Page 70 of Marrying the Gardener
I clear my throat. “It tends to happen more in captivity than in the wild. For black widows to mate, part of the male’s bodymust be placed between the female’s fangs, leaving him open to threat, but it’s rare that the wild females take advantage of that. It’s only in captivity, when obtaining food is somewhat outside the female’s control, that it becomes a prevalent issue.”
Crimson stares down at me, computes the useless nonsense I’ve just spouted, then poses, “Kaleb. I’m a female who has spent her entire life in something akin to captivity.”
Ah, yes. That is…fair enough.
Counterpoint: do I entirelymindbeing eaten?
Pushing myself up on my elbows, I say, “I don’t mind rough.”
“Rough?”
Sagely, I nod. “Intimacy with the addition of cute aggression. Very common. Very normal.”
“Normal,” she echoes, and some tension in her releases. “So this is a normal reaction to the onset of emotion toward someone…”
“It is.”
My body quakes when she runs her fingers through her hair, absently playing with it as she gets lost in her thoughts. “Interesting.”
I’m so relieved the distance over the past week hasn’t been because I’ve done something wrong. I say, “I wish you’d talked to me.”
She glances at me, letting her hair fall around her speckled shoulder. “I told you. I didn’t want to give you false hope.”
“I’d have preferred false hope to feeling like you were pulling away.”
“I said you hadn’t done anything wrong.”
“It isn’t often someone says that, means it, and then imposes separation, Rose-red.”
“You could have talked to me about it.”
Lifting one hand, I tease the beautiful locks of her hair myself. “I’ve tried. You’ve been skittish all week.”
“Oh.” She traces my collarbone with a fingertip. “I suppose I have been… I’m sorry. I’m not good at this.”
I run my thumb over the freckles lining her cheekbone, marvel at the heat scouring her flesh. She issopretty. “It’s all right. It must be scary.”
“Don’t patronize me, Kaleb.”
I wince. “Sorry. I’m not trying to.”
“You are, though. You’re getting all soothing and protector-y. I don’t need a soothing protector. It’s not scary. It’s disturbing. We just exchanged a multitude of germs, and I want to do it again. That is disgusting.”
“I brushed my teeth this morning.”
“Sure, but I didn’t even ask if you had before I jumped you.”
“I’m more than willing to be jumped again.”
“Kaleb,” she groans.
I can’t stop myself. I laugh.
She scowls, then she starts to leave me. “I hate being inexperienced. I’m going to look up several dozen romcoms, check out a handful of books with only smut plots, and see about those diagrams I wanted. We will reconvene at a later point in time.”
Catching her wrist, I keep her from going anywhere. “Pleasedon’t do any of that.”
“Anything is better than this gleam ofoh, baby, don’t worry, I’ll teach youthat’s sparkling in your eye.”
