It was late in the evening now, the cool air coming in with gentle waves, coaxing the warm afternoon away. The sun bid adieu to the day, greeting the moon as they crossed paths behind the mountains and the stars were only just starting to sprinkle the night sky as darkness slowly blanketed the fields and villa below.
Gia handed her reigns to the stable boy and fed another treat to Bella. She and the mare had become adept to each other in short order. Riding the rough landscape, guard in tow, Gia remembered Nikolas’s tutelage and Bella, in turn, was patient with her rider.
“Thank you,” she murmured to the gentle creature and Bella whinnied and nuzzled Gia gently before allowing the stable boy to lead her back to her stall. “I clean,” he insisted as she attempted to follow. Nodding to the pathway behind her, he took Bella away.
It was Zander.
He looked much taller and stronger, even in the dimming light. The sight of him made her shiver with anticipation. Electricity seemingly coursed through her veins and she gave her bare arms a rub as she walked briskly towards him.
“Hi!” she said breathlessly, despite not feeling run down.
Zander said nothing for the first few moments, but simply stared at her.
“What is it? Tell me.”
“I have 2 sisters.” His voice was awestruck. “Kristina and Robin. I’ve never met Robin, but she’s a couple of years older than me. Robert showed me a picture. We look alike. I actually look like someone else.”
He seemed dazed as he spoke, as though the information was still settling in his mind.
Gia smiled. “Your Uncle is the Police Commisioner.” She almost mentioned the fact that Mac had been at the cottage the night Zander was shot, but by the look on his face, she anticipated that the connection had already been made.
The picture of Mac Scorpio on that fatal night flashed through Zander’s mind. He’d had plenty of run-ins with Mac over the years, but that image had always lingered in his mind. “He looked horrified. I heard a scream when the shots were fired and I swear, I always thought it was me, but maybe it was him.”
“You think he knew you were his nephew?”
Zander ran a hand through his locks and shrugged. He didn’t like to entertain the notion that Mac had witnessed the shooting of his brother’s child. He was forever troubled by the pain his actions caused others.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Gia spoke up quickly, recognizing the defeatist look on Zander’s face. “You were being poisoned and had no control over any of it.” Cupping his face in her hands, she held his gaze seriously. “I mean it, there is only one person to blame for all this misery and it’s not you.”
Zander took in a few steady breaths, feeling his tension ease. “It’s not my fault,” he finally said, his voice shaky.
“That’s right,” Gia affirmed. “You’re a hard ass and stubborn and sometimes you do stupid things but this is not your bag to carry.”
Zander finally smiled. “You sound like Alexis,” he said, pausing on the last word. Gia pressed her lips tightly together. She wouldn’t say it for him. She wouldn’t dare take this moment from him. His heart pounding against his chest, his voice was clear as he finished his declaration.
“You sound like my Mother.”
Deeply moved, Gia’s hand rose to cover her mouth and her eyes filled with tears as Zander smiled again. He let out a laugh and hearing his infectious happiness, she too let out a giggle. Impulsively, she threw herself at him, hugging him tightly to her. “I’m so happy for you Zander, you have no idea.”
Securing his arms around her waist, Zander gazed at her, the beauty of her café-au-lait coloured skin enhanced in the glow of the crescent moon above them. He decided right then and there that he had never seen her more beautiful, although he anticipated that every time after tonight would be stiff competition. Still, it was a moment that he felt from the tip of his toes to the roots of his hair.
“Gia?” he whispered.
“Yeah?” she whispered back, relishing the feel of his warm breath on her skin. She held onto him tightly, knowing full well that if she didn’t, her trembling would show.
“I’m going to kiss you.” His lips hovered near hers. Hers parted ever so slightly in a wry grin. “Not if I kiss you first.”
With that, silence lingered in the air as Zander and Gia shared their first real kiss. They’d kissed before, but it hadn’t been like this. Emily had hung over them like a layer of frost, making their movements and intentions stiff and awkward and not at all what it should have been. Now, truly unshackled from all of that, Zander felt free enough to really embrace Gia and all that he had not seen and in turn, Gia melted in it, releasing the pent up emotion she’d held at bay for so long and hungrily seeking what she’d wanted from him all along. Tentative at first, but like all good things in life, growing deeper, more meaningful and resonating longer as the seconds on his watch, the one from Alexis, ticked by faithfully, their lips danced to a tune only they knew.
“My room or yours?”
