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Chapter 9

The next night after dinner Jason gave Cam his bath early while Elizabeth changed into blue jeans. She'd worn a pretty dress to tea and while he enjoyed his wife, all dressed up the outfit wouldn't do for what he had planned.

Leticia came up and Milo took his position on the door as Jason pulled his very curious Mrs. onto the elevator. After being peppered with several rapid-fire questions Jason kissed her to get her to be quiet, and because it had been almost ten minutes since he kissed her last. When they were in the garage, he laughed as her eyes lit up when he handed her the helmet indicating they were taking the bike. He swung his leg over the Harley starting it while she hopped on behind him.

They rode for a couple of hours just enjoying being out. Hearing her laughter and screams of joy always made him smile. He took her on some of the roads they had ridden before and then took her outside the Port Charles city limits. When they had more time, he'd like to take her out for an entire day on the bike. Eventually he turned back towards the city. Instead of heading home, he surprised her by pulling up to the bridge. They had spent many a night out here talking about everything and anything. "I haven't been out here in forever." Elizabeth exclaimed dismounting from the bike. She had to hold onto Jason while her legs steadied but when they did, she literally jumped with joy.

"Me either." After she had left, he'd only come out here once. The memories had been to overwhelming and he hadn't been back since. "We should be able to get in more regular rides as the weather gets warmer." Early spring in upstate New York was still cold, tonight just happened to be unseasonably warm. "I want to talk to you and I wanted to do it here."

Her enthusiasm dimmed a bit. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is great." He assured her reaching out to push her hair behind her ear. "I wanted to tell you why I needed to get married."

"You don't have to. I understand that business is off limits." She assured him by squeezing his hand. Besides, it was clear that they had more than a marriage of convenience.

"I know you won't ask about business, but this isn't just business. We are married because of what is going on so that makes it personal." He told her trying to help her see his thought process. "Sit down over here with me."

He sat on a large flat rock and pulled her onto his lap. "Anthony Zacharra is trying to expand his territory in North America looking to become more powerful. There are three ways to do that. He could buy a territory which is expensive and not always guaranteed since the other families have to approve the transfer of power. He could take a territory, which is expensive and bloody. If he lost then his family would lose power completely here in New York. The third and more common way to expand is if he merged his organization with another through marriage. "

"He has a daughter?" Elizabeth guessed following the dots. At the wedding, she had met his son, but hadn't seen anyone else with them.

"Claudia, she's my age." Jason confirmed nodding his head.

"You didn't want to marry her?" Elizabeth felt a bit jealous which made no sense. It was clear that Jason had no interest in Claudia Zacharra.

"No." Jason said putting a wealth of emotion in that one word. He couldn't stand the woman.

"He picked you because of the ports." Elizabeth had lived here long enough to know that more than one mob war had been fought over the piers that Sonny and Jason controlled.

"Did I mention how sexy I find your brain? Access to the water makes an organization more profitable." He said smiling to lighten the mood.

"You couldn't just say no could you?" Elizabeth didn't understand all the rules of the underworld, but she did know that honor and respect were huge.

"I could have, but it would have probably led to a war. If the other families felt that having the Zacharra's being more powerful was good for everyone they could have banned together against Sonny and I." Right now, the Corinthos Morgan organization was the most powerful in the area some other families would love to change that. Jason waited to see if she had another question.

"So marriage was your only option?" Elizabeth asked softly. They were so natural together it was easy to forget that Jason approached her because he needed to get married.

"No, I could have left." He honestly told her. "If I had taken that option then the Zacharra's would most likely have taken a contract out on me for dishonoring them."

"You would never have been able to come home, or see any of your family again. You would have had to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder. I would have never seen you again." She shuddered hard at the thought of such a life. "No wonder you got married."

"Ellie, baby?" This next point was vital. "You are the only woman I even considered. No one else even crossed my mind."

"If I had said no?" She asked almost afraid of the answer.

"Then I would be gone now. I lost you once because I turned to another woman when I should have been with you. Living here and seeing you every day while being married to someone else would be a death sentence for me. No one else even entered my mind." He told her begging her with every fiber in his soul to believe him. "The reason we needed to do it quickly was I needed to be fully committed before Anthony took his case to the other families. An engagement can be broken, but no one would demand I divorce my wife to marry Claudia."

Elizabeth knew he was worried about her reaction so she gave him a soft kiss to silently reassure him. "So when Claudia gets married you won't need me anymore?" God it hurt to ask that question.

