“Dammit!” Max actually stood back as the glass cascaded from the shattered window next to the door. He was just getting ready to enter Michael’s apartment, his temporary home.

Hearing the cussing, Max opened the door to find Michael holding his bleeding hand.

“ What the hell? You want to talk about it?”

Michael just shook his head and turned to go back to his room. Lately he had been spending a lot of time in his room, not sleeping, just staring at the ceiling. His morose attitude was only highlighted by his strange behavior. Michael changed his sheets every day.

Best Max could think of was he was waiting for Maria to come home and when she did, he didn’t want the sheets to be dirty.

“I think you need to talk about this and let me fix your hand.”

Michael just sucked on his bleeding fist and shook his head. No need. What he needed fixing even Max’s alien powers couldn’t reach.

“Michael...”

“Leave it! I said I was alright.”

Max just sighed, closing his eyes he dropped on the sofa and buried his head in his hands. Something had to break soon. Michael. He needed to do something soon. He was a walking time bomb on the verge of a full yield detonation.

“I thought you were okay with this? You told her to make her own decision, not to use you as an excuse for failure. Dammit, Michael, you took her to the airport and put her on the freakin' plane!”

Spite. Pure spite. Pointing out the obvious. Yeah he did it. And when she was afraid and wavered he made her get on the plane and go. Watching the airplane taxi out to the runway he rested his hand on the glass, never noticing the melted handprint that was lost as all the terminal windows blew on his way out of the airport.

Maria. Maria in New York City. Alone. Unprotected and knowing no one. No one except...

Michael didn’t say anything. He went into his room and Max was afraid he was going to go back to watching the ceiling. But the noise and sounds of Michael slamming around sent him the door to watch his friend packing.

“What are you doing?”

“What’s it look like? I’m packing.”

“Okay. Where are you going?”

Michael closed his backpack, blew past Max into the bathroom and tossed some of his bathroom stuff in the outside pocket. In the kitchen he stopped and took out two Diet Peach Snapples. Taking his coat, he shrugged at Max.

“New York City.”

Max quickly grabbed Michael trying to reason with him. “What are you thinking, Michael? What are you going to do?”

Michael just shrugged off his friend’s hand. “I’ll tell you what I won’t do! I’m not going to sit here like some kind of whimpy ass dumped boyfriend leaving that Elvis wannabe musician to think Maria is a free agent!”

“Michael...” Max never finished as the door to the apartment slammed behind him. The roar of the bike sounded as angry as Michael was.

~~~

New York City had found a new citizen. Maria looked around the city and she loved it. It was fast-paced, alive, and the place burned with energy. It was the antithesis of Roswell. Sitting at a table just inside a street café, Maria was drinking coffee and watching the city of New York walk by. She hadn’t seen much because they were keeping her busy. But what she did see, she liked. Sitting there with a pad of paper she had just bought from a paper and card shop Maria decided to make a list. The ‘Maria DeLuca List of Essentials’ of what she had to do while in New York.

Picking up her new pen with an alienhead cap, Maria looked down at the paper. It was stationary with a tiny Roswell alien at the top left corner. Maria ignored whatever whim had made her buy that stationary and pen. She was going to get that list done so she wouldn't forget anything. Absentmindedly looking outside the café’s window, she didn’t see the flashes of color and the hum of activity. All she saw was another desert. A sea of endless empty faces, shadows rushing by like the shadows left of the canyon floor as the clouds raced by. The list. Alex taught her that. A list for everything, and everything on a list.

Dear Spaceboy,

New York City is alive in so many ways that Roswell is not. You can feel the beat of the drum, almost primal and earthy as the very sounds of this city rise and fall like a collective heartbeat. There is so much here, so much more than I have seen, but I will see it before I leave. I know. Leave. It seems like all I think about lately. Leaving you, leaving Roswell, and the way I know that New York City is a city I could live in. So why do I want to leave?

You would love it here. The vastness would remind you of your desert. And your built-in ability to lose yourself into obscurity and hide is almost made for this city. So many people, all so busy with their lives, and the living of it. None of them would notice us, we’d both just be another part of the scenery.

I miss you. I know...you're reading this with your usual unbelieving smirk. How could I be missing you when I kept walking away, kept you at a distance? Need. It is a strange thing, and in some basic way I wanted you to understand. I needed you to understand and actually, a part of me expected you to be the only one who could.

Music was my Antar. It was my quest, and one I had to do alone. When it's about the music, it's about me and it, and nothing else. I need that hush, that quiet, that concentration. Sometimes it has to be just about me. I woke up. Alex was gone, the music stopped and the big alien conspiracy was the killer. I needed to go on and pursue the dream, not just for me, but for Alex. He wasn’t going to dream anymore, ever.

Then there was you. I needed to go and just try. To see if it was just a childish dream or a real possibility. You? You I wanted to keep, but you don’t see that. Roswell has ties to all of us, but for you and the others it's like where you wait. You wait for them to come for you.

Music, it would have been a hum in the back of my head. That elusive dream that was left unrealized. It would have been the same as if when we first met you had given up learning, searching for who you were and where you belonged, just accepting your life in Roswell as all you were ever going to get. Antar would have been that dream in your head, that dream you simply gave up on. Childish dream? Is that what your quest and my music is? Maybe. But we had to have our dreams. Other people have them, so why not us?

I have a dream of you. I wish you were here with me, experiencing it all with me. Without you, it loses something. I know you’d have come, but part of me needed to know. I wanted to know if I could make it on my own, stand strong on my own feet. I love you with so much of me, that sometimes I forget that we are two people and not one. Every relationship needs two strong participants, and for a long time I wasn’t that. On the outside it appeared that I was, but inside? No. I was wanting you to do everything, make all the changes, make my life idyllic and safe, and to make me into something. The sum of our parts is greater than the whole, but I was slipping. I wasn’t pulling my weight.

I woke us this morning and reached for you, and your side of the bed was empty. I guess I will always reach for you, want you near. But this morning I woke and the ache for you felt too real. It was like you were near. I could feel it humming in my blood, that rush I only get around you. So where are you? I can feel you, and I sit here searching every face looking for you. I want…

He watched her from the shadows. Finding her was almost like a dream. In a place this size it would have been easy to stand next to her, and never notice. She looked colorful and alive. The glow of her skin, the breaking enthusiasm was rushing off her in waves. It was the underlying loneliness and unhappiness that actually pulled him in more. That, he could work with.

She stood up and gathered her stuff, putting things into a large shoulder bag. God, she was an incredible beauty! Her eyes and their sparkling green, more alive than anything around her. She was wearing a tight short skirt revealing the most incredible legs he had ever seen. Hands down, her long legs were fantasy material. They could wrap around a man and squeeze tight. He took in everything about her, everything that made men walking past her, stop, and look back. The brilliant blonde hair, the delicate long slim hands, and ultimately her mouth. She had a mouth made for sex.

He so busy working himself up that he missed her crossing the street and by the time he located her, she was almost half a block ahead of him. He hurried to catch her.

Maria startled at the hand on her shoulder. Turning she looked into the golden brown eyes of Michael. Her frightened breath shuddered from her lungs in a deep-felt sigh of relief.

“Michael!” Maria hugged him hard as people went around them. “You scared me!”

“Yeah, what…, um, sorry. I saw yah at the café and tried to get there before yah left, but yah were too quick. Then I gots distracted and yah were already halfway down the block.” Maria continued to hug him tight and his hands went around her, one hand low on her hip. “It must be those long tight bitch legs beggin’ to…”

Maria pulled away confused. “What?”

He recovered quickly. “I said I think it’s your incredibly long legs that let yah eat the distance.”

Maria just smiled slightly. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for yah?” That had to be a great answer.

“Obviously. But what made you follow me to New York?”

Maria watched his face do some strange movements as he searched for a suitable answer. “New York City, home of planes crashing into buildings, muggers, and the highest crime rate of any major city? Yah think I’d be letting my bit.., um, girlfriend, or any friend walk around here? Alone? Unprotected?”

“Technically, I’m no longer your girlfriend, and...”

“Are yah a girl?” Maria nodded. “Are we still friends?” Maria nodded again. “Then the term girlfriend says it all. Don’t yah think?”

Maria just laughed and shook her head. “Right, perhaps, but you know it implies something more.” Maria went suddenly serious. “You know that when we slept together just before I left, I knew you thought it meant that things were better between us, and that we were back together, but...” She stopped him before he could talk. “I’m sorry for what I said, about it not meaning anything. You took it wrong, you know. I meant it didn’t mean that things changed and we were back together. I didn’t mean for you to take it to mean I was just using you for sex. You have to know what it means to me every time we’re together.”

Michael was quiet for a moment, almost like he was trying to decide what to say. Honesty? Maybe? He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Yah can use me anytime yah want. I’d be your bitch.”

Maria stepped back and looked him over. Michael? “Okay, what’s got into you?”

You? He'd have liked it to be her. Right here, right now. “Nothing, just going with the city. Moving with it.”

“Uh huh, so that explains the occasional bad New Yorker accent?”

“Hey! It’s not bad, baby. The real thing. When in Rome...yah know?”

“I suppose. I just never thought of you as a ‘with the flow’ sort of guy. Actually, you aren’t.”

“Maybe I’m tryin' to let up on some of that shit? Maybe I think that if I wasn't such a stick up my ass, Max following retard yah’d never left me. What kind of stupid bitch lets yah get away?”

“Michael, you know that it had nothing to do with you. This music thing, it’s my dream, everything to me. I know that the record deal came as a shock, but I appreciated all the support. I told you I’d be back, and you said you would wait.”

“I did wait. And now I’m here.”

“Three days?”

He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “A lifetime.” But before she could make any comment, he leaned back, and smiled. “So what are ya doing? Sightseeing?”

Maria laughed. “Actually, yeah. I stopped for a coffee and to write out a list.” Maria didn’t mention the letter. He forfeited the right to the letter when he showed up. Now he’d just have to listen to all from her directly.

“So what’s on this list? Museums? Cultured stuff?” Maria laughed at his tone and his expression.

“You know me! FAO Schwartz! MTV live feed, and numerous other places, but no museums.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!”

Maria laughed and let him take her hand dragging her toward a subway stairs. Michael impulsive and carefree was a new version of him she never got to see, ever. Well maybe once or twice, but rarely.

~~~

Maria was exhausted as they headed back to her hotel. It was a nice one and accessible to everywhere. The production company kept a group of rooms on hold, and they were nice. Michael took her up to her room, and she stopped him outside her door.

“You know what I want to do right now?”

“What? Go inside, get comfortable, and see where it leads.”

Maria hit him lightly. “Actually, I need a little downtime. I’m tired. You were great. All those places we went. It’s amazing how good you are at finding your way around the city.”

Michael just shrugged. Street signs. Modern invention. They worked. Add in being able to scan the entire map into his alien brain, and nothing was that hard.

“So we go in and take a nap?” He asked hopefully. Yeah that was his vote. He wanted her in bed, naked, and he’d give her a jimmy load of grade A, alien spunk.

“No.”

Oh shit. Not more togetherness, holding hands and sightseeing...

“I was thinking of a nice long bath,” Now she was talking! “and time for you to go to wherever you’re staying and get cleaned up.”

“Cleaned up?”

Maria popped a button out of its buttonhole. “Yeah. You must have been traveling straight through. You really could use a shower and some fresh clothes. Not that I’m not flattered that you didn’t even stop to rest and clean up before coming to find me.”

“A shower? Right.”

“Yeah. You go, and come back in about four hours, and I’ll order us room service. We can eat and stay in for the night, unless you wanted to check out New York’s nightlife? I don’t have to be back in the studio until two in the afternoon tomorrow.”

