Haley

Her mouth dropped open. Maximus couldn’t see it of course, but she knew he had to be smiling. She spun, delivering a solid thwack to his side from her stuffed purple tail.

“Ow!” he complained automatically, though she had her doubts on any pain having actually been delivered.

“My hands are inside these stupid purple arms. There was no contact between me and his…his…” her voice faded. “Did I really do that?”

“Yup,” Maximus chortled. “Come on, let’s go. The door is unguarded. We can make a break for it.”

She turned to regard the stairwell door he was indicating, having been alerted by the change in his voice that the moment for humor was over. Haley vowed to get him back…somehow. Maybe she could retrieve the security footage later, and show his brothers how daring he’d been, escaping the studio dressed as an orange chicken.

Bawk Bawk, Maximus. Bawk Bawk.

The pair strolled across the open area as nonchalantly as they could, heading for the exit. The closer they got, the more her heart began to thud in her chest. At any time now, they could be found out. The director could speak up, shouting at the police that they were intruders. The two men Maximus had knocked out could come back to consciousness, spurring a renewed search for them. By now she was sure the search had moved on to other levels, as they scoured the building looking for the two. Eventually someone would realize they were still nearby. It was only a matter of time.

They were perhaps twenty feet from the door when everything went horribly wrong. Haley had begun to walk faster, impatient to get out. She had pushed past Maximus, aiming to be through the door first. Nobody was in their way, nobody was nearby to tell them to stop either. They had made it, they were going to be free!

Haley watched in abject horror as the door opened, and uniformed men began to emerge from it. One, three, four, six, eight…a full dozen cops emerged onto their floor, arguing amongst themselves. None of them seemed to be paying attention to the two uniformed idiots wearing children’s costumes. They were too busy yelling at each other.

She felt Maximus’s hands grab her from behind, altering her angle of approach and propelling her at the door to the left of the stairwell. There was barely time for her to grab the handle, twist, and push the door open before the two of them crashed into the tiny room beyond. The spring-loaded door closed behind them and their costumes reinflated to normal size as they regained their balance.

“Uh-oh,” Maximus said, sounding awfully close to her in the darkened room.

She frowned. “Uh-oh what?”

There was silence.

“Maximus,” she said threateningly.

“The door,” he said, sounding awkward.

“Yes?”

“It opens inward,” he said, and she felt him trying to turn himself around, his bulk and his costume making it extremely hard in the tightly confined space.

“I vaguely recall seeing that as you pushed me in here,” she said. “What about it?”

“I can’t turn around. I’m stuck.”

“You’re…” she couldn’t even finish her sentence.

“It wasn’t by design,” he said quietly, sounding embarrassed. “But the door has a spring on it, and we came tumbling in here, and...yeah.”

“Is there a light switch?” she asked.

“Hmm. I might be able to hit it with my wing.”

She giggled at his choice of words. Here they were, trapped in a room trying to escape capture by police, and this man—a gigantic being of apparent endless strength and ability—couldn’t open the door, and he had to use a sewn appendage to try and turn the lights on. What the hell was she doing with her life that this is where she’d ended up? Stuck in a storage closet dressed as a purple dinosaur, her only companion an oversized chicken?

Haley began to laugh, clamping down on it, determined that she wasn’t going to lose control. Not now. Her breaking down into hysterics was the last thing they needed. Stay strong, stay composed. Then, when it was all over and they were somewhere safe and not at the mercy of the police, then and only then could she have a breakdown.

“Got it,” he said triumphantly, and a tiny light flicked on overhead. It was barely enough to light the room in the best of times, and with Maximus’s bulk occluding much of the room, it was still fairly dim.

It did allow her to see the way they were wedged inside. His back was to the door, and her tail and big, puffy custom were pressing against him, even as his own wings, stomach, and other appendages tried to expanded to fit in the remaining room. It was…well, the hysterical laughter threatened to come back again. They were in the room, and the door couldn’t be opened inward as long as they were blocking it.

“How did we manage to get in in the first place?” she asked curiously.

“Force.”

“Mmmm.”

Haley reached up with her left arm and tugged at her mask until it fell off. Her right arm was pinned at her sides. Maximus’s arms were also tucked in awkwardly, though she suspected he could move them if he wanted. It wouldn’t do much good until they could figure out how to create enough space to open the door.

“Do you mind doing me as well?” he asked, leaning his head down toward her hand.

It took Haley a second to realize he meant his head, but then she reached up and tugged on his mask, pulling it off.

“Thank you,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief. “That thing is so uncomfortable.”

She nodded, still concerned about trying to get out. “Can’t you just use your shifter strength to rip the door down and stuff?”

“Sure,” he said. “But then everyone, including the dozen cops who just appeared, will hear and see me do something a human can’t. So I mean, I could do that. But do you want me to?”

“I guess not,” she admitted, staring up at him in the dim yellow light. “So, what do we do now?”

His eyes roved around the room, taking in the mops hanging up on the back wall. She saw anger explode across his face, but then disappear just as quickly. She hadn’t felt any of it directed at her.

“It’s okay,” she said without meaning to. “It’s not your fault.”

“What?”

“This,” she said, moving her head around to indicate their predicament. “It’s not your fault.”

