-shirt was a little bit tight…but he wasn’t going to complain about that. The white pants fit snuggly and as they left the suite Max made sure that he was walking behind her. Not that he would ever admit it out loud, but Liz had a very nice rear end. A rear end that was currently sporting red polka dots.
Max couldn’t believe what he was seeing at first. Had she really been stupid enough to wear red polka dot panties underneath white pants?

“Max…are you staring at my ass?” Liz asked. She had stopped walking when she realized that Max was still behind her.

Max’s gaze quickly shot up from wear it had been focused. “Uhm…no…I wasn’t staring per say, just wondering if you realized that you could see your underwear through your pants.”

Liz smirked and pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Yeah, I know. I thought the red polka dots would match my shirt.”

Max nodded. Of course, that made perfect sense. The polka dots on her underwear matched the red shirt. Max sighed out loud. What had he gotten himself into? There was no way he could spend the morning meditating with Liz if all he could think about was her underwear. He didn’t have a choice though.

“There isn’t time for you to go back and change….hopefully no one will notice,” he stated, taking her arm to lead her to the temple.

“Oh…well, it wouldn’t do any good to change. My only other choice was to wear nothing underneath….I figured the polka dots were the lesser of two evils.”

Max almost tripped over his own feet. Catching himself, he continued to pull Liz along to the temple, cursing himself and her the entire way. The faster they got there, the faster he could ask forgiveness for his lustful thoughts and could make peace with the fact that he just might have underestimated Princess Liz.

AN: Thank you every one for all the fabulous feedback! It means a lot to me. Especially since this story is such a departure from my other work. (Stories that I am currently working on, just in case you're wondering) This next part is sort of transitional... more fun to come. Thanks for reading...I'd love to hear what you think!
Carey



Chapter 5

Sunday, Lunchtime after Meditation.

Liz couldn’t stop giggling. The squishing sound that followed each step Max made was only making it worse. Max glowered at Liz, who tried valiantly, but without success, to keep a straight face.

“Stop laughing,” he told her. “You got us kicked out of the temple in the middle of the meditation.”

“I’m not the one who fell into the ‘Pond of Tranquility’. That was all you,” Liz said defensively even as she fought back more laughter. Seeing Max fall in the water was probably the funniest thing she had ever seen.

“I wouldn’t have fallen in the water if you would have just sat still. You kept drawing attention to us with your incessant talking and the way you kept squirming around and…” Max was fuming. He’d never been so embarrassed in his entire life. One minute he’d been trying to get Liz to stay put and the next he’d found himself going headfirst into the shallow pond.

“I should have pulled you in with me,” he told her as he started to walk away. His khakis were still dark from being wet. His shoes were making squeaky noises as he walked and the water that leaked out of them left a trail behind him. He’d tried to wring out his shirt but it was still dripping.

As Liz watched him walk away she couldn’t help but admire the way his wet pants molded to his butt and muscular thighs. She sighed. It should be illegal to be that good looking. Noticing that Max was way ahead of her, she sprinted to catch up.

“I said I was sorry Max. I’ve never been in an Antarian temple before. Maybe you should have taught me the procedures before you forced me to go,” she pointed out.

She received another glare. “How hard is it to sit still and pray? Excuse me for thinking you were intelligent enough to pick up on something that simple without needing to be coached.”

“There’s no need to get snippy…” Liz said defensively. It was his fault that she’d been unable to sit still anyway. When they had sat down, he’d had to show her how to assume the meditation posture. His hands had been all over her as he’d tried to shaper her body into the correct position. First he’d moved her legs so that they were in lotus position, but as soon as that had happened, she’s started to flail about because she couldn’t stay balanced. Then his hands had been at her hips trying to keep her steady. The whole time Liz was trying desperately to ignore the dirty thoughts that had been seeping into her head. They were in a temple…it was certainly not the right time for lust to rear its head. Things had been uneventful for almost an hour when Liz had opened her eyes to find Max sitting next to hear, he was breathing deeply and looked completely relaxed. She didn’t think it would be wrong to sit there watching him, but when he’d opened his eyes, he startled her which knocked her off balance again. When he’d gone to reach for her, she had moved to try to rebalance herself. They were sitting close to the “Pond of Tranquility” at the time and Liz’s move had sent Max off balance so that he’d fallen practically head first into the pool. The temple priests hadn’t been very understanding.



Their argument continued as they made their way back to Liz’s room. Max wasn’t about to let her go back alone. Who knew what kind of trouble she might get herself into if left unescorted? When they reached the door to Liz’s suite, they were still arguing.

“So are you sending me home now?” Liz asked. The hopeful look in her eyes was enough to further piss Max off.

“No. I’ll be damned if I send you home before you can actually behave like a real princess.” He was just mad enough to do exactly the opposite of whatever Liz wanted.

“Fine! I’m not ready to go home anyway. I’d like nothing better than to stay and make your life a living hell!” Liz told him, her voice rising as her anger grew.

“Do your worst. We’ll see who makes whose life hell!” Max yelled back.

They were still standing there, glaring at each other, their faces red with fury when the door to the suite flew open.

“We thought it might be you guys. Come on in. Lunch is ready,” Maria informed them. Michael stepped out behind her. When he caught sight of Max his eyes grew wide.

“What the hell happened to you, Maxwell?”

Liz spoke up before Max had a chance. “Max is a little bit clumsy and he fell into the ‘Pond of Tranquility’ at the temple.”

Michael burst out laughing. “Well, I guess that explains the whole drowned rat look. Are you two hungry? The cook sent up a special Sunday meal.”

“I’ll just go change first,” Max said coolly and after throwing another glare in Liz’s direction he left to go to his suite.

When his back was turned Liz stuck her tongue out at him. She knew it was childish but didn’t really care. He deserved it for being a big…no make that gigantic…jerk!

“I saw that!” He hollered over his shoulder.

Cheeks red from embarrassment at being caught Liz stalked into the suite.

*******
Lunch was relatively quiet for the most part. Michael and Maria carried the whole conversation as Max and Liz made a point to avoid each other. Of course in their attempts to ignore each other as much as possible, they weren’t paying attention to what was apparently going on between Michael and Maria.

“Are they even listening to anything we’re saying?” Maria asked her voice lowered to a whisper as she leaned toward Michael. Max had just made a remark that Liz didn’t appreciate and now she was sitting there talking to herself about hearing things.

“I could have sworn someone just said something. It had the most annoying tone in its voice…”

Maria rolled her eyes. She’d never seen Liz behaving so childishly.

Max wasn’t any better than Liz. When Liz made a point to look anywhere but at him, he used his spoon to shoot grapes at her head. The first time he missed, but the second time his aim was true and he got her right between the eyes when she looked in his direction.

Michael was at a loss. He’d never before witnessed Max behaving that way. It was downright funny.

“Do you think we should play mediators?” he asked Maria.

She shook her head. “Nah….I haven’t had this much entertainment in a long time. Liz is making an ass of herself.”

Of course Liz had to prove Maria right as she and Max got into a food fight right then and there. Fruit was flying everywhere and pretty soon the main course was being flung across the table.

“I don’t think we should get in the way of this,” Maria said seriously as she ducked a stray carrot. “Maybe they need to fight things out.”

Michael nodded. “I agree. What do you say to a swim?”

For a second Maria looked surprised. Michael was actually being nice. There was no way should could pass up that opportunity. She agreed quickly. Both she and Michael got up from the table without being noticed by the dueling royals and went to change for swimming.

Time didn’t seem to exist and the food fight went on and on until there was nothing left. Well, that’s not exactly true. All of the food was there; it was just covering Max and Liz now.

“Truce!” Max finally called out as Liz decided to start throwing utensils in the absence of food.

She held the spoon close to her. “Are you serious?”

Max gave her an exasperated look. “Yes, I’m serious. Enough’s enough.”

They stared at each other, both taking in the damage they had inflicted.

Simultaneously they burst out laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” Liz got out between spurts of uncontrollable guffaws.

“Because you look ridiculous!” Max said with a grin. “You’ve got a kiwi in your hair.”

“Well, you’ve guacamole in your ear!” Liz retorted.

The laughter started again and continued until they heard the loud clearing of someone’s throat.

Both looked toward the source and found Isabel standing in the doorway.

“Max…I…you have a visitor. She’s waiting for you in your suite,” Isabel informed him trying valiantly not to laugh.

Liz’s eyebrow arched. She? Now this was an interesting development.

“Who is it, Isabel?” Max asked.

“It’s Ava Harding. She’s insisting the she see you. She’s worried because she hasn’t seen Zan for several weeks.”

Max cringed. Damn. Ava Harding. She was definitely the last person he wanted to see right now.

“Oh. Well, tell her that I’ll be there shortly. I just need to ….clean up a bit,” he said looking down at the mess that his clothes had become. He glanced over at Liz and saw that she was glaring at him. He did a double take. What was she upset about now? One minute they were laughing and now she looked like she wanted to kill him.

“So…I guess since Zan’s not around you have to pick up his trash…I mean slack,” Liz said, giving him a sweetly fake smile.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“Oh nothing. Enjoy your meeting with Ava.” With that Liz walked inside to her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her.

“What did you do to piss her off?” Isabel asked with an amused smile.

Max shrugged. “I’m breathing. I think that’s enough.”

*********

Liz refused to come out of her room for the rest of the day. She explained as calmly as possible that she had experienced enough humiliation for one day, Thank you very much, and didn’t feel like being in anybody’s company.

Maria decided to forget about her moody friend. She really didn’t care what Liz did, one way or the other. She was enjoying her time with Michael too much to spend the day worrying about Liz. So Maria left Liz to pout or whatever it was she was doing.

Inside her spacious room Liz was pacing back and forth as she fumed. What was Ava Harding doing with Max? Everyone in the solar system knew that she was trying to get into Zan’s pants in the worst way. The way those two were always pictured together Liz had little doubt that Ava had already accomplished the task. So why Max? Why would she think he knew anything about Zan? He was just the tutor; wouldn’t Michael be a better person to ask information of Zan’s whereabouts?

Still angry, Liz started to pull out her suitcases. This was all ludicrous. The charade had gone on long enough. She was starting to feel things that she shouldn’t be feeling and things were getting out of hand. There was no reason for her to stay anymore…she wasn’t going to pass Max’s tests anyway because he obviously didn’t want her to. There was also a good chance that Bellaria wouldn’t get the aid it needed whether she passed all the tests or not, whether Zan wanted her or not. It didn’t even matter; she just couldn’t force herself to continue as she was.

Liz began to pack all of her things very carefully. She started at one end of the closet and worked her way to the other, folding everything neatly and precisely to help optimize her packing space. Her anger began to fade with each article of clothing she placed in the suitcase. It would all be over with soon, she told herself.

Her clothes were packed in no time at all and Liz wasted no time in finding her communicator and contacting Alex. She quickly dialed in the code for Ambassador Whitman’s suite. When the code went through Liz waited patiently until a response was given. She was surprised by the female voice she heard in the background when Alex finally answered.

“Alex, its Liz. I want you to arrange transport back to Bellaria as soon as possible,” she told him.

“What…I mean what for?” was Alex’s startled reply.

A female voice could still be heard whispering in the background. It sounded familiar but Liz knew it wasn’t Maria. Shrugging, she tried to respond to Alex. She had more important things to worry about Alex’s female visitor.

“I’ve had it with this place, Alex. Max can just kiss my ass. I don’t need to put up with this anymore.”

