Stone Lover (25 page)

    “No!” Armand protested loudly. While Vaughn didn’t flinch, Melanie balked at the hostility in his voice.  “Absolutely not, Vaughn. I will not allow you to do this.”

    “You don’t have a choice, brother,” Vaughn murmured, never taking his eyes from Melanie. Speaking to her, he asked, “You know that we are gargoyles when the sun is up just as we are men at night.” At her nod, he took a breath, “There’s a… ritual that allows me to walk as a man during the day….”

    “Yes,” she said, quickly.

    “No,” Armand countered again. “You are asking too much of him.”

    “She hasn’t asked at all,” Vaughn gently reminded his brother. “I’m offering.”

    “She doesn’t know the cost….” Armand argued.

    “She is right here,” Melanie interrupted. Looking at Armand, she met his gaze and held it, determination set in her eyes. “And I’ll pay whatever the cost to have him by my side.”

    “I will not allow you to give up your nights for her!” Armand ground out, his eyes going to Vaughn, almost pleading.

    “It’s not your decision to make,” Vaughn said calmly. Armand made a sound at the back of his throat but Vaughn spoke first, “Leave, and I’ll explain the ritual to Melanie.”

    With a frustrated growl, Armand stormed to the door, “I wash my hands of it but when it shatters, and it will shatter, I will not hold it against you, Vaughn.”

    “Thank you,” Vaughn murmured, sighing in relief.

    “I’ll hold it against her,” Armand snarled, leaving the entryway and slamming the door behind him.

    “What does he mean by giving up your nights?” Melanie asked in a soft voice, her eyes still on the door that Armand had just stalked through.

    “Nothing,” Vaughn lied, brushing her hair from her face.

    She turned her head to face him, “What kind of ritual is it?”

    “One that will give you protection,” he answered, bending down and lightly kissing her on the nose. “If you can pay the price.”

    “Am I to be a sacrifice?” she teased, still feeling the lingering effects of sprite intoxication though it was more of a warm glow instead of champagne bubbles.

    “Yes,” he growled, kissing the corner of her mouth. Her eyes slid close as his teeth grazed her bottom lip. “I spend the night making love to you.”

    “That’s not much of a sacrifice,” she said, her words ending on a moan as his hand covered her breast and he squeezed.  “When can we do it?”

    “Tomorrow,” he said. At her look of chagrin, he chuckled, “The new moon is tomorrow, which is when my… magic is the most powerful. Unless you’d rather….”

    “No,” she quickly answered before the question was even out of his mouth; she could wait one more day to make the most of the lunar cycle. “How does it work?”

    “We will be joined from sun down to sun up,” he murmured, kissing the corner of her mouth. “And when dawn comes, I will remain a man.”

    “I can’t wait,” she beamed, her smile blinding in its beauty.

     Naked and vibrating with nerves and arousal, Melanie stared at the huge gargoyle that loomed over her, her eyes wide in her face. She knew that it was Vaughn but it was still strange seeing his gargoyle form animated. At first, she had to focus on him to watch his movement and see the change. Even as her brain registered that he moved, her mind still wanted to cling to the belief that he was a statue. It had taken several long minutes before she adjusted and she was able to see past the illusion with no effort at all.

     He made her small apartment look even smaller, which was not something she thought possible. As a man, he filled up the space with his magnetism, as a gargoyle, he filled it up with his huge, magnificent body. He was unutterably beautiful, his leonine face gazing at her with desire, his marble body even more perfect now that she knew him. The muscles of his stone body didn’t ripple as he moved but his movements were graceful and elegant.

  
 
When he had spread his glorious wings, she nearly swooned with craving of him; how could one woman get so lucky as to love a gargoyle and a man and have the two be the same being? She almost wished she had more time with him as a gargoyle, though; in spite of her nearly debilitating fear of heights, it would have been exhilarating to fly in his arms, watching the world drift below them as they soared. She wondered if they would have been able to make love while in flight. Well, if he weren’t so very, very well endowed.

    Her eyes drifted to the stone penis between his legs. There was no way that she would be able to have sex with him in his gargoyle form; he was too huge. Colossal. Gigantic. Monstrous. As she stared, it grew impossibly bigger, stretching towards her and sticking out from beneath his carved stomach like a baseball bat; just as long and just as thick. No, his erection was thicker.

    He would never fit as a gargoyle.

    Licking her lips with the tip of her tongue, she reached out and stroked her hand along his face. His eyes closed in yearning and a low purr of contentment graveled from the back of his throat. She was surprised that he retained his spicy, Vaughn scent as a gargoyle, something she hadn’t known until he filled the tiny space of her apartment. On the roof, his scent had been overpowered by all of the smells of the city otherwise she would have recognized him that first night.

    “Are you ready?” he rasped in his rough voice. The first time she heard him speak as a gargoyle, when she wasn’t suffering the after-shocks of nearly splattering on the sidewalk, tendrils of flames licked her body and she nearly came on the spot; the coarse timbre simply made her melt; Vaughn simply made her melt.

