How to Seduce a Gargoyle in 10 Days Read Online Free PDF Page B

know.
    “Of course. You’re not a slave.”
    “I am, in a sense. I signed a contract with Aradia. I belong to her, as does Valerian for the agreed upon term in the contract.”
    Her heart plummeted down to her gut. All the things he’d done for her had been because Aradia ordered him.
    “Oh.” She crammed another bite of bacon in her mouth to keep from saying anything stupid.
    “My contract is up at the end of the ten days. If you want me to sign with you, I will.”
    “I don’t want to own you.” She was horrified at the thought. Although, part of her was intrigued as well, as much as she hated to admit it.
    “I can’t stay in warlock lands without a contract.” He extended a clawed hand and touched her hair. “Gargoyles like bright colors. We’re almost like ravens that way. We like to decorate our Aeries with pretty things.”
    “Is that why you steal witches?” she laughed.
    “Especially redheaded witches.” Her hair curled around his finger, and she found she had no more interest in the food. Only his nearness and the sight of that single curl wrapped around his finger. “This is your natural hair, isn’t it? Why would you ever hide it?”
    “Because I was supposed to .”
    “Probably because your mother feared some gargoyle would see you and snatch you up. He’d fly you away so far that she’d never see you again.”
    “All because of my hair?” Ginger laughed again. “That’s something a witch can change at will.”
    “Gargoyles can see through most glamours. Yours was so well done, I couldn’t. You must’ve practiced from a very young age.”
    “Practically from birth. Hair this color isn’t… seemly.”
    He roared with laughter. “You witches and warlocks so ashamed by the body’s own natural state. Why is that? I’ve never understood.”
    “I guess I don’t understand it, either.”
    “Think on what I said. I will stay with you, sign your contract. If you would like it.”
    “You didn’t say if that’s what you wanted.”
    “I offered it, didn’t I?”
    “Yes, but Aradia told you to take care of me. How far does the contract bind your free will? Do you want to be here because she wants you here?”
    “No, Ginger. I choose to offer it because if I don’t sign with you, I will renew my contract with her. I can never truly go home. I’ve lived among your kind for far too long.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “I’m not. It keeps the peace. My place was never among the gargoyles anyway. I’m the odd one who never fit, who searched and struggled for his place, but never found it.”
    “I think I know what you mean.”
    He cocked his head to the side. “I think you do, too.”
    Slade still hadn’t let go of her hair. He moved his fingers through the length with a certain reverence and she was content for him to do so.
    “Are you hungry? Would you like some?” She offered him a bite of her bacon.
    Rather than take it from with his hand, he leaned down over the succulent meat and showed her his teeth. When she didn’t flinch, he bit the bacon very close to her fingers—so close that his lips brushed against her skin.
    “That’s how you feed a gargoyle.” He swiped his tongue against his lips.
    So much for not thinking about what it would like to be carnal with him. She shivered all the way to her toes with sweet, sultry anticipation.
    “I didn’t know you were so domesticated you’d eat from my palm.” Wow, was that sex-on-a-stick voice coming from her? She didn’t know she had it in her.
    But she knew what she’d like to have in her.
    Ginger didn’t bother to censor her thoughts or try to be proper or any of that other crap. She was done with that.
    He laughed, the sound rumbling almost like thunder. “No, Ginger. I’m very much a wild thing. But so are you, aren’t you? It’s buried deep down, sliding beneath your skin like some dirty secret.”
    His words cranked her desire higher. “Yes,” she confessed, the words falling off of her tongue,