Suddenly, he was filled with a panic. There was no way he could satiate her out here in the alleyway. He needed time. He needed hours to pleasure her, pleasure her with every atom of his being, every muscle, every bone. He needed to spend time on each of her body parts, discovering which movements, caresses, and touches excited and pleased her the most. Which ones made her moan in mesmerizing bliss, which ones made her groan and grunt with want, which ones made her squeeze him tighter, which ones made her squeeze him closer. I definitely need time, he thought. Definitely hours. He stroked up again and felt her light weight pushing down on his hand with force. Maybe days. He stroked down again, and she purred, almost predatorily. We need to get out of this alley.

Max's chest was slightly flushed, her temperature still on the rise, her breaths coming faster and faster. She was getting closer. She remembered where they were, backed up against a pounding brick wall, barely under cover from the rain, in an alleyway, with Alec's hand up her skirt, his lips on her neck, his tongue delving in and out of her mouth, his warmth adding to hers. If she had stopped to think about it, she would expect to see some fog coming off their bodies, what with their hot skin meeting the cold air at quickening intervals.

Max opened her eyes and met Alec's hungry stare. "Alec," she whined in a gasping whisper. His name, the name she had given him, the name he knew described him, came out of her mouth so sweetly, with such need and moan that it could have been orgasmic. He had never heard anything so sexy. He felt as though his erection was throbbing and growing. How is that even possible?

That's it, he thought. They needed to do this proper. They needed to find a bed. Alec slowly removed his hand from under her skirt, even though every atom in his body screamed at him not to. Before she could protest, he inched his head toward hers and kissed her again. When he started to pull away, she grabbed both sides of his face and pressed it toward hers, pulling at the back of his neck, clawing over his barcode with needful speed. At the end of the kiss, Alec teased her with a mock kiss, running his lower lip against hers. Just his masculine lips on hers made all of her mental defenses explode. How could his lips be so soft? She purred at him. She wanted him, had to have him inside of her.

Alec looked around them, scoping their surroundings for a place to go. He knew there were a couple of motels nearby, but they were within driving range, not walking range, and both of them were still feeling the effects of the Rocket Fuel; and on top of that, their bodies couldn't even consider separating from the other's impassioned embrace long enough to drive to a motel, pay for it, and get inside without giving everyone within sight or earshot some kind of show. The way he was panting and the way she was whining, they'd be lucky if they made it indoors before they started recklessly ripping each others' clothes off.

He closed his eyes momentarily, thinking about her olive flesh against his, her naked skin rubbing against his. He thought about how, even though Manticore genetically engineered her to be a soldier, they had made her such a beautiful one – with an exotic hue to her skin, dark, hypnotizing eyes, lean and slender legs. He thought about how feminine her hands were; he longed to feel her electric touch on his skin. Focus, soldier, he scolded himself, rubbing his erection into her abdomen again. Max's head lifted back with his grinding. When she returned to him, he was looking up at the nearby buildings.

Max followed his gaze to the building next to them. It looked like it could have been a live/work building before the pulse, a series of shops on the main floor with living space above. She hoped. Alec must have been thinking the same thing because he stepped back, grabbed his leather jacket and quickly slipped into it.

Max felt a sudden cold breeze against her wet panties and shivered, realizing just how effective he had been at his seduction. Her cheeks bloomed in a rosy blush.

Alec captured her hand, and led her toward the front of the street, hurriedly glancing at each door to see which one was easier to break, and which was less visible to the street.

He stopped them at one particularly dreary doorway. Before she realized what she was doing, her lips were on Alec again, kissing at his neck, tongue-toying with his earlobe, trying to devour him with her plump lips. She had pushed him up against the doorway and let her body rub against him. He was pleasantly surprised. He let out a groan and imagined what it might feel like if neither of them were wearing clothes. He shook as a zap ran through his body.

The name on the glass in the doorway read "Smile Time Dentist." Alec gave Max an urgent look. She shook her head and shot a glance toward a store a couple of doors down, whose glass read "Sextasy." Alec's eyes lit up. She coyly pulled him by his muscled arm, over to Sextasy. It had a diagonal-facing door and Alec noticed, peering inside, that it looked as though it had been out of business for a couple of months. If there had been any product in it when the owners left, it had been looted long before tonight. The interior still had sheets half-covering the tables and chairs as if someone had planned to come back to it eventually.

Alec looked to Max, her coffee-colored eyes ablaze with desire. I can't possibly make it to another store, he thought. Max grabbed his jacket lapels in her fists and pulled him toward her, backing them toward the door. She backed into it a little harder than she thought, groaning as she rode the line between pain and pleasure, and then his hands were all over her again, one cupping her cheek and sweeping back toward her neck, the other curling around her waist and pulling her body against his.

His soft lips came crashing heavily down on hers, warm and hard. She let out a delicious moan as she wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted herself up, unable to contain herself any longer as she raised her legs around him, pulling his thickness to her. She silently cursed her decision to wear any panties at all.

Alec pushed her against the storefront and fumbled behind her for the door, managing to maintain their feverish kissing as he busted the lock with a powerful twist of his wrist. The door swung open and he walked inside, Max still attached to the front of him. He kicked the door shut and set Max down on the first table he encountered. He muscled the table over to the door and used it as a blockade, Max's lips curving up at the edges from the wondrous vibrations coursing up her core.

She closed her eyes and flooded with images of what she was about to do with him, to him. She saw him shirtless, a sheen of sweat prickling up from his pores as she kissed at every available inch of his chest, lightly running her fingernails over his nipples. She heard herself grumble as she imagined massaging his ass with both hands, pulling his penis toward her waiting lips. She dreamed of the contortions his face would make as she prodded at the tip of his shaft with her taste buds, and nearly lost all ability to control herself. He must have had inklings as to what she was imagining, because he picked her up by her ass, each hand curving around her lower cheeks, and carried her to the stairs that would lead to their oblivion.

Alec marched up the stairs militantly, kissing every surface of her skin he could reach without gnashing her against him for more access, refusing to let any of her breathless shifting or stirring interrupt his mission: Get her to the bed.

And Max was shifting and stirring all the way up. She would have been happy to bring him to every possible torturous, muscle-aching, mind-blowing, life-altering climax right there on the stairs. Somehow, she knew she didn't have to hold back with him. Whatever thirsty and painfully pleasurable punishment she would do to him, on purpose or inadvertently, she knew he could take it. He was a soldier after all, made to withstand almost anything.

Except this torture, Alec thought. Max had reached down and turned the knob on the door, swinging it open to a little apartment. As he carried her inside, she kicked off her slouchy boots and landed softly against a wall. Not the bed, he scolded himself, devouring Max's neck slowly, laying her against the wall as if she was on a horizontal surface.

Max tried to spread her legs even further, her body betraying her craving for everything-Alec. He pushed into her, then lifted her again, looking around the room for the bed, and once he spotted it, he returned his intentions back to Max and snuck her over to the soft mattress. He grunted loudly when she gyrated against him, then kneeled on the bed, toppling over as he landed on top of her. She realized they were on a bed.

Finally.