AN: I know this took a while, but it's the longest chapter to date! When I first started writing this story I never thought it would go in this direction, but I'm so glad it did because I'm really loving writing it! Hope the wait was worth it…

Chapter 10

As soon as her door clicked shut behind her, Blair mind began to race. She had a little less than fifteen minutes to convert the elegant but simple room into a honeymoon-like suite worthy of a Chuck and Blair reunion.

"Potential reunion" the cynical voice in her head reminded her. She had done this once before in Tuscany and it ended with her sobbing on the bathroom floor clad only in her underwear. Needless to say, her nerves were already shot with the dread that history would repeat itself—considering how many times Chuck has let her down before.

But he claims that he's serious this time. Well, Blair thought with a glance at the clock, I guess I'll find out soon enough.

She quickly surveyed the bedroom that she and Serena were currently sharing. Oh, right, Serena. That would be the first problem. Blair doubted that her best friend would enjoy having her stepbrother sleep in the same bed as them tonight; Chuck, on the other hand, would most likely encourage such behavior with the hopes it would leave to a threesome.

Blair allowed herself to chuckle at the thought as she took out her cell phone.

"B! Where did you guys go?" Serena answered without a trance of concern in her voice.

"Back to the house" Blair answered "Do you know if Cece keeps any candles in our bedroom?"

"Um yeah under the sink. Why?" Serena asked "…OMG are you and Chuck banging?"

Blair laughed as she made her way into their bathroom and to the cupboards under the sink. Score.

"Not at the moment, but that may change in the near future" Blair told her as she collected some of the chunky cream colored candles in her arms and dropped them on the bed.

"I'm so excited for you Blair! I mean, I can't stand Chuck most of the time…but if you can forgive him…"

"Well actually, I kind of put that decision in his hands" Blair interrupted "Again."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Think of it as a trust exercise. I told Chuck I would forgive and forget if he could give me a reason to trust him again" Blair said.

"Sounds kind of risky" Serena told her.

"Yeah it is. But it's Chuck, you know? Anything involving that man is a serious leap of faith. I'm just hoping he comes through because if not, I may be compelled to leap right off our balcony" she joked.

"B" Serena whined sadly.

"I'm just kidding S" she said half-heartily "But in all seriousness, if things go well tonight, you think you can crash in Eric's room or something?"

"Actually, I think Nate and I might…you know what tonight" Serena giggled.

"What?! I thought that was all an act to cover up some other taboo girlfriend" Blair said as she began to methodically arrange the candles on either end table.

"Well yes and no. We're just having fun this summer. No harm no foul right?"

"Right" Blair said, secretly jealous of Serena's carefree attitude. Sex could never be just casual or fun for Blair. It had to mean something. And when it came to sex with Chuck? It meant everything. She felt her stomach stir at the thought of being that close to him again.

Blair nervously caught sight of the clock again. 10 minutes.

"Listen, I'm kind of in a time crunch. Wish me luck and I'll see you tomorrow?" she offered.

"Of course. Good luck seducing Chuck, and remember that I'll always love you!" Serena chirped.

"Love you too" Blair said before ending the call and shutting off her phone. There would be no distractions tonight.

Next, Blair started to dig through her purse. While in Europe, do like the Europeans do was Blair's motto during her summer from hell. She had decided to take up smoking—thinking it would be another "see how cool I am without you?" factor she could rub in Chuck's face along with her fake boyfriend.

However, "Operation Learn to Smoke" was a complete and total bust. Blair only tried two cigarettes and both times she had coughed so badly tears rolled down her face and smudged her makeup. She couldn't help but curse Chuck's name at the time when she realizes that smoking was yet another thing that he could easily do and she hopelessly failed at. Chuck was the one who could chain smoke and sleep around. And try as she did to become the female version of Chuck Bass, she was just Blair Waldorf and that would never change.

So before coming back to the states, she tossed her one box of cigarettes. She did, however, keep her lighter decorated with some of Tuscany's most famous landmarks.

"Gotcha" Blair said triumphantly as she retrieved the lighter from the bottom of her tote and busied herself with lighting the candles.

Next was the bed. She turned the covers of the Queen-sized bed down slightly and arranged the pillows just so. She desperately wished she had some rose petals to scatter around before remembering about the flowers adorning their balcony. Praying Cece wouldn't see and have a fit, Blair plucked a few handful of flower petals from various vegetation right outside the door to the balcony and brought them inside the room.

She scattered some of the yellow, red and pink petals on the rug leading to the bed and hoped Chuck wouldn't think it was too cheesy. Shaking off her self-consciousness, she went over to the stereo and turned on some soft mood music—figuring that if she was going for grand and romantic, she may as well go all out.

