Not opening her eyes, Liz smiled against his warm skin. This was one of her favorite things in life, waking up in Max’s arms. His gentle stroking of her hair made her feel like a pampered cat, she just wanted to lie here and purr. Last night had been nothing short of incredible, but they ended up so exhausted early this morning that nothing could keep sleep away anymore. She shifted slightly, still too lax to really move, but trailed her fingers over Max’s stomach, watching the little tremors under his skin follow her touch. Max had been mortified when she saw one of his dreams from last week in a flash. Being Max, he tried to control his waking fantasies so that she couldn’t see anything really wild by accident when they kissed or made love, but he had no control over his dreams. She had always known that he had a thing for her hair, but seeing that dream of his completely stunned her. So he liked having her hair all over him? Hmmm, she could do something with that knowledge later…

Grabbing her hand to stop her from creating a problem for him, Max brought it to his mouth for a kiss before asking: "How about some breakfast, beautiful?"

Finally opening her eyes, Liz pouted at him and moved over his body until she lay completely on top of him. She rested her head on her crossed arms on his chest and wriggled around until she was comfortable, pretending not to hear Max’s soft gasp. She faked a surprised look when his hands came up to grip her hips and still her movements.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he asked with a strained voice.

She giggled. "No… So are you hungry?"

"Yes!" It was a low growl and had very little to do with food. His hands were now stroking her bottom and the backs of her thighs.

She looked at him for a few moments, enjoying the look of intent desire on his face, before she got up and tossed: "I just have to take a quick shower," over her shoulder at him.

Max was flummoxed. He lay on the bed and watched her cute tush disappear into the bathroom and wondered what the hell had just happened. The little minx had completely played him! Throwing back the covers, he grimaced as he got out of bed, his muscles were still screaming in protest. No time to worry about that now, he had to get back at Liz for this one.

He caught her stretching her body in the bathroom and she looked at him with a blush. "I overextended some parts of my body, I think…"

Guilt came tearing through Max. "Oh god, honey, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—. I mean—. I should’ve treated you better!" Why hadn’t he realized before that if his body hurt, Liz’s must feel ten times worse. He rushed over to her side. "Let me help!"

"Max!" Liz cried in exasperation. "Did it look like I was complaining last night? Or that I’m complaining now for that matter?"

He was unconvinced. "No. But you never complain about anything." He took a deep breath. "Maybe we should just… just take it slow today."

Liz gaped at him fleetingly before narrowing her eyes sternly: "No Max. We’re NOT going to take it slow. YOU are going to fix me up and then the problem will be solved."

His gaze flickered away from hers uncertainly. "I guess… Liz, I don’t want you to feel like… like you have to."

"Don’t make me show you how stupid that comment is, Max. What is wrong with you? I thought we were past all this?"

Suppressing the horrible and demeaning image of Liz still imprinted on his memory from that Tess-induced dream he had last Sunday night, he tried to collect himself. "I-I just—. Just let me help you. Please."

Liz looked at him assessingly and wondered what had made him so paranoid about looking like he was abusing her body.

He pulled her into the shower with him and, together with the warm water, his gentle hands chased all the aches from her muscles. Afterwards, she stepped closer to him and gave him a sweet kiss. "Thank you. My hero."

Max blushed before staring into her eyes intently. "Liz… I-I love you. So much. And… and I would never treat you like… like a thing, to be used. You know that, right?" He sounded anxious.

Frowning, Liz cupped her hand over his cheek, ignoring the water that threatened to run into her eyes as she looked up at him. "Yes, Max. I know that! And there is a big difference between what happened last night and using me. We made love. YOU made love to me. Every touch spoke of love. That’s not using me, that’s loving me."

Some of the fear drained from his gaze as he brushed her hair back from her face repeatedly. "Promise you will tell me if you ever feel like I was—"

She stopped him with a finger on his lips. "No, I won’t promise you, because it would never be necessary. Max, you would never do that!" She waited a few beats before continuing. "Please tell me what happened to make you feel this way? Was it… was it me? Was it something I did?"

His eyes widened in shock. "No!" he fairly yelled. "I mean… no. Its… its nothing. I’ll stop. I promise."

He was hiding something from her and Liz felt a little hurt by it, but she decided not to press the issue now. Instead she handed him her shampoo and let him wash her hair. By the time he was finished, they were locked in a tight embrace, kissing as if they hadn’t already tried to make up for the week apart last night.

Max carried her back to their bed, not caring that they left a wet trail from the bathroom. He kissed her softly and tenderly, sucking at her lower lip while his hands held her close to his heart. They had just tumbled onto the bed when the phone started ringing. "Ignore it," Max muttered against her throat.

"What if its your mom?" Liz said breathlessly and fumbled for the instrument while trying not to get too far away from his mouth.

"I don’t care. Leave it." He attempted to catch her flailing hand, but she managed to evade him and grab the phone.

"Hello?" Liz bit her lip in an effort to stop a moan as Max’s lips drifted over her shoulder blade and moved lower.

"Hi Liz?" The voice sounded unfamiliar and Liz thanked her lucky stars that it WASN’T Diane Evans who would have had no trouble guessing why Liz was sounding so strange.

"Yeah?"

