Safe Haven – prt 10

Rated PG

A week had passed since Elizabeth had stormed into Jason's laps, straddled him, and nearly kissed him senseless. The days on the island were filled with Betty's scrumptious meals, Paco's entertaining tales, long and lazy walks on the beach, and all sorts of other activities meant to keep Elizabeth entertained and happy.

But Elizabeth was miserable. And frustrated.

A week had passed since she had gone all dominatrix on Jason Morgan's shell-shocked ass, that was for sure, but not much progress had been made since then. They had a long discussion that night and they had both made it clear that they wanted to be with each other.

And when Jason had kissed her again after their talk, Elizabeth had expected it to turn into something more. Namely, she expected to find herself in his bed that night.

Instead, Jason had ended the kiss before it deepened and given her a long hug, and then they had both gone to bed – in their own bedrooms. And that was how it had been for the past six days. Jason would wake up early every morning and by the time Elizabeth got downstairs, he would be done with what little work he had to do and they'd both have breakfast together. Sometimes Paco would join them, and sometimes he would be out on the island taking care of his own responsibilities. After that, they'd spend the day either on the beach or in town when Trey had agreed that Elizabeth was well enough for those excursions. Evening would settle upon them before long and they'd have dinner together inside and then they'd troop out to the white porch swing where they'd remain until Elizabeth started yawning and Jason decided it was time to go to sleep.

He always walked her up to her room and kissed her outside of it, holding her close but not too close, and then he'd slowly walk to his own room and close the door behind him. There had been a couple times when they had been kissing and it had gone farther than Jason had apparently intended, because the older man would always pull himself away. They hadn't discussed it at all and Jason certainly hadn't made any moves on his own.

And Elizabeth was reaching her wits' end with him – and had decided that it was time to take matters into her own hands once more. She contemplated straddling him in the office again, but with different results this time, naturally.

Paco and Trey were in town with the other guards and Betty had already gone to her own residence, leaving just the two of them home alone. The sun was setting on the ocean, painting it a brilliant shade of shimmery orange-gold, and its waning light colored the plain walls of the beach house.

Elizabeth descended the wooden staircase barefoot, enjoying the feel of the cool hardwood underneath her feet. Jason was nowhere in sight – she had searched all of the upstairs rooms and had found them empty. She had tried his room first and, irked by the utter tidiness of it, had taken care to subtly misplace certain things and muss other things just to show him that yes, damn it, she had been in his bedroom.

Betty had left a lemon-meringue pie on the island in the kitchen as she usually did – she knew how much Elizabeth loved to have something sweet right before going to sleep, although the older woman had kind of figured that even more than the sweets, the little brunette would much rather have had a certain blonde enforcer right before going to sleep.

The sexual tension in the house – and Jason's almost desperate attempts to sweep it under the rug – had not gone unnoticed by the guards that frequented the sprawling beach house. Seth and George – who weren't as familiar with Elizabeth as Trey and Paco were – had picked up on it and questioned their older friends. Paco had made some sinister remarks but had clammed up the instant his boss walked in through the door. Trey, however, wasn't as well-behaved and was utterly relentless with his sniggering comments muttered under his breath so that Elizabeth wouldn't hear. Jason didn't know what to do with the man, so he took great care to avoid his old friend the doctor for as long as he could.

The younger guards had asked Betty for her take on the matter as well, but the older woman sensibly kept her mouth shut, not wanting to intrude on whatever was going on between her little culinary companion and her employer. Instead, she bustled around and fairly buried Jason and Elizabeth with food – her own remedy for the issue.

Elizabeth slid onto the stool at the island and grazed some whipped cream off the top of the pie with her index finger. Betty was a fabulous cook, and she was sure she had gained at least ten pounds from her vacation on the island. That had only pleased the matron, though, who had claimed from the first day that Elizabeth looked sickly thin. In fact, Betty had been so pleased with Elizabeth's growing appetite after the poisoning that in her excitement she had made the mistake of asking her boss if Miss Webber didn't look wonderful, "the way she's been filling out". Elizabeth had blushed and averted her gaze while a similarly flushed Jason had stammered out that she looked wonderful, indeed.

After doing her best to build her willpower and refuse the tempting pie, Elizabeth admitted defeat and got up to serve herself a piece. And as she ate, her thoughts turned to the man who had apparently pulled a Houdini on her.

That stupid, stupid man.

She sighed and swept up a glob of whipped cream from her plate with her index finger, staring at it as she contemplated the best way to address their tender situation. Should she try to talk to him like a rational human being and explain to him carefully that she trusted him and trusted their relationship and honestly believed they were ready to take it to the next level?

