My Fair Monster Read online

  A frown line appeared between Jane’s brows. “What is th—”

  Michael flicked on the electric toothbrush.

  “Aahhh!” Jane screamed. Every muscle in her body went tense, her torso curling up, her legs tensing in an attempt to close, an attempt thwarted by Michael’s leg between hers.

  The bristles of the round head of the toothbrush pressed down on her clit, vibrating the bundle of nerves side to side. He pressed the bristles on the hood, not directly on her clit.

  Jane’s head thrashed side to side, her lips pulled back from her teeth in a snarl, and she came, her lower belly clenched tight. The orgasm he’d ripped from her rippled from her body into his in waves. The smell of her sex perfumed the air.

  With a growl, Michael threw away the toothbrush, forcing open her legs and settling between them. His cock, rock hard from the beautiful sight of his mate orgasming, was already dripping when he slammed into her. Jane’s body was tight, and he had to thrust hard, had to work his cock into her.

  The penetration triggered another orgasm, and Jane reared up, sinking her teeth into his shoulder. Marking him as her mate.

  Michael planted his elbows into the bed and thrust. He fucked her deep and hard. And endless chant of mine, my mate, mine echoed through his head as he fucked her. She was wrapped around him, her body dangling from his, as he fucked her. Her legs were tight around his hips, her nails digging into his back. When her fingertips raked his tattoo, his monster swelled to the surface of his human skin to taste her, to taste its mate.

  Michael threw his head back as he came, pounding himself into her until his own muscles gave out.

  They collapsed, Michael rolling to the side. His whole body was shaking with the force of what had just happened. He could feel her teeth marks in his shoulder.

  Jane lay panting beside him, both of them too hot and sweaty to want to touch the other, but her hand crept across the bed, and she tangled her fingers with his.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “I’m ready.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s not going to be what you think, Jane.”

  “I know.” Jane shifted. She was sitting cross-legged on the couch. The coffee table was pushed against the wall, leaving the center of the living room clear for Michael, who stood naked before her. “You already told me that you all look different.”

  Michael hung his head. “If you get…”

  “If I get scared, I’ll go lock myself in the bedroom until you’ve changed back and tell me I can come out.” This part of the plan had been Jane’s idea.

  “Right.”

  “I’m ready,” she repeated, impatient to have it done with.

  Change, change into a monster. Mend my broken heart by making it impossible for me to love you.

  “Look away while I change,” he commanded.

  Oh God, here we go.

  Jane covered her eyes with her hands, her stomach, already knotted with anxiety, rolling with nausea at the disgusting sounds that ensued. There were pops and squelchy rips, cracking and tearing noises. Finally, silence, broken by a shushing noise, like paper rubbing together.

  Wings.

  With her broken heart exposed on her sleeve, Jane opened her eyes.

  !!

  Holy. Crap.

  “Holy crap,” Jane whispered. “Holy fucking crap.” Not normally vulgar, unless with her girls, that was the most articulate thing Jane could think of. She climbed off the couch and went to Michael, petting his wing.

  “Are you…frightened?” he asked, voice both lower that normal and more melodious.

  “Nope.”

  “Are you… having a mental breakdown and coming to realize that your whole world view has changed and your religious illusions are forever shattered?”

  “What?”

  “Er…that’s what normally happens.”

  “I need to sit.” Jane retreated to her seat on the couch and looked at Michael. Her angel.

  Literally.

  His wings spanned her living room, the long feathers downy white. His skin had turned from tan to a beautiful pearl and silver. His body was shaped close to that of a human, except huge. His head nearly touched the eight-foot ceiling. His penis was huge.

  His eyes were flaming blue and filled with lightning, his hair long and silver.

  “You’re an angel.”

  “Ugh. I hate that word.”

  “So when people claim to have seen angels …”

  “Yep.”

  “Oh, oh wow,” Jane said, mind reeling with the implications. “Err…do you take orders from God?”

  “No.”

  “Is there a God?”

