Illusion

by Alexandra Anthony

  “I know. I guess I needed time to think and I didn’t go about it in the right way.”

  “I thought you had left me, Josephine.” He lay down beside of me with his head on my pillow, our heads touching. His fingertips lightly stroked my face and his eyes swept over my face, as if committing it to memory.

  “I wouldn’t leave you, Stefan. I just needed to leave reality for awhile. I had a few cups of espresso at Chelsea Market.”

  He offered me a weak smile. “You were in a coffee shop in Chelsea? You drowned your sorrows in over-priced tiny cups of coffee?”

  I nodded and huddled against his broad chest, which was now as warm against me.

  “You befuddle me, Josephine,” he sighed softly. “No more running from me. You not only ran from Kian, vackra. You ran from what we have.” He gestured between us, raising his eyebrows sternly.

  “No more running,” I agreed vehemently.

  He nodded and finally, his arms embraced me, overwhelming me with his ferociousness. It was like coming home, erasing all of my doubts and quieting the voices in my head. I peeked into his mind, and the fear and confusion he felt was overpowering. His thoughts were like mine last night, chaotic and conflicted.

  “I spent the night staring out the windows, reflecting back over the last few weeks. I wondered if I made the right choice in finding you and exposing you to this life. I feel as if you never truly heard all the things I said to you,” he said impassively against my hair. “And not with your ears, with your heart. Perhaps I have not told you what you needed to hear.”

  “Stefan...”

  “Let me finish,” Stefan continued quietly. “Yet I am selfish. I realized that I would have continued to search for you regardless. I was on a mission to find you, the only thing I’ve known for two centuries. There will never be another for me except you. However, I will let you go. I love for the first time in my long life, and I will not force you to give up who and what you are because I think I know what is best for you.”

  Craning my neck, I regarded him in a new light and with different eyes. Possibly Stefan was right. I’d never really listened to him, not with my heart. It was if someone flicked on a light bulb in a dark room and I could see the light. Stefan Lifsten, in his almost 1,000 years on this earth, had said he’d never loved anyone until he met me. He was willing to sacrifice it all to let me go.

  And what did I do? I single-handedly did the worst possible thing to him. I ran from him. He assumed the worst, figuring I’d had enough and taken off. In his mind, I proved his theory right.

  What did I know about love? I’d never loved a man in a romantic way until Stefan. Most of my relationships failed even before they had a chance to begin. Stefan and I were both stumbling through a relationship, a millennia old vampire and a hybrid vampire. Helplessly lost, hopelessly in love.

  “I’m going to talk now.” I pushed him to his back against the bed and climbed to straddle his hips. My fingers began methodically unbuttoning his shirt and once it was open, I met his gaze. “I love you, Stefan. The best night of my life happened the moment you walked into it.” I leaned over him, pressing my breasts against his chest, fisting my hands into his thick hair. “I was foolish because I ran from you last night and I won’t ever make that mistake again. I’m not giving you up. You were reborn for me.”

  Stefan had flipped me to my back before I could blink, standing at the foot of the bed. He tossed his shirt to the floor and his jeans were off in a blur of movement, lowering himself to his knees on the bed at my feet, staring down at the cover.

  “Stefan?”

  His face lifted up and the look he gave me was one I’d never seen before. His handsome face was stripped bare, no arrogance or age marring his smooth features. His was wide eyed as our eyes met, shocked at my admission. He looked impossibly young...and pure.

  Slowly crawling to meet him, I sat in front of him, reaching out to carefully run my hands over his broad chest, my fingers caressing his pale pink nipples and stroking over the rippled muscles of his abdomen, his body jerking from my touch. He swallowed roughly and the corner of his mouth twitched.

  “Josephine,” he whispered harshly. “You were made for me.”

  My hands froze in place, afraid to move. I glanced up at him through my eyelashes, my breathing shallow. He hadn’t moved, he was simply watching me.

  I nodded and smiled. My hands were still, waiting for his permission to continue. “You were saved for me.”

  Stefan sighed softly. “Touch me. Please.” He was beautiful, completely unguarded with soft eyes. “Please.”