A smirk curved her full lips as she absently stared at the whipped cream on her finger. Seriously, when had she ever been mistaken for a rational person?

That idea having been scrapped, Elizabeth turned to other promising ones. Should she storm into his office, straddle him once more – although that might have lost its surprise effect – and go from there? Should she lure him into her room at night? Should she strip to her bra and panties and tuck herself away in his bed that night before he got in?

She shook her head, glaring with frustration at the thick glob of whipped cream that still sat perched on the tip of her index finger. Whatever she did, she had to be damn sure it would work. Because whether he liked it or not, Jason Morgan would be deflowered tonight.

The thought made her laugh sadistically – deflowered. It was suddenly the funniest word she knew. Yup, he'd be deflowered, unplucked, taken advantage of, made into a man – whatever euphemism she chose for it, there was no doubt as to what she wanted to do to him tonight.

In her laughter, Elizabeth didn't hear the soft footsteps that padded out of Jason's office, and she didn't see the enforcer enter the kitchen. Jason's cerulean orbs landed on the glob of cream on her finger and his eyes widened when the brunette beauty suddenly and without warning – for he would have appreciated one, to be sure – took it into her mouth, suckling it clean. A low groan escaped him when she delicately flicked the tip of her finger with her dainty tongue, and Jason hastily backed up into his office and disappeared form sight.

Still at her stool and utterly oblivious to what had just happened, Elizabeth swept up the last bite of her pie with her fork and pushed the plate away. Yup, Jason Morgan was definitely going to be tortured tonight for the way he tortured her. A body that…deliciously magnificent couldn't just be wasted like that. And especially not when she was in the vicinity! Especially not when that body was practically hers for the…taking.

A wicked smirk pulled at her lips again: even her thoughts were laden with sexual innuendos. Excellent. She chuckled low in her throat, still shaking her head at her earlier thoughts.

"Deflowered."

Well, that settled it – the word was still damn funny.

Jason Morgan leaned back in his chair at his desk and pinched the bridge of his nose as the crickets began their nighttime symphony in the tall grass outside the window.

He was screwed.

The past week had been even more difficult than he had imagined. A whole week of being with Elizabeth, touching Elizabeth, kissing Elizabeth, and never letting it go further than innocent hand-holding and a few open-mouthed kisses. He didn't know how long he could hold himself back – especially when she turned him on without even meaning to.

The image of her flicking her fingertip with her tongue still fresh in his mind, Jason straightened in his seat and frantically tried to divert his thoughts to something else. He didn't have any work left to do for the day, and the only things on his desk was a white envelope that had been brought to him an hour ago and one of his old travel books.

It was the book about Italy, one of his favorites, and he had stuffed it into a duffel bag along with a change of clothes the minute Sonny had called him about Elizabeth. He had tried to read it on the plane but was too wound up to keep his eyes on the words that he had all but memorized a long time ago. When he learned of her condition he had figured that he could read it to her while she slept, but that hadn't happened. The book remained a constant fixture in his office and had been lying open on the desktop the night Elizabeth had burst into his office with her heart on her sleeve.

And in the past week, it had been a constant fixture in his bedroom. Every night after he kissed her goodnight, Jason would trek into his room and read from the worn pages until he fell asleep. It kept his thoughts safely occupied and off of the petite brunette lying in bed just a few doors down.

His rough fingertips skimmed the edge of the book and Jason idly picked it up. Sighing deeply, he let his mind wander to the day he'd given her the red glass. He had told her about the Pallio then – the old horse race run in Vienna every single year. There were so many things about Italy – things even mentioned in the pages of his favorite old travel book – that he wanted to share with her. And the memory of what she'd said to him that day – "Jason, when I imagine seeing Italy, I imagine seeing it with you" – led him to hope that she wanted to share them with him, too.

The book had been in his hand when he had raced up the stairs in the beach house to Elizabeth's bedroom after learning she'd ingested poison; he had let George worry about his duffel bag but had taken the book himself. He wouldn't soon forget the sheer panic that had filled him when he realized what she had done – when he had realized that at one point, the possibility that he'd never see her again had been a very real one.

They had missed too much. Left too much unsaid. Danced around too much.

Jason let the book drop to the desk with a loud thwack! and reached for the white envelope. He fingered the thick paper, still lost in his silent reverie. Elizabeth meant too much to him – he couldn't lose her again. After all that they had faced, all that they had gotten through, he just couldn't let her go again. The fact that she wanted to be with him – him – was still so incredible that Jason wasn't sure he believed it completely. After three years of friendship and more-than-friendship, tears and fights, "see you later"s and then the final "goodbye", it was just too good to be true.

