Chapter 37
E.J.'s eyes opened and though his stiff neck protested him having slept on the nursery floor leaning against a wall, the pile of soft, sweet-smelling blonde hair using his chest as a pillow made a little soreness when he first woke up completely worthwhile.
E.J. didn't know what time he and Sami had passed out with the two of them lying on the floor in front of Sofia and Eric John's cribs. Though Sami was totally asleep with her left arm wrapped across E.J.'s torso, E.J. smiled as he noticed she still kept the gun in her hand pointed toward Lucas.
As E.J. looked up at Lucas and saw him awake, E.J. smiled wondering how long Lucas had been awake sitting there silently, helpless but to watch the two of them snuggle and bask in the joy of their family being reunited. E.J. wrested the gun from Sami's hand and kissed her on the top of her head, which roused her from sleep.
Sami yawned and stretched like a cat after her satisfying slumber.
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it, E.J.?" Sami asked. "How did you sleep?"
"Well, I enjoyed my sleeping companion very much, but the mattress was a little firm," E.J. said patting the floor then rubbing his neck.
"I'm sorry, honey," Sami said affectionately. "Does your neck have a kink in it? Here, let me rub it."
A Cheshire grin spread across E.J.'s face as he looked up at Lucas's angry face while Sami began kneading his shoulders, occasionally stopping to place a little peck of her lips on the nape of his neck inciting satisfied moans and sighs from E.J.'s throat.
"Could you two give it a rest already?" Lucas finally raged. "I get it! You two are sooooo in love with each other and you just love torturing me with that fact. I know now. If I didn't know before, I sure as hell can see it now. But you don't have to keep rubbing it in my face. At this point, I'd rather you just stop threatening me and go ahead and shoot me so I don't have to keep looking at this."
E.J. just laughed while Sami popped up from behind E.J.'s shoulder to say, "That can be arranged."
But the three of them paused as they heard the sound of a person entering the front door.
"What's that?" Sami asked.
"I bet it's Andre," Lucas said with a smile. "Looks like I'll be free after all. And you two are going to die."
"Shut up, Lucas," E.J. said putting the gun to Lucas's head. "Sami, take the twins and you hide in the closet until everything is O.K."
Sami cried with fear but did as instructed and gathered up Sofia and Eric John in her arms and shut them in the closet while E.J. waited for the figure walking down the hallway to the nursery room to reveal himself.
"Andre?" E.J. asked as he saw a shadow with a gun in his hand moving closer to the door.
"No. Andre's dead," a familiar voice said. "Your father killed him."
E.J. breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Roman Brady, Marlena Evans and a team of ISA agents enter the room with guns drawn.
"My father killed him?" E.J. muttered to himself under his breath with a shocked smile spreading across his face.
"Thank God you're here," Lucas yelped excitedly. "E.J. was just about to kill me. He's crazy, not that it's any surprise considering he's one of those DiMeras, right? But… but… anyway he kidnapped Sami and he took the kids and he was just about to kill me so he could get me out of the picture for good. Now… now you guys can untie me and arrest him. Right?"
E.J. just looked over at Lucas and furrowed his brow turning his head to the side in amazement at what a brazen yet terrible liar the little man was.
"Nice try, Lucas," Roman said with a laugh. "I might believe that if your mom hadn't already implicated you in the twins' kidnapping and abetting Andre's schemes. How in da hell do you think we found this place?"
"Mom?" Lucas said as tears started filling in his eyes and ISA agents hauled him out of the villa to be arrested and booked on kidnapping charges.
Meanwhile, Sami came out of the closet with the babies realizing the coast was clear.
"Dad?" Sami asked excitedly as she dropped the twins into E.J.'s arms and embraced Roman in a big bear hug, followed by one for Marlena, and then another hug for her dad. "You found me! You came to rescue me! You knew I hadn't run away and abandoned my family. I was so worried you wouldn't realize the truth and would just assume I hated E.J. so much I had ran away to escape this marriage."
Roman looked helplessly at Marlena and E.J. wondering if either would blow his cover that he had assumed just as Sami had feared he would before the two of them had helped him to see the truth, but the smiles on their faces told him that his secret was safe.
"Well, the truth is Sami, when E.J. told me that you were missing and needed my help looking for you, he promised he would let you out of this marriage just as soon as you were safe and sound again," Roman said looking sternly at E.J. to see if he would honor his pledge. "So you can escape this marriage."
"You promised that, E.J.?" Sami asked.
"Yes, Samantha. As I told your father when I thought I had lost you, I don't want to trap you in a loveless marriage and keep you by my side against your will," E.J. said as his heart sunk with fear that just as quickly as he had been united with Sami body and soul he would have her ripped away from him once again by the pressure and expectations of her family. "So I am willing to give you a divorce…"
"What if I don't want a divorce?" Sami asked with a smile that was soon met by a smile on E.J.'s face hearing the question.
"What da hell do you mean you don't want a divorce?" Roman asked indignantly, while Marlena tried to calm him down.
"Now Dad," Sami said. "I know you and E.J. have had your differences…"
"That's putting it mildly," Roman huffed.
"But you're just going to have to learn to live with each other," Sami said. "Whether I stayed married to him or not you two would need to make peace for these babies and… at least for now… I think I want to stay married to E.J. We're a family now."
