Stone Maiden

by Tina Gerow

  She clamped around him, ever tighter and he hardened further inside her, causing them both to gasp. Their movements became more insistent and the slap of flesh against flesh and panting breaths, louder.

  Ariel cried out, pulsing around him in rhythmic waves. Logan’s climax pushed beyond the point he could control it. Ariel continued to ride him through her own spasms until his explosive release spurted deep inside her.

  For a long moment, the world came screeching to a halt and time remained suspended. There was only Ariel—her scent, the sound of her labored breathing and her wet heat on top of him, surrounding him.

  Ariel collapsed against him and Logan wound his arms around her, enjoying the way she sank into his embrace and the way her body still quivered with the little aftershocks of good sex. No one had ever felt quite so perfect in his arms before.

  “Well, Ariel, I can see why you were resistant to protecting Logan.” James’ angry voice boomed from the doorway.

  Ariel stiffened and then slid off Logan. She pulled up the sheet to keep covered, and sat up to face James.

  Logan’s protective instincts kicked in. James might be his friend, but whatever had been between he and Ariel was obviously over. James would just need to come to terms with how things were now. “Close the door, James,” Logan said in a menacing tone.

  James narrowed his eyes at Ariel. “I guess I should have figured you’d sleep with any man you spend more than twenty-four hours with. It would have saved me years of regrets.”

  Logan saw Ariel wince and then square her shoulders. “My sex life stopped being your business as soon as I found out you lied about your place in the food chain. I could fuck everyone you’ve ever met, and it still wouldn’t be your concern.”

  James glowered and then slammed the door with a wood-splitting crack.

  Logan heard Ariel’s gasp and knew she was close to tears. He sat up and gently rubbed her bare back over the fairy wings tattoo, the skin over the iridescent colors velvet to his touch.

  “Ariel,” he said softly.

  “Don’t,” she said, her voice breaking. “I can’t talk about this right now.”

  She jumped out of bed and Logan let her go. She fought the sobs welling up inside her as she pulled on her clothes in record time and then slipped out of his room without a backward glance.

  “Damn,” he said as he slipped out of bed and reached for his jeans.

  His temper on full boil, he went to find James.

  *****

  Gabriel sat on top of the dresser in Logan’s room and frowned. He’d have to have a word with James. His destiny and Ariel’s didn’t lie together.

  Gabriel turned back to see Logan angrily pulling on jeans and smiled. Sometimes it was nice being able to observe humans without their knowledge. Angels didn’t have genitalia, so he’d never been particularly interested in sex, but he could see what a terrific gift it was for God to bestow on humans. And useful too.

  “I’d say this was a successful evening all the way around, Gabriel. But I’m still jealous of my giant cousin.” Alonna perched on Gabriel’s shoulder, her shapely nude legs crossed at the ankle. “That man-thing has some niiiice equipment. Why doesn’t She ever endow our males like that?”

  He laughed and watched Logan pull on a shirt. “Because then you’d never be out doing your job,” he teased.

  Alonna harrumphed and crossed her tiny arms over her bare breasts. “I’m going to make sure to give James nasty dreams for being so cruel to Ariel!”

  “Now, Alonna. James is hurt and jealous. His faithful service will be rewarded in time, so go easy on him.” Besides, I’ll make sure he doesn’t derail The Creator’s plans for Ariel.

  She glared over at him, clearly unconvinced. “If I must,” she conceded and then turned her attention back to Logan. “Is the creation of the child of blood now complete?”

  He nodded. “And if all goes well, they will fall in love before the child of destiny is brought into the picture. Otherwise, I’m afraid all is lost.”

  *****

  Logan pulled on his boots and stood. His anger at not being able to find James all day had quickly turned to irritation and worry when he couldn’t find Ariel either. Dara and Odeda assured him she would be with him tonight for his monthly concert. She had spent the day at Whiskey River to ensure they knew the layout well enough to protect him.