“No staying in is good. I’d much rather check out your nightlife.”

Maria laughed at that, and his outrageous behavior. Pulling him down to her, she kissed him gently before going inside. But Michael had other plans. He crowded her to the door, plastered her body to his so she could feel every inch of him. Every inch, and he took her mouth in a long deep kiss.

Maria pulled back from him, her brow creased in confusion.

“What is it?”

Nothing. It was nothing. Maria just shook her head. “Nothing. I think we’ll try to fix it later. You go. And I’ll see you in about four hours.”

Michael nodded and watched her go into her room closing the door behind her. After an entire afternoon of her laughter, impromptu hugs, and the way she liked to share things with him, that frown was out of place. He couldn’t worry about that right now. He needed to find a place to get a bath and some clean clothes. After investing an afternoon with that sweet bitch, he was looking for some major piece of ass.

Spying a man coming out of the elevator, about his size and not too old, young thirties, he followed him. He waited a moment for the man to get in his room, all settled, and then he popped the lock. And as quickly as he entered, he put the real inhabitant to sleep for a long time. Looking around at the digs, he laughed. Not too shabby. Nice upscale place. Michael quickly morphed back into his original form - Rath.

Bath? Hell, for some major trim, he was willing to swim in the river. And this trim didn’t look all diseased and skanky. He didn’t know women who looked like Maria, smelt like her. Takin' a bath for a chick seemed a bit much, but Rath just assumed that normal chicks were harder to get flat on their back with legs spread. Lonnie was easy. Yah just had to wiggle your tongue at her or shake your dick. But this honey looked about a hundred classes above that.

He remembered when he first saw her in Roswell. He was all but ready to bay at the moon and make some major moves, but his dupe, the Commander didn’t look like he handled anyone moving in on his territory, so Rath had backed off. It also amused him making moves on the King’s bitch. The little brown piece. She looked like she had no experience with real alien loving, and after meeting the buttoned-down uptight King Max, he could believe it. The two dripped of uptight straight missionary sex, panting like puppies in heat to put it away in three minutes and talk about ‘their relationship.’

Rath figured that little girl could use some major Rath mojo to take some of the starch out of her standard white panties, and maybe take the straight out of more than her hair. Straight-laced goody two-shoes were his favorite target. Once they had the Rathman, they were spoiled for anyone else. Ever.

But now that Maria honey, she had that look in her eyes. A mouth made to be used for sex, and those hands and legs were enough to put him on his knees barking at her feet. It looked like she and the Commander was more than just groping buddies. She looked like she understood the word ‘wild’ being more than the over-using of black makeup on her eyes and exposing her midriff. He had every intention of driving the great Commander’s bitch around the block a few times, and then back again just to understand 'wild'.

Rath picked up the phone and room service. He had time to kill. Might as well kick it back, have some service and maybe watch some TV. Kicking the unconscious man over, he took out his wallet, and read his name, removed his credit cards and cash and tossed the empty billfold on the man. Ordering food, he quickly hung up, and scanned the list of other services. The boutique downstairs was a thought. Calling through, he told them what he wanted. The size was tiny, something in the neighborhood of a size two or less. The Commander’s bitch was tiny as hell, had to be just as tight, and she was going to look good in what he was buying her.

“Is there anything else, Mr. Connors?”

