Author's Notes: Now that Death of Innocence is completed, I plan to focus primarily on this story until it's completed. At present I'm working on getting this story posted with artwork at Profiler Fans and will also get it on my website soon. Reviews are very much appreciated and inspire me to write more.

Chapter 21

Jack clenched his fists in an effort to refrain from killing Samantha's father when he refused to let him take Samantha on a walk without two chaperones. Although he would have liked to kiss her, more than anything he simply needed to talk to her and Jack needed privacy to approach the delicate topic. Sighing he merely offered Samantha his arm as her lady's maid and Phillippe trailed behind them. Walking through the manicured greenery, Jack would have enjoyed the scene before them had it not been for their attendants.

Phillippe would give them privacy but Samantha's maid was a rather pinched faced old maid who took her duties very seriously. Mentally Jack made a note to get rid of the woman either by firing her or killing her at the first possible opportunity. Once he leaned close to Samantha to try and whisper in her ear to arrange a secret meeting later in the day to talk, but before he got three words out the maid started clearing her throat in a deliberate and disapproving manner. Looking miserably from Samantha to their chaperones, Jack thought it was ironic he could outwit a federal agency but not one over zealous prude.

Walking up to Jack, Phillippe whispered in his ear, "I'll distract the maid for you and the mademoiselle, if you care to make a break for it."

Offering Phillippe a grateful smile, Jack watched closely as Phillippe began to flirt with the dour woman and make her smile. Seizing his opportunity, Jack took Samantha's hand and lead her through the formal garden and past the chapel, stopping at last in a wild rose garden with a white marble pavilion that was nearly obscured by vining roses. Before Jack could speak, Samantha reached up and pulled his face down to hers, kissing him. Rational thought fell away as their lips met and Jack unthinkingly let Samantha pull him to the pavilion floor on top of her.

It was a scene Jack had fantasized many times, his Samantha kissing him and the scent of roses surrounding them. However in his wildest dreams he never would have envisioned them ending up in the 1700's and her an innocent again. Remembering what he needed to tell her, Jack gave Samantha a kiss and raised up on his elbow.

Before Jack could speak, Samantha proposed, "Let's get married here among the roses instead of in the chapel."

"I suppose we could," Jack responded unenthusiastically.

"Suppose? I thought you liked roses!"

Laughing gently, Jack responded, "I do very much."

"Then why can't we get married here?"

"We're lucky we're getting married at all, I had to send a servant to Paris for a priest. Seems my confession before the duel frightened the estate priest off."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," she mused. Then asked, "so why don't you want to get married here?"

"This is one of the few parts of the estate that remained intact after the revolution and I remember when I saw this place as a boy, they called it the Death Pavilion. One of my ancestors took his life here."

Gazing into Jack's eyes, Samantha smiled and entreated, "Doesn't that seem oddly appropriate?"

"I guess, I just want everything to be perfect for you," Jack responded.

Pulling his mouth to hers, Samantha murmured, "It already is."

As they kissed, Samantha moved her hand cautiously over Jack's groin to avoid the injury on his thigh. Caught up in the moment, Jack responded enthusiastically kissing down the column of Samantha's throat. For several moments his mouth hovered over the swells over her breasts at the top of her gown, before finally pulling away.

"We need to stop, my Samantha," Jack panted his french accent husky with desire.

"Jack we're getting married in another day and I hardly think I have to worry about you backing out," she teased.

Smiling slightly, Jack dropped a brief kiss on her mouth as he said, "I know that, but there is something important I have to tell you first."

Samantha's brow furrowed as she considered his words and she demanded, "Are you married?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I already know you're a murderer, so I know that isn't what you have to tell me."

"No Samantha it's not-"

"Are you gay?"

"No, I-"

Interrupting him, Samantha said, "I mean just because you stalked me doesn't mean you want to sleep with me and-"

Cutting her off with a growl, Jack corrected her, "I am not now, nor have I ever been married or gay. I pursued you because I love you and because I love you I wish very much to sleep with you. But before we're intimate there's something important I have to tell you."

Jack stood up and offered Samantha a hand up. Sitting on a bench he plucked nervously at a rose vine on a column nearby, he looked hesitantly at Samantha as she dusted herself off. Since their arrival they had grown closer as he'd always hoped they would and he was afraid Samantha's restored innocence could put a barrier between them. While she had wanted to sleep with him the night they met in Atlanta, that didn't mean she would wish to give him her virtue now.

Seeing the play of concern on Jack's face, Samantha sat down on the bench beside Jack and took his hand and encouraged him, "Tell me."

Taking a breath, Jack inquired, "Do you remember telling me that you were, uh- waxed back in Atlanta?"

When she nodded, Jack continued, "And do you remember me telling you my scar from you shooting me was gone when you commented on my earrings missing?"

"Yes, I remember. Either it changed when we came back here or we're occupying someone else's bodies. You told me this place belonged to an ancestor of yours, so maybe we're in our ancestor's bodies," Samantha suggested.

"I'm leaning towards the ancestral theory. But Samantha, things are different here in the 1700's then in our time. This is a time when women of the nobility were sheltered and chaperoned until marriage."

When she gave him a confuse look, Jack sighed, "Samantha, unmarried ladies of the upper class are chaste. The other night when I touched you-"

"So you're saying I'm a virgin?"

"Yes," Jack replied.

For several moments Samantha didn't respond. Her face inscrutable, Jack's heart sank. It was foolish to have ever imagined he was good enough for her. The few kisses and caresses he'd received from his Samantha were more than he deserved and she probably regretted them.

She didn't want him, he decided and he reassured her, "I understand that it changes everything. You don't have to worry that I'll expect to consummate our marriage."

"So you love me but aren't going to sleep with me?" Samantha asked incredulously.

Standing up, Jack told her, "So it seems. I'm heading back to the house, I'll see you later."

As Jack walked away, Samantha stared as him as he disappeared from view as hot tears began to fall. After all this time, he loved her but didn't want her. It didn't make sense and it hurt terribly. Wrapping her arms around herself, she began to cry harder. Phillippe had been coming to warn the couple that their chaperone would likely find them soon, when he found Samantha crying.

"Mademoiselle? What is wrong?"

Nothing and everything she thought miserably.

"Is there anything I can do? Shall I fetch the Vicomte for you?"

Looking up at Phillippe through watery eyes, Samantha noted his eyes were dark like Jack's. For whatever reason, Jack didn't want her because she was a virgin. But he had wanted her before he knew she was a virgin again. Maybe-

"Yes, there is something you can do, Philllippe. I need you to fuck me," Samantha sniffed.

Phillippe looked panicked and shocked as she spoke. Proper unmarried ladies didn't know that word and while upper class ladies slept with servants, not one as in love as the mademoiselle. Uncertainly he sat down and suggested, "Why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she denied and dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief he held out to her. Looking into his eyes, her misery over Jack swelled anew and she sobbed, "He doesn't want me."

Phillippe sat uneasily as she began to sob out the entire story and his expression went from concern to understanding...