Fated in Stone, page 30
“I’ll go check on Rea,” he said to Ben, turning toward the corridor opposite the one Gregory had disappeared down. Before leaving, though, he gave Elle a small smile. “Really nice to meet you, Elle.” His gaze darted to Ben, briefly, then he moved on.
Leaving Elle to wonder just how much Ben’s family knew about her.
With their escort gone, Ben led the way down the huge central staircase to the first floor. Elle was afraid to touch the elaborate carved wood handrails since she was still dirty from the monster fight and had dried blood on her shirt from hugging Ben. Who was also still covered in blood. He didn’t seem too aware of his state. But Elle was growing more and more conscious of the fact that she’d been meeting members of Ben’s family while covered in blood and stinking of sweat and monsters.
The fact that she, the professor, and Ben all kind of stank didn’t really help her growing self-consciousness. She’d been so eager to just get away from the monsters and get Gabe Arron somewhere safe, she hadn’t thought about much else. Now she was uncomfortably aware of the fact that she’d met a butler, an actual, honest-to-god butler, while caked in blood and sweat. And was being led to meet Ben’s older brother, the man in charge of the Logan family, while she was a stinky mess.
Nice. Helpful. That would set the right impression that she belonged here.
They stepped into a room off the main foyer that was the sort of library Elle had always wanted as a teenager when she’d discovered public libraries. Big fireplace, bookshelf-lined walls, a mix of comfortable furniture, like the couch, with more formal pieces, like a delicate looking settee. Floor to ceiling velvet curtains blocking out the night—or early morning? Elle realized she had no idea what time of day it was.
She stopped in her tracks when she spotted the man standing in the room.
He wasn’t as tall as Ben, but he was tall enough and broad enough to take up space. He was scary handsome—he and Ben had that in common—and the family resemblance in the dark eyes was obvious. Where Ben’s hair was a lighter brown, almost blond, the new man’s hair was such a dark brown it was nearly black. His skin was pale, but not an unhealthy pale, and he was dressed in black dress slacks and a button-down black shirt. He stood near the fireplace, his hands folded behind him, looking extremely intimidating and serious. A man not to be messed with.
Elle unconsciously took a step closer to Ben. His warm hand at the small of her back reassured her.
The man took one look at her and Ben and said, “Been through some things tonight.”
Ben snorted. “We left Rea to look through the building and secure it. No more of the black goo monsters.” He nodded at Gabe. “This is the geneticist. Professor Gabe Arron. Professor Arron, this is my brother, Eric Logan.” To Eric, he added, “The professor is going to need rest before talking.”
Gabe’s gaze jumped between Ben and Eric. “I’m not sure who any of you are, or what’s going on, but I need to see my wife. I need to call her. Tell her I’m okay.” He frowned. “I am okay now, right?”
“You’re safe here, professor,” Eric said, his tone gentler than Elle would have given him credit for. “But we have a lot of questions for you. You’ve been making new monsters. And we have to know everything about that work.”
Arron swallowed visibly. “They threatened my family if I didn’t do the work. They threatened to kill my kids. My wife. In…in horrible ways. I had to do what they asked. You understand that, right? I had to do what they asked.”
“His wife hired me to get him out,” Elle added. “He wasn’t there voluntarily.”
Eric’s dark gaze turned on her and without thought, she leaned closer to Ben. Ben wrapped his arm around her waist and held her tight against his side.
“I understand,” Eric said. “Which is why he’s a guest here and not a prisoner. But we do need to know everything he’s done and everything he’s learned while being held by the monsters.”
That the Logan’s could kidnap someone and bring them here as a prisoner was a possibility not lost on her in Eric’s speech. Had he meant to point that out, or was he really trying to reassure her and Gabe?
“Who are you?” Gabe asked, raising a hand when Eric opened his mouth. “I know you’re the Logan family. The grinluk talked about you. And I’ve seen at least one of you kill multiple monsters.” He flicked a glance at Ben. “But… Who are you all?”
