by saying, “It’s the way my kind has dealt with potential mates since… since… since forever.”
“But I’m not a potential mate, am I big guy?” Kee took another two steps closer. “I’m your fated mate, and I have to ask, how has this protocol of yours worked out for your kind so far?”
“It hasn’t.” Dian couldn’t help the bleakness in his voice. “Our kind is dying out.” He looked up, meeting Kee’s brilliant ice blue eyes. “That’s why I thought the phone could work. You’re a gift too precious to scare off, and when Eagle suggested it…”
Kee shook his head. “I should’ve known that friend of yours would be behind this farce you’ve been pulling all evening. For goodness sake, Dian, can’t you see that being honest and upfront about what you are is by far the most effective way to approach a fated mate?”
“I couldn’t shift in the bar.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Kee tilted his head to the side. “I can’t tell when you’re sitting down, but you don’t look horrifically huge.”
“People scream,” Dian insisted. “They get scared and they start screaming and it hurts my ears and my feelings.”
“Aha. And how many times have you been screamed at in a shifter town?”
Dian frowned. “I’ve never shifted in a place like this before. Shifter towns have only been around a few decades.”
Kee came forward – he was standing so close now, with only the broken table between them. If Dian reached out, he could touch him. “People scream when they’re faced with things they don’t expect, like a spider in the bath, or a snake coming up out of the grass, or when something from their imagination comes to life. I bet you anything you like, the last time someone screamed at you was before paranormals came out, am I right?”
Dian thought and then nodded. “The last time I shifted when I wasn’t supposed to was not long after the Second World War.”
“The general population didn’t know about paranormals then.” Kee huffed and waved his hands, slapping the top of his thighs. “Ugh, this is just so ridiculous. I need to hug you, okay? It’s an instinct thing, and I need to do it. Does your gargoyle form accept hugs, or would you prefer to shift?”
Unable to believe his ears, Dian said, “You’d hug me, like this?”
“You really are a silly gargoyle.” Marching around the table, Kee slapped at Dian’s biceps. “Move your arms to the side, a moment.”
Dazed, Dian did as he was told.
“Hmm, do you shift complete with loincloth? You must do, because you shifted this time when you were on the phone with me, and I doubt you carry one around in your back pocket in case of impromptu shifting.”
Dian would’ve answered, but Kee plopped himself on Dian’s thigh as though he belonged there, sitting sideways with a huge smile on his face. “That’s better,” Kee sighed as he wrapped his arms loosely around Dian’s neck. “Hmm, you smell delicious.” He sniffed Dian’s chest and then rested his cheek against it. “Isn’t this better? You can put your arms around me if you like. I won’t break.”
I might. Dian cautiously rested his arm across Kee’s back. He hadn’t had a hard on in gargoyle form since he was a youngster, but Kee’s presence was making the impossible a very real possibility. “Isn’t my skin a bit hard to be resting your face on it?” he asked, barely daring to move.
“More leathery than hard. I thought gargoyles turned to real stone when they shifted.” Kee stroked his finger across Dian’s pectoral muscles.
Dian curled his toes. “Three forms.” Dian’s voice broke and he tried again. “We have three forms – human, gargoyle, and monster on the roof.”
“You’re not a monster.” Kee laughed and stroked his chest again. Dian could feel that touch e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. “So, it is true then? You do spend times roosting in stone form? Is roosting the right word?”
Dian managed a quick nod. Your touch is killing me softly. “Just for a few hours, once a week if we can manage it. It’s a good way to rejuvenate ourselves.”
Kee stopped with the stroking but he left his hand on Dian’s body. “How do you manage to do that when you’re on the road a lot for your job? That must be so difficult if you want to stay hidden.”
“How did you know I was on the road a lot?” Kee was right, but Dian wondered.
Kee’s eyes twinkled. “You’re a government man – of course you travel