Chapter 16: Surprise

Ray woke up early the next morning, feeling refreshed after their relaxed day at the house and such a good sleep. He gently kissed Liz on her temple before carefully removing his arms from around her and getting out of bed.

He went downstairs, fetched the newspaper and made himself a cup of coffee before sitting down at the kitchen table. He wasn't even halfway through the paper when he heard Sam coming downstairs.

"Good morning"

"Good morning to you. You're up early" Sam said, "Something bothering you?"

"No, I just had enough sleep I guess" Ray said with a smile.

After spending the previous day at the house, Ray wanted to do something nice for Liz and he thought now would be a good time to run his plans by Sam.

"That's a great idea! That will cheer her right up"

"Okay, great. I'll make all the arrangements", Ray said cheerfully, glad that Sam approved of his idea.

"Is there anything you want me to do?"

"Ehm, maybe you can call the venue and see if it's available. Cause if it's not, we might have to come up with something else" Ray said.

"I know the manager, so I don't think it'll be a problem. You know what, let me call him right now. He's probably up already"

Sam went to his study to make the call and ran into Liz on his way there.

"Good morning, cupcake" he said, giving her a peck on her cheek.

"Good morning, dad" she said as she looked at him while he walked towards his study. She frowned as she walked into the kitchen.

Ray was already preparing the table for breakfast and came walking towards her with open arms "Good morning, sweetheart" he said, cupping her face in his hands and planting a kiss on her lips.

"Morning" she smiled against his lips, "Listen, do you know what's wrong with my dad?"

"No, I don't. Why do you think something's wrong?" Ray asked as they sat down at the table.

"I don't know. He just seemed…. happy. Haven't seen anything but a worried look on his face lately. Which is understandable but he looked different just now"

"I'm sure he's just glad that we finally found out how your stalker was tracking us and that we won't have that problem anymore" Ray said, giving her one of his big smiles, "and to be honest, so am I"

"Me too, Ray. I mean, now we can finally go out again without having him following us"

"Well, I don't know about that, sweetie, because we don't know if he has other ways to keep an eye on us. But this is definitely a good start"

"Okay, let's have breakfast, shall we?" Sam said as he walked in, "I'm starving"

After breakfast Liz started clearing up the plates and just before Sam left, he gave Ray two thumbs up. Ray pointed at his watch to ask what time and Sam held up seven fingers. Seven o'clock. Ray gave Sam a thumb up as well.

"Okay guys, I'm off to work. I'll let you know if the police contacts me about any developments"

After Sam had left, Ray was sitting back at the table, desperately waiting for Liz to go back upstairs so he could make a few calls. He slowly went through the newspaper, acting like he was reading it thoroughly.

"Shall we get dressed and go out?" he heard Liz say and he suddenly felt her arms encircle his chest, while she pressed her cheek between his shoulder blades. He caressed her arms with one of his hands and took one hand of hers up to his lips to kiss it.

"You go ahead, Lizzie, I'll be right up"

"What? You're still not done reading that?" she asked, pointing at the newspaper like it was something dirty.

"Almost, but I have to make a few calls. Just to see if my men found anything else and about your new phone"

Ray felt lame about lying to her like that, but he didn't want to spoil the surprise.

"Okay, sure. I'll make sure to undress myself really slowly", she said, winking at him before leaving the kitchen.

Ray couldn't help but smile and decided he really should hurry up making the calls. He went to Sam's study and closed the door. He didn't want any chance of Liz overhearing his conversations.

After about 15 minutes he'd phoned everyone that he needed to phone. He kept the calls succinct to minimise the chances of Liz wondering what the hell took him so long.

When he came into Liz's room, she was already dressed and was just applying some light make up.

"There you are…. a little late to the party" Liz said, looking at him in the mirror.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but I had to make those calls"

He stood behind her, locking eyes with her reflection in the mirror. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight from behind.

"You know, I tried to make the phone calls quick but I guess it wasn't quick enough" Ray said, before moving his hands under Liz's shirt.

She stepped away from the mirror and Ray's arms and went for her purse.

"Get dressed, will you? I can't wait to leave the house", Liz said before leaving her room and leaving a dumbstruck Ray behind.

"I forgot what she can be like" he murmured to himself before slowly starting to get undressed.

They went to some exclusive shops to do what Liz did best. Spend money.

Ray didn't want to tell her too much about the surprise but he had to tell her something because they'd need to get ready and be at the venue on time.

"Lizzie, we need to be back at the house on time"

"Why? What's going on?"

"I eh… got a little surprise for you so we need to go back and get ready for tonight"

This was music to her ears. "A surprise? What kind of surprise?"

"Well, I obviously can't tell you but we need to get changed and then we're off to…. some place"

Liz was intrigued now and tried to pry some more information from Ray. She pinned him against a wall and started kissing him.

"So…where…are…we…going?" she asked between kisses.

Ray laughed, grabbed Liz, turned her around and now he was the one pinning her against the wall.

"I'm not going to tell you. You'll see"

He gave her one more kiss before grabbing her hand and walking her back to the car.

Ray's instructions were simple. Put on a nice dress and some make up and let's go. Now he was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Liz and she still wasn't ready. She'd been in her room for over an hour now and if they didn't leave soon, they would be late to her own party.

"Lizzie, hurry up, sweetheart, it's time to go", he yelled, looking at his watch again. He was just about to run up the stairs to go and get her when he heard her door open and heard footsteps coming towards the stairs.

He looked up and his jaw dropped. Liz looked absolutely stunning. She was wearing a black dress that hugged her body in just the right places. It was a dress pitched perfectly between formal and sexy and Ray couldn't take his eyes off her as she descended.