“Naw just charge it to my room. Have it wrapped and delivered within the hour, and yah can put a nice tip on the bill for yah.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Rath just smiled and hung up. Yeah he was a natural living how the other half lived. He thought about Lonnie for a second, and then just sneered. She was probably in the sewer with that little pipsqueak in between her legs. She was trying to convince Nicholas to get her home to Antar and Kivar. Bitch dumped his ass, and had every intention deserting him on this wasteland. She wouldn’t even spread it for him anymore because he didn’t have anything she wanted. She was saving herself for Kivar, her true love. Rath just snorted. What the fuck was that? There was sex or not. Not much else out there.

~~~

Maria was barely through with her shower when the knock came on the door. Closing her dressing gown she went to look to see who it was. Michael? It had to have been no more than an hour.

“Michael?”

He looked uncertain and shifted on his feet. “I know I should have called first, but I couldn’t wait to see you.”

Maria smiled and pulled him into her room. He had changed and his smell was so much better. Less like he had rolled in a dumpster or slept in a sewer. His impatience was flattering, and after all the attention he showed her, all the support...

“That’s okay. I just glad you’re here.”

“Really?” Michael looked skeptical. He had expected many reactions from her when she saw him, but this one wasn’t one of them. She looked ready to eat him alive.

“I’ve missed you. Really missed you. I should just let you shower here.”

Michael tossed his backpack on the ground next to the door.

“I already had one.”

Maria smiled. “I can tell. You smell great.”

Michael shrugged. After he found out where she was staying from the studio, he quickly found the YMCA, took a shower and changed his clothes. The manager let him house his bike there. It was safer parked than him riding it all over Manhattan. He had just spent three days on the road on his bike, and New York City traffic was unreal. He had smelt as bad as he looked. Anger and fear got him half the way to New York, and the desire to see Maria got him the rest of the way.

She seemed happy to see him. Guess she was right. New York was a good move for her. Here she seemed relaxed, happy, and more willing to cut him some slack. It wasn’t the reaction he was expecting.

Maria went from holding him tight to kissing him. No just a friendly kiss, but a real one. One that he felt all the way down to his toes. She was in his mind the ultimate kisser - the standard that others couldn’t make. Something was off about this, but even he wasn’t that much a fool to look a gift horse in the mouth. All he wanted was there in his arms.

She was moving him back into the room, towards the bed. Michael pushed the dressing gown from her shoulders and moaned when it dropped to reveal a very naked Maria, her body still warm and pink from her shower. He couldn’t stop himself from moving the slightly damp hair from her shoulder to expose the skin of her neck. Moving his mouth over her, he felt her hands removing his clothes.

“Maria, this isn’t just a feel good sex thing is it?

Maria looked at him, “Does it matter?”

Michael thought about it for a moment, and then moaned, “I don’t care why.”

Maria chuckled under her breath. “Absolutely?”

“Absolutely.”

Maria gave him a break. Taking his head in her hands she looked in his eyes and then kissed him with a growing wildness letting him see into her, how much she loved and wanted him. “It always means something, from every touch to just a glance. It always has.”

Michael hit the bed hard when she pushed him down, her body following his, and he was suddenly devoid of his pants. Her comments on his commando state were interesting and actually funny.

“Okay, just checking.” Sex with Maria was good in any form. Makeup sex was definitely the best, but he could handle happy sex as well. It was all good.

Maria leaned over him trapping him between her arms that pinned him to the bed. “Lately you’ve been the perfect boyfriend. Concerned and worried, unhappy with things, but still you took me to the airport.”

“Boyfriend? Is that what I am?” Michael held his breath waiting.

Maria laughed. “Are you a boy?” Michael nodded. “Are you my friend?” Michael nodded again. “Then the term says it all.”

“Maria...”

Suddenly she went serious. “I don’t like kissing you and feeling nothing. A void. Like you’re a stranger to me. I like feeling you, knowing you, and I can’t believe that our connection would ever become so strained that I couldn’t feel you, feel me in you. I hate that.” Michael was quiet. He didn’t know what to say. Was she keeping him at a distance because he shut the door on her again mentally, didn’t let her in to see how much he missed and loved her?

“Maria, I never meant to shut that door again. I must have done it to protect myself.”

“No! It’s fine now. Here you are. I can kiss you and touch you and you feel like Michael to me. You’re not closed right now. I can read you just fine.”

Michael blew out some air. Good. He was having a hard enough time getting her to come back, he didn’t want to sabotage his chances which in truth looked real good right now. Unbelievable.

“You can’t know what this means that you’re supporting me on this whole music thing. Don’t think I don’t know how hard it is, or the cost. It was how I felt when I supported you over finding yourself and your past. Knowing you would one day leave for Antar was killing me, but I’d rather have you for one night, than a lifetime of never touching you.”

“Maria.” Michael looked at her, and she was serious. His search for Antar had been a lonely quest for him. One he should have made with Max and Isabel, but they were happy in their lives. It took finding and loving Maria before he understood how easily he could let that dream go. But she was right. She didn’t try to stop him, and all those times he pushed her away for his quest, she never stopped supporting him. The decision to come home to her was his and his alone. No blackmail on her part. It was all done by him. He owed her the same consideration..

“I wanted you here. But I didn’t want to ask or demand. I just needed to do this, concentrate on this, and then find a compromise between your life and mine. If I let you in from the beginning, I’d have given in to the first alien conspiracy, the first time it came a push between my life and your life. I just wanted to establish myself, find my place, and then find you again so we could merge the two and create our life. And now you came! I love you so much, with so much inside me.”

Michael rested against her. She always found ways to make it alright, to soothe the pain. As long as they were back together, he would do whatever it took to work things out. He couldn’t lose her again.

Michael shut his eyes and breathed easy for the first time in months. Max was wrong. Coming to New York was the best move he ever made.

Opening his eyes, he met Maria’s glance. And there was so much gentleness and love in it. It was why he couldn’t accept her walking away. She still looked at him with love even when he pissed her off or pushed too hard. It was there.

God damn. She was so damn gorgeous! Small and tight with muscular thighs. Nice, tight ass. Oh God...Michael gulped. She had a totally worship-worthy ass. She was so small that he could cup her entire ass in his one large hand. Lust. There had to be a lot of lust in love, because he couldn’t imagine one without the other being very fulfilling in the long run. She had ruined him for anyone else. All he could see was her, want her, and after years later it was still true. It was strange that he was supposed to have once been engaged to Isabel, and all these years he felt nothing like that towards her. God knew if he did, she would have known it. He wasn’t a very subtle man. And he didn’t like denying himself anything. So Maria once again was the standard no one could meet in his mind.

She always looked so small and delicate, but there was a strength to her body, a touch of iron. You could see it in the lines of her back, the movement of thin strong muscles under her silky pale skin. She didn’t just take it. She gave it back with some much passion it was a shock to think it could reside in that small frame.

Maria leaned her head in against him just over his heart, and listened to its rapid, reassuring beat. It was keeping time to some music that always seemed to exist between them. She rested her palm flat against his broad chest and couldn't help herself. She let loose with a contented little sigh.

"What?" He rumbled softly.

"I can hear your heart," she whispered.

"I expect you can."

"Michael, I used to sleep to the sound of it. And I felt safe and in tune with you. It’s been a long time, feels like an eternity.

It was always too easy to get lost in the sensation of his large hands roaming softly over her back and the soothing feel of him. He said he didn’t do intense, but that was a lie and they both knew it. He was very intense. And the sadness they felt from being estranged quickly rushed away, replaced by something else. Desire. It's not like it hadn't been here all the time, but now it was really making its presence known.

Michael watched the movement of red up her cheeks as she looked down at him from her loftier position above him. No, this wasn’t embarrassment. This was arousal. He felt so good for the first time in a long while. Narrowing his eyes, he watched as she rubbed his chest reveling in his hard, strong body.

Maria tilted her head to look into his dark, brown eyes and she could see the desire she felt mirrored there. And they were kissing. He might have meant for it to be chaste but they were both too far past that now. His lips opened and hers followed suit as their tongues stretched to taste one another. It was like she was sinking...drowning in him and it felt so good

She always made him feel more. Like he was everything. He told her so in her ear.

"It feels good to have it inflated doesn't it? Your ego I mean..." she looks up with a wicked little grin on her face.

"Yeah, my ego..." Michael grinned back at her. And then they were kissing again. This time it was hot. Searching. Their tongues danced, tasting. Oh God. To him, she...tasted like honey. Sweet, sweet, so sweet....,but there was an added something, a tinge of fire and spice, almost like a cinnamon. Sweet and spicy as hell. Michael took her head in his hands and deepened the kiss again. She let one hand trail down over his chest. Down his stomach. Lower. Oh Jesus... She touched him with experienced hands. She was stroking him, and Michael was practically swallowing her now. Moaning. Christ. He was shocked to hear himself moaning for her.

"Maria...I..."

"Shhh." she hushed him, bringing the finger that has been tracing fire on his flesh up to his lips. Michael met her eyes and then his eyes slipped south. He knew he was gaping at her tits. God, he loved them! They were exquisite. Perfect for her frame. They were firm. Wonderfully firm and high...her nipples were erect already with her arousal. She was flushing as well.

Michael was touching her breasts and he knew she would be out of control soon, all over him. It was one of her biggest trigger points. He knew she would be so soft, so warm. So...vibrantly alive. He ran his finger over her left nipple, slowly, erotically. He tenderly repeated the motion on her other nipple.

"Oh God...." she whispered.

"You're beautiful," he whispered back. Somehow he often forgot to tell her those things. He took a lot for granted at times, but after all those months without her, he didn’t want to take a chance again.

She moved her hand up and placed it over his as he kneaded her flesh, tweaking her nipple between his fingers.

"You have gorgeous hands, Michael. They...they're so warm and strong."

He moved his hand from her nipple and brought it with his other hand up onto her shoulders drawing her to him. They kissed again. His erection pressed against her, tipped up, and rubbed against her stomach. This time both of them were moaning before they broke the kiss.

"I'd better find a condom," Michael suggest raggedly, looking down into her eyes. They were luminous. Dark green, almost black with emotion. They glowed deep down with her heat. It wouldn’t be the first time he felt himself getting lost in those eyes. He could forget all about the alien thing, the break-up, Roswell, and all about being Michael Guerin, whatever that meant. He wanted to lose himself. He needed to do it. To lose himself in her.

"I’m still on the pill," she breathed out slowly. Maria could be practical at times. In the past few months since they broke up, they kept finding themselves in bed together. Christmas eve was one of those times. She had kept telling herself that she was just going to spend time with him, drink some hot chocolate, and make sure he wasn’t alone on that night. Good intentions went to hell when he gave her a Christmas present. Unable to let him think she didn’t think of him, she took him into the house to give him his from her. So what started out as an innocent gesture of hot chocolate and a thank you kiss, quickly became hours of passionate lovemaking in her bed, listening for Amy coming home from a party. It was strange that they spent more time in bed and together when they were apart than they did when they were together.

Michael looked down her nude body. With the soft, mellow light from the bedside table muted and low, he realized an earlier fantasy of what she would look like in firelight. She would look fey, but angelic as well. He let himself look in her eyes, and then slowly down taking in every inch of her trim, perfectly formed petite body, his eyes finally settled on that spot between her legs. On the soft, downy patch of light blondish, curly hair that lay at the apex of her thighs, and the strong lean thighs that he knew so well. He gazed, his eyes hooded, and he couldn't help it. God. He licked his lips.

"I won't hurt you..." He managed to get the words out. He was just going to toss her a little, and make love to her for a long time.

"I know. I trust you. It' s just that...no one's told me how beautiful I look in a long time. I...it's a little hard for me to..."

"Let me show you how beautiful I think you are...." His voice was rough. But God, she was able to make him so fucking hot for her! Michael pushed her over onto the bed and went up on his knees before her, between those legs. He wanted to worship her now. Worship her flesh. Worship her body and her soul.

"Oh Lord..." she gasped as he trailed his mouth over her breasts. and sucked and nipped at each nipple in turn, concentrating on the right one as that seemed to be the most sensitive. He could feel the tiny nub swelling, straining even more taut as Maria started to rub against his face. Her hands played in his hair. The sensation was so tantalizing he groaned when she stopped to hold his head still against her soft skin.

"God, Michael. It’s not just your hands, it’s your mouth too...OH GOD!"

She moaned loudly as Michael took more of her heavy flesh into his mouth and sucked like a baby at his mother's breast. She was the only sense of real nurturing he had ever had in his life. He didn’t want to lose her, ever.

She was holding his head tight against her body and making small noises in her throat. Michael released her breasts and hugged her to him, letting his hands play over her ass as he began to work his mouth down over her stomach and lower until he was kissing into the soft fluff between her legs.

"God, Michael...I can't...."

“Am I going too fast?”

Maria laughed in self appreciation. “No, you’re fine as always, I’m just feeling weak in the knees.”

Michael moved back up her body. “Then it’s a good thing you're flat on your back. No chance of you losing your balance.”

“Umm, always thinking of me.” Michael went quiet. She didn’t know the half of it.

Michael seemed lost in thought so Maria pinched him to get his attention back.

"Christ!" He jerked up hitting his head on the edge of the bed frame above him. She had pinched his ass. Hard.

"Oh God, I'm sorry, Michael. But I...I couldn't resist. Did you forget something? You were lost in thought."

"Yeah. And I found the bed frame too."

"Oh poor baby. Come back up here. I'll kiss it and make it better."

"Now that's more like it," he growled again. He had stood up after she pinched him and she was sitting on the edge of the bed rocking because she was laughing so hard. Michael lunged forward and she squealed a little. Then they were in each other's arms. Michael barely had enough time to enjoy how much fun he always had with her before they fell back together on the bed, entwined, laughing and gasping. He had managed to accidentally stick his elbow in her ear, and then they were laughing even harder. When they were first together they had spent a lot of time just messing around in bed, laughing and talking, but when Max moved in that changed. So many things changed. The honeymoon had been over, and he could barely find the time to be alone with her. So this was like a return to better times. Soon they found each other's mouth again and then they were quiet except for their combined heavy breathing and some nearly breathless whimpers.

They ended up side by side again. Michael broke the kiss and whispered in her ear. "Tell me what you want Maria...anything."

He liked the darkening of her green eyes, the ignition of a flame deep inside. But it was more than that. He felt like he was devouring her with his eyes like a starving man. He was openly admiring her body and paying strict attention to the places that make her respond. He wanted her hot, hotter for him, more than anyone else in her life. He loved the way he could make her shake like a leaf with desire for him.

Michael smiled. That was a look he recognized on Maria’s face. Her brain was on overload, overwhelmed by him. He watched as she processed what she wanted to do to him. He could practically read her mind. She wanted to run her hands over his chest and scratch his beautiful nipples. Maria wanted to suck on his Adam's Apple and run her tongue around his navel, the head of his...She just want to touch and kiss him all over, to just cover him with her hands...Suddenly, she knew how to answer him.

"Can you touch me all over, Michael? I...I love the feel of your hands on me."

Michael just smiled. That was totally doable.

"And don't forget...your exquisite mouth..." she giggled as he nipped the sensitive flat muscles of her stomach.

"I really have to thank the people who set you up in this nice place if I ever meet them," Michael grinned as he began to kiss the hollow of her throat. It had been so long since they were alone, just to be together.

Normally, they weren’t big on talking, but being apart for what felt like forever made it hard not to. It was like they had so much ground to cover, and the last time they were together it was too intense for discussion, and that was why they misunderstood what was going on. They couldn't risk that kind of miscommunication again. But suddenly they didn't talk at all that much as Michael. began to stroke and massage her body following his hands with his mouth. He worked over each breast in turn, lavishing a lot of attention there because she really enjoyed having her tits suckled. Her hands played in his hair again for the second time that evening, and Michael groaned at the slight pull. The bite was delicious. Big time. Oh yeah.

Finally he worked his way down her stomach kissing her belly button as he moved along. Her breathing was heavy now and coming in gasps, as he reached that spot between her legs where he stopped last time. Oral sex. They had engaged in it long before they ever went all the way. He used to think that getting her to go down on him was the greatest of his aspirations, until he discovered how much he enjoyed doing her. Everything about it. Having her vulnerable under his hands and mouth, the sounds she made, and how good it was to see her head tossed back in abandon. He did that to her. He liked it.

