By the next morning, Sam realized that she was falling fast in love. As she walked the quiet, cold streets of early morning Port Charles, a steaming cup of java in one black-gloved hand and the leash of that new love in the other, she realized that Jason was onto something. She was already in. He fit her…and as they strutted the street quietly together, she could see this quickly becoming the norm. Woman and her dog against the world…or at least, Port Charles. The thought made her smile, then the thought of the giver, made that smile wider. She could see her Jason Morgan peeking through again, and she'd be lying if she said it didn't make her happy. He was trying, and she couldn't ask for more than that.
"So, is this who you stood me up for?"
Lucky Spencer had rounded the corner and was headed towards them, pointing at her new companion. Sam smiled in greeting.
"Isn't he worth it though?"
"I don't know - we haven't officially met yet. Your Valentine then, I presume?"
The lightbulb that went off left her feeling silly that she hadn't seen it before. "You realized it was Valentine's Day when you asked me out?"
His smile was unapologetic. "And I knew you didn't, when you accepted. You messed up a wonderful evening, by the way. When do I get a makeup?"
"Lucky…"
"Don't you dare say no. I just got back - you're not allowed to break my heart before a few official, earth shattering dates that leave you pining for me."
She laughed at his light banter, remembering how he could always put her at ease. "Whatever, Spencer!" Pulling softly on Captain's leash, she went to move around the man. "You're gonna have to practice your newfound charm on some other unsuspecting flower. But you and I still need to talk." When he opened his mouth to flirt with her again, she threw behind her, "About Jason and Jake!"
He watched her sultry back as she left, the full body black-clad physique enticing in her leggings and leather, her signature six inch heeled, calf-high boots clicking her away from him, and he wanted her as much as he ever did. She bent her head towards her companion as if to say something, causing the early morning sun to glint off her bouncing, raven tresses, completing the picture of how gorgeous she was, how she'd gotten even hotter in his absence, and he'd be damned if he was about to give up trying to get that again. Jason Morgan was around her all this time and still left her single and unattached? Damn fool must have really banged his head hard this time.
"Jesus, not you too?" Elizabeth stopped next to Lucky and looked from him to the woman disappearing round the bend, and back again. "What is it with you men - Sam Morgan is no catch - what the hell do you all see in her?"
Lucky's smile faded when he sensed the argument brewing. "Good morning to you too."
"Whatever! Seeing Sam Morgan first thing in the morning is never good for anybody - and seeing you fawn over her makes it even worse!"
"Elizabeth, don't you get exhausted lugging around all that hate and envy? Don't you want to be happy again?"
"That's exactly what I want…so if you want to help me, Lucky, drop this custody suit, go back to wherever you were and leave Jake and I to put our family back together. That will make me very happy."
He shook his head, seeing clearly that she wasn't even aware of how far she'd sunk. "Do you hear what you just said?" Her look remained blank. "Jake and you…not Cam, Aiden, Jake and you…just Jake and you. With Jason, I presume is what you meant?"
She fidgeted with the purse strap at her shoulder. "Don't twist my words - of course I meant all three of my boys."
"Our, boys! They're our boys…and you said precisely what you meant. That's why the suit isn't going away. Somebody has to think about them - all of them, and it becomes more and more clear, that somebody is me."
"Jason will never allow you to take our son, Lucky. We belong together, you need to see that."
He turned away from the blinding delusion to stop it from marring his day. "See you in court, Elizabeth."
Jason placed the headphones back on and fell back into a light jog. What had started as a run around the cabin had ended up the six miles to town, down by the pier. Nervous, misplaced energy had swamped him all night, rendering him sleepless and agitated, the fitful couple hours of sleep that he'd gotten, filled with desire for a certain raven-haired beauty, that had no place to be released.
He'd spotted her and started to move in her direction, but stopped when she was joined by the flirtatious man who repeatedly made no secret of his intentions. Knowing that if he interrupted them it was going to be with his fist to the smiling mouth of the leer, Jason held back, watching the interaction with a growing irritation that threatened explosion if the man stayed hungrily watching her leave. Note to self - train Captain to bite a certain scent.
The six mile jog back to the cabin took half the time it had taken him to get to town, and it was only after a long, cool shower that he was able to calm the pounding through his chest long enough to think clearly. The fuckup that his life had become was his own doing. He was the one who opted to live a life where he hadn't chosen his wife and son over some misguided responsibilities, earning him a bullet in the back and separation from the two people he loved so much. It had been his choice to back away from everything he'd heard he was, to remain in a safe hideaway with the safe choice, ignoring his wife's pain and his son's needs. It had been his choice to leave all the stones unturned in fear of what they held beneath, even when everyone and every sense in him had tried to convince him otherwise. Losing her all over again, was the penalty he deserved to pay for being royally and repeatedly stupid! But he couldn't…he just couldn't lose her again.
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Sam hung up the phone and closed the file on the four-year child abduction case, the fulfillment of finding the missing little girl and getting her location in the hands of the police and her birth parents, making her day. Adjusting their invoice to bill only for her expenses, she took great pleasure in marking that one solved.
