Page 252 of Bride of Choice

I didn’t dare look back. I couldn’t. If he didn’t care, it would kill me. If he looked like he cared too much, I worried my weak ass might pseudo forgive him, if only for a little while, and that wasn’t fair to anybody.

“Jo?” he called after me, louder than the last time.

Picking up my pace, I couldn’t get away from him fast enough.

???

Instead of traipsing my happy ass home, I decided to head to Rek’s. He wasn’t home and his place was locked up, so I sat outside in the cold and wet and everything that comes with that, and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

A new day was ready to peak when I finally gave up and headed home. Worry fought with annoyance and a pinch of hurt. Where the hell had he gone off to and stayed gone all night and hadn’t thought to say a word to me? Were we not doing this relationship thing here?

Trudging my way back to my place, no sooner had I rounded the corner past the last hut before mine, did I spy a pair of thick, hairy legs, then the rest of the person they were attached to. Rek slept at a funny angle, legs splayed, body slumped and listing to the right, a garbled noise leaving him as he noisily breathed with his neck cocked funny. He was going to have one hell of a crick in his neck.

“Rek?” Coming up on him, I tapped the toe of my boot onto the underside of his foot.

Snuffling awake, curling his leg away from whatever was pestering him, his eyes slowly slid open, to scowl at the human frowning down at him.

Knowing what was coming, I started talking before he could. “Thought I saw a Krampus, was temporarily hijacked when I went for help, who claims they didn’t find any sign of my Krampus sighting, and then I went home to wait for you but you weren’t there.”

“Jojomine not home. Rek go Jojomine’s, wait. You no here,” he grumbled, his voice still sleep addled.

“Your place “home”, dummy,” I muttered with an eyeroll. “Would’ve drawn a bath and then curled up in the bed to read until you showed your grumpy mug but you had the place locked up tighter than your asshole.”

“Jojomine go… Rek’s? Go home?” This seemed to perk him up. Scrambling to his feet, he grabbed me up and jerked me into his arms. “Jojoknee come home.”

“Uh, yeah. That’s what I just said, isn’t it?” I sputtered, my voice muffled in all that chest fluff.

Pulling back, he grinned at me. “Jojomine come home,” he repeated.

A snort of a laugh left me at just how happy that made him and I found myself smiling back.

“Mine,” he rumbled, reeling me back in to plant one on me.

When he finally let me up for air, I had to ask, “Why did you wait out here? Why not go back home and wait me out?”

“Jojomine think Rek mad, Rek say want be mad. Bum-bum find Rek, tell Rek my Jojo see Krampus playing the peeks-a-boos, we go, all go, no see. Look, no see. No see Krampus anywhere. Celuk say him still look. Tell Rek wait for Jo. Rek think Celuk mean wait my Jojomine’s hut, not Rek’s hut. Rek come here. Rek wait.” Grimacing, he grumbled, “Bum-bum just say Jojomine’s safe, no say where safe. Odix stay in woods, go out with Tarnk, look for more Krampus. Gopher check dens with Veck. Gopher like this,” he explained, miming being thin, “fit in skinny places bigger Lo denaii no fit. Tebor scout. Comes back. Says no Krampus. No one find Krampus. Rek still wait. Celuk say Rek stay, wait for Jojomine, him look. Jojomine comes to Rek.”

“And still not one single hint of a flippin’ Krampus?” I breathed, flabbergasted. I knew what I saw, and it wasn’t a damn trick of the mind! “How can that be?”

“No know.” Rek’s shoulders lifted in a half shrug. “Hide good. Maybe this one smart,” he guessed.

Waiting, staring at him, there was not one hint of ‘I don’t believe you’ or maybe you were incorrect, in his tone or the look on his face.

“You- You believe me, then? You don’t think I thought I saw something but I didn’t?” My fingers played in the hair above his pecs in the middle of his chest. “Because I know what I saw.”

Rek gave the side of my face a brief nuzzle before pulling back to stare down at me.

“Bum-bum thought I was mistaken,” I muttered petulantly, feeling a wee bit stung from that one.

“Rek no care,” my male told me. “Jojomine say she saw, she see.” He was insistent.

“Thank you,” I murmured as I stared at his collarbone, unable to meet his gaze as I smiled softly. Why that made me feel a little smitten, sort of shyly happy, enamored, I had no idea why, but it meant the world to me.

“Joansie,” Rek rumble-purred.

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