The sun was well up when she woke the next day. She yawned and stretched and rubbed her eyes and forgot for a moment that Stefan had come back. She realized it mid-yawn and she turned her head to look at the other side of the bed. What she saw made her jaw snap shut and she sat there staring in disbelief. Not only was he still there - enough of a shock in itself - but he was lying in a beam of sunlight and he was sparkling. Not just a little bit, but sparkling as if he were covered in rhinestones. It was even reflecting off the wall like those mirror balls they have in dance clubs. She couldn't take her eyes off of him and as she stared he started to get nervous; he couldn't tell if she was fascinated or horrified.

"This is me" he said. "No more secrets"

"No more secrets" she repeated "Oh Stefan, you're beautiful!"

His smile could have lit up the room. He was at a loss for words and so he pulled her close and kissed her. She reached out to touch his face, awed by the effect of the sun on him.

"So this is why you can't go out in the sun. It doesn't hurt, does it?"

"No" he said, wrapping a strand of her hair around his finger as he waited for the next question.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Old. I have walked the earth for centuries"

"Seriously? Now you're going to get all vampiry and cryptic? How many centuries?"

"More than one hundred. I no longer keep track" he said.

"More than 100 centuries?" she exclaimed, blinking her eyes in astonishment.

"Is that going to be a problem for you?" he asked, his eyes hooded and full of lust. He knew damn well she couldn't resist that look.

"No, it's not a problem. Don't you get bored?" she said curiously. Stefan laughed at that.

"I suppose sometimes, but there are a lot of things you can learn. I find ways to keep busy. For instance, I'm an excellent cook" he said, eyeing her stomach as it let out a very loud growl. She blushed and he pulled her up, tossing her an oversized shirt to throw on. He pulled on his pants and then took her by the hand, leading her out to the kitchen. He sat her down and proceeded to make her breakfast as she peppered him with questions.

"Have you been alone all this time?" she asked as he cooked.

"No. Long ago I had a family, I was part of a coven. We were…powerful. There were twelve of us, we didn't hide who we were back then."

"Where are they now?"

"Gone, for many years. There are only two of us left"

"Have you ever been married?"

"I had a mate. She was killed" he said it quickly and Charlotte left it alone.

"Are your eyes red because you drink blood?" she said to change the subject as he set the plate of hot food in front of her. She looked at him curiously as she ate.

"Yes" he said, his eyebrows furrowed as he gave her a very quizzical look.

"What?" she said, chewing a mouthful of omelette.

"You continue to surprise me, that's all" he said

"Why? What did I do?"

"It doesn't bother you? My diet?" he aske her.

"Why should it? You have to eat too. Does it bother you that it doesn't bother me?"

"Of course not. It's not the usual reaction we get, that's all"

"I'm guessing most of the people that find out don't live long enough to tell the tale. Unless I'm your next meal it's got nothing to do with me." She said, shrugging her shoulders.

"People die everyday, Stefan. Sometimes they go peacefully in their sleep, sometimes they get run down by a drunk driver, or get caught in the crossfire of a shoot out, or get abducted and raped and murdered. It's a crappy world we live in, what you do to survive is barely a blip on the radar, really" she said as she ate hungrily.

He watched her as she devoured her breakfast. She amazed him. She seemed so innocent and naïve but when she found out the truth she wasn't disgusted; only curious. She blushed when he called her beautiful but did anything he asked in the bedroom with total abandonment. She wasn't like anyone he had ever met before. He'd been asleep for centuries without realizing it until she came along and woke him up. When she finished her meal they retired to the living room and sat on the sofa. She cuddled up under his arm and for a time they were content to just be together. Eventually though, her curiosity took over again.

"So what's going to happen to us now?" she asked him.

"Right this second? I have a few ideas" he said

"Come on Stefan, I'm serious. What now? Do we just continue the way we've been going until I'm old and wrinkled and you don't want me anymore?"

"That's not something we need to worry about just yet" he said.

"I am worried about it; how could I not be? The way things stand at some point I'll lose you, and you'll lose me. I don't want that to happen, do you?"

Stefan was quiet and she held her breath waiting for his response.

"No" he said finally "No, I don't want that to happen" He sounded sad, almost defeated and it broke her heart to hear that in his voice. She turned to him and smiled, trying to let all her love show as she looked into his eyes.

