Dangerous Liaisons
~*~Chapter 6~*~
Ric walked through the door to his apartment and slammed it behind him. Why in the hell was Lorenzo Alcazar looking at Elizabeth like that? If he thought for one second that Ric would let him go anywhere near her, he was nuts. He just needed to keep his filthy, no-good hands off of his sweet, precious Elizabeth.
There he goes again. His Elizabeth. Like she was his property. She wasn't even his lover anymore. He'd completely lost her. All because he was so hell-bent on destroying his big brother.
Ric rested his hands on his desk and forced himself to breathe. Slow, even breaths. In, out, in, out...
But the breathing didn't help. The anger started to rise in his chest. He could feel the hate grow and consume his entire body. He clenched his jaw, when his arms started to shake. He was so stupid. He let his obsession with Sonny---his need for revenge---destroy his only chance to turn everything around. And now that he's hit rock bottom, Lorenzo strolls into town. Would Elizabeth be fool enough to fall for Lorenzo's lies? Would she let him into her heart like she let Ric in? Would she let him touch her...
Ric didn't feel his arms tighten. He was too busy torturing himself with ridiculous questions to notice when they made a quick sweep over the surface of his desk and propelled the contents onto the floor. But when they went back to clear the remaining items as well, something caught his eye. Elizabeth. She was in the picture frame still standing on the corner of his desk. It was both of them from their first date at an open-mike night. They had one of those picture booths where you get the four small snapshots. He had a frame made to fit them.
He smiled. He felt the darkness that threatened to consume him entirely start to slip away. It was because of her. He couldn't let her go. He couldn't lose her. She was the one person who could save him from himself.
But how could he get her back? He'd messed everything up with her. He couldn't believe he'd been such a fool to make her feel like she wasn't the most important thing in his life, in the world. It was right when he was about to surrender to his anger again, when the idea hit him.
It's perfect. He just had to set everything right. He had to show everyone that he was done with revenge. He had to show Elizabeth that she was all that mattered to him now. Ric walked to the fireplace and hit the small button that opened the secret storage drawer. He grabbed the bloody tire iron that was used to kill Fowler and placed it inside the jacket he still wore. With his positive thinking in overdrive, Ric exited his apartment and prepared to do something he thought he'd never do. He was going to make peace with Sonny.
~*~
Lorenzo rolled off of Faith and collapsed on the bed beside her. It took him a couple of minutes to control the heavy panting his quickie with the blonde had generated. She was really something. She was like a wild animal. She knew when to go fast, when to slow down, when to go up, when to fall down.
But no matter how great she was between the sheets, she wasn't Elizabeth. She didn't have that sweet, wholesome, purity that sent his desire into overdrive. He wanted---correction: needed---her. He had to drive himself deeper and deeper into her core, and he would revel in her high-pitched voice shouting his name at the top of her lungs.
"God you know what you're doing." Faith interrupted his thoughts. He looked over at his bedmate. Her sweaty hair was clinging to her neck, and her eyes were slightly glazed over. She let her hands run down the front of her body, before turning to him and smiling seductively. "I suppose you've had about as much practice as I have."
"I'm not really in the mood to talk." Lorenzo swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood. He slid himself into the jeans he had been wearing. Faith was okay for a rump in the sack every now and then, but after-sex conversation with her---as he'd experienced the night before---was almost unsurvivable. It was all about how great he was and how he was almost as good as her. He really wasn't in the mood for it. He was only with her now because Elizabeth had given him a hard-on he couldn't ignore.
"Oh god! You damn men are all the same! You want to fuck, but after that its 'shut-up Faith!'" She rose quickly from the bed and began to pull her clothes on in an angry rage.
Lorenzo smiled at her. "You have men tell you to shut-up after sex often?" He raised a curious eyebrow to her. He didn't doubt the answer to his question was yes.
"Oh, just one recently. Most men find me positively stimulating in bed and conversation." She picked up the comb on her dresser and began brushing through her silky, blonde locks. "You and Ric Lansing should start of club!"
Lorenzo froze at the name. Ric Lansing. She had slept with Ric? The same Ric that Lorenzo planned to destroy? He had to know more about this little encounter. "Ric Lansing, huh? Is he your boyfriend or something?"
