"What are you doing here, Max?" she asked loudly in order to be heard over the downpour.

"I needed to see you!"

"Is something wrong?" Her anxious brown eyes scanned his face.

"I can't do this anymore," he told her, coming closer.

"Do what?"

"I. . .want. . .you. . .Liz," he whispered an instant before his mouth slammed down to cover hers. At first Liz was too stunned to even breathe. It seemed like Max's hands were suddenly everywhere at once. But Liz's paralysis lasted only for a second. She opened her mouth wide, driving her tongue into his warm mouth.

There were no preliminaries between them. Max hooked his fingers in the front of her blouse and ripped it apart. The buttons went scattering. Liz moaned at his forcefulness and wrapped her legs around his waist in response.

Cupping her bottom, Max pulled her closer against him, grinding his arousal against her tender, hot center. Never breaking their carnal kiss Max walked them over to the wall, bracing Liz against the brick. Their tongues knew no control. They dipped, they flicked, they scoured. Max sucked voraciously at Liz's mouth as if he were trying to absorb it into his own. The rain continued to pour down over them.

Max eased Liz to her feet long enough for them to attack one another's clothing. It was somewhat difficult. The clothes had to be peeled off because they were soaked through with rain. When Max and Liz were both naked they were back against each other in seconds.

Liz trailed her open mouth across Max's chest, his throat. Max hooked his hands beneath the undersides of Liz's arms and lifted her back against the brick wall. He wedged himself between her warm thighs. Liz brought her legs up high on his waist in anticipation of his hard thrust. Max didn't disappoint her, in fact, he gave her more.

His entry was deep and smooth. They both moaned at the sensation of his hard flesh filling her body, completing her. Liz sank her teeth into his shoulder. Max pulled back only to ease forward into her silky cavity again. Liz gasped jerkily into his neck. Max set his rhythm, stroking Liz the way he knew she liked it. Long and deep. Liz rode him shamelessly, her vaginal muscles convulsing each time he drove inside her. Liz turned her face upwards not bothering to stifle her screams of pleasure. Rain fell into her open mouth. She was coming. . .

Max yanked Liz closer against him, feeling her shake with the beginnings of her orgasm. He stabbed inside her deeply, quickly. Her liquid walls milked him.

A moment later Liz was screaming, her nails digging into Max's muscled back. Max didn't hold back any longer. He pounded into her, his orgasm building to a painful level. "Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz, Liz. . . ."

"Liz! Liz!" Nancy Parker shouted, shaking the shoulder of her sleeping daughter.

Liz was finally jarred from her sleep-induced stupor. She looked up at her mother in confusion. "Mom?" The dream with Max had been so real that Liz had expected to find herself out on the balcony with him when she awoke. But it had been just a dream after all.

"Are you feeling ok, Liz?" her mother asked, feeling her forehead and neck for fever.

"I'm fine, Mom," Liz protested as she brushed away her mother's hand. She rolled into an upright position.

"I've been trying to wake you for the last five minutes. Were you having a nightmare?"

"NO!" Liz protested wildly, her eyes wide. She realized her mother was looking at her like she had gone insane so she brought her voice down a level. More calmly she said, "No, Mom. Why?"

"Because you were moaning and thrashing about in your sleep."

Liz ducked her head to hide her blush. Between her legs she was throbbing with arousal. I'm sure I was doing a whole lot of moaning, Liz thought wryly, but it definitely wasn't a nightmare. More like a night fantasy. "I was up all night," she said in answer to her mother's question, "Claudia pulled an all nighter."

"Maybe you should rest then. You do look tired," Nancy advised, patting Liz's knee, "I'll just tell Max-"

"Max is here?" Liz burst out, jumping from the bed. "O my god, I'm not even dressed yet!"

"Maybe you should postpone your date for another night and get some sleep," her mother suggested. Liz didn't hear her because she was frantically rifling through her closet for something to wear. "I'll go tell him you're tired and you're going to say home." Liz heard that.

"NO!" she half screamed at her mother. For the second time in ten minutes Liz had to recompose herself. "I'll be out in ten, Mom. Let him know for me. Pleeeeease!"

When Liz walked into the living room fifteen minutes later she found Max on the sofa with Claudia, playing. He was lifting their six-week-old daughter high above his head and making goo-goo noises. He brought her close to him again and let her gum his nose. They looked so incredibly cute together. Claudia's small hands were braced against Max's cheeks while he nuzzled her. "Who's daddy's girl?" he cooed in a baby voice, "Are you Daddy's girl? Are you Daddy's girl?"

Liz bit back her grin. "I thought I was Daddy's girl."

Max swiveled around, smiling when he saw her. He came to his feet carefully, holding Claudia the way Liz had taught him when she'd first come home from the hospital. He and Liz had been dating since then. In that time Max had courted her properly, bringing her flowers, calling her on the phone, writing her silly, little love notes. Max had even asked her to go steady with him although he'd felt like a fool doing it seeing as how they had a kid together. But Max had to admit that he was filled with elation to be dating Liz like a normal guy. Initially, they hadn't been able to do much because Liz was still recuperating from delivery. However when Claudia had turned three weeks old Liz and Max had their first official date since they broke up in California. They'd gone to the local ice cream shop and talked. Max had brought her home early and given her a kiss on the cheek goodnight. Liz had said that she wanted to take things slowly and Max was doing everything he could to oblige her. But man, oh man, was it killing him.

"Are you ok?" Max asked, looking at Liz in concern. "You look tired."

"You're holding the culprit right there," Liz said, pointing at Claudia. She walked over and gave her cooing daughter a kiss. "Hey pudding, are you playing with Daddy?"

"We were talking about Mommy, weren't we, Claudie?" Max asked his daughter, "We were wondering what was taking her so long."

Liz smiled. "I'm ready now. Let me go get Mom."

After they had taken in a movie Liz and Max walked down the near empty streets of Roswell chatting. It was close to midnight, but it was the weekend and neither one of them had anywhere pressing to be. The night was slightly foggy and it was hard to see each other through the mist. They held hands like lovers. Max found himself filled with a happy contentment just being so close to her, smelling her perfume.

"What are you thinking about?" Max asked her when she fell quiet.

"Just that I like spending time with you, Max."

Max pulled her close to his side. "Me too."

"But I was thinking. . ."

"Yeah?"

"We've made a lot of progress in the last six weeks, don't you think?"

"I think we've become much closer, Liz," Max agreed.

"Well, that being the case," Liz said slowly, coming to a stop on the sidewalk, "Maybe we should make love."