“Oh the gods,” Adan said.
On a makeshift altar set up at the far end of the barn, he spied Elena bound naked. As far as Zander could determine, she remained unconscious.
King Xavier stood on the other side of her vulnerable body. High above his head, held in his hands, was a large dagger.
“Today you will watch your beloved die, farm boy,” the king sneered. His eyes glowed red as he held Zander’s gaze.
In an instant, the king drove the dagger down toward Elena’s exposed chest.
Zander held his breath. Inside he died. Once again, the king would inflict the most heinous cruelty upon him, and kill his beautiful Elena before his eyes.
Before it pierced her pale flesh and sliced through her heart, the dagger came to an abrupt halt an inch above her body.
King Xavier raised it and forced it down a second time. Again the dagger failed to penetrate Elena’s chest.
The king lowered his glowing eyes for a fraction of a second, but it was all the time Zander needed. He launched himself across the barn, over Elena’s unconscious body, slamming into the king’s chest.
A struggle ensued, and the two wrestled each other to the floor. The sound of flesh striking flesh filled the air as they exchanged a barrage of punches.
The king began to chant, and an eerie fog, similar to the mist that had swirled around him the morning he was turned, began to rise in the barn.
Zander slammed his rock hard forehead against the king’s mouth, rendering him silent. The king, surprised by the gargoyle’s speed and agility, dropped the dagger. Before it struck the ground, Zander snatched it out of the air and with a single smooth thrust, drove it into King Xavier’s chest.
The king’s mouth gaped open in a silent cry.
As the king struggled for breath, Zander gave the hilt another shove, until he buried the blade completely in his chest. When the king’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, Zander pushed himself off the body, and turned toward the altar.
“Behead him, and burn the body,” Zander ordered sharply, without looking at his friends. “Elena! Elena, my love,” he pleaded. Bending over her exposed, vulnerable body, he used a nail on the end of his finger to tear through the leather bindings encircling her wrists. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, leaving them there for several heartbeats.
Henrik, Mabon, Adan, Kenyon and Magnus gathered around the altar. Adan knelt at Elena’s feet and removed the bindings from around her ankles.
“Elena,” Zander whispered, and felt a tear trickle down his cheek. Over and over, he chanted her name and pressed his wet cheek to hers.
“The day is breaking,” Magnus said.
Several tense moments passed as the six beasts stared down helplessly at the woman they had all come to love.
“It is almost daybreak, my love.” More tears flowed freely from Zander’s eyes. “We are out of time! Hear me, my love, I will return for you at nightfall. When you wake, stay here and I will come for you.”
Zander raised his head to look through the shattered door, and saw the crest of the sun peek over the horizon, knowing his time with her was about to come to an end–until nightfall.
“I love you, my precious Elena. You are my world, my heart, my true princess. Please, my love, wake for me, before I am plunged into a day of stone not knowing you are all right.” Pressing his lips to hers once again, Zander willed all his energy into his love. “Oh, how I love you,” he whispered again.
“And I you, my love,” he heard her say in a barely audible whisper.
“Elena?” A whimper of hope slipped past his lips.
“Kiss me, Zander,” she said softly, her voice hoarse. “With all of your heart and soul. Kiss me and the curse will be broken.”
With effort, Elena forced her eyes to open, and met his gaze. He knew she could see his confusion on his face. In disbelief, he stared down at her. She’d come back to him.
“Kiss me, now. Time is running out, Zander. You must kiss me now, please.”
Without hesitation, he took her in his arms and captured her mouth hungrily. The slide of his tongue alongside hers had his cock rock hard and begging to enter her, to mark Elena as his. To claim her.
Though he had not felt the sensations and emotions in many centuries, a familiarity struck him. Pulling his mouth away from Elena’s, a tingling started in the balls of his feet, slowly working its way up his calves, his thighs, up the length of his spine, to the tips of his fingers.
“Zander?” Elena asked. “Are you...” Her words were cut off as his body began to shake.
Elena reached for him and held his face between her hands, her eyes holding his.
