Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters do not belong to me, but the plot is mine. This fan-fiction had been written purely for entertainment purposes. No infringement was intended and no profit had been made out of this.

A/N: Thanks for the encouraging reviews, you wonderful readers! It keeps me going, hehe! Now, more MA action coming up as Max and Alec deal with their latest predicament. Enjoy!

Irresistible Rivals - Chapter 10

(by elle6778)

Alec leaned back against the column, frowning deeply. He needed to assess the situation objectively. There must be a way to get out of the restraints.

But even if they did, there was no guarantee that they would get out in one piece. He had seen the two surveillance cameras mounted on the walls and he was positive that they were being monitored closely. So running without a foolproof plan was out of the question, considering how many guards Ivanov has.

The fact that they were even exposed in the first place riled him to no end. Since their presence had been so easily detected, he had deduced that their equipments must have interfered with each others. The question was, how?

He yanked at the tape around him, inciting a hiss of irritation from his fellow prisoner. "Hey, Max! What did you do to freeze the surveillance?"

She snorted in response. "What? Trying to steal our tech now, are you?"

Alec turned his eyes upwards. The image of his hands throttling her slender neck flashed past his eyes. "What for? It's probably faulty, anyway."

"So, you don't need to know, do you?"

He squeezed his eyes shut. Patience, Alec. Patience, he told himself. "Look, I have a good reason for asking alright?"

"Oh yeah? What is it then?"

He gritted his teeth. "I need to know if our devices interfered," he explained somewhat reluctant. There was no doubt in his mind that she would happily kill him now that she realised what had actually happened.

Silence ensued. "You mean we're in this fix now because your stupid device interfered with mine?" she gritted out menacingly.

Alec winced inwardly at her tone. "Hey, it could be the other way round, you know?"

"Listen to me, smartass. I got here first. I dropped MY device first. So it's YOURS which interfered with mine, not the other way round, get it?" she snarled. Then she groaned. "The waves must have overlapped, messing up the frequencies," she said, sounding resigned.

Alec sighed wearily. It made sense. "Yeah. That sounds about right." Unitech must be utilising the same sort of tech as Manticore.

"We need to kill one of them," she muttered under her breath, almost as if she was talking to herself.

"We need to get out of this first," he said, jerking at the bindings. "Hell! It has to be fibre reinforced," he exclaimed in disgust.

She hissed. "Quit moving!"

"Shoulder bothering you?" he taunted nastily. The wound could not be that bad considering that she was still capable of sparring verbally with him. Most ordinaries would be crying in pain by now.

"I'm touched by your concern," she retorted sarcastically.

"Yeah, I've been told that I have a big heart."

He grinned when he heard a long-suffering groan from her.

Well, at least there was some entertainment for him while he worked out how to free himself.

Max stared at the corner of the dim basement, wondering if she could manage to force the duct-tape apart. It was painful to even attempt it, considering her injured shoulder. Anyway, she needed to kill those surveillance cameras in the room before she could try anything. The EM disruptors would do it. She had more of them in her pocket, but how was she supposed to activate them?

"Do you have anymore of what you were using to jam the surveillance?" Alec suddenly asked.

Max frowned at his question. "I think so." Was he thinking what she was thinking?

"Can you activate it?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, of course. It activates by voice command," she retorted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Haha. Very funny," he said mirthlessly. "Can you activate it or not?" he asked again insistently.

"It's in my pocket, you idiot. How am I supposed to activate it?"

"Which one?" he asked.

Max gritted her teeth in irritation. She knew that he probably had a valid reason for asking her, but his mere presence was putting her on the edge. And her tongue was reacting accordingly. "What does it matter?"

"Which one?" he repeated insistently.

"The left one," she finally said grudgingly.

He strained, trying to reach back towards her, the duct tape stretched taut, cutting into her arm.

Max hissed. "Damn it, Alec. Quit moving!" she snapped in annoyance. Her shoulders were beginning to throb painfully at the abuse and she could see the dark red circle on her top spreading wider.

He let out a frustrated exclamation. "I'm trying to reach your pocket." A short pause followed, and then he continued, "And maybe grope around a little while I'm at it."

"Do it and you're dead!" she snarled viciously, trying to jerk away from his fingers.

