Page 10 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
Involuntarily, I gulped. Derick's words came back to me.Give yourself one night.But that was ridiculous, wasn't it? I took a deep breath. The air in the hotel smelled of cheap chemical freshener.
I glanced at my phone. Almost midnight. I really should go home, shouldn't I?
So why were my feet heading toward the stairs?
5
Zim
It's a oncein a lifetime chance, Zim, some part of me whispered to my brain.You should at least check it out.
There was still time to turn around when I found his room. I studied the paper in my hands again. Room 215. That had to be on the second floor, right? I would just look around the second floor and then go home. Yes, that sounded like a plan. I nodded to myself as I went up the stairs and then down the hallway. Room 209, 211, 213... I stopped in front of room 215.
This was it.
I must have stood there for at least five minutes, rooted to the spot, listening for sounds from inside, but there was nothing. What was Lowen doing? Had he already gone to bed? Maybe I was too late.
My hand reached out to touch the wood of the door, just underneath the gold-colored plate that read215. Suddenly, a crashing sound came from the inside, as if someone had dropped something. A surprised noise escaped my mouth as I jumped back from the door. Maybe Derick wasn't wrong when he treated me like an easily spooked squirrel.
I was about to dash when I heard steps approaching inside, but at the same time, I couldn't get myself to move, frozen in place. My heart was pounding so hard it almost hurt. My eyes stared at the door handle as it turned, and then they stuck to the person who appeared before me as the door opened. Lowen. Of course.
My mouth opened, but my brain only supplied static noise. It really wasn't much use tonight.
"I thought I heard something," Lowen said, eyeing me curiously, probably wondering how long I'd been standing here like an idiot. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why this man was interested in me while I was behaving like a blubbering fool. "Would you like to come in?" he asked with an air of amusement in his deep voice.
"I um..." My eyes darted left and right. I could hardly say that I was just about to leave, could I? "Yeah, um. Sure."
What are you doing?I mentally screamed at myself, but I followed Lowen into his hotel room anyway.
It was a nice room. I remember this because I studied every object inside of it in detail rather than focusing my attention on the dragon. The TV made me jealous because it was a bit bigger than what I had in my room and the armchair to the side of it looked like it would be nice to lounge in. The green and beige wallpaper reminded me of a bad 80s movie, but there was a very tasteful vase on the nightstand next to the king-size bed. The bed looked comfortable too. My gaze kind of lingered on it until Lowen cleared his throat, distracting me.
"I wasn't sure you were gonna come," he said.
I turned around to the dragon who'd slipped me a piece of paper with his room number on it. "Do you do this a lot?" I gestured at the bed. "Take fans back to your room?"
"I wouldn't say I do it alot. But sometimes, yeah." He seemed to feel no shame about this, and I didn't know what to think at all. "I don't do it regularly," he continued, a small smile forming on his face. He didn't smile in many of the magazines I had and when he did, it wasn't genuine, so this expression was new to me. And what he said next made my heart beat a little faster. "I limit these invitations to special people."
"Special people?" I scoffed, unwilling to let myself be fooled so easily. "You don't know anything about me."
"No, perhaps not, but you look like someone worth getting to know." The way he saidgetting to knowmade a shiver run down my spine. No way he meant small talk over dinner.
"Why?" I asked, feeling my mouth run dry. What could I possibly offer this dragon? Did he like sweet and shy? I might have come across that way today, but I wasn't usually like that. But the laws of 'usually' didn't seem to apply around this man. At least not for me. He looked me in the eyes and I averted my gaze, letting it travel to his stomach instead. He was wearing a shirt, but even so, I could tell his abs had to be rock hard. Before I could stop myself, I licked my lips.
Even while I wished I wasn't attracted to men, standing in front of Lowen, I couldn't deny that I was. I wanted to trace his muscles with my fingers. I wanted to feel the hard lines of his body on top of mine. To be honest, that was the part that troubled me the most. It was one thing to be gay, and another thing to bend over for other guys. That was whatomegasdid. Not real men. Or at least, that was what I'd always been taught.
"Why you?" Lowen pulled me out of my thoughts as he picked up on my question. I made myself look at his face again. "There's just something about you, I guess. You're handsome, but that's not all... I feel like..." He shook his head, as if suddenly lost for words. "Honestly, you instantly drew my focus to you. It's like everything else in the room loses color to give it to you, so you can shine twice as bright as any other person around."
My eyes went wide as I listened to Lowen. I'd never have guessed he was a poetic. "You have a way with words," I muttered, trying not to sound too surprised.
He chuckled. A light, easy sound that made some of the tension in me ease as if blown away by a warm breeze. "Who do you think writes the lyrics for our songs?"
"You?" I wish I could say I didn't sound totally shocked, but I did.
"Well, not all of them. But many of them."
"Which ones?" I asked, needing to know. I'd always assumed that their lead singer was responsible for their lyrics, but now I was eager to learn more. Focusing on this topic made it easier for me to breathe too.
“Only a couple from the latest album, but almost all of the ones of the first album.” He sat on the edge of the bed, suddenly seeming much less intimidating.
