pygmalion

by DocPaul

Chapter Twenty-seven: Sour Times

To pretend no one can find
The fallacies of morning rose
Forbidden fruit, hidden eyes
Curtsies that I despise in me
Take a ride, take a shot now

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

Covered by the blind belief
That fantasies of sinful screens
Bear the facts, assume the dye
End the vows no need to lie, enjoy
Take a ride, take a shot now

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

Who oo am I, what and why
Cos all I have left is my memories of yesterday
Ohh these sour times

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

After time the bitter taste
Of innocence decent or race
Scattered seeds, buried lives
Mysteries of our disguise revolve
Circumstance will decide ....

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you
Nobody loves.. me
Its true
Not, like, you.. do  

Sour Times

~Portishead~

Day Thirty-nine, Friday, 12:33 am

“Mmmm.....your skin is cold.” Alex smiled as arms came around his waist and a warm breath breathed on his neck. “Can I warm you?”

Alex turned quickly to sweep the woman up against the wall he had been facing as he broke from the stage for a while. “My skin is not cold. It is called sweat. It cools the body down.”

“You have undeniably one hot body. Who knew.”

“I thought you did.” Alex leaned into the sexy body offered him, his hands going firmly to the hips pulling them hard into his groin. His mouth found the lips covered in shiny lip gloss. His mouth wandered to her ear to whisper hotly, “What are you doing here, Iz?”

“I missed ya.” Her hand played with the front of his t-shirt. “Ya been so busy and I miss havin’ ya around.”

“Hmmm.” Alex kissed her again backing her hard into the wall. “I miss being around you too. I love feeling your body all around mine. There is this weekend. We can tangle up in the sleeping bag. I promise to let you use my body any way you want.”

Her eyes narrowed. “This weekend?” Then her face cleared. “Oh, the sleeping bag is always a good thing.”

“It is.” Alex looked around discreetly. “Really, what you doing here, Iz? We agreed you don’t come to the club. Never. This is not a good place for you.”

Isabel smiled charmingly. “I got bored studying. Missed you. Decided to bend the rules and see if you wanted to take me home and have your way with me.”

Alex’s eyes darkened. His hands became harsher. “What are you offering?”

Isabel groaned. “Anything you want. Any way you want. As often as you want. I have a powerful thirst.”

Alex quickly flipped Isabel in his arms and pushed her front up against the wall as her breasts flattened. His body moved hard into her and in the dark corner he raised her tight short skirt up over her hips. His hands quickly releasing his pants to push his cock hotly between her legs from behind, not penetrating, but suggesting it. His hands moved down the front of her body to slide past her panties into her dripping cunt. She was more than a little wet. Alex moved hard against her as she moaned a low groaning yes, demanding that he do her now, there, in the club, in that dark corner where anyone could see them if they really looked.

Alex moved away fixing his clothes but leaving her as he left her, with her ass exposed. She turned with a question in her eye and swiftly pulled her skirt down. “Whassa matter? Don’cha want to do it?”

Alex smiled. “God, baby, you know I do, but unfortunately I don’t have the time to do it right. I have to go play the last set. Tell you what. You go home. Shower to get the smell of the club off you, and I’ll be home soon. Okay?”

Isabel smiled, but her smile in no way warmed her eyes. “Okay. But can we not mention this little transgression in the rules? I promise it was just a one time thing.”

Alex bent his mouth taking hers in a long violent and bruising kiss. Biting her lip hard until it bled, he stepped back. “You take care of me when I get home, and I’ll never mention it again.”

Isabel smiled and moved along his front. “Tell you what. I’ll go to sleep, and you can wake me up with your needs. I love it when I hardly know what’s happenin’ and suddenly you are in me.”

“Sneak attack!” Alex grabbed her ass hard pulling her tight to his body and he kissed her with barely suppressed violence. “Let’s play out a little rape fantasy.”

“You know what I like.” Isabel smiled and walked away. Alex watched her. He quickly stopped a man and bummed a cigarette. Taking the pack, he walked on, ignoring the guy’s request for the return of the rest of his smokes. Lighting a cigarette, he went into his small office.

“Yeah, I know what you like.” Alex took out his cell and pushed the autodial number one. It took a few moments for the phone to be answered. The groggy voice was heavy from sleep.

“Hello?”

Alex smiled and sat on the edge of his desk. “Hey.”

The voice softened and the husky sleep made her voice more of a purr. “Hey.”

“What’re you wearing?”

A soft chuckle came over the phone. It warmed his ear and his heart. “Why don’t you come home and find out.”

Now that was an invitation he was used to. It was a soft low purr that held a world of warmth and love in its depth. His Isabel. “I’m on my way.”

The voice paused and was silent in thought. “It’s early. Are you okay?”

“Missing you.” Alex could almost hear the smile. “If you were to wake up and be waiting in a nice hot bath, I wouldn’t find that too awful.”

“You’ll have to search for me in the bubbles.”

Alex smiled and quickly hung up. Placing the phone on his desk, he sat back for a moment as he lit a stolen cigarette. This was an unexpected twist.

“Alex?”

“Hey, Keeley.”

“The band is waiting to start the next set.”

Alex nodded. “Tell them they can finish up the night, but I need to go. Can you cover the club and help Jimmy pull receipts?”

“Sure.” Keeley frowned. Alex had barely left the club over the last week. He had worked from opening to closing every night. “You still taking off tomorrow?”

“Yeah, there’s something I need to see to, so tell the boys to keep a special lookout on the place. No lone females walk out. Someone escorts them to their cars, and increase the outside security to keep an eye on the parking.”

“Will do.”

Alex waited until Keeley left to find his stuff. He needed to talk to Michael. Scanning the room, he found him standing in the shadows beside the restrooms, just beyond the door. He looked like a bouncer. Alex stared at him for a moment. It took barely two breaths before Michael felt the gaze and turned towards Alex. He barely made a gesture, but Michael was soon heading for the back breakroom.

“What’s up? Your informant?”

Alex swore. Freddie. He had forgotten about Freddie. “No. He’s still missing, but as soon as I see him, I promise.”

Michael agreed easily, not wanting to push it.

“It’s Isabel. I had a visit from Isabel here in the club tonight.”

Michael didn’t say anything. He had seen the two of them over in the shadow. It wasn’t his place to disapprove of Isabel being in Club Hell, but he was surprised that Alex allowed her to come there. Alex always seemed so careful with Isabel.

“What did she want?”

