Prince of Stone (Imperia)

by Gena Showalter

  Funny. Her one shot at a normal life was a sorcerer and high priest of the…Druid? Whatever he was, he was her first and only ticket to the storybook life she’d always desired, but had yet achieved.

  “At least give me a chance to understand. Please,” she added, desperate.

  Before he could respond, a knock sounded at the door.

  “Heather?” her mother called.

  Before she could react to the interruption, Percen vanished. She had to swallow a protest as desolation struck her.

  Heather stared down at the bedsheets where he’d lain, at the indentation and wrinkled cotton. Her stomach lurched, cold chills raking her from head to toe. Tears burned her eyes, blurring her vision.

  He was gone. Would he be coming back? He’d been angry with her for a reason she still didn’t understand. She had pushed him too far, perhaps. Or asked too much of him.

  Another knock, this one louder and more intense, jolted her into awareness. “Are you okay? All I need is a response, and I’ll leave you alone. Stay quiet, and I’ll take the hinges from your door.”

  “I’m tired, okay? Just leave me alone.” Heather liked her mother, but could not forget their past. When Heather had finally gathered the courage to admit what her father had been doing, her mom called her a liar.

  A pause. Muffled footsteps as her mother shuffled away.

  The tears spilled over, streaming down Heather’s cheeks. A quiet sob tore from her throat. It was the kind of noise a wounded animal would make, deep and gut-wrenching.

  “Why do you cry?”

  Percen! “You came back.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. First, she detected a blurred silhouette a few feet away. Then, her vision cleared.

  He’d adapted the same position as before, when he’d first visited.

  “Thank you for coming back!” She jumped from the bed to wrap her arms around his neck, clinging to him. “Don’t ever leave me again,” she sobbed. “Just…don’t ever leave me again.”

  How long she held him like that, while she cried in his arms, she didn’t know. She lost track of time. She only knew that being with him had become necessary for her survival. She didn’t care if it was magic or chemistry that linked them together. The feelings were there and genuine, crackling beneath the surface of her skin.

  “Look at me, Heather,” he beseeched. His tone was softer than she’d ever heard it. “Look at me. Really see the man I am.”

  Slowly, keeping herself firmly pressed against him, she pulled back to gaze up at his face. A gasp congealed in her throat. No longer did Percen have the flawless skin and features she’d come to know. A wealth of scars marred his face. His left eye drooped a little lower than his right, and his nose was bent at an odd angle, the same as his body.

  Though this man looked nothing like the other, Heather didn’t doubt his identity. He possessed the same blue eyes with the same glint of vulnerability as her Percen.

  For him to feel as if she would abandon him because of his appearance… How many women had abandoned him because of his appearance? How many rejections had he faced? Compassion squeezed at her chest. Heather would take an “ugly” kind man over a “beautiful” cruel man any day, any hour, any minute.

  At her continued silence, rage darkened his features. “I tried to warn you, tried to make you understand that you would not want me. Go ahead. Tell me you no longer wish to stay with me.”

  He didn’t understand. Her father had been a very handsome man, yet his beauty had hidden the beast within. Besides, beauty faded. The only way to escape the consequences of aging? Or hell, even living. Death.

  “I meant what I said. I don’t care about your appearance.” She took his hand and drew him closer, urging him to bend down and rest his head upon her shoulder.

  Shock, disbelief and incredulity blasted from him. “You are not frightened by me?”

  “You haven’t hurt me. Why would I fear you?”

  With a grunt, he burrowed his face in the hollow of her neck. She held him, clinging to him as fervently as he clung to her. His twisted body shook with his effort to control his emotions. Or perhaps the shaking came from her.

  What would he think of her when he learned about her past? Her father’s abuse only scratched the surface of her disgraces. In junior high and high school, she’d slept with any and every boy who’d expressed interest in her. Interest from others meant she had value. Value meant she wasn’t tainted by her father’s abuse. But…

  Because rumors about her easiness had abounded, a lot of boys had been interested in her. Funny thing, though. That interest had waned as soon as the boys had nutted, making her feel worthless, disgusting and unlovable. So she’d needed another boy to make her feel better. A toxic cycle, all because she’d wanted someone, anyone, to like her.

