Part26
Michael was on the verge of throwing the empty bottle in his right hand at the television screen when his team missed the shot that would've tied the game before the halftime buzzer sounded. Morons!The stats scrolled up on the screen and he glanced over them as they faded out and the commercials started.
He hurried into the kitchen to toss the empty bottle and get another beer, but there was a glass of iced tea sitting next to the wrapped sandwich on the counter. He smiled when he saw the chocolate chip cookies, wrapped and placed on top of the sandwich where he was sure to see them. He decided to forego the beer in place of the glass of tea, and he scooped everything up and rushed back into the living room in time for the halftime show to start.
He set everything down on the table next to his chair, unwrapping the sandwich and biting into it in seconds. He smirked as he thought back over their earlier conversation; she had no clue that he had her right where he wanted her. She probably thought it was all her idea to give him some pointers where controlling his powers was concerned, but he had skillfully maneuvered her right where he wanted her. He silently congratulated himself on once again getting the upper hand as he took another bite, savoring the flavor of the roast she had made for dinner. One thing was for damn sure – the woman knew how to cook! He glanced over at the empty spot on the couch where she usually sat when they watched movies together and he glanced at the hall behind him, wondering what she was doing.
He got up and wandered along the hall until he reached her open bedroom door, leaning in as he kicked the doorframe to get her attention. She was reclining on the bed, reading a book she was holding propped up against her bent legs. "Hey, whatcha doin'?"
Maria bit back the acidic response that automatically came to mind and looked up at him. "Reading."
Michael took another bite of the sandwich and chewed thoughtfully for several long seconds. "Wanna watch a movie?"
This was new. "What about the game?"
He shrugged. "Sucks ass tonight."
Right. And there were no other reasons? She put her book down and looked at him. Did he want company, or did he want her by his side to watch a movie? Scratch that, he was probably bored. Yep, that was probably it. "Um-hmm, and none of the cheerleaders are drool-worthy?"
Michael bit into his sandwich to avoid having to answer just yet; he hadn't even looked at the television when the halftime show started. "The teams aren't the only thing that sucks ass; there's nothin' but a bunch of second-rate, uncoordinated, ugly bitches out on the floor… I don't even think they qualify as a dance squad."
Maria shrugged. "Well, we did buy a couple of new movies last time we went grocery shopping."
"Okay, but I don't wanna watch the one you picked out."
"You said the plot sounded interesting," she said as she slid a bookmark into place and set the closed book on the nightstand.
"It did, but the chick in your movie's ugly and I've had my fill of ugly chicks for one night. The movie I picked out has a hot fuckin' lead."
Maria rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll watch your movie."
"Did we buy any popcorn?" he asked eagerly, sounding like an excited kid.
Not again! Exasperation crept into her tone. "Michael! You just had dinner an hour ago and you're snacking right now; let your food settle before you overload your system." After sex, food was definitely his second obsession! Good thing that he was exercising and running to keep in shape; it allowed him to burn off all the food that he was constantly wolfing down. His body was perfectly sculpted thanks to years of hard work and a strict exercise regimen. His muscles were always showing under his tee-shirts and his thighs filled out his cargo pants to perfection.
Maria quickly derailed that train of thought, suddenly feeling very hot. Damn Michael! He was invading her thoughts and corrupting her! Michael had died a matter of weeks ago and here she was drooling over his double. What was wrong with her? Was she so bored, so desperate, that she was fantasizing about the pig standing in her doorway? No. There had to be another explanation. No way was she attracted to this Michael; he was a…. a man whore… a dumbass… a first class ass. So…why? She desperately searched for an excuse. Hey, she was only human. Wait a minute, only human? Yes! Maria exclaimed silently. She was only human, trapped in a world that wasn't hers, still mourning the loss of her Michael, and forced to live with a copy of her beloved Spaceboy. That explained everything. Michael's question her brought her back to reality, and his raised voice indicated that he had asked it more than once.
