Page 10 of Fire in Stone

He sensed the sun was down. It was night outside. He expected the girl to light the damnwomoraleaves again soon. But she didn’t seem to be in a hurry to do that, and no one else was around.

Instead, she climbed deeper into his lap. The pose in which the sunset had caught him so many years ago had him sitting on a slab of granite, one foot propped on the rock, his elbow resting on his bent knee.

The woman sat on his other knee, then leaned with her shoulder against his chest, looking quite comfortable in this position.

“I wonder what type of stone this is?” She poked and prodded at his chest. “Onyx or something? It looks solid but semi-transparent at the same time, like I could see right through it if the lighting was a bit better than this.”

Her poking gradually turned to stroking. Leaning her head against his shoulder, she caressed his chest with the light touch of her fingers.

“For a stone, you’re unexpectedly comfy. And warm,” she murmured through a yawn. “I’m so tired, I could fall asleep right here. Except that…”

Her chest rose with a deep sigh, loosening the towel around her. She shifted her bottom along his thigh. Straightening her back, she turned, bringing her eyes to the same level as his.

In Ghata’s establishment, he was used to being stared at. The visitors of the menagerie had always ogled him with curiosity, often with appreciation. This young woman, however, stared at him with the kind of attention not usually wasted on inanimate objects.

Did she know what he was?

“Why do I have this weird feeling that the stone isn’t really stone at all?” she whispered.

She cupped his face with both hands, trapping him in the warmth of her palms. Her gaze flicked to his mouth… And he waited. Every thought of his, his entire being seemed to be suspended in anticipation of her next move.

Bringing her face to his, she touched his mouth with her lips. This was his first kiss in years. The towel slid off her. Her naked breasts pressed against his chest. The warmth of her body spread through every particle of his stone.

Something hot and urgent pulsed inside him—life.

With a strangled sound, the girl pulled back. She leaped away from him like a mountain goat at the sight of a flying dragon. The towel remained in his lap as she stood in front of him, wearing nothing at all.

Nothing. She was completely naked.

Greedily, he soaked in the sight of her body. She was tall and slim, with narrow hips and angular shoulders. Her pose was a little awkward, but it hid nothing—not her small perky breasts with pink nipples, not the triangle of red hair between her thighs.

The spark of life inside him pulsed urgently. He’d give another century of his life to be flesh and blood right now. Though he was certain that one particular part of his body would remain stone-hard no matter what, as long as the girl was near him.

She touched her lips, looking bewildered.

“This is crazy, just bat-shit crazy. Why the hell did I kiss a statue? I’m losing my ever-loving mind, that’s why.”

She yanked her towel off his knee.

“Don’t go!”he begged in a wordless scream.“Don’t cover up. Let me see you. Please, kiss me again.”

He’d give whatever centuries he had left in the world for just a few moments of being able to hold her in his arms. He needed to know all the things he could only imagine for now.

What did her lips taste like? How would her breasts feel in his hands? How wet could he make her between her thighs? The woman was full of life, and he yearned to drink every drop of that warm, pulsing light of hers.

He had to feel her.

Gods, he just wished tofeelagain.

“It’s best to cover this thing up again.” The girl raised the crate’s walls, concealing the room and herself from his view. She then lowered the lid, plunging him into darkness once again.

His mind remained clear, however. Without thewomorasmoke, the spark of life inside him grew stronger.

Magic coursed through his stone, like blood through flesh. Unwittingly or not, the woman with the misshapen hair and the summer green eyes had sparked the fire of life in his stone. And it burned, growing in strength.

Four

AMBER

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