  “How would I know?”

  “Just checking.”

  She couldn’t believe this. All his secrecy, all his refusal to talk about what he was… She’d assumed it was because he was particularly hideous, when in reality he was beautiful. She could see why he wouldn’t want to talk about it. The implications were staggering. This was definitely not something they would be addressing in the movie.

  “I’m sorry I pushed, I can understand why you don’t talk about how you look.”

  Michael cocked his head to look at her. “You’re…okay?”

  “What did you expect?”

  “Maybe crying, maybe throwing things.”

  “Why would I throw things?”

  “I dunno, but Lena threw things at Luke.”

  “Got it.”

  The shock was wearing off, and Jane couldn’t help the smile that had started to spread across her face. She’d fallen in love, not with a monster, but with an angel. Now her fears wouldn’t prevent them from being together…

  But he didn’t love her. That would prevent them from being together.

  To cover her sudden distress, Jane got up and approached him. “May I?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  She stroked Michael’s belly, the skin rubbery under her fingertips. Up close she could see other differences. His skin was not a single color, but a sort of marbled pattern of pearl and silver. There were long ivory spikes protruding from the tips of his wings, and his hands, each with only three fingers, were tipped with claws.

  She picked up his hand, examining the claws, which lengthened.

  “Retractable,” he said with a grin that revealed very sharp teeth.

  He scooped Jane up, cradling her in his arms. Jane felt very small. He beat his wings once. “Want to go flying?”

  “You can take me?” Maybe up in the cool blue sky she could forget her very broken heart.

  “Yeah, I—”

  The doorknob rattled, then screeched as it was broken. The door opened, and a monster walked in. Jane screamed. All she could see were bat-like cobalt blue wings and gold talons.

  “Ready to go?” a melodious voice asked.

  “Almost,” Michael confirmed.

  “M-M-Monster,” Jane stammered.

  “Runako is here to help,” Michael said soothingly.

  “H-Help?”

  Michael turned and lifted his wing so that she couldn’t see the other monster. Jane looked up at him with wide eyes.

  “Jane… I know you do not want a monster. And maybe you deserve more, but you are mine. You are my mate. I know that you need time to…to understand this. So I’m going to take you away, to a nice cave. It will be just us, and once you have come to accept me as your mate, we will return.”

  He smiled, all charm.

  Jane opened and closed her mouth like a guppy fish.

  “Mate? I’m your mate? That means you, like, love me and stuff?” she stammered.

  “Love is a pale word for what I feel. I more than love you. You are my mate. I would die for you, would kill to protect you. I want to be with your every day between now and the end of things.”

  “You love me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Michael!” Jane threw her arms around his neck and kissed his hot skin. “Oh, Michael,
my love! Why didn’t you say anything? My heart has been breaking these past few days.”

  “You…you love me? You want me as your mate?”

  “Of course!”

  Michael blinked in surprise and then grinned, which was a tad frightening. He threw his head back and laughed in triumph. He beat his wings, lifting them off the ground. His head promptly smacked the ceiling.

  “Ow.”

  Jane laughed and rubbed his head. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “I couldn’t, not until I’d shown you my true form. If you loved me why didn’t you say something?”

  “You said all you wanted was sex.”

  “I said that because I was scared of finding a mate.”

  He was scared of commitment and falling in love. Huh. Not exactly a news flash into the male psyche.

  “Well I fell in love with you, even though I knew it was nothing but sex. Even though I told myself not to because you were a scary monster. I fell in love with you. I love you.”

  “I love you too, my mate.”

  They kissed, Jane closing her eyes, then opening them, letting herself feel the differences and similarities between kissing this form and the other.

  “Does this mean you aren’t using the cave?” Runako asked.

  Michael broke the kiss. “I don’t need it. Get one of the other females and take her there. Human women are fun.”

  Runako cocked his head to the side. “That Margo is fun. I’ll kidnap her instead.” Runako tugged the broken door back into place, his thundering footsteps fading away.

