Chapter Three

Sami made sure to keep her expression calm and her steps even so Lucas wouldn't know anything was going on. He had agreed to come to the Brady Pub with her that night and Nicole had promised to get Brandon down to the pub as well. It would be the first time Sami would see him since he had returned to Salem. She and Lucas walked through the door together and her eyes immediately drifted from table to table, searching for Brandon and Nicole. Her eyes finally came to rest on the tall, dark haired man and a smile spread over her face. He was the man who would help make Lucas hers, even if he would never know it.

Lucas also spotted Brandon and his back went rigid at the sight of him. One look at Sami's face made his heart sink. The half-dreamy, half-determined expression on her face was enough to let him know exactly what she was thinking. She was going to try to get Brandon back. She still loved him. Knowing that brought on a gnawing sense of jealousy, even though it shouldn't have. It wasn't as if they were on a date. They had come to the Brady Pub as friends, Lucas had made sure to make that clear to Sami. Unfortunately, he had no claim on the beautiful woman he had come here with.

"You know he was going to be here, didn't you?" Lucas asked in a soft voice and Sami turned to stare at him when she heard the accusing tone of his voice.

"Of course not." her baby blue eyes held complete innocence and naivety, "I didn't even know he was coming back to Salem. I'm just as surprised as you are."

"Well, I'm sure you'd like to go over and talk to him, so I'll go find us a table." Lucas said stiffly. This was killing him and he inwardly cursed Brandon Walker for returning to Salem. It was bad enough that Sami would never want to be with him but now that he was back in town. He knew this probably meant that Sami would probably end up wasting all her time trying to get Brandon back and he didn't want to see that. Brandon wasn't worth it, Sami deserved better. So much better.

His hands longed to pull Sami up against him, to kiss her senseless until Brandon meant absolutely nothing to her, until she was no longer aware of his existence. Quickly, he pushed the thoughts away, and clenched his fists, waiting for Sami to go over to Brandon.

Sami smiled briefly, "Actually, I don't really want to but I have to give him this." she fished something out of her purse and held it out for him to see, "The annulment papers. I signed them, I want Brandon out of my life for good."

Everything fell into place for Lucas and his eyes darkened angrily, "You didn't know Brandon Walker was going to be here tonight but you just happened to be carrying those papers around? I know what this is about, Sami. You might be able to get away with manipulating some people but not me. I'm not going to help you make Brandon jealous. If you want him back so badly, find a way to get him back without involving me in one of your stupid schemes."

"You think that I'm using you to make him jealous?" Sami's mouth dropped open in horror, "Lucas, I would never- I wouldn't- I don't want Brandon in my life anymore. I'm over him."

"I'm sure you are." Lucas shot back sarcastically, "Don't even try that with me, Sami. I'm not blind. I saw the way you looked at him when you came in."

Before Sami could protest, Nicole cut into their conversation, "Sami, didn't you notice that my brother is back in town? I'm surprised you didn't go running up to him the moment you saw him."

Lucas glared at Sami and brushed past her angrily, "Have fun with Brandon, Sami." he muttered before stalking out the door. Sami whirled around to watch him walk through the parking lot. She couldn't believe that her perfect plan was already going wrong. Lucas thought she was using him to get Brandon when it was the other way around. And Lucas had no idea how wrong he was. She had to go find him.

"Here, give Brandon these." Sami shot Nicole an apologetic look as she stuffed the papers into Nicole's hand, "I have to go. I'll talk to you later."

She left before Nicole had a chance to reply. Lucas was unlocking his car door and she broke into a run so that she could get to him before he left her at the Brady Pub. Before he got into the car, she grabbed his arm. He just looked at her for a moment, then yanked his arm away from her.

"What are you doing? Did Brandumb reject you?" he asked, his face hard and void of any expression. Sami could tell he was trying his best to keep his true feelings from surfacing.

