Chapter 4 Sex and Candy

A/N: Saw Majandra last night on Men of Certain Age and just couldn't resist this update.

Maria returned to the table with a sight blush as she slid back into her booth. Michael looked puzzled as she moved objects on the table but never looked at him.

She couldn't think as conflicting sensations struggled for control. It took all of her reserve to remain seated in the booth and not tear his clothes off, especially when his eyebrow lifted inquisitively in her direction.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine." She answered briskly, knowing full-well she was blushing again.

"You don't look fine." He stated searching her face to make sure she wasn't going to faint.

Maria fought the urge to fan herself as a cold sweat took over her body and his eyes grazed over her face concernedly. Why in the hell was she so horny?

"I was feeling a little faint so I went to splash some water on my face. I must be hungrier than I thought."

'Yeah hungry for sex' she thought to herself.

He looked satisfied with that answer and began to take in the atmosphere of the small establishment. Maria's brain was going one hundred miles an hour as a series of erotic scenes flashed in her head. What was she some sort of sex crazed guy? This had to be unnatural. A few moments passed in silence before Evelyn emerged from the kitchen with two plates in hand, headed in their direction.

"Food's coming," he announced and Maria looked over her shoulder. Finally, something to do besides fantasize about Guerin naked on their table.

They ate in an anxious silence, secretly stealing glances at the other. After they paid, the two walked to the truck and Michael couldn't help but feel a strange discomfort about Maria's emergency trip to the restroom.

The fleeting, yet disturbing idea, that she could be pregnant washed over him. And he felt a stab of jealousy over the thought that the cheating bastard he met the other day could possibly knock her up. But more distressing was the fact that he cared.

As they continued down the interstate he snuck a few quick looks at her angelic face as she struggled not to doze off. He took in every contour of her porcelain skin and full pink lips. Damn those lips were driving him crazy. Just looking at them, made the fit of his trousers uncomfortable, not to mention the intensity of their arguments and the havoc it wreaked on his carefully regulated control; he sighed helplessly.

Usually the world seemed to irritate him, most notably women, but with Deluca something seemed to break free, and that scared him. He felt the overwhelming need to get to know her or maybe he just needed to hear her speak to fill the silence. He rationalized her rambling was welcome just so he could keep himself awake, at least that's what he wanted to believe.

"So you're engaged…" his voice trailed off, He really didn't care about her personal life but he felt that was the sociable thing to do.

Maria perked up and looked over at the normally sullen man whose face had softened a bit and smiled at his interest in her life.

"Yeah, his name is Andrew." She answered cautiously.

"Uh huh. So where did you meet him." he tried to sound casual but it probably came off more interrogative.

"At the restaurant my friend's parent's own, back home. Why?" she shifted in her seat. He sounded like he was trying to take the conversation somewhere she wasn't going to like.

Michael was quiet for a moment as he internally battled his conscience. He knew he should let her know about Andrew and his mistress but somehow he knew she would think it was just a tactic to hurt her.

"No reason." He said lightly, plastering a half smirk on his face as he glanced over at her trying to read her reaction.

"Okay." She smiled and shook her head slightly refocusing her attention to the miles of asphalt ahead.

Michael released a breath he didn't realize he was holding and turned ahead as well.

So much for small talk.

"You know, I was thinking let's just go get married!"

Maria paced the small patch of floor in her tiny room in the barracks; nerves making her tremble like a leaf. After she and Guerin returned from Arizona their relationship had returned to the stoic, non-acquaintance, existence they established on day one. Mostly because she could feel her attraction for him growing and she just couldn't be around him for fear of her own sex starved actions.

"What!" Andrew was dumbfounded. A week ago Maria was preaching the long engagement and big wedding spiel and now she wanted some quickie ceremony?

"You know, just pick up this weekend and go to Texas and get married. What do you think?" she held her breath either way she knew she'd be a little disappointed with his answer and the thought disturbed her.

"Maria, what about your big wedding?"

Was he turning her down? "We'll have one when I get back. I just want to marry you now." She felt her voice deflate with that sentiment. She never guessed he wouldn't be ready.

"What's brought this on?" Andrew sounded more like concerned parent than an eager fiancée. Didn't he understand that she was willing to sacrifice her most sincere dream for him?

"I just don't want to leave without marrying you first." Her voice was small and she wondered if her candor scared him.

"I'm sorry Maria but I'm in New York for the next two weeks." He sounded genuine but something wasn't right.

"Right. So I guess this plan's a bust." He hesitated and Maria backed off. She concluded, maybe she just caught him off-guard, but she couldn't shake that uneasy feeling she'd developed last week on the way to Arizona.

"I'm sorry baby." He voice sounded pained as he almost felt her disappointment.

"It's okay. It was really just an idea."

"So when do you think you might be leaving?" He was curious, it had been over five weeks and still nothing.

"Any day now." Maria was extraordinarily distracted as her thoughts and emotions ran rampant in her brain.

"Call me when you know."

