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They were fucking Gods. They had goddamn superpowers.
So why did Safi feel so lonely, so broken and aimless?
She knew why—Max.
After the storm, her monumental fuck up, Max had promised to wait for her. What Safi wished she’d done instead was agree to leave with her. Because the honest truth was, Safi didn’t care about finding more people like her—like them. Not really. What she really did was run away.
From Max. From her feelings. From accountability.
So, she took Diamond and they hit the road. Poor Diamond had been excited for the journey, had no idea that Safi was really just trying to drown out her seeping self loathing and unrequited feelings for one Professor Max Caulfield.
God—Max.
So sweet, so giving. Sometimes, Safi envied her power. She envisioned how she would change her whole life if she had the power to alter time. But then she also knew that she was the worst choice for that kind of power, that actually, Max was the best suited for it. If Safi had the ability to rewind, she’d probably have destroyed reality already.
It pained her to see how Max still suffered from shame and guilt—how she blamed herself and her power. She wished she could have stayed and tried to help her with it and let Max see that her power was an extension of her, given to her because she was meant for it.
But Safi, in some sense, was a coward. Why else did she manifest the ability to hide her face away? Assume another identity?
She tried to move on, she really did. Where did one start, though, when searching for other people with supernatural abilities? Safi heard whispers of two brothers and telekinesis, but they had no luck finding them. Diamond grew frustrated first, Safi just grew numb.
Because after all, this search was just a farce. It was a way for Safi to pretend she had any meaning at all. That she hadn’t just been brought back to life on a whim—that fate, or the universe, or whatever-the-fuck, had a purpose for her other than hopelessly pining after Max.
Who wouldn’t fall head over heels for Max though? Moses, maybe.
But Safi saw it—Vihn, Amanda. Saw the heart eyes they had for Max, and Safi did her best to just be the friend Max needed. Unlike them, Safi actually understood the many mysterious layers that were Max Caulfield. She knew about Max’s powers, the loss of her childhood love, the guilt and trauma she still experienced, and she understood that Max wasn’t ready to fall in love with anyone else yet, if ever.
How did someone move on from that?
Safi couldn’t imagine the levels of fucked up she would have been if she had to sit idly by and let Maya’s death happen a couple of steps from her. Max’s strength never failed to leave her in awe.
So, for both of their sake, Safi left. Max promised to wait for her, and it seemed that was exactly what she was doing. Max tried to keep in contact, but Safi was trying to wean herself off of Max. It still hurt to leave her texts unread, to ignore her calls.
Ignoring her mother was easy. But Max? Fuck, she didn’t deserve that.
Somewhere along their journey, Safi met someone that lit a tiny spark of something, and because she was so desperate to stop dreaming of and thinking about Max, she pursued it aggressively.
Shouldn’t have been a surprise when things ended badly. It just affirmed what Safi already feared—she was unlovable. She would die alone. Probably die young.
The mental break she had after that was… epic, to say the least. No, she didn’t have a shifter-meltdown like last time. She didn’t let her powers worm into and nearly crush the minds around her, and she didn’t cause a new storm.
All Safi did was get shit face drunk, sob her broken heart out and then vow to never live as herself again. She didn’t talk to anyone for like, three days, and she knew it freaked Diamond out. But Safi was too far gone on her own pain to even really care.
All she could think about was Max. She yearned for her with a force so powerful that sometimes she felt like she couldn’t breathe. This wasn’t normal—it wasn’t sane. But that was Safi’s life.
She was a living dead woman. A paradox. An abnormality, a stain. Fuck, the self loathing was creeping in again.
As the days turned into weeks, Safi became more tempted to text Max back, especially after that terrible breakup. But she always hesitated and decided not to.
Yet, she sometimes got the sense that she could feel Max. She knew somehow deep in her soul that Max was thinking about her. Worrying about her.
She shouldn’t.
The journey was a failure, and Diamond kept looking at Safi like she was a glass sculpture about to shatter. Maybe she was. Maybe that pissed her off. They saw each other less, Diamond going off to actually follow leads and find people like them.
What did Safi do? What she did best: drown her sorrows.
Tonight, she’d selected some random bar. She didn’t want to get drunk too early, but she wanted the alcohol to soothe the ragged edges of her bleeding heart. She wore someone else’s face, of course. Not her ex—she was getting tired of her face.
