Stone Solitude (26 page)

“Ah.” Since they were still in the parking lot, she took a moment to study him. His tongue swept across his lower lip, moistening the flesh and she wanted to bite it. It was hard to believe that he was her Roman and if she didn’t experience the same punch-gut sensation when he was around, she never would have believed it. This Roman was gorgeous.

Perversely, she almost missed his gargoyle face.

Dismissing the nostalgia for his beastly countenance, she pulled out of the parking lot and headed back towards the city, strangely nervous. Now that he no longer had a face he was ashamed of, Roman could go out into the world and actually have a life. He wouldn’t have to sleep in condemned buildings with only a demon for a friend or eat food that was unfit for human consumption. With his looks and magnetism, he could have any girl he wanted. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, seeing the strained expression on his too beautiful for words face. “What’s wrong?”

He offered her an uneasy smile before it quickly faded and his lips were pressed together in a straight line. His eyes darted around the car as he panted softly, “I don’t think I like automobiles.”

Immediately, she took her right hand off the wheel to offer comfort and his eyes nearly leapt out of his head. “Put your hands back on the wheel. Please.”

Instantly, her hands were back in place as a smile played about her lips. She didn’t want to smile but he was just too perfect and so seeing this hint of vulnerability made him even better. “Do you want me to turn on some music? It might help.”

“No,” he growled. “It will distract you from operating this death trap.”

She bit her lips until her eyes watered but it was no use and the smile escaped. After the last month, the flood of emotion got tangled up and laughter burst out as tears slipped down her cheeks. Brushing the tears away as she tried to contain the laughter was nearly impossible, especially while driving with a very tense Roman sitting next to her making strange noises. Momentarily defeated, she pulled the car off to the side of the road, grateful that her dad’s bar was in the middle of nowhere. Since the bar catered to a bunch of wolves who liked to blow off steam by running through the woods, a remote location made a lot of sense.

Turning the car off, she twisted in her seat until she faced Roman. “What do you suggest?”

He shook his head, his eyes never leaving her face, and they simply stared at each other for the longest, most heated moment. In the next heartbeat, they reached for one another and Daisy found herself on Roman’s lap, his heavy erection pressing against the swollen folds of her sex. His mouth was on hers and as his hands moved over her body, touching, stroking. Unable to get close enough to him, she slid her hands beneath the tight t-shirt he wore, feeling the warm heat of his skin.

He released her long enough to tug the shirt over his head, tossing it into the backseat before he wrapped his arm around the back of her neck and pulled her in for another kiss. Tearing his mouth from hers, he rasped, “Naked. Now.”

It was very awkward trying to strip in the small, enclosed space but nothing was going to keep her from getting naked. As she twisted and turned, pulling her clothes off and throwing them into the back seat, she kept her eyes on Roman as he lifted his hips off the seat and pushed his pants down his hard thighs. Wet and eager, she licked her lips when she saw he wasn’t wearing any underwear and his cock was hard and ready.

As soon as she was naked, she straddled his lap and started to lower herself onto his cock when he stopped her. Putting his hands on her hips, burning her skin with the heat of his hands, he slowly guided himself into her wet heat, holding her eyes the entire time. Her muscles stretched around him as he pushed into her. Unlike the first time they had sex, there was no pain, only pleasure, and the moment he was buried completely in the depths of her body, they both released the breaths they were holding.

She slowly rocked her hips, feeling him in the depths of her soul as he memorized her face. Every time she tried to go faster, he tightened his grip on her hips and slowed her back down. “Easy love.”

“It’s been a month,” she panted, feeling moisture covering her skin from being in an enclosed space, sharing the air with her lover. Instead of pushing for more, she kept up the leisurely pace. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized again, genuine remorse filling his eyes once more.

Putting her finger over his lips, putting her lips over the finger, she breathed against his mouth, “No more apologies, Roman. You’re here.”

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, his gaze moving over her face with rapt fascination. Unhurriedly, he dragged his fingers up her body, smoothing over the curve of her waist, the softness of her belly. Cupping her breast in his hand, he brushed his thumb over her nipple, all the while keeping his eyes on her face. “I want to spend the rest of eternity with you.”

“Yes,” she whispered, kissing him briefly before pushing her hands against his chest and leaning back as far as the small car would let her go. For the first time since she took her shirt off, his eyes dropped to her breasts and his breath hitched in his throat. Glancing at her briefly before turning his attention back to her heaving breasts, he sucked a nipple into his mouth. Pleasure so intense exploded in her brain and she grabbed his head to hold him to her, unwilling to ever lose the ecstasy of his mouth on her nipples.

