Stone Romance (Stone Passion #2) (27 page)

“I think you mean whistle,”
Rhys
corrected.

“
No, holler
,”
Zin
countered, opening her mouth and letting out a piercing whistle. As Jenna and Rhys slammed their hands over their ears,
Zin
smiled in self-satisfaction, “See? Holler for a dog.”

“Yes, quite,” Rhys grumbled, giving the point to the pixie; her holler was very much a whistle.

“Very clever,” Jenna said and the praise puffed the pixie right up. Zipping off, her body practically vibrating with excitement from conversing with a human,
Zin
disappeared back into the kitchen.

“I think my ears are bleeding,” Rhys muttered, sticking his finger in his ear canal and juggling it a bit.

“
Zin
is adorable,” Jenna chuckled easily. “She makes it easier to
adapt to
this new world.”

“It’s older than you can imagine,”

“Oh, I can imagine,” she grinned, her eyes twinkling. Then her lips parted and her eyes widened in astonishment, “Gorgon and gargoyle… I could see how the pronunciation could be altered throughout the years.
Very interesting.”

He chuckled, grateful
that she was easing her way into his world with relatively few problems
. Omari must have lowered her inhibitions slightly by giving her the medallion that she wore all of the time. Every now and then, she would touch it and not even realize she was doing it. Omari had told him it was a protective charm, but Rhys suspected it was so much more. Unless there was another reason Jenna was adjusting to her new reality so well… he just couldn’t think of one.

She scowled, “If your father is a… well, a god, how can they be kept apart?”

“Well, she is of the night and he is of the day,” he explained poorly. There were so many truths and half-truths he wasn’t sure where to even begin. It didn’t matter, not really; in the end his parents loved one another from afar, taking lovers
as needed or wanted
and savoring the brief moments of time they had together.

“What?” she chuckled, “Is he the sun god Apollo?”

“Um,
yes?
” he admitted reluctantly, knowing she was
still getting used to
Medusa being his mother. “Though, of course, he
goes by a different name now.”

“Of course,” she muttered, the color once more gone from her cheeks as she stared at him. “It still doesn’t make sense; he’s a god, he should be able to do as he pleases.”

He couldn’t help but smile, “The mythical world has its own rules and curses play large roles;
so many
of the great myths revolve around curses. Fortunately, it is also difficult to create a truly unbreakable curse so it’s important to learn nuance and to be very specific. My parents found a loophole in the curse and they use that time to make up for the hundreds of years they spend apart.”

Jenna blushed prettily as her taut nipples betrayed her lascivious thoughts.

“Before the curse m
other could transform at will and they would spend their days together, frolicking and fucking and whatever else they did. But after, she was confined to a stone body during the day and he was banned admittance to her island, except for the five years they are allowed to be together.” He paused to make sure she was following since she was oddly quiet. “Because we are gargoyles, we are stone during the day and men at night.
Because we are the sons of…
Apollo we are men at night and not gargoyles.”

“I…see.” Her nose crinkled slightly in confusion and he leaned forward and kissed the tip of it. Grabbing a slice of mango, he slid it between her parted lips, smiling as the juice dribbled down her chin and she
gasped
, effectively ending the conversation before she thought too much about it.

“Mother will be able to explain it better,” he grinned, leaning forward and running his tongue over her skin to clean up the juice, tasting her in the process. With his lips next to her ear, his nose nestled in the soft, black silk of her
hair,
he breathed in her delicate scent and murmured, “Shall we take the fruit back to the room so we can finish getting ready for another night out?”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” she smiled, sliding her hand into his, sighing as he kissed the sensitive skin behind her ear. They stood up and, judging by the wide eyes and parted lips, he surprised her by handing her the platter of fruit. When she arched her eyebrow at him, he swooped her up into his arms, steadying her as she struggled between holding onto the tray and keeping her balance. “Rhys!”

Kissing the tip of her nose, he grinned, “I’ve got to build my strength up, sweetheart; we only have a few days left until we arrive on M
edusa
’s island.”

Grabbing a slice of fruit, she stuffed it into his mouth, stopping his sensual promises before he could make them again. He adored her but he was concerned;
the Fates were being awfully generous with their information. And Jenna herself was struggling a little but she refused to admit to having any problems. S
he’d smile as if she hadn’t a care in the world and yet her eyes were troubled.

Anytime he tried to ask her about it, her smile would become sultry and she’d distract him with sex. He wanted to comfort her but he was only a man and when she wrapped her hand around his cock he couldn’t think at all until
s
he milked every ounce of pleasure from him.

If he wasn’t careful, he was going to become addicted to her.

If he was honest with himself, he would admit he already was.

When they got back to the manor it was nearly three in the morning and Jenna was buzzing with energy. All of the sights and sounds were still pounding in her head and she felt amazing; she never wanted the feeling to end. And Rhys continued to draw her deeper into his spell, weaving a web that was ensnaring her body and soul. As they climbed the stairs to the top floor, he looked at her with fire and lust in his eyes, “Do you trust me?”

“Yes, of course,” she answered without having to think about it, surprising herself with how much she did trust him. She felt young and carefree – alive – with him; of course she trusted him.