She spread her legs apart slightly to give him better access and then he began to go down on her. His first efforts on her clit brought her off the bed.

"Michael..." she gasped.

"Are you all right?" He murmured against her, "I can stop..."

"Lord, don't stop," she laughed moving her hips up to meet his face.

"It's good?"

"God, yes..." Oh God. When the hell did he get so damn chatty? Living with Max was ruining him.

Michael smiled around her and got back to work. Oh yeah, it should be good. One thing he knew how to do was give great head. Not bragging. Maria was honest in all her responses. So, he had proof. This was something he excelled at, and something he enjoyed to no end.

Maria was writhing under his mouth. Michael’s tongue exploring inside her now, and she was so hot and wet he almost couldn’t contain his own desire to replace his tongue with his cock. But Michael held himself back. He really wanted to give her this first. This pleasure. And it wasn’t only her pleasure. Part of the turn-on he got in bed was seeing her come. He wanted her to come first. It would get him really worked up. Harder. It would get him ready to really pump hard and long into her.

She was twisting and bucking under his mouth as he laved her. He placed his hands on her hips lightly so she could still move, but firmly enough so he could feel her muscles, her movements against him. God, he loved the feel of his woman moving under his hands and mouth like this. It was....Jesus.

"Michael....harder...I just....Oh, God!"

He knew she was close. He could feel her tensing under his mouth, but she was telling him she needed more. No problem. He levered up and she moaned a little when his mouth left her body. Michael moved to her side and brought his hand down over her now, rubbing her clit with his finger.

"Ok?" He asked quietly.

She shut her eyes and bit her lip in concentration. She had her whole mind focused on his hand and the center of her body at that moment. Michael swore under his breath and felt the running of sweat off his body as he felt the strain of holding himself in check. She looked so beautiful. He picked up the pace with his finger.

"Yessss," she hissed.

On of her hands came up and over his. She opened her eyes and looked into his golden ones.

"This is so good," she whispered.

"Oh babe..."

She was beyond words then, shutting her eyes once more and Michael was almost beyond thought himself She knew how much he loved to watch, and .she was working a finger into herself then beside his. Rotating her hips, driving herself faster, harder to bring herself off. He knew she wanted penetration but she couldn’t verbalize the request. He did manage to find the words as he gently moved her hand aside and work three fingers into her.

"Let me do the work...."

"Ohhhh...." she gasped. He could tell it wasn’t from pain though. She was gonna come. He pumped his fingers into her in long, hard thrusts. She started to tense up, her entire body arching.

"Michaeeeel!" she stuttered.

"Do it. Come on..." He moaned. He was going to orgasm just from watching her. It was unfair how much she could affect him. She went completely rigid against him and then her breath came out in a low groan and she started to spasm over his fingers clamping down on them like a vice. Oh God! What would this feel like later, he thought as she threw her hips against his hand!

"So good, you feel so good, Maria. Beautiful. So..." He couldn't say any more because the sight of her body, sheened in sweat and exquisitely flushed really made him speechless. As her spasms started to subside he drew her close and held her, trembling, against him. Michael kissed her hair and felt her lips kissing his chest. She stroked his arm and she was murmuring something...

"What about you?"

"I can wait. Get your breath. This is far from over."

"But, God, you must be...you're so...this is incredible."

She trailed her hands over the length of his erection. Michael shut his eyes, concentrating on control again. Once you get to a certain age men are supposed to develop good control. But that wasn’t Michael. He wasn’t there yet. He often found himself walking a real steep edge. Sometimes just to keep from losing it immediately, he liked to come first, so he wasn’t so short fused and could push her into a frenzy numerous times, numerous ways.. The benefits of youth and hormones, he could hold an erection all night long. He could keep it up for a long time.

"You got me that way,"

"Well, I think Mother Nature might have had a little something to do with it. But I'll take the compliment."

She continued to stroke his cock. God, she had such a delicate sensuous touch! Sometimes he liked her to really crank him hard from the get-go. But not all the time. He also loved this teasing stroke. It made him tremble all over before long. It was something he could lie back and let her do for him as long as she liked and not come too. It was almost like torture. But it was a blissful torture.

"Do you like this?" she asked as she circles the head of his cock with one finger. And slid her hand down over him hitting the sensitive spot she knew all too well.

"Oh yeah..." He hissed.

"Tell me what you want, Michael. I want to do what you like too. I think I must owe you one great orgasm. So what will it be?"

"This is good," he moaned. Maria pulled back to let him lie down flat. She shifted to his side and propped herself up on an elbow so she could continue her gentle touch on his shaft. She hefted his balls up for a gentle caress as well. She moved them around a bit in the sac. Smiling at the feel of him responding as they drew up tighter to his body.

She laughed and patted his balls gently before she went back to stroking his cock in her educated hand. It was like she was testing the length and width and weight of him. Measuring almost. Wondering if she could handle his full size tonight. They always found it was more uncomfortable for her after a short dry spell, but when they were more active, she seemed better able to handle him. They were coming off a long dry spell.

Maria knew him too well. Basically she realized that whatever he loved to do to her in bed was basically what he liked done to him. So his chest, and specifically his nipples were total erotic zones for him. Keeping her hand on his shaft, applying pressures, but not enough to bring him off, just torturing him a little, she took his nipple in her mouth. He liked it rough. He loved her to suck on his skin, and the feel of it against the rough of her palate. He gasped and his hips bucked pushing him deeper and harder into her hand.

"Maria," he gasp out his breath huffing in his chest, "How do you want..."

"Just like this..." she purred and she took his cock in one firm hand, quickly straddled him and took him with one thrust of her hips.

"OHFUCK!" Michael gasped loudly. Jesus God that felt...Muther-fuck. He laid there stunned for a moment from the surprise of her engulfing him completely. His balls were trapped up against her thigh. They were in kind of an uncomfortable position. One of her legs was pinned under him slightly. He shifted her over carefully so she was under him, and Michael took his weight on his forearms. She brought her knees up high and spread her legs.

"You ok?" he breathed out.

"Oh yeah.," she smiled up into his eyes loving the darkened whiskey color.

"Alright," Michael moaned and he was already gone. That's all she wrote. He pulled out and back. Then he thrust forward. Michael liked a nice long thrust, not too fast or hard at first. He wanted to feel all of Maria along his whole length. It was...He couldn't even say. The words escaped him.

"God, that's good," she moaned. She ran her hands down his back and over his ass encouraging him by kneading his muscles. She murmured in his ear, telling him to do it, fuck her, fuck her now, and fuck her hard. Michael loved dirty talk. The more graphic the better, but only during sex. Somehow at other times it was crude. Maria loved the way he shouted, called her his bitch, and demanded of her during sex. This made sex almost an impossibility after Max came to stay with Michael. Michael wasn’t the type of man to let other people, especially his friends, know his kinks or detail his sexual encounters. He felt it was disrespectful to his partner. But she knew. She knew every dirty little thing he liked and loved. Maybe it reached a part of him from the old life, or it was just a freer way of expression, but she never took it wrong. She liked it, liked how it affected him.

He started to pump into her and she brought her hips up to meet his as he thrust hard against her. Before long they established a rhythm, an age old erotic dance for two. Neither one of them could talk any longer, but words weren't necessary. All that was needed was skin against skin, heat, pressure and sweat.

Michael could tell she really liked his size. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tilted up so she could get all of him as deep as possible. He took that as a signal to pick up the pace to give her what she wanted. She slapped his back lightly, moaning and Michael drove into her in hard long strokes making her scream.

"S'good. Hard. I...Oh God..." she hissed. The sound of Michael was really grunting against her now. Straining and riding as hard as he could, loving the feel of her gripping him hard inside, not letting up, but added pressure almost like a suction. He wanted to come. Jesus H. Christ, he was gonna come! The pressure in his groin was building and building, reaching for a climax. He wanted to reach between them to bring her off, but he knew he couldn't. This was the other reason he liked to bring her off first. When he got to the point of no return he became lost in the moment. Just the buildup to orgasm made him go fucking blind. When he came, he came hard and long, almost breaking her under him. He ceased to be aware of his surroundings for almost an hour as the orgasm washed over him. He couldn’t guarantee her a climax when he was so far gone, so he always made sure she was amply taken care off beforehand. Most of the time the benefit was two screaming orgasms in a row. Sometimes she had to climax by penetration and friction alone.

"Keep moving. God..." He gasped into her neck. She moved her legs up farther and gripped him in a backbreaking hold, and that was all it took. He could feel his balls starting to tighten further and he knew he was at the end. Michael growled in his throat with the anticipation of release.

Maria groaned loudly and God...she was gripping his cock hard enough to make him scream. So good. He knew she'd come for him...Lord, he knew she'd be so...hot...tight....so fucking..."

"Mariaaaa...Jesus...." He grinded out both names almost simultaneously and then the air seems to implode all around him. The rushing in his ears drove what little mind he had left out of his skull. Light. White light behind his eyes. Blind. Deaf. He threw his head back and opened his mouth. There was no sound. No sound. Just a silent scream as the orgasm almost took off the top of his head. His muscles tightened all over his body and Michael thrust mindlessly, spastically again and again into his lover's sweet, tight hot body. Maria gripped his ass, screaming out her own mindless keen of pleasure, helping to drive him deep as he shot into her, deep, washing her channel with his release.

Finally he had sound again and it was a roar.

"Bitch! My bitch." Michael howled as they collapsed together into each other's arms.

It was a long time before it subsided, and Michael heard a woman's voice. Who? Maria...

"Michael, are you alright? Michael?"

Christ Jesus! He had to be crushing her. This felt like a record orgasm for him.

He had blacked out for a couple of moments of time. Like previously mentioned, when he came, he came hard.

"S'ok. S'ok, Maria," Michael hastened to reassure her. Shifting them over slightly so his weight was off her. God their bodies were hot, flushed, bathed in sweat. They were both still out of breath but they looked at each other and smiled. Michael leaned forward and kissed her deeply, pulling her close to maintain their connection for as long as he could. He could taste the tang of salt on her lips. She was still trembling with the last of her climax and it felt fantastic to feel her around him. Michael was still gasping from the effort of making love to her. But he didn’t mind in the least. Hell. He was in so many kinds of good.

"God..." she whispered against his salty sweaty skin of his throat.

"You alright?" Michael asked again, stroking her face.

"More than alright," she smiled at him. Her breathing was starting to come back to normal and she wiggled against him a little. God. How in the hell could he have called Maria a...

"Sorry..." Michael grin sheepishly, "Sorry about that last...about...the language.."

He knew he had called her a bitch. He...he said things when...well he didn't know what he said most of the time. Or didn't remember it. But crap, he did remember that...God, crass, so crass...

"It's ok. You’ve said more than that in the past. My favorite was I think, ‘Take me, my slut...take all of me, you beautiful green-eyed bitch...’" she grinned at him.

"No kidding..."

"So...no offense taken, Michael. I actually love you in this more earthy version."

"Ok, well, I'm sorry about crushing...I mean falling on you like I did too."

"I have to admit you were a little heavy," she giggled, "I'll have to remember to try this on top next time if you're going to pass out on me. You'll already be flat on your back."

Michael chuckled, "I think we started that way, but something happened. Yeah I guess that might be a plan.”

She smiled again and leaned forward to kiss his forehead. Michael’s breathing was starting to return to normal a little. He stroked her hip and then down her thigh.

"You were wonderful, passing out or not," she said as his fingers moved back inside her testing her wetness. And too fast for her to really comprehend, she was flipped to be on top of him and all she knew was the feel of his cock slipping inside, being pulled by her tight walls. He was ready to go again.

It felt like hours later that they were lying in bed eating the food room service brought them. Maria was wearing nothing. And they talked as she told him about the studio work, and how they had her singing cover songs, along other songs that weren’t hers. Michael listened carefully and asked her questions about how she liked it. She hated it. It was never about being rich and famous. She didn’t want to be another Britney Spears. She just wanted to write and perform her own music. Selling out was sitting hard on her. Michael could understand that. She didn’t compromise with things that were important to her. That was what she tried to tell him in Roswell when she first had doubts, but he goaded her to leave, to take a chance because his pride couldn’t take having her choose him as a second best thing.

It was like their relationship. He knew that he could bind her to him with sex. There weren’t that many men out there who could give her an hour-long orgasm or bring her off so completely with a special joining. But Maria refused to be blackmailed by her own body’s needs. She walked away even though she knew that he wasn’t going to be replaceable. Her music meant that much to her.

“What happened to your hand?” Maria asked seeing his cuts.

“Accident.” He was surprised when she picked it up and kissed it.

“Heal it.”

Michael shook his head. “I can’t. My powers go on the fritz when I’m emotional.”

Maria looked at him and said it again. “Heal it.” So Michael did. And it worked. Control. Her belief in him gave him control.

It felt good. Like they were really connecting for the first time in forever. He couldn’t figure out why she was so receptive to him when he arrived. He expected her to angry at him. But she wasn’t and then Michael did the one thing he shouldn’t have.

“So, have you seen Billy?”

The sudden stillness spoke more than words. Michael wanted to pull them back, but they already passed his jealous lips. You’d think after having his brains fucked out more than once by her, that he’d know that she wasn’t seeing anyone else. But he couldn’t help what slipped from his mouth.

“That’s what this is about?”

“What?” Michael was confused.

“You, me, and New York?” Maria got out of the bed in a huff. “This isn’t about me and my music, and you wanting to put my life first for a change. This is all about your out-of-whack jealousy!”

“Jealous? Who’s jealous? I have a right to be cautious of Billy. It was soon after you kissed him that you were dumping me!”

“I didn’t dump you because of the kiss, and you know that!” Maria’s eyes narrowed. “How did you know about that kiss anyway? I never told you.”

“You didn’t have to. We’ve slept together after that, remember? Flashes. I saw them, and I felt them.”

“Then you should know! You should know how little it meant to me, and you should know that I never kissed him again, even though he was willing. Can I even say the same about you and Courtney? How far would you’ve gone if you hadn’t found out she was a Skin? How far would the alien voodoo vibes have driven you?”

“I never told you about that!” Michael had been careful to neglect mentioning the second kiss. The first one was bad enough, but for the second one he had no excuse such as investigating. It happened and he wasn’t sure why. It just did. She called to him. Dammit. Michael stopped. Perhaps much like Billy, the Elvis wanna-be called to Maria, reminding her of her youth, and of her dreams.

“Flashes, buddy!”

He hated it when he had to give her slack because she wasn’t doing anything he hadn’t done himself, time and again. Somehow he just felt that being the perfect boyfriend would have insulated him from it. But it didn’t because she was right again. It wasn’t about him. It was all about her.

“Get out!”

“What?” Michael came out of his musing to find she had hustled together all his clothes and stuff and was kicking him out of her room.

“Get OUT!” Her scream was ear shattering, and Michael hurried to comply as she tossed his shit and him out slamming the door hard. Michael stood stunned at how bad that went so quickly. Now that was the initial reaction he had expected. Leave it to Maria to disarm him with happiness and great sex before lowering the boom on him. He stood there gathering his clothes and backpack in the buff. Quickly he went into the stairway to replace his clothes before a neighbor looked out and spied his naked ass. Women! Or specifically one woman. Was he ever going to figure her out?

Rath opened the door down the hall in anger. What the fuck was wrong with some people? He paid good money for these accommodations, and he had to listen to a husband and wife catfight? Hell, he might as well have stayed in the sewer. The fucking rats were quieter.

He needed to concentrate on getting clean and dressed. He had been watching TV and eating whipped cream straight from a can. Losing track of time, he was already late for his date with his bitch. He could already see her going down on his newly cleaned nob, polishing it with her glistening spit. Oh yeah! Rath quickly got himself together, altered his appearance to look more like his dupe and grew out his hair. Michael had told him he was growing out his hair when he last saw him. It was at a difficult stage back then, but now it had to be longer.

Half an hour later, taking the present, he knocked on Maria’s door with a large cheesy smile on his face and holding the present. Maria opened the door and took one look at him.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding!” She slammed the door in his face!

“What the fuck! Hey baby, I’m here all clean and ready for loving.” No answer. Rath was confused. Sure he knew normal chicks were harder, but dammit, he took a bath!