  Hesitantly, I continued my exploration over his soft skin, letting my mouth follow the path my hands had made. My lips and tongue skimmed over his stomach, back up to his chest. I traced around each of nipples with my fingers, rubbing my mouth over the satin skin of his neck, feeling the muscles in his throat constrict under my lips.

  I inched closer to him, until our lips were almost touching. His impossibly pretty mouth was curved in a small smile, his fangs fully extended. I took a finger and caressed each one, moving as if to kiss him, instead my tongue tracing each sharp incisor. His chest rumbled, his blue eyes becoming unfocused.

  Stefan rose to his knees. I scrambled back against the pillows as he rushed to move between my legs. One hand grasped his cock, rubbing it over my wet folds. The other gripped my waist, drawing me closer to him. His body draped over me and he pushed gently inside of me, causing us both to break into shuddering moans. His hips pulled back, dropping his head to against my shoulder. His large arms enveloped me, wrapping around my back, finally sheathing himself to the hilt inside of my pussy, our bodies perfectly aligning to one another.

  “This is right,” he moaned, burying his face in my hair. “Tell me this is right.”

  “Yes,” I agreed desperately. “It’s always perfect.”

  He began stroking in earnest, setting a steady pace. He bent to suck one of my nipples into his mouth, his fangs grazing along my tender skin as his tongue swirled and pulled.

  “I never knew it was possible to have this, Josephine. To feel love, this kind of affection. Then only to feel the pain of losing you,” Stefan admitted. “I do not like to feel vulnerable.”

  I pushed him to his back against the bed, never breaking stride. I straddled him, increasing our speed. Stefan hissed in pleasure and I kissed him hard, my mouth unrelenting. His hand grasped my face, pulling my lips from his to look into my eyes.

  “I was in hell last night. You were lost to me and I was afraid too much had happened and you had left.” He kissed me briefly before pulling away again, gazing back into my eyes as if he was staring into my very soul, his blue eyes becoming dark pools of emotion. “Vackra, it has always been you. Hur bevisar jag min hängivenhet till dig? Du har mig i bojor, din villig fånge.”

  As he spoke the words to me, he once again gave me access to his thoughts. He was wondering how he could prove his devotion to me. He was letting me know he was my willing prisoner and I had him willingly shackled.

  “I don’t want you to be my prisoner, Stefan. I want you to be my lover. My equal. My partner.” Offering my neck to him, I wordlessly spoke to him. “Bite me, Stefan. Please.”

  “Mine.” Stefan clutched at my hips and began bucking his hips, moving me faster over his cock, his mouth on my throat. His fangs broke through my skin, the feel of his bite causing me to slip over the edge of desire.

  “Yes!” I cried out, riding him harder, tightening and contracting around him, moaning and crying out loudly.

  His hips jutted a few more times until he exploded inside of me, his bellow filling the apartment with his satisfaction as we rode out the last of our violent tremors.

  We were still for a few moments, and I stretched out to lay across his chest. Filled with elation, I giggled. A smile broke over his face and he stared at me as if I’d suddenly grown two heads.

  “We’ve probably woken all of our neighbors.” I blushed. Turning serious, I met his eyes
. “We’re stuck with each other, Stefan. I can’t be without you. I love you and you love me. We need to learn to make this work.”

  His answering smile was brilliant, dazzling in its intensity. “We will, Josephine.”

  Our lips met, his mouth soft and gentle. This kiss was different. We weren’t frantically trying to reconnect this time, he was pouring all of his love and adoration into this kiss. When he lifted his lips from mine, he was smirking.

  “I want everyone to be jealous of what I have. To feel what I just felt, I would gladly deal with the wrath of this entire city,” Stefan boasted proudly. “Come with me. There is a shower with our name on it. I want to get you clean so I can get you dirty again.”

  “My sexy talking vampire,” I chided, sneaking a kiss from his soft lips.

  “Always.”

  Chapter 5 - Brother, Who Art Thou?

  “Breakfast?” Stefan asked as I walked into the kitchen, my hair still damp from our shower. I was pleasantly surprised to see him standing in the kitchen, shirtless and clad only in tight boxer briefs, scrambling eggs over the stove. He had a plate on the counter with bacon stacked in neat piles plate.

