Read Online The Last of the Monsters by Lila Dubois - Free Book Online

help but think about Akta.
    It had been a week since the night of the attack…and the kiss. He wanted, needed , to talk to her, but Henry had the feeling that Akta was avoiding him. Now he wondered if everything they’d talked about had been a lie. Why would she be avoiding him?
    As dirt was added to his face, Henry made a resolution. The production was transitioning to a new location tomorrow, so they had the night off. Tonight he’d talk to Akta.
     
     
    She’d been expecting this, and he hadn’t disappointed her.
    When the backyard alarms chimed, Akta checked the video feed in time to see Henry—all eight feet of blue monster—setting the clothes he was carrying on a lounger before changing to human. By the time he was dressed and knocking on her patio door, Akta had decanted a bottle of red.
    Holding her long knit sweater closed over the silk PJ pants and cotton tank top she wore, she opened the door and let him in.
    “Hello, Henry.”
    “Akta.” He closed the door behind him. “I wanted to talk to you.”
    “I figured. I got us food. It’s warming up.”
    Going to the kitchen, she checked the plates and bowls of Thai food she’d put in there to keep warm after they were delivered an hour ago.
    “You got me food?”
    “Yes.”
    “How did you know I was coming?”
    He sounded so disgruntled that a little smile pulled at her lips. “I guessed.”
    “I hate being predictable.”
    “You’re a lot of things, Henry, but you’re not predictable.”
    He took two glasses out of the cupboard and poured them each wine. He knew her house as well as she did. She couldn’t even begin to count the times he’d been here, either alone or with others.
    He took the glasses to her small dining room, then grabbed place mats from a drawer in the buffet.
    “Henry isn’t my name.” He slid past her to get silverware but didn’t meet her eyes.
    Akta stiffened, looking at his back as he closed the drawer. “You chose the name Henry when you came to LA—I knew that.” She’d never heard him mention his given name.
    “My real name is Mir’ek.”
    “Mir’ek.” Akta sounded it out. He started to walk away, but she touched his arm. He turned to look at her and she tried to pair that name with his face, to see him as Mir’ek, not Henry. She couldn’t—he was Henry to her. Frustrating, fascinating, sexy Henry.
    “Do you want me to call you Mir’ek?”
    “No.” His gaze met hers. “I like Henry. I just wanted you to know my real name.”
    Akta took a breath. “Thank you.”
    In silence, they finished setting the table. When Akta pulled hot plates and bowls from the oven, Henry set out trivets, then grabbed oven mitts to help her carry everything to the table.
    The strange mood that had gripped Akta since the night of the attack was fading. She’d been both angry with Henry and wary of him. She wanted to talk to him and wanted to pretend nothing had happened. But this—sitting at her dining room table with Henry across from her—felt right. She relaxed in his presence, felt more herself than she did with anyone else.
    When they were halfway through their bowls of noodles, he put down his chopsticks. “I wanted to talk to you about last week.”
    Akta toyed with a snow pea. “You mean the night of the attack.”
    “Yes.”
    Her lips twisted and the anger that had been festering in her bubbled up. “The night you decided that only if the world were basically ending would you kiss me.”
    Henry’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
    “I thought you came because you…you cared about me, and you wanted to be with me. I’d been waiting since the day you told me you were a virgin. Actually, I feel like I’ve been waiting since we met.” Her voice was getting louder and louder, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “I’ve been waiting for you to notice me, for you to give some indication that you wanted me the way I want you.”
    Akta jumped out of her chair, needing to move. “I thought that after you told