“Liz,” Alex interrupted before she could go into full out rant mode. “Don’t make any hasty decisions just because Max pissed you off. Take some time and cool down…”

“This isn’t a hasty decision. If I have to tell him the Antarian way to say hello one more time, I’m going to go nuts. I’m not cut out to be Zan’s princess. I want to go back to Bellaria. Now, are you going to do as I asked or should I just take care of it myself?”

There was an extended silence before Alex spoke. “I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not making any promises. Tomorrow will be the earliest that I can do anything.”

“All I’m asking is that you try,” Liz said, her voice much more calm. With that she disconnected the communicator.

Alex stared at his communicator in stunned silence. Shaking his head he quickly punched in a code. He was answered immediately and he quickly relayed this new development. “We have a problem, your majesty. I’m not sure how to deal with this.” he explained.

Alex’s guest raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in question when she heard his statement.

Alex sighed. Great. This was just great.
*********


Liz slept soundly that night and when she woke up the next morning she felt refreshed and excitement. This was a new day and she was finally going home. She dressed quickly, still not caring about her appearance. It was one more day of deception, but she really didn’t care because it was the last.

She went to meet Max for lessons as usual and actually smiled when he showed up, even though he was ten minutes late. She certainly didn’t care if he wasted their lesson time.

Max was unsure how to interpret Liz’s smiles and her immediate acquiescence when he got to the study that morning. She usually had several sarcastic remarks to relay along with her acid glares. Maybe she had decided to take their truce from the day before seriously. Of course that didn’t mean that she wasn’t up to something.

Almost an hour into their lesson for the day, Liz found herself getting extremely bored. She didn’t really care about Antar’s 91st king. He was dead; she was never going to meet him.

Max was speaking; his voice was weaving a spell over her. She usually fought hard to ignore the way his voice sounded like liquid heat, floating over her senses, making her keenly aware of his masculinity. But today was the last day she’d ever hear it, so she might as well soak it in and enjoy. With her chin propped up by her hand, Liz took the opportunity to admire Max openly.

She let out a soft sigh. He was probably one of the best looking men she’d ever seen…the sexiest too. She wouldn’t mind seeing him naked that was for sure. The errant thought made her blush. She’d never really been physically attracted to someone before. In all her time on Earth she had focused on her studies to the exclusion of any romantic relationships.

As Liz’s thoughts wandered, Max finally looked up from his notes to Liz’s gaze fixed dazedly on him. It was almost appraising and he watched with amusement as her cheeks turned a very becoming shade of pink.

“See anything you like?” he asked with a half smile, his voice gently teasing.

Liz’s response surprised him.

Her cheeks flushed even more, but rather than be embarrassed she offered Max a lazy smile and said “Maybe,” the teasing in her voice evident.

Max’s eyebrows raised in response to her flirtation. Just what exactly was going on?

Liz studied him carefully for a moment. She had nothing to lose, she decided, so she might as well just say what was on her mind. “Tell me about Zan, Max.” she said suddenly. Her hand was no longer propping up her chin. It was lying on the table, dangerously close to his own and getting increasingly closer.

“Why do you want to know about Zan?” Max asked warily, his eyes watched as Liz’s fingers brushed casually against his. He cleared his throat, hoping to dislodge the lump that had suddenly formed. This Liz - with her thick glasses and sloppy clothes - was seducing him, whether she realized it or not and damned if he wasn’t getting aroused just from the brush of her hand.

“He’s such an enigma,” she said softly, her eyes trying to meet Max’s as her fingers continued to brush lightly over the back of his hand. “I can’t believe that he’s not the least bit curious about me.” Her index finger began a slow deliberate movement from the knuckle of Max’s middle finger to his wrist.

Max fought the urge to react in any way to Liz’s ministrations. He wouldn’t pull his hand away….he wanted to see just what she was doing.

He cleared his throat again before answering Liz’s question. “He wants you to fulfill all of the requirements for Antar’s princess before he meets you. It’s a way to keep him from becoming attached to you,” Max told her. Blood was pounding in his ears and Max was amazed that all it had taken was the seductive lilt of Liz’s voice and her light caress to stir his libido. He didn’t understand why he was responding to her that way.

“Are you sure Zan doesn’t just want more time with his fuck buddy Ava?” She asked her face deceptively innocent as she asked the question. Her fingers were now pressed firmly over Max’s pulse.

Max narrowed his eyes at her, his temper flaring slightly at the vulgar accusation. “Contrary to popular belief, Zan is not involved with Ava Harding. She is definitely not his ‘fuck buddy’ as you so crudely put it.”

“Oooh….getting a little defensive aren’t we? Maybe Ava’s your fu….” The rest of the sentence was mumbled through Max’s hand as it covered Liz’s mouth.

“Ava Harding is nothing to me either. Now, are you going to keep using profanity or can I remove my hand.”

Liz nodded and Max’s hand moved away slowly, making her glasses slide down her nose. For a second he could have sworn that Liz licked him. He shook his head…no…she wouldn’t have done that.

“So if nothing is going on with Ava, is there some other woman he’s involved with?” Liz asked.

Max sighed. “No. He’s not involved with another woman.” He was getting tired of these questions. Maybe he ought to cancel the rest of their lessons for the day. She could just go to her voice lesson that afternoon.

“Is that a subtle way of saying that Zan’s gay?” Liz asked seriously.

Max nearly choked on his own saliva. Sitting up ramrod straight in his chair, he looked Liz in the eye. “No. He is NOT gay! Why would you even say that?”

“It’s just that he’s rumored to be this…Casanova and yet he’s not even seeing anybody,” she explained with a shrug. “Besides, Ava Harding is a bitch. If he’s as smart as everyone says he’d know better than to be seen with that tramp unless she was a cover of some kind.”

“Gee, Liz, tell me what you really think. Go on, don’t hold anything back,” he said sarcastically.

“Funny, Max. Really.” She threw him a glare.

Max bit back a smile…now there was the Liz he was used to.

“Listen, if it will ease your mind, I can assure you that the rumor’s about Prince Zan and his assorted affairs are grossly exaggerated. He’s looking for the real thing, not some vapid blond with fake breasts.”

Liz laughed. “Ha! I knew Ava’s breasts couldn’t be real?”

Max fought off his own laughter, but he couldn’t contain his grin. Composing himself quickly, he looked at Liz with a serious expression on his face. “Let’s get back to our lessons for today. We can save any other questions for later.”

Liz nodded. She guessed it was okay. She didn’t have anywhere else to be until Alex got in touch with her. It wouldn’t be a complete waste to sit there with Max and admire his sexiness.

AN: Thanks for all of the GREAT feedback! It makes working on this story a lot of fun. For those of you wondering about other stories, namely Right Kind of Wrong, the update is that I'm having problems writing the next part. It's just not flowing right. If anyone would like to read it and give me suggestions for what to do next, I would appreciate it. Thanks! Also, be sure you check out the AN at the end of the post. Again, you are all awesome! Enjoy the part! Carey





Chapter 6

As the morning wore on it became increasingly apparent that Liz’s mind was on something else. Every time Max glanced over at her she was doing something to purposely distract him. At first she was staring at him under the pretense of paying attention as she absently twirled a long strand of dark hair that had come undone from her ponytail. There wasn’t any reason for the innocent action to be construed as distracting and it wouldn’t have been except that it made Max think about how her hair looked when she left it loose and flowing over her shoulders like a chocolate waterfall. His fingers itched to touch the strands she toyed with so he could ascertain whether it felt as silky as it appeared. He worked hard to recover from that particular fantasy only to be further inspired by the strawberry lip gloss Liz began to apply. His mind, being on the track that it was, began to wonder just how those lips would taste. Strawberry was the obvious choice but what if she had her own distinct taste? He wanted to find out.

Max shook his head to dispel the images that formed in his mind. No. He couldn’t think like that. It was Liz. She was brilliant and even funny but certainly not sexy….he refused to delude himself into thinking that Liz, with her glasses and wrinkled clothes, was sexy. There were limits, after all. He’d have to be half in love with her before he could get past something like that….

He was distracted from his thoughts again as Liz shifted loudly in her chair and proceeded to stretch; rolling her shoulders first, then her neck, while small sighs of appreciation escaped from the back of her throat.

Was it just him or did the room seem a little warm today?

Liz’s arms stretched out above her head with her hands clasped together as she leaned back. This small action displayed her breasts quite prominently. Max’s mouth dropped open as he watched her back arch and listened to her little mewling noises. His eyes were drawn to her chest where the small, firm breasts were outlined. His brain registered that there was a very apparent lack of a support garment underneath the shirt. As if to confirm this thought, twin nipples pebbled, causing the fabric of the shirt to pucker. At this point all the blood in Max’s head rushed straight to his groin.

He sat completely still. He was afraid that if he moved his body would betray him with the very telling erection that he was now sporting.

His thoughts began to clear a little when the stretching session ended and Liz straightened herself out in her chair. Then Liz offered him an innocent smile and Max knew that he wasn’t going to like what was coming.

“You know what I’ve always wondered?” she asked.

“No, I don’t and I’d rather you didn’t enlighten me,” he told her quickly. He didn’t think he could handle any more of Liz like this. It was like she was a completely different person.

Liz glared at him.

“I’m going to tell you anyway. I’ve always wondered if stretching really well, you know… like I just did, is what an orgasm feels like. I mean, that feels reeaaaally good and an orgasm is supposed to feel good…”

The pencil Max had been holding snapped in two.

His voice was strained when he spoke next. “Liz, lessons are over for today. Don’t forget your music lesson this afternoon.” With that he shot up from his chair trying to leave quickly and put as much distance between himself and Liz as possible.

Liz sat there, surprised by Max’s quick retreat. What was that about? Shaking her head she hollered after him. “Max! Wait! Just wait a second….”

Very reluctantly, he stopped and turned around to face her, his book placed strategically in front of the tent in his pants.

“What?”

Liz walked up to him, her eyes locked on his. “I….there’s something that I’ve been thinking about and….I wanted to be sure that I didn’t leave this place without doing something about it at least once.” She was right in front of him, so close that he could feel her body heat. She inched closer, her chest brushing against his abdomen. Standing up on her tiptoes she licked her lips and quickly pressed them to his. She wasn’t even sure if she was doing this right. She’d never kissed a man before. Her doubts receded gradually as she felt the pressure of Max’s lips. He was returning the kiss.

Max knew he shouldn’t, but he felt himself responding to Liz immediately. The book he’d been using to guard himself dropped to floor and his hands moved to touch her. Her hair…he wanted to touch her hair and so his right hand trailed a path up the slope of Liz’s neck until his fingers had successfully removed the elastic, effectively releasing her hair and allowing his fingers to sift through its softness.

Liz sighed. She had never imagined it could be like this. His kisses were warm and wet and she felt his tongue on the crease between her lips urging her mouth open. She complied and was surprised as his tongue pushed into her mouth, sweeping over her own tongue. For a second she wasn’t sure what to do, but began to mimic his actions causing Max to moan.

The kiss went on, becoming more heated and the couple was so lost in each other that they didn’t hear the door to the study open. It wasn’t until a throat cleared very loudly that they pulled apart both breathing hard.

“What was that?” Max asked, completely blown away by what he had just felt. He looked at her and it was almost like he was seeing her for the first time…she was, despite the crooked glasses, beautiful and…

Liz had a hard time composing herself and when Max asked his question she wasn’t sure what to say. “It was supposed to be goodbye,” she told him somewhat breathlessly.

A throat cleared again, and both Max and Liz immediately felt the heat of their kiss become the heat of embarrassment.

