Summary: Max finds that jealousy made her do funny things. Companion piece to Sunshine. Also written for Raising Hell's word prompt Burn.

A/N: I was just outlining what I wanted to do in the next chapter of Between Love and Hate because I don't want to let another year passed before the next update +hides+ when a couple of girls requested I wrote a companion piece to Sunshine. Shay from RH also wanted something new so I guess, two birds.. one stone. Plus, I live to please so here it is. However, my muse wants to go in a different direction so maybe this is not what they expected, or maybe it is haha

Midnight Fire

'You have nothing going on tonight, right?'

Max paused and turned towards the doorstep, her bag frozen inches from the table as she frowned at him. 'And you're asking why?' She got home like ten seconds earlier and all she wanted to do was dump this messenger bag and sink into a hot tub. The frown deepened into a scowl when she could tell that her plan was gonna get shot to hell.

He let himself in and sat on her couch, his dark boots crossed at the ankles on the coffee table.

'And why are you all dressed up?' she continued, still frowning at his weird choice of clothing.

He didn't answer at first, preoccupied with channel surfing before he turned to her. 'I asked Cindy, she said you're free.'

'And?' She let go of her bag with a thump and turned to face him.

'Remember that fateful day when you said you'll let me do anything I want?'

Max's frown deepened at the hint of a grin hovering over his lips before the rest of his sentence sunk in. Did she ever? She'd been living in fear the last couple of weeks, thinking up all the weird Alecky things he might drag her into. Even if you filtered out the no nudity, no yucky and no weird stuff, there was a whole mountain of things he could force upon her unsuspecting self.

'Tonight? Uh, I might have something on.' She blamed him for the whiny tone of her voice. He could not dump this on her at the last minute and expect her to follow agreeably.

'What?' he persisted.

Max glowered at the idea of him not taking her words at face value.

'I checked with Logan, discreetly,' he added at her panic stricken eyes, rolling his at her predictable response, 'and he said he's flying solo tonight, so he won't need his two sidekicks. OC said you two don't have any plans. That means you're free to pay off your debt to me.'

'What debt?' she feigned any knowledge of the deal they had made. Maybe she made another promise she had forgotten about, and Alec had forgotten about this one. She made her way to the kitchen and her brow furrowed when she heard his footsteps behind her.

'Forgot the part where you sent half a town chasing after my ass, did you?'

Damn, no deal. 'Oh, that.'

'Yeah, that. I need you to come with me tonight.'

Max didn't answer as she pulled down two mugs from the shelf and filled them with lukewarm coffee. 'Where are we going?' she sighed, knowing there was no wriggle room out of this one. 'And why are you dressed like this?' She eyeballed his white shirt under his black jacket. The pants look new too, and expensive.

He took a sip, making a face before finishing the whole thing. Have you got any idea how hard it is to get that freakin' coffee was on the tip of her tongue when he interrupted, 'I'll fill you in later. There's a dress on the couch so go and get ready. And we have to get you better coffee too.'

He cut off her objections by pushing her to her bedroom and pushing the covered dress hanger into her hands. She didn't even notice he had this on him earlier.

'We need to leave in less than an hour, so go.'

'Am I going to regret this?' her voice flowed from inside her bedroom.

'Of course not. You're gonna have the time of your life!' he called out, grabbing her remote as he made himself comfortable on her couch.

'Now I'm afraid to ask.'

Loud music and laughter filtered out from the doorway where they stood. Max was clutching the ends of her coat tightly in both hands, like it was some kind of lifeline.

'Come on, Max. You're wasting time here. Let's go in already.'

'Tell me again why I have to do this and not a hundred other girls on your phone book?'

'Because,' he widened his eyes at her, 'you promised you'd do anything I asked, and the hundred other girls didn't.'

'You could've paid someone else,' she growled, still uncomfortable to go in as his freakin' girlfriend. She nearly had a coronary when he filled her in on the way here. Posing as his girlfriend so he could a close a deal with a family-oriented Italian mob boss? Definitely fell under the weird category. But noo, he had a different definition for weirdness.

'I want a date, not a paid escort,' his lips thinned. 'Is it too much to ask you to help me out once? Do you want me to start counting how many times you barge into my apartment and drag me off to god knows where?'

'Okay… okay. Jeez. Getting emotional and stuff does not suit you.'

'Good. And you know what, I'll keep the ride back between you and me.'

'You're the one who should be nervous if I start blabbing about our dare!'

'Taking my shirts off in the middle of a hot burning day? What's so scandalous about that?' The smirk was firmly in place, as firm as his belief that she couldn't win this. Him with a shirt off, so what? 'But when the others learn that you take off your top, that's interesting.'

'Heh,' she snorted. 'Remember what happens after that? What if I want to talk about that?'

'You wouldn't,' he took a step back.

'Hell yes I would,' she grinned because he had looked almost horrified. 'Okay, maybe I won't talk.' She laughed out loud at the elated look on his face. 'Except to Normal. He'll hound you forever if he get this image of you almost naked surrounded by hay in his head. Maybe he'll start having cowboy dreams of you now.'