~~~

Lonnie looked up when Rath entered their place. Making a face she went back to her reading. Rath wondered around restless. It took a little while before Lonnie gave in and asked him.

“Whatsa wrong with yar ass?”

Rath just shrugged.

“Still sulking over me? Yeah, sure yah are. Yah’re a worthless fuck who had it good ta long, and now yah doing without.”

“I get plenty,” he said angrily. “I’ve just gots problems. Problems yah wouldn’t understand.”

Lonnie almost laughed until she noticed that Rath was clean. Actually more than just a quick dip in a broken underground water main. He actually smelt nice too.

“Yah goin' all Ward Cleaver on me, or what? Gonna to invest in some button-downed sweater vest?”

“Shut up or I’ll shut yah up!”

“Ohhhhh! Big talk! I ain’t afraid of yah!

Rath just laughed in derision. “What? That little troll yah keep next to yah by spreading yar legs and letting him suck on yar fat nasty clit going to….what? Sneak out and bite my kneecaps off?

“Yah don’t know shit! He’s going to get me back with Kivar. He’ll come for me. Yah’re so fucking stupid yah couldn’t realize that the whole ‘betrothal’ thing was our family. Not us. I hated yar worthless ass back then as much as I hate yah now! Yah were my butt boy, and nothing else. Yah were as easy to rule by yah dick back then as yah are now. So full of yah’self importance, that yah couldn’t even figure out I was fucking everyone but yah!”

Rath reached over and slapped her hard and across the room. “Yah’re a slut, and not a very good one. All yah’ve got is the looks, the ability to make yahrself appear sexual, but yah suck. Yah’re so frigid that a man’s dick could snap off trying to load yar jimmy with life.”

“So what happened Rathy? Some human bitch realized that yah ran a flea colony in yar pubic hair and they are trying to avoid yah like a plague?”

Rath’s eyes narrowed in anger, but then he stopped and smiled a real nasty smile. “No, actually it’s the Commander’s bitch. That Maria chick from Roswell.” Rath went closer to Lonnie like he was picking up things to take with him. “Yo, I’m heading back to the hotel now. She gots a recording contract. She’s gonna to be someone. She’s beautiful and brilliant. And she’s clean, something worth showering for. No wonder the Commander didn’t get involved with yar dupe, Vilandra. The man traded up.”

Lonnie took the subtle insult, and stood to get in Rath’s face. He used his powers to push her down. Going over, he trapped her between his hands. “Don’t fuck with me, Lonnie. All yar evil looks and pretending to be tough and mean...we know who's the real killer here! I’d kill yah before I fuck yah.”

“Puh-leaz? Yah’re going to tell me that yah want to set up house with some Britney Spears wanna be?”

Rath thought about it for a moment. He didn’t know about that. But he did knew that he actually had fun with Maria. That she was funny, sexy, and warm. No one ever showed him that kind of gentle affection. Of course, she thought he was the Commander. And dammit, he was. They were the same. She could learn to love him too. She’d never need to know. They’d be here in New York, living the fast life with him fucking her into a new millennium, and the real Commander would be back in Roswell, dickless, and wondering how he lost the best thing he ever had.

In that one kiss, he felt things. Big things. It was overwhelming, and he still hadn’t sorted them out, but he knew he wanted more. And looking at Lonnie, he smirked and left. He didn’t have time for her bullshit. He had plans to make.

~~~

It was mid-morning when the knock came at her door. She still had about four hours before she needed to be at the studio. She cancelled the car they sent to take her sightseeing. She didn’t feel like it today. Yesterday felt so good sharing it with Michael, the jerk. Great another thing he spoiled her for.

Speak of the devil. The slippery-tongued one at that. There he stood with a huge bouquet of flowers, all kinds. Michael peeked around the mess and looked uncertain.

“Yah wouldn’t scream and slam a door on these plants would yah?”

Maria just shrugged, but they were so beautiful, and Michael didn’t do flowers. The last he brought her was when he sensed she was leaving him. And she couldn’t take them. Nodding him in she watched as he set them down on a table.

“That’s a lot of flowers, Spaceboy.”

“Figured after last night, I needed them.” Rath looked her over. God, she even looked better today. There was a glow about her, something extra sexual, almost like under her skin, she was liquid sex, just oozing appeal.

“Maybe.” Maria waited to see where he was leading them. Michael suddenly was an enigma to her. Flipping back and forth between the known and the unknown, and it was disarming her.

“Let’s not talk about what happened last night. Yah said yah had to work at two, right?”

Maria nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

“Then forget last night. Let’s start over with seeing and experiencing New York together.” Maria actually smiled at his pronunciation. Neu Yawk. It was cute.

“How about skating down town, and I know where MTV shoots TRL. I can get us in.”

Bygones. Maria grabbed his arm and laughingly dragged him out of her room to hit New York. They spent hours on skates trying to hold each other up, and most of the time they hugged the wall. And the music place was too cool. Maria was so excited she could barely stop jumping up and down as Michael went to see about them being the audience. He came back and dragged her through.

He was walking her to the studio, and they were both eating a nice hot sandwich bought on a street corner kiosk. Maria laughed at he haggled with the man, but finally they got their dogs with everything and were on their way. Maria looked at her watch. She was a little late, but Michael wouldn’t let her leave.

“Meet me?”

She smiled. “Okay, where? I could be real late. We're laying down sound tracks today.”

He stopped a man entering the building, a nicely dressed man in a suit and took his pen from this upper breast pocket. “Here’s an address for a place that has live music until late. We can listen to yar competition. Maybe dance?”

Maria startled at that as he wrote on her hand and he closed her fist over it toss the pen at the fleeing back of the executive. Dance? Michael was suggesting they go dancing? Stopping herself, she didn’t try to feel his head for a fever, but he was definitely off his rocker.

Gift horse? Of course she accepted. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. I don’t know how late I’ll be.”

“I’ll wait.”

Maria smiled and grabbed his face. Rubbing her forehead against him, she was surprised to feel his lips kissing her. Lifting her chin, she met him in a kiss, that didn’t stay soft and gentle. It went wild and passionate. Michael looked stunned at her for a second, and Maria was equally so.

“Go. We’ll talk later.”

Rath watched as she entered the studios, and he slowly morphed back into himself. Tonight. Tonight he was going to get her all loose and drunk, and then he was going to show her the real New York which revolved around him and his dick. Yeah! Once she experienced the Rath Love, there’d be no going back. The Commander could kiss his girlfriend goodbye; she belonged to the Rathman. Yo! That kiss. He walked away shaking his head. It was...disturbing. So much of things bled through. Of her and the real Michael together, how she felt about him, and so much more. His. It was gonna be all his.

~~~

“Maria you’re late!”

Maria just smiled. “Sorry. I was stuck on TRL until it finished filming.”

They all just nodded. That was understandable. “Well we're still setting up, so why don’t you get a drink of something? It’ll be a few.”

Maria smiled, but stopped to ask, “Can I use your phone to call someone?”

“Sure.”

Maria grabbed a Snapple and took a seat with a phone. It took her a few tries, but she finally got through to Liz Parker in Vermont.

“Maria! Oh God, how is New York?”

Maria sighed. Nice to finally hear a normal voice. “Good. I’m not sure about this recording stuff, but I’ll figure it out.” Maria paused. “Look, Liz, I know that you’ve had enough of this alien weirdness lately, but I need to ask you a question.”

Liz stopped talking and was suddenly listening. “Something happen?”

“Yes. Well not. Maybe.”

“Maria...”

“It’s Michael.”

Liz sighed. “Is his powers still out of control?”

“No. He’s fine. Actually he showed up here in New York.”

“Maria, you’ve only been gone for a few days.”

“I know. But he followed me anyway.” Maria frowned at Liz’s quietness. “Anyway, there’s something wrong.”

“What? Be specific.”

“I kiss him, and he changes.”

“Changes?” Liz didn’t like the sound of that. New alien stuff?”

“Not literally. I mean mentally. One minute he’s all closed off, a void…almost a stranger, then next he’s my Michael, all open and I can feel him, then closed again. He’s like flipping.”

“What’s been going on? Are you two fighting?”

Maria thought about it. True they were, but they were also making love. Hard. She woke up this morning sore, and with bruised thighs. Maybe he was just adjusting to the situation. “We’re doing both fighting and making up.”

“Maybe he's just cautious when he’s uncertain. He took the break-up really bad. Much worse than any of us thought he would.”

Maria breathed out harshly. “Thanks a lot, Liz. Sure he doesn’t really care for me, not like Max cares for you. After all, he’s not my soulmate, and I’m not his. So our love, or whatever is hardly worth mentioning. Nothing worth obsessing over. Just pull up stakes and go on.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, none of us expected him to let us know how much it bothered him. He’s usually so much more taciturn.”

“Whatever. Well his personality is doing some major flips too. He took me places, and it was like he was concentrating on nothing but me. It was actually unnerving. Michael pays attention, but it’s usually gentler, subtle...almost like you don’t think he pays attention, but he does. It surprises how much he notices. But this time was almost creepy. Like he was trying to give me everything, make me feel special, or whatever. If I was suspicious, and I didn’t know him, I’d swear he was some sleaze trying to get into my pants. It’s just weird.”

“Maybe he has a split personality. Maybe the break-up had him all mentally challenged?”

Maria thought about it for a moment. “Oh God! My poor baby! Dammit, what did I do to him?”

“Maria...” Maria noticed them motioning for her to come join them.

“Liz, I’ve got to go. Time to record. I’ll call you back later.”

“Maria, wait! There could be another explanation...” Maria hung up.

On her way to the recording booth she was stopped by Michael. He looked silent and serious, the direct opposite of the man who left her earlier. The void Michael with all his walls intact. This Michael felt more emotional, his anxiety was coming him in waves, and she could see something on the table shake. He was barely holding on.

“I wanted to apologize for last night.”

Maria took the small bouquet of lavender from his hands and smelled it. She loved it so much better than that overwhelming arrangement he gave her earlier.

“Oh, I love these so much better! You know I love lavender!” Maria reached up and kissed him passionately. There he was! That was her Michael, back again. Her hand stroked his cheek tenderly. Poor boy. He was spinning out of control.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be. Do you want to stay and wait?”

