Awakened (12 page)

We lay there, panting, trying to calm
our breathing.

“
You are amazing.” He
smiled at me.

“
We didn’t use a condom. I
mean, I’m on the pill.”

“
I’ve never done that
before. I just got to in the moment, I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t apologize, it’s
okay.” I started rubbing his stomach.

“
Are you sure you want
this?”

“
I think it’s a little too
late for that question. Are
you
sure
you
want this?” Maybe he was having second thoughts on
this.

“
I want you more than you
could ever realize. But I refuse to let you get hurt because of
me.” His voice was a whisper. I smelled the ocean breeze again. As
long as he was next to me, I was in paradise.

“
Then don’t push me away.
Don’t tell me you can’t be with me. Danger is in everyday life. I
can’t hide from it and I refuse to stay inside for the rest of my
life and be scared about everything.” He rolled over to his side
and stroked my cheek with his thumb.

“
Do you want this,
Jennifer?”

“
I want to give this a
chance, Stefan. I want to see what is here.” I whispered. Our
emotions were so raw, that I felt like all I could do was
whisper.

He quickly grabbed my face and kissed
me with more passion than I have ever experienced. He let out a
groan and kissed me harder, deeper. His kisses sent me into outer
space. My whole body was tingling and I could feel every touch and
sensation running through my body. After a moment, he pulled his
face away from mine; his breathing was deep with
passion.

“
You are so beautiful,
Jennifer.” He looked over me, the edges of his mouth turning
up.

I smiled, pulling him back
into me. I was beautiful because of him, I
was
because of him. He made me feel
this way.

My phone started ringing and Stefan
pulled back from me. “You better go get that. It could be Kennedy.”
I rolled out of bed and reached over to my nightstand, he was
right.

“
Hello?”

“
Hey Jen! Just calling to
make sure everything was okay before I went to bed.” I could tell
she was still drunk, but definitely sobering up.

“
Uh, I’m fine. Stefan is
here. We’ll talk later.” Now was not the time to tell her
everything that had happened.

“
So you finally decided to
see him? I knew you couldn’t resist,” she mocked into the phone. I
wondered if he would still be standing in my kitchen if things
tonight had been different?

“
Y-yeah, I guess you could
say that. Get some sleep. Call me tomorrow.”

“
Goodnight.”

We hung up the phone and I
tossed it back on my bed, noticing Stefan had left my room. I threw
on a loose shirt and started walking downstairs. I stopped at the
top of the stairs, I had a perfect view of Stefan. He was
completely breathtaking, standing there, waiting on
me.
He was looking at the
picture frames on the mantle above the fire place.

His tattoos started at his shoulder on
one arm and went right past his elbow, almost a sleeve mostly
tribal. It was hard imagining a business man, a millionaire, having
that many tattoos. But he hadn’t expected his dad to get murdered;
he hadn’t expected to take over the business at 24. But the tattoos
worked well on his body. He could cover them up, and be the
respectable business man during the week, and on the weekends, he
could be the bad boy that I craved all the time.

“
Do you want to watch a
movie?” I jumped at his voice, startled that he had caught me
gazing at him.

“
Sure. We can find
something on the TV if you prefer.” I walked down the stairs headed
towards the TV.

He grabbed the quilt that was neatly
folded on the back of the couch and put a pillow on his lap and
waited. I smiled; he had known exactly where I wanted to
be.

“
Do you want some
popcorn?”

“
Whatever you want,” he
winked at me, sending vibrations through my body.

After popping popcorn and setting back
down the couch, we decided on Death Race. Wasn’t really my cup of
tea, but he wanted to watch it. He commented during the entire
movie.

“
Whatever, ha-ha! There is
no way you could do that in real life!” He sat there chuckling. I
just smiled at him. I felt like he was finally acting his age, and
I loved it.

He swung his arm around my lap and
pulled me closer to him, popping a couple of popcorn kernels in his
mouth. I smiled at how graceful he was. I set the popcorn bowl down
on the table and laid my head on his lap. He covered me up with the
quilt and played gently with my hair.

The next thing I know, he
had me cradled in his lap, kissing me.
How’d I get here so fast?
He picked
me up again and took me upstairs, laying me down on my bed,
gently.

“
I could lie here all night
and kiss you,” he whispered, lifting his lips from mine.

“
Mhm.” I waited until his
lips returned.

He turned me over so that my back was
pressed against his chest. He pulled me in close to him and wrapped
his arms around me, tightly.

“
I will never let go of
you, Jennifer.”

In that moment, I was complete.
Everything I had ever thought I wanted or needed was holding me
against his chest. The sound of his breathing was the lullaby that
rocked me to sleep.

Chapter Eight

The next morning I awoke to
the wonderful smell of coffee and the sound of Stefan’s footsteps
across the wood floor. I turned over to look at my alarm clock,
seven thirty.
Too early to be
awake
. I threw off the covers and sat up,
yawning and stretching. As I rubbed my eyes, I put my feet on the
floor and got up to walk downstairs. Stefan was in the kitchen,
leaned against the counter and talking on his cell phone, wearing
nothing but his jeans. As I walked downstairs, he shut off his
phone and looked up at me with a smile.

“
Good morning, beautiful.”
He caught my arm and pulled me into chest.

A giggled escaped my mouth, “Good
morning. You’re offer chipper this morning.” He released me and
walked over to the coffee pot.

“
Are you not a morning
person?”

“
Not in the slightest.” I
responded, getting two mugs and the jar of sugar out of the
cabinet.