“I’ve never tasted anything sweeter,” he rasped as he moved his mouth to her other nipple, making her groan.

Her hips jerked and his fingers tightened on her hip once more, keeping her steady. He released her nipple with a pop and then trailed his tongue along the curve of her breast and upwards along her throat. Again, the insane desire for him to bite her seized her, making her shiver. His mouth and tongue moved over her skin until his lips were next to her ear, his breath hot against her skin. “I’m going to worship your body, Daisy. When we have the space, I’m going to kiss every inch of your skin. I’m going to bring you to the heights of ecstasy with my tongue and then I’m going to fill you with my cock and push you over the edge, again and again and again. A dozen times, a hundred, until you’re delirious with pleasure.”

His whispered words wrapped around her and pushed her closer to orgasm. But he kept his pace slow, building her pleasure inch by inch, syllable by syllable. “Eternity won’t be long enough. Come, Daisy.”

She didn’t think she was quite there, but as he spoke, he reached between their bodies and pressed against her clit and she exploded with a cry. Waves of bliss washed over her and pulled her under as she felt him push into her one last time and stiffen. Collapsing against Roman’s damp chest, Daisy could barely catch her breath. His long fingers stroked through her hair as his heart thumped strong and true against her ear. They were naked in her fogged up car and she had never felt so happy in her life.

“I thought you had left me,” she whispered, unable to keep the words from slipping out. Pressing a kiss against his warm skin, keeping her eyes focused on nothing in particular, she stared at the empty driver’s seat. His hand stilled a moment and she continued, “It killed me because that wasn’t who I knew you to be. At first I worried that you had been hurt but there was never any mention of you on the news or through any of the paranormal channels so then I figured you got what you wanted and you decided it was time to move onto bigger and…more challenging prey.”

“I wish you hadn’t had to go through that,” he rasped, kissing the top of her head as his fingers continued to tangle in her hair. “I’m sorry.”

“I said no more apologies,” she said, closing her eyes and breathing in the clean, spicy scent of Roman. “Having you here now is more than enough.”

“I wish I hadn’t lost the month with you but I wouldn’t go back.” She felt his throat move as he swallowed and in an even rougher, more broken whisper, he said, “I never knew the color of your hair was a deep, lustrous brown with little strands of auburn, Daisy. I didn’t know the exact shade of your eyes, either, the little shards of moonbeams scattered within the silver. Before, everything was in black and white and shades of gray but I was okay with that because I had you. And then I woke up this evening and the only thing I wanted was to find you. The world was burning with color but I didn’t see anything until I saw you.”

Before he could say another word, her mouth was over his as love overfilled her chest. Returning the kiss with equal passion, his lips and tongue claimed her with each succulent kiss, each nip, each bite. His cock was still hard and she wanted him all over. Desperate, she moved against him but it just wasn’t enough. Sliding his hands down her body, he clutched her hips to guide her erratic movement and every time he pulled her down, he thrust upwards, slamming deeper and deeper into her body until she no longer knew where she ended and he began.

He was hers.

And she was his.

After checking into a luxury hotel in the city, they had wasted no time in tearing their clothes off and fucking. Now she lay sleeping peacefully in his arms and Roman never wanted to let her go. His heart continued to swiftly push blood through his body – his flesh and bone body – as he held Daisy. Holding her, breathing her in, he was almost at peace with his decision to end his pursuit of Isis, to have his vengeance. He’d have a family with Daisy. It wouldn’t matter if he was a statue during the day as long as he had Daisy at night. He’d keep her company while the wolves ran without her.

Waking up and realizing he was no longer a monster, the only thing he had wanted to do was find Daisy and claim her as a man and not a beast. Because he thought it had only been one night and not a month, he hadn’t questioned why Xerec was there, offering his assistance. Now that he’d had some time to think about it, Roman wondered how Xerec had known to be there the exact moment he had woken up. Knowing Xerec, the little demon probably spent most of his time hovering close by, keeping an eye on his statue while he had been frozen.

It hardly mattered because Xerec flashed them to the bar and without a second thought, Roman had entered and he had seen Daisy immediately. She had been sitting in a pool of light and his heart gave a little lurch before his legs took him where the rest of him wanted to go. Her eyes had widened with attraction and alarm and then he kissed her, claiming her in front of all of the other wolves.

Gods, it was good to finally kiss her and he could have kissed her all night, though he had no complaints about what happened in the miniscule car.