"Do you want to get out or not?" he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I mean it, Alec," she warned. Then she sucked in a sharp breath when his fingers grazed her exposed skin between the top of her pants and her cropped top. All thoughts of her injured shoulder fled her mind as her senses focussed on his fingers scraping her skin.

Alec groaned. "Just relax, okay. You're making it more difficult than it needs to be. It'll be faster if you quit moving."

Alright, she had to admit that he got a point there, Max thought grudgingly. The faster he get the EM disruptor out, the sooner she would be free of his presence. Sullenly, she clamped her mouth shut and held herself rigidly while Alec continued to move behind her. His fingers grazed her skin on a few more occasions, making her flinch, before they slipped further down.

When his hands slid around her rear towards her side, goosebumps exploded over her skin. Max closed her eyes, cursing at her body's over-reaction to his touch. And hoping that he would not notice her anything. He was annoying enough without knowing the effect his touches had on her.

"What's taking you so long?" she finally hissed.

"I can't reach your pocket. Twist around a little, will you?"

Grudgingly, she shifted to the left as much as she could, biting her lips against the pain in her shoulders. "Better?"

"Yeah," he said in a strained voice. His fingers moved against her side.

She inhaled sharply when his hand slipped into her pocket. The only thing separating his fingers and the sensitive skin were two thin layers of fabric.

Then a triumphant exclamation escaped his lips. "Got it," he said, extracting his hand from her pocket, much to Max's relief.

"Press it between your thumb and finger and drop it," Max instructed.

"Done," he said. "Now, all we have to do is to get out of these tapes."

Max rolled her eyes. "Yeah, they are reinforced, remember?"

"Did they tape you to the column? Can you feel anything behind you?"

Max shifted slightly, and felt the tape only around her front and sides. "No. I'm guessing they taped around both of us."

"Well, they must have decided that I needed more restrain, or maybe they ran out of tape. But I think they secured me to the column as well," he remarked in disgust.

She grinned in amusement. "Isn't that just too bad," she said sweetly.

"Just proves that they know who they should be more careful of."

"Looks can be deceiving."

He sounded thoughtful. "Yeah. But I suppose in your case, it's a little hard to hide the bitch within."

"Shut up!" she gritted out in annoyance.

"I guess this round goes to me, then," he said with a chuckle.

Max glowered. "Did you ask about the tape for fun or you have some idea of how to remove it?"

"I think I know how we can get out of this."

"How?"

Alec grinned when he heard the wariness in her tone. The girl was obviously reluctant to trust him.

"The tape is just around our clothes. We just need to get the clothes off," he said in a casual tone, and waited for the explosion.

A second of silence ensured before she burst out, "No freaking way!"

"What, you're shy?" he teased.

"Shut up!"

"I've seen you in less, remember? That little waitress dress didn't cover much." Yeah, Alec. That waitress dress left little to the imagination. Too little.

He smirked when she did not reply. No doubt she was plotting his death at the moment.

Deciding to give her another push, he mocked, "Gee, Max. It's not as if this is the first time I'm seeing a naked woman. Tell you what, I promise I'll try to contain my excitement."

"You even look at me and you're dead!" she snarled.

He raised his eyebrows even though she could not see it. "I ask you again. You want to get out of here or not? Hmm?"

"Fine! Do it, then," she snapped, her reluctance obvious.

Alec manoeuvred his hands until he had a hold on one of Max's sleeves. In that small working space, he realised that he had to utilise his full strength to rip the fabric.

"Okay, ready?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said curtly.

With a hard tug, the fabric tore. Shifting a little, he worked his hands until he touched her other sleeve. That too, came apart in his hands after a hard yank.

"Did I get it all?" he asked, feeling her shift against him.

"Most of it," she replied tightly behind him.

Her reluctance and embarrassment were so palpable that he could almost feel it coming towards him in waves. If the situation was not so serious, Alec would have laughed. But being captured was not a joking matter, especially for him. Not if there was a chance that Ivanov might find out who he was 'working' for.

Now Max was another story. If Ivanov interrogated her, it would be to Manticore's benefit. He would gain more information on what he now knew was a rival organisation. Maybe Max would be more willing to talk about Unitech under duress.

Duress? Torture, you mean, a small voice sounded in his head. Alec winced inwardly. The mental image of Max being tortured was strangely disturbing.