“
How did you sleep last
night?” He asked, pouring coffee into the mugs.

“
Really well, actually.” I
reached up on my tippy-toes and gave him a soft kiss on his
lips.

We sat down at the bar and began
sipping on our coffee. I drank him in, every rigid part of his
body. He was all muscle, but every motion he made, was with ease
and grace. I could wake up to this sight every morning.

“
Hey Jen, can we talk?” He
asked, interrupting my thoughts.

“
What’s up?”

“
How do you feel about me
moving up here for a while?”

My mouth popped open; was he serious?
Were we really moving this fast? I felt my head spinning and I
grabbed the counter top to stable myself.

“
As you know, I’ve been
looking at buying a company here. I was originally planning on just
flying back and forth when I needed to be here but Long Publishing
is stable and has people that can take care of it for the most
part.” He took a drink of his coffee.

“
I can get a place up here
to get the other business on its feet and spend more time with
you.” He reached out and pushed my hair behind my ear.

It would be amazing to have him here
all the time with me, but I was scared this was moving too fast. I
had been so broken before him. No doubt that my past had made me
this way, it was hard growing up seeing your dad beat your mom and
then in the end killing her. You could never get that emptiness out
of your soul. But something about Stefan awakened my soul; he made
me forget about my horrible past and focus on the present and the
future. Stefan was the missing piece to my jigsaw
puzzle.

Of course I wanted him next to me all
the time.

“
Stefan, I want you here.”
I was practically doing my happy dance inside.

Stefan picked me up and kissed me,
passionately before sitting my back down to my feet. “Well than we
must go house hunting today.

“
How does this work? I’ve
never done this before.”

“
Well, I called my realtor
while you were asleep and we will meet her in an hour and go look
at some houses and condos and decide.”

“
Alright than, I will get
in the shower.” I hopped up walking over to the sink and rinsed my
mug out. I was just about to head upstairs when there was a knock
at the door. I jumped, not sure who it could be. Kennedy wouldn’t
knock; she’d bang on the door or unlock it herself. My eyes quickly
shot to Stefan.

“
It’s just Charles bringing
me a change of clothes. Go get in the shower, Jen. It’s fine.” He
walked over to the door and let Charles in.

“
Good morning Miss. White.”
Charles nodded in my direction, smiling.

“
Good morning Charles.
Please help yourself to coffee in the kitchen,” I said, smiling
back and walking upstairs. I needed to get in the shower and get
ready.

I got out of the shower; towel dried
my hair and tip toed to my bedroom, wearing only a towel. I walked
in the room and froze. Stefan’s back was turned to me; he was
changing into his clothes and was just about to pull his boxers on.
My eyes automatically went down to his ass, which was probably the
tightest ass I had ever seen. I took a step into my room. Did he
have one flaw on his body?

He turned around, catching me with my
mouth open, and smiled a devilish smile.

“
You don’t look too bad
either.” He said, pulling his light jeans up and buttoning them. I
stood there, watching him pull his dark grey cable knit sweater
over his head. As sexy as he looked in his clothes, all I wanted to
do was rip everything off of him and throw him on my
bed.

I walked over to my closet and
deliberately dropped my towel. As I entered my closet, I turned
around and glanced at him. He had his eyes on my ass and his jaw
was practically touching the floor.

“
Get dressed before I do
unspeakable things to you, Miss. White.” He turned on his heels and
left the room. My heart quickly fluttered. I could sit in my room
all day and imagine the things he could do to me. I found a pair of
jeans that fit tight and made my ass look just the way I wanted it
to. I put on a tan colored tank top and a red sweater that hung off
one shoulder.

I walked over to my full length mirror
on the back of my door and looked myself up and down.

My hair was down and wavy. I also
needed a little eye make-up to add the finishing touches and make
my green eyes really pop so I walked into the bathroom and did my
make-up and spritzed a little perfume on me, not wanting to
overpower Stefan’s ocean breeze scent that smelled close to
heaven.

As I walked downstairs, Stefan and
Charles were sitting in the living room, talking about something.
Stefan’s looked up at me.

As I stepped off the last step, Stefan
pulled me close to him. “You look so good, but I think your clothes
would look so much better on the floor.”

“
That might be a
possibility.” I said.

“
Later.” He growled in my
ear. You ready to go?” He asked.

“
All ready.” I grabbed my
phone and put it in my purse.

As we left the house, I punched the
numbers into the security system and locked the door behind
us.

“
Charles is going to drive
us; the first place my realtor wants me to see is Founders
Tower.”

I looked at him in shock.

“
Founders Tower? Stefan,
those are a fortune to live in! Are you sure you can….” My voice
trailed off. Of course he could afford it. What was I
thinking?

Stefan chuckled and grabbed my hand
with his, “Money is no object, Jennifer. When we get there just
tell me what you think of it, okay?” We got into the SUV and
Charles pulled out of the drive way.

When we arrived at Founders Towers,
Charles dropped us off at the front. He waited in the SUV for us
while we checked out the apartment.

We stepped inside the door and my gaze
shifted back and forth, like a kid in a candy store. The building
was circular and tall, easily twenty stories high, and the inside
had expensive plastered all over it. The lobby was full of glass
sculptures, different tables, chairs, and couches. There was a
pretty lady sitting at the front desk, she was tall with black hair
and green eyes. She had full lips with red lipstick on. As we
approached her you could see her undressing Stefan from top to
bottom with her eyes. I felt an instant rush of jealousy course
through my body.