Page 21 of Snapdragon

Our room is simple, a giant bed and a small table with two chairs. There’s a small bathroom through a door, and that’s it really. I’ve definitely stayed in nicer places, but it’s fine. I wanted to get away from the world a bit. Going home would not have been the distraction that I needed.

“This reeks of Karl…” Sebastian mutters under his breath.

“What?” I ask him. Wasn’t Karl his manager?

“Nothing, my manager likes to play pranks on me sometimes.” He sets our bags on the floor next to the bed. “I can sleep on the floor.”

I burst into laughter, patting him playfully on the chest. “Hilarious! As if you would fit on this floor. It’s fine, we’ll both sleep on the bed. It’s huge, there’s plenty of room for us both, and we’re both adults. We can control ourselves.”

I laugh a little more to myself as I bend down and root through my bag to get my cosmetics bag and pajamas.

“I’m going to go change out of this dress,” I gesture down at my uncomfortable ensemble. “Do they have room service here? I’m starving. Maybe you could order us food?”

He grunts, which I take as a yes, and lock myself into the bathroom.

God, I look rough. I rest my hands on the counter as I lean forward, examining myself in the mirror. I didn’t do as great of a job as I had thought with tidying myself up in the car. There are still tear streaks in my makeup. Although, I do have to say that my wig stayed pretty in place.

I spray my wig glue remover onto my hair line before taking off my boots and dress. Surprisingly, my boots didn’t get a single mark on them, which is impressive. My wig comes off easily, I’ve really honed my technique at this point. I scoop up my natural hair into a messy bun and wash off my make up.

I wasn’t expecting to have company when I chose my pajamas for tonight. My high waisted blue shorts and baby tee not leaving much to the imagination. A little strip of my stomach shows, and I know my ass cheeks are hanging out. I really can’t bring myself to care, though. Sebastian isn’t into me, anyway.

Or is he, though? In the heat of everything that happened, I had forgotten what he had said to me before we danced. Sebastian had told me that he wasn’t disgusted with me. But that didn’t necessarily mean he was into me, either.

Surely, his behavior so far in our weird relationship would have been much better if he was interested. I sigh, applying my skincare and putting all my things away.

Sebastian is still wearing the same white t-shirt when I come back into the room. He’s switched out his jeans for gray sweatpants, the waist folded over once to show a sexy strip of his dark skin. I can see the beginning of his ‘v’ shaped muscles pointing south, there are some scales there too.

He’s watching me, his jaw clenched tight.

“I didn’t know what you wanted,” he runs a hand through his luscious hair. “But I ordered us food. I got some different things. I’ll eat what you don’t like.”

I go to reply, but then he reaches up, pulling his hair back into a bun at the back of his head. His stretch shows off more of his impressive abdomen. Holy hell, the man is hot. I mean, the male is hot. So damn hot.

I look away, packing my things away in my bag and putting my wig away properly. I hear the bathroom door shut, Sebastian having gone in there.

I sigh, placing my hands on my hips and looking around the room. At least the bed is big, I guess Monster beds would need to be a lot bigger than Human ones. I plop onto it, sitting cross-legged and picking up my phone to scroll.

I ignore all my notifications and text Rosie:

Don’t panic if you see a video online with me looking disheveled. It was a misunderstanding and I’m totally fine and safe.

On second thought, I text that to my parents too.

I’m a little chilly, actually. I look around the room and spot Sebastian’s hoodie. I’m sure he won’t mind me borrowing it for a bit. He runs ridiculously hot anyway, he’ll be fine.

There’s a knock at the door, which must be the food. I hop up, toss my phone on the bed and open the door.

A beautiful person with blue skin is on the other side, a cart filled with different covered dishes in front of them. They do a double take when they see me. They probably didn’t know that there would be a Human answering, so I don’t blame them.

“Thank you.” I say, moving to take the cart from them.

“I will bring it in, Madame.” I go to move aside to let him past when Sebastian looms behind me. He places a hand on my waist to hold me in place, the other on the door frame as he leans forward.

“We’ll take it in.” He is cordial, but I can hear the menace in his voice.

“Of course, Sir.” The Monster nods nervously, backing away down the hallway.

Sebastian waits until they are out of sight before moving me aside to bring in the cart. Once the door is shut, he turns on me, hands on his hips.