Left Behind

by Dakota

Maria gets her big chance to go to New York to start her singing career but will Michael and her love for him let her leave?

Title: Left Behind

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell, the show of the same name, or it's title characters. Just taking them out to play a different game for a brief spell.

Summary: Maria gets her big chance to go to New York to start her singing career but will Michael and her love for him let her leave?

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"Michael, let me go!" Maria struggled against his grip but the painful bite of fingertip to tender flesh made her still her movement. Her breathing left her lips in fearful ragged pants as she looked into his now crazed eyes and grimaced at his strangle hold on her arm. "You're hurting me." She whimpered. "Michael, please...." She could do nothing but plead now, the fight having left her body over an hour ago. She was so tired, so tired of fighting...

"The hell I will!" He bellowed. "You're not leaving Maria." You're not leaving me.

"But Michael I told you!" She cried tiredly. "It's not going to be forever. I just need to do this, to try this on my own." Her eyes, wide and pleading for understanding tried to reassure and promise him as much as her words. "Please baby….don't take this away from me. I'm begging you." She took his hand between her own and brought it to her lips, her tears mingling with her kiss before she held it against her heart as she spoke. "You've always known how important my singing is to me, I've never kept that a secret from you Michael, never. It's the second most important thing in my life after you. It's a part of who I am, a part you once told me you loved but if you keep me here…that part of me will die." She raised her eyes, lips still pressed against his hand and whispered. "Please, don't let that happen."

"Stop it! Maria…" He watched, pained, as she ignored his too quiet plea and again brought his hand to her lips. He couldn't take this, not now, he couldn't take her soft, warm, feathered kisses against his skin. Weakening him. He knew what she was really asking of him but he couldn't give that to her. He wouldn't. Deep down inside, in a place he was choosing to ignore and deny, he knew he couldn't really keep her with him against her will, and she knew that too. But she wasn't asking for his permission to leave, not really. By just trying to keep her here alone, he was keeping her from being truly happy because she couldn't be happy knowing he wasn't. Her own fault for loving him too much, the same fault that made him the selfish son of a bitch he was being now because he didn't care, not when she was about to walk out of his life. He needed her.

Michael pulled his hand from her grasp. "Don't. I can't give you what you want Maria. I won't. I'd give you the world if I could, but not this."

Maria winced as he tore his hand from her grasp, yet kept the other wrapped around her arm firmly, imprisoning her to him. "Please, just listen to me." She moved closer and cupped his cheek in the palm of her hand, smoothing her thumb gently over the prominence of his cheekbone. She felt him tense under her touch. "Just listen." She whispered again, looking into his eyes. He held her gaze, unblinking and finally with a tired sigh he let himself relax, willing to put aside his anger for the moment as he leant into her caress.

Maria sighed thankfully and continued to caress his cheek as she spoke, soothing him as best she could. They'd been screaming at each other for over an hour now, it had to end. "I need you to understand how important it is that I do this Michael. Not just for me but for us. I'm not happy." It hurt to say it but it was the truth and neither of them could hide from that any longer. It had to stop. She paused to search his face but the flutter of his now closed eyelids were her only sign that he had acknowledged the weight of what she'd confessed. "I think you know that and if I don't do this I know it's eventually going to come between us. I won't let that happen. It would kill me." She said softly, her voice trembling. "But it's been over a year since graduation Michael, a year and everyone but me have found their place, they've found what makes them happy." She stressed.

Michael opened his eyes at that, sharp and edged with anger sprung from hurt and Maria reflexively took her hand away from his cheek, wincing as he tightened his grip on her arm. Her eyes darted fearfully across Michael's eyes, from one to the other, over and over searching for what had angered him so.

"I don't make you happy? Is that it?" He snapped, the tension returning to his jaw as it clenched fiercely against his skin. So hard it looked painful to her.

Her eyes creased with tired tears. "No, that's not it at all. You're not listening to me." She cried in frustration. "You're not listening…" She slumped against him, her body wanting so badly to give up the fight. "God, Michael…you're the only thing in this godforsaken place that keeps me alive. Can't you see that?" She beat her tiny fist uselessly against his chest. "I'm so tired of this." She sighed wearily. "I don't wanna fight with you. I can't do it anymore Michael, I can't…" She sobbed into his chest, gripping a hand full of his shirt in her palm for fear of collapsing.

