Part 9
She sat there in stunned silence as his words ping-ponged around in her head. I can't do this. You're confused, Elizabeth, and you don't know what you want…I can't stand around anymore and wait for you to choose me.
Elizabeth closed her eyes tightly, willing those words to go away. She exhaled deeply, her hands clenched into fists in her lap, and his voice seemed to fade. But as it did, her own words came floating back to remind her of their conversation.
I don't know how to tell you what it meant, Jason, to wake up and see you next to me…Jason, you need to know something. I don't want to be with Lucky anymore.
Her eyes flew open, staring blankly out at the dark waves. Had she really said that? Just like that?
Elizabeth blinked, thinking back to those words again. I don't want to be with Lucky anymore. She made it sound almost…easy when she said that. Like it was…a clean break.
Despite the turmoil of emotions within her, Elizabeth smiled at that. A clean break. That was exactly what it was. There was a time when she would never have dreamed of saying those words; a time when Lucky meant everything to her. But the times had changed, and she wasn't that person anymore. She wasn't the girl that needed desperately to hang onto the first love of her life. And the most obvious proof of that was the fact that she could actually say that she didn't want to be with him anymore.
I don't want to be with Lucky anymore.
Again, it made her smile. She bit down on her lip, not knowing why she felt a sudden rush of excitement and ease, and then decided that she didn't care in the least. It was a good feeling – she felt absolutely ethereal. Transcendent. Like at that moment, there was nothing that could hold her back. She felt free. She felt alive. She felt happy.
And all of a sudden, all that happiness came crashing down around her as another thought entered her mind, making her frown in disbelief. She had said it. She had said it, clear as crystal.
"I don't want to be with Lucky anymore," she repeated to herself, just as a test. Yup, she had definitely said it.
Then what the hell was Jason's goddmn problem!
She had stated plain as day that she didn't want to be with Lucky; that she was done with that part of her life and that she didn't want to revisit it because there was absolutely nothing left to revisit. She had practically spelled out in big bold letters tattooed to her forehead that she was cutting Lucky loose and was available now – for him. Did Jason honestly not understand that that was where she was going? Did he really not get that while she didn't want Lucky, she did want him? Was the man really that dense?
Her lips twisted downward into a deep scowl. Damn that clueless neanderthal.
Without another thought, she leapt up from the blanket and harshly jerked her sheer white sarong around her body, tying it in a haphazard and tight knot. Her footsteps were heavy on the sand next to the ones Jason had left as Elizabeth stomped toward the house, determined to give the ape inside it a piece of her mind.
The other guards that sometimes patrolled the grounds looked over in surprise as Elizabeth, dressed in her skimpy white bikini with a sarong wrapped low around her waist, strode onto the back porch past the white porch swing. Her lips were set in a thin, determined line as she fairly pounded her way across the floorboards and seized the door handle in her small hand.
Paco was sitting at the island in the kitchen sipping grapefruit juice and reading a Spanish magazine when Elizabeth thundered into the house, jerking the screen door open wildly and letting it slam behind her. He stared openly as she stomped by, but the petite brunette didn't even spare her friend a second glance as she made a beeline for Jason's office.
She shoved the heavy wooden door open and burst into the quiet room where Jason worked. The enforcer was seated at his desk and Trey was standing in front of him, one hand on his hip and the other gesturing into the air in an abstract fashion.
"I'm telling you, Jason, if you-"
"Trey."
Both men started in surprise and gaped at Elizabeth as the brunette stood with her hands on her hips in the doorway, her figure outlined by the bright golden light from the kitchen.
"Get out."
The doctor frowned at her, his hand still frozen in mid-gesture. "What? Kid-"
"Trey – Get. Out." The doctor didn't move and Elizabeth scowled, stalking forward angrily. "Now!"
Jason stared at the petite brunette beauty as the bewildered doctor did as he was told, exiting the room quickly and letting the door close behind him. With the peanut gallery taken care of, Elizabeth set her sights on the stunned man in front of her.
