“Who else would it be?” he asked.

“Don’t do that again! I nearly went into cardiac arrest here!” Michael snickered. “It’s not funny!”

He snickered some more. “I thought it was funny as hell!”

“Yeah, well ha, ha, ha! You suck!”

“I can,” Michael said seductively, his voice going low and sexy, “Where do you want me to start?” He stepped inside the shower. Maria staved him off before he could begin kissing her.

“If you start that I’ll never get clean!”

“Sure you will,” Michael said, nibbling at her neck, “It’ll just take longer.”

“Michael!” Maria moaned but without much force. She really didn’t mind him kissing her, especially when he was nibbling so insistently on her neck. But they had serious issues to discuss and Maria knew they would never get anything accomplished if they started kissing.

“Michael,” she said, pulling away from him reluctantly, “what’s gonna happen when we get back to Roswell?”

Michael looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean are you gonna start that “I gotta be a stone wall” crap again?”

He stood back under the spray, the water soaking his hair, taking away his trademark spikes. “I’m still an alien, Maria. Life with me is never going to be normal.”

“I’m not asking for normalcy, Michael, just that you love me.”

Michael reached down and took her towel, soaping it casually. “You already have that, Maria DeLuca. Going back to Roswell is not going to change it. I don’t want to be vulnerable, but that’s how I am when I’m with you. But I think I’d rather be vulnerable and with you than a stone wall and alone.” He kissed her. “Now turn around and I’ll wash your back.” Maria did as he asked and Michael began lathering her shoulders in slow, sensuous circles. He stepped close behind her so that their naked bodies were almost, but not quite touching. “If it makes you feel better,” he confided as he began to wash her back in the same loving manner he had her shoulders, “I’m not in any more of a hurry to return to Roswell than you are.” He dropped a kiss onto her soapy shoulder. “I like being here with you, Maria.”

“Really. . .oh Michael. . . .that feels. . . .oh, right there. . . .”

Michael emitted a low laugh. “I guess all the moaning and groaning means that you approve of my backwash.”

“Don’t get full of yourself, space boy,” Maria wisecracked, “but I will admit that you have nice hands.”

Michael pulled her beneath the water, rinsing away the soapsuds that clung to her body. Maria felt his hardness brush against her and she pressed closer to him. Michael plunged his tongue into her ear in response. His hands traveled up the front of her body up to cup her breasts. The water streaked down over them, steamy hot. Michael’s fingertips lightly played with her raised nipples. Maria moaned in awakening desire, grinding her bottom against Michael’s groin. Abruptly, he spun her to face him, lifting her against him.

“Wait, Michael!” Maria protested as Michael pressed her back against the cold tiles of the shower stall, “the wall. . .aaaaaaaaaah!” Michael pressed his hand against the tiles, using his powers to warm them. As the massaging heat began to radiate through Maria’s skin her body gradually relaxed. “Hmmm. . . .” she purred, “That feels nice. I didn’t know you could do things like that.”

“You’d be surprised to know all the things I can do when it comes to you,” Michael panted as he entered her.

“Oh. . .Michael,” Maria moaned, “. . .what. . .about. . .Max and Liz. . . we said. . .we’d. . .meet them. . .oh, oh yeah. . .um. . .at 9:15. . .oh god, Michael!”

“Let. . .em. . .wait!” Michael gasped, cutting off any further protests with his mouth.

**********

When Michael and Maria came running out of the Holiday Inn Max was leaning against the jeep, his arms crossed over his chest, looking seriously pissed.

“Sorry we’re late,” Maria said, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. She hoped she didn’t look as if she’d spent the last two hours making love with Michael. “We. . .uh. .kinda got. . .caught up,” she explained lamely.

“Ok,” Liz said impatiently, “well let’s hurry and get your stuff into the jeep. I called Phyllis this morning and she said she needed us to come in this afternoon. I told her to give us until the evening because we had tickets to a concert.”

“So how have things been at the old Crashdown in our absence?” Maria asked as she and Liz loaded Maria’s numerous shopping bags into the jeep.

“I don’t know. Phyllis sounded as if she were near to having a nervous breakdown though,” Liz answered, “We’d better haul ass before she runs my parents’ restaurant into the ground.”

While the girls talked and packed the car Michael and Max worked at securing the cover on the jeep.

“Michael,” Max said, his expression annoyed, “I said 9:15. It’s nearly 11:30. Did your watch stop?”

“Don’t have a watch,” Michael replied flippantly.

“It’s just that Liz and I kind of wanted to grab some breakfast and be on the road as soon as possible, hence the time 9:15.”

Michael’s expression was one of blatant unconcern. “Don’t give me that shit, Maxwell. You and I both know you and Liz didn’t even set foot out here until about twenty minutes ago.”

Max looked at him in amazed shock. “How did you know that?”

“Saw you through the window. So save the sermon.”

Max smiled sheepishly and resumed securing the cover. “And I was just getting warmed up.”

“Hey guy.”

Both Max and Michael turned to the female voice that sounded behind them. Two blondes and a brunette greeted them. Max recognized them instantly. They were the balcony women from the night before. He felt his cheeks grow warm. Max cast a self-conscious glance at Liz. She was busy chattering with Maria so she didn’t notice the three women loitering around them.

“So,” the brunette said, looking Max up and down, her eyes deliberately undressing him, “you gonna put on another show for us?”

“Yeah, I must say,” said one of the blondes, smacking her lips, “you look just as tasty in clothes as you do without them.”

“But I think I’d rather see you without them,” added the other blonde.

“Maybe you could try that technique you worked on your girlfriend last night with me,” the brunette suggested breathlessly, sliding up against Max. He inched away from her as if she carried some contagious disease. If Liz realized what was going on she would kill him.

Max swallowed and tried to ignore the crazy, “what the hell is going on” look that Michael was giving him. His mind had gone blank from panic and embarrassment. When Max seemed incapable of speech Michael said, “Yeah well, whatever, his girlfriend’s over there behind the jeep. She’s the jealous type. And I know for a fact she packs a Glock. So if you ladies don’t want a bullet in your ass I suggest you run along.”

The three girls glared at Michael and then cast one last hungry look at Max before reluctantly climbing into their car. When they had driven away Michael rounded on Max. “What the hell was that? Who were those girls?”