Liz is falling for all the little traps he sets. When Liz is near, Nik makes sure to over play his angst and depression over Emily's death and Rebecca's leaving him. She worries that he is returning to his Cassadine roots. He has, but not over Rebecca, it's Liz that fills his every waking thought and haunts his passion filled dreams. It's for Liz he schemes and plans. A little fall off a horse, running into her at Kelly's, every time he sees her he reminds her of their illicit kisses, ensuring that she shifts her thinking of him from friend to lover.
Liz's protestations and excuses about the rightness of their being together are becoming repetitive and rote. A sign that she doesn't believe what she says. "It's inevitable I guess, I'm finally turning into a Cassadine." Words which he knows will affect her deeply. She responds correctly. Reaching to hold him, she pleads with him "to move on, to find something or someone he cares about".
His hand smooths down her hair and he admits that the only person, who when he's with he doesn't focus on the past or revenge, is right in front of him. Lucky interrupts. Liz is flustered and behind the guilt Nik sees exhilaration with the idea that she has this effect on him.
Lucky invites him to a family picnic. Liz looks uncertain, so of course Nik accepts. He's made great inroads and now is the time to keep-up the initiative.
Nik chooses to arrive at the picnic inappropriately dressed, knowing that Liz will tease him about it making her eyes sparkle with a glint thats so close to how she looks in passion. Teasing her is all he can do with Lucky so near. Liz plays with Spencer and her two boys in the wading pool. Nic can't look away from the fall of her hair as it cups the curve of her breasts.
God must be on his side because Lucky takes the boys for ice-cream and Nik is left alone with Liz in the rain. She's beautiful when wet. Her nipples peek through her shirt begging for his mouth, but he contents himself with a kiss. Nik is thrilled with the violence of how she pushes him away, insisting that they can't do this, for behind her protestation was a passion that could not be denied.
He knows that she likes hints of danger, so he'll continue to play the star-crossed-lover and dutiful brother. Knowing that the very "wrongness" of their relationship excites her and will be what brings them together. It's a start.