  “Good idea,” Michael said.

  “No, bad idea, bad idea,” Jane said as Michael carried her to towards the bedroom. She really needed to find her phone and warn Margo. But then Michael, unable to get through the doorway, set her down and changed back to his human form. This time Jane watched as his wings curled in and shrank into his back, his skin brightened to gold and the lightning faded from his eyes.

  She traced the tattoo on his back.

  “Ahhh,” Michael moaned. “When you do that I can feel it on my monster body.”

  “So that’s why…”

  “Yes.”

  “So if I were to…” Jane slipped around to his back and licked and sucked the tattoo.

  Michael spun around and kissed her.

  “I love you,” she said.

  “You are my mate, I love you,” he replied, lightning flashing in his eyes.

  They never made it to the bed. They had sex on the floor.

  About the Author

  To learn more about Lila, please visit www.liladubois.com. Send an email to [email protected] or join her Yahoo! newsletter for contests, deleted scenes, articles, and release notifications at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ForbiddenTouch.

  Lila moved to Southern California where she obtained her degree in anthropology and currently resides in Hollywood, which provides an endless supply of exciting evenings and writing ideas. Having spent extensive time in France, Egypt and Turkey, Lila speaks five languages, none of them (including English) fluently.

  She has neither husband nor cats but there are some piranhas living in a fish tank behind her couch.

  Look for these titles by Lila Dubois

  Now Available

  Sealed with a Kiss

  Lights, Camera…Monsters

  When monsters need a makeover, they head for the one place that can make it happen. Hollywood.

  Lights, Camera…Monsters

  © 2008 Lila Dubois

  Luke is desperate to save his people. A lifetime of sneaking in to human houses and watching movies has convinced him that if he can make a great movie about monsters, humanity will change its opinion of them. With his friends at his side, all in shiny new human bodies, Luke heads for Tinsel Town.

  A rising Hollywood producer, all-business Lena knows a good story when she sees it. Luke? He’s just another amateur who wants to get famous. But Luke’s too gorgeous to pass up. And there’s something vulnerable about him that leads her to throw caution to the wind and invite him to dinner.

  One night of incredible sex later, Lena wakes up next to the surprise of her life. She’s sleeping next to a monster. Literally.

  Appearances aside, she finds herself wanting to help Luke save his people. But they’ve got more to worry about than just human prejudice.

  Some of the monsters would rather stay in the closet—and to make them all stay there, they’re willing to kill.

  Book One of the Monsters in Hollywood series.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Lights, Camera…Monsters:

  “What are you going to do if she wants to have sex?” Michael posed the question on all of their minds.

  “Do you think she does?” Luke asked.

  Henry shrugged and Michael fished around for a copy of Maxim. “She asked you on a date, that usually means sex.”

  Luke’s stomach knotted with anxiety. “I’ve never had sex with a human woman before. What do I do?”

  “Don’t look at me, I’ve never had sex with a human either, though she shouldn’t be that different from a succubus, they’re all cut from the same cloth,” Henry added.

  “Yeah, but there’s thousands of years of evolution in between.” Luke looked anxiously to Michael, who was ripping sex-tip articles out of magazines.

  “Here,” Michael shoved a handful of articles at Luke, “read these on the way.”

  The top article was titled: “Make Friends with the Little Man in the Boat”.

  “Thanks, Michael.” Folding the papers, Luke stuffed them into his pocket, nodded to Henry, and headed out the door. He had a half-hour walk before he reached a road with a payphone where a cab could pick him up. One of the problems with squatting in an abandoned warehouse in the Port of L.A. was the lack of easy transportation. He kept the pace light, having discovered that human bodies sweat, and it was not considered attractive. After all of his careful work obtaining this outfit, the last thing he wanted to do was ruin it.

  The crunch of papers in his pocket as he walked brought Luke’s mind around to the possibility of what could happen tonight. Lena. He tested the name out, liking the way it rolled over his tongue.

