Stone and Earth (3 page)

“Do you have a motorcycle?” The thought of him riding a big powerful bike was unexpectedly exciting. In the bright light of the kitchen he was even more handsome. He stood easily over six and a half feet tall, with thick-lashed gray eyes and silky straight black hair that fell loose to his shoulders. His face was a sculptor’s masterpiece, all sharp angles and long lines. The smooth planes of his chest and abs were positively mouthwatering and it took a great deal of effort to make herself look away.

“
Oui
.” Without another word he moved around the counter and almost automatically began to help her assemble the sandwiches. Their motions fell into an instant, easy harmony.

“Will you take me riding?” Katie finished slicing the homemade bread and began to coat the slices with butter.

“As soon as we get you a helmet.” He topped the slices of bread with thick slabs of cheddar and provolone.

His instinctive protectiveness made her smile. “Do gargoyles need helmets?”

He shrugged in a manner that was almost more French than his faint accent. The mayor had told her he was from Montreal. “Need? Probably not. Even in human form, we’re much tougher than the average person. But I wear one when I ride. Getting your skull caved in still hurts, even if it doesn’t kill you.”

“You said you can turn into stone, but you sure feel like flesh and blood to me.” She transferred the first two sandwiches to a heavy cast-iron griddle, then placed a plastic container of leftover tomato basil soup into the microwave.

“It’s a rest state.” Damien uncorked the bottle of white wine she’d handed him and poured two glasses. “If we’re injured, we can turn to stone and our bodies repair themselves.”

“That’s cool. Can you show me sometime, or do you have to be hurt to do it?” She didn’t like that idea, not at all.

“Entering the stoneshape is voluntary, but my body won’t let me change back until it is fully healed. So I’d rather not demonstrate tonight. As tired as I am, it would probably be a while and I’d much rather recuperate by curling up next to you.”

Katie flipped the sandwiches and smiled. “I think I like that idea better too.”

Chapter Three

Sleeping next to Katie was possibly the second best sensation in the world. Fucking her was without a doubt number one.

Damien knew he needed to be out of her sight before dawn, so he’d set the alarm on his cell phone to give him a half-hour leeway. If their relationship went any further, he’d have to let her see him by daylight eventually, but no way was he ready for that after only one night. She’d told him the other room on this floor was the bedroom intended for him. He figured he could hide out there until nightfall.

Even after the near-silent buzz had wakened him though, he couldn’t bring himself to move. There was something so seductive about lying on silky cotton sheets with Katie warm and soft in his arms, her bright auburn head pillowed on his chest. They’d made love twice more last night after leaving the roof, once in the kitchen and once more here in her bed. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of her hair. Moss and earth and spice.

Damien must have dozed off again, because when he opened his eyes, the first pale rays of dawn were filtering through the slats in the blinds. To horror, he felt his body beginning to change.

He tried to slip quietly from the bed but Katie’s long, lithe limbs were twined around his own. She stirred, sitting up and blinking as he rushed to disentangle himself.

“Damien, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,
cherie
. I just…need to use the bathroom.”

“Hmm. Then you’re heading the wrong direction. Nice wings, by the way.”

Merde
! He’d turned his back to her, trying to flee the room. “I need to go.”

“Damien. Relax.” She moved up behind him and circled his waist with her arms, rubbing her soft cheek on the leathery surface of his demonic wings. He wondered if she’d also spotted the long tail that he tucked forward between his ankles. Since she hadn’t run screaming yet, probably not. “So this is why you travel at night.”

“Yeah.” He knew his voice was deeper and huskier in this form. Hell’s teeth, she was dropping butterfly kisses on the pointed tips of his wings. “It tends to frighten the tollbooth workers on the turnpike.”

“I’ll bet.” Her gentle chuckle was a benediction, warm and curious but completely lacking the fear or disgust he’d expected. “So this happens every morning?”

“Sunrise to sunset.”
Oh
,
fuck
!
Now her busy hands had found his tail and were exploring it. She traced her fingers along the coiled muscle down to the barbed tip. This was probably not the time for him to mention that when he was in demon shape, his tail was an erogenous zone. Of course, he’d never had a chance to prove that except by himself. He’d never fucked another gargoyle and he’d never let a human woman see him like this.

“Turn around, Damien.”

“No.” He knew the front was even more horrific than the back. Even some of his own kind found him painful to look at.

