Sunny - Mona Lisa Darkening

"Does it hurt much, these bruises?" he asked, his fingers continuing to trace over them.

"No." I found it hard to hold his gaze when he touched me like that. Gentle, careful, intimate. So different from his previous rough handling of me.

"What do you want of me?" I asked in a low voice.

"So bold and blunt. Are you always this straightforward?" he asked with some amusement.

"Most of the time, yes. I like honesty and appreciate it in others."

"Straightforward," he mused, letting his large hand drop back down to his side. "But not unskilled in the dance between male and female. And it is a dance, is it not? Our words, our actions. You indicate that you would like honesty, and now wait to see if I will give it to you. If I answer as you wish, with plain speaking, it will tell you that your feelings, your concerns, matter to me, and you will have a certain power over me because of that. And yet, you are here, perfumed and prepared for me, indicating a readiness to engage my interest."

"It's not a power game to me." The cynical look in his eyes prodded me into my next words. "I almost didn't come. For one moment, out in the hallway, it was my intent to bolt, to escape and leave this place."

"Why?" A quiet rumble.

"Because all this preparation at your command, having me dressed, shaved, and perfumed like this, indicates that you want to have sex with me." I took a deep breath. "And I'm not ready for that."

"Plain speaking, indeed. Why did you not try to run, then?"

"I did, but Mona Louisa stopped me. She seems to think our best chance of survival lies with you. I happen to disagree with her, but her will is strong enough now to hamper me physically."

"Two clashing wills stuck in the same shared body. That must be an interesting experience."

"You have no idea." I took another breath, more out of habit than real need. I might still be alive, but it was in an altered state that didn't require me to breathe. "I've answered your question, and would appreciate it if you would answer some of mine. Again I ask you, what do you want of me?"

His eyes were darkly intent upon me — I couldn't read their expression. "I will give you the plain speaking you desire. I wish your affection, your love, your devotion to me."

It became immensely difficult to hold his gaze. "That's a large request for someone I've only just met, and not in the kindest of manner. Why would you want something that your entire hareem of women can give you, all of them much more beautiful than I?"

He smiled, a nice smile instead of a scary one, and it was a drastic transformation, changing him from menacing into surprisingly benign-looking. "You are lovely in a way that none of them are."

I snorted. His smile widened.

"You are lovely in your spirit, and in your refreshing honesty. And what I want most from you, none of the women here can give me. I want a child."

His words stirred pain, invoking memory of the baby I had briefly carried and lost. "Wh-what?"

"I want a child, and only you can give me that. All the women here, beautiful though they may be, are dead. There is no life in them, no ability to bear life. Only you can do that."

I stumbled back until I hit the cushioned edge of a divan. I sat down, my knees, all of me trembling.

His lips twisted, his brows drawing together. "Does the thought of lying with me frighten you that much? Am I so different, so ugly to you?"

"It's not that. I was pregnant once and lost the baby. It was… grief at that memory that caused my reaction to your words."

An uncertain moment of silence passed before he sat down beside me, his heavy weight sinking the cushions down and sliding me closer to him. I didn't try to shift away.

"You are not ugly," I told him. He was a fearsome thing, immensely intimidating, but not ugly.

He lifted a thumb and testingly stroked it over my hand. "You do not think me odd? Repulsive looking?"

"You are gargoyle. Yes, your features are different from ours. But there is nothing grotesque about you. Your great strength, large size, mature horns… I imagine you would be considered quite a handsome gargoyle," I said, smiling at him. His wide lips curved up in response.

"Did you leave behind children in the other realm?" he asked.

"No." A sad smile.

"Do you want children?"

"I don't know. You've sprung it on me so suddenly. It was the last thing I imagined you wanting from me."

"Sex I can easily get," Gordane said, showing that he could be as equally blunt at I. "But a living mother for my child… that is not as easy to come by."

"Lord Gordane —"

"Just call me Gordane."

"I'm not of your kind. Wouldn't you do better seeking out a female gargoyle?"

"I am the only gargoyle here in the lower lands. There are no females of my kind available to me. Only you."

"We might not be compatible. It might not be possible for…" I was going to say, For you to get me pregnant. But that would be putting the onus too much on him. "I might not be able to become pregnant with you."

"We can only try. If you desire a child, you should be aware that I would be your only chance of bearing one. No other male here can give you that."

"Why can you?"

"Because I am a natural creature of this realm. I am not dead as the other inhabitants here are. My kind is capable of reproducing life, as you saw in those pictures."

I slid my hand out from under his and placed it against his broad chest, confirming by touch what my ears had already told me. "But your heart doesn't beat. And you don't breathe, other than to speak."

"Neither do you, yet you still live."

"Are you sure?" I asked, drawing my hand away.

"You are alive as surely as that other woman who shares your body is dead."

If that was so, then we were important to each other in a way no other in this realm could be. We were each other's only chance of having a real family, a child. It changed things between us. Made me look at him in a far different light.

"Yes," he said, satisfied. "You see me now, what I can be to you. What we can be to each other."

He bent his head down to me, and my hand lifted back up to his chest in a stopping gesture. He obeyed the silent command, halting though he didn't need to.

"Will you not let me kiss you?" he asked, his mouth hovering just above mine. "See and know for yourself how we feel against each other? I can please you," he murmured in husky promise.

The laugh I gave was a bit breathless. "With all those women in your hareem, and all the years of practice you must have had —"

"Centuries of it."

" — I do not doubt that you can be good. I just… everything has happened so fast. I was torn from my people, taken from my other life, and came here expecting to be raped by you, not courted. What you said about a child… yes, I do want one."

Triumph made his dark eyes glitter.

"And I know that you are the only one who might be able to give me that child. But I need a little more time to get to know you. To grow more comfortable with you."

"In other words, no sex today."

I blushed. "If you don't mind."

"I do mind. Very much so." His eyes flashed with heat as he held himself frozen above me. "I have not had to hold myself back from anything I desired in a very long time. It does not sit well upon me."

"I'm sorry." Fear edged back into me. Fear more of what would be lost if he tried to force his will, his body on me, when I was not yet ready. Fear of breaking that tentative trust that glimmered like a faint promise between us.

"A compromise," he said, his black eyes gleaming down at me.

"W-what?"

"No sex, that I will grant you. But I would have you give me something of yourself willingly in return."

"What do you want?"