Alex laughed cruelly. “To be fucked hard up against a wall in public.” Alex noticed Michael’s jaw clenching and his hands folding angrily into fists. “She invited me to come home and rape her tonight.” Michael’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Which would be fine if it was Isabel asking.”

“What?” Michael’s demeanor changed suddenly. “Alex, what the hell is going on?”

“Her Dupe. That wasn’t Isabel.”

“How do you know?”

Alex shrugged. “How could I not know? I’ve slept with her practically every night for the last five or six months. She’s part of my life and my dreams. Isabel and I might have started rough, but most of that crap bled away long ago. I don’t like hurting her, and she’s learned to respect herself enough that she doesn’t feel a need to be punished. Sex is sex. But what we do is more.” Alex gestured to the wall where he had been with the Isabel look-alike. “That person wanted me to go home and abuse who I found. Hurt them. Degrade them and myself. That is not Isabel. Not anymore. She’s come too far for that. Also, no matter how curious she is, Isabel would never violate my space…the club. Not without an invitation. Last time she was here I tossed her out. She won’t come back unless I invite her.”

Michael rubbed his face. “She looked like Isabel?”

Alex drew hard on his cigarette. “Looked like her. Talked like her...but now that I think about it, maybe not. She didn’t feel like her, either. She didn’t kiss like Isabel. I would know Isabel in a blind lineup, kissing a hundred women. I’d know her.”

Michael closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think. He understood that. He would know Maria from just a touch. A feel. A kiss would be no problem. No one could make him feel and react the way she did. If a hundred bellybuttons were lined up against a wall, he could tell which one was Maria’s. It was how close and intimate he was with her. He just hadn’t realized that Alex and Isabel had come that far in so short a time.

“This means they can look like us if they want to.” Michael’s voice had an underlying horror.

“Yeah. I think so. My source said that your copies are exact duplicates, but they appear different in dress and style. So, yeah they can alter themselves to look like you.” Alex looked at his watch. “I’ve gotta go! Isabel. I can’t leave her alone. What if…”

Michael nodded. Maria. Would she know the difference between him and his Dupe? The very thought sent his heart racing to his throat. His Dupe liked to rape women. Liked to beat and abuse them, then flay them into small pieces of bleeding flesh. Sonnabitch!