No, tonight she was in the skin of a hot butch woman. Short red hair, dark brown skin with a smattering of freckles and muscles for days. Every queer woman in the bar kept sending her heated looks, and it was nice to pretend they were looking at Safi like that, and not the stranger she was wearing.
She drank and she danced, grinding on whichever woman slid against her. The music pulsed through her bones, through the floor, and Safi wanted to just melt out of existence.
So why, halfway through her night of self torment and isolation, did she spot Max across the bar?
Safi was feeling up a gorgeous blonde woman grinding into her, fingertips splayed across her soft belly, when she felt a strange tingle at the back of her neck. She glanced up out of reflex and there she was—Max stood at the entrance, glancing about the room with a severe, worried expression.
She didn’t belong here—didn’t look like she belonged either.
This wasn’t possible. Max could not have found her here. Could not have sought her out. Not even Diamond knew where Safi went to, so how the hell did Max?
But the moment Safi’s eyes landed on her, Max’s gaze zeroed in directly on Safi. Her head tilted for a moment, confusion clouding her face, until there was recognition. Relief.
Safi released the woman and stepped away, shielding herself from Max with the writhing crowd on the dance floor. She grasped for any identity—it didn’t matter who—and shifted into someone else.
It was impossible that Max could have found her, but she also didn’t want to let Max see her like this. She needed to escape and regroup. She’d text Max later and find out why she was here. How she was here.
But as Safi made her way across the bar, now wearing the face of a man, Max still noticed her immediately. It made Safi abruptly stop walking. Max was looking at her. Not the face she wore.
They stood there just staring at each other, then Safi darted for the emergency exit. On her way, she shifted again. Somehow, Max kept on her heels.
Outside of the bar with its strobing lights and throbbing music, the silence was eerie. Worse still, was the echo of Max’s voice at Safi’s back.
“Safi, wait!”
She froze, heart thudding, breath stuttering. How the fuck?
“How?” she shouted back, turning to give Max an incredulous look. “How did you know it was me?”
Max had a hand reached out towards her, an almost broken expression on her face. Perhaps if Safi tried to run, Max would just rewind. Teleport right at her side. Max rarely ever used her powers like that, not unless someone was actually in danger. Still, Safi was curious to know if she was that important to her.
So, she turned and ran. Max materialized in front of her, those blue eyes scorching, a deep furrow between her brows. She dropped her outstretched hand.
“Please, Safi,” Max begged. “Please stop trying to run.”
Safi wondered how many times Max had said that to her. But… fuck, she’d used her powers to stop Safi running. She was here. How?
Defeated, Safi shifted back to herself. Her heart skipped at the way Max looked at her. That look, it was almost… longing. Safi wondered if she was truly losing it, then. Was she drunk enough to hallucinate that Max had found her? That Max was looking at her like this?
“Fine,” she said, throwing her hands up. “You win.”
To Safi’s utter surprise, Max marched right up to her, backing her up until Safi’s back hit the alley wall. She blinked, shocked.
“You have no idea,” Max said, her voice dropped low, angry, “how you’ve been driving me absolutely crazy.”
Safi frowned at her. “Okay, whoa. What the fuck do you mean?”
Max suddenly grabbed her shirt, fingers closing tightly around the fabric. Her fingers were shaking, but there was nothing wavering in the way Max was looking at her.
“You have no idea, do you?” Max asked her, mouth parting in surprise.
Safi couldn’t help it—she looked at Max’s mouth, at those soft lips, and she yearned to dip down and taste them. She could feel the heat of Max’s fingers seeping into her skin, and she loved the idea of having those fingers wrapped around her throat, squeezing down.
Max didn’t realize how much of a mess Safi was for her—that Safi would literally get down on her knees and beg, if she could get something out of it.
“Have no idea of what, Max?” Safi snarked, using her mean girl voice to disguise how pulled apart she felt. “How the hell did you even find me?”
Max released the hold she had on Safi’s shirt and instead fell against her, arms wrapping tight around Safi’s neck. The scent of Max wrapped around her, sank into her, and Safi let her eyes slide shut. Her arms knew their way around Max’s body, tugged her in close until they were touching so fully that there wasn’t an inch of space between them.
Max was in just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and the feel of her body against Safi’s was exquisite.