Alex stood there trying to keep the amused look off his face. “Sorry to interrupt, but I’m hear to speak with the princess.”

Max nodded.

Alex paused, waiting for Max to leave. When he didn’t, Alex decided it would probably be best to have a witness in the room when he told Liz the news, anyway. He wanted to be sure that he got out alive.

“Uh…Liz…about the ….uh request you made last night, well…I’ve spoken to your father and to King Phillip as well and it’s been denied. You’re not allowed to leave and orders have been given to arrest anyone that would help you.”

“What? No! That’s….that’s not fair! I don’t want to stay….oh God! I just kissed him because I thought I was leaving!” Liz ranted.

Max wasn’t sure whether to be amused or upset by this turn of events.

“Oh God! This is so humiliating!” Liz mumbled into her hands. Why is it that her plans always had to backfire?
*********


“Hello, Maria,” Max greeted as she let him into the suite.

“Hey, Max.” She eyed him carefully. “If you’re here to see Liz, she won’t come out of her room. She hasn’t all afternoon. Not even for voice lessons.”

Max bit back a smile. “I did come to see her, but I can’t say that I’m surprised. There was an incident after lessons today and I think she’s a little embarrassed.”

“Try A LOT embarrassed Max!” was yelled through the door of Liz’s bedroom.

Max smiled. “Is she listening at her door?” he asked Maria.

Maria nodded. “She won’t come out, she won’t let me go in but she does expect me to talk to her through the door. She’s been moving stuff around in there all afternoon. I don’t know if she’s just working off steam or what. She was mad about something last night and wouldn’t come out then either. I just assumed you had pissed her off or something,” Maria told him with a shrug.

“Why is it always my fault?” Max asked. “If Liz would just cooperate, we wouldn’t be having nearly so many problems.”

“I do cooperate!” Liz yelled defensively.

Max rolled his eyes. “As I was saying…there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It was a kiss…she doesn’t need to be so upset!”

Maria’s eyes got huge. “A kiss? Liz…and you? Ohmigod! She didn’t say anything? How did it happen?”

“Max…don’t you dare tell her!” came through the door.

“I guess Liz thought she was going home and she wanted to kiss me before she left. I can’t say that I wasn’t surprised. Anyway…Alex walked in and witnessed it and then informed Liz that she couldn’t leave even if she wanted to.”

Maria’s hand flew over her mouth in an attempt to suppress her surprised laughter.

“I can’t believe she did that!” she finally exclaimed. “She’s never kissed anybody before. I wonder why she picked you to be the first?” That last statement was sort of off hand as though Maria was really just wondering out loud.

“Maria, SHUT UP! Stop talking about me!”

“Liz, if you’re going to yell at me, come out and do it to my face. You’re being difficult and if you won’t come out here and stop me, I’m just going to keep talking.” Maria yelled back.

“You know what I think? Let her stay in there for awhile. You and I should talk, Maria. I think that I could learn a lot from you,” Max told her with a lowered voice. “Why don’t you join me for a walk, Maria? I know a perfect spot to sit and talk.” He said, raising his voice a little. “Liz do you want to come?” he asked.

“I’d sooner eat off the bathroom floor!”

“Suit yourself. Shall we Maria?” Max extended his arm and let Maria out the door.

He took her down to the kitchen. The cook had retired for the evening and so he felt free to scrounge around for some kind of snack. “Ice cream?” he asked Maria.

“Sure, what do you got? Any Ben and Jerry’s?”

Max looked in the large freezer. He spotted the carton in the back. “It’s something called Phish food?”

“That would be it! God, I’ve missed real ice cream!” she exclaimed, practically ripping it from Max’s hands.

He gave her a funny look. “What’s wrong with our ice cream?”

“Uhm…hello? Ice cream is supposed to be sweet, not spicy. The stuff you make here tastes like there’s Tabasco sauce in it.”

“Hmm, I guess I never thought about it. Earth does have fairly bland food. What do you eat then?” he’d never realized how different things must be for them here. Liz was probably more accustomed to Earth foods than to those of her own planet.

“Oh…well, somehow Alex arranged for the cook to prepare a separate menu. It’s what you guys have only…bland, I guess. But…I’ve got to give you props for the B and J’s. I haven’t had this in forever.” Maria said with a smile as she took her spoon and tucked into the pint.

Max watched Maria with amusement for a moment before finding his own pint of ice cream to enjoy.

They ate silently for a few minutes. Maria was too busy savoring the taste of the chocolate, marshmallow and caramel to even consider talking.

Max spoke up first. “Okay….you and Liz have been friends for a long time. Explain her to me.”

Maria laughed. “I can’t just sum her up in one sentence, if that’s what you’re asking me to do. She’s too complex.”

“I’ve noticed,” Max mumbled between spoonfuls.

“I’ll cut you some slack because for some reason, you really get on her nerves,” Maria told him.

“Thank you, I’d appreciate it. Let’s start with why she’s opposed to marrying Zan.”

“Oh…that’s easy. She doesn’t want to marry him because she doesn’t love him. She’s only ever seen pictures and that wasn’t much to recommend him to her.”

“I can understand that,” Max said. “That’s Zan’s number one reason for being unsure about the union. The love thing, that is, he’s never actually seen pictures of Liz.”

“So what do you think about it? It’s hard to believe that this kind of arranged marriage even exists these days.”

Max shrugged. “I can see why it’s important as far as interplanetary alliances go, but I don’t feel that it should be forced. Love is important too.”

“Good. I’m glad you feel that way, because that means you understand how Liz feels. I can’t imagine being in her position. Do you know that she’s never had any privacy? Every time she goes out, there are paparazzi around trying to take her pictures. And there used to be all sorts of rumors about guys. The funniest thing about those was that Liz never met half of the people they had her connected with. It really bothered her and after awhile, she stopped going places and her sole focus became studying. She decided that if she was ever going to have a relationship the guy would have to be ‘the one’ you know? Of course, I’ve always told her that she’d never meet ‘the one’ if she didn’t get her nose out from whatever book she had it buried in.”

“I can speak for Zan and say that he feels the same way. He gets tired of paparazzi and constantly being watched. He and Liz probably have a lot in common.”

Maria snorted. “Nope, no way. Zan doesn’t have a snow cone’s chance in hell with Liz. Especially not after the way he was portrayed in some of those magazines. In fact, there was one picture that she thought was absolutely disgusting. She ranted about Zan for about an hour after seeing it. She said he looked like a degenerate slob. Plus Ava was glued to his side as usual so Liz went on and on about how pathetic it was for him to think that because he was a prince he could just crawl out of bed and flaunt his skanky girlfriend to the all of the allied worlds. She thinks he’s a pig.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Liz of all people should know how pictures can be deceiving. I know exactly which one you’re talking about. Zan took a lot of flak about it from his father. The truth was he’d just returned from a military camp in Antar’s Southern province. Ava was there when his helicopter landed. She’s always sniffing out photo opportunities.” Max paused. He was a little unsettled by all of this talk of photos. Liz had obviously seen pictures of him in tabloids. What if she recognized him? He shook his head. If she hadn’t figured it out yet, then he didn’t really think she was going to. He decided that the safest bet would be to shift the subject.

“So, what exactly does Liz have against Avaria Harding?”

“She thinks that Ava is a BBB with FB,” Maria explained with a smirk.

“And what does that mean?”

“Blonde Brainless Bitch with Fake Breasts.”

Max fought back a chuckle “Okay…and how did she draw this conclusion?”

“They had some sort of run in when Liz was in High School. Liz was younger than most of the other kids at the boarding school because she was so smart. I guess Ava said some mean things about Liz’s lack of development. Liz has hated her every since then.”

There’s nothing wrong with Liz’s development, Max thought to himself, an image of her stretching earlier that afternoon came to mind.

“What did you just say?” Maria asked.

Max felt his face grow warm. Had he said that out loud?

“Nothing. Just talking to myself. So…uhm…do you think that there’s anything I can do to make things easier for Liz?” He tried to do another subject change. This conversation with Maria needed to stay focused.

Maria looked at Max, studying him closely. “I think that, even though you two disagree, that you like each other. Just be her friend. Things will go a lot more smoothly.”

Max nodded. There was more silence. “So…Phish food….there’s not really fish in that is there?”

*************
Liz didn’t dare leave the sanctuary of her room until she was sure that Max and Maria were gone. She was going a little stir crazy just sitting in the room like that. Being stubborn was only fun for so long. She had finished unpacking all of her things sometime mid afternoon. When she had finished with that, she had studied everything that she put off because she thought she was leaving. She was trying to keep herself busy for one very good reason. She didn’t want to think about that kiss with Max.

Of course remembering the kiss was not necessarily a bad thing. Even though Liz didn’t have much experience, she knew that it had been something…special. She shook her head at that. Maybe special wasn’t the right word. All she really knew was that Max was probably considered an excellent kisser. It had been everything she always wanted her first kiss to be. It was just too bad that now she had to see Max every single day and pretend that she hadn’t thrown herself at him like some Tess* in heat.

Liz decided to relax in the sitting room for a while; maybe catch up on some reading while she waited to see what Maria had to say about talking with Max. She tried concentrating…honestly she did, but it just wasn’t working.

What was taking them so long? They’d been gone for almost an hour. That could mean several things. First, that Max was pumping Maria for information. If this was true then Liz was worried Maria might spill the beans on Liz’s little plan. Another scenario was that Maria was trying to get Max to talk. In which case, Liz would be able to learn a bunch of juicy details about Max’s life. Maria wouldn’t be able to keep that kind of conversation to herself. The final possibility…Max and Maria were off in some dark secluded spot, getting it on. Far fetched, yes…possible…maybe. Max had singled Maria out and kissed her hand when they first met. He was also always nice to Maria. It could mean that he liked her. It could also mean that he’s polite. But if that were the case, then why didn’t he ever treat her like that?

Her thoughts rambled on and on like that as she kept her anxious vigil. She was pacing back and forth in front of the large marble fireplace when she heard voices outside the door. Scrambling over to the chair, she sat down and opened her book and tried to look engrossed in the chapter.

The door to the suite opened and Maria walked in. Liz didn’t look up…she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of being interested. She heard Maria tell Max she had a good time and that they should do it again sometime.

Well, wasn’t that just sweet, Liz thought sarcastically.

When Maria closed the door, Liz kept her head down, rereading the same sentence over and over.

Maria walked over and stood in front of Liz’s chair. She stood there, foot tapping waiting for Liz to acknowledge that she was there.

Finally Liz looked up. “Oh, Maria…When did you get back? I was so engrossed in my reading that….”

“Cut the crap Liz. I know you; you were waiting up for me. Now…let me just get right down to the crux of the matter. Max talked about you the whole time. Even when the subject wasn’t directly about you, somehow you always found your way back into the conversation.” Maria plopped down onto the couch across from Liz’s chair and put her feet up on the coffee table. “I would almost hazard the guess that Max has a little crush on you Liz, bad glasses and all. What do you think about that?”

“What? No way! Max doesn’t like me. He- he just puts up with me because he has to. He’s never really nice to me and he yells at me all the time like I can’t do anything right. There’s no way he could like me, I mean…it’s not like it could even go anywhere anyway…especially when he’s tutoring me so I can marry Zan. I mean…that’s just heartbreak waiting to happen.”

