Chapter 4 - So We Meet Again


I heard from a friend today
And she said you were in town
Suddenly the memories came back
To me in my mind

How can I be strong I've asked Myself
Time and time I've said
That I'll never fall in love with you again

A wounded heart you gave,
My soul you took away
Good intentions you had many,
I know you did

I come from a place that hurts
God knows how I've cried
And I never want to return
Never fall again

Making love to you felt so good
And
Oh so right

How can I be strong I've asked
Myself
Time and time I've said
That I'll never fall in love with you again

So here we are alone again
Didn't think i'd come to this
And to know it all began
With just a little kiss

I've come to close to happiness,
To have it swept away
Don't think I can take the pain
No never fall......again

Kinda late in the game
And my heart is in your hands
Don't you stand there and then tell me
You love me
Then leave again

'Cause I'm falling in love with you
Again

Paris, France
Elizabeth knew Paris like the back of her hand, yet her eyes offered no help in telling her where she was. There was grass. A meadow draped in a pristine shade of green that nearly caused the heart physical pain upon viewing. And there were the blue eyes that stared back at her. Miraculous blue eyes that could cause her heart physical pain. HAD caused her unspeakable pain at one time.

Yet, the blue of his eyes had always been too complicated to simply represent sadness or the melancholy that Blues' singers sang about. They were the color of serenity, of tranquility.... the color of fire at it's most dangerous.

And the voice - Lucky's. He was still speaking to her. That she was sure of, if nothing else.

She didn't know how they'd gotten wherever they were. If her feet had carried her, or if he had. Maybe he'd swooped her up into his arms like in some miraculous fairytale. Maybe they'd flown together on a magic carpet built for two. Maybe this was the beginning of the rest of her life.

Maybe this was truly the end.

The point at which all lose ends were tied up. The part where the credits rolled and you were left surrounded by nothing but empty popcorn boxes and empty seats, wondering what happened to your happy ending.

All she knew for sure was that they were alone. His hand on her knee brought her out of the euphoric haze and into an equally dizzying state of reality.

Lucky leaned forward, enthralled by every aspect of her face. Every facet of her eyes. They'd always been so deep, so blue. Like sapphires dipped in water.

He wanted to let himself drown in them like he had so many times. To be wrapped in the warm waters of her soul. But he couldn't. Not now. Too much had happened. There was too much to explain. And he'd be lucky if she even talked to him. Even really looked at him.

Lucky felt her jolt, as he placed a hand on her knee. Her eyes becoming glassy with unshed tears at the exact same moment. It was as if she'd just woken up. The reaction gave him a start as well.

He licked his lips nervously, wanting to touch her face but not allowing himself the simple pleasure. Watching her intently as a strange look passed through her eyes. Something he couldn't put a name to. It was like watching someone try to find a word that they knew was right on the very tip of their tongue.

Their knees were almost touching as they sat on the grass, but he didn't know if it was ok to put his hands there. They fidgeted from his knees to hers. She wasn't talking. She hadn't uttered a single syllable since he'd laid eyes on her. Not that he expected her to know what to say or what to do. He barely had any idea himself. 'Words, Spencer...use some of those...Come on, you didn't come all this way to sit here and stare at her....Although you'd die a happy man if that's all you ever got to do for the rest of your life - just sit in the grass and gaze into those amazing eyes.................Cut it out and SPEAK!'

"Eliz - Elizabeth...Are....are you ok?"

A sane person would have expected what came next. But he had lost his sanity ages ago, and didn't anticipate the sting of the slap that echoed off of his skin in the wake of her hand.

Quicker than he could recover physically or mentally, she was off. Running through the meadow of grass. He noticed how the evening dew had dampened her slacks. The grass stains that now marred her wool coat.

Weird thoughts to have when you were chasing someone that you hadn't seen or spoken to in over three years. In hot pursuit of the love of your life. A woman that you weren't sure you even had any right to speak to, let alone look at. A woman that had just smacked you across your face.

