2. Chapter 2
Eden
I tried hard to keep an open mind about Vanth’s party. The guy was cute and seemed genuinely interested in me despite my hair choosing violence earlier and going full frizz. I’d given a little shriek of fright when I’d finally seen myself in a mirror after getting home from the tea party.
I was still annoyed that Nan let me remain in public with my hair like that. She pointed out she’d been distracted by a sexy guy named Yuri.
When I said he'd be at the party too, Nan and Justice, her partner, demanded to go with me. They also invited a dozen other people, and now we were all standing outside of a rundown apartment building.
My optimism was fading.
“Well, you can’t judge a book by its cover,” Justice said. “Maybe the place is nicer on the inside.”
“You can totally judge a book by its cover,” I argued.
“If there’s a picture of a hot, purple, green, or blue guy with outer space behind him, you know it’s going to be a great alien romance.
If the hot dude is wearing armor, it’s going to be romantasy.
” I gestured to the apartment building. “This cover is giving me autobiographical-broken-dreams vibes.”
Nan snorted. “Don’t be so dramatic. So the party might not be that great, who cares?”
“I care,” I responded. “It’s been a rough year, and I deserve a good Halloween party.”
Nan and Justice’s expressions turned sympathetic. I lost my mom in January. She’d fought hard, but the cancer won.
It had always been the two of against the world. Now that she was gone I felt alone, despite my friends’ best efforts.
“We might as well go in,” one of Justice’s friends said, going for the door. “Then we can start drinking.”
Eager to avoid talking to me about death, Nan, Justice, and everyone else rushed to follow the guy. We all trooped up two flights of stairs to door 2C. There was a handwritten note to step in slowly because it was dark.
The door wasn’t locked, and I heard gasps and rapid, excited conversations as people shuffled inside. I was the last one to enter and could immediately see why everyone was reacting so strongly.
I’d been promised a spectacular Halloween experience and Vanth had delivered.
I walked into an elaborately decorated room, complete with tapestries hanging off the walls, chandeliers full of flickering candles, and tables groaning under the weight of so much food.
A massive arched window showed a dark exterior with a night sky full of stars without a hint of light pollution.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was looking out a real window.
That was some expensive tech to create such a realistic illusion!
The apartment must take up the entire floor because I could see corridors leading off to more rooms beyond the enticing foyer. All the walls were done up with amazingly realistic stone facades and everything was lit by candlelight. I couldn’t see a single bulb or artificial light.
I didn’t even want to think how dangerous it was to have all these candles everywhere because the entire effect was beyond my wildest dreams.
The door swung shut behind me with a nice loud creeeeeak, making me jump a little.
I looked back to see a heavy oak door instead of the cheap apartment door we’d opened from the outside. That was an impressive trick.
Vanth appeared at my side. “You came!”
I smiled. “And I’m impressed.”
When I turned to look at him my jaw dropped.
He was wearing a similar costume to the one he’d been wearing earlier at the tea, but instead of the regency outfit, he was wearing super tight leather pants and that was it.
His bare chest was on full display.
Oh, the man was built! He had abs for days, an Adonis belt that begged to be licked, and pecs I wanted to bury my face between and worship.
His skin was still dark blue and he had silver horns on his head from earlier. Had he died his skin? If so, was he now stuck that color until it wore off? I didn’t mind the idea; he looked good in navy blue.
He beamed at me and didn’t look disgusted at all so I must’ve managed to control my drool.
“You haven’t even seen everything yet.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” I barely kept from asking if he was going to peel those pants off.
“I have some entertainment coming,” he promised. His eyes traveled up and down my body. “May I say, you are the most gorgeous mermaid I’ve ever met.”
“Do you hang out with a lot of mermaids?” I asked, enjoying his eyes on me. It was only fair because I’d already gawked at him and I’d put a lot of effort into this costume.
I’d made a skirt out of layers and layers of scales I’d hand cut and painstakingly stitched on. The skirt was tight from my waist to my knees, then flared out in a triangle shape from my knees to the floor to create the tail.
The flare was wide enough to allow me to move with little, tiny steps. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make for this costume. Besides, I could take nice long strides every other day of the year.