"Its Stacey and Kristy and the gang! We thought we’d all have breakfast together here at your hotel? You haven’t eaten yet, have you?"

Liz was having serious trouble following the conversation. Max had progressed to her stomach and was busy drawing lazy little patterns with his tongue low on her belly. What did the voice say? Oh yes, something about breakfast. "Uhm… ahh… breakfast. Yeah, breakfast seems…like, ah… like a good idea."

"Okay great! We’ll meet you in the restaurant downstairs! Is Max coming too?"

Squirming under Max’s continued attack of her body, Liz tried to concentrate. Max… Something about Max coming… Liz bolted upright in the bed, startling Max. She was completely panicking. Did she say something to give them the idea that Max was… that she was…

"Liz? Will Max come down to breakfast too? We’d all like to meet him."

Oh. OH! ‘Max coming’ referred to him going down to breakfast with her. Not… She cleared her throat. "Yeah, he’ll be there."

Max was mock-glaring at her when she finally put the phone down. "Did you just tell someone we’ll have breakfast with them?"

Her eyes widened. "Yeah… Max!" she cried, "this is all your fault! You distracted me. Now I can’t even remember who I talked to!" Liz searched her memory wildly. It was a girl. Yes! That’s it, it was Stacey. Max was going to kill her… "Uhm, well, Stacey and some of the people from my course is downstairs for breakfast…"

"Stacey?" Max looked blank.

Liz leapt from the bed, ignoring her body’s protests that it was frustrated and needed Max more than breakfast. "Get dressed, Max! They’re waiting and I really don’t need to give them more fodder for gossip."

Max observed her frantic running around the room with amusement. "Do you have any idea how cute you look right now?" This halted her momentarily and she blushed.

"Max!"

He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay. But you owe me. Big!"

They arrived downstairs 15 minutes later. Liz blanched when she saw that 4 other people were sitting at the table with Stacey and Kristy. They had brought two guys and two more girls from her class. The girls were all gaping at Max and Liz held his hand tighter, trying not to glare at them. They were obviously here to scope out Max and she wasn’t about to share him with anyone else during his short time here.

Max gave her one of his crooked half-smiles before doing the round of introductions. Liz felt marginally better that he didn’t let go of her hand while doing it, but she couldn’t believe the blatant way these other girls were flirting with Max! She had forgotten that in Roswell, everyone knew her and Max were together, so none of the girls, bar the occasional brazen hussy, even bothered anymore. Seeing girls throwing themselves at him like this was a new experience for her. Not all of them were that obvious. It was clear that Stacey was hanging onto Max’s every move but she did nothing except giggle. However, the one other girl, Erica, was definitely trying to get Max’s attention.

It didn’t take long for Max to become irritated and frustrated. He had dragged Liz’s chair close to his before sitting down and he made sure that she was within touching distance… and that he was touching her. His body was screaming for more of her, but here he had to sit and listen to silly giggling about things that weren’t even funny to him, while the two guys were making puppy eyes at Liz. He stared them down. Damn! Where was alien death ray vision when you needed it? He ate some stuff, but he didn’t really notice what it was. His attention was focussed on Liz and on how long it would take her to eat what she had left on her plate.

Liz turned her head and her eyes met Max’s. She fell into his gaze headlong and forgot all about the rest of the group. His eyes were sending her a million messages at once and she watched in slow motion as his hand came up to brush her hair behind her ear.

He dimly registered that Erica was saying something, but his mind had trouble making that a priority above the feel of Liz’s silken hair and skin against his fingers. His gaze dropped to her mouth. Her beautiful luscious mouth…

"Max?" His name being said rather petulantly brought him back from the brink. He shot Liz another glance before turning to answer the girl. Damn, what was her name again?

They made an effort from then on to stay part of the discussion around the table, but their intense awareness of each other was unmistakable to the rest of the group. They did stuff instinctively, like pass each other the salt, without being asked. Liz gave Max one of her packets of sugar when their coffee arrived, because he liked his sweeter than she did hers. It was effortless and obvious. This was a real couple, not a teenage fling.

After the group had left, Max looked at Liz, wondering what she wanted to do now. He knew what he wanted to do, but maybe he should stop acting like a sex-starved barbarian for a few hours. That image of Liz from the Tess-dream flitted across his mind again. "So, do you want to show me a little of Boston?" he forced himself to ask.

Liz glanced at him uncertainly. Something weird was going on with him again. She felt it through their connection. Something was still bothering him. "Yeah… I guess." No, I don’t want to. I want to go back to my room and just be with you!

They ended up on a train and Max pressed Liz’s back against him, folding his arms around her as they stood in the packed car. They were both quiet and he wondered what she was thinking.

When they got off at their stop, Liz turned to him and said solemnly: "I want to go back, Max. I’d really rather just be with you than…" She waved her hand at their surroundings. "Please?" Her voice became even softer: "Unless you really want—"

He grabbed her face in his hands, relief flooding through his body. "God no! I thought… Nevermind! Let’s just go back, this was a really stupid idea!"

"So this was all for my benefit? Because you had some crazy idea that I wouldn’t want to—"

He kissed her hard. "I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget that I should just be me with you. Just be honest…"

She met his eyes. "Yes, you can be a real idiot sometimes. Now let’s go back so I can punish you for this!"