Part of him still wondered what would happen when the Spencer/Cassidine war was over and Elizabeth could safely return home. He didn't even want to think about what her first encounter with Lucky after so long would be like. Would she change her mind? Would she decide she had judged too hastily and that she still loved the little shitpot?

Jason's brows furrowed and he glowered at the envelope. He didn't even want to go there.

But the fact remained that there was no telling what would happen when they returned to Port Charles. Everyone would start in on her immediately – they always did – and he had no idea what Elizabeth would do. He hated to hold it against her, but she had waffled back and forth repeatedly between him and Lucky, and he didn't want to go through that again. It would be better to walk away immediately than to have to wait for her to choose him again.

Jason brought the envelope to his lips, berating himself sharply. He was getting ahead of himself – thinking in what if's – and he just didn't do that. Reminding himself firmly to stay in the present and trust Elizabeth, he slid the envelope into the travel book and opened his right hand drawer. He had to move a small box out of the way before he could fit the book in, and had just closed it when Elizabeth walked into his office.

He looked up at her, his eyes drifting from her feathery curls to the pink tube top she wore with the little white capris that sat low on her waist and flashed a generous amount of her toned calves. Damn. He was screwed.

"Hey."

A smile tugged at the corner of her nude lips. "Hey, yourself."

Jason's eyes darted from her slender form to the door and back as Elizabeth sauntered forward slowly toward him, looking every bit the sleek lioness in search of her prey. He would have chalked it all up to his libido had the seductive gleam in the brunette's midnight blue eyes not given her away – the damn woman knew exactly what she was doing. She had him cornered and she knew it.

Jason struggled to clear his throat as she rounded the corner of his desk, her doe-like eyes never leaving his. But try as he might, the words just refused to form and Jason sat there in stunned silence as a familiar feeling of deja vous washed over him.

Elizabeth, smirking mischievously, slowly raised one shapely leg and crawled into his lap, letting the rough denim of his jeans brush against the soft skin of her smooth legs. She settled comfortably there, letting one hand fall on his broad shoulder as the other brushed through the soft golden hair at his temple. Her voice when she spoke was low and rusty, a sultry murmur in the damp night air. "You wouldn't be hiding from me in here, Morgan, would you?"

The thumb of the hand that was on his shoulder began to sweep hypnotically over the sensitive and heated flesh of his neck and Jason struggled to find some words, finally settling on one. "N-No."

"Oh," she nodded to herself with a small smile, leaning closer and letting her flat stomach rest against his hard one. "That's good." Her nose bumped against his but Elizabeth made no move of apology as she rested her forehead against his. "I haven't seen you much today, you know."

Her hand smoothed down his chest and she splayed her fingers over his suddenly pounding heart. Jason swallowed noisily, trying to think past the roaring rush of blood in his ears. "I-I had some work to do today."

"Mm," she murmured, letting her nose brush against the shell of his ear as she tenderly pressed a soft kiss to his earlobe. "I missed you."

Jason sucked in a sharp breath the instant her lips found the soft flesh of his lobe, and his hand tightened around the armrest of his chair. "Elizabeth-" All rational thought flew from his head when she pressed her lips to the pulse point in his neck, then to his strong jaw. "Oh, fuck."

She laughed, a soft, rustling noise, and raised her head to look him dead in the eye. The amusement he found in the sapphire orbs made him want to curse some more. "You've got a dirty mouth, Morgan." Jason's heart skipped a beat when those enticing blue eyes dropped to his lips and before he could say a word, their mouths met.

His control suffered a fierce blow the minute her lips claimed his. Elizabeth's tongue made quick work of parting his lips and slithering in to engage his in a sensual duel. She was a fierce kisser, he had realized, and kissed him as if she were asserting her ownership over him – not that he minded.

He was shocked at how quickly his body responded to her until he realized that he really shouldn't be. The beginnings of his obvious arousal didn't bother Elizabeth at all; the petite brunette wasn't embarrassed and certainly didn't back off.

His fingers delved under the soft material of her pink tube top without his permission and before long, both hands were underneath the stretchy fabric. Her creamy skin was hot underneath his rough palms and it took everything Jason had not to rip the top from her body at that instant.

Elizabeth's hands were in his hair and the petite brunette was very intent on getting what she wanted. She arched her back like a cat, thrusting her pert breasts against the hard muscles of his chest. Jason moaned, torn between his urge to pull away and his urge to scoop her up and drop her on the couch across the room so he'd have better leverage. He was quite helpless as he was, pinned to his chair by her soft, warm body. And it was almost laughable how helpless he felt when her small fingers brushed against his stomach as she pulled his shirt from the waistband of his jeans.

