Alexis
was in trouble, and she knew it. After what she'd done to Sonny
the last time they were together, forcing him to act out her fantasy,
making him submit totally and completely to her - it had been heaven,
but eventually, she'd have to pay the price. She couldn't bend a
man like Sonny Corinthos to her will and not expect him to retaliate.
Luckily, a series of events conspired to prevent him from seeking
retribution too swiftly. She'd retrieved Kristina from Ned's care
the day after she'd seen Sonny, so they no longer had a place where
they could easily meet alone. And both their work schedules seemed
to fill up quite suddenly: for the next week and a half, they caught
glimpses of each other about town, but they never got a chance to
speak. But Alexis didn't doubt that Sonny had something in store
for her. Something in the way he looked at her, when their eyes
met even for a moment, told her that his mind had been hard at work
on how to get back at her.
One morning, Alexis woke up and realized it had been twelve days
that she and Sonny had been together. *Twelve days,* she thought.
*Long time.* Maybe she should stop being so worried about how he
was going to make her pay. Maybe she just should seek him out. As
much as she hated him and hated the idea of having an affair with
him, and as much as it wounded her sense of integrity and dignity
to consciously want him, the fact was that she did want him, and
badly. She felt a tightness in her abdomen when she thought of him.
She knew what that tightness was. Longing.
With a quiet sigh, Alexis rolled over in her bed, ready to get dressed,
choke down her righteousness and try to find Sonny. What she saw
when she turned over, though, nearly made her choke on her own breath.
She sat up abruptly. "What the hell are you doing here?!"
she exclaimed.
Sonny sat, fully dressed in a suit and overcoat, in the large armchair
in the corner of the room, staring at her. He wasn't smiling, just
staring. "Are you avoiding me?"
Alexis blinked, thinking the apparition would surely dissipate.
No luck. Sonny was still there even after she batted her eyes several
times. "How in the hell did you get in here?!"
"I broke in," he answered, sounding exasperated. As if
she should, of course, expect that if he wanted to enter her apartment,
a mere locked door would hardly stand in his way.
"But Kristina might wake up…"
"I checked on her before I came into your bedroom. She's still
sleeping, don't worry. And I'll be gone by the time she gets up."
*Thank God for that,* Alexis thought. Despite the fact that she
was apparently having a torrid affair with Kristina's father, she
still desperately wanted to keep her daughter away from him. If
Sonny spent too much time with the baby, he might see himself in
her tiniest actions and expressions, the way that Alexis already
did. "Tell me again why you're suddenly breaking into my house
and sneaking into my bedroom?" she challenged, angry.
"I came to find out why you're trying so hard to avoid me."
His voice was as cold and hard as steel. Alexis recognized the darkness
in his eyes. He was raging mad.
"I'm not avoiding you," she shook her head, frowning.
"Why would you think that?"
"Oh, you're not avoiding me? Two weeks, we don't see each other?
Two weeks, you look away every time I look at you? We don't talk
to each other? I can't get five seconds alone with you? And you're
not avoiding me?!" He got louder with every question, till
he was almost yelling.
"Calm down," Alexis replied coolly, in a level tone. "That's
not avoidance, that's being incredibly busy. I thought you were
busy, too. You're always rushing off somewhere every time I run
into you. That's why I didn't talk to you, because I thought you
didn't have the time. If I thought we could talk, I would have…"
"That's a load of crap, Alexis." Sonny rose from the chair,
feeling frustrated as hell. It had been almost two weeks since their
last encounter, and he was so filled with lust for her, and filled
with fury at having to defer his lust, that he felt ready to explode.
The fact that the last time they'd been together, when she got him
hotter than he'd ever been before, it was in this very room, didn't
do anything to calm him down. He walked the short distance to her
fireplace and leaned his elbow on the mantel, putting his forehead
in his hand. "Look, Alexis, you can't just lead me on like
this, alright? I mean, it's one thing if you never want to see me
again. But to let me think that you want to see me, and then just
refuse to - I won't put up with it." Sonny sounded more hurt
and tired than angry now, even to his own ears. But what could he
do? He couldn't live in this hell of uncertainty forever. He needed
to know what her plans were for him. Was she ever going to let him
in her bed again, or was she just planning on tormenting him for
weeks on end?