Michael located Max quickly. Alex was already gone. He needed to go. He couldn’t stay. Maria....he needed to get home to Maria. She would know. She would have to know it wasn’t him! Wouldn’t she? Michael swore. It didn’t matter. Even if she did know it wasn’t him, what chance did she have against a psychotic alien who looked like him?

~~~

“Hey.”

Alex stood in the doorway of the warm bathroom. The air was heavy with the warm mist rising from the bath, and the smell of her favorite scent permeated his skin. Isabel frowned at his dark face, the intensity of his glance as his eyes searched her face.

“Alex?”

He entered the room and sat on the edge of the bath. “Kiss me.” Isabel smiled and joined her mouth to his in a long drawing kiss, her tongue finding a warm place in his mouth, mating to his tongue, moaning at the taste that was him. Alex’s hands went around her wet body and lifted her from the water a little more into his arms holding her tight as his mouth moved hard and deep into hers.

“Alex?” Her voice was deep with passion when he finally released her and mated his forehead to hers breathing hard. “What is it? Are you okay?”

“No.” Alex closed his eyes concentrating on the feel of her in his arms. His life. She was his life. “I missed you. I really missed you, Iz.”

Isabel laughed lightly as she slowly peeled his clothes off to pull him into the bath with her. He really smelt. Cigarettes. She was used to the taste, but he was quitting. She tasted the cigarette on his breath.

“You were smoking.”

Alex laughed. “A few. I hate quitting.” Alex eased into the hot bath and arranged her to sit in front of him so she was leaning back on his body. His length was long. He was a wiry man, but deceptively thin. His body was much more muscular than it appeared. Isabel sighed and leaned into his long lean muscles, appreciating how he always held her tight, but never harshly.

“You going to tell me what’s going on?”

Alex rubbed his head in her hair. She had pinned it up loosely to keep it dry. “No. Not tonight. It’s late and I woke you up.” Alex moved his hand up her front to cup her breasts in his hands, his mouth moving along her neck from behind. "Nice, isn't it?" Alex's voice was a low murmur in her ear, and Isabel looked back as her lover settled behind her, and then down at his hands cupping her flesh. Turning in his arms, she rested along his length as one of his hands came to resting lightly on the curve of her hips as their bodies came together in a fusion of lips, tongue, breath and limbs. Alex's long legs stretched out to either side of Isabel's body, enclosing her possessively.

Isabel smiled and leaned into his chest, inhaling deeply as the scent of Alex mingled with that of the bath It was a familiar scent, subtle and warm.

"It's always nice to be woken up by you," she replied, sighing then, a heavy sound that seemed to reach down to her toes as she stretched luxuriously, trusting Alex to hold her weight as she leaned into him. She heard Alex chuckle deeply in her ear, and the hand on her hip slid forward around her waist, holding onto her tightly.

"You certainly haven't had any trouble adjusting to the mood of things, Iz."  The words were wry and colored with amused affection. Isabel smiled and turned again with her back to his chest and leaned her head back against his shoulder, resting her hand on his where they had returned to hold her breasts as their fingers threaded together. The arm around her waist tightened fractionally in response.

"We don't get the chance to do this very often," Isabel said in a slightly defensive tone, letting her gaze stare off at the wall. “You’ve been busy.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Alex kissed her neck, his tongue moving along the salty skin loving the taste of her. “I’ve been busy with the club, and I hate that I can’t see you all the time. I hate that I can’t let you come down there.”

“I’m stronger now. Recovered.”

“Recovering. There is a world of difference, Isabel.” Alex sighed and forced her to look back at him. “I pledge my life, heart and soul to you. I do. Do you understand?”

Isabel sat up a little twisting in the water to look at him better. Proposal? Was that a proposal? She knew that he was with her. That he loved her. But marriage was never a real consideration. It was too normal for someone like Alex.

“Alex.” Her voice was too high. It held a squeak. “Maybe you better draw me a detailed picture, because I’m afraid.”

Alex wrapped his hand around her neck, his brown eyes never losing contact with her softer brown ones until the moment her mouth touched his. He outlined her lips with his tongue before taking her mouth in a long penetrating kiss. “What do you need to know, Isabel? Do I love you? Yes. Would I die for you? In a heartbeat. Can I see my life without you? No.” Alex held her face. “I look at you and I see a thousand lifetimes, a hundred worlds, and in every life, you are the most precious thing I ever beheld. I couldn’t imagine not loving everything about you.”

Isabel looked down into the water between them. “What if I was evil? A terrible person? Would you love me still?”

“Yes.” Alex pulled her body fully on top of his. “Yes, I would. There are no lines of demarcation between you and your soul. I can only love what you are and your essence. It touches me. Hold me. Brings me comfort. In you, there is nothing but an endless succession of light and living. I want to live in that fire, Isabel. Walk in the darkness with you lighting my way. I would give up everything to keep you safe. Safe from the world. Safe from yourself.”

It was something that they needed to deal with, and Alex knew he was holding it from her, hidden. How could he risk her fragile human heart to do battle with her strong alien one? Isabel. Vilandra. It didn’t matter. It couldn’t. Not to him. He saw both parts of her, and tonight, he saw a pure version of Vilandra. It shamed him when he thought about how aroused he had felt. How much he wanted to take the other Isabel into his back office and fuck her until she begged him to stop. They were the same, but his Isabel, she was more. So much more. A vulnerability with an abiding strength. She was both Isabel and Vilandra, and that was who he wanted. Who he loved. The other was a fake image. Something that wanted to hurt and destroy Isabel. Something that would not succeed. Not as long as he breathed.

A thousand times a day, there was the desire to touch her, to connect with her in a way that transcended the intimacy of mere friends, or even lovers. It was a desire that had to be relentlessly squelched if he wanted to complete anything. He had obligations. Obligations to Isabel, but also to his people and his friends. So many people all pulling at him from different directions, but it didn’t matter. Ultimately, there could only be one choice. Isabel. It wasn’t easy being who he was, but even he had the right to dream.

“Let me keep you. Take care of you. Love you.” There was a deepening huskiness in Alex's voice that made Isabel tense without warning, and a warm flush moved through her body in response to the quietly voiced requests. Just like Pavlov's dog, she couldn't help but think, and the thought made her chuckle inwardly. Yes. He could keep her, have her, and do anything as long as he kept loving her. It was all she wanted, more than she ever hoped to find.

Alex's fingers were rubbing lightly at the side of her right leg, nails rasping softly over the skin made even silkier in the water. Such a simple thing, but the intent behind it spoke volumes to Isabel. She felt her heartbeat speed up ever so slightly, and her fingers tightened fractionally around his. Talk about subliminal conversations.

"Are you trying to distract me?" she asked with a small smile, running one hand over his leg as well. Alex's muscles shivered at her touch. How could she but love the reaction he had to her touch?

"Is it working?" There was a definite lilt in Alex's voice now, a grin struggling not to surface through the words. He smoothed his palm over Isabel's leg lightly, back and forth. Isabel couldn't suppress a slow shiver as the  first slow quickening began to grow in her pelvis making her feel heavy and languished. “Come to bed, Izzy. Come to bed.”

"Yes," Isabel replied, feeling faintly breathless as Alex stood pulling her up along his body to wrap them both in a large towel. He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. In his arms, the strength and care, he made her feel small and cherished. Loved.

“Will you tell me someday?” It hurt to think that he could cut her from parts of his life, keep secrets from her.

“Yes. Not today, but someday soon. I promise. When it’s time, I’ll tell you.”

“But not now.”

Alex stared down at her beautiful face so very young and innocent belying years of abuse and neglect. She had come so far back from that hell she once lived in, and he stood at the gate protecting her from being harmed ever again. It was hard for him to stand aside and welcome pain to her, but sooner or later it was a destiny that she would have to bear. Just not today. Not today.

“No. Soon.”

“How will you know when it’s time?”

Alex moved his hand along her soft moist skin worshipping the beauty of her that was more than her looks or anything physical. “I’ll know. I always know. This is a time where you must trust me, and I swear not to let you down.”

Isabel looked deep into his eyes. Yes. She saw him. Not just Alex Whitman, but all the so many Alexanders. They were tough men. Tough in their ability to love, fierce in their fight to survive, and diligent in their resolve. She could see him in a flash. Before her very eyes he changed from her Alex to an older version, tried and true, covered in battle chainmail, the armor of a warrior. He was covered in blood and the smell of earth, and in his eyes burned the battles of a thousand lives. He was a man that knew only honor.

“Yes.” Isabel felt her heart threaten to rip from her own breast at the darkening of his eyes to her acceptance of him as her protector. The fire was enough to born within her the spark of something old and violent. A desire to mate more than flesh, but souls and hearts. “Oh god, Alex!”

The darkness around them was nearly complete now, broken only by the strange flickering patterns that the soft light from the bathroom made as it washed over them. It was easy to believe that they existed inside a nimbus of light at the center of the universe, cut off from everything and everyone, existing only with each other, for each other, here in this moment. Isabel felt a wave of exhilaration; it was something she could never get enough of or risk losing. It was the feeling of Alex holding her like this, touching her like this, loving her like this. Just the thought of it, the freedom of it, was enough to give her a private thrill, because Alex loved her. Loved her. It was enough to give one confused and lost psychology student delusions of severe grandeur.