  Meanwhile, he’d spent the day like a schoolboy pining after a crush. She infused his thoughts and left her lingering scent indelibly etched inside his mind.

  But his waiting was finally over. Logan smiled, his blood quickening in anticipation. It was time to leave, and she wouldn’t be able to hide from him much longer. He picked up his guitar and stepped outside. Odeda was already comfortably ensconced in the driver’s seat of a sleek black sedan looking like a leather-clad sex goddess. He smiled. As gorgeous as she was, his body didn’t respond to her the way it did to Ariel’s understated sexuality.

  Odeda stepped out of the car, her chocolate brown gaze dancing with mischief. “Logan, what do you think of our sex-mobile?” She waved her arm to encompass the car.

  “Sex-mobile?” he asked warily. He liked Odeda, but she loved to push the envelope and to try to embarrass him. And as much as it disconcerted him to admit it, she often succeeded.

  Kefira walked out of the house behind him. “Since you’re going to look like you’re bringing your own harem, Deda dubbed our lovely bullet-proof sedan, the ‘sex-mobile.’”

  Logan stopped short. He’d been going to Whiskey River ever since high school, and he’d never once shown up with a woman. He’d left with his fair share of beauties, but never brought one. That would have somehow shown his intent to possess a single woman, and he’d never in his life had any desire to limit himself to just one—until now.

  Wow…when did that happen?

  The thought surprised him, but didn’t bring the racing panic it always had before. Only smug male satisfaction at having found the woman he wanted to possess. Now he just had to ensure the chosen woman was on the same wavelength.

  He laughed. “And I’ll be bringing four of the most beautiful women anyone has ever seen. What an entrance we’ll make.” He placed his guitar case gently inside the trunk and closed the lid. “You four are going to cement my bachelor love-‘em-and-leave-‘em reputation, you know.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll still try to make you seem tantalizingly available.” The sultry voice he’d been listening for all day sounded from behind him, only it was more breathy and tentative than he remembered. Heat flowed through him and he turned to look at her.

  The sexy half-smile on her face froze when his gaze locked with hers. The world fell away and there was only Ariel. He kept drowning in her deep blue eyes. The nine hours since he’d seen her had stretched like a lifetime. Before he knew it, he’d closed the distance between them and taken her in his arms. Her lips were hot and greedy against his, her skin warm and tempting.

  Her arms twined around his neck and the silk of her hair flowed around his fingers. Logan lost himself in a sea of sensations. His universe revolved around Ariel…only Ariel. He knew he could lose himself for all time—right here, with this woman.

  A sigh of longing brought reality slowly back into focus. Logan reluctantly pulled back from Ariel, but kept his arm firmly around her waist.

  “Damn, I’ve never had anyone kiss me like that!” Odeda said to Kefira, her gaze sparking with interest and envy.

  Logan saw a flicker of pain in Kefira’s eyes. “I have,” she murmured before slipping into the front passenger seat and closing the door. He glanced at Ariel, who shook her head, warning him not to ask. Logan nodded, but vowed he’d ask later. Everyone important to Ariel had suddenly become very important to him.

  “Are you guys ready? Dara is meeting us there.” Odeda glanced toward the car where Kefira had disappeared. A worried frown creased her face for the first time since Logan had met her.

  “We’ll be right there,” Logan’s gaze wa
s still locked with Ariel’s.

  He waited until he heard the car door click shut to speak. He wasn’t about to lose the moment. “Ariel…”

  Ariel placed a finger against his lips, silencing him. “Don’t. I’m sorry about the way I left earlier. There is a painful history between James and I, but it’s done.”

  Logan kissed her finger, then took her hand in his, removing it from in front of his mouth. “Is that why you avoided me all day?”

  She dropped her gaze and a sheepish smile curved the corner of her lips. “Not exactly.” “I was also trying to work out how I felt about…well, everything.”

  Logan placed his finger under her chin and lifted, so she would look at him. “So what was the verdict?” Even after the searing kiss a moment ago, he was surprised to find himself nervous about her answer.