“Liz…sweetheart, this is what happens when people are attracted to each other. It’s not something you can control because of the circumstances at the time. It’s not wrong for you to be attracted to Max. You spend a lot of time with him. I mean aside from Alex, he’s the only male that you’ve really had an extended amount of contact with. It’s perfectly natural for you to develop a crush. The same goes for him. He’s with you constantly…and you’ve got a great personality and you’re smart. He’s big into the smart thing. It’s just a passing infatuation. It’s perfectly healthy and natural.” Maria told her friend. She liked to think she had more relationship experience and could therefore dole
out heaps of advice to people like Liz who were totally clueless.

“Are you saying that the only reason we’re attracted to each other is because we have to spend so much time together?”

“Aha! So you admit it, you are attracted to him!”

“Maria!”

“Sorry. I guess what I’m saying is…don’t analyze this to death, Liz. Just go with the flow. You don’t have a whole lot of other options at this point anyway. Try to be friends with Max. Maybe it will ease some of the tension.”

Liz nodded. Friendly. She could do that. No problem.

“Okay…so listen to this. Max took me down to the kitchen and they have a whole stash of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. That means that you and I can have our weekly ice cream and gabfest. We’ll have to go next week, sometime after ten pm. I think most of the staff is gone by then….”

Liz sat there, nodding in all the right places as she only pretended to listen to what Maria was saying. Right now her mind was too busy thinking about Max. How was she going to act around him now? She had some serious decisions to make about how to approach the rest of her stay on Antar.

TBC.....

AN: If you noticed an * earlier in the reading, than you also probably noticed the word that it went with. For the purposes of this story the word Tess is going to be the Antarian word for Bitch. I forgot to mention it earlier and I didn't think it would be proper for Liz's tutor to teach her that word during their lessons!

Chapter 7

It took Liz almost a full week to get over her embarrassment with Max. Now she was more perturbed than anything because Max seemed to just brush off the incident, acting as if absolutely nothing had happened. Obviously the kiss hadn’t meant anything to him. Seeing that, Liz quickly decided that it would mean nothing to her as well.

Even though the kiss had apparently left Max and Liz unaffected they both found themselves thinking of it. Liz wondered if all kisses were like that- fiery and all consuming to the point where the outside world simply ceased to exist, even in the peripheral. Max pondered the spark- the connection- he had experienced in that moment. The way it had felt so perfectly natural to kiss Liz. It had been unlike any other kiss he’d ever had. These thoughts were buried in the recesses of their minds, not contemplated during the day but rather pondered over at night when sleep proved elusive.

Max found himself watching Liz at odd moment when he didn’t think she would notice. He was drawn to her in a way that was both intriguing and upsetting. Although Max hated to admit it, there was something about her… something that had grabbed a hold of his attention and refused to let it go.

Thursday of that week, odd feelings aside, Max decided to stop in and check on Liz during her voice lesson. It had nothing to do with wanting to see her. That would be ridiculous because they had spent the entire morning together reviewing the Antarian language. His visit was necessary because he it was his job to keep informed of her progress at all times.

The music room was situated in the East wing of the castle, near the servant’s quarters. It was a bit out of the way so the visit was hardly casual. Max had a good excuse; he wanted a progress report.

As he approached, he could hear the faint sounds of the piano accompanied by some mumbled words. The voice was low and Max assumed that it was the voice tutor giving instruction. The piano played on and just as Max was reaching for the door handle to let himself in he heard the most god awful sound. Something was dying in there; there was no other way to describe the off key screeching emitted from the other side of the door.

Cringing, Max stood there unsure of what to do. He was terribly afraid that he wasn’t going to like what he saw anymore than he liked what he heard. He sent up a silent prayer that when he opened the door he would not find that Liz was responsible for the terrible noise.

The horrific tone deaf sounds continued and Max determined that the only way to make it stop was to put on a brave face and enter the room. Maybe the interruption would halt the lesson.

Max’s worst fears were realized as he entered the room. Liz stood there, slouching as she propped herself carelessly against the piano and attempted to belt out an off key version of “All By Myself.” The tutor looked to be in actual physical pain even as he diligently plunked out the appropriate chords.

Max cleared his throat loudly. “Sorry for the intrusion, Senor Benaducci,” he lied “but perhaps that’s not the…uh...right song for the princess. Maybe something simple would suit her better,” he suggested.

Liz’s mouth snapped shut, effectively halting her atrocious attempt at singing. Her warbling was even starting to get on her nerves. She glanced at her instructor and immediately felt sorry for him; he looked like he was on his last nerve.

“I apologize, Maxwell,” Senor Benaducci said. He sounded weary and truly apologetic. “The girl cannot sing to save her life. In all my travels throughout the planetary system, I have never encountered someone as tone deaf as this girl. Perhaps it would be best for her to stick with the violin. She is much more proficient with a stringed instrument.”

Liz watched Max’s face carefully, hoping that he would relent and stop the voice lessons.

“I’m truly sorry, Senor, but the lessons must continue. Princess Elizabeth must complete the same training as Princess Isabel. Your lessons will only continue until next Friday when the music recital will be held. All I ask is that Liz demonstrate some improvement between now and then.” Max felt terrible. He didn’t mean to torture Senor Benaducci, but it couldn’t be helped. Guilt slashed through him when he saw the hope that the Senor had dashed from his eyes as he cringed.

Great, Liz thought, just what she needed. A recital to worry about along with every other test Max was making her take. She opened her mouth to protest but was quickly cut off by Max.

“You should really save your voice, Liz. You’re going to need it.” He paused, shaking his head, “I’ll leave so that you can continue your lesson. This visit was just to check on your progress.” Max gave Liz a pat on the arm and felt her eyes shooting daggers at his back as he left.

He barely made it to the safety of his study before he burst into laughter. Something that awful shouldn’t be that funny, but it was. So much so that Max was still laughing when Michael stopped in several minutes later.

“What’s so funny?” Michael asked as he as he made himself comfortable in the chair across from Max’s desk.

Michael listened to Max’s explanation and while he found it amusing he didn’t think it was nearly as funny as Max did.

“Well, obviously she can’t sing. Does that mean that you have grounds to dismiss her?” Michael asked. He was starting to wonder just what was going on. There had been several occasions where Max could have sent Liz back to Bellaria and no one would have batted an eyelash.

“Of course not. She can’t help that she’s vocally challenged. If you’ll remember, Isabel isn’t exactly the best singer either. It doesn’t matter. I only forced the lessons on her because she was so adamant about not wanting them. I’ve been told that she’s a decent violinist. That’s enough to pass the music portion of her tests.”

“Great. But…tell me something. Is there anything that she isn’t going to pass?” Michael eyed Max carefully as he spoke. It had been almost a month since Liz’s arrival. With each passing week, Max was spending more time with Liz and less time coming up with additional facets of his idiotic plan. It was beginning to appear that Princess Liz would become a permanent resident of Antar.

“What do you mean by that?” Max asked, unsure of where Michael’s line of questioning was headed.

“Do you want me to be honest?”

Max nodded. “You’re my advisor…tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m confused about your plan. You’ve designed all of these tests for Liz, supposedly impossible tests, to give you a reason to claim she isn’t a fit bride for the prince of Antar. You and I both know that no matter how ridiculous the test, she’s going to pass. She may be ugly but she’s smarter than half the council of the Federation of Planets combined. So what happens then? Are you just going to get to the end and send her packing?”

Max was silent as he absorbed Michael’s questions. Leaning back in his chair, he looked out the window not really seeing what was beyond the glass.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, Michael,” Max answered truthfully. “The more time I spend with her, the more I like her. Yes, she dresses poorly and her glasses are uglier than Isabel without her makeup, but there’s just something about her. I like fighting with her and picking on her so that she’ll get angry. I even like her when we don’t fight…we can have conversations that last the whole morning…about Antarian politics, Bellarian politics…planetary alliances. She’s so damn smart… I think that I admire her more than any other woman I’ve met.”

“I sense a ‘but’ here,” Michael said when Max paused.

Max nodded. “I’m not in love with her, not the way she deserves to be loved if she’s going to be my wife. It would be unfair to trap either one of us when there’s nothing more than …whatever it is that’s there. Besides that, Liz is adamantly against marrying Zan. She doesn’t want anything to do with him and I don’t think she’d even give him a chance if he wanted to marry her.”

“Are you listening to yourself? You ARE Zan, remember?” Michael rolled his eyes in frustration. “Listen; maybe it’s time to reform your plan. You like Liz…she’s not the spoiled brat princess you expected. Maybe instead of using the tutoring as an excuse to test her and hold her up to some special Princess standard, you should use the time to get to know her…to see if Liz could be the right choice.” Michael paused, “The kind of love you’re looking for might not exist. If you can get along with Liz…if you could rule Antar with her…then maybe you need to give her further consideration.”

Michael didn’t stick around to watch Max think things over. He had brought his concerns to Max’s attention. Now it was up to Max to figure out just what the hell he was going to do.

Maybe Michael was right, Max thought to himself. It was no longer a matter of whether Liz was a fit Princess or whether or not he liked her. He already did like her and she was a more than suitable Princess. He enjoyed her company tremendously even if they did spend most of the time trading barbs and pretending to dislike each other. She made him laugh and…well, she was a good kisser. Of course that only served to confuse Max more. He liked her…he had to admit it…the real question was could he love Elizabeth Parker?

*****
Liz was inwardly fuming over Max’s surprise visit during her voice lesson. She knew that she couldn’t sing. Her instructor definitely knew she couldn’t sing. Now Max knew that she couldn’t sing and she found it both embarrassing and completely devastating. First, she hated failure of any sort and second…there was no way she was going to pass the music portion of her tutoring. And for some reason…it seemed really important that she did.

Frantic, Liz went straight to Maria to enlist her help.

“Liz, what do you want me to do? If your very prestigious instructor can’t make you a better singer, I’m sure as hell not going to be able to accomplish the impossible,” Maria informed her best friend.

“Maria, please! I’m not asking for you to perform a miracle on me. That would be as impossible as you learning to keep your mouth shut. I need you to…to …to take my place, Liz explained.

“Are you joking?” Maria took in Liz’s serious expression and pleading eyes. “Okay, so you’re not joking.” She let out a sigh. “All right, explain to me just how you plan to pull off this switch.”

******
That same evening Max was in his chambers reading when there was an unexpected knock on the door to his suite. He got up from where he’d been relaxing on the bed and went to answer the persistent knock.

He was more than a little surprised when he caught sight of the person fidgeting nervously on the other side of the door.

“Liz, what are you doing here?” He asked quickly. Her visit was unexpected and his question came out harsher than he’d intended.

Liz, who was trying to overcome her own feelings of shock at encountering a shirtless Max, took a startled step back at his question. Slightly hurt, she spoke softly. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I’ll just go…” Her voice trailed off as she turned to leave.

“No, Wait! I didn’t mean it to come out like that. I’m just a little surprised to see you here,” he explained, his hand reached out and grabbed her arm to keep her from taking off. His fingers held her wrist gently, his thumb rubbing absently over her pulse.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Liz told him, trying to distract herself from the tingling his touch was causing. Her words were slow to form. “M-Maria was getting annoyed with me. She kicked me out of the room when Michael came…so I d-decided to-to see what you were doing.”

Max nodded, his eyes locked with hers as he took a step closer. “I was just reading…please come in and stay….as long as you like.”

Liz’s nod of agreement was barely perceptible. The heated stare simmered between them-- neither able to look away- each drawn into the other’s gaze like moths to flame. The space between them shrank in undetectable increments bringing two faces together, so close that they shared the same breath, each too mesmerized to notice lips that were almost touching; lips that would have been touching if the sound of Max’s bedroom door slamming shut hadn’t snapped them both back to reality.

“What was that?” Liz asked her cheeks pink from embarrassment.