    Instead of answering in words, she wrapped her arms around his thick, marble neck and kissed him as she lead him to her bed. His lips were hard and his mouth enormous; her head could have fit in the large orifice. She ran her tongue along the sharp teeth before touching the tip of his stone tongue. He could devour her whole and yet, he kissed her tenderly and it was not unlike kissing a heated rock. She smiled at the thought even as he followed her down onto the bed, settling his hard, heavy body between her legs, supporting his weight on his forearms.

    “Are you sure about this?” he rasped, his warm breath moving over her lips.

    “Yes,” she breathed, staring up at his beautiful face, even as it slowly began to alter into the man she loved. The tip of his stone erection nudged against the outer lips of her vulva and she forced her body to remain relaxed, not knowing if the spell would work if he wasn’t in her the moment the sun went down. Her heart was thumping madly in her chest and her stomach clenched in anticipation; she was making love to a gargoyle. What if he didn’t change in time and tried to breach her with his baseball bat-sized cock? What if he tore her open, ripped her apart at the seams?

    “Breathe,” he rasped, his voice slightly less gravelly than just a moment before. 

    “I am breathing,” she said, sucking in a lungful of air and then smiling slightly at him as she remembered: this was Vaughn; he wouldn’t hurt her. “I am breathing.”

    His lips curled into a smile and his teeth shortened before her eyes, as his mouth shrank and his broad nose narrowed. Color leeched back into his stony, gray face until it was warm flesh once again. Golden hair sprouted from his head, falling around his face to his shoulders and making her heart skip a beat as she admired his sheer, masculine splendor.  Between her thighs, his boulder hewed hips narrowed and her legs weren’t so painfully spread apart. And as the last bits of his gargoyle features fell away, he drove his cock into her, arching her back off the bed as she came instantly.

    His soft chuckle brought her back and she smiled sheepishly up at him, “Wow; I didn’t expect that.”

    “The spell has begun.”

    Earlier, he had explained how it would work, letting her know that normal bodily functions would be suspended while they were connected. It had something to do with the spell and the magic that was binding them together. They would neither need to eat nor drink nor use the bathroom. She had blushed at the time but was happy to know she wouldn’t have to hold it in if she really had to go.

    He had also told her that she would be able to sleep if she grew tired, that the spell would work as long as they were joined. She had told him that there was no way she was going to be missing a moment of their joining, she was going to be with him all of the way. His wicked smile, which promised such exquisite pleasure, curved his lips, “I plan on exhausting you; you’ll need to sleep with the number of times I’m going to make you come.”

    He wasn’t going to come until the very end, the moment that the spell was complete. Luckily, it was part of the magic that kept his orgasm at bay while the ritual was in progress. She almost felt bad for him until he assured her the final orgasm was going to be pretty spectacular, though how he knew this when he had never cast the spell before she didn’t know.

    She ran her thumbs over his sculpted cheekbones, following the movement of her hands over his skin. With a smile, she met his gaze, “You are so beautiful, Vaughn.”

    “As a man or a gargoyle?” he asked, bending his head and nuzzling her neck, sending sparks of pleasure to shoot along her nerves. His big palm cupped her breast and he brushed his thumb over her taut nipple. Her womb contracted in response, squeezing around his cock making him hiss in pleasure.

    “Oh, as both,” she gasped, feeling the stirrings of another orgasm deep within her body. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest as her breathing became labored; Vaughn filled all of her senses and still she wanted more. With her fingers digging into his shoulders, she thrust her pelvis upwards as he pushed into her. He plunged deeply within her, tapping into the well of aching desire already building and she stiffened, crying out.

    Every muscle in her body went limp and she lay boneless beneath him as he continued his shallow thrusts, keeping her body primed. Her musk mingled with his and she just wanted to rub her body all over him, to mark him in some way like he had marked her.

    “I want to consume you, Melanie,” he rumbled against her throat a few minutes later, running his tongue along her vein and sending bolts of lightning along her skin until she was shivering in need. Reaching her ear, he sucked the lobe into the heated depths of his mouth and gently bit down, making her inhale sharply. “I want to take you into my body and keep you forever.”

    “Yes,” she agreed, bending her knees and feeling him glide even deeper into her. He was giving everything up to be human with her; holy crap that was a lot of pressure. If she hadn’t been desperately in love with him, she would have told him not to do it. But she had to be honest with herself that she was so glad he was doing it; she wanted to share him with her family. She just hoped his brothers, especially Armand, would be as accepting. Smiling up at him, she let her fingers play with the golden silk of his hair. “This works out pretty well, you know.”

    “How’s that?” he thrust slowly into her, just a gently rocking of his hips against hers.

    “My family is getting together this weekend and I wanted to invite you,” she explained, watching her hands move over his magnificent chest. His flesh was so hot beneath her palms, the muscles so solid; how she loved touching him. Meeting his gaze with a sparkle in her eyes, she teased, “It would have been nearly impossible if you were a gargoyle.”

    His smile held a trace of sadness, which she didn’t understand. Was he regretting giving up his gargoyle form? Oh, god, she should have taken more time to consider all of the ramifications of asking this of him. Another month wouldn’t have been that long to consider something so very important; she was so selfish!

    They had their whole lives together, why did she rush into this without giving him the time to really consider what he was doing, what they were doing. She would have been content to have him at night….

    “What is going through that beautiful head of yours, Melanie?” he asked, a smile in his voice. “I can see the gears spinning wildly out of control.”