Gia startled at Zander’s hurried query as he broke the kiss. Was he really sure about this? Shouldn’t they talk first? A million questions surfaced for Gia and where she and Zander should bunk for the night wasn’t one of them. “What?” she asked, bewildered.
Zander hesitated, feeling her seize up with uncertainty. Her tongue darted out, licking her lower lip and he longed to take her mouth once again. His nerve endings twitched eagerly. “Look, I know a lot has happened to me but I’m not a child. This is good news, for once!” he said loudly, his face breaking into a grin.
“But Emily,” Gia stammered, “you were in love with her not long ago!”
“I haven’t been in love with Emily for a long time. Clinging to someone and loving them are two different things. When she first left, I was in love. When she came back, I was clinging. Maybe it shouldn’t be that cut and dry, but it is,” Zander explained.
“Well,” Gia said slowly. “We’re not cut and dry. We don’t have to rush.” She implored Zander with a gentle kiss to trust her. “We can take our time.” She inhaled the air deeply and smiled.
“I love jasmine.”
Zander found himself once again doing what he always seemed to be doing around Gia.
Staring. Marvelling her.
“Me too.” He could wait.
He would wait.
*~*~*~*~*~*
“Where have you been?”
She visibly cringed at the challenging tone. “Out,” she grated, moving quickly to the staircase, taking them two at a time. Hearing the echo behind her, she knew she’d have to be more forthcoming to get some privacy. “I was out for a walk. I can still do that, you know.”
She felt the sharp glare of disapproval and sighed. “No, I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?” She paused, waiting for the barrage of questions she felt were sure to follow. Instead, she was met with hesitation.
“Okay, well, dinner’s in 5 minutes.”
“I’ll be there.”
She darted into her room, locking the door behind her. Switching on her stereo, she turned on her computer and threw her backpack on the unmade bed. Dirty clothes littered the floor and she was pretty sure the small pile of books near her bed was overdue. If she didn’t get them back to the library soon, they’d be calling to complain.
Great. More people on her case.
She emptied her backpack and filled it back up with the books. “Oof,” she grunted, putting the laden bag near her door. She turned and surveyed the room once more taking in the posters on the wall and other decorations she’d haphazardly placed about the room over the years. Places she’d been, teen idols she’d crushed after.
Her gaze settled on a huge poster of the Santa Catalina Mountains, in Southern Arizona. She loved it there. She’d hoped to one day live nearby, in Oracle or Tuscon and wake up every morning, look out her front door and be greeted with so much possibility.
Dreams she’d had. Not that anyone ever asked her about hers.
Except for one.
”Santa Catalina Mountains,” he read aloud. “Is it nice there?”
Smoothing unseen wrinkles from her gown for the millionth time, she nodded eagerly. “I went there once with my Great-Grandmother and it was gorgeous out and we just walked all over the place. I mean, it was warm, but not too hot or anything and the views are just amazing!”
He let out a gentle laugh and she blushed. “Sounds a bit stupid, huh? Getting all excited about mountains.”
He looked at her and as per usual, her stomach seemed to drop and a strange feeling coursed through her veins, leaving her heart pounding madly. What was that expression her Mother called? Butterflies in your stomach?
Not to her. More like jackrabbits thumping so loud she wondered if he could hear it across the room.
“No way. You have something in mind, what you want for your life. That’s great.” He glanced at the poster again. “I’ll bet you’ve applied to some of the schools down there, right?”
“If my grades are good enough, I might get in to some of them.”
He watched her curiously and she blushed again. “What?”
“You’re parents don’t know, do they?”
She stilled, not that she feared he’d tell them or caution her choice in keeping her plans from them. Just in the fact that someone guessed something about her and was RIGHT.
She took a seat at the edge of her bed. “A lot has happened to me in the last year.” She paused, not wanting to skew her own culpability in the chaos of the last year. “A lot was me being stupid and selfish and then things just got worst and all I could do was see how all the people who knew me and all the people who’d thought things about me REACT to this huge mess of my life.”
He nodded, understanding the helplessness she’d felt.
“So now, all people see when they look at me is who I turned into for like, 2 minutes, and not who I always was. I mean, why does that have to be all that I am now?” Then, horror of horrors, she began to cry.
In front of a boy.
A boy she liked.
She wanted to stop. Desperately she wiped her eyes, but the floodgates refused to cooperate. He came to her side, Kleenex box in hand and squeezing next to her, gave her a hug with one arm wrapped around her. “You can cry in front of me Maxie, I understand.”
