Tuesday, March 03, 2009, Episode #5513

Steffy shares pillow talk with Rick.

Rick and Steffy make love at the beach house. Basking in the afterglow, Steffy tells Rick that she's waited her whole life to feel this way and isn't going to walk away, no matter what. After, they get dressed and Steffy prepares to leave. Rick grabs her for a few smooches on the porch before she goes and asks if she has to leave. She wants to go before her dad finds out she's here, but she's not giving up hope that Ridge might come around some day. Rick laughs that he's not holding his breath, but Steffy vows, "I'm not giving up hope on us, especially now." Rick tells Steffy to drive carefully, since there are crazy people on the roads at night. Steffy bids him goodbye and jumps into his arms for one last round of kisses. "Don't forget who loves you," she instructs. Rick promises not to and sends her on her way.

Brooke calls Rick to warn him.

At Brooke's house, Ridge, dressed in black, comes downstairs and calls Taylor looking for Steffy. Taylor tells him that Steffy isn't home. They joke about Steffy being too old for a curfew before Ridge hangs up and heads out the door. Upstairs, Brooke wakes up and realizes that Ridge isn't in bed beside her. Concerned, she calls out, but he doesn't answer. Brooke calls Rick to tell him that Ridge isn't there. Rick quips that she's lucky, but Brooke tells him that she's serious and explains that she has a bad feeling about this given how furious Ridge was earlier. Since she knows Ridge is so bothered by Rick's relationship with Steffy, she thought he might be heading over to Rick's and warns her son not to confront Ridge if he shows up. Rick shrugs off the warning, but Brooke says that she means it. Rick thanks his mother for the warning and tells her to go back to sleep. Rick peeks out the window looking for Ridge, but he doesn't see anything, so he takes a flashlight and goes out to the porch. Confident that no one is around, he goes inside and looks the door. Meanwhile, Brooke leaves a message for Ridge and wonders where he is.

Someone starts a fire at the beach house.

Steffy comes home, all giddy about being in love. She lies back on the couch and giggles that she is "so in love." She then calls Rick. She knows she just saw him, but she wanted to tell him how much she loves him and that tonight was the most beautiful night of her life. Rick says that he could have held her all night long. Steffy laughs that it's going to happen, because no one can stop them from being together. They profess their love for each other and hang up. Meanwhile, outside the beach house, a gloved hand picks up a bottle of lighter fluid from the porch and douses the area around the front door with the fluid. The person lights a match and throws it down by the doormat. In seconds, the mat, the door and the front of the house are on fire! As Rick lies in bed, the smoke detector goes off. Rick quickly grabs a fire extinguisher and uses it to clear a path to the door. Once outside, Rick grabs a hose from the porch to finish putting out the fire. When the firemen arrive, they find the empty bottle of lighter fluid. When a surprised Rick tells him that he just bought that, the fireman ask if he has any enemies. Rick says he has a few, but none who would do something like this. The firemen state that they'll have to report this to the police, as it looks like arson. As the firemen walk away, Rick silently suspects that Ridge did this.

Taylor asks Steffy to stay away from Rick.

Taylor sees Steffy and asks where she's been. Steffy says she was "just out," but Taylor guesses that her daughter was "out" with Rick and advises her to stay away from him. Steffy doesn't want or need any advice from her mother about Rick, but Taylor tries anyway to tell her that Rick is a very complicated person. "Not to me," Steffy counters, stating that she and Rick love each other. Taylor thinks that the way Rick is taking over Steffy's life is more like infatuation than love, but Steffy is sick of everyone telling her how "evil" Rick is. Taylor agrees that Rick isn't evil, but she can't ignore that he's done some bad things. "He saved dad's life," Steffy points out, but Taylor qualifies that Rick is actually destroying Ridge. She doesn't think Steffy understands the depth of contempt Rick has for Ridge.

Marcus and Thorne show up at Forrester.

Meanwhile, Pam arrives at her desk at Forrester just in time to take a message for Marcus, who seems distracted when he arrives a minute later during a "dinner break." Pam asks if there's anything wrong. Marcus says it's just one of those days. Thorne walks in, having gone out for a drink like he said earlier. He asks Marcus and Pam if they've been here the whole time. Marcus says he went to eat and Pam says she had an errand to run. Thorne says he did, too, and is about to go to Rick's office when Pam says Rick's not there. "I know. He's at home," Thorne says before catching himself and adding, "or so I assume."

Jake gripes about Rick.

Thorne goes to Rick's office and finds Jake there cleaning Rick's desk by special request of their president. Thorne is shocked that Jake was asked to play janitor. Jake fumes that he was due a promotion, but now... Thorne says that he can relate, since this should have been his office instead of Rick's. "You really got burned," Jake says. Thorne counters, "Sooner or later, little Ricky's going to get burned."

Pam observes Marcus' sour attitude.

Outside Eric's office, Pam sees Marcus stewing and assumes it's about Rick, who stole Marcus's girlfriend and Thorne's job and then got away with it. "I'd sure love to see him go down in flames," Marcus fumes. Pam asks Marcus what he did about it. Marcus says that he's dealing with it the only way he knows.

Ridge tells Brooke that he went out for a ride.

Back at Brooke's, Ridge arrives home. Brooke asks where he's been and smells gasoline on him. Ridge says he went out for a ride on his motorcycle and must have spilled some gas on himself when he stopped to fill up. Brooke asks where he went in the middle of the night. Ridge says it's not the middle of the night, leading Brooke to notice that he seems tense. Ridge explains that he was worried about Steffy and couldn't sleep, so he tried to call Taylor. When he found out Steffy wasn't home, he drove over to Rick's, but he turned around when he saw that Steffy's car wasn't there. That said, he goes to take a shower.