Page 95 of Hearts of Stone

“Damn straight, I did,” Harry growled. “Pretty hard to forget the car of a bloke that dumped someone at the gates in the condition you were in.” He stepped closer, towering over Daniel. “Which will happen again if you go out with that dickhead.”

“Pfft…” Daniel said with a toss of his head. “We’re going out for dinner—”

“And I’ll be left to pick up the pieces when you come home.” Harry’s brows jerked down. “Ifyou come home.”

“No one said you have to.” Danny went to shove Harry backwards, but his hand met a wall of muscle that wasn’t goinganywhere. “Huh, someone’s been working out. Look.” He patted Harry’s chest before withdrawing his hand. “This big, growly, protective thing is kinda hot, but…”

“Why do you need to be protected, Daniel?”

My heart swelled as I heard that low, rumbly voice. I looked around to see that my gargoyles were on their way down the stairs, their eyes scanning the foyer as if to try and work it out for themselves. Graven frowned, like Mr Big was going to leap out from behind the antique hall stand and steal Daniel away. But Seneca’s eyes stopped when they found mine. His gaze felt like it scalded my skin, just as Adam’s had earlier that day, and then his eyes dipped to settle on the mark on my neck. A small smile formed on his lips, one of self-congratulation, before Carrick gave him a nudge.

“I don’t need to be protected at all.” Daniel was trying to be firm about his boundaries. But if I could hear the small waver in his voice, so could the others. “I’m fine.”

“Seems to me that if youwerefine, you wouldn’t need to try and convince us,” Harry said. “Or yourself.”

For just a second I grasped at a thread of hope. Daniel stared mulishly up into Harry’s eyes, but the longer they gazed at each other, something seemed to soften in my friend. But it seemed that his mind was made up. He pulled himself away from Harry, from all of us, and headed for the door.

“Someone has hurt your Daniel?” Graven asked me. “I can follow him, ensure he comes home safe.”

“No, you can’t.” Daniel’s voice cut through the air as he looked back at everyone gathered in the foyer. “And thanks for trying to ruin this for me, all of you.” But nothing kept my friend down for long. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Jade, you have to stop him,” Harry urged.

“No, I can’t.” I watched Daniel walk out the front door, then down the central path. “This is his life. He makes the calls. All we can do is be there to support him if he needs it.”

“Fine… But don’t expect me to patch him up and put him back together.” Harry twisted away then went stomping out the door himself.

I didn’t expect Harry to do anything. It was something he was putting on himself for some reason, and that was the problem.

“Everything is alright, my mate?”

I knew it was Seneca, because the minute his hand landed on my shoulder, my body heated. It felt like there was an ache inside me that only he could appease, so I turned around to face him.

“It is now that you’re here.” I smoothed my hands up his grey skin, marvelling at the fact that this muscular glory was mine, all mine. “Did you sleep well?”

“I drifted in a cloud of the most perfect peace,” he told me, with a small smile. “A dream I almost didn’t want to wake up from. But when I did, I knew that it had been no dream; that nothing my subconscious summoned could compare with reality.” I shivered as a claw ran down the side of my face, I shivered. “What about you, Jade? Did you sleep deeply and recover?”

“Recover? Kind of.” My hand dropped down to my pelvis as I felt that ache flex and shift inside me. “Sleep? A bit. It’s kind of hard balancing everything happening at night as well as during the day.”

“Then a night of rest is in order.” Carrick stepped forward and lifted me into his arms. He smiled as I burst out laughing at suddenly being swept off my feet. “You can relax in your bed and we will take care of everything…”

I was about to ask exactly what the hell he meant by ‘everything’, but we were already up the stairs, and at mybedroom door. And then, when he kicked the door open and walked in, I was speechless.

All I could do was stare. The bed was made and the stink of wine was gone. The carpet looked clean and unmarked as did the bed covers.

“How…?” I forced Carrick to set me down as the other two entered the room behind us. I moved closer to the bed and leaned forward, smoothed my hand over the quilt cover, searching for any signs of stains or damp spots. When I didn’t find any, I flipped the bedding back and leaned on one hand to do the same thing. While I was bent over, Carrick walked to me and pressed his lower body against mine.

“Mmm…” He ran his hands up and down my bent back. “Perhaps we could start things just like this.”

“Carrick…”

I felt him shift closer, forcing his hips lower and pushing against me, but his hard length was only able to press into the cleft of my arse due to the nature of the skirt I was wearing.

“Just enough to take the edge off,” he said, in a low purr. “You can sleep for a time afterwards while we will keep watch, then we’ll wake you again…” His claws rucked up the hem of my skirt, revealing me inch by inch. “And again. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, lass. To wake up squirming on my tongue.”

“Or mine,” Seneca said, crawling onto the bed until he knelt before me. Those massive hands tilted my face towards his and I let out a helpless sound of need, melting into him as I kissed him.

Fuck. Yes.

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