Elisa knew she would find Goliath standing on his tower, looking out over the city. The rain had stopped and the clouds had parted, transforming the drizzly cold night into a cool, clear one. Rain always seemed to make the often dirty city shine like new. Her lover stood in the moonlight, watching the temporarily renewed city with a deeply introspective look on his face. His wings were caped around his shoulders, and the wind lightly tossed his hair around his uniquely handsome face, breaking up the harsh angles of his sharply chiseled features. He looked so stoic and regal to her. Every inch a born leader.

He looked back at the sound of her footsteps, and the pensive look on his face disappeared as he smiled warmly at her.

She wondered what he'd been thinking about before she arrived.

What memories he was reliving.

Good? Bad?

"You managed to get off," he said, smiling softly at her.

Elisa wanted to make a quip about his phrasing, but it would require explaining modern euphemisms, and she just didn't have it in her at the moment to do so.

"Matt's finishing the paperwork so I can be with you," she explained.

"That was kind of him," Goliath said as he pulled Elisa to him.

"Well, it means I owe him one," she replied as she wrapped her arms around him, feeling comforted by the familiar sensation of his embrace. "Though I don't think it will be too long before he cashes in the debt considering he has a boyfriend now."

"Really?" Goliath said pleased.

Elisa nodded.

"Do you remember the photographer I told you about from the fundraiser this summer? The one who took the pictures that helped prove gargoyles didn't take the mayor hostage?"

"Yes. He's dating the photographer?"

"Yup, and he's been on cloud nine for weeks. He's quite smitten."

"I am happy for him," Goliath replied genuinely.

"Me, too," Elisa said with a smile, though Goliath noted it never really reached her eyes.

"Then why do you look disappointed?" he asked gently.

Elisa took a step back and shoved her hands in her pockets as she looked away.

"It's not about Matt or his boyfriend… it's because I'm a giant failure," she sighed, exasperated. "Instead of finding drugs, like we'd expected, we found electronics that were purchased legally. The men I arrested have already made bail on the minor charges we managed to stick on them. I have absolutely fuck all to show for my efforts tonight."

Goliath gently placed his hands on her shoulders and she reluctantly looked up at him.

"You are not a failure, and your efforts are never wasted," he said sincerely.

"They've been one step ahead of me this whole time," she lamented.

"Tonight, it appears that they have won, but in the long run, you will come out ahead. I know it. I will always bet on you."

Elisa sighed, resolving to push nagging thoughts of work aside.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "For reminding me of the bigger picture… and believing in me."

Goliath bent down and pressed his brow to hers, and for that brief reprieve, Elisa felt a small part of her tension and agitation melt away as she leaned into him.

"Are you okay?" Elisa asked, bringing up the sorrow she had seen in him earlier. "You looked pretty somber just now, when I first arrived."

Goliath exhaled slowly as he stood back upright.

"Just… memories."

"Of your clan?"

Goliath nodded.

"I held vigil for them last night," he said. "We never held a wind ceremony for them, so I give them that night each year, to embrace my grief, to remember them. This night, I try to remember all that I am grateful for. That we awoke in this time, that we survived, that my children—my daughter—survived, our numbers are growing… and most of all, I have you."

He took her hand in his and Elisa clasped his tightly in hers.

"We live on. We embrace life. For them," he said somberly.

"For them, and for us," Elisa replied. "Thank you for catching me and saving my life three years ago. For choosing to trust me. And for loving me… even when sometimes I make it difficult."

Goliath shook his head as he brushed a lock of her wind-blown hair out of her face.

"Loving you is the easiest choice I have ever made," he said.

Elisa stood on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck, and he tenderly cupped the back of her head as he bent down to meet her lips with his, and pulled her tightly to him with his other arm. Her kiss, responsive and eager, sent a sensation of warmth and love coursing through his body that broke through the dark feelings that had smothered him like a heavy blanket the last two nights.

As their lips parted, he swept Elisa off her feet and into his arms.

"Care for a glide?" he asked.

Her arms still wrapped around his neck, she beamed up at him.

"I'd love to."

...

...

After revisiting the tour Elisa gave Goliath three years ago, they alighted upon the rooftop of the Empire State Building, just like they had the first time. They looked out over the west side of Manhattan toward the Hudson River. Elisa stood with her back against Goliath, his arms around her, keeping her safe and secure in his embrace. If someone had told her then that the strange being who had saved her from falling to her death off a castle would one day be the love of her life, she would have thought they were crazy. Sometimes she wondered if she was crazy.