"I'll always need you." Jason wanted her to know that. "From our sources inside the Zacharra organization it looks like Claudia is going to marry into the Ruiz family. Even after she marries, we need to stay together. If we separate too soon the families will think that Sonny and I were trying to fool them. So the longer we stay together the better." This would be easier if he could just admit his true feelings but he sensed that now was not the time. "Are you okay with that?"

"Yes." She said smiling. She was really okay with that. "I'm in no rush to let you go." That was as close as she could come to saying that she loved him. It was too big a risk to make herself so vulnerable to someone else. She trusted Jason more than anyone else on the planet, but she learned some hard lessons in the past few years. She would give him all of herself that she could and later when she was ready, she could give him the rest.

"Do you have any questions?" Jason asked enjoying being completely alone with her.

"How come she didn't want to marry Sonny?" Elizabeth asked he was no Jason but he had just as much power.

"They don't get along. Sonny marrying Claudia would guarantee a war. One of them would kill the other within a week." Now it was Jason's turn to shudder.

"Why did you want to talk about this here?" The question of why they had married was now done and need not be discussed again.

"I wanted to be out here when I tell you that we own it." He said smiling at her.

"We own Nowhere?" She asked in wonder. "You bought it?" This had always been their spot in their hearts now it really was theirs.

"No." He said almost laughing when her face fell. "Lila gave it to us."

"The deed from last night was for Nowhere? How did she know?" Elizabeth asked incredulously.

"Well, ironically enough Lila has owned this piece of property for the last ten years. Apparently, she likes to dabble in the real estate market. She just could never really figure out what to do with it." Jason explained what Diane had unearthed. "Emily told her that we liked to come out here when we were first getting to know one another better. Lila decided that we should have it. What would you say to building a house out here?"

"Could we?" Elizabeth was lighting up at the prospect.

"Yeah, actually it's an ideal spot. It's still inside Port Charles so I can easily get to the warehouse to do business. It's also naturally secure and with a good fence, it will be damned near impenetrable. We'd need to contact an architect, Sonny and I own a construction company so that's not an issue. The only thing is that we'd need to live at the Towers for at least the next six months. With any luck we can host Thanksgiving." Jason explained excited that she was so happy with the idea.

"That sounds wonderful. Let's go back I want to start planning our house." She jumped up and tugged on his arm.

"Is that the only reason you want to go home?" He asked nibbling on her neck.

"If I was brave enough to have outdoor sex we wouldn't have to rush, but I'm not there yet." She met his eyes briefly before looking away.

"I am more than satisfied with where you are. You don't need to change a thing for me." He assured her with a lecherous grin. "All you need to do is get naked."

"You do know that my boobs are not going to stay this size forever." She was a bit worried about what he would think when they went back to normal.

"I know. I found you sexy before you had them and I will still find you sexy when they go away." He held out his hand. "Let's go home."

When they got home, Cam was sleeping and they took full advantage of that. Later Elizabeth was showering when the little guy starting fussing. Jason pulled on his sweats and headed into the nursery. He changed his son's diaper and by the way Cam was trying to eat his fist Jason guessed he was hungry. There were bottles downstairs but he would check with Elizabeth first. "Ellie." He called out entering their bedroom. He could see her in the mirror. She was looking at something on her back from where he stood it looked like a small scar.

"Just a sec." She answered pulling her nightshirt on. "Hey look who's up." She said reaching for her son. "Someone's hungry. I think he's going through a growth spurt." Elizabeth got comfortable on the bed and opened her nightshirt. Cam latched on and with a soft grunt started feeding.

"Do you want me to go?" It was an incredible thing to see, but he didn't want to make Elizabeth uncomfortable.

"No. Come sit with us." She patted the bed. When Jason came over she scooted up a bit and he sat behind her. Taking his hand, she placed it behind their son's head so that Jason was assisting. Looking over her shoulder, he saw that Cam had his eyes closed.

"Does this make you uncomfortable? I could feed him in the nursery from now on." She asked since he was so quiet.

"This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen." He said softly. "Your body gave him life and now you are using it to nourish him. Thank you." Jason wanted her to know that he was grateful for how much she loved and cared for their son. He placed his chin on her shoulder as he watched the little boy eat. She handed him Cam to be burped and then switched breast. This time Jason automatically place his hand in the position he had been shown earlier. Elizabeth hummed to Cam while he ate and when he fell asleep, she and Jason shared a smile. No, she wasn't ready to let this go.

As always thank you for the reviews, the favorites, and the follows. You all made it so that it was a joy to write this story and your reviews inspire me to want to write more. Also I got a PM and just want to clear something up, there is a lot more of this story still to come. We aren't even at the halfway point yet.