Chapter Seven

I can’t believe what just happened. He was here, in my loft, on my couch, a full foot away from me. And, I wasn’t dreaming. No, he was completely real, in the flesh, and I held his hands. I looked into his blue eyes and my heart felt like it was on overload.
But, I don’t know his name. It never occurred to me to ask. I was just shocked and glad that he really does exist. But, this is a small town, right? I’m bound to run into him again. I just hope it’s not too long from now.
He was well worth the wait, I assure you. All the years, all of high school and beyond, of shutting guys out, have been worth it to finally find the one man who could actually really appeal to me and make me want and love him the first time I saw him. It’s greater than I ever expected.

Courtney put the journal down on the floor next to her before shutting the lamp next to her bed off and sinking deeper into her new bed. Her mind had been spinning from the information it was taking in, not to mention her heart. It still beat hard and fast in her chest, like it had ever since looking in his eyes on the docks.

He was amazing. Everything about him was perfect, his chiseled facial features, deep, captivating eyes and his body. She knew what it looked like from the dream, the strong, broad chest and shoulders, narrow hips, rock hard abs and tight arms. But, it wasn’t just his body that she’d fallen in love with, although it was a plus. He was so gentle, even while being angry, and he was complicated and difficult to predict, she could tell. He was everything she’d waited for her entire life.

Okay, I need to focus. I can’t let him distract me, even if I want him to. I’ve got business to conduct tomorrow and that’s what I have to focus on right now. I’ll call Mr. Corinthos when I wake up and set up a meeting with him and Mr. Morgan for late morning.

~*~

Jason walked into Sonny’s penthouse after leaving the loft, doing his best to shove her out of his head so he could work. He shut down.

Sonny was standing in the middle of the room, talking to Carly. “Carly, just do what you want with the other club. Now, I’ve got to talk to Jason, so can you find something to do?”

Carly saw the anger flash through his eyes as he looked over her shoulder at his best friend. Something was wrong and it wasn’t a small ordeal. “Yeah, okay. Hey, Jase, I’d stay and chat but business calls,” she told him, turning around. His eyes had anger written all over them, too. Then, she saw his hands. “What happened?”

Jason saw Carly look at the bandages and groaned inwardly, while still managing to maintain his icy stare. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to you later, but Sonny and I have business to discuss.”

The woman looked between the two of them before sighing and going up the stairs. If there was anything she’d learned over the years, it was to just listen to them when they were both that angry. When one of them was like that, she could push but when both were, she just may find herself gagged, blindfolded and tied to a chair in the hallway with Max guarding her.

Downstairs, the two men made sure they heard the bedroom door shut until they began to talk. Carly was well known for eavesdropping and this was definitely something that she didn’t need to hear. Her going off to kill Faith Rosco wasn’t a good idea. At least right now. The chocolate-eyed man spoke first. “Johnny’s taken care of. I got rid of everything and no one will notice he’s gone.”

Jason wasn’t surprised that Johnny was dead, just surprised that Sonny had done it himself instead of having him do the dirty deed. “Okay.”

Sonny eyed his partner. “Where’d you go when you left the warehouse? You motorcycle was still there when I left.”

Jason sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “I went to the docks, “ he answered honestly. He didn’t want or need to get into what happened on the docks or where he’d just come from with Sonny. Besides, it wasn’t relevant to what was going on in the business now. It was personal. Very personal.

“See anything?” Sonny asked. Faith’s people could have been on the docks and they needed to catch her doing something that they could use to stop her. Maybe a shipment coming in. The ordeal with Johnny had set them back a great deal.

Jason shook his head in response to Sonny’s question. He hadn’t seen anything, at least anything that was what his partner would want to hear. Sonny poured himself a drink. “We need to fix this, Jason. She cannot control another pier. I will not allow there to be drugs in this town!” he yelled, just about to blow his cool. He’d seen what had happened first hand the last time drugs had reared their ugly head in Port Charles, many years ago, and he would not let that happen again. Faith Rosco would be stopped.

~*~
Port Charles woke up to a bright blue sky and the sun shining down, promising a nice, warm day. A couple clouds made their way across the sky slowly, kids were at bus stops, heading to school and cars drove through the streets, the drivers heading to the office for a day of work or to run some errands.

