I busied myself with cleaning everything up, and not looking at him. “No problem. You wanna head down to the tavern, get some dinner, and ask around? Beelzebub isn’t hard to miss. We know he passed through here now, so someone had to have seen him, and there’s no way B would pass a tavern and not go in.”
“Sounds good.”
Loth tugged on a shirt, and we grabbed our now clean boots from outside our door and headed out.
As we walked, I refused to think about coming back to this room alone with him later, or the one and only bed we’d be sleeping in…
Chapter
Thirteen
Roxy
* * *
The tavern was full. Apparently, one of the locals had just mated, and the village was celebrating. I guess that explained the “only one room at the inn” situation I found myself in. We grabbed drinks and passed on the carvery dinner, since it was a good chance the menu tonight was Ferinian, and opted for buttered bread. We found a standing table to eat and watched the festivities.
“A lot of these people have probably traveled here for the celebration. That’s going to make things more difficult,” Lothar said and took a bite of bread.
He was right. It was going to be a lot harder to pick the locals out of this crowd.
The newly mated couple hit the dance floor, and everyone surrounded them, cheering as they danced and seriously made out. I sipped my drink, not daring to look Lothar’s way, but I felt his eyes burning into me.
He shouldn’t want to look at me, and he sure as hell shouldn’t want to kiss me.
“I’m gonna go ask around,” I said and rushed off, disappearing into the crowd.
I worked my way around the tavern, showing B’s photo to everyone, but no one had seen him, or if they had, they weren’t talking. Gods, I could still feel Lothar’s gaze on me, following me around the room. As the night wore on, and no one admitted to having seen B, I was becoming more on edge, and honestly, I was having trouble holding it together.
“I’ve been watching you flit around the room all night, beautiful. I was hoping you’d come my way,” a deep voice said.
I turned and looked up. A tall male with shiny black horns and pointed ears grinned down at me. He was handsome, leanly muscled, had black nails, and wore a lot of piercings and silver rings. He had bad boy written all over him, and was totally Ursula’s type. My gaze dipped to his plate, though the half-gnawed-on roasted foot with charred toenails was a major turnoff.
I grinned back at him, holding his vibrant green eyes. “I promise I was making my way over to you. You’re hard to miss,” I said and leaned against the wall facing him. “Are you from here?”
He grinned back, flashing white teeth. “Yeah, born and raised. You’re not, though, are you, gorgeous.”
“Nope, just passing through.” I pouted a little. “I’m looking for a friend of mine actually.” I knew exactly what this male liked, it was part of my skill set. I knew how to give a person exactly what they wanted. I could offer the personality traits they found most attractive and reel them in. My new friend here liked sweet and a little ditsy.
“Yeah?” He sipped his drink and leaned in. “I might be able to help.”
I widened my eyes and tugged on the front of his shirt. “Could you really? That would be amazing. I’d be so grateful.”
His gaze darkened and slid down my body, and I giggled and preened.
“You got a picture of your friend?”
I nodded enthusiastically and pulled out my phone, opening to the picture of Beelzebub. “This is him.”
His gaze slid up from the picture. “Is he your mate?”
“Nope, I’m not mated. He’s just a good friend. We’ve been really worried.”
“We?”
A heavy arm landed on my shoulders. “That’s right, we.” Lothar’s eyes were burning red as he leaned in. “So you seen him or not?”
Fucking hell.
