AT MAISON BLANCHE:

A small part of Sami felt some guilt in E.J.'s embrace. As she rested her weary head upon E.J.'s chest it was filled with fleeting thoughts about her vows to Lucas. But she was so tired. Tired of fighting E.J. Tired of fighting her feelings. So, so tired.

She looked up at E.J. and he gave her a wink and a wry smile. He tenderly brushed the bangs out of her face and held her chin.

"You need to relax, Samantha," E.J. said. "Let me do something for you."

"What do you have in mind?" Sami flirtaciously asked.

"It's a surprise. Just give me a minute," E.J. said getting up from the bed.

One more wink from him and Sami had a grin a mile wide spread across her face. She let out a sigh as she anticipated just what E.J. had in store for her and watched him walk away.

As she laid there waiting for E.J. to return she took in a deep breath and noticed an intoxicating fragrance was suddenly filling the air.

She blinked only to open her eyes to find E.J. standing over her wearing nothing but a white towel, much like he looked that first day they met, the day so much had changed for her and for them. If only she knew then what she knew now she would do so much differently.

But E.J.'s words swept her out of her thoughts.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"Ready?" Sami asked. "For what?"

"For this!" E.J. said as he reached down and scooped her up off the bed.

Sami giggled appreciatively.

E.J. carried her to the other side of the room sweeping away the curtain to reveal a tub filled with a sparkling freesia-scented bubble bath surrounded by candles. He put her down and the look of surprise and excitement she gave when she saw what he had done for her lit up his face with contentment and pride.

He put his hand on her face and pulled her into his gaze.

"Oh, E.J." Sami said. "This is so lovely, I don't know how I can..."

E.J. stopped her by pressing his right index finger over her lips.

"I do," he said as his towel dropped to floor and he leaned in for a kiss.

Sami at first bobbed her head a little bit to avoid his lips but like before she realized she was tired of fighting and she finally gave in to a kiss more intense and passionate than any she had ever felt.

All her worries, all her troubles melted away in his arms and as she came up for air she ran her fingers through E.J.'s hair and closed her eyes to say, "I love you."

Yet E.J. was gone when her eyes opened. In a panic and feeling the sweat ringing around her neck she rolled over in the bed but found E.J. was not in the bed. He was no longer even in the room.

She heaved a sigh of immediate relief and sat up in the bed before a more long-term concern crept into her mind.

"Oh, this isn't good," Sami said to herself. "This isn't good at all."

AT CHEZ ROUGE:

"Well, after the reception, Sami told Lucas that she and E.J. had slept together that night and E.J. told me the same thing," Kate said. "And this whole time she has been making Lucas think that he was the father of the baby she is carrying, she kept it a secret that the baby may be E.J.'s"

"But she helped us set him up with the police that night," Roman said. "SHE was the reason he went to the boathouse the night John was shot. She wouldn't sleep with him unless she had no choice. Oh God..."

Roman was horrified. Kate put her hand on his shoulder to try to console him as he sat down and laid the note on the table.

"I can't believe I let Sami get drawn into this," Roman said. "What was I thinking? How could I have used her like that to try to get E.J. to the boathouse so we could bring him down? And that bastard gets his revenge by raping her that night?"

Roman was in anguish.

Lucas finally decided to start chiming in.

"Well there's more to the story than that, Roman," Lucas said. "She slept with him that night because she needed his help to save my life and lift up the beam when I was trapped in the cabin and that was the only way he would help her."

In that moment, Roman's nostrils flared as his heart filled with quiet rage when he looked at Lucas and wished Sami had let him die.

"So Sami loved you so much that she let E.J. have sex with her and that's the only reason you're alive today," Roman said angrily. "And now after she marries you, she disappears and you automatically think she would just walk out on you for HIM? What kind of husband are you?"

Lucas pondered Roman's words. The criticism stung but he knew he deserved it after all the times he had doubted Sami before.

"Roman, there's more to this," Kate said trying to justify Lucas's suspicions.

Tony's eyes lit up as he thought how lucky he was to have Kate around to help him, even if she didn't know she was doing it. He leered at her lustily wondering what other ways she could be helpful to him.

"Sami also kept it a secret from Lucas that she drugged him and was with E.J. the night that his cabin burned down," Kate said. "This was after E.J. had told me and Lucas that he was running off that night to Las Vegas to marry a Brandy Mathas."

"What?" Roman asked.

"Brandy Mathas," Kate said. "It's an anagram for Samantha Brady. Remember I told you all this the night that I came to you at Chez Rouge for help getting in Lucas's hotel room the night that it turns out that I was right all along and Sami had drugged him to be with E.J."

Roman wasn't interested.

"Don't you know all of this is just like what Stefano did to break up me and Sami's mother?" Roman said. "He kidnapped Marlena and he made me think... he made me think she had been unfaithful with John."

"Well wasn't she?" Kate said to another quiet chuckle from Tony.

"We were trying to make it work..." Roman blurted before he started getting wistful. "If that monster hadn't taken John and Marlena hostage at Maison Blanche all those years ago and made me think she had run off with him, maybe the two of us could have worked things out. Even after Belle was John's daughter."

Tony didn't like the way this conversation was heading.

"I think I get what you're saying, Roman," Lucas said. "We need to find Sami to find out the truth."

"Exactly," Roman said. "I need to talk to Marlena and tell her what the hell's going on right now, but later all of us need to get together to try to come up with a plan to find Sami."

Roman reached for the note but before he could grab it Tony stood up and upset his martini glass so the letter was drenched in vodka.

"Oh, Roman, I'm dreadfully sorry..." Tony said feigning regret for his calculated clumsiness.

"Dammit," Roman said. "Well there's no way to get the fingerprints off this now. We're going to have to head to New Orleans and that house you two were working at to search for clues."

Tony's impish smile turned to a frown at the words. He didn't like this turn of events at all.

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