"Ha, hardly. God forbid he give up on chasing the stupid, childish brunette of his long enough to enjoy himself a little." Faith threw her comb back on the nightstand and walked over to Lorenzo. "He---just like you---can't handle someone as complicated and passionate as me."
So, Mr. Lansing has a heart. He actually fell in love. That could come in handy. Lorenzo smiled down at Faith. "Did it ever occur to you that he could be in love with.what did you say the girls name was?"
"Elizabeth Webber.and he's not in love with her. She's a passing amusement."
Lorenzo nearly pissed himself when he heard Elizabeth's name. So Mr. Lansing had a purpose for verbally assaulting him in the diner. He was in love with the fiery brunette that had stolen Lorenzo's heart as well. Interesting.
"And what do you plan to do about that?" He inquired. If she were planning a way to get them separated, he'd love to help.
"Killing the little bimbo, of course." Faith said non-chalantly, before turning to look at herself in the mirror. "God my lips are so dry today. Did they feel dry to you?"
Lorenzo didn't answer. He couldn't let her kill Elizabeth. He had to think of a way to keep her occupied until he could get rid of Ric.
"I don't think that's a really great idea." He started. "I mean, if she ends up dead, he'll undoubtedly blame you."
"But what else can I do? If she's still around, dropping little pieces of hope at his feet, he'll continue to follow her around like a lost puppy." Faith sighed loudly and dropped to her bed.
"Well, I could help you out." Lorenzo smiled mischievously at the blonde.
She looked up, intrigued. "What do you have in mind?"
"Well, I happen to have a way with women. I could charm her away from him while you charm him into bed because we all know you have a way with men."
"Yeah, well, you don't know little miss ice princess. She's more stuck on Ric than he is on her. She's just playing hard to get right now because he lied to her." Faith's eyes reflected her disappointment.
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing." He said with complete honesty. Not many women had the power to turn him down. He wasn't going to let Elizabeth Webber be any different.
~*~
"Elizabeth? Elizabeth, would you look at me? Elizabeth, stop!"
Elizabeth stopped clearing tables to look over at Carly. "Yeah?"
Carly let out a slightly amused, slightly worried laugh. "God, where have you been? I've been calling your name for about a minute."
Elizabeth smiled at her. "Well Carly, I realize you don't have much experience, but I'm working." She over enunciated the last word to emphasize mock explanation.
"Ha ha!" Carly glared at her. "I know what working is. I have to run that club downstairs, you know." Elizabeth just smiled at her while walking behind the counter. "Anyway, you've been sort of quiet since Ric left."
Well Carly, that's because I've been trying to fight the urge to run over to his apartment, jump into his arms, and tell him how much I love him and can't live without him, Elizabeth said to herself. Carly wouldn't understand why she still wanted to be with Ric after everything that he'd done---mostly because one of the people Ric hurt most was Carly.
"I'm trying to make this place as clean as possible because I'm not in the mood to hear Courtney whine." Elizabeth noticed Carly bite her lip and turn away. "Oh, Carly, I'm sorry. I know she's your friend. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."
Carly looked up at Elizabeth and smiled. "No, um, I was just staying quiet out of respect for Sonny. She gets on my nerves, too." They both laughed. "Just be lucky she doesn't like you. If she did, she'd be following you around like a lost puppy. I swear that girl does not have one original idea!"
Elizabeth went into another round of giggles. She'd never heard Carly talk like this about Courtney. She'd assumed the four of them---Carly, Sonny, Jason, and Courtney---were a happy little family. Obviously not.
"But enough about her. What happened with Lorenzo before I got here?" Carly asked concerned.
"Nothing. I just thought he was Luis, and he corrected me." And he kept scanning the length of her body with his scary, obsessed, excited eyes that made Elizabeth want to run and hide. She thought at one point he was going to throw her down on the table and try to take her right there in Kelly's.
"Oh, he just gives me the creeps." Elizabeth saw a shutter run through Carly's body at the same time she felt one of her own. "I mean, there's the fact that he looks so much like his brother, but there's something else. Something so...disturbing in his eyes. It's like...he comes off as this nice guy, but it's all a cover for something far scarier than Luis. Luis was capable of love. He was sick, but I really think he loved Brenda. I could see it in his eyes. But Lorenzo...I don't think its love he can feel. Only sick, possessive obsession."