Had they ever hugged like this? God, Max was definitely a touch starved kind of person, but Safi didn’t remember Max ever touching her like this. Pressing into her like this. Breathing right into her ear, making Safi’s knees almost buckle.
“Ever since you left,” Max uttered, her voice still low and breathy, “I’ve felt you like a presence in my soul.”
Safi squeezed her softly and memorized how Max’s soft chest felt against her own. Just in case.
“I…” Safi started and stopped, not sure what to say.
“You didn’t answer my texts or my calls, but I could feel you, Safi.” Max let out a little sigh, somehow sinking further against her. Any subtle shift and they’d end up tangled on the floor, because Safi was fully sandwiched between Max and the wall—and Max didn’t feel all that steady.
Heart skipping, heat pooling in her lower belly, Safi settled her hands down on Max’s hips and tried gently pushing her away. Max clung to her, nosing against her throat.
No way. There was no way.
“Max?” she asked softly, running a hand along her back to comfort her. “I’m here, okay? I’m here. I won’t run, I promise. Just… Please explain why you’re here. How you’re here.”
“A few weeks ago I felt like I was having the worst panic attack of my life, out of nowhere,” Max explained, her lips brushing the underside of Safi’s jaw, sending her heart into a panic. “I thought it was just my usual bullshit but then it… I realized it wasn’t me. It came out of nowhere.”
Safi realized where Max was going with this. She finally regained some of her senses and pushed Max away, bringing cool air between their bodies. Before Max could protest, she gently cupped the softness of her cheek and let her arm slide around Max’s waist, bringing their lower bodies together again.
Safi was losing her fucking mind, but when did she ever claim to have any sanity left? Besides, Max had done this to her. Pressed them together like that, igniting the fire of want Safi had for her. She was just giving in to it then. Especially if it was true, what Max was insinuating.
“Did I hurt you?” Safi asked her softly, staring right into those beautiful blue eyes.
Max looked at her like a deer, despite her obviously forward moves earlier. Safi wasn’t sure if it was the cheek or the waist holding, but suddenly Max was a blushing mess, and it made her chest feel all hot and sticky.
“No,” Max answered at last, voice breathy, “I mean, not really. I think… I just…”
Safi rubbed a thumb against the top of her cheek, half delirious with the fact that she was actually doing that. That Max wasn’t pulling away from her. That Max’s pupils were blown wide and she was panting a little, like she was feeling what Safi felt.
Like she could feel Safi’s want.
“I still left a piece of me in you, didn’t I?” Safi said. “I thought I took it out. I said I would. I did, but…”
She made to drop her hand, but Max’s came up to hold it in place. She leaned into the touch, expression shatteringly tender. “It’s okay, Safi,” Max told her. “I think I wanted to keep a piece of you in me.”
Safi felt herself flush then. “Well, now there’s definitely an innuendo there.”
Max’s look sharpened and she blushed again, but she didn’t back down. Safi loved that about Max, that she could be unbearably awkward and oblivious sometimes, but utterly confident the next. Especially when she knew what she wanted and actually went for it. It was one of the many, many things Safi loved about her.
“I’m trying to have a serious moment here,” Max told her, half grinning, “and you’re making a sex joke?”
Safi looked at her, eyes lidded. Her blood was pulsing, her heart fucking pounding. What was even happening? One of Safi’s wet dreams. There was no mistaking the way Max was looking at her or the way they were leaning into each other. Still, a tinge of nerves hit her and Safi considered pulling away, but—
“No,” Max said, intertwining their fingers, “don’t pull away, please.”
Safi’s breath skipped. “Fuck,” she groaned, and then she surged forward and finally did the one thing she’d been dying to do since the moment she realized she was in love with Max Caulfield.
She kissed her and, fuck—it was divine.
Max was a lot of things—mysterious, definitely awkward and maybe sometimes a little broken. She seemed to always hold everyone at arms length, but looking on with desperation. What Safi wasn’t expecting of Max, though, was the way she moaned against her mouth, all lustful and needy, and pushed her hips right up against Safi’s.
Turned out, on top of all the other complicated bullshit, Max was a horny freak.
Safi groaned deeply in her chest and roughly turned them, pressing Max against the wall because she needed to take control of this, even if she knew Max could have her down on her knees in nano seconds.
