Page 25 of Coached By the Grumpy Gargoyle

"Why didn't you tell me before?”

"You'd given me a whole speech about not dating a coworker," he says. "It was a good speech. I didn’t want you to feel trapped if I told you, so I kept quiet.”

I can't smile. All I can think about is him standing there, letting me talk, while I waited for him to agree that we should forget the whole thing. All the while, he kept this a secret.

"It wasn't true that it meant nothing to me. It’s even less true now.”

His eyes lift to mine. I don't know how to explain the rest yet, and he doesn't ask me to. He sits so still beside me that I want to touch his face, but I can't let go of his hand.

I'm his mate. For life. I keep waiting for the urge to get out of bed and put some distance between us. It doesn't come. I'm shocked, and my heart is racing, but I don't want to move away from him. Maybe I’ve lost my mind.

"Rory." He turns his hand beneath mine and holds it. “The mating bond is permanent for me, but you already knew that. Everyone knows that about gargoyles. I can feel you, even when you're across town. It's like a hum beneath my skin. When you're close, I get warm."

I look down at his chest, remembering how cold his skin was before he kissed me. "That's because of me?"

"Yes. I can feel your moods, too, though I can't always tell what they mean."

"You can feel what I'm feeling?"

He rubs his thumb over my knuckles. "Some of it. I can't read your thoughts."

I study his face. He keeps looking at me as if he's waiting for the part that will make me pull my hand away. I hold on a little tighter.

"But for me, this is it." His voice is quiet and steady. "You are the only woman I will ever want. For the rest of my life. And I've wanted you for a year, Rory. That part didn't start with the mark."

The radiator ticks behind me. I can hear it so clearly while I sit there trying to take in what he's said. A year. All that time I thought he could barely stand to be in the same room with me.

He wants me. Permanently. I've spent so much of my life trying to be worth keeping that I don't know what to do with a man who says he already wants me for the rest of his.

My eyes sting. I look down at our hands before he can mistake it for something worse. That band is part of him. It will still be there tomorrow, and next week, and long after that.

"I need time." I look up at him again. "This is... Bram, this is enormous. I'm not saying no. I just need time."

"You have all the time in the world," he says, and his fingers loosen around mine. "I can wait."

"You say that like it's easy."

"I'm a gargoyle." One corner of his mouth moves, and I finally manage a small smile of my own. "I'm good at staying put."

I lean into him, and he draws me down against his chest. We have to shift a little to fit, my knee nudging his thigh while he finds room to fold his wings. Then we're settled, warm and close, with one wing over us. His bare hand rests on my hip, and I cover it with mine, my fingertip against the raised band.

The string lights glow along the slope. The radiator ticks. I listen to his heartbeat and let my eyes close.

"Bram. When you wake up tomorrow, I'm going to be right here. In your arms. I promise."

His arm tightens around me, and for a moment he doesn't answer. I press my cheek against his chest and stay there.

"I'll hold you to it," he says at last.

Chapter 10

Bram

Rory Hale keeps her promises.

I woke at six, flat on the diagonal of her too-small bed, with Rory asleep on my chest, exactly where she said she'd be. Her curls were everywhere, one hand thrown over mine, one hand resting over the mark as if she'd been guarding it in her sleep. I lay under her for the better part of an hour, just basking in her presence. I didn't want to wake her. I wanted to lie there feeling her breathe against me for as long as she'd let me.

Now her travel mug sits in my cup holder, the school rises up ahead through a flat gray November morning, and my passenger sits in my truck, chatting about this and that in her light, musical voice.