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“I don’t like it either. I’m not a fan of pain… well, except for the mutually consensual kind.” I push out a small giggle. This time, I know I’m not pulling off the casual tone I’m aiming for, possibly because I’m still paying for the price of that hurt ten years on.
I want to move on from this topic because, as the sunlight gleams off the points of his sharp claws, I’m certain gargoyles handle retribution with far more finality than humans do. It doesn’t matter that I’m a random one-night stand. If he knew who really hurt me, they’d be going on a list somewhere. No matter how much it still stings, I won’t do that to my mother.
He searches my face, his eyes darkening with each pass, and I’m certain he can see straight through to my thoughts. I hate the way that all it takes is a look from Titan to feel him inside me, to feel his claws on my vulnerable center.
“Speaking of mutually consensual pain.” I search to create distance and find it with a cheesy line I’d never dare use with a typical arrangement. “I hope you haven’t forgotten what you said about my ass last night. I haven’t.”
I bite at my bottom lip, pushing it out in a pout, as I reach out for my dress again.
“We’ll talk about this later,” he grunts, ignoring me as he turns on his clawed feet, tail snaking behind him and my dress still firmly in hand as he heads to the back of the bedroom.
He goes to a large open closet, and I watch him toss the dress in a hamper, then disappear farther into the space. I realize, other than the elevator, there are no doors in the penthouse, only strategically placed walls to give privacy where needed.
The brief time apart is enough to release the tension in the air, and when Titan returns, he has what amounts to a leather loincloth around his hips and a T-shirt slung over his arm.
“You wear clothes?” I struggle to hide my disappointment.
“Yes.” Titan laughs. “I would’ve already been clothed, but I wasn’t expecting to have my transformation forced on me this morning, so I had not thought to wear my loincloth before I put the ring, and its glamour, on.”
My eyes are glued to the way the loincloth dips between his legs, seeming to emphasize his thick, muscular thighs. The leather flips up with each step Titan takes, and even though he spent the entire morning with his cock out, I find myself hoping the loincloth will move just enough that I can confirm he really is as big as I remember.
Naturally, I miss the T-shirt when Titan tosses it my way.
“Rapid and Racing Four?” I grab the navy-blue T-shirt and unfold it to read the action movie franchise graphic printed on the front.
“The team did some security work for the director a while back when she was concerned about a crazed fan turned stalker, so we handled her off-set protection.”
“As humans?” I’d noticed that each of the gargoyles had colorful jeweled rings, all different types of gemstones, hung on chains around their necks when they’d first walked in. All except Titan, whose ring was currently hidden in the folds of the blanket.
“Some of the time,” Titan confirms. “It depends on the client, if they’re human or—”
“The Strange,” I offer.
“Yes.” He smiles, the tips of his upturned fangs catching the light. “In this case, the director is a mountain lion shifter and the stalker, a newly turned werewolf. With no pack leader guiding him, he’d gone feral at her scent. I was able to trap him and get him to the local pack before it got any worse.”
Titan should scare me, and he does, but in a way that makes my thighs clench. I want to feel his fangs against the tip of my tongue.
Would they be sharp or sleek or both?
“If our client is Strange, or a human with ties to the Strange, we stay as we are. We only take on our human forms when absolutely necessary.”
“Why? Doesn’t that just make your life harder?” I drop the blanket and pull on the oversized T-shirt, shifting on the bed to pull it over my hips.
“Because I’m not human, Julianna.” Titan moves to stand in front of me, and the loin cloth flaps up but not nearly high enough. “And it’s best you don’t forget it.”
He leans down, planting a hand on either side of my hips, his giant body towering over mine as I fall back onto my forearms. His claws glide up my thigh, and I shiver against the light, prickling touch. His tail, long and thick, slides up the sheets and over my legs to my ass. The ribbed end of it creates a massaging sensation over the swell of my skin. I yelp as the firm tip of it presses against the side of my ass. Instinctually, I lean to the side, and the tail shifts under me.
“Wh… what are you doing?” I breathe.
Titan pushes off the bed and abruptly stands. His tail pulls out from under me, his shiny emerald ring held firmly by the tip of it. He tosses it in the air and catches it with his hand.
“This ring is what makes me human, little thief.” His smile is wicked and dark as his sharp fangs, fully exposed for the first time, glint. I swallow hard as I finally get the time to look at him in the harsh sunlight.
His human face and body are handsome by human standards, but the memory of it feels like a poorly rendered sketch to the beast in front of me. Every cut of his chest, the carved edge of his cheekbone, the sculpted curve of his muscular forearms, all of it is spare and purposeful. I believe Titan was built by magic, not just because gargoyles shouldn’t exist and yet there is one standing in front of me, but because whatever created him was divine in their artistry.
“The ring is glamour magic. It gives me the illusion of human features, but my speed and strength, my eyes, and my long, pointed tongue still remain.” He bends back down and whispers next to my ear, “You could’ve gone the rest of your life never knowing we existed, but you stole from me. Never forget what I am, baby girl. I’m a monster.”
I struggle to meet his gaze as the memory of his unusual tongue lapping against my clit forces its way to the forefront of my brain. He’d been able to do things no man had done before. Last night, I’d been tasted by a monster, I realize, and,fuck, did I like it.
