Partially naked with his chest bare and on display, his hair was slightly ruffled as if he was jostled awake from a temporary nap. The blue-green of his eyes darkened as his eyes soaked in her appearance. Never breaking eye contact he hooked the gun behind his back and into the seam of his pants.
Descending slowly he kept his eyes on Camelia. She was sure she looked the picture of a grotesque masterpiece with her swollen eyes, turned down lips and reddened skin. The perfect picture of pure anguish and she could not bare to have him see her like that.
Automatically backing away from him, she turned, covering her mouth with a closed fist.
Liam and Stefan shared a look. A silent communication passes between them. Liam nods to him and glanced at Camelia's back. "I'll leave you two alone." Was all he said and turned to leave, disappearing back into the hallway.
She stiffens as she hears Liam's retreating steps. Had she known he was going to her bring to Stefan's home, she wouldn't have come. He was the last person she wanted to see. No wonder he didn't reveal that extra bit of information and she never bothered push the issue.
A uncomfortable silence was the only sound in the large open room. Whatever welcoming feeling she felt earlier jumped right out the window. She didn't belong here, she didn't belong anywhere anymore. Camelia wondered if the drop dead, gorgeous blonde girlfriend of his was upstairs sleeping in his bed where he had just come from. It would explain his lack of clothing.
If it weren't for Stefan's lies and betrayal, the course of her life would have turned out differently. It was all his fault. Her whole life was a mess because of him.
The anger coursing through her veins was about to burst free like a dam. Needless to say, the tears she tried forcing back continued to run down her face and soaking the front of her shirt.
"Camelia?" Stefan whispered close behind her. His tone was soft and caring and it made her cry even harder.
Her shoulders shook uncontrollably from her muted sobbing. As much as she wanted to cry out and fall to the ground she kept still, not moving. Feeling his fingers wrap around her arms, she jerked out of his grasp and moved away like his touch was poison.
Camelia couldn't bare his touch, she couldn't bare hearing his voice, she was tired of being hurt over and over again.
Stefan released a deep breath and raked a hand through his hair. Seeing her recoil from him felt like he was punched in the gut. She looked devasted before she turned her back, after realizing it was him. She was suffering and in pain, witnessing the broken look in her once eccentric eyes.
She had been crying.
Approaching her once again and noticing how her shoulders haunched made him want to force her into his arms and never let her go. But he held back. Whatever was bothering her was a tremendous, heavy burden.
"Camelia..." He tried again.
"I-I didn't a-ask to come here, I want to leave!" She said in a broken voice, every word laced with agony.
It broke his heart how vulnerable she appeared. It was like a hand ripped into his chest and squeezed his heart painfully.
Stefan gripped her upper arms and pulled her back against his chest.
"No!"
"Stop it, Camelia." He said in a heavy rasp. "Stop it." He repeated, twisting her to face him.
She fights him, struggling in his arms. He held her tightly, his arms wrapped around her as she fought in vain to pull away. Clenching her fists she struck him in the chest once, twice.
He hadn't been able to touch her, speak to her for so long. Like a madman, with nostrils flaring, watching her retreat from him earlier as if he was playing with fire and she was afraid to get burnt boiled his blood.
"I hate you, Stefan." She whispered breathlessly.
The more she fought the more he wanted to dominate and possess her. No objection of hers would sway him. He was going to kiss her.
Although she struggled, Smoothly and swiftly he pulls her towards him and tilts her head. "Now that I have you, I am never letting you go. You're mine."
Then his mouth clamped down hard over hers, taking the breath from her, devouring every thought with a groan of triumph deep in his throat. He wrapped his arms around her, yanking her tightly against him as he continued his assault on her lips. She fought him for a moment, attempting to twist herself out of his embrace, pushing against his chest. But her strength was no match to overcome his.
Stefan thrusts his tongue into her mouth forcefully taking deep, forceful thrusts that made his body thrum with passion, grabbing her thighs and pressing along his length. His hands drifted under her shirt. The feel of her silken skin under his fingers caused his composure to unravel. He had never forgotten how right it felt to take her in his arms.
She was completely his.
She squirms against him trying to break free of his rock iron hold. The beat of her heart pounded against his chest with every insistent push. The memories of their last touch paled in comparison to actually holding her again.
Camelia made a sound of distress in her throat, despising him for the longing he awakened within her with his rough kiss. His hold was firm and he kept her grounded when she swayed dizzily against him and broke the kiss, their foreheads touching. He studied her wide eyes outlined by thick curled lashes as if trying make sure his eyes absorb everything about her from anew.
