Page 53 of Beauty and Her Beasts (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 1)

Movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention as I moved. I turned in time to find Bastian, smirking proudly to himself as he disappeared around a corner.

I frowned and headed straight for him. If it was one thing I knew about Bastian, it was he was rarely proud of himself unprovoked. And given how the night was panning out, I had every reason to believe he had something to do with Collin’s arrival.

I turned around and rushed after the man who was quickly becoming the bane of my existence. I caught up to him quickly as he was making his way to his apartment. “Stop, Bastian.”

He halted in his steps and turned to face me with his nose in the air and the same proud smirk stretching his lips. “Yes, Gunnar? Did you run out of parsnips again?”

“What did you do?” I asked, ignoring his comment. He thought he was above everyone else. I often wondered if he never realized that being a front desk clerk was less than glamorous and hardly the cream of the crop in terms of positions within the hotel.

He batted his eyes and acted like he had no idea what I was referring to. He shook his head and shrugged. “Can you be more specific?”

“The person outside of the hotel, you pompous jerk,” I said.

He breathed in a patient breath. On the exhale, he said, “I honestly don’t have the foggiest clue as to what you’re referring to.”

“Nice try,” I said as I continued to approach him, “but you’re not weaseling your way out of this one. Now tell me, what did you do?”

“I already told you, I don’t know what you are referring to,” he said.

I growled and clutched both lapels in his hand and pulled him closer so he would be forced to look into my eyes and see the animal raging within me. “Try again.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said and freed himself from my grip. “Now, if you don’t mind, I was heading to bed. Goodnight.”

I had to hand it to him, he had a solid resolve, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t guilty. I knew he was. I could smell the deceit on him. He smirked again as he started to turn his back to me. That pushed me over the edge. I caught him by the shoulder, forcing him to face me again, and socked him one in the nose. I couldn’t help it. He had it coming to him for the longest time, and I just couldn’t stand by and let this slight pass me by unrewarded. Especially when it put the woman I was in love with in danger.

Bastian, the manchild that he was, began crying like a little girl. He screamed something unintelligible. I caught only a couple of the words he shouted at me. And those were ones I could barely understand. My best guess was the words were beautiful and face.

I snorted. “Please.”

“You asshole!” Bastian said clearer. “You will pay for this.”

I rolled my eyes. “Stop your blubbering and spit out what I want to know.”

He stared at me as he held onto his face. “You’re mad. You deserve what’s coming to you. All of you do.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m also not wrong. Which still begs the question, again, what did you do?”

He stared at me like he wasn’t sure just how serious I was. Or perhaps, it was to simply gauge how far I wanted to take things before he fessed up. Regardless, when he didn’t immediately answer, I clenched my fist and aimed it at him again.

He held up his hands to block my next punch, and I scrunched up my face from the sight of him. His nose was broken. Streams of blood poured from his nostrils and down his chin. I almost felt justified with the hours he was about to spend scrubbing the blood from his pristine white shirt. His eyes widened with fear as he kept his hands in the air on either side of his head.

“Please don’t hit me again,” he blubbered out.

I quirked an eyebrow. “Then talk. Quickly.”

“I helped Collin.The man here for that woman,” he spat out the word like it was poison in his mouth.

“You did what?” I said, nearly growling out the words. “How? Why?”

“It’s shameful to hire a woman for a man’s position. Bad luck, if you were to ask me. Especially when there are more qualified individuals better suited for the position,” he said, holding his head higher.

“You mean someone like you? An impish man who would turn the business to himself versus what was best for all involved?” I asked. “It’s a damn good thing you weren’t asked.”

He stared at me as I kept my fist aimed toward him. He took in a deep breath through his mouth and stood a little taller. He said, “I regret nothing.”

“Unbelievable,” I spat. “You’re ruining more lives than helping just because you feel like a woman has no place as a manager of this hotel?”

Bastian held his head higher.

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