by A C Warneke
“Oh.” She knew it was a lame response but she was trying to figure out a way to excuse herself so she could head up to the roof without appearing too eager to see her lover. God, she loved the sound of that! Armand was her lover. They were lovers. A silly, loopy smile started to curve her lips but she pulled it back so it was just sort of a crooked half-grin. She glanced at the clock that hung on the wall and wondered how long she would have to wait before she could leave.
“We’re heading over to mom and dad's for the weekend,” Melanie said, her free arm wrapped around Vaughn’s waist. He had one arm wrapped around her and the other protectively on Alex’s shoulder. The four of them made a picture perfect family and even after fifteen years Melanie and Vaughn couldn’t stand being apart from one another for more than a few minutes. “Do you want to join us?”
Ferris loved spending time at her grandparent's but she needed to talk with Armand. With a regretful smile, she shook her head no, “I'd love to, but I have to work this weekend and I also plan on finishing up my painting.”
Jenna kneeled in front of her and gave her a hug, which was only a little awkward since Ferris was still sitting. “If you change your mind we’d love to have you join us. Mom and dad would love to see you.”
“If I get a chance I'll stop by, Jenna,” Ferris murmured, returning her mother’s hug, breathing in the warm, familiar scent and closing her eyes in contentment.
Jenna let out an almost painful sigh, “I wish you’d call me mom when we’re at home.”
Ferris offered a conciliatory smile, “When you stopped aging we agreed that this was for the best. If I call you mom at home I’ll screw up and call you mom in public.”
Jenna heaved another pained sigh, sorrow filling her eyes as she looked at her daughter. Brushing a strand of dark hair from her face, she cupped Ferris’s cheek in her slender palm, “You are an amazing woman, Ferris. Do you know how much I love you?”
“I love you, too, Jenna,” Ferris murmured, blushing slightly. Jenna pulled her into another quick hug before the four adults and two kids made their exit.
After they were gone, Ferris let out a long breath and tried to decide how much time she needed to spend with the three remaining gargoyles before she could escape to the roof. They usually spent their nights out on the town, keeping an eye on everything, even though the dynamics between all of the species had changed dramatically when the veil had been lifted just a few years prior. The change hadn’t affected Ferris much since she had been immersed in magic her entire life. It also hadn’t given her the vindication for the virulent teasing from her childhood since so many of her former tormentors had so much to deal with when the creatures of mythology stepped out into their world. She doubted any of them even made the connection between what they perceived as her odd behavior and their new reality.
“Hey, Ferris,” Michael taunted. Turning her head she met his sparkling green eyes. His eyes were darker than Armand’s, there were no shadows in the emerald depths and they stood out in a face surround by white blond hair. He was exotically beautiful, like a wild cat prowling the pride lands, which made sense since he was a white lion in his gargoyle form. Even though he was only four years older than her, he had always been most insistent that he was a white lion and not a regular lion,
Because they were so close in age, Michael, Leo, Raphe and herself, their relationship was more akin to that of siblings than play mates. The three boys loved to tease her and plague her and generally make her life as miserable as possible but she knew that they would defend her against anyone who tried to abuse her in any way. It was just unfortunate that they were marble statues during the day; the three of them could have made her aforementioned school days bearable. Of course they never knew the extent of her difficulties. That honor was saved for Armand and Ajreis. To them, she was simply Ferris, the lone human in a castle full of supernatural beings.
“What, Michael?” she asked in exasperation. Even though they had barely spoken more than a few words she was already wary. He just brought that out in her.
“If you’re going to sneak lovers into your studio you should really clean up after yourself,” he whispered for her ears alone, covertly putting a piece of silky material into her hand. Flames engulfed her skin as she curled her fingers around her ruined panties and Michael’s wicked laughter only made it worse. Leaning closer so his breath fanned over her skin, he added softly, “I’m dying to know how you were able to sneak a lover into your studio without any of the grouches discovering it. You have some sterling silver balls, Ferris.”
Brazening it out, she glared at him, “What were you doing in my studio, Michael? You know you’re not supposed to go in there, especially when I am working on a project.”
His wicked smile grew, “I didn't go in. These were outside the door."
She thought about the mess she hadn't had time to clean up and she held her breath as she asked, "You didn't go in there, did you?"
He gave her a funny look but shook his head no, “Your little imp wouldn’t let me. He is very protective of your privacy, you know. He wouldn’t even tell me the name of your lover.”
Her breath had caught in her throat. It had never occurred to her that Ajreis wouldn’t tell though it should have come as no surprise. After all, he was the one who helped plan the seduction. If she had been thinking straight she would have realized that he was probably the one who kept everyone away from the studio while she had been, er, working. “Of course he protects me. He was assigned that task when I was a child.”
Michael shook his head and gazed at her with pity, “I think he’s in love with you.”
Ferris stared at him for a long moment, wondering at the bizarre workings of his mind, before she burst out in laughter. Ajreis was as much a brother to her as Michael and the other two. The thought of any feelings of romance was ludicrous. Michael’s frown only made her laugh harder, which made him huffier.
