“See what? You rescue me?”
“He hurt you, and I couldn’t stop myself. But I don’t want you to think I’m a monster. I’m not. I’m not like Karim. I’d never hurt you. I—”
“Graham. It’s okay. You saved me. I’m pretty sure they were going to kill me. I don’t care what you had to do, you saved me.”
“What I said the other day. It was me. Not you. I was the problem. I should never have implied that you wanted to meet the dragon because of his money and power. I should know that that’s not you. And I should’ve never kept the fact that Karim was gone from you.”
None of these were the eloquent ways I’d planned to tell her, but at least the words were coming now.
“You didn’t even come say goodbye.”
I hated the way her voice cracked on that last word.
“I knew I couldn’t keep it together when I saw you, and there were so many people around. I was waiting for you to be alone. I was going to offer to drive you so we could spend more time together. I didn’t know you’d left through a portal until Flame told me. I came the moment I found your address. Took the first flight I could book. Meera, look at me. You’re mine. And that scared me. Terrified me. I was afraid you’d find me not good enough.”
“Not good enough? Why would you think that?”
“Because I’m messed up in the head. Because I fell for a woman once, and she chose someone else. She was so ashamed of me that she denied ever having been with me. I—” I swallowed hard, hoping Meera would understand my bringing up another woman. Gods knew how irrational I got whenever I thought of her ex.
“I didn’t want to tell you about Sara, but I know I have to. I need to face it and show my weakness one last time so I can bid her farewell forever.”
I told her about how I’d been lent out to another wizard by the asshole who’d originally bound my brothers and me. And how I’d fallen for the wizard’s daughter Seraphina, who welcomed me into her room and thighs only in the cover of night. Every morning, I’d sneak back out the window to perch on the estate’s roof, and she’d pretend not to know me as anything more than the monster her father had on loan.
“The day Sara became betrothed to a wizard, a friend of her father, she confided that she found the old man physically appalling. She implored me to save her from the marriage. So I did. I could not physically or magically harm him since I was bound by magic. But that did not stop the loose stone from the estate’s roof from crushing him when he walked under it the next time he visited.”
“What happened after?” The story had caught Meera’s attention.
“She thanked me for helping her get rid of her father’s first choice for her, so that she could be wed to the one she really wanted: another wizard who was not only younger but also came from a richer family. I asked what about me, and she’d laughed in my face. Why would someone like her ever settle for a gargoyle? I wasn’t even human. Or free.”
I clenched my fists at my side, remembering. “I’d put her on a pedestal. But I was only a plaything to her. We fought that day, and it caught the attention of the guards. When they rushed in and found me in Sara’s room with her only in her chemise, she’d pointed at me and told them I was attempting to deflower her.”
Meera made an indignant shriek. “The bitch!”
“If I had not been merely on loan, I’m sure I’d be dead. Instead, I was returned to the wizard who owned me at the time, and sealed magically in my stone form for a decade as punishment.”
Meera was pacing her living room now, no longer showing pain in her belly.
“That’s… that’s… argh! I’m so sorry you went through that, and I’m furious on your behalf. I wish I could get my hands on that bitch and… argh!” She made a motion like she was strangling something.
She was gorgeous in her anger. Anger on my behalf. I gathered her into my arms and kissed the top of her head.
“She is long dead. Her new husband found out she was fucking one of his bound demons when her firstborn child came out not fully human. I’d still been trapped in stone when I’d found out. It was Eamon who told me.” I shook my head, remembering hearing the news but being unable to react. “But she is the past, and I don’t care anymore what happened to her. She’d affected my life long enough. The moment I met you, something changed. I tried to deny it at first.”
“That’s why you were avoiding me.”
“Yes. But it was impossible not to think of you. My head might not have been ready, but my heart and body knew you were the one. You are my mate, Meera. And when I found out the dragon had tried to convince you to join him, I let my insecurities win.”
She shook her head. “I’m not interested in playing house with a stranger just because he offered me wealth. And it hurt to think you thought that of me, especially since I was… I was…” Tears welled in her eyes.
“You were what?”
“I was already falling for you.”
I cupped her cheeks. “You were?”
“Yes! And that made it hurt so much more.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
