Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I'm continuing my posting spree and I will respond to comments when I am done. More of Sam and Mercedes on their "First Date".

Chapter 47

She was a sore loser, and a cheat. He had suspected as much from playing cards with her at the hospital, no way was he that bad at poker, and no way could she be that good. Playing Donkey Kong Country with her at the party confirmed it all for Sam. His wife was willing to do anything to win. She'd tried distracting him in a variety of creative ways all spotlighting her femininity and exploiting his extreme horniness.

Mercedes knew all of his buttons and she pushed every one, sometimes simultaneously. Pursed lips, batted eyelashes, flicks of her tongue, and flashes of leg, when all that failed to interrupt his game playing, she got extreme, giving him kisses on his neck and his face. She even climbed into his lap, forcing him to play around her body. Head thrown back laughter in her eyes, she was radiant as she played and teased. Sam was tempted to put down the controller and tickle her into submission, change that smile into something sultrier, but he curbed that impulse in his efforts to win.

Sam knew the game by heart. He used to play it constantly as a kid. It was his all-time favorite video game and Sam was a hands down expert at it. Mercedes had met her match, and she knew it, hence all her attempts to get him to throw the game.

"You're going to beat me," she finally conceded as she climbed off his lap to sit on the sofa beside him.

"I don't know why you seem surprised. You had to have known I could play this game with my eyes closed."

"That's just an expression. I never thought you actually could play with your eyes closed."

Sam shook his head in amusement. She had even tried that tactic, covering his eyes with her hands, and he hadn't even missed a beat.

"So are you ready to pay up? I can end this embarrassing beat down right now."

"You don't need to rub my nose in it. There's something to be said for winning with grace."

"Like you did when you beat me repeatedly at poker?"

She rolled her eyes at him, laughter bubbling from her lips. She was so pretty like this, so vibrant, and free. Sam couldn't stop looking at her. Where had this girl been hiding all this time? She almost seemed like a different person without the dark cloud overhead and the sad eyes.

"Fine you win," she said her face suddenly falling.

"Don't be like that. It's just a stupid game. You shouldn't take it so hard."

"I don't want to dance."

"But that's what we agreed on."

"No that's what you insisted."

"You were going to dance with that Finn guy. Why can't you dance with me? The man you married." Sam was trying to keep things light, but inside he was starting to get upset. How could she deny him a dance on his birthday?

"I told you I'm saving my dance for the real... I mean for when you get your memory back."

"This is the real me," Sam said softly.

One sentence and she had managed to flatten him. After everything they had done together tonight she still saw him as an imposter, the wrong husband back from the beyond.

"I know it's the real you. I didn't mean it how it sounded." She put her hand on his arm, her brown fingers making red indentations in his skin. "I just want our first dance together to mean something, to be special. I don't want it to be because of a silly bet or because you're desperate to keep your mind off Quinn at any cost."

"What? You think this is about Quinn?" Instead of taking her hand as he probably should have, he leaned back against the couch closing his eyes for a moment.

"I know it is. This whole wishing for our marriage back, wishing for your memory to return, it's all about her."

Sam heard her sniffling, and he didn't dare open his eyes to look. He didn't want to risk being swept up in emotions and pulled into her pain again.

It was getting harder to keep up this act while looking her in the eyes. He felt like crap the longer he was in her company, because now her eyes sparkled, she laughed more often, touched him without hesitation. She was relaxing and trusting him, her hopes building with each minute of their date. It was awful and wonderful all at once. She loved him so much he could feel it even sitting beside her playing video games and Sam wanted to keep that feeling, stuff it in his jacket pocket, because love wasn't plentiful in his world, his father was cold, his mom's love laced with conditions, and his romantic entanglements had been complicated to put it mildly. But in this short time with Mercedes, for the first time in his memory, love was right there, easy, simple and for him. So with eyes closed he tried to convince her that tonight was about more than just Quinn even though he wasn't quite sure that it was.

