Stone Passions Trilogy (30 page)

“Melanie!” a voice hissed, waking her from her sleep. But she was so warm, and it felt so good just being in Vaughn’s arms that she ignored it. “Melanie! Wake up!”

“Go away,” she mumbled, snuggling closer to Vaughn, feeling his arms tighten around her. Arching her back, she felt his thick erection against her ass and she wanted to feel it in her body.

His low groan made her smile. Until the covers were torn from the bed and she noticed the cold air. Vaughn was wrapped around her, his leg was over hers, one arm was under her neck and his other arm covered her breasts, cupping one in his hand. Unfortunately, the parts that were uncovered were covered instantly in goose bumps.

A low growl came from Vaughn’s throat as the blanket was tugged back into place and she was covered once again. With a sleepy smile, she murmured, “Mmm, thanks.”

The taut lines of his body were what finally alerted her to another person being in the room. She half expected to see a gremlin or an imp when she opened her eyes. Instead, she saw a silently laughing Jensen standing there, his face burnished red as he gawked back at her. He chuckled, “I thought you’d be smart enough to kick him out of your bed before the sun rose.”

Melanie frowned in confusion, “But it’s only….”

“It’s nearly eight,” Jensen chortled, gathering up Vaughn’s clothes and tossing them onto the bed. “Mom is going to be checking on you in a few minutes and she’s going to be furious if he’s still in here.”

Melanie gasped, sitting up and taking the blanket with her, leaving a naked Vaughn lounging on the bed behind her. Calmly, steadily, he sat up, wrapping his arms around Melanie, keeping his eyes on Jensen as a half-smile played on his lips. Jensen snorted but was still grinning when he taunted, “You two are so pathetic.”

Melanie glared at her teasing brother, “What are you doing in here?”

“I knocked on Vaughn’s door to see if he could help shovel snow,” Jensen answered casually, as if he wasn’t having a conversation with his naked sister and her equally naked lover. 

“Seriously?” Melanie popped a single eyebrow as she stared at her crazy brother. “You’re going to ask my boyfriend, a guest in this house, if he willing to help out with manual labor?”

“It’s all right,” Vaughn murmured, lightly kissing her bare shoulder. “I’m more than happy to help out.”

Deeper color stained Jensen’s cheeks as he shrugged his shoulders and grudgingly added, “And I wanted a chance to get to know him better, to see if he’s good enough for my sister.”

Melanie wasn’t sure whether the feeling in her chest was affection and gratitude or irritation at his meddlesomeness. “It’s not your place.”

He raised his hands in conciliation, “You’re still my sister and I love you.”

“That’s very sweet but
I
know Vaughn is a good man,” she declared passionately, leaning further into Vaughn’s embrace, feeling his lips brush her temple. He made her feel safe and loved and when she was with him, she felt beautiful and less out-of-place. When she was with him, she felt like herself, like she didn’t have to pretend being something she wasn’t to be accepted.

“Then I suggest he leaves your room before mom finds him here,” Jensen urged gently. Shaking his head in sympathy, he added, “You don’t want to upset her.”

Melanie blushed even as she felt Vaughn disentangle himself and shift on the bed. “Right, I guess. Um, thanks for the head’s up.”

“No prob,” Jensen grinned, sliding his hands into his pockets and rolling back on his feet. “I’ll just wait in the hall for you two to get dressed, be a look out.”

“Thanks, Jensen,” Vaughn’s voice rumbled from behind her. “I’ll join you in a moment.”

“I will, too,” Melanie added, feeling a wee smidgen of guilt for being snappy at Jensen.

“Take your time,” Jensen smiled as he stepped towards the door before his cheeks went flame red and he quickly shook his head. “I didn’t mean that. Just hurry as fast as you can.”

Vaughn and Melanie laughed softly as Jensen left the room, leaving the two of them alone. Turning on the bed, she was dismayed to note that Vaughn already had most of his clothes on. Sticking her lower lip out, she dropped the sheet that hid her nudity and purred, “I wish we had more time.”

Vaughn’s eyes heated to the brilliant gold she loved so much, moments before he tackled her, bearing her back onto the bed. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she smiled up at him but before she said anything, Jensen knocked on the door and said in a loud whisper, “Hurry it up!”

“Later,” she whispered.

“Definitely,” he growled, kissing her hard and quick before pushing himself off of the bed.

She stayed in bed for a few more minutes after Vaughn left, unable to wipe the silly, love-sick smile from her face. She supposed she ought to be grateful to Jensen for waking them up but it had been so very nice sleeping in Vaughn’s arms. It was worth not being able to soar above the city with a gargoyle to be able to wake up with the man.

Vaughn couldn’t believe that he had slept so long or so hard – it felt remarkably good. Rather, waking up with Melanie in his arms felt remarkably good. Had her brother not been standing there, he would have rolled her onto her back and given her a proper good morning. Instead, he was shoveling a mountain of snow, willing his erection to subside. It couldn’t be healthy to be sporting wood in subzero temperatures.

Jensen and he had made pretty good progress on the driveway and cars by the time Melanie made it out. She looked adorable in her puffy, down jacket with her hat pulled low over her ears and a scarf wrapped several times around her neck. Her eyes lit up when they met his and she hurried over to give him a quick hug. With an arm around his waist, she called out, “Hey, Jensen! Where’s my shovel?”

“Well, if you could see anything besides Vaughn, you would have seen it by the garage!” Jensen called out. Using his own shovel as a pointer, he added, “Right behind you.”

She was amazing and he took a moment to appreciate her as she walked over to get her shovel, as she held it over her head like a trophy to show her brother. With one last, longing look at Vaughn, she headed down to the bottom of the driveway to work up.

