Author's note: Sorry for the delay in posting a new part to Moonlit Wishes. Real life has been super busy lately, but hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently in the upcoming weeks. Thank you all who placed this story on your favorite list, reviewed, followed and most importantly read the story. You are all so awesome! Much love to you all.

Karen

Moonlit Wishes
Book III, Part VII

"I'm ready," Sami announced smiling brightly as she reentered the room, her arrival bringing EJ out of his temporary stupor.

He nodded his head, giving her a once over, noting thankfully that she was sporting more clothes than she had previously.

"Great," his voice relayed to her although it was clear he wasn't very enthusiastic about her going with him for a run at all.

Sami wasn't going to let his lack of excitement bring her down, she was in the beginning stages of her plan and that usually meant slow going at first, so she'd take what she could get and right now her option of spending time with EJ meant running with him at the crack of dawn.

She knew it was going to be cold outside even before EJ opened the front door and gestured for her to go out first. She noted to herself that he always was a gentleman with her or tried to be when she had given him the chance.

Too bad she hadn't given him chances more often to be an actual gentleman with her because she could sense his unease with her as they began to quietly stretch preparing their bodies for what Sami could only imagine would be a very strenuous run.

She didn't like it when he was quiet and introspective. It made her second guess herself which was something she didn't like to do. Unfortunately whenever EJ was concerned quietness had beforehand equated to her trying to figure out what kind of angle or game he was playing with her.

They were finished with their necessary stretches to prevent physical injury to either of their bodies while they were running, but sadly she wasn't worried about her body when she was around EJ, now it was she was concerned for her heart. A heart for the man before her who apparently had given up on her a while back since she hadn't given him much reason to hope they would ever be in a real relationship.

She was going to have to find a way to prove to him they could make sense of whatever it was that flamed up between them whenever they were in close proximity to each other. She knew now it was more than just a physical attraction. Funny how the tables had turned on her, all those years of fighting what she felt for EJ and with him and it looked like she had convinced him it would never work.

It could work, she was sure of it and if she had to run in the freezing cold everyday from now on to convince him she was going to do it. She was going to have to swallow her pride which was going to be hard for her to do, but she could and would if it would bring EJ around.

She realized quickly it was going to be difficult to keep up with him after he began a slow jog which eventually turned into a full out run, never saying a word to her at all. Damn it if he wasn't trying to leave her in the dust literally or rather snow as the case was this morning as she did her best to dodge the icy sludge that flew up from their feet while they ran.

She wasn't going to let him beat her; one thing they definitely shared was a strong streak of competition. She just had to quell her beating heart and try not to gasp for breath while she strived to keep up with his pace. It really wasn't fair; EJ had incredibly long legs whereas hers were much shorter in comparison to him.

Fair or not, she wasn't going to lag behind. She wasn't a quitter, never had been and she wasn't going to start today out by letting EJ get the best of her. She felt her endorphins kicking in from the extreme exercise and the crispness of the air surrounding him and continued on right beside at least most times she was up with him and if she started to fall behind she made herself push through the pain to keep up with him.

EJ couldn't figure what was up with Samantha this morning. He had assumed she would do her usual routine any and every time they had come close to or actually had been intimate with one another, she would shut down on him; build walls against him, pick fights anything to keep him away from her.

Now he was pushing himself to the limit by trying to outrun her and damn if she wasn't keeping up with him as they continued to run. He had wanted to distance himself against her emotionally and physically and hoped given their previous history would prove him correct and yet here she was doggedly hanging with him when for once he desperately wanted her to be gone.

Why wouldn't she go? No way was he going to concede and stop running. He had hoped she would fall behind a while back although she had hung in there with him the entire way even when he hadn't spoke a word to her at all, barely even glanced her way even though he could see her out of corner of his eye.

He had to admire Samantha. This woman continued to surprise him with her tenacity and her spunk. He almost wanted to stop in the middle of the road, pull her up to him and kiss her senseless or at least until they both passed out from lack of oxygen which if they kept running it wouldn't take long to accomplish.

But he veered off a ways instead and began to head back home, their home of sorts which he was trying to figure out what he was going to do with her.

One thing he knew for sure was that he wasn't going to kiss her, which would be the worst thing to do by giving her mixed signals.

Not that Samantha wasn't the queen of mixed signals, hell she'd practically had kept his head spinning for years while he had tried to prove his love for her in his own dysfunctional way.