"Elizabeth!" Lucky yelled, right on her heels as she continued to run. She wouldn't turn around. Wouldn't stop. Neither would he.

Her hair flew behind her in a wild array of dark chocolate strands. He closed in on her, still a step behind as he grasped her arm and spun her around towards him. Both of them breathless. Panting in desperation. One desperate to hold on. The other desperate to run away.

Lucky gasped her name through sharp intakes of breath. "Elizabeth...Please...I just want to talk to you...please..."

She swallowed dryly, trying to slow her erratic pulse. "No!!" She shouted, in between breaths. She shook her head. Waging a battle on both fronts. One with herself, and one with the man that stood before her.

"Why?!" Elizabeth asked, her voice ragged with emotion and fatigue. She glanced down at the grip he had on her arm, trying to pull it away and failing. "What could you and I possibly have to say to each other after all this time?!"

Lucky watched her as she shoved loose strands away from her tear-streaked face. "God...there's so much," he sighed.

"I don't think there is," she stated bluntly, tugging at her arm again.

Lucky ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He knew he was going to have to beg and he didn't care. He'd do whatever it took to make her understand.

"Elizabeth...please. I just wanna talk to you for 10 minutes.....Just give me 10 minutes that's all I ask. Please."

For so long she'd wanted to hear his voice. Hear him say anything. Anything at all, but now that he was standing in front of her all she could feel was anger and betrayal. And something else she was afraid to name. The mixture was like poison. A poison that had festered in her soul for years now.

Yet something made her stay.

She bit her bottom lip and found herself nodding against her better judgement. She wiped roughly at her tears with the backs of her hands and watched him as he led her back to where she could only assume they'd been sitting. The bottoms of her pant legs were damp. God, she couldn't even remember having sat down. It was like being pulled back into her own dream after already haven woke up.

Her eyes glided slowly over his form for the first time. Moving discretely from his Nikes to his jeans, to his black leather jacket. He hadn't changed any at all. Except for the fact that he'd managed to get even more beautiful. How was that possible, when all she'd gotten was older?

Lucky turned towards her and her eyes quickly darted to the ground. She heard his voice again and looked up as if on command.

"Will you just sit with me? For a minute...please," he added, pleadingly. She'd only seen that look in his eyes one other time in her life. It had been their first night in New York City, when he'd told her about his 'visit' with Tammy. He looked so sad. Like a little boy that couldn't truly be at peace until he was forgiven.

If that was what he'd come there for, he'd be leaving disappointed. There was no way she could ever forgive him. Ever.

Lucky tugged on her hand and she complied, sitting in front of him and pulling her knees to her chest. She seemed to sit as far away as she possibly could.

'What did you expect jerk off?' He berated himself silently. 'Did you expect her to just run into your arms and kiss you? Tell you that it was ok that you left her three years ago?...Yeah right. You're lucky she even sat down.......Now how are you going to get her to stay?'

He reached for her hand again and she quickly jerked it out of his reach. The way you would if your finger had gotten too close to a hot burner on a stove.

It felt like a stab in the heart. Lucky took a deep breath and pulled his own hand away slowly. Willing his voice to work. "I deserved that and - I know...that I'm the last person that you ever wanted to see again in your entire life. Believe me, I know how much I hur - "

"You don't know anything," she stated coldly, looking away.

Lucky sighed. She wasn't going to make this easy on him. She didn't have any reason to make this easy.

"I do know that I hurt you...immeasurably, Elizabeth. And I know that because I felt the exact same way. I felt like a piece of my heart was mis..." His voice trailed off as she began to chuckle.

It was a bitter kind of laugh. He'd never heard her laugh that way. It was another one of those things he guessed he should have expected.

She shook her head as the laughter subsided and finally looked at him again. Her voice was hoarse from crying and laughing. "That's funny Lucky. I mean you're kidding right? You have to be, because you left me. Remember?"

