DISCLAIMER: All DARK ANGEL characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee (Cameron Eglee Productions) and DARK ANGEL itself belongs to FOX.
ARCHIVE: No
The following short story is based on characters
created for the television series DARK ANGEL,
and is set in the time frame following the Max Allan Collins novel AFTER THE DARK. -- author's note
Complicated
By Valjean
*************************************
Freckles, hazel-green, feline DNA, and snark ...
Dark blond, dark humor, and dark destiny ...
He was a breathtakingly handsome, coiled up supersoldier with the training of an elite assassin, the courage of a rogue, and the heart of a romantic.
Enemy, brother, friend, and liar ... selfish, egotistical, sly, and kind ... his emotions as tangled as his genetics ... this creature she'd named "Alec" was as complicated as any that had ever walked the Earth.
She couldn't trust him ... or count on him ... at least not always ... but God help her when his hard naked heat thrust deep into her loins and his maleness pinned her down as she writhed ... when his full sensuous mouth plundered hers until she couldn't breathe and his strength so easily overpowered her own ... she didn't give a damn about any of that ... didn't give a damn about Logan ...
And thus would be the romance novel description of her affair with X5-494 Max thought tiredly -- if someone ever wrote a sordid flowery paperback about the two of them. The situation she was now in made her want to laugh bitterly at the fickleness of her nature, and cry at the same time over how she was betraying a good man for the mere physical pleasures of another. But oh what physical pleasures they were ...
"You're awful quiet."
"I've never been all that into pillow talk," Max said sullenly. She glanced up at him then, pupils full blown in the dark. Outside a beam of light (probably from one of Terminal City's sentries) swept the window, and his eyes reflected ghostly green like a jungle cat's -- inhuman. But then he smiled and her mind annoyingly lapsed into silent descriptive prose again. God, that boyish, charming, irresistible smile ...
"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" he said, his voice low and teasing laced with the satiated desire of a tom cat who'd just gotten the cream. His finger found one of her raisin-hard nipples ... toyed with it ... She shivered.
"You're a piece of work, you know that?" Max complained, but at the same time snuggling like a kitten into the warmth of his smooth chest as sculpted biceps tightened possessively around her. Nuzzling the fine blond hair of his bare forearm, she instinctively inhaled his scent -- sweat, testosterone, semen, and cat blended with the odor of her own sexual fluids -- a heady aroma that made her dizzy ... an aroma she wanted to remember forever ... an aroma that made her wet as she tasted his saltiness with the tip of her tongue.
It was no use ...
Giving up all pretense of control, Max closed her eyes, sighed deeply, and let herself touch him down there ... beneath the blankets. She wanted to lick him all over ... again ...
His lips brushed the top of her head as he kissed her hair. "What now, Max?" he asked, the words a ghost of a whisper in her ear but their sincerity unmistakable as he quivered in her hand.
He's worried too ... about what we've done ... the consequences ... the repercussions ...
It was her turn to smile -- nastily. "What now?" she said. "Well, I've cheated on the man I love ... with my brother no less which I guess makes it incest." Her fingers paused in their fondling.
"Incest is such an ugly word," Alec said, squeezing her more tightly and breathing against her skin. "I've never thought of you that way, Max. We weren't raised together like you and Ben. We're not--"
She placed a finger against his lips, shushing him. "It doesn't matter," she said quietly. "This," she pressed her groin against his, their privates touching as she cupped his hard ass, "is sinful enough all in itself."
"Max, you're not married to him."
"He'd like me to be."
"And you haven't told him 'yes' yet?" Dark blond eyebrows arched in that Alec-y way which always made Max feel like the other X5 knew something she didn't and was judging her for her lack.
"I can't commit right now," she grumbled, running her hand down the side of his leg, caressing fine fur then moving up to where the hair coarsened to moist wiry curls. Touching the day's growth of beard on his cheek with her nose she added, "You need to shave."