Maximus frowned, his thick, bushy eyebrows coming together as he regarded her. His nostrils flared for a second, before his nose twisted slightly to the side while his lips compressed to form a thin line.

“It’s actually entirely my fault,” he said. “Since, you know, I was the one who hijacked your show, used it for my own objectives, without thinking ahead to what might happen to you. There is literally no one else at fault here.”

Haley paused. Technically, he was right. It was all his fault. So how did she convey to him that she didn’t hold it against him? That he’d done what he needed to do, to stop an injustice from being done against him and his people?

“You’re helping me now though,” she said. “You could easily have fled and just left me at the tender mercy of the assholes outside.” Her voice was low, like his, so it wouldn’t carry outside. “But you didn’t, because that’s not the type of person you are. You’re better than that. I think you’re a good person, Maximus Koche.”

Even as she spoke the words, Haley realized she believed them. It had been intended as a pep talk. All she’d been trying to do was rev him up again, get him ready to complete their escape from the building. Instead she was letting him know her own thoughts about him. She stopped talking abruptly, not sure what else to say, and slightly embarrassed at the emotion that had entered her own voice.

“Thank you.”

There was something in his words, something…serious. She regarded him, trying not to get lost in the features that she was coming to find more and more attractive. His eyes were focused on her, and she suspected they were saying something that she couldn’t read in the dark, making her wish desperately for more light.

“Don’t mention, it,” she replied, her voice dropping to a whisper as the look between them deepened.

Neither of them moved, the only motion the occasional blink of their eyelids. His brown eyes stayed riveted to her, catching and holding her gaze. Before she knew what she was doing, Haley was up on her tiptoes as Maximus lowered his face to hers. Tilting her head slightly to the side, her breath caught in her lungs as he closed the last few inches between them, and kissed her.

It was powerful, a moment that instantly imprinted itself upon her memory. Haley knew she would remember it for the rest of her life with a vividness that would come close, but never truly match that of the moment itself. She would remember the way his lips brushed ever so faintly against hers as he moved in slowly, not wanting to push her away.

But she would never again fully experience the sudden feeling of hunger that awoke within her as she reached up with her free hand and pulled him in tight to her, not wanting to let him escape. Or the way his tongue danced around hers as she opened her mouth to him, exploring with unashamed enthusiasm as the kiss grew hotter.

The deep, rumbling, growling-like sound that Maximus emitted made her shiver excitedly at the prospect of being out of their clothes, and without the police trying to hunt her down. She would love to feel him as he kissed her lips, or her jaw, down her neck, or maybe even her collarbone. Haley sighed happily.

Then the bulb overhead sparked and went out with a sort of zap sound. She tried not to cry out, and mostly succeeded, but not entirely. Maximus pulled back, the moment over as she remembered once again the situation they were in, coming back down to reality about when and where she should be kissing boys she’d only just met.

“Ummm,” she said into the dark. “Now what?”

Maximus cleared his throat. “I mean, I would love to keep going with that, but, ahh, you know.”

Haley wasn’t sure what to say. Did she want to keep going? Did she even want to kiss him again? Now that the tension was broken, she felt kind of ridiculous. Not so much because she had been making out with a giant shifter covered in felt that made him look like a chicken, but…wait. No, that was exactly why she felt silly.

“Not the ideal situation,” she said at last, trying to sound vague about it.

“Well, that,” he agreed. “But also, these costumes are hot. And they don’t breathe. At all. I just couldn’t subject you to that.”

She’d been trying to keep quiet as he talked, but the final line was just too much.

“Eww. Seriously? That’s your idea of a romantic line?” Her noise crinkled as she made a face at him, not caring if he could or couldn’t see it.

Haley felt him moving, but it was another few seconds until it became clear that he was struggling to keep in his laughter at her reaction.

“Sorry,” he said through the silent guffaws.

“Nasty. I can’t believe I kissed you,” she said.

That just set him off even more, much to her dismay.

“Can we get out of here yet? Put your damn chicken head on and figure something out,” she snapped through her annoyance.

How could she have kissed someone like that? What a disgusting comment to make. It wasn’t like Haley was oblivious to the fact that the costume was making her sweat, and she’d tasted a bit of his sweat when she’d kissed him. But he didn’t have to make it bluntly obvious to her just how sweaty his nuts were. She hoped he showered before she slept with him.

WHOA. Hold up. Pump those brakes, brain. That is one big assumption you’re making there. Yes, he’s handsome, a good kisser, and…and, other things. But that doesn’t make it automatic that I’m going to jump into bed with him. I just met him. So slow that train down just a little.

Her brain replayed the memory of a one-night stand she’d had six months ago during a rather drunken night at her friend’s bachelorette party. It hadn’t been terrible, but she’d felt weird and uncomfortable for the next week or so over her actions. It wasn’t her normal style, and she had decided then and there that she wasn’t going to do it again.

And that applies to human or shifter guys, thank you very much!

“I think I figured out how we can do this,” Maximus said.

“I’m listening.”

“So, the closet isn’t big of course. But it is rather high. Good ceiling height in here, oddly enough. So all you need to do is climb on top of me, then I can swing around to the door to open it. Then you climb down, I exit, then you exit. Easy as that. Sound good?”

Haley was already climbing.