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Chapter Twelve Playing Unfair

Laying in bed, Jason was thinking about it. He had no intention of doing it, he assured himself. But he could think about it, think about sliding his hand over her body, hearing more of those gorgeous sighs followed by her gasping his name into his ear.

"Not playing fair, Jase." she softly chastised him. "You get that look on your face and expect me to not want you?"

"When do you play fair?"

"I gave that up for Lent," Carly told him.

"What? Twenty years ago?" he asked

"It was getting in the way. But you... you like doing the right thing.. being selfless. How is that working for you?" she teased, placing her hand on his chest.

Think of Sam, Jason repeated as he often had today. Sam, Sa...S... what was her name again? S...?

He cleared his throat. "What state are we in?"

"Aroused."

His mouth went dry. He said, "I meant state as in Ohio? Alaska? Where did you guys snow us in at?"

She laughed. "Is that what you are really thinking about right now?"

"I just wondered."

"New Jersey."

"Hmm. So it won't take long to get home tomorrow."

She raised an eyebrow, "Willpower failing?"

"No, not hardly." His voice sounded less than convinced. "But you should go sleep in the other room. It would be...the right thing to do."

"If you can resist, so can I." She pressed her body against his side, snuggled into a comfortable position, and closed her eyes again.

This would be the best night of sleep she had gotten in years, Carly was sure, as she pulled his arm around her. Life was at its best when she got to be in the embrace of her boy on the side.

Jason let out a breath. He croaked out, "Oh, I can resist. No problem."

IN THE NEXT ROOM, Lulu was watching the John Cusack movie Serendipity.

She wondered if life could be like that, meeting your true love and losing them all in the same day. Only to find them when you thought all hope was gone years later.

Lulu Quatermaine. Once she had wanted that to be her name. Now she wasn't so sure. All her little girl fantasies concerning Dillon were tarnished. They had grown up overnight, together, because of one faulty condom.

Lulu Giambetti. Hmmm. Lesley Lou Giambetti. Mr. and Mrs. Giambetti. How very mature that sounded. Too bad the last thing she wanted now was to be mature.

She had done the mature thing, she felt, when she did not go through with the pregnancy. She would put off maturity as long as possible now.

Still kissing Milo had been hot. Yes she would not mind, at all, doing that again.

Lulu Spinelli.

She busted out laughing. She pictured introducing herself as Mrs. The Jackal.

Had she met the man she would marry? She didn't know.

There were cute cops that worked with her brother, and cute professors at the college, there was a sexy guy in her Shakespearean Lit Class, and a hottie who worked at the Eli's, the ribs joint that was a Spencer family favorite. Yet none of them made her feel special.

Only Milo did that.

She decided, in that moment, to keep him in a special category- away from her crushes, her heartaches, her failed attempts at romance. To keep him in a secret chamber in her heart, where if he wanted to be, she would let him stay as the one she could always count on.

Milo was perfect to her, almost too perfect to risk loving.

ACROSS THE HALL, Spinelli was snoring and keeping Milo awake.

Milo threw off his covers and stomped the few steps to the other bed.

He shook the thin arm of his roommate. "Wake up!"

Drool dripped off Spinelli's mouth onto Milo's hand.

"Ugh!" Milo wiped his hand on the sheet. "Spinelli, get up."

Spinelli groaned, rolled over and snored louder.

Milo flipped on the light and started to shake him.

Spinelli's eyes flew open.

"Can you do anything about..." Milo started, leaning over the bed.

Spinelli, freaked out by a man in his bed, cried "No, man. Listen I can't help you. I am not like that."

"Like what? Quiet? I noticed. Your friggin snoring is louder than a freight train. Shut it up."

"I don't snore!"

Milo shook his head in frustration and padded back to his bed. "Whatever. Listen you stay awake until I fall asleep and lets pray I can sleep through all that snoring you don't do."

"Whatever you say, New..."

"Don't!"

"Newman."

Milo told him, "When we get back home, I never want to see you again, Spinelli. You see me walk the other way."

Spinelli was shocked. He said, "That's harsh, man. I was just joking."

Milo pulled the cover over his head.

For a while the room was silent and then Spinelli stared to sing, his voice getting progressively louder as he went on, "If you'll be my bodyguard,
I can be your long lost pal!


I can call you Betty,
And Betty, when you call me,
You can call me Al!

You can CALL ME AL!" ( Paul Simon)

Milo jumped out of bed and started to beat Spinelli with a pillow. "Stop singing! No more. Not another word!"

He hauled back and flung the pillow at Spinelli's head.

Spinelli cried "UNCLE!"

JASON COULD take no more. All sense of reasoning had slipped out of his head as Carly's body, slid up and down over his side with her every breath. All his nerve endings were on full alert.

For a second he ignored the signal from his brain that said, Retreat!

His voice was ragged when he moaned her name. She woke up to find his hands cradling her face and a moment later his mouth on hers.

When he pulled back she said, "Don't stop."

Jason rolled on his back. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

Carly moved over him, placing her hand on his jaw, she looked down at him. "Do you love me?"

Tears came to his eyes. The only light in the room was moonlit, but Carly didn't need artificial light to see him. He was the only one in the dark about what they were to each other.

She repeated softly, "Do you love me, Jason, or not?"

His words were ragged, "You know I do..."

Her lips were back on his in an instant. Soon he rolled her onto her back, his hand slid up her bare thigh. He pulled back, breathing hard.

Carly groaned in frustration. She said, "Your call. It's always been up to you. It can be now or later. But it won't be never. That isn't an option for us. Not for us, Jase."

He whispered in anguish, "It's not that simple."

She smiled, loving that his weight was still on her, that they were here talking about this. That they were even a possibility.

Carly told him, "I don't want simple." Her lips kissed his cheek then moved to his ear, "I want you."

She sighed.

And that was it. He was done for.

Jason's hand moved up her thigh, under her shirt. Her eyes drifted close. For a few minutes they were together drifting toward paradise, a place that they could only find with each other.

"AHHHHHH!" Lulu's scream burst into the air, freezing them both.

Then they were jumping out of bed, in parent mode once more, to save her from whatever unknown danger lurked on the other side of the adjoining door.