Protected by Stone (A Paranormal Romance Novel) (29 page)

Sipping the tea, searching for warmth, I blinked at him. “It changed with Tessa, it all changed when she transformed that house.”

Dirk nodded once, mouth crinkling as he wandered down an old memory. It reminded me of why I had come to see him.

Digging into my pocket, I touched the hard squares for comfort. “I brought something for you, though now I'm wondering if it was insensitive.”

I had his attention, his head inching forward. “What, something for me?”

The back of my neck was hot as I spread the photos on the table. He knew what they were instantly, each picture a happy reminder of a time in the past. Memories of a young boy, and the smiling woman he always loved.

He touched them as if they would melt, sliding them closer. The way his mouth twisted, forehead a staircase of wrinkles, I regretted what I'd done. “Sorry, this was stupid of me. I thought you might like them, but...”

“Thanks.” The word was a struggle to say, the work of a man holding back tears. “Thank you so much, Farra. I—I always wondered what happened to these.”

“You're not upset?”

Smiling slowly, he flipped over the picture of himself and Tessa at the lake. I already knew what the back inscription said. “Not at all. These were good times, the best times. I could never feel anything but happy to remember these.”

I swore I saw wetness on his cheeks, but he was fast to rub it away. “I should get going,” I said, standing quietly. Anything else felt like it would break the moment.

Dirk never took his eyes off of those photos, not even as he waved farewell. He was lost in the world of his past, of warm summers and a laughter that I now knew sounded like bells.

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T
he greenish sunlight was in my eyes, inclining me to be lazy on the grass. I'd been digging and weeding for an hour, hardly much work, but...

His shadow fell over me, blocking out the light. Grault always had a way of sneaking up on me. I caught the flash in his eyes, wondered if my lack of surprise had disappointed him. “Farra,” he said, lowering himself beside me. “What are you doing?”

My fingers were under my head, serving as a pillow. Otherwise, I would have reached for him right then. “Nothing, I'm doing nothing.”

“Why would you do nothing?”

I felt my smile crook sideways. “I just felt like it. I used to do this all the time, did you know? Just lie around, doing nothing.”

Grault stretched on his side, head propped up on one elbow. With his free fingers, he traced a line down the exposed slice of my stomach. “Did you like it?”

“No,” I admitted, “not really. I just never knew what else to do with myself.”
I didn't even know what I wanted. Just to survive, I guess.
Rolling my eyes down, I watched his fingers trailing over my skin.
I didn't have anything to lose, then. I thought I had no one, nothing.

And now I have...

Leaning over, I brushed my lips on his chin. It got him to lean over me, returning the kiss on my smiling mouth. “What was that for?” he chuckled. “You had the oddest look on your face.”

Sitting up, I pushed him over, rolling onto his chest. My hair fell into his face, filtered sunlight dancing across his forehead. “I was only thinking that there are things I'd much rather do these days. Things other than nothing.”

“Are you worried about our guests walking in on us?” he whispered, already peeling my shirt upwards.

I was digging at the buttons of his coat, knowing I'd find his hard torso beneath. “Not if we're fast.”

“I don't want to be fast,” he said, teeth grazing on my shoulder.

My eyes fluttered, palms gliding under him to feel his back on the bed of grass. “Then, if we're quiet.”

“I don't want to be quiet, either.” Tasting my jaw, my ear, he called forth a soft whimper from me.

Not fast, not quiet, he always wants it his way.
Our bodies pressed together, my weight on him fully as I straddled his hips.
Luckily, it's my way too.

Our clothes decorated the garden, my gasps as musical as the running stream. When I sat up over him, giving him an eyeful of my naked body, he had the grace to moan.

“Let me know if I'm too rough,” I said to him, reaching back to feel his hard length. He said nothing, and I knew it was a silly request.

Grault had flesh far stronger than human, how could I ever hurt him?

I wanted him in me, yet I also wanted to enjoy the feeling of simply sliding my warmth over his pulsing body.

“Farra,” he hissed, hands coiling onto my hips. “Since when are you the sort to tease?”

I kissed his nose, hovering over him a mere inch. “I thought you said you didn't want it to be fast?”

His mouth was quick, burying on my own. He needed little strength to guide me down, digging into the round flesh of my rear. With nowhere to go, I heard my wicked cry as he entered me.

The sun was warm on my back, but our heat was fiercer. In that place where we'd shared our first kiss, we made love like it was the last time we ever could.

I didn't like that thought, I buried it under his guttural panting.

We were in tune, moving together to the sound of our hearts. It reminded me that he
had
a heart, and amazed me that in everything that had happened, in all my wonder about what Grault was, I never considered he might not have one.

I kissed his eyelids, white lashes tickling my tender lips. His growl, how he flexed as he neared his climax, called the image of his gargoyle body forth. It didn't scare me, it only served to drive me higher. He wouldn't harm me, but he
needed
me, all of me.

“I love you,” I cried out, hiding my face in his shoulder.

He held my cheeks, forcing me up so he could stare into my eyes. There was no escape from him, from the emotion burning on every hard feature. “I love you too, Farra. I love you more than anything. I never want to lose you.”

Time flowed by as we relaxed there, inhaling in each others sweet scent. Grault brushed the muscles of my back, I toyed with the curve of his ear.

“That was much better than nothing,” I said against his temple. He pulled back, managing to look surprised, but that just made me laugh.

