His lips quirked into a half-smile as he shook his head, “It’s the same thing, Ferris. I’m not a human and that is all that mattered at the time.”
When it was apparent that he wasn’t going to continue, she pushed, “So, this girl… what did she look like?”
He chuckled at her ploy, “Katrina was beautiful. She had hair of the palest blond and eyes… well, I don’t exactly recall her eye color. Rhys insists they were brown but I could have sworn they were light teal, almost the color of your eyes. It was her expression when she saw me transform that I remember most. She was enthralled.”
Freezing her smile in place, she ignored the praise he heaped on the wretched woman’s head. She had to remind herself that had Katrina accepted his gift then Armand wouldn’t be single now. “How did she ever get the chance to see you change? I mean, you guys are hyper-sensitive about that kind of thing.”
He grinned, a smile that was almost boyish and completely devastating. It was a smile she hadn’t seen before, something that was light and carefree. “When we were young we were not always so careful. We also liked pissing off our older brothers and so during the night the three of us would ride our horses as far away from the estate as we could and still make it back it time; we didn’t always make it back before the sun rose.”
She had to smile as the memories warmed his voice. Shaking his head, he continued, “When that happened, we’d have to find a place to hide. And occasionally we were seen.”
He laughed as he reminisced and Ferris found herself listening to him instead of drawing. “We were such hellions, Rhys, Vaughn and I. We deliberately provoked our older brothers – our guardians at the time – because we could. They were so full of themselves, already bored with life and unsure how to deal with the three hell-raising gargoyles.
“On the night I met Katrina we had spent the night carousing – drinking, gambling, whoring,” he shook his head, oblivious to the stab of jealousy that hit her at his words so easily spoken. “We wagered on how long we could stay out and still make it back to the estate before the sun rose. Vaughn was conservative with forty-five minutes, Rhys said forty and being the cocky bastard I was I said thirty.
“Needless to say, I didn’t make it back in thirty minutes.” He smiled, the sight so beautiful she wanted to weep. “I was still miles from the estate when I changed and I ended up stuck in a squire’s garden, amidst other statuary and sending my horse home without me. I had been wise enough to strip off my clothes before I changed completely but in my conceit I thought no one would notice an extra statue, even a great, huge hulking beast of a gargoyle that was blatantly out of place in the middle of graceful nudes.”
“You’re pretty spectacular in your gargoyle form,” she murmured, blushing when he arched an eyebrow at that comment.
“I’m pretty sure you’ve never seen me in all of my glory,” he countered. “I’ve always been very careful to shield your eyes.”
She simply smiled, unwilling to tell him about the time she was seventeen and had snuck up onto the roof at noon. Ajreis had provided a temporary shadow spell to hide her presence and Armand had never known she was there. Her first glimpse of a male’s anatomy was eye-popping and she had almost given herself away by gasping out loud. Since then, she had discovered through art class that human males have much, much smaller penises. Thank God. “Go on, Armand, what happened?”
He gave her a look but continued with the tale, “I thought I had gotten away with it until the beautiful Katrina came out into the gardens just as the sun was setting. I willed her away but I was still young and didn’t have that kind of influence yet. As the sun set she watched me change.”
“I’m sure you were quite the sight for young, virginal eyes,” Ferris muttered, slashing a few lines onto the sketch pad, jealous that the beautiful Katrina got to see what she had hungered to see for so long: Armand’s transformation. She wanted to watch him change from a human to a gargoyle and back to a human.
He chuckled, “Well, she didn’t scream and for a gargoyle that was something. Within a few days she gave me her virginity and back then that actually meant something so of course I offered her my nights.”
There went that flare of jealousy again because virginity still meant something, at least it did to her. Despite being the freak in high school there were still plenty of opportunities to lose her virginity, had she decided that was what she wanted. Clearing her throat, she asked casually, “So, do you offer your nights to every girl who gives you her virginity?”
He chuckled and shook his head no, “Not after Katrina.”
“Do you make a habit out of taking girls’ virginity?”
He laughed harder, “Not at all but occasionally the situation arises and I accept. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Her heart was hammering in her chest, wanting to scream at him that it was a big deal, that a girl only lost her virginity once and she wanted to give hers to him. Even if it didn’t mean anything to him it meant everything to her. “What happened? I mean, why didn’t she accept your gift and become a gargoyle? Did she not want to lose her family?”
“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging his broad shoulders, his muscles flexing and bunching in the golden ambient light. He stared off, lost in the past, and she quickly sketched the wistful, heartfelt look in his green eyes. When he spoke his voice seemed to come from another place, another time, “There was a moment that I felt our souls connect and I knew – I knew – that we were meant to be together. But in the next heartbeat she was telling me that she couldn’t go through with it, that it was for the best.
“And then she disappeared and left me to face my last night alone,” he spat out, the resentment twisting his voice. He looked up and met her eyes, almost pleading with her to understand, “I was furious, Fer. She left me and I had to face my final night as a human alone since my brothers had gone out to give us time to ourselves.”
Her heart was breaking for him and the sketches she was working on blurred with tears. There were no words to make it better, even time didn’t seem to ease the pain he had experienced.
