Patricia's Desire
Beauty's Stone Beast #3

Excerpt

Corentin stood on the balcony, watching the night draw slowly to a close with a mixture of irritation and boredom. He felt restless and worried. Something was about to happen. He could feel it. Even the air was thick with a kind of anticipation.

He huffed out a sigh and crossed his arms over his massive chest. His long ebony hair swung when he shook his head in disgust. He hated not knowing exactly what was about to happen. It turned him into a man even his own brothers would avoid.

From the day the brothers were cursed to be Gargoyles, Corentin had felt himself becoming different from the others. They were all cursed the same way. But, he had found in time that his intuition became more than what the others experienced.

When he felt something shift in his surroundings, it usually meant change was upon them. Corentin did not like change. It was usually never a good thing, and it would always make their lives even harder to bear. When the women had come, for once, the moment was positive.

He had felt Rachel’s coming. He had been happy for Arthmael. His brother deserved every happiness. When Tarrah had come, he knew her to belong to Bastian. Again, he had felt a joy for his brother. He had been a little resentful, but not enough to be negative in the face of their happiness.

Feeling a presence behind him, he turned to find his brother Arthmael watching him with a furrowed brow. For several moments, they simply stared at each other before he groaned irritably, “What, brother? What is it that tears you away from your lovely woman’s side to come to me?”

Arthmael took a deep breath, and stepped closer to his brother. “I need to prepare you. A friend of Tarrah and Rachel’s is coming. She will be here sometime in the morning, and I don’t want you caught unaware.”

Turning, Corentin stared out into the darkness to keep himself from revealing his distress to his brother. “I take it she is to be brought to my tower?”

Arthmael said nothing. When Corentin turned back to face him again, he offered him a slow nod before he explained, “Her name is Patricia. I think the girls are hoping she will be the one to break your curse.”

Corentin couldn’t stop himself from barking out a sarcastic laugh. “Right! She’ll get a glimpse at my temper and run for her life! If she doesn’t die of fright before she can move.”

Arthmael chuckled before answering, “Well, then perhaps now would be a good time to stop acting like an ogre.” He tilted his head, looking Corentin up and down for a moment before adding, “You used to be quite charming, long ago.”

Both men fell silent as Corentin replayed the memory of his betroth’s reaction to his fate in the back of his mind. “Before Lyssa broke you.” His brother spoke softly, and then glanced toward the slowly rising sun. “I’m sure, deep down, you still know how to be.”

Growling, Corentin turned toward the coming dawn. He hated to be reminded of the woman who had destroyed his heart. Even after all these centuries had past, he was still haunted by her betrayal. “Go to your woman, brother. I promise I won’t eat her guest.”

As the two of them regarded each other, they were distracted by Dionde landing on his own tower and moving into his position as the sun began to rise.

Corentin nodded in Dionde’s direction and spoke, “Perhaps, instead of worrying over my lack of manners, you should inquire as to what is taking so much of Dionde’s nights. He comes home later and later each dawn.”

Arthmael looked at Dionde, agreeing with a nod before turning back to his other sibling. He smiled sadly and watched as his brother grew in size and took his position on the edge of the tower. As the sun peaked over the horizon, Corentin became the hard, cold stone that he always warned others was the flesh of his heart. Arthmael knew different. After all, his was the same imprisonment he himself had once endured.

She’d missed her plane. She was supposed to have been on it at two o’clock that afternoon. Drawing a shaky breath, she gritted her teeth when her muscles around her stomach rebelled. Her head pounded and one eye was swollen shut. Her entire body felt like she’d been in a car crash.

Turning her head ever so slowly, she breathed a soft sigh of relief when she saw that David was indeed sleeping. Sliding from the bed onto the floor, Patricia sat there for a moment and collected herself, breathing through the pain as she looked at the dark bruises already forming on her body.

Rising, she peered over the mattress at his still form. David was a sound sleeper, but even so, she didn’t want to chance what would happen if he awoke. Getting onto her hands and knees, she crawled toward the closet. It was big, with plenty of space for her to stand inside and stay mostly out of his sight, were he to wake while she was trying to dress.

Slowly, she pulled a soft cotton dress off of the hanger and slid it over her head and down over sore muscles, already turning angry colors of deep purple and blue. The movement made her wince.

