"I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"And I can't believe you can't feel the therapeutic rewards of drifting aimlessly for an hour or three!"

Leaning forward to the crook of his neck, where his head rested against her, Sam turned her face to rub damp tendrils against his stubbled jaw, eyes closing to the soft sounds of Sade strumming from the shower radio in the background. Sighing into the chiseled hardness of his back she pulled to squish her breasts, she sunk deeper into the velvety feel of the water, lifting one hand that reached around him to squeeze the loofah that lowered slowly to trace a watery trail across his rigid pecks, brushing aside red rose petals aswim on the surface of his chest.

"Just let go, my love…feel the calm of the water, my touch…let the sounds of the night wash it all away." Dropping the lightest, feathery kiss to his ear, she dipped the loofah and returned it to its trail, changing direction down his chest to travel slowly to his navel. "Close your eyes and come with me…it's just us…you, and me, and the water…and Sade."

He had to admit, easing fully back into her arms that circled at his chest and her legs beneath the water at his hips, felt like heaven. It was the bath part that he questioned. "You really want me to smell like roses?" He closed his eyes to the soothing feel of her wet body against his back, then let his head fall to the urging of her shoulder. She felt so good…everywhere she was touching, everything she'd prepared around them…soft candlelight flickering throughout the bathroom, soft sounds of the water from the wave she frictioned with the slight movement of her leg across his, the loofah making slow, tantric circles where she brushed him lithely and teased his skin. He could see her fondness for the pastime, but he was starting to feel stirrings he knew she didn't intend.

"I hear you baby…but all I feel is you naked against me. That's a little hard to ignore, even with everything else."

Smiling, Sam rubbed her jaw against his head and whispered to his wet ear, "We'll get there…but right now, I just want to take care of you." She kissed his ear again. "Relax. I've got you!"

"Yes, you do…but kissing my ear like that is not relaxing me!" He stroked her leg where his arm rested over one knee. "I can think of a much better way we can both relax."

"No, you can't. You're thinking of working up a sweat…this is for your mind…" Smile spreading at his ear, she tickled with the softest blow of air, "I'll take very good care of your body later, I promise!"

Nerve endings heating with fire sent an involuntary bolt shooting through him. "Looking forward to that."

Closing his eyes again, he allowed himself to relax completely into her, giving himself over to expert command, almost drifting off to the lull of her gentle touch, when she switched her head to the other side of his.

"Your son loved his present tonight. He had a really good birthday."

"Yes, he did. I'm sorry I missed most of it."

"But you didn't miss all of it…I knew you wouldn't."

He brought her hand with the loofah round to his lips, dropped a tender kiss on her thumb, then released her to continue her trails. "Your faith in me is staggering, you know that? I don't know what I did to deserve it but it's intoxicating, how much you believe in me."

"That was earned years ago, Jason. You've more than proven that we can count on you."

"I've also given you reason to doubt me, and with everything going on right now - I don't know - I guess I wouldn't blame you if it made you remember."

"If, by everything you mean your exes…you haven't given me any reason to believe that they're anything but. I might get angry and bloodthirsty when their foolishness pushes my limits, but it's not because I believe in you any less than I always have. We just don't agree on how to handle them…but I get your position."

"You do?"

"You have history with them I will never be able to share, Jason. It makes your point of view of them different from mine. Your innate nature moves you to protect everyone you've loved…I feel the same way, but I've never loved either of those clowns - so I see them clearly, and I can stomp them without feeling bad about it. You can't. I get that."

"It's not that, exactly."

She traipsed the water along the length of his arm that stroked her leg absently, and nudged his head with her chin. "Then what?"

"Well, with Robin…it's not that I don't believe she's done something horrible to get revenge on me, but the fact remains that she risked everything to save me in that clinic. I owe her, Sam. Despite what she tried to do recently…if she hadn't come to get me, I would've never known heaven in your arms again. I owe her, baby."

"I know. I do too." The soft words dripped from her lips at his ear, and she meant them, but she wasn't blind either. "Unfortunately, that's not the person we're dealing with right now."

"What do you mean?"

"The Robin who couldn't live with herself, knowing she might've been able to do something to save you and didn't, is not the same woman who groomed a man to take over your life and fill your family with false hopes."

