AN: Yay! You liked Stav! I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only one who was a bit curious about the taming of Amelia. Thanks for all the lovely reviews!
Amelia and the SVM Universe are the creation of Ms. Charlaine Harris. Stav Kostopolous is from my screwed up mind. Remember, this is a prequel, so we'll see Sookie, but none of Mr. Deliciousness.
Now, without further ado, here is more of their story:
Amelia's POV
"He rejected me!"
The receiver was filled with laughter before my very pragmatic and apparently insensitive best friend Sookie Stackhouse responded, "He did not."
"What do you call it then? I asked, "He said no." I'd called her the minute I got back to the house from the bar, sending a very disappointed Adrian packing. He was good looking enough, fun to be around and did whatever I wanted. And what I wanted was to be alone to stew over stupid Stavros Kostopolous.
"He didn't tell you no, he just changed the terms."
"Same thing."
"It isn't," she said. I could visualize her shaking her head at me through the receiver. Sookie had always been a bit of a mother hen to me. I knew I wasn't the easiest person to be friends with - I was what my teenage therapist had called whimsical. I had the ability to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and I rarely didn't get my way. "He doesn't want to be your lap dog. That's hardly rejection. Heck, it's about time someone stood up to you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I scowled.
"It means that other than Pamela Northman, I've never known you to date someone with a backbone. And we all know she lost every bit of nerve around you, though she'd never admit it."
I smiled as I recalled my college interlude with Pam. She was the second, and last woman I'd had a relationship with, if you could call it that. I'd been wildly attracted to her. She was a study of contrasts – petite, but tough; beautiful, but hard; and most of all, she was sexy as hell. It had been fun while it lasted, but I could admit to myself that I wasn't cut out to be with women forever.
"My boyfriends have had backbones!" I exclaimed. "They don't do everything I tell them to do."
"Oh really?" Sookie asked amusedly. "You're telling me that Tray Dawson went out and sold his prized motorcycle on a whim?"
"Well," I said, biting my lower lip. "He realized that it was bad for the environment."
"All by himself?"
"I may have taken him to a lecture about it," I said, shrugging my shoulders.
"Is that how you got him to shave the beard he'd had for five years?"
"It was itchy!" I said defensively.
"Amelia, you know I love you, but you have a habit of dating men that can't resist you. You're like a beautiful little witch, weaving your spells around everyone around you. Maybe you've finally met your match."
"Pfft," I said. Stavros Kostopolous was hardly my match. Yes, I had pined over him for years, but who didn't have someone like that in their life? He was my first love, my first lover. That didn't make him my match. I could have any man I wanted, Stav included. I'd had him once, it'd be easy enough to get him again. "He's not my match. I hardly even noticed him."
"That's why you rushed home and called me Ames? Because you didn't notice him?"
"Shut up," I said, throwing my arms in the air. "You would think that my best friend would support me!"
"I do support you. I am supporting you. Look, Ames, I'm just saying that you need to think about what he said. He didn't say no, he said not the way you wanted it. If you like him – and God knows you've been thinking about the elusive Stavros Kostopolous since I met you – then you need to tell him."
"Very enlightened Miss I've-Don't-Need-A-Boyfriend," I teased.
"Hey, what can you expect? I'm not too eager to jump into the dating pool after the mockery of a relationship I had with John Quinn. But this isn't about me. It's about you. Either decide to play his game, or find someone else to play with."
She was right. Of course she was. Sookie was always right. It didn't make it any easier to swallow though. I wasn't about to go run panting at Stav's feet. I wasn't that type of woman, and as much as I didn't respect men that did that to me, I didn't think Stav would respect me for doing it back. No. It would be a game, a battle of wills; I knew I could win; it would just take a little more planning than usual.
.
By eleven o'clock the next morning, I had come up with a plan. He hadn't shown up at ten, but then again I hadn't expected him to – he'd said as much.
I checked myself in the mirror one last time, ensuring that nothing was out of place. Soldiers donned armor; I donned a bikini. I knew my strengths. Everything looked exactly as I wanted it to. Sweet and innocent to the casual bystander, but I knew that once I was on the beach and my cover up was removed, those would be the last two adjectives any red blooded male would think.
Stav's family lived close to the Carmichael villa, something that had been as convenient ten years ago as it was today. I couldn't be sure that he'd be staying at his parent's house, but I could be almost certain that he'd make his way over there today, and what better place for me to take in the sun than on the stretch of beach outside of the villas? More appropriately, the stretch right outside their window?