"Sorry to keep you waiting" Liz said as she took hold of the hand he was offering when she was almost at the bottom of the stairs.

"You're forgiven" Ray said before pressing his lips softly against hers, "You look absolutely amazing"

"You look pretty hot yourself. You wear the hell out of that tux", she said while letting her hands go over his chest.

"If we weren't in such a hurry, I'd take you back upstairs right now" Ray chuckled while nuzzling her cheek.

"We'll be going back upstairs at some point tonight" Liz said with a mischievous grin.

"Already can't wait" Ray whispered in her ear, before offering his arm to Liz to lead her outside to the car.

It only took about 10 minutes to get there and it was exactly 19:00 when Ray parked the car outside a club Liz knew all too well.

'Ace of Spades' was one of Liz's favourite clubs. She hadn't been there for ages and couldn't believe Ray had organised this for her. She still had no idea what to expect, but already loved the fact that he was taking her here. She didn't understand why they were there so early since it was a club that would open at 9PM for early birds and would usually get busy around 11 or 12 PM.

They walked up the stairs and the moment they walked in, Liz saw a few familiar faces. Her closest friends were there! She saw Samar, Meera, Donald, Kim and Aram. And as Liz got closer she saw her dad standing at the back.

Liz turned to Ray, "I can't believe you did this for me"

"With a little help from your dad" he winked. "We felt like you deserved a night out after everything that has happened lately"

He wasn't even finished talking before Liz had already wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Thank you so much" she whispered.

"You're very welcome, my sweet Lizzie"

She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek before walking towards her friends for a quick hug and a chat. She hadn't seen most of them since her birthday party and was happy to be spending some time with them.

Sam had arranged with the manager that there would be a buffet with some nice food and a big table was set up for all of them to have dinner at. It all looked wonderful and Liz couldn't have been happier.

"So, I guess I was right about mister Bodyguard" Samar said, while gesturing with her head towards Ray, "You see, I'm never wrong about these things"

Liz gave her a playful slap on her arm, "It's not like you helped or anything"

"Maybe not, but I did point out to you that he was a handsome guy. You didn't like him at all"

"That's true, you hated his guts" Meera chimed in.

"Well, it wasn't really that I hated him, I just didn't like the situation and the idea of having someone follow me around all day" Liz said, trying to defend herself.

"He could follow me around anytime" Meera winked, receiving a playful slap as well.

"So, how is this whole stalker thing going?" Samar asked, wondering what the update would be.

"Yeah, did you catch that guy already or not?" Donald added.

"You must be so sick of that whole situation by now", Aram said.

"Guys, one at the time" Liz laughed, "It isn't going great, I mean, he is still out there and is still sending me threats but I do feel we are getting closer now. It was really scary because he showed up everywhere we went, but now we finally found out how he was tracking me so at least we won't have him following us anymore"

"Really? How was he tracking you then?" Donald asked

"He's quite a smart guy, cause apparently he hacked my phone and got into my phone's GPS"

They were all standing there, shaking their heads in disbelief. Samar put her hand on Liz's back, softly rubbing it "I really hope they'll catch him soon, sweetie"

"If they do, they should lock him up in Alcatraz for the rest of his life" Donald added.

Ray came over and asked everyone to take a seat at the table.

Before sitting down Liz gave her dad a big hug and thanked him for being there.

Ray pulled out Liz's chair for her before taking a seat next to her. Sam stood up with a glass in his hand.

"I would like to say something before we start our dinner. Ray came to me this morning with this idea and I immediately liked it. We've had quite a rough time lately and it's nice to have Liz out here in her favourite club with a few of her best friends. It's not over yet, but we're getting there and we refuse to let this bastard get the best of us" Sam raised his glass, "To Ray for organizing this and for protecting our beloved Liz and to Liz for staying strong in these difficult times. It will be over soon"

Everyone raised their glass and cheered on Ray and Liz before making their way to the table that had some lovely food displayed.

They had a nice meal before the table was cleared and taken away so the dance floor was available again. After a few up-tempo songs there was a slow number and Liz walked over to Ray who was standing on the side of the dance floor talking to Sam.

"Excuse me gentlemen, I need to steal this guy for a moment" she said while taking Ray's hand and leading him to the dance floor. They wrapped their arms around each other and danced together like no one was watching, their foreheads against each other, lost in each other's eyes.

They all danced and drank and by the time they left the club, most of them had had too much to drink but they'd all had a great night.

Sam was driving Liz and Ray back to the house and after saying their goodnights Ray walked Liz to her room. She clearly had had too much to drink but Ray had only had a few beers. He didn't mean to drink at all but Sam told him it was okay. He felt he was still on the job, so he didn't drink much.

Ray closed the door behind them and started to undress Liz slowly. He unzipped her dress and while letting it slip down her body he got to his knees, following the dress, leaving a trail of kisses down Liz's body. Liz giggled and put her hands on his shoulders for stability. He helped her step out of the dress and carefully draped it over a chair.

He'd wanted to make love to Liz tonight, but seeing what state she was in, he decided against it. He helped her to the bathroom so they could brush their teeth and got them into their sleepwear before crawling into bed next to her.

Liz was stroking his face, "Thank you so much for tonight. I had a great time" she whispered.

"You're welcome", he said before planting a soft kiss on her lips, "Now go to sleep, sweetheart, you must be exhausted"

She nodded and put her head on his chest, wrapping her arm around his waist.

"I love you, Ray" he heard her murmur before dozing off almost immediately.

He smiled and kissed her forehead, "I love you too, Lizzie"