Chapter Twenty-One

Malinda suddenly sat up straight on Oz’s lap.

“Is everything all right?” I asked, alarmed. “Did we say something wrong?” Heck, for all I knew, humans didn’t want to live longer or be bonded to someone for so many years.

“Can I touch you?” She reached out a hand. “Is it okay to touch you both at the same time?”

I folded my fingers over her much smaller ones and lifted her hand to my lips. “I hope that you will. If you accept us, we both belong to you.”

“Is that how it works?” She sounded breathless. “Are you saying that you both think I am your mate? You’re ready to take me on just like that?”

“Of course.” Oz stroked her hair gently. “You are our fated mate.”

“Even though I’m human?”

“We can only mate with a human.” I thought I’d mentioned that before but couldn’t be entirely sure because my brain was fogging with hormones. “And both of our gargoyles are also on board. We didn’t think there would be a mate for us, and here you are. We can only hope you come to care for us as well.”

“We haven’t even really kissed,” she said, chewing on her lower lip, white teeth denting it and making it swell. “But I don’t want to go to my room alone. After you’re done with the milk and cookies, do you think you’d like to come with me?”

Oz jumped to his feet, bringing our mate with him, although she managed to keep hold of my hands. “I think we’re all done eating.”

“Yep.” I stood as well, and as a group, we started for the stairs.

“Don’t we have to clean up?” she protested as Oz shifted her in his arms. “The milk will leave a ring that’s hard to get rid of in the glasses.”

“Then we’ll buy new glasses.” I let go of her hand as we reached the stairs and it got too awkward to hold on. “Because we have to take care of the kissing thing.”

“The what?” She sounded startled.

“As you pointed out,” Oz said, marching up the treads, “we haven’t even really kissed you. And that has to be remedied as soon as possible.”

I agreed wholeheartedly, but I didn’t need to say so. On the top landing, Oz’s lips descended onto our mate’s. He never slowed his steps, managing to kiss Malinda while moving rapidly toward her room. The room we created for her, for our mating, for our life together.

We still needed to be cautious and not push her too hard or too fast, but judging by how she clung to Oz’s shoulders, her rapidly rising and falling breasts and the little sounds coming from her throat, our mate was on board.