Stone Passions Trilogy (45 page)

Standing up and leaving Ferris with Lenni and Vaughn, Rhys crossed the very short distance between them and stuffed his hands in his pockets, a boyish grin on his handsome face, “I hope you don’t mind me tagging along.”

“It’s fine,” she said inanely, her ability to converse intelligently a hazy memory. Smiling wider to conceal her missing brain, she added, “The more the merrier, right?”

“Ferris has your smile,” Rhys said, reaching out and brushing his thumb over her bottom lip. The touch was light, barely there and just as quickly gone, but she felt it in her toes. She was going to have to revise her initial assessment because the magnetism of this man was dangerous and exhilarating. It might even be worth testing the waters and if she could find her ability to communicate, it might even be wonderful. A little embarrassment at family dinners would be an acceptable price to pay.

But then his words registered and warmth blossomed deep in her chest. Her smiled softened as she glanced at her daughter, conversing so easily and readily with Melanie and Vaughn. Looking back at Rhys, her tongue not quite as thick as it was two seconds before, she told him, “Everyone thinks she looks like Lenni.”

Rhys cocked his head to the side as his gaze moved over her face in a visual caress. His brows drew together as he slowly shook his head, “No. While she has long hair that would throw most people off, she definitely looks like you. And if she continues to take after her mother, which I am sure she will, she is going to be stunning when she grows up.”

Jenna’s tongue decided to take that moment to tie itself into another knot, all progress gone in an instant because an attractive man complimented her. She had to hand it to Melanie – her sister knew how to tempt a girl into throwing all caution to the wind. But how could her resistance melt in an instant? It wasn’t normal, no matter how gorgeous and appealing Rhys was.

“You are such a charmer, Rhys,” Melanie crooned from where she stood next to Ferris at the doorway. With a meaningful glance at both Jenna and Rhys, she squatted down to Ferris’s level and smiled, “Why don’t you grab your coat so we can get going.”

Ferris quickly did as Melanie asked and the three of them were heading out the door before Jenna realized what their intentions were. They were leaving her alone with a man that had been crafted from her darkest dreams, dreams that she tried to deny even as she longed to dream them.

Snapping out of whatever delirium she had fallen under, Jenna shook her head and laughed at her fanciful thoughts. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to end up like Melanie, with visions of mythical beasts and happy ever after’s filling her head. Grabbing her jacket from the coat hook, she looked at Rhys with a bemused smile. But then, as she was about to slide her arms into her coat sleeves, he took the garment and held it up for her in an old world gesture of chivalry. “Allow me.”

“Thank you,” she murmured, delighted by the gentlemanly act even if he seemed too young to have such courtly manners. Turning, she slid her arms into the jacket, feeling the warmth of his body as he stood so close. His breath moved over the skin of her neck as he stepped even closer, drawing his hands down the front of the coat to smooth out the lines and she had to resist the urge to shiver. Breathing deep, his warm, spicy scent filled her lungs and she did shiver.

Turning, around to face him, she offered a shaky smile, trusting in the old adage to fake it until it was real. If she pretended she had the capability to have a conversation it just might work “And here I was worried that you were still in high school and barely out of puberty. You’re not still in high school, are you?”

He threw his head back and laughed, the sound rich and sensuous and completely wonderful and she knew right then and there that she was in trouble. “Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea.”

“Melanie did say you were Vaughn’s younger brother,” she said with a slight shrug of her shoulders and a teasing smile as she began to remember how to flirt. It was a little rusty but at least she was no longer a burbling mess. “I’m glad I was mistaken. I think I would have had to disavow all knowledge of my sister had you turned out to be some sixteen year old child and that would have sucked because I adore Lenni, even if she’s a bit insane.”

“Ah, but she fits in so well in this madhouse,” he grinned as they slowly walked out the door of Melanie’s teeny apartment into the atrium of the men’s home. Grabbing a leather trench coat and putting it on as they made their way to the elevator, he continued, “She bribes me with the most amazing chocolates and for that alone I will forgive her just about anything.”

“Lenni and her chocolates,” Jenna sighed, her eyes sparkling with laughter. “She has gotten us out of more unfortunate situations because of her way with chocolate. I swear it’s a gift, one that I sadly do not share.”