"You look happy!"
She looked over to the door to find Jason watching her keenly, the look on his face not much different from the angry one he'd worn at the MetroCourt when he showed up to his meeting with Lucky. She didn't need to ask him what was wrong - she knew he was struggling with the suit filed for Jake. Keeping her answer short would curb rubbing salt in an open wound.
"It's a good day."
"I can see that. What did you miss last night - a private welcome home party?"
"Excuse me?"
He was agitated, moving into the room but not being still enough to take a seat. "No games, Sam. We've never played them and we shouldn't start."
Sam leaned back in her chair, finally noticing something else was on his mind. He was angry.
"I couldn't agree more. So what exactly are you accusing me of?"
"Not accusing - asking. If you're about to start something with Spencer, tell me now so I know where I stand."
"Where you stand is the same place you've been all along. Why are you asking about Lucky? Is this because I had a drink with him?"
"It looked a lot cozier than just a drink, and from how he tells it, you're about to pick up right where you left off…both of you being single and all."
Sam reached forward and snapped the laptop closed. "I don't believe Lucky would say anything so crude, and if he did, he was just pulling your leg. Don't start acting like a caveman."
She sounded like she was getting angry, but then her teasing brown eyes…she was mocking him!
Jason wiggled the fingers thrusted inside his jeans pockets as he continued to glare at her from his stance near the file cabinet. She thought this was funny. He'd come this close to stomping her boytoy into the floor, and she thought it was a joke. He still might find him and actually do it!
"Do you want him?"
Sam felt the amusement cease. "You really are jealous!"
With a sigh, Jason turned his back to her scrutiny, taking a deep breath that heaved his chest and closed his eyes. He was losing her before she'd even come back - how was that possible? The feel of her tiny hand against his back surprised him, as she came to join him near the window, stepping to his side with her arm loosely circling his waist.
"What's going on with you?"
He hung his head, then brought it back up to look out the window.
"He's interested in you." Silence followed the soft words.
Sam was still thinking about what he'd said about playing games, coming to the slow realization that was what she'd been unwittingly doing. In her earnest efforts to dodge him and safeguard her heart from further pain, she'd been hiding from what was inevitably happening between them, and in that quest to keep from getting crushed by him once again, she'd missed that she was playing hard to get, when the very heart she was protecting was screaming at her to get got…to take it home! The very heart that was now racing from her chest with a stark realization.
"Then I guess it's too bad I'm interested in someone else."
Hope. For the first time in months, he got more than just a little, and when the sound of her soft words injected his heart with sharp hope, Jason held his breath and prayed.
"You are?"
That pull that lived between them sent Sam to rest her head against a strong, muscled arm and join him staring out at the day. He'd always been the toughest man she knew, but with the most tender soul.
"Yeah. There's this lug that captured my heart awhile back, and hard as I've tried, I haven't been able to wrestle it back."
A tiny smirk began at the corner of his lips and light stoked his heart, as his eyes drooped again.
"Are you sure? It looked like something was brewing there."
She let his words sink in, already knowing the unblemished truth in her heart. "All you saw were two old friends saying hello. I told you before - there's nothing there anymore."
He wanted to stop while he was ahead, but she was too important to risk. "He was there for you…he knows things about you, things he had the good sense to appreciate, when I took them for granted. I can't blame you for being drawn to that."
Moving so she was standing before him and could look directly into his eyes, Sam gripped him by the arms so he'd look at her - needing him to really look at her.
"Nothing I've ever felt, has been as significant as the pull I feel to you! I don't want Lucky, I don't want Patrick, or any other man…I don't want anybody…but you."
Jason's breath caught and he yearned the whispered end of that sentence repeated. "Say that again."
When she reached a hand behind his neck to pull him to her instead, he met her lips softly, wrapping her in his arms to pull her close, still surprised by the deed…it had been ages since she'd initiated any closeness between them. His mind was fogging, racing against the heart wildly thumping his chest, warning, don't fuck this up, do not fuck this up!
But he would. He couldn't help it…her lips upon his were like heady wine…he had to keep drinking! Sliding a hand down to her firm rump, he palmed her hard and crushed her to his groin, pressing it to her, unable to stop the pulsing that was screaming out for her. When she moaned and melted into him, it was all the answer he needed. Lifting her off the ground, Jason spun her to the wall at his back, pushing hers against it as her toned legs wrapped his waist tight and his tongue plundered her mouth hungrily. He was starving!
Sam was giddy, she was about to pass out from lack of oxygen to her brain but the loss of the feel of his tongue at the back of her throat was not an option. Just as she would lose consciousness, he released her lips to attack her chin, her neck, working a hot, torrid trail down the neck of her shirt.
"I have too many clothes on." Her words were panted and wanton, and she needed him to take action.
Music to his ears. Bracing her against the wall, Jason placed a hand on either side of the shirt she wore and in an instant, fibers became shreds, ripped away from the fiery red bra that was next to follow, breaking apart so his eyes could feast on beautiful, full, inviting, voluptuous breasts. The groan that erupted from the instant dipping of his head that locked his lips onto a teasing nipple was that of an hungry, dangerous animal. The taste, everything he remembered, driving him as wild as he always was for her.
