Author's Note: This chapter contains Adult Content.

Part Ten

"What was that?"

Max didn't reply because he was hoping she would let it go, just tossed his coat over the back of a chair and made his way to his bedroom, threw himself across the foot of the bed and clicked on the T.V.

Eliza stomped after him and stood in front of the set.

"Could you move over," he asked after moving his head from side to side and not finding a suitable view.

She turned and clicked the T.V. off.

"What do you want," he asked quietly, resigned.

"I want you to be honest with me. How do you know that girl?"

He sighed and looked up at her, "I've known her from before high school. We were best friends."

"Why did you stop talking then?"

He shook his head and pulled himself into a seated position. "It was for the best."

"What does that mean!"

"None of your business," it wasn't the nicest response but it got his point across and he didn't like how she seemed so entitled about knowing his motivations.

"How is this none of my business," she scoffed.

"Since we're sharing today," he said, avoiding her question, "when we first starting seeing one another and I said I didn't want anything serious and you agreed were you being truthful to me?"

She took an involuntary step back, "well…I…"

"It's a simple question Eliza, were you being truthful? Because that's why it's none of your business. We are not a couple. I think you're a nice girl but…," he shook his head and changed course. Things were getting heated but he really did like this woman and contrary to his behavior tonight, he didn't want to hurt her.

"I don't have to share my thoughts with you," he finished decisively.

She put her hands on her hips, "but you do want to share them with that Elizabeth huh?"

"Stay in your lane Eliza," he said through clenched teeth.

"Ohhhh," her eyes widened and she smirked. "I hit on something there did I?"

"Leave it alone," he replied sternly, walking from the room and entering the kitchen.

She followed close behind, "Her boyfriends going to be a lawyer, why would she leave him for a gardener?"

She looked him over with a curled lip, "A fucked up gardener at that!"

He concentrated on breathing in and out, not getting riled up. "You don't know her."

"But I know you," she replied, the sarcastic knife edge of her voice turned dull and with her next remark left a jagged cut. "The only thing you know how to do right is fuck. Liz seems like she may want more than that now."

A million possible responses flew through his mind in an instant. Words that would hurt her just as much as she was trying to hurt him. Words that would have her questioning herself long after she'd left his presence, he thought about letting them all fly, about throwing it all at her just to see who would come out the other side the least bloody.

He closed his eyes and counted backwards from 10, just like Dr. Culling had taught him, before opening them again.

"I know you thought that when we started seeing each other, I would see the awesome person you are and change my mind about being together. I know you thought you could love me into a better person but you can't."

She looked confused by the sudden shift in conversation and took a step back as though he'd pushed her away.

"I told you I didn't want something serious but when I felt like you weren't listening to that, I should have done more to make you believe me."

Her mouth turned down and her eyelids lowered as she leaned against the wall.

"I disrespected you and everyone else at the party tonight and I'm so sorry. I didn't go there to do that but it happened because that girl is the reason I couldn't ever open up to you. I've loved her since I was a kid and I thought maybe it wouldn't matter as much anymore because it had been so long since we'd seen each other but…," he shook his head and closed his eyes, imagined Liz's face.

"I love her just as much now as I did then."

"Shut up," she said lowly, tears starting to overtake the boundaries of her lids and spill down her cheeks. "If you loved that girl you'd see how much she likes her boyfriend and let her go. You'd move on."

He smiled softly at that and thought about trying to comfort her for a moment before deciding to stay exactly where he was,

"Someone else told me that same exact thing once."

"Well you should listen."

"I did then. I'm not going to now."

She shook her head in disbelief while grabbing up her purse. "You're selfish."

"I'm sorry."

She turned around with a watery smile. "Fuck you," and with that she walked across the threshold and slammed the door behind her.

Max stood there after she left and took a deep breath. He felt awful for the way things had gone down but he also felt lighter than he had in years.

-0-

Liz pulled her headphones from her ears and narrowed her eyes, trying to hear if someone was in the house.

"James?"

She listened for a second before turning back to the computer and starting to put her headphones back in.

"You should find a new place to put these."