“Uhm…I had the windows open in my bedroom…to circulate the air. The breeze must have shut the door,” he explained.

“Oh.”

There was an awkward silence that made them both keenly aware of the distance between them. Max was unsure if he was too close or too far away. Liz twisted her hands together nervously as she tried to block out the image of the last time she’d been so close to him…kissing him.

“Why don’t you…uhm…have a seat?” Max gestured toward the plush leather love seat. “I’ll be back in a second.”

Once in his bedroom, Max dug through his closet looking for a shirt to wear. He’d feel much better spending time with Liz if he was mostly clothed. He grabbed the first t-shirt he found and quickly pulled it on. When he went back to Liz she was looking around the sitting room with interest.

“The royal family must really appreciate you,” she commented. “I think that this suite is actually nicer than the one I have,” Liz said almost absently.

Max paused, hesitant to answer, not wanting to give anything away. “Being me has its benefits,” he told her, his response purposely vague.

Liz laughed. “I would say so.” Her relaxed smile was reason enough for Max to smile and relax in front of her. He took a seat in the chair next to her, using the time he took to settle in to study Liz briefly. She was wearing a pair of denim shorts, the hem resting mid thigh and allowing him an excellent view of shapely legs. Her tank top was fitted and faded and he found himself wondering if she was wearing a bra. His gaze didn’t rest at her chest long but traveled upward to her face. It was without makeup as usual. Her skin was clear and soft looking. Her hair was pulled into a careless knot at the top of her head with a few straggling strands hanging loose. Of course, how could he overlook her glasses? They were absolutely hideous and ruined the face of a woman who could probably be passably attractive without them. The thick lenses distorted the appearance of her eyes making them look owlish and the rest of her face look out of proportion.

“Have you ever considered getting contacts?” Max asked, the question escaping him before he could censor himself.

Liz shrugged as she struggled inwardly for an excuse. “I…I only need the glasses for reading,” she finally managed. Even as she told him the small lie she found herself wishing she could just tell him the truth…about everything. She couldn’t though.

“So, why do you wear them all the time if you don’t need them? They aren’t exactly the most attractive accessory you know?” Max knew he should just stop talking, but he couldn’t. He was actually nervous about Liz being alone with him here, in his room. It wasn’t like being alone with her in the study. This was infinitely more intimate.

Liz stiffened defensively at his questions. It was just like a man to place so much importance on physical appearance. She thought that maybe Max was different…that if Maria was right, Max saw past her disguise to the real her. She was obviously wrong. “I happen to like the way these look,” she told him, her voice as defensive as her posture.

Max shook his head. “You’re crazier than I thought.” He winced as the words filled the air. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

The expression on Liz’s face was now a cross between indignant anger and utter mortification.

“I didn’t come here so you could insult me,” she said as she stood up to leave.

“Wait, Liz, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just, I thought that…I think that if you could lose the glasses and the awful clothes you’d be pretty,” he tried to explain as he followed her to the door.

“Well, thanks for the recommendation,” she told him sarcastically as she yanked open the door and stalked out into the hall.

Max sighed regretfully as he watched her hurry down the hall. Lessons were going to be fun tomorrow, he thought. Liz wouldn’t have the slightest qualm about making him feel guilty for his ill chosen words.

*******
Liz avoided Max the rest of the week and weekend. She skipped Friday’s lesson and when Max went to look for her, she was nowhere to be found. Maria refused to talk.

“Max, I like you. Really. I do… but you insulted my best friend last night. Because of that, I’m not going to tell you where she is. That would be breaking the girlfriend code of honor,” Maria testily informed Max as her finger poked menacingly at his chest.

Max shoved her finger away and rubbed at the sore spot she’d created. “Fine. I get it. She doesn’t want to see me. Just tell her I stopped by to cancel lessons until after her music recital. She can use the time to practice.

After Max left, the door to Maria’s room opened and Liz emerged. She looked tired, but her face was blank, giving away none of her thoughts. Maria raised a questioning eyebrow.

“I heard,” Liz responded. “I guess we should start working on the song for the recital.”

Maria agreed somewhat reluctantly. Like everything else-- Maria had the distinct feeling that this was going to backfire.

AN: Thanks for all of the great feedback everyone. I really appreciate it.

Chapter 8

Wednesday morning dawned bright and beautiful. That in itself should have been a good thing and it would have been too if Liz weren’t dreading the afternoon. Today she was being forced to give her first, and hopefully last, voice recital. Of course she’d play violin too, but she could do that in her sleep. Singing, on the other hand, was going to be an ordeal. She really needed this to go right, because for some reason she was afraid that this might be the failure that would send her home. And even though she’d been entirely against staying on Antar for any reason, Liz had to admit that the more she learned about Bellaria, the more responsible she felt to its people. She really didn’t want to let anyone down.

She stayed in her room as long as possible, trying to put the entire day off. Her stomach was full of nervous butterflies. Liz knew it was silly to be so anxious but she couldn’t help it. Out of habit she pulled out her overalls and an old t-shirt. When she finally went to join Maria for breakfast she was surprised to see Isabel seated at the table as well.

“Isabel, what are you doing here?” Liz asked as she seated herself across from the other princess.

Isabel offered a polite smile. “Max woke me up early and informed me that my skills were needed to dress you for the recital today. He was afraid you might dress as abominably as you usually do. I can see that he was correct.” Isabel offered a disdainful sigh while Maria sat there rolling her eyes.

“Don’t you own anything that isn’t ugly or wrinkled?”

Liz offered a fake smile. “But these clothes are so special to me, Isabel. I got them from a goodwill store on earth.”

Isabel glared. “Whatever. Let’s just finish breakfast so we can get this over with. I’m going shopping tomorrow and I need to rearrange my closet to make room.”

Liz wasn’t sure whether to laugh or get angry. Isabel was such a spoiled brat. Liz didn’t think there was a nice bone in her body. Her personality was almost reminiscent of Ava Harding’s.

Breakfast was interesting to say the least. Maria listened with rapt attention as Isabel filled her in on palace gossip. Liz found this infinitely amusing because Maria had absolutely no clue who Isabel was talking about. However ridiculous it was, Liz was grateful for the distraction…it kept her mind off of her nervous stomach.

Finally Isabel was finished with her bowl of fresh fruit. “All right, Liz. Let’s get this over with. I have a full day ahead of me.”

Liz followed Isabel out of the small dining room and to her bedroom. She didn’t feel comfortable with the prissy princess and really didn’t want to have Isabel invading her privacy. But Liz’s protests didn’t matter. Isabel dug into the project with a vengeance and had no problem telling Liz exactly what was wrong with her entire wardrobe.

“Crap…craps…” the words echoed in the room as Isabel pulled clothing from the closet and tossed it onto the floor. “Crap….crap…..worse than crap….” Liz almost laughed when she saw Isabel visibly shutter as she came across a wrinkled lime green t–shirt. “Don’t you own anything that didn’t come from some kind of freak second hand shop?” Isabel asked with disgust.

Liz shrugged. “I buy whatever’s comfortable.”

Isabel glared and went back to rifling through everything. It took her a total of five minutes to determine that Liz owned absolutely nothing decent.

“Max must think I can perform miracles,” Isabel muttered under her breath. She turned to face Liz and pasted on a fake smile. She had to pretend to be nice or she wasn’t going to get the gift Max promised her.

“Well…I don’t see anything appropriate. We’ll have to go through Maria’s clothes and if that fails I’ll pick something from the clothes I’m getting rid of.” As Isabel spoke she looked at Liz appraisingly. “I’m not sure that will work though…you’re quite a bit smaller than I am.” Isabel quickly realized that her words might be viewed as a compliment and added to the thought. “You’re awfully flat-chested after all, not to mention short. There really isn’t much to you.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Let’s just find something as quickly as possible. You’re sucking away valuable brain cells with your stupid comments.”

Isabel glared. Max owed her…big time.
******
Three hours later, Liz stood in front of the mirror in Isabel’s suite. Maria’s closet hadn’t yielded anything appropriate for the recital. Isabel’s wasn’t much better and the princess had made a huge scene over the outfit she finally settled on.

“I wore this when I was 15. I hadn’t quite blossomed fully,” she explained as Liz tried on the simple black dress.

It looked plain enough hanging there in the back of Isabel’s vast closet. Liz hadn’t protested because she thought the dress to be fairly nondescript and boring. But standing there, in front of the mirror, she grew nervous. The dress was really very beautiful. It molded to her chest, pushing up what little nature had given her, displaying it flatteringly. The sleeves of the dress were capped and showed off the definition of Liz’s arms. The bodice flattered Liz’s narrow waist and the skirt hung elegantly against her slim legs with its hem grazing her knees.

Isabel shrugged. “I guess it looks okay. It’s a little long…but it will be fine for the recital. In fact…keep it. You need to have something normal in your wardrobe. Now…I think we’re done. You can wear a pair of Maria’s black shoes with the dress. So…leave please.”

Liz didn’t hesitate, she felt like she was suffocating in Isabel’s presence. It only reminded her of what she might have to look forward to with Zan. If Isabel was terrible…it would make sense that Zan was just as bad. There was just no way she could ever marry Zan.

So why was she putting herself through all of this? Why was she subjecting herself to all of this torture?

She knew the answer but didn’t want to verbalize it. She didn’t even like thinking it; however, there was no escaping the fact that Liz was only on Antar because of Max.

Liz trudged back to the suite to get Maria’s shoes from her. Then she was going to practice for awhile. She was still extremely nervous…not about playing violin. That, at least, came completely naturally by now. Taking refuge in her room, Liz sat on the bed, staring at her reflection in the mirror by her dresser. The dress was beautiful on her. For the first time in weeks she actually felt normal…she almost looked it too. A big part of her desperately wanted to give up the charade. She was afraid that it was becoming too much a part of her. She didn’t like wearing the glasses…but she was used to them…use to not caring what she looked like. She cared today though. For some reason it seemed really important that she be herself, not some diluted version that she’d concocted while she was being selfish.

Liz took off her glasses and pulled out the pony tail holder. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders. She let out a deep sigh.

The knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts. She quickly shoved her glasses back on, more out of habit than anything.

“Come in,” she hollered out. She wasn’t sure who she was expecting…maybe a part of her wanted it to be Max. She was disgusted with herself when she realized how disappointed she was that it wasn’t Max that came into the room.

“Liz, there you are,” Maria said, her words slightly breathless. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I want to practice with you one last time before the recital.”

Liz nodded. “Sure…I was thinking the same thing. Let’s go.”

Liz followed Maria out of the room down to the recital hall where everything had been set up. Her stomach was in knots and what she wanted now more than anything was some assurance that this would go well and that she wouldn’t be making a complete fool of herself.
********

Michael walked into the recital hall and stopped dead in his tracks. It was full of people. There wasn’t an empty seat in the entire hall. Max had led him to believe that this was going to be a very small event that would take up very little time. He looked through the crowd of people and spotted Max sitting in the front.

“What the hell is this, Maxwell?” Michael asked him as he took the only empty seat next to his friend.

Max shrugged but looked a little overwhelmed himself. “Someone told the servants that we were having an open recital. Apparently some of them have some very talented children who would like the opportunity to perform.”

“Liz is never going to forgive you,” Michael informed Max seriously.

Max nodded. “I know that, but there wasn’t anything I could do. My mother arranged this. It has all the makings of something she would do. I wouldn’t be surprised if she showed up later on. She doesn’t understand what I’m trying to accomplish with Liz. I think this is her way of speeding things up. Liz is going to be so mortified that she won’t hesitate to leave. That will certainly speed things up.” Max shook his head dejectedly. “I’m really hoping for a miracle here.”

