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I shook my head. “No,” I said quietly. “Can we sit down?” I’d spotted the sofa, and sitting sounded like a good idea. I could face him to talk, and maybe I wouldn’t have to look up quite so much. I’d not thought about that when asking for a mate, but I wasn’t going to change my mind. I still very much desired a tall mate.

“We can. I’d like to discuss gargoyles with you a bit if you don’t mind.”

I smiled up at him. “I’d like that since I know very little about them. You are all a bit…” I didn’t know how to word it without offending him. Would he be upset if I called him standoffish again?

“You’ve already said it, and it’s true. We are a secretive species, and we often come from small clans and even smaller families. I have an older brother, and I think most were a bit surprised when I came along seventeen years later.” We were at the sofa, and Vaughn gestured for me to sit. I did another little dance inside when he sat right beside me, making sure he was close. I liked that. He wasn’t being distant with me, and that made my little fae self so happy.

“Fae, I think, are pretty much the opposite. We usually meet our mates early, as in before twenty-five. We tend to be loud and get bored easily. I’m sure that’s probably why we tend to get into trouble a lot. We get bored, and then we start playing with our magic, and that is what causes the issues.”

Vaughn smiled again. He was already easy to look at, and then when the man smiled, my heart started racing. “And what mischief and mayhem have you caused in your boredom?”

I shrugged. “I think I’m broken because I don’t really do anything. I get bored, sure, but I don’t play with my magic or anything. I just…I don’t know. I accept that this is my boring life and move on. My parents died when I was sixteen. We’re pretty sure Evan and Beau’s died about two years before that. They just left and never returned. I lived with Evan and Beau for a few years before they decided to come here. I came later, but Beau was already mated.” I was truly happy for my friend, but him already having a mate and a child on the way, and now a second, meant he didn’t really have time for his still-single friend.

Vaughn reached out and cupped the side of my face again. “Well, I don’t think you’re broken. You just haven’t found something that interests you. What did you use to do in your village?”

I snorted. “The same thing. I worked in the bakery with Beau. When we were finished for the day, we would go out and explore the village, hang out with some other friends, or go back to their house and just exist. We would play games, or if we felt interested, we would read, or if we really felt adventurous, we’d go outside and use our magic to do tricks.”

Vaughn gave me a look. “And there is the bored fae playing with magic.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Are you sure? It sounds as if you were. Did anything ever happen that wasn’t supposed to?”

I was going to argue no, but I couldn’t because he was correct. “Oh. Yeah, you’re probably right.” I looked at Vaughn in disbelief. “How? You just met me, and even I didn’t really recognize it until you mentioned it.”

“Because I’ve worked with quite a few fae for a while now, and even they get bored, and things will start floating in the council building. Or they will suddenly be found in places they absolutely shouldn’t be. Missing laptops in the cafeteria’s kitchen, all of the spare rolls of toilet paper stacked in the middle of the gym. It’s increased as the assignments have started to dwindle.”

I had not heard any of that! I was suddenly very interested in hearing all the stories about the fae alphas at work because they all acted like they were perfect. Without a thought, I crawled over and straddled Vaughn’s lap. I was sitting back on his knees, and it wasn’t until his eyes widened a little that I realized what I’d done.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think,” I said before leaning to the side to slide off. Vaughn’s hands on my waist held me in place though.

“Trust me when I say I don’t mind. I love that you are open enough to sit on my lap so soon. But I will admit that I’m a little jealous that it’s possible that you are simply like this with everyone.”

“No,” I said. “I mean, Beau and I have shared a bed before right after my parents died, but nothing happened. It was a hard time for me because I am an only child. If I ever had other family somewhere, my parents never mentioned them. My best friend and his brother were all I had left. But Beau’s not only my best friend; he’s like a brother. Evan too.”

Vaughn pulled me closer. “I’m sorry you went through that at such a young age. My parents are still both alive, but they live in Europe now. My brother and his mate live in Washington State with their two children, where our clan is.”

That was nice that he still had his family, but it still sounded like even though they were alive, he was all alone. He was here, and they were in two completely different places. “That’s kind of you,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say. “I don’t want to bring the mood down though. You had said you wanted to talk to me about gargoyles. Is it bad? I already know you don’t really hang out with others. I’m not going to have a problem with that. I’d love to spend more time with Beau, but he’s really busy with his new family with his mate.”

Vaughn was smiling at me. “We can socialize as little or as much as you would like,” he said. “But back to the other subject—yes. I do need to discuss some things about gargoyles with you. Particularly how we claim our mates and how certain parts…work.”

I smiled. “We were talking about a demonstration.” I was probably being entirely too forward, especially since my mate was so much older than I was and no doubt had tons of experience while I had none. But he wasn’t telling me no. At least, not yet.

“Yes, and I very much am looking forward to that demonstration, and more,” Vaughn said. He moved one hand off of my hip and let it slide up my side, where it stopped at my shoulder. “I personally don’t have experience with one aspect of how things work because I’ve not ever been with my mate. We all know about things, though, because we’re taught about them at a young age.”

I nodded. I knew about shifter alphas and their knots. It was something we all learned about because it had been the possibility for some time that we might get selected to leave our realm and come to this one and be paired with a shifter. Warlocks and vampires didn’t have knots though.

“I know about knots,” I said. I was going to say something else about it not being an issue, but then I started thinking back to the class we were all forced to sit in when our powers started to appear. “We never learned about gargoyles,” I said quietly. “I’m sure that there has to have been a fae that was paired with one before now, but I don’t remember them mentioning in class if a gargoyle had a knot. You’re not really a shifter like the others, but you do shift. That I know.”

Vaughn nodded. “I do. My gargoyle is blue.”

I smiled at that. I liked blue. “Yeah? What shade of blue?”

“A sort of medium blue. My wings are a blue-gray color.”

I bet he was so pretty in that form. “Do you have horns? I know some do. Am I being rude asking that?” I asked suddenly. Maybe I should stop interrupting and let him talk.

Vaughn wrapped his arms around my waist again and pulled me even closer, tight to his stomach, and I could feel the heat coming from him. “I do not have horns, and you are not rude. You may ask me any question you wish. I will have no secrets from you unless the council requires it.”