“Max,” Safi groaned, kissing her deeper, nipping at her lower lip. The way Max kissed her back—it was filthy. Nothing innocent or hesitant in the brush of Max’s lips or the determined swipe of her tongue. “Max.”
Max moaned again, her hands splayed across Safi’s back. “Safi,” Max let out, her voice like sinful gravel, sending scorching heat right through Safi’s veins, “I want more of you in me.”
Safi’s head spun. So there was still a slight chance she was severely hallucinating, and she would wake up on the floor of this alleyway having discovered she made out with the wall. But—goddamnit, Max was so solid and real in her arms, against her body, between her thighs.
From behind them a pale light flickered, and the way that light danced across Max’s blue eyes made Safi feel awestruck. She was genuinely obsessed with Max.
And now she was asking… this?
Safi pulled away to regard her seriously, even if her lust-addled brain just wanted to dip back down and devour her. Eat Max up. Out. Shit.
“When you say that…” Safi started, sentence hanging. She let her eyes rove over every inch of Max’s flustered expression.
She was incandescently beautiful, looking so starved for Safi. Her chest was heaving because she was panting harshly, just like Safi. Was she wet too? Did she ache deep down to her very bones? Did Max want to howl up at the fucking moon because of the intensity of her yearning?
“I mean,” Max said, a smile on her lips and humour in her voice. “Fuck me,” she finished simply, but her eyes did dart away and she bit her lip, embarrassed.
Safi’s eyes flew wide. Her mouth popped open in absolute shock. Then arousal seared through her and she couldn’t control herself, she surged forward and had her teeth at Max’s throat. Swallowing hard, she forced herself to be gentle as she bit and sucked at the skin, as she swept her tongue over the forming bruise to soothe it. Max moaned softly as she bruised her, and it was the sweetest sound Safi had ever heard.
“Max Caulfield,” Safi purred, running her lips along the line of her jaw, up to the pink shell of her ear, “asking me to fuck her? Hmm.” She gave her earlobe a nibble and delighted in the way Max shivered. “Right here, in this alleyway?”
Max’s hands turned into claws, nails raking down her clothed back. Safi’s eyes shut as the semi-pain flared through her, followed by immediate pleasure. She let out an embarrassingly needy noise—how the fuck did Max know to do that?
“I’m more of a normal bed sex kind of girl,” Max said softly, voice hushed with arousal and amusement, “but given the circumstances...” Her hands fisted Safi’s shirt and she pulled Safi harder against her body. “I don’t think I can wait another second, Safi.”
Well, who the hell was Safi to deny that? To deny anything Max ever wanted?
She kissed her again, swallowing the next sinful noise as it dripped from Max’s lips. They were so soft too and the taste of her was everything Safi had ever craved. She was trembling with need, delirious with desire for the woman against her. Max clung onto her for dear life and Safi couldn’t help but run her hands all over her—from her heaving shoulders down her arms to her chest, where her fingers trailed a path along her soft breasts.
Safi desperately wanted to undress her, to see Max in all her glory like she’d been fantasizing about for months, but absolutely not here—not where anyone could walk here and see. What they were doing was risky enough, but if Max wanted this, Safi would give it to her.
“What do you want?” Safi asked her between heady kisses. “Tell me, Max.”
Max reached up to grab her face, fingers tracing circles against her cheeks. Max was so fucking warm. Heat just radiated off of her. If Safi could just bury into her heat and live there forever, she would.
Max had defied reality and time itself to bring her back, and Safi wouldn’t cry about it if she ceased to exist, except for living inside Max’s being. Well, there was something she could do to achieve that.
Max groaned. “You’re gonna make me say it?” she whined.
Safi chuckled and peppered kisses along her neck again. Max seemed to really like that, if her twitching hips were anything to go by. “You started this, Caulfield,” she shot back, “so make use of me. Tell me what you want me to do to you, how you need me to fuck you.”
Max sucked in a sharp breath and Safi swore she could feel not only her own arousal, but Max’s too. It was like a swirling vortex of heat, sweltering between and in both of them.
“Inside,” Max finally gasped, one hand sliding down to Safi’s shoulder, the other now at her throat, fingers clasped but not squeezing. Safi swallowed hard, letting Max feel the movement of the muscles at her throat. They both panted. “I want you inside of me, Safi.”
Safi smirked against her skin. “Aren’t I already? Haven’t I been this entire time?”
Max let out an annoyed sigh. “Your fingers.”