The older man could only blink as she thundered toward him, her hips moving in a hard, determined rhythm and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Her eyes were stony and yet smoldering, and her full, ripe lips were set in a resolute pout. And before Jason could even say anything, she had passed his desk and was turning his rolling chair around to face her.
Every muscle in his body froze the instant her hand clasped him behind the neck, and Jason was certain he had lost his grip on reality when she lifted one leg and climbed into his lap, straddling him.
Fire shot through his nerve endings when her other hand cupped his chin fiercely as she tilted his face up to hers, and Jason's shocked cerulean orbs met her grimly determined ones. She was dressed in a stark white bikini that revealed her heaving breasts, and her sarong had parted to reveal one supple thigh that was now pressed intimately against his jean-clad one. Espresso locks cascaded forward as she pressed closer, and her eyes were narrowed into lethal slits as she locked her gaze with his.
"Jason Morgan," she growled, her fingers under his chin digging slightly into his jaw. "You are such an idiot."
And then she kissed him.
Her mouth was hot on his as Elizabeth arched her back and pressed her thighs together against Jason's legs, holding the man firmly in place and not seeming to mind that he was too stunned to respond. Her full, ripe lips claimed his fiercely as her nimble fingers speared roughly through his wild spikes. Jason groaned loudly when she nipped on his lower lip and then swiped it with her tongue, soothing the sting.
The enforcer's hands, poised loosely over the armrests of his chair, trembled when Elizabeth's fingers wrapped around his neck as she coaxed him forward to meet her demands. Her lips fluttered against his now swollen ones, and Jason let out a soft gasp for air. That was all the opportunity Elizabeth needed to thrust her tongue past his lips and into the warm recesses of his mouth, plundering it with surprising savagery.
Jason's head was spinning as she continued her merciless assault. Elizabeth dropped her hands from his neck and smoothed them enticingly down his strong arms to his hands, clasping his larger ones in hers. She twined their fingers and squeezed gently before guiding them to her hips, where she let him go and cupped his face once more.
The blood hummed through Jason's veins as her tongue mated with his. She drew him into her mouth and he had a chance to taste her, and then she was pulling him to the edge by sucking his tongue. The hands that clasped her hips now tightened, the long, blunt fingers digging into the soft skin exposed just above her flimsy sarong and bikini bottom.
She pulled back and Jason was left gasping for air, and then her lips were on his again. She dropped several kisses on his lips, never letting herself deepen them, and the constant shift from the cool air to her hot mouth instantly brought Jason to the brink of insanity.
"Elizabeth-" Her lips brushed his innocently, in the softest of caresses and her delicate fingers stroked the golden hair at his temples.
"Mmm?"
He pulled her bottom lip into his mouth and sucked hard once but then she pulled back again, her nose bumping against his as she took a minute to nuzzle against him.
"Elizabeth, what are we-"
He didn't have a chance to finish the question when her small, pink tongue swiped between his lips, just the tip entering his mouth. One broad hand spanned the small of her back, trying to pull her closer even as Jason fought to recall every reason for not doing so.
"We can't-"
She grinned against his mouth, and her nose rubbed against his. One small hand raced down from the heated flesh of his neck to his chest, and Elizabeth held it there against his pounding heart, relishing the beat.
"This isn't-"
Elizabeth kissed the corner of his mouth, a sweet little peck that stole his breath away for a moment.
"We have to talk-"
She kissed the other corner of his mouth, her fingers splaying out over his heart, and Jason could feel the rumble of laughter in her chest.
"Elizabeth, listen to me-"
The spirited brunette pecked him square in the center of his lips, smiling sweetly against them. "I'm listening, Jason."
His arms tightened around her waist and he pulled her forward briskly, letting her soft body rest flush against his hard one. All thought flew from his head the instant her firm breasts flattened against his chest, and Jason could feel himself trembling underneath her.
