Chapter 49 49
She felt his release as well as her own. She held him as his body trembled and shook with a power that was mind numbing. It seemed the pleasure would never end. It seemed they were destined to be joined together for the rest of time.
But finally, inevitably, the tantalizing pressure and delight faded and they lay together in a silence so profound, neither of them knew how to end it.
________
Stefan was gone when she woke up the next morning.
Not gone gone. He was just nowhere to be found in the house. But somehow, disappointment welled inside her, and she wondered if he was deliberately distancing himself from her. To make the inevitable leaving easier.
With the sting of unshed tears filling her eyes, she slipped into her normal routine of taking care of Juliana, and tried not to think of how it felt whenever Stefan was there, sharing all of this with her. Once Juliana was fed and dressed, Alana decided to get out of the house herself. Damned if she’d sit around the house moping, waiting for Stefan to return so that he could break her heart by telling her he was leaving because he'd given up, knowing it was all her fault because she couldn't trust him.
Buckling Juliana into her car seat, she then grabbed up a stuffed diaper bag and her purse and fired up the engine on her car.
“Don’t you worry, sweetheart,” she said, looking into the rearview mirror at the mirrors she had positioned in front of the car seat so that she could see Juliana's face, “we’re going to be fine. Daddy isn't around right now, but Mommy’s here. And I’m never going to leave you.”
Those blasted tears burned her eyes again and she blinked frantically to clear them away. She wasn’t going to cry. She’d had an incredible night with the man she loved and she wasn’t going to regret it. Whatever happened, happened.
When her phone rang, she assumed it was Emily until she glanced at the screen and saw Stefan's name.
“Hello?”
“Alana.”
“Stefan,” she said, and tried not to sigh at the sound of his deep, dark voice murmuring in her ear.
“You still at home?”
“Actually,” she said, lifting her chin as if that could help her keep her voice light and carefree, “I’m in the car. I’m taking Juliana to the mall and —”
“Perfect,” he said quickly. “I'm gonna text something to you now?”
“What's that—”
“Just check.”
Both of her eyebrows lifted at the order. “Stefan,” she asked, “what’s going on?”
“Just…I want to show you something and I need you and Juliana to come here.”
“Here where?”
“To the address I'm going to text you.”
She nearly groaned. “Stefan…”
“Alana, just do this for me, okay?” He paused, then added, “Please.”
“Okay, we’ll come.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
He hung up before she could ask any more questions, and Alana scowled at her text that popped in almost immediately before she set the phone down on the seat beside her.
“Well, sweetie, we’re off to meet your father.”
Juliana cooed.
“No, I don’t know what this is about, either,” she told her daughter. “But knowing your daddy, it could be anything.”
__________
It turned out to be a house, and it was the most beautiful house Alana had ever seen. It was huge, and she was willing to bet that five of her house would have fit comfortably inside. But for all its size, it looked like a family home. There was a wide front lawn, and when she stepped out of the car in the driveway, she was marveled.
“What’s going on here?” she wondered aloud. But then Alana's short, sharp cry caught her attention and she turned to get her out of her seat.
“Alana !”
She looked up and watched as Stefan ran down the front lawn to her. He looked excited, his eyes shining, his mouth turned into a grin so wide. Naturally, Alana felt an involuntary tug of emotion at first sight of him, and she wondered if it would always be that way.
“Let me help with Juliana,” he said after giving her a quick, hard, unexpected kiss that left her reeling a little.
“Um, sure.” She watched as he rounded the back of her car, opened the other back door and began undoing the straps on the car seat. “Stefan, what’s going on? Where are we? Whose house is this?”
He shot her another breath-stealing grin and scooped Juliana up into his arms. “I’ll tell you everything as soon as we get inside.”
“Inside?” She closed the car door with a loud smack of sound.
“Yep,” Stefan said. “Inside. Go on ahead. I’ll get the diaper bag and your purse.”
She took a step, stopped and looked at him. Dappled shade from the massive oak tree in the front yard fell across his features. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt and jeans. Kinda like the one he'd been wearing last night just before they—Okay, don’t go there, she told herself.
“I can’t just go inside. I don’t know who lives here and—”
“Fine,” he said, coming around the hood of the car, her purse under his arm and the diaper bag slung over that shoulder, while he jiggled Juliana on the other. “We’ll go together. All of us. Better that way, anyway.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll see.”
He started for the house and she had little choice but to follow. The brick walkway from the drive to the front door was lined with primroses in vibrant, primary shades of color. More flowerbeds followed the line of the house, with roses and tall spires of pastel-colored stocks scenting the air with a heady perfume.
Alana kept expecting the owner of the house to come to the front door to welcome them, but no one did. And when she crossed the threshold, she understood why.
The house was empty.
Their footsteps echoed in the cavernous rooms as Stefan led her through the living room, past a wide staircase, down a hall and then through the kitchen. Her head turned from side to side, taking it all in, delighting in the space, the lines of the house. Whoever had designed it had known what they were doing. The walls were the color of rich, heavy cream, and dark wood framed doorways and windows. The floors were pale oak and polished to a high shine. The rooms bled one into the other in a flow that cried out for a family’s presence.