I shifted my attention to my own reflection and paused at the sight of myself. I looked nothing like me. The dress, along with my pale skin, made me look ghostly. With my hair twisted up in looping braids, I could understand why Megan had left me. I didn’t look like myself; I looked like something out of a Grecian myth.
“She doesn’t like it,” Mr. Hot-But-Crazy whispered. “Why can’t I please her?”
My hair slithered out of its braids and fell around my shoulders in a smooth cascade. He hadn’t said anything or moved to make that happen. At least, not that I’d seen in the mirror. What had that kind of power?
Hands shaking, I ran the brush over my hair again and again in an attempt to appease his mood.
Behind me, crazy-man let out a relieved breath.
“Well-chosen.”
He turned away from me and strode toward the bed. The scrape of metal against stone almost had me turning around. Instead, I studied the contents of the table again. There was gold everywhere. Sure, the brush was wooden now, but it had been golden before. The vials with oils had gold painted on them. The bangles looked like they were pure gold. And the—
My gaze jerked away from the table to the splashing sound behind me. Crazy-man stood in perfect profile so I could seeeverythingas he pissed in a golden pot.
Heat exploded in my face and painted my cheeks a vivid red before I tore my gaze from the spectacle.
Nudity in Uttira wasn’t an uncommon thing. His kind weren’t inherently modest and tended to ruin clothes when they shifted from their human form to their natural one. So in my almost eighteen years, he wasn’t the first naked creature I’d seen.
Yet, I couldn’t say I had very many normal experiences with the opposite sex, not that I would call the current experience normal. That didn’t mean I was ignorant, though. I’d read plenty about male anatomy and sex to educate myself so I would be better equipped to deal with creatures who feed sexually.
But all my glimpses of nudity had been precisely that. Glimpses.
What I saw now filled in any blanks in vivid detail. The heat in my cheeks remained steady as I watched him tuck himself back into his pants. It took more than one tuck and a slight leg shake to situate himself before he adjusted the ties.
Was exposing himself some kind of joke? A means to get a reaction out of me?
I snapped my mouth shut and jerked my attention to his face when I recognized he had done exactly that. He wasn’t focused on me, though. In fact, he seemed quietly lost in his own thoughts based on his expression.
The strong, chiseled jaw I’d glimpsed the night before was even better in full torchlight. And his thick, dark hair that fell in short waves around his head failed to hide his perfect ears. Who in the hell had perfect ears? His nose was completely straight and…perfect. There wasn’t one thing about him that wasn’t beautiful. Except, maybe, his weird, old pants. Yet, even those hugged his backside in a way that showcased a very nice butt.
Gods, he was crazy as sin but still an Adonis. My thoughts returned to how beauty equaled monstrosity.
Just what kind of predator was he?
I realized I was blatantly staring and swung my gaze back to the mirror barely a moment before he turned and stalked toward me. The golden surface reflected his troubled expression as he paused directly behind me.
“I need. Look at her skin. It’s mine.”
He lifted his hand. I saw it hover near my head like he was thinking about caressing my hair, and I almost dropped the brush.
“No. Don’t touch. She wouldn’t like that.”
No, she wouldn’t,I thought.Not only did you forget to wash your hands, you—
My lips tipped up in a rueful smile as I realized I’d found Mr. Drop-Dead-Gorgeous-And-Very-Insane’s fault. Personal hygiene. He’d just peed and hadn’t washed his hands.
Ha!
Behind me, he froze.
“She smiles. Blood will rain.” A shudder ran through him, and he backed away. “This can’t be real. Please let this not be real.”
He continued retreating as if afraid of me, thehuman.Metal rattled as he gripped the latch and let himself out. It took everything I had to continue brushing my hair until I heard the thud of the door closing.
Stunned, I looked at the door for half a second before I tossed the brush aside and bolted for the golden pee pot. I didn’t care why he’d freaked out. I was going to grab the moment for all that it was worth.
Thankfully, he stayed in the hall long enough for me to relieve myself in privacy. The outdated toilet had me shaking my head. Why couldn’t I have been stuck with a creature who knew about modern plumbing? A shower and a flushing toilet would have been heaven. I silently snorted at the irony, then tried snorting again when I caught myself looking around for toilet paper.
