Stone Passions Trilogy (12 page)

She stared at him in silence, not sure whether he was being serious or if he was teasing her. Once more, his laughter filled the room as he stood up. Reaching down, he grabbed her hand and easily pulled her to her feet. He leaned forward, until she felt his breath against the side of her neck, “I couldn’t touch you until his aura surrounding you fell away and I don’t sense that happening any time soon.”

He leaned back and smiled down at her, “Oh, well, I’ll just have to wait a while longer until I have sex with a human.”

She jerked her head back to look at him but she was standing outside on the street, staring at the
Closed
sign on the window of his shop. Her jacket was zipped up, her hat pulled down over her ears and her scarf wrapped snuggly around her face. If she didn’t feel the warmth of the medallion between her breasts, she would have sworn it had all been a dream.

In a daze, she walked back to her apartment building, wondering what else she had missed throughout the years. Were Vaughn and his brothers more than what they seemed? Given the events of the past twenty-four hours, she was going to have to assume they were. The question that remained, however, was what were they? And could she live with whatever Vaughn was?

Could she live without him was equally as important and just as easily answered: no. Maybe he and his brothers were some sort of succubae. No, that was the female version, duh. They would be incubi. But she didn’t feel drained after she had sex with Vaughn. Instead, she felt… invigorated. So, he probably wasn’t an incubus. Unless everything she knew about incubi – which was admittedly very little – was wrong. Still, she doubted he was an incubus.

Vampire? She chuckled at the thought since she doubted vampires even existed.

Of course, until a few hours ago she was pretty sure magic wasn’t real. No, that wasn’t quite true. She believed magic existed, she just never thought she would ever experience it. Still, she doubted he was a vampire. After all, he didn’t suck her blood even if he did make her scream.

Smiling to herself, she decided that Vaughn and his brothers were most likely human because if they weren’t – if he wasn’t – she wasn’t at all sure how she was going to handle it. In her heart, she hoped she would be okay with whatever he was but in actuality… what if he was a shape-shifting troll or a goblin and he was trying to lure her in by wearing a Vaughn mask?

She chuckled softly at her absurd thoughts. Vaughn was simply… Vaughn. If he was a troll or a goblin, she would just have to deal with it. Either way, she wanted to get to know him better, to see if there could be more to their relationship, if she could call it that, other than some pretty fantastic sex.

Chapter Six

Melanie entered her apartment, sighing as she threw the keys on the table. There were so many things to think about and the cold weather might have helped if it hadn’t been for the encounter with Omari and his shop of oddities. Her thoughts were even more jumbled than before but one thing was certain – she was tremendously thankful that she hadn’t lost her memory of Vaughn the night before. She just hoped the charm worked and any more attempts on erasing her memory were in vain.

Of course, if it came to it, it probably wouldn’t bother her since she wouldn’t remember and how horrible would it be to forget Vaughn?

After she was out of her winter clothes, she ran her fingers through her hair, hoping it wasn’t permanently flattened. She still had to find another way up to the roof and there was only an hour or so of daylight left. She had probably missed something when she first moved in a couple of days before, though she couldn’t imagine what. There had been no doors that led to the roof, except through the private quarters of Armand’s apartment, which was strange. Usually buildings had access to the roof, if for no other reason than maintenance.

It didn’t matter how she managed to get up on the roof again, only that she discovered a way so she could see her magnificent gargoyle, a gargoyle that weirdly reminded her of Vaughn. Probably because they were both lions.

If she couldn’t find the passage in the next day or two, she was going to have to get that ladder after all. She really hated that idea.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed with legs twitching, too restless to sit still, too tired to pace, she weighed her possibilities. She could go through Armand’s apartment, at least one last time, and explain to her gargoyle why she was no longer able to visit him. But that would imply the gargoyle would understand her and that was just insane. He was a stone statue. He probably didn’t care one way or the other whether she saw him ever again.

No, if she were being honest, she wanted to go up and see him for her own peace of mind. She wanted to say goodbye to her strange connection to the stone beast. If she weren’t such a chicken, she would buy that ladder and risk her life and limb to climb it. She didn’t think she would ever be able to, not even for her beautiful gargoyle.

Damn, that left breaking and entering again, though it could hardly be considered breaking and entering when there were no locks on any of the doors leading from her apartment to the roof. Maybe she would be able to ask Omari if he had some sort of spell that would make Armand give her permission to traipse through his home just so she could gain access to the roof. She snorted, doubting there was anything powerful enough to get the black-haired man to change his mind. If she even attempted it, he would be furious and she knew that no magic charm could protect her then.

She glanced at her watch, then looked out the window. The sun was going to be setting in less than an hour and it wouldn't be wise to press her luck, especially if she planned on a little B and E. Taking the chance would be idiotic because the police would be called and she’d be evicted from her apartment and possibly sent to jail. She wasn’t sure which would be the worse punishment.

Throwing herself back onto the bed, she put her hand over the charm and stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she could wait until night fell and then knock on Armand’s door and introduce herself properly, assuming she could find the door. And maybe she could discover how often Vaughn visited so she could set up an accidental meeting. Or she could wait until she knew whether her new protection charm actually worked before she threw herself before Armand.

