Page 21 of Monster's Mistake

“All right.” I make my way over to the pile of cushions and blankets on the right and sit down, leaning back against them.

He watches me for a moment, his gaze intense and full of hunger that I don’t think has anything to do with his ghoul side. I’m not sure what to make of it. I’m not completely unaware of the attraction he has for me, or for the physical draw I feel towards him, but I’m also not ready to make that a reality yet.

He clears his throat and pulls his attention away, focusing instead on the basket. He unloads a selection of food and places it on the table between us. It’s the perfect height for how we’re sitting, and I appreciate all of the attention to detail that he’s given to the whole thing.

“I can safely say I’ve never been on a picnic inside an astronomy tower before,” I muse.

“It’s scheduled to rain,” he says. “I didn’t want you to get wet.”

“Isn’t that exactly what you want me to get on a date?” I joke without meaning to.

He pauses what he’s doing and looks up to meet my gaze, an intensity lingering there that I really don’t expect.

“It’s almost a challenge if you can’t touch me,” I say without thinking. What am I doing? If I’m not ready for us to go there, then I need to stop saying things like that, it isn’t fair to him. Maybe this is how he felt every time he made a dumb gorgon joke.

A low rumble escapes from him, but he tears his gaze away from me and focuses on unpacking the picnic instead. “Do you want something to drink?”

“What have you got?” There’s a part of me that wants to take the suggestive part of our conversation further, but he’s been trying to make me so comfortable that it would be unfair of me not to do the same.

“Ginger beer, elderflower cordial, or orange juice.”

“An interesting combination. I’ll take a cordial.”

“Smart choice, that’s my favourite.” He puts two glasses down in front of him and starts to fill them.

“Elderflower cordial is your favourite?” I ask, somewhat surprised by that.

He shrugs. “What did you expect?”

“I don’t know, maybe blackcurrant squash or something.”

He pauses for a moment, as if considering what I’m saying. “You know what, I see it. I do feel like a blackcurrant squash kind of guy. Maybe I’ll try it tomorrow.”

“You’ve never had it?”

“I assume I did at some point when I was a kid,” he says. “But not that I really remember.” He pours a glass for each of us.

“Thank you,” I say as he pushes mine towards me.

“You’re welcome.” He gets up and heads over to the wall. “Now for the reason thatthisis the secret room we’re in.”

“Were there others that were a choice?” I ask.

“Cethin told me of a few,” he responds. “Where do you think the two of them go when they’re not in the dorms?”

“Honestly, I’ve been trying not to ask. I don’t want to go into a classroom and think about Anja and Cethin getting it on.”

“As far as I know, the only one they’ve done anything in is the...”

“Nope. I don’t want to know,” I cut him off. “Though I can guess.”

He chuckles, the sound deep, low, and inviting. But instead of responding to me, he pushes on a brick. There’s a grinding sound and large windows appear in the stonework, letting us see out into the evening. There are plenty of clouds around, but I can still see a hint of stars peeking through.

It’s beautiful.

Meic returns and takes a seat beside me. “I wanted to make sure tonight was perfect. Though I had no idea how to do that until I caught you looking out the window and you said you liked to look at the stars.”

My heart skips a beat. “Itisperfect,” I say, giving him what I hope is a reassuring smile even as one of my snakes hisses. It doesn’t feel like a warning though, not like it sometimes does.

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