With a groan, his eyes opened to the ceiling. "Don't tell me you think we're dealing with another double?"

"You mean like I have Alecia out there somewhere? No, not like that. I just think that whatever has happened to her during the time she was away, has changed her drastically. That woman we saw the other night didn't give a damn about old friendships and saving lives. That woman is out for revenge, and she means to get it."

Jason studied the far wall as he thought on her words. "She showed me a totally different person again tonight too."

"You saw her?"

"Yes, she's part of the reason why I was late." He rubbed her arm that had come to rest across his chest, holding him loosely to her. "I didn't want to spoil our night by talking about any of it, but I want you to know why I missed so much of our son's birthday."

"Nothing can spoil anything for us we don't want it to, Jason…definitely not talking about people who we refuse to let influence our decisions."

She was remarkable, and everytime he forgot it for a second, she did, or said something that reminded why he felt that way.

"You're right."

When she dropped the loofah and closed arms and legs tighter and swooshed the water side to side with him locked soundly, he smiled devilishly and rocked them harder, sending the water waving over the rim of the tub and onto the tiled area around it, to circle and run down the drain. Her hysterical laugh kissed his ears, inviting him to turn his body inside her arms to lock her soft lips in a hot, hungry kiss and push against her to send them beneath the surface of the water, lips locked against sliding, seeking, finding tongues.

Sam rubbed her hair dry, turning from Danny's room after checking he was still soundly asleep, to pad her way back to the bedroom, where Jason watched patiently for her return, shifting his head against the headboard, his bare back rested in wait. She smiled through the fluffy white towel, then tossed it to the chair at the side of the bed, stripping off the matching robe that she let fall to her feet, before she slipped beneath the covers he held open for her gorgeous nakedness.

"You're beautiful, you know that?"

Smiling contentedly, she snuggled into his open arms and kissed the nipple at her head. "So you keep telling me. I might have to start believing it."

Dropping a lingering kiss atop her damp head, Jason pulled her closer. "You better." When she snuggled closer still, he pulled her tighter and eased further into the sheets, then kissed her in the same spot again, his eyes falling past the walls before him, seeing the life they had together. "You're my soulmate, Sam. You're the love of my life." When a shiver ran through her body, the involuntary jerk that moved her prompted a forefinger that tilted her head so he could see the sparkling amber specks in her gorgeous chocolate orbs. "Do you know how much I love you?" Then her lips curled the tiniest smile, and he couldn't stop himself from dipping his head to taste the inviting warmth.

Tiny bells sounded in her head that set off tiny tingles through her body, leaving Sam breathless from the softest peck of his lips, a reminder that the somersaults his kisses still evoked on her poor heart will one day leave her dead. "Give me a heart attack, why don't you?" Her mouth was joking but her heart was leaping from her chest with the force of what it held for him.

"I get one everytime I look at you." He stroked her upturned face and when her lovely lids drooped closed, he had to answer the summon to kiss each tenderly, moving from one eyelid to the other, to the sexy tip of her perfect nose and the sensuous lips beneath, softly, once, twice, even softer trice, and then again…whispering, "I love you…so much!"

The butterflies that lived in her chest escaped to flitter against closed eyelids and the bottom of her belly. "I love you too." Of course she did. She's loved others too…but he was the first…he was the only with this intensity, with this abandon! He was the only with this lightheaded euphoria, this blinding purity. He was the last.

The beeping of her phone broke through the haze in her head, bringing the awareness it had been a dull echo in the background of her mind. "I should probably get that." She didn't want to, but it was late. It could be important. It better be important.

Reluctantly obeying to release her sweet lips, Jason moved his body with hers as she reached for the phone on the table beside her, relishing the sweet sound of her laughter at his ear.

"It's my mom." Sam read the texts that had sounded back to back. "Looks like you're giving her a sleepless night thinking about your ride tomorrow."

He dropped a soft kiss to her bare shoulder, pulling her back in when she laid the phone on the table after texting 'GO TO SLEEP!' and easing back inside his arms.

"She's not the only one who's worried - admit it!"

"I admit, I was worried - but that was earlier - I've since remembered who's taking him out. I trust you - you know that."

"I'd die before I let anything hurt him, ever."

"I know you would…and I also know I prefer you be the one to teach him these things, because he's going to try them one way or the other, with or without us. He's a daredevil at heart, and I feel better knowing we're his teachers."