Michael quickly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her slight frame against him and leaning back slightly so that she could rest against his body. "Then why are you doing this Maria? Why?" You know I can't let you leave. You know..

She lifted her head from his chest, her tears having left a damp patch on his shirt and looked up into his eyes sadly. "Because outside of you I'm just surviving Michael and it's not enough to just survive." Her tone bordered on melancholy and Michael tried to ignore the hole it left in his heart, painful as it was. He told himself, convinced himself that she would get over it, eventually, and things would go back to normal. She would smile for him again and things would be fine. Just fine…

Maria laid her cheek against his chest again, sighing heavily and Michael stroked her hair, secretly and guiltily glad for any excuse to have her back in his arms like this.

"I want more." She began again, her voice full of longing for a life she didn't have. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life working day shifts at the Crashdown and nights singing in seedy bars. It's not enough anymore Michael. It never has been." She finished softly. Not being able to afford college that's all her life had been since graduation and it wasn't an existence she was willing to accept anymore. It was different for Michael, he'd gotten an art scholarship to college. He had a future doing what he loved doing to look forward to. What did she have?

Looking up into Michael's eyes again Maria thought that maybe he was beginning to understand when he kissed her forehead gently, his lips lingering against her skin. She closed her eyes to the sensation, letting herself hope. Please understand baby, please…

Pulling back, his lips still warm from the heat of her skin Michael looked down into Maria's eyes, still shining with tears and smoothed errant silken wisps of golden hair from her face. He could fix this. She didn't need to go to New York. "Then we'll find you something else." He offered determinedly. "I'll take a couple of days off work and we can start looking tomorrow-"

"No!" Maria pushed herself away from him angrily, the only emotion running through her body that provided her with enough strength to move. He still didn't get it, or he refused to. It was one or the other but Maria was rapidly leaning towards the latter. She'd never seen him like this, almost as if he was in denial and she was getting fed up with the way he kept placating her but didn't really listen. As if his mind was already made up and he was just humouring her by letting her speak. It was driving her crazy!

"Stop it! Stop acting like this isn't going to happen!" She yelled. "I've finally been given a chance Michael, probably my only one and I'm not letting it go!" She lowered the tone of her voice and took a deep breath, desperate not to turn this into another screaming match again. "Please Michael, I need you to want this for me, to be happy for me baby." She moved forward hesitantly again and placed a hand against his chest. His heart beat fiercely against her palm. This was hurting them both so much. "This is what I've always wanted and dreamt about since I was a little girl. I have to do this. Try and understand, for me?"

Michael's eyes never wavered, never softened at her words, despite his inner need to take her in his arms and sooth her, because in his mind she wasn't innocent in this and that's what hurt more than anything. That and his inability to let her go was fast becoming the stoker to his continuing anger. "You have no right to ask me to understand anything Maria." The words came from low in his throat, almost threatening in their quality. Maria slowly dropped her hand from his chest at the coldness he couldn't stop from entering his voice and she hugged her waist with her arms. "Not when you hid this from me for over two damn months." He shook his head as if what she asked were ludicrous.

"Michael-"

"Two months Maria!" He looked at her pointedly, accusingly, letting his words sink in. "You lied to me the whole fucking time and then what, you just spring that you're leaving on me only two days ago and now you expect me to understand?!" He raised his eyebrows in complete disbelief, the rage he'd felt the first time that she'd told him returning in full force.

Maria quickly tried to defend herself and her decision to him. "Yes, I sent the tape off to the record company two months ago Michael but I only just found out myself that they wanted to see me two days ago and I told you straight away."

"And that makes the fact that you went behind my back for two months all right does it?"

"No, I didn't say that!" Maria cried, putting her palm to her forehead, in a useless effort to stop the pounding that was threatening to make her sick. They'd been through this so many times!

Despite his anger Michael's eyes filled with concern as he watched Maria wince with pain and he edged forward slightly, ready to catch her should she fall. If she would just forget about this and listen to him he could make it stop for her…

Maria took a shaky breath and began to speak again, halting Michael's movement towards her. "God, you know….maybe…maybe I didn't go about this the right way Michael, and I'm sorry, I really am." She looked at him regretfully, tears spilling from her reddened eyes. "But I honestly never thought anything would come of this and I knew you would react this way. I just, I didn't want to make us go through this when it wasn't necessary. I never lied to you though Michael, I could never lie to you."