  “You can cook? But you don’t eat,” I mumbled grumpily, plopping down on the bar stool on the other side of the island. It appeared Stefan was also good at cooking. It truly wasn’t fair.

  Stefan pushed a mug of coffee in my direction and rolled his blue eyes sarcastically. “I may not eat, however it is not rocket science to scramble eggs and fry bacon, vackra.” He wrinkled his nose as he glanced at the skillet. “Even though it appears to be disgusting.”

  Stirring half & half into my coffee and adding sugar, I took a sip and sighed happily as I let the caffeine work its magic. “You’re always surprising me, Stefan.”

  “Ah, stick around. There are many things I can do that you have not had the pleasure of seeing yet.” Stefan leered at me, his eyebrows waggling.

  Damn vampire sexy talk. It was only 10 am and he was already making me want to move back into the bedroom. At the rate we were going, we should find a big bed to live in and forward all of the mail there.

  “I could not agree more. What a wonderful idea!” Stefan had read my thoughts. He placed the plate and fork in front of me with great flourish and I narrowed my eyes and started eating. He moved to sit down beside of me and opened his laptop, opening his e-mail and scrolling through his messages.

  “Anything interesting?” I asked casually as I bit into a piece of bacon.

  “Mergers, acquisitions. More work for my attorney to handle,” Stefan said distractedly.

  A thought occurred to me as I chewed. “How does this work? You are a never aging vampire running a company. Doesn’t anyone get suspicious?”

  “The company is run by a board of directors, appointed by my human attorney. He knows what I am and has ties into the vampire world. My identity is kept hidden. I simply make the final decisions and my attorney takes care of things for me.” Stefan glanced at me and smiled. “You will have a visitor this afternoon.”

  “A visitor? Who?” I asked, my curiosity thoroughly piqued. Stefan glanced up at me and gave me a grin that reminded me of a cat that had eaten the canary.

  “You will find out. It should be interesting. I will give you some privacy during the visit.”

  Stefan was being extremely cryptic. Seeing that he wasn’t willing to play along, I finished my breakfast and slid away from the island, walking around to the sink and began rinsing the plates off and loading the dishwasher. I was wiping the counter down when I felt his hands reach around and cup the swell of my breasts and he bent slightly to inhale my hair. My breathing immediately hitched. It only took a touch from him to send my overworked libido into overdrive.

  His hand slipped down the fabric of my t-shirt to slide inside of my jeans. His long fingers had no trouble slithering deep into my panties to gently stroke my clit as his lips dragged over my neck. Gripping the counter for support, a tiny moan fell from my lips and I widened my legs to give him better access. He complied and his fingers went inside of me, softly teasing me. His own breathing increased, sounding rougher. I was so close to orgasm and soft, mewing noises were the only sounds I could manage. I tensed around his fingers, crying out in protest when he withdrew his hand from my pants and playfully smacked my ass.

  Stunned into silence for a moment and burning with unfulfilled longing, I spun to face him, open-mouthed and pissed off. “You have got to be kidding me. Stefan!”

  He towered over me, his gorgeous face filled with mischief. A playful smile graced his lips as he leaned in to peck me on the mouth. “I have things to do, vackra. Lukas is next door if you need him. I assure you we will finish what we started. Later.”

  He disappeared down the hallway so quickly that I would have missed it if I’d blinked. Smacking my hand on the granite counter, I threw the sponge in the sink. Two could play at this game.

  I walked down the hallway to our bedroom and stood in the doorway watching him dress. He only had a pale blue Oxford dress shirt on that was still unbuttoned. It exposed the sculpted planes of his chest and the muscles of his stomach. I could see the outline of his cock through his boxer briefs. I was drawn to him like a kid in a candy store and he was the most delicious treat available. It was if everything else in the room disappeared.

  Gliding across the room to him, I glanced up at him longingly. My hands drifted across his waist, straight down his stomach. I couldn’t help smiling when I felt his muscles twitch as my fingertips brushed over each of the pronounced ridges. I pushed his underwear down low enough that he sprang free, his cock falling into my waiting hands.

