It had to be the right one. If she had to stand here all day and look at every one of them, she'd do it until she found "the one".

Catherine Ryan returned the birthday card to the display rack and chose another one. Picking the right birthday card for her sister Anita always took time. Actually, picking the right cards took time because Catherine always bought two--a serious one and a funny one. She treasured her relationship with her sister, and it was important to her that the cards express how much Anita meant to her.

Ten cards later, Catherine found it. The picture on the front--a crystal vase filled with pink roses--was exactly the type of picture Anita would love. The caption said a simple, "Happy Birthday to My Sister." Hopefully, it didn't have one of those long, sappy verses inside the card. Catherine preferred something short and to the point, but she still wanted it to convey how she felt.

The sentiment inside the card brought a lump to Catherine's throat and tears to her eyes.

I wish I had the words to tell you how special you are to me. If I could choose anyone in the world to be my sister, it would be you. Happy birthday to my sister, and my best friend.

"Perfect," Catherine whispered.

Now, to find a funny one...and maybe just a bit naughty.

Finding a funny one didn't take nearly as long as finding a serious one. The picture of a sweet kitten on the front, combined with a raunchy verse inside, would make Anita laugh out loud. Smiling, Catherine clutched both cards in her hand and turned to make her way to the register.

A flash of purple caught her eye. A flash of purple always caught her eye for that was her favorite color. She could see just the top of a card on the bottom shelf of the display rack, hidden behind several other cards. Catherine frowned. She'd already looked at that row and she hadn't seen this card. There was no way she would've missed a purple card.

Unable to resist, she touched the part of the card that she could see. She felt...something. She didn't know how to describe it, but something electric, almost shocking, passed through her fingers.

Taking the card between her thumb and forefinger, Catherine slowly drew it out of the slot. The front was a deep, solid eggplant color with the words "Happy Birthday" in a flowing silver script scrawled across the front. There was nothing special about the card--no beautiful picture, no romantic saying, nothing that should draw her so intently to it, yet she felt compelled to look at it. Her fingers trembling, she opened the card, peered inside...and gasped.

It was him. Him. Her fantasy man. The man who filled her dreams at night, and her mind by day. The man she imagined in her life, in her bed, in her body.

She stared at the picture which took up the entire inside of the card. He reclined among rumpled white satin sheets, his torso propped up on several pillows. His handsome face was fan, with the beginning of a five-o'clock shadow covering his cheeks and chin. His deep brown eyes were half closed, a hint of a grin turned up the corners of his mouth. A corner of a sheet draped over his groin, but she could still see his bare hip. One arm was folded under his head, showing her his impressive biceps. Long, dark brown hair spread over the pillow. That same dark hair generously spread over his chest and tapered down his stomach until it disappeared beneath the sheet. Tanned legs, lightly sprinkled with dark hair, peeked out the other end of the sheet. His body was muscled in all the right places...not the muscles of a bodybuilder, but of a strong, healthy man.

The bulge in the sheet indicated that he didn't lack anything in that department.

"Do you need some help?" a feminine voice asked.

Catherine jumped and quickly closed the card. Her cheeks heated and her palms began to sweat as she turned to face the clerk. "Uh, no, I'm fine."

"Did you find everything you need?"

"Yes, yes, I did. I found the perfect cards for my sister. Her birthday is next week. She'd turning thirty-five and I'm having a wonderful time teasing her about it." Catherine knew she was rambling, but she couldn't seem to stop. She didn't think she'd ever been so embarrassed in her life. Getting caught drooling at a picture on a card was mortifying.

The clerk tilted her head and peered at the cards in Catherine's hands. "Oh, that's a pretty one," she said, tapping the card with the roses on it. "Does your sister like roses?"

"Yes, she does, very much."

"We have some heavenly rose-scented potpourri and candles that would go wonderful with that card."

Catherine realized the clerk was simply doing her job, but she wished the girl would just leave so she could look at her fantasy man again.