Alex's hand moved slowly along the inner curve of Isabel's thigh, and Isabel let her legs fall open without thinking, her breath hitching as Alex's other hand move up the front of her body to her breasts. The feel of warm fingers against her skin was intoxicating, and for a moment, everything but the warmth of Alex's body on her was blanked out, leaving her adrift in a kind of free-floating limbo where every synapse in her body was poised to react to the slightest stimulation.

"Breathe," Alex's voice whispered in her ear, and he sounded faintly amused. There was something about being touched this way, that set Isabel's nerves on fire. She felt open in a way that she never experienced with anyone but him. Exposed. It thrilled her, exhilarated her; sent her mind spinning and her pelvis straining against the stroking gentleness of his hand. The hand on her thigh rode up a bit to circle her clitoris, massaging gently, and she whimpered his name.

"Shh," Alex soothed, and he slid his fingers into her, and his other fingers up the curve of Isabel's ribs to stroke lightly at her collar bone, tracing delicate whorls over the skin. His lips pressed briefly against the side of Isabel's throat, then lifted away, heated breath warming the skin there. "I've got you."

And the words seemed to speak directly into Isabel's mind, into her heart, into her soul. Of course Alex had her, had always had her, even before they became lovers. Even before they became friends.

"I love you," Isabel whispered.

Alex heard. He always heard, even the things that Isabel would have preferred to keep hidden. But she was a slave to him, to his beautiful smile, and that wonderful...mouth...that was now sucking all the blood to the surface of Isabel's throat in a flurry of delightful suction against the side of her neck. Isabel let her head fall back and moaned deeply, kneading her fingers into the hard coiled muscles of Alex's thighs like a cat as his right hand was rubbing and stroking into her body, stimulating that small nub of nerve endings to breaking, over and over, hard palm moving over her mound, sliding into the silky skin trapped within, until Isabel's hips were rolling smoothly in time with the repetitive motion, and her breath was hissing out between her teeth in small, whistling gasps.

"Alex...," she whispered, and the word turned into a strangled groan as Alex's fingers took her hand into his and guided it to his own chest, to closed her fingers around his nipple ring and tugged lightly, joining the same repetitive cadence as the hand in moving in and out of her. Isabel could feel teeth against the sensitized skin of her neck, and the low, rumbling growl that Alex made seemed to echo in through that one point of contact to shudder through every nerve ending in Isabel's body. He loved the added stimulation of his nipple ring, and it moved him to the same place he was taking her.

And, just that simply, she was lost. Isabel gave up control with a low groan and stretched back against the bed as Alex's body took control of them, letting him push her where he wanted her to go, giving herself up to the hands that touched her, stroked her, ruled her…loved her The pleasure moved out through her body in warm, tremulous waves, and Isabel’s brain shut down and she just felt it, existing in the moment, this one bright, shining moment where Alex was hers and she was Alex's and they didn't have to pretend that it was otherwise, that it had ever been otherwise. God, this was good, this was so fucking good, she felt like her brain was about to implode from how very very good it was, and god help her if Alex wasn't...if Alex didn't...

"God," she said, or thought she said, as Alex's fingers moved deeper in her, his head suddenly moving down to take her in his mouth. She was pressing her hips up into Alex's mouth in silent entreaty, or near-silent entreaty, as the whimpers slid past her lips in an agonizing torrent of need and want and damn it, if Alex didn't fuck her soon she was going to…

Then Alex's hand was replaced with his hard cock, pushing into her body straining the vaginal walls to stretch to accommodate. He was on her, really on her, and in her, as his fingers closed with calm familiarity around the hardness of her nipples, pulling and pinching them to engorged points as his hot mouth pulled them inside.

Isabel cried out, her entire body shuddering as Alex stroked her, hard. His cock moving in fast, pulsating, pounding, thrust in and out, sliding over the clit. Stimulating it beyond reason. Just the way she liked it, and the joy of that touch rocketed through her, fucking seared through her, branding her. Alex's hand was hot against her skin, where it touched her, where it made love to her. So hot it burned. Isabel moaned again, not caring what kind of sounds she was making, aware only that they were increasing in volume steadily as Alex continued to work her, and she could feel Alex's smile against the skin of her breasts as he continued to suckle on her, through the lips that pressed against her skin, the tongue that traced a path of blazing white fire along the aureole of her nipple. That amazingly talented mouth...

Alex's arm tightened around her just a moment before Isabel felt his breath catch the final time. God, if the man didn't always know before she did when the ride was about to come to an end as he felt her body tearing apart under him, racing to completion, and for a moment Isabel fought it, just dug in her heels and willed it not to end, but then she threw back her head as the scream ripping from her as the world hazed to black and white around her.

It took more than a few moments for Isabel to get her bearings back, and when she did, she found that she was on her side with her head pillowed on one of Alex's arms, with Alex's body strong and fortifying behind her. Alex was lapping softly at the skin behind her ear, making pleased little humming noises as he held her smaller body tightly against his chest, one thigh draped possessively over Isabel's hip.

"God, you're beautiful," Alex said softly, and the words made Isabel shiver deeply.

Isabel wanted to say something in reply, but she was distracted by the slow, insistent movements of Alex's groin against her ass. It was readily obvious that Alex had not shared in the mind-blowing orgasm that had just remade the fabric of Isabel's world. His self control was daunting at times, how he could push her over the edge, and wait to take her there again, and again before he allowed himself to succumb. Isabel pressed her hips back on Alex's next slow thrust and was rewarded with a low, strangled groan which Alex did his best to smother against her hair. He liked it from behind, to move her forward and slide into her vagina from the rear. She suspected it was the full access it gave him to her breasts and body, and letting him slide his fingers into her from the front while he entered her from behind.

Isabel smiled slightly. "How do you want me?" she asked, keeping her voice low. Her smile deepened as she felt the subdued shiver pass through Alex's frame behind her. "Anything you want, Alex," she insisted, lowering her voice even further. Her hand stroked gently over Alex's arm where it draped across her body to hold her breasts "Anything."

The movements of Alex's hips grew bolder, more demanding, and Isabel arched her neck against the low sounds that Alex was muttering against her skin. She felt hot, excited, almost more so than when Alex had been coaxing her to the brink of orgasm. He was always so determined to assure her completion before his own.

"Do you want to touch me?" she asked, letting her hand slide up along Alex's arm to cup over the back of his neck, pulling Alex's head up against hers so that she was practically whispering in his ear. "Is that what you want, Alex? Or do you need something more?"

Alex made a low noise in the back of his throat and rubbed his face roughly against Isabel's. His breathing was heavy, rasping in her ear.

"Or maybe you want my ass? God, Alex, do you know how long it's been since you've taken me that way? I'm getting hot just thinking about it. Nothing feels more then when you make love to me, Alex…nothing. It's like I'm utterly possessed by you, like you own every part of me. I can't tell you how hot that makes me." Alex was such an ass man. He always was, but he held back more than before. He didn’t want to hurt her, but anything she did with Alex was worth it. Feeling him. All of him.

Alex's hand clenched in the front of Isabel holding her breasts hard, crushing the heavy weight as his body strained forward, desperately asking for Isabel to do something…to do anything…to ease his need. Isabel had to bite back a groan at the feel of the tremors that were now moving steadily through Alex's body, transferring directly into her own. She loved it when Alex got this way, so pure in his need, so utterly open about the things he wanted Isabel to do for him. There was something undeniably raw about them together. He was hers, all hers.

Alex bent low and whispered in her ear, “I love your luscious ass, baby. I love you any way I can have you.” Alex moved onto his back and turned Isabel to lean over him. “Make love to me. Your way, Isabel. Any way.”

Isabel smiled slowly. Alex was a man that liked to be in control. Perhaps he knew that women, or specifically that she, were his weakness. He held on to his possession as much as he could, because with the first fall, the rest went. He would walk through hell and back for her.

Strange. At one time in her life, her entire need and desire was to rule and control men with her body. She used it to push and manipulate them to her will. Not Alex. Never Alex. She tried so hard to push him at first, to get him to notice her. He did. What he saw, he didn’t want. For him it was all or nothing, and before she could give him all, she had to value the gift it was.

Alex offering to let her control their lovemaking, to set the pace, to let her drive him to orgasm when normally he would have held back, taking her again and again until she was too tired to go on, before he allowed himself to join her.

Isabel kissed his mouth slowly paying attention to every nook and cranny. Tasting him deep in her mouth. Her hand moved over his chest to tweak his nipple with his nipple ring. Moving her mouth down, she sucked him into her mouth, and pulled the small golden ring between her teeth feeling his chest move under her, arching and the deep moan.

Alex let her have quarter over his body. He watched her with barely contained fire burning in the depths of his eyes, as his hand moving sensually down the soft skin of her back. Marriage. He wanted to marry her. He had almost asked her in his own way to marry him tonight, but he couldn’t. Not with what he saw in their future.

He would die for her. In his waking dream, he stepped between her and death, and forfeited his life so that she might live.

