Lucinda looked up from the quiet conversation she was engaged in with Stefan Cassadine. Her attorney and dear young friend Jessica Griffin stood beside her, briefcase in hand. “Yes, darling?”

“I've completed the paperwork you needed. Be certain to add your signature on all the pages I've indicated,” Jessica instructed her. “I have arranged for a courier to pick them up tomorrow afternoon and deliver them to the judge's office.” Sensing Lucinda's apparent protest, Jessica continued. “I hand picked him myself. Trust me.”

“I am a very lucky woman.” Lucinda patted Stefan's hand playfully. “To have two such dear people care for me as you do. You know, Jessica,” her voice became coy, “you and Stefan are very much alike.”

Jessica immediately recognized the tone of voice. Lucinda was gearing up to resume her campaign to push her into the arms of Stefan Cassadine, despite all her promises to the contrary. Smoothly Jessica cut her short. “Goodbye, Lucinda,” she remarked pointedly. “I will see you when I return.”

Stefan carefully placed his half-empty glass on the low table at his feet and rose from his place beside Lucinda. “You are leaving Oakdale?”

“She's flying to New York.” Lucinda sprang from her seat. “My darlings,” she beamed, placing a hand on the backs of both Jessica and Stefan, “I have the most wonderful idea!”

Jessica watched Lucinda's lips form the words she knew would come.

“You can travel to New York together!” Lucinda beamed. “Stefan has that enormous private jet, and he was planning to travel to New York tomorrow anyway. Why not go together?”

“I don't think so.” “It would be my pleasure.” Jessica and Stefan responded simultaneously.

“That's very kind, Stefan,” Jessica said, gritting her teeth at Lucinda's heavy-handed tactics. “But no thank you. I have already made reservations for Bonnie and me.”

“Wouldn't the little one find the trip less tedious on the Cassadine jet? She would not be constrained by the normal regulations of domestic travel.” Stefan's gaze softened at some private remembrance. “That is an advantage I discovered all too quickly when Nikolas was but a lad.”

‘There!' Jessica thought. That unguarded moment when Stefan Cassadine's defenses were down; the split second when his heart could be seen. That open, honest moment was the reason she heard herself say, “Perhaps you're right. Very well, I accept.”

“Might we discuss it further over dinner tonight?” Stefan offered smoothly. He was surprised at Jessica's change of mind, and jumped at the chance to further strengthen her commitment to his travel plans.

“How about dining in? It would be the three of us . . .”

“I would be quite foolish to forego the opportunity to dine with two beautiful ladies,” Stefan teased.

Jessica shook her head and stepped around him. “Save the charm for Bonnie. She seems to like it.”

“Perhaps you should pay attention,” Stefan murmured. “I am told she is an excellent judge of character.” With a half-smile, he used Jessica's own words against her.

‘Oh, yes,' Jessica vowed as she departed the office. From now on she would definitely be careful of the words she spoke to Stefan Cassadine.

They tended to be used against her.

Her presence obviously forgotten, Lucinda watched the interplay between her two dear friends. Despite Jessica's protests to the contrary, she and Stefan Cassadine were fated for each other. Like Jessica, Stefan had loved and given his trust to someone who did not appreciate the treasure he was. Like her, he was tied forever to someone who'd forsaken a child on behalf of a former lover.

Perhaps as a result they would share nothing more than a passionate adventure. But if they learned to ignore the wounds of their pasts, Stefan and Jessica just might realized that the heat between them was real. So real in fact, Lucinda mused, she was in danger of being burned just standing beside them.

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