  “Josephine…”

  “Shhh,” I murmured softly and I gripped him in my hand, stroking the thick velvet-hardness of his cock. I glanced up at him again, reeling as I watched his mouth slightly part and his eyes darken with lust.

  I dragged my tongue down his chest until I had lowered to a crouched position with my hand still rubbing over his impressive length. He was growing harder with every twist of my wrist and when I took the head of his cock in my mouth, he let out a guttural growl so powerful that I could feel the pulsation in my mouth. Rolling my tongue around him, I groaned from the taste of him. His hands ran through my wavy hair until they loosely knotted there, urging me to continue. He started to swell inside my mouth and I knew he was close to his climax.

  It was payback time. Letting him slip from my mouth with a pop, I stood and went on my tip toes to kiss the corner of his mouth and the cleft in his chin.

  “Silly me! I forgot that you have things to do. We’ll continue this later,” I said, glancing over my shoulder, attempting to speak in the most casual voice I could muster.

  “Josephine. Come back here,” he moaned in a strangled voice.

  “Sweetheart, when you play with fire, you get burned. Get dressed.”

  Adjusting my clothes, I walked into the living room. I plopped down on the sofa, picking up my book from the ottoman. I lost myself in reading and after a few minutes my concentration was interrupted when Stefan leaned down to capture my mouth in a kiss.

  “Even though you are wicked, I love you.” His mouth brushed against mine before running a long finger down my cheek and standing back up. I watched him swagger out of the apartment, my own personal walking fantasy wrapped up in faded jeans and a blue shirt.

  Groaning and pulling a cushion over my face, I wanted to run after him and strip him naked, having my way with him from one end of the apartment to the other until neither of us could think or had the strength to move.

  Knowing that was out of the question, I tucked the pillow behind my head and tried to immerse myself back in my book, half of my mind still focused on Stefan.

  As I read, my eyes started getting heavy. I’d almost nodded off when a knock sounded at the door. Expecting it to be Lukas, I sighed heavily and took my time answering it. Yanking it open, my mouth was in high gear before he could get any of his sass out.

 
; “Lukas, I’m not in the mood for your bitchiness today. If you can tone it down…” My voice tapered off when I realized it wasn’t Lukas on the other side of the door. A tall man with light brown hair stood on the other side of the doorway. He was slim and lean, dressed in tight jeans, a white t-shirt and a black motorcycle jacket. It was his familiar green eyes that stopped me in my tracks. They appraised me with unconcealed curiosity as he leaned against the door frame.

  “Knock knock, sister dear. Please don’t make me tone down my bitchiness. Especially since it’s time you heard the truth about daddy dearest.” A wry smile spread broke across his thin face. It was covered with two days worth of stubble, his smile revealing straight white teeth. “Nigel told me you were in town. It’s long overdue that we met, Josie.”

  Speechless, I gaped at him in confusion. I felt light-headed for a moment as his words slowly sank in.

  “I’m Nikolaus Ahearne, your brother. I can see from your reaction that Kian neglected to tell you about me.” He rubbed his stubbled chin and tried to smooth the wild disarray of his short wavy hair.

  “N-no. He didn’t tell me,” I whispered, gripping the door tightly in my hand.

  “Shocking,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “As nice as your hallway is, I’m curious if you’re going to invite me in?”

  “Sorry! Come in,” I mumbled and stepped aside.

  He strolled past me and tapped my cheek affectionately as he stepped into our living room. He looked around and removed his jacket, dropping it carelessly over the stool at the island. He crossed to the wall of windows, glancing down at the street below. He turned to face me and shoved his hands in his pockets, the muscles contracting in his heavily tattooed arms. Nikolaus looked no older than me, and with the exception of his dark hair, the resemblance between us was there. We shared the same prominent cheekbones and almond shaped green eyes.

  “I don’t know what Kian has told you about this life or who he is. I’d be willing to bet my immortality that it’s his skewed bullshit version of the truth. He’s an accomplished fucking liar.” He didn’t mince words. He simply jumped in without any preamble.