Marcus Taggert stepped into the library and seemed to fill the doorway.  He was as tightly muscled as ever.  The well-worn black button fly jeans and snug black t-shirt he wore made his physique impossible to ignore. 

“Hello, Marcus.  Are you lost?”

“No,” he shook his head ruefully.  “I think I am just where I am supposed to be…but not where I was going.”

Alexis frowned.  Marcus had lost her with his cryptic reply.  “Okay,” she marked her place in the book she was studying.  “You will have to explain that to me.”

Marcus rubbed a large hand over his bald head.  “I asked Gia for directions to your brother’s study,” he explained.  “She sent me here.  Yeah,” Marcus nodded at Alexis’ sudden understanding, “she’s at it again.”

“You would think that your little sister had enough to think about this week without trying to play cupid for the two of us.”

“That’s Gia for you,” Marcus said.  “She never quits.”

Alexis laughed briefly.  “That’s actually a good thing,” she reflected.  “Now that she’s marrying Nikolas, they will need every advantage they can muster against family interference.  They won’t make it out of the church before the questions about an heir begin.”

“You Cassadines are high maintenance,” Marcus agreed.

“But apparently worth the effort,” Alexis teased.

“I remember.”  Marcus deliberately misunderstood Alexis’ reference to the prospective bride and groom.

Marcus' sudden and unexpected change of direction brought on a vivid flash of memory for Alexis.  'It's not possible, Marcus...I can't just...Do you know what I'd have to do to rearrange all my afternoon appointments?'  A slow flush crept up Alexis' neck and stained her cheeks.  ‘Wasn’t that,' Marcus growled as he lightly rested his spent body atop hers, 'worth the effort, Lex?’

Marcus smiled.  “I see that you remember, too, Lex.”

Alexis attempted to return the conversation to safer matters.  Marcus Taggert had the uncanny ability to leave her feeling like a green schoolgirl.  “Stefan’s study is to the left and four doors down," she instructed primly.  "He is probably wondering where you are.”

Marcus tilted his head to one side.  “Okay,” he allowed.  “I’ll just come look for you later.  Then we can...remember some more.”