The beach was busy, though not as busy as the rest of the beaches on Mykonos. There was something to be said for the secluded stretch of beach that serviced the grand villas that circled it. I quickly located a vacant spot and set up shop. I wasn't one of those fussy women that needed a cabana and an umbrella to enjoy the beach. I liked to commune with nature, to feel the hot sand beneath me as the sun beat down on my skin.
I had just stripped off my cover up when I heard a deep cough beside me. I turned my shaded eyes to the source and smiled. This was going to be easier than I thought.
"Funny running into you here," I said coyly, reaching into my beach bag and pulling out my bottle of sun block. I needed something to distract me from the way he looked in his board shorts. His body was better than I had remembered; better than I had imagined last night under all those clothes. He was sculpted like a Greek statue, which probably wasn't too far off.
"Yes, amazing that I'd be right outside my parent's house, isn't it? Or had you forgotten?" Stav asked, his eyes watching closely as I smoothed the lotion over my legs.
I shrugged and continued to rub the lotion in. "It's a great spot for sun."
"Mmm hmm," he said. "Is that all?"
"Whatever do you mean?" I asked innocently.
"I didn't show up."
"I noticed." I turned my head to concentrate on my sun block, not wanting my face to give anything away.
He didn't say anything. I heard him lower himself onto the beach next to me and looked over to see him watching me with hooded eyes.
"Where's Adrian?"
"I wouldn't know," I answered, turning to face him. "He walked me home and that's the last I saw of him." Actually, I knew exactly where he was, since he'd insisted on texting me his every move all morning. He was down at Paradise Beach, enjoying the party as much as he could since I wasn't there. I was pretty sure he'd find another way to occupy himself.
"That was considerate of him," he said with a smirk.
"It was, wasn't it? Some men still have manners."
He threw his head back in laughter. "Is that your way of insinuating that I don't?"
"If the shoe fits," I said with a shrug. "You're the one who left without saying goodbye last night."
"After you propositioned me. I'd say fair is fair."
"I'm a woman who knows what I want," I replied, feeling myself flush with anger. I hadn't come out here to be rejected. "If you didn't like the offer, all you had to do was say so."
His eyes darkened, his face becoming serious. "I didn't say I didn't like the offer Amelia. It took everything I had in me to stand up and walk away from you, but I wasn't kidding. You and me, there's something there; something more than a casual flirtation. I don't want be another conquest."
Whatever I'd been expecting, it hadn't been that. Not even close. I couldn't think of anything to say that would be an appropriate response.
"I know what I want, just like you," he continued. "And I know what I don't want. I don't want a week with you. I want more."
My hands stilled from their application of sun block as I processed his words. He couldn't have possibly been serious that he wanted more, could he? We hadn't seen each other in ten years. You didn't go from virtual strangers to a couple overnight. That just didn't happen.
"Lay down," he commanded, taking the bottle of sun block from my still hands.
I looked up at him with wide eyes, grateful that the dark lenses of my sunglasses gave me something to hide behind. "What?"
"Lay down," he said with a smile, waving the bottle in front of me. "I'll get your back."
I stared at him, looking back and forth between his eyes and the bottle in his hand before doing exactly what he commanded. So much for having a backbone.
I gasped when the cold lotion hit my skin, and had to stifle a groan when his deft fingers ran over my back. It was the single most sensual feeling I'd had in as long as I could remember. The strength of his hands was overwhelming as they ran across my back, massaging the lotion along my spine. Maybe I wasn't as immune to him as I thought. Maybe there was a reason that life had thrown us together again. It had been a ridiculous promise, a decade old, but maybe the fates were trying to tell me something.
"You're beautiful Amelia," he said, his voice close to my ear. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my body not to respond. I had thought that coming down here, wearing this little bikini would give me the advantage, but that had been taken away the minute he touched me. "More beautiful than I remembered," he continued. His hands lowered, stilling when they came to the tie at my back. I felt him untie the bow I'd haphazardly tied, and groaned when I felt him blow cool air on my spine.
"I wouldn't want you to get a tan line," he said, his voice back at my ear as his hands continued to tease their way down my back.
"Of course not," I said, my voice sounding smaller than I would have liked. Jesus, the man was able to twist me up into knots without even trying hard. I wasn't sure that I liked it.
"Do you remember when we went out on Dad's boat?" he asked, his fingers dancing along the sensitive skin at my side. "Just the two of us?"
How could I forget? That had been a life changing moment for my sixteen year old self. I nodded.
"You were wearing that hideous hot pink bikini." I smiled as I remembered. It had been hideous, not that I'd known at the time. It had been featured in Vogue; how could anything in Vogue be that bad?
"It was quite atrocious wasn't it?" I asked.
