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KISS THE STARS - Chapter 2
"Say something," Max said after a long time. She reached up and hugged herself.
"Cold?" he asked; she rolled her eyes at his less than satisfactory response and shook her head.
"No, hot," she said. He smirked.
"I'll say," he said. She reached out and punched him, then picked up her glass and held it out.
"Get me another drink," she said; he took the glass, not breaking eye contact with her. Slowly he stood.
"Okay." His voice was low and the simple word seemed to run smoothly off his tongue like honey. It sent shivers up and down her spine. He rejoined her and took a seat beside her, handing her the drink. After a sip she set it down on the coffee table and they sat there in silence for a while. Finally she turned to him.
"Tell me about Rachel," she said. He took a long swig of his drink and kept staring straight ahead.
"Nope."
"Come on, I told you stuff," she said gently. When he didn't respond, she gave up without pushing what she knew was a sensitive topic.
"Can you at least open a window?" she asked. "It really is hot in here." Alec turned to her, nodded.
"Yeah, it is," he said, getting up again and cracking his window. He stood there for a minute, touching the glass. She watched him, and the power suddenly cut out, casting half of his face into shadows. Oddly, it didn't make him look threatening at all, just mysterious.
"Brownout," Max said. "Where are your candles?"
"We can see in the dark," he said, not moving from the window, still staring outside. Max frowned at him.
"I'd prefer some light," she said.
"Why?" He still wasn't looking at her. "Because it makes you feel normal?"
Max tensed at his words momentarily but the feeling passed almost immediately. He could have said it meanly- Ben would have said it meanly- but Alec's voice was full of gentleness and no judgement.
"I don't know," she admitted.
"She was beautiful," he said suddenly from the window; his fingers traced slow, uncomfortable patterns on the glass. Max watched him, the candles forgotten.
"Does that matter?" she asked after a moment. "It's not new for us."
"With her it was different," he said; his voice was so soft that if she hadn't had superior hearing she never would have known he'd spoken at all. Slowly, finally, he turned back to face her, but he still wouldn't meet her eyes. "Her beauty was... flawed, I guess." A slow smile spread over his features. "Not perfect or designed, just a natural beauty, completely spontaneous."
"I can see the appeal in that."
"She had this laugh, too. Best laugh I'd ever heard. Of course, I was biased. There had never been too much laughter in Manticore."
"Not even when you were a child?" She met his eyes from across the room and realized that she'd never noticed how beautiful they were before. She was noticing so much about him like that; was it just because she'd finally acknowledged that he wasn't Ben? It seemed a little simple.
"No," Alec said, answering her question. "No, we weren't like you and your brothers and sisters. Probably because you left, though they didn't tell me there was ever an escape until just before I met you."
"So you weren't close at all?"
"They separated us, of course, when we got to be teenagers."
"I'm glad I didn't stick around for that," she said. "I don't know what I would have done without them."
"Was it any different on the outside?" he asked. "You weren't all together in the world, were you?" She glanced away.
"No. We weren't." She looked over at him. "Come and sit down."
"I'd better not," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and glancing away from her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked irritably. Alec met Max's dark eyes hesitantly. She was pouting slightly though she didn't know it, her full lips pursed together, and looking at him through lowered lashes. She was absolutely beautiful. He wished he could go over and hold her close and kiss those full, pouting lips until... Alec forced himself to break off that train of thought and glared at her for a moment, thinking she was trying to be smart. Then he realized she was truly confused.
"You don't know," he stated, surprise overtaking his desire for a brief moment. She gazed at him.
"Know..?"
"Haven't you ever been around an X5 when you're-" Alec broke off, realizing she hadn't. "You escaped when you were nine." He shook his head disbelievingly. "But not even Zack?"
"Not even Zack what?"
"You've never been around Zack when you're in heat?" Max flushed bright red, glanced away.
"He was around the city once when I was... but he wasn't near me when it happened." Now that she thought about it, she couldn't believe how dangerously close she'd come to being with him at that time.
"I'm sure that wasn't a coincidence," she heard Alec mutter; Max glared over at him.
"I'm not in heat, Alec."
"Trust me, I can tell before you can," he said; he hadn't meant to but his voice came out as more of a purr than words. Her brows lifted in surprise and a flicker of desire passed through her eyes. As soon as he saw that his body took on a life of its own. He pushed himself away from the wall and took a step toward her. She stood slowly as he approached her, looking considerably more unsure about her state of mind and being as he stopped within inches of her.