She was so frightened by the sudden voice she couldn't even scream, just spun around and gasped as Max leaned in the doorway with a smile. He showed her the key before tossing it on the bed. She put her hand to her chest and watched him enter the room with the confidence of someone who lived there and sat on the end closest to her.

"What are you doing here," she asked lowly.

"The question is, what are you doing here?"

"This is my house," she responded indignantly.

"Why aren't you at work?"

James put his hand to her forehead and frowned. "You don't feel hot."

She coughed pathetically. "I feel out of it though, I'm just going to call off."

"I can too; I'll stay and take…"

"That's alright," she cut in quickly. "Go to work, I'll be here when you get back."

"I don't feel well," she stammered out guiltily.

He touched her forehead with the back of his hand before she pulled away. "You feel alright to me."

"How would you know how I feel," she asked sulkily, wondering why she was here as well. It would have been so easy, so easy to pretend that she hadn't heard him at her party last night. Just go to work like usual and when he came in, he would have found an empty house and left her alone. She would probably marry James within the next 2 years and this would all be a memory.
Instead, she called in sick, just like he had told her to, and waited for him.

He leaned back on his forearms and watched her pretend to work, "Liz…"

"You really scared the hell out of me."

"I didn't mean to," he said quickly, happy she was speaking to him at all.

"How did you even know they were there?"

"That's where you found mine."

Her fingers hesitated for a moment before moving again.

"You remember?"

She didn't respond.

He watched her back before moving to a standing position, losing some confidence. "Do you not want me here?"

"Well," she said slowly while spinning around to face him, "You broke into my house and now you're sitting there like you belong here so what do you think?"

He looked at her like he was searching for some truth in her eyes that she wasn't telling him but little did he know she had become schooled in control long ago and neatly kept her features clear. His face fell and she could almost see him shrink back into himself.

"I thought…when I didn't see you leave his morning that you had agreed last night."

"You thought wrong."

He looked shocked and a part of her took that as a small victory, he didn't know her as well as he thought he did.

His mouth fell open before he closed it quickly, "I'll let you go then," and that phrase meant so much more than what was happening between them right now. It meant their past as well as whatever future they would have had from this moment on and she watched him as he turned his back and walked out of the bedroom and through the kitchen and pause at the door. Maybe waiting for her to say something, anything, and she didn't, she watched him disappear through that door and out of her life.

Liz's heart was pounding in her chest, her eyes were wide and unblinking, her breath was coming out in big gulps and she was out of the apartment and running down the hall before all the reasons why this shouldn't be happening could stop her. She ran to the elevator and quickly scanned the sign taped to the doors:

Out of Order

before she quickly made her way to the stairs. She breathlessly descended two flights before hearing someone else below her.

"Max," she yelled, hoarse from the tears blinding her vision, and tightening her throat.

From the hope that was suddenly present in her heart.

"Liz?"

She looked down the center of the stairwell to see him looking back up at her and smiled broadly. "Wait for me."

His mouth move to speak but she didn't wait to hear the words, just kept descending the staircase, kept going deeper into the rabbit hole. Fighting her burning muscles and parched lungs and the conscience that was screaming at her to remember James and all she was on the precipice of losing but those thoughts weren't able to keep pace with her any longer. By the time she made it to the third floor and saw the timid but hopeful look in his eyes all she could do was stand on the tip of her toes and whisper breathlessly, "I'm not really sick," before touching her lips to his.

-0-

They fell back into her apartment with a laugh and Max started to pull up the oversized shirt she was wearing.

"Wait," she said quickly, some semblance of reality returning. "Do you have protection?"

He scrunched his face up. "No, you don't?"

"I'm in a committed relationship."

When he raised his eyebrows at that and she ignored him. "I'm on the pill but you know," she raised her hands and dropped them just as quickly, "there's been ten years of different partners between us and I don't think it would be…"

"You're right," he replied and nudged her toward a chair. "There are other things we could do."

Max put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her down.

"Well no sexual conduct is really safe when you haven't been tested," she said scandalized, the scientist inside her breaking free.

He got to his knees before her with a scowl. "Let me worry about that."