“We hunt monsters,” Eric said simply. “It’s our duty to destroy them and protect humans from them. And we will do whatever is necessary to do that.”
Gabe held Eric’s gaze for a long, silent moment, which Elle found pretty fucking brave, and then nodded. “I have questions of my own,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “After a year of this, I have as many questions as I have answers.”
“We’ll try to tell you what we can,” Eric said. “So long as you’re willing to talk to us.”
“The monsters are terrifying,” Gabe said. “They’ll sweep over the world and destroy everything in their wake if left to continue. So yes, I’m willing to talk if your aim is to stop them.”
With that, the tension in the room seemed to ease, though Elle couldn’t say why she felt that. Eric’s imposing presence didn’t change. Ben didn’t loosen his hold on her. No one even moved. But the unseen tension dripped away until the meeting felt a lot less potentially volatile.
Eric let his gaze move over everyone. “Gregory has rooms for you all. Mrs. Patterson will have food up to you by the time you’ve finished cleaning up. We can talk tomorrow.” His gaze danced between Ben and Elle, and a very faint smile changed his expression completely. “I think we have a lot to talk about.”
Ben didn’t respond to that, but Elle didn’t miss the goading in the comment. She glanced up at Ben. He looked stoic and relaxed and wasn’t rising at all to his brother’s baited comment. But his hand did flex against her waist.
Gregory reappeared, stepping just inside the library doorway. “If you all will follow me, I’ll show you to your rooms.”
They were in a corridor on the second floor, when Gregory, his back to them, said, “I’ve taken the liberty of placing Ms. Barker in the room next to Benjamin’s. I hope that will suit, Ms. Barker?”
Elle felt her cheeks heating, but she said, “That will be fine.” Honestly, she only felt safe in the middle of all this with Ben beside her. She wouldn’t have wanted to be in a room too far away from him.
Gregory showed Gabe to a nice, comfortable room, pointing out the bathroom door and showing him the closet filled with clothes he would be able to use while he was there. Elle left the professor reluctantly, promising she’d make sure he got to call his wife soon. Gregory stepped in to offer the Gabe use of the house line, and promised to return shortly to make the phone call possible.
Then Gregory led her and Ben down another corridor which curved away from the first, moving into a different part of the house. This hallway was decorated with colorful glass bulbs lining the walls and shelves covered in plants with little wood and stone statues poking out from the leaves. It was a charming and startling contrast to the more elegant décor in the rest of the house.
“Rea’s tastes,” Ben said against her ear.
That said a lot about the younger woman. Elle just wasn’t quite sure what yet.
Gregory stopped again and pushed open a door, seemingly at random. “This is your room, Ms. Barker. These rooms were last used by Ms. Judith, so they’ve been unoccupied for a while, but I’ve taken the liberty of placing some clothing in the closet that should fit you. You can use anything that suits. If you need anything else, just let me know.”
“My room’s there,” Ben said, pointing to a door a little farther down the hall.
Elle nodded, but didn’t immediately step inside the room she’d been given, and after a single beat, Gregory gave a slight head nod and walked away. Leaving Elle and Ben alone.
When there was no one to overhear, Ben said, “Are you really okay? You weren’t hurt?”
“No. I’m physically fine. I’m just…overwhelmed. And tired. And I really need a shower.”
“But?”
That he’d heard the but in her sentence made her smile. “But I’m…reluctant to be alone.” Part of her thought she needed time alone, to process everything that had happened. To really settle herself and get some perspective. But a much larger part of her just didn’t want to be by herself. Didn’t want to think. Didn’t want to sleep alone.
Ben brushed his knuckles down the side of her cheek. “I don’t want to be away from you either. It’s not the weird reaction we had the other day, I just…don’t want to be away from you.”
“We have a lot to discuss.”
“We do.”
“I’m happy to delay those conversations until tomorrow.”
He smiled. “Me too.”
