Page 79 of New Storm Rising
“Please, just a taste—”
“No.” Mr Ambrose’s grip on me tightened. Under normal circumstances, I’d be delighted. But now? Didn’t he understand? I needed sap! I needed tree bark!
And, pray, why do you suddenly need that?
Oh, who cares! My kingdom for my fix!
“Please…” Snuggling up against him, I batted my eyelashes up at him. “I’m your darling little wife. We’re on our honeymoon. You wouldn’t want to starve me, would you?”
“I would not. However, I would also not consider feeding youtree sap.”
“Some grass, maybe?” I suggested hopefully.
A little voice in the back of my mind was telling me that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t a good idea to be munching grass and tree bark. On the other hand, a brand new, much louder voice that I had never heard before was yelling at me that, hell yeah, it was a bloody brilliant idea! And why had I never thought of it before? I was getting a whole lot of brilliant gastronomical ideas lately.
“No. No grass. No clover. No daisies.” Grabbing my arm, my ruthless, stingy husband pulled me up and, throwing one of his shirts over my head, started manoeuvring me towards the dining room. “Eggs. Bacon. Now.”
“Cruel man! Do you want me to puke again?”
Was I acting a tiny bit irrationally?
“Come along. I will even cook.”
“Tree sap! Tree sap! I wanna have my tasty tree sap!”
Nah. Definitely not irrational in any way.
Although, I had to admit while Mr Ambrose was working away at the stove (his unbelted trousers sagging in a most interesting way at the back) that, recently, I had developed some odd habits and urges that I would, most likely, not have considered before. What could possibly be responsible for such sudden mood changes? Was I…
Yes! Eyes widening, I took a deep breath. That had to be it! How had I not seen this before?
I was growing into my own.
After all, before, I still had been a girl, living with her aunt and uncle. Now I was a woman grown, married even, with a home of her own, and a bootylicious husband. Was it any wonder that my tastes would change? Surely, sipping tree sap wasn’t such a strange thing to do.[19]
Well…probably.
Maybe.
“Here we go.” A plate of steaming eggs and bacon landed in front of me. Glancing up, I caught sight of Mr Rikkard Ambrose, bare-chested and dressed in a chef’s apron. Seems like I wasn’t the only one who had gone through some changes. And suddenly, my mouth was watering.
Hm…maybe eggs and bacon weren’t so bad after all.
Particularly bacon. Nice, juicy bacon that I could just reach out and tou—
With supreme effort, I averted my gaze from Mr Rikkard Ambrose’s derriere.
Breakfast, Lilly. Breakfast.
I glanced at Mr Ambrose again.
And then, maybe desert.
I smiled as I dug into my bacon. Yes, recurring nausea aside, this honeymoon might turn out to be very interesting after all.
***
Several days later…