“It’s all right. This is supposed to happen. I promise, my love,” she said with an assuring smile.
* * * *
A fine, sweet mist rose from the floor of the barn, swirling around Zander, completely shielding him from Elena’s view. Her hands still cupped his face, and under her fingertips, she felt the texture of his skin change.
Taking her eyes off the cloud before her for just a second, Elena glanced over at the opening of the barn and saw dawn upon them. The sun shone bright as it rose on the horizon. When she returned her gaze to Zander, the most spectacular green eyes she’d ever seen stared back at her. His chiseled features had her heart thumping in her chest. Zander, the man, was exceptionally beautiful.
The points of his ears were gone. The cool gray pigmentation of his skin was now a healthy pale peachy color. His pink lips were full and inviting, and as her eyes roamed lower down his body, she realized he was stark naked. And his cock was still huge.
“Damn, you’re still big,” she mumbled, thinking he still wasn’t going to fit inside her.
Zander’s gaze dropped to his groin, and he grimaced. “Are you kidding me?” he gasped as he viewed the semi-erect, thick length lying heavy against his thigh. “There’s almost nothing left.”
“Men and the size of their tools.” Elena shook her head and grinned. “Make love to me, Zander,” she said. “Now. It’s how we break the curse.”
With a low sensual growl, Zander scooped Elena in his arms and raced for the opening to the outdoors. “With pleasure, my love.”
“Zander!” Elena squealed.
“If this is the only opportunity I have to make love with you, I want to do it in the outdoors, while the sun rises around us.”
“Zander, will you please get to it.” The urgency in Adan’s voice brought Elena and Zander’s attention to him. A croak of surprise uttered from each of them.
The other five beasts now stood before them in human form. The men were handsome, muscular, and incredibly large. All over.
“You are all corporeal again,” she murmured. “But how?”
“The five of us were bound by the same curse,” Henrik replied. “It would seem logical with your kiss breaking the curse for Zander, it would be broken for all of us.”
She smiled. “Zander, we must make love now. It is the final thread to breaking the curse. Please.”
* * * *
A low rumble emitted from Zander as he walked them out into the bright sun. As the warmth caressed his flesh, he inhaled a deep breath. Carrying Elena several yards from the door, he knelt, lowering them to the ground.
“It is time to make new memories, my love,” he whispered against her lips. “Together. You and I.”
Elena’s body trembled as he settled himself between her thighs. She gripped his biceps as he dipped his head and closed his lips around the tip of her right breast. Flicking his tongue over the puckered tip brought whimpered gasps from Elena. A husky groan lodged in her throat as he drew on the flesh of her left breast.
“The taste of your flesh feeds me, my love,” he said and suckled her hard.
“Zander, your cock... Please,” she pleaded, fisting her fingers in his hair. “I need to feel you inside me.”
Zander rose above Elena, and looked deeply into her eyes. The tip of his shaft nudged the damp o
pening of her body seeking entrance. Pushing forward, the throbbing crown slipped inside, and Elena’s back arched off the ground.
When he’d fed half his length inside, Elena’s teeth sunk into her lower lip, and her eyes squeezed shut.
“Ahh,” she wailed.
Zander stilled his entrance. A shudder coursed through him. “I’m hurting you,” he stated.
“Yes.” She sighed, in a sexy wisp of breath. “And if you stop, I’ll kill you myself.”
Zander laughed aloud. “But, my love, we’ve just come together, and you threaten to kill me already?”
“If you stop loving me I will, beast.”
He pulled his hips back, enjoying the expression which crossed her face before sliding back into her sheath. He allowed himself another inch before retreating.
“You’re so very tight, love.” He flicked his tongue across one puckered nipple, and then the other. “Squeeze me, baby.”
Her hips shot up off the ground, forcing Zander even deeper. The grip in his hair released, and her hands now clutched at his hips. He allowed her several moments to control their joining before he grabbed her hands, raising them above her head. His lips crashed against hers, stealing the breath from her lungs as he thrust.