"No, I didn't even try to talk to him. I didn't want to. I came here because I wanted to spend the evening with you. I really didn't know Brandon was going to be there. And if you're going to leave, then I'm coming with you." Sami informed him and his face softened visibly.

"If that's what you want." he said finally but he felt a surge of triumph and hope at her words. Maybe she really was over Brandon. Maybe she really did want him instead. He quickly shot down the idea and decided that was going too far.

They drove back to the apartment building and he and Sami made their way up to Sami's apartment. Once inside, Sami looked at him expectantly.

"I'm glad we didn't stay and eat dinner at the Brady Pub." she told him, "I wasn't that hungry anyway."

"What are we going to do now?" he asked her, sitting down on the couch and resting his hands on the back of his head casually. Sami thought about it for a minute.

"We could watch movies." she went over to her VCR and picked up two videotapes, "Belle slept over here the other night because she said we hadn't spent enough time lately and that having sleep overs with Shawn was getting too tempting. She left two of her videos over here and she wanted me to watch them."

"What videos?" Lucas asked curiously.

"Harvard Man and Cruel Intentions." Sami rolled her eyes, "Belle's finally gotten past her obsession with Days of the Week Panties and her newest obsession is Sarah Michelle Gellar. You should hear Belle go on and on about how great Sarah Michelle Gellar is. It's a little scary."

Lucas smirked, "Maybe that's why she pretends to want to wait until marriage. Because she knows deep down that Shawn would never compare to Sarah."

"Ew!" Sami threw a pillow at Lucas, which hit him square in the face, "Don't even suggest something like that. My sister does not fall in love with girls! Besides, how do you know about her and Shawn's plans to wait until marriage?"

"She asked me if I wanted to see her purity ring once." Lucas grimaced, "It was sometime during the summer. After she finished telling me about her ring and how great Shawn was, she started telling me to tell Phillip to stay away from Cassie because they were such a bad match. I think she was just a little jealous. I barely knew her and she just started talking to me and she wouldn't shut up."

Sami tilted her head sympathetically, "At least she never wants to spend the night at your apartment. She was so busy telling me all about all her favourite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes, I didn't get any sleep at all."

Lucas laughed, "Which one are we going to watch first?" he asked.

"Let's watch Harvard Man." Sami decided, pushing the tape into the VCR. She sat down next to Lucas and they sat in silence through the commercials. The movie finally came on and Lucas immediately snorted loudly when Sarah Michelle Gellar and Adrian Grenier came on the screen.

"I wonder what your sister likes about this movie, Sami. Are you sure she doesn't have a thing for Sarah Michelle Gellar? Because judging from these first scenes-"

"I don't think Belle's even watched this yet. And if she has, I don't know if she'd even understand it, being the Virgin Mary she is." Sami commented, pulling her gaze away from the television set. She hoped the entire movie wasn't going to be like this because watching two people go at it doggy style on the TV while she was sitting next to Lucas not doing anything with him was pure torture. She suddenly jumped off the couch.

"I'm going to make daiquiris." she told Lucas, who gave her a dirty look in return, "Non-alcoholic ones, of course." she added quickly, "When Belle slept over, she brought all the stuff to make them with her and I still have some of the strawberry kind left."

She left the living room, hoping the scenes would be over by the time she finished making the daiquiris. She took out her blender and then added the ice and the strawberry daiquiri sauce. She briefly considered adding something to his drink, like she had done with Austin but quickly decided against it. She wanted to win Lucas over without having to resort to manipulating him with drugs, money or anything else she had used or considered using before.

She carried the two glasses into the living room and sat down beside Lucas. Harvard Man actually turned out to be a very boring movie so she went into her bedroom to get changed into her pajamas and then spent the rest of the time on the couch fantasizing about Lucas. She could fantasize about Lucas all day and not get bored of it. Her fantasies would always have slight variations, like the location. She could get very creative sometimes. There had been that one very vivid fantasy about the two of them on that trampoline with a sprinkler underneath it in the middle of summer, that had to be her current favourite.

