Page 224 of Bride of Choice

“When?” I burst out.

“When Jo hug him, say stay, no leave. Want him stay,” Rek said for him.

“But that wasn’t Bum-bum, that was- That was…” Staring at them, wide-eyed, frozen in place, I finally snapped out of it and burst into motion.

Doogie and Rek stared at me, frowny faced and confused.

Shoving my chair back, leaving my food and dinner guests abandoned, I dropped down beside my bed, threw the bedding out of my way, and started to dig around down there.

Doogie made a startled noise as Bum-bum’s stone ween came to a rolling stop at his foot. Gopher’s stone dick, I chucked onto my bed. Odix’s, I stopped with my foot, picked up, and chucked up there with Gopher’s.

I could make out Doogie smothering shocked laughter from across the room. “Jo has lots of…”

“Rock dicks,” Rek finished with a loud grunt, unperturbed by the stone junk parade. Rek had already met the rock dick brigade. The nosy posy had unearthed them while helping me hunt down my misplaced sock the other day.

Dragging the cloth wrapped bundle I’d shoved under there a while back out, I tore at the material in my haste to unearth it.

My fingers smoothed over familiar bumps and grooves. Dropping flat to my ass, I blinked down at the damn things.

I didn’t want to believe it.

“That’s- He’s- No,” I mumbled, forcing the emotions welling up down.

Rek’s chair scraped as he pushed it back and got down on the floor next to me.

“No,” I whispered faintly, gripping the horns in my hands until my fingers were a pale white.

“Jojomine, tell Rek.” Scooting up behind me, until I was in his arms, his thick legs on either side of me, he pressed his face into my shoulder for a nuzzle, then placed a kiss to the spot, just over his bite marks. “Tell Rek, my Joanie.”

“He made me think- He said-” A choked sound left me. Trying to swallow past the massive lump threatening to choke me was proving near impossible. Another choked sound left me. “All this time… all of it-” Tears rolled down my cheeks as I met his concerned and rightfully confused gaze. “Bum-bum is Fuck N Run. He’s Cuddle Monster/Beast Mode. He- He lied to me,” I croaked. Dropping the horns like they were poisonous, I shoved them away from me.

“Bum-bum lie?” he blurted, trying to understand.

“He- That morning after, he acted like he found me in the woods in Cuddle Monster’s love nest- He let me think he didn’t want me, because HE didn’t. All this time- I feel so stupid! The signs were all there, I just didn’t see!”

The avalanche, Bum-bum and Cuddle Monster run-ins happening so close together, because he was actually them.

“I feel so fucking stupid,” I bit out angrily, even as tears slowly spilled down my cheeks and my voice cracked. But in the back of my mind, I’d had those thoughts, those what-ifs. I’d be a total dummy not to have thought it. I just… I’d wanted to trust him so fucking bad. The truth of it stung as much as his lies.

“Jojoknee not stupid,” Rek grunted out. “Jojo smart, beautiful, smells nice, no eats poops. Even yucky coffee breath not bad. Not gross like Odix’s.”

Laughing through the tears, I swatted at him until he stopped. “Odix chews minty stuff all the time. His breath is anything but bad or gross,” I informed him primly.

“Rek no want kiss him find out.” Rek made a face. “Take Jojomine words for it.”

Turning, I curled into him, rested my head on his shoulder, and hugged him back. “Why does everything have to be so fucking difficult? Why can’t it ever just be easy for once?”

“Bum-bum a dum-dum,” Doogie rumbled out from his spot at the table.

The grunt Rek let out seconded Doogie’s assessment.

“Do you- Do you think one of you might be up to doing me a favor?” I asked, swiping the tears from my eyes.

“Rek do it,” Rek agreed without asking what it was I wanted it. He was Team Joanie all the way at this point.

“It might piss off a really big hairy behemoth?” I cautioned.

“Doogie help ,too,” our thirdie in crime piped up.

---