“You could fix this all, you know. Just say the word and these people will leave and Liz will be off the hook,” Michael told him.

“I…I can’t do that, Michael.”

“What exactly are you trying to prove? That you can control her? If that’s what this whole ‘display’ is about then you are going about this the wrong way. Embarrassing a woman is not the way to her heart.”

Max tensed at Michael words. “This isn’t about control. And I’m not trying to do anything with Liz’s heart.”

“Maybe that’s the real problem here. You’re not really doing anything except dragging this out. I think things might be different between you and Liz if you just told her the truth.”

Max didn’t get a chance to defend himself further. The lights in the hall started to dim and the stage lit up. One of the servants stood front and center giving everyone a run down of the program to follow.

*******

“I’m what?” Liz asked in disbelief.

The woman standing in front of her with a clip board smiled. “You’re after Mr. Wilkerson’s tap dancing daughters and before Senor Benaducci’s son Carlo.”

“Is this some kind of joke? I thought this was supposed to be a short recital.” Liz was more than a little confused by this sudden change of plans.

“I don’t know anything about that. Just be ready to go on when it’s your turn. I think I saw Prince Zan in the audience.”

Liz’s breath caught in her throat at that piece of unexpected information. Zan was here. He would be there to see her. This could be it…he could take one look at her and it would all be over. She should be…relieved. So why did she feel even more nervous?

For forty-five minutes Liz and Maria sat back stage in the wings watching as adorable children gave their best renditions of popular songs both from earth and Antar. Some danced instead of singing and Liz almost forgot her nerves as she watched the tap dancing twins. She was next though. It was time.

Maria gave Liz a reassuring hug. “I’ll be right here,” she promised her friend with a bright smile. Liz nodded and moved to take the stage. She’d never felt as alone in all her life as when she caught sight of the full seats in front of her. Briefly she wondered if she could spot Zan, but the thought was abandoned when her gaze ran into Max’s in the front row. She offered him a partial smile.

Taking a deep breath, her violin and bow in hand, she turned to see if Senor Benaducci was seated at the piano. He had agreed to accompany her on the piano as she played. He looked at her expectantly and she drew her violin to her chin before giving a slight nod.

In the next moment the music took over and the hauntingly beautiful melody of “A Time for Us” drifted across the stage and out to the audience. The strains of the violin surged with each crescendo, the intensity of the song conveyed the heartbreaking tragedy of star-crossed lovers. Liz’s movements were focused and graceful and she played, unaware of the captivation of her audience or the intensity with which she performed.

Max was entranced by her every movement, her every facial expression. Her eyes were closed tightly as if she were trying to feel the music play, knowing that it would come from within. He was moved by the sight of her, by the talent contained in such a small but fierce package.

Michael watched his friend as he listened to the music. He’d never seen Max so besotted. Even if Max wasn’t ready to admit it, there was something between him and Liz, something that would be lost if it wasn’t brought out in the open.

The song ended with one last chord and the piano tapered off gently. The recital hall was silent as Liz stood there with her eyes closed before dropping the violin to her side. The burst of applause was loud and as Liz opened her eyes she was surprised to see people on their feet clapping. Among them was Max, smiling broadly and encouragingly. She took a quick bow and then, looking off stage, gestured for Maria to join her.

The clapping died down and Liz smiled out at the audience. “Thank you,” she told them sincerely. She took a deep breath and swallowed to clear her throat.

“Next…I ….I was supposed to sing a song today, but…I just…I couldn’t put you all through that,” she explained. “I’m not a very good singer. Just ask Senor Benaducci. He’ll tell you that my voice is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.” There was some laughter in the audience.

Liz hesitated, trying to avoid gazing at Max, not wanting to see what Max thought of her impromptu change in the program.

“So, instead of singing for you…I’ve written a song that my best friend Maria is going to sing for everyone today. The song is called ‘Part of Me’. I hope that you enjoy it.”

Liz walked off stage then, glancing at a smiling Senor Benaducci who had thanked her for not singing. He was more than happy to accompany the talented Maria as she sang Liz’s song.


Look in these eyes you’ll see the dark
That little space inside my heart
The darkest side withholds the light
The light that brightens me inside

You don’t know

Angels don’t fly they have no wings
It is another of those things
That we make up, that we believe
The real thing is not what we conceive




Liz watched from the wings as Maria sang. She mouthed the words along with her. The song sounded beautiful, Maria was doing a wonderful job singing. Instinctively Liz looked to the audience for their response.

It was then that she caught the eyes of the one person she had been hoping to avoid. Their gazed locked as Maria continued. Something moved inside Liz as she realized that the words of the song had never seemed more appropriate than that moment.


You don’t know, I won’t let you see me
I will hide, I will lie
As true as can be
You just don’t have what it would take
To be a part of me

The darkest side withholds the light
The light that shines
We can’t deny it

You don’t know, I won’t let you see me
I will hide and I will lie
As true as can be
You just don’t have what it would take
To be a part of me


Her breath caught in her throat and tears filled her eyes. She wanted Max to see who she really was. She wanted him to look past the outer flaws and see that she wasn’t what she appeared to be. But he couldn’t see…no matter how much she wanted him to recognize that there was something else there. It wasn’t even reasonable to want that from him, not when nothing could come of it. He worked for the Prince of Antar and she was betrothed to the Prince.

Given the chance though…if Max would return the interest in the slightest she would give it up for the opportunity to be with him, even momentarily. She thought of the song she’d played on the violin. It was the theme from Romeo and Juliet…

Liz left the side of the stage, not staying to hear the rest of the song. She needed to be alone, to think.
******

Michael watched with interest as Max and Liz stared at each other. The words of Liz’s song struck him in an interesting way. It was like she’d written it for Max. Hell, maybe she had.

Max looked ready to jump from his seat. He almost did when Liz suddenly bolted backstage disappearing from Max’s line of vision. Michael held him back.

“You stay here. You’ll cause a scene if you leave. I’ll go check on her,” Michael assured his friend.

Max reluctantly agreed. Something had changed…something had shifted inside of him and he didn’t know if he was ever going to be the same again. Maybe now wouldn’t be the best time to confront that. He needed privacy to examine just what he was feeling.

Michael found Liz in the last place he would have expected to find her. She was sitting cross legged by the pond of tranquility. He could understand why she might gravitate to the place. The lush surroundings and the peacefulness of garden were immensely soothing, making it the perfect place for reflective thoughts.

Liz’s face was turned down and Michael could see the dry tear tracks on her cheeks.

He sat down next to her. He didn’t say anything. He was just going to listen.

“You know, when I walked in here earlier, the first thing I thought of was how funny it was to see Max land in the pond ass first,” Liz spoke quietly, her words followed by a soft chuckle. “I think it would make me feel better to see it happen again and maybe push a little harder this time.”

Michael smiled. “I think I’d pay to see that.”

There was more silence.

It was Liz who broke it again. “I’m a bad person Michael. My people need Antar’s help. It’s in my power to get it for them…but I’m so selfish that I couldn’t even come here and be honest. I feel like I’ve been lying since I got here. And the worst part of the whole thing is that…I’m supposed to marry Zan, a man that I’ve never met and don’t love. I can’t even give that a fair chance because now all I can think of is someone else…” Her words trailed off. New tears formed and Michael moved awkwardly to put his arm around Liz.

He reached into his pocket with his free hand pulled out a handkerchief for Liz to use. “I’m no expert on matters of the heart. For most of my life I’ve been training to be a soldier, to be Zan’s second in command and advisor. What I do know though, is that you have to take chances because you never know what the next day is going to bring. Before you can take chances though, you have to be honest--with yourself and the people around you.”

Liz blew her nose somewhat indelicately. Michael grinned. “I think you should follow your heart Liz…the end result just may surprise you.”

Liz didn’t know how to respond to Michael’s insightful words. Who would have thought that someone as tough looking as Michael would have a thoughtful side? She could see why Maria was attracted to him.

The silence that had been somewhat awkward before was now comfortable and in the midst of it, Liz found that she trusted Michael.

“Michael, if I tell you something, do you think that you could let it stay between us for a while? At least until I figure out what to do about it.”

Michael nodded. “Go for it. I’m all ears.”

“I haven’t been completely honest,” she started. As she spoke she reached up and took off her glasses.

TBC....

AN: To all of my faithful readers. Thanks so much for bumping this story in my absense. Real Life has been a pain in the ass...but it's starting to get better. Hopefully I can start to focus on my writing again. I know...you're all probably thinking that it's just an empty promise, but I'm going to do what I can. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy this next part even though it's just a little bit transitional.
Carey

Chapter 9

Liz paced back and forth nervously in front of the door to Max’s suite. With some encouragement from Michael, once he’d recovered from his initial shock, she decided to tell Max everything and hope that they could start over. Her problem now was that she couldn’t quite bring herself to knock on the door. Liz wasn’t sure if her hesitation was a result of fear or nerves, maybe it was a combination of both. Either way, she knew her feelings stemmed from uncertainty over Max’s reaction to her deception.

Her pacing continued and her mind raced as she tried to plan out what she would say.

Max watched Liz’s pacing from around a corner. He wasn’t close enough to hear what she was mumbling to herself, but he could see that she was wringing her hands together nervously. He would have been amused by the scene if Liz didn’t look so distressed. It only increased the guilt he was feeling over forcing Liz to participate in that spectacle of a recital. Although to Liz’s credit, she handled the entire situation well until that song. Max was afraid that he might have blown any chances he had with her. That was why he hadn’t approached Liz yet; he didn’t want to hear her say that she was leaving.

Because this time he knew he’d have to let her go.

Max’s hiding position was compromised unexpectedly when he felt a sneeze coming on. He tried to stop it, but his efforts were to no avail and the sound of his ‘achoo’ echoed in the almost empty hall.

Liz stopped in her tracks and looked in the direction of the noise.

Max took a deep breath and stepped into her line of vision.

“Was that you?” she asked with an amused smile.

He nodded, looking a little bit sheepish.

Liz’s smiled widened. “Bless you,” she told him.

He raised his eyebrows questioningly, unaccustomed to the phrase.

“Hasn’t anyone ever said that when you’ve sneezed before?”

Max shook his head no.

Liz shrugged. “It must just be a custom on earth.”

“Sneezing here is pretty rare. There’s more dust on earth to provoke those kinds of reactions,” Max spoke up, finally finding his voice.

Liz almost laughed and Max found himself smiling at her. For a moment they both stood there grinning idiotically. It was a rare moment between them, finally a bit of a truce after weeks of being slightly at odd. They were standing close, neither sure just who had moved first.

A door slammed somewhere down the hall and reality intruded on the moment, letting awkwardness seep in.

“Max… I,” Liz started, “I came here to a-apologize.”

Max was momentarily startled by the statement. “Why?”

“I realize that I didn’t do what I was supposed to at the recital this afternoon, but you’ve heard me sing and you know that it’s awful…”

Max’s finer gently pressed against her lips to silence her. “You’ve got nothing to apologize for, Liz. You took a bad situation and made it work; the mark of a true princess. Your solution to the problem was…excellent. I didn’t realize how talented you really were. You play the violin very well.” As Max spoke he noticed a certain light enter Liz’s eyes. “What was the name of the piece you played?” Maybe he had finally found some solid ground with Liz. If so, he was certainly going to exploit it.