“Then where do your talents lay?” he asked, pressing the call button for the elevator. It was going to be a few minutes because Ferris, Melanie and Vaughn had taken it down just moments before.

Her eyes sparkled mischievously, “My talent was in letting Lenni believe I was able to talk my way out of whatever trouble we got into instead of letting her know the truth.”

“That you used her chocolates?” he grinned in approval. Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned against the wall and let his gaze move over her face, the appreciation apparent in his expression. “Beauty and brains. You must have to fight off unwanted suitors with a stick.”

Her smile broadened at his statement, enchanted by his somewhat archaic words. “What suitors? Most guys tend to run the other way when I tell them I have a daughter.”

“Then they’re idiots,” he said definitively. “Ferris is adorable. I swear she can talk a stone statue’s ear off.”

Jenna inwardly cringed at the familiar refrain. While she enjoyed listening to Ferris talk incessantly, she knew that not everyone felt the same. Why it should bother her that he would remark upon it she had no idea. Holding a smile, she managed to laugh, “She
is
chatty. Her teacher is always sending home notes letting me know that she tells the most outlandish stories and that she needs to learn to be keep her tales to herself.”

“Never,” Rhys murmured vehemently, his nostrils flaring at the thought of anyone muzzling the little girl. “It would be like clipping a fairy’s wings.”

Jenna stared at him with a measure of respect because he felt the same way she did when it came to Ferris and her tales. Her stupid heart did another little lurch in her chest and she knew that it was starting to thaw from its icy prison of almost seven years. But why did it have to be with Vaughn’s brother? A man who looked like sex on two legs and probably had a harem of willing women? His defense of Ferris tipped the scales and made her eager to flirt with him. He was gorgeous and kind so why wouldn’t she flirt?

For a moment the years melted away and she was her old self once again.

With a relieved laugh, she shrugged her shoulders, “Ferris is simply too smart for her own good and far too imaginative. She and Lenni spend hours together pretending that they live in an enchanted forest with fairies and dragons and her latest obsession, gargoyles.”

Rhys made a strangled, choking sound and she narrowed her eyes as she teasingly glared at him. “I blame you, of course.”

“Me?” he asked, the picture of innocence as he held his arms out to the side to show her that he had nothing to hide. “Why?”

“Well, not just you but your brothers, too,” she waved her hand through the air to encompass the lavish hall way. “Because you live in this magnificent building that represents everything enchanted and wonderful. Ferris fell in love with the three gargoyles that sit on the roof and she has been asking for her very own gargoyle ever since she came for a visit.”

Rhys chuckled as the elevator arrived. When the doors yawned open, he held out his arm to allow her to precede him into the elevator. "What did you think about the gargoyles when Lenni brought you up onto the roof?”

“How did you know about that?” Oddly wary, she eyed him as the doors closed and they headed to the ground floor, where the rest of their party was hopefully waiting for them.

He arched an eyebrow and she simply knew. With a wry chuckle, she rolled her eyes and sighed, “Lenni told you. I swear she talks just as much as Ferris; it’s no wonder where my daughter gets it from. You would think that they would be constantly battling for attention but when they get together they build upon each other’s imagination. It’s really quite spectacular.”

“Quite,” he agreed without any hint of mockery and with a slight smile. “Ferris is very lucky to have you for a mother.”

“Thank you,” she said, slightly uncomfortable with his praise. Suddenly finding the floor extremely fascinating, she stared at her feet as she murmured, “She’s the light of my life.”

When he remained silent, she chanced a glance at him and caught him staring at the region of her chest, as if he could see what was beneath the thick layers of her coat. Taking a breath, feeling the embers of the old Jenna stirring to life from its long slumber, wanting to remember what it was like to take a leap without looking, she cleared her throat. He looked up and smiled without embarrassment, his smile far too charming. Crossing her arms over her breasts, she arched an eyebrow, “Do you like what you see?”

“Very much. In fact, I think I would like to see more.” His voice was warm and seductive as he freely admitted to checking her out. Intrigued in spite of herself, her eyes dipped to the front of his jeans, where his substantial erection was displayed in a pronounced manner. The denim material clung lovingly to the thick length, emphasizing his grand size and the fact that he had nothing to be ashamed of.

