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“You were angry?” I asked, perking up. Anger meant she cared.
“And disappointed,” she said, straightening, her posture growing regal. “I thought you wouldn’t run from me after yesterday.”
I hunched over, clearing my throat. It seemed like she missed me, after all. And that feeling had somehow turned to anger. I shouldn’t have avoided her, that was certain.
“What did you think I would do, then?” I asked, trying to learn her expectations.
But Scarlett gave me a frustrated look and shook her head. “Well, I don’t know,” she admitted, sounding pissed. “I hadn’t thought it through this far, you know? My two goals were: get married and consummate. And after that I thought I would still be miserable but, well, at least provided for.”
“Oh.” I cocked my head, intrigued. “You think marriage will make you miserable?”
“Not marriage,” she snapped, her face twisting into an angry grimace. “Men. Men make me miserable. I hate men.”
I reared back, staring at her in shock because whatever I expected to hear, it wasn’t that. I was about to ask her whether she hated me, too, because it certainly didn’t seem so last night, when Scarlett’s face softened and she sighed in frustration.
“Not you,” she said, patting my hand. “I don’t hate you. You’re really good.”
I swallowed, my chest swelling with pride. That wasn’t so bad, then. It was a start. I nodded and drew a big breath. “I don’t know what to do, either,” I confessed, feeling a bit pathetic. “I’m afraid I’ll be a bad hus… a bad partner.”
For some reason, Scarlett found that amusing. She snorted with laughter and stroked the fur on the back of my hand, but in a mindless way, like she comforted herself more than me. “You’re doing really good so far,” she said, mischievous eyes looking up. “You’re kind and really good at…” She trailed off, looking at the pillows before swallowing, her cheeks tinting darker. “At sex. It’s me who’s being a nasty bitch.”
I drew in a shocked breath and clamped my hand over her mouth. “What! Don’t you ever talk like this! You aren’t.”
She threw my hand off, glaring at me. “Aren’t I? I bullied you into marrying me. And I order you around. I mean… I thought that was why you avoided me. I’m not… I’m not a good person.”
That sounded all kinds of preposterous. Ice gales, did she really think that? Even worse, did she believe I thought that? I took her hands, drawing her closer until she was in my lap, looking mutinously up. Firelight danced in her blue eyes.
“I like it when you order me around,” I said slowly. “I thought I made that clear yesterday. As for the marriage, it was my decision in the end. You didn’t hold a blade to my throat. You just… showed me who you were. And I liked it enough to want you for myself.”
She stared at me, not even blinking, and I chuckled. “Also, I think they really know their stuff at those temples. My body was wild for you the moment you appeared. It was like it knew you even though we were strangers.”
She was tense for a moment longer before finally deflating. “Fine,” she said simply. “So let’s just… take it one day at a time?”
Later, when I quickly washed up and came to bed, she still wasn’t asleep. When I pulled her to my body, she came willingly, molding herself to me until her curved back was nestled against my front. We fell asleep like that, and I vowed to spend the next day by her side. It was the Yule Lads’ Parade, after all. The first day of Yule.
We would go together, I would show her our customs, and everything would be fine, I promised myself.
Chapter 16
Scarlett
This time, I woke up with Jack’s heavy arm pinning me to the bed. He was on his side facing me, snoring softly, and his furry face looked adorable in sleep, with those demonic eyes hidden, his mouth soft and open. I smirked to myself and tickled the fur under his nose, making it twitch repeatedly. It was such a cute sight, I did it again and again until Jack snorted with annoyance and swatted at his face. That woke him up.
“What? Oh. Hey, snowdrop,” he rasped sleepily, eyes blinking in the cold morning light.
“Hey, furball,” I said with a smile, bopping him on the nose. Jack was so furry and so adorable right now, he seemed a bit like a pet. And I knew what to do with pets, which was maybe the reason why I treated him like one.
Because I had no idea what to do with a truly kind man. The only ones I’d known before him were nasty assholes.
“It’s the first day of Yule,” Jack said after yawning widely. “The Yule Lads’ Parade is today. We have to go, it’s tradition.”
I nodded. His mom had told me about it. The Yule lads were a magical, fae folk who lived high up in the mountains and only came down to the mountain towns once a year, on the first day of Yule. They were believed to bring luck and prosperity to everyone who came to see them, so the streets were usually packed and everyone was smiling.
She had told me to keep a wide smile on my face, too, when we came out to watch them. I promised her I would. It all sounded so exciting.
There would be stalls with sweets and mulled wine, wind-up toys for the children, and music and dancing in the main square after the lads had gone. It promised to be a lot of fun and also my first time taking part in a public celebration like that. We hadn’t had anything of the kind back home.
“And you’re not working today?” I asked suspiciously, wondering if he was going to sneak off to his workshop.