"So do you," Alec quipped, sliding a bare foot along the stubble of her leg.
Max scowled. Logan would never have said something like that to her. But then Alec wasn't Logan ... not by a long shot. Alec's far more honest with me. He won't let me get away with things just so I don't get mad at him. It's one of the reasons I'm falling in love with him.
And there it was. And it scared the hell out of here. Oh, God, Logan ...
"What do you really want, Max?" her bed partner asked. "From me, I mean."
"Do you ask all your one night stands that question?"
"No," Alec said honestly. "Usually I just take my pleasure and leave." He glanced up then, at the window. It was late winter in Seattle ... freezing ... snowing a little ... a bitter night to be alone.
"Go if you want," she said, shrugging, but at the same time dreading how cold the sheets would be without him. I could run to Logan, but his body will never be as warm or his words as true ...
"Do you want me to? Leave I mean?"
"No," she said gently, her fingers now trailing along the soft hairs of his vulnerable belly.
"Sleep then," 494 said. Then he smirked. "Don't worry. I'll still be here when you wake up."
She sensed -- rightly -- that this was a rare thing for Alec to say to a woman ... a huge compliment really ...
"I don't sleep," Max said levelly. "At least not often. Nightmares, ya know."
"I have 'em too," Alec said. "Nightmares I mean. I imagine all of us kids do thanks to Manticore." His breathing slowed. "Are you gonna tell him, Max?"
"Logan and I are honest with one another," she said, sounding priggish even to herself.
"Good idea," Alec's voice rumbled as he rested his chin on top of her head (she could feel the words vibrate in his throat, and for some reason found that incredibly arousing). "Then you'll be free," he continued. "But remember, he's already jealous of me ... always has been, even before you made me your scapegoat."
"I apologized to you for that," Max said quickly, drawing back and looking down at him. "Besides, that was a long time ago. Logan knows we're friends, Alec. He knows I care about you." And he also knows he can't satisfy me in ways that you can.
"He also trusts us," Alec said. "Which is why I feel like a first class jerk right about now." As he spoke, he shifted beneath the covers to stretch his arms, the movement causing muscles to stand out beneath male skin in a way that made her mouth water. She wanted him again ... wanted more ...
And to think I used to complain about his talking ... and his laughing ... even his breathing ... Did he ever really annoy me all that much? Or was I just lying to myself because underneath all the other emotions there was an attraction between Alec and me that I didn't see ... that I shouldn't have denied?
"Would you rather I have gone out and picked up some stranger in a bar tonight?" she countered out loud. "Some ordinary tom?"
Alec sniffed in the cool air of her apartment with disdain. "You're a big girl, Max," he finally said, choosing his words carefully. "You can sleep with whoever you want. I'm not kidding myself. I know that tonight I just happened to be convenient." Once more with the enigmatic, knowing smile. "Then again, maybe it was just the right time for the two of us."
"No," she quickly said, not wanting him to think her choice had been that random. "It didn't just happen, Alec. I've wondered about you and me before ..." Hell, with your looks what girl wouldn't have? "I thought when Logan and I could finally be together it would be different ... that I wouldn't need any more than what he could give. But I was wrong. Tonight ... when it got so bad I thought I'd lose my mind ... that's when I came to you."
"And came for me," he teased. "A couple of times in fact. Is there a 'thank you' in there somewhere, Max?"
"Thank you," she said, sincere.
"You're welcome. But about tomorrow, and Logan, and--"
Once again she shushed him, with her lips this time.
"I can't just give you back to him, Max," he murmured. "Not after tonight."
"I know," she said, tears pricking her eyes. I know.
"Besides," he added in that trademark-Alec, egotistical way. "Admit it. I'm the best you've ever had."
"And aren't you full of yourself!" Max exclaimed, giving him a kick beneath the covers. "I've had better."
"Liar," he said softly, the whole time holding her prisoner with those impossibly beautiful eyes so close to her own that she could count every fleck of green floating in the gold.