~~~

“You’re not going to work today? Why?”

Michael shrugged. She needed to know, but he didn’t want to alarm her. Not now. Things were going well. Real well. Since they married, since that terrible day, they had been doing better physically and mentally. Maria was healed. Healthy.

How could he admit that a part of him, an integral part of his makeup, was capable of so much cruelty and evil acts? It was hard to share a face with the monster that could maim and rape. Maria. He couldn’t risk her. Not her. Not the babies.

“I cleared it with Cap. Let’s get away. One week back, and I’m already missing spending time alone with you. That will give your noisemakers time to do whatever the hell they’re going to do to our home.” Michael frowned down at the rug in front of the fireplace where the rotund Mr. Boo and the slightly less rotund Ms. Fluffy reclined. He was grooming her. “What is Mac’s cat doing here?”

“Julia agreed to let Ms. Fluffy stay here with Booboo while we’re gone. She’ll come in and feed them. Then we don’t have to ask anyone to risk their lives and catsit.” Maria smiled. “I was thinking Corpus Christi, and shrimp. Late night strolls on the beach. Sitting outside in the early morning and waiting for the sun to come up.” Maria reached up and kissed his neck sniffing his skin. “Mmmm.... I was thinking we could take the Mustang, and you could drive real fast.”

Michael pulled her along with him back up to their bedroom. “You tell me what to pack and I’ll push it in the bags. If we hurry, we can get gone before anyone can stop us.” Michael stopped when a small scrap of silk and lace hit him in the head. He took it in his hands and held up the tiny material made of nothing but fantasies. “What is this?”

Maria smiled seductively. “All I need packed for the weekend.”

Michael looked at her, at the material in his hand, and at her again. Maria laughed hard at the soft growl coming from him, and that turned to a yelp as he jumped her on the bed.

~~~

“Courtney.” Turning to the voice, she looked back at Hugh.

“What are you doing here?” Courtney looked around making sure there were few other people around. “My partner is watching me like a hawk. This is not smart, Hugh. Not smart at all!”

“You had orders, Courtney. The Princess still lives. She is still too close to the Commander and his family.”

Courtney quickly ducked into the stairwell as the older man followed her. “I understand that Nicolas and his goon squad is around. There were rumors that Larek sent his Lieutenant Zepar. What are you doing here when I would think you had more to worry about than Vilandra?”

“I do.” Hugh grabbed Courtney hard. “Don’t mess with me, Court. I know of your infatuation with the Commander. We all do. Saving Vilandra will not win you favors.”

Courtney ripped her arm out of Hugh’s grip. “Don’t threaten me! I’ve had no opportunity! Her boyfriend is there every night. She is rarely alone. Last week when I could’ve done something, I was pulled to do an undercover assignment.” Courtney searched the stairwell. “Thing is, I think the rapist we’re after is the Commander’s dupe, Rath.”

Hugh closed his eyes and groaned. “The Dupes? Here? Damn! They’ll be after the Granilith.”

“Them and every other alien on this damn planet. Big fucking woo.” Courtney rubbed her eyes. She was tired. “They have no clue. I’m telling you! The Royals are even more worthless than the Dupes. Their lack of alien essence means that their inherent memories aren’t that refined. They have inklings, feelings, but no real recognition or memories from the past. The Dupes do. I don’t think they can tell us about the Granilith because they don’t know what the hell it is either.”

Hugh pushed Courtney hard in her chest. “Don’t think. Do. Your orders are to kill Vilandra to remove a potential threat to the Commander and his family. Do that, soldier.”

Courtney watched him leave the stairwell. “Yes, sir.” Leaning against the wall next to the door she put her head back. “Great. Fucking great.”

~~~

“I don’t know why you’re here.”

Vanessa picked up a toy and looked at Nicolas with a question in her eye. He quickly snatched the game controller for his Playstation from her hands. “Don’t touch!”

“Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas. You might be trapped in a young boy’s body, but must you act like one?”

“It’s difficult. I can’t seem to distinguish between what is my feelings and what are those imprinted in the husk.”

Vanessa laughed and ran her fingernail along the young boy’s cheek. “That’s simple my little underachiever. Anything resembling a feeling is alien to us, and therefore should be ignored as an irritating side effect. I like to think of it as a human virus. Feelings.” Her face twisted in a sneer. “They make us weak.”

“I still don’t see a need for you.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I am seeing Roswell as a seething hotbed of alien activity. I hear Larek has sent Walkers. The Dupes…those poor Royal-wannabes are here, Kivar is threatening to come. Then there is you and your Harvest Home rejects, the damn traitorous Skins, and to top it all off, I just had an interesting meeting with a few FBI Special Unit agents. When you add in the actual Royals, and we’re looking at a full convention.”

Nicolas smirked. “Oh, did you stop at the UFO Center to check out their convention information? Perhaps it is time for a Summit.”

Vanessa extended her powers and watched the Playstation melt under her hand despite Nicolas’s protest. “The time for summits is over. It is time for action. In the next few years, the Granilith left Earth. We don’t know how, or even when. It happened between the time the Commander met his mate, and the eighteenth birthday of the one key.”

“That is over a twenty year span.” Nicolas scowled at his destroyed game. Going to the kitchen, he took out milk, Tabasco, and chocolate sauce to mix himself a treat. “We can’t know when it will happen. We can’t afford to intervene in the run of Destiny. Our presence here is already causing problems. Rath, the Commander’s Dupe is causing problems. He is getting noticed. He left alien DNA as evidence at crime scenes.”