"I know that. God...I know that Elizabeth. I've been faced with that knowledge for the last 3 years of my life....But, I didn't have a choice. I just didn't - "

"Love me anymore?" Elizabeth finished sarcastically.

They locked eyes and held each other's gaze for the first time since she'd sat down. His own words coming back to haunt him. He'd heard those words countless times in his sleep. They'd woken him up in a cold sweat. He'd always wished them a nightmare. Yet knowing that they were reality. That those words had actually escaped his lips: I don't love you.

He'd decided that they were the 4 most horrible words spoken in the English language. Knowing that he could never take them back. Or the damage that they'd caused.

"I've always loved you.........Elizabeth, I have loved you on some level since the first moment I saw you outside of Kelly's. I love you now Elizabeth...I'll love you forever."

Elizabeth smiled and tried to keep her lips from trembling. God how long had she thirsted for those 3 words? I love you. They reached out to her now like a long awaited glass of water.

Then just as quickly they wrapped around her heart like vise, threatening to break her. Some insane physical reflex inside of her pleaded with him to kiss her. To seal the words against her lips before they evaporated into thin air. She wanted him to smother her with the promise of truth.

He didn't. Thank God for small favors.

"You love me?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in forced doubt as he nodded silently. No one looking at him would have taken him for a liar. But she knew him. Knew what he was capable of. "Excuse me for saying so Lucky, but you've got a funny way of showing it."

She watched him as he reached down and plucked one perfect blade of grass from the dirt, splitting it in two. She wondered briefly if they had felt any pain upon separation. If each side of that blade longed to be with it's other half. Or if they were both completely ok, content to spend the rest of their lives apart, while living in the same green lawn.

"I never wanted to leave you."

"Then why did you?" She asked, willing him to look up at her. To tell her with his eyes that he meant what he was saying. She quickly wished she hadn't. His eyes overflowed with tears. Two clear paths running rivulets down his cheeks. He brushed them away violently with his thumbs.

"I didn't have a choice."

"We always have a choice. You told me that once."

It was Lucky's turn to laugh. "Yeah, that sounds like something I would have said....but that was a long time ago Elizabeth. That was when I still believed that as long as you never lied to anyone about anything, everything in life would turn out fine."

"You don't believe that anymore?" She asked softly.

"No," he whispered, scooting closer to her against his better judgement. "Not when lying means saving someone you love. Not when it means that you...that you're alive and smiling somewhere in the world." His hand moved up to brush against her left cheek on it's own accord. "Even if I can't touch you."

The moment his hand touched her face she died, and when his thumb slid tenderly over her lips she knew she had gone to heaven.

Like any fallen angel, she couldn't stay in heaven long.

He was wrong. She hadn't truly smiled in years. She pulled away from him again. But this time it hadn't been as quick. Not as if she'd gotten burned.

Lucky noted that it had been almost as difficult for her not to pull away as it had been for him not to kiss her the minute he felt her skin again. The minute her lips had come within inches of his. Did she know how long he'd ached to kiss her? How badly he wanted to now?

How was it possible that her cheek gotten even softer? He chastised himself quickly for wondering if she'd gotten softer everywhere else as well.