  Bottom line: she’d craved acceptance. Also, she’d felt a constant driving need to control a sexual situation. When girls and boys had started calling her “slut” and “whore,” her already low self-esteem had taken a beating…which led to even more boys. Eventually, she’d run away and shacked up with a guy who’d sold her body to others for money.

  I’m not telling you this to be mean, sweetheart, but you’re not smart enough to go to college or hold a real job, and you need to contribute to rent.

  When the guy started hitting her on top of everything else, she’d finally wised up and returned home to live with her mother.

  Though she felt dirty and disgusting, though her self-esteem remained at an all-time low, she hadn’t slept with anyone for over six months.

  “Of the two of us,” she told Percen, “I am the ugly one. If you knew half the things I’ve done…”

  Percen raised his head, the gleam of reverence in his eyes nearly felled her. When their gazes met, hunger overtook and overwhelmed her.

  He croaked, “You speak as if our actions dictate our level of attractiveness, not our outward appearance.”

  “Uh, because our actions do dictate our level of attractiveness. Think about it. You can look at someone, and they’ll be plain at first glance. But the more you get to know them, the hotter they get. Actions determines personality. Personality determines beauty.”

  The reverence deepened, infiltrating the rest of his features. “You are correct. But there’s nothing you could do to make yourself less attractive in my eyes.”

  “You don’t know my past. The things I’ve done. The men I’ve slept with.” Guilt and shame spread through her like a virus, infecting everything.

  He didn’t miss a beat. “Your past made you who you are. Why would they make me like you less?”

  Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill over. “You don’t think badly of me?”

  Frowning, he glided the pad of his thumb along her lashes. “I do not. But I don’t like that this makes you sad, either.”

  “I’m not sad. I’m happy.”

  Blink, blink. “Happy?”

  Maybe…maybe it was time to try sex again? Not because she wanted to feel better about herself, or because she hoped to keep a guy interested in her, but because she desired a deeper connection with this man.

  “Kiss me, Percen. Please.”

  He wrenched with shock, but the moment she parted her lips in invitation, he bent his head…he slanted his mouth over hers.

  The kiss started slow, a sensual exploration. But he tasted so sweet and felt so good against her, pressure built, the need for more, more, more intensifying. Soon, she couldn’t stay still, only thrash.

  He removed her clothes, then his own, and eased her back atop the bed. The kiss ended, but she couldn’t complain. He worked his way down, kissing other parts of her, worshipping her breasts, her belly and her thighs.

  Had she ever experienced pleasure like this?

  Had she ever experienced pleasure at all? Until now, she meant.

  When he entered her at last, she was wet and ready.

  Afterward, he didn’t jump up to dress and leave as so many others
had done. No, he held her, as if he was right where he wanted to be.

  She tried to catch her breath, but failed. That was…he…wow! Pure ecstasy had led to pure satisfaction for the first time in her life.

  Snuggled into his side, she asked, “Was I…was that good for you?”

  “Good?” He shook his head. “Nay. Amazing? Beyond.”

  Oh, thank goodness! “I want to know more about you. Tell me everything.”

  He told her about his life, his childhood, how he’d been abandoned and forgotten by his mother, and Heather felt a deep kinship with him. Although her father had not abandoned her, he and her mother had betrayed her.

  Maybe, just maybe, she and Percen could comfort and support each other and finally heal.

  Then he told her about his hatred for Jorlan and his plans to ruin the man’s life, and her stomach bottomed out.

  “Jorlan did nothing to you, Percen,” she said as gently as she could manage. “Why do you wish to make him miserable?”

  Percen jolted up, glaring at her, the soft dreamlike haze destroyed. “He took everything from me! I was not hideous until he used his magic on me. He was beloved by our parents, our people, but I was merely tolerated. He stopped our mother from visiting me.”