By the time she took Harvard Man out of the VCR and replaced it with Cruel Intentions, she realized that she had been sitting there for over and hour thinking about how wonderful it would be to be able to touch Lucas and hadn't done anything about it. The movie began playing and she watched Lucas out of the corner of her eye. They were sitting really close together on the couch and for someone who was usually so talkative, he hadn't been very talkative that night. He had glanced at her a few times but that was it. Maybe he was still mad at her for what had happened at the Brady Pub. She could try and fix that.

When she thought he wasn't watching her, she leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips. His mouth was stiff and unresponsive for a few seconds but finally he kissed her back, running his tongue over her smooth lips and cupping her face in his hands. Sami parted her lips slightly, allowing the object of her lust access into the cavity of her mouth. Once Lucas' tongue slipped inside her mouth, he felt liked he had just been jolted with an electrical shock. As he kissed her, all he could picture was the dreamy expression on her face when she saw Brandon. No matter what she said, she still loved the guy and he had no idea where that left him or why she was kissing him like this.

He put one hand on her shoulder and pushed her away from him, softly and firmly at the same time. Her eyes glittered with confusion as she stared up at him and he shook his head.

"Sami, I thought we had already been over this. I'm not going to use you. Don't make this any harder for methan it already is." he said, watching as her lower lip protruded, her mouth forming the cutest little pout he had ever seen. It was all he could do to stop himself from leaning down and kissing those full, velvety lips again.

"Lucas, when are you going to get it-" she began and Lucas stopped her from saying anything else by placing his fingers on his lips. God, he loved her mouth. It was perfect, her lips were soft and warm and they held the faint scent of strawberries from her drink. He could feel his entire body aching, almost needing to touch her, needing her to touch him. She was the one thing that almost made him lose all his self-control completely.

"If it's going to be too hard for you to control yourself, I'll leave." he said softly, a hint of amusement sounding in his voice. Sami shook her head.

"I'm sorry. I'll behave." she responded in a voice that was a mixture of playful and disappointed, then wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her head on his chest. The aroma of her shampoo, which smelled like a mixture of vanilla and coconut, was enough to drive him insane. But he was unable to push her off him a second time, so Lucas simply ran his fingers up and down her left arm with one hand and let the other hand move on top of her hands, which had settled at his waist.

About halfway through Cruel Intentions, Lucas shifted slightly and noticed that Sami was asleep. He slipped carefully out from under her, so he didn't wake her up. He carried her into her bedroom and made sure she was nestled beneath the sheets comfortably. He took a few minutes to admire how sweet she looked, her blonde hair splayed out behind her on her pillow, her closed eyes framed by thick, blonde lashes. She looked so angelic, just laying there like that.

"Good-night, Sami." he whispered quietly. She stirred in her sleep and her lips formed an unconscious half-smile.

"Good-night, daddy." she murmured, catching Lucas completely off guard. He hated moments like this. He loved her no matter how she was acting, the things she said to him when she was mad could even make him want her even more on some occasions. But then there were times he would look at her and it was like he was falling in love with her all over again. Like that moment. And it hurt worse every single time because his feelings would never be returned.

It felt like sharp pains were slicing into him as he watched her sleep. She still missed her dad so much, he could hear it in the way she mistook him for Roman and told him good-night. He was hurting for her and he hadn't realized that he was almost crying until Sami's beautiful face turned into a blurry haze. Her fingered a strand of her silky hair and exhaled shakily.

"You're dad might be gone, Sami. But I'm still here and I'm not going to leave you ever. I'm always going to be here for you." he whispered as quietly as he could, "I promise." he wanted to crawl in bed with her and let her curl up against his body like she often did but he stopped himself. Instead, he kissed her cheek and left the bedroom. He made sure to turn off the television and the lights before leaving her apartment.