"It always looks so beautiful from up here," she mused, as they gazed out upon the sea of lights and sounds.

"It is, though I am still trying to get used to it at times," Goliath rumbled in response.

The night was getting late and growing colder the closer it got to dawn. Elisa pulled the collar of her jacket up around her neck and shivered slightly. Goliath must have noticed because he suddenly folded his wings around her like a living blanket.

"Better?" he asked, as he rubbed his hands up and down her arms.

Elisa turned around so that she faced him, and she ran her hands up his abdomen to rest on his chest.

"Not yet," she replied. "You'll have to keep trying."

He grinned roguishly at her as he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and gently tilted her face up toward his in a way that made her knees weak, then he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers in a kiss that was sweet but searing. She felt it from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. He held her lightly, his hands barely touching her, but there was something about the slowness of his kiss, the deliberate intention behind it, like he was savoring every moment, savoring her. It sent a rush of heat through every limb of her body.

"Take me home," she sighed.

And then suddenly she was falling.

The wind whistled loudly past her ears as Goliath dove off the side of the building with her in his arms. She gasped at the sensation in the pit of her stomach—those chaotic butterflies she would get every time he free-fell into a dive. Then his wings unfurled, and he caught an updraft, lifting them up high above the city into the clear night sky.

Elisa's heart pounded in her chest, and the rush of excitement from the fall quickly fueled the desire inside her that was already simmering at a low boil. She put her hands on both sides of Goliath's face and kissed him hungrily as he carried her back to the apartment. His hands flexed, his talons biting lightly into her side and her outer thigh as he cradled her against his chest. Then he readjusted her weight into one arm and slid his now free hand up under her shirt and bra. His hand was hot against her bare flesh as he cupped her breast, his palm rough against her nipple, and she let out a soft moan.

Her hands worked their way into his hair, grasping the thick, coarse strands, eliciting a sigh of pleasure from him. She kissed along the fan of his ear, working her way to the lobe which she took between her teeth, tugging lightly, and she was rewarded with a low growl before she pressed kisses against his throat and jaw, using her lips and teeth.

Goliath's hand moved down her abdomen and between her thighs. He grasped her mound through her pants, grinding his palm against her so that the sensation distributed evenly along the thick fabric of her jeans and around her clit.

A soft whimper escaped her lips that ended with a needy moan. Her hands found the base of his wings, and his gliding faltered as they dropped a foot in the air.

"Stars, Elisa. If we keep this up, we will not make it home," he groaned.

Elisa was already so worked up, she knew there was no way she'd be able to rein herself in now.

"Help me get my legs around your waist," she said, loud and commanding over the whistling wind.

Goliath didn't act immediately as he silently debated the logistics. His caution and need to protect her, to keep her safe, warred with his desire to have her in this way. If she was indeed suggesting what he thought she was, he had concerns. Although mating while airborne was both common and highly enjoyable for gargoyles, he'd never dared such a thing with Elisa before. The mechanics weren't the same, for one thing. Without wings or a tail of her own, he couldn't position her in the usual, interlocking way. But more importantly, she would be in very real danger if anything went wrong.

"I trust you," Elisa said resolutely, reading the look on his face.

Goliath's eyes flashed luminously as her words hit him; she knew just what to say to boost his ego a little, banishing his better judgment, while also stoking his desire. Without further hesitation, he helped her readjust, putting her thighs around his waist, just as she'd requested. He wrapped his tail securely around her waist for good measure.

Heart hammering in her ears, she immediately got to work undoing his belt, just enough to release his massive erection, but not enough that he lost the only garment he possessed to the wind and open sky. Her dexterous hands slid along the hot, velvety skin of his engorged shaft, eliciting a deep groan from him that she felt vibrate through her whole body.

He hadn't mated on the wing in a long time, and he couldn't deny the fact that he was incredibly excited by the prospect.

But then Elisa realized her plan had a glaring error.

"Shit! I can't get my pants off like this," she muttered in frustration, shifting and squirming with her legs still curled around his waist.

Goliath glanced at her, his brow furrowed, trying to decide how best to solve this problem, though his brain was currently a little addled by desire and a diminished blood supply. In his state, no solution immediately sprang to mind. They may have to wait until they were home afterall.

