Page 41 of Zodiac Monsters

Chapter 15

Wings wrapped around me like a cocoon, creating a barrier to block out prying eyes. In all of my shock, I’d nearly forgotten the mirror before us was actually a mirrored window, separating us from an entire audience of restaurant goers who could be watching with easy clarity from the other side.

That was when I realized I’d made a terrible mistake.

“W-wait.” My voice shook, while Adrian’s scaled hands returned to the straps of my velvet black dress. The texture of his palms was both rough and smooth at the same time. Each scale skated over my skin, and the way every individual plate flexed and shifted around the contours of his hands resulted in a constantly changing sensation. “We should go somewhere more discreet. What if someone sees you?” My rational brain was pounding on the captain’s door, while my irrational desires hijacked the ship. My heart was drunk on the thrill of it, and I knew I needed to wrangle in those bad decisions.

I knew that, but it was near impossible to make myself want to. Maybe that was an effect of my own transformation, or maybe it was the moon getting in my head.

I might have to accept that they were right to keep blaming the lunar cycles for their choices.

“This is a business only for the magic among us. There are no consequences for revealing transformations.” Adrian’s already deep voice hit a lower octave, and I shivered as he purred into my ear. That was supposed to reassure me, but knowing he saw no need for restraint or discretion was more terrifying than comforting. “What a privilege it would be for any one of them to witness your pleasure.” He hooked a thumb under the straps of my dress. “To gaze upon your breasts,” he hummed against my neck as he pushed those straps from my shoulders, then started dragging them down my arms. The material followed, catching on my bra for only a moment before it dropped below my bust line. I was still shielded by his wings, but that didn’t lessen the way the chill of the air engulfed my bare skin, reinforcing exactly how exposed I was. “To take in the view of the soft rolls of your body.” He unlatched the belt around my waist, then continued dragging my dress down to my hips. The material dropped to my feet, leaving me in undergarments and black pantyhose beneath his wings.

He took a moment to roll down the high waist of my shapewear, then he ran his palms up the natural, rounded shape of my stomach until he reached my rib cage. Still hugging me from behind, he used a single claw to cut through the center of my bra, then he cradled the weight of each one of my breasts in his scaled hands. He squeezed the cups together, enjoying the way the underwire shaped and pushed my chest so high, before he let the cups fall away to nudge the straps from my shoulders and drop my bra to the floor. His warm breath was on my neck when he grabbed me again and squeezed me roughly. He drummed his fingers into my soft flesh, emphasizing the missing barrier between us.

I shuddered against him, and I sank my back into his chest for support. My professor took the time to memorize my chest, caressing each sphere of my breasts with the rough texture of his plated palms, and circling my nipples until they were firm between his fingers.

Adrian pressed his lips to my neck, while he toyed with each sensitive nub, tugging and rolling and pinching them with textured fingertips. Smooth and rough, he licked me to my jawline, leaving a trail of wet heat in his wake, then speckled kisses back down to my shoulder.

I was already his tonight, and I was happy to let my mind fixate on anything other than the revelations that would send my whole life crashing down. I didn’t want or need to acknowledge the point to my ears as he nipped at them, or the slight pink and amber glow to my otherwise bland brown eyes. I had no idea the extent of transformation I was currently in, or what other aspects of my body might be different.

Tonight, I just wanted him to fuck me again. Tomorrow, I could deal with the consequences.

I closed my eyes, letting myself truly feel him. I didn’t need any other sense right now. His touch was the only thing that mattered.

Adrian responded by resuming his descent. He gripped the snug fabric still hugging my hips, and he nudged it down, taking my shapewear and pantyhose past my thighs before he let them drop freely to the floor with the rest of my clothing. Moving back up my body, reading my shapes through his fingertips, he growled against my shoulder as if he was losing his mind purely by my proximity. “Your body is a work of art, Lila.”

“It’s not.” I said without thinking. Emotion overwhelmed me just hearing that sentiment, and my immediate instinct was to protest. I’d never loved my body. I had never been perfect or pretty or skinny enough, and I didn’t look like the women in movies or magazines. From my first elementary school crush to my first day of college, no one had ever told me I was anything other than ugly and unwanted. I was a loner, a nerd, a loser, too thick, too tall, too awkward, unattractive and boring.

