Liquid Temptation

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. Don't sue. Please.

Max did what she had to do. She steered Logan away from a gut-wrenching fate of horror and misery. She ensured that he would live a long and healthy life without all the onerous burdens she had imposed on him. She walked out of the door hoping never to go back. It would be too painful to see his face after what she did to him. After all she loved him. She remembered that day, when he said he loved her. She remembered the worn leather they sat on and the breeze running through his hair. He finally said it after all this time. It was all her fault- she waited too long. As he left the beat up car, a tear rolled down her flushed cheek and she said it- I love you. She wanted to say it again to Logan- to his face- but she had to stay strong and let him go.

When she got home she called out for OC. No one was home. Silence penetrated her ears. She decided to start dinner without OC and opened the drawer of utensils. She grabbed a knife. She wanted to force it through her wrists- as hard as she forced Logan out of her life- and let the blood pour out of her. Max immediately put the knife down and worked her way over to a seat. She couldn't take it anymore. She needed to get away from her own thoughts.

Crash was full of people. It was the perfect environment. Everyone else was trying to forget about their own problems, just like her. She ordered up a large pitcher of beer. Max was prepared to guzzle the whole thing down her throat, but she kept her composure, just like she always did. Alec noticed her across the room. He stood tall holding his pool pole, staring at her with admiring eyes. Her curves taunted him. Everything about her seemed to taunt him- her stare, her attitude, her smile. Behind all of his physical attraction, Alec felt something else. When she asked him for a favor, he always complied and always wondered why. Never before had he done anything that wasn’t self-serving. It was a hidden admiration- one that he kept from everybody even to himself. He didn’t want to admit this. Love was something to be feared. To him it was something that only brought on pain and suffering. He tried to stop thinking about it and shook his head. Alec now noticed that her lovely visage was slowly being sloshed with glasses full of beer. He decided to stop the game and laid out crumpled bills for his opponent.

"Just take it. I need to take care of something." said Alec. He walked over to the bar. Max was already half-drunk. She looked over her shoulder as Alec approached her. For a minute, she thought she saw Logan. Upon seeing Alec's face, she smiled a little bit. "Hey, Maxie. Mind if I...?" said Alec, as he pointed to the tattered bar stool. Max shyly said, "I won't stop you."

"So what's wrong? You seem quieter than usual. Something up with Logan?" She gave him a half-hearted smile and said no. A small awkward pause lingered in the air. "I broke it off with Logan. He thought that I was with you last night. I didn't bother to tell him otherwise." His face flashed in her head again. "He looked like I shot him in the back." Alec looked at her in surprise, thinking about what this meant. He contemplated for a short while what it would be like to be with her. He shrugged of this twisted notion and replied back. "Why did you..?"
"I wanted to protect him from me. I..."
"You need to tell him"
"Why do you care?” Max’s rude remark dawned on her and she tried to correct it. “I mean...sorry."
"It's okay. Why don't I take you home?"
"I'll be okay. Go home to Joshua. He's alone. I'll get home fine." With that, she stumbled out of her stool and strolled out the door. Right outside the exit she fell onto the hard, rough pavement and purged her stomach. She tasted the vomit as it left her mouth. In that second, her melancholy took over and she let out a wail. Tears flooded her eyes. She wanted to die.

Alec decided to follow her out and found her on the ground, breathing heavily while crying. He had never seen her like that- disheveled and broken. She had always been stronger than him- mentally and physically. He picked her up off of the concrete floor and put her on her bike. Alec took control of the motorcycle and the pair drove off towards Max's apartment.

She lay against the wall, trying to gather her thoughts and focus on what was going on. Alec managed to get the apartment door unlocked using Max's key. He pushed it open and picked Max off the floor once again. He held her arm over his neck and they both staggered into the apartment together. He lay her on the couch and started on some tea. She slowly slipped into a blanketing unconciousness and everything became black.

When she awoke, it was 3 AM. She looked over at the coffee table to find a cold mug of tea. Alec stood near the window looking out at the blank night. He couldn’t bring himself to sleep. He was thinking hard about Max and his intentions for her and if she would want to be with him. He thought about Logan and what he was going through. Alec didn’t enjoy this pensiveness. He wanted Max to be happy, with Logan. If she was with him, he wouldn’t have to entertain these thoughts. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Max rustle in the blanket he put over her, the same way he did that night with Asha. "So you're awake." Max motioned out of the blanket and painfully stood herself up. "Thanks Alec. I would've woken up near a dumpster if you hadn't come." Her legs gave way and she was about to fall back into her seat.
"Max, sit down, relax, sleep."
"Can't. Shark DNA. Hey, where's OC?"
"She wasn't here when we arrived."
"Maybe she found someone. She hasn't been ar..."
"Why did you do it?"
"What do you mean? Logan? I told you already. It's 'cause I care for him"
"You should tell him we're not together." He looked at her coldly, trying to get her to comply. He wanted to be with her, desperately. But he knew she wouldn't be happy with him. She loved Logan. He knew it. She knew it. Everyone did. Alec couldn't stand looking at her so unhappy. He needed her to be with Logan. If she was with him, Alec could forget about all the pain she caused just by looking at him.
"I can't. He could get hurt because of me. I wouldn't be able to handle it if…something happened." Tears welled up again in her eyes. It was like she was reliving a bad dream. She quickly wiped the liquid salt from her lids. Her rational thought took a back seat to her need to get rid of the pain. "Stay with me Alec. I can't stay here by myself. I'm going to go crazy."
It was as if a knife went into him. He wanted to cry too. He swallowed his tears and replied, "Sure Max, I'll be here."
"Be with me." Her heart-broken face swelled and a sad frown wiped across her pouty cheeks. "Please, then all this pain will go away for at least for a second."
A cold sweat covered his forehead. He wanted to say yes. Yes, yes, YeS, YES, yEs! "I can't Max. You don't want to do this- it would kill Logan.” He stumbled with his words as he tried to reason with her. “I know you. This is just the alcohol talking. You'll regret it in the morning." He forced himself to look out the window.
Max walked over to his side. She grabbed Alec's hand with both of hers, looked up at him, and pleaded. "I can't stand being in this skin. It feels like I'm dying. Please. Just treat me like all your other girls."
"You're drunk Max, you don't want this. You lo..." At that moment Max reached up to meet his face and planted her soft lips against his. He felt happy and sad at the same time. It killed him that she was dying inside but elation quickly replaced this. He couldn't help but want her. He let himself go as did she.

