Not edited.

"Damon... you're married right..."

"You were there little brother."

"So explain them."

"Who?"  Damon asked with a grin.

"Women!" Lucas threw his hands in the air."Why the fúck would a woman sob her heart out because she's happy?"

"Let me field fhis one Dam" Maxon held his hand up to the other man. "Well you see twirp women have this inbuilt thing designed to keep us men guessing."

"It should come with instructions!" Lucas growled.

His brothers laughed at him.

"Sorry twirp. No instructions but there is an infalible guarantee of one thing."

"Whats that?" Lucas asked, hopeful.

"You're screwed."

"Well thanks. Thanks a damn lot." He got up from the lounge he'd been sitting in to walk through the kitchen and out the back.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the sky and sighed. He still hadn't had the chance to see Tara alone and it was starting to eat at him.

It was like some weird magnetic force drew everyone into the house and to her when ever he thought he'd see if she was alone.

Just a couple more hours and the house would be theirs. His brothers were heading back to Damon's house because Damon got the creeps when he was away from her for too long.  His overprotective nature often saw him in hot water and those were times when he pushed back all his dominant nature and in his own words 'take it like a man'.

Whipped!

Maxon on the other hand couldn't stay away from Andrew and Flynn. He was fascinated by them and the way they grew up so quickly. He was the bad boy taken down by four innocent eyes that peered up at him amd when he was going to see Claire... there was no point trying to talk about anything else.

They'd both be back tomorrow to go with him to the main house. Both wanted another conversation with Ellie and he was more than happy to let it happen.

This evening Keiran and Jace were off doing whatever they did and then Peter and Maggie were going to see a performance at the opera house.

He took in a deep breath. He could wait. It was just a few hours. A few tiny hours.

"Hi"

He swung around to the left of the verandah and he saw her. She'd spoken so softly he only just heard her.

She was alone!

He smiled as he walked to her and swept her up into his arms.

"Baby I'm so proud of you. What you did today took some guts and just so you know" he lent back and looked into her eyes "if you ever put me through that again I'm locking you up and throwing away the key!"

Tara laughed at him and his reaction. She couldn't explain why she did what she did but something snapped. She felt like she was in control finally. It was her that made the choice whether to stand up and fight or cower down and die. She found her fight.

"Tara Porter you better not be laughing at your husband!"

She squirmed and pushed at his shoulders as she laughed.

"Put me down!"

"Never!"

"Lucas!" she squealed as his hands started to tickle her sides.

"Nope" he said quite calmly as he continued his attack with a grin.

"Please! Please..." she begged as her squirms made no difference to the arms holding her.

"Nope. I won't let you go Tara Porter... at least not until you agree to go away with me."

She stopped squirming and Lucas' fingers paused.

"Go away?" she asked with a nervous lick of her mouth.

Lucas groaned.

"Please... that mouth thing you do with the tongue and the lips... yeh don't do that unless you want me to kiss you silly."

Her mouth formed to become a perfect reproduction of the letter 'O'.

He threw his head back and laughed.

"Come away with me baby. No pressures. No expectations. Just a chance for you and me to get to know each other away from here and all this. A chance to..."

"Yes."

"Please baby. I just want the... What?" his eyes bulged.

"Yes Lucas I would love to go away with you."

"You would?" he couldn't believe she agreed so easily!

"Well if you've changed your mind..." Tara spoke with a definite tease in her voice.

"NO! Hell no! I want to do this! Just you and me. Where ever you want to go for as long as you want and..."

"Lucas?"

"Yes baby?"

"Shut up."

"Ok"

He held her closer to him than he thought he would. Sure he held her before but he always felt like she was holding back but now... Now with her head resting on his chest he wrapped her legs around his waist and sat in the chair she'd been sitting in. Holding her to him.

She could hear his heart beating. Thump. Thump. Thump. The pace quickened as he sat down and she smiled to know that she caused that.

"Baby?"

"Yes Lucas?"

"What did you mean today when you were talking to Ellie?"

"Which part?" she asked as the memory filled her mind.

"The part where you said the guy I love."

Silence.

"Baby?" he prompted.

"Mmhmm?" her response sounded drowsy.

"What did you mean?"

His own nervousness had him licking his lips.

"Oh... you know..." she answered him vaguely, at that point she was grateful he was holding her into his chest and he couldn't see the fear on her face.

"Nope, I don't. Please baby... do you love me?"

She felt like her whole world was caving in. Those three words that romance writers rave on about, those three words that every prince and princess grow up wanting to hear, those three words that would expose her more than anything or anyone else every had... he wanted to hear those three words.

Did she love him? Of course. Though she hadn't meant to fall in love, she had and it scared the hell out of her.

She sat up and he reluctantly let her put the space between them she wanted but still held her on his lap. He could see the anguish she was in and as much he wanted to shake the hell out of her and demand that she tell him he knew he couldn't... yet.

She sighed deeply and closed her eyes as she faced the horizon. The evening sounds of traffic in the distance as commuters raced home created a constant hum of bee like sound. Each person glad their day was over and they could finally go home to their families.

Was Lucas ever happy to be coming home to the beach house... to her?

"Did you mean it baby? Do you love me?"

She opened her eyes.

"Yes."

***********