Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
I pull myself up to my full height, giving her an equally withering stare. "As if I would drown myself."
"How would I fucking know? You were molesting every door on my property. That's not normal!"
"It is tradition."
"Bullshit it is. I think you just lost your damn mind and you're trying to cover for it. Well, you know what else is a tradition around here?"
I glare at her. "What?"
"You make a mess, you clean it up." She slams the door in my face. "And I'm not coming out until you clean up all your mess!"
Impossible female.
CHAPTER
FORTY-FOUR
MAEVE
I emerge tentatively once I'm sure that Zhur isn't in the house. Tiptoeing down the hall, I hold onto the large wooden stick I keep under the bed to use as a weapon, because a woman alone always needs a weapon at hand. I glance out the window and see the big alien in front of the barn, scrubbing at the door, and relax a bit.
Last night was a damn mess.
It's like he was completely out of his mind. He'd say something that would sound normal, and then go jerk off on the door. He tried to get into the bedroom several times, but when I'd scream for him to go away, he would. He'd just turn and attack another door, jerking off on it. I can only imagine the mess he made.
"Marking a door,” my ass. That sounds like made-up bullshit to cover the fact that he got high and molested every door in sight.
How am I supposed to trust him after that? I'm never going to be able to look at him the same way.
I watch him a little bit longer, and when he seems to be acting normally, I relax. I head to the kitchen and put on some tea, rubbing my weary face. I'm so tired I feel like a zombie this morning, but I have to go into town, don't I? I have to keep up my routine or it'll spark curiosity, and then I'll have Simone and the custodians on my doorstep again.
I can't tell them about last night, either, or Zhur will find himself on a one-way ticket off planet.
For some reason, that thought cheers me up. I'm safe regardless. If I don't show up to town, someone will come looking for me. If Zhur tries anything, they'll boot his ass. This planet is looking out for its women, thanks to Lord va'Rin, and if anything, Zhur is the one that needs to watch himself. Cheered by this, I make myself a cup of tea and dress in fresh clothing to go back to town.
When I'm dressed, I go out to the barn to see how the cleaning is going.
Zhur looks even more wrecked than I feel. His eyes are hollow and he looks...well, dehydrated. His freshly-dyed spiked mane is flat and wilted and he's sweaty, his chest damp. When he hears the sound of my boots on the grass, he drops his rag in the bucket and turns to look at me, shoulders slumped.
"Barn, too, eh?" I eye the doors. He's wiped them down from top to bottom, the metal gleaming and damp.
"Barn, too," he agrees, voice defeated. "I must have wanted to mark all of your doors in my...frenzy."
"Huh." Frenzy, a likely story. "Well, that's nice and all but you need to get dressed. You can finish cleaning up later."
He straightens, rolling his shoulders back, and I blink at the sight. A flickering memory of last night rolls through my mind, of Zhur caging me against the counter, his huge body covering mine...and how good it felt.
Of course, then he went and nutted on the doors, which kinda ruined the mood. But when he was just mouthing my neck and rubbing himself against me? I was enjoying it...a lot.
It has been a long, long time since I've had sex. Maybe that's why I'm thinking about it. Maybe that's why I feel vaguely disappointed that last night turned into a shitshow. Because if Zhur had just been in the mood? I don't know that I'd have turned him down.
Sex can be just casual sex. Scratching an itch, so to speak. And since we're married, we could always scratch each other's itches.
"Why do I need to dress?" Zhur asks me, rotating one tired arm. His clothes are bunched at his waist, leaving the top half of him bare and flexing.
Not that I'm noticing.
I'm not.
I clear my throat and cross my arms over my chest, giving him a stern glare. "Because we have to go back into town to pick up the supplies we ordered. The store is holding them for us. And I'd go in by myself, but it'd look weird if I just got married to a big, strong praxiian and then went and lifted a bunch of heavy crates by myself."