Page 20 of Claimed By Stone
His judgmental gaze burned into me, but I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes.
I climbed the rest of the stairs without another word, heart heavy and thoughts already drifting back to her.
She was waiting.
And that was all that mattered.
I spent the rest of my day and into the evening researching. I knew I should have gone to the great hall for dinner. I knew I should find my brother and share my thoughts on the meeting, but the thought of missing the moment my beautiful statue took her first breath of the day was too much to bear.
Somewhere in our brief time together, she had come to mean a great deal to me. She had come to mean everything to me. Maybe Khuldruk was right, maybe I was losing my mind.
I looked out the window as the sun sank low in the sky. As the nights grew longer, so did my time with my new alabaster goddess. It also meant my patience during the day was rapidly decreasing. I found myself counting down the time until I would be alone in the dark of my study and she would join me.
These nights with her had filled me in a way that lit my senses, leaving me craving her.
Then I felt it, a shift in the air. It was like an opening door, but nothing had changed.
I turned my gaze to my beautiful statue just as her chest rose with her first breath of the night. As if a slow wave washed over her, the stone seemed to melt. It was breathtaking. When her eyes found mine and she smiled, gods help me, I was already lost.
"Hello, Thavros," she said.
"Good morning."
I took her hand and pressed a kiss to it before gazing up into her eyes. She's become almost like an addiction. It was theculmination of a puzzle I could not solve and a beauty I wanted to ravish. It was a combination that was irresistible.
"You're looking tired," she said as she raised her other hand and tucked a loose strand of my coffee brown hair that had fallen loose from my braid behind my pointed ear. "Are you sleeping?"
"I’m fine," I responded as I pressed another kiss to the inside of her wrist. "Or at least I will be once we figure all this out."
"But you did not answer my question." The lightness in her voice banished any fatigue that I may have been carrying.
"What are you working on?" she asked as she came to sit by me.
"I thought I would run some numbers before we could continue our work translating," I said as I closed the ledger book. "I am just trying to keep track of the expenses for the great feast. Khuldruk wants to be sure we are equitably involving the surrounding communities."
"You can keep working on that."
"No." I wave her off instantly. "I wish to solve the mystery of why you must leave me every morning."
"I do feel like we are getting close. Every night, I feel more and more alive. I feel like a living, breathing being tonight more than ever. Here, run your hand through my hair," she said as she ran her own hand through it.
I did the same, because she did not need to ask me twice to touch any part of her in any way. As I ran my hand through her silky tresses, she leaned into my hand and smiled. I couldn’t help myself. I leaned in and kissed her. She kissed me back with a satisfied hum.
"Hmmmm, I just feel so alive tonight," she said. "I feel like I could run and dance ... or maybe do something a little dangerous?"
When her gaze locked on mine, I saw something new there. Something that called to the more virile side, and a rumblesounded from deep within me. I wanted to take her right here. But I would suppress my baser instincts.
But as she tipped her head back, lengthening her neck, my tusks itched to claim her.
I needed to figure out this mystery for both her and me. It was getting harder to control myself.
I pushed away the closed ledger. She shifted, sitting on the table to look out the window. There was a strong part of me that wanted to swipe everything else off this table, spread her delicious thighs, and find out what she tasted like where I ached to take her.
But then she sighed, and a forlorn look covered her face. I was done. I would give anything to make the look go away.
"I don't mean to complain, but as alive as I feel tonight, it comes with emotions I haven't felt in a long time. I want to go out there," she said, looking out the window.
We were high in the mountain. This window overlooked the stables and village at the gate of the mountain, but also the wide world beyond.
