Rocked by Love (Gargoyles, #4)(46)



Oh. So not the condom thing, then? Kylie felt her cheeks light up like a menorah on the last day of Hanukkah. “Um, yeah. Right. We were interrupted. That sucked.” Feeling around on the floor beside her, her fingers brushed against a pile of cloth. It was her T-shirt. Kylie nearly wept with relief as she pulled it on. At least her tits were covered now. One—er, two—down, one to go. “But it’s not like it was another drude, or another psychotic electrician, so that’s a plus. No harm, no foul, right?”

Peering around the dim space—since Dag’s wings continued to block the window’s vantage point but also the light coming through it—she finally spotted her jeans and could have kissed them, she’d been missing them so much. She wriggled into those before she rolled to her feet and turned to face the Guardian. “It’s not like I enjoyed being woken up and meeting Wynn’s fiancé while nude and out of it, but I’ll live through it. I think saying it ‘shames’ you might be taking things a bit too far.”

She spoke the truth, but none of her words did anything to cool her blush or calm the twist of unease in her belly. Probably because none of them could change the fact that she’d just lost her mind and had sex with the worst excuse for a one-night stand in history—a nonhuman, immortal, shapeshifting, demon-fighting gargoyle whom she had met just a week ago. Dag might not be a bad Guardian, but she was definitely a bad Kylie.

Very, very bad.

She would have to come up with a suitable punishment on the way to letting her guests into the house. You know, as she should have done in the first place. Was it possible to draw and quarter oneself, or did that require a team effort?

She got halfway out the door before Dag caught up to her, placing a now-human hand on her shoulder. “Kylie…” he began.

“Not now.” She cut him off and quickly scooted out from under his touch. “We can talk about … whatever … later. Right now, Wynn and Knox are waiting. Let’s go.”

Not bothering to wait for his reaction, she headed briskly for the stairs and jogged down before he could stop her. When she deactivated the alarm and swung open the heavy front door, she could feel him behind her, but she’d just have to find a way to ignore his presence.

Kind of like she’d now have to ignore the annoying smirk on her friend’s pretty face.

“Well, hello there, Ms. Kylie.” Wynn grinned, her singsong tone guaranteed to give her friend a migraine in under six seconds. “I think you were expecting us, or did the fact that we were, ahem, coming … slip your mind?”

Though never previously given to fits of violence, Kylie knew one more laughing remark from her friend would lead to a swift fist in the witch’s face. “I hate you right now,” she hissed, turning on her heel to stalk back to the kitchen, leaving her guests to make the best of her less than warm welcome.

Ikh hob es in drerd! To hell with it. She’d already used up all her warmth. In her cheeks.

She heard the rise and fall of voices and the rumble of luggage wheels on the hardwood following her down the hall. Ignoring them, she yanked open the fridge, grabbed herself a soda, and nearly sent the cap flying across the room from the force with which she wielded the bottle opener.

Wynn actually had to duck as she entered the room. “Um, we didn’t mean to interrupt. You know that, right?” Her grin had faded, and now she looked concerned and a little bit guilty. “Knox told me what he saw, but it wasn’t like we deliberately barged in.”

Kylie lowered her drink with a sigh and let her shoulders slump. “I know. And I don’t really hate you.” She pulled one of the high stools away from the center island and climbed onto the padded seat. “At the moment, I think I just hate myself.”

Her friend sat beside her. “Why would you hate yourself? Did you drug him? Was it sexual assault?”

Snorting into her cola, Kylie shook her head. “No, that’s not how I would say it happened.”

“Well, he’s a Guardian, so I know he didn’t assault you. These guys have a code of honor that makes jarheads and saints look like moral degenerates. So why the crazy over two consenting adults doing what consenting adults like to do?”

Kylie looked at her friend like the crazy had come from an entirely new direction. “Wynneleh, he’s a member of another species!”

Wynn rolled her eyes. “Nominally. So yeah, Guardians aren’t exactly human, but it’s not like you screwed a donkey, Ky. Get over yourself. Are you trying to tell me there’s a woman on this planet who could look at one of our guys and not think they’re damned sexy?”

“Oh, why am I bothering with you? You’ve already gone over to the Dark Side.”

“Damn straight. And the cookies are awesome.”

“Do you mind? I’m having a personal crisis over here. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Yeah, I mind, because I think a crisis is a huge overreaction. I’m also betting that you weren’t thinking at the time, which is just the way it should be. I sure as heck can’t string two coherent thoughts together when Knox touches me. That’s just the way it is between mates. Frankly, I count it as a pretty big perk.”

Kylie held up a hand and cocked her ear. “Wait a second there, Pooh Bear. Mates? Where the hell did that word come from, and what is it doing in my conversation?”

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