“There we go,” Safi purred, pleased that Max was getting annoyed—demanding.
Safi wasted not another second. She dropped her hands from Max’s chest and worked at undoing the button and zipper of her jeans. It was a tight fit—jeans were a horrible nuisance when it came to sudden, hot sex—but she would deal with it. Max shivered as Safi’s hand slid into her pants, past the fabric of her underwear to finally touch her.
“Fuck,” Safi groaned, fingers gliding through absolute heat and wetness. If she thought Max was hot before, it was nothing compared to how scorching she was between her thighs. “You’re so fucking wet for me, Max.”
For a long moment, Safi just selfishly touched her, outlining every curve and inch of her slick flesh. Max whined, but she didn’t demand more, she just let her hips move, pressing herself more firmly against Safi’s fingers.
A hot flush passed over Safi’s face, even up to the tips of her ears. Her lungs were burning from how heavily she was panting and her skin felt ultra sensitive. With every swipe of her finger across Max’s sex, she felt her own clit pulse. Safi half wondered if she would come the second she slid inside.
Would that surprise her? Absolutely not. Safi was a starved woman and she was about to devour as much of Max as she could.
Safi found Max’s clit easily and skirted around it, swirling her fingertips in circles around it until she felt Max gently bite into the spot between her neck and shoulders.
“You want it?” Safi asked her, lips at her ear. “You want me?”
Max twitched. “Yes,” she panted, her warm tongue licking a stripe along Safi’s skin, making her shiver. “Please, Safi. I need you.”
Safi had to close her eyes and just take a deep breath. Hearing Max say that about her, it was almost enough to undo her completely. Max doing something as erotic as licking her fucking neck? As soon as she gathered herself, she let her hand drift lower, and then she slid one finger inside, immediately surrounded by clinging heat.
“Fuck,” they both groaned as one, making them chuckle.
Safi pulled back to look into Max’s eyes, as much as Max seemed a little shy about it. With her left hand, she gently grasped Max by the chin and forced her to look. Their eyes locked, gazes burning, needy, and Safi let her finger sink all the way to the knuckle. She kept that eye contact as she pulled out, finger curled upwards to drag against Max’s front wall. She added a second finger, her own clit burning with need, and pushed in again.
“Fuck,” Max repeated softly, her brows lifting, teeth biting into her lip. She couldn’t maintain the eye contact anymore, and Safi was fine with that, because the expression of pleasure washing over her face was fucking exquisite.
Of all of Safi’s fantasies, nothing compared to this—to the reality of what Max really looked like as Safi was two fingers deep.
There was hardly any space to move in the confines of Max’s pants, so Safi was restricted to slow, deep thrusts, but she made sure to keep dragging against that spot that made Max shudder against her. Then she added her thumb against Max’s clit and she watched, enraptured, as Max wound tighter and tighter, hips moving, fingers squeezing down against Safi’s throat, Max biting down hard on her own lip.
Then she fell apart right there against Safi’s palm. Max fell forward and buried her face against Safi’s neck, letting her moans muffle against Safi’s skin as she shuddered and clenched down on her.
Safi stopped thrusting but kept gently rubbing circles against that spot inside, prolonging Max’s pleasure as long as she could, letting her palm also grind against her sensitive clit. Until Max pushed a hand down between them, fingers squeezing at Safi’s wrist to stop her. With a sigh, Safi pulled out of her.
While Max leaned heavily into her, looking like she would pass out on her feet, Safi stared down at her slick fingers. Her mouth watered, tongue darting out to wet her bottom lip. But she paused, considered, then gently pushed Max up against the wall again.
Max was so liquid that her head just fell back against the wall, eyes lidded. Safi lifted that hand, smirking, and let Max watch as she sucked the slick off her fingers. Max let out another soft “fuck” as Safi groaned, tongue licking clean every single trace of Max’s taste.
“Since I couldn’t eat you out here,” Safi said, lifting her eyes to meet Max’s, “a little taste is all I get.”
“You…” Max started, but she couldn’t seem to find the words. Her entire face had gone red, the flush travelling down her neck, probably spreading across her chest. Safi stared, wishing she could see Max’s tits. “I can’t believe we just did that.”
Trying her best not to smirk too damn loud, Safi gently redid Max’s zipper and button and helped her straighten out her clothing. While Max had been sated, Safi was still buzzing with need, her skin almost electric with sensation every time their skin touched.
