Page 50 of Monsters Within (The Creatures We Crave 1)
Shaking my head with wide eyes, I continued to listen with fascination.
“To answer your earlier question, students are usually permitted two books to be checked out at a time, to ensure they are not all hoarded by one in case others need them.”
I tried my best to keep the dejection off my face, because it made sense, but I must have done a horrible job because she winked and patted my hand once more. “But for those myself and the library trust, we extend it to ten at a time. I’ve marked your account with that limit.”
A squeal ripped from me as I jumped up and down. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Felicity! I speed-read, so I churn through them quickly.”
“You’re welcome dear,” she responded before shooing me. “Off you go into the depths of the library. If you need to know which section you are in, check the statue in front of each row. The creature should give it away, and if it doesn’t, check the inscription. If you want to just study while in here without checking the books out, feel free to use the four ladders at each corner of the room to head up to the study tables and couches on the second level.”
Bouncing on the balls of my feet, I nodded and offered my thanks one more time before peeling off and running to the nearest rows. The one on my left had a statue of a dragon, and as I glanced to my right, it held a wolf head.
I wasn’t sure where my monsters were going, but I completely blocked out everything and everyone around me as I continued my search down the rows, taking in the statues and some of the inscriptions when I wasn’t sure what the coordinating artwork was.
Dragons, wolves, fae, vampires, four different types of witches, gods and goddesses and their family trees, angels, fallen angels, dark elves, hellhounds, wraiths, reapers, incubus, succubus.
As I reached the back end of the room, I turned around and found my guys right on my heels, all smiling at me. I was so damn happy and full of excitement that I jumped into Elwin’s arms—he was closest to me—and squealed as he twirled me around before setting me back down on my feet.
“Excited, love?” he asked, clearly a rhetorical question.
I couldn’t help but gush over this magical place. “Do you know how many books on supernaturals there are to read in Ordinarius?” I asked, not waiting for an answer. “One row! One meager row in the entirety of the library. I thought I’d read all there was to know, but I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong.”
Lucien walked to the nearest spiral black metal staircase to my right and headed up the steps before disappearing for a moment. Popping his head over the railing, he wiggled his brows. “Come up here, angel. There’s more sections that I think will interest you.”
My curiosity was piqued as I looked to Kylo and Elwin, who motioned for me to go.
“I’m going to look at some books in the wraith section,” Kylo announced.
“I have an idea, but I need to ask Mrs. Felicity for some materials,” Elwin explained cryptically before he strolled back down the middle row with Kylo.
Shrugging my shoulders, my heart fluttered with excitement as I ascended the staircase and took in the beautiful loft-style section of the library. One half was full of couches and chairs situated around wide tables, and the other had smaller rows of bookshelves, which was where I spied Lucien running his fingers across the spines. There were no statues for these books, so my interest doubled at what they were.
Hurrying over to him, I asked, “What’s over here?”
Before I could take a look at the books to get an idea, he was suddenly behind me, covering my eyes with his hands and whispering in my ear. “Reach out and grab a book at random.”
Why was this so hot? It had absolutely no right to feel sexual, but man, there was something about being pressed against him and teased with books. I hadn’t realized it was a fantasy of mine to have an encounter in a library until now.
Rubbing my legs together as the desire built and thinking of how hard it would be to be quiet so as to not get caught, he nipped at my earlobe lightly and chided, “Focus, angel. I promise you’ll enjoy the outcome of this.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I reached out and trailed my fingers across multiple books until I felt the pull to one, stilling my hand and plucking it from the shelf.
“Can I look now?” I asked a bit breathlessly as he pressed against me more. My hips acted of their own accord, grinding lightly against him.
A smirk pulled at my lips at the low growl he let out with my movement. It was exhilarating, such a confidence booster to see, hear, and feel how much I affected each of my monsters. I felt emboldened to explore this side of our relationship.
The emotional one between us all was already so deep from so many years together, and it made it feel that much more natural to now dive in the physical side.
“Here are the rules, angel,” he finally relented after taking a shuddering breath. “You flip through this book until you find a scene you like, and I will do everything that the pages say. But you have to read it out loud to me, and if you stop reading, then so do I.”
My cheeks flamed as I understood immediately what section we were in. It had to be erotic fiction, with the seductive tone he was using.
“But…but,” I stammered, the heat from my cheeks increasing as I thought of Elwin or Kylo, or god forbid, Mrs. Felicity, coming up here and seeing us. “Someone could hear us or walk in on us.”
That was frowned upon, right? My brain was almost certain it wasn’t okay to have public displays of sex, but my body was not on the same wavelength.
Heat licked at my core as Lucien kicked my feet apart and pressed his thigh up against me, providing friction that had me biting down harshly on my bottom lip to suppress a moan.
“That’s the thing, angel…” he trailed off while drifting his lips to my neck and kissing the sensitive skin below my ear. “You have to be quiet. Someone absolutely could walk in on me devouring you.”