Alexis heard the hurt in his words and saw it in his half-slumped
posture. Had he really thought she didn't want him? My God, if their
recent liaisons proved anything, they proved she wanted him more
than she wanted her own heart to beat. Even though she knew this
was how he always got his way with her - by being vulnerable and
needy - she couldn't help but console him. She had walked away from
that role of caretaker in every other aspect of his life. She was
no longer his lawyer, neighbor, confidante, or friend. But she would
let herself reassure him in this one matter that refused to be suppressed:
the question of whether she wanted him.
"Sonny," she said in a low, breathy voice, which she knew
would be impossible for him to resist. "Come here."
His gaze snapped over to her. He looked in her brown eyes, wondering
if they held contempt for him? Rejection? No, he didn't see any
of that. Her eyes were filled with all the things he loved seeing
in them. Acceptance. Desire. Understanding.
He quickly shed his overcoat and blazer and walked over to the side
of her bed. She moved over a few inches and turned back the edge
of the covers in a clear invitation. He toed off his shoes and crawled
into her bed, necktie, silk shirt, pressed pants and all. He reclined
on his side, on his elbow, and reached up a hand to touch her gorgeous
face, but hesitated. "May I?" he asked, as if he were
asking permission to touch a work of art.
Alexis almost gasped at the reverent questioning in his eyes. Had
he ever looked at her like that before? More terrifyingly, had he
*often* looked at her like that before, and she had never seen it
until now? "Yes," she whispered. *Of course. Of course
I can never deny you, if you want to touch me, Sonny,* she wanted
to say.
He cradled her face in his palm and kissed her. It was a gentle,
slow, and sweet kiss, unlike any of their recent kisses. It was
almost like a sigh of relief for both of them. Twelve days had passed
since their mouths had had this pleasure. Sonny moaned a little
when her tongue made contact with his.
After a few moments, Alexis pulled back. "Sonny, I'm not leading
you on. I do want to be with you again. I wish to God that weren't
true, but it is. I won't deny it." The way she'd just kissed
him and how she was looking at him now erased the doubts from Sonny's
mind. His heart felt as if a weighty stone had just been untied
from it, and it was free to float again. Alexis bit her lip nervously,
adorably, and said, "If I've been afraid to look you in the
eyes, it's only because…I can't believe I'm going to say this!"
She was losing her nerve, she was too embarrassed.
"No, it's okay," he said, smiling at her blush. He caressed
her arm. "You can tell me. You can tell me anything."
"Well…" Alexis screwed up her courage and just said
it. "The last time we were together, I made you, you know,
submit to me" - her blush increased tenfold - "and I've
been worried about, um, how you were going to, you know."
"Get back at you?" Sonny supplied.
"Yes," Alexis said. She looked a little afraid when she
looked at him again.
"Oh, yeah, well, about that," Sonny said, smiling, "I've
been thinking about that, too." He kissed her deeply on the
mouth. "And don't you worry, I'll get back at you." He
kissed the side of her neck. "I promise you that." He
lowered one strap of her nightgown and kissed her shoulder. "Just
not right now. Right now, I just want to be with you." He reached
behind her and lowered the other strap of her nightgown as he rained
wet kisses on her cheeks, her forehead, her nose. He wanted her
naked, that instant. He wanted to press her back into her pillows
and make her make up to him for the last twelve days. He wanted
to…
A small cry came from the other room. "Kristina!" Alexis
said.
Sonny bit lightly on his tongue to keep himself from screaming.
He knew Alexis would have to tend to her daughter. That meant more
waiting for him. But at least he knew he wouldn't wait for the rest
of his life. This morning proved she still wanted him. Her expression
told him she was at least as disappointed as he was at the delay.
"You're the sexiest mother in the world," he said gallantly,
kissing her once more on the lips and then removing himself from
her bed. As he pulled on his shoes, blazer, and coat, he said, "Your
time will come, Alexis. And you're going to pay me back but good."
When he left, Alexis couldn't help but mull over his last words.
The sexiest mother in the world? Wasn't Carly a mother too? Alexis
smiled as she walked to Kristina and picked up her little girl.
Was it so wrong of her to be proud of the fact that Sonny thought
she was sexier than that termagant?
****
Later that day, Alexis' cell phone rang just as she was leaving
her last client meeting. "Alexis Davis," she answered.
"Can you get a babysitter for the night?" Sonny asked.
