“I’m not sleeping well. I think that the pie I ate last night was bad. It tasted okay, but I had the weirdest dreams afterwards.”

“You weren’t sick or anything, right?” Liz couldn’t believe that Maria had managed to go almost the whole shift without mentioning what she was sure would become a near-death experience by the time she talked to Alex at school on Monday.

“Nope, just strange dreams. Nothing vitally important or anything. So, how did your date with Max go?”

Liz blushed and coughed as though embarrassed about what she was thinking. “It went well…great…wonderful…” She smiled and ducked her head, looking at the floor whilst she thought of something else to say that didn’t sound too sickly sweet.

“Cool. Anyway, I think your fan club has arrived. I have to go and talk to your Dad about the pie. Don’t want him serving it to any customers…” Maria picked up her order book and walked out the back to where Jeff Parker was sitting, working on the books. Liz looked over to the first booth and grinned when she saw Max, Michael and Isabel take their seats. She picked up her own order book and walked over to their table, already having decided to give them drinks on the house – hey it was her father’s place – she couldn’t show favouritism to Max alone.

“So guys, what’ll it be?” She made eye contact with Max and Isabel, but Michael was looking around the Crashdown as though looking for something, or perhaps someone. “Maria’s talking to my dad, something about bad pie!” She smiled when Michael looked a little confused and relieved. Was there something happening between them again?

Isabel glanced at Max, a grin on her face, and noticed that Max was looking at Michael, a smirk on his face as he watched the normally controlled boy almost blush. “Something wrong, Michael?” Max couldn’t resist a little pushing. He knew that Michael was still very much attracted to Maria, and even suspected that he may have been seeing her in secret, but he didn’t have any proof, and he wasn’t about to alienate his best friend by asking him about something he was obviously uncomfortable about.

“Nothing. I…uh…better go. Need to do the laundry.” He pushed Isabel out of her seat, and then hurried out of the Crashdown as though Valenti were on his tail and he had to get away quick or else risk being caught.

“Well, he certainly left in a hurry. Wonder what bug flew up his butt.” Isabel knew that no one was actually listening to her, Max and Liz were too busy staring deep into each others’ eyes to notice anything. Hell they probably wouldn’t notice if she turned into a little green man with antennae and started mumbling ‘Take me to your leader, I come in peace!’.

Maria had been watching Michael when he ran out of the Crashdown as though the devil was at his heels, but she hadn’t done anything to stop him. These recent sleeping problems of hers had her a little afraid of talking to him. She feared she would say something stupid that would make him think she was still thinking about him, when she really wanted him to think that she wasn’t hurt by his decision to distance himself from her.

Michael looked at the clothes lined up on the floor in his room and waved his hands over them. A few of them actually showed signs of improvement, whilst others were showing obvious symptoms of disintegration. He wished that he had more control over his powers, but knew the only time he had any control over anything less than normal was when he was around Maria, and he didn’t think that his emotions could cope with that pressure. Maria was unpredictable – like his powers – but there was something about her that frightened him, she brought out something in him that he had no control over. He remembered the day he had told her that they had to keep their distance, he had referred to himself as a stonewall, but she had still managed to break through it.

Maria picked up her almost empty can of cherry cola and found herself thinking of Michael. She remembered the way she had shown him how little he meant to her when she had charged him for the drink, at the same time that Liz had given Max his for free. Maybe that had been a mistake, but she had to keep her distance, he was hurting her at every turn even if he didn’t mean to.

She clambered up the stairs and dropped onto her bed, exhausted. Her shift at the Crashdown had been taxing, and all she wanted was to drop into a deep and dreamless sleep that contained no further dreams about Michael and naughty things that she had no business thinking about when she was awake.

She woke up when she heard a noise outside. When she looked over in the general direction of her bedroom window she was both shocked and pleasured to see Michael staring in at her. He tapped on the window again and spoke softly through the glass, his eyes almost pleading with her, “Maria, let me in, please. It’s raining out here.” He knocked on the window again, and a slight grin crossed his too serious face when she climbed out of bed and pulled the window open.

