Page 110 of Bride of Choice

The louder he purred, the softer he crooned, the more I found myself relaxing.

Bum-bum snapped something at Odix that had the male stiffening, but one look at my panicked face and he bent his head, leaned in, and gently pressed his lips to mine.

A soft noise left me, my breath puffing across his lips as he pulled back to stare down at me, gauging my reaction.

There was some tugging and unpleasantness over by my leg but every time I started to feel panicky, Odix sought to distract me.

I was ten kisses in before my foggy mind kicked back on and I attempted to kiss him back.

A deep, long rumble rattled the male when he was forced to come up for air.

My heart pounded for reasons unrelated to wilderness first aid as I licked my lips, eyeing his.

“Bum-bum say kiss Jo. Jo stop fusses,” Odix blurted.

If that wasn’t a tub of ice water dumping over my head to hear it, I don’t know what is.

It was hard to kick up a real, good fuss, when that gross drink was still leaving me lingering in happy from his kisses land.

When my expression started to falter, he meant to go in for another round of kiss the frantic female, when I stopped him.

“You don’t need to kiss me to shut me up.” When I would have wiggled my hand, I realized it was still trapped and settled for shaking my head. The shakes of earlier had gone. The adrenaline coursing through my veins left me as quick as it had come. I was left feeling drained and strangely used up. I was too tired and foggy headed to sort it all out. “I’ll be good,” I promised, motioning for him to ease up on pinning me to him.

With caution, he slowly released me, looking ready to rally and crush me to him at the slightest sign of any sudden, impending freakout.

Deliberately looking anywhere but at Odix or towards my lower half, my gaze found and held the male’s who was slowly coming to from his little nap.

A small half smile twisted my lips as Rek got a good look at what all was going on.

“Almost done,” Gopher told me, then hopped right back into the fray.

Nodding, my gaze drifted towards the sky. Closing my eyes, I forced several deep breaths. “You can set me down now. You don’t have to hold me, Odysseus. I’ll be good.” Reaching out, I gave him a there-there pat, hoping he got the picture.

Odix made a grumbling sound at the name-mangle but didn’t make any sudden moves to set me down and feck off.

Berkr snorted from his spot across the fire, bookending with Kirch, who was also cupping snow to his head. “Jo no pick bad males,” he corrected. Another snort. “Bad males want Jo.”

“Shut up, Pepé. Nobody asked you,” I sniped.

Kirch glanced between Berkr and me and just shook his head. “Jojoknee won’t have Berkr. Jojoknee not have only one.”

Berkr lifted an arm, encompassing the group gathered. “Jo have no males. Come but no stay. Jo only one.”

My expression blanked as I stared at them, wondering who the fuck all else knew about my shitty love life, and how it had managed to stay a secret amongst them without spreading out to the ladies of the village, namely my cousin, by now.

Or… did she know and wasn’t telling me?

“I don’t have any mates, and at this point I don’t give a shit if I ever do,” I told the pair.

Kirch’s face said he begged to differ but he wasn’t going to, while Berkr’s turned contemplative.

Closing my eyes once more, I murmured as I focused on the fire crackling and the wind whipping through our makeshift camp, “Don’t even think about it, Pepé. You’d have to truly kidnap me and force me. I’d bite IT off before I’d ever kiss it. Oil and water, bud. Oil and water.”

Berkr made a distressed noise. Kirch cracked up.

Gopher made loud grunting noises like he was holding shit back but was pleased with my answer.

Odix was oddly quiet.

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