Heart of Stone (6 page)
Authors: Aislinn Kerry
His hands slid over the curve of her ass to her thighs and back again, gently kneading. She pressed her hands more firmly against his shoulders and fought a wave of dizzy desire.
Damaris kissed along the curve of her hip and nuzzled the curls at her thighs. Beneath his gentle guidance, she inched her feet apart to create space for him. He knelt between her feet and, with his hands curled around the backs of her thighs, leaned forward and lightly stroked his tongue along the sensitive folds of her labia.
She jerked, startled at the intense sensation, and gave a broken moan when his tongue returned, circling and gently teasing her clit. His fingers made subtle movements upon her skin, a counterpoint to the incredibly tender stroke and glide of his tongue between her legs. The intensity of the sensations that rose within her suffocated her; she gasped for breath.
"Oh, please," she murmured, and stroked a hand through his hair.
His tongue eased between her folds again and glided over her slick flesh in long, lazy strokes that nearly sent her over the edge. So soon, she thought dizzily, clinging to him. Her head spun from the rush of pleasure.
There were no more power plays between them, no battles for dominance or expectations of submission. There was only pleasure and touch, and the consuming need for both. He caressed her with his tongue in a gentle, undeniable rhythm until she sucked in her breath and rocked against him, shaken from the power of her orgasm and the pleasure that ripped through her. Damaris caught her as her knees failed and eased her onto the grass. He gazed down at her with an expression of aching tenderness.
"Damaris..." She ran her fingers over his cheeks and drew him into her kiss. "I've waited so long, and it's nearly dawn. Don't make me wait any longer."
He nodded and braced his arms on either side of her head. She wrapped her legs around his waist and arched her hips towards him. He sank into her with a single thrust and held himself still, staring at her and shuddering. She gazed up at him in turn, staggered by the intensity and intimacy of the connection after everything that had come before.
"Oh, Kestrel," he murmured. He threaded his fingers through her hair and guided her mouth to his for a long, slow, tender kiss.
She cried out into his mouth at the feel of him moving within her. It expanded through her until he'd touched every last, lonely recess and filled it with his warmth. She shuddered and pulled him tight against her, steeped in his touches and still needing more. He pressed light kisses against her throat and shoulder and built the fire higher until it seared her. She could neither breathe, nor speak, nor think. Wordless, primal sounds spilled from her throat. Still, the need built, drawing tighter until it threatened to rend her in two.
Damaris groaned and drove into her with a final, powerful thrust. He spilled himself into her, and his heat spread through her body. She convulsed around him, crying out and reaching for him. His hand found hers and gripped it tightly. She gripped back just as tight and clung to the one eddy of sanity and salvation in the midst of a world that had become tumultuous and disoriented.
He dropped his head onto her breast and shuddered against her, gasping for breath. Languor settled over her, aching in its sweetness. Kestrel wrapped her arms about his neck, and would have been content to lay with him for days, but nearly as soon as their sweat had cooled, he rolled off of her. She looked up at him through a curtain of tousled hair, uncertain. He wouldn't meet her gaze.
Kestrel sat up and reached for him. "What's wrong?"
"I must go."
Her heart lurched painfully inside of her chest. "No. Oh, please, don't."
He turned slowly and frowned at her over his shoulder. "Kestrel, I must. I have no choice. Dawn is nearing."
Pain blossomed within her. She pushed herself to her feet and moved towards him, trembling. Foolish words spilled from her lips before she had a chance to stop them.
"Damaris...Damaris, we can fight this. We can find a way. Please, there must be a way—“
He gaped at her as though she had suddenly begun to speak in tongues. "Fight it? No, Kestrel." He shook his head. "It is a nice thought, but there is nothing to be done. It is my curse, my fate."