It was obvious Armand was just trying to protect him and his brothers and that was entirely noble. But it meant she couldn’t hold it against him for making her life so difficult. If only she had exchanged phone numbers with Vaughn, then she wouldn’t have to be staring up at her ceiling trying to figure out what her next move should be.

Anyway, she still had to return Peter’s call and find out what he wanted. She just didn’t have the energy to call back or the desire to talk to him. Between the sex, the lack of sleep and Omari, Peter was very low on her list of priorities. It was possible he was having a momentary panic attack brought on by being single during the holidays. She always felt a little nostalgic during the holidays, too. She’d call him in a few days.

Rolling onto her back, she closed her eyes, positively exhausted from her mind-shattering sex and subsequent sleepless night. She would only take a quick nap and then she would call Jenna, talk to her about last night’s events and check in on Ferris. Normally she would have called her sister first thing in the morning but she hadn’t been thinking clearly. Plus, she had to drive Vanessa home.

When she thought about it, she hadn’t talked to anyone, other than Omari, about what happened in the bathroom with Vaughn. After she finally got herself back together and said goodbye to him, she hadn’t wanted to share it with anyone. Besides, Frankie and Vanessa had been pretty drunk and oblivious to Melanie’s absence while they had danced with reckless abandon. One of the guys dancing with Vanessa had had his hand under the material of her dress and he looked quite happy fondling her breasts. The other guy was working up the courage to do the same. Maybe Vanessa would be relieved at not remembering last night’s behavior.

Of course, Melanie was the one who had unprotected sex with a beautiful stranger in the bathroom of a crowded bar. Who was she to judge anything her friend did?

Just the thought of what happened in the bathroom made her blood sizzle. If she concentrated hard enough, she could still taste him on her tongue, feel him in her body. No matter what happened she hoped she would always remember how Vaughn had made her tremble. With her skin burning, she seized the hem of her shirt and yanked the blasted thing from her body.

She grabbed the small pendant and lifted it up, studying it in the low light of her bedroom. The stone flashed as the light hit it and she thought that it was really quite pretty. Whatever language that was engraved on it, the letters were delicate and oddly compelling. It would be interesting to know which language it was because it certainly didn’t look like any language she had ever seen. Maybe it was a faerie language.

Running her thumb over the strange markings, she smiled from the faint whirring was still there. The metal was warm, an antique patina darkening it, and the stone was set in the middle of the disc. It didn’t have any prongs holding it in place and it was as if the stone stayed put by sheer force of will. Or magic.

She laughed at herself, the laugh turning into a jaw cracking yawn as she continued to examine her new necklace. Maybe Omari was playing a practical joke on her and it was just a worthless trinket. Or maybe it was a priceless heirloom and some fairy was frantically searching for it, hoping that it hadn’t gotten into the wrong hands.

Into a human’s hands.

That still gave her a little thrill, learning once and for all that humans weren’t the only intelligent life forms on the planet. It certainly made life more interesting. Maybe fairies really existed, though why she was obsessing over fairies was beyond her. There were so many types of supernatural creatures, many of which were not something she would like to run into in the middle of the night, she should feel at least a little apprehensive.

But with Vaughn by her side, it would be all right for he was built like a Celtic god. Goodness, he could hold her weight while he was making love to her and that took some serious muscles. It had felt so… amazing: the deep, penetrating thrusts, the squeeze of his hands on her buttocks, the strength of his arm and thighs. She was burning up just thinking about him.

With a groan, she shimmied out of her pants, tossing them onto the floor, figuring she would pick them up after she woke up from her nap. The mere thought of Vaughn was turning her on and she could smell her own hunger. Unfortunately, she was too damn tired to do anything about it. Rolling over onto her side, tucking her hands beneath her head, she fell asleep, where Vaughn awaited her in her dreams.

Vaughn turned the knob and let himself into Melanie’s room, dreading the thought of sensing her on all of her things while longing to touch her one more time. She had smelled like the spring air after it rained, sweet and pure. Intoxicating. He hadn’t had nearly enough of her; he never even got to taste her and she was gone. If she had been any other woman he could have had her for a month of pleasure and wouldn’t have felt any guilt wiping her mind when they tired of one another. But she was Melanie and he doubted he would ever have grown tired of her. In all of his years he had never felt that instant connection with another living being and the sex had been incredible. It just hadn’t been enough.

As he entered the small room, he had to close his eyes. Her scent was still so strong and he could smell so much more than her bare essence. He could smell chocolate and vanilla, as if she spent her days making candy and cakes. It was delicious. She had been delicious. He should have let a pixie take care of packing up her bags because he didn’t think he could stand the torture of breathing in her scent and not having her beneath him in bed, or over him. Or up against a wall….

With a groan, he closed the door behind him, figuring it was best to just get it over with and end the torture quickly. Luckily the room was small and there shouldn’t be a lot of stuff to pack up; she hadn’t been there long enough. He just needed a few minutes to work up the resolve to do what needed to be done. Then he would open his eyes and start in….