Author's notes: Sean Deluca is Maria's cousin and was in a little part of season two. In End of the world, Future Max told Liz that she would make friends with a girl called Serena and that was all we really know about Serena although I changed it to Max who made friends with Serena not Liz.
Also the book Alex is reading is Slightly Scandalous by Mary Balogh
Part 6
Slightly Scandalous
"Explain to me why I am reading these?" Alex said, looking up at Serena as she piled yet another two more romance novels beside him.
"Because you want to romance Izzy and make sure everything is perfect and nobody does the whole romance thing like the guys in these books." Serena stated with a dreamy grin.
"But they're just trash!" Alex whined, it would not do much for his reputation if one of the guys found him reading romance novels nor would he ever be able to live it down. He could just imagine all the jokes he would be the butt of. Oh the horror.
"You never know, you might just enjoy them!" Serena said, passing him one of the books.
Alex didn't waste any time arguing and instantly jumped one or two pages. Okay so maybe it was more like 100 pages but there was no way he was actually going to read the whole thing.
"You're meant to start at the beginning" Serena said with a roll of her hazel eyes. "Otherwise it won't make sense."
"I didn't realize that any of this actually made sense!" Alex scoffed.
"It probably makes a lot more sense then what goes on in that head of yours" Serena stated with a giggle and a playfully punch
Alex rolled his eyes and began to read our loud "She pulled off his coat and waistcoat with little cooperation from him, and she was tugging his shirt outside his pantaloons… pantaloons?" Alex giggled like a little schoolgirl "Who wears pantaloons these days? Who even says the word pantaloons?"
"You are such a child" Serena said with a tut.
"He hooked the low neckline of her muslin dress beneath her beasts and took them in his hands, rolling her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers… and I think that enough of reading that aloud!" Alex coughed "Does Sean know that you read this smut?"
Serena grinned wickedly "I don't know but I'm sure he's going to find out about you reading it."
"Serena…"
"I've got to jet. Me, Max and Michael are going out for dinner and I'm sure they are going to die when they hear about your new hobby!" Serena laughed as she kissed Alex' cheek "Have fun!"
"Serena!"
"Just put everything on my card and I'll you tomorrow with the rest of the details" Alex said quickly before hanging up the phone. "Hey sweetie, nice day at work?"
"What do you need two hundred candles for?" Isabel asked ignoring his poor attempt at avoiding answering any of her questions.
"You never know when you might need a candle or two hundred!" Alex said with a weak smile. "I just want to be prepared in case there's a black out or the world is ending."
It was pretty obvious that he was lying, which made Isabel frown. He had been acting strangely for the last couple of days and it was starting to worry her. Their relationship had always been an open and honest one and it was scary to think that there might be something that Alex couldn't talk to her about.
"Alex, is there something you want to talk to me about?" she asked sitting down next to him "You know you can talk to me about…is that a romance novel?"
"No!" Alex said quickly hiding the book under a pillow and far out of Isabel's reach. "It's a man's book."
Isabel grinned, the deep and meaningful conversation forgotten for the moment as she reached over Alex for the book. "Why are you hiding it then?"
"Because it has secret man stuff in that you aren't allow to see!" Alex stated pulling her onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Have I told you today how much I love you?"
"Have you stolen that line out of your romance novel?" Isabel teased as she placed her hands on his chest. "You know Michael rang me this afternoon, he was laughing so hard that I could only catch the words, Alex, sissy and love novel"
Alex groaned "I'm going to kill Serena!"
"I didn't understand at the time but suddenly everything made sense when I caught you!" Isabel laughed, her dark eyes shining with amusement.
Alex's breath caught in his throat, she had never looked so beautiful as she did at that moment, suddenly he knew if he didn't kiss her right that second he was going to die.
He kissed her with a passion that would of given any one of those romance heroes a run for their money, his hands making their way under her shirt so he could satisfy his burning need for skin to skin contact.
"Upstairs, now!" Isabel whispered huskily, they were the only two words she could form.
"As you wish milady" Alex said, sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her up to their room.
