Thank You everyone for the warm compliments. I never knew that so many people would like this story. I just want to thank my beta for the help. I hope this chapter answers some of the questions that many people have been wondering.

Chapter Eight

We need to talk. Jason figured those had to be four of the most god awful words around. They were never a prelude to something good.

He looked at Elizabeth. He'd married her. He'd loved seeing her pregnant. Getting big and round with her baby, she'd been everything he'd ever thought a woman could possibly be. Containing his desire for her during that time had just about killed him. But he'd done it. And after the baby came, after they'd settled into a new routine with the three of them, right here in this house that back then had been little more than a weather-tight skeleton, it was Elizabeth who had finally come to him. Elizabeth, who'd shyly told him that she was ready to be a real wife.

It had been the night before their first wedding anniversary, he remembered. With no effort at all he could recall every single detail of that night. From the way her hair had flowed wild and abandoned across the white sheets to the way her breath had caught in her throat when they'd joined together for the first time, to the way he'd lost control with her like he had never done before.

But she'd still been in love with AJ. It had been AJ's name that she'd mumbled night after night in her sleep while she'd tossed and turned, caught in the grip of a dream that Jason's imagination had no trouble whatsoever deciphering.

Yeah, she'd loved his fun-loving half-brother all right. And to his dying day he'd remember that particular fact.

"Let's just make it quick," he said evenly. "AJ's back. Apparently to stay. You don't have to tell me how you feel about him."

"But that wasn't — "

"I'll find a new place to stay in the morning. Unless you want to move out instead. I'd just as soon not sell this place, though, if you don't mind. We can work something out about the land and the stables." He didn't know what, though. He trained cutting horses. He needed space to do it.

She'd gone pale. Even in the dim light he could see it. He caught her arms in his hands. She was so cold he could feel the goose bumps on her satiny skin.

"Are you going to pass out again?"

She wrenched out of his arms. "No, I am not. What do you mean, move out? What on earth are you talking about?"

On the best of occasions, Jason didn't figure he had an over-abundance of patience. And now, it was in seriously meager supply. "You and AJ."

"Me and AJ . . . what?"

"I saw you two today, remember? Climbing down each other's throats."

Elizabeth felt Jason's words like a physical slap. "He kissed me," she said stiffly.

"And you fainted dead away."

"I was shocked. And . . . and hungry."

Jason didn't respond to that. She stared at him, feeling the very foundation of her world cracking right beneath her feet. But how could that be when they were standing in their very own hall right outside their bedroom?

Her voice felt brittle as she forced the question past her numb lips. "What exactly are you saying here, Jason?"

To be continued...

I know short..I'll try to update real soon! Please Read and Review!