Maria DeLuca stood by the refreshment table and popped a black olive into her mouth. As always, her eyes sought a certain tousled head as they swept over the other party attendees.

Maria glanced upward. The ball may have been a bad idea. She wasn't sure it diffused the light quite the way she had visualized when she pushed for it and it made the event seem more like prom than like the Roswell Civic Volunteers Christmas Party. Maria was new to the committee because she had only been caroling for a couple of years, but Isabel Evans had also liked the idea of the ball. Maria shook her head. Just showed that two people could be mistaken.

It was funny, but just the time that she stopped searching for him, Michael appeared at her side. No peacock was more arrogant than he was! The set of his head and shoulders dared the world to challenge him on most days. Tonight Maria was in luck. Michael was in a good mood and his eyes lit up as he looked her over.

"What?" She fake pouted a bit as she turned for him to get the full effect of her white gauze dress that covered everything but hinted at a lot.

"You look good." For Michael that was high praise. She'd take that.

Maria let the pout turn into a radiant smile and she took his arm. "Why, thank you!" Another possible problem ... sometimes he was annoyed when she touched him ... but his good mood held and he moved the arm to put it around her.

They moved through the crowd toward their friends. Isabel, the Christmas Nazi, was holding court. Her shimmering gold gown was a beacon under the light of the ball. "About time you two got here..."

"I was here," Maria maintained. "I just waited for Michael."

"I got off work half an hour ago, Isabel. I'm reasonably sure you didn't want me to arrive looking like I did then. We're here now." Michael's good mood was fraying some under Isabel's mild needling.

Maria decided it was also time they left. She got dressed up for Michael more than she did for the party. As soon as Isabel's critical gaze swept him and she nodded approvingly, Maria's lips murmured against his ear. "Any time you want to leave, we are out of here..."

An interested and grateful look answered her and told Maria that she had made exactly the right decision. A few minutes later they were in her Jetta and the windows were getting steamy.

"Michael..." she gasped when she came up for air.

"Mmmmmmm?"

"Michael... You have an apartment. Warm. Comfortable. Let's go there."

Reluctantly, he released her so that she could start the car. They continued where they left off as the defrost cleared the windows. When they could see out, Maria smiled at Michael and drove to his home.

That's the way Maria always thought of it. She wasn't sure that Michael really had a concept of home, but she always had ideas to make his apartment nice. She stopped the car and found him looking at her again ... as if he was looking at her with new eyes. It was a bit unsettling.

They went inside and Michael held hands with her as they entered, pulling her into his arms as he kicked the door closed. She could feel the cold thaw from his hands as they cupped her breasts over the flimsy fabric. His slightest touch set her on fire.

Maybe that was why she was always a bit off balance in their relationship. She loved him so much and she knew he loved her. Sometimes he even told her so. Whether he was being the ardent lover she craved or the cold bastard she dreaded, it was like an incision through her heart. One left her feeling warmly desired and utterly fulfilled; the other was more like a dagger of ice had been left in place. Both tore her and drained her and, once in a while, she wondered if it was worth the cost to her turbulent emotions. But she only wondered when Michael was not with her.

He pulled the gauzy creation off her shoulders and let it fall on the floor. There was heat in his gaze and his lips touched off internal fireworks when they closed over her nipples. He swung her up in his arms and carried her over to his bed.

She loved feeling so small and light. When he came down to her, his hands intimately explored her body as though he had not already done so a number of times ... as if each time was new. His body joined hers and as their bodies joined in the timeless cadence of love, Maria felt as though there was no other world, no other home, but the bed beneath them and Michael.

Afterwards, drifting on the edge of sleep, she wanted to know if he could feel it too... "Michael?"

"Hmm?" Sleepily.

"Michael, where would you say home was if anyone asked you?"

"You." Not sleepily.

"What?" She didn't usually hear that intensity in his voice when they were almost asleep.

Michael raised himself onto his forearm and gazed into her startled eyes. "You, Maria. You are my home." He kissed her, his tongue making long, lingering contact with hers. Then he lay down, cuddled her close and slept.

Before she, too, fell asleep, a contented buzz filled Maria's entire being from her content body to her exhalted spirit. They were home together.

END