Idle Hands
by Lionel

chapter 1

When he'd blackmailed Alexis into marrying him, he had only two purposes. The first was to make Carly jealous. The second was to make Alexis miserable. Both reasons sounded more petty than they were. She deserved to be miserable, and forcing her to face a lifetime of dull misery stretching out before her was a more satisfying retribution than simply killing her. And his effort to make Carly jealous was his last stand, his last option really, and he would spare no pettiness in this final attempt to flush her from her sickly codependence with the scum she called a husband.

The day they were married, he locked her up in a tower. It wasn't exactly physical, though he did move her and her daughter into a compound on the outskirts of Port Charles. The bars reached around her entire life. His guards went with her everywhere, ostensibly providing protection, but really their job was to keep her in her cell, and to find ways to make that cell smaller and smaller. Each week brought new rules. If she smiled too much over coffee with a friend, that friend became off limits. If she made a habit of taking the long route to her office, lingering in the public garden, there was soon a rule against that. Her daughter's life was untouchable – she was to be happy and safe at all costs – but he used every nasty trick he could think of to make Alexis as miserable as possible. And she accepted his rules, each turn of the screw, because if she didn't Corinthos would find out he had a daughter, and then the kid wouldn't be safe or happy or with her. But she quickly learned to conceal whatever joy did slip into her life.

His plan had germinated over a few too many glasses of scotch, after a few too many sightings of Mrs. Corinthos coddling her unstable prick of a husband, followed up once – and once too often – by a sighting of his brother's killer enjoying her fresh start. He came across Alexis Davis and her daughter and Ric Lansing in the park, having a picnic of all things, obviously in the first nervous and giddy throes of new romance. Love was in the air, and she didn't deserve it, and so his mind began to turn. It wasn't long before he approached her, and the arrangements were made quickly. She understood the rules of blackmail and didn't waste time fighting him. It turned out that they spoke the same language when it came to such things.

They were soon married, in a no-nonsense formal ceremony with a carefully selected guest list, and she impressed him by giving the performance of her life. Everyone had their doubts, of course, but no one knew what was really going on, and he was certain that they weren't going to hear it from her. There was a wedding night in a hotel suite, but no sex. There was no touching of any kind except when someone was watching. But they lived together and slept in the same bed every night, and he made it a point to go to bed when she did so she wouldn't even have that time to herself. At first she stayed up nights, and he heard her tossing and turning beside him, hatred radiating from every pore of her body, but soon she seemed to ignore him. When he climbed in bed, wearing just his pajama pants, she rolled over with her back to him and went to sleep. He took to sleeping nude to make her more uncomfortable. She took to sleeping in sweats.

Lorenzo was impressed with himself. He had had his doubts about his plan, about whether he would be able to sustain the level of antagonism needed to make Alexis truly miserable. That was the weak point in his plan, or so he thought. But it turned out he was more hard-hearted than he knew, and he had a real knack for finding her soft spots, and even time spent with her genuinely charming daughter and the occasional late night hour spent watching her sleep, fighting the purely animal lust that inevitably flashed in such close quarters, hadn't weakened his resolve. If anything those moments strengthened his anger, because her antagonism, on the other hand, was so unwavering.

And Carly seemed to be coming around, too. The ring on his finger, and no doubt the identity of the woman who put it there, had done wonders for her attitude. She was chasing him now, cozying up to him, trying to lure him back to her harem. But he knew better than to give in just yet. He had been burned one too many times, and this time he would wait until she freed herself from Corinthos before he gave her any hint of encouragement. And every time she saw him out with his wife, she took another step in that direction. It didn't take much to set Carly off. His arm around his wife's waist, a touch of her cheek, a kiss stolen when no one was looking, but of course Carly was always looking and he knew it, and so he showered his wife with tasteful affection, always knowing that beneath her barely tolerant detachment she was cursing him with a venom worthy of a Cassadine.

His plan was coming together perfectly. Everything was on track. That made him nervous, but still he never saw the derailment coming.

*****

Because certain things were expected, Lorenzo organized a formal dinner to introduce his new wife to his business associates. It marked the first time they had to revisit the terms of their arrangement: she refused to have his business associates in her daughter's home. They reached a compromise, hosting the dinner in a private room at the only good French restaurant in town, and made apologies to their guests for the renovations that made their home inhospitable. The dinner was an unexpectedly rousing success. Lorenzo had never had a wife before. He'd had mistresses, of course, arm candy to accompany him as far as the dinner table and then disappear before the discussion turned serious, but he'd never had a wife, and he certainly had never had a woman like Alexis Davis at his side. A Cassadine, a lawyer, equal to any man in the room. They all knew her by reputation, of course, and by infamy. The woman who held Sonny Corinthos's ear for years, walked away and lived to tell about it. The woman who killed Luis Alcazar.

