Stone Destiny (Stone Passion #3)

by Warneke, A. C.

  Everything coalesced inside of her and for one perfect moment she knew that he was her destiny. But the moment passed and reality came crashing back in: she was sixteen years old, what did she know about destiny?

  Chapter 1

  A plan is devised

  On the fifth anniversary of discovering that she was in love with Armand, Ferris decided it was time to act upon it. She could not continue acting as if he was just a beloved friend when he was her world. She needed more and if she didn’t at least try she was going to go dragon shit crazy. Nothing was worse than living in this limbo, knowing she and Armand were meant to be together and being too frightened to do anything about it. She was going to show him that she was no longer a child, no longer off-limits. It was a difficult task but one for which she was sure she was ready.

  Ever since she was a child she had been physical with him once the sun went down, hugging him whenever she entered the room or looping her arm through his whenever he joined them for a night out on the town. But over the past couple of months she had been ramping up her efforts. No excuse was too small or too flimsy for her to touch him, running her hand along his arm to flatten out a non-existent wrinkle on his smooth skin; ‘accidentally’ brushing her breasts against him when she had to pass too close because she didn’t want to knock over a table that was five feet away; putting her hand on his arm when they chatted and then leaving it there long after she had made her point. And the more she touched him the more she wanted to touch him, to strip him of his clothes and run her hands all over the heated flesh of his hard body.

  He had looked at her upon occasion, a strange expression on his too-handsome face and she knew that she was acting like an idiot. He was just trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with her. But he had looked at her. Overall, she was proud of how unaffected she acted when she was around him. He hadn’t a clue that her skin was clammy, that her heart was thumping, that the butterflies were rioting. Over the years, their conversations occasionally touched on more personal subjects before they just as quickly flitted away. The possibility of more gave her the courage to risk everything to be with him.

  Of course, she wasn’t a complete fool. When she had first gone off to college she had tried dating the college boys who didn’t know she was a freak. While she had laughed and had fun and even kissed one or two boys, none of them were Armand and she had grown almost desperate to find a resolution to her dilemma. It simply didn’t feel right being with any of them and she had finally accepted the fact that she was meant for Armand, that he truly was her destiny.

  When that happened it was as if a huge burden had been lifted from her shoulders and she no longer had to fight against something that was meant to be. The future was suddenly a much brighter place and she no longer dreaded going into it alone, she’d be with Armand. After that, she enjoyed herself so much more, hanging out with a handful of humans but mostly hanging out with her other-worldly friends. Ajreis was a lot more entertaining to an adult Ferris than he was to a child Ferris and some of the hijinks he could cook up….

  Ajreis was the one who had helped her plot out her seduction, taking great delight in the prospect of bring Armand to his knees. The relationship between imps and gargoyles was peculiar: they were half-brothers but didn’t exactly get along. The imps enjoyed making the gargoyles’ lives difficult… they pretty much enjoyed making everyone’s lives difficult. After an incident involving Aunt Melanie and Vaughn they had backed off for a while but they enjoyed their pranks too much to stay away for long. Except they had made a vow to keep Ferris safe and for the most part they did that by keeping their distance.

  All of them except Ajreis, who wasn’t like the other imps. Intelligence danced in his muddy gray eyes and sometimes, when the moon was dark or the cloud cover exceptionally heavy, he could shift into a man, something none of the other imps could do. On those nights, the two of them would go dancing and just enjoy being able to spend time with each other in public. Like her, he was in love with someone completely inappropriate, in his case a young college coed that he had danced with the year before. It was difficult to have a relationship when you spent most of your time as a green-skinned creature with too many teeth and not enough human-ness.

  She was confident he would make it work – somehow.

  Ferris took a peek around the corner and grinned when she saw that Armand was alone, sitting on the couch and reading his book. Slinking into the room, she flung herself down on the couch and draped her arm over her eyes. She sighed as dramatically as she could, just to make Armand smile. Risking a peek she saw that he was unaffected by her performance and she sighed louder. The frustrating man simply ignored her and turned the page in his book.

  “My life is over,” she groaned, keeping that little spy-hole open so she could watch him.

  Without looking up, one corner of his luscious mouth quirked upwards into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Come now, Ferris, it cannot be that bad.”

  She smiled to herself, loving the reluctant concern he showed for her drama. From the time she could remember she always had to spend a fair amount of time warming him up to talking to her but in the end she always managed to drag him into a chat. Wiping the smile from her face, she let out another sigh, “It is that bad and worse.”

  “Do tell,” he said dryly, finally glancing up from the pages of his book, his green eyes dancing with laughter that was completely absent on his face.

  Pressing her lips together to keep from smiling again, she raised her arm a little and met his beautiful green eyes. “My art instructor is demanding a nude portrait for our final and all of the best models were chosen before I even had a chance to gather up my art supplies.”

  In truth, she could have asked any of the models to pose for her. They were always willing to pick up a few extra dollars by posing for the art students. But she didn’t want a good looking human, she wanted Armand.

  Holding her breath, she watched as he arched an elegant eyebrow. “I… see.”