Damn it, he had lost a month and he hadn’t even been aware of the passage of time. Unlike every other time he had been in his gargoyle form, he had no concept of day or night or the weeks he had been stone. There had been no dreams or memories or fantasies involving a naked and moaning Daisy. Just… nothing and that concerned him because if he had been in the decrepit building he had called home for the past several years, his stone body would have been vandalized or possibly even destroyed.

“What are you thinking about that is creating such a gloomy expression?” Daisy murmured as she stirred in his arms. Reaching up, she pressed her thumb against the bridge of his nose and smoothed out the furrows.

“Nothing I want to think about,” he said, pushing his concern about the lost month aside. Running his hand along her smooth spine, he gave her a soft smile, “I’d rather concentrate on you.”

She snuggled deeper into his embrace and purred, “I’d like nothing more.”

Looking past her, he grimaced at the sight of the lightening sky. “It’s almost dawn.”

“We have a few minutes,” she said, her lower lip pushing out in an enticing pout as she focused on his mouth.

“You do tempt a man,” he grinned, bending his head and capturing her lips. He’d never get enough of her, her taste, her touch, her sweetness. “But I want more than a few minutes to fully savor you. What will you do while I’m immobile?”

Stretching, arching against him, she murmured, “I’ll probably drive out to
The Black Wolf
and pick up my school books.”

“You brought homework to the bar?”

“It was better than talking to anyone.” Grinning up at him, she added, “I was not someone you would have wanted to be around this past month.”

“I am so sorry about that, Daisy,” he apologized again but her finger was over his lips to stop him.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Her grin turned impish as she ran her foot against his leg, “Besides, you’re back now and that’s all that matters. The past month is forgotten.”

Or not even remembered.

Her stomach rumbled and she slammed a hand over her belly as bright pink flooded her cheeks, the sight so beautiful in full color. Sitting up, putting distance between them, she mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

He chuckled, “You should have told me you were hungry. We could have ordered room service.”

“I was hungry for something else,” she said. “And you more than sated me.”

Another growl came from her belly and he grinned as he picked up the phone. “You still need sustenance, especially if you plan on letting me devour you later on. Yes, I’d like a breakfast sent up. Room 1214. Eggs, bacon, toast, and some fresh fruit. Thank you.” Turning back to Daisy, he hung up and said, “There, done. Now you can’t say I don’t take care of my woman.”

Her laughter lightened his heart as she fell back into his arms, her hand on his chest. “Will you have anything to eat?”

“I’ll eat something when the sun goes down.” He could already feel his body hardening and knew there wasn’t a lot of time left to tell her all of the things he needed to tell her, about the curse, about Isis, about everything. Reluctantly, he dragged his body off the bed and stared down at the beautiful woman who lay there with a lazy smile on her face and nothing else. Gods, he wanted to climb back into that bed and hold her close.

She deserved more than half a man but he wasn’t going to say anything or point that out to her. If she was foolish enough to love him as he was, he’d take it and thank his lucky stars for it every day. As his body turned to stone, the familiar change almost painful now that he was flesh and blood once again, he said, “I’ll find a job and a place to live so we don’t have to stay in a hotel.”

Grabbing the sheet, she covered her beautiful body and smiled up at him, “You can stay with me in the dorm room.”

“Daisy….”

“It’s a temporary solution,” she added hastily, sitting up on her knees on the bed. “We can find an apartment close to the school but, Roman, you don’t have to find a job right away. I have some money….”

“Daisy,” he growled in warning.

Red crept into her cheeks and he sucked in another harsh breath at the incredible beauty of her blush. Seeing her blush was never going to get old. Licking her lips, she slowly offered, “Well, if you’re so determined to work, I’m sure you could get a job at
Skin
or
The Black Wolf
, though if you work at dad’s bar you’ll have to learn how to drive. I can put in a good word with both bosses.”

A slow smile curved his lips because she was freaking amazing. Her eyes were wide in her head as she watched him change, the rapt fascination in her face making him hard. Sweet Zeus, that was embarrassing, especially since there was nothing he could do about it because his penis vanished during the day. Oh, and he was a statue. His hands became claws as his wings sprouted from his back and his muscles thickened, lengthened. His face changed as well, becoming the wolf with the elongated snout and sharp teeth. Falling to his hands and knees, he felt his tail appear, swishing back and forth one last time before he became immobilized.

“That is amazing,” she breathed, reaching out her hand and running it over his stone snout. Sensation shot through his head and practically fried his brain. “I can’t wait until tonight and I get to watch you become a man.”

His lips curled upwards in a smile as he roughly said, “It can’t come soon enough.”

Coming to her feet, she stood next to him. Even though he was crouched down, his head came to the top of her head and they were eye to eye. “Oh, wow, you’re massive as a gargoyle. I had forgotten just how big you were during the day.”