"I'm here. With you. I told you I wanted this to be our first date. I asked if we could try, asked you to stay married to me. What more do you want?" he asked finally looking over at her.

"How about you do something? All you've done is talk - telling me these great things you want for us, but all your actions are about Quinn. You went and got her from upstate, spent the night with her at a hotel, had some sort of emotional exchange with her here. You might say you want to work on things with us, but your actions say you want her."

"What do I have to do? Get up on stage and belt out a song?"

He hadn't sung in a long while, probably since high school when he used to sing to Quinn and onstage, that was something he never attempted, but he was starting to feel desperate. Desperate about what was the question. Did he only want Mercedes to be impressed so she would stay married to him for the deal or was there a deeper reason?

Looking over at her rounded brown face, with her black hair falling into her eyes, he knew there was more to his persistence. He wanted to keep her smiling at all cost, because he owed her at least that much after all he'd put her through, and because he liked seeing her face lit up with a huge smile. Knowing he had the power to put that smile there did things to him, brought up unknown feelings that he just wasn't ready to explore, not now, maybe not ever.

"Please God no singing."

He watched her reaction closely. Mercedes didn't seem to think he would actually sing onstage, when he absolutely would. She claimed to know him so well, she had to know the extremes he was willing to take to get what he wanted. This had to be a bluff.

"I think you're faking. I think you do want a song, or message written in the sky. You want a grand gesture like I used to do for you."

"You've never done anything like that for me."

"Come on. Really? No romantic trips to Paris, no fancy gifts?" he asked feeling more stunned than he ever had since waking up. Maybe his family wasn't exaggerating and he had actually become a far different man in those three years he had lost.

Tears glossed in her dark eyes, but she didn't seem sad. "No serenades, no daring rescues, no name carving, none of that, that wasn't who we were together."

"I guess I was a pretty crappy husband."

"Cheating tends to make you lose points in that area," she said with a small smile, almost joking about his infidelity, but not quite. "But if not for that, I think you were an awesome husband, the best."

Mercedes stared in his direction but seemed to be looking through him, as if she were talking to a version of him from another time. Sam put his hand on her thigh, subtly reminding her that she didn't need to speak to an imaginary husband from her memory, when her real one was right in front of her eyes.

"How would you know? You've never been married before. You haven't right?" he asked quickly, mentally bracing for her response. "No secret unions with Puck or Mike?"

"Eww no." She turned up her nose. "They are like my brothers."

"Okay good." Sam let out a sigh of relief, louder than he had intended. Mercedes gave him a strange look, but didn't press him for an explanation about his reaction.

She ran her fingers through the front of her hair, pushing it out of her face. "Just because I've only been married once doesn't mean I don't know what good feels like. I didn't get all those big things from you and I didn't care." Mercedes seemed a bit defensive, as if she felt the need to justify why he hadn't spoiled her. "You came home, we woke up together, you loved me." Her voice broke as she looked away. "That's all I needed."

Everything she described was so simple, almost ordinary, that didn't mesh with the way he usually lived his life. Bigger and better, loving on a grander scale, that was more like him. Sam liked to make a big show of his emotions, once he snagged the girl and won her heart. Although thinking back on his life, when had he actually ever truly won the girl? All his big shows were more about keeping the girl rather than making her happy in a life with him.

He looked at Mercedes with fresh eyes, completely confused by the woman beside him. She obviously enjoyed the finer things in life. Her wardrobe was an indication and the way she handled the staff was another. A life of wealth didn't seem to make her uneasy, in fact the more he got to know Mercedes, the more he could see all the ways she fit in perfectly with his family and his lifestyle. So how could a woman like that accept a life in a small home in the suburbs without all the fancy trimmings?

"It's just hard to believe that you stayed with me and I didn't even have to do anything to impress you. Usually I feel like I need to go the extra mile to get a woman to stay."

"What can I say?" She shrugged with a sad smile. "I'm cheap and easy."

"I think cheap and easy are the last words I would use to describe you." He caressed her cheek, unable to help himself. He had to touch her whenever she looked like this, sad and longing.

