Page 8 of Monster's Naughty List
With a groan of frustration, I slapped my hands against my face and rubbed aggressively, hating how hard it was to keep myself stern and distant from them.
“Don’t hit your face like that,” Delgalath’s deep voice boomed. “Your body should be worshiped, not abused.”
How was I supposed to keep walls up when they said things like that?
“Stop being so fucking alluring!” I yelled as I dropped my hands back to my side, completely stunned by his words.
All three of them reared their heads back like I had physically slapped them, and I lifted my hands and rushed to apologize, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have raised my voice. I’m just so confused and overwhelmed.”
“You are…intrigued by me?” Delgalath inquired, completely ignoring the part where I thought I had upset them. Apparently, it wasn’t my voice that had shocked them, but my proclamation.
My cheeks heated and my eyes darted around, wanting to look at anything but them as I mumbled, “Well, I uh…yeah. I’m intrigued by all three of you. I’ve obviously not met any creatures like you all before.”
It was a cop out excuse for what I had actually meant, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit the truth.
“Oh,” he murmured, dejection clear. “Of course. I should have realized.”
I wanted to immediately run to him, throw my arms around him, and blurt the truth when I saw and heard how crestfallen he was. But that was exactly why I couldn’t. I was scrambling for any kind of wall to keep in place—and failing miserably.
Oz piped up snippily, “Alluring isn’t the same as intriguing, but sure, you can act like you don’t feel anything more than platonicintrigue.” He all but spat the last word, making my blood boil.
Of course he’d be the one to call me out, but that didn’t give him the right to speak so venomously.
Closing the distance between us, I shoved my finger into his chest, eye level with him despite the fact that he was sitting. “What the hell do you want me to say, Oz? It doesn’t matter because, at the end of this, you’re all just going to disappear again, and I’ll be left here alone!”
And that was the damn truth.
My chest heaved from the shallow, fast-paced breaths I was taking, but they stopped completely when his eyes widened like a light bulb had gone off in his head. I was jerked into his lap, my legs spread so I straddled him.
His hands cradled my face as he asked, “Is that why you pulled away? You think we’d use you and just leave you?’
My tongue suddenly felt heavy in my mouth, and my throat tightened, refusing to let out the words that would bridge the gap between us.
This time, when I put distance between us, crawling out of his lap and sitting on the loveseat at the other end of the room near Delgalath, he didn’t seem crestfallen in the least. Quite the opposite. Even without me confirming his question, I could tell he felt invigorated by the knowledge he’d latched onto, and he wasn’t going to let this go.
“Baby gi—”
“That’s enough, Oz,” Delgalath growled at him, reaching out to place his hand on my knee as if showing his support of me. “Stop pressuring her.”
My heart swelled at his protective and kind gesture. His hand squeezed my knee once before letting go and returning it to his lap.
I refused to think about how I missed the touch seconds later.Yup, absolutely not thinking about it.Because that would mean admitting to myself that I didn’t care what happened at the end of this, as long as I gave in to all of my desires and made it a night I’d never forget.
Rez cleared his throat and pinned me with a questioning gaze, as if asking if I was okay.
How I knew what his looks meant was beyond me. I felt so in tune with these monsters that it scared the hell out of me. How was it even possible to go from heart-stopping fear of these monsters, to…whatever this was in such a short amount of time?
Giving him a small smile and nod, I watched him push himself up and move around the coffee table to pace in front of the fireplace and TV. I pulled my legs up to get comfortable. I had a feeling I was about to get a lot of the answers I was looking for, but it wouldn’t be a quick conversation. Might as well be comfortable.
Pulling the soft blue blanket from the top of the love seat, I tossed it over my cold feet and snuggled in, peering up at the towering monster in my apartment like it was just a regular Tuesday night.
“I’m sure you have many questions, Tinsley, and I will do my best to answer them all as we go. All I ask is that you keep an open mind,” Rez stated, refusing to move on until he received an okay from me.
Once he did, he swiftly moved on. “We don’t usually terrify people like we did you because, typically, the humans who summon us do so on purpose. They create our summoning seal, then think of the question or situation with which they need our assistance.”
I couldn’t hold back my confusion, my brows drawing together as I blurted, “But I never created a summoning seal.”
“Thatbegs to differ,” Oz scoffed, pointing a once again sharp talon at the mess on my carpet I had done my best to clean up. That glitter was such a bitch.
