Page 16 of Taken for Granite
“You ran off, which is why I’m in this mess.” She flinched at her words. Why couldn’t she stop talking?
Another blank stare. Another orange gone. “No. Your choices led you down a misfortunate path like a wayward lamb. I will still assist you despite your folly.”
Her folly. He sounded so stiff. Formal, even. Old-fashioned.
“When exactly did you learn English? No one talks like that.”
“I do.” The tail gave a lazy thump. It was dark gray like the rest of his complexion and shaped like a cat’s tail, minus the fur. Since she was looking at the tail on his lap, she couldn’t avoid another eyeful of his dick.
Still hard and leaking just a bit at the tip.
An intimate picnic in a dark parking lot with a naked gargoyle—er, Khargal—with a raging boner. Nothing weird about this at all.
“So you’ll come back with me?” she asked.
“I said as much, female.”
“You know it’s a trap.”
He snorted as if amused. “A trap crafted by humans. It will hold me as effectively as the last one.”
She thought about the smashed wooden crate in the back of the van. He had a point.
“Okay,” she said. She didn’t have much choice. Mickey seemed to think she could magically convince a gargoyle to walk back into captivity, and lo and behold, she had a gargoyle willing to do just that. She wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth.
This had been the longest day ever.
“You want some pants or are you just going to go commando?” she asked.
* * *
tas
Tas wrapped the scrap of fabric around his waist to appease his female. His nudity bothered her.
He had armor once, nearly a millennium ago, but the pieces deteriorated with age and failed. Shifting his form into something approximating a human shape, he wore garments appropriate for the era. Once he had been a vain creature, delighting in dressing himself in expensive fabrics and masquerading as an average human male. It had been a game, walking among them in plain sight.
His captor thought to humiliate him and left him nude. He barely noticed it now.
He climbed into the female’s vehicle. A barrier separated the cargo hold from the cockpit. This would not do. If he had the energy to spare, he’d harden the skin in his hands and smash the wood. As it happened, the wood gave way to his regular fists with minimal abrasion.
“What are you doing that for?” Juniper sounded more annoyed than alarmed. Good.
“I need to hear you over the noise of the engine,” he said. It had nothing to do with wanting to be near her.
“Fuck. Give me some warning next time you’re going to smash shit, okay?”
“I find your use of language to be vulgar.”
“Well, fuck you too. Get in. I don’t want Chloe spending a minute more than necessary in Mickey’s place.”
The vehicle traveled a short distance before stopping. Shapes emerged in the dark of his blindness, indistinct blocks of slightly lighter darkness. His eyes were regenerating, albeit not as quickly as he’d like.
Juniper opened the door and paused. “I need to make a quick stop. Sit tight.”
“What happened to Chloe spending unnecessary minutes with your adversary?”
“Yeah, well, you need pants. I know there’s the internet and god knows what kids text to each other, but I’d like to pretend that my kid sister has never seen a dick before, okay? At least not in person, because she is way too young for that nonsense, so you’re going to wear pants and keep all of that covered.”