She didn’t even care that she was wearing no underclothes. All that mattered was getting to the airport and onto the next available flight. She knew that. She had hidden her passport and cell phone the night before so he couldn’t destroy them and make it impossible for her to leave.

When she moved out of the closet, David was still sleeping, and she held her breath as she tip-toed past the bed and bent to pick up the suitcase and duffel bag she had packed. Glancing back at him, she backed slowly out the bedroom door and down the hall.

Her eyes never left him as she watched for any sign of his awakening. When she got to the end of the hallway, she turned and ran. As fast as she could, she raced out the front door he’d left standing open and down the drive to her little Volkswagen bug.

Throwing her bags in the back seat, she slid into the front and pulled the keys out of the small box she had hidden under the seat. Inside it were her passport, a thousand dollars she’d been saving for the day she could escape, and her social security card. Turning the key in the ignition with shaking hands, she sobbed her relief when the engine fired up, and threw the car into drive so fast her tires squealed when she pulled away from the curb.

Speeding down the street, she looked back to see David running down the middle of the street, with only his jeans on, screaming obscenities after her. Throwing her car into a higher gear, she sped faster away from the man she had come to know as her own personal nightmare. Grabbing her sunglasses, she put them on and turned the mirror to look at her face.

There would be no hiding the bruises. They were already covering half of her jaw and most of the side of her face. Giving in to the tears she felt sliding down her cheeks, she tried to tell herself she didn’t look quite as bad as a prize fighter after ten rounds.

As she made her way to the airport, she hoped there would be no questions. She just couldn’t handle them on top of everything else. This was all just too much. These last years had made her old and miserable. She wondered if she’d ever find her way back to who she once was. Moreover, was there any going back? Could she ever trust again?

Her tears turned angry as they traveled down her cheeks. She thought of all this time she had wasted on a man who not only drilled into her head every day how much he despised her, but made her hate herself as well. She hated who she was, she hated who she had become and she wanted nothing more than to escape.

Pulling into the airport parking lot, she parked her car and rose from it awkwardly. She was stiff and her muscles ached. Grabbing her bags, she moved as swiftly as she could under the circumstances to the entrance with a nervous glance over her shoulder. Would he follow her? She didn’t put anything past him at this point. She prayed silently that she would be lucky enough to be in the air before he arrived. If he showed up, he would cause hell.

Of course, nothing would deter her from getting on that plane. If she was lucky enough for there to be another flight that wasn’t booked solid. Then she would be able to put this place and that man behind her.

Moving to the desk, she smiled at the attendant, careful to keep her hair over the side of her face that was the most bruised. “Hello. I―uh―I’m sorry, but my name is Patricia Neese. I was supposed to be on the noon flight to Paris, but I was unavoidably detained.” She sighed. “Is there a chance you have another flight out today?”

The lady behind the counter smiled at her and pulled something up on the computer. “Ah, yes, of course. Miss Neese. Your flight has been delayed. There was a problem with the plane, but there is another on the way. If you go ahead and check your luggage, you will be in time for your flight. Departure isn’t until three thirty this afternoon.” She glanced at the clock behind Patricia. “That gives you another forty-five minutes.”

“Isn’t that wonderful, dear?” The relief she had been feeling went suddenly flat at the deep voice that closed in on her at that moment. She felt the color drain from her face at his next words. “Now we won’t miss our honeymoon after all.”

Closing her eyes, Patricia tried to calm her racing heart. “David, this is not our honeymoon.” she said softly. “I’m leaving.”

He chuckled, wrapping his arm tightly around her, and throwing the attendant a charming smile. “She’s such a kidder. We just got married and this trip is our honeymoon.”

The attendant raised an eyebrow at him and looked to the computer screen. “That’s funny.” she answered. “There is no ticket for a companion for Miss Neese.” she looked closely at the man, before glancing back at Patricia. “Perhaps you have mistaken the lady here for your punching bag?”

David growled and slammed his hand on the counter. “You bitch! How dare you? I’ll have you know you have no right to speak to me like this!”

The attendant motioned to a guard standing near the door. A big burly man who resembled a young Lou Ferigno moved swiftly to their side. “Is there a problem?