Elizabeth felt another shutter run down her spine. Carly saw it in his eyes, too. She just hoped his obsessions were fleeting.
"Anyway," Elizabeth broke the silence that had fallen between them. "How early did your weird pregnancy cravings come? Because all day I have been craving French fries dipped in peanut butter and chocolate."
Carly went into a loud round of laughs. "I only wish! Sonny makes me eat healthy crap! I tried to make a pizza the other night and he kicked me out of the kitchen."
"Well, you can come over to my studio anytime you want, and I'll smuggle you some sweet stuff." Elizabeth's face went serious. "I'm going to be a horrible mother. I'm going to be the kind that let's my child eat whatever he or she wants."
Carly's continued laughing got even louder. "I'll loan Sonny to you for a couple of weeks and he'll straighten you out. You'll be forcing fruits and vegetables on the littlest Webber in no time." She started to laugh again, but stopped when she noticed Elizabeth hadn't joined her. "What's wrong?"
Elizabeth raised her eyes to look at Carly again. "Huh? Oh, nothing." When Carly raised an eyebrow at her, she decided to tell the truth. "Okay, you said 'the littlest Webber,' and it just made me think of Ric. I mean, is this child going to be named Webber? Am I going to deny Ric the chance to have his first born take his name?"
"You're still in love with him, aren't you?"
Elizabeth started to lie---and say no---but Carly's reassuring smile made her change her mind. "Yes. And I know that he's done so many things wrong. Most of them to you and your family. Like making you think that he'd slept with you. Letting it go so far as to having you believe you were raped. I know what that's like. And I hate that he did that, but that's just it. I hate what he's done wrong, but I can't stop loving him for everything he's done right."
"Elizabeth..."
She interrupted Carly. "I know what you're going to say. He's not good enough. He's a bad guy. But that's not true. I've seen the real Ric, Carly. He's a good man. And he loves me. He really does. So if me loving him and needing to be with him means we can't be friends, I'm sorry. I just can't give up on him."
Carly smiled at her. "If you would have let me finish what I was going to say, Elizabeth, you'd know that you don't have to worry about losing me as a friend."
Elizabeth felt a little embarrassed. "Oh, well, what were you going to say?"
"I was going to tell you that if you love him, and you know he loves you, then nothing else matters. Not what I think, not what anyone else thinks. I mean, I'm married to Sonny Corinthos. I don't think anyone in town has as many people that hate them. He can be cold and ruthless, but I've seen his heart, just like I believe you've seen Ric's."
"How can you say that after everything he's done to you?" Elizabeth was shocked. Ric had been the worst to her.
"Well, I'm not going to throw a party and announce him as my favorite person, but I understand where he's coming from. He blames Sonny for his terrible life. Even though it was all based on lies, its still true to him. I know what that's like. I've been there."
Elizabeth smiled, knowingly. She'd heard about all of the things Carly had done when she came into town. Her and Ric really did have some things in common.
"So, you think I should go back to him?"
Carly smiled while getting up and putting on her jacket. "I think you should do what's in your heart." She swung her purse over her arm and gave Elizabeth a hug over the counter. "But I have a husband to go see, so I'll talk to you later. Okay?"
"Okay." Elizabeth watched Carly exit Kelly's. She was right. All that matter was that she loved Ric and he loved her back. They could be happy. She rubbed her stomach. All three of them.
~*~
"Have you contacted Brenda?" Sonny asked Jason, who was pacing a hole in the floor of Penthouse # 1.
"Yeah," Jason answered. "She said she doesn't want to come back here. She's not ready to face Jax."
"Did you tell her she probably won't be leaving the Penthouse much?"
Jason sighed. "She said there's no way she's going to live like a caged animal. Even for a short time."
"Oh, of course." Sonny through his hands in the air and walked to the phone. He'd have her dragged back kicking and screaming if it was necessary. When he was about to dial the last number to Johnny's cell phone, the door flew open.
Max entered and said, "Ric Lansing to see you."
