Free When A Gargoyle Flies (Gargoyles Book 3) by E A Price Page A

him – Bob was cute but no lightweight.  Absently, Chris scratched the dog’s head.
    He shouldn’t think of Annis that way.  There was no future for them, and he doubted Annis was the type to go for one-night stands.
    He shouldn’t consider her attractive.  It was her own fault if he did.  Dancing around in a bare slip of a skirt and a piece of cloth no larger than a handkerchief covering her breasts.  Her tiny outfits perfectly showcased her slim figure, taut breasts, long legs and flat stomach with a tiny indented belly button.  Not that he’d been looking or anything, but it was all on display – he couldn’t help but notice her.  If Brenda had dared wear so little, he’d have tried to lock her in the house. 
    He was just horny.  Obviously, that was all it was.  It had been nearly two damn years since he had sex and he was starting to feel the pinch.
    After Mara died, he dated, he slept with a few women, but although it gave him physical relief, he didn’t find it altogether satisfying.  Perhaps his experience with Mara just soured relationships with women completely.  But now… well, now he was starting to feel desire again.
    But he couldn’t do anything with Annis.  It wouldn’t work.  Brenda and Kylie were fooling themselves if they thought they could have normal relationships.  If there was one thing he’d learned, it was that he needed to be practical.  He didn’t need to be in another relationship with someone unsuitable.  He already went through that, with three months of coming home to an empty house, a wife doing and going wherever she wanted and rarely coming home at night.  What might seem cute and fun while dating, soon becomes old in a marriage.
    He didn’t need another letdown, and he definitely didn’t want to disappoint Annis.  He needed to stay away from her.  It was for their own good.

Chapter Nine
    Annis brushed her hair and luxuriated in the silky smoothness.  Conditioner – now there was something she adored about the modern world.  Perhaps not as much as Ingrede, who declared she was in love with her shampoo – much to her mate’s jealous consternation – but she did adore it.  That and showers.  It was one thing to smell like a moldy river when the rest of your clan did, but when there was a multitude of fragrant body washes available, there was no excuse.
    She surveyed herself in the mirror and wondered how humans saw her.  Gargoyles saw her as weak and worthless, and most would never be able to see anything past her inability to fly or wield a battleax.  She was overlooked on that alone.
    If she asked Gracchus or Drago if they considered her pretty, she imagined the two males would be flummoxed at the question.  Not that she would ever be so bold.
    What would Chris say if she asked him?
    Humans valued beauty hugely, almost as much as gargoyles valued the ability to let out a war cry or hurl an ax.
    Annis had only felt stirrings for two males – Castor and Chris – and the two males were quite different.  She could not say what it was that attracted her to either male.  Perhaps it was because she had been little more than a youngling when her affection for Castor started to blossom.  Perhaps it was just a folly of youth.  But Chris was something else – there had to be something there.
    Although timid and worried, she had thought the matter over while she slept, and decided that she wished to explore the attraction she felt for the human.  If Ric was allowed to, why couldn’t she?
    Her previous attraction had ended in disappointment, but that had technically been a thousand years ago.  Surely it was time to try again.
    With that in mind, she donned her favorite dress.  It was a modified dress previously belonging to Kylie who said she was too shy to wear it – and Luc had also forbidden her from doing so.  Annis wondered at his attitude.  He seemed obsessed with not allowing another male to see Kylie’s body.  Gargoyle males never cared