Chapter Nine June and Duncan
There’s a stone gargoyle beside my bed, standing there naked, because he only rolled off of me a second before sunrise.
Honestly, he could have stayed on top of me if not for the weight of solid stone. I’m not going to move, anyway. My thighs are destroyed. My abs ache. I’m probably dangerously dehydrated.
I can’t stop smiling.
WHEN DUNCAN WAKES, he immediately starts scrabbling in the stone shards that are all over the floor.
“Good evening, my love,” he croons. “Are you well?”
“I’m walking again,” I tease as I toss the final pillow back in place on the newly laundered bedding. “And there’s a big pot of spaghetti and meat sauce ready.”
“Spaghetti?”
“Trust me. Come and eat.” So we can get to dessert, I think with a smirk.
Duncan stops, holding up a large, smooth piece of stone. It’s broken cleanly enough that it isn’t so much a shard, but a piece of pectoral. “Perfect,” he sighs. “This will be your heartstone, my lady. Our heartstone.”
“Like an engagement ring?”
“More than that.” Duncan comes to sit beside me, his wings out and back.
I notice that he moves without a wince, and now his wing and part of his back are covered with scars.
I imagine that tomorrow morning, his stone form will have cracks, but that the steadily shrinking line of mortar or cement will be practically gone.
“A wedding ring?” I ask, and my stomach does a nervous squeeze. It’s stupid to get married to a guy a week after meeting him, right?
I knew Danny for 6 months before we got engaged, and look at that mistake. What will my parents say? What will my sisters think? This isn’t a good example for them.
“What’s wrong?”
“A week is fast. That’s all. In human customs, people don’t marry after a week. M-maybe you could make it, but not give it to me yet?”
Duncan’s face shifts from eager to disappointed. “But... But d’ye not know how a heartstone works? Didn’t I tell you?”
“No. We don’t know a lot of things about each other yet,” I say, even though it pains me to do it.
I trust him. I do love him. It’s been a crazy rush of friendship and falling, but he makes me feel safe.
I want him in my life, in my bed, in my heart—but less-emotional June is in control this evening.
She knows we have to take this a little slower.
“I don’t know anything about gargoyles except what you and Genesis told me, and that most people in the world can’t even see you as anything but some really tall dude with great hair.
I’m in love with you, Duncan, and I trust you.
I want to be your wife and your mate, all those things.
I just thought we’d have a longer engagement. You’re acting like that’s bad?”
“It’s not bad. It’s just... Last night, things seemed different.”
“Last night, my guard was down.”
“I was right beside you.”
“You know what I mean. Danny was awful to me, and we were together, and I realized that you’re the one person I can let myself feel safe around.” And you don’t want that sooner? For him to be yours in every sense of the word? Why are you pumping the brakes?
Because people will think it’s a rebound. Danny will hear about it. Mock you. Your parents loved Danny, thought you made a good match. Your sisters thought Daniel was a prince...
“I should have explained. A heartstone binds us. Not like human marriage vows, for I’ve seen humans break those all the time, even though they make them.
No, this will bind our souls, and only if our hearts and souls are true will it work.
It’ll be unbreakable once you read the vows I write for you.
For us. We’ll never be parted like you and that bastard who betrayed you.
Why, even leaving each other’s side will cause pain unless we intend to reunite as soon as we can. ”
I blink. “What, like I’ll have a pain if I go to work while you’re being a lawn ornament?” My voice is a little harsher than it should be, and Duncan stiffens. “Sorry, this is all new to me.”
“It won’t cause pain, because we’ll consummate our bond quickly, and because our hearts are true. Aren’t they?”
“Yes! Yes, I promise. I don’t have cold feet—”
“I know. All of you is so warm. So delicious and warm.”
I giggle a little and lean into my big beast of a sweetheart, letting him embrace me.
But then, something prickles in the back of my mind, something I meant to ask last night—but couldn’t because I was apparently having an all-body endurance test via mind-numbing orgasms. “Hey. How did you know how to make things so good? You haven’t been with a human woman, or a gargoyle woman, but you—”
“Oh, is that why you’re fearing?” Duncan sags in relief, kissing my temple with tender reassurance.
I don’t have the heart to tell him no, that it isn’t about the sex, it’s about other people’s expectations.
Kinda cruel, aren’t you, June? You’re his whole world right now, and you haven’t even bothered to tell your folks about the break-up. How dare you throw your worries about reputation in the face of the sweetest, most loyal being, who has nothing on these shores but you?