TBC
~*~Chapter 6~*~
Ric walked through the door to his apartment and slammed it behind him. Why in the hell was Lorenzo Alcazar looking at Elizabeth like that? If he thought for one second that Ric would let him go anywhere near her, he was nuts. He just needed to keep his filthy, no-good hands off of his sweet, precious Elizabeth.
There he goes again. His Elizabeth. Like she was his property. She wasn't even his lover anymore. He'd completely lost her. All because he was so hell-bent on destroying his big brother.
Ric rested his hands on his desk and forced himself to breathe. Slow, even breaths. In, out, in, out...
But the breathing didn't help. The anger started to rise in his chest. He could feel the hate grow and consume his entire body. He clenched his jaw, when his arms started to shake. He was so stupid. He let his obsession with Sonny---his need for revenge---destroy his only chance to turn everything around. And now that he's hit rock bottom, Lorenzo strolls into town. Would Elizabeth be fool enough to fall for Lorenzo's lies? Would she let him into her heart like she let Ric in? Would she let him touch her...
Ric didn't feel his arms tighten. He was too busy torturing himself with ridiculous questions to notice when they made a quick sweep over the surface of his desk and propelled the contents onto the floor. But when they went back to clear the remaining items as well, something caught his eye. Elizabeth. She was in the picture frame still standing on the corner of his desk. It was both of them from their first date at an open-mike night. They had one of those picture booths where you get the four small snapshots. He had a frame made to fit them.
He smiled. He felt the darkness that threatened to consume him entirely start to slip away. It was because of her. He couldn't let her go. He couldn't lose her. She was the one person who could save him from himself.
But how could he get her back? He'd messed everything up with her. He couldn't believe he'd been such a fool to make her feel like she wasn't the most important thing in his life, in the world. It was right when he was about to surrender to his anger again, when the idea hit him.
It's perfect. He just had to set everything right. He had to show everyone that he was done with revenge. He had to show Elizabeth that she was all that mattered to him now. Ric walked to the fireplace and hit the small button that opened the secret storage drawer. He grabbed the bloody tire iron that was used to kill Fowler and placed it inside the jacket he still wore. With his positive thinking in overdrive, Ric exited his apartment and prepared to do something he thought he'd never do. He was going to make peace with Sonny.
~*~
Lorenzo rolled off of Faith and collapsed on the bed beside her. It took him a couple of minutes to control the heavy panting his quickie with the blonde had generated. She was really something. She was like a wild animal. She knew when to go fast, when to slow down, when to go up, when to fall down.
But no matter how great she was between the sheets, she wasn't Elizabeth. She didn't have that sweet, wholesome, purity that sent his desire into overdrive. He wanted---correction: needed---her. He had to drive himself deeper and deeper into her core, and he would revel in her high-pitched voice shouting his name at the top of her lungs.
"God you know what you're doing." Faith interrupted his thoughts. He looked over at his bedmate. Her sweaty hair was clinging to her neck, and her eyes were slightly glazed over. She let her hands run down the front of her body, before turning to him and smiling seductively. "I suppose you've had about as much practice as I have."
"I'm not really in the mood to talk." Lorenzo swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood. He slid himself into the jeans he had been wearing. Faith was okay for a rump in the sack every now and then, but after-sex conversation with her---as he'd experienced the night before---was almost unsurvivable. It was all about how great he was and how he was almost as good as her. He really wasn't in the mood for it. He was only with her now because Elizabeth had given him a hard-on he couldn't ignore.
"Oh god! You damn men are all the same! You want to fuck, but after that its 'shut-up Faith!'" She rose quickly from the bed and began to pull her clothes on in an angry rage.
Lorenzo smiled at her. "You have men tell you to shut-up after sex often?" He raised a curious eyebrow to her. He didn't doubt the answer to his question was yes.
"Oh, just one recently. Most men find me positively stimulating in bed and conversation." She picked up the comb on her dresser and began brushing through her silky, blonde locks. "You and Ric Lansing should start of club!"
Lorenzo froze at the name. Ric Lansing. She had slept with Ric? The same Ric that Lorenzo planned to destroy? He had to know more about this little encounter. "Ric Lansing, huh? Is he your boyfriend or something?"
