"You' ve got to be fucking kidding me!" EJ 's eyes hardened, a swirling of green and mossy brown. "You 're Mathasan Darby?"
Sami smirked, nodding, before giving a pointed look at where her hand stretched between them, waiting for him to shake it in appropriate greeting.
Mathasan Darby. He shook his head. Mathasan-fucking-Darby! "The same Mathasan Darby I' ve been working with for almost three ..." EJ seemed to lose steam for a minute, his next works barely audible, ignoring the offered handshake. "Almost three years."
"One and the same." A small satisfied smile curled her mouth.
"I' ve closed a dozen high profile cases with information from Darby. I don' t... You couldn' t..." The implications of her confession fell with a heavy weight on his chest. The wall around his heart that he' d built to protect himself from her, crumbling.
"Yes, I did. I had to. Don' t you see?" Sami advanced, putting her palms flat on his chest. Tipping her chin up, she maintained eye contact as heat surged between them.
"Why? Why would you do this to me?" He searched her face for answers, his hands skimming her sides.
"Do this to you? " She repeated with a confused shake of her head, her fingers hot as she reached for the buttons on his shirt front. "I did this for you. For us."
"There is no us! You saw to that, didn 't you! Why? Why Samantha?!" He blurt, throwing his arms up. You know what, never mind! It doesn' t even matter. Have a nice life, Samantha Horton...Mathasan Darby...whomever the hell you are! He scissored his arms up underneath and between her forearms, knocking her hands off from his chest. EJ whirled, yanking his coat off, balling it up and chucking it toward the door. Stooping to grab it on his way, he took long angry strides to the door, needing to put as much distance between them as possible. Grasping the doorknob, he tugged, exploding when he realized that they were locked in. "Open this fucking door!"
Despite the dim lighting that made EJ 's pupils large and now appear almost completely black, the coiled strength was barely leashed by his exceptional self-control. Perhaps it was in spite of his obvious dangerous mood, and his practical knowledge of deadly force, Sami hadn' t felt this alive in a long time. Three years to be precise. She shivered as her fingers played with the belt of her coat.
"I just need a few minutes of your time." She spoke softly, her tone even, even though her heart was pounding a frantic tattoo in her chest and her panties were drenched in desire.
"Open this fucking door, right now!" He demanded, his shout echoing around the cavernous room as he grabbed hold of the handle with both hands and wrenched back on it with a loud grunt and all of the power of his straining muscles. If EJ could have done it through sheer force of will, the thick oak door would have been reduced to a pile of sawdust on the floor in front of him. However, Sami had known how he was going to react and decided that the risk was more than worth the reward. She' d spent considerable time planning the particulars of this little meeting and she wasn' t going to let him get away so easily this time.
"Relax. I will let you out, after we talk." Chin up, eyes latched on his every move, she took a couple cautious steps toward him.
He pounded the sides of his fists against the door, the sting from impact not even registering as he bellowed to anyone who might be of assistance. "Hello! I 'm locked in here! Please open the door!" Savage kicks of his feet against the door should have scared her. If anything, it just attracted her even more with his show of brute force.
"EJ, no one can hear you." The gentleness with which she delivered her words, enraged him further.
"Kidnapping?! Adding that to your resume now, are you?" He spun toward her, the vein in the middle of his forehead throbbing in time with his heartbeat. His chest heaving with exertion, a sheen of sweat dampening his brow. " You really are your bloody mob father' s daughter! "
"You 're hardly a child." Sami mocked, holding his violent gaze as he stalked toward her, a predatory flash glittering in her crystalline blues.
"Prison life won' t agree with you, Samantha. " He drew himself up to his full height, a full head taller than she was. As he puffed his chest out, standing with legs slightly apart, EJ maximized the physical advantage of size that he held over her, because at the moment, it was the only advantage he had.
"You and I both know I' ll never see the inside of a prison cell, EJ." The tip of her small pink tongue, ran along the edge of her teeth, further baiting him.
"Interfering with an officer. Tampering with an investigation. Failure to obey a direct order. Entrapment. Kidnapping. You touch me and it' ll be assault." EJ spat any charge at her that he could come up with on the fly.
"What if you touch me first? " She purred, her hands fisting the folds of her coat at her thighs. EJ surged another step closer, his fingers curled around her upper arms, dragging her to him without premeditated intent. "Is it self defense now, if I touch you?" Sami thrust her chin up, pulling her shoulders back and arching her breasts toward his chest, allowing him to move her body, desperate for the contact. "You' re worth it." She blinked, swallowing back the sob that threatened. Husky and strained, she continued, "You 're worth everything." A low blow, repeating the words he' d used to try and convince her to stay with him years prior.
"Samantha, if you ever cared for me at all ..." The muscle in his jaw ticked and he trailed off, a misty film fogging his eyes, not able to finish the sentence.
" If I ever cared for you at all?" Sami 's lip quivered, tears filling her eyes. " You have to know I didn' t want to marry Lucas. It was you. It 's always been you for me."
"Ha! " EJ scoffed, fingers tightening on her biceps as he brought her closer. His breath fanning across his face, nostrils flaring with each breath. "You 've an interesting way of showing it, darling."
Sami' s heart trilled, hearing the endearment coming from him, intentional or not, it made every millisecond of pain worth it. "I couldn' t marry you, EJ. My father would have killed you. Your blue-collared family would have ostracized you. I couldn 't do that to you. You know that. The sainted DiMera s have always been too good for the dark and dastardly Brady crime syndicate you would have married into. The innate evil of my family would have destroyed you." Her hands slipped beneath the lapels of his coat, her palms flattening against the planes of his rock hard pectoral muscles. "I would have ruined you. "
He stared into the depths of her sapphire eyes, watching as they filled and one perfect tear slipped over the lid, streaking down her cheek. His voice cracked as he replied, catching the droplet with the pad of his thumb, wiping it away. "Don' t you know, Samantha? That once I had you, I was ruined for anyone else anyway."