'I was not naked!'

'I said almost,' she stressed on the last word gleefully. 'Huh… maybe I won't tell Normal that.'

'So you dared me to lose the pants because you knew I was about to win. What's the big deal?' he growled petulantly.

'Oh, it is. To Normal. I can just see him hovering over you, pestering for the whole naked detail. Oh Golden Boy, tell me the exact colour of your boxers so I can get matching cowboy boots for you.' She mimicked their boss's expression perfectly.

'Okay,' he nodded faintly. 'You do this for me and I won't tell anyone we did this. And Normal knows nothing about that… that ride.'

'If you're saying that I get to do anything I want with you, it's a deal!' the grin on her was definitely Cheshire-ish.

Alec glowered at the sight of her bright eyes. 'You're very good at blackmailing, do you know that?'

'Thanks.' Now was a good time to smirk. Rub a lil salt in his wound a bit, she had won after all. 'I'll play along and be your date for now, but after we meet your contact, you're on your own.' Satisfied, she pushed the coat off from her shoulder and turned towards the entrance.

Alec huffed, still miffed at the way things had turned out but he pasted a smile on his face and held out his hand to her. It wouldn't do for Giovanni to start asking why he looked like he was ready to murder his girlfriend. He had worked too hard to close this deal with this family-and-deep-relationship-is-sacred contact.

'Shall we?' he turned and swallowed hard when his eyes landed on her.

Heat.

Hot flaming red.

Liquid hell draped over her lithe body.

He knew the red dress he picked up earlier was gorgeous but he never thought she would set it (and apparently him) on fire after she slipped into it. The halter top flowed down from her slim shoulders, hugged the side of her breasts lovingly before plunging down to meet at the small of her back, leaving her back deliciously bared. Her skin was glowing and the red of her dress was adding an extra shine to her caramel skin.

'Alec?' He was pulled roughly from his thoughts and he saw that she was waving her hand in front of his face. 'What are you waiting for? Let's go.'

He dragged his leaden feet and took a step towards her. She placed her small hand over his and turned. 'Where is this Giovanni? Let's get this bitch over with.'

'Huh?' Alec pulled his glassy eyes from her as she fixed her dark eyes on him.

'Where's your contact? Let's go meet him and then I want out.'

'Uh… okay,' he nodded dumbly.

'Are you okay?' she turned, suddenly preoccupied by the vacant stare.

'Yeah… yeah. Let's go.' Even in his dazed state he could sense the temperature started to climb upwards, especially from the male guests as she strolled… no, slinked across the room.

'Maybe we should get you a wrap or something,' he fervently hoped he had covered enough detachment over the animosity he was currently feeling towards his gender at the moment.

'Why? I'm not cold.'

Alec swallowed again and tried to ignore the other men's unblinking stares. In retaliation, he pulled her closer to him as they made their way to the big Italian.

'What are you doing?' she hissed and smacked his arm but he ignored her.

'Smile,' he whispered and called out. 'Giovanni, awesome party you had going.'

'Alec,' the big man called out. His black eyes glinted as he looked her over. 'You have great taste.' He took her remaining hand and kissed the knuckle lightly. 'Bellissima.'

Even as she was still annoyed with the little stunt Alec had pulled, Max felt herself turned a deep red. 'Thank you.'

'Giovanni, this is my girlfriend Max.'

'Call me Gio, hon.' At that moment, someone whispered in Gio's ears. He turned to them regretfully. 'Ahh, duty calls. Excuse me.'

The moment Gio's back was turned, Max disentangle her arm from Alec. She was momentarily distracted by the surge of disappointment when his warm hand moved away.

'You're on your own. I'm off to mingle.' The words come out harsher than she intended, pushed forward by the unknown emotion she experienced earlier. Unconsciously, her eyes sought his, trying to find traces of hurt but he had his back to her.

Max shrugged and plucked one of the thin champagne flutes from a passing waiter and smiled at the other guests. The fiery hem of her dress swirled tantalizingly against her tanned thighs as she took a tiny sip.

To the other guests, it looks like she was lazily taking in her surroundings but they didn't know how she was memorizing the layout; noting the entrance, windows and other quick exits. It wouldn't hurt anyone to case the place… for future reference. Looked like Gio had a thing for sculptures and all the artsy pansy stuff. The pricey ones too, if it ever hit the black market. And she doubted Alec made his deal with a pillar of the community so it was no big deal if she was mentally cataloguing the pieces, right? It's not like she planned to hit this place tonight anyway.

However, a mere five minutes had passed before her solitude walk had been broken, and she was surrounded by men who were jostling for her attention. She knew these people wouldn't give her the time of the day if they met her on the streets. Max smiled politely but deep inside she was disgusted. They were only approaching her because they thought she was as rich as they were. Even after the Pulse, the human nature of wanting to be better than the next guy was hard to erase.