The blood began to throb in Alexis' veins. She couldn't tamp down
her excitement at the prospect of being with him again. "Um,
maybe. Elizabeth has done overnight stints with Kristina before,
but they've always been at my apartment. She doesn't have everything
she needs at her place…"
"That's okay. We won't be staying at your place tonight. Call
Elizabeth and tell her you just found out you have to fly to Manhattan…"
"Manhattan?!"
"…for an emergency meeting with a client who needs you."
"Needs me, huh?"
"Yeah, right away. Then pick up the itinerary that's waiting
for you on your fax machine. I'll see you later."
That smug bastard. He just assumed she'd do everything he said.
But Alexis was too impatient to be with him again to fight him.
She called Elizabeth, who readily agreed to do Alexis the favor.
Then she drove to her apartment to get Kristina's things ready for
Elizabeth. When she walked in the door, a fax was lying in wait
for her in the tray of her machine. Alexis read the details quickly.
She had a first class ticket on a commercial airline to La Guardia
at eight p.m. A limousine was scheduled to pick her up when she
landed. And she had a first class ticket back to Port Charles the
next morning at eleven.
Alexis rolled her eyes when she read the handwritten message scrawled
in a familiar script at the bottom of the fax. "Don't bother
to bring any clothes," it said.
****
INTERLUDE for optional nc-17 segment on the adult board
****
The morning after their tumultuous night in Manhattan, Alexis woke
up to find herself alone in the penthouse loft. She took a quick
shower, trying not to dwell on the dozen-plus times they'd devoured
one another. The less she thought about their passion, the easier
it would be for her to leave this fantasy world.
Her regular life was Kristina and Cameron and lunch with her friends
and sparring with Scott Baldwin and searching for ways to break
down Sonny's network of extortionists and killers and, by implication,
Sonny himself. But it was so hard to forget about her dark, secret
encounters with Sonny, even when she was going about her day-to-day
business. And after last night, she was afraid that every time she
saw Sonny would make it harder for her to compartmentalize and separate
her two existences. Something more than lust, something dangerously
close to emotion, had begun to creep into their lovemaking.
As Alexis buttoned up her suit jacket and walked through the sliding
doors at the back of the loft, out to the balcony that overlooked
half the island of Manhattan, she realized she'd just identified
the main issue. She'd called what they'd done "lovemaking."
Last night, they hadn't just had sex. They'd made love. How could
she have let this happen? What the hell was wrong with her?
She felt Sonny's presence behind her, but didn't turn around. Sonny
stood beside her and placed his hands on the railing, looking over
at the rooftops of the city alongside her. "I went out to get
you something," he said. "I put it on the bed for you."
"What is it?" she asked.
"A scarf," he said. "I know the cut of your suits;
they'll never hide those marks on your neck." During the night,
Sonny had marked her body with his desire, not just on her neck,
but on her breast, shoulder, arm, and inner thighs. But her neck
was where his marks might be visible to the outside world.
"I won't be able to show anyone my body for two weeks,"
Alexis said, not wanting to say Cameron's name out loud.
"Maybe that was my point," Sonny said quietly. But Alexis
heard him.
"How's your back?" she asked. She had left her own marks
on him, in the form of wild scratches that ran down the length of
his hard back, made in the heat of many moments. "Maybe I was
trying to make the same point. I hope she doesn't mind."
"I can avoid her until the scratches heal," Sonny said.
Alexis frowned as she pondered the meaning of what they'd just said.
They'd both admitted to leaving traces of their lovemaking on each
other, for the express purpose of preventing each other from being
intimate with anyone else. "Sonny, maybe we're getting too
close," she said, though it killed a part of her to say it.
"Do you think we should stop?"
"No," he said vehemently. Then he moved so he stood behind
her and put his hands atop hers on the railing. He inhaled the scent
of her hair - it had to last him at least a few days, maybe even
a week - and he said softly into her ear, "Whether I love you
or hate you, and whether you love or hate me, doesn't matter. I
need to keep seeing you. Now, I'm going to go. But I don't want
you to turn around. So you just stay here, and wait five minutes
to make sure I leave before you turn around, okay?"
"Why?" Alexis asked.
"Because if I see your face, I won't be able to walk away from
you today," he said hoarsely. "Okay?"
"Yes," she agreed. So they parted without seeing each
other's eyes. He missed the tears that slipped from hers when he
left, and she missed the tears that leaked from his.