  Her blue eyes searched his and Logan held his breath waiting for her response. When she finally did speak, her voice was just above a whisper. “I’ve decided I don’t like spending the day avoiding you. Especially since I wasted nine hours we could have spent in each other’s arms.”

  Logan exhaled sharply as relief sprinted through him. “That’s damn good, because I feel exactly the same way.” But before they moved on, he needed to make sure of one thing. “What about James? I’m sorry if this will be awkward, but I don’t see any way around it. He’s not just my business manager, he’s like family.”

  Ariel nodded and seemed to choose her next words carefully. “James and I were involved a long time ago. I admit, there are some unresolved issues between us, and I’ll have to make peace with James in my own way. But you’ll both have to give me some time to figure out how to approach it.”

  Logan saw the pain in her gaze when she talked about James, and the bolt of jealousy hit hard from the knowledge that only love could leave that lasting a scar after two-hundred years. Part of him was tempted to tell her the truth about James, but he held back. He assured himself it wasn’t only for selfish reasons, but because he’d promised James he’d keep his secret. “We’ll work it out,” he said, wishing he could put all his uncertainties to rest.

  Ariel’s face bloomed into a smile and she grabbed the collar of Logan’s button-down shirt and pulled him down to her. As she melted against him, her mouth fused with his, he promised himself he’d find a way to make peace with James. James was his family, and if he had anything to say about it—Ariel was his future.

  The car horn honked impatiently, and they both jumped like guilty children. Ariel laughed and the happy sound flowed around him, reminding him for a moment of Alonna, the fairy.

  “We’d better go, or we’ll be late. And sometime, I still want an explanation of what kind of a dream you were having when you grabbed me this morning.”

  Heat rushed into Logan’s face. He wasn’t sure which one embarrassed him more, the childhood nightmare or the erotic visions of Ariel. He decided a change of subjects was best, especially since thoughts of Alonna brought back a vision of Ariel with her wings billowing around her.

  He opened Ariel’s car door for her and then slipped inside next to her. Looking around the car at the three stunning women, he said, “So, what happened to your wings?”

  Kefira glanced back over her shoulder and laughed. All traces of her earlier sadness completely gone. “Right now they are a small fairy-wings tattoo on our backs.”

  “But I’m sure you’ve already seen at least one of them,” chimed in Odeda, who smiled at him in the rearview mirror.

  Logan remembered the small tattoo between Ariel’s shoulder blades from this morning and itched to ask to see her sisters’, curious if they were all the same, but held himself in check. Asking to see under her sisters’ shirts seemed a bad way to start the evening—even if it was an innocent request. “Very handy,” he said and instantly wanted to smack a hand to his forehead for acting like a teenager on his first date.

  Kefira laughed. “I like this one, Ariel. And if he doesn’t work out, he’s easier to get rid of than a nine-hundred-year-old vamp.”

  *****

  Ariel stood just to the right of the stage at Whiskey River and sighed as yet another man tried to catch her gaze. She itched to announce that the next man who came on to her would have his eyeballs ripped out through his nose. She couldn’t watch out for potential threats to Logan while every man in the place was trying to charm his way into her panties. Besides, she was trying hard not to think about the man who had already charmed her out of hers this morning. She needed to concentrate on keeping him safe.

  All the male attention seemed to irritate Logan. In fact, every time a man approached her, a distinct scowl found its way onto his handsome face. But she understood his sentiment. Every time a woman came up to flirt with Logan, she had to fight the urge to pull Logan away and say “mine!” like a five-year-old claiming a favorite toy.

  She sighed, cleared her thoughts and let her mindset flow into her familiar protector mode. She’d done it so many times in her long life, it was like slipping on a familiar and favorite outfit. Her face set into her familiar blank “bodyguard” mask, she began to survey the bar.