Rocked on his feet, very aroused and staring at his whacked-out girlfriend, Michael nodded, confused. Once again the reaction he wasn’t expecting. He settled in to listen and watch her work. She was right. She was talented, and she deserved to do something with her art. He watched in amazement, loving one song he knew she had to have written for him, about him. But then they wanted her to do other songs. Those that weren’t hers. She hated them, and he could see why. They weren’t hers. They didn’t have any heart or soul to them. They sounded like a formula song designed to attract the young tasteless crowds that created pop idols.

Maria met his eyes, and he smiled slightly giving her support. Whatever she wanted. That was all it was about. Her right to choose, to make the decision for herself, and not have it done for her with no avenues. Michael smiled when she walked away from the contract. That was his girl. All opinionated and full of fire! They offered her fame and fortune for a price, and the price was her artistic soul and integrity. She walked away. It wasn’t about money, vanity, or glamour. It never was. Those things were the childish parts of her dream finally washed away, and what remained was the adult part. The part that refused to sale out. Before his eyes, she just grew up.

It was the same for him. His quest for Antar was this childish thing. This image that if he could go back, he’d be welcomed, loved, and his family would be there waiting. When given the choice, he suddenly realized that he already had a family, a home, and Maria. And no amount of dreams realized was going to replace him or console him. So, he let it go. All of it. And he emerged from the pod chamber that day more of an adult because he let childish dreams fade away and took on more adult ones. Home was where his heart was, and as long as he followed it things would be okay. After all these months of pain, Maria finally caught up to him. They weren’t looking at each other waiting for the other to be that dream, but they were really seeing each other as they have become. She had been right. She had needed this time to emerge stronger and more aware of herself, aware that the decisions she now made were life-altering ones, adult ones.

“Did I just totally screw up my life?” She asked as they walked down the street together after they left the studios with her onetime music career in flames.

Michael was quiet as he took her hand. “No, you just got it back.”

Michael looked down at her, and was shocked by the tears. “Dammit, Michael. Stop being so understanding. All this. All the torment I put us through to get what I always thought I wanted, and then I just tossed it away.”

Michael stopped her. “No you didn’t! You just redefined what it is that you want. You stopped looking at the dream with a child’s eyes, and now you're looking at it with a more grown-up understanding. The music is still there. It’s inside you. Just because you let it go once doesn’t mean that you will again. And the next time it just will have more form, more meaning. You won’t be walking away from it again. It means too much. It's finally real and not just a wishful dream.”

“You meant so much too, and I walked away from you.”

Michael pulled her off the sidewalk, closer to a store front. “No, you didn’t. You just stood back and tried to look at me realistically. To stop wishing I was more like a romantic perfect date, or the perfect boyfriend. You stood back and really looked at me with all my bad points and good. I knew that if you took me back, this time it would be real. There’d be no more of these childish dreams about what is a good relationship, how it’s supposed to be... There’d be just you and me, and our relationship would be what we made it.”

Maria nodded. He did understand, and without her explaining it. She knew he was the only one who could. She had needed to step away from him, out of his shadow, and just really think about him with the eyes of an adult, and not some little girl trying to live a fairytale. She couldn’t stay in his shadow expecting him to be everything to her. It would’ve been unfair, and sooner or later down the road it would’ve broken them forever. He wasn’t perfect, but neither was she. They both made mistakes. But those mistakes didn’t have to break them. They could make them stronger.

“It is what it is, what we decide to make it.” Maria said echoing him.

She realized with a little shock that he wasn't so sure of her. He had as many doubts as she did. Maria reached a hand out to his face, tipping it to meet her eyes; they stared at one another a moment, almost shocked by the hunger each read on the other's face. The next moment, Michael's mouth slanted gently but firmly over hers as she wrapped her arms around his neck and opened her mouth. Rather than the forceful invasion she'd expected, however, he carefully traced the contours of her mouth with his, lightly, teasingly, as the big hands molded her body to his, pressing down her back and cupping her ass, the hardness of his body against her another sort of caress. The combination of his almost brutal strength and the delicacy of his mouth was mesmerizing; she was panting when he let go of her, sweat tracing down the column of her neck and the hollow of her spine.

“What you want to do now?” Michael asked huskily.

“I want to go back to the room, spend time with you, and I want to make love to you so hard and long that it feels like we were never apart..”

Michael put his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

~~~

Fumbling with the lock as Michael curved his big body around her and nuzzled her hair, Maria finally got the door open. They almost fell into her hotel room, Michael catching them both against the wall and carelessly shoving the door shut with one hand. The other hand found the curve of Maria's waist, thumb stroking the underside of her breast. Maria reached up and traced his lips with her fingertips; his beautiful, sensual mouth was driving her wild. He caught her hand in his and nipped her fingertips playfully before pressing a kiss into her palm. She let her other hand slip along the strong line of his jaw, feeling the incipient prickle of his 5'o'clock shadow shading into the close-cut velvety roughness of his nape as she wrapped her arm around his neck and drew his head down to hers.

He reached down, slid an arm under her hips and lifted her up against him. She arched her hips against the bulge of his erection, and he exhaled sharply. "Maria," he said thickly, between feverish kisses, "Maria, god, I want to be in you, want to feel you all around me, hear you scream…"

The mental picture that produced in Maria turned her knees to water. She slid two dainty hands into his shirt and pulled recklessly, sending buttons clicking to the floor in all directions. He pulled his undershirt over his head as she fumbled with his fly and kicked her own shoes off. "Michael," she panted, "bed."

With excruciating care, he started on her shirt, letting his hands roam over the silk, drifting to curves nowhere near buttons, play-biting her neck and shoulders as they were revealed. In one smooth motion, he rid her of her chemise as she struggled with her skirt zipper. She'd lost her senses somewhere on the New York street trying to get back to the room, and as Michael's hand slid down between her legs, she thanked God she had. Cat-quick, he knelt, pulling her down to him and taking a breast in his mouth, he drew a cry from her. "Maria...floor," he said, coming up for a breath, a flash of teeth and humor that made her laugh for a second, cut short as he rolled her all the way to the floor and spread her thighs with gentle but demanding hands. He kissed the other breast as one hand carefully probed her wet folds, a long index finger sliding into her, and worked his way slowly down as she writhed beneath his hands and mouth.

She caressed him with her foot, feeling the tension mounting in his shoulders and triceps. "Michael," she said urgently, "now, Michael. Please!" His eyes locked with hers, sweat beading along his brow, and one long arm swept her legs up onto his shoulders. She felt incredibly open, weight on her shoulders, legs in the air as Michael bore down into her with a single fierce thrust. She gasped as the sensation poured through her, so intense it was almost painful.

"Maria?" he rasped, holding still, and she contracted her muscles around him in response. He shuddered all over, then began to thrust in a smooth, slow rhythm, letting her adjust to him. They were both wet and trembling before Maria came, the orgasm burning through her and leaving her limp and fully receptive to Michael's increasing urgency. She braced with her body against harder and harder strokes, finding new and no less potent pleasure in his hunger as his strokes came deeper and deeper. She drew her legs up further as he slid his hands beneath her hips and leaned forward to kiss her, his height and her flexibility bringing their mouths together, Maria's tongue plunging into his mouth and retreating in mimicry of his thrusts into her. Finally, his back arched, his whole body tightening to steel as he came, triggering Maria's second orgasm as he cried out.

They lay there for a few moments in a sweaty, happy tangle before Michael rolled off of her and scooped her up in one smooth motion, swaying a little. "Ok, where's the bed? I've slept on floors for too damn long, specifically Max’s, to settle for it when there’s a bed nearby," he said as Maria swatted playfully at him.

"If you'll recall, I did suggest the bed," she said dryly, and then ruined the effect by giggling. "And you should rest before thinking about doing that again or you’ll put your back out."

"The floor is kind of hard on it," he agreed innocently, and then swung her up over his shoulder. "This, however, is much better." Seeing the bed, he moved towards it with deadly intent.

"Oh! My soldier," she choked, laughing. "Put me down, you brute, or take me to bed at least."

"As m'lady wishes. How long do we have this room anyway?"

“Probably until tomorrow.”

Michael nodded sagely. “Plenty of time to do some real damage.” He tossed Maria on the bed with a yelp and joined her. “To save my back, you get to take the top.”

“Oh, goody. I totally can see you as my bottom.” Maria yelped again when he slapped her ass.

~~~

Maria propped herself on an elbow and studied Michael as he slept in the diffuse light of the room. Somehow, he looked both younger and older asleep; the fierce vitality of his eyes and manner extinguished, the lines of tiredness and fatigue became more visible along with flecks of movement under his closed eyes as he dreamed not even finding rest there. The thick lashes lying against his cheek, however, and the relaxed fullness of his lips, the abandoned sprawl of the long limbs at rest all suggested the uncomplicated peace of a child. She reached to stroke the long sexy waves of his hair, sweaty silk beneath her fingers. A wave of devastating tenderness flowed over her, receding to leave a pang at the knowledge that they'd be splitting up in a few hours, her onto a plane in a matter of hours and him on his bike heading home. She didn’t want to think of all the days she would be home waiting for him to catch up, and worrying the entire time. She had just gotten him back.. Neither one of them could completely understand or share those passions or be happy with the crumbs that life gave them with anyone but each other. They weren’t the Max Evans or the Liz Parkers of the world, given everything, expecting everything. What they had was what they fought for, what they made. Which didn't keep her eyes from hazing over, not quite tears, she refuse…

"Hey," came a rusty whisper from the other side of the bed. She blinked and saw the brilliant brown eyes, golden and rich, alive, watching her solemnly, and Michael's mouth quirked with compassion. Wordlessly, he opened his arms to her, folding himself around her and tucking her head under his chin. As she wrapped her arms around his waist, he murmured, "I know. Sometimes you wonder if it's worth it, these few minutes between years. But they make for beautiful dreams."

"Thanks, Michael," she said against his chest, not ready to look at him yet. But as she regained her composure, she squirmed to look up at him. "Years, Michael?" she said dryly.

A strange expression crossed his face for a second, then he looked at her steadily. "It feels like it, doesn't it, when we’re apart every moment stretches into what feels like years?"

"Yeah," she said softly, pressing her mouth to the hollow of his throat, feeling him sigh. "Yeah, it does." She played with his hardening nipples as she stretched up to his mouth, gently nibbling his lips, feeling him stir beneath her knee draped over his groin. Delicately, she traced a path with the tip of her tongue down to his cock; equally delicately, she took him into her mouth.

"Oh, Jesus," he groaned softly. Then, surprising her a little, he reached over and slid an arm around her waist. "Move over," he breathed, and Maria realized what he wanted.

Shifting her weight without relinquishing his growing erection, she straddled his head, and she whimpered as his tongue slowly stroked over her mound. She brought her hands into play, stroking what her mouth didn't cover, carefully playing with his balls, as he gently explored her with lips and tongue, stroking her clit in rhythm with her mouth on his cock. Shivering, she could hardly tell how Michael's growing tension differed from her own, the hot, aching need in her groin reflecting in the demanding pressure of her mouth, the waves of sensation from Michael's mouth reflecting in the pulse of his erection…

"Maria," he said, half moan, half growl. "I want in." Head swimming, she turned from him and settled onto his cock in one smooth motion, so hot and wet she was almost surprised she was still solid. He, on the other hand, was iron hard and gasping at the sensation of her body gripping his. She rose a little, drawing a shudder from him at the luscious friction of flesh, and leaned forward to kiss him. She could taste her own salt on his mouth, and at the thought she tightened around him.

