Page 94 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

How do I show her that her name is etched on my soul? Love is too soon to confess, even though I know that’s what this is. I need to figure out how to show her that I want to keep her.

I have a picnic basket filled with her favorite foods. I swallowed my pride and asked Phenex what she likes. I don’t live with her, I get snippets of time with her due to our schedules, it’s just not long enough to be able to create that familiarity.

Fuck, I need to stop the round and round and focus on her. Nothing will ever change if I don’t do that.

Checking my truck again, I make sure that I have a fluffy blanket, water in the cooler, everything we need for a drive to one of the state parks. I’m parked in the lot in front of Phenex’s apartment building, and I need to get moving so we don’t lose our window of time.

Getting out of the truck, I close the door and lock it as I walk up to the apartment building.

“Bast,” Alecto calls out, striding to catch up to me. He doesn’t have to work too hard at it since he’s so tall, and I nod as he walks next to me. “We need to talk for a second before you take Lorelei out, you sick fuck.”

“What did I do?” I ask, surprised.

“I had a sample of Lorelei’s lotion analyzed earlier this month. The lab didn’t believe the results, and they asked for the entire jar to run tests on,” he rumbles, annoyed.

Wincing, I can tell where this is going.

“She hasn’t used that lotion, has she?” I ask.

“No,” he grunts. “It’s her descenting lotion, and Phenex apparently hates it. She made a descenting body spray instead which works better. When we went through her things when she officially moved in with him, we found that the lotion may have gone rancid. Except?—”

“It’s not rancid,” I mutter.

“It’s beginning to separate due to your cum,” he growls. “What the fuck were you doing?!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I ask, sighing as I open the door to the building.

“Well, yeah, but coming in her lotion is kind of?—”

“Imagine knowing that there was a chance that she’d be wearing your cum on her skin,” I say, shrugging. “That’s what was running through my mind when I went looking for a place to come when I was jacking off in her room.”

“Fuck,” he grunts. “Why do I wish I’d thought of it, outside of it seriously fucking with her head?”

“I am sorry for that,” I say. “I didn’t know anything about how it would affect her. Honestly, it was a very deranged moment for me.”

“I haven’t been exactly there, but I don’t think any of us have had fully sane moments when it comes to Lorelei,” he admits.

“Are you going to tell her?” I ask. “I should probably cancel our date, huh?”

“No, I’m not going to tell her,” he snorts. “Samael and Phenex know about your cummy lotion, and it’s been thrown out. You can tell her if you want, but it’s a secret that’s safe with us.”

“Seriously?” I ask, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Yep,” he says. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that we knew. It’s important for you two to figure things out.”

“I honestly don’t know why, but I feel like I’m doing everything wrong,” I say, shaking my head.

“She’s a nineteen year old girl who is insanely independent,” Alecto says. “She makes me crazy. Sometimes I watch her from the corner of my club while she works, busting her ass making drinks when any one of us would take care of her in a second.”

“I don’t think she wants that,” I say, realizing it’s true. It took me way too long to see how important it is to Lorelei to fly on her own steam.

She even asked me if she got her role in the musical by her own merit or not. The answer was that she had, because her voice is perfect for it. I wouldn’t have cast her otherwise, no matter how much I wanted to be around her more.

“You’re right,” he says. “It doesn’t make it any less hard to watch her dragging ass some days.”

Making myself a note to bring her coffee when I can, I nod. I want my gifts to be impactful. While giving her the window to my soul is one way to do that, offering her things that will help her get through the day also are important.

We’re at the apartment door sooner than I’m ready, and I force myself to take a breath before I knock on the door.

---