"You kept it from me. You lied to me. It's the same damn thing no matter how you wanna try and word it Maria." He paused to look at her, his gaze a mixture of anger and pain. "Do you know what that felt like?" He took a step toward her, moving close enough to touch and leaned down into her. To make her see and understand what this meant to him. "HUH?" Michael barked the last word making Maria jump. It was the slight tremble in his voice, signaling the threat of his own tears that broke Maria's heart and she shook her head as he spoke as if to deny the words.

Michael didn't stop though, he moved closer, so that she had to tilt her head up to look into his eyes, demanding she look at him. "Finding out that you'd been preparing yourself to leave me for months while I carried on believing I could trust you like the stupid fool I am? DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING IDEA HOW MUCH THAT HURT?!" The emotional tremor, the strain of the situation, became more prominent in his words, at what he saw as a betrayal of his love for her.

Maria's eyes filled with shock and hurt and she held her arms out to him, shaking her head no. "Michael please, don't say that." She couldn't bear the thought that she'd made him feel like that. "You're not a fool. I never meant for you to feel that way. You know you can trust me baby. Always-"

"No, I don't care, you're not going." Michael shook his head vehemently, cutting her words off, unwillingly to listen, to reason. "This is exactly what happened with Isabel when she wanted to go away to college and Max was right to stop her from leaving. It's too dangerous for you to be a part of us and be away from us. I can't protect you if you're in another state and something happens Maria. You belong here." He watched her lip tremble and a fresh flood of tears pool in her eyes, like a little girl denied her favourite doll but he stood firm. She wasn't going to weaken him. He was doing the right thing, for all of them, not just because he'd die without her. "You're not leaving. That's final."

Maria's green eyes blazed with anger suddenly and she swiped roughly at her eyes. If she weren't so upset she would have laughed at the irony. Michael used to push her away to protect her from his alien origins, now he was trying to use them to keep her here. "Don't you dare compare me to Isabel!" She spat, stalking up to within a foot of him. "You can't keep me here Michael. I won't let you order me around like Max does Isabel!" She glared up at him, his own eyes just as fired up as hers. "I'm going." She turned and began to make her way to her already packed suitcase, still sitting in its position by the door. Where Michael had come home from work to find it tonight, thus bringing them to were they were now.

Maria hardly walked two steps before what she'd been dreading happened and she felt his arms encircle her waist tightly from behind, pulling her back and causing her to whimper as he buried his face in her neck. "No, Michael…" She whispered. She couldn't handle this. She wanted his anger. It gave her the strength to leave. His love, now violently rocking her heart from its flesh encased foundations left her weakened, wanting to crawl inside his chest forever and forget this crazy idea of leaving him. His anger was a front for his fear of losing her, she'd known all along but now she felt it, too real, too painful. Whether or not he knew it, Michael was sending her his emotions, all of them, the fear, anger, hurt and the need to hurt, her, and the love. All that he felt right at that moment was being poured into her body and on top of her own exhausted emotions it was almost too much for her to take.

As his tears scorched her neck she sighed and leant back into him, into her love, her only love, her hands coming up to rest over his own at her stomach. Unable to stave off the torment of his mind that now flowed into her, through her, linking them and confusing the truth of where she began and he ended. All she could feel was him, everywhere. He was making this so hard for both of them, so hard…

She moaned, her legs barely supporting her now as his rough hand forcefully pushed through an opening between the buttons on her tight fitting white linen shirt and cupped her breast fiercely as his own, kneading the tender flesh hard, forcing her nipples to peak in response. His other hand remained braced around her waist, holding her up and to him tight enough to stop breath.

"Maria, I'm sorry, so sorry….for everything. Please don't leave me baby. Please…" His voice was desperate, scared and it tore through Maria's heart like nothing else could. So much time, nearly two years of living and breathing the other without the constant break ups, had left them both so vulnerable to and dependent on each other. "I need you….I need you…" He kissed her neck and shoulder wildly, with an urgency that made both their heads spin, his tongue darting out to taste every inch of ivory skin that met his hungry lips.

Maria cupped the back of his neck, crying out and pulling on the soft caramel brown curls of his hair as his fingertips latched onto her sensitive nipple and twisted almost painfully in his need to keep her. She tried to pull his hand away, tried to stop the other from traveling down the front of her skirt where he would find that her body had betrayed her in it's already soaked state. "Michael, stop. This…isn't right. Please just let me go baby". She pleaded, what she knew, was hopelessly. Her body would always respond to him, no matter what. She was helpless to fight it.

