Abby wrote down the address that EJ gave her to a building that she recognized was in a nice area on the waterfront of Salem. He had told her it was his lawyer's apartment that was hardly ever lived in since his lawyer now preferred to live in the country rather than the city itself. She finished tidying up her desk, grabbed her bag and raced out the door. She couldn't get there fast enough and before long she pulled up in front of a swank high-rise, facing the water. She went inside and the doorman must have been expecting her because he ushered her right to the elevator, telling her only that she was expected.

Abby got off the elevator and walked down a hallway lined with plush carpeting. Obviously, the apartments in this building were way out of her league, but exactly what she would expect for a lawyer on the DiMera payroll. She stopped in front of a door enameled with the number EJ had given her and was poised to knock, when it suddenly flew open. Abby looked up into the impossibly, cool dark eyes of EJ DiMera and knew she had made the right choice in meeting him today.

"Abigail, come in," he said with a smile as she walked by him into the marble-tiled foyer of a very chic apartment.

She continued walking and came into a spacious living room that had a magnificent view of the water and the little sailboats dotting the shoreline. With a deep breath, after she had gotten her riotous emotions in check, she turned to face him. He had a slight smile on his face, as he stared at her. She had dreamed about that smile and how it made her breathless with need. There were other things she had dreamed about, too. The steely strength of his body, and the sensuousness of his mouth, and how it felt to have that mouth on hers and all over her body and how much she never wanted him to stop plastering her with kisses.

"Hello, EJ."

EJ tilted his head and watched her. He could hear the wariness in her voice as she had turned to greet him. There was something else there, too. It was fleeting, but he could have sworn he had heard a hint of excitement as well. She still had yet to look at him fully. She was looking at a point on his chest, as if she were scared to raise her eyes to his. After a moment, she lifted her face and he found himself staring down at her, unable to breathe for a second. Those eyes, those warm honey eyes of hers were showing him everything that she was thinking. There was a wariness there, as well, as the excitement he had thought he'd heard earlier. What was it about her? He couldn't understand the way she made him feel. He found himself unable to look away from those innocent, seductive eyes of hers.

EJ deliberately kept his distance from Abigail while he watched her. He had missed that beautiful, heart-shaped face of hers; the way she made him breathless when she was near him; the feel of her in his arms. He had missed other things, as well. The way she never backed down from him; her ability to peel away all the layers he'd built up over the years to the man within; the way she believed that he could be better than he was, better than the town thought he was. He had realized a long time ago, when they had first started connecting, that it was who she was. Abigail Deveraux believed in making up her own mind about a person. It was an essential part of her and something that he admired about her. He had told her once that he didn't understand it, but he admired the goodness in her. For what seemed like an endless moment they stared at each other, the air thick with an odd sort of tension, before he looked away first.

"So, EJ. What did you want to talk about," she asked him. "What's up?"

"I can't sleep."

He hadn't meant to say that at all, but looking at her, he found he couldn't help himself. It was the truth, but not something he would have willingly admitted to her ever. Now he had started, however, he couldn't seem to stop.

"What-" she started to say before he interrupted her.

"And I can't work or pay attention to anything in my life."

"I-" she tried again to get a word in, but EJ was still talking.

"Everywhere I look, I see your face. It's haunting me and, frankly, it's driving me insane," he admitted to her with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Abigail, I have missed our time together," he told her. "I miss talking to you. I just...miss you."

Abby's head had lowered while EJ had been talking, as if she were scared to look at him. Maybe, she thought that looking away would shut what he was saying out of her mind. Suddenly, he couldn't bear not knowing what she was thinking. He needed to look into those expressive eyes. Those siren eyes that could never quite hide her emotions from him. He walked to her and placed a gentle finger under her chin.

"Abigail," he said while lifting her face to his.

Abby didn't know what to say. Hope warred with wariness inside her. She had missed him, too. Everything he'd said to her was a mirror image of how she felt. She hadn't only missed him, she realized with a jerk, she needed him, too. Abby inhaled overwhelmed by everything he had just said.

"I missed you, too," she blurted out, as EJ took her in his arms. "I dream about you every night making love to me."

"You're so beautiful," EJ said, realizing that they were about to cross a line that they had sworn they wouldn't cross ever, ever again. His thumb touched the corner of her mouth, feathering over her lips, as she smiled up at him dazedly. Abby stood on her tippy toes, bringing his head down to hers and kissed him. Just like that.

Abigail's soft kiss on his lips was all the invitation EJ needed to let go of whatever shaky hold was still in place on his control. Because the first touch of her lips on his had sent him over the edge. He had thought that she would have resisted the truth of what he had said to her. Instead, she had admitted that she missed him, too. She had looked up at him, gently pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

"Abigail," he murmured, brushing her hair back from her face with a hand that he was shocked to see was unsteady.

EJ lifted his head, looking down into her eyes with an expression that was equal parts desire and tenderness, as he mindlessly stroked his hand over her face. His heart felt like it was bursting out of his chest and his breathing was fast and ragged. He was so hard and hot and hungry for her that it took all his control not to throw her against the wall and screw her until she begged for mercy. It was something they both wanted. Badly. He realized now that it was something that had always been there, at the back of their minds, as they had grown closer after Chad's departure from Salem and their lives.