She stripped the cranberry-colored cotton off his body in one fluid motion, eager to get her hands on his burning flesh. Her fingers closed around his peaks as she lowered her mouth to his once more for another searing kiss that stole the air from his lungs. Her tube top had bunched up around her breasts, covering the mounds from Jason's view, but the flushed skin of her taut stomach was visible and easily accessible. The enforcer slid his rough palms over her stomach, smiling against her mouth when she quivered and let out a low whimper.

The tables turned when Elizabeth's mouth dropped to Jason's chest as she scattered several hot, open-mouthed kisses down the hard plane. The enforcer growled low in his throat and tangled his fingers in her hair, keeping her head where it was as Elizabeth worked her magic.

But the nagging doubts Jason had from earlier – the ones that stressed taking it slowly and making sure this was definite before forging on – remained in the back of his head, whispering quietly but unable to make themselves heard over the roar of the enforcer's passion. He was too far gone in the feeling of Elizabeth – her hands on his body, her mouth exploring the crevices between his defined muscles – to comprehend anything else. He'd waited for this for too long and at the moment, it was extremely difficult to remember why he should stop.

But when Elizabeth's fingers dipped under the waistband of his jeans, something felt wrong. When her fingertips brushed gently through the golden hair low on his body, something was off. And when her fingers pulled out to dislodge the button of his jeans, those nagging voices finally made themselves heard.

In a flash, Jason was jumping out of his seat. Elizabeth, who was in his lap, was startled by the quick movement and let out a yelp, but Jason scooped her up as he stood and then set her on the ground and backed away breathing hard.

A flushed Elizabeth swept a hand through her tousled chocolate locks, a look of pure disbelief and confusion on her face. Jason looked around for his shirt and, not finding it, gave up, choosing instead to torture her by standing there with the starlight twinkling on his gloriously tan body. Elizabeth stared at him in disbelief but Jason studiously avoided her gaze by renewing his quest to find the missing shirt, and finally the brunette had enough.

"Jason!" she burst out, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "What the hell just happened?"

"Elizabeth." The word was long and drawn out on a sigh as the enforcer rubbed a hand over his face. "We – I – we can't do this."

She stared at him as if he'd spoken in tongues. "What's that supposed to mean? Why the hell not?"

"Elizabeth-"

"Oh, no," she bit out, stalking forward with her finger pointing square at his chest in the most threatening manner she could assume. "Don't 'Elizabeth' me. I want to know exactly what happened and exactly why you claim it shouldn't happen."

He dropped his hands to his waist, slipping the thumbs into the belt loops and just stared at her. She was standing one pace away from him, her hair mussed, eyes dazed and starry, and her skin deliciously flushed. Jason didn't even realize that he'd slipped into a trance just staring at her until Elizabeth scowled at stalked forward.

Her slender fingers found the meaty flesh of his arm and she gave his bicep a harsh pinch, her frown only deepening when Jason flinched and recoiled. "Damn you, stop looking at me like that and answer the damn question!"

Jason numbly rubbed his arm, trying not to think about how close she was standing. "Elizabeth-"

"What did I say about 'Elizabeth'-ing me?" she demanded angrily, not caring that at the moment she sounded a little less than rational. "Jason, I don't see the problem here. We're two consenting adults, I've already been given a clean bill of health days ago, we said we would try-" Her eyes penetrated his as she helplessly dropped her hand to her side. "Jason, I already told you that I wanted you. Why is this so hard? – you know I want you."

The words left his mouth before he could even think to stop them. "Lucky doesn't know that."

That got to her. The brunette snapped her mouth shut, wide eyes just staring at him with a look of blatant disbelief. And as Jason held up his hands and stepped forward in an attempt to explain, she held up her own hand in acceptance. "I get it. That's what this is about." She backed away a step and Jason stopped. "You think I'll still go back to him."

He wanted to speak, to tell her that she was wrong, but he couldn't. And at that moment, the intercom on his desk rang and George's voice echoed in the room, announcing that Sonny was on the line and he was putting him through.

"Jason? You there?"

Elizabeth's dark eyes fell to the intercom device. "Unbelievable."

The voice on the other end faltered. "E-Elizabeth?"

The brunette didn't reply. She just crossed her arms defensively over her chest and backed away. Jason ran a hand helplessly through his hair and faced the device with a look of dejection on his face. "What, Sonny?"

"Oh, I…I just called to let you both know that it's over. It's all over. Elizabeth can come home anytime she wants."