“Damien.” She kissed the ridge of his spine, then moved her hands to his hips, forcing him to either fight her or turn. “I know it’s too early to talk about this, but I fell in love with you last night. And the man I fell in love with just happens to be a gargoyle. I don’t know much about what that means, but apparently this is part of it. I do know that under this thick gray skin, you’re the same man who held me through the night.”

“Gargoyles are part demon,” he told her. “A curse of our race.” But slowly, he did turn. And forced himself to look into her grass-green eyes.

“And you said it was bad!” She tsked and shook her head, still studying him carefully. He followed her gaze, knew she’d seen the horns that poked through his hair, the heavier brow ridge and protruding jaw. Fangs poked out from both upper and lower lips. “Goddess, Damien, you still have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”

She picked up one long-clawed hand and laced the fingers through hers. Her milky white skin shone in stark relief to his mottled gray. She studied the claws and grinned. “I can see where we’ll have to be a little careful during sex, but we’ll figure it out. I know you’d never do anything to hurt me.”

“
Cherie
—” He knew there was no way she really wanted him, but it was sweet of her to make him try to feel good.

“Damien, you can be such a fool. Does this feel like pity to you?” She must have been reading his mind because she took their linked hands and rubbed his knuckles through the curls between her thighs.

His knees went weak for a moment. She was wet. Damien groaned and dropped to his knees at her feet. He didn’t know why, but if he didn’t get a taste of that pussy in the next second, he was liable to cry. Cautious of his claws, he gripped her hips in his hands and widened her legs. Then he used his tongue, which was longer and more pointed in this shape. With exquisite slowness he licked his way along her slit, sliding his tongue through the wet, swollen folds of her labia. She tasted like heaven, sweet and salty with the pungent flavor of rich, fertile earth. The hint of his own semen from earlier made Damien’s cock throb even harder.

“Yes.” Her throaty cry was sweeter than a symphony. When her knees wobbled he nudged her back until they hit the side of the bed. She sat with her legs wide, giving Damien plenty of room to kneel between them. He drew back to admire the sight of her auburn curls glistening, her plump pink flesh quivering for his touch. He folded his claws into his palms and used just his knuckles to trace the lines of her. Her wet, receptive sex, the wide feminine flare of her hips, the soft roundness of her belly, the heavy swell of her rose-tipped breasts. She was strong and fit, but not thin and Damien loved that fact. She was built like a fertility goddess and he could fuck her all night and maybe even all day without having to be afraid he’d break her in half. Her wavy auburn hair cascaded down her back to skim the green comforter, completing and framing the picture of feminine beauty.

He licked her again, one long, savoring slurp from asshole to clit. Thick cream coated his tongue, tantalized his senses. He circled her erect pearl, teasing gently, then slid deep between her folds to dip his tongue up inside her pussy. She was still tight, even a little swollen from all their earlier play and her vaginal muscles clenched down, drawing him deeper. He used the roughed tip to rub against her G-spot, drinking in the warm juices that flooded her as he licked.

He was so wrapped up in the beauty of Katie’s pleasure that he forgot he wasn’t supposed to use his hands. He didn’t touch her with the claws, he wasn’t that far gone, but he caught both nipples in the vee between the first two fingers on each of his hands. When he pinched them closed her hips bucked up off the bed and her legs came up over his shoulders.

“In me. Now.” She was whimpering as she writhed beneath the onslaught of his tongue.

He pulled it out of her long enough to whisper, “Come for me first,
ma belle
.” Then he pushed back inside, his nose rubbing against her clit while his tongue fucked her inner walls.

“No. Ah… Problem.” She squeezed his back with her heels and lifted her shoulders so she could grab his head, holding his face tightly to her pussy. He flicked his tongue against the taut ring of muscle at the entrance to her womb and she came, shuddering in his arms and convulsing against his mouth. Slowly he licked and tickled until she was limp but still shivering with aftershocks.

“Now it’s my turn, big guy.” She tugged on his shoulders until he joined her on the bed. Then she pushed him down on his back and rolled to her knees. After one long, wet, sucking kiss on his lips, she began trailing her tongue and lips down his chest.

“You don’t have to do this.” He knew his cock was different now as well. Bigger and more roughly textured—it couldn’t possibly be appealing.

