I rake my gaze down her bare legs, then back up. “So I appreciate the offer you’re apparently making, but I don’t need an escort tonight.”
“An escort? Oh, you’re hilarious, Draegan. Pure comedy gold right here, folks.”
“Yes, well, as much as I’d love to stand here and regale you with my humor and wit, I really do have a call to prepare for, so if you don’t mind—”
“By theMorrigan… What is yourdeal?”
I turn around and meet her indignant gaze full on.
“Go. Away,” I demand, but it’s clear she’s not backing down an inch. Turquoise eyes flashing up at me, hands propped on her hips, chest heaving… This five-and-a-half-foot sprite is seriously ready to go toe-to-toe with an immortal beast who could crush her in the time it takes to finish a sneeze.
I wonder how feisty she’d be if I put her on her hands and knees and made her crawl…
I’m damn near ready to grab her by the throat, throw her down on the bed, and teach her averyimportant lesson about trifling with a pissed-off gargoyle when she huffs out another indignant breath and says, “I’m not goinganywhereuntil you tell me your deal.”
“Mydeal, Miss Avery, is that the gargoyles in this house—in this entire region—are my responsibility. It was difficult enough looking after them before you crashed into our lives and turned everything upside down, but now? Now I’ve got the added burden of keepingyousafe and alive as well. A responsibility I gladly took on in service of our deal, yet youinsiston making it harder for me by—”
“What? How isthatfair? I’m—”
“At every turn, you’re undermining me. Pushing boundaries, refusing to listen to reason, outright disobeying my orders and—”
“Orders?” She laughs. “I didn’t realize I was signing up to live under a dictatorship.”
“That’s hardly what this is. I never said—”
“Oh, and youloveit, don’t you? Always being the one in charge, always in control like some kind of authoritarian king of old dominating his subjects and—”
“King of…” I scoff and close my eyes, desperately trying to rein in my temper. She’s got me hanging on by a thread. “Sorry. I’ve got better things to do than serve as the proving ground for your authority issues and myriad psychological problems. Please find someone else to infuriate.” I turn away and head into my bedroom, but the little mortal won’t take no for an answer.
“Psychological problems? Are you kidding me?” She stalks across my room and follows me straight into the master bathroom, no sense of boundaries, no shame. “You know what? Just because you’re the old man of the group doesn’t mean you have to act like everyone’s father.”
“And just because you’re the little girl doesn’t meanyouhave to act like a petulant child.”
“Whatever you say,Daddy Drae.” She rolls her eyes, exactly proving my point, but…
Fuck.
A shock of desire shoots through my balls at her words. One word, in particular, and again I’m picturing her on her hands and knees, crawling for me. Crawling right into my lap, her ripe arse in my hands, her firm breasts brushing my chest as she slides her hands up around my horns andbegsme…
Let me come, Daddy. Please…
“The sooner we can break this curse and I can get away fromyou,” she snaps, “the better.”
Anger flares in my chest, and I cling to it, grateful to have something to focus on other than what her smart little mouth is doing to my cock.
“Believeme,” I grind out, “the feeling is mutual.Morethan mutual. More mutual than… than the sun, the moon, and the stars.”
“What? That doesn’t even make any sense! Rook would say you’re undermining your communications by overcomplicating your similes and—”
“If my communications are too complicated for you to follow, allow me to simplify.” I jab my finger in the direction of the exit. “Leave. Now.”
She hops up on my bathroom vanity and folds her arms across her chest, stopping just short of sticking out her tongue. “Make me.”
Oh, I could very much make you…
I stalk toward her and grab the edge of the vanity, bracketing her small frame with my arms, shoving myself between her legs, my face so close to hers I can see every swirl of green and blue in her irises. The scent of her bare pussy has me damn near out of my mind with lust, my muscles trembling with the effort of holding back.
One more inch. One more inch and I could claim her so fast, she wouldn’t even know what hit her…
