Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie · (Roswell Fanfiction) · √

FORTY-EIGHT

I didn't dare to move from my hiding spot, afraid that Mr. Evans would still be lurking around.

Instead I remained there until I heard footsteps on the stairs. The door was quietly pulled open.

His face was noticeably different from when he had left me earlier. It was like his life force had been drained out of him. His eyes flickered over my face, but he was avoiding meeting my eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

My heart ached and tears were threatening to fall at the cloud of rejection around him. Instead of answering, I left the hiding space within the hanging clothes, closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around his rigid body, pressing my cheek against his chest.

"Are you okay?" I countered and he didn't respond for the longest of moments. His arms hanged passively by his sides, his body remained unyielding and closed off as I tightened my embrace.

"I'm fine," he said quietly, completely devoid of emotion.

I took a shuddering breath, pulled back and looked up at him. Placing my hand against his cheek, I forced him to look at me, "Hey. It's me." There was a sparkle of something unreadable in his blank eyes. "You don't have to be brave around me."

I saw him swallow and felt a tremble run through him. Raising to the tip of my toes, I softly brushed my lips against his. I pulled back slightly to see that his eyes had drifted closed, a pained expression on his face.

My heart clenched painfully before I reached up again and fused our lips together in a firmer kiss, capturing the shudder that moved through him, before I put my arms around his neck, forcing him to bend slightly to accommodate our difference in height as I coaxed his mouth to open and deepened the kiss.

At the same moment as his arms (finally) moved to circle my waist, I felt the comfortable hum at the back of my mind and with every brush of my tongue against his, with every finger I pushed through his hair and every circle he was painting with his hands across my back, the hum grew stronger.

Until it cracked wide open.

His sharp inhalation hinted that he could suddenly feel me again; every single emotion. Tightening my hold on him, inching even closer as I pressed my body against his, I wanted it to be returned. I wanted him to take his walls down.

"Let me see you," I whispered against his lips.

His fingers curled into the back of my sweater as he whispered back, "No."

I might not be able to read his mind, and I could barely sense his feelings, but still his unspoken addition to that refusal whispered through the air.

Not right now.

"Don't hide from me. Please. I need to feel you."

He pulled back, emotion now clear and stormy in his eyes with the light from the hallway behind him highlighting the blush of desire on his cheeks.

"Please," I whispered again, sliding my hands down the front of his shirt. He captured them around the wrists when they reached the middle of his abdomen. His hold burned alluringly against my skin and he just held my wrists as he dropped his eyes.

I frowned, worried. Without his eyes, I had completely lost contact with the emotional play on his face. "Max?"

Then his eyes blinked up and his gaze sucked me into the inner workings of Max Evans. My next breath was deep while blind-sided as his thoughts rushed towards me.

He can't just send me away. I never want to go back to that place. He'll remove you. He'll remove you from my mind.

He trembled as he looked at me and I had no thoughts of my own, my mind occupied with listening to his.