The phone beeped again and she swore beneath her breath, then yanked the sheet above her head. "I'm not getting that - maybe she'll go to sleep if I don't answer."

Smiling, Jason draped across her body to grab the phone that beeped again, then read the texts out loud.

"Who can sleep, when you're not stopping that man from putting my grandbaby in a body cast!" And "I'm calling child services right now!"

"Don't you dare reply to her - she'll never stop!" She withdrew from beneath the sheets to see his demeanor change with him glaring at her phone. "What did she say now?"

Looking over to her, he held the phone so she could see the screen. "Who sent you this?"

"Oh - that!" Easing to her stomach, Sam smoothed the pillow then laid her head down. "I don't want to talk about that - not tonight."

She knew he wouldn't let her get away with that even before she felt herself being turned onto her back so she was looking up at his angry face.

"Who took this and sent it to you, Sam?"

Annoyed at having to address it, she shifted into a sitting position and slapped the sheets on either side of her. "I have no bloody idea, and I don't really care!"

Jason looked at the number and it was't one that he recognized. "Has there been others?"

Her annoyance shifting to him, Sam raised her brow quizzically, "Should there be?"

Realizing from her tone how it sounded, he shook his head and sighed, "Of course not! But this one shouldn't exist either, is my point. Why would anyone take this and send it to you…unless…"

"Unless…?" Her frown increased at the dawning look in his eyes.

"Robin showed up right after that happened - I told you how I saw her earlier?"

"Yea - so? You think she sent it?"

"Who else? She was really calm - a total one-eighty from the hostility the other night - and I took her at face value. But then this? It has to be her."

"You think she was lying in wait for your ex to end up in your arms so she could capture the moment and share it with me, and what - send me into a blind rage? To accomplish what?"

"At the very least, to hurt you. She's made it very clear her goal is to cause you pain. I can't believe she had me believing she was willing to move past everything."

"Interesting."

"What's even more interesting is how Elizabeth ended up in my arms in the first place. I'm starting think they planned it this way."

"Great! So I guess we are going to talk about this now."

"Baby, I swear it was completely innocent…I know how it looks, but that picture doesn't tell the whole story, and if I'd known you'd seen that, I sure as hell would have explained it the minute I came home!"

"There's nothing to explain."

"The hell there isn't!" He closed his eyes against the anger building in him at whomever had targeted her, inhaled, then opened to see her face. "Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make you think I'd ever hurt you like that again, but I swear, Sam - she ran into my arms from out of nowhere, and whomever it was, timed it perfectly to get a shot like that - because it took a second to ease her off me."

Rubbing her eyes sleepily, Sam expelled the yawn that escaped her lips. "Jason, I wasn't being coy when I said you didn't need to explain. I'm not insecure Elizabeth Webber, and the minute that thing showed up, I realized somebody wanted me to react to it…so I didn't."

When he thought of the warm way she greeted him earlier that night and the intimacy he'd come home to, he realized she really didn't. Easing his head to one side, he puzzled out loud, thankful the insipid incident had failed to sully their bond. "Why didn't you?"

"Because no-one was going to get the satisfaction of ruining Danny's birthday for me, or for him! Somebody wanted me to go off on some jealous rage over a damn picture and forget that you've never spent a birthday with your son…that Danny never shared his special day with his dad, and that we never got the opportunity to share it together. Somebody wanted us apart and upset, today of all days…and they've already gotten five of those. They don't get another!"

Loving her even more with each word spat, he raised both hands to cup her face, pulling her close enough his nose brushed her own, besotted eyes studying her intently…drinking the soft, tanned smoothness of her skin, tiny, almost indiscernible freckles that danced across her perfect nose, long, fluttering lashes that lowered to hide her from him - only momentarily, before the chocolate portals to her beautiful soul called him in to drown in their depths. Lips that tasted like honey, moved softly beneath his kiss, answering the teasing urge to open her to him.

Hours flew in the dance of their bodies speaking their own tantric language, and when finally spent and drained, they lay in a cocooned mesh, intertwined and sated in sweated bliss. He could feel the leveling, soft fall of her breath upon his chest that housed her head, and as he stroked her closer to burgeoning slumber, his own slouching eyes opened on a distant thought.