A hard tug wrenched his arms backwards.

He looked over his shoulders to see Max standing there, her top covered only in a scrap of lacy bra. It occurred to him that he should make some comment about her state of undress, but nothing came to mind.

Well, nothing except that she looked good in black lace.

And then his eyes focussed on the bloody wound on her shoulder. The wound was not as small as he had thought it was. The bullet seemed to have entered the fleshy part of her arm, but he could not see an exit wound.

An unwanted feeling of remorse coursed through him at the thought of his earlier actions. He must have really hurt her when he tugged at the tape.

But she did not even cry out.

What did he think he was looking at?

The way he had his eyes trained on her was making her feel very uncomfortable. It made her feel like she should cross her arms over her chest, but she refused to give in to the urge. She would not let him have the satisfaction of knowing that he had unsettled her.

Fuming, she made her way to his side and knelt beside him, checking his pockets.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Checking you out, what else?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "Since you're such an irresistible male specimen and all."

Alec shot a glare at her.

A triumphant exclamation escaped her lips when she found what she was looking for. Her watch.

"Hey!" he protested with a frown when he saw what she extracted from his pocket.

"Thanks for keeping it safe," she said sweetly.

As she stood up to stare down at him, Max deliberated whether to leave him to Ivanov or not. Alec did not know who she was, so it would not be a problem if Ivanov interrogated him. Right?

"Don't even think about it," he warned, obviously guessing what was on her mind.

Max grinned. "Don't know what you're talking about, Alec."

He narrowed his eyes. "We've got a deal, Max."

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh?" Raising her hand, she pretended to inspect her fingernails as she said, "Don't recall anything like that."

"Fine! What do you want?"

Max grinned. "Answers."

Alec glared at her. "No freaking way!"

Max shrugged. "I guess it's between answering my questions and answering Ivanov's, huh? Your choice."

He gave her a warning look. "Max…"

Her sensitive hearing picked up the sound of footsteps in the distance. They were coming closer. She looked down to see a similar look of alarm on Alec's face.

"Max! This is not the time to play games," he said urgently.

She went to him and began to unravel the tape.

"Too slow. I have a kit under my left boot. Use that."

The slim toolkit was lodged in a slot in his heels. Max found it easily and quickly straightened, sliding the sharp edge of a blade against the duct-tape, slicing through the material of his top.

Alec pulled himself off the column and yanked his shredded top over his head, throwing it to the side.

"The service hatch," he said, nudging at the metal grating on the ceiling as he ran towards it.

Max deliberately kept her eyes off his exposed body, trying not to notice the rippling muscles under his unblemished skin, as she followed him.

"Come on. I'll lift you up. Get the grating off then climb in. I'll replace it behind me," he instructed rapidly.

Who was he to give orders, Max thought irritably as she slipped his toolkit into her pocket to free her hands. But knowing that she had no time to argue with him, she stood in front of him. His gaze went to the wound on her shoulders, and she saw something akin to remorse pass over his expression.

Their eyes met for a second, and something she could not quite define passed between them just as his rough hands encircled her small waist. And then she found herself up in the air.

He was strong, she admitted grudgingly as he held her up there with steady hands while she detached the grill from the metal service duct. It came off in one of her hands, leaving the other one free to hang on the edge of the duct.

"Drop it," he said quietly. The grill fell to the floor, the sound of its impact dulled by his boots.

She pulled herself upwards into the duct and then turned back to extend her hand down to help him. The thought that she was actually helping her rival crossed her mind briefly, but she brushed it aside. There would be time to think about that later.

They scrambled along the duct hurriedly. Alec was not sure where they were heading but he knew that they had to keep moving away from their original point. Max was in front of him, elbowing her way forward easily even with her injured shoulder. Under normal circumstances, he would have been impressed by the speed she was moving ahead, but he was beginning to get used to her abilities.

When he was passing over another open metal grating which led into another room, she suddenly hissed urgently, "Quiet! Don't move. I hear something."

"Can't," he hissed back, quickly shuffling forwards. He could not just stop over a grating. Anyone who was in the room would be able to see him if they looked up.

"There's not enough space for two of us side by side," she gritted out under her breath as he squeezed tight next to her.

