Heart of Stone (2 page)

"You gave me this night. Will you now force me to spend it in solitude?"

"I didn't summon you. It's just a stupid Halloween tradition—“

"You did," he insisted. "Whether you meant to or not, I'm here because of you."

He watched her quietly while the implications of what he said washed over her. Midnight, her blood, and the feel of him coming to life against her...could it be possible?

She looked up at him standing before her as evidence that somehow, it was possible. Slowly, her fear began to fade into a sense of wonder. Whatever he was, however he'd come to be there, he hadn't hurt her and didn't seem like he intended to, despite the fact that he could probably snap her neck with ease.

"What do you want from me?" she asked again. She gentled her tone to turn it into an entreaty, rather than a demand.

Damaris shook his head. "That's not how it works. You summoned me. I'm here to do your bidding."

My bidding? Oh, the possibilities.

Kestrel rubbed the nape of her neck with her hand and considered just what that meant. "Well, fuck."

Damaris's grin widened into an expression of fierce anticipation. "Oh, I was hoping you'd say that." His hold around her shifted from restraining to caressing. "This is going to be fun."

Shit, shit, shit. "Wait. That's not what I meant."

"That's what you said." His teeth closed over her throat, stopping her breath. His fangs dug into her flesh, pleasure and pain in a single heady mix, and she braced for them to break the skin. That penetration never came; her flesh slid between his teeth, and left her aroused but unmarred.

Her head tilted back and found a pillow in the leathery wing he wrapped around her. She let her eyes slide closed, her willpower weakening. "This is insane."

"Insanity is highly underrated."

She opened her eyes and lifted her head to meet his gaze. "I'm in a cemetery at the break of All Hallows' morn with a living, breathing, talking gargoyle who wants to fuck me. This is beyond insane. This is a psychiatrist's wet dream."

"Gargoyle?" Damaris grew still until Kestrel wondered if he hadn't turned back into stone, leaving her trapped within his embrace. He exploded into sudden laughter that cracked and rumbled with the sound of tumbling boulders. "You think I'm a gargoyle? A water spout? I am no more a gargoyle than you are a baboon!"

"Then what the hell are you?"

"I am Lord Damaris and that is all that is important to know. And for this night, I am yours." His wings and arms closed around her, holding her against him, incapable of struggle. He brought his face inches away from hers; the musty smell of dust and moss and stone clung to him, and somehow, it fueled the rational part of her brain. However, his face shifted with the natural muscle movements of a living being, and she couldn't explain the heat of his arms and chest as vestiges of the day's warmth. Kestrel had never been prone to hallucinations. And if something like this were to happen, what better night than All Hallows' Eve?

And, more convincing than any other fact, she realized that she wanted him. Her heart pounded, her arms and legs shook with desire, and heat and wetness spread between her thighs. The length of his cock pressed against her stomach, hot, thick, and heavy. She pressed forward against it, yearning to feel it inside her. She could tell herself that he was stone, a mortuary statue, incapable of being anything more than a figment of her over-stimulated imagination, but all her body knew was his heat, his strength, his touch. She wanted him with a ferocity that took her breath away.

She drew a deep breath and met his gaze. "I don't mind it rough."

His grin turned wicked. "Good. Neither do I."

"I've been known to have a masochistic streak now and again."

"All the better."

"But I have limits. If you touch me, you have to respect them. I won't say stop unless I mean it. If I do say it, I expect you to honor it. Other than that, anything goes."

Damaris's grin glittered in the moonlight. "Deal."

* * * *

Kestrel's breath caught with anticipation. She reached for the laces of her leather bodice, but Damaris's hands covered hers, stilling them. "Kestrel," he said. "Let me do that."

She let her hands fall away and rest lightly on his forearms. Her heart thudded, now from need. All traces of her fear had disappeared and taken disbelief along with it.

His flesh warmed hers. His claws scraped over her skin and she shivered with delight. His voice rumbled against her ear, and his heart beat in time with hers. She didn't know how it was possible, but it was enough. She needed nothing more.

His teeth closed over her skin again. She gasped and arched against him, feeling heat and desire twist within her. Her hands slid over the ripples of muscle in his chest, down his stomach and hips to circle his cock. He burned against her hand, and hH er body shifted to match the demands of his. She trailed her fingers along his erection and circled its head. He trembled against her.

Kestrel pressed her lips against the hollow of his collarbone and whispered, "Do you like pain?"

“
I like—“ He inhaled sharply as she scraped her teeth over his nipple. “Everything. Anything you like.”

"Good." She dug her nails into his cock and scraped along his length. He muttered beneath his breath. She didn't have to know the language to recognize the tone. Waves of satisfaction and pleasure pulsed through her. "You'll be praying for a lot more by the time I'm done."

"I hope so."

She skimmed a finger over the head of his cock, exploring the contours and textures. Damaris grunted and his wings closed around her once more. He framed her face within his hands and turned it towards his. He took her mouth in a savage kiss, and she sank into it eagerly. His tongue pressed into her mouth, sliding over nerves she hadn't known existed. Heat poured through her. She moaned and rose up onto her knees. She pressed against his well-muscled chest and reveled in the feel of his body against hers, dizzy with desire. Cupping his neck, Kestrel pulled his mouth hard against hers and kissed him with ferocity equal to his.