"Tear my pants off," Elisa suddenly suggested.

"What?" Goliath said shocked. He must have misheard her.

"Just rip them right off. They're an old pair anyway."

Goliath hesitated briefly, and then he shivered with delight at the thought, but he had a better solution than just tearing them off completely. He slid a talon between them and into her jeans at the base of the zipper, then carefully downward along the seam, he experimentally popped one stitch, then another, and another at the juncture between her thighs. She felt his talon glide over her, the light friction sending tantalizing sparks of pleasure up through her core. She shivered with delight at every pop.

After slicing open her jeans, Goliath slid a finger into her underwear, and with one sharp tug, he tore the crotch open, exposing her to him and the night. Elisa released an involuntary yelp at the delightfully aggressive move; the sensation of him tearing into her clothes had excited her even more than she'd expected. And then he touched her, his hand shockingly warm in contrast to the cold air streaming over her skin as they soared through the dark sky. She moaned and closed her eyes as he caressed her, his fingers playing deftly over the glistening, wet flesh of her pussy and the swollen bundle of nerves that crowned it.

Excitement flooded her along with a need so great she ached to feel him inside her. She didn't care where they were doing this, or how they were doing it, she just needed him. Now.

She wrapped her hand as much as she could around his throbbing cock and shifted her hips upwards, pressing him against the opening of her body, excitedly anticipating the moment he was inside her.

Goliath moved his hands and repositioned his arms so that he held her securely against him, one forearm pressed firmly against her upper back with his palm gently cupping her head, the other palm cradling her ass. With her heels pressed firmly against the base of his tail, she used the strength of her thighs to pull him into her. She heard him suck in a breath through his teeth as he sank into her, filling her, assuaging her own need and making it worse at the same time, and she cried out into the starry abyss.

They took a second or two to savor the blissful shock of that initial penetration, and then Goliath pulled his wings back, going into a dive, driving himself further into her with the force of their fall, before opening his wings, lifting them up higher, pulling himself out, and then down again, slamming his hips forward and thrusting his cock further into her. He repeated this undulating movement, up and out, down and in, over and over, faster and faster.

Elisa knew he was a skilled glider, even with the nerve damage to his wings, but he was proving it to her in a way she had never expected. She didn't even have to do anything, just hold on as he rolled, swooped, and climbed, like an aerial erotic dance using gravity and the lift of air currents to make love to her in the firmament, their bed made of clouds.

She gasped for breath as the tension inside her increased, growing with each crash and crest of his movements like ocean waves breaking upon a wild shoreline. Elisa wasn't sure if her breathlessness was from pleasure or from the thinness of the air at this altitude, but she began to feel dizzy, and lightheaded. She feared she was about to pass out, but before she could, the pleasure building inside her peaked and then erupted, sending spasms of euphoria surging through her body as a powerful orgasm claimed her senses. She recklessly flung herself backwards, tearing free from Goliath's arms, hanging upside down from him with only her legs and his tail for security. She held her arms out, feeling the gusts swirl around them and whip through her cascading hair as she screamed out her release to the moon and stars above.

As if in answer, she immediately heard Goliath's own snarl rip through the night, though somewhat muted by the rush of the wind past her ears and the haze of her own afterglow. She then felt his cock pulse inside her followed by a burst of hot fluid that filled her as he came.

She laughed with manic delight as she hung upside down from her lover, his cock still nestled deep inside her. She stared down at the buildings and city streets hundreds of feet below, knowing he held her tightly with his tail, keeping her from becoming a smear on the pavement, trusting he would catch her if she fell. Then, flexing her core, she pulled herself upright, back into his arms, and interlaced her fingers behind his neck. She could see the awe in his gaze, as well as the concern that she had partially lost her mind.

For a brief, terrifying moment, Goliath had thought he'd lost his hold on her right when she'd flung herself backwards as they climaxed together, and he pressed her tightly against his chest, keeping her from frightening him again. He wanted to say something, to admonish her, but Elisa spoke first.

"Next time, I'll wear a skirt," she said with a self-satisfied smile.

Despite himself, Goliath laughed.

"Let's go home," he said softly, his heart full of gratitude for the amazing, albeit reckless, woman he had for a mate, and he banked off toward the loft.

.

.

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To be continued on October 20th.