Page 12 of Stone Heart
She just had to be quiet. She eased off the bed, pulling the shirt down from bunching around her.
“Where do you think you’re going, little one?” a deep baritone voice questioned.
Her scream finally erupted as she spun around and found the stranger with his eyes on her. He straightened in his chair and relaxed back in it as if he just watched strangers sleep in his bed all the time.
She paused, her eyes connecting with his. She didn’t know why, but she felt a strange pull to him.
“Who are you? Where am I?” she asked. She cursed silently, hearing her voice tremble. She hung on to the bed, her legs weak, like wet noodles.
“If anyone should be rattling off questions, it should be me,” he murmured, pushing off from the chair.
She widened her eyes at the sheer size of him. He had to be one of the largest men she’d ever seen. His dark hair was rustled as if he’d run his fingers through it all night. The air around him screamed power. She swallowed hard from the way his dark eyes pierced her—a predator hunting his prey.
Her nipples pushed against the soft material of the shirt again, reacting to his stare.
Have I lost my mind?
She was his prisoner.
She flickered her gaze around the room. There wasn’t anywhere for her to run. “Yeah? Well, considering I’m the one who was kidnapped, I beg to differ.”
The corner of his mouth lifted up in what she was sure he thought was a smile. It didn’t comfort her any. She dropped her attention down to his chest and arms and held back a whimper. His muscular frame was perfection, but she refused to let him know how much he affected her.
“Who kidnapped you? My man could let you go with the mystic being, if you like.”
Memories of her escaping the nightclub surfaced. Her demonic hero had saved her from the swirling cloud that had morphed into a shadow of a man.
“Who are you?” she whispered. She glanced at him again.Hewasn’t her hero. He didn’t seem like the demon who’d saved her. He was all human male. One that had her heart jumping with just one look. She swallowed hard and pushed her hair from her face and returned his stare. “Why am I here?”
“My name is Rhodack,” he answered. The slight tick in his jaw let on that he was not used to being questioned.
She could tell he was a man who was used to being in charge. He took a step toward her, and she held her hand up.
“I will not harm you,” he said. “Now tell me your name.”
“Don’t come any closer,” she cried out, backing up.
He paused. His jaw clenched as he glared at her.
“How do I know you won’t hurt me?” she asked.
“I give you my word as Rhodack Gahnoth.”
“What is that supposed to mean to me? Where is the demon who saved me? I want him.”
“Vikuth is not a demon.” A growl released from him, and he narrowed his eyes at her. A dark cloud of anger rolled onto his face as he stood in the middle of the room staring at her. “We are not demons. We are gargoyles.”
She noticed his wording of ‘we’.
“Gargoyles?” she uttered, roaming her gaze over his body.
He appeared human to her. His perfect physique caught her attention. She tried to block how his cotton shirt molded to his abdomen, highlighting the perfect ridges of his stomach.
Had she not witnessed what she thought was a flying demon, she’d question the existence of gargoyles or any mystical being. But after last night, her mind was wide open to the possibility of other beings out there. “But you look human.”
“As do you.”
She shook her head at his words.What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“But I am human,” she whispered. She would know if she wasn’t human. Why would he assume that she wasn’t? “My name is Rina Smith, and I’m human. I have a mother who raised me. I would know if I wasn’t human.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You’re most certainly not human.”
“I want Vikuth.”
