Page 287 of Bride of Choice

His purr started to kick up again but I growled a little under my breath and he stopped immediately.

The look on Rosa’s face said she wanted to reiterate her earlier point but I was having none of it.

“If that fool was me with a dick,” I started to say to cut myself off the moment I realized how stupid anything that came out of my mouth would be for me. The dingus out there would take it like a road map to wooing me. And then what, six monster babies born in, IF I should survive, when he tires of me and wants to un-mate me and just dumps me yet again, what then? Hmm? No. I wasn’t going to be fooled yet again!

“If that fool was you?” Rosa pressed.

“I wouldn’t have done any of the things he did,” I muttered lamely, glancing away from her raised-eyebrows stare. “That’s for sure.”

Walking over to the sideboard, I sliced the loaf of bread Mal had left behind. With my back to her, I muttered, “You don’t have to babysit me.”

“Don’t,” Rosa said softly.

“Don’t what?” Playing dumb, I buttered two pieces of bread, grabbed some fruit, and put more water on for tea.

Turning to her, I found her opening my randomly spread out suitcases to start putting my things back where they rightfully belonged, namely making up my bed. “You know what,” she said simply.

When I waited, distracting myself by thinking about all the rest of my shit at Rek’s and lamenting the loss of said shit, she took her time making the bed with the spare sheets in the first suitcase she’d opened to sit on the edge of it.

“After tea, I’ll leave, for now, but don’t push me away, okay? I love you. I’m here for you, Joans.” Patting the spot next to her, she grinned when I sarcastically took her invite too literally and scooched in until I was practically on her lap. “Bony Joanie, do you remember that? Because of your ridiculously bony ass,” she teased, knocking into me on purpose until I moved the fuck aside.

“Bish, your ass was so flat back then it was inverted. We were kids! We had to hit puberty first, give that shit a chance to fill out!” The dark glare I gave her for bringing up the bullshit of the past didn’t faze her.

Rosa grinned and laughed, and for once it really honestly felt just like old times, even if it so was not.

Rosa’s smile fell a little as we lapsed into silence.

“He’ll realize what he’s done and it’ll be too late,” she murmured softly. Another nudge to me. “No takebacksies. Rek can suck it.”

“I hope he regrets the rest of his life,” I bit out, rolling my eyes at myself as my voice cracked and I found myself swiping at my eyes.

“Can I ask you a very personal question?” Rosa had glanced to my shoulder as I scratched at it, but then looked to me, meeting my gaze dead on.

“You can, but I can refuse to answer…” My shoulder lifted in a shrug.

“How many mates do you have?” She was just gonna blurt it out there, huh? Just like that?

When I gave her a frowning, unblinking stare, she gestured towards my neck.

My scars. Shit. Must’ve spied them when we were joking. I’d gotten really good at covering them up. I was exposed in more ways than one right now.

“Does it matter?” I said finally. Dragging my hair over my shoulder, I covered them back up.

Her face pinkened as she shoved my hair right back over my shoulder in a take back the sass reverse hair flip. One good look at the state of my neck and shoulder and she blurted, “Girl, you look like a chew toy!”

“Maybe I like it,” I shot back, then made her blush look like amateur shit as I turned tomato red. Once more, I hastily pulled my hair over my shoulder and adjusted the collar of my stretched out top.

The deep chuckle issuing from outside had that tell-tale tomato red of my face going dark beet. “They talk sex bites,” Hyde told Tokre.

I recognized Tokre’s answering grunt.

“My Jo likes sex bites,” Hyde felt the need to inform him. “Lots.”

“Of all the-” My lips clamped shut as my eyes bugged. Holy hells, shut up, you big mouth! When I said just that, Hyde chuckled like I’d just said the cutest fucking thing and didn’t sound ready to maul him to death.

Rosa and I sputtered when twin rumble-purrs issued from outside and Hyde announced, like we hadn’t already guessed, “The Rosa likes the sex bites, too. Humans females like Lo denaii. Likes to bite.” He made a chomping sound and a garbled, gurgling noise left me.

“Okay! Enough sex talk!” I shouted, slapping a hand to my forehead in exasperation.

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