Page 20 of Hearts of Stone

“Fuck!” I yelped and spun around, not to the sight of ghoul or a goblin, but to a wide-eyed worried-looking Harry. He waved, then shot me a nervous smile.

“Sorry.” His voice was muffled by the glass door, so I walked over and opened it, glad now for the sight of another person. “I was just coming around to make sure everything is locked up and the security system is armed.

“So there is security here?” I asked, sucking in breaths far too fast.

“Best there is,” he said with a wink. “Trust me, now that the heir has been found, everyone here will make sure you’re kept safe.”

“So you run a security team as well as look after the place?” I asked.

“Sure,” he replied with a nod, “you could say that.”

“Well, did you want a coffee to take with you?” I was stalling, trying to keep the big, friendly man in my kitchen, because then I didn’t have to face the prospect of an empty house.

“Ah, sure.” He eyed the massive silver coffee machine. “If you’re having one.”

Caffeine right before bed wasn’t smart, especially when I was already jumpy, but I moved over to it, taking in the different buttons and then moved to make a coffee.

“Are these the amazing beans Mellors brewed for us?’

“One and the same,” he replied. “He won’t tell me where he gets them from, but he has some kind of contact that means he gets bags of them.” We fell into a companionable silence as I ground the beans, then brewed the coffee. He nodded and smiled as he took the coffee cup from me. “So you’ll be all right in the big house by yourself?”

And what if I wasn’t, I wondered. What was he going to do, crash in one of the bedrooms? I almost offered that when he continued.

“I saw that friend of yours had left…”

“Daniel?” I asked.

“Is that his name?” I smirked as I took a sip, because Harry was trying to play it cool. “You been together for long?”

“Friends,” I corrected. “We’ve been friends for a while. We met when I moved to a different store as the new assistant manager. I was told to write him up early on, but ended up sitting around talking shit in my office instead. I then got reprimanded for that, but…” I put the mug down. “It was worth it. Danny… he’s amazing.” Harry nodded a little too emphatically at that. “He’s also gay, so besties only.”

“Gay? Right, right.” Harry seemed to come alive then. “Well, love is love, right?”

“Right,” I replied.

But once we were done drinking the coffees, Harry said goodbye, showing me how to operate the security system in the house and how to get help, both of which made me relax a little. I walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs feeling a little more at home. Even if I had to face down a zombie apocalypse tonight, Harry would be within calling distance to pitch in and help. But when I walked down the hall, I saw why Danny had suggested I have a bath. The main bathroom door was open and inside curls of steam swirled up into the air. The dickhead had run me a bath.

I walked into a room filled with the scent of night-blooming jasmine. The bath salts had to be expensive, as usually jasmine scents were cheap and harsh. This smelled just like the flowers themselves, and I couldn’t help but take in a series of slow, deep breaths. The air was warm, humid, feeling like it caressed my body as I moved closer, licking across my bare skin as I stripped off. And beside the bath was a bottle of wine and a single glass, along with a thick stack of plush towels. God, just what I needed. I lifted a foot without thought, about to dive in when I realised the door was partially open.

Which didn’t matter.

I was all alone, with no one to flash accidentally as they walked past. Harry had made it clear he wasn’t going to be coming back to the house unless I called him, so I shrugged and eased my body into the water.

Oh. My. God.

The bath was deep, deep enough that the water covered even my ample tits, coming up to my chin as it swallowed me in its sweet scented depths. My head fell back, finding a folded hand towel there to protect me from the cold porcelain. I would have to thank Danny in the morning, I thought sluggishly, right as I closed my eyes.

The exhaustion of the last few days hit me like a ton of bricks, and I fell down, down, down into the bath’s embrace. My muscles felt like they slowly unwound, all of the tension washing away along with the grime. I took a slow breath in and then let it out with a whistle, moving my hands in the water because I liked the way the warmth lapped over my skin. If this was how the rich lived, I got why they were so damn smug, because this was bliss.

I should’ve got out of the bath as my eyes grew heavy. Falling asleep in a pool of water was not smart. But the longer I soaked, the less I wanted to move. The heavy perfume of the water felt like it was drugging me, making my head hazy, my thoughts fraying the moment I had them. So when I heard the door creak, I didn’t respond, because all the paranoid fears of before were gone. My hazy brain told me that a breeze was passing through the room. It became apparent the gap between the door and the frame was widening. The creak was persistent, nails raking down a chalkboard, right when I wanted to float away, but I forced my eyes open.

I expected there to be some kind of draft and failing that, perhaps Harry had come looking for me again and then was horrified to find me bathing. What I didn’t expect was what Isaw. The languor was shoved to one side, my heart rate picking right back up to the previous rapid beat, then surpassing it, because what was pushing the door open was a huge grey hand the colour of granite, long claws clicking against the polished wood as it pushed the door open.

Chapter 13

Graven

There was nothing like coming back to yourself after a long hibernation. One of my masters, many moons ago, had compared the experience of coming back to flesh a bit like blood rushing back to human extremities. I would never know if the analogy was apt or not, but I knew this.

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