Perfectly Matched—Chapter 3

 

After three days, there was still no knocking to interrupt the heated couple.  494 slowly opened his eyes after a long, incredibly erotic night.  He reached out for Max, sitting up abruptly when he couldn’t find her.  Shoulders shaking, she stood in the corner of the room already dressed. 

 

“Are you ok?” he asked awkwardly.  Things had gotten pretty crazy, had he hurt her? 

 

“Fine.” She said quickly.  “Don’t we have training now?”  She didn’t look at him.

 

Leaning to grab his clothes off the floor, 494 frowned.

 

“What’s your problem?” he asked finally, not liking the way she was practically ignoring him.

 

“Why, you want to go again?” she sneered, her mouth twisting.

 

494 raised his eyebrows.  “That an offer?” he almost snickered at her expression.

 

Max wanted to pace…to scream…to kick his ass.  Or maybe just let him kick hers.  What had she done?  And not just once, but…well, a lot more than once.  She didn’t want to think about the actual number.

 

“Well, as much fun as this is, 452…” Alec slipped his shirt on and fastened his belt.

 

“Max.” she whispered.

 

“What?” he asked.

 

“Max,” she repeated, “It’s my name.”  For a second, her eyes glinted.  “You should have one too.”

 

“Isn’t that a boys’ name?”  he asked impishly.

 

“I’m going to call you Alec.”  She said, ignoring his question.

 

“Alec?”  he asked, testing it.

 

“Yeah, as in smart…?”  She let him fill in the blank.

 

Alec smirked, “Works for me.” 

He winked at her, opening the door.  “I’d love to hear you scream it.” 

 

Max glared at him.  “You know, my next choice was Dick.”

 

“You don’t mean that.  See you in training.”  Alec grinned and shut her door.

 

He did see her in training, but she avoided eye contact.  In fact, she didn’t pay attention to much of anything that day, and went down hard a couple times.  She didn’t seem to care.

 

“Come on, 452, where’s the wildcat I know?”  There was no outright laughter at this remark, THAT just wouldn’t be Manticore appropriate, but several lips were twitching.  It wasn’t a secret that they had spent 3 days locked in a room together and it was even less of a secret what they had been up to in there.

 

Fire leapt from Max’s eyes and she glared at Alec.  Unfortunately for their trainer, he chose that moment to swing a fist at her, which she blocked, turning so that her elbow came to swift contact with his cheekbone.  She didn’t take another hit all day.

 

Alec grinned to himself.  That’s what he thought.

 

“Way to go, Maxie.” He whispered to her as she walked by.

 

“I pretended they were you.”  She smiled at him sweetly.

 

Renfro walked onto the training grounds and everyone lined up, at attention.  She immediately dismissed everyone who was not yet part of the breeding program, then approached every couple.

 

She wanted a report from every pair.  There were only four.  When she got to Max and Alec, she smiled slightly.

 

“I’ve heard you threw three guards out of 452’s barracks, 494.”

 

“They were attempting to interfere with the mission, Ma’am.”

 

“Of course, 494, you did the right thing.  They weren’t acting under my orders.”

 

That surprised Alec, but he didn’t let it show.

 

“Well, 452, what would your boyfriend say?”

 

Max didn’t respond.

 

Alec’s eyes flickered, but no one noticed.  Boyfriend?  Was that why she had been crying?  Felt bad cheating on him?

 

“Everyone’s dismissed but 452.  452, come with me.”

 

Alec watched her walk with Renfro, wanting to go with for some reason.  He shook his head and casually walked over to a guard who owed him a favor.

 

“Keep me up to date on anything you know about 452.”  He said quietly, letting the man know he owed him this.

 

“This an order from Renfro?”  The guard asked suspiciously.

 

“This is an order from me.  Renfro can relocate you, but I can kill you.  Remember that.”  Alec gave the guard a smile and tossed him the pills he liked so much.  He strolled off back to training, confident he would get a constant stream of intelligence on 452…Max.

 

When he got to her room that night, she seemed disturbed.

 

“Something wrong?” he asked, walking through the door.

 

“Other than you being here?  Nothing.”

 

“Oh, come on, we have a date.”  He plopped down on her bed.

 

“You mean like our last ‘date’…?”  she asked, glaring at him.

 

“If you insist, but I don’t think anyone will burst in this time.”

 

“Oh, but that turned me on.” She rolled her eyes, pacing the room.

 

“Aww, and here I didn’t think you cared.”  He wasn’t sure what it was about her look of death that so entertained him, but he could tell when she wanted to terminate his existence with her eyes and somehow, he loved it.

 

“I care that you’re on my bed.”

 

“Oh, I know this is where you want me.”

 

“Oh, I want you…to leave.”

 

“Oh, Maxie, when you say stuff like that it hurts my feelings.”

 

“Don’t call me Maxie.”  She said hoarsely, staring at him strangely.

 

Alec stopped joking with her.  “What’s wrong?”

 

“Ben called me Maxie.”

 

Ben.  His twin, the one that flipped out and cost him 6 months in PsyOps.  Alec couldn’t say that he particularly cared about BEN’S feelings on the matter, but her face was stricken.

 

“Sorry, Max, I’m not trying to remind you of your friend.”

 

“My brother.”  She corrected automatically.

 

“BROTHER?” he asked, alarmed.  Was somebody not telling him something?

 

“We grew up together,” she told him.

 

They were LIKE siblings, Alec thought with relief.  They were not ACTUALLY brother and sister.  “Almost gave me a heart attack.”  Alec muttered.

 

Max looked at him in confusion.  “What’s your drama?”

 

“You don’t just tell a guy that the girl he had wild sex with the day before is the sister of his brother.  This is 2019 and we aren’t down south.”

 

Max rolled her eyes, but could see his point.  Part of the reason she was having such a hard time with this was because he looked exactly like Ben.  How could she have slept with someone EXACTLY like Ben?  Heat, of course, but did that mean she would have slept with Ben in such a situation?  She shuddered at the thought.

 

“Exactly.”  Alec muttered, apparently seeing her expression.

 

Now that they were talking in a somewhat serious manner, Max sat down on the bed next to Alec.  He looked surprised, but she asked him the question that had been on her mind.  “How…how likely do you think it is I’m pregnant?”