Elle took Ben’s hands and walked backward into the room, pulling Ben with her. Everything else going on around them was almost too much for her to process. But the one thing she knew, the one solid thing she could hold on to, was that Ben made her feel safe and she didn’t want to be anywhere else but with him.
She wasn’t sure that would change. She had no idea what their future held. But for tonight, for just the rest of tonight, she’d hold him.
And worry about the future tomorrow.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Ben had never been so scared in his life as he’d been tonight. First, leaving Elle’s side to distract the monsters while she got the professor out. Then knowing the grinluk and one other monster had escaped him and were on their way to her. And then the fucking aghris had slowed him down, preventing him from reaching Elle before the grinluk did.
Coming out of the trees, seeing her still alive but firing arrows at the grinluk, seeing the aghris that had gone underground to escape him coming for her while she still had a grinluk to worry about… Those moments were the most horrifying of his life. Maybe even more horrifying than that moment when he’d jumped in front of a bullet to save her. He never wanted to feel that way again. Never wanted her to be in that position again.
But gods was she magnificent. Standing there firing arrows into a grinluk, pinning it, holding it at bay. That was a sight he’d never get over either. That was the one he wanted to hold on to.
That was the sight that went with him into her room and drove all thoughts of the rest of the night and their future and curses and everything else out of his head. He brought her into his arms the minute they were over the threshold, kicking the door shut behind him, spinning to pin her against the door as he devoured her mouth. She melted into him, her tongue tangling with his the moment he dove in between her parted lips. The feel of her against the length of him was so perfect, so exactly right. Knowing she was meant for him was nothing to feeling how perfect they fit together.
He was a mess. The stench of dead monsters and blood still covered him. She was covered in sweat and blood. And none of that mattered. Nothing but getting inside her. Now. This minute. She tore at his shirt, pushing it up and tugging at it at the same time. Her hands running over his back and shoulders, her short nails raking him, her kiss as rough as his. He lifted away to tear off his shirt. She whipped her own off before he’d reached for her again. Her bra next, without waiting for him, and then she was climbing him, wrapping her legs around his hips, flattening her breasts against his chest.
And gods it was the best thing he’d ever felt. He braced one hand under her ass, the other wrapped around her waist, and scraped his mouth across hers, over her jaw, down her throat. She rocked against him, her sex riding his hard cock through the barrier of their pants. The sensation too good. Too much. He wanted to be inside her.
“Drop your legs,” he muttered as he worked his mouth back up to hers.
The minute she unwound around him, still clinging tight to his neck, he reached for her zipper. He pushed down her pants and underwear at the same time, everything getting caught on her boots. When she couldn’t toe out of her tightly laced shoes, she growled and said, “Rip the pants.”
Gods, yes. He knelt and tore the material, freeing her legs, and because he was already on his knees, he pushed her back against the wall, lifted one leg over his shoulder, and licked into her already wet pussy. The taste of her exploded on his tongue and her strangled cry filled him with a greedy need. He devoured her, licking, sucking, tonguing her until she writhed against the wall, until she tightened around his tongue. Until she came into his mouth, shouting his name.
He rose, kissing his way up her abdomen, pausing to suck at her nipples, biting gently to make her shiver. Her entire body trembled against his. He dove into her mouth again as he lowered his zipper and pushed his pants aside to free his painfully hard cock. Gods he wanted to be inside her this instant. But first…
“Can you stand here for two seconds?” he said against her mouth before kissing her again, which prevented her answer.
She still managed a nod around their kiss, her hands buried in his hair, holding him to her. He sank into that kiss a moment longer, then released her in a rush, and zipped next door for the supply of condoms he’d picked up yesterday. Just yesterday? Time seemed to have warped with Elle so that only a few days felt like a lifetime.