Within a few minutes, the three of them were working hard and b.s.-ing about everyday things, laughing heartily over Jensen’s dating disasters. Vaughn liked Jensen – hell, he liked all of the Jacobs – which made the next several weeks bittersweet. How would he ever let Melanie go? How could he ask her to stay with him?

“Hey, Melanie,” a new voice called out. Vaughn glanced up and saw a man approaching, a shovel in his hands. His senses went on alert as the man got closer to his Melanie but then he forced himself to relax since it was obvious both Jensen and Melanie knew the stranger and that he wasn’t a stranger to them. “I thought I’d lend a hand.”

“Hey, Terrance,” Melanie called out, a smile in her voice. “We appreciate the offer but I think we have it under control.”

“I insist,” the man – Terrance – said, ignoring her protests and digging in. Quite literally. Vaughn couldn’t tell much about the man because he wore layers of clothing like the rest of them. Judging by his voice, he was probably in his late twenties, early thirties. His appearance put an end to the camaraderie and the four of them now worked in companionable silence.

Vaughn found he missed the mindless chatter and laughter.

Melanie always had a soft spot for Terrance. He was older than her by a few years but younger than Jensen and had been a neighborhood playmate for as long as she could remember. For the longest time he had had a huge crush on Jenna and Melanie had been the only one who knew. The poor kid was painfully shy, or rather, he had been until senior year of high school when he grew eight inches, bulked up with muscle and lost the acne. By that time, Jenna was seriously involved with Jeremy and Terrance had his pick of cheerleaders.

Smiling at her old friend, Melanie continued shoveling, figuring that the sooner they got done, the sooner they could go inside and have hot chocolate. At that moment, the front door opened and Melanie looked up to see Ferris come charging out, bundled up in her snowsuit and boots. She looked like a purple snowman and Melanie had to laugh.

Her laughter died in her throat as a little, gray-green creature caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. But when she turned her head, the little guy was gone. Shaking her head to clear it of cobwebs, she tried to get back to work but she was distracted. Were the little green creatures real or was she just imagining things?  Or were they the imps that Armand had mentioned in passing?

“Aunt Mellie!” Ferris called out, waving madly. “Watch what I can do!”

Pausing, Melanie watched her niece fall straight back into the snow and start making a snow angel. About to join Ferris, she paused, irritated by the pendant that was heating up against her skin. Rubbing at the annoying charm, she took a step and fell flat on her ass; and started to laugh at her clumsiness.

After that everything happened in a blur of motion: Vaughn flew over her and tackled Terrace to the ground. Well, he didn’t actually fly since he was no longer a gargoyle, but he moved really fast. Jensen quickly joined him, wrestling with the downed man over the shovel. Soon, Vaughn was holding Terrance up by the scruff of the neck, a furious expression on his too-handsome face, and Jensen was bright red with fury.

“What the fuck, Terrance?!” Jensen was yelling once the man had been disarmed. Jensen glared at Terrance as he held the shovel away from him.

“What happened?” Melanie asked, shocked and confused. Had the whole world gone mad? Melanie looked between the three men and then automatically searched out Ferris, who stood a few feet away with wide, bewildered eyes. Pushing herself to her feet, she rushed over to the little girl and gathered her up in her arms.

“This asshole tried to take your head off with his shovel,” Vaughn growled, giving Terrance a shake. Holding Ferris’s head to her shoulder, she watched as Vaughn looked briefly at Terrance and then let the man drop and crossed the distance to her. “If you hadn’t fallen when you did…." He swallowed thickly, his eyes a little wild as he looked at her. His hand shook as he cupped her face in his palm and rasped, "I almost lost you… it shouldn’t have been possibly but I almost lost you."

"You didn't," she whispered, kissing his palm. She could hear Jensen and Terrence arguing but her focus was on Vaughn. Over the child’s head, she whispered, “Imps?”

He nodded once and his eyes cleared the longer he stood near her. After a moment, he looked around at the small party and softly, almost hesitantly, he asked, “Do you want me to make them forget?”

“Please.”

With another nod, he broke the quarrel up and turned to Terrence, whispering a few words until the assailant went boneless and collapsed to the ground. Next, he turned to Jensen, this time staring longer, his words deeper. Melanie couldn’t hear what was being said but could see the tension ease from her brother’s shoulders, the fury clear from his face. Afterwards, Jensen nodded his head and went back to shoveling as if his sister didn't almost have her head bashed in.

Vaughn looked down at the fallen man in disgust, the desire to hurt him written plainly on his face. In a low growl, Vaughn ordered, “Go home.”

Terrance quickly scampered away, unknown fear driving him. Vaughn prowled back to Melanie and Ferris. Caressing Melanie’s cheek, almost as if he needed to touch her, he stared into Ferris’s eyes and breathed, “Everything is alright, little one. The snow is falling, the air is brisk and nothing happened. Everything is alright and nothing happened.”

Ferris tilted her head to the side and looked up at Vaughn with concern, “Why would you want me to think nothing happened? Mr. Martin just tried to hurt Aunt Mellie.”

Melanie had to bite back a smile even as she squeezed Ferris closer and kissed her cheek. She met Vaughn’s eyes over her head, seeing the grim amusement in his face. “Oh, joy. Another one immune to memory spells.”

Melanie grinned at Vaughn’s disgruntled tone, “I told you she was a little me.”

“So you did,” he murmured, wrapping his hand around the back of her neck and pulling her in for a kiss. Just before his lips met hers, he repeated, “So you did.”