Sam was delirious. His hot tongue against her flesh was fuel on fire, sucking and plopping, working her nipple as he lifted one breast to release and let it pop heavily back to her chest, only to repeat and repeat, hungrily moving from one to the other. Burning heat set her hips to writhe wantonly against him, a message that they both still had way too many clothes on, a message he received clearly when eager hands tore at the zipper of her jeans to rip down and release her from their restraints, her hands simultaneously doing the same to his belt and zipper, pushing urgently at the jeans that tried to hold him from her.
"Put it in, Jason! Please, I need to feel you…ple…aaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
He entered her in one stroke, grunting and groaning at the tightness that instantly gripped him to her, the urgency for her long ago surpassing anything she could express for him.
"Jesus…" The growl from his throat pushed the sound of her name through gritted teeth at her earlobe, "…Sam!" When she moaned, he grunted in succession. He had to take a second. She was so tight, so wet, felt so good…he had to take a fucking second or burst wide open the very next.
"Fuck me, Jason. Fuck me…"
Writhing hips rose and fell against him in urgent need, driving her lips in search of his ear, his jaw, the strong, eager taste when they greeted her hungrily, his tongue driving, welcomingly met with her own. Gripping his shoulders tight, tighter, Sam moved against each fevered, blissful thrust with a desperate one of her own.
"Sam!"
Her name escaped his throat and echoed against her, where he locked with the heat tearing through his gut, branding her the way she'd branded herself upon his soul forevermore. He couldn't get enough of her, each glorious thrust deep inside her more elating than the last, fanning the inferno she unleashed, the unquenchable thirst driving him mad with need for her.
"Oh gawd…Jason…oh gawd, oh gawd…ohhhhhhhhh gawwwwwwwddddd!" Exploding bombs blew her mind when the orgasm spasmed through, leaving her clinging desperately to him, before every limb was rendered limp.
Warm juices bursting against his solid shaft sent Jason pounding harder into her, his lips seeking and finding hers urgently, his hands groping from thighs that hugged him like a blanket to the ass that enticed him like a magnet, finding that hidden spot deep within her, the pounding of the soft tip of him wrenching from her once again, pure ecstasy that sent her clasping and grinding as she reared herself in his arms and kissed him back soundly, whimpering his name against the blazing bolts.
"Jasonn!"
"Yes, baby, tell me! Tell me you're mine!"
"I'm yours - oh, gaaawwd - I'M ALL YOUUURRS!"
"And I'm yours, Sam…nobody but yours!"
Her words, her writhes, her body, her touch…they set the orgasm blasting through him to ram her hard, harder, deep, deeper, tearing another from inside her when she spasmed once more, before crashing down with him on a glorious, filling, blissful, simultaneous wave of pleasure that glued them to each other, arms gripped tightly, securely, lovingly together…the way they belonged forever.
Elizabeth was glued to the spot in horror and amazement, her hand stuck on the knob as she stood with her mouth fallen open, her eyes bulging from her head in horror, her ears burning from the words she'd never, ever heard him say before. The sight before her was appalling and riveting, disgusting and compelling, heartbreaking and gripping…all at the same time. They were like two caged animals who'd been freed after years of captivity - trying desperately to melt into each other. She wanted to gorge her eyes from the sockets, even as she couldn't look away. He was the love of her life…wasn't he?
"J-Jason?"
But the anguished, pained, tortured name that tore from her lips went unheard…they were totally lost in each other and oblivious to her horrifying death. Finally able to rip her eyes from the blistering sight that would give her nightmares the rest of her life, she backed away from the slowly approaching Doberman with the snarling teeth and glowing eyes, emerging from the bathroom, running from the open door to collapse against the wall when her legs failed and her breathing stopped. He had never, in all the years they'd been together, all the times they'd made love, ever been like that with her. She had never before seen that intensity with him…except for that sole, surprising night when he'd returned without the champagne and she'd known he'd been with her. This confirmed all suspicions…it hadn't been her he made love to that night at all. Not like that. Not like this. He was never like this.
When her legs completely gave way and dropped her body to the floor, she heaved the dry pain that broke her heart into a million tiny shreds. Her eyes fell upon the glint of shiny stone she still wore with the hope of his return to their home, to their life, to their bed…and she knew the truth now. He truly was never hers. The man in that room belonged to that woman, heart, mind, gorgeous body and beautiful soul. She never stood a hooker's chance in hell of ever touching what she'd just seen and heard.
Ripping the stone from her finger, she tossed its burning band hard against the opposing wall, hearing it clink and clatter to a stop somewhere, feeling as lost and alone as she'd ever felt her entire life. He was not hers. Why did life continue to be so cruel, so cold, so unforgiving? Why couldn't he had loved her like that?
But she knew why. There's everything, there's nothing, and there's what's in between…but when your heart completely, unequivocally, inevitably belongs to another - to have and to hold, to own or to crush, to swoon or to smash, there's only ever, everything and nothing. Sam Morgan had everything. She, had nothing.