“You’d better try and dry off a little, Michael. I don’t want you dripping all over the floor for the rest of the evening.” Maria tossed a towel across the room and signalled that he should head for the bathroom to get a little drier before keeping her company in her bedroom.

“Maria? Maria, can you come here for a minute?” Maria faintly heard Michael call to her as she drifted back into sleep, she didn’t hear as he whispered his love for her into the silence of the room, or feel as he climbed onto the bed and curled up close to her, making himself comfortable before he drifted off into a sleep that mirrored hers.

His hands stroked down her body, briefly cupping her breasts before continuing down to burrow under her cotton boxers and into the damp warmth between her thighs. She arched into his touch, pressing her hips up gently.

Maria opened her eyes slowly, sensing that she wasn’t alone, and then she remembered Michael. The last thing she recalled was him going into the bathroom to dry off, but now he was in bed with her.

What he was doing to her was sinful, and she knew that she shouldn’t be enjoying this, but she couldn’t help it. This was what all her dreams had been about. Michael in her bed. Michael holding her. Michael touching her. Michael loving her.

He stroked his fingers through the curls at her pussy, enjoying the wet feel of her, which continued to increase with every touch. Her head was arched against the pillow as she gasped for breath.

Michael moaned as she rubbed her cotton-covered ass over his hard cock, making him want, more than anything, the thing that only she could give him, complete satisfaction and perfect inner peace.

He thrust one finger inside her, finding pleasure in her groans and thrusts against his hand and hips. The rhythm of her movements only helped to increase his own intense arousal, and before long he had moved his free hand to his hard cock, and was stroking it, providing much needed pressure, helping to bring him closer to a release.

Maria arched against him again, arcing her neck and crying out at the pleasure he was inciting. He bent his head slightly and licked at her neck. “Mmm, Cherry Coke. My favourite.” Maria remembered the sweet drink she had consumed before falling asleep the first time and grinned. She wondered how she had managed to get some on her neck, but she then noticed the full glass on her bedside dresser, and smiled. Sometime between her falling asleep and being woken up Michael had gone for a drink, and found her secret stash of the soft drink that her mom despised her drinking.

“There isn’t any arsenic in there is there?” She grinned before spinning in his arms and wrapping her arms around his neck. With this more intimate position Michael was able to press his fingers inside her and stroke at her distended clit, exerting a pressure that caused her to lift one leg and wrap it tightly around his hips, bringing her even closer to him.

“Maria, I don’t think you know what you’re doing to me.” He moved his hips against hers, showing her how hard she had made him with her erratic movements against his throbbing cock. He swallowed convulsively when she moved even closer.

Maria flung her head back as he moved his hands away from her body and curled them into her ass, pulling her nearer than she had been before. “What do you want me to do, Maria?” His voice was a breathy whisper in the delicate whorl of her ear, sending shivers down her spine. He stroked her ass with his fingers, delicately parting the cheeks before sliding his finger in the channel before thrusting his thumb in her puckered hole. She was panting as he pressed his thumb further into her, all the while bringing her wet pussy closer to his erect cock.

“Michael…” Her voice was a broken moan as he bent his head to her neck again and bit gently at the flesh, sucking it into his mouth, marking her as his, like a vampire with its pet.

“I know, honey. I know…” He closed his eyes for a moment, gulped in a mouthful of needed air, and then pushed slowly into her. Every thrust of his hips took him deeper into the warmth that only Maria could give him, and with every thrust a small piece of his soul came back to him.

“Michael, I love…oh…I feel…” Her breathing was harsh and shallow as she pushed her hips to meet his every plunge.

Michael could feel the tight walls of her cunt tense around him as she pushed into him and cried out. Her climax consumed him and he followed her. With just two further hard thrusts he felt his balls tighten and his seed spill inside her. “You are the most amazing human girl, Maria DeLuca,” Michael murmured into her ear before easing out of her and cuddling her up close to him, holding her so tightly, afraid to let go in case she tried to leave him.

Maria opened her eyes and gasped when she noticed the sun shining on the golden highlights at the tips of Michael’s hair. He had a smile on his face, and one of his hands was curled around her breast. As she moved he grunted in displeasure, and pulled her closer to him.