Page 15 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

“What are you doing?” she asks. “Everyone is giving us a wide berth.”

“I don’t want anyone bumping into you,” I say, shrugging. “I also enjoy scaring people.”

“Like you did at the library,” she remembers. Her glance around us tells me that she must have to worry about being so much shorter than everyone else. Fuck, another thing I’ll be sure to worry about once she’s out of my sight. “Is there a reason why you were there?”

“I feed off fear,” I explain, watching for signs that this will be a deal breaker. There are many things about me that are unfathomable, more so than simply being a demon. “It’s easierto scare people if they’re already in an environment that makes them uneasy.”

“Funny, I was at the library alone because it’s less scary,” she muses.

“Why?” I ask, wondering if this ties into Phenex’s beliefs that her descenting lotion wasn’t working.

“Something weird happened to me yesterday and I stopped feeling safe on campus,” she says. “I went to the chem lab to make something stronger to mask my scent.”

“You’re acting very cagey,” I observe.

“Maybe. Just because you smell like you’re mine doesn’t mean I can trust you,” she says, shrugging.

“It should mean that,” I say, miffed. “I have absolutely no agenda and very few allegiances to others. I don’t need sleep, I don’t eat.”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re housebroken?” she teases.

It takes a second for me to realize what she means before I bark out a laugh. Everyone within earshot jumps around us, but I ignore them. My omega is cute and has a sense of humor, I’m very interested in learning more about her.

“That’s how it sounded, didn’t it?” I say, shaking my head. “No, I’m saying that I am in the very best position to keep you safe, Lorelei.”

I did, after all, watch her sleep all night. I am not a fan of the fact that she sleeps in her closet, though. I can see the faint shadows beneath her eyes, her very face tattling on her for her terrible sleep patterns.

“You said you have Favored Theatrical Plays as your next class?” I ask. “Why is a sophomore taking this?”

She gazes at me for a moment, and I realize she didn’t tell me any of that. Oops.

“I need a literature class, and this somehow straddles the line. If I can bend a rule here and there, I absolutely will,” she says.

The words make me grin because even though I’m a professor and an assistant dean, I thoroughly enjoy bending, breaking, and running the fuck over the rules.

“That’s a very good nugget of information to know,” I murmur. I like the way she shivers depending on my words, and I can smell her arousal even more at times. This must be what Phenex meant. “This thing you made, ah, can you maybe put it on before class?”

Her eyes widen at my words, and I watch her begin to look panicked.

“It’s not terribly apparent,” I say, mollifying her. “Your scent gets stronger the more we talk.”

The blush on her cheeks is delicious. I enjoy knowing that she’s attracted to me, I just don’t want anyone else to know.

“Let’s try this, what did you make?” I ask her.

“It’s a descenting liquid,” she says, her voice lowering. “It works best in a spray bottle, but I don’t have one.”

“I know someone who probably has an empty one laying around, and I have the key to his place,” I say, pulling her down another path to head to Phenex’s apartments.

Lorelei looks around as I walk her into an almost silent building, possibly looking for where everyone is. All the faculty are out teaching or in their apartments. I’m not worried about someone stopping us nor any gossip cropping up because we’re unlikely to get stopped.

“Where are we going?” she asks curiously, but follows me without digging in her heels or tugging her hands away from mine.

She may say that she doesn’t trust me, however, these actions speak volumes.

“A friend’s apartment,” I reply. “This is his place, stay here for a second.”

When I said I had a key, I wasn’t exactly truthful. Disappearing into vapor, I pass under the cracks in the door and solidify on the other side. Unlocking the door, I pull it open to admit her.

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