His claws slid from her cheeks to her shoulders. He tore through her bodice with a single stroke and cast the remains aside. The cold night brushed her breasts and hardened her nipples to sensitive peaks. His gaze caressed her, as potent as a touch. She held still beneath his scrutiny and watched emotions flicker across his features. At last, his gaze lifted and met hers, awed.

"Kestrel, you are beautiful."

"Thank you." She bit his lower lip and squeezed his cock between her hands. "Are we going to fuck, or just stand here and stare at each other?"

"Whatever you want," he whispered. His hands slid over her hips and down the outsides of her thighs. His claws sliced through her tight pants. She shifted, instinctively parting for him. He caressed the soft flesh inside her thighs and trailed the tip of a single claw over her skin. She quivered, needing his touch where she was most sensitive, just inches away, but he moved no further.

"I want you, Damaris."

A smile curved the edge of his mouth. "You have me."

She laughed, brief and humorless. "Not enough." He thrust his fingers into her, piercing her, stretching her. She threw her head back and gasped. "Not. . .nearly enough."

He lay her down on the lush grass, her body spread out before him. He stared at her with an expression she was all-too familiar with: the hungry gaze of an aroused man. Kestrel smiled and stretched out so the moonlight played off of her skin. Her legs spread open, allowing him to see her fully. A groan pushed from his throat.

She brought a hand up to her breast. Her fingers stroked and kneaded while she kept her gaze locked with his, but it wasn't enough. Her own touch was paltry in comparison to the raging fire of his. She needed what only he could give her, and she put that need into her gaze as she stared up at him.

"Oh, you'll have me." He crawled over her, held his body just above hers. The head of his cock pressed against her slick flesh. It parted her folds and pressed inside. He barely entered her, but even that created exquisite sensations. Kestrel moaned in delight. She rose up off of the ground and took his mouth in a kiss.

He withdrew from her. Kestrel's heart sank at the empty, aching feeling he left in her. "But not just yet," he said with a lopsided grin.

The fingers of one hand circled her wrist and pulled her hand away from her breast, leaving nothing but the night breeze to caress her. She writhed in frustration, but his crooked smile told her that trying to goad him into giving her what she needed was futile. She would get it when he chose to give it to her, and no sooner.

Something deep within her shivered at his unexpected dominance. She thought it would frustrate her to be denied what she needed, and it did, but it also excited her. Slowly, she eased back onto the grass and waited for Damaris's next move.

His grin widened. "Much better," he said. He waited while she struggled to relax completely beneath him. When she had fully submitted to his dominance, he curved his hand over her breast and began to caress her flesh. She sucked in her breath at the sharp pleasure, and lost it on a hoarse cry. He brushed soft kisses over her nipple. His tongue, wet and slightly rough, lapped across her pebbled flesh. She arched up against him, twisting with need.

"Please," she moaned.

"Not yet."

She tried to wrap her legs around his hips and pull him against her, giving her even the briefest taste of what she needed, but he caught her knee and pressed her leg back to the ground. His teeth nipped lightly at her nipple in chastisement. Even that just made her need for him grow even stronger.

He drew his hand down her stomach and brushed his fingers through the curls between her thighs; she sucked in her breath with anticipation. He gave her a long, heated look and slid a finger through the slick, wet folds of her flesh. He stroked her slowly, driving her desire higher and denying her all at the same time. His knuckle brushed across her clit. She cried out and pressed her hips up toward his hand.

Kestrel expected him to stop touching her as payback for her forwardness, but instead, he just chuckled and stroked her more firmly. He pressed his finger against her entrance and sank into her with slow, maddening pressure. She fisted her hands in the grass beneath her and held very still, desperate not to do anything that would make him stop.

He crooked his finger inside of her, and she forgot about everything but the ecstasy of his touch. She screamed, torn with a mix of pleasure and need. Her muscles tightened around him, trying to hold him within her. He withdrew, and she nearly sobbed in frustration. She drew in a breath, ready to beg if that's what it took to get him to give her release, but before she could say a word, he pressed into her again. Damaris probed deeply with two fingers, then three. The fire of his touch seared her lungs and left her breathless and transfixed. She shivered beneath him and pressed into his palm with the same slow, careful rhythm of his thrust and withdrawal. She was so close, so close, and still he held her away from the release that she so desperately wanted.

His mouth released her breast and trailed a line of fire down her stomach. His breath blew softly across her heated flesh, caress and torment in one. Pleasure tightened through her until it threatened to tear her apart. She caught her lip between her teeth and trembled even more violently.

He bent over her and kissed her clit. His lips and tongue gently caressed the exquisitely sensitive nub as his fingers stroked within her. She tightened around him. The pleasure turned to pain, and quickly turned to pure electricity that snapped through her with all the force and power of lightning. She bucked against Damaris, and her scream sliced through the night air.

Slowly, the climax released her from its grip, and she collapsed back onto the ground. Damaris circled his arms around her and drew her close against the heat of his chest. She pressed her lips against his throat and waited for her breathing to even.

Damaris tucked a claw beneath her chin and used it to tip her face toward his. She watched him with hooded eyes. She longed for the laziness of afterglow even while the heat of his gaze stirred her body back into arousal. "You are magnificent when you climax, Kestrel," he whispered and kissed her.

She lost herself in the kiss as deeply as she'd lost herself in her climax. Teeth nipped. Tongues battled. She spread her hands on his shoulders and rolled up onto her knees, pushing him back. Her hands curved around the solid muscles that banded his thighs and pulled him towards her. His cock brushed her cheek, a firm caress that made her long for the feel of his true girth inside of her.