When her mouth fell open, he laughed, pushing her chin upwards with the tip of his finger. “I trust that isn’t a problem?”

She sucked in a sharp breath at his touch, his boldness. He probably threw lines like that out all of the time hoping to get a nibble. She knew that it was foolish to respond to words so blithely given, even when accompanied by proof of his attraction, but she was unable to summon the energy to be offended, especially when she was just as intrigued as he was. Unfortunately, she also couldn’t prevent her nipples from pebbling or her belly from tingling as if he was serious and he truly wanted her. It depressed her to realize how very much she wanted his flirtation to be real and she suddenly felt very old and alone. “You’re either very confident or… well, there is no or. I mean, look at you; why wouldn’t you be confident? You’re the most gorgeous man I’ve ever met.”

He smiled that devastating smile of his and she was pretty sure he could make a woman orgasm with little more than that smile. “You’ve never met my oldest brother.”

She made a weird face and shook her head in bewilderment because there was no way his oldest brother could be even more gorgeous than Rhys. She opened her mouth to tell him so when the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Crinkling her nose at him, she stepped out and saw that her sister and daughter had abandoned her to the supremely attractive Rhys’s keeping. “I’m going to strangle Lenni.”

A solid arm slid around her waist and a hot body pressed against her side as Rhys’s warm, masculine scent washed over her. Her belly tightened and her thighs quivered in response: she was highly aroused and very horny. Potent desire swept through her, surprising her with its intensity, and she realized that she wanted this man, this stranger, more than she should. She wouldn’t do anything about it because she was no longer reckless but it wouldn’t hurt to indulge in a few fantasies, however….

Urging her forward, Rhys said, “I figured this would happen when Lenni invited me to tag along tonight. She has been talking you up for weeks, throwing out blatant hints that you and I should get together. Your sister is very determined, you know.”

“Try sharing a womb with her,” Jenna ground out, dizzyingly pleased that her sister was playing matchmaker, even if the man standing next to her was more than she could have imagined. Oddly, he was exactly what she wanted and she knew that sex with him would be decadent and all-consuming. And completely consigned to her fantasies. “Growing up she was always pulling me into a closet and pretending it was the portal to a magical world. When I was younger I could enjoy her stories but then I grew up and she preferred the closet.”

“Well, that would explain her ability to live in a shoe box,” he replied, amusement lacing his voice. “I’d become claustrophobic living in her apartment.”

“I don’t know,” Jenna grinned, enjoying the easy banter, the hum of arousal that heated her blood. “I think living at the castle would be amazing – the architecture alone is phenomenal. Of course, only Lenni would find the perfect apartment when she wasn’t even looking.”

“It was fate,” Rhys murmured, staring ahead as if he could see Melanie and Vaughn, a thoughtful expression on his handsome face.

“It’s Melanie. She walks through life secure in her own little world and everything just sort of falls into place. I would say she was a changeling but Ferris is exactly like her.” She heaved a theatrical sigh and smiled, “They both have that spark, that bit of magic, that seems to elude us lesser mortals.”

“You have that spark,” he said, his voice soft with conviction as he stopped her in her tracks and took her hand in his. Holding her gaze, he quirked a smile when she rolled her eyes, “I’m serious! You have that spark but it has been buried. I think being here together is fate.”

Her breath caught in her throat at his assessment, wishing for it to be true and knowing he was only saying what she wanted to hear. It didn’t matter; he made her want to experience life again and that was a miracle in and of itself. “I don’t know if I believe in fate. I think that sometimes we have to create our own fate.”

He nodded his head in solemn agreement even as his eyes danced with laughter and in that moment she wanted to jump his bones. “Or maybe that is just Fate’s way of getting us to do what she wants us to do in the first place.”

It was inappropriate and wrong in so many ways but it was a feeling that she welcomed. Instinctively she knew that he would be a wonderful lover and she wanted him more than her next breath. Ignoring the temptation, wondering where it even came from, Jenna’s lips split into a wide grin, “Then let’s just say screw fate and have sex, right here and now.”