Page 59 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

The rest of the auditions drag on once she’s gone, yet she’s the one that sticks in my mind. I hope she’s ready to see a whole lot more of me.

CHAPTER 14

ALECTO

My days have felt empty without Lorelei, yet they’ve been too busy to see her. The balance of life hasn’t been tipped in my favor lately.

Tonight is my date with my little omega, a test to see if I can handle doing this all over again in what feels like another lifetime. My plans to kill myself are fucked, and I’ve stared at my plan several times over the last few nights.

I also have my own stalker. Samael has popped into my home several times, arms folded, like an angry parent that he has no business acting like when I’m the older monster here. I finally lit the paper aflame with my lighter last night and we watched it burn together. By the time it turned to dust on the plate in front of me, the fear demon was gone.

The room stunk of terror and hope, neither of which he could feed on. Last night, I realized that I was afraid of letting go because I was afraid of forgetting Dahlia and the family I made with her. There are no photos of us, and very few of my last family members.

None of that will keep my memories from living on, which means there’s no reason for me not to pursue a life with Lorelei. Dahlia would have hated how I’ve allowed life to pass me by.

If I let myself think about it, I can imagine the indent of her foot on my ass. She was a feisty little thing.

I haven’t been on a date in over eight hundred years, and my hands curl nervously around the steering wheel as I glance over at Lorelei in the passenger seat. I can’t fuck this up. I need to talk to her.

“Do you want to know where we’re going?” I ask softly, startling her out of her own thoughts.

“Yes,” she says softly, glancing over at me. She doesn't seem upset by such a trivial question, simply letting me lead the way. I didn’t expect that, though she’s surprised me often already.

“I haven’t been in the area long, but I found a great restaurant about half an hour from here. They have live music tonight,” I explain. I made sure to trade out one of her shifts so she could go out with me. Patrice just looked at me funny before telling Hailee.

I don’t care though, this way Lorelei won’t lose any more with the shift change. She works so hard, even though any one of us would be willing to make her life easier.

I expect she wouldn’t like that.

“That seems nice,” she says, but I can’t figure out if she’s just trying to be nice. Fuck, I don’t know what she likes to do. It feels like a trivial thing when fate is invoked.

“Does it?” I ask, lips twitching. “The response was pretty lackluster. We can do anything other than this. The towns near the school aren’t the best night places. The university was built in an effort to remain as isolated as possible, and the town closest was built in an effort to be able to give students and teachers some semblance of civilization.”

“So you’re not hiding me?” she asks. The words are spoken so softly that I almost miss them.

“Hiding? No,” I reply, surprised. “I mean, I didn’t think you’d want to be too close to the university because no one gossips more than teachers and students. Also, being stopped because you’re recognized constantly makes it difficult to go on a nice date.”

“No one knows me so I’m not the one going to be stopped,” she teases me. “I pretty much keep to myself.”

“I’m a new adjunct, so I suppose I’ve become used to getting stopped,” I sigh. “I promise I’m not hiding you, I just don’t want to spend the entire night dodging people who want to talk to me. I want my attention to be able to remain on you.”

“That’s fair,” she says, a smile playing on her lips.

She’s wearing a black velvet dress that hits her knees with lace sleeves. It makes her blonde hair look so much brighter, and her fishnet tights are forcing blood through my cock at a rate that’s almost painful. Her outfit is covered with a long coat due to the colder weather tonight. Fuck, she looks absolutely gorgeous.

When she crosses her legs, I force myself to focus on the road instead of her. Crashing would be a bad way to continue this date.

“I may have forgotten to tell you how beautiful you look,” I murmur. “I was too busy swallowing my tongue.”

Her tinkling laughter is a balm on my soul, her smile brilliant.

“You’re welcome to tell me now,” she teases me, pulling a huff of laughter from me.

“That’s cute,” I say, my hand moving to her thigh to squeeze it. My claws are retracted, my thumb rubbing her soft skin through her tights.

I wonder if the material will shred like paper if I find myself needing to give her pussy mouth to mouth…

“Tell me something no one knows?” I ask, surprising myself.

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