Abruptly he releases her only to swoop down and carry her in his arms. "You've lost weight." Noting in a tone of disapproval.
She stays silent and lays her heavy pounding head unwilling on his broad shoulder. Stefan held her like she didn't weigh more than a child as he ascended the stairs from which he emerged from. She allowed him to carry her as she laid her head against his bulging shoulder, eyes half lidded nearly closing letting effects of her devastating day weigh her down.
To care where or what he was going to do was pointless. Camelia did not have the fight in her anymore. Exhausted beyond repair, mentally and physically drained she needed to be held and comforted. The world was throwing tailspin after tailspin at her and she couldn't take it anymore, and she wanted nothing more to forget the last few months.
A door closes as Stefan continues to carry her. He lays her gently onto the bed as if handling the finest porcelain. Camelia reluctantly opens her heavy lids and finds herself laying in a enormous bed with high carved posts. The dark grey sheets beneath her were turned down and recently used as she pulls herself up and scoots back, propping her back and head against the towering, velvet tufted headboard behind her.
The faintest hint of his cologne lingered in the air. She was in a huge room that looked like him and smelled like him and sitting in his King sized bed covered In a heavily embroidered duvet. There were two doors. The room was dim as she noticed the door they entered from. The other she assumed, was the master bath.
She couldn't bring herself to look at him, knowing he was staring at her. So she began to scan the dark interior of the room he placed her in finding a grey mirrored dresser. A tufted velvety blue arm chair was placed in a corner and a standing lamp. One side of the walls were completely glass and partially hidden by thick custom dark grey drapes.
Camelia's eyes couldn't help but enlarge looking passed another glass wall separating the bedroom and the spacious sitting area below furnished with a large flat screen television, fireplace and a custom modernized sofa and love seat.
His entire room was a size of the average apartment and obviously fully furnished expensively.
Stefan towered over her, mere inches away, his aura of physical strength overwhelming. His stare fixed on her. Camelia looks away, flustered and blushing, her heart beating rapidly in her throat. She scrambled away from him to the other side of the bed, sitting on the edge with her cold hands clasped in her lap.
It was then she noticed a large framed picture on the wall above the headboard of his bed. Time stood still for moment. The picture was of her. Her smile looked very different. The look on her face was happy, worry free. Her soul had not been scarred yet. The picture was taken before everything happened.
Unfortunately that version of herself died and was buried. Forever gone.
"Camelia?" She heard him bristle. She stiffens and abruptly stands to face him.
She tried to keep her gaze level with his, noticing his broad chiseled chest tapering down to his lean waist and blushed hotly. She jerked her chin upward and glared at him, angry and frightened.
"I want to go." She announced defiantly.
"What happened?" He asked deciding to ignore what she said.
"Nothing that concerns you."
"You are not leaving until I get answers." He replies in a hard tone. His eyes turned stormy, the shade turning a dark olive.
Camelia only shakes her head and decides to make a straight line towards the door. Clasping the knob it doesn't open. She stops pulling the knob and turns to find Stefan holding the door shut above her head. His big lean body blocking her escape. She flattens against the doorframe.
"Let me go." Heart pounding, she glanced at the turned-back sheets and leaned back weakly.
"You're not going to make this difficult are you?" Giving her an apprehensive frown.
"You ruined my life...I don't owe you anything."
She heard the soft sigh above her. He drew her stiff unyielding body into his arms and enfolded her in his embrace. Closing her eyes at the shocking recognition of his tender solid frame against her. The feel of him echoes back from a thousand dreams she had, marveling at how natural, how right it felt. His large, warm gentle hands slowly caress the length of her back from her waist.
"I'm sorry." He said in a low, heavy voice, kissing the top of her head repeatedly.
Camelia's tears brimmed along her lower lashes and spilled down her cheeks. She could hear the desperation, the longing, the truth in his apology.
"I hate you so much." She says, her voice cracking from the blast of emotions hitting her. She buries her face in her hands and continues to cry. A long moment of silence passed, neither of them moving. The only sounds were of her soft sobbing against his bare chest.
Stefan unravels her hands away from her face and nudges her chin with a finger. He watched her, his jaw clenched, as though he struggled to hold himself back. Camelia stares wide-eyed, trembling as he captures her hands and places them at the nape of his neck.
He captured her face between his hands and slanted over her mouth. Surprise burst through her, and pleasure, as he ravished her in a deep slow kiss. Trembling from the onslaught of his drugging kiss, they made her feel weaker than she felt.
