CHAPTER 5 #2
Her wide eyes widen further before she sends me a small smile. “But that’s my last question. Why are you being so nice? I tried to kill you.”
“I remember, ergo, your status as my fake girlfriend.” Though the pretense is becoming less fiction than biography by the moment.
“I really can act. I’ll fool everyone.”
“Even me?”
Another bright flush of red spreads across her cheeks as she lowers her gaze.
Another notch in my cock. This fake relationship feels far too heavy and important, like I picked up a handful of fool’s gold only to discover it weighs like the real stuff.
Best to ignore that feeling, really.
I force myself to focus on her last question. “I’m generally nice to everyone, unless niceness would contravene or endanger Good. It’s a gargoyle thing, though some of us do go rogue.”
“Which is why I need to know how to kill your Kind,” she interjects. “I have a sacred duty.”
I smooth back her hair again. For a moment, I think she’s going to nuzzle into my hand, but then the moment passes.
Doesn’t matter.
My heart says I’m lying to myself. It matters. It all matters.
I shake off the thoughts. “I left the book for you to read, but the synopsis is that you can kill my kind by dousing us in fire that’s been alighted with holy oil. It’s why so many of my brethren died in the conflagration at Notre Dame.”
Her eyes widen again. They’re wide enough to swallow my heart. “Because there was holy oil in the church?”
I nod. That, and because I think one of my Kind was deliberately targeted. Until I know for certain, I’ll call it an accident.
“I’m so sorry, Alain. I… that must be hard.”
“It is.”
She reaches out and lays her hand over my heart. Sympathy flows from her into me… and I’m lost. No one has ever offered me comfort before. I don’t know what to do with it.
I’m the strong one. I’m the protector. I’m the one who should be holding her safe against anything wishing to hurt her, not the other way around.
To distract her, and me, I raise her hand to my lips and press a heated kiss to her palm. “I’m glad you’re playing for the same team,” I whisper, holding her gaze hostage. “I’d feel guilty otherwise for wanting to do illicit things to you.”
Bright red spills all the way down from her forehead to the top of her gown from which her breasts spill. On her side, they produce a tantalizing hollow.
“Alain, I don’t… that is… could we…?”
And suddenly, she’s the only thing in my world. No future, no past, no duty. Only her, and me needing with everything in me to satisfy this ache in my loins.
“Fuck? Yes, we could.”
“And become a real…?”
“No.” I cut off her words. “I can’t have a real relationship with you. I can’t have a real relationship with anyone. You need to know that up front. It would just be physical.”
She tries to hide the blow… I think. Maybe I’m just seeing what I want to see.
“Why?”
“First, we’re different species. It’s… forbidden.” Though that’s not exactly true. Only the making of children is forbidden. I could marry her. I could plough into her soft depths and make her mine for as long as she lives.
“Oh.” She nods. “Right.” But she doesn’t move away.
And damn me for a thousand fools, but I want her so much, I have to stop my breath and half turn to stone to arrest my arms from dragging her into and under me.
“So, you’ve never, um, fucked before?” she asks, before biting her lip.
“I’ve fucked.” But honestly compels me to admit, “I haven’t truly kissed. Fucking is one thing. Kissing is… transcendent. A good kiss can steal your soul and wed you before you’re even aware of it.”
“I don’t understand.” She lays her hand against my chest again. “You’re so hard. There’s no give in your skin at all. You really haven’t ever kissed anyone?”
And her lips, they’re right there, practically begging me to lean into her, to touch mine to hers, to open her wide to me so I can taste her essence and touch her spirit.
Instead, I clear my throat. “Not happening, Bumps.”
“Why not? I mean, I’m not going to fuck you, but a little kiss…” Instantly, she pouts again, and I swear…
This is my trial. This is my Hell. This is… impossible.
“If I kiss you, when I kiss you,” I add, though I shouldn’t, and I don’t even understand why I do, “you’re mine forever.
I won’t let you leave me. I won’t let you run away.
I’ll haunt you for the rest of your days, and I’ll chase away every male that comes sniffing after you.
I’m a gargoyle. I’m forged in holy water, fire, and the bones of the earth.
I’m ancient magick, created to be dedicated, possessive, protective, and unsleeping.
Do you really think I’m something you could deal with for the rest of your life?
Because that’s what will happen if I kiss you. ”
And I hold my breath again, hoping she’ll say yes, sure, of course, so that I can kiss her as I long to do, before slipping my aching cock between her beautiful thighs and up into the furnace of her core.
“But it doesn’t have to be like that.”
“Unfortunately, it does.”
“Alain…”
But she’s so close, and the little mewl she utters at the end of my name, that plaintive cry, tells me that she’s as hungry for a union as I am. I think.
I hope—because I’m about to become some sort of predator if I’m wrong.
In a quick movement, I cover her so that she lies caged between my elbows, the mattress, and my legs. “But there’s a game we can play, if you like. A different sort of kiss that will make you feel better.”
“L-like?” But her hips cycle beneath me, sending my cock into a stratosphere of need.
“Like,” I whisper, leaning in to brush my lips along the soft skin of her neck, “I can kiss you in other places. I can make you see Heaven.”
She answers with another small mewl and a roll of her hips, but her hands lift higher on my chest, stroking rather than pushing me off. “Won’t that be too relationshippy?”
“Oh, no. Not at all. This is just what friends do to help each other out. And we’re friends now, aren’t we?” And my lips fall to her skin again. I suck the soft flesh between my teeth. She’ll bear a mark later. A hickey, they call it now.
The idea is thrilling. Marked, by me.
Mine.
No. I need to stop this madness. She’s too young. I could hurt her. Twenty-seven is just a baby.
But I make not a single move to leave her. “Say yes,” I growl, popping off to layer more kisses along her throat and shoulder blade before lowering to the restraint of her low-cut dress. “Tell me yes, or I’ll stop.”
This time, she whines. “I can’t…” But her hands clutch into my hair, pulling me into her.
But I’m a lot stronger, even thought she’s honed to be a slayer. “Say yes, or this is a no.”
Our eyes meet, clash, and hold. She bites her lip again.
“Tell me yes, little girl. You don’t want to say I was able to force you, do you?” I ask, appealing to her slayer pride. But then I shake my head. “I’m not going to force you. You want me, or you don’t, and if you don’t, I’m gone.”
Sure enough, her blue eyes spark. She goes to push me off her, but at the last moment, groans. “Okay.” She licks her lips. “Okay, do whatever. I say yes.”
And that’s all the permission I need.