Chapter 57

When Dana regained consciousness, she was on a comfortable mattress, covered by a down duvet and gazing at Beau as he sat on the bed beside her, leaning against the headboard.
"Welcome back," he told her, his beloved voice soft and caressing. "How are you feeling?"
Dana stretched tentatively, then more fully as she realized that every part of her was in working order. "Wow. I feel great. How about you?" She leaned up to touch the small pink scar on his chest. "All gone?"
Beau nodded. "By tomorrow, there won't even be a scar. But your friend told me what happened. I owe you my life."
Dana shrugged. "You had to be all noble and take a bullet for me. Catching you on the way off the roof seemed like the least I could do."
Beau's laugh was warm and sexy enough to curl her toes. "Only you, cherie." Then he picked up her hand and his expression grew serious. "You're wearing the ring."
She nodded. "Thank the goddess I grabbed it when Sterling turned to ash. Otherwise I'd never have had the strength to catch you." She looked down at the topaz on her finger with regret. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry she'd ever seen. "But now it's time to return it to its rightful owner." She tried to pull the ring off her finger and hand it to him but the etched gold circle wouldn't budge.
"You can't take it off." Beau folded his hand over hers. "Madame Helene warned me about that. Once it has bonded to a wearer, it won't come off until that person is dead."
"But... How do I give it back to your clan?" She winced at the panic in her own high-pitched voice.
Beau gave her an enigmatic smile. "Only one way, mon coeur. You must mate with me and become a member of the clan."
Dana's jaw dropped and she sat straight up, not caring about the sheet that dropped away, leaving her upper body exposed to the hot intensity of Beau's stare. "Don't-don't even joke about that, mister." She hated the crack in her voice almost as much as she hated the tears that welled in her eyes. She loved him. She'd almost lost him forever and now that their mission together was done, she was terrified of never seeing him again.
"Who's joking, cherie?" He cupped her cheek in one hand and clasped her hand with his other. "I've fallen desperately in love with you. A kind of love I never knew existed. I would be the luckiest man - or gargoyle - on the earth if you would consent to spend the rest of your life - or what ever portion of it the gods allow - with me as my wife."
"Really?" The tears welled over and one trickled down each cheek. "Not just because of the ring?"
"No." This time there was a rusty edge to his chuckle. "I honestly believe that with all the magic we have at our disposal, we could find a solution to that. I just - wanted some leverage. I'm no bargain, with a dependent mother and a needy sister and a clan that demands far too much of my time. You're so young, so brilliant, so self-sufficient. I have trouble believing that you could want me in anywhere near the same way I want - no need - you."
"I love you, Beau. Far too much to worry about families or jobs. I don't know if a half-dragon can be converted to a gargoyle but to be with you, I'm willing to try. Then the ring will belong to your - our - clan, as it should."
Beau pulled her into his lap, crushing her against him in a bone-cracking hug. "Thank, you, my love." Then he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. It was long moments before either spoke again.
She looked around and registered that they were in a posh hotel suite. "Where are we and how did we get here?"
"We're at a hotel and we were smuggled in by your friend Derek. He left after I woke, assuring me that everything was, as he said, taken care of."
"So we have nowhere to go and nothing to do?" She rubbed her breasts against his chest, rasping her already pebbled nipples against him. "We could do the conversion now, couldn't we?"
Beau groaned and she felt his cock harden even further, pressing up against her butt. "I'd thought we would wait. We don't know if you'll be forced to change during daylight - since it would be my blood changing you, it's possible you wouldn't."
"I don't want to wait. And I'm already a shapeshifter. I'll bet that counts for something too." A glance at the clock told her that morning was not far away. Apparently she'd slept though most of the night. She rubbed the mark on Beau's shoulder from her teeth. "Besides, we're already mated - or mostly - by dragon standards. It seems only fair to get your ritual covered too, before we go home and deal with our families and jobs."
Beau grinned. "I suspected as much. Explain, please."
She straddled his lap and wiggled on his erection. "You sure that talking is what you really want to do right now?"
His hips pulsed beneath her, rubbing the ridge of his cock against the sensitive tissues of her pussy. "Some talking, some fucking. Love has room for both."
"Yeah." She swallowed hard and looked into his eyes. "It does. I love you, Baudoin Dumont. And I want to be your mate in every sense of the word. Your partner, your lover, your friend." Then she proceeded to explain to him about dragon mating hormones and the steps required for a dragon to claim his mate.
"But I've never fucked your sweet little ass," he murmured, pressing a finger against the puckered orifice in question. "Though I'd be more than happy to do so. And I'll happily wear your mark on my skin for the rest of my life." He dropped a kiss on her mark, the one he'd unknowingly made so many months earlier.
"I think you managed to, er, transfer enough genetic material up there with your hand," she told him. She felt her skin blush all the way down to her nipples. "And the link doesn't complete without consent but it's been there, nagging at us to finish it. If we hadn't seen each other again, it would have faded away. There's no biological imperative to finish it."
"Well, now I want to join with you, as fully as can possibly be. So within the next few hours, we must make love in three - no, four different ways, we must bite one another and then acknowledge our bond?"
She nodded. "And exchange blood - so I can be a gargoyle's mate."
"Exactly." Beau gave her a wicked smile, full of love and laughter. "So we'd better get started."