But what could she say, she thought. Alec's observation was true. Copulating with a naked 494 for the past hour had been the best sex she'd ever experienced in her life, bar none -- maybe because he was designed by Manticore to be physical perfection in every way, maybe just because Alec was good at what he did, or maybe because she took comfort in knowing that her X5 partner had been burned by love before and therefore would kept his emotions within boundaries ... keep them both safe ...
Or could it be that we really do belong together ... that we're a pair?
"Tonight of all nights I ought to be with him," she tried. "It's almost midnight, and I know he's wondering where I am. He got me a gift. I saw it under the tree."
"Maybe I got you a gift too," Alec countered, sounding a bit miffed.
"You did not. Why would you?"
"'Cause you're my friend, and my sister, and someone who's saved my ass more times than I like to count?"
She smiled, genuinely this time.
"Or could be," he added slyly, "'cause you're the girl I've been waitin' almost three years to do this with." He kissed her again -- hard -- full French in a way he'd never have dared a few hours ago ... his tongue exploring her mouth even as she met him in kind ... a savage, erotic, intimate kiss that once again reminded her of everything she didn't have with Logan Cale.
This is going to lead to other things. I'm not going to be with Logan tonight.
Alec's hand was exploring, making her whimper, but she grabbed his wrist. "What did you get me?" she hissed, amazed by her own excitement.
"You'll find out in the morning," Alec taunted, trying to pull out of her grip.
"It is morning," Max said. "It's after midnight."
Alec rolled over onto his back and shook his head. "If I give you your present, can we have sex again?" he asked, sounding like a plaintive little boy begging for one more cookie.
"Yes," Max said quickly, once again pushing Logan to the back of her mind.
Turning over onto his stomach, Alec reached out to where his black leather jacket was hanging on the back of a nearby chair. From an inner pocket he drew out a computer disc enclosed in a thin plastic case. "Here," he said, gathering the blankets around himself as he handed it to her.
"What's this?"
"Your mother."
"What?" Max didn't understand.
"It's Lydecker's file on your mother," the X5 explained. "Last time I was summoned into the Devil's office I memorized some codes on his computer, then later had Dix hack into his system. It's all that secret information the Colonel keeps usin' to get you to do his bidding. Now you don't hafta be beholdin' to the man any more, which also means neither do I since you have this habit of draggin' me along on your little adventures where -- I might add -- I usually end up gettin' shot on your behalf."
Of course Alec's gift couldn't be totally selfless, Max thought primly. But she still smiled as she held the disc in her hand, staring at it. "Have you seen the material?" she asked softly. "Do you know--"
"Madrid," Alec said quickly. "She's in Madrid, Spain. And since you don't speak Spanish, yes I'll go with you. There, is that enough of a Christmas gift for you?"
"It's ... incredible," Max said, shaking her head in wonder. "Not to mention thoughtful." She regarded him fondly. "Sometimes you still surprise me. You know?"
"Yeah, yeah," Alec said, ducking his head to avoid the emotion in her eyes.
"I didn't get you anything," she said apologetically.
Alec cocked an eyebrow. "That's okay. I think what you've given me tonight is more than enough." His eyes raked her nakedness, his refreshed desire obvious beneath the covers. "Or will be by the time we're done."
"Does that mean you're really staying?" Max asked. And she could tell by the look on his face that Alec knew she was referring to far more than just the night.
"Yeah," he said. "I'm stayin' -- with you. Merry Christmas, Max."
"Merry Christmas, Alec," she said throatily as her lips and hands and body began administering the rest of his "gift."
And as the two transgenics joined together in the nest of their shared bed, in another apartment not very far away the man known to the world as "Eyes Only" sat in grim silence alone by a Christmas tree looking down at the small unopened, gilt-wrapped package in his hand -- a jeweler's box that contained an engagement ring for the girl he loved more than life itself.
A girl who'd just chosen another.
THE END
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