The clerk glanced down at Catherine's hands, and frowned slightly. "What's that?"

Catherine clutched the cards a bit tighter. "What's what?"

"That purple card. I don't remember that one."

"I, uh, I found it on the bottom row."

Without asking, the clerk slipped the card from Catherine's grasp. Losing the card made Catherine feel as if she'd just lost a friend. Her chest actually hurt.

"I restocked that row this morning. I've never seen this card." She turned it over and looked at the back. "It has our imprint, but I swear I've never seen it. How strange."

Trying not to seem rude, Catherine plucked the card out of the clerk's hand. "Well, you have so many, you probably just forgot this one."

"I guess."

The clerk didn't look convinced, but Catherine wasn't about to let go of her prize again. She put her hand with the cards behind her back. "I'm ready to check out please. And I'll take a bag of the rose potpourri and a dozen votives too."

The clerk smiled, obviously forgetting about the card with a larger sale on the horizon. "Wonderful. I'll get them for you and meet you at the register."

* * * * *

Catherine opened the card, laid it on the kitchen table, and stared at the picture one more time. She'd been looking at it most of the evening. She couldn't get over how much this man looked like the man of her dreams. It was as if someone had gone inside her head, taken the mental picture she carried, and copied it on this card. Even the sentiment written in small letters at the bottom gave her goose bumps. May all your dreams come true.

This was just too weird.

She touched his hair with one fingertip. She loved long hair on a man, especially dark brown hair like this. So much of it lay across the pillow, it had to be past his shoulders in length. Her fingertip traveled farther...over his arms, across his chest, down his stomach, stopping at the top of the sheet. She skipped over the enticing bulge at his groin and let her fingertip glide down his legs. The picture stopped at his knees, but she imagined his calves and feet were every bit as gorgeous as the rest of him.

The bulge beneath the sheet drew her attention once more. Peering around her kitchen first to make sure no one could see her, she touched that bulge with the barest tip of her finger. She drew a circle on it, over and over, wishing it could really be him she was touching. It had been so long since she'd touched a man, or had a man touch her...

Catherine snatched her hand away from the card as if it had suddenly turned into a hungry rattlesnake. Get a grip, Cat. It's just a picture. He isn't real. He'll never be real.

Disgusted with herself for her foolish action, Catherine rose and crossed the room to the refrigerator for something to drink. She took out a Pepsi, popped the top, and took a large drink. Despite her central air conditioning, she still felt warm and sticky. The weather had been so hot already, and it wasn't even the end of April. Summers in North Texas could be brutal, and it looked like this one would be every bit as hot as usual.

Her gaze wandered around the kitchen as she took another drink. She loved her house, and had worked so hard to make it truly hers. After her bum of a husband walked out on her, Catherine poured her heartache and anger into redecorating the small, two-bedroom house in the suburbs of Fort Worth. She'd done most of the work herself, hiring only those services done that she did not know how to do. She'd mixed cool pastels with deep jewel tones, creating a color scheme that made her feel proud of her accomplishments.

If only it would help her feel less lonely.

The card drew her attention once again. Catherine put her half-empty can in the refrigerator before wandering back to the table. She touched the face in the picture, rubbing her thumb across the handsome man's cheek.

"I wish you were real," she whispered.

With a final sigh, Catherine turned off the light and left the kitchen.

* * * * *

He rose through a thick fog until he stood on shaky legs. Finally, the woman he was destined to be with had found him. He'd lost all track of time during his imprisonment, so didn't know how long he'd waited...months, years, decades, centuries?

Stretching to loosen tight muscles, he looked around the room. He didn't recognize many of the items surrounding him, yet that didn't surprise him. Things had to have changed in the time while he waited for her. He'd catch up on everything, learn everything he had to know, with her.

Thinking of the things he wanted to do first with her caused the blood to rush to his cock. She'd dreamed of him for a long, long time. It was time he made those dreams come true.

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