This was one of her favorite places to be. Lying with her cheek pressed to his warm skin where she could hear the thunder of his heartbeat in her ear. Her thoughts drifted to her impending two-week separation from Max and she bit her lip. How on earth was she going to make it?

"You will make it." Max’s quiet voice broke into her musings. "And so will I." The last part was said more to himself. He put his hands on her waist and moved her higher on the bed until her head lay close to his on the pillow. Turning on his side, he looked at her gravely: "Will you go on a date with me?"

He always managed to make her smile. "A date?"

"Yeah," he hesitated before continuing. "Our moms want to give you a farewell dinner on Thursday, with the parents and our friends… So, Liz Parker, lady of my heart, will you go on a date with me on Friday night?"

She pursed her lips, teasing him. "Hmmm, I’ll have to check my calendar and get back to you…"

He pulled her closer. "How about I kiss you until you say yes?"

"Okay--." But he didn’t give her a chance to finish. He kissed her deeply, his tongue stealing over her lips and into her waiting mouth. She tasted his love on his lips and felt his need in the caresses of his tongue. Liz ran her hands over his arms, enjoying the hard muscles and the heat of his skin. And suddenly his mouth was gone, he had moved back until their lips were just touching.

"Open your eyes."

It was a gigantic task to get her heavy eyelids to move so she only made a muffled sound of protest. Her eyes flew open, though, when he touched his tongue to her bottom lip.

"Look at me, sweetheart. Look at me when I kiss you." His amber eyes were dark and clear, staring into hers… into her soul.

He touched his lips to hers again while holding her gaze. Even though he was so close to her that her vision blurred, it didn’t dim the intensity of the emotion she saw in his eyes. It was like being burnt by a flame. It was nothing alien or incredible, just plain human feelings. How much he loved her shone from his dark eyes together with the satisfaction that she was his.

Liz felt a whimper starting deep in her body and it grew to a shout in her mind. Yes!

Max reared back from her. "Yes?" His eyes traced her lips, swollen and puffy from his kisses. "Yes to what?"

Liz had trouble breathing, the man should be issued with a warning label: LETHAL KISSER. "Yes… to anything."

He grinned, a smug, wonderful grin. "So, yes you will go out with me AND yes you are mine forever?"

"Yes," Liz sighed.~*~*~*~*~*~ The next day arrived sunny and warm and gave no indication that it would turn out so crappy. Max had left for school early in the hopes that it would keep Tess from finding out that he was not living with his parents anymore. So Liz had to wait for Maria to come pick her up for school and Maria was late. Late, but glowing.

"Oh my god Maria!" Liz cried when she saw her friend and the perpetual smile on her face. "You two did it!"

Maria was completely giddy. "Yeah we did and wow! No wonder you can’t get enough, it’s like a drug!"

This led to a whole discussion on poor Michael’s performance on the way to school, so they were even later when they arrived. Liz could only hug Maria when they finally got out of the car. "Be happy Maria. Or I’ll kick his butt."

Grinning, Maria corrected her: "You mean or you’ll send Max to kick his butt."

"No, you’re my best friend, I’ll do it myself."

The two girls were late for their first class and got tardy notes from their teacher. The day just got more insane from there. Liz seemed to run into Tess around every corner and although the blonde smiled at her every time, Liz couldn’t help feeling uneasy. Her bio teacher wanted to see her over lunch to discuss some of the details of the course she was going to attend and that kept her away from Max too. She was starting to feel like there was a conspiracy to ensure that she saw as little as possible of him before she left when she trudged into the girls’ locker room for the second to last period of the day.

Maria was there, still dancing around on a cloud of Michael-induced euphoria. "Lizzie, we are going shopping this afternoon!"

Liz would rather go home and be with Max. "Why?"

"Because, chica, you and I both have dates with two intergalactic hotties on Friday and I intend knocking Spaceboy to his knees with some new and sexy underwear!"

Liz was starting to grin by now. Maybe Maria had a point, she could also do her part to make their last night memorable. It’s not only Max Evans that can think up amazing things to make life romantic!

"Okay, I’m in! I think I’ll need a new dress too." Liz was determined to be something right out of Max’s fantasies on Friday.

They were all filing out into the gym when Maria looked back and grabbed Liz’s arm. "Ahem… you’re gonna be late for gym."

"Maria, what are you talking--." But she felt him. Max was here. Liz whirled to the outer door and saw him standing just inside, looking at her.

"I’ll cover for you," Maria whispered, "but don’t take too long…" Then she was gone and the locker room was blissfully quiet.

"Max--."

He closed the distance between them quickly. "I haven’t seen you all day. And I was going to go crazy if I can’t at least kiss you." He caught her against him and kissed her breathless, holding her tightly to him while he devoured her mouth. Liz stood on tiptoe and kissed him back, caressing his tongue with hers while her body sighed finally! Was she ever going to get tired of being kissed by Max?

Maria rushed in a few minutes later, causing Liz and Max to jump apart. "Okay Lizzie, long enough bathroom break! The teacher is getting antsy." She grinned at Max who was still staring at Liz’s mouth. "Bye Max!" She dragged a dazed Liz out of the locker room. "I hope you can think of a plausible explanation for the fact that you look like someone just kissed the daylights out of you!"

~*~*~*~*~*~

Liz and Maria hurried to Maria’s car after school, only to see Tess get in the Jeep with Max. He shot Liz a ‘I’m in hell’ look before driving off. Maria watched the whole thing with disgust: "Relentless much?"

Liz sighed. She would much rather worry about how much time she could still spend in Max’s arms before she left, than worry about what Tess was up to again. "Let’s go Maria!"

"Nope, we’re waiting for the Queen of Shopping to join us." Maria grinned. "Isabel would NEVER forgive us if we went to the mall without taking her."

"You’re right," Isabel said from behind them, "I wouldn’t. Besides, no one knows those two idiotic boyfriends of yours better than I do, so I figured you could use my help."

"Whatever," Maria said. "As long as it gets his motor running, I’m happy."

Isabel turned to Liz. "Where is Max going with Tess?"

"I have no idea," Liz shrugged, she could feel Max’s annoyance at his situation and she felt really sorry for him. Tess was truly becoming stalker-like.

"Well, I just want to warn you that she came to our house really late last night wanting to see Max. So I told her he was helping you close up the Crashdown and that I didn’t know when he would be home." Izzy looked at her sympathetically. "Trust Max to get the bride-from-otherwordly-hell!"