"But, we bought popcorn, right?"
"Yes. Hold on until we get halfway through the movie and I'll make some, okay?" She smiled when he agreed, knowing by the time they reached that point he would have forgotten all about it. She followed him into the living room and settled into her normal spot on the couch while he got the movie set up to play. She wondered what the next day would bring as she wiggled around to get comfortable. It would be interesting to see how well he adapted to controlling his powers and how long it took for him to adjust to using them with specific targets in mind.
Michael grabbed the remote and one of the cookies before turning the lights off and slouching down in his chair with his feet propped up on the coffee table. He took a drink from the glass of tea and grabbed up the second cookie as the credits started to roll on the screen. Without realizing it, he spent more time watching her than he did watching the movie with the hot lead, and he wondered if her presence would actually matter one way or the other when he started practicing with his powers.
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"You're not concentrating."
Michael had to grit his teeth when Maria repeated what had quickly become her favorite sentence of the day. The day before she had been bitching about him not focusing, and they had argued countless times over whether or not that was the problem.
"I am concentrating," he argued. "This isn't as easy as it looks, not that you'd know."
"Not that I'd know?" Maria repeated, irritated by his tone. "We've been out here for most of the past two days and do you know what we've achieved?"
Michael looked around the backyard, shrugging as his gaze raked over the thousands of tiny pieces of rock that used to be much larger rocks. "Look, you're the one who said your presence was supposed to provide focus, or inspiration, or some other bullshit, and I haven't seen how that's workin'."
Maria rolled her eyes as she moved to line up more rocks on the top rail of a nearby fence. She knew he was frustrated; they had been working for two days and he had yet to blow up a single rock. The idea was for him to single out one rock out of a group or rocks and blow it up, but so far, he had blown up all of them every time.
"You have to focus all of your energy on one single rock," she repeated for what felt like the millionth time that day. She moved over to stand next to him again. "You can do this, Michael."
"I'm startin' to have my doubts," he grumbled. He shook his head as he shook his right hand out and forced it to relax. He didn't know why he had insisted on spending another day working on something that he obviously wasn't going to master. He brought his right hand up, focused his concentration, and… all five rocks exploded. "This is bullshit and I'm sick of doin' this!"
"You're over-thinking."
"Well, why do you have to put 'em so fuckin' close together?"
Maria listened to him as he paced around, complaining about wasting his time. She shook her head and crossed the yard to line up five more rocks on the fence. "You can do this if you'll just concentrate."
"I have been fuckin' concentratin'!" he shouted angrily.
It wasn't quite the same as working with her Michael; his temper was too close to the surface and it was affecting his ability to… She glanced between him and the rocks lined up on the fence. Maybe with him it was a matter of redirecting that anger, channeling it in the proper direction. "Really?" Maria taunted. She watched him as he bitched about everything under the sun while he stalked around the yard, giving his temper a workout. She pushed the rocks closer together and stepped back, well out of range of exploding rock, and called his name.
"What?"
He was going to have to learn to control his powers with intent instead of by reaction, but if he could successfully do this one time it would give him incentive to continue. "Take everything you're feeling right now, all that anger, hostility, and frustration and turn it on the rock in the middle."
"Don't you think if I could do that, I would've already done it?" he snapped.
Maria took his arm and turned him so that he was facing the fence. "Blow up that middle rock, now!" she yelled, shoving him hard and causing his temper to spike.
Michael's hand shot out, reacting to her pushing and prodding, and his mouth dropped open when the rock in the middle burst into tiny pieces. Holy fuck! He stared at his hand, shocked that it had finally worked right.
"I told you that you could do it!" Maria exclaimed excitedly.
Without knowing how it happened or who initiated it, they found themselves locked in a tight embrace as tongues dueled and teeth clashed and they each fought for control of the kiss. The struggle for domination would've continued but Maria let him take the lead, urging him on as her nails gently scraped against the side of his neck. She let herself get lost in his touch and his taste, but the moment his big hands slid up under her shirt to settle against her bare skin she froze.
