Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Muffy?”
I come back to reality with the realization that Thor is next to me, and he still thinks my name is Muffy. That last fact makes me smile in spite of everything.
He holds out a beverage to me.
“What is it?”
“Hot chocolate,” he says. “You seemed like a milk drinker to me.”
That’s what we in the business call an insult, but I’ll take it, and the hot chocolate. I didn’t think about how hungry I was, or how thirsty. Both problems are very temporarily assuaged by the beverage.
“Why are you still here?”
“I’m an emergency responder,” he says. “You’re an emergency.”
I should throw the rest of the drink at him, but I don’t.
“Aren’t there other fires to put out?”
He leans in, his voice lowering. “Just the one between your legs, naughty girl.”
Fuck me. It’s such a cheesy line, but he’s right. My pussy pulses at his lewd comment, and I know I’m not going to be able to escape the arousal he’s stoking in me. My body and mind have been through a lot, and I want release.
He puts his hand on my thigh, a little too high. His little finger brushes briefly against my crotch and I feel a tingle of excitement racing through me. He wants to fuck me. I’m considering letting him.
It would be fucked up to get laid on the same day my sister gives birth after our house burns down, but fucked up and me often live on the same street. Hard to be the family embarrassment and black sheep without making dubious choices.
“I thought you weren’t going to push things that shouldn’t be pushed or indulged or whatever.”
“I wasn’t going to,” he says. “I actually came to apologize for doing what I did.”
“And then you immediately decided to… touch me?”
“You’re very touchable,” he says.
I try not to be too pleased by that statement, and I fail.
“We shouldn’t do anything,” he says. “You’ve suffered a trauma today, and I have no right to be here with you now. But when I feel a draw to someone, as strongly as I feel to you, it is hard to ignore.”
“Oh, you get drawn to a lot of women, then?”
“That’s not what I meant,” he says. “I mean you have an energy about you that I find very appealing. You’re independent, brave, smart…”
“I could be stupid as a brick,” I argue.
“Contrary,” he adds, smirking. “But I shouldn’t be starting anything with anyone. My plans won’t keep me in the city for long.”
“Neither do mine,” I say.
He looks over at me again, his eyes running over me, settling on my fingers.
“You haven’t been chosen,” he says.
“No. Because I don’t want to be.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t need a man. They make everything worse, and then they leave.”
“I see,” he says.
“Why do you keep talking to me? I’ve been nothing but awful to you.”
He chuckles. “You haven’t been that bad, not really.”
I could be worse, I think. Maybe I should try.
This man is very handsome, and obviously very strong and brave. He also looks old enough and hot enough to have chosen pretty much anyone. He has to be in his late twenties. A full decade of choosing, and not to be married? It doesn’t make sense, no matter how many plans he has outside the city.
“What’s wrong with you?” I ask bluntly.
“In what regard?”
“You’re hanging around me, asking about choosing. Why haven’t you got your own wife at home?”
“I haven’t met anybody I wanted to be married to,” he says. “I lead an active, sometimes dangerous life, and most women want a man who will be there for them.”
“Not Freya,” I say. “Her husband might as well not bother.”
“You don’t like your brother-in-law,” he says.
“Sure I like him. I just wish he wasn’t married to my sister.”
“You know your family is quite famous, as one of the founding families of Weltheim,” Thor says. “It was quite a big deal when your sisters were introduced to society.”
“Yeah.”
“So how did you escape being chosen?”
“I ran away when I got to ceremony age. I skipped it. And I’ll do it again if I have to.” I add the last part as a warning, in case he decides to try to choose me. He’s saying he doesn’t have time for a relationship, but you can’t trust the things men say. Mila’s husband wasn’t looking to be serious either, and now he’s the most serious man I know, always going on about numbers and things.
Mila’s husband is in the city and still hasn’t shown up even though all the drama has been unfolding for hours now. I bet he’s in a stupid meeting saying stupid numbers at stupid other people.
“I like you,” Thor says, standing up in front of me and leaning down so I get the full benefit of his brown gaze. “But there’s something in you that’s restless. It’s like you’re wild, and need to be tamed.”