Xaniban laughed.
Great.I was amusing him again.
“You know little of my kind.”He patted my hip with his tail.“You wielding a weapon would have turned me on even more.I told you I love challenges.They are but another chance for me to prove myself worthy of your claiming.”
“Then give me back the blade!”
What he did was wrap his tail around my leg from thigh to ankle.“Maybe tomorrow night.My self-control is wearing thinalready.”He nipped my earlobe like he’d done in the war room.
Again, that nip sent a jolt of electricity through my body.My nerve endings came alive, starved for more of his touch.How could he affect me so much?
“I was planning to just sleep next to you tonight,” he whispered huskily, “and bask in the joy of having you peacefully asleep in my arms.But then you woke up and… I am awake, too.Every single part of me, ready to pleasure you.”
Yes–no!“Enough!”I pushed against his hold, angry at him as well as myself.“I’m not interested, get it?No means no!”
He let me go, but before I could get off the bed, I found myself on my back.Xaniban loomed over me.Not a single part of him was touching me, yet I couldn’t move.I was pinned in place by his gaze alone.
“Say that again to my face.”
I stared up at him.He was so large and so powerful, but I was not afraid.His expression was not one of anger but confusion.
“Your lips say no, but your scent says yes.Which is it?For no gargoyle would strive for ecstasy against a female’s will.”
“But your pheromones make sure no one says no, don’t they?”
One corner of his lips quirked.“I assure you, my kind do not produce mating pheromones.What you feel,” he tilted my chin up with a finger, “is all you and me.A passion that will set us both ablaze, if you say yes.”
I was speechless.That couldn’t be right.If he was telling the truth, then that attraction I’d been feeling ever since our flight was natural.Oh God.I had the hots for a gargoyle.
“I am here to please you in any way possible,” he continued, “in the hopes that you will find me worthy of another claiming.You trusted me by coming here.Do you not trust me to bring you to ecstasy?”
My clit throbbed at the heat packed in that single word.I shook my head vigorously.
Xaniban frowned.“You are not interested in experiencing pleasure like no other?In reaching peaks of bliss no human male can take you to?I have been told by many that males on the ground can barely give you one ecstasy per claiming, let alone five.”
“Five?” I snorted.I’d heard boasting like that, and the result had been zero orgasms for me.I had faked it with my two exes too many times to keep count.
Not that it mattered now.Because I.Was.Not.Interested.
“Yes, sweet little human.As many peaks of bliss as you will of me.”Xaniban smirked, one fang showing.“Shall I start taking you to your first peak for the night?”
“Just stop it.”I hid my face in my hands.
If he kept going like that, I would say yes.I would give in to a gargoyle.It made no sense!
Sure, he looked like a wet dream, made me feel protected and special, acted like an honorable guy, treated his people with care, spoke of orgasms and pleasure when I couldn’t remember the last time I had experienced any… I probably never would, given the state of the world–
No, no, no.I should be focused on whynotto sleep with Xaniban!Why was I thinking of reasons to give in?Why was I wondering how his mouth would feel on my skin, how the weight of his body would feel on top of me, how–
“You think me a liar?”Xaniban pressed on.“You think I make empty promises I cannot fulfill?”
“I–I mean…” I groaned.“It’s not that I don’t believe you… Maybe it’s you being so experienced that’s the problem.”Yes, that was a good reason!I lowered my hands from my face to look up at him.“Why would I want a womanizer like you?”
“You want a virgin?”He sounded utterly perplexed.“Why?A gargoyle who has just reached the age for a first claiming is incapable of a third of what a seasoned gargoyle can offer you.’’
“How old are you?”I blurted out, as if that would changeanything.
“I have recently entered the decade of a gargoyle’s prime,” he told me with pride.Seeing the lack of reaction from me, he added, “I am 33.”
