Married to Krampus - Marina Simcoe Page 0,20
was so sick and tired of being scared of this man.
I drew in a deep breath, trying not to waver under his glower.
“There is no need to yell at me,” I said as firmly as I could manage. I realized I was lunging into a fight against an opponent who’d won a lot of battles in his life, but this was a fight I couldn’t afford to lose. “The Marriage Contract states that our union can be dissolved by either party at the end of the year. I’m considering petitioning the Committee to allow for an earlier dissolution—”
“Both parties.” He narrowed his eyes. His jaw muscles moved, stirring his beard.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The contract can only be ended by both parties. And there is no way in hell I’ll ever allow my wife to dishonor me by leaving like that.”
Both parties.
The image of the contract rose in my mind. The words of the exit clause I’d read very carefully had been burnt into my memory. It did state “both parties.” I’d just never thought that it meant “together” or “simultaneously.”
Dread seized my heart. Gripped in his large hands like prey, I no longer believed any reasonable conversation was possible with this man.
Still, I tried, “Surely, you can see, this is not working between us...”
“Not without at least some effort on your part to make it work,” he gritted through his teeth.
Was he accusing me? I couldn’t believe my ears.
“My effort?” I gaped at him, flabbergasted. “Are you blaming me for all of this? You’ve been nothing but rough and boorish here and...” I waved my hand in the direction of the stairs, “and in the bedroom.” I pointed with my gaze at his hands gripping my forearms. “This is no way to treat a woman.”
Following my gaze, he released me, and I rubbed the lingering ache from my arms with my hands, taking a step back and away from him.
He remained in the doorway, blocking my way. Anger seethed inside me, shoving fear aside.
“Colonel—”
“Grevar,” he corrected gruffly. “It’s customary for the wife to address her husband by his first name.”
“Gre...” I huffed a breath. “I can’t. I don’t think of myself as your wife. There has been no getting to know each other, no courtship, no attraction...Nothing that has to happen before the actual marriage can take place.”
“You knew what you signed.”
He was so right, and I felt so stupid for being naïve in my hope for an out-of-this-world romance with an alien man I’d never met, for signing my life over to him.
“When I signed, I genuinely hoped there would eventually be a connection between us.” I felt deflated and crushed by disappointment all over again. “I believed you would take your time to get to know me. That you’d give me a chance to learn more about you, too. Instead, all you really wanted was...sex?”
I glared at him, feeling the anger rise higher.
His face distorted with rage. “I’m your husband! It’s my right and obligation to sexually pleasure my wife. You, Madam Colonel Kyradus—”
My nerves had been stretched tight like strings. Hearing that name made me snap.
“It’s Daisy. Like the ‘flower!’” I raised my voice. “Not Madam Kyradus, like ‘the wife of a rough, boorish Krampus.’ Marriage does not give you the right to own me or to force yourself on me.”
“I didn’t force!” he shouted back. “I don’t force myself on women. Never have. The one I’ve been with liked me just the way I am, ‘rough and boorish.’ Especially, in the bedroom!”
His roaring voice reverberated through the open space, amplifying under the glass dome like inside a giant bell.
“Why are you not with her, then?” I placed my fists on my hips.
His beard moved as he flexed his jaw. “She chose to be with someone else.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” I shook my head.
“Enough!”
His nostrils flared as he stomped closer. Storm raged in his eyes, making me draw my head into my shoulders. I half-expected him to strike me. There’d be no way back from that.
He just stood over me, panting hard in rage.
Avoiding his terrifying eyes, I stared at one of the shiny buttons on his army coat.
“Don’t you see? We’re making each other miserable. Just let the Committee dissolve the contract, please, and I’ll be out of here. You’ll have your life back.”
“No!” The word shot out of his mouth like a bullet, startling me. “You’re my reward from the Governor. Refusing you would dishonor me.”
“Those are the worst excuses I’ve ever heard