Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Beck doesn’t touch a thing until I declare myself full, and then he eats everything I haven’t.
He’s such a puzzle, sweet one minute and completely shut down the next.
“I need to know something,” he says quietly as he sits down across from me.
I nod, not trusting myself to speak. He’s heartbreakingly beautiful by firelight. The glow of the fire delineates the lines of his face. His jaw is carved from granite, but his eyes are soft. He’s a real, actual faery prince, and according to him, he’s mine. Even after the way he treated me this afternoon, I want nothing more than to throw myself into his arms.
I never, ever learn.
“Did you leave a husband behind?” Beck asks. “Do you have babies who will wonder where their mama is?”
All I have to do is say yes. If I say yes, cry prettily, and talk about my sweet babies, he might try to get me home. I can say I have two, a boy and a girl. I can also tell him about the husband I love more than life itself.
“No.” I can’t lie to him that way. Not when I still feel the connection between us humming. “I’m alone.”
He seems confused by the statement and moves to sit beside me. He covers me with the blanket before carefully placing his arm around my shoulder. “Did your parents die before they could find a husband for you?”
I laugh at the thought. My parents can’t be in a room together for more than two minutes before a war breaks out. They didn’t attend my wedding, much less try to advise me on who to marry. “No. My parents divorced when I was twelve. Mom remarried roughly six months later. She married the guy she was having an affair with. Dad married his secretary, excuse me, administrative assistant, two months after that. Neither one of them wanted to deal with a teenage girl, so I got shuffled around. I stayed with Mom until she got tired of me, and then I got shoved off on Dad. Casey, his ten-years-older-than-me wife, didn’t like me very much. They both had new children with their new spouses. Needless to say, everyone was happy when I left for college. So, to answer your question, no, they didn’t bother to find me a husband. That’s not something parents do in my culture.”
Beck’s eyes are dark in the firelight. “What is divorce?”
I study him for a moment, trying to figure out if he’s pulling my leg. “You don’t know?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t understand your story, love. Your parents did not die? They left each other and formed bonds with other people? They had children with people who were not their mate?”
“You don’t have a way to dissolve a marriage?”
“No. Why would we have that?” Beck asks, his face showing no signs of teasing. “Marriage is sacred.”
“Okay, how about if the husband abuses the wife? Is she supposed to stay in the marriage?”
Again, he looks blankly at me.
“What if her husband smacks her around? What if he cheats on her with the local floozy? What if he calls her names and is generally unpleasant to be around?”
Beck nods, finally getting my point. “If this happened in a Fae marriage, then the female would beat the male into submission. If she is too small to beat him properly, one of the larger women of her family would perform the task for her.”
“And the man stands there for the beating?” Somehow I can’t see it.
“If he has any honor at all,” Beck replies with a frown. “If his abuse of the wife continues, the males of her family would take care of him. As I said before, the only way out of a Fae marriage is death, but that can be arranged.”
I can’t help but smile because he sounds so very serious. “I kind of wish those rules had been in play when I got married.”
Beck turns me so I’m forced to look him in the eyes. His lips are down in a scowl, and his eyes pin me. “They were in play when you got married. I assure you, our marriage was properly witnessed. I signed the paperwork with the gnomes before we left.”
He’d done what? “Marriage?”
“Yes. What did you think I was doing with you? I told you I needed a bondmate. You’re my wife now, and there is no divorce.” He says the word as though he finds it distasteful.
“I thought you were buying me,” I stammer, trying to wrap my head around the fact that I apparently got married and no one bothered to tell me. I look at Beck, a bit panicked at the thought. He’s my husband? “You know, like a slave.”
“You have strange words, wife. I don’t know what a slave is, but we’re married, and nothing is going to change that.” He takes a deep breath. “If you are angry with me for what I did today, you have my permission to hit me. It might make you feel better. I can only promise I won’t do it again. I was overwhelmed by the battle.”