Chapter Eight Twisted Up in Love

LOIS sat across from Sonny at the candlelit table.

He was amazed that this night was here, after meeting nearly thirty five years ago and being close every day since, they were now in love.

He had almost given up on getting the life he always dreamed about: the stable home so unlike the one he was raised in, the kids around the dinner table, the grandchildren to spoil one day.

Then Lois moved back to Port Charles and changed his life.

He glanced over her shoulder now, as they sat on the patio, and looked into his house. He could imagine five years from now a three year old little girl and a two year old little boy toddling around the living room crying Mommy, Daddy.

Sonny reached for Lois hand and said, "I don't want this to end."

"Tonight?" she asked, giving him a flirty look "I can stay up as long as you can."

He grinned, "I like the sound of that but I meant us. I want us to be like this forever. I want you to become my wife."

She batted her eyelashes at him, hoping she was pulling off demure- it wasn't her natural style. "But we've only been together a few months..."

"I've known you most of my life, Lois. And I know my heart. I love the life we have here together."

He pulled a ring box out of his pocket and opened it up.

Her eyes lit up at the sight of the stunning diamond ring.

"Say yes," Sonny whispered.

"Yes, oh yes, Sonny, yes..." she said in a sensual voice.

He stood up and said, "Get over here."

She was out of her seat and in his arms in a minute, the smile on her face was genuine now. First diamonds and then later, piles upon piles of glorious cash.

NED was in bed with a woman very different than his ex-wife, Lois.

This one didn't ever say I love you or Change for me or We can have it all.

This woman didn't give a damn about any of that.

Her blond hair whipped back and forth, and she ordered him to please her in the way she wanted. Ned gladly complied.

To tell Faith no might result in more than a lover's quarrel, he could end up with a couple of bullets in his brain.

Faith tumbled to the bed next to him and said, "You are so much better at that than my ex husband."

"Sonny a little selfish in bed?" Ned asked

Faith gave him a withering look, "Sonny is a little selfish in everything. When you are with that bastard it is the Sonny show all day and night. But one day, he will get his. And I will be laughing my ass off when he does."

"You already took him for half of everything." Ned said, wanting to get her talking about the money. Each time he learned a little more.

Faith ran her nails down his chest, leaving red marks.

She purred, "Half is not enough. I want it all. And believe me soon I will get it."

Ned waited for her to say more, to reveal the plan she alluded to so often, so he could make sure Robert's crew got to the painting before her. But Faith was already moving from the bed and into the shower. She had been satisfied and had no further use for him tonight.

LUCKY threw the photos on the table in the back room at Luke's Club.

His father looked down at them and said, "Uh-uh-oh, such a bad girl she is."

Lois and Jax were pressed against a wall in an alley, her skirt hiked up. "It took forever for me to get this. She was pretty careful until this night."

"I guess Jax has got it like that."

"So Ned says he wants her back, Sonny thinks he has her, and Jax is her side piece. Who do you think has her loyalty?" Lucky asked

"Herself."

"Cynical."

Luke mocked, "Oh, I suppose, since Emily talked you into finally making an honest woman out of her you now believe love conquers all, Romeo?"

Lucky laughed. "Money conquers all."

Luke smiled.

Lucky stabbed at the picture, touching the spot where Jax's mouth rested on Lois throat, "She knows why that painting is worth so much to both her ex and her current. So how do we get her to talk?"

"Boss says he'll handle it," Luke said referring to Robert. "He seems to think he has a certain charm when it comes to the female persuasion."

Lucky shook his head, "He better hope Anna don't hear about that."

JASON left the other night without saying a word to Carly about what broke them up. She expected him to come back to the cottage the next night but he didn't.

Being Carly, and not able to let it go, she finally made her way to Jake's. Spotting Jason at the pool table, she strolled past and ordered a drink from Coleman.

She sipped her martini and waited for The Hitter to make the next move. Soon his lips were next to her eyes, murmuring, "Want more?"

He moved around her and sat down on a stool. Their eyes met.

"I want answers," Carly told him.

His smile slid off his face. "You didn't six months ago. Just left town and me like it was the end of a job."

She gave him a hard look and said, "Maybe if there was a ring on my finger I would have had a reason to stay."

"Now we are going there, huh?" He raised an eyebrow, not upset but surprised.

After years of on and off again sex with no spoken commitments they break up and then start talking marriage. Everything was backwards for them, messy and painful, but that was nothing new.

"We are going there, Jase."

"Upstairs?"

Carly chuckled. "You wish."

He leaned close to her, "Come on... we do better alone than with a crowd."

Carly felt like he was trying to weasel out of telling her the truth- he gave into lust and got it on with a little brunette waitress at this very bar. That damn Brenda. If Carly could put a stake through her heart she would in an instant, but that would only bring attention from the cops and as con artists that was the last thing anyone in Scorpio Eight sought out.

Jason placed a hand on her leg, gave her a hungry look, and Carly felt her body reacting to him. She pushed away her hand and spat out, "Tell me why you did it!"

Jason leaned back and studied her face. She did her best to wipe the hurt off, but her eyes were filled with it still.

"You are the one who constantly insisted we had no commitments between us," Jason told her

She glared at him, hurting him with one look more than any bullet ever had, "You know I didn't mean that."

Till this very moment, he had only hoped that was true. When they weren't officially together both Jason and Carly slept with whoever they wanted over the years. But at the times when they were trying to make it work, neither cheated. Plenty went unsaid between them but they both knew when they were on and when they were off.

The night she was talking about- the night he nearly killed Corinthos- Jason and Carly were as close to being alter bound as they has ever been, and that was saying something for these two.

"How about," Jason said the words slowly "you don't tell me about him and I won't tell you about her."

Carly stood up. "Just forget it then. You know what? I am so over this, Jason. So over it."

She met his eyes and added, "And you."

Then she was out the door. Jason closed his eyes and let out a breath. Why can't I ever just get it right with that woman, he thought, just once if I could say the right thing...