"No!" Hot, angry tears spilled down her cheeks. "No, we can—“
"We cannot," he said gently. "And I'm sorry for it. This is how it has always been. Never before have I longed for more." He sighed and rubbed a hand across his face. "I thought I'd come to accept my fate, but now it is different. I don't want to have to watch you from a distance, telling me about your life instead of sharing it with me. And you, spending your life waiting for me, instead of going out and living it..." He took Kestrel's hands in his own and bent over them. Searing tears fell from his cheeks onto her hands. "You've given me more in these three nights than I had any right to ask of a lifetime. I wish I didn't have to leave you, Kestrel."
"Then don't." Her heart pounded a desperate beat within her chest. She spoke in a babbled rush of words. "Don't leave. Stay with me, Damaris." She slid her arms around his waist and clung to him. "Stay with me."
"I can't." More tears traced paths down his cheeks. "There's no choice. Wherever I am, whatever I do, when the sun touches the horizon on the morn of All Hallows', I return to marble. Nothing can change that."
She shook her head frantically. "How can you endure it? I'm not strong enough. I've done two years, Damaris, and I can't do another." There was a way. Somehow, they would find a way around his curse. She hadn't found the love of a lifetime only to lose him to the fates.
"Millenia have passed since this curse was set upon me, Kestrel, and it has never altered. Millenia will follow, and it will still be so. It is more than you or I have the power to change." He twisted, casting a fearful glance over his shoulder at the gray smear of light on the horizon. "Go, Kestrel. You must go, and you must not think of me again. I cannot bear to see you do this to yourself. Go!"
"I won't. I won't leave without you. Not again." She followed him back to his pedestal and tried to climb up with him. "If you won't fight, I will."
"Kestrel. No." He braced his hands on her shoulders and pushed her down. "This must be. Accept it."
"Like hell." She twined her fingers through his, locking their palms together. "You don't have to come with me, but I'm not leaving you."
"No. Kestrel, don't!" He pulled against her hold, his eyes frantic as he tried to untangle their hands. "You'll be trapped."
"I know." Dawn was moments away, and the moment the sun peered above the horizon, Damaris would return to the stone statue he had been before. With her fingers still entwined within his, she would be trapped in that moment, until next All Hallows' Eve, or death. Despite her brave words, she didn't want that. She wanted more. She wanted eternity.
It was a gamble. But it was one she had to make.
"I'm staying, Damaris." She tightened her hands. "It's my choice. You can't make it for me." She lifted her chin. With her decision, calmness descended upon her. She met his frantic gaze with her own, calm and steady.
A cascade of tears slid across his cheeks. "Kestrel, leave. Please. There's no more time—“
It was already too late. The first thin sliver of the sun rose above the horizon, marking the beginning of All Hallows' Day. The morning's first rays spread across the land. Damaris's flesh hardened and cooled beneath Kestrel's palm. His movements stiffened. Panic etched a permanent place on his face.
And as the infant rays of the new day blanketed the earth, Damaris made the only decision that Kestrel had left him.
* * * *
The days and months accumulated into another year, and she never regretted her choice. She could think of worse ways to spend her life than in her lover's embrace. A year passed, and Halloween came again. The strength of their love returned them their freedom, and they spent every moment of it in one another's arms.
That night, the ice that had held them both frozen melted away, and she blinked her eyes open and gazed up at him. She found him staring down at her with an expression of sheer joy. It was the first time she'd seen Damaris truly happy, and she knew she had made the right choice.
A curse, he had called it, but she never felt cursed, no matter how many years passed. She felt blessed. The real curse would have been to live without him. And he told her, in bits and pieces throughout the years, snatches of conversations after their passion had cooled and before the dawn reasserted its claim, that he no longer felt as cursed as he once did. It wasn't so hard to endure...together.
And sometimes, when the wind sighed through the trees above them, she could almost hear his voice on the breeze, telling her he loved her.
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About the author:
Aislinn Kerry wrote her first romance on a whim and hasn't been able to stop since. She has always been fascinated with the misfits, the misunderstood, and things that go bump in the night. She blames it on an unnatural obsession with Beauty and the Beast at an impressionable age.
You can drop her an email at
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Aislinn currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with two cats who think they own the place.