"Ha, hardly. God forbid he give up on chasing the stupid, childish brunette of his long enough to enjoy himself a little." Faith threw her comb back on the nightstand and walked over to Lorenzo. "He---just like you---can't handle someone as complicated and passionate as me."
So, Mr. Lansing has a heart. He actually fell in love. That could come in handy. Lorenzo smiled down at Faith. "Did it ever occur to you that he could be in love with.what did you say the girls name was?"
"Elizabeth Webber.and he's not in love with her. She's a passing amusement."
Lorenzo nearly pissed himself when he heard Elizabeth's name. So Mr. Lansing had a purpose for verbally assaulting him in the diner. He was in love with the fiery brunette that had stolen Lorenzo's heart as well. Interesting.
"And what do you plan to do about that?" He inquired. If she were planning a way to get them separated, he'd love to help.
"Killing the little bimbo, of course." Faith said non-chalantly, before turning to look at herself in the mirror. "God my lips are so dry today. Did they feel dry to you?"
Lorenzo didn't answer. He couldn't let her kill Elizabeth. He had to think of a way to keep her occupied until he could get rid of Ric.
"I don't think that's a really great idea." He started. "I mean, if she ends up dead, he'll undoubtedly blame you."
"But what else can I do? If she's still around, dropping little pieces of hope at his feet, he'll continue to follow her around like a lost puppy." Faith sighed loudly and dropped to her bed.
"Well, I could help you out." Lorenzo smiled mischievously at the blonde.
She looked up, intrigued. "What do you have in mind?"
"Well, I happen to have a way with women. I could charm her away from him while you charm him into bed because we all know you have a way with men."
"Yeah, well, you don't know little miss ice princess. She's more stuck on Ric than he is on her. She's just playing hard to get right now because he lied to her." Faith's eyes reflected her disappointment.
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing." He said with complete honesty. Not many women had the power to turn him down. He wasn't going to let Elizabeth Webber be any different.
~*~
"Elizabeth? Elizabeth, would you look at me? Elizabeth, stop!"
Elizabeth stopped clearing tables to look over at Carly. "Yeah?"
Carly let out a slightly amused, slightly worried laugh. "God, where have you been? I've been calling your name for about a minute."
Elizabeth smiled at her. "Well Carly, I realize you don't have much experience, but I'm working." She over enunciated the last word to emphasize mock explanation.
"Ha ha!" Carly glared at her. "I know what working is. I have to run that club downstairs, you know." Elizabeth just smiled at her while walking behind the counter. "Anyway, you've been sort of quiet since Ric left."
Well Carly, that's because I've been trying to fight the urge to run over to his apartment, jump into his arms, and tell him how much I love him and can't live without him, Elizabeth said to herself. Carly wouldn't understand why she still wanted to be with Ric after everything that he'd done---mostly because one of the people Ric hurt most was Carly.
"I'm trying to make this place as clean as possible because I'm not in the mood to hear Courtney whine." Elizabeth noticed Carly bite her lip and turn away. "Oh, Carly, I'm sorry. I know she's your friend. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."
Carly looked up at Elizabeth and smiled. "No, um, I was just staying quiet out of respect for Sonny. She gets on my nerves, too." They both laughed. "Just be lucky she doesn't like you. If she did, she'd be following you around like a lost puppy. I swear that girl does not have one original idea!"
Elizabeth went into another round of giggles. She'd never heard Carly talk like this about Courtney. She'd assumed the four of them---Carly, Sonny, Jason, and Courtney---were a happy little family. Obviously not.
"But enough about her. What happened with Lorenzo before I got here?" Carly asked concerned.
"Nothing. I just thought he was Luis, and he corrected me." And he kept scanning the length of her body with his scary, obsessed, excited eyes that made Elizabeth want to run and hide. She thought at one point he was going to throw her down on the table and try to take her right there in Kelly's.
"Oh, he just gives me the creeps." Elizabeth saw a shutter run through Carly's body at the same time she felt one of her own. "I mean, there's the fact that he looks so much like his brother, but there's something else. Something so...disturbing in his eyes. It's like...he comes off as this nice guy, but it's all a cover for something far scarier than Luis. Luis was capable of love. He was sick, but I really think he loved Brenda. I could see it in his eyes. But Lorenzo...I don't think its love he can feel. Only sick, possessive obsession."
