Chapter 15: Proof

"Make love to me right now!" Sami demanded.

"Now?" EJ said trying not to laugh at her imperious command.

"You think making love to me is a joke?" Sami said angrily. "Are you afraid that you don't have the adequate equipment to perform the task?" She goaded.

EJ couldn't contain his laughter. "Samantha darling." EJ began.

"Don't you Samantha darling me, EJ." Sami interrupted. "I don't think it's an unreasonable request for a woman to request that her fiancée make love to her."

"That's not the unreasonable part my dear. You seem to have forgotten a tiny little detail." EJ said.

"What?" Sami asked pouting.

"You have two bullet holes in your side." EJ state.

Sami scrunched up her face. "Damn." She said softly, EJ had a point.

"Now are you going to tell me why this sudden need to 'jump my bones'?" EJ asked using the American phrase he'd learned from Samantha. "Well other then the fact that I'm devilishly handsome."

Sami smiled at his ego but the smile slowly faded as she remembered Lucas. "EJ, what is my real relationship with Lucas?" Sami asked.

"That's a question you'll have to ask him." EJ replied unhelpfully. "Now tell me what you remembered about him that has you terrified of him. The Samantha I know isn't afraid of anything."

"EJ? Why can't I remember our first kiss?" Sami asked evading the question.

"So you remember kissing Lucas?" EJ said seeing through Sami.

"Have you always been able to read my mind?" Sami asked surprised.

"Like and open book." EJ said smiling.

"Was I able to read yours?" Sami ask. "I mean before the accident."

"No. Now tell me all of it and what's rattling around in that mind of yours." EJ demanded.

"Well what are you going to give me for that information?" Sami asked greedily.

"What do you want?" EJ asked amused.

"My engagement ring." Sami said smiling.

"Who said you had one?" EJ teased.

"I don't know how but I just know it." Sami said earnestly. "I can almost see it in my mind."

"Oh really?" EJ said thinking that she was remembering the ring that Austin had given her. "And what does it look like."

She closed her eyes trying to picture it. "It has a gold band with a canary yellow diamond in the shape lion set inside the gold with two small emerald green eyes. There is an inscription on the inside of it that is written in latin, 'Love and Family Before All'. There is also a matching necklace and tiara as well." Sami eyes popped open. "Don't you think that it's strange that I don't remember the latin inscription but I remember the translation?" She noticed the strange expression on EJ's face. "EJ what is it? Was I wrong?"

"You described the Well's betrothal set." EJ said as thoughts raced through his head. How did Sami know about the ring? "Do you know about the legend of curse that comes with it?"

"The legend says that the ring is magic. That if a Wellesley bride can wear the ring without it falling off her finger during her entire engagement and the ring only taken off during the wedding to be replaced by the wedding ring that the marriage will be blessed and happy as long as the bride and groom lives. But if the ring falls off then the marriage is doomed and the bride and groom cursed to hate each other forever." Sami said as if in a trance. She then jerked awake and looked down at her hands in horror.

"EJ, where is my ring? If I don't have it on it means our marriage is doomed!" Sami cried fatalistically.

"Calm down Sami, you've never worn the ring." EJ said.

"Oh… why not?" Sami asked relieve and upset at the same time.

"Probably because it's locked in a vault in at Wellesley Castle." EJ said dryly. "At least I thought it was but obviously you've seen it."

"You grew up in a castle?" Sami asked interested.

"I wasn't home much, but it was tradition to have the Christmas holidays there. At least it was until it almost burned down the summer before I went off to Oxford. They are still renovating it." EJ said opening up to Sami. She always made him want to share his past with her.

"Are you a Duke? Or a Count?" Sami asked her eyes gleaming.

"Actually my brother is the Duke of Wellesley, I'm just a simple knight which I earn myself." EJ replied smiling at Sami's enthusiasm. "Are you disappointed that I'm a lowly knight?"

"Disspointed? Never! An earned knighthood is way better then an inherited Dukehood! You have to be have done something spectacular to be knighted. Right?" Sami said cheerily.

"It's Dukedom not Dukehood." EJ corrected laughing.

"See, another good reason why it's better that you're a knight rather then a Duke, I won't be an embarrassment to you for being an ignorant peasant." Sami replied.

"I would never be embarrassed of you Samantha!" EJ said firmly.

"But I have been an embarrassment in the past haven't I?" Sami said forlornly.

"Sami you're an embarrassment to your family…"

"What's wrong Sami, did my brother say something to you?" EJ asked.

"No, it's nothing!" Sami said dismissing the memory. "So Wells is short for Wellesley?" Sami asked changing the subject.

"Yes, way back when it was frown upon for nobles to go into a trade a second son of the Duke of Wellesley become a pirate to start up capital to start a business. He was disowned by this family and took on the name of Wells. A century later, the "legitimate" line died out and the title reverted to the Wells line." EJ finished.

"It's straight out of a romance book!" Sami said sighing. "You like romance, don't you EJ?"

"Yes, I do." EJ answered. "What is this?" EJ asked picking up a brightly wrapped package.

"Derrick left it." Sami answered.

EJ glanced at the note card that was attached to the package and handed it to Sami. "It's addressed to you."

"For me?" Sami said lighting up. She loved getting presents. She read the card aloud. "To the bravest sister your future brother could wish for. Thank you for saving EJ and in extension me. Derrick…" She put set down the note card. "How sweet! I wonder what it is."

"You wont find out until you open it." EJ pointed out.

"I will! I'm just savoring it. I don't get many presents you know." Sami said not realizing that she had just remembered something else about herself.

EJ made a vow that from now on he would spoil her silly. If it meant presents on her pillow every morning to make her forget the pain of the past, so be it.

"Oh EJ!" Sami said exuding happiness from every pore. She was glazing lovingly down at a picture frame.

"Are you going to let me see it?" EJ asked wondering what the picture was of.

She turned the frame around so he could see it. It was the close up of Sami and him dancing the tango. His brother must have found the picture in EJ's briefcase. He'll blast his brother later for this invasion of privacy. Then again, the joy on Sami's face erased any anger EJ had toward his brother and EJ was in fact grateful.

"I have proof now!" Sami said softly her eyes misting with tears.

"Proof of what?" EJ asked confused.

"That what we feel about each other is real." Sami said. "I know I can't remember our first kiss but it doesn't matter because I know our feelings are real and not something I wished up because I wanted it so badly."

"Do you remember when that picture was taken?" EJ asked.

"Tango?" Sami half asked half knowing.

"Yes, I was teaching you to tango." EJ confirmed.

"We won a trophy!" Sami said excitedly remembering.

"Yes, we did." EJ said smiling. Finally, a memory about him that he didn't have to lie about.

"And I fell into the water…and you had to fish me out" Sami said groaning.

"Yes!" EJ said laughing.

"EJ, before I fell into the water, I remember that I was really happy. I was a little nervous that I'd screw up the steps but I remember that I trusted you completely. And that nothing bad would happen as long as I was with you. I felt safe and exhilarated at the same time." Sami confessed. "I bet no one really remembers their first kiss even if they didn't have amnesia."

"I'll never forget our first kiss." EJ said softly, too softly for Sami to hear.

"Did you say something?" Sami asked.

"Quite right, not may people remember their first kiss. The most important memories people remember are of first tango lessons." EJ said giving her a boyish grin.