For the top I’d used a bikini and some of the same fabric from the skirt. Then I’d covered every inch of exposed flesh with shimmering powder and Nan had helped me streak my hair with blue and purple dye.
I was proud of the entire effect. It was nice that Vanth admired it too. Bonus points for the guy because he didn’t constantly stare at my chest.
“Let me show you all the things,” he said, offering me his arm.
“Walk slowly,” I said. “The skirt is tight.”
“Walking at any pace with you is a pleasure,” he answered.
I’d ever get enough of his smooth, distinctly masculine voice.
As we walked through the foyer to one of the corridors, I noticed Justice and Nan had found Vanth’s friend from the tea party. He looked very pleased to be cornered by the two of them. All three were finding lots of excuses to touch each other. It was cute and I was happy for them.
I had a suspicion I’d be attending a handfasting in the future for the three of them.
“What’s some of your most favorite things to do?” Vanth asked as we walked down an impossibly long corridor.
“Honestly?” I asked. “Or the socially acceptable answer?”
“Always honestly, please,” he said. A sudden cacophony of screams and laughter came from the foyer and he chuckled. “My ghosts have made an appearance.”
“You have ghosts on call?” I teased.
He smirked. “Doesn’t everyone? Now, give the real answer to my question.”
“I like to read,” I said, deciding to get this out of the way now.
Several boyfriends had complained about my literary tastes, so it would be interesting to see how Vanth reacted.
“I like romance, all kinds of romance. Sci-fi, paranormal, contemporary, LGBTQIA+, and everything. Well, everything except historical and dark stuff.”
He went silent, making me nervous.
“Name your favorite author,” he demanded, his smile gone. He wasn’t frowning. It was almost as if he was concentrating on something other than our conversation.
“That’s impossible,” I scoffed. “I love so many authors I couldn't possibly pick favorites.”
“Then start naming them,” he urged. “I read a lot of everything, I might know a few.”
“Doubtful,” I said, but I started listing everyone I could think of off the top of my head.
He nodded as I talked, as if making note of each author. He didn’t scoff once and didn’t say anything like “I’ve never heard of those people" or any other snide comment I’d gotten from boyfriends in the past. In fact, he asked me to spell a couple of the names. Was he going to look them up later?
This was probably all an act, but I was enjoying it.
The sound of the party faded as he led me through another heavy wooden door. I had a moment of fear when I realized we were completely alone, maybe even out of shouting distance from all my friends, then I saw the room and all my worries fled.
“This is heaven!” I breathed, taking in the room around me.
It was the kind of library you only see in movies.
Floor-to-ceiling shelves covered two walls with the rolling step ladder to get to the high books.
Another wall had a row of giant arched windows.
Several of the deep windowsills were covered in fluffy pillows, inviting you to snuggle down and read while it rained outside.
There was a fireplace complete with a roaring fire and several large, overstuffed chairs that were as inviting as the window benches.
This was the stuff of a bookish girl’s dreams!
“I think you’ll like this section the best,” he said, walking me to an area. The books stored here were all the authors I named as we walked!
Not just one or two of their books, but every single book by each author was there, even some I didn’t think had come out yet. I pulled one out and opened it to see a note from the author hoping the reader enjoyed their advanced reader copy of her book.
He was such an avid reader he was receiving physical books to review before release.
“This is amazing,” I said, turning to face him. “Can I borrow this? It doesn’t come out until next month.”
“Consider this library yours,” he said, gesturing to the entire place. “You can take what you want or spend as much time here as you like.”
That was it. He’d gone from cute and intriguing to the sexiest fucking man I’d ever met! I set the book back on the shelf and launched myself at him. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled his face to mine. I saw a brief look of surprise before our lips met.
Then we were kissing and all thoughts left my head. His strong arms wrapped around me, holding me tight to his muscled body.
I hoped he didn’t mind glitter because he was about to be covered in it.
The impressive bulge in his pants got bigger, pressing against my belly. I badly wanted to touch it, but there were just enough thoughts in my brain to pull away so that we could have “the talk.”
“I don’t have condoms,” I blurted breathlessly. “I won’t do this bare.”
I expected a fight, but he nodded. “I have some, but we don’t have to have sex. We could kiss and touch instead. I want you to be happy.”
Good god, could this man get any better?