Her eyes widened, her face paled and her lips parted.
She understood him.
He let her neck go, opened the door, took his wife’s hand and pulled her into the hall.
Then he dragged her down it, his strides long and angry, and as he did so he thought dinner with her parents was going to be interesting.
And it was going to be long.
Too long.
So he was going see to it that it ended as soon as possible.
He and his bride had vastly more important things to do.
Chapter Fourteen
Sleep Well, Wife
“I’ve a marvelous idea,” my Dad announced as we stood outside the dining room having just finished a sumptuous five course dinner that was sitting like a weight in my stomach, “I’ll order a sleigh brought ‘round and we’ll go to Esmeralda’s for a mug of that warm, liquid chocolate my Sjofn loves so dearly.”
I thought this was a great idea mainly because both my mother and father were acting a lot more patient and even kind to me, if weirdly watchful. Though I put this down to them wondering how things were going with me and Frey and they would wonder since I didn’t speak to him (at all) and barely looked at him all throughout dinner except to glare daggers at him when he specifically asked for Viola to serve him personally.
Yes, oh yes, he did exactly that.
The freaking, dickhead jerk.
And, by the way, Viola was very pretty and she didn’t look a thing like me.
Ugh!
I also thought this was a great idea because it would mean delaying being alone with Frey, something I did not want because I was pretty certain I couldn’t strangle him to death but if I was lucky I might get in a well-aimed kick that if I did it as hard as I wanted, might mean the end to everyone’s hopes that he’d provide a future king.
I also thought this was a great idea because a mug of warm, liquid chocolate sounded pretty good regardless of the dinner sitting like a weight in my stomach (as, everyone knew, chocolate in any form sounded good no matter what) and a place called Esmeralda’s sounded worthy of exploration.
I opened my mouth to agree wholeheartedly with this idea but my freaking, dickhead jerk of a husband got there before me.
“I’m afraid not, Atticus. Finnie explained she was tired prior to us joining you for dinner. So now I think it’s best if my wife and I retire.”
I turned stiltedly to him, tipped my head back and glared more daggers at him.
He looked down at me, completely impervious to my mental daggers then crossed his arms on his chest.
“Understandable, Drakkar,” Dad mumbled then I felt him coming close to me as he continued to mumble, “It’s been a long day for you both.”
I wiped my face clean, turned to him and smiled what I hoped was close to genuinely as he leaned in and kissed my cheek distractedly.
But as his lips brushed my skin, I felt their touch like they were lasers. I closed my eyes at the beautiful pain and kept them closed as I memorized it.
Then he moved away and I opened my eyes to see Mom gazing at me, the skin around her eyes and mouth soft, her expression, however, was blank but I could tell she was thinking, about what, I didn’t know.
Then she moved in and I braced because although she’d been okay during dinner, I didn’t know what to expect.
But I would have never expected her to give me a warm, albeit very short hug and say to me during it, “It’s so lovely to have you back, my dear.”
Then without further ado, as my mind imprinted the feel of her arms around me, they bid Frey a far less familiar but still relatively friendly yet definitely watchful (see? way weird) goodnight and they took off.
I watched them go.