He let his hand drop during the awkward silence, and scooted away from her again. "Elizabeth, that night I told you the biggest lie anyone could ever tell. I told you I didn't love you, when there couldn't have been anything further from the truth. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you...but I couldn't. Helena Cassidine made sure of that."

~~~~~~~

Port Charles, New York
The Spencer Residence

Luke folded his daughter's sacred letter and placed it back in its envelope. He turned slowly to his wife as she stirred minced garlic into the simmering pot upon the stove. "Are you really surprised?" He asked, walking slowly over to a chair. He sat down with a tired thud.

Laura glanced over her shoulder. "Luke, I haven't seen my son in over 3 years. Yes, I'm surprised."

Her husband ran a hand over the 5 o'clock shadow that had covered his cheeks. "We both knew he'd be back someday darlin,' and it ain't no coincidence that someday happened to coincide with a pretty high profile death."

Laura let the wooden spoon lean against the pot as she turned towards Luke, coming to sit down opposite of him. For years now they'd gone over the circumstances surrounding Lucky's 'disappearance.' Coming up with various 'what ifs' and 'maybes' until they were both emotionally black and blue. Their hearts bruised with the hurt of not knowing.

When Elizabeth had called them that fateful day, they just wouldn't believe that he'd left of his own free will. Laura remembered saying it wasn't possible. She remembered telling Elizabeth that Lucky would always love her, no matter what.

She also remembered the tone of Elizabeth's voice. A girl that had once been vibrant and bubbly sounded as if she'd been shot with a tranquilizer gun at close range. It had taken Laura months to come to terms with the fact that no foul play had been involved. Lucky had simply written off his entire family.

Yet, Luke had never believed that. They'd come too far. They'd moved past the fallout of the rape revelation and their family had been stronger than ever before. Elizabeth and Lucky were living the dream in NYC, and times were good. They visited home every chance they got, inflicting everyone they knew with bouts of nausea brought upon by their sickeningly sweet love for each other.

There'd been no reason to go backwards. None of it made sense.

If Lucky had suddenly developed a problem with Elizabeth or the family, he wouldn't have handled it that way. He would have faced it like a man. Not run away from it. It just had never sat right with Luke.

He had suspected Helena's evil doings almost immediately. When the first letter to LuLu came, Laura had begun to think the same thing, but she'd painfully pushed the thoughts away after Luke had come up empty handed time and time again. She simply couldn't afford to think that way anymore.

Luke had tried, and he'd failed to make connections between Lucky leaving them and Helena's own absence from Port Charles, noticed a year prior. It just wasn't there. No evidence. And while Luke's gut had never needed any evidence, the police had.

All they'd had to go on were a few angry words from Lucky to his distraught girlfriend. Essentially they'd had nothing. Even Elizabeth hadn't been helpful in the 'clue department.' She'd removed herself from all things Spencer soon after Lucky had. Not that Laura had ever blamed the girl for that.

"Do you think we should call Elizabeth, Luke?" Laura asked, awkwardly.

Luke looked up and shook his head. "If my guess is right, and all of this is happening at the same time for a reason.....the Cowboy's already made contact with Elizabeth."

It was Laura's turn to shake her head. "She would have called us."

"Well that depends..."

Laura sighed dejectedly. Although she didn't want to agree, she couldn't help but think her husband had a point. Life wasn't exactly the same as it had been three years ago. She and the girl she'd been ready to call her daughter-in-law weren't exactly close anymore.

God, what if all of this had been some diabolical plan of Helena's?

Laura ran a hand through her long tresses. "Is she really dead Luke?" She asked slowly. It was just too hard to believe.

Luke sighed. "Stiffy seems to think so....I saw Nikolas over at Wyndemere too - "

Laura covered her face with her hands. Nikolas. He'd been so quiet on the phone earlier. She knew there was no love lost between Nikolas and his grandmother, but she'd still been his family. She wondered how he was really doing. It was one of the many times in the past few years that he had needed his brother.

Luke read the concern in her expression. "He looked fine darlin," He said, a sound that seemed much like a groan escaping his lips as he rose from his chair.

Laura nodded and followed him around the kitchen with her eyes. "It's just hard for me to believe that after all these years...a heartattack would be the thing to do her in. I mean...I guess I just always thought that - "

"That a house would fall on her? That someone would stick a knife through the black hole she called a heart and keep stickin' until they hit paydirt?....Yeah, I think we all thought that sweetheart...........but you never know, maybe it wasn't a heartattack at all. Maybe the Cowboy - "

"Luke...please," Laura pleaded. "This could just be a coincidence," she sighed, picking up the white envelope on the table.

"Laura there ain't no such things as coincidences. Especially none that involve Helena Cassidine finally croaking, and my son suddenly deciding to come home after 3 years!"

Laura rose from her chair, tears burning in her eyes. She didn't know what to believe. Her voice was nearly inaudible when she spoke. "Luke...what if he's coming back JUST to see his baby sister? What if he left all those years ago because he really did decide that he couldn't stand us?.....What then?"

"Laura, it's a lot better than the alternative."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a lot better than thinking that our son has been at the mercy of the She-Devil for years and we couldn't do a damn thing to stop it,"Luke bellowed. The stress of the day finally catching up with him.

"Come here," Laura whispered, opening her arms to her husband.

Luke walked over to his wife, embracing her with everything he had. Whatever the case turned out to be. He was going to have his son back soon. That's all that mattered.