“Well, I know it is hard to tell with gargoyles, but I had seen fifty winters before my ‘death.’ We can live hundreds of years, rarely even thousands, so there are many older gargoyles to teach young ones about mating and keeping a mate happy. I had not found a mate yet, but I was hardly a hatchling. It is common for gargoyles to find mates sometime before their first century, usually before forty winters. I had seen many of my clan find their mates and bear children. My father and uncles were good enough to explain the basics of courting and mating. Female humans are much smaller, but you all have the same parts, in different colors and textures, just without the wings and tails, of course.”
“So you knew what a clit was?”
“Well, I dinnae know it was called that, but I knew about a female’s pearl.
Yours was just littler, but it still loved attention.
That’s important when mating. If your mate isn’t enjoying coupling, you won’t do it as often.
You can ask Genesis, but I imagine his clan elders taught him the same thing.
If you want your clan to keep growing, you have to have couples who are eager to produce hatchlings, and therefore they have to enjoy the acts that create them. ”
I think I’d die if I had to ask the somewhat taciturn, charcoal-gray gargoyle anything about mating or female anatomy, so I just nod and press on. “And oral? Using your mouth? I thought that wasn’t a thing men did back then.”
Duncan looks around furtively, “I bet it wasn’t for humans. They have weak senses. Don’t be angry, my lady, it’s true when compared to a gargoyle. Human noses and tongues cannae fully enjoy tasting one another.”
“I call bullshit on that. I loved how you tasted,” I protest, somehow miffed that he thinks he’s got the upper hand—upper talon?— when it comes to using his mouth. “Like night and sky and gardens. I don’t know. Those aren’t things I usually have a ‘taste’ for... Maybe you’re right.”
“Ah, and you taste like the sun must feel, and roses, and this is proof, my love, that we are meant to be. We find things in each other that others wouldnae, and you trust me enough to ask things about my kind, and I am honest enough to tell ye—and to ask. I also thought humans didnae like it when tails were involved, but you did.”
I blush. “That’s because humans aren’t spoiled enough to have tails that do all the crazy things you did to me last night. Crazy good.”
“As in, you would like to do them again?”
“I would! And I do want your heartstone. I just think maybe I should wait a little longer to accept it, because... Because I don’t want people to think I jumped from Daniel to you just because I was sad, or lonely, or not thinking clearly.
Since we’re being so honest, Duncan,” I bite my lip and heave a worried sigh, “I don’t think I’m thinking as clearly as I usually do.
The first rule of taking care of myself is not needing anyone else, and I can’t imagine not needing you, even though we’ve only just met. ”
“That’s love, my lady, not an obstacle.”
“You’re right, I’m sure. But the second rule of being able to take care of myself is having a plan, knowing what to do next, and let’s face it. After July, we don’t have a plan.”
“Aye, you’re right. Which means that we have this summer to make one. Come. Let’s eat the spagitty and put up those arbors. We’ll make our plans on the way.” Duncan gently places the shell of stone down on the bedside table and takes my hand.
“I love you,” I say, relieved and feeling worry ebb away. “Also, it’s spaghetti. You say it wrong at a family dinner, and my parents are gonna lose their shit.”
“What?” Duncan looks thoroughly alarmed. “They’ll shite themselves? Are they no’ well?”
“Oooh. We’re going to have fun learning about all the fun expressions of our time. Can you teach me to lose my temper in 19th-century Highlander? It might amuse the kids in detention next year,” I laugh.
“Aye, I could teach you plenty. Would you like to hear about the time the old laird got drunk and thought the chicken coop was the privy? A rooster got him right where it counted. I never heard such language!”
Why was I worried? I want to spend my life learning all that I don’t know about Duncan. I’ll uncover stories about a clan who cared for him, and a whole culture and time I didn’t know. All I uncovered with Danny was secrets and lies.
“That sounds hysterical. That’s prime temper-losing material, for sure. Once we have a plan for the rest of the year, I’ll feel better about an official ‘engagement’ or ‘wedding ring’ in the form of a heartstone,” I reassure both of us.
“You take the time you need, my love. After last night, you are all mine, no matter what the world knows—I just cannae wait for everyone to know it, too.”
The lovelight and pride that shine in his eyes when he looks at me make me into mush.
“The spaghetti will keep for another hour,” I say suddenly, leaping into his arms.