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

FORTY-FIVE

He sounded so sure of himself. So calm. Wasn't he nervous at all?

"So," I said, already regretting that I had asked before I finished posed the question. "Have you done it before?"

He was one of the more popular boys of Roswell High after all. But on the other hand, he was also a hybrid. Maybe he wasn't that much into 'experimenting' just for the fun of it. Too much at risk.

Did sex with an alien always lead to a connection or was that something that the alien deliberately initiated?

I frowned, getting distracted by my thoughts.

If the aliens - and hybrids - don't have any control over when to connect, they would never be able to have causal sex. Right? It would be too dangerous. Too risky.

I bit the inside of my cheek, my inner monologue distressing me. Perhaps casual sex equalled memory wipes.

Max's slow reply ripped me out of my thoughts. "I've done stuff."

My distress shifted to instant disappointment. Which was an irrational reaction. Why should I be disappointed? He's had a life before me.

"'Stuff'?" I asked, trying to keep the tone of my voice light and casual. Like I didn't care one bit. Like his answers didn't have the power to rip me apart.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and kept his eyes on the road. "I've never gone all the way."

My body must have believed him, because I felt myself sagging with relief, and his quiet chuckle told me that he had noticed. "Happy about that, huh?"

"I just-" I shook my head in amusement at my feelings and my irrationality. "It's just nice to know that I'm not completely alone in this."

"Oh no," he said slowly, his voice husky, stroking my skin like the softest caress, "You're never alone in this."

I worried my lip, dropping my eyes to my lap, shifting my gaze to watch his large hand intimately interlaced with mine. I was very much aware of the feeling of his hand pressed against mine. That small physical bridge between our bodies made my heart flutter nervously.

Naturally, I whispered, "Aren't you nervous?"

He surprised me by laughing quietly and I looked up at him curiously.

"I'm shitting myself."

My responding laughter was one of relief mixed with incredulity. My request for clarification was hopeful, "Really?"

"I don't know if you've been able to tell, Elizabeth Parker," Max said slowly, his voice dropping an octave. I swallowed with restlessness as heat burned from the most secret parts of me throughout the rest of my body. "But you're it for me."

His words echoed in my head as I tried to make sense of them. Did he really mean...?

"I've always wanted you. I've always watched you, knowing that I could never have you. Knowing that - because of your genetic material - you were meant for the military. You're the most bewitching person... When you walk into a room, it brightens. And I'm not just saying that; everything really gets brighter around you."

I was becoming numb by his beautiful words, flattered and uncomfortable (by that same flattery) at the same time. So I mumbled for him to stop, before I would break down and confess my undying love for him, "Max..."

"I never meant to throw you to the shark, you know," Max said, his voice turning colder and his jaw tightened with guilt along with his left hand around the steering wheel. There was no question about which 'shark' he was referring to. "I had, like Isabel probably told you, thought about the possibility that us bonding in every way possible perhaps could help us unify the bond and save us. To strengthen the bond so that we could fight back."