Rolling off of him, I spread out in the grass, letting the green-sun kiss my body. “Being in love is funny,” I said to myself.

“Is it?” He sprawled next to me, placing his head on my chest. His arm embraced my stomach, protective.

Idly, I ran my finger tips over that arm. “It makes everything feel different. It made me... brave, I guess.”

“No,” he said quietly against me, “you were always brave.”

I wouldn't argue, but I didn't believe it. I'd been so terrified of small spaces, but surely it had been my love for him, for everyone, that had sent me into that awful place.

Closing my eyes, I pushed his hand against my belly. Thinking about that night, about Tessa and the sylph, had made me remember something else. “I know so little about you, and what you are. Is that strange?”

He flashed me a fond smile. “You'll have all the time you need to ask me about it. I personally think you know all the important bits, now.”

Turning enough so I could glimpse him from the corner of my eye, I hesitated. “Grault, how long do gargoyles live?”

“What? Why?”

“I'm just curious, you said I could ask you anything.”

He sat up, staring at me with unbridled distress. “No, I think it's about more than that.”

I couldn't control my sad smile. “You must have thought about it, too. You're destined to outlive me, aren't you?”

His neck went tight as an elastic.

“I'm right. You're ancient, but you look so young. You said she brought you back from being a statue... you had a life before her.” Tessa's kind smile and golden glow entered my head. “She didn't make it past her fifties,” I said. “Maybe my family is just destined to die young.”

“Stop,” he growled, and I knew he was right. It was a dark path to go down. “What happened to her was different.”

Looking up, I stared at the green glass above us. It looked too much like the lake water for my liking. “I know. But you have thought about it?”

Grault's silence was stifling, his mouth a perfect scowl. “I—yes. Of course I have. I've outlived Tessa, and Gina, and now I realize I am faced with it again. But, Farra,” he pleaded, reaching to hold my hand. “To go down this line of thought is to find no joy, no future.”

No future.
Gingerly, I spread my palm on my stomach.
Maybe that's not entirely true. Could I already be—if what Noaginath told Tessa was true, about sylph fertility, I could have a baby inside of me right now. It's been a month since that first time we...

“Farra?” he asked me, breaking into my thoughts. “Are you alright?”

Cupping his neck, I brought him down to me for a long kiss. It left us both breathless, my cheek rubbing against his. “I'm fine. I was only thinking about something someone said to me, about how I'm always protected by stone. It made me wonder... if that might be true for others.”

He was lost, I could see it in his ebony eyes. “What are you trying to say?”

I closed my lashes, the light of the greenhouse shining through my lids. It made my world orange and warm. If there was a life growing inside of me, and if not now, surely later...

He didn't know why I hugged him so tight, why I kissed him so desperately. In time, he would certainly realize.

There would always be someone to protect.

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- THE END -

..ABOUT THE AUTHOR..

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C
ynthia Brint is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of paranormal romance. She loves creating stories with complex worlds and fleshed out characters, all in the hope of evoking emotion in her readers.

She pulls no punches, and never plans to.

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T
hank you for reading!

For sneak peeks at upcoming novels and more, sign up for Cynthia Brint's mailing list!

New Release Mailing List! Click Here!

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M
aybe Fate:

No matter how you fight, fate still comes knocking.

But what happens when you rebel against it?

When I felt someone watching me, I knew something was wrong. I'm not the kind of girl who gets a lot of attention. I don't want you to think I'm paranoid, or crazy. Definitely not crazy. That night, I got my first glimpse of something that should never have existed. I met someone who would change my life, change my everything. Someone with wicked smiles and a voice like sugar mixed with cinnamon.

Someone not entirely human.

Maybe Fate
is a full-length 350 page New Adult Paranormal Romance. It focuses on the wonder of destiny, the beauty of love, and the way it sweeps us up with unstoppable, hungry claws.

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U
ntil the Flood:

When I fell in love with Brandon Beck, tasted my first kiss in his arms, I believed deep in my bones that we would always be together. Nothing could ever tear us apart. And you know, I was right.

Until the flood came, I was right.

That day, I was sure I'd lost everything. Brandon Beck's body had been swept away. The one boy that was meant for me was gone. That was what I thought, anyway.

Two years later, I caught a glimpse of him. Why would the love of my life stalk me from the shadows, why would he hide away for so long? Maybe it was all in my head.

Or was it possible... that Brandon Beck had never died at all?

Until the Flood
is a 140 page New Adult Werewolf Romance novella. It focuses on how we find ourselves pulled back to the ones we love, no matter what has changed inside of us. Sometimes, we change more than we could have ever imagined.

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2
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Did you love
Protected by Stone (Paranormal Romance Novel)
? Then you should read
Maybe Fate: A Novel (Paranormal Romance)
by Cynthia Brint!

From New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Cynthia Brint:
No matter how you fight, fate still comes knocking.
But what happens when you rebel against it?

When I felt someone watching me, I knew something was wrong. I'm not the kind of girl who gets a lot of attention. I don't want you to think I'm paranoid, or crazy. Definitely not crazy. That night, I got my first glimpse of something that should never have existed. I met someone who would change my life, change my everything. Someone with wicked smiles and a voice like sugar mixed with cinnamon.

Someone not entirely human.

Maybe Fate
is a full-length 350 page New Adult Paranormal Romance. It focuses on the wonder of destiny, the beauty of love, and the way it sweeps us up with unstoppable, hungry claws.
Mature Content, recommended for ages 17+