He gripped her jean clad buttocks, pulling her hotly against his hardness. Gathering her close, a shock of need courses in her veins at the intimate contact of their bodies make–pressing every inch down the length of them both. A hungry growl could be heard in his throat and a low mewling sound much like a cat comes from her.
"My God, I've waited for this moment for so long..." He panted swooping down to capture her mouth in another crazed tormented kiss.
He began winning her over with his touch, feeling herself starting to crumble, her reckless heart reaching out to him, curling her fingers in his hair. He slips his arms around her waist and holds her upright, barely aware of him maneuvering her toward his bed. Ever so gently, he eased her down until she sat on the edge. He sank to his knees before her, his lips never leaving hers. Camelia tore her mouth away, his kisses continuing to travel down to the crook of her neck than to her chest.
The flat of his hand over one swollen breast, made her gasp. His fingers circle over and over again until the nìpple felt so hardened that she sobbed aloud with frustrated pleasure. Her head dropped back in bliss, arching against him as her legs opened wide for him to slide between her thighs.
Camelia could not believe he was letting him do those things to her–it had been so long. Only he could invoke such sensations. With a disbelieving sob she pushed at his bare chest. The muscles tighten under her touch.
This was wrong–worse than wrong–it was madness.
"Stefan we need to stop. I can't think when you do those things to me." She pants.
Stefan stops and rises, looming over her, his eyes glazed with unrestrained fiery desire. The heavy tension between them reappears.
"What happened? He asks again watching her closely.
"Nothing." She replies not looking at him, clutching the V of her shirt, and covering her breasts with her arms to keep his straying gaze from wandering.
"You were crying." He states. "Did that bastard hurt you?"
Of course he knew about Kivanç.
Camelia scoffs out loud and pulls at the edge of her long sleeve blue shirt. "He did exactly what you did. So yes, you can say he hurt me." Responding with bitterness.
Out of the corner of her eye Stefan clenches his fists and the muscles in his abdomen tighten. He takes a deep patient breath through his nose while Camelia shifts uncomfortably on his bed.
"I didn't mean to–."
"Look Stefan, I can't do this, not now. I can't take anymore pain. I wish I wasn't here...you manipulated me, you toyed with my feelings to spare your identity. You won't understand half the hell I went through because of you." She pauses briefly closing her eyes shut, shaking her head slightly. "I-I just can't anymore."
"I've been watching you." He said it so quietly Camelia almost didn't hear him.
He rakes a hand through his thick brown hair and sits on the edge of the bed beside her. He rests his elbows on his thighs and shifts his head toward her. "I've been having you watched from afar making sure you were fully protected. Your disguises were quite clever." He murmurs thoughtfully. "If I didn't know the outline of your body and the contours of your face, I would have missed it."
Camelia blushes. A warm trickling washed over her skin and the butterflies that used to come out when he was around came back to life in full force, fluttering inside her stomach.
"I hired my own team of operatives while I was away trying to track Diam's locations." He continues in a subdued tone as she listened. "Thanks to Liam, he kept me informed about you. Just because I left didn't mean I forgot you. I believed it was better to give you time knowing how angry you were with me. I utilized the time and used the temporary freedom to scout the bastard and finally have the chance to end his miserable existence so you wouldn't need to live in fear."
His voice. It's tone. It never wavered.
His eyes. The fierceness. It never dissipated.
Stefan shrugs. "I was never far behind but he's like a slithering snake by the stroke of luck that always gets away. In his hurry he left behind pictures of you or names, sometimes coordinates for his next location. I don't believe he expected someone would track him down so quickly. The more information I found the closer I thought I'd get him. But even the finest hackers couldn't crack the codes he left behind. We could never figure out what they were for."
He sits upright and shifts to face her. "I eventually went back to work and kept a team searching for him...Then I learned you became engaged to the man you danced with at the auction." Nodding at her left hand, his gaze staying pointed there until she looked down.
The red ruby ring was temporarily forgotten in her vain attempts to leave her house. It sparkled in the dim light as though a small little fireball of fiery.
"I honestly never knew the extent of your involvement with him before and after I entered the picture but I knew you wouldn't decide to marry someone like that unless it was genuine....real." A sour expression crosses his handsome face. ".....I was shocked to say the least but I stayed away in order to secure your happiness."
"Were you there at the hotel that day?" Camelia finally speaks, needing to know if it was him she felt staring at her. He'd know what she was talking about without elaborating.
"For your bachelorette party?" Stefan lips turned upward in a tight smile. "Yes. I was there with a newspaper in my hands wearing a hat and trench coat. The only man in the establishment without a electronic device in his hands–a modern Sherlock Holmes."