"There's a way to fix it, isn't there?" she said "You can make me like you"

He looked at her for a good long while before he spoke. What she was asking for was not something to be decided after a moments thought. What she said was true, they would lose each other eventually unless he turned her. He should let her go now, just walk away…but as he looked into her eyes he knew that would never be an option. She was his world now and he never wanted to let her go.

"If that is truly what you want, I would consider it. You must understand this would mean leaving everyone you know behind. Your friends, your family…they would have to believe you were dead. That isn't something to be taken lightly" he softened his words with a kiss on the tip of her nose.

"I know and it would be very hard to do, but living without you would be unbearable. If I have to chose one or the other, then it's not even a contest. You are everything to me"

"And you are everything to me, but we don't have to decide this today. Not when there's so many other decisions to be made"

"Like what?" she asked.

"Like do I start at the top and work my way down? Or do I start at the bottom and work my way up?" He said as he pushed her back on the sofa and leaned over her. And then he proceeded to make her forget the question. After as they lay together, he propped his head up on one arm and looked at her.

"Tell me something" he said.

"What's that?"

"How did you figure it out? What I am" he asked.

"Natasha mostly" she said

"Natasha? She never said anything"

"Oh not when I saw her with you, after" she said.

"What?!" he said, sitting up abruptly. "You saw Natasha again? Where? When?"

So she told him about the night before and her encounter with Natasha. How she had pulled the man back with amazing strength; the way she had called her 'human', and everything she had said, or what she could remember anyway. A lot had happened that night. As she spoke Stefan got up and started to pace. He was clearly agitated and Charlotte thought she knew why.

"Calm down Stefan. She told me you two used to be together, but it doesn't matter. You are mine now and what happened in the past means nothing. Unless you still have feelings for her?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Natasha is the last person I want to be with"

"Are you sure? She's so beautiful" Charlotte said. She knew Stefan loved her, but still…Natasha was stunning. He stopped pacing and looked at Charlotte, shaking his head.

"Natasha was a mistake. A very large mistake that I made. When I found her dying by the side of the road and saw how beautiful she was I thought…well, I thought if I turned her I could make her fall in love with me before…" he trailed off.

"Before what?" she said, burning with curiosity.

"Before she found somebody better" he said. Charlotte scoffed.

"There is nobody better. How could you even think that?" she said. He gave her a bitter smile.

"My love, you are biased. It's wonderful that you love me but part of your attraction to me is because of what I am. It's sort of how we're designed. In my world though, I'm not exactly considered a great catch. Natasha is a nasty piece of work. I might have turned her into a vampire, but she was already a monster. I suspect she was only with me because she was grateful. It didn't take her long to realize there were better options and she left me"

"I'm sorry. She did say you were her first love, if that makes you feel any better. She also said something about having her eye on someone. Maybe if she finds the perfect guy she'll be nicer. It's amazing what being with the right person does for your disposition" she said.

"That could be dangerous depending on who she's talking about. Did she mention a name?"

"No" she said "Well, she said a funny word I've never heard, I don't know if it was a person or a place"

"What did she say?"

"I'm not sure I remember correctly. It started with a 'v'…. volume, Volkswagen…something like that"

"Volturi?" Stefan said

"Yeah, that was it. What's a Volturi?"

"The Volturi are the most powerful coven. They are the ones that decide on the rules all vampires must obey, and they are very good at enforcing them. There are those among us that have special powers. The Volturi like to collect those vampires and bring them into their circle. I have a few friends that they keep an eye on. They are also the ones that destroyed my home and killed my friends. Of the twelve of us, only Vladimir and I survived. If Natasha has gone to the Volturi we may both be in grave danger. There is someone I need to talk to, I'm sorry I have to go"

"What? You just got here! Oh Stefan do you have to? Can't you just call them?"

He took her in his arms and kissed her until she was breathless.

"I'm sorry but I need to see them in person. I'll only be gone a few days I promise I'll be back before you know it"

"You'd better" she said, pouting slightly. He gave her one last kiss and then he was gone. Charlotte sighed and went to go clean the kitchen to keep busy. She spent the next couple of days doing what she could to keep busy. Her nights she spent looking at the stars until she couldn't keep her eyes open.