"Yeah right." Mercedes rolled her large eyes at him. "I know you were thinking that when I was throwing myself all over you at the hospital."

Thinking about their time together in the hospital had been his downfall ever since he was released. If he could just let go of those memories, of those unfulfilled desires, then maybe he could let go of Mercedes. This hadn't been part of the plan, liking her company, feeling his attraction to her grow. It was supposed to be a quick detached job, a hit and run, using his faked charm to win her over and get her to stay married. Of course, Puck had been right earlier in his room, it was insane to believe that he could pull this off from arm's length. So he had allowed himself to tap into that physical attraction, just to make his plan work, turning up the heat always worked with the ladies. And it had worked with Mercedes to perfection, one kiss and she was now all over him, more affectionate than she'd been in weeks. The problem was turning up the heat had worked on him too. He couldn't get enough of his wife now, and he was just as affectionate as she was. It was like the hospital all over again, when he had been floating on some lovesick high because he had the cutest nurse in the ward and she was clearly hot for him.

That night when she appeared in his room like a mirage, in the smallest of pink shorts, his breath had caught in his throat and his palms were sweaty, because he finally had his Little Nurse completely to himself. The house was crowded with people and there were interruptions galore, but tonight she felt like she was all his as well. Even in the middle of a room, he had felt close to her, the people surrounding them were just background as he put all his focus on Mercedes. It felt so simple, so right, to have her in his arms, to have his lips against her skin, just as natural as it had in the hospital, when his building feelings for her threatened to get in the way of what he desperately wanted to find with Quinn. Nothing had changed. Nothing at all. She was still very much in the way, but this time he was letting it happen.

He narrowed his eyes at her unabashedly checking her out. "Actually I was thinking strange but sexy."

"Strange huh? Now that's real flattering," she said with a slanted smile.

"You forgot the sexy part," he said trailing two fingers down her bare arm.

She had what looked like freckles there, not many, sprinkling across her arm, but enough to hold his attention if he ever needed something to count. He could imagine himself spending an entire night counting every freckle on her body, kissing each spot as he tallied along. Sam sat up in surprise, retracting his hand from her body. Where had that thought come from? There wasn't going to be any night time counting or explorations of her body, even with things being strained with Quinn, Sam knew that. His nether regions were getting out of control tonight, dictating responses that ran counter to what his brain wanted.

"Strange sort of overshadows that."

"Not for me. I've never met anyone like you before."

"That you can remember," she teased, wiggling her nose at him. He mimicked the gesture, unable to resist sharing in her playful mood.

As his lips skimmed hers, he remembered the promise he made to Quinn in the nursery, to not resort to kisses or physical persuasion to win Mercedes' favor. He'd broken that one a few times over since the night started. He was weak there was no other explanation for it. Kissing Mercedes had been an urge almost since he met her. He wanted to kiss her because he liked her pouty lips, the way she almost purred whenever he touched her, how she kissed him so fully like his mouth was irresistible, and the way she always smiled against his lips mid kiss. Simply put he liked kissing her, and although he felt some guilt about what this might mean to Quinn, a greater part of him didn't care. He knew he was going to give up his wife for Quinn, that decision had been made from the moment he found out about Beth and that Quinn wanted him too, but for tonight at least, he got to indulge in his selfish desires and spend time with a woman he now realized he genuinely liked.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist those lips," he murmured inches away from her face.

Mercedes ran both hands through his hair and he closed his eyes at her touch. Felt so nice whenever she touched him like this, calming, soothing, better than a back rub.

"I missed you so much," she said quietly, kissing his lips once more.

Sam opened his eyes and looked at her, gliding his hand through her hair to caress the back of her head, lightly urging her toward him. "You don't have to miss me anymore Mercedes. I'm back and I'm here."

"I know, I just…" she trailed off trying to fight back tears and losing terribly.

"Hey," he said softly, lifting her chin. "No tears."

"Please don't hurt me Sam," she whispered. "I don't think I'll be able to handle it again."