  “No.” Heather shook her head sadly. “Your mother made her choice. Jorlan was a child, while she was an adult.”

  “Why are you hurting me like this?” He slammed his fist against his hand, then quickly began to reclaim his clothing. “I thought you accepted me, wanted me with you always.”

  “I do want you with me. I do accept you. Can’t you see I’m trying to help you?” Words her mother had spoken a thousand times during the past six months. “If you kill Jorlan, you’ll be punished, right? Maybe locked inside a cell. I’ll never see you again.”

  “No mortal cell could hold me, and no one from Imperia will know what I did.”

  “All right. What about your soul? If you think you can murder your brother and feel nothing, you’re a fool. Just…please rethink this, Percen.”

  “I have thought and rethought and thought again. I will not reverse my decision.”

  Inside, she withered. “Katie has done nothing to you, yet you’re willing to destroy her life, too. And mine!” If Jorlan died, Katie would mourn and Heather would lose her job. No way she could face the woman knowing she’d slept with the man responsible.

  Something cold, hard and sharp glittered in Percen’s eyes. This was not the man who’d just made love to her. This was a stranger she’d never met. “I won’t hesitate to hurt Katie in order to hurt Jorlan…and aye, I will hurt you, too.”

  If her happiness were a human, he’d just sliced its throat, leaving it to bleed out. And yet, still she clung to hope. Percen would realize his mistake. He would!

  “I’ll tell him,” she vowed. “I’ll warn Jorlan about your intensions.”

  Percen narrowed his eyes to slits and cupped her chin in his hands. “If you tell him anything, you are just as bad as my mother and we are over. I will never trust you, speak to you or make love to you again. Do you comprehend what I am saying?”

  Tears welled in her eyes once again, but this time they had nothing to do with happiness. Her heart was breaking. She’d thought him better than other men, but she’d been mistaken.

  Not knowing what else to do at the moment—try to convince him to see things her way, dump him or accept this side of him—she nodded.

  “Try to understand.” He softened his tone. “I cannot have the life I dream of until Jorlan is destroyed. A life you can share with me.” He pushed to his feet to dress. “Stay away from Katie’s home. Do you hear me?”

  Again, Heather nodded. An empty sensation left her dazed.

  Satisfied by her capitulation, he waved his arm in the air and disappeared.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  KATIE BURROWED INTO Jorlan’s side, her mind too active to sleep, her body too sated to abandon the bed. Twilight filtered through a crack in the window curtains, casting a luminous spell over her sleeping companion. She’d enjoyed watching him interact with her family today. More than once, he’d swooped in to her defense.

  A girl could get used to that.

  How can I give him up…ever?

  She wished she could go back and say yes to his proposal. Wished she was selfish enough to ask him to wed her, giving up his family and his home to be with her.

  She wondered what dreams played inside his mind right now. After they’d made love—twice!—he’d lapsed into silence and quickly drifted off, but hadn’t relaxed. Even asleep right now, tension radiated from him.

  With a sigh, she lightly traced a heart on his chest.

  He caught her wrist a split second before he opened his eyes, his fully alert gaze clashing with hers. Not a hint of fatigue on his part. “I want you as my life mate, Katie.” Raspy voice, agonized tone. “Not temporarily, but forever.”

  What the what? Had he read her mind? Surely he hadn’t just said… Surely he didn’t mean… “What?”

  “When I asked you to wed me before, I didn’t know you, not really. Now I do. Now I know beyond any doubt that I want you in my life always.” He tightened his grip, locking her in place. As if there was anywhere else she’d like to be. “I don’t care where we live as long as we are together.”

  He would live on Earth, just to be with her? Joy burst through her, only to fizzle. How could she allow him to give up his family and his home, two things he’d missed with every fiber of his being, just so she could keep her family and home?

  How could she not? “Are you sure you wish to pledge your life to mine?”

