Page 33 of Hearts of Stone

—sucked, claws pinching tight as they—

My hands jerked away as if my tits had turned scalding hot and a red flush spread across my cheeks. I frowned and then yanked the rest of my clothes off, ready to have a shower, but that’s when I found yet more strange things.

Bruises on my hips, just small things compared to the kaleidoscope of sickly colours on Danny’s neck, but when I spread my fingers out to try and match them, I saw my hands were dwarfed by their span. Then as I began to twist and turn, tosee if there were any more, I felt it. A deep down ache that wasn’t so much pain as…

Remembered pleasure.

“Your god isn’t here to help you.”I heard my dream lover’s voice inside my head, like he was here with me in the room.“But I am.”

The tears in the bedsheets, the fact I was still in this house, the ‘beard rash’ that wasn’t. The gargoyle’s skin was hard, almost as hard as stone, and smooth as polished marble, but I was far softer. I bruised, could be abraded, bitten, have claws rake over my skin, and I’d show every single mark, like fruit that was just a little over ripe, which meant…

I shoved my hand between my legs, my fingers sliding all too easily through my sodden folds. This wasn’t from arousal. Any thought of sex, ever, was driven out of my head after seeing Danny, but… I pulled my hand free, separating the fingers to see a silverish fluid there. Either this was the world’s weirdest yeast infection or…

Last night I fucked a gargoyle.

Chapter 19

Jade

I couldn’t dwell on that for long. With my shower done, I pulled on the jeans from yesterday and a top I was fairly sure even Daniel wouldn’t complain about before going down into the kitchen. By the time the two of them reappeared, Harry was looking somewhat damp, and Daniel was wrapped up in the biggest, fluffiest robe I’d ever seen.

It was also entirely daggy, which had my eyes widening.

“Don’t say a fucking thing,” Daniel said, stabbing a finger in my direction. “The guy that takes his sartorial influences from the Crocodile Hunter insisted I pass over some hand painted silk kimonos and a bloody vintage Chanel robe for this monstrosity.” He patted the plush pile. “It is super comfy though.”

“So are tracky dacks,” I shot back as I turned some bacon rashers over to sizzle in the pan.

“Wash your mouth out with soap,” he said, before settling gingerly on a stool.

“Staying for breakfast, Harry?” I asked airily.

“I need to get changed and then back to work,” he said with a rueful nod towards Daniel. “But keep this one inside, do something quiet, relaxing.”

“Fairly sure I’d be the most relaxed with a glass of champers in my hand, sitting in the dressing room of a swanky boutique, as my girl spends some damn money to look like the queen she is,” Daniel said. I pushed a coffee his way and he cupped his hands around it. “Mother of God, yesss…”

“We’ll have a lazy one on the couch watching TV,” I told Harry.

“Not Disney.” That was said between noisy slurps.

“OK, we’ll watch whatever the hell you want,” I replied, putting thick slices of bread into a gleaming silver toaster that looked like some kind of spaceship.

And so we did.

After a leisurely breakfast where I kept slyly adding things to Daniel’s plate until he threw a sausage at my head, we retired to the lounge room. It took a whole lot of playing with the different remotes set out on the coffee table, but we finally got a massive flat screen TV to appear from the floor and then worked out how to turn it on.

“OK, maybe this is just as good as watching you try on couture,” he said, snuggling into my side as we lay down on the massive couch.

“They don’t make it in my size, so that was never going to happen.” I flicked through the different entertainment platforms, aghast at just how many there were.

“Idiot. For the right amount of money, they’d make whatever you damn well want in your size.” But then his eyes went to the TV. “Stop bloody scrolling and put the Disney channel on.”

“But—”

“I don’t think I can cope with anything more complex than that right now. Take me to the most magical place on Earth.”

“Your wish is my command,” I said, clicking on the Disney + icon. “So did you want to watch—?”

“You pick,” he said, his eyes growing heavy. “Something easy. Something… comforting.”

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