"Alec..." Max's voice was laced with uncertainty. She could feel the heat between their bodies and tried to swallow; her throat was like sandpaper. "I'm not in heat," she said again, but her voice was tiny. She gazed at him, and Alec saw another flicker of desire go through her eyes, staying significantly longer this time. She shivered slightly in response to it.
He couldn't stand it anymore; he stepped forward and brushed the fingers of one hand feather-light against her face, stroking down to her throat, feeling her pulse speed beneath his touch. Her eyes widened and the look on her face was priceless- surprise and fear and excitement and desire all rolled into one. Alec laughed, low in his throat, but it came out as a near growl instead. Their eyes burned into each other.
"Alec..." she said again, her voice barely there. He tried to read her emotions but the pheromones, thick in the air, were getting in his way.
"Max..." he breathed, bringing his other hand up to touch her hair lightly. Almost indiscernibly, she turned her cheek into his palm and breathed his scent in deeply. It was a courtship written in instinct left over from evolution and amplified to by the feline DNA they had both been given.
He stood there, not daring to breathe, to do anything but let her inhale his scent and the pheromones along with it. He felt Max's lips part slowly, and a moment later she had nipped his hand with her small, delicate teeth, sinking them into him with carnal possessiveness.
Alec's eyes fluttered closed, and he was immediately lost. With the urgency of everything he'd been trying to hold back since he'd first realized she was in heat, he leaned down and pressed his lips hard against hers. Max sighed, long and low, and the sound turned into a soft moan as their hands tangled in each other's hair and the kiss deepened. Alec gave her a little nudge toward the hallway that led to his bedroom and she let his weight and the pheromones carry her in that direction, never letting his lips go as they moved.
"Are you going to hate me when you wake up?" he asked between kisses even as he pulled her jacket off. She helped him with his shirt.
"I don't sleep," she said; they smiled into each other's lips.
"I'm serious," Alec said as she ran her hands over his bare chest, driving him wild.
"I don't know," she answered truthfully. After a moment she added, "No. This is affecting you too, isn't it?"
"God, yes," he ground out as she gave him a little nip on his neck and then kissed the spot, mixing pain with pleasure deliciously. Alec growled, low in his throat, and reached up to unhook Max's bra as they continued toward the bedroom.
"Wait," she said suddenly, pulling back from him and flattening herself against the wall of the hallway. He stared at her, hands still outstretched. She was gazing at him, her eyes darkened with desire, obviously trying very hard not to throw herself at him across the mere three feet of the hallway.
"What?" he gasped, breathing hard, reaching back and digging his hands into the wall to stop himself from grabbing her and silencing her with his mouth. They stared at each other, chests heaving, for several seconds.
"We can't do this," she said.
"Yes we can," he said, reaching out. He could only think of one thing: shutting her up and getting them to his bed. "Come on." He touched her shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin to get away from him.
"Don't do that!" she yelled through gritted teeth, not looking at him. "We can't do this, Alec. I love Logan, not you."
"You can't touch Logan!" he said, exasperated and incredibly horny. "Come on, Max, just get over here." He walked over to her, his feet- and other parts- having a mind of their own, and grabbed her chin, lowering his lips down against hers again, forcing his tongue between her clenched teeth. She fought it for a moment, then sank into it with a little sigh and kissed him hotly back. Her hands began pulling at his jeans.
"Wait," he said raggedly before she could pull his zipped down. He held her by the shoulders firmly and leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes against her desire-filled ones so he would have at least a chance of gaining some control. Pheromones and heat radiated out of their skin; they were both breathing raggedly.
"You're right," he finally managed. "You should leave."
"Yes," she agreed immediately.
"Max," he said after several moments of standing there. "Go."
"I'm trying," she said, her voice halfway between a purr and a whine. Alec laughed. It was a mistake; their eyes flew open and suddenly he was kissing her again. All reason and self-control was gone and they quickly shrugged out of the rest of their clothing before falling onto his bed.
A/N: Okay, what did you think?? I've never written this kind of stuff
before! Please, please review this! As those of you who've read my other fanfics
know, I'm very concerned with keeping characterization true... however, I've
discovered that it's very difficult to do this in a romance fic like this one.
Hopefully it wasn't too annoying. Review me, please, even though I know it was
short! :)