“What’s so funny?” Leo asked, gazing at the laughing Ferris and the scowling Michael with sparkling and curious golden eyes. Because his form was a liger when the sun was up, or maybe just because he won the genetic lottery, he was the largest of all of the Nostuntres brothers, standing close to six foot eight in his human form and weighing two hundred and forty pounds, all of it pure muscle. He was massive and fierce looking and the sweetest kitty cat in the world unless provoked. Then he was frighteningly powerful and lethal.
Ferris turned to him and simply smiled. He was three years older than her but infinitely more mature than Michael. She figured it was because Michael was jealous of Leo’s five extra inches, which was ridiculous because all of them towered over most humans. “Michael is just delusional.”
Leo nodded his head in amused agreement, “He does get that way.”
“It’s what happens when you let your dick do all of your thinking,” Raphe added, his violet eyes laughing with quiet mirth. Of the three terrors, Raphe was an enigma: incredibly intelligent, terribly introverted, and extraordinarily beautiful with his blue black hair and angelic face. He was the very essence of innocence, which made women desperate to corrupt him. Despite the fact that he loomed over her by a foot, Ferris felt a deeply protective instinct towards him, often taking the brunt of his brothers’ teasing to spare him when they were growing up. He watched the world with his violet eyes, as if he could figure everything out if he just stared hard enough. Out of the three of them, she was probably the closest to him and they had a strong friendship.
“What would you know?” Michael scowled, the muscles in his jaw clenching. “You’re just a bloody virgin. The very last one in this room!”
Two sets of eyes turned to her, accusations darkening the jeweled depths of gold and amethyst eyes. Leo’s jaw tightened and he seemed to expand in size, sucking the air out of the room and turning into a ferocious protector, the combination of a liger and a gargoyle, “Is this true, Ferris?”
She didn’t want to lie but she also wanted to keep what she had with Arma
nd to herself for a while longer. Leaning back against the cushions, she crossed her arms beneath her breasts and firmed her expression, “It’s none of your business.”
“Ferris,” Raphe murmured, looking at her with those soulful eyes, eyes that saw way too much. It was difficult to fathom that he was the same age as her when he had the wisdom of the ancients in his purple eyes. How could he be so wise and so innocent at the same time? He held her gaze and her body stilled, easily falling under his spell. Even knowing it was a spell and that he very rarely used it she had difficulty resisting, which meant she wanted to share her secret.
Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs away, she smiled brilliantly at the three gargoyles and stood up. Planting a kiss on Raphe’s cheek, she laughed, “You’re not getting anything so stop trying and go do what you do at night.”
With that, she turned with a flourish and started walking away, determined to make her way to the roof within the next three seconds. She ignored them as they called out to her, smiling as giddiness urged her legs to move faster. Hearing one of the gargoyles behind her, she rushed through the door, slamming it shut and locking it behind her.
She was going to see her lover.
Unable to erase the brilliant smile that was almost painful, she slowed her steps as she reached the roof access. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed her hands down the front of her outfit, feeling incredibly gauche now that she was standing so close to her destination. Armand was used to being surrounded by the most beautiful and glamorous women in the world, both human and supernatural. She was wearing a peasant skirt and a pale gold blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, the very opposite of gorgeous and fashionable.
Pulling the binder from her hair, she ran her fingers through the thick strands, hoping to give her hair a sexy, tousled look. She undid the top two buttons and then decided to undo the third as well until her breasts were nearly spilling out of her shirt. There wasn’t anything she could do about the skirt so she pushed the door open and took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the man who stood there with his back towards her.
Armand was staring out at the city, the wind tousling the dark silk of his hair and making the robe billow out behind him. He looked like a dark hero standing guard over the people of his realm, motionless, vigilant, and… isolated. Power and strength radiated from him, creating a bubble that kept everyone else at a distance but no longer. She had been the one that he had finally let in and she loved him all the more because of it.
“Ferris,” he murmured without turning around, his voice low and emotionless. “I thought you would have gone to your grandparents' house with your family.”
She blushed at the censure in his tone but she ignored it. Crossing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around his taut waist, she rested her forehead between his shoulder blades. “I was hoping we’d have a chance to talk.”
His muscles tensed, his body stiffened, as he coolly murmured, “What is there to talk about? We had sex, it was… good. What more do you want?”
Her brows drew together at the cold, hateful words. “But I thought…. I mean, I gave you my virginity.”
“And I’ve told you that I’ve had virgins, it isn’t a big deal,” he said cruelly. “And if you’re going to get weepy about it then you should have saved it for someone you love.”
“I love you!”
“No, you don’t,” he said warily, sighing in resignation. “You love a fantasy that you’ve created in your own little mind, Ferris. You love an illusion, not me.”
She tightened her hold on him, not understanding this terrible change of personality. He had always been self-contained but never spiteful. And after the past couple of days, after last night, she had thought he… well, that he had fallen in love with her.
Turning in her embrace, he cupped her cheek in his palm and gazed at her with cool, green eyes, “You’re very naïve, Ferris. I should have remembered how very young you were before I fucked you.”