In between simpering smiles and fake giggles, she tried to locate him, knowing he would join her in laughing both their head off at these pompous asses. The slender flute halted in midair, her eyes darkening to midnight black when she saw the scene not too far away.

After she left his side not so long ago, he didn't remain solo for long. A colourful flock of giggling hyenas had descended upon him and quite a number of them was doing a pretty darn good impersonation of Christmas ornaments draped all over him.

Without thinking, she pressed her glass to one of the guys ogling her breasts and marched over to him. If she was a tad more observant, she might have seen something very close to agitation in his hazel eyes as he smiled at his fan club.

For once in his life Alec felt that he'd rather lose a deal than live through this torture. He was about to tear Max from the lusty gaze of the male populace and run when a couple of those lusty gazers walked up and started chatting her up. And by the look of it, she didn't mind overmuch. The sight of Max smiling and giggling was too much and when a girl sauntered up to him, he used her to distract him. Feigning interest with a couple of girls was relatively easier than watching Max flirting.

'Darling!' she plastered a fake syrupy smile when the girls turned as one towards her. 'Where's the champagne you promised me?'

She grabbed the front of his white shirt and tore him from the bitches' clutches before she pushed him to one of the chairs, ignoring the collective disagreement from the girls. Alec was startled and totally unprepared when she shoved him backwards. His fingers tightened on the only thing within reach and at that moment, it was her arm. Max was pulled unceremoniously off her feet, straight onto his lap.

She glared her disagreement at the way things had turned out and turned her head towards the girls. When she saw that they had followed persistently, she turned her face towards him, planning to gloat that he owed her big time for saving his ass from the vultures and maybe whisper her plan of evacuation if she got the chance after all the gloating.

However, he chose that exact moment to turn and her lips brushed against his. Both of them stiffened immediately, muscles hardened and Alec's lips parted in surprise and shock. Mostly it was the shock though.

But when Max felt the flutter of movement, it triggered waves of unsettling feeling flooding through her system. She gasped, uncertain on how to react to this. Later, she would definitely blame it on the fact that her brain had decided it was a good time to shut itself down when she threw caution to the wind and closed the gap, moving forward to sneak a taste of his lips. She lingered for a couple of heartbeats and by then Alec's fingers that were hovering over her thigh and back tightened and dragged her closer to him. He smothered her gasp hungrily, forcing her to tilt her head for better access.

Max waited for fury to set in, but it never did. Her eyes fluttered closed and she gripped the back of his neck, deepening the kiss.

Max wandered into Crash close to midnight, in desperate need for a drink, someone to claw at, crack their skull open and bitch. Preferably all but she'll take whatever comes first.

And it was all because of last night. Last night was… weird. And since she was the walking billboard and not to mention a magnet for weirdness, it was undeniably weird. Totally.

She didn't know what to make of it. The locking lips with Alec bit. She should've been furious last night and kicked hiss ass into next week when they finally pulled apart, her lips still tingling from where he had bitten her, but she didn't. Even this minute, she was still figuring out what possessed her into not doing anything last night. In fact, she had pulled him up as if in a daze and drifted to the entrance. He didn't say a word then. But when he turned to her with question in his eyes, eyes that had turned black in need, she knew she had to bail.

She was not proud of what she had done next, grabbing their car and ditching him by the tall imposing gate. She could feel his eyes fixed on her rapidly disappearing car. At that moment she felt no remorse leaving him behind, he'd find a way to get back. Her sanity was at stake. She had to leave.

She had avoided him like the plague today, taking the routes she usually avoided much to Normal's surprise. And now, after she had taken like five steps into this crowded place, there he was. Lounging by the bar, a drink in one hand as he laughed at whatever the girl was telling him.

Max's eyes sharpened. Girl?

Her temper started to boil when she took in the gleaming blond hair, the perfectly manicured fingers which were currently trailing an invisible path over his chest to her short leather skirt, perfect to show off her legs. She recalled the girl as another messenger at Jam Pony. Candy. She was nice to everyone, all smiles and soft giggles but now she'll die.

She ignored Sketchy's blurry hey and made a beeline to the bar. She even ignored Candy's cheery, 'Hey Max, what's up?'

She pushed the girl from him, ignoring her gasp as she stumbled backwards a couple of steps. Max grabbed the front of his jacket and with a feral glint in her eyes, she pulled him forward and shoved him to the nearest wall.

She muffled his what the hell, Max when she grabbed his head and crushed his lips with hers. He apparently had the same thought as she had when he flipped and pushed her to the wall. She happily ignored the rough wall scraping her back.

'I get to do anything I want with you. You owe me,' she gasped when they break for air. He grabbed her ass and pushed her up; she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

'You ditched me.' He bit her, hard.

Max shuddered when he ran his tongue over the bleeding spot. 'It's a one time thing. Won't happen again.'

'Yeah, so?'

She stared into his eyes, noticing the golden flecks swirling among the green. 'Don't even look at other girls after this,' she murmured between kisses.

THE END

There you go. Tell me what you think? :)