  “Aye. I am sure.” His absolute conviction made the blue appear deeper and darker. “You have become the most important part of my life. I crave you constantly. When we are separated, I feel incomplete. You are the best part of my days and the favorite part of my nights. You make me laugh and plan and hope.”

  His praise all but scattered rose petals inside her heart. “What if you grow to resent me? I mean, you’ll be giving up a lot just to be with me.”

  “Giving up a lot, aye, but gaining so much more in return.”

  “Jor-lan,” she said, drawing out the syllables. Her fears? Alleviated. Her insecurities? Gone. She hadn’t asked him to give up anything; he’d offered of his own free will.

  If he was wrong and later grew to resent her…

  No! He knew his mind, and he’d meant what he’d said.

  Brimming with happiness, she laughed and shouted, “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!”

  He heaved a long sigh of relief, then readjusted their positions so that he gazed down at her. His glorious weight pinned her to the mattress, his hardening shaft cradled against her core.

  “I feared you would say nay again.”

  “I didn’t say no to you the first time, I said no to giving up my family for a man who was certain he would get tired of me.”

  “I was a fool.”

  “I won’t argue with you.” She laughed again, more carefree than she’d been in…ever? “Do you want a big or small wedding? Local or destination? Should we elope? Gah! I’m still in shock, my mind sprinting from one thought to another.”

  “Say it again.” He combed his fingers through her hair, fisted the locks at her nape and angled her head so that she had nowhere to look but him. “Tell me your answer again.”

  “Yes. Aye. I will. I do.”

  His awed expression returned. “I will wed you any day, in any way you wish.” Now he laced his fingers with hers and lifted their joined hands beside her temples, pinning them there. “You will not regret this decision, katya. I will devote my life to your happiness.”

  “Just as I will devote myself to your happiness.”

  Jorlan kissed her lips softly. As he lifted his head, an unexpected strain pulsed from him. “Tell me you love me. I need to hear the words.”

  “I—” Wait, wait, wait. That strain… Suspicions dawned, leaving her cold and bereft. Had he proposed
just so she would break his curse? The deadline neared. Would he simply go home when freed, leaving her behind? Desperate people often did desperate things. “Do you love me?” He’d praised her, but he’d never even hinted at love. Foolish girl.

  For a long while, he hesitated, some sort of war brewing behind his expression. Finally he said, “Aye. I do. I love you.” He grumbled the words, as if he already resented her for everything he’d given up on her behalf.

  Why else would he hesitate? Why else would he go to war with his thoughts?

  Had he just…lied to her?

  Her stomach turned over, flipping and flopping. Guess her fears hadn’t been alleviated, after all.

  Unable to look at him a moment more, she shut her eyes. Her chin trembled. Part of her suspected she’d seized any opportunity to retreat. The other part of her didn’t care, only wanted to be saved from future heartbreak.

  “I’m sorry, Jorlan. I…I realize it’ll be best for everyone involved if we don’t get married. I’m sorry,” she repeated. “My answer has to be no.”

  * * *

  FROM THE HIGHEST of highs to the lowest of lows. Jorlan sat before a small, picturesque window, nestled in a private alcove within Katie’s bedchamber, gazing out at a moonlit yard. Stars twinkled overhead, brighter than the jewels in a king’s crown. The kind of jewels he’d longed to lay at Katie’s feet the second she’d accepted his proposal.

  What had changed her mind? Oh, he knew fear was the culprit, but what did she fear, exactly? He’d asked if she loved him and boom! Happy Katie had morphed into panicked Katie, almost as if she could not—nay, would not—abide the idea of trusting him with her heart. And if she did not trust him, she did not know him. If she did not know him, she shouldn’t wed him.

  When she’d asked if he loved her, his first thought had been, Me? Love her? I care for her, fantasize about her constantly, admire her greatly, but love? Am I capable of such an emotion?

  What he felt for Katie did not resemble what he’d felt for Maylyn. Mayhap that was why he’d taken so long to discover the truth? That he’d never loved Maylyn. He’d only lusted for her. Katie, on the other hand…