I finished off my crème brûlée and immediately looked over at Austin’s to see if I could steal a little more. Finding half a dish, I smiled and leaned over with my spoon out.
“Are you going to eat all of that?” I asked.
“Take whatever you want, milady,” he answered softly.
Smiling, I tried to take a dainty spoonful, but I scooped up more than I’d planned and couldn’t find it in me to feel guilty. It was simply that good.
“Before you ask,” Kingsley said, standing with his dish and walking around to the sink, “I don’t know if there is one special mate for everyone, decided by Fate, or a few for everyone and you just go with the first one you find.”
“I’d like to think there’s only one.” Austin’s deep voice rumbled, and shivers skated down my body. “I’d like to think Fate plays a hand in bringing us to our perfect mate, even if the road to finding her is long and lonely.”
The moment reduced down to him and me, and I felt the power of it beating in my chest. The need to clutch on to him and never let go.
I wondered if the situation was the same for female gargoyles. Was there one possible mate or more?
Was this slide Kingsley had described what was happening to me?
“You never got a look at the upstairs.” Austin led me away from the kitchen and Kingsley, who was doing dishes. “Would you like to? Or maybe we can sit out on the deck with a glass of wine. Of course, I can take you home if you’d prefer.”
I slipped my arm around his middle, sighing when he pulled me into his arms. “You have a deck upstairs, don’t you? I thought I saw a wraparound one up there.”
“I do, yes. Would you like to sit up there?”
“Yes, please.”
Austin nodded and opened a fresh bottle of wine. Apparently Kingsley would be drinking the rest of the other one. Grabbing two glasses, Austin guided me upstairs.
“There is a second living room up here, for overflow or if people want to get away from each other. Then a few guestrooms.” Austin stopped next to the living room, similar to the one downstairs but without a fireplace.
“Your room?”
A wave of heat and nervousness washed back and forth across the link, both of us feeling the same heady combination.
“This way, please, milady.” He gestured me down the hall.
I started forward with a dopey grin. “It’s so corny when you call me milady, and I love it so much.”
I chuckled as we reached a flat storm-gray wall with a plant standing in front of it and a large painting of the deep woods, with moss-covered rocks and swooping branches. He looked down at me, as though waiting for me to comment on it.
“Really lovely. It reminds me of Ivy House.”
With a smile, he stepped around the plant and disappeared behind the wall.
“What the…” I put out my hands and stepped forward, draping the wall with magic to see if I could decipher the spell. Upon closer inspection, though, there wasn’t a spell. It was a trick of the eye. The oversized painting clung to the edge of a wall that ended, the plant positioned in such a way that it further masked the opening. A small hallway beyond it led to a door, which opened into a spacious room at the back of the house. The setup was very similar to my bedroom in Ivy House. Instead of a table by the window, though, he had a love seat and a table set off to the side around the fireplace.
“No TV?” I followed him to the veranda, where a table was set up to look out over the darkness. The sky stretched out above us, the sea of stars infinite and breathtaking.
“I don’t actually watch much TV.”
“Hence why you are so good at your hobbies.”
He set the glasses and bottle onto the table and pulled out a chair for me. He pulled a wine opener from his pocket and sat before opening the bottle.
“Is the hidden doorway in case someone tries to attack?” I asked, leaning back and sighing.
“Yes. The wraparound porch gives me a range of places to jump down if I need to escape. I never trust wards. Mages put them up—they can pull them down.”
“Too bad you don’t have a magical house to protect you.”
“Yes. Too bad.”
He poured our wine and then held his glass up. “To you finally getting to know my brother. I hope you don’t ghost me.”
I laughed and clinked my glass with his. “I like Kingsley, actually. I don’t think he’s as chill and balanced as you always said, but he’s good people.”
“He is chill and balanced for an alpha, trust me.”
“Not as much as you.”
He frowned at me. “That’s probably because I’ve always allowed myself to smile with you. To laugh. I’m only newly an alpha.”