"You weren't the least bit jealous?"

The sound of his voice pulled her from the edge of sleep, the question echoing out of nowhere. "Seriously?" A mumble was all she could manage, her body coiled for the heaven promised by sleep.

"Not even a little bit?"

Awake again, her eyes remained closed in slurry protest. "You're upset I'm not jealous of a staged photo?"

"I'm just saying…some woman was all over me and you had no reaction…tell me there was at least one small second when you wanted to rip her off me."

"Will it get me some sleep if I do?"

A silent moment passed when her breathing began to even out again, but he found no such haven. "Do you need to see it again? I can reach the phone so you can have another look."

"Okay, I give…" she tried rolling over on her back but his arm wouldn't let her, so she raised tired eyes to his face instead, "…what crisis does your princess need you to save her from now?"

Smiling in satisfaction, he rolled with her in his arms, the ignited bite in her question satisfying his playful need. "Who cares about that?" He kissed the side of her lips and lingered when she pinched his arm. One of the many things they had in common was they didn't get jealous - not usually…but sometimes a little jealousy is warranted. He broadened the smile he felt form against the silkiness of her skin. "I love it when you break the claws out."

"Glad you're happy…I can sleep now?"

She tasted like promises and dreams and creamy nectar, enticing his senses and awakened naked need. "Who said anything about sleep?"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Hello?"

The damn thing was still ringing up against her ear! Easing it back so she could see the screen, her sleepy eyes made out Carly's smiling face, breaking a grunt from her throat, as she swiped the button and put the offending sleep-robber back to her ear.

"Carly, it's early - can't this wait til…"

"No it can't, Sam, and it's almost noon…get your sleepy butt out of bed and come meet me at Sonny's warehouse!"

Almost noon! It was? Moving the phone again, Sam took a quick look at the screen, squinting to see the clock. Shit - it was! With a groan, she turned over on her back to find she was alone in the bed, and there was a ghostly quiet throughout the penthouse.

"Sam! Sam!"

Stifled whispering from the phone in her hand brought her attention back to the call, prompting her to sit up as she pushed the speaker button and planted her feet to the floor.

"What, Carly - WHAT?"

"Wake the hell up! Did you hear what I said…I'm at Sonny's warehouse and something fishy's going on. I need you over here…and bring that listening device!"

"What?" It was too damn early for this! Only it wasn't early…why had she slept so late…and why had Jason let her?

Padding to the bathroom, she laid the phone near the sink and looked at her reflection, groaning at the tousled dark tresses that was the backdrop to the sleepy visage. Long day, long night, long week - hell, it had been a long damn year! She rubbed the sides of her face and yawned, realizing Carly was still calling her name.

"Sam, I swear if you…"

"Okay, okay - I heard you! I'll be right there - just give me a minute!"

Not waiting for anymore verbal thrashing, she quickly ended the call and looked at her reflection again, inwardly cursing her friend for the rude awaking, even as she took note of a deep satisfaction that shone through sleepy eyes. With a small smirk forming, she turned to the shower to wake herself up to face the day and Carly's latest brainstorm.

Twenty minutes later she was creeping into the warehouse that was abustle with activity for a Sunday. What was it with everybody up and about like they didn't get the weekend memo. She'd gone downstairs to find a note from Jason that he and Danny were out riding, a returned call to her mom had located her at the spa with her sisters - a date Sam had forgotten about since she'd turned it down - now, here she turned a corner to find Carly pacing the corridor in front of Sonny's office, anxiously chewing at her nail, the pale yellow sundress she sported, twirling its loose skirt in her direction, the minute she was spot.

"Thank goodness!" She grabbed Sam by the arm to usher her through the door of Sonny's office, "I'm not even supposed to be here so I can't call Sonny, but something doesn't look right!"

Staggering from being pulled to keep up with long strides, Sam yanked her bare arm from the forceful grasp, straitening the grey sleeveless tank over dark blue jeans. "Give my arm back and just tell me!"

Spreading her hands nervously, Carly pleaded for clemency. "Okay, I know you said don't try anything, but I had a gut feeling, and I just couldn't stand how open Sonny left himself to somebody we couldn't trust just weeks ago, so I…"

With a grunt, Sam shifted the weight from one foot onto the other and folded her arms with a tilt of her head, waiting for the fanny to crash onto the proverbial fan.

