Ginny's Gargoyle: Christmas Gargoyles, #3

By Katherine Kingston

Ginny's Christmas plans didn't include falling in love with a gargoyle.

*NOTE* This is a rewritten version of a short story included in the Naughty Literati anthologies. It's been revised and expanded to novella length.

The walk from the bus stop to her D.C. apartment takes just five minutes, but Ginny works second shift and gets home near midnight. When a mugger surprises her on the way one night shortly before Thanksgiving, rescue comes unexpectedly. A mysterious hooded and cloaked stranger saves her and walks her to her apartment but declines her invitation to come in. The next night he meets her at the bus stop and again walks her home, a practice that continues each time she gets home late. As they get to know each other on those nightly walks, he promises that he will soon accept the invitation to her home.

He warns, though, that there are things she needs to know about him she'll find hard to believe and accept. He isn't kidding. She can handle his dominating tendencies and maybe even the warning that they can have only a short time together. But when he claims he's a shapeshifting gargoyle, she has to wonder whether letting him into her life is a good idea after all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katherine Kingston
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393649908

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Ginny’s Gargoyle

Katherine Kingston

This Electronic Edition Published By:

Katherine Kingston

Copyright © 2019 by Katherine Kingston

NOTE: This is a rewritten and considerably expanded version of the short story published originally as part of several Naughty Literati anthologies

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

Electronic Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.

Author's Note: I try to produce as clean a work as possible. This book has been through several rounds of editing in an effort to eliminate errors of grammar, usage, and consistency. However I realize that even multiple editors will overlook some things, so I ask that if you find any errors in this book, you let me know. You can email me at [e-mail].

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Author’s Note

About the Author

Sneak Peak from Gargoyle’s Christmas

Chapter One

Ginny Connery’s Washington , D.C. neighborhood, in the shadow of the National Cathedral, grew quieter at night but never completely silent. A constant buzz of car motors and the occasional distant roar of an airplane or clatter of a train created a white noise backdrop to her walk from the bus stop to her apartment building. Getting home late in the evening was one of the downsides of her second-shift job at the hospital. Once she could afford a car, it wouldn’t be a problem, but she still had student loans to pay off.

Moments after she stepped from the bus that night, the other sound was there as well. For the past several weeks, she’d been noticing an odd new noise as she headed for home. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear it was the sound of wings flapping. Whenever she turned to look, though, she didn’t see anything or anyone there. It added to her uneasiness on the walk. She shivered and drew her coat tighter against the combined assaults of fear and the late fall cold breeze.

When trouble did come, though, it hit from a different direction entirely. She turned a corner to find a man leaning against the side of a building, just out of the main pool of light from a nearby streetlamp. Still, enough radiance spread out to show a thin figure with straggly gray hair hanging over a deeply lined face. A ragged trench coat covered his body. She zigged closer to the curb to put more space between herself and the man as she passed, but he lunged toward her, reached out, and snagged a hand around the strap of her shoulder bag, yanking it toward him. Ginny wrapped her wrist around the strap and wrestled him for it. At the same time she fought her reaction to the miasma of fumes surrounding the purse snatcher, a mix of alcohol breath and unwashed body. Nothing she hadn’t smelled before at the hospital, but at least there she could don a mask.

The guy was surprisingly strong. They wrestled for control of her purse for several long moments. Her arm burned and she was starting to lose the tug-of-war when a new party entered the fray. A tall dark figure wrapped completely in a hooded cloak stepped between them. He brought a hand down in a swift karate-style chop on the purse-snatcher’s arm, causing him to howl and let go of the strap. Ginny rocked backward with her purse but found her balance before she went sprawling.

Never again, the newcomer growled in a deep, gravelly voice that didn’t need much enhancement to sound menacing. Never again attack a woman. Or anyone. No stealing. Ginny shivered, though the words weren’t directed at her.

I won’t, the purse-snatcher stammered. Promise I won’t. The last word turned into a sob. I think my arm’s broken. He moaned and cradled it against his body.

Ginny sighed and approached him, steeling herself against the smell. "Don’t touch my bag again. Let me feel your