"God, Maria," he breathed, and she began to move up and down on him, controlling the pace, driving him wild one slow stroke at a time, until he cried out and she felt him convulsing inside her. They rolled over, and he slid a long-fingered hand between them, stroking her to her own orgasm. Michael watched her come to pieces under his hand, and he buried his mouth in her neck riding out the orgasm with her. Following her to New York was the best decision he ever made.

~~~

Rath was growing bored. All the honeys around him were eyeing him up and down, but the one he wanted was strangely absent. Where the hell was his bitch? It was getting late and the club was closing soon. She stood him up again? Dammit. What the fuck was with that pussy-ass Commander? Letting that bitch run all over him like he was some faggot Antarian King? She probably tamed him into wearing pullover sweaters and button down shirts with slacks and penny loafers. Rath sneered at a large muscular man who was flexing in his direction. Yah want some of this?

Rath ignored the fact that Lonnie tended to bitch slap him around a lot. But that didn’t matter anymore. That piece of disease was the past. Rath was a lone wolf, Los Lobos. He howled and stuck out his tongue at a group of women in passing for good measure, laughing at their reaction. He needed to get off, and soon. He’d been carrying it all around for her, for his Maria. He had plans. Him and Maria. He’d be loyal, faithful, because she was his one and only.

Rath spied a tasty morsel heading down the hall to the back bathrooms. She was small, tiny and blonde. From behind, she looked like Maria. Rath caught himself almost sighing her name. Stop that shit. Rath was 'the man'. Following her, he waited outside the bathroom door until she did her business. Nope it wasn’t Maria. Blue eyes, not green, her legs were a little chunky in the calf reminding him of Lonnie, and she wasn’t as beautiful as Maria. But she would do.

“Yo, baby, yah want some of this?” Rath gave her his most engaging smile. She tried to avoid him. But he pushed he up against the wall. “Don’t be like that.” And he kissed her.

Worked every time. No one could resist his deadly charms, well except the sexually repressed, old woman, and future spinsters. From him, they were safe. Too much effort, and not enough return. He liked sex hot, fast, and up against the wall, not missionary style with some bitch panting like a dog with her eyes closed. He liked his sex interactive with his partner engaged in some wild antics with him. The virginal types...they just laid there givin' it up like it was alone the most precious gift forcing him to do all the work. Boring sex. Totally.

It didn’t take long to have her up against the wall with her skirt up around her waist. She was panting hard, and trying to get him out of his pants. Rath’s hands went around her waist and hitched her up the wall a little, holding her ass in his hands. A little large in the seat, but he sort of liked that. She was wearing a thong, so he moved it aside easily. Hated it when a bitch didn’t dress herself up in something delectable. He wasn’t into virginal schoolgirls with the days of the week on their panties. He liked it sexy, silky, or leather. Better yet, nothing. Easier to slip in and out. Though a Catholic schoolgirl uniform and nothing underneath…Rath howled. Oh yeah, now that he could lap that up like a dog in heat.

“What the fuck!” A man’s angry voice came from the opening of the hall. “Shellie, what the hell are you doing with this...”

Rath didn’t even bother to look as his hand came up. He just knocked the man backwards against the back wall knocking him out. Hated when people broke his concentration, as he slid inside…oh yeah, bitch’s name was Shellie. Pushing forward hard and in long deep strokes, he kept on hand on her ass, and the other around the door jamb to give him some thrusting purchase. She screamed in his mouth, and demanded more as he plowed into her, not stopping even when he felt her break apart with an orgasm. Rath barely reached a release and he pulled out of her. She wasn’t Maria and at the crucial moment he realized that. It took away from the experience.

Shellie was sliding down the wall, her legs too rubbery to hold her as the orgasm knocked her back. Rath watched her with narrowed eyes. Hardly enough. He was still needing a little something. Guess he could push her to her knees and let her mouth him to completion, but her mouth was wrong. It wasn’t Maria’s. Sick at looking at a Maria replacement, he turned her to face the wall. Pinning her tight to the surface he flipped the rest of her skirt up, and moved in close. Oh yeah, this was going to be tight. Putting his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet, and his other hand moved to cover her snatch, entering her, feeling the wetness and his own spunk running down her inner thighs, Rath leaned in and whispered for her to hold on, that it was going to hurt a little. No pain, no gain.

He could tell by her reaction that she was a virgin in this kind of sex. He could catch her while she was still experiencing the first alien orgasm he would be all in her before she realized it. Moving his hand more south from her snatch he used his powers to help ease the way and take away the any pain and damage he was causing. She was still tense, and struggled. He groaned. Oh yeah, just like that. She was moving herself more on his cock. It took a few moments, but sudden he was completely in her ass, opening her up, and she was so tight that he rested to let her adjust while his hand returned to massage her, stroke her clit. His mouth found the back of her neck, and he could feel her legs shaking, but his bigger body was holding her up.

Suddenly she was withering on him, pushing hard into his hand, and hard back on his cock. Closing his eyes, he concentrated. Oh yeah, take me bitch. Take me, Maria! He dropped his hand from her mouth and ran it along her naked ass, smooth and pale giving it a nice smack. Her whole body jumped and they both groaned. Sweet. She was making sounds, loud ones. Moaning down the house, demanding he stop playing with her and fuck her harder. So he complied.

He boyfriend was slowly coming awake to find his girlfriend of three months being fucked within an inch of her life up the ass, screaming for more by a common street punk. Outraged, he tried to get to his feet. She had held him off for three months, and only just started letting him sleep with her since last weekend, and here she was begging it from a tattooed, punk ass with a nose ring, and a bad attitude? Rath calmly reached out a hand dripping with her, and put the boyfriend back to sleep. He didn’t have time to take care of him too. Maria might be looking for him.

The woman protested the loss of his hand, so he went back to work bringing her off again. He worked her hard and deep, pushing her. This bitch wasn’t sitting for at least a week. She’d remember the old Rathman long after he was gone. She came with him. He closed his eyes and howled Maria’s name as she screamed. Her legs were running wet, and he rested for a second enjoying the movement of the orgasm up his spine. The woman was like a damp washcloth, all limp and ready to collapse.

Not yet. Almost. Just once more, a quickie to take the remaining edge off. He moved his wet hand to her mouth and she greedily sucked herself from his fingers as he moved more in her tight channel plowing through his own release which was lubricating it, and after the first time she was so much more open. She moaned hotly against his hand screaming more, so he gave it to her. Putting his free hand at the stem of shaft he jerked himself off in her adding to what was already inside. Coming again, he closed his eyes and all he could see was Maria.

Stepping back, Rath calmly zipped himself back up and let the Shellie chick slide to the ground in a heap. He wished he had time to let her clean him with her mouth, but he had to go find his date.

“Yo, Shellie, thanks for the balling. Don’t let anyone tell yah that yar ass it too fat. It’s totally fuckable.” Rath liked to compliment his women just so they knew he cared.

“Wait!” The woman was still trying to get her breath as the orgasm was still racing over her. “What’s your name? Will I see you again? Please?”

Rath reached down and dragged her up a little to kiss her noisily and with lots of gusto. Yeah, once they had him, they couldn’t get enough of him. Rath chuckled to himself. Stupid bitch! Couldn’t she tell that he’s a one woman man? Loyal and devoted? But he hated to leave her wanting more with no hope.

“Tomorrow, here.” With that he left her recovering on the floor leading to the bathroom. He stopped to kick her boyfriend and take his wallet. Pussy bitch owed him for doing his girlfriend. The girl had been unsatisfied and now he had taken care of that and popped her ass’s cherry. Rath looked at what was in the wallet in disgust. What kind of pissy boy only came to a club with two hundred large? He kicked him again for good measure. His time was more valuable than that.

People who had ventured that way while they were busy had heard the noise and detoured to the club’s other bathrooms, but when he emerged people were staring. Looking around, hopeful that Maria was there, Rath couldn't believe she’d stand him up twice. Where the hell was she?

~~~

Maria stretched along Michael’s length, moving her foot up and down his leg. He reached down and lifted her up to kiss her deeply enjoying the feel of her in his arms again. He actually felt sore, and he had a bruise on his ass from where they hit the floor the second time they fell off the bed. He tried to move his right arm down her back, but couldn’t. It was still belted to the bed frame.

“You going to release me here?” he asked softly blowing a piece of her hair from her skin.

“Nope. You get all grabby and when it’s my turn to take charge you use your superior strength against me. I like it on top, so you just wait your turn.”

Michael laughed at that. She was right. She liked to slowly torture him, drag it out until he was barely able to handle it, and when he demanded she go faster, she actually slowed down. The girl was working on the fine art of teasing, and sometime she pushed him too far, and he took over and flipped them. Michael suspected Maria liked it that way the most. Him out of his mind with lust pounding in her like a frenzy. She sure pushed him there often enough.

“Let’s go take a long bath.” Michael said. Maria smiled. Oh yeah, their favorite thing.

She let him run it while she called down for room service. Last night on the studio's bill, so she may as well benefit from it. Picking up the room and their clothes, she waited. She could hear Michael in the bathroom. He was shaving. Her skin had a reddish tinge from where his whiskers had rasped against her skin.

“Maria, you coming?”

Maria heard the knock at the door and went to answer it. “Just a second. Room service is here!”

Maria opened the door making sure her dressing gown was closed, and suddenly stood shocked.

“So what gives? Yah stood me up!”

Maria’s mouth hung open, and she looked over her shoulder at the sound of water splashing in the bathroom, and then at Michael standing in front of her at the door.

“Michael!”

Rath just barged in around her. “I waited! I can’t believe yah just come home and get comfortable, and leave me there waiting. What the hell is wrong with yah?”

Maria moved back against the door, and slowly moved to the right towards the bathroom. “I worked late. I thought I would come back here, take a bath, and then meet you...Michael.”

A knock at the door distracted him. Maria quickly opened the door to the room service delivery. The waiter looked at the two of them and waited as Maria signed the ticket.

“Food? And this is for what?”

Maria moved closer to the bath door. “I was hungry. I haven’t eaten since lunchtime, so I thought I’d eat before meeting you.”

“The club is closed!”

Rath’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. She didn’t kiss him, or even smile. He quickly looked down at the room service tray set for two, and then scanned the room. A belt was still attached to the headboard and the bed had obviously been used.

“What the fuck! Yah’re balling someone! Who?” He grabbed her hard and dragged her up close. “What a studio producer? Is that how yah got your contract?”

Once minute Rath was angry and in Maria's face, the next he was hitting a far wall hard. Michael stood in the bathroom doorway in nothing but a towel.

“Get your fucking hands off her!”

Rath shook his head to clear it, and slowly got to his feet. Shit! Quickly morphing back into himself, he smiled at Michael not so nicely.

“Yo, bro. Should’a known yah wouldn’t let your bitch wander that far without yah sniffing for her crotch.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed, as he pushed Maria behind him. “You’re pissing in the wrong pond this time, boy.”

Rath face took on a mean look, but suddenly things on the wall began to move and shake. The vase of flowers exploded. Rath looked at the room and then back at Michael. Putting his hands up he smiled his most charming of smiles. The Commander had discovered some power.

“Peace, bro. I wuz just checkin' out the wears.”

“The wears belong to me.”

Rath just laughed. “It hafta to be yah the other night. When I came over she slammed the door in my face. Yah just left and pissed her off.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed. Rath had been that close that many times? No wonder Maria wasn’t surprised at seeing him. Rath had paved the way. How much, Michael wasn’t sure, but for Rath’s sake it better not be much. Turning to Maria, he looked her over.

“You okay?”

Maria looked at the two and then at Michael. Nodding she stood behind him and hugged him close with her head resting on his back. Two of them. Of course. Thank god! She’d been racking her brain all day thinking how she was going to find him an alien psychologist to cure his split personality.

Maria looked at Rath. “It was you. You took me sightseeing, skating, and to all those places.”

