Stone Romance (Stone Passion #2) (13 page)

It was over almost before it began and he was resting his forehead against hers, his breath coming in heavy pants. “I couldn’t resist.”

“Shut up,” she breathed, pulling his head back so she could keep kissing him. If she only had this one second chance she was going to take it, damn the consequences. Mindless with need and nearly a week’s worth of erotic dreams, she began opening the buttons of his shirt, sliding her hands beneath the material and over the sleek muscles of his chest. His skin was on fire, burning her palms as they slid over the velvety skin.

His hand reached up and cupped her breast, kneading the soft flesh until she was desperate for more. She hooked
her leg over his hip, rubbing her sex against the hard ridge of his erection as she fumbled with the fastenings with her fingers. Tearing his lips from hers, he gasped, “Come with me.”

“Where?” she asked as she stared into his beautiful brown eyes and saw a world of possibilities.

“Anywhere,” he panted.
“Just not the castle.”

Those four simple words reminded her why she couldn’t do this: her sister and Vaughn. Stiffly, she put her foot back on the solid ground and unwound her arms from around his neck. “I can’t; it’s impossible right now.”

He inhaled deeply, letting his fingers twine with hers at their sides. “I guess you need to get back to your date.”

“He’s just a co-worker,” she quickly explained. Glancing over her shoulder in the direction of the bar, she asked, “What about the girls you came in with?”

He gave her a half-smile, “I’m only here so they can have fun and not worry about any unwanted attention. Usually Armand is here but he’s back at the castle helping Vaughn get drunk.”

At the second reminder of the complications between his brother and her sister she let one of his hands go and took a step away from him. Understanding the action, he let her go without protest. Awkwardly, not quite able to meet his splendid eyes, she asked, “So, how is he anyway?”

“Not so well,” he admitted bleakly.
“And Melanie?”

“The same.”
She huffed out a bitter laugh as she studied the sensuous line of his lips and sighed. “I wish…”

“So do I, sweetheart,” he breathed. “You need to leave before I decide I can’t let you go.”

She smiled slightly as she nodded, letting her hand slip from his as she walked away. Pausing at the entrance of the hallway, she looked over her shoulder, “Good bye, Rhys.”

“Good bye, Jenna.”

Slowly, she made her way back to the table wondering if she would ever be strong enough to take a chance on the possibility of maybe. This thing between her and Rhys was too rare, too precious to simply throw away without considering all of the alternatives.

It wouldn’t be fair to Melanie but did Jenna have a choice?

Strong fingers wrapped around her arm, squeezing painfully, and she glared at Blake as he glared down at her. “Are you ready to leave?”

She nodded, grabbing her jacket and her purse and tried to twist away from his hold but his grasp was too tight. “I’m just going to head home, Blake; sorry.”

“I don’t think so,” he growled, his hazel eyes blazing in anger.

The warmth of Rhys was behind her in an instant and she leaned into his strength. His words washed over her, calming her racing heart, as he asked, “Is everything all right?”

Blake’s eyes lost focus for a moment and then he shook his head, a befuddled expression crossing his face. He glanced down at Jenna, at his hand on her arm, and jerked it away as if burnt. “Whoa; I have no idea what I was thinking. Pardon me, Jenna.”

At the lift of Rhys’s eyebrow, Blake stuttered and turned bright red, “I mean, Ms. Jacobs. I trust you’ll be fine if I say good night now?”

She nodded her head, a little dumbstruck by his abrupt change in attitude. She could only stare as he threw some money down on the table and quickly made his way out the door. Her frown deepened as she glanced at the two twenties on the table: he had paid for his drinks at the bar and they hadn’t ordered anything. With a shrug, she turned to Rhys, “We have to stop meeting like this.”

He gave her a half-smile, “
It’s
fate, Jenna.”

“Don’t,” she murmured with a sad smile, pressing her fingertips to his lips, not wanting to hear any more about
fate and destiny, not when it hurt so much. Inhaling deeply, she breathed in the scent of Rhys and had to remind herself to be strong and let him go.
Again.
“I have to go.”

“Next time I have you in my arms I’m not going to let you go,” he whispered, the words moving over her skin with the promise of more. “I’m going to make love to you,”

Reluctantly, she walked away one more time; unable to tear her eyes away from him until the very last possible moment. She knew that the next time she ran into him she wasn’t going to be able to just walk away; she was just going to have to find the courage to stay.

For the next couple
of days Jenna was too busy to
think about Rhys
more than a few times every couple of minutes and a
t
night her hand
continued to
stray beneath her gown. And for a change, she got to be the strong one while Melanie
fell apart
. Helping Melanie, holding her as she cried, was almost cathartic.

Oh, she knew that Melanie thought Jenna was strong but Jenna knew the truth: she wasn’t strong. She had been faking it for almost seven years, putting on a brave face when inside she was dying and then putting on a smile when s
he didn’t feel anything at all.
She had grown so used to faking it that her electric response to
Rhys had taken her by surprise. Maybe if he hadn’t been so magnetic she would have been able to indulge in an affair and not worry about the fall out.

She was going to throw caution to the wind and call him but
Melanie had woken up one morning
wearing
a blindingly brilliant smile, “I’m going with him.”