After three days of being alone and having nothing to do but think, she went over every detail she could think of, trying to talk herself out of wanting to be like him. She couldn't do it, no matter what it always came back to how she felt. She understood now why people search and search for love. She found it, really found it, and she had no intention of letting it go. Forever was a long time but if she could spend it with Stefan then she welcomed it. She called her work and thanked them for being so patient but she wouldn't be returning. She had lunch with Samantha and told her that she had been looking into working overseas. She didn't want Sam to know Stefan had come back so she had to pretend to be sad which wasn't easy. On the third night of him being gone she did something she hadn't done for a while. She went to the roof of the apartment. She hadn't done it since meeting him because she was afraid she'd miss out if he came to her apartment and she wasn't home.

She climbed the stairs to the roof and walked over to her usual spot. As far as she knew she was the only tenant who knew the door was never locked. She liked it up there, especially at night. The moon was just coming up and it was full. It would be a brilliant bright white when it rose higher in the sky, but for now it still had that orange glow it sometimes had as it hovered above the horizon. It almost didn't look real, like a painting. She wished, as she had before, that she had a camera.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" came a voice from the shadow. She jumped and whirled around, her heart racing. She knew that voice.

"Stefan!"

He was leaning against the door to the stairwell. God, he was hot. She couldn't help it; he made her want to be bad.

"How did you get up here?" she asked. He started towards her, slowly, taking his time…looking at her with unbridled lust his eyes as he took each step.

"The same way you did" he said as he walked closer.

"I mean how did you know where I was?" she said, her voice faltered a bit as he finally reached her. He was still staring into her eyes, giving her a smoldering look. He buried his face into her neck and nuzzled it for a moment.

"I smelled your perfume" he whispered. Just the sound of his voice turned her on so much. Foreplay be damned, she wanted him right now. He had other ideas, though.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Long and deep, she closed her eyes and put everything she had into that kiss and he responded just as passionately. After a while…hours, seconds...she didn't know, he pulled back and gave her that same look. He pulled her shirt over her head, undid her bra and took that off too. Then he took off her pants and underwear. She stood there naked as the breeze wafted across her supple skin. She lived in a low-rise apartment and even though they were on the roof, anyone from the neighboring buildings could have been watching. She was scared and excited at the same time.

He reached behind his back and pulled something from his pocket. It was a piece of silken rope and a blindfold. He moved her over to the wall that held the air conditioning unit and pushed her back until she was pressed against it. The brick was cold and rough against her naked body. He took her wrists and brought them above her head. She felt the smooth rope as he looped it over and then tied it to something above her head. Her arms rose up as he tightened it. She squirmed a bit, but she was his willing captive. How did he know? How did he make her feel so excited to be so vulnerable? Each time they were together he awakened something new.

He slipped the blindfold over her eyes and she tilted her head back. Wanting his kiss, wanting his touch, wanting him so badly she was shaking. But for a minute there was nothing. No touch, no voice…nothing. He wouldn't dare!

"Stefan?" she called out.

"I'm here" came his voice in her right ear. She whipped her head around toward the sound but before she could even finish that move his voice came again, from the other side. Would she ever get used to him moving that fast?

"Do you trust me?" he said. A little late to ask that since she was tied up and at his mercy.

"Of course" she said and gasped as his fingers brushed over her breast. He touched her like that, soft and fleeting, for a good long while. A light brush across her inner thigh, then he pulled back; then a sudden cupping of her breast, his thumb brushing her hard nipple. She turned her head from side to side, trying to anticipate where he would touch next. Then she felt something soft caress her, up and down her side, tickling and making her gasp and jump with every touch. Her mind eventually identified it as a feather. He continued down, over her hip and thigh, across the knee and down her calf. He ran it lightly over her toes and across the top of her foot, then started back up, this time he went up her inner leg, repeating the pattern…calf, knee, thigh. Her head tilted back as she let the sensation wash over her. He bypassed her mound and she let out a sigh of yearning. This made him smile, though she couldn't see it, as he moved the feather up in agonizingly slow, sensual strokes. Across her belly, making her stomach muscles contract involuntarily, then up over her ribcage as she squirmed and jumped, then between her breasts.

"Your choice" his voice whispered in her ear "left or right".

"What?" she asked. She was concentrating on the sensations that at first she didn't understand the question. So he clarified. Taking the feather, he circled her breast with it.

"The right one" he said, then he moved the feather over and circled the other breast.

