came into the room. “You’re stillhere?”
“I didn’t leave you. I just took a quick shower,” he said, as he
dried his hair.
She took his hand and kissed it. “I thought for a minute…” “I remember. I used to leave in the middle of the night. First, it’s
my house. Ican’tleave,” he laughed slightly. “And second, Iwon’tleave
you again.”
“I so want to believe you. I’ve just been trusting the wrong
people. I thought I loved Parker.”
“I know, and maybe you did … do, but hepretendedwith you. I
neverpretend. I am sorry about hurting you. I won’t do that again. Sam, I
want this to work this time with you. I love you and I don’t ever want to
lose you. And, I like Sam much better than Lee. Where did the Lee
come from?”
“I’m technically Samantha Lee. I know I had you call me Lee.
Jack, I was undercover when you and I met. I know, eventually, you
knew that. When I lost you … I thought that youdidn’t love me
anymore. I was promoted to Detective soon after that, and Dylan and I
were in an accident.”
“I heard about that. I am sorry about Dylan. Sam, I didn’t want
to ruin your life. I thought I was being selfish. I knew you were up for
that promotion. You were a damn good cop. I know why you loved it so
much. You loved putting the degenerates behind bars. You loved the
adventure. I didn’t want my life to touch yours.”
“I understand now … I wish you would’ve told me. Jack, I
would’ve chosen you … we’d still be together and I would’ve never fell
for all the lies that Parker convinced me of. He made me think that he
loved me and that I could trust him. Where is he, anyway?” “In thetea room, tied up. He’ll be there until you’re ready to deal
with him. Are you hungry?”
“A little,” she said.
“I’ll have Claudine prepare something for us,” he smiled. “Sounds good. Um, anything you want sounds good … except.” “I know … no caviar … I remember,” he picked up the phone.
“Yes, please prepare the special dinner now. Thank you,” he hung up. “Specialdinner?” she smiled.
“You’ll see. There is another thing I wanted to talk to you
about,” he said, as she grabbed her robe and put it on.
“What? Is something wrong?”
“No, I wanted to tell you … I thoroughly enjoyed yourteasing.
You know … when you cuffed me to the chair … I would’ve enjoyed it
moreif you followed through instead of stabbing me.”
“I am so sorry about that. How is your leg?”
“It’s fine, Allure. It’s fine. You didn’t stab ittoodeep,” he kissed
her cheek. “I just wanted to tell you that … in case you ever wanted to
do that again,” he said, as there was a knock on the door.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she flirted.
He opened the door and rolled in the dinner cart. “Thank you,
Claudine. You may retire for the evening.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said, as she closed the door.
He pushed the cart over to the bed. “Oh, don’t get up. You just
relax. I just had her prepare a little something for us,” he lifted the tray
and smiled. “Do you remember?”
“Ourfirstmeal?” she laughed.
“Yeah, hard boiled eggs, potato chips, and of course, shrimp on
a tossed salad. If I remember, that’s all you had in your cabinet.” “Well, I still can’t cook. I order out a lot,” she laughed. “Well, I also had my best bottle ofChardonnaysent up. You still
like white wine, right?”
“Yes, I do. I still like my beer now and then, too.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know.”
“Oh, just becauseyou’reso refined. You own a bar but you don’t
drink beer?” she laughed.
“I don’t like beer.”
“You don’t like beer because it’s in a bottle. You should try it.
You don’t know if you like it unless you try it.”
“Drinking from a bottle never had any appeal to me,” he said, as
he took a bite of his food.
“You should try it. At least once. I got it … go ahead. Swig from
the bottle.”
“Youcan’tbe serious,” he laughed.
“I’ll do it, if you do,” she smiled.
“Are youdaringme?”
“Yup, I can alwaysteaseyou if you don’t,” she flirted. He picked up the bottle of wine and shook his head. “Oh, what
the hell?” he said, as he swigged the wine from the bottle.
“See, it wasn’tthatbad, was it?”
“I guess it was all right.”
“You have to do it a certain way,” she said, as she took the
bottle from his hand. She lightly ran her tongue around the opening of
the bottle and slowly slid it into her mouth. She tilted her head back and
swigged gently. She pulled it out of her mouth and went to wipe the
wine that dripped down her chin.
“Oh, let me,” he said, as he kissed the wine off her chin. “You’re
right. You’resomuch better at it than I am,” he kissed her cheek. “I could teach you a few things,” she smiled.
“You have and I know there is so much more to learn from
you,” he laid down on the bed and leaned his head on his hand, as his
elbow balanced him.
She laid down next to him and touched his face. “I feel like
we’ve always been together.”
“Wewillalways be together. I love you, Samantha. You’re such a
beautiful, sexy, and loving woman. I don’t want us to be ruined by our
past.”
“Neither do I,” she smiled. “Will you stay in here with me
tonight?”
“I’d be happy to,” he kissed her mouth softly. “I’ll do whatever
you want.”
“Just always be honest, always love me, andalways… look at
me… the way you’re looking at me now.”
“You do the same and we’ll be just fine.”