“All the better to protect you, my dear,” he teased. As she ran her hands over his body, down his flank, he had to remind himself how to breathe. A soft gasp had him turning his head, just in time to see the look of wonder and horror on her face. “What is it?”

“You’re really, really big,” she rasped, her eyes trained on his groin.

Now that she pointed it out, he could feel the heavy weight between his thighs, a pleasurable ache that he hadn’t felt in two thousand years. Blinking, he realized he had retained his mobility, that he was a living gargoyle! He should have realized that when Daisy broke the part of the curse that kept him a gargoyle at night she broke the part that kept him immobile during the day. Of course, he hadn’t dared hope for that because it would have been impossible to continue on if it hadn’t worked.

“Can I touch it?” she asked in a husky whisper, her hand already moving towards his straining erection. Without waiting for an answer, her fingers brushed over the tip of his penis and a pathetic whimper slipped past his stone lips. A slight smile tilted her lips as she continued torturing him, which was just as impossible as a curse being broken by a virgin. Before Isis, his body was insensate during the day. And now, Daisy was bringing him to his knees with a slow, drugging touch.

Before, humans couldn’t see a gargoyle move either, always assuming that the gargoyle was where he had always been when he moved. It was the magic that protected them and kept them hidden while they guarded the world. His stomach clenched in ecstasy as she curled her fingers around his cock and dragged her hand up and down its length.

As pleasure flooded his brain, there was a knock on the door. The person on the other side must have had a death wish because he refused to go away, compounding the problem by calling out, “Room service!”

Roman was left panting as Daisy gave him a brilliant grin, threw on his shirt and then answered the bloody door. Even though the shirt came to the middle of her luscious thighs, there was far too much leg showing and knowing what was on underneath the shirt…. He wanted to rip the server’s head off when the man couldn’t tear his gaze from Daisy. A low growl came from the back of his throat, making the greedy-eyed bastard jump.

“Do you have a dog in there?” the man asked nervously, drawing a finger along his collar as he finally tore his gaze from Daisy and looked into the room.

“Of course not,” she laughed, signing the ticket and trying to close the door. “Thank you.”

“Sure,” the man said, returning his attention back to Daisy, oblivious to her disinterest. If the bastard didn’t disappear in the next two seconds, Roman was going to gouge his eyes out. “If you need anything else….”

“Leave,” Roman graveled.

As Daisy shoved the man out the door and they were alone once more, she faced him with sparkling eyes and a wide, disbelieving smile. “Are you jealous, Roman?”

“Yes,” he admitted without a qualm, watching her with hungry eyes. Even in black and white and shades of gray, she shone brighter than the sun and he was hopelessly, mindlessly, in love with her. He watched as she pushed the trolley over to the table and started lifting the lids off of the various foods and he wanted to throw her down onto the bed and devour
her
.

“There’s no need to be jealous,” she said, breathing in the scent of bacon and maple syrup. Dismissing the server and his jealousy, she grabbed a piece of crispy bacon and walked back to him. “Can you eat in this form?”

“It wouldn’t do much good,” he told her, the scent of Daisy washing over him and through him, bringing color to his thoughts.

“But there’s no way I can eat all of this and I don’t want it to go to waste.”

“I’ll eat it when the sun goes down,” he assured her, ignoring the look of distaste on her face. Huffing out a laugh, he said, “It’s better than some of the crap I’ve eaten these last few years.”

Plopping down on the bed, she picked at the food, her gaze steady on him. Taking an orange slice and slipping it between her damp lips, she said, “I met someone who kind of reminded me of you.”

Wearing nothing but his shirt, her hair messy and her skin dewy from a night of sex, she was beautiful beyond imagination. His heart kicked against his ribs and he knew that there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. How could he have ever believed he’d be able to sacrifice her or trade her for anything? “What did he look like?”

Her brow furrowed as she thought about it and he wanted to kiss her. Fuck, everything she did made him want to kiss her. “Blond hair, blue eyes. No, they were green eyes but that’s irrelevant. He reminded me of you because he exuded this aura of protectiveness. If I had been in a better frame of mind I would have realized it right away instead of being frightened of him.”

He nodded his head, realizing she must have met one of his brothers. “I’m sorry he frightened you.”

Even in the shades of gray, he saw her face color as she looked away and murmured, “It wasn’t his fault. He was just there keeping an eye on me, at my dad’s insistence by the way.”

He arched an eyebrow, not missing the way Daisy hid a smile at the sight of an inquisitive gargoyle wolf. “This evening we can track him down and you can let him know you no longer need his services.”