Page 240 of Bride of Choice

“Sometimes you're a really big dick.” A snort left me.

“Jojomine loves Rek dick. When Joanie not try shoots it off,” he grumbled.

“Who pissed in your gruel today?” I barked back.

His fingers smoothed over mine as we walked. He was taking the back way to his place. Less witnesses. “Boots look beautiful on my Joanie.” He let out a harsh grunt and glanced down at me curiously. “My Jojomine likes?”

There was a hint of a purr there, peeking as his rumble deepened.

“I do,” I said slowly, trying to figure him out. He was crazier than me. I had to admit it might drag me over the edge with him if I ever tried to keep up.

“Odix, Gopher try win my Joanie back.” A grunt of a chuff left him. “No smells like them. They no smell like my Joanie or nasty smellies stuff.” A short, hard grunt left him. “You mine.”

“Does the woman you’re going to replace me with know this? Or are you striking out trying to find someone willing to put up with your never ending shit?” I cooed, slipping my hand from his to fold my arms over my chest.

Rek bared his teeth at me and growled.

No, sir, we can’t just forget you’re a giant douche nozzle. Try again.

This went on for a bit, his growling and teeth baring, while I stared down the length of my nose at him, eyes narrowed, lips pursed, unimpressed.

Fuck. Why was I so turned on right now? Grrr- ARGH.

Rek was the first to break. We’d just reached his door. After realizing his attempts to drag me inside by my arm with my feet dug in as they were without hurting me was futile, he opened the door and gave me a pleading look. When I didn’t budge, I’d swear he muffled a groan under his breath before he blurted softly, “Please.”

“Yeah. Fine. Whatever.” My claws clacked as I flicked them at him.

He flinched, offering me a dirty look as I swept in past him.

I made sure my hair smacked him across his furry face as I passed. Dick.

When he would have closed the door, I stopped him. “It stays cracked open or I’m out,” I warned him.

With a growl louder than the last, he left the door cracked and stomped towards me.

I chose a spot between the fireplace and bed, what I considered the center of his main room pre-renovations.

“You wanted to talk,” I reminded him.

He gave me a look that said if I rushed him he was going to toss me over his thighs and paddle me.

Yeah right. I mean, I might like it, but it wasn’t something he’d do. A fantasy for another time. Ahem.

Arms folding over my chest once more, my scowl slipped into a frown, the longer he hesitated. My stomach did that weird somersaulting thing it did as worry started to settle in. “Just say it. Whatever it is,” I snapped, bristling. I could handle it, whatever it was, I kept telling myself, but my gut burned with trepidation.

Dropping the growling asshole thing after one short sniff in my direction that probably gave me away, damn him, his shoulders dropped, then his head, and he gave a few loud grunts in quick succession that were sort of like a sheepish stutter or laugh of the hairy folk. “Rek no mean it.” His toes’ claws scuffing the floor grew louder. “Rek want hurt Jojomine like Joansie hurt Rek,” he mumblingly admitted.

Frowning at his admission as he stared at his foot scuffing the floor so loud it started to make a weird clicking sound, making me think he’d clawed bits of it right up, I blurted, “What the hell did I do to you that you think the answer is threatening me with rushing out and finding someone else?! How is that- I don’t- That’s so not okay!”

“Kirch say Rek not good male. Good males no’ say that.” Several loud grunts, coughs, and throat clearings later, he lifted his head, meeting my gaze briefly before it dropped once more. “Kirch say him bad male once ‘pon time but want be good for him’s Meanie. No want hurt her. Kirch say- Kirch say Meanie teach him use big boy-ed words,” he gruntingly mumbled.

“It’s not okay,” I agreed, not sure what the hell else to say from there. “It’s not okay for me to hurt you either, but you have to tell me what I said or did that hurt you, not just start barking at me like an asshole. I don’t understand. How can you expect me to?!”

“Rek no’ mean it,” he grunted out.

“But you still said horrible things to someone you say you love, all the same,” I quipped.

Rek met my gaze unflinchingly then. “Joanie still has the loves for Rek? Even- Even after Rek big assed hole, say mean things to hurt Joanie’s heart? Make Jo want have sleeps overs with sticks-skinny Goober and Stupid Face Fat Head?”

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