“It’s called ‘A Time For Us’. It’s from the movie Romeo and Juliet,” Liz said, a slight flush gracing her face. She paused; her lips were tingling from Max’s all too brief touch. “It’s a famous love story on earth, classic Shakespeare.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it. I’d love to hear the story,” Max told her.

Liz blushed, not used to the intensity of the way Max was looking at her. “There’s something else that I need to…”

Max shook his head. “Let me go first. I’m the one that really needs to apologize. I shouldn’t have tried to force you to do something that made you uncomfortable.”

Liz was about to speak up when a throat cleared.

Their heads turned simultaneously and found Isabel standing there looking bored. She offered Liz a fake smile. “I do hate to break up this little apology fest, but Max, moth…, I mean the queen would like to speak with you in her chambers.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, right now. I wouldn’t have come looking for you otherwise,” she informed him exasperatedly.

“Can you tell her I’ll be there shortly?” Max asked. He didn’t want to end this conversation with Liz. There was a lot more that needed to be said and he was afraid that if it wasn’t Liz might leave.

Isabel shook her head. “Do I look like a servant to you? Deliver your own messages.” Isabel stalked off then and left Max and Liz standing there.

“Max, I really do need to tell you something,” Liz said, her voice almost pleading.

Max was torn. He knew that what Liz was about to say was serious, but he couldn’t ignore his mother’s summons. “I know that we need to talk. . If I can, I’ll see you tonight, if not, I promise we’ll talk tomorrow. Just don’t leave. There are a lot of things that we should discuss,” he pleaded.

“You have no idea,” Liz mumbled as she watched Max hurry off.


*******
Setting: The Queen’s Private Suite

When Max arrived at this mother’s suite he was ushered inside by her lady in waiting. He found his mother sitting in front of the fireplace looking at a magazine. He didn’t think anything of it. Isabel and his mother were alike in that they were both fascinated by celebrities and beings of other worlds and cultures.

“Hello mother,” he said casually as he walked to her chair and place a kiss on her cheek.

“Max, dear, I’m glad you could come. There are several things I’d like to discuss with you.” Diane gestured for him to sit down.

He did, his curiosity piqued by his mother’s words.

“First, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the recital today. Your betrothed is really very talented,” she paused. “Although, I must admit that I was…surprised when I saw her. Your sister has mentioned frequently that Elizabeth has no fashion sense, but I brushed those comments off because your sister thinks she is the only one who could possible have any knowledge on the topic. After today, though, I realized that she was correct. Now, we both now that as a princess certain things are expected and…”

Max jumped in, cutting off his mother’s words. “Liz just isn’t as concerned about her appearance as Isabel is,” he said defensively. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. She uses her brain as a tool for more than deciding on the perfect outfit.”

Diane bit back a smile at her son’s reaction to her criticism of Liz. She suspected that his feelings for his future bride might be changing. “Of course, you’re right. Anyway, I didn’t really bring you here to argue the point. I wanted to inform you that your father and I have decided to host a ball for the Bellarian royalty when they arrive in a month’s time. On that night we’d like for you to announce officially your intent to marry Elizabeth, if that is what you choose.”

“A ball?”

“Yes. A ball. It’s past time we had a celebration here. I only hope that we have something to celebrate,” Diane eyed her son’s reaction carefully as she spoke.

Max could only nod absently; the only thought in his mind was that he had the span of a month to decide whether or not to marry Liz. He was so caught up in thoughts of making this decision that he didn’t process that his mother was speaking to him. It wasn’t until she touched his arm that he refocused his attention. “I’m sorry, what were saying?”

Diane smiled. “I just thought that maybe I could give you a little bit of help with Elizabeth, sweetheart. I was wondering if perhaps a makeover would help things along.” Diane paused and pulled out the magazine she’d been glancing through when Max arrived. “In fact, there a picture of a stunning young woman in here…” she handed Max the magazine. “I believe the woman on pg 56 has a look that might suit your reluctant princess.”

Max eyed his mother warily, but opened the magazine to the she’d mentioned.

His eyes took the picture in front of him, but it took a moment for his brain to register what he was seeing. He closed his eyes for a second, thing that maybe he was just seeing things, but when he opened them again, the same image greeted him.

Liz…his Liz was staring back at him. And she looked…incredible…stunning….absolutely beautiful.

“What the hell?” he mumbled to himself.

“Amazing likeness isn’t it? Except for those dreadful glasses, of course,” Diane commented.

Max ignored his mother, his focus intent on the picture. The caption below it read; “Princess Elizabeth Parker of Bellaria enjoys a night on the town with friend, singer Maria Deluca, after her recent graduation from Harvard University. Her Versace gown was a graduation gift from her doting parents, King Jeffrey and Queen Nancy. Maria Deluca is wearing an original…”

Max’s gaze drifted back to the picture, not really caring to read more. His eyes memorized every nuance of the photo; trying to assimilate the goddess on the page with the girl he’d spent that last month with. He realized that it wasn’t terribly hard to see them as one in the same. In the photo, Liz stood there, posing slightly, a smile lighting up her entire face, her skin glowing and her hair hanging like a brown velvet curtain. In his mind he saw the Liz he knew… her smile lighting up the dull study where they had their lessons, her laughter making her face glow, despite the ugly glasses. He remembered what it had made him feel to feel her soft, full lips pressed earnestly against his. The kiss they shared, one she had meant to be their first and last, had made a lasting impression on him. And until now he’d been able to hold off on acknowledging his feelings, because there was no way he was physically attracted to Liz…but this…this new picture changed everything.

Max couldn’t breathe. Jesus…he was an idiot. How could he not have known?

“Mother…I-I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.” And he took the magazine and left.

*****
The loud knocking woke Michael from a very relaxed sleep. With a loud groan he glanced at the clock. One a.m. Who the hell was banging on his door at one am?

Michael pulled his pillow of his head and decided to ignore the annoying knocking.

It persisted though and the warm body next to Michael in the bed began to stir. Michael sat up and searched the floor by the bed, blindly searching for his boxers.

“What’s going on?” Maria’s groggy voice asked as she turned to face Michael.

“Someone’s at the door. I’ll take care of it, go back to sleep,” Michael told her softly.

“Hurry back,” she mumbled before turning her head back into her pillow.

Michael found his boxers finally and pulled them on. The knocking was a little bit less aggressive now and when Michael finally opened the door, Max stumbled into the room.

“Mikey…” Max slurred slightly. “I need your help..”

“Ah…Jesus, Maxwell! It’s one in the fucking morning,” Michael informed his friend wearily.

Max stumbled past Michael and plopped himself down in the nearest chair. “I couldn’t shleep,” he said.

“Are you drunk?” Michael asked, surprise evident in his weary voice.

Max shook his head, “Yesh.”

“What the hell for?” Michael hadn’t seen Max like this since they’d been teenagers rebelling against Max’s father after he’d told them they couldn’t drink.

“Lizsh….”
“What about Liz?”

“She’sh really not ugly, Mikey. She’sh beautiful, see?” Max said tossing Michael the magazine he was clutching in his hands.

Michael made a grab for it and looked down at the slightly wrinkled picture. He couldn’t say that he was really surprised by what he saw, after all, Liz had already explained everything to him, but he had to admit that Liz was seriously nice to look at.

“Where did you get this, Max?” Michael asked his inebriated friend.

“My mother,” Max sighed loudly. “She told me Liz needed a makeover.”

“Have you talked to Liz about this?”

Max shook his head, “Nope!”

“You should really talk to Liz, Max. Give her a chance to explain,” Michael advised.

“You’re right. You’re right…I just can’t believe it…she lied to me…this whole time. I mean…can you believe it?”

Michael hesitated. “Max…I...”

“Wait…wait a minute…did you know about this?”

Michael shook his head. How the hell was Max even coherent enough to deduce that?
“She told me what I found her this afternoon,” Michael admitted.

“She told you, but she couldn’t tell me…and I’m the man she’s going to marry,” Max exclaimed with disbelief.

“She doesn’t know that you’re Zan, remember?”

“Right…right. I keep forgetting that. But, still, Mikey, she didn’t trust me,” he said dejectedly. He was pouting like a five year old boy.

“Max, can you honestly say that you’ve given her a reason to trust you?”

Max shook his head no.

“Listen, I think you both need to tell each other the truth…about everything.”

Max looked thoughtful for a moment. He stood up suddenly, only wobbling a little.

“Don’t you see? It’s all a defense mechanism. She’s afraid to get close to me…that’s why she disguised herself…to protect herself. I did the same thing, so I can’t reveal myself as…myself. I have to earn her trust first.”

“Max, she wants to tell you the truth. You’ll just make things worse by keeping your secret.”

“No…Michael…you can’t let her tell me. She has to stay disguised so she’ll know that I want her for herself and not for anything else.”

“Max, why don’t you wait until morning before making any more decisions. Things will make more sense after you’ve slept,” Michael suggested.

“No…first thing in the morning you tell her that she can’t tell me. That’s an order…as your prince.”

Michael glowered at his irrational friend. He didn’t appreciate Max pulling the prince card on him.

“Fine. Just go back to your suite and go to bed now, Max.”
After making sure that Max made it out of the suite okay, Michael went back into his bedroom. He was going to try to slip back into bed as quietly as possible, but he saw Maria’s form sitting up in bed. He sat down on the side of the bed, knowing that sleep would be out of the question until he explained.

“I’m guessing you heard everything, didn’t you?” he asked wearily.

“ A drunk Max is kind of hard not to hear,” Maria replied. Michael could hear her smirk in the dark. “So why don’t you tell me all about ‘prince’ Max, Mikey.” Maria suggested.

It took a while, but Michael finally got the whole story out. He realized that Maria was being unusually quiet and when he looked up at her he was surprised to see that she was laughing into her pillow.

“What’s so funny?” Michael demanded, not seeing the humor in the situation.

Maria shook her head and her laughter subsided. “Don’t be dense, Michael. This is funny because Max and Liz both had the same kind of idiotic plan to get out of their marriage to each other. Only it’s gone completely haywire and not only have they fallen for each other, but neither of them will admit it. As far as I’m concerned those two were made for each other, better yet, they deserve each other.”

Michael chuckled as he started to see the situation from Maria’s perspective.

“So what do we do?” he asked.
“Well, you and I don’t really have to do anything but sit back and enjoy the show. If it helps though, I’ll try and talk to Liz and make sure she keeps up her little façade. If I can’t talk any sense into her, I’ll let you convince her.”

“Good plan. Now let’s sleep,” Michael said as he slipped back under the covers.

Maria smiled, her voice seductive as she spoke. “I’m not really all that sleepy anymore ‘Mikey’.”

*****
Maria had absolutely no success with Liz the next morning.

“I can’t believe you’re trying to talk me out of this?” Liz exclaimed. She’d spent the majority of the night tossing and turning about her decision and just when she thought she was doing the right thing, Maria did a complete about face.

“Liz…I just think that you need to wait. I know that you told Michael everything, but he and I talked about this and we both decided that maybe you should just wait a little while.”

“Oh…so you and Michael talked about this. Was it some kind of post-coital bonding session?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Don’t get pissy. I’m just trying to say that it might be less damaging to go through a slow transformation. What if telling Max the truth makes him angry enough to send you home?”

“That’s been the point all along, Maria.”

“Let’s be realistic, Liz. You don’t want to leave. You want to stay and you want Max.”

Liz blushed at Maria’s blunt comment.

“Maria…”

“No listen, don’t you want to see if it’s possible for Max to like you for you…not for your title or for the way you look?”

“Maria…Max hates me. He’s made that pretty clear since the day I got here.”