Above them, the sun rose higher, strengthening in its warmth, stimulating Zander’s sensitive flesh. He kissed and nibbled a path along Elena’s cheek, down her neck, to her breasts. Suckling the tight peaks of her nipples brought gasps of pleasure from deep within Elena’s chest, and a moment later he felt the muscles of her pussy grip his cock. As he advanced and retreated Elena’s hot sheath rippled along his firm flesh.
“Yes, Zander, yes,” she cried out as he brought her to orgasm.
The tightening of his balls announced his own impending release. When he would have withdrawn from her body, she dug her fingertips into the firm cheeks of his ass and held him against her.
“You must come inside me, Zander,” she said. “Please, fill me with your seed.”
Zander’s control shattered, and he began emptying himself into the tight heat of Elena’s body. With a deep groan followed by a victorious roar, he trembled as he met release and collapsed atop Elena.
Several moments passed as they both struggled for breath. Rising up on his forearms, Zander looked down into the eyes of his woman. Dreamily, she stared back at him through half closed lids.
“This was not how I’d pictured out first time together to be.” Zander chuckled and placed a kiss upon her lips.
“Well, I imagined you would be sensational,” she said. “And you are.”
Elena’s lower lip trembled as his cock jerked to life inside her once more.
“Roll over,” he instructed in a strained voice, and withdrew his shaft from her heat. “Now that I’ve been inside you, I never want to be out.”
Laughing, Elena rolled onto her belly. Gripping her hips, Zander pulled her up to her knees. He spread her buttocks wide and aligned the head of his cock with the glistening slit of her opening. With a smooth thrust, he slid inside, until his balls rubbed against her clit. In a grinding motion, his balls teased the bundle of nerves while his cock caressed the pulsing muscles of her channel. His strokes were long and confident, and judging by the way her hands grasped fistfuls of grass beneath her, he knew he was hitting his mark.
“Harder,” she ordered as his thrusting increased.
Zander’s breathing grew harsh, ragged and exhaled in pants.
“Look at me, baby,” he commanded, and smacked the left cheek of her ass.
Elena tossed her hair to the side and cast Zander a seductive glance over her right shoulder.
“You are so beautiful,” he said. “So sexy.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, Elena trembled beneath him. “Faster, beast.”
He grinned wickedly as a throaty chuckle erupted from his chest. “As you wish.”
Reaching under Elena, he cupped her left breast and tugged roughly on her distended nipple.
“Ahh, fuck me,” Elena groaned, still holding Zander’s gaze.
Several strokes later, his cry of sexual completion echoed Elena’s. The intoxicating scent of their lovemaking scented the air around them.
“Zander,” Elena moaned in satisfaction.
He placed tender kisses between her shoulder blades, down the length of her spine, to the small of her back.
“Are the two of you going to come up for air anytime soon?” Kenyon chuckled from the doorway.
Zander pulled his still semi-hard shaft from Elena and sat back on his feet.
The others had emerged from the barn as well, and all eyes were focused on him and Elena.
“It is done,” Henrik said.
Zander nodded.
With gentle hands on Elena’s waist, he tugged her up until her back settled against his chest, his arms wrapped tight around her.
Elena was now his and his alone. Beside her was where he intended to spend the rest of his life.
“Perhaps for a moment,” Zander said, nuzzling the crook of her neck. “But be warned, I am going to take her again, and again, until Elena has trouble walking.”
Epilogue
Five years later–All Hallows Eve
Elena stood at the kitchen sink tidying up after dinner. Another hour would bring the darkness, and the ‘trick or treaters’ would begin making their rounds through the neighborhood. A bloodcurdling scream came through the open window from the backyard.
“Mommy! Daddy!” soon followed.
Dropping the dishtowel in her hand, and a plate, which shattered when it hit the floor, Elena flew out the back door, running toward the sounds of commotion.
Beside the garage, sprawled face first on the ground lay four-year-old Zander Junior, wailing. On his left, his twin sister Julie knelt, attempting to console him.