His coarse word to describe what had occurred between them was a vicious slap to her face and she reeled backwards as if his words had the weight of his hand behind them. His words were shards of glass piercing her soul and threatening to tear her apart. She desperately tried to hold onto him, to keep him with her, to keep her soul in one piece. Last night she had experienced something so profound. How could he act as if it meant nothing?
He chuckled, the sound almost mocking, as he drew his thumb over her lower lip. His cool gaze heated and he looked at her with raw emotion. “But you’re so very sweet, I forget myself around you and I made a mistake.”
"Don't do this," she whispered in a shredded voice. "Last night was not a mistake! Don't say it was."
His gaze softened slightly and she saw the despair burning in the back of his jade eyes. "It was a mistake, Ferris, you know that it was. I'm not the man for you."
She felt his penis stir against her belly, swelling and lengthening as he whispered words of poison and looked at her with eyes of hopeless desire. His words and his body’s reaction to her were incongruous and her frown deepened. He was pushing her away but he wanted her, she knew he did.
Her lips parted to say something, anything, to make him stop talking but he slid his thumb into her mouth. His breath hitched in his throat and his eyes darkened as he stared at his thumb between her lips, “That is a very pretty sight. It makes me want to see those lips wrapped around my dick.”
Despite her conflicting feelings, the image of taking him into her mouth flashed in her head and her body responded. Wrapping her hands around his wrist, she met and held his gaze as she slowly moved her mouth up and down his thumb, mimicking the action of oral sex. His pulse throbbed in his throat and he rasped when he breathed. His penis twitched beneath the robe and she knew that there was passion between them if nothing else.
Passion could lead to love….
Falling to her knees, she nervously groped the front of his robe, her fingers brushing against the searing steel of his erection and he hissed in anguished pleasure. He grabbed her by the armpit and jerked upwards, not quite pulling her to her feet. Angrily, tensely, he glowered down at her, “Don’t debase yourself like this, Ferris. Get up off of your knees. Don't you understand that I'm trying to do the right thing?”
She looked up at him, at the turbulence in his green eyes. Why was he fighting her? Running her hand along the length of his erection she watched as his eyes closed and a shudder wracked his hard body. She would do anything she could to make him realize that they were meant to be together, including pleasuring him with her mouth. “But you want this.”
He hesitated a moment too long and she pushed the material aside, wrapping her fist around the turgid length of his erection and slowly pumping him. His hand trembled as he released her arm and laid it on the top of her head. He didn’t push her away and so she took the tip of his rock-hard cock into her mouth, her eyes closing as his musky essence overwhelmed her senses.
“Don't do this,” he growled, his voice foreign and harsh. "You deserve so much more than me."
Prying her eyelids open, she glanced up at him over the expanse of his sculpted belly and chest, nearly dying from the desire burning in his gaze. He cupped her cheek for only a moment before he slid his hand along her jaw and buried it the thickness of her hair. A moment later, his fingers curled into a fist and he yanked, jerking her head back and lifting her chin. Tears smarted at the sting but she couldn’t protest because he thrust his cock deeper into her mouth.
She knew that he was trying to scare her off but she wasn’t going to let him. Wrapping her hands around the base of his penis, stroking him, stroking the heavy sac beneath, she opened her throat and tried to take him even deeper.
“Damn you, Ferris,” he swore, his hips uncontrollably pistoning forward and backward, fucking her throat.
A surge of feminine power crashed through her, heightening her own arousal, flaming her love for this powerful man. Her body burned and her clothes we
re too constricting. Taking one hand away from his delectable penis, she slid it beneath her skirt and lightly touched her sex over the damp cotton of her panties. Her body twitched at the contact and demanded more. Hesitantly, she pushed past the elastic and slid her fingers along the swollen lips, smearing the wetness of her arousal over her flesh.
A low, rumbling growl was the only warning she had before Armand tore his erection from her mouth and grabbed her, taking her down to the floor and covering her body with his own. His hand reached beneath her skirt and tore the cotton underwear away and she winced at the sharp bite of pain. Then he was there, pushing into her, stretching her, filling her. Her body bowed in pleasure and he took her completely. His hips slammed against hers as he ravaged her, thrusting into her over and over with fierce possessiveness and strength.
His teeth grazed her neck and there was a slight sting as he bit down and then there was only pleasure as he sucked, marking her. His hands were everywhere, stroking her, caressing her and then he was inside of her body, stroking her from within, touching places deep inside of her that no object could ever touch. Startled, she opened her eyes and found herself staring into the powerful green gaze of a sorcerer. Reverently, she reached up and brushed her fingers over his lips as tears pooled in her eyes at the sheer beauty of him. “Armand.”
His energy swirled inside of her, bringing her to the edge of the abyss and then throwing her in. Everything shattered but Armand was there with her, and they were drowning, they were soaring. And then there was nothing. She had entered Nirvana.
Armand stared up at the night sky wishing he could see the stars through all of the light pollution of the city. His heart still pounded madly in his chest as he tried to figure out what the hell had just happened, how this mere slip of a girl made him feel things he had no right to feel. He squeezed her as she laid curled up against his side in perfect trust.