"No, wait - it's nothing terribly bad! I knew Sonny was expecting this shipment and he had this Brent guy oversee it solo, so what better time to find out what he was up to, while Sonny wasn't looking!"

"Where is Sonny?"

With a dismissive flip of one hand, Carly hurried out, "He and Michael joined Jason and Danny in the hills. They got all nostalgic when they saw Danny's present so they all went out together…anyway, I tried to sneak in before anyone got here, to stake out a private spot in the warehouse, and that's when I heard a voice in the office. He'd gotten here before me and was on the phone, making a deal to offload Sonny's outgoing shipment."

"Wait - outgoing? I thought you said he was expecting something coming in?"

"He was! It got here early this morning, but half is supposed to continue to a distributor outside Aurora. From what I heard on the phone, it's not going to make it, and it will be made to look like a rival intercepted it. He's dirty, Sam! Sonny trusts him, and he really shouldn't…I knew it!"

"Okay, okay - calm down. Where is he now? I take it he has no idea you heard him?"

Shaking her head, Carly flashed her hand towards the main area of the warehouse. "I could hear him barking orders earlier - they're loading the trucks in the alley."

"And you're sure it was him you heard on the phone? You saw him leave the office after?"

The words spoken out loud, triggered a tiny doubt that had been ebbing at her mind, forcing Carly to look skeptically at Sam, hesitant in her answer.

"Well…"

Antenna going directly up, Sam caught the flicker of doubt before it was brushed aside, "Well? Well - well, what? Either you're sure, or you aren't - which is it, Carly? Was it, or wasn't it him?"

With her face squirming in uncertainty, she offered her best guess. "I'm almost certain it was him." At Sam's eyes widening incredibly at her, she hurried to continue, "It was muffled, okay? He didn't want anyone overhearing so he wasn't exactly shouting…and when I heard him coming out I had to hide so he wouldn't see me." She half-turned, her voice sinking as she finished, "I didn't exactly see him leave."

"What was that?" Sam spun her back around forcefully clasping her by the arm.

"I said I didn't see him! But who else would it be, Sam? The other guys have worked for Sonny for years…he's the only one that cannot be trusted. He's the only one Sonny allows free reign in his office and with the details of his deals. It's him!"

"How the hell didn't you recognize a voice - you were right there!"

"I told you, it was muffled. Why are you stalling? We have to stop him."

"You can't just go accusing somebody of stealing without proof. Why didn't you call Sonny to come handle this?"

Sounding out an incredible scoff, she looked at her friend incredibly, "Are you crazy? Tell him I ignored him and came to spy on his new best friend anyway? Tell him I stuck my nose in the middle of his business, where he constantly orders me to butt out?"

Shaking her head, Sam allowed her mind to process what she'd heard, turning from Carly as she paced back and forth in thought. "Like Sonny doesn't already know you never do anything you're told." Folding her hands across her chest, she brought one up to scratch at her jaw as she paced, "Okay…we plant a tracking device in one of the crates, call Sonny anyway, and let him intercept it when it gets dropped off at the wrong place."

"What? Weren't you listening? Telling Sonny is the opposite of what I want to do - that's why I called you!"

"We have no choice! He needs to know if his man is dirty, and the sooner the better. Come on - I need to grab a kit from the trunk."

"You go…I'll wait here."

The words halted Sam in her tracks when she heard a hesitation, spinning back to where Carly hadn't moved. "No, that's not a good idea." She knew better than to let Carly out of her sight, especially when she'd been told to do the opposite of what she wanted to.

Scoffing at her friend, Carly clicked her tongue mid eye-roll and slapped her legs in offense. "Where am I gonna go?"

She could argue, but they were running low on time. Lifting a forefinger in a silent warning instead, Sam glared her friend's way, then hurried out to the car, making certain to exit as unseen as she'd entered earlier. Three minutes later she'd returned to the spot where she'd left Carly, only to find it unsurprisingly empty.

"I knew it!" Kicking herself for trusting her, Sam moved quietly to the back of the building, whispering bitingly beneath her breath, "Caroline BensonCorinthosAlcazarCorinthosJaxxCorinthos, I swear you better not be where I know you are!"