Alec released his lips from hers and made his way down her neck. She let out a small groan of pleasure. He sucked her cold skin, like it was candy. Her sweetness rolled around in his saliva, tempting him to get more. Max’s body closed in on his. She wanted to feel- feel something, feel anything. Her thoughts raced in her mind, flashes of Logan over and over again. She shook her head violently, trying to forget and put herself in the moment. She started ripping off Alec's shirt. He let his lips off of her neck to remove the tattered shirt off his arms. Her hungry eyes examined his body. She noticed his ripped chest and ab muscles. She went right to work and started caressing his chest with her desperate mouth. Max nibbled playfully on his now hard nipple. Alec writhed in pleasure and tilted his head back. She loved seeing Alec like this- a victim to her wiles.

She wrenched her thin tanktop off. She wanted to give him a chance to pleasure her. They both inched their way to the couch. Max pushed Alec onto the beaten loveseat and jumped on top of him. He smelled her sweat as her body fell onto his. The musk was almost intoxicating. Alec let his eyes wander around her smooth curves. He followed one of her sweat drops from her brow. It trickled down the curve of her cheek down her chin along the line of her neck all the way to the valley of her breasts. He licked it off of her body. She moaned once again at the pleasure Alec gave her. He moved his tongue to the tip of her nipple. It was almost too much for her. She moved her body down to meet his lips again. Her legs were now wrapped around Alec’s crotch. She could feel Alec's hard dick. She wanted it inside of her.

She reached down to unzip his pants. Max’s face hovered over his crotch. She felt around for the cold metal tab and unfastened it. Max looked down- Alec was now sticking out of his boxers. He took his thumbs and forced them down to reveal his full length. Max was now dripping through her jeans. She let him take her pants off. Alec threw the pair onto the cold stove. She positioned her body over his erection. Max waited one moment and glanced at Alec's face- full of pleasure. She went down on him hard. Her first stroke was violent. His shaft was now covered in the warmth of her cunt. She squeezed her muscles over his throbbing penis, strangling it, making sure every nerve ending touched every nerve ending, and began bouncing her body up and down. With every thrust, Alec's length went further and further into Max. He was getting all the pleasure. He wanted to do this for Max. In a short breath, Alec flipped their bodies over. He positioned Max's hips over the arm of the couch. He stood up and began to pound inside of her. He went in hard and fast. Max writhed in pleasure. Both of them started to look as if they were having a seizure- eyes approaching the back of their heads, quivering, muffled screams.

Max began to lick her lips in anticipation of her climax. Alec saw this. He placed his thumb in her mouth. Max sucked on his salty finger, not knowing what he was going to do with it. He placed the wet thumb over her clitoris and into the top of her vagina. She was now rapidly reaching her climax. She violently shook in ecstasy and screamed out Logan's name. When Alec heard this, reality suddenly flooded back. The spell was over. He immediately stopped what he was doing. Max looked at him in shame. She wouldn't be able to forget her love. He slowly took his penis out of her. Pleasure and pain ran through Max’s body. The shaft felt good as it ejected from her vagina but she felt the cold reality flooding back into her brain. She needed Alec to finish what they started. Alec turned away for a second. Both of them fought back the tears so as to avoid showing their emotion to each other. He looked back to face her.

"Max, we can't do this."
"We can. I need you to be here. You're helping me get through this."
"We're just using each other. We'll hate ourselves in the morning."
"No we won't. Just fuck me, Alec! Fuck me!" She started to violently flail her arms and scratched him on his shoulder.
"Calm down, Maxie. I'll stay with you. We just can't do this." Alec said this as he worked to restrain Max. She surrendered and sobbed into his chest.
"I can't stand feeling this way. I won't be able to survive without him."
Alec's heart broke in that instant. He wanted to die as much as her. "You will. I'll be here to help you."
They gazed at each other and started to slowly put on their clothes. They got back onto the couch. "Alec, can you just lay with me then?"

They both lowered themselves onto the dirty couch. Alec wrapped his arms around Max and they both stared into the empty darkness of the apartment. Max's puffy eyes slowly closed. Her mind began to slow down as she tried to forget what had just happened. She had let herself go. It wasn’t something she usually did. For the most part, it felt scary for her to face her true feelings. But through all this she felt a tiny bit liberated- able to let go and be free to be something else than her cold exterior. She put these thoughts to rest as she tried to sleep. Alec waited for the muffled cries and sniffles to dissipate as he tried to forget the utter happiness he felt during their encounter. He reminded himself that the affection she gave wasn't real, that she was under extreme duress, that she is still head over heels in love with Logan. Once he was sure she was asleep, Alec let out a whisper, saying "I love you, Max." and kissed her tenderly on the top of her head.