I felt you there. Her heart whispers, staring passed him, into space. It was like a type of magic their connection held.
Quickly glancing at his hands that were clenched into fists along his thighs. The very same hands that touched her so intimately. Everywhere. She slants away from the him and the memory that managed to make her internally quiver.
Avoiding his gaze she stared at the ring and began twisting it round and round. Whenever the red ruby caught any type of light, however subdued, it twinkled happily. The pristine, nearly blood color signified his claim, his promises, his underlying love.
But now it reminded her of everything Kivanç represented–a tainted love. The two karat was weightless on her finger–carrying the same weight his love held in her heart.
Nothing.
She lied to him and to herself for months. She never loved him nor could she ever allow him into her heart.
Camelia could finally let go of the stack of guilt and the heavy burden she carried pretending to love Kivanç. Reflecting back, she believed he could fill the black void in her life. The one person that could help her forget and keep her company from past memories.
Nothing hurts more than disappointment. Just like Stefan lied–Kivanç lied.
She was hurt, broken and forever changed her views of men. Even with Stefan's confession it just wasn't enough, she wasn't enough for a man to love. It hurt. Not to be wanted as much as she hoped.
Camelia abruptly stands, her back facing Stefan and slips off the beautiful ring depositing into her pocket. Stiffening her spine she nudges her chin up, inhales deeply and starts marching towards the door to leave.
She didn't know what to do anymore. She didn't know where to go. She didn't know who to trust, losing faith in all man kind. All she did know is she needed to leave before Stefan spun his web over her again and had a second chance to hurt her.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asks. She could tell he stood as well, knowing from the vibrations of his deep voice close behind her.
"Leaving." She replies simply trying to sustain some amount of dignity and not appear as helpless as a little mouse.
"I can see that but where?" He was standing directly behind her feeling his warm breath against her hair.
"I don't know."
"Everything I said meant nothing to you?" He turns her by the arm to face him. His eyes were hard and narrowed into slits.
"They are only words, Stefan. Words I don't care to listen to anymore. I've been hurt more than you could ever imagine." She muttered bitterly. "Please, let me go." Camelia tries pulling her arm away from his grasp but he only tightens his grip.
"How could I let you go? I love you. My first thought in the mornings is you. The last person I think about before I sleep is you. My future has been in your hands from the very start. If you only knew how much those little moments we spent ten years ago mattered to me. How much I loved spending time learning about the grown up girl of my dreams. If that isn't love, then I don't know what is." He admits, shaking her a little as he said his words.
"You barely revealed what was going through your head. If it wasn't for the way your eyes expressed your emotions, I'd be lost to know what you're feeling! Besides I didn't see you doing anything to prove you even cared. Don't stand there and tell me–"
"I love you, Camelia."
"If you loved me you wouldn't have let me go!" She yells. "If it was real you wouldn't have bared to part from me. If I didn't come here you wouldn't be saying those things to me face to face." She accuses, the tears she once thought dried up pooled into her eyes. "I was supposed to be married this week, Stefan! What would you have done then? It's....too late for you and me."
"Forgive me, please." He pleads pulling her right hand over his chest. Specifically over his left side.
"Do you feel my heart? It nearly split in half when I heard you were getting married. I was ready to tear my entire house down in a rage I barely contained. But somehow I never gave up hope. I remembered my words to you ten years ago promising to rescue you some day. I was going to do just that but not the righteous way." He pauses as if fighting himself at what he was going to say next. "I planned to kidnap you against your will like some barbarian and keep you to myself whether you wanted me or not." He confesses. "I wasn't going to give you a reason, the choice would have been made for you."
Camelia gasps in shock. Kidnap her?
Passed the three layers of skin. Passed the muscle. Passed the bone of his ribs she felt the heavy thumping of his heart quicken. It beat with the strength of a fighter, a lover and yet...it still wasn't enough for her. He deserted her at her most lowest point without trying to fight for her.
"You're lying." She accuses miserably, weakly pounding his chest with her fist.
Her heart contracted with a pain so complicated by a temptation so strong that she did not know if she'd be able to resist. Because she wanted to reach out and tell him, yes, she would take him back. She wanted to have him hold her and love her and keep her close and never let go. She wanted them to be the perfect couple and have the perfect family.
But that was just a dream. A dream severed by trust and his lack of effort.
Stefan shakes his head sternly and gathers her closer. "You are my life. That guy was only one chapter of yours. You were always mine Camelia. You just never knew it."