Running at full-tilt, Zander appeared from behind the garage, reaching the kids a split second before Elena.
“Are you hurt, son?” Zander asked, rubbing his hands over his little boy’s limbs, looking for cuts and feeling for broken bones. After helping their son to his feet, Zander brushed the dirt and grass off Z.J.’s tear streaked face and clothes, giving the boy the once over.
Z.J. shook his head, trying to stifle his tears.
Elena dropped to her knees. Placing her hands on his waist, she turned him around, taking a good look at him for herself. “Are you okay?”
Z.J. nodded, sniffling back a sob, and dragged his forearm under his nose. “I-I’m o-k-ay, Mama,” he said through a series of hiccups.
“What happened?” Zander asked, brushing his son’s tousled dark waves out of his eyes.
“He said he could fly and jumped off the roof,” Julie blurted out.
“Z.J.,” Zander scolded in a gentle tone. “What were you thinking?”
“Where in the world would you get an idea to do something like that?” Elena asked.
“Well, Daddy told us once upon a time, he could fly...”
Elena shot her husband a glare, her lips drawn tight. “Oh, he did, did he?”
Zander shrugged in a feeble attempt to look innocent. The blush on his cheeks had her almost chuckling.
Almost.
“So I kinda thought if Daddy, and Uncle Kenyon, and Uncle Adan, and Uncle Mabon and Grandpa Henrik and Papa Magnus could fly…” He paused to shrug. “Maybe I could too.”
“Zander,” Elena said through clenched teeth. “He could have been seriously hurt.”
Zander ruffled the little boy’s hair. “But he wasn’t.” He smiled in apology at her.
“This time,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
With a playful smirk, Zander nodded in agreement.
“You can’t fly, pal,” he told his son in a fatherly tone. “Only when your uncles toss you around in the pool can you fly, okay? No more leaping off the garage, or anything else, for that matter. You scared your mother.”
“’Kay, Dad.” The boy’s shoulders slumped in defeat, and he sniffled. His hangdo
g expression tore at Elena’s heart. “I can’t fly.”
“All right, you two,” Elena said, pulling both her kids against her in a tight hug. “Go inside and get washed up. I’ll be right in to help you with your costumes.”
As the kids walked away, Elena and Zander could hear them chattering.
“You think Dad’s gonna get in trouble?” Z.J. asked.
“Yup,” Julie replied with a rapid nod of her head. “Mommy’s got her squished-up face on.”
Z.J. stopped in mid-step and turned around, a sad look on his dirt-smeared face. “Sorry I got you in trouble, Dad.”
Zander’s hangdog face matched their son’s, when he glanced down at Elena. Rolling her eyes, she stifled a snicker.
“Thanks, buddy,” he said, and then gave his son a wink. “Now get going. We’ll be right in.”
Taking a step forward, Zander wrapped his arms around Elena’s waist and pulled her close. “So, am I in really big trouble, wife?” he asked, nibbling on her ear lobe.
“Yes.” Elena moaned as her arousal sparked under his sensual caress. She never could stay mad at Zander for very long. “I should string you up for planting that idea in Z.J.’s head,” she said, turning to face him. “Next he’ll think he can run off and fight an evil, immortal king.”
“Mmm, a little bondage sounds like fun,” Zander mumbled as he nuzzled her neck.
“Don’t try to change the subject,” she chided, poking him in the chest.
“Never, my love,” he growled, pulling her closer. Elena felt the length of his cock pressing against her belly. “But for the moment, can I interest you in coming out behind the garage? I’ve got a little something I’d like to share with you.”
“There isn’t anything little about the something you want to share with me.” Elena giggled. “And making love with me isn’t going to get you off the hook, beast.”
“Of course not.” He grinned. “I’ll gladly accept your punishment, baby, only later. Right now I want–”
Elena grabbed Zander’s hand and eagerly pulled him toward the back of the garage. “Okay, come on,” she snickered. “But we need to be quick!”
* * * *
Granite Kiss Page 10