Jason Morgan was startled awake by a loud banging on the door of his penthouse. Please don’t let it be Carly, he thought to himself as he yanked his body off the couch where he’d fallen asleep the night before. He tried to rub the sleep from his eyes, but without much success. He’d left Sonny’s penthouse two hours after arriving and had made his way across the hall. He was too tired and too overwhelmed emotionally to drag himself up the stairs to his bedroom, so he’d settled for the couch.

Jason had thought about her before finally falling asleep He didn’t know her name but he at least knew where she lived, so he could see her if he wanted. IF I want? It’s not a matter of ‘if’, he’d though to himself. Maybe I’ll run into her sometime.

The banging on the door started again. “Jason, open this door right now!” a female voice screamed shrilly, and for a split second, he contemplated ignoring it but knew that wouldn’t make her go away. The more you ignored Carly, the hard she tried to get your attention and she wouldn’t go away until she did. Opening the door, dressed in a pair of boxers, his chest bare, and there was Carly, looking as if she was about to rip his head off.

“What the hell are you doing banging on my door this early in the morning?”

Carly smiled sweetly and walked past him into the penthouse. Well, good morning to you, and it’s not early. It’s 8:50 in the morning.”

Jason stared at her. “Carly…”

“Jase, calm down. I didn’t do anything wrong. You left before I got a chance to talk to you last night and I was on my way to The Cellar and decided to talk to you now. So here I am.”

“Here you are.”

She was exasperated with the way he was acting, the way he’d been acting since he had come in the door of the penthouse the night before, when she’d asked him about his bandaged hands. What that was from, she didn’t want to know until she’d talked to Sonny and he’d told her that he had no idea, either. So, that meant it wasn’t work, or else Sonny would have known about it.

“Okay, you know what? You really need to stop this.” Carly said, glaring at him, anger in her voice.

Jason was getting annoyed. No, he was beyond getting annoyed. He WAS annoyed. As much as he loved her, Carly was wearing on his nerves. “Stop what, Carly?” he yelled, knowing full well what she was talking about but not willing to talk to her at the moment.

“God, you’re so pigheaded!”

“Whoa, Carly, calm down. What’s going on?” Sonny asked. Neither Carly or Jason had noticed that he’d entered the penthouse during their semi-screaming match.

“Oh, nothing. I’m going to the club,” the spitfire responded before kissing her husband on the cheek and going out the door. He’s hiding something and I will find out what it is.

Back in the home of Jason Morgan, his boss and best friend looked at him with suspicious eyes. “She woke you up and you yelled at her, right?”

Jason was surprised that Sonny could tell all that. “Yeah, but how’d you know?”

“Well, Max opened the door and told me you two were yelling, and she did the same thing to me this morning.”

Jason had to chuckle at the fact that Carly was up so early as of recently. She’d never liked to do so unless there was a sale or something around town but ever since she and Ric had started with the club, she was awake before Morgan was. He’d heard Sonny complain about it more than once.

“So, what do you need me to do?” Jason asked, knowing that something besides his wife’s yelling had brought Sonny over. He usually came on business, anyway.

“I need you to get dressed and be ready in a half hour. The new president of Philips-Matthews called me this morning. We’ve got a meeting with her in one hour.”

~*~
At the office building of Phillips-Matthews, the young blonde president sat on the couch that was in the middle of the living room, looking over the Morgan-Corinthos contract that she’d just drawn up. There were two copies, one for Mr. Corinthos, the other for Mr. Morgan and they were nearly identical to the originally contracts that they’d signed years before.

On a separate sheet of paper, she’d stated her stipulations and they would have to sign saying they agreed to them before she would let them sign the new contracts. The stipulations would not be for public record, they would stay in the safe that was hidden in the wall of her office. No one knew about it, not even Gerald Fox, since she’d had it installed before she arrived in Port Charles and the person that had been hired to do it, had been flown in from Switzerland and was well paid to keep his mouth shut.

Looking at the clock, she saw that it was 9:58am. Her clients would be there any minutes. Courtney stood up, taking the file to her desk and sitting down in the chair behind it, and just as she did so, a knock resounded on the heavy office door.