Page 2 of Heart of Stone
“I just remember falling on the sidewalk after the branch snapped. It was a painful but quick way to get down from the tree. I should have predicted that ending though. Crazy shit always followed you around.”
I grew quiet for a second and thought about the unsettling scene I’d just left in my house. “My mom was taping up the cupboards so that the aliens don’t get inside. I decided to walk outside and wait for them. Figured being kidnapped, studied and eventually dissected by green men would still be better than living with my mom.”
“You need to send her to one of those institutions where she can get some help.”
A wry laugh spurted from my mouth. “Help? You just used the wordinstitution. Does an institution sound the least bit helpful?”
He sighed loudly and a cloud of beer breath followed. “I’m just saying there might come a time when you can’t handle her craziness anymore. She’s too much, Amy. She’s going to hurt herself, or worse, she might hurt you.”
Hearing him call me by my name always sent me off balance for a second. He only said it when he was trying to sound fatherly or serious, like now. Otherwise, I was Street, or Street Corner Girl, a nickname the Stone brothers had come up with when I was twelve and in a desperate attempt to make money, I’d turned my corner lemonade stand into a kissing booth. “She’s the only family I’ve got.” I shot to my feet and had every intention of marching back inside. But his giant hand wrapped around my arm, and he pulled me onto his lap.
“That’s not true and you know it. I’m your family. Colt and Slade are your family.”
My throat tightened as he said it. Growing up, the four of us had been stuck in similar slices of hell. But as bad as my father had been, he was fucking Santa Claus compared to their dad, Hank. Sometimes it seemed impossible thatthey’d all survived to adulthood. But they had, and while they weren’t leading completely respectable lives, and while a lot of the people in town made a point of crossing the street to not have to pass them on a sidewalk, they’d all grown up with the innate sense that cruelty was wrong. An unintentional lesson they’d learned from their awful dad. But their horrid life had scarred all of them, physically and emotionally. Feelings and love were hidden under layers ofstone. Jade had found a way to chip through Colt’s rock hard facade, but Hunter was a much harder piece of granite to break.
Hunter tightened his hold on me, pulling me closer to his warm body. The earlier tension drained out of me like it always did when I was in his arms. They were like a steel barrier to anything bad or dangerous in the world.
I rested my head against his shoulder. “Why is it that even when you’ve said something that irritates me, I still manage to dissolve into a hot puddle of need when I’m with you.”
“I think my little Street Corner Girl needs a raunchy roll in my bed sheets.” His hand smoothed along my leg and pushed up the bottom of my t-shirt. The cool air brushed over my panties.
“Is that all you ever think about?” I asked.
“I would be lying if I said no.”
I peered up at him. “Kudos for honesty then, but I don’t kno—” My breath pulled in as his fingers scooted under the crotch of my panties. I was like melted butter in his arms. Hunter knew I could never say no to him. But, sometimes, I wished to hell I could.
Moisture seeped from my now throbbing pussy.
“Ahh, Street, you’re so fucking wet, I might have to take you right here on this damn porch.”
I curled against him and kissed his neck. “Too cold and the aliens are watching. Carry me inside.”
He pushed his finger inside of me, and I arched my back to take in more of his touch. My soft groan floated off the porch and away on the salty breeze.
“Don’t know if I can stop, baby.” The gritty darkness in his voice matched the stormy night.
I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself to make my point. “A blanket and a warm room. Please.”
He withdrew his fingers, and my breath drifted out with them as if he’d pulled the oxygen from my lungs at the same time. With ease, he stood with me in his arms. I clung to him as he opened the front door.
I kissed his neck as he carried me down the dark hallway. He kicked his door open and stepped inside. He walked around the maze of dirty clothes and shoes and lowered my feet to the ground. I’d always been aware of my slight, thin build, but I always felt extra small standing in a room with Hunter.
His brown eyes were glazed with need as he reached for my coat. He pushed it off my shoulders. “What would I do without you, Street?”
“You’d still be fucking every girl in town.” I hopped up on my toes. “But you’d miss me.”
“Damn right I would.” He lowered his mouth over mine. There were times when we’d forego the kissing. It was too intimate. Kissing came with too much connection. Kissing made it harder for me to accept that he’d never give me his undivided love. Itreminded me that he just really had no love to give.
Tonight, his tongue stroked my lips with a tenderness that nearly brought tears to my eyes. He was never going to be completely mine. I was his, but a terrible double standard had always been wedged between us. I’d spent nearly as much time telling myself this was never going to be anything as I’d spent trying to reconcile our lopsided relationship with my heart.
Hunter lifted his mouth long enough to pull my t-shirt off. I was stripped down to just my panties. He reached down, took hold of my waist and lifted me up onto the bed. I relaxed back as he knelt on the floor between my legs. It was rare for him to take the time to make me come first before climbing on top of me. Not that he ever finished before me. He always made sure not to. He could stay hard as long as I needed. And his skill in between the sheets was one of the reasons saying no to him was so impossible. That, and the reality that I loved him so much it hurt to think about.
His fingers dragged my panties down past my knees and off my ankles. I was naked. Everything about the man was powerful, menacing, intimidating. Having him kneel between my thighs made me so fucking hot, I knew it wouldn’t be long. His long black lashes lifted, and he gazed at me over the mound of crisp hair between my legs. We never needed to say much to each other. We knew each other so well, it was almost as if he could feel everything I was feeling as he touched me. And he touched me now with that incredible skill that made him so fucking irresistible.
He lifted up on his knees and leaned his massive body over me to kiss my lips. “There is nothing I hate more thanseeing my Street Corner Girl sad. It’s not natural. When that face has a frown, it feels like this fucked up universe has turned even more upside down.”
“I’m not sad.” I reached up and touched his face. I rarely allowed myself small intimate caresses like that. They were just as dangerous as kisses. “I just feel vacant.”