“You haven’t exactly given him a reason to like you. Try being yourself…and maybe go back to the real you as subtly as possible. If it’s gradual, he might not notice or he might think that his tutoring is starting to pay off.”

“I don’t know, Maria…”

“Liz, you wouldn’t trust me before when I told you this was a bad idea. Now it’s too late to go back and change it, but maybe if we work together we can figure a way out of this mess.”

“It just doesn’t feel right, Maria. I don’t want to lie to him anymore,” Liz whispered.


“Liz…”

“No, Maria, you were right. You knew that this was going to backfire. Now that it has, I can’t let it get worse. I’m going to tell him and that’s final.” Liz left quickly then and made her way to the study to wait for Max.

As soon as Liz was gone, Maria called Michael on his communicator.

“Maria, I don’t have time to talk right now. Max has a hangover and I’ve got to try and get him taken care of before his meetings this afternoon.

“I tried to talk with Liz. She wouldn’t listen so now it’s your turn,” Maria informed him.

“Fine. I’ll do what I can.”


TBC....

A/N: Okay, here it is! The next part. I'm sorry it took so long to get this out. Hopefully I can keep updating this quickly. Let me know what you all think! Thanks for all the encouragement!



Chapter 10

Max woke to the pounding of drums reverberating through his head. He groaned even as he reluctantly opened his heavy eyelids.

That was a mistake.

The sunlight made him wince and he automatically jerked his head to avoid it. Another groan escaped his mouth, the pounding in his head made worse by his sudden movement.

He just needed to stay completely still. Maybe then the room would stop spinning and he wouldn’t feel that horrible churning in his stomach. He couldn’t ever remember feeling this sick before in his entire life.

Less than an hour passed before the nausea became completely overwhelming, forcing Max to make his way to the bathroom.

That’s how Michael found him, laying on the bathroom floor moaning and groaning. He forced himself not to laugh at his best friend. He was sure that Max’s hangover was painful, but it wasn’t undeserved.

“Good morning, Maxwell,” Michael told him, his voice purposely cheerful and bright.

“Stop yelling, Michael,” came Max’s pitiful response.

Michael quickly hid his grin. “What’s wrong Max? You look sick; do I need to call the healer?”

Max didn’t even have the strength to glare at his friend the way he wanted to. “Just go away,” he mumbled into the floor.

“Can’t. You have a lesson with Princess Liz this morning. I’m sure you don’t want to be late.”

Max groaned. “How did this happen Michael?”

“You don’t remember?” Michael’s shock was reflected in his voice.

“No. The last thing I can recall was talking to Liz in the hallway by my room and being interrupted by Isabel.”

“So you don’t remember talking to your mother?”

“About what?” Max was still lying face down on the floor and moved very carefully to get up from the uncomfortable position.

At this Michael wasn’t sure how much to say. It was starting to seem like Max didn’t remember anything about the Liz situation. Michael chose his next words carefully.
“You said your mother told you about the ball they’ll be throwing to officially announce your betrothal to Liz.”

“And that’s what made me get drunk?” Max asked, still confused about the previous night’s events.

“I’m not exactly sure. You showed up at my room in the middle of the night ranting and raving.”

“Right now, I really don’t care what drove me to drink. Just, please get the healer up here to dissolve this poison from my system.” Even in his weakened state, Max didn’t have a problem throwing out orders.

“Yes sir.” Michael left Max leaning against the bathing cubicle while he went to page the healer.

Michael was about to page the healer when his communicator went off. Seeing who was calling he answered quickly.

“Maria, I don’t have time to talk right now. Max has a hangover and I’ve got to try and get him taken care of before his meetings this afternoon.” He knew he was being short with her, but he couldn’t quite hide his current irritation with Max.

“I tried to talk to Liz. She wouldn’t listen so now it’s your turn,” Maria informed him.

“Fine. I’ll do what I can.”

Michael finished talking with Maria, called the healer and went back to Max’s bathroom. He found his friend laying face down on the floor near the toilet. He hadn’t moved since Michael had left the room.

Michael crouched down near Max and reached out to gently shake him.

“Max…buddy, you gonna be okay?”

A groan was the only thing that could be heard from Max.

“Do you want me to get you anything?” he asked awkwardly. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do for sick people. He’d never had to take care of Max after a hangover before. Usually because he was equally hung over.

The question was met with another groan and muffled words.

“What did you say?” Michael asked, trying to coax a more coherent response.

“…Healer?”

“Hold on….he’s on his way.” Michael sat there with Max for the next 10 minutes until the healer showed up, the whole time thinking about what he would say to Liz.

**********

Liz found herself nervously waiting for Max, yet again. Last night had been nerve-wracking enough, but this morning seemed ten times worse. Several times during the night she’d had a bout of panic, losing any courage she had and deciding not to tell him anything. Usually when she was upset like that she could talk to Maria, but obviously that was out of the question. Maria had done an unusual about face that morning and now Liz had no idea what the right thing to do was.

Liz knew she shouldn’t be upset with Maria. It was just frustrating, especially now that Maria and Michael had somehow managed to end up together. She wished it could be as easy for her as it was for Maria.

But it wasn’t, and she knew that she was to blame. So now she was here, after a virtually sleepless night, ready to spill her guts out to Max.

Liz looked at the clock by the door.

To top everything off, Max was late, which was odd because he was such a stickler about tardiness. Now she had nothing to do but sit there and wait and bite her nails, a habit that she thought she’d outgrown, getting more nervous with each passing second.

Unable to sit still, Liz got up to wander around the room. Max had thousands of books in his study; it wouldn’t hurt to look around some more and pass the time. Usually he was there, watching her like a hawk and acting like a slave driver. She was about to pull a book of poetry off one of the shelves when the door to the study opened.

“It’s about time…” Liz started as she turned around.

“Oh…it’s you,” she said, a slight frown forming. “Where’s Max?”

“Nice to see you too, Liz,” Michael told her with a chuckle.

“Sorry,” Liz apologized quickly. “I was expecting Max.” She glanced at the clock. “He’s almost an hour late.”

“I know. He’s…uh…well….he’s not feeling very well this morning,” Michael explained. He hoped she didn’t ask for more information than that. Telling her that Max had a hangover would only lead to more questions. And he still didn’t know just how much Max remembered about the night before.

“Oh,” Liz let out a long sigh. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or worried or what. “I was going to tell him everything this morning. Lay it all out in the open. I tried to tell him last night but we got interrupted. I’m staring to think that I shouldn’t say anything at all.”

“Maybe you should go with your gut on that,” Michael told her.

“What?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t say anything yet.”

“But aren’t you the one who told me that it was the only way to straighten everything out?” Liz asked, confusion evident in her voice.

“Yes, but I’ve had some more time to think over the situation and I believe that it would be best to just go on as you are,” Michael told her lamely.

“I can’t do that, Michael. This whole thing is making me miserable. I hate pretending!”

Michael looked thoughtful for a moment. “Listen, the only thing that you’ve really been deceiving Max about is the way you look, right?”

Liz nodded. “Well, I might have purposely been a little bit difficult,” she said a little sheepishly.

Michael smiled at Liz’s admission. ‘a little bit’ was definitely the understatement of the century. “Maybe instead of telling him outright, you should just subtly change your appearance. If you do it gradually he might not really notice at first.”

Liz stood up a little straighter at his words. She examined Michael’s expression carefully. Those were awfully familiar words.

“So what…have you and Maria been discussing this now? Did she give you a little speech to memorize? What’s the deal here?” Anger, irritation and frustration laced through Liz’s words.

Michael shifted uncomfortably. So maybe he did sound like Maria. And yes, they had discussed it, but Maria didn’t know everything yet. Like how Max didn’t remember his discovery from the night before.

“Look, Liz. You’re here for a reason. You’re supposed to marry Zan. Telling Max the truth now, isn’t going to help you accomplish your goal. If you even know what that is at this point. I don’t know what’s going on between you and Max and I know that the two of you know even less about what’s happening.” Michael watched as Liz turned away from him as he spoke, like she didn’t want to hear his words. “But you have to decide. What do you want to come from this?”

“I don’t know what I want anymore, Michael. I have a duty to my people, a responsibility that I can’t turn my back on. But I also have to be true to myself; something that I was good at until I came here, until I met Max. And I’m a traitor to feel the things I feel for Max when I’m supposed to be marrying another man. But I can’t help that. I can’t help that I want Max to know the real me without any disguises. Despite everything, I want to take the time I have left to get to know him, so that when I’m stuck in a loveless marriage with a man I don’t care for, at least I’ll have some good memories.” She knew she sounded silly and maudlin. She knew that she shouldn’t be admitting these things, especially to Michael, Zan’s second in command, but it was how she felt. She was tired of pretending.

“Liz, I don’t know how any of this is going to turn out. I can honestly tell you that I think you’re a better match for Zan than anyone could have imagined. I think that Max is starting to realize this too. I’m not saying to stop being yourself, because you were always yourself. It was just you with….a few alterations. I’m just saying that your physical appearance isn’t as much of a factor as you’d once thought and that, maybe…if you just ignored that part of it and let go, let yourself just be here and try to make everything work, the outcome might be better than you could possibly imagine.” As he spoke Michael, realized his words were true. Even though Max and Liz were fighting each other every step of the way, the connection and attraction between them was there and if they would just let it happen, everything would work out for everyone.

“So I should just pretend that nothing has changed?” Her big brown eyes were wide with uncertainty and Michael felt a protectiveness that he’d never felt before. It was almost brotherly, and he knew that he didn’t want to steer Liz wrong and that he didn’t want to help Max play any more games with her.

“I think that might be for the best.”

“It’s never going to work,” she told him shaking her head. “Not telling him could backfire and then when he finds out….he’ll send me home.”

“Not if you make it a gradual transformation.”

“It doesn’t feel any less dishonest to do it that way.”

“I know….but it might be easier for everyone involved. Don’t you want Max to see you for who you are and not just what you look like?” Michael knew he was pulling out the big guns here. No woman, on Earth, Antar or any other planet, wanted to be judged based on appearance alone. “Trust me Liz; this is the best way to go.”

“Fine,” Liz responded with a sigh of acceptance. She sank back into the study chair. She knew that she looked sulky, but didn’t care. Her life was chaos right now and she had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

Michael was about to say something when his communicator buzzed, effectively breaking up the serious moment. Somewhat relieved, he excused himself from Liz to take the call. When he came back a moment later, he found her still sitting in the chair, looking tortured. She definitely wasn’t going to like what he had to tell her next.

“Uh, Liz…that was Max,” he started. She said up a little straighter in her chair. “He just called to tell me that he arranged something else for you to do today.”

“What is it?” Liz didn’t like the nervous, guilty look on Michael’s face.

“He said that since he can’t teach lessons today, he’s going to leave someone else in charge of your lesson.” Michael paused. “Uh….Princess Isabel is going to be instructing you on how a real princess should dress.”

The outraged scream that gurgled from Liz’s throat startled Michael.

“I DO NOT need Princess Ice Bitch to show me how to dress,” Liz raged at Michael.

He held up his hands in defense. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

Liz glared. “If you would just let me tell him…”

“Look, this is giving you an opportunity to change your appearance slowly. It’s really a good thing, Liz.”

“How is having Isabel help me a good thing? I can’t do this….”

Before Michael could stop her Liz, was making her way out of the study toward Max’s room. She didn’t even bother knocking; she just swung the door open and made a beeline to Max’s bedroom.

Michael tried to follow but when he saw Liz enter Max’s bedroom, he took a step back. This was going to be good.
******************