"You've done well for yourself, Lorenzo," nodded Victor Garrido approvingly as Lorenzo handed him a glass of port. Dinner was long over and the group was lingering in smaller circles over after-dinner drinks. Garrido was a longtime associate and elder statesman of sorts, the most influential man in the room, with a virtual stranglehold on the Argentinean ports. Lorenzo followed Garrido's gaze to the other corner of the room, where Alexis stood conversing with several guests.

"You approve of Alexis?"

"Approve? I envy you, Lorenzo. As does every man here. A beautiful, intelligent, cultured woman with a head for business? Not many men can count their wives as such an asset."

He had to admit that she did look beautiful tonight, in her low-cut dusty blue gown, with her hair up and his diamonds sparkling on her ears, throat and finger. She had been a quietly impressive hostess all through dinner, perfectly polite and gracious but somewhat cool. Now her reserve was gone and she was playing her part to the hilt, apparently charming the pants off everyone in the room. No one would ever guess that she was miserable. Lorenzo suspected that her unprecedented cooperation was somehow a volley in their ongoing battle of wills, an elevation of the resistance that had been quiet and token up until now, but perhaps it was simply an overflow of long-pent up social energy. He watched her thoughtfully until Garrido spoke again.

"I've worried about you from time to time, Lorenzo. You've shown signs of following Luis's path, of falling victim to poorly chosen attachments and the tempestuous emotions that follow. But your marriage speaks well of you. It's an undeniably well-made match under any circumstances, but for you to put aside the difficulties of Luis's death shows that those of us who may have had doubts about your stability were in the wrong."

Lorenzo smiled uncomfortably, and his gaze shifted back to Alexis. Though Garrido spoke casually, his words were significant, bestowing a valuable vote of confidence that had been long denied. If only the man knew the truth. That he hadn't put anything aside. That his wife was his prisoner. That she despised him. That he was pursuing another woman, Sonny Corinthos's wife, common as the ground beneath his feet, and he had every intention of throwing Alexis Davis over – of setting her free -- when he finally made Carly his. Garrido would think he was insane. It sounded insane to his own mind.

Alexis caught sight of the two of them watching her and soon she swept over to them, her eyes shining, and Lorenzo slipped his arm around her waist.

"Alexis," Garrido greeted her warmly. "I was just telling Lorenzo what a remarkably fortunate man he is."

She smiled graciously. "Oh, I count myself the lucky one, Victor. Few husbands are as devoted in their attentions as Lorenzo."

Lorenzo was on guard for the next barb, the one that would go too far, but she beamed up at him, and he would have sworn she was a woman in love. Damn, she was good. She leaned in to him and tipped her head up, inviting the quick kiss that would punctuate the scene, and he obliged. Her lips were softer than usual, more malleable, and he could have sworn he felt the tip of her tongue sweep across his upper lip. As he drew back, his eyes met hers; something was there, and the desire rushed over him unchecked. He leaned in for another kiss, and there was definitely tongue this time. God, had she always tasted this good? His hand inched farther around her hip, and lower, too, and he caught the satisfied glimmer she couldn't quite hide. She was up to something, and god, it was working.

Garrido laughed at their engagement. "Perhaps it's time to call the evening's festivities to a halt and let the newlyweds retire."

Alexis cast her eyes down with a smile and practiced blush, her hand lightly grasping Lorenzo's thigh, and Lorenzo cleared his throat. "Not at all, but it is getting late. You must be tired after your long flight." His attempt at formality dissolved into a grin, and for just a moment he forgot that he wasn't really going to be taking his wife home to bed.

As they said goodbye to their guests and watched them trickle out of the restaurant, Alexis stood close by his side and he kept his arm looped around her waist. When the last of the guests was gone, he withdrew his arm and started to step away, but she turned toward him and curled her hand around his neck. With her eyes sparkling heatedly with what looked like desire, she leaned in, pressing her lithe body against his, and pulled him down into a kiss. It was slow and exploratory, and he groaned as his body reacted to her. His hands slipped down below her waist, pulling her in, and he deepened the kiss, feeling one set of perfectly manicured nails trail down his back as the other raked through his hair. He rocked his hips against hers, drawing a soft murmur from her lips and a light nip from her teeth, and then, just as unexpectedly as it all began, it ended. She pulled away, leaving him breathing heavily, wide-eyed and disheveled.

"He's gone."

Her words made no sense to him, and he looked at her with confusion.

"Garrido," she explained. "He was lingering by the door. He was on the phone, but he was watching. He's gone now."

Lorenzo just nodded, his mind scrambling to catch up, not at all sure what had hit him. He stood there dumbly as she retrieved her coat, and then he followed her to the door.