Why did he feel so differently? Even before he’d shifted, he complimented me. So did Marcus, so did Ceto, even Linda and Evelyn—who had no reason to lift me up—had only been positive. Was it all some kind of joke? A prank to give me confidence so they could tear it down with new violence later?

Nothing had changed about me from when I was in high school. I was still the girl whose crush gave her an “anti-valentine” in elementary school, when everyone else got candy hearts, and the same woman who was shoved in a locker by a group of girls when I dared to go to a school dance alone. The one who had her clothes stolen during gym, so I would have to wear those ugly shorts all day, after another girl snapped a picture of me changing in the locker room, so she could put it online to get laughed at by strangers and classmates.

And yet, since I’d come to Graves, no one treated me like that. When did that perception shift happen? Why? Was it a change of location that did it, or… something much more than that?

I touched the points of my ears, feeling them for myself. My throat bobbed under a nervous swallow, while I was so overwhelmed by everything that was happening, I knew I didn’t have time to truly appreciate the implications.

“You think I’m wrong?” He purred in my ear, challenging my own lack of confidence. Bare in his hands, cocooned in the dark barrier of his wings, he examined my body through his explorative touch, like he was gathering evidence to contest my claim. The pressure deepened on every pass over my skin, as though he was thrilled to be allowed to touch me, and was worried I might disappear if he stopped. He treated me with such need, I knew it wasn’t fear that was holding my heart in a vice grip anymore.

“Who ever made you question your beauty?” He followed my curves with increasing need, like he was desperate to memorize my every inch. “What mortal dared to tell a goddess she was a commoner?” He enjoyed handfuls of my breasts again. “Who hurt you, Darling?” His touch rounded my stomach, then slipped down the contour of my pelvis to my inner thighs. He spread his claws over my skin, and he skated each cutting point back up my hips. “Because I promise I’ll tear out their throats, bathe you in their blood, and build you a crown from their bones if they ever make you doubt yourself again.”

I swallowed the lump of a sob, ignoring the feminine urge to send my monster to middle-America to tear an entire high school class to shreds. I wish someone had stuck up for me then, but what did I do to deserve that sort of promise now?

“It’s okay,” I said. “I know I’m not that perfect.” I almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

Adrian damn near scoffed as he laughed, like I was the only ridiculous one here. He dipped his fingers back between my legs, and he drew a line down my center. “Maybe you need to see what I see.”

His wings lifted, powerful and sudden, and he folded them neatly behind his back. The light of the full moon instantly overtook us, casting intense shadows over every contour of our connection. There, I was left staring at my reflection, bare in the window, with a monster’s long, dangerous fingers spreading my pussy for an audience.

What if my classmates were watching me. Another teacher? An administrator? My dorm neighbors? Magic bar or not, we were still in the same town. Anyone could be on the other side of that window.

When I should have panicked, I found myself, instead, opening my legs to grant him more access. Maybe that was the Virgo magic talking, but even now, my racing heart only wanted more. I might regret it. I had no idea who was watching me through that tinted glass, or what humiliation was in store for me on the other side of the night.

He circled my clit, and I leaned back into his powerful chest, letting a moan leave my throat. Because if anyone had anything to say, I knew he would put every, single person who hurt me in their place. Maybe when he turned back into his human self, he wouldn’t be so bold, but tonight, I’d relish in the fantasy.

What freedom it was to not have to care.

Adrian’s lips stretched into a grin against my neck. “Such a good girl, Lila.” He slipped the first finger inside me, then he followed it with a second. I watched him enter me in my reflection, satisfaction painting his expression with every gained inch. “Watch yourself break.” He withdrew, using my own arousal to draw a line up my center, and leaving a glistening trail along the way. “Watch the way this perfect vessel brings you so much pleasure.” He nudged over my clit, grazing every nerve ending with the smooth scales of his fingertips. “And let yourself feel how this body serves you.”