Free Stone Passions Trilogy by A. C. Warneke Page B

Vaughn had she met him before. 
    She wondered when she would be seeing him, seeing Vaughn, again. She knew that it wasn’t likely to lead to anything permanent – after all, how many one night stands turn into something more? It didn’t even matter because there was that nearly combustible spark that flared between them and he practically gave her an orgasm by looking at her. Of course she knew that lust didn’t last but she was hopeful that there could be something more than physical desire, that whatever was between them might lead to something more.
    “Yes,” Vanessa’s sleepy voice filled the small space of her apartment, making Melanie jump from the unexpected sound. Had she spoken her thoughts out loud and woken her friend?
    No, Vanessa was still asleep. At least her eyes were still closed. Odd, there seemed to be a faint mist covering her friend’s lithe body. Even as she watched, Vanessa grabbed the hem of her slinky top and whipped it over her head. Squirming, she pushed the covers away as she pulled her panties off her body. Melanie’s eyes widened in disbelief as Vanessa writhed on the bed in all her naked perfection.
    Wow, that had to be some dream. Melanie almost felt that she should leave her apartment and give her friend some privacy. She was about to do just that until she heard the soft, seductive voice. Even though the words were barely audible and almost seemed to be coming from another world, she knew at once who it was: Vaughn’s brother, the black-haired one. Armand. It was eerily similar to the dance they shared a few hours before.
    Much to her shock and alarm, Melanie saw Vanessa twist around in the bed, reach into the bedside dresser and pull out Simon. She watched in horror as her friend slid Simon between her slender thighs and began pleasuring herself. The mug of hot chocolate slipped from her fingers, clunking down on the countertop and spilling the hot liquid over her front.
    “Damn it!” Melanie swore, not sure if she was swearing about her hot chocolate-stained tank top or Vanessa stepping way over the lines of friendship. Grabbing a few paper towels, she mopped up the mess, her attention morbidly focused on the scene that was taking place on her bed. As she cleaned, she strained her ears to hear what the man was saying.
    “New Year’s….” Armand’s disembodied voice murmured, the drugging quality wrapping itself around Melanie’s mind. But a few words made it through the fog that seemed to have coalesced around her: “Ordinary…. Normal…. Magic…
    “Gargoyles.” 
    That word forced Melanie’s attention back to the present. Vanessa was humping Simon as her long, slender fingers moved him in and out of her body. Swallowing the bile that was rising in her throat – it was time to replace Simon, if nothing else was true – Melanie forced herself to listen to what the black-haired man was whispering in Vanessa’s ear. She chose to ignore her friend’s actions.
    “You no longer wish to remain in this building and you never want to return. In a few moments you are not going to remember any of this, my brothers, this building. When you wake in the morning all of it will be a dream that quickly fades.”
    Melanie sucked in her breath, the spilled hot chocolate forgotten. He had tried to make her forget her apartment and his brothers earlier. The auburn-haired man – Rhys – had tried to do the same thing only she thought they were playing around. She had no idea that they were serious, nor how far they were willing to go to make her forget.
    But why would they want to do such a thing? She loved this building and the three gargoyles that guarded it. She was hardly what anyone would consider a threat. Besides, if they were trying to cast some sort of… spell, well, that would mean that magic truly existed and she wasn’t completely crazy for believing in it. But then, that would mean magic truly existed and that was actually a scary thought. If they could use their