Sami sighed with disgust as she pulled her hair from the braided bun, shaking her long blonde locks free from their confinements. She and Lucas had finished another public appearance about half an hour before and Sami had already finished changing out of the somewhat skimpy outfit Nicole had helped her choose and into a pair of a jeans and a t-shirt. In the reflection of the mirror in front of her, Sami snuck a quick look at Lucas, who was lounging on their bed in their hotel room. Sami gave her hair a few half-hearted strokes with her brush, then sat down next to Lucas on the bed.
"I can't believe there is still over two weeks of this publicity campaign." Sami complained, "It is getting so boring and repetitive it's not even funny. I can't wait until we get to back to Salem where we don't have to do any of this."
But the truth was, the publicity campaign had been anything but boring for Sami. The stolen kisses she had shared with Lucas had been exhilarating, the perpetual sight of him wearing practically nothing had been lust-provoking and sharing the same bed with him last night was causing her fantasies to become more vivid and more frequent than ever before. So, that meant Sami had only been partially lying when she told Lucas she couldn't wait to go back to Salem. One part of her hated the prospect of returning to Salem, where she would not get to kiss him any time she wanted without giving away her true feelings but the other part was relieved that the game would be over. She could go back to pushing Lucas away, whereas on live television, where she was supposed to act like his adoring fiancé, pushing away his advances was out of the question.
Lucas sat up and tilted his head to one side, smirking adorably at Sami, "I'm enjoying myself, actually. What's wrong with you? Am I getting to be too much for you to handle? I can tone it down if you want but I think Nicole would have a thing or two to say about that."
Too much for me to handle? If only you knew, Sami shook her head abruptly, shooting down his suggestion, "Of course not. But I'm pretty much pretending to be Nicole and it gets old fast."
"If you're Nicole, then who does that make me?" Lucas mused, "Victor?"
"I think Brady is more accurate than Victor." Sami responded, remembering how Nicole had confided in Sami her feelings for Brady several times on the trip, "And don't get me started on your little fan girls." Sami began mimicking the girls in a high-pitched voice, "Oh, Lucas, you're soooooo sexy. I love you sooooo much. Will you sign my chest? Will you take a picture with me? Can I have a piece of your hair? Will you let me take you home so you can wax my inner thighs and ravage me over and over?"
Lucas' eyebrows shot up in surprise and amusement, "Someone sounds a little jealous." he remarked.
"Jealous?" Sami sputtered angrily, "Hardly. I'd die before being jealous of those little witches with horrible taste and no self-control. God, I think they would all ban together, tie you up and gang-rape you if they had the chance."
Lucas didn't look worried or insulted by her words, "Really? I bet you'd hate that. Because the only one you want me to be with is you. Isn't that right?"
"No." Sami said as forcefully as she could. Lucas scooted closer to her, "No." she repeated when Lucas snaked his arm around her waist. He leaned in so that his mouth hovered above her ear. She could feel his hot breath hitting her and her pulse raced frantically. Warning signals were going off in her brain, telling her to push him away but at that moment, she was completely frozen.
"But those girls mean nothing to me, Sami. They couldn't because I'm already-"
Sami didn't want to hear him finish the sentence. She was scared of what she would do if he finished that sentence and said something that would make her want to push herself on top of him and beg him to make love to her. Hell, she already felt that way almost one-hundred percent of the time. No one, not even Austin or Brandon, had ever appealed to her as much as Lucas did right now. Sure, she had been very attracted to them, maybe even in love with them but not like this. They had never made her mind cloud over with complete lust and affection like Lucas did. And that scared her because she hadn't even cared about Austin or Brandon as much as she did Lucas and she had failed with both of them. Eventually, she had written off the failures as the fact that she had cared too much about them and if she cared more about Lucas than she had about them, then didn't that mean they were even more likely to end up failing? She didn't want to think about it, she just wanted to run away from Lucas until she had gotten rid of these feelings.
"Don't touch me." she cut him off, pushing his arm away, "We're only supposed to... paw each other in public places, not when no one is watching. Who do you think you are?"
"Whoever and whatever you want me to be." Lucas whispered seductively in her ear. Sami choked back a sound of protest as he bit her earlobe teasingly. Sami couldn't do it anymore, she couldn't keep bouncing back and forth with her reactions to him. She had to put a stop to whatever was going on between them before they ended up getting hurt. Sami wasn't even sure if Lucas did feel the same way about her or if he was just getting caught up in the publicity campaign. And for the time being, she couldn't risk herself.
"Lucas, stop!" she said sharply, leaving Lucas' arms to stand up, "I am not jealous of anyone and I do not want you to be anything but a completely platonic friend to me." she tried to soften her words slightly, "I care about you, Lucas. Just not in that way."
Lucas' eyes darkened with confusion and hurt. The look he gave her was enough to make her want to scream at him. Don't look at me like that! You know me better than anyone else, you're supposed to be able to tell when I'm lying, she screamed at him with her mind. She watched as his eyes glazed over with another emotion and her heart sank. Now he was mad. She hadn't wanted that.
"So, you just decided to kiss me back when I kissed you and act like you wanted me for the hell of it?" he demanded, "What, you were just playing around for the past few months?"
"It wasn't the past few months, it only started when we decided to do this publicity campaign for Nicole." Sami protested, "And we're supposed to be kissing and acting like we want each other in front of everyone, remember?"
"That's not what I meant and you know it." Lucas shot back, "Even when we were alone, I thought that it was more than just pretending with you. I thought the idea that you wanted money for doing this for Nicole was just a cover-up so we could get closer."
Sami tried to laugh, "And everyone tells me that I'm the one who's delusional. I didn't even want to do this in the first place, Lucas. If it wasn't for the money, I wouldn't be here right now."
Lucas' lower lip curled slightly with disgust, "So, you'd throw yourself at me for the sake of money? That sounds really familiar. I think you're getting a little too caught up in role-playing because you're acting more like Nicole every day."
Knowing he meant that in the worst way possible, Sami responded harshly, "You're so God damn pathetic. You can't get anyone else to look twice at you, so you're just using this publicity trip to get to me. I'm sorry but it's not going to work."
"I can't get anyone else to look twice at me?" Lucas repeated incredulously, his eyes flashing pure anger, "Is that so? Well, I think I can prove you wrong on that account. You're not the only woman in the world, Sami. But for the past little while, I thought you were the only one I wanted to be with."
Sami watched him storm out of the hotel room, slamming the door behind him. Completely shocked by Lucas' sudden actions, it took her a good couple minutes to regain her composure and react. By the time she stepped outside the hotel room, she couldn't see Lucas anywhere. Looking from one end of the hallway to the other, she debated which way to go. Finally making her way over to the elevators, she quickened her pace when she realized just how much she had just screwed up. In her attempt to push Lucas away from her, she had pushed Lucas too far and now the only thing she wanted to do was apologize.