Lor (Monstrous, #7)

by Lily Mayne

“I feel that way about you too, Jugs. I—I like you. Very, very much. Romantically.”

B-but there’s… there’s another way to kiss when you… really like someone.” “Is there?” I eagerly leaned even closer. “How? Can we do that?”

“What the perrk is kissing?” Lyri narrowed his eyes at me in suspicion. “It is a human custom, and it is none of your business.”

“You are not going to interrogate Jugs,” Lor said firmly. My gut squeezed with terror. Interrogate me? Why? Oh my god, was he going to throw me in the dungeon again? Surely Lor wouldn’t let him.

“He’s… he’s what?” I asked. “Don’t repeat—” “Smitten, otherworlder,” Lyri spoke loudly over Lor. “He is smitten with you. Because you are showing him your strange human sexual ways. And bringing him odd gifts,”

I stared back, eyes wide and unblinking, as I slowly came to the realisation that I’d just had an intense make out sesh with a monster world ruler.

Sow those wild oats, you know? Or, I mean, not so wild, if you’re in a committed relationship. Sow those committed oats, my man.”

“Don’t burn out, bro. Spending your nights romancing your boyfriend and working all day? You gotta take some time for yourself. Recharge those batteries.”

“And hey, um… thanks. F-for being cool.” “Fuck anyone who makes you feel like shit for who you are, man,” Anton said with surprising vehemence.

“You gotta live your life how you’re meant to live it. That’s all any of us can hope to achieve, right?”

I knew it would take a while for him to get used to kissing, and I totally did not mind being the guy he practised on.

He looked… so inhuman, his deep blue skin gleaming, the jewelled piercings winking in his huge, pointed ears. But he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

His eyes flared with excitement, but he leaned into me, placing his hands on my chest as he said, “You don’t have to bring me anything, Jugs. Just as long as you keep coming back.”

I had to touch him. I had to kiss him wherever he would let me kiss him.

He felt like a gift. A treasure. I wanted to show him off to the entire fiefdom, to show them how lucky we were that out of the many, many people in his world—five billion of them—it had been Jugs who’d stumbled through the void to come here.

Lyri was right. I was smitten. Completely, utterly smitten.

I wanted to climb into bed together every night and pull the drapes shut so that we could hide away until morning, just the two of us.

“Please don’t stop coming back.”

I would likely never get to share any of it with him. That one day, Jugs might simply stop coming back, never again stepping through the void from his world.

And I would wait, and wait, haunting an empty guestroom in my hyll, praying to the Mabs for just one more chance to see him.

“Come on, Gryf.” I heard the door open. “Let’s go… discuss weaponry.” I heard Gryf snickering before their footsteps retreated.

“Maybe our uptight Moric has finally found something interesting to do to pass the time alone in his chambers.” I pulled a face at the wall as they snickered, indignation flaring hot. I have, actually! I wanted to shout through the wall. Just last night I had my cock sucked by a beautiful otherworld creature. Twice! That doesn’t sound very uptight, does it!

“I will keep this. Soon I will have a glorious collection of otherworld artifacts.” My chest ached at how sweet he was. “You don’t have to keep it. It’s just trash.” He gasped. “It is not trash! It is from your world, and you gave it to me. Therefore it is precious.”

He was just so beautiful. He was small and slender, his deep blue skin smooth and matte and unblemished.

I want everyone to see how beautiful you are.” I flushed, resisting the urge to rub my nose or tug at my ear. “I’m… I’m not really beautiful. By human standards.” “Yes, you are,” Lor said vehemently, reaching up to touch my pierced lobe. “Your dainty ears and proud nose and full mouth. You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Jugs.”

God, he always made my heart go nuts when he said things like that. A lump forming in my throat, I kissed him again and croaked, “I missed you too.”

I needed to be naked against him, to feel all those chains and jewels on my skin.

Oh my god, I deserved a freaking medal for lasting this long when I was fucking the hottest, most beautiful creature in the entire universe.

“If I could keep you here forever, I would.” He kissed me again, fingers trailing lower to stroke my drained nuts. I chuckled, tipping my hips back to let my cock slip free from his body. “You mean inside you or here in your world?” “Both,” he said softly, sliding his hand around my hip.

I didn’t think it was chance. I thought we were always meant to meet, despite being different species and living in different worlds.

I thought… I thought something had brought us together. And I wasn’t going to let him go.

I’d spend the rest of my life travelling back and forth through t...

How could I ever want anyone else? I would never, ever find someone else like him, and not just because he wasn’t human. He was so sweet and gentle, fragile in some ways—ways that made me want to keep him close and safe even though he was a big, powerful ruler of some kind here.

“Yes please,” I said hoarsely, my cock stirring with renewed interest when I lifted myself off him and saw his lean body dripping in chains—and cum. Holy crap, that looked amazing.

“How much longer can you stay?” “Ages,” I said without even checking my watch.

I was besotted. I hadn’t known I could feel like this about another person. I finally understood.

“Alright, twin?” He gestured at Jugs. “I was just getting to know Jugs here.”

He still had his own life, even though it felt like mine revolved around him and him alone more and more each day.

“I miss you every day,” I told him hoarsely, nuzzling the short golden hair above his ear. “Every hour you are not here.”

“I love it.” He crashed his lips to mine, kissing me hard. “I love it. This is the best thing anyone’s ever given me.”

Once it was out, he carefully slotted mine into the piercing. My throat ached at the sight of it in his lobe. Now he could carry a piece of me whenever we were apart.

After sliding in Jugs’ hoop, I stared at it. A single flash of gold amid all the silver-and-black metal and muted jewel tones. Now I would carry a piece of him too.

I wanted to savour every moment I had with him—to fill those moments with joy and pleasure and happiness.

“I want you too, more than anything. I miss you every moment you are not here. I dream of you after you leave. I spend my days wishing you were beside me, wishing that I could have you here with me always.”

In that moment, I wanted him to treat me like a child. His child.

“You didn’t make him come back, Lor. You couldn’t force him to come here. Jugs kept coming here because he wanted to. Because he wants you.”

But of course she couldn’t. She had been taken from us. And now Jugs was going to be taken from me too.

Like a fool, I’d let myself hope as I watched him step through the void and vanish, taking my heart with him.

function. Every morning after he had left, I returned to my chambers and cried. I prayed to the Mabs to save him. I asked them to take me instead. I swore that if he survived, I would let him live his life in peace in his own world, in case this was punishment for me giving my heart to an otherworlder.

It would destroy me, but at least he would be alive. At least I would know that he was still out there, growing old and moving on, finding happiness with someone else. Alive.