Page 52 of Who Owns You?

Chapter 21

CHARLOTTE

For the next three days,I’m basically jelly. Julius brings me breakfast in my art room and sits beside me for hours, reading his book while I paint. I think I’m finally getting over my incredible obsession with each and every detail of these handsome men as I begin to paint something abstract. A bunch of colors that collide in ways that make something inside me stir.

Eloise thinks my magic likes to express itself through my paintings, and I’m starting to believe her.

“Char! You have got to see this.” Marcus comes tearing into my art room, holding up a small black ball.

“What’s that?” I ask, thinking of all the sports I know and coming up very short with what that might be used for.

“Fuck’s sake, Marcus, put that thing away. I don’t think Charlotte is ready for that,” Julius laughs.

“It’s sort of like…well, it’s basically a courting gift, but like, will you be my girlfriend sort of thing.” Marcus stumbles over his words, and his wings tuck against his back shyly.

“You want me to be your girlfriend?” I ask, startled.

I drop my brush into a water cup and stand, rubbing the smears of paint on my palms onto my overalls.

“Yes, and I’d like to fuck you with Julius, right here right now.” Marcus shares a look with the other gargoyle, his tentative smile turning into a confident grin.

My jaw drops.

Julius laughs again, but he gives me a heated expression from behind the golden frames of his glasses. He wants me too. I know he does. He’s proven as much with his actions if not with his words.

“Marcus and I were having a little naked chat in my bedroom when he mentioned how perfect you’d be between us,” the green gargoyle says with an easy smile.

“You want to fuck me in my art studio?” I ask slowly, looking around for a space clear enough for any of us to be laid out on. My eyes snap back to them. “You two fuck?”

“We have for many years,” he says offhandedly. “I take it you like the idea of being between us, then?” Julius rises from his seat and places the book on the stool. He strides over and sits me back down, pulling me and my hot seat toward the center of the room. “You have to accept his gift first, then we’ll fuck your brains out.”

Marcus nods and offers the orb to me. Closer up, it looks to be made of marble or some other kind of deeply dark rock that can also have a million different colors in it. It’s beautiful and reminds me of all four gargoyles, even if only two of them are presenting it to me.

“Yes, I will be your girlfriend.” Joy fills me and overflows like a million champagne bubbles.

I didn’t know either of these men a few months ago, but I was willing to jump right into this with them. It feels right and better than any relationship I’ve ever had.

JULIUS

Darius is going to kill us, but I can’t seem to find it in me to care as Charlotte takes the nest’s heart into her palms, gazing at it with reverence. Marcus and I are being more than a little bit sneaky doing this, but she is worth it.

To say that the heart is a courting gift is like calling a cannon a “little gun.” There is nothing more significant in the courting rituals of gargoyles than giving your mate the heart of your nest, and somehow, Marcus stole it out of Darius’ office without him noticing.

“Should I put this in my room first?” Charlotte asks, finally looking back up at us. Her eyes are a little glassy.

“No, I’ve got a box,” Marcus says, pulling out the small, dark wooden box the heart has been kept in since our nest was first formed.

He carefully takes the heart and sets it inside the box. When he clicks the little latch closed, Charlotte jolts a bit.

“He’s not taking it away, just putting it somewhere safe. I want to make you go wild, little witch,” I purr against her ear soothingly as I kneel beside her.

It’s so strange to have such a little mate. Gargoyles normally pair with their own kind or with creatures who can physically withstand lovemaking with gargoyles in full monster form. I’m afraid I’m going to break the little witch.

“You’re all talk,” she says, locking eyes with me suddenly. She licks her lips and leans in, kissing me hard.

I return her kiss with the same fervor. I’m not all talk, and I’m going to prove it to her. I’ve wanted to touch every inch of her body since she first stumbled into my kitchen while I was making a protective simmer pot. She stole a hot muffin, and I was petrified she had hurt herself, but holding her then and having her skin against mine was the best I’d ever felt.

“Such a good witch, isn’t she?” Marcus asks from beside us.

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