“Dante!”
“I’m a huge fan!”
“Holy shit, hi!”
“I love you so much!”
“Can I get a photo?”
The questions bounced between the two, firing so quickly that I couldn’t keep up. I plastered on the signature smile I worearound my fans and posed for photos with them, which Serenity graciously took for us.
When we finally detached from the still giddy girls, Serenity swept a gaze around the packed zoo. “I didn’t think this whole bringing-a-celebrity-to-the-zoo-thing through.” She pursed her lips and looked around the large, open entrance with its vendors, shops, and pathways to various exhibits. Her eyes landed on one stall, and her face lit up. “This way! I have an idea.”
She pulled me over to a booth, and the minute I saw the older man with all of his paint supplies and design options, I knewexactlywhat Serenity was planning.
“Oh, no,” I protested, but my argument fell on deaf ears.
Serenity pushed me down into the chair with a mischievous and excited grin before handing the man $10. “I’d like a full face paint, please.” She turned to all the options and tapped her chin thoughtfully before picking one I couldn’t see from my seated vantage point. “This one, please.”
“Serenity,” I growled through clenched teeth.
Instead of backing down, she just laughed sweetly. “Don’t talk while he works. It will ruin the art.”
The older man laughed along with her and got to work on slapping his cold paint on my face. My glare remained fixed over his shoulder, right on Serenity, who seemed all too happy to be taking photos on her phone as the gentleman worked.
“You and your girlfriend are cute,” the man chuckled as he got more paint.
I didn’t bother correcting him. While his assumption was wrong, something inside of me liked that people saw us that way—her being mine. I certainly wasn’t against the idea of monopolizing her, at least for now.
“She’s something alright,” I mumbled to the man. While he cleaned his brush and left my face alone, I fixed my gaze onSerenity. “I refuse to be the only one walking around with paint on my face. If I’m doing this, so are you.”
“I don’t need a disguise,” she argued with a cross of her arms. “This is for your protection.”
“Nice try. You’re next.” I pulled out my own ten bucks and gave it to the man. “She’s next.”
The gentleman accepted the money happily while Serenity gawked at me from behind him. “Certainly, sir. What design for the lady?”
I held still while he finished my face paint before replying, “Depends. What am I?”
Instead of answering, he grabbed a mirror and held it up so I could see the finished result. The entirety of my beautiful, perfect brown skin had been painted orange and white with black stripes. I even had a goddamn pink nose framed in black with a tiger’s maw drawn out around my mouth. My black facial hair created a natural frame around the tiger design, and the silver nose ring through the tiger’s nose added a nice little edgy touch.
“Oh my gosh, I love it,” Serenity gushed as she studied me with glittering gleeful eyes. “I’ve never seen a more handsome tiger.”
I stood up from the chair and grabbed her hand to trade places with her. She sat in the seat obediently while I looked over the full face options for her. If I was a tiger, I wanted her to be my prey.
Lip twitching, I pointed at the cutesy fawn design for the man to see. “This one.”
The man got to work, and I leaned against the booth’s corner, watching Serenity smile sweetly at me before the man’s brushwork began. Something shifted in the center of my chest the longer she looked at me. I searched her gaze for any hidden malice or ulterior motive for why she was with me. I hunted fora trace of the venom and lies that all humans harbored. I dug for a reason to keep up my disdain for mortals, but … I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find a reason to hate her like I hated every other human.
With a small tug on my black heart, I decided that she could be my exception to the rule.
Beige paint now framed Serenity’s pale face, and numerous white dots lined that space. Black paint lined her eyes, and brown paint framed her nose, leading to a black deer nose on the tip of her real one. The artist had made her cheeks a subtle pink and painted her lips, too.
Grinning, I tipped the man and helped Serenity up from the chair. “What a tasty-looking deer you make.”
“Are you going to eat me, tiger?”
Fuck. I absolutely was. “Keep that up, and we’ll have to sneak off to somewhere private.”