Sami grabbed Sofia from E.J.'s arm and held her in her right arm while wrapping her left one around E.J.'s back and lifted her chin up proudly while E.J. looked at his father-in-law with bemusement holding Eric John.
"Well, I still don't like you, E.J. Wells, but I guess I'm going to have to accept that she does," Roman said extending his hand.
"The feeling is mutual, Mr. Brady. I assure you," E.J. said with a cocksure smile as the two men shared an awkward handshake.
"But that doesn't mean I'm going to be accepting you and the twins living at that mansion with his old man any time soon," Roman said turning to Sami.
"Well, we won't be going back there for a while," E.J. said.
"We won't?" Sami asked turning to E.J. with surprise.
"Darling, I thought you wanted to do some sightseeing while we were here," E.J. said. "And we never did get a proper honeymoon."
"Roman, I think that's our cue to leave," Marlena said nudging Roman's arm, even though he didn't understand why. "Why don't you leave the twins with us for the night and we'll take care of them at our hotel? You two have to be exhausted from this whole ordeal and could use some time to decompress before getting back into parenting mode."
E.J. bit his lip and looked at Sami with primal lust.
"Thanks, Mom, we'd really appreciate that," Sami said before giving her mother a giant hug and kissing the twins good bye before E.J. patted them each on the head.
"Be good for your grandparents," E.J. called to the twins as they were carried out by Roman and Marlena before he shut the door and sighed as he leaned against it.
"Be good for your wife," Sami said walking over to E.J. and running her fingers through his hair.
"I'm always good," E.J. said as he picked her up, smothered her lips with his and carried her back to the villa's master bedroom.
After hours of soul-shaking, bed-breaking, breathtaking lovemaking, E.J. rolled over on his side, sweaty and exhausted, as he placed one hand behind Sami's head while the other toyed absentmindedly with her bare navel.
"How do you feel?" E.J. asked as he watched his wife's chest sink and soar with each deep breath as their heart rates started to return to normal.
"Heavenly," Sami said with a smile turning on her side to face her husband "E.J., I never knew it could be like this. I honestly can't even begin to describe what you do to me. Tell me, how do you feel?"
"Well, now that you ask, I am still feeling a little sore and I was wondering if you could finish that neck rub you started earlier," E.J. pleaded with doe eyes, prompting Sami to pick up a pillow and try to hit him in the face before he deflected it away and laughed.
"Oh, just roll over already. I don't want to see your face," Sami said in mock anger as she began going to work still laying on her side and releasing the tension in her husband's shoulders and neck.
"That feels so good, Samantha," E.J. moaned appreciatively. "Yes, right there. That's the spot. You almost got it. Ahhhhh. Thank you. So I was thinking, darling… while this villa is very nice, I am anticipating you will want to go back to Salem sometime."
"Yes, E.J.," Sami said dreamily, still digging her fingertips into her husband's strong shoulders and arms, somewhat amazed as she contemplated that the Adonis laying in front of her was hers and hers alone and those shoulders and arms existed only to hold her.
"I wish I knew what to do about my father," E.J. said. "Oh, over a couple inches. There. There you have it… Ahhhh. Anyway, I don't know what I'm going to say to Stefano when I see him. I'm glad he finally had the good sense to get rid of Andre once and for all, but I hate that he kept that I was the father of the twins from us."
"I do too," Sami sighed as she began placing little kisses up and down E.J.'s spine.
"Hey, are you listening to me?" E.J. said turning around to face his wife.
"Of course," Sami said leaning in to kiss him on the lips before being unceremoniously stopped by his index finger pressed across her mouth.
"Well, if you're listening then tell me what you think we are supposed to do, Samantha?" E.J. asked while Sami pouted. "How can we go to back to living at the mansion? Sure, I'll get disinherited if I move out, but it's worth it not to have him meddling in our lives don't you think? I mean, he manipulated us with the twins, he manipulated you into this marriage with me… hell when you think about it he even manipulated both of us with that conversation at dinner to help you come to the conclusion that you wanted to sleep with me…"
"E.J., your father has nothing to do with why I want to sleep with you," Sami said nibbling on his ear lobe before pulling her head back to speak again. "Now your grandfather on the other hand…"
"Samantha, you know what I mean," E.J. said.
"Yes, and I also know it's foolish of us to move out of the mansion and give up your claim to the DiMera fortune when Stefano can't have that many lives left," Sami said, resuming her ear nibbling.
"I suppose you're right," E.J. said with a sigh, only twitching slightly from the particularly sharp bites.
Pausing in deep thought for a minute, E.J. pondered how he might work at repaying Stefano and he began caressing his wife's face.
"I know now, sweetheart," E.J. said finally. "We'll come back from Italy, but you'll still pretend like you hate me like you did before. We can still be together in secret, but whenever anyone else is around we'll still pretend like we hate each other and we'll stage these huge fights with each other. That way Stefano won't have the satisfaction of thinking his plan to get us together worked."
"But what if that's not part of my plan?" Sami scoffed.
"Your plan?" E.J. said, perplexed.
"Yes. My plan, E.J." Sami said pulling E.J. on top of her. "You're on my chessboard now and you better get used to it."
E.J. smiled and kissed his wife deeply thinking he could very happily get used to that.