Page 80 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

“Is your clit still sore?” I ask her as my lips touch the shell of her ear. She stopped in the quad to text someone, and I needed to see her.

A weekend of not seeing her was interminable.

“What? Professor Dalca, you can’t ask me that,” she hisses, glaring at me over her shoulder.

“Why not?” I ask. “It doesn’t make it any less true, does it?”

“My body is none of your concern,” she says, shaking her head. “This isn’t appropriate, especially if you don’t understand why you’re pulled to me.”

“There’s a reason?” I ask. “What kind of witchcraft is this?”

Is this human jerking me around?

“All I want is to be near you, and I don’t understand why,” I say. “So are you doing something to me?”

“I can’t answer that,” she says, stepping forward before turning to face me. It seems she needs a little space.

I can’t allow her this, so I follow her.

“Why not?” I ask. “I’ve been obsessed since I first smelled your scent while you were showering. That’s why I was so angry. It pumps right into my bedroom.”

Her eyes grow wide as she bites her lip. “I didn’t know it would. Shit,” she whispers. “I really wasn’t safe in the dorms. I don’t know why I thought I would be. I’ve almost been raped for how I smell to others. Monsters can’t help themselves, so I have to hide my scent.”

“Rape,” I growl. “I have standards, Miss Rose. There’s no way I would force myself on you like that. I’ll push you, ride the edge of your denial, but never rape.”

“I don’t know you,” she whimpers. “The line blurs for me, and I don’t know what you’re capable of.”

Lorelei turns and runs from me, and my legs are following her before I realize it. Fuck. Heaving in a breath, I stomp my hoof on the ground, swallowing hard. The breeze taunts me, swirling her sweet scent around me.

I want to find her and demand answers.

“We should talk,” a deep, grumbly voice grunts behind me.

Barely offering the monster a glance, I growl as I see Phenex Gorsch next to me. She’s living with him, though I’m unsure why. I’ve been watching her every move outside of my own necessary duties. Between them, I’m only home to sleep.

“Are you going to try to save her from me?” I ask, snorting.

“If I thought that you were actually a danger to her, you’d be dead already,” he mutters. “Samael has a way of relieving the world of monsters who are dangerous or even just a nuisance to Lorelei.”

“Adares,” I sigh.

“He was stalking her,” Phenex says. “He even reported her absence to the Student Housing Dean as a missing person.”

“I think Samael may have mistaken Adares for me,” I say with a wince. “I’ve been stalking her.”

“Well that sucks for Adares, doesn’t it,” Phenex says uncaringly with a shrug. “The monster was a giant prick. He’s better off in a mental ward than getting under Lorelei’s skin.”

“You’re serious,” I say disbelievingly.

“As a plague,” he grunts. “Walk with me.”

“It doesn’t sound like I have any choice,” I say, falling into step with him.

“Lorelei is burning the candle at both ends because of your goddamned musical,” he snarls. “She’s running herself ragged between taking eighteen credit hours, working several days a week, and everything else.”

“Why does she have to work?” I ask. “She has her scholarship.”

“There’s not a stipend attached to it,” he replies.

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