Page 109 of My Roommate from Hell
“Hi,” he says.
“Hi.”
Then we crash back into each other, with him kissing me down into the bed. I run a hand down his muscled back. His skin is red-hot, but doesn’t burn.
What am I doing? There’s no way this will end well.
He starts kissing my neck, which kills any hesitation I had left. I can feel the scrape of his stubble against me, and it turns out that’s something I really like. I sweep a hand through his hair, which is feather-soft.
He pauses. His necklace hangs down in the space between us.
It reminds me that I’m not seeing the real him.
I reach out and touch the pendant of the necklace.
“Is something wrong?” he asks.
“No. But you don’t have to look like this if you don’t want to.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to kiss the real you.”
“Are you sure?”
I’m not, at least not completely. He was kind of terrifying. But I want this kiss, even if the circumstances around it are fake, to be real. And how real can a kiss be if he’s not in his true form?
“If it’s too much for you, we can go back,” he says, as the glamour fades. Bright orange cinders ripple across his body, and his skin turns red. Dark, pointed horns appear on his forehead, but they’renowhere near as large as they were when we were at Adam’s. In fact, aside from his skin color and the horns, he’s barely changed. He’s clearly not human, but he’s nowhere near as terrifying as he was the last time. Up close, I notice his eyes have become brighter, the brown mixed with an orange as bright as sunlight. His transformation starts a fire on my blanket, which he puts out with his hand.
“What?” he asks.
“You look different.”
“I have a few forms,” he says. “This is what I look like when I’m not trying to scare someone. This is what I look like most of the time.”
So this is the real him.
“Are you disappointed?” he asks. “I can look scarier if you want, but if you want the real me, this is as close as possible.”
“No, this is good.”
“Because I have an even scarier form,” he says. “If that’s what you’re into.”
“Shut up.”
I take hold of his necklace and pull him closer. As he kisses me, I have one crystal-clear thought.
I just had my first kiss.
And I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
I’m worried last night was a dream.
As I’m waking up, I think it over and try to piece it together. Who even was I last night? I’m not mad at myself, and there’s no way I could ever regret the kiss. I rest my hands on my stomach and look up at the ceiling.
But now I’m the one who has to try to clean up the enormous mess I’ve made. Because where exactly am I supposed to go from here? I kissed Zarmenus, the guy that I’m in a fake relationship with. He’s also my roommate, and the entire world is watching us to see if humans and demons can coexist.