Panic had gripped Jenna’s very soul and she didn’t want her sister to leave, irrationally afraid that if Melanie left she’d never see her again. The sense was so strong, she had to resist the urge to grab her sister and beg her not to go.
Trying to be supportive, she had hugged her but the plea accidently slipped out.
“Melanie; don’t do this.”

“I love him,” her sister had said, her blue eyes even more luminous than usual, love shining brightly in their
vivid
depts. “I have to do this.”

Then she had said her good-byes and disappeared and an odd silence descended upon the house, as if Melanie had taken all of the light and laughter with her when she left. Even Ferris was restless; refusing to take off the strange necklace Melanie had given her before she
flew to Vaughn.

It somehow felt wrong to think about Rhys when a dark pall hung over the house. So she threw herself back into her old life, finding that it no longer fit but what choice did she have? Ignoring the discomfort, she worked like a madwoman, flying through
tax
forms and receipts for her clien
ts, and assuring Blake that there were no hard feelings between them.

She didn’t understand why she was so depressed: her sister was with the man she loved beyond reason, she
herself
was no longer sleep walking through life and she was finally
finally
connecting
with Ferris
on a much deeper level
, as if the
fog
had been
lifted
from her eyes and the only thing that had been missing was joy.

So why was she so damn down?

“We have a whole day free tomorrow, what should we do?” Jenna asked, forcing cheer into her voice. She was determined to lick the strange melancholia and she promised herself that she would call Rhys. She would explain the strange mood that had been plaguing her for a week and a half; maybe she just needed to talk to him. And if he didn’t answer than it was his loss. She wasn’t going to go back to sleep.

She pulled Ferris onto her lap as she sat down on the couch watching the evening news with her family. Her parents had recently started watching the local news every weeknight because Jensen’s latest girlfriend was the weather girl,
er
, meteorologist. She was just as cute as a button with long, shiny blond hair and big brown eyes and big… other parts
.
S
he was so damn sweet, almost as sweet as Melanie, if that was even possible. It was obvious why Jensen was dating her; it was less obvious why she would date Jensen.

As much as she loved her older brother, Jenna knew that he was kind of a player with a new woman on his arm
every couple of weeks. The females of the world seemed to find him wildly attractive with his dark hair and blue eyes and dimpled grin; Jenna just thought he was put on the earth to annoy and torture her and Melanie.

“I want to go see Aunt Mellie at the castle,” Ferris said, the same thing she had been saying every day for the week and a half that Melanie had been gone.

The dull heaviness in her stomach hardened for a moment but Jenna ignored it and curled her lips into a smile, dragging her fingers through Ferris’s long dark brown hair. “Sweetie, you know that Aunt Mellie has gone on some grand adventure with Vaughn; she’s not at the castle.”

Ferris heaved a dramatic sigh, resting her head against Jenna’s cheek, making Jenna’s heart quicken slightly in her chest at the sheer joy of holding her daughter in her arms and breathing in her clean, spring-fresh scent. “I know. I just miss her and want her to hurry home.”

“Me, too, sweetie,” Jenna murmured, kissing the soft skin of Ferris’s temple.
“Me, too.”

“Well, the gargoyles are probably still there,” Ferris continued undeterred. “We could go and see them.”

Jenna chuckled, hugging her daughter a little tighter. “Once Aunt Mellie returns we will be sure to visit her and the gargoyles.”

“Promise?”
The hopeful note in Ferris’s voice was loud and clear. The only problem was Melanie had been very vague about the details and if Jenna thought about it, so had Rhys. At the time it hadn’t bothered her because she had been distressed by the fact that Melanie was leaving but now, with the sense of unease that had been looming for nearly a week and a half….

“Of course,” she murmured.

“Have you heard from
your sister
?” her mom asked, joining the conversation.

Jenna shook her head no, offering a slight smile, “You know how Melanie is; she probably lost track of time and has no idea that it’s been so long since she left.”

Her dad chuckled at that, “True; if that girl’s head wasn’t attached I’m sure she would leave it behind.”

“Jenner,” her mom scolded, a smile playing about her lips. “You know Melanie would never misplace her head; it’s too full of fanta
stical stories
to lose. She might misplace a limb or two but never her head.”

Jenna’s smile wavered as her parents continued to joke about Melanie. Her mom looked at her with sparkling eyes and asked, “Do you think everything’s okay?”

Jenna nodded and started to answer but the words couldn’t get past the sudden lump in her throat and she was unable to ignore her intuition any longer, not when it came to her whimsical sister. Slowly moving her head back and forth, she admitted, “I don’t know; I think something might be wrong but I just don’t know. As absent-minded as Melanie can be, she’s never gone so long without calling home.”

“She’s probably on some tropical island with that new boyfriend of hers,” her father offered
gruffly
, the laughter dimming slightly from his eyes to be replaced with worry.  “It’s just that she
moved out
so suddenly; it’s hard to believe she’s left the nest.”

“Yeah,” Jenna nodded. “You’re probably right.”

“Yeah.”
But he didn’t sound so convinced.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the sound of the television the only noise. Jenna barely paid attention to what the newscasters were saying, her thoughts a hundred miles away, or however far Melanie
was. Was her sister in trouble
?