He brought her hand up to his lips, his warm breath m
oving across her knuckles as he
smiled wickedly, “Good. Now, come; I’ve got something special planned for our last night in London.”

Jenna’s heart trembled and her belly hummed as she followed Rhys back to their suite. He kept looking at her with those heated eyes, making the butterflies in her belly go wild. There was a flash of
dark craving
in his eyes that
thrilled her even as it made her a little apprehensive. But like the lust-filled fool she was, she followed him, wanting whatever he had in store for her.

“Come,” he whispered, opening the door to their room. Slowly, the door swung open, revealing a room filled with the warm glow of candle light. Rose petals were strewn across the floor and the bed, blood red against the white sheets. Soft, sensual music played in the background as the scent of candlewax and rose petals filled the air.

Tears welled in her eyes as she stepped into the room he had prepared. Pressing her fingers to her lips, she took in the whole room, noticing the black and red silk ties that were artfully interspersed across the bed with the rose petals. Her eyes flew to Rhys, who quirked up a wicked smile as his hot eyes burned through her. “I told you I wanted you tied to my bed.”

Her stomach hollowed out as a million butterflies vanished in fright. Slowly, he pulled the tight t-shirt off his body, revealing the naked splendor of his gold-kissed chest, the hard muscles and sculpted planes of his abdomen. Her knees wobbled as he continued to look at her with those smoldering dark eyes. His fingers flicked the fastening of his pants and her mouth went dry. But he didn’t
remove
his
pants
; he simply kicked his shoes off until he stood before her in nothing but a pair of denim jeans.

It was incredibly sexy.

“Jenna,” he purred, running his fingers along her arms, her shoulders. “Take off your clothes.”

Trembling, she grabbed the hem of her shirt and found Rhys’s hands already there, tugging the material up and over her torso. Raising her arms above her head, she held his gaze as he pulled the shirt from her body to reveal the silky blue bra that encased her breasts. Before he stripped any more clothes from her body, he cupped a breast in his hand and brushed his thumb over the nipple, making her
moan
in pleasure.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he murmured, bending his head and taking the swollen peak between his teeth. He gently bit down on the silk-covered flesh and Jenna’s body stiffened in pleasure and she had to grab on to his arms to keep steady.

As he tongued her breasts, he unfastened her pants and pushed them down her legs, holding her steady as she stepped out of the material. Stepping back he looked at her in her bra and panties and smiled hotly, “Beautiful.”

Standing nearly naked before him, with his hot eyes raking over her body, she felt beautiful. The most charming, gorgeous man stood before her with an erection that was straining against the front of his jeans and he was looking at her as if she was his salvation and deliverance; of course she felt beautiful. Reverently, he took her hand in his and led her over to the bed. He continued to hold her hand and her eyes as she climbed onto the bed, shivers of excitement and nerves dancing over her skin.

Hold
ing
her eyes, he gently laid her back against a pile of pillows so she was at a slight incline; the scent of crushed roses filled the air. Taking one of the red silk sashes in his hands, he slid his hand from her shoulder to hand. The bed dipped beneath his weight as he kneeled on the mattress beside her. He wrapped the silk around her wrist and raised the arm above her
head and lashed it to the head
board, stretching the muscle
of her shoulder
until she felt it but not so much that it hurt. Her heart raced in her chest; she was giving her pleasure into his hands and she wanted it and feared it in equal parts. Moistening her lips, she asked in a hushed voice, “What if I change my mind?”

“Dragon’s breath,” he murmured huskily as he took her other hand and repeating the action, tying it to the bed so her arms were firmly but comfortably
bound
. He ran his finger over the tip of her breast as he smiled down at her, “It’s a safe word; any time you say
dragon’s breath
I’ll stop immediately.
Unless you prefer a different word?”

She swallowed thickly as he gazed at her with hot chocolate eyes. “It’s okay.”

“Say it for me,” he ordered, his voice rough with passion.

“Dragon’s breath,” she managed to whisper, her mouth dry
, her sex wet
. He lightly pinched her nipple making
her shoulders tighten and her breasts thrust upwards; his smile was pure decadence. Licking her lips, she asked, “Why dragon’s breath?”

“
It’s
part of the thrill,” he purred, bending his head and trailing a line of kisse
s
from her ear, down her throat, along her collar bone. “When you’re dying from pleasure and begging me to stop I know you don’t mean it; you’re simply lost in the moment. It heightens your pleasure when you beg.

“But if you say
dragon’s breath
I’ll know you’ve had too much,” he continued, kissing each breast, her sternum, dipping his tongue in her navel and making her squirm. But then he stopped and sat back on his heels looking down at her with liquid desire, “I’m asking you to trust me, Jenna; I know how much your body can take and I will take you to the edge and leap off with you.”

When he looked at her like that she could barely breathe. “I don’t like pain.”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he vowed, cupping her cheek in his hand, his expression one of love and devotion. “I’d never hurt you. This is all about pleasure, love; your pleasure.”

Slowly, she nodded, not quite a hundred percent certain she was okay with it. She watched with wide eyes as he grabbed the black ribbon and put it over her eyes, tying it at the back of her head so she couldn’t see anything at all. “Rhys….”