"We-"
The pad of her thumb brushed his lips lightly, and Elizabeth peppered his cheek with dozens of tiny kisses, ending at his ear and pulling the lobe into her mouth. Jason moaned loudly and arched his back, rising almost out of the chair as she sucked hard. The motion surprised Elizabeth, who didn't have that much confidence in her affect on him and was just playing it all by ear – literally and figuratively – and she braced her small hands on his broad shoulders as he rocked forward.
"Elizabeth, can you-"
Her fingers petted the light golden hair at his nape and Elizabeth's hot mouth traveled from his ear down to his throat. All the blood in his body rushed south as she kissed and nipped and sucked at the sensitive flesh, and Jason fought to regain control. He had absolutely no idea what was going on – one minute they were on the beach and he was sentencing himself to a life without her. And the very next, she was in his arms doing wonderful things to his body. How they got from Point A to Point B, he'd never know – especially if she kept that up.
She had deposited several sweet butterfly kisses on his neck when she felt him fidget beneath her. "Oh, God." Elizabeth smiled at the sound of his voice – he sounded so out-of-control, on the brink of insanity – and pressed her lips to the strong line of his jaw. "Elizabeth, we really have to talk-"
"No talking," she whispered against his lips, her sapphire orbs smoldering when he sucked in a quick breath. "Don't think, Jason – just feel."
He shuddered when she met him for a hot, lingering open-mouthed kiss, beyond surprised when he heard himself let a soft whimper escape. What he was begging for, he didn't know – an end to the torture, or perhaps an escalation.
Her tongue tickled his, and Jason fought to rein his thoughts back in. This was…wrong. There was too much up in the air for them to do this. His limbs tightened as he steeled himself, and Jason forced up the most unsavory name he could think up.
"But Elizabeth, what about…L-Lucky?"
She pulled back just enough to look him straight in the eye, and Jason was taken aback by the intensity and honesty smoldering in her midnight blue eyes. "I don't want Lucky. I just want you."
"But-"
"I want you, Jason."
And surprisingly, it was as simple as that. Never in their relationship had anything been simple, and Jason had accepted that long ago. It was what made him suspicious of any new development between them because he knew it would be fraught with uncertainty and angst – everything always was.
But he couldn't deny the certainty in her voice. And he couldn't deny the way it filled something deep inside him, something that had been empty for a long time. She wanted him. Above Lucky, she wanted him.
The knowledge of that made him almost light-headed, and when Elizabeth leaned in for another sultry kiss, Jason was powerless to do anything but sit there and let her kiss him senseless. She was still pressed against him from the waist up, perched a little higher up on his body, so thankfully, she didn't feel the beginnings of his arousal. And for that, Jason was exceedingly grateful. His hands molded to the delicate curve of her back as her lips brushed against his, holding her tight and refusing to let go.
After all this time…he finally had her.
Elizabeth pulled back when she ran out of air, and Jason got the delight of gazing at her swollen, glistening lips and watching that rosy blush creep into her cheeks. Her eyes were dark and sizzling, and her hair was mussed and cascading into her face. Tenderly, he reached up and swept it back, tangling his fingers in the silky espresso locks and holding her close.
He watched as her bee-stung lips curved into a smile, and couldn't help suppress the small one that crept onto his as well. "What's so funny?"
She gazed down at him, finding no reason to doubt what he felt for her as she watched the emotions swirl together in his piercing cerulean eyes. She'd never allowed herself to enjoy it before, but the fact of the matter was, it warmed her heart the way Jason looked at her – like she was the most important thing in the world, and that she'd vanish into a puff of air if he took his gaze away.
Her hands cupped his face lovingly, and she leaned forward to press yet another kiss – this time of affirmation – to his lips. When she pulled back, Jason wrapped his arms tightly around her and she snuggled into his chest, her hand now pressed over his steadily beating heart.
"It's just…funny that I had to 'die' to remember how to live again."