"No, no...no. Maria." He cried into her hair, almost like a little boy, shaking his head against her shoulder and mumbling the word over and over as if it alone were some spell that would keep her with him, as long as he chanted it enough times. Maria pulled at the hair at the nape of his neck, now tangled in her long slender fingers and gasped as he grasped her possessively through her panties with his large warm palm, fingers jammed between her thighs as she tried to squeeze him out. "Don't you dare ask that of me, don't you dare fucking ask that of me Maria. You know I can't! I can't!" His voice started to rise in anger again and she yelped in pain as he forgot himself and his now too tight grip on her body.

"You have to." She breathed, lolling her head back against his shoulder and closing her eyes, weakened by his touch and knowing that her words would only push him further but too tired to care.

"No!" He spun her around suddenly, and pulled her to him so that she went crashing into his chest with enough force to knock a weaker man over. Michael didn't waver, feet as firm as his grip on her waist now. Her arms were trapped between them, against his chest and they stood with gazes locked and breathing erratic before he let her go only long enough to bend down, hook an arm behind her knees and pick her up.

Maria gasped and instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck to steady herself, her mental and emotional exhaustion leaving her zapped of any energy. "Michael, what are you doing?" She asked dazed and worried. His eyes were wild, crazed almost and he didn't respond. "Michael?"

Michael took her to their bedroom and threw her on the bed, following her ascent with his own body. Maria tried to scramble for the edge the minute she hit the mattress but he was too quick, suspecting, and pinned her arms above her head, trapping her body beneath his own. They were both breathing heavily from the struggle and Michael held himself above her, his eyes darting from her lips to her eyes and back again with a dark, violent hunger that made her shiver. His eyes were darker than she'd seen before, conveying his need as he felt it to fuck her senseless, until she realized how wrong what she was doing was. He leant forward, his chest heavy against her own as his weight pushed her further into the mattress and she whimpered as he devoured her mouth with his own.

Maria tried to resist, tried to keep him out but his tongue was too insistent against her lips and on her gasp for air he pushed inside, controlling the kiss and the motions of their tongues, sucking on her, biting and marking her as his own. There was nothing to do but kiss him back, because he wanted her to, because she wanted to. So why was she still crying, still silently wishing this wasn't happening?

After a long, intense moment of nothing but penetrating and tasting her mouth with his tongue, long and deep, a promise of what he would soon do to her body, Michael pulled back, his breath heavy and hot against her mouth and his long wavy hair brushing her cheeks before he nuzzled his way to her neck, rubbing his forehead along her chin. He inhaled her scent deeply.

Maria stared at the ceiling, her arms stretched above her head tightly, pinned by Michael's strong grip as she gulped down the oxygen previously denied her. She slowly began to close her eyes, feeling herself give in as her body responded to his hard nips at her neck with his teeth and she arched into his body, moaning. Coaxing him to push into her. God, she wanted this, she always wanted him. There was always a deep hunger within her for him that never subsided, even now, knowing that he was in the wrong frame of mind, it was there, a warmth of fire lodged in her lower belly, burning her up with need and it pushed her to him when she knew she needed to pull back.

Michael slowed his mouth against her neck suddenly, bringing his face back up above hers and Maria opened her eyes to look at him, her expression one of confusion as she noticed Michael's soft regard of her, however tinged with pain it was. Leaving one hand to keep her with him, not knowing that she wouldn't try to run should he let her go, he brought the other down to wipe the tears from one side of her face then the other, his thick fingers brushing the bottom of her damp and darkened eyelashes.

The hurt shadowing his eyes as he tended her gently only made the tears flow faster than he could brush them away and she blinked, unsure how to react, of what he was going to do. "Michael?" She breathed his name questioningly but he quickly looked at her lips as if they had offended and brought his now tear soaked fingers to her lips. Smearing the salty wetness against them, he then moved that hand back to join the other holding her wrists, his eyes never leaving her lips. Leaning down slowly, he began licking the moisture from her parted lips, drinking the taste of her tears, his eyes closed to the motion, brow furrowed with an intensity and concentration she'd never seen before.

