This chapter kind of sucks. I'm not thrilled with it. I promise I'll get to work on the next one right away. Hopefully, it'll turn out better. Anywho, I edited some parts of the song (mostly chorus repeating itself) because it just got way too…well, repetitive. It doesn't flow well with the story while listening to it anyway. I just liked the way the lyrics played into it.

Thanks for the comments and school was pretty good. We were let out of math 40 min early! lol

Song is "Don't Make Me Love You" by Christina Aguilera.

Hope came back to the table and sat down nonchalantly. She prayed that nobody noticed Sami was missing. How would she be able to cover it up? There was no way she could come out and say Sami was with EJ.

At that thought, she prayed nobody noticed EJ was missing, either.

"Hope, I thought Sami was with you?" Marlena asked suddenly, turning to her.

'Crp.'

"Oh! Um…yea. She is. She was," Hope replied. "She just…uh, made a detour. To the bathroom. Yep, she's in there."

"Oh. Ok, then." Marlena said, buying it. She resumed her conversation with Adrienne and Billie.

Hope breathed a sigh of relief. 'This is gonna get interesting…' she thought, taking a big mouthful of wine.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tony looking her way. He raised his eyebrows at her, as well as his wineglass: An unspoken agreement to try to keep their relatives' whereabouts secret.

Outside, Sami and EJ were completely oblivious to what was going on inside Chez Rouge. The only thing they were aware of was each other and the deep, passionate kiss they were currently wrapped up in.

That is, until Sami's conscious began to creep into her mind.

Don't make me love you till I'm ready.
Don't make me give you more than my kisses.
I need you to go slow and steady.
Don't make me love you till I'm ready.

"EJ…" she breathed, tearing her lips away from his reluctantly. But EJ wouldn't – couldn't – let her go. He pulled her back in, close up against his body.

Sami tried again. This time she grabbed his face between her hands before he could pull her back. They were both out of breath.

"What?" he managed to get out.

Why you wanna rush into my life?
Don't you wanna stop and get to know me better?
We got all the time in the world tonight
And if we're meant to be we'll be together.
Stay around, just slow it down
Till we find out if we got what it takes.

Sami shook her head, trying to figure out how to best word this. "We can't," she stated painfully.

"What? What do you mean we ca –?" EJ started.

"No!" she interrupted. In a calmer voice, she continued, "I didn't mean it like that. I meant…we can. We will. I just…I don't know. I was hoping maybe we could…talk about this first?"

"Talk about it? What's there to talk about? I love you, Samantha. And you admitted that you love me, too. What are we talking about?" EJ argued, almost afraid she was going to retract everything she'd written in that letter.

"I want to do this right this time," she answered, slowly but firmly.

Don't make me love you till I'm ready.
Don't make me give you more than my kisses.
I need you to go slow and steady.
Don't make me love you till I'm ready.

EJ signed and dropped his hands to his sides. He raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to explain more.

Sami signed, too. Then, "You're right. I do love you, EJ. You…you mean everything to me. It's just…I'm still married to Lucas. I'm not in love him, but I'm still married to him. And…I just…"

Everything I know about you so far
Makes me believe that you're the one for me.
But, there's still a lot that's on my mind
And I need time before we go further.
Don't you see?
So hold me, fold me, but don't be
Thinking I don't want you, too.

Slowly, EJ understood what she was trying to say. "You want to end things with him before we get seriously involved," he finished for her.

"Yes," she nodded her head sadly. "EJ, I'm sorry but I just feel like that's the right thing to do."

"Samantha…" He reached out to pull her into his arms. "It's ok. I understand. I've waited this long…what's a little bit longer?" he joked.

Sami closed her eyes against the tears starting to run down her cheeks, realizing again why she loved him so much.

"There's just so many things I have to deal with right now," she murmured against his chest. "I haven't given one thought to how I'm going to tell Lucas I want out, I have to break it to my family, I have to worry about Kate and L –"

"Hey," EJ cut in, tilting her chin up to look at him. "Don't worry. You're not alone, sweetheart. I'm always right here, you know that."

"I know," Sami whispered, reaching up to kiss him again.

Don't make me love you.
Don't make me give you.

I need you to go.
Don't make me love you.

Slowly, they pulled away from each other.

"I guess…we should go back inside," EJ said, regretfully.

"I guess so," Sami replied. "Don't need anyone getting suspicious."

They exchanged a look. They both knew who "anyone" really meant.

Don't make me love you, don't make.
Don't make me give you more than my kisses.
I need you to go slow and steady, baby.
Don't make me love you till I'm ready.

They both eased back into Chez Rouge. No one seemed to notice they'd been gone. No one seemed to realize they'd been outside together for the past twenty minutes.

And that's exactly how Sami wanted it. For now.