Her reverie was interrupted by the sound of her e-mail account beeping excitedly. Plopping into her chair, she quickly set to work, deleting all the advertisements, glancing at a few school related messages before her gaze settled on one curious e-mail. The headline said it all:
“Do you remember the song we danced to?”
Maxie’s mouth dropped open slightly, her eyes widening in shock. Only one person would have known about that night and that dance and he was dead. Her finger hesitated clicking it open. The last thing she needed to read was another cruel jab about ‘Maximum Maxie’. When that nightmare had happened she’d gotten many harassing e-mails a day, all re-directed to Mac’s account. They’d been dealt with swiftly by the PCPD and for the most part, the e-mails stopped, save for the occasional one every month or so. It had been a difficult time for her and Mac to get through and not one she wanted to ever revisit.
Still, nobody else knew and the idea of Zander being alive was too tempting to resist. She had just begun to accept the fact that he was gone.
Dear Maxie,
I know what you’re thinking, so stop thinking it. It’s really me. I can’t talk too much about things, but I wanted you to know that I’m both alive and safe. I’ll contact you soon.
Z
Maxie sat stunned. There was simply no way this was true. Someone was playing with her. Her eyes drifted to the return address, finding it to be an account she wasn’t familiar with. It wasn’t a generic one, like hotmail or yahoo, which might, in fact, make it more credible. She re-read the message once more. It couldn’t be real.
But what if it was?
Just about anyone else would have left her feeling scammed, but Zander was different.
She could believe it. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how desperately she wanted to believe it. The boy who had danced with her. The boy who had looked around her room and knew what her hopes were.
The one who had looked at her and seen HER. How she missed him.
She grabbed the same Kleenex box he had extended to her many moons ago and let out a gentle, almost relieved and excited, sob.
“Maxie! Dinner!”
With a small smile, she dabbed her eyes and reached for the phone. If she was going to find Zander, she’d need some help. There was only one person who might be inclined to hunt down this e-mail address and the person who wrote it.
*~*~*~*~*~*
She loved her robes. She had hundreds, but there were a select dozen or so that she took with her on every trip. Various colours and shadings. Different markings with a variety of meanings, all suited to describe her constantly changing moods.
Tonight’s was a rich plum coloured with striking pattern, almost Middle Eastern to an untrained eye, but its intention was clear. Strength, knowledge and of course, royalty.
She was a Queen, after all.
Propped on a mound of soft pillows, wearing little more than the silky robe, which billowed open around her frame like a wave, she watched Alec as he lay on the floor, doing one of his many exercises that kept him in the shape she enjoyed so much.
“Darling,” she purred as she delicately pulled off an old petal from the blood red roses Alec had filled the room with earlier, “come to bed. You mustn’t get too exhausted, we have so much to do in the morning if we are to stay on schedule,” she reminded him.
“I am aware of that Madame, I won’t be too long,” he replied as he continued his vigorous work out. Helena watched him in silence, seeing the sweat glisten off every bit of unclothed skin as muscles contracted and relaxed again and again. It was both intoxicating and inviting. Delicately, she dipped her hand into the crystal cut vase and cupped a small amount of chilled water. With a wicked smile she let it cascade from her hand and watched the rivulets hit its target in the middle of Alec’s chest. He jumped up with a yelp and she let out a peal of laughter, thoroughly pleased with herself.
Alec stood and grabbed a nearby towel to dry himself, a slightly cross expression on his face. Helena pouted at him. “My poor, sweet Alec. I’ve ruined your evening, haven’t I?”
Alec allowed a smile. Two could play at this game. Quickly his hand took her wrist and he pulled her from the bed towards him until she thumped against his chest. “Madame, you need to learn patience,” he murmured in a low growl, pulling the robe from her in a jerk, but taking care to not tear or mistreat it in any way. It was a favourite of hers, and she would punish him if he was careless. He had heard the stories of Ari, Andreas and the other men who had been at her side over the years. He did not intend on making the same mistakes they did.
Fire flicked in her eyes at the warning in his tone. He laid the robe on a nearby chaise carefully. Turning back, he found that she had already returned to the bed, waiting for him. Bending his head to one side, he clucked his tongue disapprovingly. “Again, you are much too impatient. You will need a good lesson tonight,” he promised, crawling onto the bed towards her.
“Agreed,” she sighed as he settled himself between her thighs. Alec had brought something to their arrangement that no other could. The excitement in the unexpected. In the past it had never frightened her, but it had left her uncertain, even unnerved over the years. She was a meticulous woman in her planning and had fought the tide of her plans going awry again and again.