“Fool.” Vanessa paced the room. She went over to Nicolas and removed the chocolate syrup. “That will give you acne. Your skin can’t afford the extra eruptions.”

“I can’t shut him down. We need him back on Antar.”

“Did you find this bomber that is targeting so close to the Commander?”

Nicolas shook his head no as he drank his milk. “He is an unknown. No one knows what he looks like. Even the PD with the Commander’s help, is finding little to nothing. He was quiet while the Commander was gone, but yesterday he tried to blow the Commander’s workplace to hell and back.”

“And that is exactly why I’m here. Obviously you are incompetent. We need to know where the Granilith is, but more than that, we need the Commander to be protected. You had your orders! And there is a threat to our very existence.” Vanessa suddenly looked smug.

“I don’t see you making any headway into the life of the Commander.”

Vanessa shrugged. “It is only a matter of time. I made contact with the King, and my ex-husband is very close to the mate. I will be inside soon. It shouldn’t take me long to find out where the Granilith is. They have to know. It has been on Earth for almost twenty-three years. It is impossible that no one knows where it is. It has to be near or around the Commander.”

Nicolas hopped up on the counter and was kicking his legs as he continued to drink his milk. “Larek is sending Walkers to find the Granilith. The Dupes are a problem. They know that the Granilith is their only bargaining chip, and they are hoping to acquire it themselves.”

Vanessa laughed cruelly. “Stop messing with them. I know you always had a taste for Vilandra, but wading in the piece of reject sewage that is her Dupe is hardly worthy of your name or station. All we need is the one they call Rath. Keep your head out of her snatch and concentrate on the task at hand.” Vanessa smiled. “Perhaps I should contact the Shapeshifter and see if he would like to make a deal with me personally, in Kivar’s name of course.”

“Forget it. You’re out of the loop. The Shapeshifter and Kivar already made a deal. The Granilith and the Royal heir, and he can come home.”

Vanessa turned an unbecoming pale under her dry skin. “Home. Antar? Kivar would never allow the Protector to return to Antar. He is unreliable and by far too dangerous to be trusted. He would kill us all, given the chance.”

Nicolas jumped down. “Perhaps. Kivar’s concern. Not ours.” Nicolas looked at Vanessa and smiled. “Lucky you’re here. There is a movie I want to see at the Cinemaplex. I need an adult.”

Vanessa snorted. “I’m not taking you to the movies.”

“I was going to buy the popcorn!”

