Page 53 of Their Fierce Little Monster

I look… amazing.

So I gather my hair and twirl it on top of my head, realizing that all I’m missing is jewelry. Somehow, I now appear bolder, sexier. I twist to view myself from behind and how wonderfully the fabric follows the curve of my rear, my whole back completely bare.

It’s in that same second that a tremendous crash booms from the other room, and I jump on the spot, my hair tumbling down around my shoulders.

“What the hell was that?” I hurry from the bedroom, expecting someone to have burst into the room and torn the door from its hinges.

Instead, the room is empty, and movement from the balcony catches my attention.

I glance over because someone’s standing out there, and a scream rushes past my lips. My stomach drops instantly as my brain catches up to finally reveal that it’s Lian in his monster form. Those golden lines that cross his body seem to almost gleam in the sunlight.

“Gods, what’s he doing?”

He stands on the wide ledge, clearly unconcerned that if he misses a step and falls, he’ll plummet several stories to his death from this height.

But he just stands there, facing me, a sinful grin splitting his lips. He raises a hand and crooks a single finger toward me, and beckons.

Chapter

Fourteen

DAWN

“How in the world did you get on my balcony?” I ask, pushing out through the glass door and into the warm breeze.

Lian stands atop a stone parapet in his full monster form, staring at me with that devious grin I shouldn’t admire. I would have heard him enter through my room, so I scan the stone walls that rise on either side of my balcony. The parapet he’s on easily reaches my waist, and beyond that is a steep drop down to where the city spreads outward.

Yet, he stands perched up there, studying me as I approach him.

“I’m paying you a visit,” he purrs, his gaze dragging down my body, all the way to my bare feet. “Isn’t that what matters?”

He wears tight black pants and boots, nothing else, but instead of staring at the fissures crisscrossing his skin, my gaze dips to how low his trousers ride on his hips. I want to say something clever, yet my throat dries as I stare at the huge bundle at his groin, unsure if he’s packed something else down there for exaggeration.

“Did you lose your shirt?” I manage, which sounds lame.

He chuckles loudly, and I jerk my attention to where he’s throwing his head back, his dark hair brushing past his shoulders.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself attracted to a monster in real form, yet here I am, seemingly lost for words.

“You could say that.” He rubs his jawline with his claw-tipped fingers, and those sharp spikes across his knuckles gleam in the sunlight. “But in reality, I was bored to death in my room, and then you came to mind.”

“I have no idea how you crossed over to my balcony,” I admit.

“So, should we do something fun?”

I laugh then because his kind of fun is most likely terrifying. “Maybe you should jump back over to your room.”

His lips pull into a wider grin. “Tell me, Dawn, is that what you truly desire?”

Of course it is, yet the words don’t come out of my mouth. My emotions are tangled around these monsters and the whole ordeal of how we ended up on the Elite Mountain. But do I really belong here? I’m unsure, except for now, my thoughts revolve around surviving.

So I say, “Sounds like a good idea.”

His shoulders deflate, and he pouts, which has me laughing. His palm presses to the flat of his chest. “You wound me.” He slides backward on the stone railing he’s standing on until his heels hang off the edge.

“Careful there,” I say.

“But you just said you didn’t want me.” Then he steps back and falls.