Rath just shrugged. “Yeah, and he reaped the pussy, my pussy. My reward. Hell, I worked hard for that trim.”

Maria just looked at the man and smiled. “Yeah you did, and yes, he did.” Maria got a large smile on her face. Maria wasn’t above being mean. The dupe hadn’t been nice, he had been on the make and had every intention of bedding her under false guise. “More than once, actually a hell of a lot.”

Rath just smirked and resigned himself to having lost the upper hand. Looking at his twin, he actually lost some of his amusement. The Commander still looked pissed and unyielding. Damn, he hated greedy bastards! It wasn’t like he didn’t owe him. Knowing that stiffnecked ball-breaker, he’d shown up on her door pissing her off. She only let him in because she thought he was Rath in Michael's skin, and not his usual pissy self. They both owed him. Maybe a nice threesome's fuck for the road? He took one look at Michael, and decided not to even suggest it. His first assessment that the Commander didn’t share seemed to be holding.

Maria, losing her fear of Rath with Michael in the room, moved around Michael and went to stand next to Rath, whispering in his ear, but looking at the wall beyond him. “Too bad for you. I can suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.”

Rath just swore. All his hard work. Hell, he even took a frickin’ bath, and the damn Commander reaped the benefits! That was just wrong. “Yah wouldn’t want to give the Rathman a little something, something. Maybe just a quick thank yah fuck for being so nice? Dammit, I showered!”

“That was appreciated.” Maria moved away and went back over to Michael. Reaching up she gently kissed his lips and stroked his cheek. Rath just looked away. That was supposed to be his affection, his girl. “I’m going to bathe. You want to clean up in here?”

“Yeah, I’ll put out the garbage.”

Maria nodded and headed for the bathroom, but Michael stopped her. “You couldn’t tell he wasn’t me?”

Maria looked over at Rath and shook her head. “No, not really. I think he slipped a few times, but I wasn’t really paying attention. When he caught up with me, I was writing you a letter, and I swear I could feel you near, so a part of me was looking for you, and when he showed up...”

“You assumed it was me.” Michael nodded. That made sense. A letter? She hadn’t mentioned that she was writing him. “He didn’t touch you?”

Maria looked at Rath, and he smiled a hopeful smile that she’d not rat him out, or make it worse than it was. “No. He was good. Just affectionate, friendly, took me places. I think I kissed him twice.” Rath groaned. Bitch! She could’ve left that out. “That’s why I was so confused. I couldn’t read you when he kissed me. It was like kissing a stranger, then you showed up and there you were, all of you, so open and my Michael. I thought you had a split personality.”

Michael smirked. He bet. Rath couldn’t know about the flashes, the connections that he and Maria shared. If Maria had been thinking clearer, she might have suspected herself, but with him showing on Rath’s heels it just confused the issue.

Maria looked back at Rath. “Thanks for the sightseeing, Rath. Sorry about standing you up, but really I didn’t. After all I was meeting Michael, and he showed up at the studio.” Maria went to take her bath and let Michael handle Rath. She had no doubt that a jealous Michael could take Rath out easily.

“Wait!” Maria turned back. Rath actually looked sweet. He smiled and almost looked boyishly shy. “If the Big Bad here ever cuts yah loose, or pisses yah off, just look me up. I take yah on as my honey.”

Maria actually didn’t know how to take that offer, but she decided to be gracious. Going back over to him, she pulled his head down and kissed him lightly on his lips. “Generous offer. I’ll bear it in mind. You were lots of fun.” Maria went back to the bath, passing Michael with a small pat on his stomach. Rath watched the door shut with regret. He’d really like to have ridden that little filly. She looked like a real wild toss.

Rath lifted a brow at Michael with a pleased smirk on his face. “Hear that? I’m fun!”

“You could be dead.”

Rath’s face clouded. “Yah flexing on me? Wanna take me on?”

With a look, Rath hit the wall again and the mirror above him shattered, raining glass down on him. “I’ve got no tolerance for anyone messing with Maria. You sure you wanna go there?”

“Dammit, bro! Calm yarself. Damn!” Rath stood up and shook the glass off himself. Even the King hardly flinched when he found out Rath had put the moves on his brown thing. But the Commander was actually kind of scary.

“What were you doing moving into my territory?”

“Hey, that honey was a free spirit. I wuz given to understand she wuz a free agent. Yah let the piece come to the big Town alone.”

“You didn’t answer my question. I thought you already had you own skanky girlfriend, Lonnie.’

Rath went over and looked through the food. Sitting down he made himself a plate. No sex. Food was a good substitute. She had ordered a lot. They musta worked up an appetite. Damn, that was his appetite she shoulda been working off.

Rath just shrugged. “She cut me loose. She’s banging Nicholas.”

Michael laughed at that. “The short-sheet? Little Nicholas?”

Rath just grimaced. “Yeah. She convinced he can take her home to Antar, back to her great love Kivar.”

Michael sat down and actually laughed at that. Really? Nicholas had a good scam going. Kivar wouldn’t want Lonnie. He wanted the real thing, the real Vilandra. Nicholas had to know that. Michael helped himself to some food as well.

“She’ll be waiting a long time.”

Rath nodded. “I’m sayin'. I told the slut she was doing bootie calls for a premmy skin for nothing, but the bitch is toxic.” Rath took another piece of chicken. “So yah and your Vilandra...yah never gave it a try?”

“Isabel? Naw. That destiny crap was just that...crap. Isabel was my sister for over ten years. Takes more than a stupid hologram and two little dreams of me kissing her, and us playing with a kid to make me follow that. You got to feel something too. I spent my entire early life in a home with no love, just the back of a hand. I know what I want now. I love her, but not that way. Never even kissed her in my entire life, never wanted to, and once I found Maria...”

“Yeah, your girl is...something. I like her.” Rath smiled remembering hanging with Maria. She was funny and lively, but without that cruelty that Lonnie had. She felt clean. Righteous. “She always givin’ yah half her shit?”

Michael thought about it for a second. Yeah she did. She halved whatever she had, or let him share her drink, or in a restaurant, she pushed half her food on his plate. “Yeah. She does that.”

“I liked it. Nobody ever shared with me before, yah know?” Michael just nodded. Yeah before Maria, when all he had was Hank, nobody shared with him either. Maybe Isabel a few times, her sandwich at school when he was hungry. But with Maria it was a constant thing. Rath stopped eating and looked at his dupe. “Yah don’t know how lucky yah are.”

He was wrong. Michael knew. He just spent months without Maria. He knew. “Yeah, I do. But, you're right. I would’ve shown up and pissed her off by copping an attitude that she couldn’t handle herself in New York alone. So I guess I do owe you. I was just going to let you live. But instead, I think I’ll give you a present.”

“I can fuck Maria?” Rath had to keep hope alive.

“Keep it up, and I’ll just kill you now..”

Rath just made a face at Michael. “Yeah, right! We know who the killer is here.”

Michael’s face went deadly serious. “Yeah, we do.” The smile bled from Rath face and he was suddenly not so amused. The dark look on Michael’s face, the deadly intent, and it became apparent that the Commander had no problem killing for survival or for protection. He might have more human in his mix, but he was still who he was.

“So this present?”

Michael smiled. “It’s about Kivar, Vilandra, and your Lonnie waiting for a man who doesn’t want her.” Rath became interested, and Michael told him the story of Isabel’s marriage, Kivar, and his ability to create a wormhole between Earth and Antar anytime he wanted to.

Rath laughed. “So that’s how the pipsqueak is surviving on Earth! He goes home to Antar and returns for some Lonnie ass.” Rath was suddenly up on his feet. “Nice talking to yah, cuz, but I’ze got some news to spread. Yah and the babe gonna be around a few?”

Michael shook his head no. “We’re going home tomorrow. Think we’ll take the scenic route.”

“Epic! Next time yah and the honey are messing in my neck, look me up. I’ll try to steal her again.”

Michael opened the door. “You can try, but…” Rath had to agree. Maria didn’t look that interested, but then again, a man could hope. Suck the chrome off a trailer hitch….damn, that just made his toes curl. “Next time maybe we could exchange some information. I found our human donor.”

“Dad?” Rath just shook his head. Had to mean more to his dupe than him. He was more Antar alien than human, and looking at the Commander’s life, he once again felt cheated. “Whatever. We are who we are.”

Michael nodded, but watched Rath walk to the elevator. “Rath, you might not think so, but this is our planet. Perhaps it’s time to think you deserve better, or just more.”

Rath just laughed. “Well I know where I’m starting. Lonnie. Bitch is up for a rude awakening.” Michael watched the elevator close. Brother. Two faces to the same coin.

Maria’s hands came behind his waist to hug him tight as he shut the door. “He’s gone?”

“Yeah. He went to torture Lonnie.”

Maria nodded. That was something she’d like to see, but then again, Michael was standing in a nice hotel room in nothing but a towel. Priorities. “What we going to do about my airline ticket and your bike?”

“Cash in the ticket and hit the road on my bike.”

Maria pulled back and looked at him. “You’re kidding?”

“No. We hit Great Americana. Take the long way home.”

Maria laughed. “You and me, on a bike and endless nookie motels between here and Roswell. This could take awhile getting home.”

Michael picked her up and walked towards the bed with her legs wrapped around his waist and his hands holding her ass. “Some things shouldn’t be rushed.” Maria agreed. He was so smart. “Where’s that belt? It’s my turn.”

~~~

Rath entered the sewer home where he had emerged from the pod and lived his whole life. Lonnie was there making sounds. Ah, sex. Or whatever she wanted to call it. Rath just made a face and leaned against the wall watching the lump under the covers moving between Lonnie’s legs while she was occasionally making the appropriate sounds, and reading a magazine. It took a little while for her to spy him standing there.

“Busy here.”

“I see that. Looks like...” Nope is didn’t look like good sex.

“So where’s yar new bitch? Maria?”

“That didn’t pan out. Seems the Commander wuz in town as well.”

Lonnie just laughed in amusement. “And yah just didn’t kill him and take her? Yar slippin.”

“No. Seems the Commander has some new awesome powers. He can move things with just his mind. He can violently explode and push. Didn’t want to push it until I can figure it out. I could feel it from where I was standing.”

Lonnie was interested. “Without waving his hand to direct it?”

Rath nodded, and made a face at the slurping sounds under the blanket. “I see yah getting an overhaul from Nicholas, the clitman. That little shit climb inside your large hole yet?”

“Fuck off, Rath. Jealousy look like shit on yah.”

Rath just scratched his brow. “I like green. So he told me a nice tale about a man name Kivar, the real Vilandra…Isabel, her marriage and Kivar coming for her during her honeymoon.”

Rath watched the blanket suddenly stop moving.

“Yah interested?” Rath asked Lonnie.

Lonnie pushed Nicholas off her. “Tell!”

Rath retold the story watching Lonnie’s anger increase and culminate to a flashing point. She took little Nicholas by the ear and escorted him out of the sewer den. While she was dealing with the little pimp, Rath grabbed a bag and started to gather his shit. Yeah, Kivar wasn’t coming for her. No one was. They were just the dupes, not the real Royals. Spare parts.

“Where yah goin'?”

Rath just shrugged. Didn’t matter. Anywhere but here. “Places. I gots a date tomorrow with a honey named Shellie.”

Lonnie frowned. Zan was dead. Ava had been gone for over a year and some, and now Rath. She looked at the sewer and their pods. “I wuz thinkin’ that maybe yah and me could try it again.”

Rath just smirked at her. “Destiny wuz for crap. I deserve better.”

“Rath! Wait!”

He just kept on walking. Now that was epic.