~~~~~~~
Paris, France
Paris HQ of the Hart-Montgomery Foundation.

Alex turned his back on his 'financial advisor.' A man that had been like a father to him for years. A friend and confidant. A man that he needed to be able to trust now, more than any other time in his life.

"I need you to keep a tight lid on this Leopold," Alex sighed, staring down at the City of Lights right before it lit up.

The sun was beginning to set. He should have been with his wife right now. This had always been her favorite time of day. There were times when she'd just sit in front of their huge bay windows at home and cry at the sight of a sunset.

"I assure you Alessandro, I'll handle it with the utmost discretion. Just as I have everything else," the old man sighed, pushing his glasses high upon the bridge of his nose.

He sat down and eyed the man that he'd known since he was just a boy. Leopold could remember little Alessandro playing in the garden at his home in Italy. When he'd been a child who looked as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. A sullen boy living with a single father who was just managing to scrape by.

A grown man stood before him now. A man, seemingly panicked to the point of paranoia. Leopold wished Alex's life could have been peaceful for just a few more days. But the stars had held other plans.

The elderly Italian man smiled, trying to instill a sense of confidence in him. "Everything will go on according to plan."

Alex sat down across from him at the mahogony desk, and ran a hand over the smooth surface. He'd bought it as a gift for Leopold the last time he'd been in Switzerland. It was so shiny he could see his own reflection in it. He quickly looked away.

Leopold's eyes shown with age, and his growing disapproval. "Leopold...she'd never understand this...There's no way that I could ex.."

The old man gestured slowly with his hand, cutting him off. It was a useless battle. It always had been. The boy had fought so hard for everything in his life, that he continuously lived this way. Thinking everything had to be a battle. Especially since she had entered the picture.

But, he was finally happy. Leopold couldn't wreck that. No matter how wrong it might have felt.

"You understand this right?" Alex continued at his silence. "Why it has to be this way?"

