Nesado had waited an hour before returning. He expects the Jeep to be gone and the house to have quieted down by now. He fury rose when not only the Jeep was still there, but the other two vehicles had returned. His eyes glowed red as he tried to plan his next move. He was determined to find out what was going on, and he had every intention of doing it tonight.

Inside the house Kyle was the first to notice Max was no longer amongst them. He looked over to where they had sat the bags earlier and noted that Max's bag was missing as well. Glancing down at his watch he jumped up to his feet and erupted into a loud shout of excitement. "Yeah! Oh yeah! I'm the man!" After his victory dance, he noticed five pairs of eyes glaring at him questioningly. In his excitement he wasn't thinking and blurted out, "Max has gone upstair to join Liz. I win the bet."

Michael and Alex scanned the room for Max and realized Kyle was right, they then both checked their watches. "Damn, he couldn't have waited another five minutes." Michael cursed. He would have won the bet if only Max had waited just a few more minutes.

They all realized their mistake and knew they were in for it when Maria slapped Michael's arm and went off on one of her tangents. "What do you mean only five more minutes? Michael Guerwin, what have you and these Nimrods been up to? You would be so stupid as to have been betting on how long it took for Max and Liz to sneak off together? Would you? Or is there more to this? "

"Well." Answered Alex sheepishly when no one else spoke up. He's dealt with enough of her angry rants to know better than to leave her waiting, so would only get more angry with you as the seconds ticked by. You either said something, anything, or you got out of the way.

Isabel turned gaze from Kyle and glared at Alex in disbelief. "Don't tell me you were in on this too! I can see Michael and Kyle doing this, but you? You really bet on whether Max and Liz would or wouldn't try to find some private time alone together?"

"Actually, I think they were all counting on the fact they would want to find sometime alone. The bet was on how long it would take them. Am I right guys?" Asked Tess as she scanned the various faces of the guys. *** Liz stood there clinging to the shirt she held in front of her, while watching Max's every move in slow motion. Her mouth was suddenly as dry as the desert and her body was aching with anticipation. With his shirt discarded she could see how his chest was rising and falling with each breathe he took, and the ripples of muscles of his upper torso moved with each step.

She wanted to run toward him and wrap herself completely around him, but she couldn't make her legs move. She stood there, astonished by his bold actions, with a coy smile on his face, he eased the zipper of his jeans down. His advancement toward her only stopped briefly as he slipped out of his jeans and tossed them to the chair. Swallowing past the lump in her throat, her gaze locked on his boxers and the apparent arousal they still concealed from her view. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to stand on her own two feet as she felt her legs turn to jell-o. She licked her lips subconsciously and under her breath muttered, "Mercy! You look good enough to eat."

His eye brow raised just a hair as he questioned what he thought she'd said. "What did you just say?"

Liz's eyes grew as big as saucers and she blushed from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. "Did I say that out loud? I did, didn't I? Oh gosh, what you must think."

He stepped so close to her she could feel the heat of his body spreading over her, and whispered into her ear. "I think, it's good to hear, because I feel the same way every time I see you."

She pulled back only enough to be able to look into his eyes for reassurance that he was telling the truth and not just saying it to make her feel better. "Really?"

"Really." He answered sincerely before taking the shirt from her hands and tossing to the chair where his clothes laid. "Oh yeah!" Max wrapped one arm around her waist, crushing her body firmly against his. Ran the fingers of his other hand gently through her dark silky strands on the back of her head bring her lips to meet his in a blistering kiss.

Voraciously devouring her lips, Max removed his hand from the back of her head, and used his arm to lift her legs into a cradled position against his chest. He carried her to the side of the bed, and while balancing her weight against him as he pushed covers back. Kneeling on the bed with one knee he gingerly laid her down and took the opportunity to take in more of her nature beauty. They both heard a loud cheer coming from down stairs. Liz bolted up into a sitting position, her hazy state had been broken. "What about the others, they will know what we're doing?"

"I don't cares. I can handle their razing if that's what I have to do, because I just can't handle not having you for another minute." Max was too far gone to worry about what their friends would think. He wouldn't have cared if they were pounding on the door. He needed to be with Liz regardless of the consequences.

She lost all will to argue the point as his hands began to ease her back by moving up her sides, to her space between her shoulders and breasts. It didn't take much to make her swoon back under his spell.

Max couldn't take anymore of the agonizing slowness in which he'd been moving. He needed to feel more of her, and he needed it soon or he was going to lose all control. Laying down as close to her as he could get, he pressed his lips to hers once again and continued to explore and caress her soft flesh. He couldn't get enough of the feeling or her body so close to his, the smell of her strawberry shampoo and vanilla bath gel. He was sure that this was what heaven must be like. He felt her drape one of her legs over his, bring her heat closer to his. They both moaned at the sensations stirring within them as she began to seek out some relieve by rocking her hips against him. Their kisses took on a feverish pitch as their need for each other swept over them. He knew without a doubt if she continued her actions, he would explode before having the ultimate pleasure of being submerged within her depths. Firmly he grabbed hold of her bottom pressing her tightly against him to stop her movement.