Maria's breathing increased almost immediately, and she panted softly against his mouth. "Oh God…." She breathed the words, unable to find voice as he began sucking on her lips, first the bottom, then the top, so slow and thorough that she felt as if she would pass out from the sensation. It was almost as if he were trying to take her very essence into him. She couldn't take it any longer, the soft teasing of the just there touches of his mouth. Lifting her head she tried to kiss him properly, needing the full feel of his mouth on hers. The warm, wet heat, his breath being breathed into her lungs to mix with her own. Before she could make contact Michael pulled his head back, just out of her reach and she let her head fall back down against the bed, a frown of frustrated and unfulfilled need creasing her delicate brow.

Michael looked down upon Maria, an expression lining his face that spoke of a deep hurt, the fire in his eyes slowing to a soft burn as the ache in his chest made him want to howl with pain. Looking at her now, touching and tasting her, it all made it so much more real. How did she expect him to live without this, without her? This was their bed. It wasn't meant for him alone anymore. It needed her smell, her warmth and her body to keep him there. If she left he wouldn't be able to stand it on his own. He couldn't be without her anymore. He needed her.

His hold on her wrists was gentle now, still binding but relaxed and out of habit he found himself smoothing the silky underside of her wrists, tinged with the blue of her delicate veins just beneath the milky white surface. The ones he'd sucked and licked both hard and soft until she'd cum from it and it alone. "Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to hurt us? Me? I…I thought you loved me." His whispered voice cracked with emotion and his eyes demanded answers he couldn't understand, wouldn't understand.

Maria sobbed, his eyes paining her more than anything in the entire world and she tried to move her hand to touch his face, to wipe the silent tears he didn't know he was crying but he held her tighter at the movement. She looked into his eyes pleadingly instead, trying to reach him with her eyes. "Michael please, I'm not trying to hurt us. I love you…God, I love you so much that this is killing me but by refusing to let me go, by doing what you're doing now…baby it's going to hurt us forever. It doesn't have to be this way-"

Michael shook his head crazily, his eyes reclaiming the wild, angry look she'd seen earlier at the height of their argument. Her words had done no good, only incensed him further for they weren't what he wanted to hear and she knew it, grimacing at his harsh and hurt tone. "Shut up! Just shut up! You're the one hurting us Maria! YOU!"

Maria whimpered, closing her eyes as silent tears trickled down her temples to dampen her hair as his hand clamped over her mouth. She couldn't look at his face, his eyes anymore, it was like a knife's edge to her heart. He was blaming her, for leaving him, for everything and she couldn't take it. She knew he was too far gone in his anger and hurt now to hear a word she said. She could see it in his eyes, unreachable, even to her. For the first time ever. She was doing this to him. She was killing him, and it broke her heart. Oh God, Michael….

Michael shook his head again, his eyes boring into her fiercely as he watched her close her eyes. "I won't let you do it though. I won't." He paused to look at her, the tears leaking from the corners of her closed eyes, shutting him out. He didn't like it. He wasn't going to go through this alone. "Look at me." Maria shook her head, eyes still shut to the pain in his eyes. Michael removed his hand from her mouth. "You open your God damn eyes and look at me Maria." He said again.

"No!" Maria shouted, tired of his demands. "I…I can't". She couldn't, it hurt too much. She just wanted to close her mind to this, pretend it wasn't happening. Pretend they weren't destroying each other.

"Why? It hurts? It hurts to see what you're doing?" Maria didn't answer and Michael kept talking. "It does doesn't it. You can't stand this yet you expect me too. Don't you? Answer me dammit!" He barked, shaking her.

"Yes!" Maria cried. "Yes, yes….yes.." She sobbed repeatedly, finally opening her eyes to stare up at him. "It hurts….it hurts so much to see you hurting…because of me."

"Then don't leave. Stay here, with me." Michael proffered softly, a desperate hint of hope in his voice.

"I can't." She whispered, already wincing at what she knew would be his reaction.

Michael's eyes burned with anger at her constant refusal of his love. "Damn you Maria…..damn you for doing this. You know I can't let you go." Maria silently stared up at him, knowing it was true but unwillingly to let him make her stay. She had to do this for herself for once, no matter the consequence. "You've forgotten…." Michael began. "you're mine…we belong to each other. You can't change that Maria, you know you can't." He had to show her. He had to remind her of that, then she wouldn't try to leave him, he was sure of it.