Leopold reached out and placed a wrinkled hand over Alex's. "Yes, my son. Don't you worry."
~~~~~~~
Elizabeth glanced up at the sky. The sun was setting, and it was the first time in years that she hadn't felt like crying at the sight of it. It was beautiful. It was miraculous. The movement of clouds snapped her out of her reverie.

"What does Helena Cassidine have to do with any of this, Lucky?"

Lucky sighed to himself. "She's got just about everything to do with this...She's the reason I had to leave you."

He watched her brow furrow in confusion, before his own conscience forced him to revise his statement. "Well, my own stupidity had a lot to do with it too...but Helena's the one that took advantage of that stupidity."

"Lucky, you're talking in riddles," Elizabeth snapped.

She watched as he sank back down into the grass. He suddenly looked as if he were going to be sick. When his voice finally emerged it was soft, full of some unnamable emotion.

"She was invading our lives Elizabeth," he began looking up into her questioning eyes. God, she looked just as perplexed and helpless as she had the night he'd left their apartment. "You didn't know it...because I didn't tell you. But she was everywhere. She was watching our every move. Just waiting for a moment to strike......and then, when the time was right. When I least expected it......she did."

Elizabeth slowly sat down in front of him, watching as he looked towards the hands he had clasped tightly in his lap again. "What happened?"

"We were so happy...you know?" He looked up again, smiling. "I've realized that that's the most dangerous thing in the world to be....Happy....Happiness - it blinds you. It makes you careless. You let your guard down....That's exactly what happened with Helena.....She started to target you, and it was all my fault because I couldn't see it."

"Lucky I don't un-"

"Shh," Lucky whispered, placing a gentle finger against her lips to silence her.

The gesture was not the least bit sexual or even romantic. Yet she shivered at his touch. Her tongue tensing behind her lips, recalling memories of it's own.

"Do you remember the night that the new bike shop was broken into?...It was a Friday night, and we were just getting ready to go to the movies...for like the first time in I don't even know how long...And then I got the call..."

Elizabeth nodded her head, remembering the call. Remembering him having to rush out, because he'd been the only person who knew the code to disable the alarm at the store.

Remembering even more vividly, how crazy he'd been when he'd gotten home later that night. Desperate to see her. Touch her. Hold her...

Selective memory graciously kept her from the rest.

"You were...I remember something being off when you got home," she began, speaking as if her eyes were seeing it all again. "You woke me up and you...I don't know. Something was wrong but you wouldn't tell me. I chalked it up to you being all riled up from the break-in."

Lucky licked his lips and shut his eyes tight against the memory.

***
Lucky ran a hand through his hair as he walked through the hall, glancing behind himself periodically. 'Stop being so fuckin' paranoid Spencer,' he thought to himself, listening to the sound of his own footfalls in the dark hallway outside their apartment.

When the Hell had the light bulb gone out? He was going to have to get the Super to fix it. 'What? You afraid of the dark now Spencer? Maybe that'll teach you not to mess with the Boogie Man, huh?'

Lucky sighed to himself, knowing that until he took care of business he was going to be freaking himself out like this. It was his fault the shop was in this mess. His fault the proverbial shit was about to hit the fan.

And all this crap over a ring. 'Don't kid yourself...it's about your dumbass pride.'

He stuck a hand down into his pocket, pulling out his key to the front door. He hated coming home this late. He knew Elizabeth hated being there herself this late at night, and she hated the sound of someone coming in the apartment at this hour, even more. Lucky wrapped lightly on the door in the pattern that she knew was his.

He stopped. His ears perking up at the unmistakable crunch of glass beneath his feet. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled upwards. "What the..."

Lucky bent down, feeling something else slide around under his foot amidst the broken shards of light bulb. He picked up what felt like paper in the darkness and made his way inside. The typed words stopped his heart before he even got the piece of white paper up to his face.

You're home is beautiful
And so is she.
If I have to come back here...neither of them will be.

The biological changes your body goes through when you read something that has the power to change your life is indescribable. Your blood runs cold. Your pulse quickens. You start to sweat even though you're freezing.

Lucky's feet took off at a pace they'd never run before.

***
Elizabeth watched his face as he uttered the words that he'd seen on a piece of paper over 3 years ago. He looked as if someone had just socked him in the gut. Why had he never shared this with her?

"You kept shouting my name, and then you nearly broke down my bedroom door an instant later. I thought it was a dream at first, but I felt you on the bed a second later....you kept asking me if I was ok...........I didn't know what you meant."