Vanessa sighed in chagrin.

~~~

It was late. Sean sat in his car for what felt like forever. Stakeout. No, Julia-watching. She said she would call when she was done for the day. That was almost four hours ago. With no place to go, he parked his wreck of a car outside her offices and willed the phone to ring.

“Sean?” Numb. He waited so long that the ringing of his phone hardly registered. He had answered it automatically.

“Yeah.” Sean quickly cleared his throat.

“I know it’s late. I’m sorry. If you want to…”

“Are you through?”

Sean could hear Julia pausing, and in his mind he could see her checking her watch. “Yes, but…”

“Good. I’m outside. C’mon, Mac. I’ve already eaten three helpings of the Colonel’s best chicken. If you want some, you better get that chicken-lovin’ gorgeous ass moving.” Sean chuckled as the phone disconnected. It didn’t take long for her to appear.

She had called him earlier in the day, before he got off work and told him what the DA had said to her. It was enough to concern Sean, because he felt the same as the DA. Julia was a target. A big target. It made no sense as to why she was being targeted more than another member of the DA’s office. The very thought was enough to make him take the rest of the day off and plant himself outside her offices on Julia-stakeout duty. She was the one and only member of the new Sean DeLuca Protection Plan.

"Shit," thought Sean, sensing that Julia already upon him before he could clear the evidence of his obsessive stakeout. He looked around in dismay at mess of empty coffee cups, donut containers, takeout food, and other things littering his car around him, then sighed and went back to enjoying watching her walk.

Julia breezed into the front seat next to him, tossing the pile of trash on the floorboard at her feet. "Hey, what's all this?" she asked, leaning over to investigate.

"This," Sean noted grimly, "is a mess…Hey, watch it! There is still some soda in that can!"

Julia nimbly righted the can before it could spill its contents. He had to be kidding. What was a little caramel syrup on top of this heap of trash?

Sean reached over to take the can and calmly poured the remaining liquid outside on the pavement.

"What’re you doing, Detective?"

"Babysitting,"  Sean said tersely, turning back to staring straight ahead. He was so much toast. Might as well stick a fork in him, he was done. "You need one. You were supposed to be finished by now. So I wasn’t prepared to stay out here this long." He didn't look up, feeling vaguely embarrassed, and instead focused on carefully scrutinizing the street. "It took a little longer than I thought."

"God, Sean," Julia said. "I think that's..." Julia stopped, swallowed. "I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me." Sean glanced up quickly and then looked away again, not trusting himself to respond.

Julia perched up on her knees in the bench seat beside him. The fact that Sean had elected to spend his day taking off doing this moved her deeply. The very action spoke volumes to Julia…spoke of Sean's profound understanding of and respect for who she was, of Sean's tendency to communicate through simple actions rather than complicated words, of Sean's quiet desire that their relationship should be strong and solid and permanent. He could have charged into her work making a scene, or demand that she leave and take refuge somewhere safe, but instead he calmly sat outside all day keeping a close eye while she continued to work, doing her job.

Mostly, it spoke of Sean's love for her, which was surprisingly uncomplicated, considering how odd their whole situation really was. Julia breathed deeply, feeling inadequate, feeling that despite her life revolving around the mastery of words, she could talk from now till doomsday and never even begin to convey to Sean  how much she loved him. Thankfully, however, there were other ways to communicate. Julia smiled at him, her soft cheeks dimpling, drawing his eyes. God, even after an eighteen hour day, she was the loveliest thing he had ever seen! Swallowing hard, Sean shoved a takeout box of chicken at her.

“Eat your chicken. I bought you orange soda too.” Julia just smiled wider as he started the car and pulled into traffic, heading towards her house. He couldn’t get there fast enough as she ate hungrily, licking her fingers, and occasionally leaning over to lick him, along his neck as she nibbled on a slightly cold dinner, and a very hot Detective.

Julia’s street was quiet when Sean pulled into it. People had packed it in for the day and were inside, sleeping in the cool air conditioning and away from the day’s heat. In Roswell, the summer months seemed to stretch long into the fall, and in late September it was still extremely hot. The air conditioning in his junker car didn’t work. No time or incentive to fix it.  Sean was more concerned with his new Dodge project. That car was still at Walter’s, and they had done a quick inventory and Walter was already in the process of getting him the parts he definitely needed. Once those parts came in, they would move the car to Michael and Maria’s garage and the fun would begin. Sean turned off his engine and sat for a moment avoiding looking at the home he once shared with Julia, even for a little while. He liked it, but it was always Julia’s place, never really theirs.

Sean was distracted from his thoughts by the soft sound of Julia unzipping his jeans. He looked up quickly at Julia's face, and met her beautiful eyes full of longing. Raising an eyebrow, Sean brushed a hand over her face letting his thumb rest on her mouth. Julia provocatively opened her mouth and pulled his thumb inside to suck on it; Sean suppressed a moan and quickly moved to replace it with his mouth.

Julia took Sean's face in her hands. "I love you," she said, and kissed him softly on the side of his mouth. And then again fully on the mouth sucking his tongue into hers.

"I love you," Sean murmured, burying his face in Julia's hair. Sean’s hands were already all over her, and she could feel her clothes loosening and moving quickly. He was a Houdini with a button or zipper. Octopus Man. So many hands it was hard to keep track, and who cared as his mouth found that spot on her neck, and she moved hard up against him.

"How was your day, Julia?" Julia prompted teasingly, fingers caressing the soft skin on Sean's neck.

"How was your day, Julia?" Sean repeated gamely, taking Julia by the shoulders and gently tonguing her earring.

"Oh, not too bad, Sean," responded Julia, inhaling sharply as Sean sucked on her earlobe. "I spent the day getting ready for a large trial starting Tuesday, and I'm almost done, but my brain hurts and my body aches from sitting and I needed a break." She smiled to herself. A break was the least of what she needed right now. "So how about taking a little break with me?"

This was a private joke, their own codeword for sex. In the few months since they had become lovers and especially since they stepped back taking it slower, sex between them had become something of a series of frantic and hot sessions of finding each other during the day for a ‘quick’ break from whatever they were supposed to be doing. Julia's strongest resource was words; she was a vocal lover…big surprise since words were her livelihood, and she found that she could bring Sean to a full boil by talk alone, piling sentence upon sentence with care and passion, by saying what Sean couldn't always say, but what he wanted to hear. Sean's advantage was touch; completely attuned to her body, he had quickly discovered every single one of Julia's buttons, and he had learned how to push them expertly.

Impromptu sex was like a battle they waged against the other, in a sexually intense game of one-upsmanship. If Sean gained the upper hand first, Julia would be quickly, effectively, and pleasurably silenced into anything but a silent mass of moan and screams. And so sex had become a sort of game between them, a friendly competition for sexual dominance, a match of skills and strengths. It was nice, Julia thought as Sean's arms wrapped around her waist, to be able to verbally arouse her lover so thoroughly that Sean would suddenly groan and become, this shuddering mass of nerve endings moving fast and furious in her, around her in a conquering fury. And, as much as she loved Sean when he was lost in this primal place, in her heart Julia admitted the truth.

She usually played to lose. She loved to see him all dominating and leading her where he wanted to go. Sean, a junkie to pain and domination, used it at a ruse. He was rarely out of control, and what control he relinquished, he did so cautiously and with the intent of regaining it in the end, usually at the orgasmic conclusion.

"You were very restrained today, holding back and not charging in and demanding I let you protect me," Julia said, kissing Sean's cheek.

"I want to please you," answered Sean softly.

"You do please me," said Julia.

"I'm not talking about just today," whispered Sean.

"Neither am I."

Sean made a low growling sound in his throat. Julia laughed joyously as his entire body seemed to move over her so fast that she couldn’t pinpoint hands and lips from one time to the next. She locked her legs around Sean's waist as Sean picked her up and pulled her into his lap between that tight space between him and the steering wheel. Julia could feel his hand going down to find the lever that would allow him to move the bench seat back a little giving them room. Actually it would have been more comfortable in the back seat, but neither of them thought of that, since spontaneous sex and love rarely had enough moments to overcome the cloud of raging passion. Front seat was heaven. Tight. Exciting. Full of Sean. Julia unfastened his pants and held him firmly in her hand as Sean already had rid her of nylons and anything resembling a barrier between her soft center and his fingers. How he learned to undress a woman in a blink of an eye should bother her, but in truth, it didn’t as long as he kept all his practicing exclusive to her.

