Page 65 of Bride of Choice

My pads, cup, clothes, books, chargers, tablet… My god, everything but the ring Rek had jacked was here.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask how on earth he’d accomplished this herculean task but I was almost afraid to.

Rek must be so damn pissed right now. I mean, flippin’ livid.

My lips tipped up into a wicked smile, imagining him getting a taste of his own medicine, and I shook my head. Did that make me evil? To even think of delighting so in his torment?

Meh. Fuzzenstein started it. He had it comin’.

Emerging from the back room covered in more blood and gore, the rich tang of iron clinging to him, he grunted as he walked past, “Stew warm. On fire.”

The bathroom door closed behind him and the sound of water trickling pricked my ears.

“I’m to assume you don’t mean quite literally on fire but on the fire?!” I sweetly called after him.

“Smarts in the ass,” he called back over the sound of water running.

“Hah.” A short laugh left me. “Not up in my ass but definitely,” I muttered with a small smile.

Shrugging, I stood and walked over to the counter to grab a heat-thick rag and pluck the pot off the fire hook, dished out two big bowls full, to set them at the table and pour another drink and set it at his side. Setting an eating utensil beside each bowl, I then made good on slathering the sweet butter I found in his cold buried box, like an in ground ice chest that worked about as well as any fridge, and slathered up several slices of bread.

By the time Kooky was done washing up, I was halfway through my bowl and working on my second slice of bread.

He grunted his thanks as he walked his towel to a round metal barrel with a wooden lid, and lifted it off to toss his cloth into it. “For soak like blood rags,” he said simply, gesturing at it in passing pointedly, to join me.

Aaaand we’re not gonna talk about that while I’m eating. Nope. Nuh-uh.

“So… you got my shit for me,” I mumbled awkwardly.

“Jes,” he said simply.

“I said a lot of things last night.” My lips pressed and I found I couldn’t hold his gaze for long, dropping it to the spoon-fork thing in my hand.

His grunt in answer as he bit off a large hunk of bread to chew it quietly wasn’t really much of an answer.

“You aren’t, uh, gonna tell anyone about, you know, any of the shit I said, right?” It felt hot in the room, my throat growing tight. I felt like there was a lump in my throat when I swallowed.

“Pink-kneed swoo-wahr-ed,” he rumbled out between bites.

“That’s right, you did.” My head bobbed along in a short nod. My hand lifted and I waved it off towards the pile of my crap. “I also know where some of that stuff allegedly was… well, I mean, the being it was being held by, I should say, and I have no idea how you could have gotten it without alerting the beings that thought it okay to snatch it from me.”

“Distract Rek. Celuk get,” he said simply. “Rek stupid. No know yet.”

He distracted Rek and Celuk got my things? A team effort kinda thing? “You did?” I blurted, staring up at him, feeling oddly flattered and flustered.

“Need things, jes? Beed less sad, have things.” Plowing through his first bowl of stew, he stood for seconds. Spying my nearly empty bowl, he snatched it up and refilled mine as well.

“You, uh, didn’t happen to find a necklace with a ring amongst those things, did you?” My gaze fixed on the bowl headed my way and stayed there.

“No ring. Jo need?” he asked casually as he retook his seat and dug into his second helping. There was nothing casual about the intensity of this dude’s gaze.

“No. No. Just curious,” I said quickly. Truth be told, the longer Rek held onto the ring, the more I thought maybe, somehow, there might still be hope for him, for us, yet. I was a hapless, hopeless idiot when it came to the stupid sock monkey. I loved him, no matter what I tried to tell myself. I couldn’t help it. He was my kryptonite.

“Why Rek?”

His question caught me off guard. A cough left me as a chunk of tuber vegetable threatened to go down the wrong tube. “Beg pardon? We’re just going to jump right into this shit, right now, are we?”

His large shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Why?” he repeated. He was curious, watching my face for some kind of tell, I felt like. There wasn’t a judgy bone in his body about it. Kooky was honest to god, genuinely curious.

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