He wanted to promise her he wouldn't, take her in his arms and whisper assurances into her ear, promise her that now that he was back he'd never leave again, but he couldn't. There was a lump on his chest, a solid mass, unmoving even in the lightness of her presence. He couldn't ignore his love for Quinn, even when he wanted nothing more than to do just that.

"Where's this coming from?" Sam asked trying to catch her eyes. She was hiding from him now, walling herself up even while she still sat surrounded in his embrace. "I thought we were having a good time."

"We are." She smiled, meeting his eyes briefly, before looking away again. "But I feel like Cinderella waiting for the clock to strike midnight and poof all this will disappear."

"I'm not going anywhere Mercedes. I told you I wanted…"

"You are going somewhere," she said interrupting him mid thought. "Don't lie to me, not now, not after all this. The night will end and you'll head back to Quinn." She put a finger to his lips to silence his protest. "I know you're upset with her right now, and a part of me is grateful for that because whatever she did to hurt you gave me a chance to spend time with you, which is what I've wanted since you woke up. But I've known since this whole date thing started that it would only end one way, with you and her."

"Mercedes, how can you know that? I don't even know that."

"Yes you do. She's on your mind even now. You can't stop thinking about her."

"I want it to be only you. I've wished it so many times tonight," he admitted.

"She'll never love you the way I do," Mercedes said between kisses, up and down his neck, little pecks with her soft mouth.

Did Quinn even love him at all? Sam was banking so much on a hunch. He suspected Quinn loved him, she had said so much that definitely placed her heart in that realm, but never had she spoken the words directly. If she did truly love him, why not tell him so?

"Mercedes," he sighed into her mouth. Even as he was trying to make his point he still couldn't stop kissing her.

"We could be good again. I can feel it. You want me, don't you Sam?"

Hell yes he wanted her. They had some serious unfinished business leftover from their time at the hospital. But wanting and having were two very different things. There was no way he could sleep with Mercedes and still expect Quinn to want to be with him in the future. So he had exerted all his self-control, denied everything about her until the pressure was so great he thought he might explode, only to end up here with his wife's body pressed against his and her lips on his throat. Mercedes shifted exposing her bare leg through the long slit in her dress.

The universe was playing dirty tonight, tempting him with Mercedes' incredible sweetness. He'd asked for this, wishing for his marriage back and now it was being offered up to him on a gleaming platter. How could he say no to that? Everything would be so much easier if he just let himself be with her, made a real effort, and allowed himself to explore all that he was feeling.

"You know I want you," he said, low from the base of his throat, more to himself than to her. He wanted her on her back in that blue lingerie that he knew was hidden beneath her black dress.

"It could be you, me and Beth as a family," she said before kissing him harder, erasing any discussion from his brain. There was only her tongue tangled with his, and the warm sweetness of her mouth.

Sam pulled her closer, stroking her back, trying to lose himself in her sweet floral scent, the softness of her hair, and the flutter of the little kisses she placed on his neck, praying that the clock wouldn't strike midnight anytime soon. As selfish as this was, Sam wasn't ready to let go of her, to walk away from something that felt so natural and easy. She had made him smile when his whole world went black, more than once now. She was so open with her love, eager with her kisses, not like Quinn who was closed and hesitant about everything.

"Quinn is Beth's mother, I can't just shut her out," he said breathlessly against her hair. It felt like he was drowning in her, being pulled under by her body and her insatiable mouth. She wanted him and was unashamed about revealing it.

If only Quinn would open herself up to him completely, promise him that there were no more secrets, and mean it this time, then they could find their way to solid ground. And then maybe he could find a way to let go of the woman in his arms, because right now the most solid and real part of his life was a woman he didn't love, but couldn't help wishing that he did.

"You can have me Sam, right now, tonight, forever." Mercedes sat up, ending their kiss abruptly, leaving Sam aroused and confused. "Send her back upstate and I'm yours."

Sam's eyes widened, surprised by the turn of events. Had his wife just given him an ultimatum?