But if there was one thing she was good at, it was denying her own needs.
“Well, now that we got that out of our systems.”
Max’s expression went from dreamy to sharp. It was a little bit intimidating, having Max look at her like that—like she genuinely wanted to slap Safi upside the head. Or throttle her, but not in a sexy way.
“You think that’s what that was?” Max asked her, incredulous. Real hurt leaked into her words. “You think I drove all the way here from Vermont just so that we could have a quickie in some dark ass alley?”
Safi folded her arms across her chest and looked away, hyper aware that her fingers were still wet with Max’s cum. God.
“I mean, why else?” she offered. “So maybe a cosmic part of me is still somewhere in you. Maybe that part made you want me, I don’t know.”
“And why would it?” Max shot back. “Safi, look at me.”
Reluctantly, tail between her legs, she did. Max’s expression was tender and open. “Don’t give me that look,” she said, trying for a harsher tone than what actually came out.
Max rolled her eyes, affectionately exasperated. She reached out and tugged Safi to her again, closing that bit of distance that had crept between them. “I would have suspected that, if I wasn’t already so gone for you before the whole shapeshifting fuckery.” Max wiped a hand across her face and sighed. “I swear, you say I’m the oblivious one.”
Safi blinked at her. “Wait, back up. What did you just say?”
Their eyes met. Max smiled at her. “I’m saying, Safi, that even if I’ve been feeling you yearn for me like an adolescent teenager through some connection we might have because of your powers, that’s not why I’m here.”
“Then…?”
Max playfully patted the side of her cheek, way too soft to even be considered a slap. “Because I love you, dummy.”
“You… love me?” Safi asked, voice suspicious.
Max stared. And stared. When Safi didn’t say more, sure that her face screamed I don’t really believe this is happening, or that you mean it the way I think you mean it. Max groaned.
“I am in love with you, Safi!” Max said, loud and clear. She threw her hands up. “I’ve been waiting for you to come back to Caledon so I could actually talk about this. But then you ghost me. Then you have a breakdown so bad, I feel it all the way across the country. Then I track you down in some musty bar and I just… Safi, please,” Max begged, tipped her head back once more and closed her eyes. “Say something so I can stop rambling.”
“Wait, just give me a second,” Safi urged.
She took a healthy step away from Max so that they were no longer touching, so that she couldn’t smell Max’s scent anymore—whatever perfume she used, which always drove Safi wild.
But the evidence of what they’d just done was still coated on her fingers, and though they’d dried already, Safi swore she could still feel that warmth and wetness across her skin. She needed it. Needed it more than breathing.
It was difficult to wrap her mind around what Max had just told her—that she loved her. It was almost unbelievable that she was even in Max’s league at all. Self loathing and hatred filled her chest, made her frown deeply and shut her eyes tight because the urge to shift into someone else was like an itch across her skin.
Then she felt a soft tingle of something in her chest. It was like a tiny flame alighting, until suddenly it was a blazing inferno. Any negative thing she was thinking or feeling, it fled the moment that fire took seat in her chest.
Blinking her eyes open in shock, Safi turned to look at Max. Max was still propping herself up against the wall, but she was smiling softly, eyes filled with love, and it hit Safi suddenly—she just felt Max’s emotions.
She just felt… Max’s love for her, and it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever felt.
Max didn’t say anything else, didn’t beg her or explain further. She just looked at Safi patiently, letting the silence settle between them with the understanding that was dawning.
Without warning, Safi let out a strangled sob. All her years of pain and anger and frustration, it leaked out of its carefully constructed cage and flooded her. Before she knew it, she was collapsing to her knees, but Max was there to catch her.
Safi sobbed into the crook of Max’s neck and she fucking clung to her with every fibre of her being. She cried for her younger self and all the pain she went through, and she cried for her current self—the self that felt so useless and rejected, that wondered if Max had wasted her powers, shifted reality, for no good reason. Safi felt like she wasn’t supposed to be alive, that her death was woven into the very fabric of everything.
But Max held onto her tightly, the warmth of her body seeping into Safi, comforting her. A hand rubbed up and down her back, soothing her, and Max whispered softly against her ear, making proclamations and promises that Safi was too afraid to believe.