  Swinging her legs over the edge, she sat up and faced him, trying to look as pathetic as possible, knowing that her eyes were probably dancing with laughter and giving her whole plan away. Facing him, she looked at him with wide eyes, “What am I going to do, Armand? The painting is due in two weeks and I don’t have a model.”

  “You have an entire building full of beautiful creatures that would be more than willing to pose for you,” he told her, returning his attention to his book. “Ask one of them.”

  Thinking quickly, trying to adjust her strategy, she came up with the perfect way out and smiled, “Of course you’re right. I could ask Nod. Even though he’s a sprite he is very attractive and since it is a portrait his size doesn’t matter. Plus, he’s always eager to spend time with me and since it would require spending a lot of time in his company things could get interesting. I mean, you know how sprites affect humans. I’d probably get intoxicated just by being with him for so long and do something stupid like give him my virginity. Could you imagine losing your virginity to a sprite? I wonder how that would work….”

  He suddenly became very still and his lips were pressed together in a firm line. Ferris almost clapped her hands together in glee. “You will not ask Nod to be your model.”

  “Fine,” she conceded with a grin, unable to keep the smile from forming now that she was so close to her goal. “I know! I could ask Corvyn….”

  “Absolutely not,” he bit out, the binding of his book bending backwards as his fingers flexed. “You will not ask an incubus to remove his clothes in your presence. He would take it as an invitation to seduce you.”

  “But he’s always been so nice to me,” she said innocently, batting her eyelashes at him.

  “No.”

  Everyone was always saying that Armand was cold and aloof but he wasn’t, he was fire and passion and he made her heart race in her chest, her belly tingle in awareness. She knew the moment he entered a room: the air changed and it was difficult to breathe
. Luckily, she had had several years to get her response to him under control… well, at least she was able to give the appearance of being unaffected by him. Inside she was a mess.

  “Then give me an option because I am out of ideas,” she said, pressing him in the hopes he'd just give in.

  “You could ask Michael or Leo or even Raphe,” he offered and she almost groaned. The three young gargoyles were a ton of fun but they were still young, full of too much testosterone and not enough self-control. Considering the youngest was her age of twenty-one and the oldest was twenty-five, they were young even for humans but they were exceptionally young for being gargoyles. They had practically grown up together and no matter how gorgeous they were – and they were gorgeous – Ferris thought of them as brothers. And annoying brothers at that.

  The three of them were the trinity of trouble. Michael with his white blond hair and emerald green eyes, Leo with ash blond hair and golden eyes and Raphe, the devastating creature with blue black hair and violet eyes. They traveled together in a pack, with Michael and Leo laying waste to foolish hearts and pristine chastity, and Raphe going along for the ride, trying and failing to rein his brothers in. They reveled in being young and beautiful and powerful and sometimes Ferris envied them their existence because they knew their place in the world. They knew that they belonged.

  Forcing her lips into a smile she slowly nodded her head, “Maybe. Michael did say he was interested in getting to spend some time with me, get reacquainted now that I’m of legal age.”

  The faint tic thrumming away in Armand’s neck was manna to her soul and she almost burst into laughter. Michael had as much interest in seducing her as he would a rotten fish. “I will take a chisel to him if he so much as thinks about taking advantage of you.”

  She closed her eyes and ground her teeth together in exasperation. He was not taking the hint. Plus, he was being overly protective again. How was he going to see her as a woman if he kept trying to protect her from herself? “Armand, I am a grown woman now. He wouldn’t be taking advantage of me if it was something that I wanted.”

  He was quiet for a moment, his green eyes moving over her face looking for something, she just wasn’t sure what. Softly, almost hesitatingly, he asked, “Is it something you want?”

  She couldn’t help it, she threw her head back and laughed. “God, no. Michael thinks he is God’s gift to women and that annoys the hell out of me. I wouldn’t let his lips within spitting distance of me and I sure as heck wouldn’t have sex with him. Could you imagine?”

  “I’d prefer not to,” he ground out. He glared at her for a long moment before slowly returning his attention to the book. She didn’t think he was actually reading it, he wasn’t even turning the pages.

  After a few moments of silence, she cleared her throat. She tried to arrange her face into an expression of pathetic helplessness so that when he looked up he might actually pay attention. When he didn’t look up she frowned; why did he have to make this seduction thing so difficult? Most of the men of her acquaintance would have picked up on her hints months ago and would have had her naked and on her back soon after. Of course, most of the men of her acquaintance were not tremendously self-controlled gargoyles.

  “What am I going to do?” she asked again, hoping to break through the steely wall surrounding him. As if aware of her scrutiny he finally turned the page in his book and she knew she had lost him. Sighing in momentary defeat, she slumped back onto the couch and gazed past him to the window and the city beyond. Since her plan to get him to pose naked for her was a bust, she’d have to come up with another way of getting him to see her as a grown woman. But now that she had raised such a fuss about not getting a model she’d look like an idiot if she painted one of the many models readily available. “I guess I could get a mirror and do a self-portrait.”

  “No!” Her head snapped around at the frosty tone of his voice. He was able to put so much meaning into that one little word. “What would your mother say if you exposed yourself like that for the world to see?”

