Page 52 of Stone

Sienna

The vitriol rolls off Stone in unhealthy waves. I’ve never seen him like this, like he’s battling to keep himself contained in my presence.

He knows I’ve lied to him, and he hates me for it, and who can blame him?

Loud voices slice through the foyer as I creep up the stone staircase from the kitchen. There’s no security in sight, which means my father has sent them all outside, Vector included. My legs tremble and my heart hammers precariously as I inch toward the door.

I shouldn’t do this. Sneaking around and listening in on conversations will get me punished and get him punished too.

At some point since Stone moved in here, they realized we have a connection, and it’s been used to manipulate him eversince. Not only do they use that to make him comply, but to make me comply too. Azrael knows I will do anything to stop Stone from receiving punishment, so he takes great pleasure in taunting me to get me to do what he wants. Like keeping my impending marriage a secret, for one.

“What if he finds out he’s not one of us?” Azrael asks. “What if he remembers where he came from?”

My heart skips a beat.Holy shit, what is he saying?

“Then we kill him.” My father’s evil tone slices through me. He’ll kill him. If Stone finds out he’s not one of us, he’ll kill him.

Sickness and panic wells in my stomach as my knees threaten to buckle.

He can never find out.

The man I love must always believe he’s my brother. It’s the only way to keep him alive, and in order for that to happen, I have to believe it too.

Stone’s hand scorches my skin, sending a tingling sensation between my legs and a flurry of goosebumps over my body. “Move,” he grunts as he tugs us toward the door.

“Stone, please?” I implore. “This is crazy.”

He ignores my whines as we head toward the kitchen. I’m barefoot and in my nightwear, but something tells me not to argue, not to push him further than he’s ever gone before.

“In!” he clips out toward the waiting SUV, and I open the car door with a combination of trepidation and excitement.

It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of, being with him, yet the danger and circumstances are far from my dream. They’re a nightmare. The man I love hates me, my home life has been tornapart, and my family will not stop until Stone finally crumbles. A cry lodges in my throat as the car door slams shut behind me.

He won’t survive this; we won’t survive this.

We drive in silence. He occasionally glances in the mirror, but his gaze never settles on me, and it’s like a knife through my heart.

At some point, my heavy eyes gave way, but the jolt of the SUV stopping has them snapping open.

Stone slams the car door closed, then swings mine open. “Out!” He takes my arm, gentler than before, and helps me out of the car. My nightdress is coated in blood, and my stomach lurches at the devastation left behind us.

It’s still night, or maybe early morning by now, and my footing wavers as I take in the rundown apartment building before me. I’ve heard of places like this but never seen one firsthand, nor have I ever stayed in one. Why would I? My entire family was born and bred into money; the purpose of procreating is to ensure the next generation of wealth.

Stone doesn’t release my arm and marches us toward the apartment. He slides the key into the lock and opens the door while I glance around the empty parking lot. Then he pulls me inside, closing the door behind him, and the moment he slides the chain into place, bubbles of nervousness pop in the pit of my stomach.

He dwarfs the room and walks to the two-seater sofa, and I cast my gaze over the sparse space between us.

A kitchenette sits behind the sofa, along with a small table and two chairs, and an old CRT television with a VCR sits in the room’s corner.

To my right is a door. I imagine it’s the bedroom, and a thrill of arousal settles between my thighs at the prospect of spending a night with him. An actual night, the two of us.

Stone stares back at me, a look so full of contempt and longing. It’s difficult to decipher the two from one another.

“S-S-S-Stone?”

His heavy eyes swim with lust, and he peruses me as if not sure where to settle.

He clears his throat and stands to his full height, then glances toward the bedroom.

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