"I'm talking about the way you love me," Julia began as Sean had her blouse open fully, her bra surprisingly gone, and his mouth lingering on her breasts to climbed up her front to her neck. "I'm talking about the heat in your eyes, the feel of your hands, your lips, your tongue on my body, I'm talking about pure, unadulterated…" She practically bounced in Sean’s lap as he bit the side of her neck hard enough to not only make her jump a little, but feel all the muscles of her body, especially those in her pelvis to clench and ache. Oh, he was good! He just made her forget her train of thought. That never happened in a courtroom!

She watched as Sean stripped in front of her, watched Sean's muscular arms as they moved in the air over her head, grasped the fabric of his T-shirt, and tugged upwards. Julia watched as the thin fabric slid upward to reveal the large, hairless expanse of Sean's chest. Julia took a deep breath and fumbled frantically with her own blouse tossing it off her body so her bare skin could mate and touch his. Julia loosened the buttons and zipper of her tight skirt so it could move easily upward and out of the way. She was shockingly naked under it. How he did that was a mystery, but one she found unimportant to explore at that juncture.

As Sean replaced her hand that had held him firmly, he continued to ease out of his jeans. "God, Sean, I'm talking about being hornier than I've ever been in my life, about wanting it, wanting you, more than I've ever wanted anything." She struggled with her skirt and finally managed to get it over her body and off wiggling in Sean’s lap enough to make him pant, and then she gasped as Sean suddenly seized her and deftly began moving her along his body teasing it just short of actually moving inside her.

"I'm talking about wanting it so badly that I can't think about anything else, can't think straight," burbled Julia. She smiled to herself as she noticed he was having a hard time concentrating on her talking, and actually he was becoming distracted. "When I'm in my office, and I think of you…I need to touch myself." Julia heard Sean moan softly and smiled inwardly. "I lean back in my chair and slide my hands under my blouse, pretending they're your hands, touch my nipples, feel how hard they are, wish you were there to rub them, suck them…suck them hard." The line between description and direction was blurring rapidly in Sean's mind, and he bent to cover Julia's right nipple with his warm, wet mouth. He sucked fiercely. He was always so good at instruction. Julia arched into his mouth, gasping.

"Oh yes, that's right, that's good," groaned Julia. "More...want more...I move my hands…your hands…down over my body," murmured Julia, warming to her fantasy as she shut her eyes and described it and Sean acted it out. "I move my fingers down my body, run my fingers over my clitoris sinking them into me, as I imagine it is you…your fingers. And my body is taut for you, straining for you, I want you so much." Sean slid his free hand down Julia's torso and found her center, soft, hot and very wet. He pushed two fingers in her as his mouth sucked hard at her breasts. Julia began to breathe hard, and she pushed herself up wantonly on Sean's finger. "Oh, yes!" she whispered, "oh yes, Sean..."

Julia struggled to pick up the threads of her narrative, gulping as she continued to give him instructions, not that he really needed them, but she could feel the response of his body to her fantasy.

 "...and I stroke myself, and I pretend it's you, and I'm begging for you to do me, and I'm wanting to give myself to you completely, and I'm wanting it hard, wanting it rough, wanting to be manhandled and marked and bruised…" Julia stopped momentarily, hearing Sean's loud, ragged gasp rend the air, feeling Sean tense and quiver uncontrollably under her, and she wondered idly if she had won...had she pushed him to orgasm with just words.

...and then, in a swift, graceful blur of movement, Sean was in her, replacing his fingers with his hot hard cock, surging up hard between her legs, pulling them apart, lifting them up by the knees to force her to sit fully and more completely on him. Julia cried out as she felt him slid in deeper as her body weight pushed her down hard as Sean surged upward. Sean's one hand left her knee to closed around her breast, his thumb caressing perk sensitive nipple before his mouth followed. Oh, such talented hands...such talented mouth…

"God, take me, claim me," Julia pleaded, as Sean's cock worked its way deeper, "touch me...like that...touch...everywhere... oh, please..." Sean's body thrust hard, deep, and pulling back to move across the nerve ending of her clit, and Julia convulsed, knowing now that it was all over but for the shouting, knowing now that she would most definitely, assuredly lose… was losing…. Words had lost their strategic purpose and now they slipped out of her, in an endless hard coherent babble as she lost control of her body and followed Sean’s lead, his hands guidance as she rode him hard ignoring the steering wheel that kept hitting her in her back, the fact that they were fucking hard in his car in front of her house, or that his car was an old junker with no shocks and they had to be moving it wildly.

"Use me as you like, I'm yours, you have me, you can have everything, take everything…ahhhh ....oh..." And then Julia was silent and straining, fucking herself hard on Sean's cock, thrusting forward into him and back as he growled a low heavy encouragement in her ear, pleasure everywhere she moved, thrashing wildly, faster and faster; and she was sobbing, and there were no more words left in her. Just Sean’s name as she cried it over and over in a deep throaty moan.

Sean watched the pleasure contorting Julia's face and felt dizzy, felt overpowered, feared he would pass out. He had never in his wildest wet dreams imagined anything as erotic as Julia  was in reality, and a raw, primal sound worked its way out of his throat. He angled his aching cock against Julia's hot, throbbing flesh and began helplessly thrusting his hips, trembling as he felt Julia strain hard for completion against him, against his cock. He loved her. Loved how she went from being his uptight ADA to this earthy creature who’s hair was wild about her head, and her mouth red and wanton to his kisses. The imprint of teeth marks on her lip from where she was biting it drew his eyes, and his mouth, as his tongue soothed the damage and took her lip in his mouth in a long sucking pull. And then Julia was spasming, her internal muscles gripping Sean's cock tightly, and Sean threw his head back and came inside Julia with deep pulses, and the world swam before his eyes and disappeared.

He came to consciousness with Julia pressed up against his chest. She was spent and breathing hard, draped across him, lightly nuzzling his earlobe in a post-coital daze. Sean had reached a hand up to the ceiling of the car as he came, so he extended his arm, and pulled Julia more tightly to him. They lay there companionably for long minutes, their breathing calming, enjoying the relaxed contact of skin against skin.

“We could get arrested,” Sean said softly against her skin.

Julia laughed. Here they were, two people in the very offices of law enforcement and justice, and lately almost every time they made love it was highly illegal, in a public place, and involved almost complete nudity. Since every stitch of her clothing was off, and Sean was wearing only a pair of jeans pushed off his hips, they were definitely on shaky legal ground. But no more than the Xerox room at her office with all those incriminating Xeroxes that somehow got made as they used the top of the machine, or the interrogation room at the PD, or the conference table at the Courthouse, or…and even with all the excitement that came with inappropriate mating in public all she wanted was him back in her bed, every night. All night.

Sean, having recovered, noticed that she was still joined to him, and that his body was very happy to rise to another occasion. Grabbing her tightly, he swung her around, careful of the steering wheel, to lay her on the bench seat, his cock never leaving her body. Draping her leg over the backseat, he watched as she moved her other leg to push up against the steering column as he surged in her again, pushing through the tight muscles already moving to him. Oh, this was going to be a nice long session, he had taken the edge off, but what he really wanted was to get her into the house so he really had room to do some damage

.

Later as he rested his weight on her, he softly whispered suggestions on how they could fill up the rest of the night into her ear. Julia laughed, her hands stroking his back. She protested the loss of his body weight when he sat up to find her clothing and his mixed in with all the garbage on the floorboard. Sean had her back into her blouse, still open and he had refastened his pants. In his hands was her tiny tight skirt, inside out, and he was struggling to get it right, and put it back on her. Julia wasn’t much with cooperation, but they were struggling to at least get dressed enough to get inside the house. Julia tossed off her blouse and put on his tee-shirt that came down to her mid thigh. That would do for now.

They both looked at her house through the windshield when the outside security lights came on. It had to be 11:57, the time set for them to automatically turn on. Julia laughed again. Oh, now they lost the dark! They really needed to go inside.

It was that moment, a drawn out second between the instant the lights flashed on and the sudden explosion of her house, that seemed timeless in her mind for the days to come. One moment she was laughing at their clothing and the entire situation, the next, she was on her back with Sean covering her body again from the blast. They both looked up, covered in glass from where the windows the of the car exploded over them and rained down in shards. Sean and Julia watched the house burn…it would take hours before either of them would realize that had it not been for their stopping to have very public sex in the front seat of his car, they would’ve both been inside the house.