Not anymore. Alec had shown her a fresh perspective on things and now she relished the unseen. It filled her with the kind of power she’d never encountered before and she found it almost always gave her the upper hand.
“You wicked boy,” she scolded Alec as he began to torture her with his feathery touch, placing kisses along her collarbone. He gazed at her and produced four amber coloured scarves from the bedside table drawer. “Wickedness is the due reward for impatience,” he growled. “Tonight, you will have your first lesson.” He took her right wrist and began to tie it to the wrought iron bedpost. Of course, she feigned her resistance, lightly protesting his plan for the evening but Alec paid little mind to her pleas. He followed suit with the other three until she was completely helpless. Or rather, completely ready and willing for whatever torture he intended. Her spine tingled and she trembled expectantly.
“Tonight is my night for the unexpected,” she acknowledged, her whisper like a caress against his cheek.
“Tomorrow is theirs.”
*~*~*~*~*~*
Maxie took the stairs two at a time, running up the flights, full of energy. Finally reaching her destination, she banged on the door at a rapid clip, hoping he was in.
“What?!?” he barked, yanking the door open irritably. Blinking in surprise at his guest, he said nothing more and neither did Maxie as she couldn’t help but notice him dressed in nothing more than dark grey sweats, which hung dangerously low on his hips.
“Hi!” she finally squeaked, finding her voice. “I need your help.” Thrusting the e-mail she’d printed out, she averted her gaze, willing her cheeks to stay their normal colour and not blush to the shade of a ripe tomato. She had to get better at this. She couldn’t be like this with EVERY guy she’d crushed after.
He rubbed his hair with one hand while reading the crumpled sheet with the other. His brows arched as he got to the end but he said nothing.
Maxie hated the silence as she shifted from one foot to the other outside his apartment. “Sorry if I woke you up,” she blurted out.
He re-read the letter once more before finally opening the door wider to allow her inside the small bachelor pad. “When did you get this?” he asked, shutting the door behind her.
“Like, an hour ago, I would have come sooner but I had to eat dinner. Anyway, I don’t know when it was sent.” Maxie looked around the un-kept room, deciding that the ugly chair at the kitchen table was the best place to sit. The bed looked used and quite frankly, the last few times she’d been with a guy in a room with a bed, she’d either cried or had sex. She cringed at doing either again anytime soon.
“Why didn’t you take this to your Dad?” He flopped in the seat adjacent to her, obviously too engrossed in the letter to put a shirt on. Placing her gaze squarely on a painting hanging on the wall over his shoulder, she concentrated on the blobs of colour as she answered his question. “We don’t get along too well, and he’s been really moody since the shooting at the cottage.”
His gaze flicked to her for a moment as she mentioned the night Zander was killed and he held it. She didn’t trust herself to look at him. “Besides, you kind of a have a reputation for knowing how to find things out.”
“That’s true,” he said with a charmed smile. She caught it out of the corner of her eye and her mouth went dry. Why was he so damn good to look at? “I don’t know about this, though,” he said dubiously.
“Please! I need to know if someone is playing a sick joke or if Zander really is alive!” Maxie exclaimed.
His eyes slowly dropped down and Maxie’s eyes followed suit. To her horror, both of her hands had somehow clutched onto his hand and muscular forearm. She yanked them away as though burned by his touch and felt her face heat up. Damn!
“Alright,” he said. “I’ll look into it for you.”
Oh, no. She wasn’t going to skip home and wait by the phone for his call. “You’ll help me,” she clarified. “This is still my show.” Even if she blushed every second of the way. Her friendship with Zander was one of the few important things in her life. She wouldn’t just hand control over like that.
His lips twitched with amusement. “For now, but if it gets serious, we’re bringing your Father into it. Deal?” He held out his hand.
“Deal.” Her hand took his, and she practically swooned. He took little notice of her state and shook it firmly before standing.
“So, what do you think we should do first?”
Grabbing his phone, he dialed a number quickly. “I’m not sure why, but this has Cassadine written all over it.”
“Bad way or good?”
He gave her a smile and a wink. “Probably both.”
He crossed one arm in front of his chest and like a magnet, her eyes zeroed in on the well built physique that seemed to taunt her. “Great,” she managed cheerfully.
“So, who are you calling?”
“My brother,” Lucky replied, his crystal clear blue eyes radiating with intelligence. Both Alexis and Nikolas had departed Port Charles within hours of each other and Nikolas had given a vague reason. Now this?
Something was definitely up.
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