When she was about protest, the words stopped in her throat as his face transformed into someone younger, less experienced, someone eager to please.

"I've never really done this to anyone before. Other girls never let me get this close."

Her hips pushed towards him of their own volition at those oh so familiar words and if she had been in her right mind, she would have seen the knowledgeable grin of the grown man he had become flit across his features but it was gone almost as soon as it had appeared and she was still occupied with other things.

"You can tell me what to do," he went on, adding a slight treble to his voice as he pushed the old T shirt up and revealed her white cotton panties. "No black lace?"

"I wasn't sure I wanted company."

"But you are now."

She wasn't sure if he was telling her or asking for confirmation so she didn't say anything, just licked her lips in anticipation and he let it go. Peeled the offending material away from her instead and wrapped his arms around her thighs to pull her closer and open her up. The way he was staring at her should have made her uncomfortable but it only worked to turn her on more and when he finally touched her she let out the breath she wasn't aware she had been holding.

"You can tell me when to go faster and when to slow down, tell me when I'm making you feel good."

She looked down to see his face flushed red and his breath was a pant almost as deep as hers. It seemed he was enjoying this almost as much as she was and when Liz was about say something cheeky about it to him he gave her a stiff lick and every thought in her mind flew out of it. She tensed and breathed in, her hands grabbing at the fabric on either arm when she really wanted to grab the back of his head and take control of the pace. Push herself against him harder and faster but then he was sucking and she let out a high pitched sound and let her face fall to the side only to open her eyes and see the smiling face of one James Dempsey, and herself when they'd gone to Virginia the first year they were dating. She moved to sit up a little and Max reached up to push the photo face down.

She shook her head, all those thoughts about how wrong this was finally catching up. "I can't."

"Why," he asked casually with no hint of anger. He just reached his hand around the thigh that was currently across his shoulder and gave her clit a deep fast rub and she quieted down because there were star bursts of pleasure going off in her abdomen.

"…Boyfriend," she said quickly, trying to get him on her side, trying to get him to be the one to stop them because it was looking less and less likely that she was going to.

"Had one of those the first time too, didn't bother you then."

She started to sit up, indignant that he would say that even if it was true, when he moved back up and playfully bit at her neck. She pushed him away, "No, I'm mad at you," but she was already melting into his embrace and forgetting why she'd stopped him in the first place.

"…make you feel better," he muttered more to himself than to her and he sucked her into his mouth again and she laid back and tried to fight the urge she had to squeeze him between her thighs, pull the sensations in, make it go faster.

She let her eyes drift down and when their gazes met she looked away again. That was too raw, too real for her to take right now so when he started running his hands down her sides, across her chest, down the inside of her thighs with the slightest bit of pressure from his nails she welcomed the extra sliver of tension that added.

She focused on the feeling of the tips of his fingers and how the ball of heat in her stomach seemed to send tendrils of pleasure out to meet them. Liz breathed and felt those tendrils intensifying and she gave into the urge to grasp him between her thighs as she pushed up and felt the heat in her gut spread outward like an electric wave.

Some part of her was aware that he would need to breath at some point in the near future but he wasn't trying to get free, was just sucking harder and she felt that wave building up again before disappearing. She was breathing hard and basking in the afterglow when he pulled away from her.

"Oh God," she said, genuinely upset but unwilling to move, "I meant to let you go."

"You did," he asked with a smile as he rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand.

She shrugged and he started looking around, "what time is it?"

She glanced to the side, "1:10."

"You have any toys around here?"

She scoffed, "why would there be toys here?"

"Not the kind for kids."

She looked up, so shocked by the question it took her 20 seconds to stammer out a reply, "I would never…"

"You had one in high school."

"How did…I did not!"

"You left me alone a lot in your room and I didn't snoop but I did look around."

She pursed her mouth, a little embarrassed that he knew about that.

He moved up her body slowly, "Come on Liz," Max whispered quietly against her ear, "I wanna see if I can make you do that again."

She had been considering lying but then thought, what the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound.

"Third shoebox from the bottom, left side of the closet."