  Thinking back on the meeting, Luke admitted he liked everything about Lena. Her hair was a pretty, soft brown. It had been pushed back behind her shoulders, so the sides framed her face. Soft lips, tinted pink, a straight nose and sky blue eyes completed her face. There was something about the set of her mouth, as if she were constantly flirting with a smile.

  He’d had only a brief glimpse of her body when she rose at the end of the meeting. She was slender, a long cool line from shoulder to hip. The dark-colored skirt and fitted off-the-shoulder sweater set off her creamy, pale skin and exposed delicate collarbones. He mentally stripped away the clothes, imagining her soft white flesh exposed and vulnerable, waiting for him. Luke closed his eyes for a moment as desire danced through his bloodstream. It had been too long since he touched a female, and touching Lena would be more than touching just any female. She would be his first human.

  Ducking through a hole in the fence, Luke started down the access road to the payphone.

  An hour later Luke slipped into a booth across from Lena. It was eight fifteen, and he was late.

  “Lena, I’m sorry, there was traffic.”

  “That’s no problem, I’m glad you were able to make it.” Lena raised a glass of pale gold liquid to her lips. She’d smiled when he sat down, but the smile did not reach her eyes. If he had to guess, Luke would say she was mad.

  The waiter popped up next to his elbow, and Luke ordered tequila on the rocks. The waiter moved away, and Luke turned to see Lena’s raised eyebrows.

  “Tequila?” she asked.

  Luke had no idea what was wrong with ordering tequila. The other places he’d eaten had been fine with that.

  “Is tequila a…poor choice?” Flustered and anxious, Luke nervously smoothed the front of his shirt. His bangs had fallen into his e
ye, so Luke scooped them to the side, hoping his hair still looked like the picture he’d modeled it after.

  His anxious fussing seemed to amuse Lena, and she smiled, though it was a soft thing, without malice. “Tequila is a fine choice. So where were you coming from that you got stuck in traffic?”

  “Uh, near the port.”

  “The Port of L.A.? That is quite a drive, I’m sorry, if you’d told me I could have picked someplace closer to you.”

  “Oh no, this is fine. I’ve never been here, and I like trying new restaurants.”

  “Me too. I’m such a foodie. Where have you tried lately?”

  Luke looked around the maroon and brown interior of Lawry’s, each table set with linen and silver. No place he’d tried was anything like this. Most restaurant ventures started and ended with recommendations from cabbies.

  “Well, uh, nothing quite this fancy, but there was this taco place, in the valley…”

  “Hugo’s?”

  “Oh, uh, yeah.”

  “I love Hugo’s. What combination did you try?”

  Luke stared at Lena, wondering if she were laughing at him, but her interest and excitement seemed genuine. It was hard to imagine the brunette beauty, who looked edible in dark blue, hair loose in soft waves over her shoulders, standing outside the small taco hut, munching on a burrito as juice dripped down her chin.

  Luke tentatively relayed his menu choices, and Lena offered him a few suggestions. The conversation continued, and quickly focused on hole-in-the-wall cheap food. Luke’s puzzlement was soon replaced by delight as Lena revealed that she was just as willing to eat at the cheap places as the expensive ones. The few other people he’d met who worked in movies, or “the industry” as they all called it, had only talked about whom they’d seen at the latest posh restaurants.

  They covered Mexican and pizza, Chinese and Korean BBQ. Without thinking, Luke admitted that he’d never had three a.m. delivery of Thai food, as no Thai place would deliver to them. Lena blinked and sat back in her chair, apparently baffled by the idea of a locale outside Thai delivery. Luke held his breath, wondering if she would press him for details about where he lived, but Lena finally muttered, “Well, I guess you are in South Bay,” and the moment passed.

  Their salads arrived, and Luke carefully stabbed a forkful and brought it to his mouth. There was some shredded red thing amid the candied nuts and tangy cheese that tasted foul, but he kept chewing. Lena was carefully pushing the red stuff off to the side. When she noticed he was watching, she smiled ruefully.