Elizabeth felt another shutter run down her spine. Carly saw it in his eyes, too. She just hoped his obsessions were fleeting.
"Anyway," Elizabeth broke the silence that had fallen between them. "How early did your weird pregnancy cravings come? Because all day I have been craving French fries dipped in peanut butter and chocolate."
Carly went into a loud round of laughs. "I only wish! Sonny makes me eat healthy crap! I tried to make a pizza the other night and he kicked me out of the kitchen."
"Well, you can come over to my studio anytime you want, and I'll smuggle you some sweet stuff." Elizabeth's face went serious. "I'm going to be a horrible mother. I'm going to be the kind that let's my child eat whatever he or she wants."
Carly's continued laughing got even louder. "I'll loan Sonny to you for a couple of weeks and he'll straighten you out. You'll be forcing fruits and vegetables on the littlest Webber in no time." She started to laugh again, but stopped when she noticed Elizabeth hadn't joined her. "What's wrong?"
Elizabeth raised her eyes to look at Carly again. "Huh? Oh, nothing." When Carly raised an eyebrow at her, she decided to tell the truth. "Okay, you said 'the littlest Webber,' and it just made me think of Ric. I mean, is this child going to be named Webber? Am I going to deny Ric the chance to have his first born take his name?"
"You're still in love with him, aren't you?"
Elizabeth started to lie---and say no---but Carly's reassuring smile made her change her mind. "Yes. And I know that he's done so many things wrong. Most of them to you and your family. Like making you think that he'd slept with you. Letting it go so far as to having you believe you were raped. I know what that's like. And I hate that he did that, but that's just it. I hate what he's done wrong, but I can't stop loving him for everything he's done right."
"Elizabeth..."
She interrupted Carly. "I know what you're going to say. He's not good enough. He's a bad guy. But that's not true. I've seen the real Ric, Carly. He's a good man. And he loves me. He really does. So if me loving him and needing to be with him means we can't be friends, I'm sorry. I just can't give up on him."
Carly smiled at her. "If you would have let me finish what I was going to say, Elizabeth, you'd know that you don't have to worry about losing me as a friend."
Elizabeth felt a little embarrassed. "Oh, well, what were you going to say?"
"I was going to tell you that if you love him, and you know he loves you, then nothing else matters. Not what I think, not what anyone else thinks. I mean, I'm married to Sonny Corinthos. I don't think anyone in town has as many people that hate them. He can be cold and ruthless, but I've seen his heart, just like I believe you've seen Ric's."
"How can you say that after everything he's done to you?" Elizabeth was shocked. Ric had been the worst to her.
"Well, I'm not going to throw a party and announce him as my favorite person, but I understand where he's coming from. He blames Sonny for his terrible life. Even though it was all based on lies, its still true to him. I know what that's like. I've been there."
Elizabeth smiled, knowingly. She'd heard about all of the things Carly had done when she came into town. Her and Ric really did have some things in common.
"So, you think I should go back to him?"
Carly smiled while getting up and putting on her jacket. "I think you should do what's in your heart." She swung her purse over her arm and gave Elizabeth a hug over the counter. "But I have a husband to go see, so I'll talk to you later. Okay?"
"Okay." Elizabeth watched Carly exit Kelly's. She was right. All that matter was that she loved Ric and he loved her back. They could be happy. She rubbed her stomach. All three of them.
~*~
"Have you contacted Brenda?" Sonny asked Jason, who was pacing a hole in the floor of Penthouse # 1.
"Yeah," Jason answered. "She said she doesn't want to come back here. She's not ready to face Jax."
"Did you tell her she probably won't be leaving the Penthouse much?"
Jason sighed. "She said there's no way she's going to live like a caged animal. Even for a short time."
"Oh, of course." Sonny through his hands in the air and walked to the phone. He'd have her dragged back kicking and screaming if it was necessary. When he was about to dial the last number to Johnny's cell phone, the door flew open.
Max entered and said, "Ric Lansing to see you."
TBC