A sob caught in her throat as she lifted herself up on tiptoe, slinging her hands around his neck, pulling his mouth to hers. Neither gave an inch. The kiss of their reunion tight-lipped and unyielding.
"You can' t marry her. " Sami whispered against his lips, the tears falling hot from her eyes. His mouth tightened under hers, the kiss turning brutal, as he shoved her away, watching as she teetered on her heels.
"Damn it, Samantha! How dare you? How dare you!" He spun, pinching his lips with one hand while throwing the other out, lurching a few steps away. Turning his back, he braced himself with both hands, arms fully extended, against the edge of the massive desk dominating one side of the room. His breath coming in short pants. " You 'd have me live the rest of my life alone. "
Dashing her tears with the backs of her hands, she shook off the weakness, regaining control. " She' ll never make you happy." Sami whispered, her breasts against his back, looping her arms around the front of his waist, holding on tight. She inhaled, holding her breath, her eyes clamped shut. EJ 's scent, his personal delicious fragrance her favorite in the entire world. He was the most perfect man she' d ever known, and just the smell of him never failed to weaken her knees. She'd never met another who appealed to her on every level, even the most basic of them all being a simple sensory one.
"On the contrary, she 's never made me as miserable as you have. " He knocked her hands away, where she was fiddling with the snaps of his suspenders and shrugged out of her light restraining hug, taking a sideways step, still braced against the desk.
"Is that supposed to offend me? Should I be insulted right now? Because I 'm not." She tossed back, perching her ass next to where his fingers gripped into the edge of the wood. He moved the hand closest to her, fisting it against his side. The other maintained the ironclad grip on the desk. Her own hands were busy unknotting the belt of her trenchcoat, shrugging it off her shoulders, the weight of it dropping behind her with a soft flutter of fabric. " Of course, she' ll never make you as miserable as I do. Nicole will never make you feel anything as much as I do. " With the smallest hint of movement, the side of her hand edged closer to his. With her pinky, she ghosted the side of his little finger, the spark between them kindling the inferno, with the minute contact.
"Love. " She paused, adding her ring finger in a slow stroke up and down over the back of his hand. "Hate." She removed the weight of her hand, watching each expression flash in his eyes as his gaze was firmly planted on where she was torturing him. " Lust." She recovered his hand with hers, trailing her fingernails between the webbing of each finger, scraping up the back of his hand onto the sensitive thinner skin of his wrist.
EJ 's breath caught in his throat, a sharp bolt of need stealing his breath. Blinking as he sucked air in over his teeth, his eyes traveled over the short red lace dress that she was wearing. If you could qualify the tiny scrap of fabric that clung to her body as a dress. The strapless bit of nothing, appeared painted on her full heavy breasts, the edge dipping dangerously low as she angled her upper body toward him, a generous gift of cleavage bared to his eyes.
With her tits as sufficient distraction, Sami lifted one foot, scraping her heel across the desk as she maneuvered herself to sit with him standing between her parted thighs. She held his hand against the desktop, directing it to the satiny skin of her bare inner thigh. "You want that straight laced, stick up her ass, church secretary to warm your bed? "
"Who is to say she already hasn' t?" EJ taunted, lifting an eyebrow and lowering his voice, he leaned in closer. " And why would I want her just to warm my bed, when she can warm my office. The hallway. My squad car. The holding pen of the Salem Police Department!"
"Bullshit," Sami spat, jealousy crackling like static electricity. She snaked a hand out and grabbed his tie, looping it around her fist, yanking his face mere inches from hers. "In the dark, with your clothes on and the lights off. Does she even know you? The real you. Does she know you 're a fucking Phoenix? Appearing out of the smoke? Rising from the ashes of the bed we set fire to with our bodies? I 'll bet she' ll never do you like me, she' ll never take your rock hard cock between her lips and suck you dry." She pushed her tongue, bulging out the side of her cheek in a lurid mimicry of her oral skills. " She 'll never let you fist her nappy hair in your strong hands and fuck her mouth, shoving your dick down her throat so far she can' t breathe. I 'd bet my life she' d never be able to make you blow, keep you hard and make you cum so hard the second time you see stars."
"You 're disgusting!" EJ swore, shaking his head as he pried her fingers from his tie and stumbled a couple of steps away from where she sat. Unable to deny her claim, because he knew, just like she did, that she spoke the God 's honest truth. And try as he may, her words set fire to his tenuous control. His pulse hammered through the length of his erection, skin stretched to the point of agony, the need for her so incredible.
"Perhaps. But I 'm also right. And I' ll prove it. Right here. Right now. " Sami hopped off the desk, stalking him as he backed away, their eyes locked in a powerful thrall that both were powerless to fight.
"You can' t say things like that. "
"Why not? Because they 're true? "
"She' ll never have you. I won' t let her. "
"God, Samantha! Listen to yourself!" EJ huffed, shaking his head as he shut his eyes and broke the intense visual connection, stumbling back to the large window pane. "You' re married to another man! "
"You' re mine, EJ. Right here. Right now." Sami moved her hands to the middle of her back, grasping the metal flap of her zipper. The unzipping sound, unnaturally loud in the silent room. EJ shook his head back and forth, his forehead sliding against the cold glass as her dress dropped to the floor.