Lucky stood up in the grass, rubbing his hands along his thighs. His hands were as sweaty as they had been that night. "I lost it. When I saw that note...I just completely lost it. I thought they'd been in the house. I thought..." his voice trailed away, not wanting to revisit the dreadful images his imagination had conjured during those few minutes of horror. "Anyway...that was the first of things to come."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought I could handle it...I thought it was something that I had brought on myself.......I didn't want to worry you."

"What happened to our pact? What happened to always being truthful with each other?"

Lucky looked down. Not wanting to give an explanation for that one. "I didn't realize what I was up against. Things just sorta spiraled out of control after that night."

"Things just sorta spiraled out of control?" She mimicked. "That's your excuse?"

"It's not an excuse....Elizabeth, there's a lot more you don't know. Believe me there's a lot more that I have to - "

"Spare me."

Lucky stared for a moment. Disbelief registering in his eyes. "What?"

"You heard me. I said, 'spare me.'...I'm not interested Lucky."

Lucky watched her as she picked up her purse, and brushed off her coat. She was leaving. She was honestly and truly leaving.

He reached out to her. "Wait a minute."

"No," She stated, looking down. Fidgeting with her purse strap. "No matter how long and drawn out this story is, there's really nothing you could tell me that - "

"She threatened you Elizabeth! I started to get tapes in the mail! The first one was innocent enough I guess. It was a shot of you, just walking down the street. You walking from the subway stop to work...nothing big right? Well it was enough to freak me out a little bit....Only, it obviously didn't freak me out quite enough because I didn't call the police! It never even occurred to me that I was dealing with Helena...Like an idiot, I thought I was dealing with some asshole that I owed money!....But then - then came the one of you at work," Lucky continued, not stopping for the looks of horror that flashed over her face. "Yeah, I remember it so clearly even now...you were sitting at your desk biting on a pen -"

"Stop it!" Elizabeth ordered, backing up.

A voice in the back of her head begged her to let him speak, to let him answer every question she'd ever had. But that voice belonged to a little girl that still believed in miracles. She was stupid. The smarter, wiser voice shut the little girl up quickly.

"Why? There were a few more tapes Elizabeth. Some real doozies..."

"Stop it," she said sternly, looking him in the eyes. "Lucky, no matter what she did...how she threatened me...You still hurt me, and that's something that no amount of explaining can ever -

Her words were lost. Smothered right along with her breath as his lips came crashing down on top of hers. A heated burst of passion engulfing them both in it's fury. Neither of them could stop. Neither of them truly wanted to.

Elizabeth moaned as his lips pressed tightly against hers. As his hands wrapped around her cheeks, bringing her closer. She opened herself to him, allowing his tongue inside. Her own slid timidly against his. A shock of electricity and heat forced it's way through her and she allowed herself to drown for just a few more seconds.

One more moment to live. One more moment to finally breathe.

Lucky reveled in the first tease of her tongue and instantly wanted more. The inside of her mouth felt like satin. Her lips still felt like sinking into cotton candy, still tasted like vanilla and chocolate mints. He ran his hands through her silken mane and around the back of her head, bringing her closer. Deeper.

Her hands pushed against his chest much too soon. Fighting him. Fighting herself. Fighting the basic laws of nature.

When he stepped away they were both completely breathless, completely out of their element. It felt as if what had just happened hadn't happened to them at all, but to two other people brought together by some unearthly force. A force that neither of those two people were capable of fighting. It asked too much of them. Demanded to be answered.

It was better to be someone else. Anyone other than one of the two individuals in this equation.

Elizabeth lifted a shaky hand to her mouth, covering her hot, swollen lips. She knew instantly that she'd feel his kiss tomorrow. "We...you...You can't do this....I'm - I'm a married woman."

The 7-carat rock on her finger sparkled at the exact moment that the words exited her mouth. Whether it had been divine intervention or dumb luck was anyone's guess. But the glow of the exquisite diamond nearly blinded Lucky's eyes.

He wanted to plug his ears at the sound of her words. Even though he already knew it to be true, they were still like a thousand nails on a chalkboard.

He reached out, touching her cheek yet again. She didn't pull away.

"Married or not married, I love you. I'll always love you. I can't change that."

Elizabeth shook her head, and blinked back angry tears. Angry at the situation. Angry at him. Angry with herself for feeling what she was feeling right now. For what she had felt when his lips had been on hers and just then as he'd touched her cheek.

It was utter insanity. Something to be forgotten.

"You also can't change the fact that you left me. Or take back the last 3 years........Goodbye Lucky."


Hold me, hold me...
Don't ever let me go
Say it just one time
Say you love me
God knows I do love you...again.

Lyrics by Janet Jackson: Again