"I'm going to marry my fiancé Stefan and there's nothing you're going to do about it." She lies between clenched teeth. Camelia didn't know what came over her to say such things but all she knew is she wanted to make his blood boil with pain and anger.
"It's going to be over my dead body." She shivers at his words and the eyes that stared at her. They could burn a entire forest fire with their intensity. "Besides if that were true you wouldn't be here and you wouldn't have slipped off your engagement ring and placed it in your pocket. It may not be my business but it's more than obvious the wedding is off..."
He was observant she'd give him that. Dangerously so. The arrogance he kept hidden inside him during the months he was in disguise surfaced. Every word was laced with an underlying self-assurance befitting a king.
"Fine." She confessed. "I'm not marrying him, the wedding is off. I'm never getting married."
"Oh you're getting married all right. The only cancelation is the groom." Stefan stated as a matter of factly. "You are marrying me."
Camelia frowns. Thinking she didn't hear him right. "Excuse me? I–."
"You are marrying me whether you like it or not. I cannot stand another day without having you by my side or within my sight." His tone was clipped and the determination was etched on every angle of his feature.
That's all she's ever wanted to hear pass his lips.
Camelia gulps heavily, her hair fell forward as she bowed her head–her resolve crumbling. A sob escaped, her tears seeped out of her eyes and slid rapidly down her cheeks as her legs give up and buckle beneath her. Stefan catches her swiftly, wrapping an arm around her waist and brings his other to cup her face, brushing his thumb over her face to rid her of the moisture.
"S-stop giving me empty promises. You left me when I needed you the most taking your time to find that bastard when I should have been a priority! You let another man take your place. You gave him the chance to hurt and humiliate me. Everything that's happened between then and now is all your fault. I suffered, I am suffering, I'm hurting....I don't know what I want anymore." She wails in despair.
"I'm sorry Camelia, forgive me. Forgive me for everything." He desperately needed her forgiveness, the desire for it burned in his troubled eyes. They were hopeful as he searched her face. "I don't deserve you but I'm too selfish to ever let you go. I need your reassurance, I need your love. I cannot lose you because I'd lose everything, my best friend, my soul mate, my happiness. Do you understand how much of me belongs to you?"
Camelia shivers, his words touching every corner of her broken heart.
"I remember the first day I ever looked into your deep blue eyes and felt my entire world flip. I still remember how we started talking. I look at you and I'm home. My soul feels complete–you are my other half. I love you in more ways than you will ever know existed in me. In more ways than you think you deserve and I will love in ways you've never felt before. I need all of you Camelia. Heart, body and soul."
Love.
She was no fool to deny she still loved him. He invaded her self-doubt and concerns. She had given so much of herself to him, it didn't seem fair to either of them to walk away.
Yet, he hasn't given her a valid reason not to do the same mistake again.
"I lost you once. I'm not losing you again."
Camelia's lips parted.
The ice around her heart cracked.
The resolve to keep strong started to fade.
"I admit I was wrong. I should have fought for you even when you didn't want me." He takes a deep breath. "We all make mistakes and I promise I will never make the same mistake twice. I'm here now, fighting for our love. Give me another chance to prove it to you."
Mistake.
Chance.
"I can't." Camelia closed her eyes trying to hold back a agonizing sob. She desperately wanted to believe feeling a shaft of pain raw and deep within her soul. "I can't think straight right now. I just can't do this now." She places a hand against her temple talking to herself rather than him. "I can't–I don't know what to do."
The dull pounding in her head increased and graduated into a tension headache. The weight on her shoulders felt heavier than they had ever before. Her eyes dropped to a point she had trouble opening them. She felt herself drown and no one was there to save her.
Stefan sensed the quick retreat she made as her walls slammed into place to keep her sheltered from pain. She appeared on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Stefan damned himself for pushing her after everything she's been going through. He should have known better. There was much more he needed to say to her. However, she did not appear in the state of mind to hear it at the moment.
Patience, Steel. Patience. The time will come.
"How about a nice hot bath, some food and a good nights rest? You'll feel as good as new by tomorrow." He offers watching her carefully.
A slight frown marred her brows as she looked up at him innocently with a lost expression, blinking several times, trying to process his suggestion.
"Let me take care of you." He pleaded.
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Thank you for the tremendous outpour from all you lately!
How did you like the chapter #TeamStefan fans?
Doesn't he look delicious bare chested? ;)
Until next week...my updating schedule has been off recently so you never know when I'll update. Stay tuned.
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Thanks,
Shaz