Page 64 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

He lifted his shirt and pulled out the waistband of his jeans, and Althea got a full and compelling view of his abs and the top of his underwear. A new madness of confusion swept over her, and she didn’t know whether to keep looking down his pants, which was what 99% of her wanted to do, or whether she should do as he asked and cover him somehow. The one percent of intelligence remaining grasped her yellow puffy parka from the table and swept it over his lap, pulling several books with her as she went. The lot crashed to the wooden floor with a deafening echo all around the room, and every single eye in the gigantic space settled on the pair of them. She looked around, mortified, then infuriated by the unnecessary “Shhh!” the man a desk over felt the need to level at them, as she froze there, arm wrapped around Leo, like a lizard playing dead.

A fluff of hair tickled her cheek as Leo tilted his head a little closer to whisper, “Stealthy.”

She slipped straight to the floor to die of embarrassment. And to pick up the books she’d dropped.

Althea adored Leo with all the fanatic passion of a teenage girl, only multiplied roughly one million times by the bizarre circumstances in which they’d met. Her, running from an evil princess, being chased by zombies of all things, alone with two enormous, completely mad, dangerous and armed men. She’d spent half the trip wondering if she’d be better off back with the princess. But then there was Leo. A touch of normal. So handsome. Refusing to stick her in the baggage hold like Percy had told him to. Leo on the line first thing when she woke up in a new country in a strange hotel room. Leo talking her down from running away, promising her that Percy could be trusted. Then Leo, by her side in the fanciest restaurant she’d ever set foot in, quietly showing her which cutlery to use. And then he kissed her there in the middle of the night. Then nothing.

Nothing but a friendly phone call to ‘check in,’ when he had stayed on the line until it got awkward, then hung up. Nothing until she phoned him in a panic after Percy’s call, and then it was all business. All business until just now, when she wanted to believe he hadn’t kissed her that night just because he was drunk.

She heard the soft rustle of papers beneath the loud rustle of her parka as Leo finished secreting the information, and just as she got her fallen books in order, he leaned down to take them from her. She held them, the two paused there, and she whispered, “There must be a better place to do this.” She climbed to standing, then pulled the books into her arms, as though they might serve as a shield against her embarrassment. “Come on.”

She took off somewhere, anywhere, imagining there must be some private space to be found. She soon heard Leo behind her, carrying her noisy parka, and the noisy bags of things he’d bought for Percy. She walked and walked, but it was all brightly lit tables. More tables and more, full of people and lamps and sunshine streaming in, and she decided it was a stupid library—not at all like libraries should be. Until she saw the restroom sign.

She spun around, perfectly flustered to almost crash into Leo for the second time that day, then squeaked, “Wait here.” She dashed into the restroom, not stopping to think twice, checked the cubicles, and finding the room empty, she reached back around the corner for Leo and yanked him in. The two tumbled into a tiny stall, his shoulder smacking the door back against the wall so it rebounded twice as hard into them, knocking Leo against the other side, where her puffy parka just about pushed her over, and she almost fell onto the tampon bin until he caught her and pulled her up. She slammed the lid of the toilet down,climbed up on it, taking a seat on the cistern, leaving Leo lost as to where to dump his armful of everything.

“Don’t you dare let my parka touch that floor,” she said, eying him carefully.

“I wasn’t,” he mumbled, trying to turn and hitting two walls. “Is this really better?”

“Better than you cutting books up in front of everyone, yeah. Give me your knife.”

“I—” He twisted his hips sharply to the left, as though he could pull the thing out of his pocket with an elbow.

“Let me.” She slid the books onto a high windowsill, all dust and dead flies, then, resting a hand on his shoulder for stability, climbed down into the small space between the toilet and the wall. “Which pocket?”

“It’s, uh—the—uh—left.” She reached around him, breasts against his back, squeezing her hand around his ass, before he could bluster out, “Front—front left—it’s not…”

“Oh, okay. Just let me…” She felt her way across, beneath her parka, fingers searching along his belly, down over his belt.

He flinched back as her hand trailed lower. “If you could just hold my meat…”

“Hold your…” Eyes inches from his, hand over his zipper, she froze.

His mouth dropped open. “My—no!—Not that meat—not—I mean—Ah!— Could you hold Joe’s meat? P-Percy’s meat? Someone’s meat! But notmymeat!”

Althea burst into an uncontrollable fit of giggles, and lunged for his knife as his head slammed back against the door in mortification. She turned her back on him, climbing up onto the toilet seat, and reaching the first of her books down, unable to stop herself, saying, “You don’t want me to touch your meat?”

“That’s not—” he blustered. “I didn’t saythat?—”

She found her place and slid his knife down the page. “So, youdowant me to touch your meat?” She couldn’t help a glance back at his red face, his eyes shut tight.

“Al—no—I mean. Uh?—”

“Is there someone else that’s…” She balanced the freed pages on top of his bulky load. She had been feeling confident enough to say it, until he looked up, and she saw his eyes were bright and full on hers, expectant but worried. She felt a wave of bashfulness, and she moved for another book.

A silence followed, broken only by the ruffling of pages, the slit of the knife, and the rustling of her parka as Leo shifted awkwardly. After a time, he said, “There’s no one else.”

Her fingers shook slightly as she added to his paper pile. Why would he tell her that if he didn’t want her—specificallyher—to know that?

Probably because she’d asked…

But he would have lied if he wasn’t interested. Wouldn’t he? That’s what she’d?—

“Are you?” came his tentative voice. “Seeing… anyone?”

She flipped open another book. “No.” She threw a nervous glance over her shoulder at Leo, and Leo smiled. He smiled a smile that looked relieved and hopeful. Althea’s heart grew so big on the spot that it threatened to blow out her eardrums. “Is that… Um…”

Another silence. A tense and full one

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