"Shh!" he hissed, freezing as he heard the sound of voices and footsteps in the room beneath them.

He held his breath without realising it, and found Max doing the same thing.

Her body was pressed uncomfortably against his, forcing him to pay attention to those lace-encased curves which were moulded tight against his bare chest. Think of something else, soldier, he chided himself. It would be highly embarrassing if his body began to react in response to his thoughts.

He glanced at her to find her glaring at him, those chocolate brown orbs framed by long lashes broadcasting her annoyance at the situation. Well, she was not the only one feeling unsettled.

His sharp hearing picked up the sound of receding footsteps, and he finally allowed himself to breath. They were safe for the moment, but it was too soon for them to move around. The guards were probably still around the area.

Max shifted, looking pained. "We've got to stay here for a while. The security team's probably still nearby," she said, echoing his thoughts. Then her eyes glanced down to where their bodies were practically fused together.

She looked as if she was about to kill him, he thought with a smirk.

He arched an eyebrow, deliberately letting his eyes run over the top of her breasts which were pushed up between them. "Actually, you don't look too bad."

She glared at him murderously.

Then he continued, "But I've seen better."

She bristled indignantly. "Who cares what sort of trash you've seen?" she snapped in a low voice.

He adopted a wounded expression. "Hey, I take offence at that. My lady companions are the cream of the crop. A tasteful selection of the female species."

Max snorted, then her lips curled in disdain. "They just have lousy taste in men, right?"

"They have excellent taste in men, but only one could satisfy them," he said with a grin.

Max rolled her eyes. "You really need to get over yourself. It's an unhealthy preoccupation."

Alec shrugged nonchalantly. "What can I say? Perfection is hard to come by," he remarked in a matter-of-fact tone.

Groaning, she said, "I'm surprised your neck is still intact."

"Hmm?"

"With such a bloated head, I just have to wonder, that's all. That skinny neck doesn't look like it's strong enough to hold your head up."

Who was she calling skinny? "I'm so perfectly proportioned that you wouldn't believe it even if I told you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Obviously it didn't extend to the brains department."

"Hey, my brain's superior to yours." If only she knew what he was, he thought with a grin. The temptation to tell her was suddenly there, just to see her reaction.

"But I'm not the one stupid enough to get us in this fix."

He groaned inwardly. Just how many times must she bring the topic up? "That wasn't intentional. I explained what happened."

"So you admit that it's your fault, huh?"

"No way!" he protested hotly.

"I can't believe you're so stupid," she ranted, her body pushing against his in her agitation. "Are you doing this for the first time or what?"

"Yeah, the first time I actually have interference from some chick who doesn't know when to butt out," he said, trying to shift away from her slightly. Her movements were distracting.

Alec made a mental note to seek out the company of some lucky women that night. His hormones were obviously protesting against the lack of sexual activities of late.

Her eyes flashed indignantly at his words. "At least I know better than to keep my eyes open on my surroundings. You could have easily spotted my stuff if you bothered to look. They were in plan sight. And why should I butt out, as you put it? This is my mission, and your presence is messing everything up."

Would she shut up about it already? If he was not a transgenic, he would have had a migraine by now. Plus, her body was pressed way too close to his for him to think straight. And would she quit moving against him already?

She was not finished. "You shouldn't have activated yours. What were you thinking? That I'll just walk in here like that?" she continued to hiss, her eyes flashing.

The sight of her, all flushed and agitated, was bring up unwanted images into his head. "Stop it, Max. I get what you're saying!" he said roughly, wanting more than ever to get out of there at that moment. The heat was building up in his body and he was helpless to prevent it.

A triumphant expression entered her eyes, lighting them up. Making them irresistible to his already wayward body. Alec was struggling so hard to keep himself in check that he was barely paying attention to her next words. "You get it? Finally! I was about to-"

And before he knew it, his lips descended onto hers.

An astounded gasp escaped her lips, but he did not stop. She was soft and sweet under him.

A voice at the back of his mind told him that what he was doing was a very bad idea. But another voice told him that if he was going to suffer through all her nagging, he might as well get some enjoyment out of it.

Right?

t.b.c.

A/N: Hope you've all enjoyed the extra long chapter and the latest development between the two rivals. Please review and tell me your thoughts on it!