Once calming his body down a bit, he rolled over on his back, raising his hip and pushed his boxers down. Liz quickly took a position kneeling over him and pushed his hands away. She then continued the task he had started and removed his boxers dropping them to the floor beside the bed. He gently grabbed hold of her shoulder and tried to lay her back down. "No Max." She managed to say barely above a whisper as she looked longingly into his questioning eyes. Gaining the confidence she needed, she answered his nonverbal question with her actions. She straddled his hips positioning herself above him still searching his eyes for his reaction.

He was dying feeling her heat so close to him, he couldn't take the sweet agony any longer. With one hand on her hip, he guided the tip of his stained member to her core with the other and thrust up into her joining their bodies together as one. They made love with exhilarating necessity. Their pace changing periodically to meet both of their needs and desires.

Reaching the height of ecstacy, they shared another glimpse of the same vision in which they see the tombstone being lowered, blocking out the light. However there was something different this time, along with the vision came a sense of urgency.

***** The girls couldn't believe the guys. To give Max and Liz a bad time on occasion had been acceptable, only because deep down they knew the two of them were experiencing something they themselves hadn't ventured into yet. But betting on how long they could wait to do it again, was just sick, the guys had crossed the line.

Tess, Isabel, and Maria moved to the other side of the room, putting some space in between themselves and the guys.

Under normal conditions Michael would have just ignored the way Maria was acting, and wait for her to calm down. However, tonight wasn't like most nights. If he waited for her to calm down on her own, he would lose the out on a chance to sleep with her in his arms and who could say what else. "Come on Maria, I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like we made them get together, or even encouraged it at all."

He knew he'd said the wrong thing as Maria stood up and started pointing her finger at him. "You don't get it do you Michael! You really don't get it! We're talking about two of our friends here buddy! Two people who obviously love each other, and when people love each, really love each other they want to be together! What you guys did, cheapened what they share. But then you could never understand that, could you? Because you Mister Guerwin, have a problem with getting to close to people. You still have this need to keep your distance, never get too attached."

A light went off in Michael's head as he realized there was more to Maria's anger than just his stupid bet with Alex and Kyle. And he was beginning to think he knew what it was. *She still wants what Liz has. She wanted me to give her the touchy-feelie kind of relationship that Max and Liz share. You would think she would know better than that by now. I'm a private person, not the kind who is into public displays like Max is. I was sure we already covered all this already. Wait, if it takes me being all touchy-feelie to keep her happy, I can handle that. I can handle that just fine. My hands on her body, oh yeah, I can hand that just fine. I'll make sure she gets plenty of time where I'm touching her sexy body behind closed doors. * He briskly walked up to her and grabbed hold of her hand. "We need to talk, and we need to do this alone."

"I don't think so. . . ." Maria stated as she tried to break free of his grip.

"Shut up and be still Maria, we are going to talk whether you want to or not. Tess, is there somewhere. . . ."

Tess had heard everything Michael said as did Isabel and Alex. She suspected that fighting he on this wouldn't help matters any. "Enough said Michael. You can use the study upstairs." As soon as he heard this, Michael roughly slung Maria over his shoulder and carried her up the stairs kicking and screaming for him to put her down.

Thee others couldn't help laughing at the sight. When they calmed down Alex turned to look at Isabel and quickly decided he needed to work this out with Isabel as well. "Isabel, I'm not going to go all cavemen on you, but I think we should talk as well?"

Isabel was more shocked than angry. She'd seen enough of the how the jocks act to know this kind of behavior really wasn't all that uncommon. "Alex, I can't believe ‘you' were a part of this? It's just not like you to act like some stupid insensitive jock."

"Hey!" Kyle protested to her categorization and description of jocks.

"Be quiet Kyle, you were being an insensitive jerk and you darn well know it." She retorted in her ice princess voice while placing her hands on her hips.

Alex wasn't about to let Kyle become his defender in this. He was going to speak for himself. "We weren't hurting anyone, it was harmless and all in fun. It's not like we never planned to ever mention it to Max and Liz, and there was even anything really riding on the bet. Nothing of any consequence anyway. All the winners would get was to drive Kyle's car in the morning."

"Wait, since Kyle won, he gets to drive in his own car?" Interrupted Tess.

"Not exactly." Alex answered. Kyle was shaking his head no at Alex ever so subtly. Alex took the hint and didn't say anything more.

That wasn't good enough for Tess. She wanted to know what Kyle was getting out of this deal. "Not exactly, well then what exactly did he win?"

"I'm pleading the fifth. If you want to know that, your going to have to get it out of him."