"I promise." she whispered softly.

"I have to go. Meeting. Work. You know." He said sullenly.

"I do."

"I love you." Andrew said a sincerely as he could hoping it would reassure his dour fiancé.

"Love you too." Maria parroted.

Andrew disconnected and heard the door to his loft open and the thunderous clap of tiny feet as they traveled across the expansive space. Had to be Evan. A small cry of "Daddy!" confirmed his earlier inclination.

Andrew turned to face a little blond child with sky blue eyes and a small grin on his impishly flushed face. He gathered him up in a monstrous hug and the child struggled to escape. Through his giggles and kisses Andrew caught the site of is ex, whose foot tapped irritably at his earlier conversation that she clearly caught the end of.

"Who was that? You're little New Mexican whore?" She asked seemingly throwing her expensive Prada bag on the white leather couch in the living room, as the boy ran for his room in search of toys and his nanny.

"No, that was my fiancé." He enunciated to the cold woman looking into her lifeless brown eyes. She looked as though she took great care making herself up today; her medium brown locks were perfectly coifed, her make-up flawless. She always liked expensive things and her long white coat was no doubt a heavy hit somewhere in his bank account.

"Fiancé!" she scoffed haughtily; amused anyone had earned the title with him, especially since just last week she'd been the one clawing up his back. "Was it the Tess whore or the Mary girl." She asked carelessly as she lit a cigarette.

"Maria, her name is Maria. And this is a smoke-free building Vanessa." He stated stalking over to the woman, snatching the cigarette out of her hand and tossing it into the expensive marble basin behind her.

The biggest mistake of his life stood before him. Vanessa Whitaker, man-eater and overall bitch that sometimes moonlighted as good lay. He met her five years ago at college and they started dating. Unfortunately for him he had no idea that she was intent on trapping him and milking him for all he was worth. So after only five months of dating she came to him claiming to be pregnant, crying and lamenting how this was going to ruin her political career. Having a baby out of wedlock was unheard of in the political arena but getting an abortion would be occupational suicide. This was where the lies that created the fabric of his tangled life began.

Two months later he stood at the end of an aisle putting on a slight smile as the mother of his unborn child approach in white. Now that was laughable, he was actually surprised she hadn't got pregnant before with all the whoring she did around campus.

It was a good thing he had been blessed with financially abundant parents who generally ignored their only child's spending habits, because Vanessa drained him of thousands daily in preparation for the baby. They fought everyday over inane things but Andrew really resented her very existence, and contemplated seriously hiring a hit-man a time or two. Fortunately for him, they didn't last long, and divorced when their son Evan was only five months old.

After graduation he went into business with a good, yet unstable friend of his from college, Brody Davis. Their business was lucrative and before long their company was grossing half a million a year. After about five years in the internet business he started to notice the pitfalls of partnerships. Brody was always rambling about aliens and abductions and it just didn't mesh well for a partner in a multimillion dollar company so Andrew bought him out.

Vanessa pursued him once again after learning about his millionaire status and in attempt to escape her seduction tactics he headed west on a cross-country trip to California on a whim, and stumbled upon a little tourist trap called Roswell, New Mexico. He only intended to check it out but he impulsively bought the towns UFO center out of weird nostalgia for Brody and his eccentric tirades. A few days later he met Maria and the rest was history.

Vanessa stared at Andrew. She couldn't believe he was so calm and his lack of reaction to her prodding only served to irritate her further. If he married that girl all hope of getting him back would be lost and that wasn't going to happen. She failed to capture the heart of the up and coming Senator Daniel Pierce and so now she needed a wealthy benefactor to fund her ascension to office and what better fallback position than her rich, squeaky clean, ex, only he wasn't as responsive as she had hoped. You'd think and ex-wife would be able to rile her ex-husband a little easier.

"Isn't the little bitch getting deployed to that god-forsaken ashtray over there?" She waved her hand listlessly in attempt to appear above the meager existence of both soldier and civilian.

"Cute. Aren't you a republican Vanessa?" he quipped unfazed by her obvious disdain. He didn't care what she thought anyway.

"Oh for godsakes Andrew, don't be such a piss-ant."

Andrew rolled his eyes she was beginning to bug him. "Why are you still here? Evan is playing and safe you can leave now."

"Well testy aren't we, I thought you might want to play a little game with me first."

Andrew's eyebrow quirked questionably. "And what would that be?"

Vanessa sauntered seductively to the white couch on which he sat, they had bought it during their brief marriage and surprisingly it was the only piece of furniture he retained from that car wreck of a relationship. She paused just before reaching the settee and Andrew's breathing audibly quickened, he knew what she was about to do. And yet again he was a sucker. Shedding her expensive coat she revealed her very nude physique underneath.

"You know what I want." She said smugly, and with that she flipped a leg over his lap and tipped him backwards on the sofa as Andrew submitted willingly hoping the nanny had the good sense to save Evan of witnessing his father be the biggest patsy in history.