But she would—eventually. Even if Safi didn’t deserve Max because of her horrible actions, she’d do whatever she needed to, to make amends and become deserving. Because Max? She was a fucking prize. She was worth every ounce of pain and trauma Safi had ever been through.
After she cried enough tears to soak the front of Max’s shirt—she mumbled, “shit, sorry,” when she noticed—Safi gathered enough strength to pull away.
“You feel better?” Max asked her gently and ran a thumb across Safi’s cheek, wiping away the last falling tear.
Safi took in a huge breath and let it out steadily. “I feel like I’ve just been cracked open like a fucking egg.”
Max laughed—the sound warmed Safi’s aching chest. “So maybe we can get out of here? As fun as this was, I don’t want to hang out in this creepy alley much longer.”
Safi nodded but froze. Max sensed her hesitation.
“I’ve got a hotel,” Max explained. “We can stay there as long as you need. I’m not asking you to come back to Caledon with me.” Her blue eyes were loving, understanding. Her fingertips caressed the side of Safi’s jaw, sending tingles through her. “We can take things slow, okay?”
She swallowed. “Yeah, okay. I think an actual bed sounds fucking great right now.”
Max smiled brightly and took her hand, intertwining their fingers—not the sex hand, don’t worry. Together, they left the alleyway and joined reality once more. Safi let Max lead, and they hopped into Max’s car parked not too far away.
The ride to the hotel was done in silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was warm and comforting. Just being in the same space as Max felt like being hugged by her, and Safi was seriously so fucking in love with her.
After they checked in, Max insisted they needed a bath—and to Safi’s delight, she meant together. Nothing sexual happened, but it was still painfully intimate. Max kissed her softly, ran a soapy cloth along her body and helped Safi wash her hair. All the while, Safi was kind of shell-shocked.
Afterwards, they got ready for bed—Max was so thoughtful, she’d brought some of Safi’s clothes that she left behind. In bed together, Safi immediately curled into Max’s side, throwing an arm and a leg over her. Max just tugged her in tighter and dropped a kiss against her temple.
“Let’s get some rest, okay? You’ve been through it tonight.”
Safi’s breath stuttered. “I’m still kind of in shock.”
“I know.”
“Are you really here, Max?”
“I’m really here.” Max pressed her lips firmer against the top of Safi’s head, inhaling. “I promise I’m here to stay.”
In the darkness of the hotel room, feeling safer than she had in many, many years, Safi gathered all of her strength and courage to finally make a confession of her own.
“I love you too,” she said aloud, not even sure if Max was still awake. Kind of hoping she was asleep, because saying those words out loud for the first time was terrifying.
But Max’s arms tightened around her, and then a finger tilted her chin and Max kissed her. Safi melted into it, against Max.
“Thank you,” Max mumbled against her lips.
The tears felt like they were gathering for round 2, but Safi held them back. Instead she focused on Max’s soft kisses, and her unsated arousal from earlier reared up with intensity. Before she knew it, she was on top of Max, pinning her wrists down, attacking her lips like an animal in heat.
Below her, Max bucked up with her hips, moaning.
Fuck, Safi would never get enough of that sound—the way Max could moan so sinfully.
“Max,” Safi panted, arousal clouding her mind again, “please.”
“What do you need?” Max asked her in a breathy whisper.
“Touch me, please. I need… I just need you.”
Nipping her lip and making Safi shudder, Max’s hand slid down between them. There was no hesitation or nervousness in her movements. It wasn’t perfect at first, not until Max figured out where to touch her and how to make her moan just right.
When she did—God, Safi lost her damn mind.
“Max,” she moaned, over and over again as her favourite person in the world took care of her pleasure, rubbing tight circles over her clit before sliding into her with two fingers. The stretch was fantastic and just what Safi needed, but it was Max’s teeth at her throat, biting down hard on her skin, that pushed Safi over the edge.
She came with a soft cry and let Max envelope her. It was not the strongest orgasm of her life—not yet—but it was the sweetest by far.
When the waves of pleasure ebbed away, Safi went absolutely slack. Max wheezed when she dropped her body weight, but she shifted them so Safi was only half crushing her, and then she just held onto her.
For long, wonderful minutes, Safi drifted into a half dream state, with only Max on her mind, Max beneath her body.
When she fell asleep, Max was still with her, and Safi knew that no matter what, she’d never be alone again.