“They returned home just before the sun rose,” he continued. “They were as devastated as I was but they stayed by my side for the next sixty-seven years as she went about her life, finding someone else to love, someone else to marry, someone else to have children with.”
He was lost in the past, his emotions playing out on his handsome features, the sorrow, the bitterness. Softly, she whispered “I am sorry, Armand. You didn’t deserve that.”
Blinking, he looked at her and returned to the present, “For a long time I was so mad but now I think that it was for the best. If it hadn’t been for that one fleeting moment that we connected I would have been relieved that she had not accepted.”
“Would you ever give up your nights again?” she asked, trying to keep the hope out of her voice.
“Hell, no,” he vowed vehemently. “Hell, no.”
She tried to laugh but it sounded forced so she ended up clearing her throat instead as she captured the intensity in his eyes. “So you plan on never falling in love again?”
“Naturally,” he said, the arrogance oozing in his voice.
Laughing uneasily, she shook her head in wonder, “How do you plan on preventing it?”
“It’s not that difficult, Ferris,” he claimed matter-of-factly. “I don’t allow anyone to get close enough and I keep things simple: it’s only ever about the sex.”
Wow, her quest to seduce him into offering her his nights was suddenly exponentially more difficult. Well, she didn’t have to have his nights. She could have a lifetime with him, grow old while he stayed young. It wasn’t what she wanted but it was better than nothing. Or maybe she could find the wizard that helped her mother and aunt and buy enough time to make Armand see that what he needed was right in front of his eyes.
There was time.
Chapter 3
Pushing the Boundaries
A few minutes befor
e the sun was set to rise, Armand tied the belt of his robe around his waist before he stood up, leaving his torso naked and nearly bringing Ferris to her knees with the sheer beauty of his body. His muscles gleamed beneath the bright, artificial light, flexing and bunching as he untwisted the material of his robe and slid his arms into the sleeves. He had devised the system on the third day, keeping the robe on until he was seated and then letting the material drape the chair beneath his body and denying her the pleasure of catching a glimpse of his gorgeous backside.
The material gaped open and even though she had spent the past couple of hours ogling his chest, the peek-a-boo effect was still incredibly erotic. Her grip on the palette tightened until it felt on the verge of cracking and she had to forcibly set it down.
“It’s much easier to sit in one position when I’m stone,” he said with a wry smile, twisting his torso first one direction and then the other, stretching the stiff muscles
As his bones popped and cracked, Ferris grimaced. It was unfair of her to keep Armand sitting in her studio when he didn’t really have to be there. She could have taken a photograph and worked from the image. Hell, she probably could have done the entire painting from memory. Of course, it also would have gone quicker if she didn’t keep getting sidetracked by their conversations – or his jade green eyes or his occasional smile or his naked flesh… In actuality, she simply enjoyed spending time with the taciturn man who rarely grinned, chatting with him about anything and everything, even if he was oblivious to her seduction attempts. “It shouldn’t be too much longer.”
He chuckled, the sound teasing her senses as if he was lightly drawing his fingers along her bare spine. “Nod would never have been able to sit still for so long and you know for damn sure the incubus would have seduced you long before now.”
Her brows drew together in consternation at that statement. She had no problems resisting the considerable charms of Corvyn because she was in love with Armand. “I doubt it. He’s… well, he's Corvyn.”
Her statement only made him laugh harder and her frown deepened. “Only you, Ferris.”
With those odd words, he turned around and started walking away, leaving Ferris to chase after him. She caught up to him as he pulled open the door that led to the roof top and without a second thought she chased after him. “Only me what, Armand? You can’t say something like that and then just… leave.”
He looked over his shoulder and smiled at her, his green eyes twinkling in a way that she had rarely seen before and she had to remind herself to breathe. “You’re the only human I know that willingly befriends an incubus and does not worry about the repercussions of being friends with a creature that seduces women in their sleep. Hell, you threatened to paint him.”
“I would have been wide awake if I painted him,” she protested, following him as he stepped through the exterior door and onto the roof. Planting her hands on her hips, she frowned at him, “And Corvyn knows that if he so much as tasted my essence as I slept you would castrate him in a heartbeat. He remembers the talk you had with him when I was eighteen, all because he smiled at me as we rode the elevator with him.”
Armand’s jaw tightened slightly at the reminder of his high-handed behavior but he didn’t reply. If she was being honest, she would admit that it had been thrilling seeing Armand’s demonstration of protectiveness towards her. But then he had ruined it by telling Corvyn that she was practically a baby and as an infant she was off limits. Ferris wasted no time in telling Armand where to stuff his pompous self, storming off the elevator before she could scream at him and do something stupid to prove she was a woman grown. Of course, at eighteen, she was still so dreadfully young and terrified of her attraction to the gargoyle who was beyond her reach.
As Ferris continued to stand there, waiting for him to do something, say something, she grew a little concerned: the sky was brightening and the sun was going to be up soon yet Armand hadn’t removed his robe and gotten into his gargoyle position on the edge of the roof overlooking the city. “Um, Armand? Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Yes,” he said solemnly, his green eyes glowing mischievously. “What it was like before three intrepid humans descended upon my life and caused such pandemonium.”