He was back to her before the air around her had a chance to cool, pulling her close again, tasting her groan as he dove in for another desperate kiss. He somehow managed to get the condom on with shaking hands, and then he was lifting her again, or she was wrapping around him again, positioning herself above his straining cock, sliding down onto him as he thrust up. The feel of her sheathing him, taking him all, the friction and tight cling of her around his cock was his everything. Nothing else and no one else would hold him like this.
She groaned, long and low as he drove fully into her, her head back against the wall, her eyes closed, her lips parted. He drank in the sight of her, this beautiful, glorious woman who’d become his life, filling himself with her just like this. Then he buried his face against her neck to drag in her scent, to fill himself with that, too. Until remaining still was no longer an option. He pulled out to nearly his tip, then thrust up into her again, making her groan. Loved that sound. Loved the way her nails dug into his shoulders. He thrust up again. Hard enough to make her tits bounce, to draw a gasp from her. And again. And again. Growling against her skin when she panted and whimpered and begged.
He fucked her hard, fast, because his body demanded it, because she demanded it. Her every moan and gasp imprinted on him. He wanted more. He wanted all of her like this. Every moment of her life, his… Because he was so thoroughly hers.
She came suddenly, tightening, her legs cinching around his hips, her back arching against the wall. He kept one arm around her waist and braced his other against the wall as he rode the wave of her orgasm, clenched his teeth to hold on to his own for a breath longer so he could savor the way her muscles spasmed around him. Then he banged into her twice more and his orgasm crashed through him with a violence that left him blinking back spots.
“Fucking hell,” she murmured into his hair as she clung to his neck.
He chuckled, still using the wall to brace himself because now he was trembling. He nuzzled her neck, and the words slipped out before he thought about them. “I love you.”
She went very still for a split second, then her fingers dug into his hair and she hugged him tight, so tight it felt like she wanted to meld them together. The spike of emotion in her scent, of something sweet and promising, settled into his bones. He’d take that. He’d hold that as his hope.
Because if his confession of love didn’t send her running away, maybe the truth about his curse wouldn’t either.
Ben woke with dawn crawling through a break in the thick curtains, just starting to shed light into the room. The warmth of Elle in his arms, her back to his front, her scent surrounding him, left him so overwhelmed and content he could hardly believe such a feeling existed. How had he not known about this before? How had he gone more than three hundred years without this?
The last thing he wanted to do was leave the cocoon of warmth and satisfaction. What he really wanted to do was ease Elle awake with his mouth and hands, until she was writhing beneath him, panting and sweaty and crying out his name. What he wanted was to spend time actually seducing her, wooing her, convincing her they could be good together outside the hunt and the terror of facing monsters.
But he had to talk to Eric, like it or not. He needed some answers. And he needed to make a confession.
He found Eric in the kitchen, drinking coffee and staring through the large French doors at the manicured backyard. The kitchen was quiet, even Mrs. Patterson absent.
“Rea back yet?” he asked, going to the machine for a cup of coffee himself.
“About an hour ago. She says Judith is going to need to go through the place. If the geneticist will tell us what he was doing, that’ll save some time. But Rea found things…”
“That black goo?”
He nodded. “That’s going to…complicate our lives.”
“It is. All the Families. If any of the other scientists are using it to make monsters, we have an impending disaster on our hands.”
“We absolutely do,” Eric said, still staring out the window as Ben settled onto the long wooden table in the middle of the room that the family used for casual meals. “I have a call with the other Family heads this afternoon. I wanted to question Professor Arron first.”
Ben nodded, and not for the first time thanked his lucky stars for his birth order and metallurgy skills. He’d never be put in charge of the entire Logan Family, never have to carry the responsibility Eric did. And he was grateful for that.
Eric finally faced him. “So… You’re Nam-tar doing okay after…everything?”
“She’s sleeping. It’ll probably take time for her to be okay again. But she’s not injured. And she seems to be holding up to all this pretty well.” He shrugged. “She got thrown in to the deep end that first night.” He frowned down at his mug, considered the black liquid rather than face his brother’s frown. “I have something I need to ask you.”