"Or the left one" Then he brushed it over each nipple, back and forth until she answered. Not really caring which one she said "left"

"Are you sure?" he said as his fingers found the nipple. He alternated between touching and squeezing gently with his fingers and teasing it with the feather until she arched her back and turned slightly, giving him better access. He stopped then and let her squirm for a few moments, and then without warning, he attacked her right breast. Not what she was expecting and she cried out "OH" as his mouth found her nipple. He sucked the hard nub and taking it between his teeth he nipped lightly and ran his tongue over the sensitive flesh. His hand found her other breast and began to alternate between the two, licking and biting at her nipples and caressing the soft flesh until she moaned out loud. He started to kiss her then, his fingers tugging at her nipples as their tongues danced together. She leaned into him as far as her restraints would let her and rubbed against him. He was still fully clothed and she longed to feel his naked skin against hers.

"Stefan, please…I want you so badly" she said between kisses. He ignored her and continued his assault on her mouth, his hands running over every inch of her he could reach as he bruised her lips with his. When he finally pulled back she was sure he was getting naked, she loved to look at him but the blindfold made that impossible so she imagined it instead. 'Wrong again' she managed to think as his hands circled her waist and he spun her around so that she was now facing the wall, her arms, still tied, were now crossed at the wrists and her tender nipples scraped across the roughness of the brick. He pulled gently on her hips until only the top half of her was pressed against the wall. She stood with her feet apart so her legs were spread and closed her eyes. A gust of wind washed over her and she shivered. She had been concentrating so hard on what he was doing that she had forgotten where they were and the wind combined with the fact that anyone could be watching made the thought bubble to the surface. She was about to open her mouth and suggest that they take this inside when she felt his fingers between her legs. With one stroke he parted her lips and ran his thick finger the entire length of her velvet fold, when he reached her clit he flicked it and she jumped. Chuckling. he did it again…and again…and again. Each flick of his fingertip produced a sound from her, a sharp intake of breath, a groan, a soft 'oooohhhhh' as she exhaled. When she was at her breaking point, when she was bucking and arching and pulling at her bound hands, he put two fingers inside of her. The reaction was instant. She arched her back as goosebumps broke out over every inch of her. Her breathing came faster and his fingers moved to match. In and out, over and over as she panted and moaned and felt the orgasm build until it broke and rolled over her.

He never stopped touching her. Even as her body relaxed he caressed her with his hands and his lips. He kissed down the entire length of her spine as his fingers found her nipples again and played with them. He nibbled on her earlobe and kissed her neck and ran his fingers through her hair and when she was ready, he reached down and touched her mound again. The teasing and touching and orgasm had made her wetter than she'd ever been. Still rubbing her slit with one hand, he removed the blindfold with the other. She was still facing the wall and when he brought his finger, glistening with her wetness to her mouth she didn't hesitate. She took it between her lips and sucked it in, her tongue eagerly licking the moisture. He removed his finger and he leaned against her, pressing her into the hard surface of the wall, his tongue tickled and nibbled at her earlobe as he whispered dirty things. He was hard, rock hard and she could feel it through his clothing as he rubbed against her. She pushed back and whimpered, wanting him more than she ever had before. The anticipation of feeling him inside of her was driving her wild until finally she begged him to take her. He unzipped his pants and took out his member, rubbing it along her slit until he found the opening and then with one long, hard thrust; he was inside of her. The feeling of his cool flesh against the hot wetness of hers was indescribable as he pounded into her. The moans, the slapping sound of skin on skin, the roughness of the brick as she was pushed against it and his hands; his incredibly talented hands that constantly roamed over every inch of her. There were so many things going on at once she wasn't able to think straight. Between his fingers, his voice and his hard penetration civility went out the window. They were like savage beasts as they joined together and the sounds they made reflected that. Then he grabbed her wrists and with one long hard thrust he came inside of her. They stood like that for a while and then she felt him slowly slip out. He lowered her arms and untied her hands, then he picked her up and carried her down to her apartment. Thankfully they met no one on the stairs or she would have had some explaining to do. He laid her on the sofa and found a blanket to cover her with; then snuggled in beside her.

"Thank you" he said.

"For what?" she asked him curiously. After what just happened on the roof she was pretty sure she should be thanking him.

"For letting me love you. For the first time in more centuries than I care to remember, I feel alive, because of you"

She held him close and thought she might explode she was so happy. There were still questions that needed to be asked and there were dangers to be faced but for the moment, everything was perfect and there was nothing that could ruin it. She should have known better.

Stefan's cell rang and it stood to answer it. All she heard was a few mumbled phrases "I see" and "when". He hung up and when he turned to face her, her euphoria turned to fear.

"They are coming" was all he said.