Page 19 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

"Hi." I leaned against the door frame and brushed my hair off my forehead, trying to look casual while I caught my breath.

"I brought dinner." He handed me a bag of takeout from a place I'd never heard of. "May I?"

"Yes, come in." I tried to flutter my eyelids, but without eyelashes, I had zero chance of sexiness. "You're not a vampire, are you?"

"I'm a kobold, same as you." He smirked, at least, I thought it was a smirk. Sometimes, I had trouble determining facial expressions. He didn't smell confused. So far, so good.

"Nice place." He spotted a lone yellow sock on the floor by the couch. I scooped it up and tossed it through my bedroom door before closing it with magic.

"Thank you," I said to distract him. "This smells delicious." I dropped the bag on my coffee table and magicked plates from the cupboard and ketchup from the refrigerator. I smelled beef and fried potatoes, and I wanted extra ketchup on both.

"Have a seat." I motioned for him to share the couch with me. It had three cushions, and I took the farthest left. For a moment, he hesitated, and I wondered if he was going to take the middle, but then he sat on the right.

I couldn't resist the delicious smells coming from the bag any longer. I opened it and placed a cardboard container of fries on each of our plates. I didn't see any writing on the paper, so I assumed both burgers were the same. Once they were plated, I sat back. "Is this all right?"

"Yes, thanks." He nodded. "I'm sorry. You didn't need to serve us like this. I'm a little out of it after the trip to Earth."

"Right." I tried to sound like I'd forgotten, even though it had been on my mind since Priestess Alma had told me about it. "How did it go?"

"Weird. It was so weird." He brought his plate to his lap, so I did the same. I continued to mirror his movements as he unwrapped his sandwich and then took a bite of a potato wedge.

Nope. I couldn't do it. I couldn't eat Earth food without ketchup. I opened the flip top lid and squeezed a liberal dose onto my plate.

"Holyshityou like ketchup." The way he emphasized "shit" made it sound like that was a bad thing.

"I love ketchup." I grinned. "I might even be tempted to use it to flavor your cock, if you ask nicely."

He choked on a potato wedge. I thought it was serious when he started banging his hand on his knee, but no, he was laughing at me. "Are you trying to kill me?" he finally asked.

"I'm glad I amuse you." I slathered another wedge with ketchup to get my point across, and then I licked it off. I watched him from the corner of my eye. Unlike all the times before, when he'd looked away from my covert attempts at flirting, Axel watched me with rapt attention.

Something must have changed while he was on Earth. I wanted the full story before I got too invested. I ate my fill of ketchup without being too lewd, and he thought over what he wanted to say to me. A few times, I thought he was going to speak while we were eating, but then he took another bite instead.

Weld liked to talk while he ate, which had driven me up a flipping wall. Axel had manners, at least. In all the meals we'd had together, he hadn't spit food at me once. He balled his wrapper and cardboard up and tossed them back in the bag, and then he took both my plate and his to the sink for a quick rinse.

"Thank you," I said when he came back.

This time, he chose the middle couch cushion and angled his body toward me, so our knees touched. "Thanks for your patience with me," he said. "I've been a bit of a jerk to you, and I'm sorry."

"You haven't been a jerk," I said. "You've been wonderful."

He stared down at his hands. "I haven't. I thought I was going to return to Earth, no matter what Merritt, the priestess, or my own body said. I had a fiancée and a baby waiting for me." He sighed. "Except I don't. The baby's not mine, and my fiancée was probably marrying me for the insurance money."

"Insurance money?" I laughed. "What twenty-five-year-old has life insurance?"

"I do." He snorted yet another laugh. Before, when he'd laughed, I could tell it was fake, but tonight, he let go of all pretenses and gave me his genuine laugh. I loved the musical sound of it, and the way he leaned forward over his knees, putting him in kissing range, almost.

"She had me take out a bunch of life insurance policies. Lark thinks my parents must have mentioned something about me disappearing on my twenty-fifth birthday, and she assumed …"

I laughed with him this time. "What, she thought you had birthday cancer or something?"

"Birthday cancer!" He laughed so hard, his hair flopped loose over his forehead. He usually kept it styled around his ears. He lifted a hand to push it back, but I grabbed his wrist.

"Don't."

"It's messy."

"It looks good on you." I didn't know how else to say it, so I turned the gaming console on and used its built-in camera and my television as a mirror.

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