Now the only thing left to fix was herself. Blair began digging through all her luggage that she barely had any time to unpack. After about thirty seconds of searching though various silks and laces of every color imaginable, Blair's hands found something that made her freeze.

A few tugs later, she was cradling in her arms the very silk chemise she wore the night of Victrola. Blair didn't really have time to think about how it had made its way into her luggage in the first place, but she figured it was as good a sign as any.

After quickly unzipping her hot pink dress and letting it fall to the floor, she slid the chemise over her form and shivered at the cool contact against her bare skin. She then hung her dress up in the closet and went in search of the perfect accessories.

Blair decided on sheer black thigh-highs and paired them with sexy black pumps. She surveyed herself in the mirror and felt a smile break out over her face. She was confident Chuck would love it.

But this was where her end of the deal was up. She had set the ground rules and put the game in play. She had promised them both a chance at starting over. Now it was Chuck's turn to fulfill his part in this night. If he didn't show, then all this preparation would have been for nothing.

She looked at the clock. Five minutes.

Blair walked back over to the bed and strategically placed herself on top of it in a way that felt both seductive and natural. If Chuck came through the bedroom door in five minutes, then her waiting for him would be the first thing he'd see.

And then everything they put each other through would have been worth it.

"C'mon Chuck" she whispered "Don't let me down."

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

Five minutes.

Chuck's leg would not stop shaking.

He had been sitting on his bed, staring at the clock for the past ten minutes. As the minutes ticked on, he felt almost paralyzed with fear and anticipation—save for his shaking leg of course.

His thoughts were consumed with images of Blair...

Blair dancing at Victrola.

Blair calling him Bass for the first time.

Blair in the summer time.

Blair on a play date when they were six.

Blair crying after a fight with her mother.

Blair at Cotillion.

Blair the first time he made her laugh.

Blair naked and riding him in his limo. Their limo…

Fuck he thought, I'm doomed.

Chuck Bass was hopelessly smitten with a girl that would never notice him…except that Blair eventually did notice him, the very same night she showed him who she really was.

But now that Blair and Chuck were together in the same house, with their feelings more or less out in the open, he was more terrified than he had ever been. Behind the booze and the pervy comments, Chuck Bass was still a lonely little boy desperate for love and attention.

From a very young age, he found a kindred spirit in Blair—another only child who used manipulation as a way to get their distant parents to take notice of them. Chuck's awful relationship with Bart was quite comparable with Blair's rocky relationship with Eleanor. Both Bart and Eleanor are workaholics who put business needs before their children's needs; and treat said children with the same condescending attitudes traditionally reserved for their employees and servants.

Chuck wasn't sure Blair ever made this connection that he made long ago, but at some point she must have wondered how their unconventional relationship took shape. Sure Nate had always been the common denominator—with him as the best friend and her as the girlfriend—so it made sense that the two would be on friendly terms with each other.

But this fact did not explain why after a fight with Eleanor, Blair would call Chuck first—who would promptly send a car over to pick her up and bring her to his place for an impromptu movie night; or why Chuck, after all of the preparations for Victrola's grand opening was complete, insisted that Blair come by the morning he would pitch his proposal to his father. It also would not explain why, upon the realization that Chuck had actually accomplished something worthwhile, both he and Blair would be wearing glowing smiles that matched almost as perfectly as their pin-striped outfits.

It was true, they were perfect for each other. But the fact also remained—in Chuck's self-conscious mind, that is—that no matter how perfect the two of them together would be, it would never begin to compare to how perfect Blair was in her entirety. It would have been an insult to insinuation that Chuck put Blair up on a pedestal, when really the Queen B of Constance raised herself up to royalty status all on her own. Blair was perfect on her own, with her headbands and her sensual innocent and her old Hollywood daydreams. She was flawless in Chuck's eyes.

But that does not change the fact that he had hurt her—and more than once. Which is why Chuck was terrified of ever being responsible for hurting her more than he already has.

One minute.

It was down to one minute now and Chuck had to make his choice. He could choose option A—the easy way out, and embrace the inner coward his father taught him about by abandoning her again and praying that without him, she'd be better off—or he could choose option B—by being the person no one but Blair ever believed him to be and taking the plunge into what he knew, with her, was love…love he had never known, love that no one but Blair was ever strong enough to want to give him.

Blair had made it perfectly clear that she wanted for them to be together and love each other, but not without his consent in the form of a silent promise to do right by her. A silent promise he could easily fulfill by walking down the hall and into her bedroom.

Chuck looked up at the clock again and his leg immediately stopped shaking.

Time was up.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

TBC!!! Review please…