“Ha ha,” she dead-panned, smiling slightly. Nodding her head towards the silky material, she held his eyes as she murmured, “I was talking about the robe.”
The laughter faded from his eyes and a muscle ticked furiously in his jaw. His fingers curled around the belt, as if he could protect himself by holding on to the material tight enough. “It’s not appropriate for me to strip in front of you.”
She couldn’t stop the smile from forming as she arched an eyebrow at him and smirked, “You have been sitting in my studio for the past week naked as the day you were born, Armand. I’m okay with you taking your robe off in front of me.”
Color burnished his cheekbones and Ferris was momentarily stunned. She didn’t think Armand even knew how to blush. “It’s not the same thing, Ferris. Now, turn around.”
She flashed him a grin before she turned her back towards him, crossing her arms over her breasts and feeling the hard points of her nipples. Perhaps it was a better idea to be facing away from him. He would probably just assume her nipples were hard because of the cold, even though it was late spring and the roof was always warm. Unable to resist, she teased, “You’re such a prude, Armand.”
She heard his muffled chuckle and the rustling of material as he slid the silky robe off his luscious body. Trying to keep herself distracted so she wouldn’t accidently turn around and catch him in all of his naked glory, she glanced around, catching a flash of movement in the reflection of the small window next to the door. There was just enough pre-dawn light to let her be able to make out the form of Armand and the expanse of gleaming skin as he stripped.
Though the image was blurry and a little distorted, she knew his body well enough to fill in the blanks and a little sigh of appreciation escaped before she could prevent it. With a flurry of movement, Armand gathered up the discarded robe and held it in front of his body, covering the uniquely male part that she very much wanted to see. “Ferris!”
“Armand!” she returned, mimicking his scandalized tone. Turning around, she faced him, knowing her face was as red as his. Her heart was thudding wildly out of control in her chest, threatening to crack her ribs, but she gave him what she hoped was a neutral expression, “Really, Armand, it’s not like I could see anything interesting. The window makes a very poor mirror.”
He huffed out a reluctant, embarrassed laugh before glancing eastwards towards the rising sun. To her disappointment, he didn’t lower the gathered material. “The sun is about to rise.”
“Yes,” she nodded, slightly confused by his statement of the obvious. “I know.”
He took a step backwards, unwilling to turn around and let her see his butt. Emotion played out over his face as he stared at her, as if she should know what he was trying to say so he wouldn’t have to say it out loud. Of course she knew he wanted her to leave because when he changed from a man to a gargoyle there was a period when he would be unable to hide his penis, either his large human penis or the massive gargoyle penis. For as long as she could remember he had taken great pains to hide his male-ness from her, protecting her even when he resented her being there.
But now she wanted to see him as he was, not as he made himself to be. She was no longer a six year old child climbing onto a gargoyle's lap, seeking a safe haven from the big scary world. She was twenty-one and madly in love with the man. Leaning against the wall, her arms still crossed over her betraying nipples, she grinned, “Wouldn’t it be nice to no longer have to hide your stone penis from my poor, virginal eyes?”
“Dear gods, Ferris,” he sighed in exasperation, his voice getting rougher as he began to transition with the rising of the sun. “Is it your goal in life to be as big a pain in my ass as possible?”
She laughed softly at his harsh word
s, knowing he wasn’t entirely serious. “Only on Wednesdays.”
“Then thank the gods it’s only Friday,” he said, the corners of his mouth quirking upwards in a half-smile. Shaking his head, the color of his skin already fading to gray, he turned around and stepped up onto the ledge, allowing Ferris the joy of seeing his gorgeous butt.
“You really do have a nice ass, Armand,” she murmured, laughing when he grumbled something not very flattering about her tenacity under his breath. She didn’t care because she was finally going to see him change from man to gargoyle. His sleek muscles grew, his entire body grew, until his six foot three of solid man became nearly eight feet of stone gargoyle with a pair of wings that curved around his large body.
Moving until she could see his profile, she watched as his straight nose and full lips elongated into a deadly-looking beak. His body was still human, more or less, though his feet and hands had a talon-like quality to them. Despite his best effort to shield her from the most interesting parts of his body, it was impossible to hide the mammoth penis that thrust out from between his rock-hard thighs. “Jesus Christ, how in the world are you able to hide that thing?”
Astonishingly, she was pretty sure he blushed; the color on his cheeks was just a hint darker than usual. As she stared at the unwieldy stone penis, there was a shimmer and then it simply vanished from her sight. “Go inside and get some sleep, Ferris. You’re delirious with exhaustion.”
She giggled a little madly at those words since she was exhausted. But she was insanely curious as well and since the other gargoyles weren’t up there yet…. She frowned at that realization, “Where are your brothers?”
He let out a long-suffering sigh, “Vaughn probably screwed your aunt and is remaining human for the day to help take care of the baby and Rhys is probably spending the day with your mom doing whatever they do during the day with him as a gargoyle.”
Stone Destiny (Stone Passion #3) Page 4