"I'm not trying to change that Michael, I'll always be-"

Michael put his finger to her lips. "Hush. You need to be reminded Maria." Maria stayed quiet as he traced her lips with his fingers, a faraway look in his dark eyes. She didn't like the sound of his voice, so calm, it scared her and she looked at him worriedly. Slowly, Michael's hands left their hold on her but Maria didn't remove them from their position above her head, her eyes still trying to anticipate his next move. Her breath hitched in her throat as he began to drag his fingers down the centre of her shirt. Finally she brought her hands down to rest on his shoulders, hoping it would bring him back to her but he didn't look up at her.

Instead he stopped tracing the button line of her shirt, and turned his head to kiss her arm where it rested on his shoulder. He held his lips against her skin, his heated breath making it tingle before finally looking up at her. "You're mine." It was a hoarse whisper as he held her gaze in the silence of the room. Maria nodded, fresh hot tears scorching her face with the knowledge of what was about to happen, what she had to let him do. She cupped his cheek with one hand, the other falling to the bed at her side on a tired sigh even as he ripped her shirt open at the front, freeing her unbound breasts to the cool air of the room.

She whimpered as her body was lifted from the bed a little at the motion and listened to the click of buttons bouncing on the wood floor as he tore his own shirt off. Pausing when he was done she watched him, felt his hands cup the sides of her thighs gently, the faint circles of his fingertips against her skin, a gesture belying his next move. She squeezed her eyes shut as he shoved her skirt up roughly and tore at her panties. They pulled at her hips and inner thighs painfully until the material gave out against his violent pull and she yelped as they finally came free, opening her eyes to him once again when she felt him waiting.

He sat up on his knees, now straddling her thighs, his chest heaving with the desire and lust darkening his eyes to black and Maria held her arms up to him. Beyond caring that this was wrong, she wanted him to come to her. She wanted to soften his anger towards her by accepting this, accepting him. He moved forward over her, placing his hands on the mattress on either side of her, arms braced and unbending as he moved between her thighs.

She opened her legs far enough to accommodate him, till they almost hurt taking his larger body between them and a soft rush of air expelled from her lungs as he pushed himself deep into her groin, pushing her thighs even further apart. Michael watched her close her eyes and sigh at the movement and did it again, harder this time but slowly so that her whole body was pushed up the bed a few inches from the force. This time she moaned and lifted her groin up into him, scrubbing against him hard, the tears slowing to a stilled ebb as she let herself forget the true meaning of the moment and lost herself in what they were doing.

This wouldn't change anything, Maria knew Michael knew that but he wasn't letting himself accept it. She didn't think he would, not until she'd well and truly left their bed, their apartment and Roswell.

Maria looked up at Michael when he paused above her and linked her hands behind his neck, pulling him down to her lips. He resisted at first, a spark of anger that would probably remain with him for longer than she'd like to admit threatening dangerously close to hurting both of them. But finally he mated his lips to her own, groaning his need into her mouth as she opened up to him, pulling his tongue into her mouth. He slid his hands forward under her arms until he was resting on his forearms, the length of his body now pressed firmly into Maria's, her breasts pressed against his chest as he reached between their bodies to free himself from his pants to willingly imprison himself inside her body. A soft cry escaped her lips and a growl his as hard flesh was enveloped by silken walls of perfect pink that contracted instantly, pulling him inside. So tight, warm, wet and his…..

Maria writhed beneath her lover's own movements, driving him harder into her body, his bites to her neck and lips bruising, drawing blood, but needed, wanted. Right now, in his arms, with his hands and lips caressing her body, his breathy voice huskily speaking of his love for her against her ear, she knew it would kill her to leave at it's end. As surely as it would him. And her continual cries held as much pain as they did pleasure. She gripped his shoulders, raked his back with her nails desperately as he tangled his fingers in her hair with one hand and held, coaxed and guided her hips against him with the other.

She would allow them this one last moment together and ignore the threat of pain to come that was already tweaking at her heart as she took him deeper into her body with an arch of her back and tried to forget anything but him, the full feeling of him inside her. Tried to forget that a part of her was dying. That leaving Michael behind meant leaving her heart behind.

She ignored the voice inside her head that kept whispering to her of the consequences, of possibly leading Michael to believe she'd stay now, of hurting him beyond any repair her words of love or soothing kisses could ever do. He might hate her for this, even now as he made love to her but she had to believe they would be okay, that they would get through this, together.

She had to, because she couldn't go on thinking otherwise.

The End.