But how many times did she have to say to him over the years "I don't want you in my life anymore" before he had gotten the picture? This time it wasn't a matter of them being with different people in relationships that somehow never worked out, no matter how each of them had vowed to the other that they had finally found the love of their life and they didn't need each other at all.

No, they had fought each other tooth and nail, screamed hateful obscenities and uttered terrible things to one another. Why couldn't Samantha be surly and childish to him? He needed for her to lash out at him, not trying to show him a side of her he hadn't seen too many times from her after she had found out he was a DiMera.

And even though I had tried to convince myself otherwise I had known from the start that I was always going to somehow fall into that sucky zone of unrequited love with her. How could someone like her ever love someone like me? Let's go back to our romantic first meeting—she was trying to find a wrench so that her dimwitted bland boyfriend/fiancé could fix their shower; I was trying to keep my towel around my waist. Well I hadn't really tried all that hard to keep it snug, but she had intrigued me from the moment I saw those incredibly blue eyes of hers.

Those blue eyes that lit up when she smiled at me, it hadn't taken her long to trust me, confide in me; and what did I do in return for her outreach of friendship? I fucked with her head, made her believe in me, that I was her one true friend when my father had given me a terrible agenda to follow out against her family. And hell, that was the good times of those early days we spent together.

The sad thing was that most times when I was around her I had forgotten what my father had wanted me to do in the first place which was to destroy the Brady's from within. I had begun to consider Samantha my friend and then I had done the stupid thing and fell in love with her. I was a fool.

Though I hopelessly dreamed that somehow Samantha was going to love me back, I always knew, no matter how much she was intrigued by me, curious about me (to which I had lied to her so many times it was hard to keep my story straight), even seemed to like me, she'd never be in love with me.

Really how could she love someone like me, a liar, a thief, basically a con artist to the extreme because I had played it to the hilt with her from the start? If I couldn't answer that question, how can I expect her to answer it?

As we round the corner that will lead us to the driveway of our make believe home, she's still right with me, never letting up even though I have ran like hell trying to make her give up and quit. She doesn't want me, she just likes the challenge I'm presenting to her by saying no for the first time. Like the challenge I just presented to her in this form of torture of continuing to run when I would have been content to run two miles this morning, I turned it into a fast paced five miles instead.

This has to be a novel idea for her, nothing more as I finally really look at her when we reach the doorway, both of us putting our hands on our knees as we take in gulps of air, trying to slow down the fast rate of our hearts from such a strenuous run. I can't even talk at the moment and I'm glad she isn't saying anything either. At least I wiped that smile off her face from earlier when she offered to go running with me.

She can't have feelings for me, she can't. She just wanted some companionship last night and I was the guy there and she assumed I'd sleep with her because I practically begged her countless times before. She's just playing some kind of twisted game with me trying to lure me back into the fold and when she gets me right where she wants me, she'll cut me loose and I'll be the fool all over again.

That's all she is doing? Isn't it?

When she finally seems to catch her breath, she breaks into a megawatt smile, cuts those amazing blue eyes my way like she used to do in the old days before it all went to hell with us and says, "That was awesome. We'll have to do that again. Thanks for the run EJ."

I know I'm looking at her like she has lost her mind and maybe she has and apparently I can't find my voice to save my life, so I just nod dumbly and go open the front door for her, trying not to look at her shapely backside as she turns on her heel to add, "Well guess I'll go clean up. I'm kind of hot and sweaty after that incredible run this morning."

"Me too," I finally speak wishing for a brief moment that we could go clean up together, share a shower and then have lots and lots of sex, but I made my feelings clear to her last night. I want more from her than she can ever possibly give to me. I almost want to forget my newfound principles of the previous evening and take her up the stairs, make hot and sweaty love to her so she'll truly know the meaning of the words she has just spoken to me and then get into the shower together.

But unless and until she tells me differently, that she truly loves me, EJ DiMera, I'm going to stay strong because never in a million years will Samantha Brady fall in love with me, much less tell me that sentiment. The only time I've ever heard those words from her have been in dreams I have of us, not reality unless you count that one time she was just trying to keep me away from Nicole which absolutely doesn't count because she was just saying whatever she thought it would take to make me leave Nicole.

So with that resolution firmly entrenched in my mind I don't stop her from heading up the stairs alone without me.

Unrequited love sucks, it just does.