“Do too,” she growled, flicking her tongue across first one slate-gray nipple then the other. “I want to taste you so badly it hurts.”

How could he fight that? Damien fell back against the mattress and let her have her way with him.

She smoothed her hands down his arms, lifting his hands to her lips. She placed a delicate kiss on each knuckle before deliberately kissing each half-inch curved claw. Then she turned her attention back to his torso and he gathered handfuls of her hair to play with as she traced the contours of his pecs and abs with her mouth, then swirled her tongue inside his navel.

“You still taste like you.” She trailed kisses down his hip and legs, carefully avoiding his cock. “And you still smell of man and sex. Your skin feels like it should and you’re still warm, even hot to the touch.” Playfully she tickled his foot with her tongue. “Altogether, you’re still the yummiest man I’ve ever seen.”

“
Tu es une ange
,
c
’
est vrai
.”

She had no idea what he’d said, but it sounded so sexy in that deep gravelly voice that just the sound of it made her pussy clench and quiver. She couldn’t believe she was getting wet again, but the salty dark taste of his skin was the strongest aphrodisiac she’d ever encountered. She licked her way up his leg, loving the play of his smooth skin over hard muscle. When she got to his hip she made one more detour before moving on to his sex.

He had a tail.

How cool was that? And when she’d touched it before, she could tell it turned him on. So now she feathered her fingers over his thighs to where the long, sinuous tail lay tucked between his legs. She picked it up in both hands and reveled in the groan that escaped from his lips.

Strong muscle formed a long, slender rope, just about exactly the length of his legs. It was as thick as her wrist and ended in a blunted arrowhead tip that hung between his ankles when he stood. Like his wings, the skin was darker than the rest of his body, with a sturdy leathery texture, still smooth and supple but stronger than regular skin. Katie stroked her hands down the length of it, then slurped the point into her mouth.

“Katie!” His cry was hoarse and shrill. Experimenting, she sucked the end of his tail as if it were his cock, licking just beneath the ridge then taking it deep into her throat.

She loved the way she made him lose control but now she wanted his cock. With one last wet kiss, she released his tail and shifted her body ‘til she knelt between his legs, her face level with his hips. The tail wound around her waist, holding her close.

“I love you, Damien.” She hadn’t meant to say it, not again, not so soon. But the words came of their own volition as she bent to taste the dark plum-shaped head that rose up on a long shaft from a mat of coarse black hair. She licked up the milky droplet that had already beaded at the slit, then dipped her tongue inside, searching for more. His taste was bitter but rich with a strong earthy flavor and Katie wanted nothing more than to swallow him whole.

Instead she used her tongue to follow the shape of him, first circling around the underside of the broad, flared head, then down the long length of the thick vein that ridged his shaft. He was longer now and thicker. She wrapped the fingers of both hands around him, but they didn’t come close to meeting in the back. Even her two hands together barely covered half his length. She should be terrified at the thought of having that pole stuffed inside her, but just thinking about it made her clench her thighs and squirm. As soon as she was done going down on him, she was going to climb on top and ride him ‘til she passed out from the pleasure.

She cupped his heavy balls in her hands. They were full and taut, drawn close to his body. She nuzzled at them, rubbing with her cheeks and lips, then opened her mouth and drew them in, one at a time. His cock flexed and jerked into the air as if begging for her attention. So she gave his sac one last lick and nibbled her way up his shaft. When she reached the head, she drew it into her mouth all the way to the back of her throat. One hand wrapped around his shaft and stroked while the other wandered downward. She fingered the sensitive skin between the root of his cock and his anus, then swirled around the puckered hole and popped just a tiny bit inside.

He bellowed her name and came, his hot semen shooting forcefully into her mouth and down her throat. She took him deep, swallowing hard, stroking him with tongue and hands while he poured himself over and over into her waiting mouth.

When he was finished, she licked him clean then crawled up his chest, sitting astride his hips. “Fuck me, Damien. Please.”

“Goddess, Katie, I don’t want to hurt you.” She felt him twitching, his still-hard cock nudging her hungry pussy.

“You won’t. Not unless you tell me no.” She bent her head and kissed him, letting him taste his own cum on her lips. The fangs didn’t bother her in the least, she flicked at them with her tongue. She could taste herself on him too and the combination almost made her come. She wriggled, trying to position his cock where she needed it.