Michael swore when she broke the kiss and jerked away from him, putting quite a bit of distance between them. He wiped his right hand over his mouth as he stared at her, enjoying the way her rapid breathing was causing her breasts to push against her shirt. "What'd you stop for? You wanna take it inside?"
"No." How had she let that happen? She hadn't just let it happen, she had encouraged him. "No, this can't go anywhere… it shouldn't have happened."
Okay, that statement made something twist uncomfortably in his chest. "What?" He scowled when she started rubbing her upper arms, as if she were cold. She was acting as if he had just assaulted her! Which was ridiculous, because she had been just as into it as he was; the signals had been there, he knew he hadn't misread them. "What the fuck are you talkin' about?"
"You shouldn't have kissed me!" she shouted. "You had no right! I told you, I will not cheat on – "
"Ihad no right?" he roared, pissed off that she blaming him for something that she had been totally into and had felt pretty fucking good. As if that weren't bad enough she was gonna bring up her dead lover and throw that in his face again. "You weren't exactly pushin' me away and screamin' your favorite goddamned word!" He started to walk up to the house but turned around to glare at her when he reached the steps. "You wanna lie to yourself, I can't stop you, but you wanted that to happen just as much as I did."
"Tell yourself whatever you need to hear if it'll help you sleep better at night," she snapped. "You took advantage of me!" She flinched when the rocks on the fence behind her shattered and she stormed past him and into the house.
Michael grabbed her arm and jerked her around to look at him. "You wanna act all self-righteous, go ahead, but don't accuse me of kissin' you against your will." He shook her roughly. "You've been around me long enough to know that I would've stopped the second you said no… and you didn't say it. I may be the biggest asshole you've ever met, but you know I wouldn't push you into doin' anything against – "
Everything he was saying was true, but she was in no mood to hear it. She shook his arm off and stalked into the house, slamming the door behind her.
"Fine!" he yelled, staring at the door. "Be a bitch about it!" He paced around, kicking every single rock in his path as he muttered to himself. She was gonna pay for this one, he thought, viciously kicking what he thought was a large rock. He frowned when it landed several feet away and he realized it was a turtle and now the damn thing was stuck lying upside down. "Fuck," he muttered, crossing the yard and nudging it over with his boot. The leathery little head poked out and looked around and he wondered if he had just sent the ugly thing back to where it had started from that morning. "Shitty day for you an' me both, pal. S'okay though… she wants to be a bitch… well, retaliation's the biggest bitch out there." Question was, what could he do that would be worthy of her behavior? He smiled slowly as he recalled a conversation he'd had with Indigo several weeks earlier. It would mean breaking one of his rules, but it was for a good cause… and it would only be the one time. He consoled himself with that thought as he hurried inside and grabbed his keys off of the counter.
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Maria checked on the chicken, testing to make sure it was moist before sliding the rack back inside and closing the oven door. She set the table for two, refusing to believe that Michael wouldn't come home after their fight.
He had been gone for hours, but after her reaction to that kiss it wasn't unexpected. She had finally had time to calm down and think rationally about what had happened and she knew it wasn't completely his fault. She hadn't said no and she had been into it… it had felt so good to be held against his body, to feel his demanding mouth on hers, but the moment his hands had touched her skin there had been no way to ignore that he wasn't her Michael.
Their hands were similar, but her Michael's hands were rough and calloused from working manual labor jobs. This Michael had rough hands as well, but they were different; years of handling weapons had created a different pattern of calluses than those that developed from manual labor. That difference had startled her and the realization of what she had been doing with him had scared her and she had attacked him.
Looking at it now she could see that it had simply been a natural reaction under the circumstances. She knew she owed him an apology for overreacting the way she had and that was why she was making one of his favorite meals.