"Mmm. The only good thing about it was that it was easy to take off." He had worked his way up to my neck and shoulders, not even stopping as he untied the string there. "Almost as easy as this one." His breath was hot on my ear, sending shivers down my spine.
There was only way to respond to this kind of heat, and that was to turn up the fire. I turned my head, propping myself up on my elbows and letting the untied strings and triangles flutter to the ground below me. "You always did have a way of getting me naked."
I pushed myself up until I was sitting back on my feet, smiling with satisfaction as his eyes lowered by my bare breasts. He had seen it before, albeit years ago; and I wasn't the only woman who had elected to go topless on this beach, even if the decision hadn't been entirely mine.
"I have my talents," he said, dragging his eyes back to meet mine.
"Yes you do," I said with as much gumption as I could muster. I had found my footing and felt I was back on equal ground with him. Almost. You can never truly be on equal footing when you're topless – someone always had the advantage, and usually it was me. But not this time. I had to do something to turn the tables, and I wanted to see how far he was willing to take this. "Would you mind getting my chest?" I asked innocently.
"What?" he asked, his eyes bulging.
"My chest," I said with a smirk. Maybe I could regain the control after all. Unless he agreed to my proposal, in which case I'd be a lost cause for sure. "I would hate for it to get sunburned. And since you did such a thorough job on my back…" I trailed off with a shrug.
He looked around at the other beachgoers, none of whom were paying us any attention. There was nothing out of the ordinary happening between us, at least not to the bare eye. We were two adults on the beach. To any passersby, we would have looked like your average couple.
I saw his Adams apple bobble as he swallowed visibly and sat back. "There are probably laws about that," he said.
"About putting sunblock on someone?" I asked innocently. "My, this is a different world."
He shook his head and smiled. "I think the family over there," he nodded towards a mother with two small children, "might object to it."
"Oh! They're pro sunburn?" I teased.
"No you silly minx," he said with a laugh. "I just think they'd object to my method of application."
"Whatever do you mean?" I smirked.
"I take my duties as a member of the anti sunburn party very seriously," he said with mock solemnity. "And everyone knows that the best application of sunblock is in two parts. First, with your hands." He reached out and traced my clavicle with his finger tips, leaning in until his face was inches from mine.
"Yes?" I asked breathlessly. Shit. Maybe this plan wasn't going to give me the advantage. "What's the second part? You use your hands and then…?"
"Then, I use my mouth," he said. Before I could even think, his lips was on mine. He smiled and pushed my sunglasses off my eyes as I emitted a small whimper, his tongue pressing against the edge of my lips to seek entrance. I was putty in his hands, unable to do anything other than give into the sensation of his hot mouth against mine as the sun beat down around us.
I squirmed closer to him, wanting more, needing full contact. At that moment I didn't care who was watching, or that I was giving in on my game so easily. It felt right; it felt perfect. There was nothing in the world other than this man from my past.
"Stav!" I cried out when he pulled away, running a hand down the side of my face.
He chuckled and shook his head. "There is plenty of time for that Amelia," he said. "But now is not the time or place." He inclined his head towards the people around us, many of whom looked a lot more interested in us after our public display.
"Then let's go back to my villa," I said, reaching to grab my bag. "No one is there."
He reached out and grabbed my wrists, stopping me from packing. "No," he said.
"No?" I asked, shaking my head to clear it. "You don't want to…?"
"Believe me," he said. "I do. More than anything. But I told you last night that I am not going to be a fling for you; and you are not going to be a fling for me. We need to build the anticipation, let ourselves stew for awhile. Hopping into bed right now wouldn't be a wise decision."
"It sounds like a brilliant idea to me," I said petulantly. "We're adults. Why do we have to pretend we don't want each other?"
"I'm not pretending I don't want you Amelia, because God knows that I do," he said, his hand traveling up my neck until he came to my chin. He tilted my face up to meet his. "But that isn't the game we're playing this time around."
"Then what game are we playing?" I asked.
He shook his head and smiled, refusing to answer my question. I felt like a giant ball of confusion and anxiety. I wasn't used to being like this; I didn't like not being in control of the situation, but God help me, there was nothing more that I wanted than to stay with this man.
"Have dinner with me tonight," he commanded.
"Do you think you can just order me around like that?" I asked defiantly.
He shrugged, not releasing my chin from his grip. "It's not an order."
"Sounded like it to me," I said.
He looked into my eyes, the barrier of my sunglasses long forgotten next to me. I felt naked; more naked than I was. He was looking into me, not just at me.
"You'll be there," he said with a smile. "Be ready at eight."
And for the second time in twelve hours, he was gone.
