Page 87 of Right Next Door
She was glaring at him. His smile immediately dropped.
“Sorry.”
Her eyes narrowed. “For what?”
“I’m… honestly not sure,” he admitted. “I just don’t want you to be mad at me.”
To his surprise, she burst out laughing. Grabbing onto his arm to hold herself up, she laughed as she leaned into his chest.
“You’re an idiot,” she said, smiling.
“I know,” he relaxed, putting his arms around her. Holding her back. “But you forgive me for it so well.”
“Can’t bring myself to stay mad at you, sugar.” She shook her head, more at herself than him. “Even if you’re being silly.”
“Does this mean you forgive me?”
“You don’t even know why I was mad at you.”
“For not discussing my choice not to mate you with you?”
She tilted her head back, looking up at him. “Yeah. Definitely didn't like that. We’re supposed to be a team, Tsok. We’re supposed to plan things together. And for the record, I came to Kree to be mated. Not put in a second home like a side chick you don’t want your real wife to see.”
Tsok frowned. “You are my real wife.”
“I’m not even engaged to you. Much less your wife. Or your mate.” She pulled back, giving him a smirk. “I am nothing to you except a mistress. A lover. A paramour that you can decide at the snap of your fingers to not care about because there is absolutely nothing tying me to you – legally, or otherwise.”
“That is not true,” he growled, angered. “And I would never do that.”
“The streets are lined and graves are filled with poor women whose man ‘would never’. You are my sugar daddy, honored char. Nothing more.”
He still didn't know what that was, but he already knew it wasn’t a mate. It wasn’t a proper partner. If he judged by the gleam in her eye, it wasn’t even a good thing – despite the fact that her pet name for him clearly came from that title.
For that matter, he didn't like it when she called him honored char either. It wasn’t an honorific whenever she said it. If anything, the way it dripped from her tongue was more like an insult, a mockery, that he couldn’t even be mad at because it wasn’t either of those things by anyone else’s measure. And she knew that, it was why she did it.
“I am your mate,” he declared firmly.
“You’re really not though.” She smirked, holding her head high. “You’re just some guy that I fuck. On Earth, we call that a fuck buddy. Except you’re also paying for everything for me, which elevates you to a sugar daddy.”
It didn't sound like an elevation. He did not like that name. “I am yourmate.”
“Not according to that jewel on your face.” She taunted, wiggling her fingers at his filter.
“Misty…” He growled, following her further as she backed up into the party.
“Call me baby,” she grinned. “I’m just a sugar baby, after all. Fuck me, and then pay me for the privilege of having done so.”
That. That right there was why he hated what she was suggesting. She was reducing their relationship to that of prostitution. To that of an illicit mistress.
And he hated it because it was hard to argue against her. Not when he did fuck and provide for her without actually mating her. When he had no intention of doing so. Not yet.
She was telling him why she was mad at him, and it made him angry because he could see her point and he absolutely hated hearing it. That aggression sparked a fire that made him stalk her as she turned, walking back into the party like nothing happened.
She smiled at people. Waved to others. She made a big show of saying farewell to the High Imperium who flashed their combot back at her jovially.
All the while, Tsok stayed right on her heels, following after as she made her way to the entrance of the party hall. Taking her sweet time. Stringing him along because she knew that she had the power to do so and there was nothing that he could do to hurry her up.
Well, he could grab her. Throw her over his shoulder. Drag her out as she cursed at him, beating at his back, condemning him for being a fool, for taking advantage of her, for denying her what was rightfullyhers.