  They’d arrived an hour ago, before the little bar started to fill up. Now there was standing room only, all the way from the stage to the large oak bar against the back wall. The dance floor remained open. The scuffed hardwood freshly shined, which stood out, since it looked like the only thing freshly shined in the whole place. Other than that, men and women were stacked shoulder to shoulder like cowboy sardines. They were so close, Ariel wasn’t sure how they raised their beers to their lips without elbowing someone’s eye out.

  The lights were dimmed low, and the atmosphere smoky, but the different neon signs hung strategically around the bar gave off fuzzy multicolored sections of light. Ariel’s favorite was a purple lizard wearing a red cowboy hat and holding a bottle of tequila. As the neon flashed and changed, the lizard drank the tequila and a small worm swam around inside his neon belly.

  She heard a breathy laugh and glanced over to see a local radio DJ drape herself over Logan’s shoulder. An urge to rip the shiny blonde locks from her perfect head gripped Ariel, and she reined it in hard. Let them flirt, especially when she knew Logan would be in her bed tonight and not Miss DJ Bombshell’s. “Keep drooling ladies, he’s all mine,” she said under her breath.

  “If you give off any more territorial vibes, you’re going to disintegrate the entire bar,” Kefira complained.

  “Then they’d better keep their distance,” Ariel thought back. “Anything out of place?”

  Her sisters checked in one by one to report all looked like a normal night at a country bar in the middle of Texas. Not that any of them besides Odeda had ever spent an evening in a country bar in Texas. But Odeda assured them all looked good.

  Ariel turned to make sure everything on stage was set, and Logan locked gazes with her. The impact hit like a fist to her heart. The air seemed to shimmer between them, and she couldn’t get enough breath into her lungs. Would it always be this way when they were together, the air sizzling with awareness? She returned Logan’s smile, then reluctantly looked away to resume scanning the bar.

  “Damn, that man can smile,” Odeda said inside Ariel’s mind. “I wonder if he has any brothers.”

  A soft strum of a guitar distracted Ariel from answering Odeda. The noisy bar fell silent—the sudden change almost deafening. She looked out over the crowd to see every eye trained on Logan. Ariel knew he was popular here, but the rapt expressions bordered on hero worship.

  Small town boy makes it big.

  Another strum—louder this time, then a gentle cascade of notes from the piano and an easy soft beat from the drums heralded a ballad.

  Ariel watched as Logan stepped close to the microphone, took a breath and began to sing.

  The first note stabbed through her like a knife—with a velvet edge. Her mouth dropped open. Logan was a famous songwriter, but Ariel now knew he could very easily be a country music singer. His voice w
as a soft caress of rich tenor, but he also had a touch of throaty, sexy baritone. She shook her head to clear her senses and finally started hearing the words rather than just the sound of Logan’s voice reverberating through her like a forbidden caress.

  What I wouldn’t do…to get you to forgive

  I wish you could step inside my heart

  You’d see your name carved deep

  …so deep I can’t survive without you

  I’m not asking you to forget, only to understand

  I’m just a man

  Ariel couldn’t imagine any woman not offering forgiveness after hearing Logan’s voice stroke along her skin. And even though she had nothing to forgive him for, a softening around her heart toward this amazing man showed her she was far from immune.

  It had been a long time since she’d allowed herself to feel this way for anyone. A stab of regret and pain lanced through her as thoughts of James surfaced. What would her life be like if James hadn’t lied to her and betrayed her? Ariel shook her head. No use dwelling on things she couldn’t change.

  Ariel chided herself for getting sidetracked. She heard the chorus swell in the background and saw several couples heading hand in hand for the dance floor. Lovers and love songs. She smiled as she realized she wished she and Logan could be out there with them, holding each other close.

  She scanned the room again. Everyone besides the dancers was held in rapt attention, listening to Logan. Ariel had to admit—he had a gift. It wasn’t only the words to the songs he wrote, but how he sang them. Listening to him gave her the sensation of living inside his song.

  Kefira echoed her thoughts. “Why isn’t he recording his own songs?” she said in an awed tone. “I’ve never heard anyone sing like that.”