  “Well, as long as I didn't show too much skin and it was artfully done….” She began, stopping when he looked at her with those green eyes of his, silently chastising her for even thinking such a thing.

  “But it’s okay if I paint someone else’s son or daughter?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at his contrary behavior. Turning her head to the side, she looked back out the window, watching as the lights were being turned off as people got off work and headed home to their families. To be honest, she wasn’t comfortable posing nude so that left her with one of the supernatural creatures that populated the castle. Obviously she couldn’t ask a sprite or an incubus but there were plenty of other possibilities. Her model didn’t even have to be male. “I suppose Toulia would be willing to pose….”

  “Damn it, Ferris,” he growled, setting the book down. Turning her head, she saw that he was scowling fiercely. No one could scowl like Armand. He was so handsome as his green eyes burned, his nostrils flared and his lips pressed together in a straight line. “I’ll do it.”

  She arched her eyebrow at him, “Pardon?”

  “I’ll be your damn model,” he said through his clenched teeth. Glaring at her, he asked, “Isn’t that what you wanted from the start?”

  “I’m sure I have no idea what you mean,” she said casually, glancing at her nails as if she truly didn’t know what he meant all the while doing a happy, crazy dance in her head. Just when she had given up on convincing him to pose he surprised her by agreeing. “I mean, certainly you would be the most interesting person I could paint but I don’t want to put any undue pressure on you.”

  He stared at her as if she were daft, a look she was very familiar with. He had often deployed it whenever he was dealing with her. “I would just sit there.”

  “Naked,” she grinned, waggling her eyebrows at him.

  A reluctant half-smile curved his lips and his eyes sparked with humor. “I am comfortable in my own skin.”

  “Yes,” she nodded her head solemnly, biting back her laughter. “I am aware.”

  He looked at her and frowned, “I am always careful around you.”

  “Sure you are,” she agreed, nodding her head in an exaggerated manner. Actually, he was careful around her, too careful. It took a little bit of ingenuity and a lot of luck to see him in his gargoyle body without the enchantment to hide that very intriguing male part of him he diligently kept hidden from her. With a magnanimous wave of her hand, she leaned back and crossed her leg over her knee and smiled, ignoring his good-natured grumbling. “And because you are being so selfless in agreeing to be my model I will let you have a little loin cloth to hide your, er, modesty from my impressionable eyes.”

  He grinned slightly at that, reaching behind him and chucking the pillow at her before she even realized what he intended. Catching it, she threw it back but of course he was expecting it and caught it easily. With his hands full, she leapt off the couch and tackled him, forgetting that he was at least seventy pounds heavier and made up of pure muscle. She found herself pressed against his hard body, her hands on his solid shoulders and his arms clasping her elbows to hold her steady. Staring into his green eyes she forgot how to breathe.

  Trying to stay cool, she smiled but it trembled on her lips. “Wow, that was a spectacularly bad idea. I forget that you are made of stone even when you’re in your human form.”

  He flashed one of his rare smiles, his teeth white and perfect, “And you are as light as a feather.”

  With that he grabbed her under her arms and stood up, lifting her until her feet were dangling several inches above the carpet. They were eye to eye and she was completely flustered. “Yes, well, your superior gargoyle strength is also very impressive. You can, um, put me down now.”

  “I’m going to need a large loin cloth,” he said gravely, his green eyes lit with laughter.

  Her lips parted in surprise a moment before her smile nearly split her face and she laughed. She ador
ed this side of Armand, the side he kept hidden from everyone but her. Sliding her arms around his neck, she hugged him because in that moment hugging him was as necessary as breathing. Pressing a kiss to his smooth cheek, she tilted her head back and grinned, “Done. But I reserve the right to arrange the cloth as I see fit.”

  “Mmm hm,” he murmured, not quite hugging her but not putting her down either. The moment stretched out and as she watched his eyes darkened to emerald and his nostrils flared. As her tongue darted out to moisten her suddenly dry lips, the smile vanished from his face and he tracked the movement with his eyes.

  The sound of barking and the clicking of nails on the floor was the only warning they got before Armand’s little white mop of a dog came into the room, running circles around Armand’s legs before standing on her hind legs and begging for his attention. Ferris knew that the rest of the crew wasn’t going to be far behind and as much as she loved her family she was sorely disappointed that they had returned home so quickly from their evening walk.

  Chuckling, Armand set Ferris down before going to his knees and petting the dog, “What mischief have you gotten into today, Dizzy?”

  Still feeling a little giddy from being in his arms, Ferris covered her mouth to keep from laughing, remembering years past. She and her Aunt Melanie had gotten the little dog for Armand years before because Ferris had decided he needed a puppy. They found the cutest, most adorable mutt they could find and presented it to him shortly after the sun set. Initially he had refused the gift, referring to the creature as demon spawn, but it didn’t take long before everyone knew the little dog was his. The moniker stuck and the mop with legs was officially named Demon Spawn, though she was lovingly called Dizzy. The dog had adored him from the very start, much like Ferris, following him around and burrowing her way into his heart.